How to log into Windows 2003 when both Remote Desktop sessions are in use ?

How to log into Windows 2003 when both Remote Desktop sessions are in use ?

Working on a project with co-worker and your computer crashes. When you try to access the server again with Remote Desktop, do you receive the message that the server has reached its limit for connections? Did you forget to log off your session at the office while you are trying to work from home?

You can access the server in unique situations such as these by using the Terminal Services connection with the console flag. Whenever you find yourself in this situation, simply click on Start, Run, and type the following: mstsc -v:IPADDRESS /F –console

Replace IPADDRESS with your actual IP address of your server and you will be logged onto the server via a console session. You can now log into Terminal Services Manager and clear out the zombie session from your computer crash, disconnect your session from the office, or reset a connection of a co-worker who is idle. For more information, along with other flags that can be used with this command, please refer to the Microsoft Help and Support site document found here : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278845

Creating a Junction (symlink) in Windows

Ever wonder how to create the windows equivalent of *nix's "symbolic links"? For those unfamiliar with the symlink, they are files whose sole purpose in life is to point to another location. Think of them as the operating system's equivalent of a shortcut; they work in the same manner, but symlinks are visible to the file system directly, whereas shortcuts are only available within the Windows GUI.
You can create these yourself with the following program:
http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/junction.html
First, make sure the junction.exe file is somewhere in your path; that could be as simple as moving the executable to the directory you wish to create the junction in, or if you feel you'll be using this utility more often than just this one time, you can always put it into c:\windows (c:\winnt for Windows 2000 users).
Let's say we wanted to create a junction in:
D:\Inetpub\vhosts\samplewebsite.com\httpdocs
That pointed to:
D:\Inetpub\common\sharedimages
To accomplish this, run the following command:
junction D:\Inetpub\vhosts\samplewebsite.com\sharedimages D:\Inetpub\common\sharedimages
You'll see something like the following output:
Junction v1.03 - Win2K junction creator and reparse point viewerCopyright (C) 2000-2002 Mark RussinovichSystems Internals - http://www.sysinternals.com
Created: D:\Inetpub\vhosts\samplewebsite.com\sharedimages Targetted at: D:\Inetpub\common\sharedimages
Now I have a symlinked folder in my publicly-accessible directory structure that uses the files in the target directory. This will come in handy if you have several different sites that wish to use the same resources.
This is what the new link will look like when issuing the “dir” command in that new directory:
11/26/2005 12:55 AM sharedimages
As you can see, it labels it as a junction, and not as a directory, but they act the same. In Windows Explorer, you won’t be able to tell the difference between that and a directory.
NOTE The only exception is that there is a known issue in all versions of Windows that will prevent you from moving a file across a junction point into the recycle bin. If, when trying to delete a file, you see an error such as this:
Cannot delete Foldername: Access is denied. The source file may be in use.
that is what is going on. You will need to either bypass the recycle bin (shift+del), or navigate to the actual (non-junctioned) location of the file and delete it through windows explorer from there.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243514/EN-US/

Windows IIS domain setup

Here's the steps for creating a site on your server:

1. Make a directory in D:\inetpub\wwwroot for your new site.

2. Add a new user by going to Computer Management in Administrative Tools.

3. Open IIS Management. Right Click on the default FTP site and choose New Virtual Directory. The Alias will be the same as the user you created in the last step. For the path, put in the path to the directory that you created in the first step. The account will need Write access to be able to upload files.

4. Right click on the default web site in IIS. Choose New Site. The description can be whatever you want, easiest is the name of the site. Choose an IP for the site. If you put the site on the shared IP address, put the domain name in the host header field. If you put the site on its own IP, then leave the host header field blank. Next, put in the path to directory where the web pages will be stored. Finally, the default permissions should be fine.

5. If you put the site on the shared IP address, right click on the new site and choose Properties. On the Web Site tab and go to Advanced. Choose Add. Give the site the same IP address as you gave it in the last step. The port will 80. The host header should be www.domainname.

