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Cisco Wireless Access Points and the Google Chromecast

I recently purchased a few Google Chromecast’s to use for “wireless HDMI” within our business. The Chromecast allows for full screen browser streaming and for $35.00 USD on Amazon ($30.00 at Staples!) it is a great way to share notes during a meeting, project information and multimedia.

Our company leverages Cisco based Access Points for our 802.11n/ac wireless access. Out of the box, I found that Chromecast’s were able to connect but Chrome was unable to “cast” to the devices. Several articles here and here pointed to UPnP (IGMP) as being the issue.

Disabling IP IGMP snooping and the snooping helper within the access points resolved the issue:

1
2
 
no ip igmp snooping
no dot11 igmp snooping-helper

No restart of the Access Point or Chrome device is required after making this change.

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Mining Pool Recommendation

Not a lot of time to post at the moment due to a busy work schedule and several life changes.

I do want to take a quick moment and give a shout-out to Jason Hughes (aka wizkid057) over at Eligius. Eligius, maintained by wizkid057, is a 0% fee Bitcoin mining pool which is completely anonymous and provides solid, reliable infrastructure to support the pool user base. Wizkid057 is quick to support pool users via the BitcoinTalk forums.

If you are looking for a primary pool or a secondary pool for your mining rig/s, check out Eligius!

 

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Loopback Check: Cannot access SharePoint from the SharePoint server

The solution is to modify the registry to disable the Loopback check as per Microsoft knowledge base article KB896861.

The loopback check security feature is designed to help prevent reflection attacks on a computer. Therefore, authentication fails if the FQDN or the custom host header that you use does not match the local computer name. Basically this is by design and you will need apply this “fix” if you want to access SharePoint from the server.

The knowledge base article has two methods in it to address the issue, I personally use Method 2 when related to SharePoint:

  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
  3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
  4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
  5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
  7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

Warning: Please be careful when editing the registry.

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Remote Desktop Services Shortcut Keys

The following is a list of the Remote Desktop Services shortcut keys. These are most useful when using Remote Desktop to connect to a Windows Server 2012 server.

Shortcut key Description
ALT+PAGE UP Switches between programs from left to right.
ALT+PAGE DOWN Switches between programs for right to left.
ALT+INSERT Cycles through the programs in the order they were started.
ALT+HOME Displays the Start menu.
CTRL+ALT+BREAK Switches the client between full-screen mode and window mode.
CTRL+ALT+END Brings up the Windows Security dialog box.
ALT+DELETE Displays the Windows menu.
CTRL+ALT+MINUS SIGN (-) Places a snapshot of the active window, within the client, on the Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) server clipboard (provides the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on the local computer).
CTRL+ALT+PLUS SIGN (+) Places a snapshot of the entire client windows area on the RD Session Host server clipboard (provides the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on the local computer).

 

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New Features in Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012  or “Cloud OS” as Microsoft sometimes refers to it, and “W12” as I will call it for short – is the result of the deepest and broadest developer effort in the history of Microsoft server products: 10,000 engineers working for four years. Comments from testers and early adopters have included “jaw-dropping”, “game-changing” and “the competitors better watch out”.

In this article we will briefly review the New Features and Refreshed Features included in Microsoft’s next-generation operating system.

New Features

GUI for Recycle Bin Microsoft introduced the Active Directory Recycle Bin in Windows Server 2008 R2, but it was limited by its Windows PowerShell-only exposure. This time it gets a GUI.

UI for Fine-Grained Password Policies Also gaining a GUI are fine-grained password policies.

Dynamic Access Control (DAC) Windows Server 2008 R2 brought the File Classification Infrastructure (FCI). This version’s DAC adds far greater functionality to the (optional) second layer of FCI resource authorization.

Windows PowerShell History Viewer You see the Windows PowerShell commands that correspond to actions you perform in the Active Directory Administrative Center UI.

Windows PowerShell Cmdlets for Active Directory Replication and Topology More cmdlets — enough said.

Active Directory-Based Activation (ADBA) The good: ADBA eliminates the need for a Key Management Service server. The bad: Only forthcoming Windows 8 computers can leverage ADBA. Seriously, Microsoft?

Flexible Authentication Secure Tunneling (FAST) The nickname for FAST is “Kerberos armoring,” if that tells you anything. It isn’t enabled by default and requires clients that support it. Think you’ll be using it anytime soon?

Refreshed Features

Virtual Snapshot and Cloning Support Active Directory and hypervisor snapshots didn’t mix before. Now they do, if your hypervisor supports VM Generation ID.

ADPREP Integrated into DC Promotion Can’t recall the proper steps to promote a member server to a DC? No worries, it’s in there. Continue reading “New Features in Windows Server 2012”