Paypal two factor authentication

Did you know that Paypal has a two factor security available if you are a registered PayPal member? Yes, you can order a security key via :

https://www.paypal.com/securitykey

It now means that when you use your Paypal (or Ebay) account you simply append the number displayed on the key (when you press it) to end of your paypal password to gain access. Next time you want access you again press the key and again append the number displayed to your password. So everytime you now Paypal account it will require a unqiue password! Now that makes it really secure.

The cost of the key is only AUD$7.50. So if you use Paypal (or Ebay) extensively and you want to ensure that your account has the highest level of security we think this new security key is cheap, real cheap.

Error 0x8004020f during Internet connection wizard

Working on a SBS system that involved a Sing Migration. On the new machine when we ran the Connect to Internet Wizard we received a failure on the firewall configuration. When we looked at the logs we saw :

error 0x8004020f returned from call to sending RUP intro mail()

After some searching it appears that error was DNS related.

Turns out that we are changing the server from a 2 NIC configuration to a single NIC configuration and there were still some entries for the old external IP address ins some of the DNS zones. Once we removed there and rebooted the wizard ran fine.

Corrupt Arcserve database

Have an installation with Arcserve 11.1 where when you attempt to access either the device screen or the database screen the console hangs and has to be terminated by task manager. The tell tale sign that there is a problem with the Arcserve database is the fact that the Arcserve backup job runs but the details are not recorded in the database. So bottom line corrupt database.

Normally, this is pretyy easy to fix, you simply go to the Arcserve server admin and reinitialize all the Arcserve databases. This basically empties them ready for new content. If you need the Arcserve database back then you can simply restore from a tape or restore the Arcserve database itself.

Problem is when we went to initialize the database we got the same hang. There are good arcticle from CA about Arcserve databases here. Down the bottom it mentions about deleting the rdm files. We did this and still had the same problem. Next it mentions editing the velocis.ini file which we did and hey presto we could go in and reinitialize all the Arcserve databases. Also our console manager no longer hung when we acccessed the database screen.

Interesting this site also from CA says that you should be running maintenance on the Arcserve databases weekly. First time we have heard of that! It is a good idea when you have very Arcserve databases but generally it is easier just to reinitialize them and start fresh. has worked everytime for us.

Trend and WINVNC

All of sudden yesterday night we started receiving all these warnings that Trend CSM suit had detected multiple virus instances. The emails were flowing in from many sites we monitor every two minutes. Further investigation indicated that these warnings were being generated by WINVNC.EXE, which for those of you who don’t know is a free remote access tool.

Now it was simple enough to go an create the exceptions in each Trend CMS console to stop these notifications but the question was why did they happen? They didn’t happen on every site, even though other sites did have this software installed. Strange.

The issue has now apparently gone away so all we can deduce is that it had something to do with a recent virus definition update. As we said before, strange.

Installing SharePoint 3.0 on SBS 2003

Our latest video will show the steps you need to follow to install SharePoint V 3.0 on Small Business Server 2003. You’ll find the video by clicking here or by visiting the Video – Links part of our Supportweb site.

If you find any of this video beneficial we would appreciate a donation at http://donation.saturnalliance.com.au. All donations go directly towards improving the content that we currently provide for free.

Getting lots of Kerberos errors?

When you look at the SBS Monitoring logs everyday do you see lots and lots ( I mean thousands ) of errors coming from workstations? When you look at the workstation even logs you see Kerberos and DCOM errors.

We have found that these generally relate to printer status monitors that reside on the workstation (or server). We especially see this with the HP toolbox printer software that is loaded during the complete printer driver installation of HP Printers.

Do you need these printer monitor programs. No we believe not so if you don’t need them then they should be removed to prevent all the Kerberos errors. You can uninstall and reinstall the printer drivers but take a look in :

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\currentversion\run

and for HP printers remove the following startup entries :

StatusClient 2.6 REG_SZ

c:\program files\Hewlett-Packard\toolbox\statusclient\statusclient.exe /auto

TomcatStartup 2.5 REG_SZ

c:\program files\Hewlett-Packard\toolbox\hpbpsttp.exe

and then reboot the system. The printer toolbox will no longer be loaded and the security errors on the SBS system should now be gone. The actual monitor programs maybe different for different printer suppliers.

Well here we are

So the old .TEXT blog server is now kaput. We have a redirection from the old blog site (www.ciaops.net.au/blogs/ciaops) to here. We ahve merged our business blog and technical blog together as well as copying over the “more interesting” posts. So everything should no be good to go here in SharePoint.

Admittedly, SharePoint is a little slower to load but there is fare more functionality and control for us. Also, it consolidates our technology needs which also make a great deal of sense, not to mention making backup and restore much easier.

Onwards and upwards as they say.