Tech Ramblings from a Rainier Day » Technology

Google BETA

David Wolfrom — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:42:13 +0000

Google’s new browser, Chrome, has a number of vulnerabilities that have been found in the first week (http://www.crn.com/security/210500382;jsessionid=5MHY03QKS4R1EQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN). While it is listed as Beta, to me Google’s Beta term doesn’t mean as much as any other company that uses it.

Google has software that is in Beta perpetually. How many people use Gmail? How long has it been available for use? Gmail has been out since 2004, and available to the general public for over 18 months. Google Docs has been available for 2 years. Google Video was launched in 2005.

What other software company does this? I’ve never taken Google seriously. They come off with an ego the size of Steve Jobs, but lack any kind of focus to finish their products well.

Other than their search, I find their lack of graphic design capabilities to be laughable. Yes, minimalist design can work for search, but it does not work for chat, browsers, RSS readers, document editors, email programs, etc. Google is working off of its name for now, but like Microsoft it needs to create better products in a much shorter cycle. If I can use a program with the same or better functionality, and it is pleasing to the eye, of course I’m going to use it over the Google version.

VMWare Server with Broadcom NICs

David Wolfrom — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:53:16 +0000

Last week we were attempting to install a brand new SBS 2003 server for a new client, then have a terminal server running in a VMWare environment with Windows 2008. We only had the onboard Broadcom NICs. I’ve had so many problems with both VMWare and Virtual Server when using these NICs, so we typically configure an additional Intel NIC when we know we are going to virtualize, but there was a mistake in the order.

Once we had the virtual server up and running, we found that we had a problem where it could not get to the Internet. At first it seemed related to some frustrating firewall issue, it was showing that it was on the Domain Profile, but was local only. We even went as far as installing Windows 2003 instead, but no luck. I did every possible VMWare configuration option with regards to the network, and nothing worked at all.

Since we’ve had trouble with the Broadcom cards before, I was skeptical about them from the beginning. Sure enough, I found other people with similar problems.

In the properties of the adapter, the following need to be turned off:

Checksum Offload

Large Send Offload

Also, I did not need to do the following to fix the problem, but I did turn off Automatic choosing of available physical network adapter and forced VMnet0 to the adapter of my choosing.

I found the information here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/151036?tstart=0&start=15.

Panasonic U1

David Wolfrom — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:57:39 +0000

I’ve been looking at the ultra-mobile computer offerings for the last year, hoping to provide our employees with a tiny computer that is always connected to the Internet. I’ve looked at the OQO’s, the new HP, and some others, but I just don’t feel like they are worth the price tag, yet.

Today while browsing crn.com, I came across the Panasonic U1, which I had not heard of before (I’m not really a gadgeteer). It has a touchscreen, keyboard, lightweight, and is tiny. I know Toughbooks have always been pricey, and this one is no exception at $2,500. Here’s hoping we can see an increase in performance, with the features an IT mobile force needs, for something more in the business laptop price range.

Vista Synchronization Errors

David Wolfrom — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:12:59 +0000

Initial Steps Taken
Like many people troubleshooting this problem, I initially thought it was due to opportunistic locking on the SBS 2003 server. I ensured opportunistic locking was turned on for the SBS 2003 server (using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296264/en-us), rebooted the server, and the problem continued. (For server configuration, you may also want to take a look at http://justanothersysadmin.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/vista-offline-files-and-smb-opportunistic-locks/).

Problem Compounds
Eventually another laptop was purchased for a new employee and we tried the same process with this computer. Same problem. I assumed it was then probably a problem with the server. However, I then used my own laptop and did the same process, only now the files synchronized!

All three laptops were using Vista Business. The two customer laptops were Dell laptops with Vista preinstalled. My laptop is a Dell laptop, but I installed Vista from scratch (it came with XP).

A solution is found!
So now I’m back to square one, a problem with the workstations. I then began perusing the registry on the workstations on a whim and found that there was a registry setting on both of the customer laptops (but not on mine):

The following key was set to 1:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MRXSmb\Parameters\OplocksDisabled

The workstation was preconfigured to turn off opportunistic locking!

After changing this key to 0 and restarting, the synchronizations were all successful. Also, it appears that if the key is missing (such as on my laptop), that it will default to oplocks being enabled.

Venting

What was the most frustrating was that everywhere I looked for a solution on this problem, everybody found their solution by turning on opportunistic locking on the server. There appeared to be nobody else in my shoes, which of course is probably not the case!

I hope this helps someone who is dealing with the same problem