6. Open the DNS administrator. Right click on Forward Lookup Zones and choose New Zone. You want to use a Standard Primary zone. For Name, put in the domain name. Choose create a new file. Once the zone is created, right click on it under Forward Lookup Zones. First choose new Mail Exchanger record. Leave Host blank and put the server that the mail is to be delivered to in Mail Server. Next, right click on the domain name again and choose New Host. For Name put in www and set the IP address to the IP that you assigned in IIS. If you set the mail exchanger to something like mail.domain.name, then you need to create a Host entry of for that host name also.

How to Encrypt RDP (Remote Desktop) Network Traffic

How to add encryption to Remote Desktop (RDP) network traffic.

Note: RDP clients older than the one provided with Windows XP are unable to talk to an RDP server that requires encryption. For the most part that will not be a problem, but it is important to understand, if you are using a Remote Desktop client from Windows 2000 to connect to a server that requires RDP encryption, you will not be able to connect.

The information provided in this article is for a server-side modification.By default, Remote Desktop clients will use the highest level of encryption supported by the server.

Open the Group Policy Microsoft Management Console (GPO MMC)

1. Click Start > Run, type mmc in the Open: box, and click OK

2. On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in

3. In the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box, click Add

4. In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, select Group Policy, click Add, and then click Finish

5. Click Close in the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, and click OK in the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box.

Modify the required encryption level for RDP

1. In the GPO MMC, expand Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services

2. Select Encryption and Security

3. Double-click on "Set client connection encryption level" in the right pane

4. Select Enabled

5. In the drop-down labeled "Encryption label", select High Level

6. Click OK

7. Close the MMC

How do I connect to my NAS backup?

Network Backup is a simple Network Attached Storage (NAS) array that can be directly accessed over Ethernet using standard IP protocols such as SAMBA/CIFS and FTP. Network Backup needs to be accessed from within your server.
You have to first log into the server.Once you are logged in simply ftp into the NAS.You will be given the IP address in the initial NAS installation ticket.If you are unable to find the ticket please feel free to contact us.
You can actually mount your drive to the NAS. To do so please do the following:
==============================================

On a UNIX System:
Assuming you have already installed SAMBA, issue the following command:
smbmount //ip address/username mountpoint -o username=username
For example: smbmount //123.456.789/cXXXX /mnt/backup -o username=cXXXXX
Samba will prompt you for your password. This will attach your service to themount point defined on the command line as though it was a local disk.
==============================================
Windows 2003 Server:
Open Windows Explorer.On the Tools Menu, click Map Network DriveSelect a drive letter.Place "\\ip address\username" in the Path line;
For example \\123.456.789\cXXXXXClick the "Reconnect at logon" checkbox.Click OK.Login to the share with the username and password provided.Click the "Remember password" checkbox.Click OK.
This will attach your NAS Backup service to the driveletter you selected. At this point, the Backup service operates likea drive directly connected to your server. Simply copy the files youwish to archive into the drive letter you have mapped to your NAS Backup service.

How can I check which ports are open when the firewall is activated?

Use "netsh routing ip show filter" and
"netsh routing ip show filter "
to see open ports.

How to add an IP address in Windows

Adding your IPs through your desktop control panel is very simple. Please follow these steps to take you through it.
1. Click on the Start option and go to Control Panel

2. After opening your Control Panel then double click on Network Connections

3. Right click on Local Area Connection and select Properties

4. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) from the list and click Properties

5. Click on Advanced at the bottom of the pop-screen.

6. Click Add at the center of the pop-screen.

7. Enter the IP address and corresponding subnet mask.

8. Click Add

9. Repeat steps five through seven for each IP

10. When completed with the list of IPs, click OK at the bottom of the pop-screen. This will close this pop-screen.

11. Click OK at the bottom of the pop-screen. This will close this pop-screen.

12. Click Close to complete the process.13. Close your Network Connection window.