IT Professionals - Anish Panthalani

RIS – Remote Installation Server- Installation & Configuration

2009-10-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

Installing Remote Installation Service on system
Go to Add/Remove Windows Component and install Remote Installation Services from there.
Creating Windows Image for Deployment
After the installation open Remote Installation Services Setup from Administrative Tools and select Next. Then select “Add a new OS image to this remote installation server” for creating an OS deployment image. From the next window select OS source CD for creating the image. The following windows will help us to create customized folder name and description for the deployment location. When we select on Finish button it will create OS image.

The default OS Image creation path will be “D:\RemoteInstall\”.
Creating an Answer File
The default answer file will be located at “D:\RemoteInstall\Setup\English\Images\WINDOWS----\i386\templates\ristndrd.sif”

We need to edit this answer file for automated OS installation. For example by default whole hard disk space is considered as a single partition when RIS installs OS on a client system. We can change that by editing the answer file. And also we can install drivers with this RIS by using the answer file. The sample customized answer file is shown below

[RemoteInstall]
Repartition = No
UseWholeDisk = No
This change will help us to create partitions.
Installing Drivers with RIS Image.
At the same level of i386 folder on RIS image , create $oem$ folder with the following structure
\$oem$\$1\Driver\Nic
\$oem$\$1\Driver\Video etc
Copy all driver files to corresponding folders and create an entry of this driver path on answer files like
[Unattended]
OemPreinstall = yes
OemPnpDriversPath =\Drivers\Nic; \Drivers\Video
Note: Before starting the client installation copy all LAN driver files to i386 folder of RIS server. Otherwise RIS will not start installation.

Note: To restart RIS server follow the below commands through Command prompt
net stop BINLSVC
net start BINLSVC

Windows Server 2003 as VPN Server

2009-10-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

What Is VPN?

A virtual private network (VPN) is the extension of a private network that encompasses links across shared or public networks like the Internet. A VPN enables you to send data between two computers across a shared or public internetwork in a manner that emulates the properties of a point-to-point private link. The act of configuring and creating a virtual private network is known as virtual private networking.

Configure Remote Access/VPN Server on Our Win 2k3 Server

We need two NIC cards for VPN Server Configuration.

First one for Internet Connection (Used to connect clients to the server)

Second one for Local Area Network.

Then Let’s start the configuration,

Go to Start | All Programs | Administrative Tools | Routing and Remote Access

Right click on the server name that shown on the wizard and select “Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access”

Since the goal here is to set up a PPTP-based VPN, select the "Virtual Private Network VPN and NAT" selection and click Next.

The next screen of the wizard, entitled VPN Connection, asks you to determine which network adapter is used to connect the system to the Internet. For VPN servers, you should install and use a separate network adapter for VPN applications.

Next we need to tell which network external clients should connect to in order to access resources.

VPN clients will need IP addresses that are local to the VPN server so that the clients can access the appropriate resources. We have two options for that,

First is DHCP and Second, our VPN server handle the distribution of IP addresses for any clients that connect to the server. To make this option work, we give your VPN server a range of available IP addresses that it can use.

For this, select "From a specified range of addresses" option click Next.

Then we have to tell the RRAS wizard exactly which addresses should be reserved for distribution to VPN clients. To do this, click the New button on the Address Range Assignment screen. Type in the starting and ending IP addresses for the new range and click OK. The "Number of addresses" field will be filled in automatically based on our entry. We can also just enter the starting IP address and the number if IP addresses we want in the pool. If we do so, the wizard automatically calculates the ending IP address. Click OK in the New Address Range window; our entry appears in the Address Range Assignment window. Click Next to continue.

The next screen asks to identify the network that has shared access to the Internet. This is generally the same network that the VPN users will use to access shared resources.

If we have RADIUS server on our network, we can use it for vpn user’s authentication to our network. Otherwise RRAS itself can use for that. Give users access to the VPN services by enabling dial-in permissions in the user's profile.

That's it for the RRAS wizard! You're provided with a summary screen that details the selections you made.

To Enable User Access

By default, users are not granted access to connect VPN; we need to grant these rights to each user that want to allow remote access to your network. To do this, open Active Directory Users and Computers (for domains) or Computer Management (for workgroup networks), and open the properties page for a user to whom we'd like to grant access to the VPN. Select that user's Dial-In properties page. On this page, under Remote Access Permissions, select "Allow access".

Configure Remote Access/VPN Server on Our Windows XP

2009-10-14T02:51:00.000-07:00

•Go to Start / Settings / Network Connections
•Start the New Connection Wizard
•Click on the Next button
•Select Set up advanced connection
•Click on the Next button
•Click on Accept incoming connections
•Click on the Next button
•At the LPT1 page, skip it and just click on the Next button.
•Click on Allow virtual private connection
•Click on the Next button
•Add user accounts that you want to be able to connect to your WindowsXP computer.
•Click on the Next button.
•Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on Properties
•Determine how you want the remote computers to get their IP address
•Make sure the IP scheme is the same as on your server.

### Tips ###

2009-10-14T02:03:00.001-07:00

## Find Windows Installation Date
Find Windows Installation Date By the following Command
systeminfo find /i "install date"

## Reset local security policy settings to default in Windows XP and Vista
Click on Start, Run and then type in CMD. Now copy and paste the following command into the window:
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

## Change Windows XP's Product Key
Click start in the bottom left corner, then click run.
Type 'Regedit' in the white text field, and click OK. This should open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following registry key.
· Hkey_local_machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents
Right click 'OOBETimer', in that registry key that you just navigated to and then click 'Modify'.
Change one or more digits to anything random.
Click start and then click run. Paste '%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a', in the white text field,

Then we can change the product key from the window that appear at this time.

## Network is connected, But not taking IP address.

StartàRunàcmd

ntsf in ip reset reset.log

netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the system

Enable “Show Hidden Files and Folders” on Windows System

2009-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Some virus or Trojans hide themselves on our computer and forcefully disable “Shown Hidden Files and Folders” option under “Folder Option”. There are many viruses that cause the hidden files cannot be visible. To solve this problem, please try the following steps.

Go to Start Menu and select “Run”
Go to Registry Editor by type “regedit” on run and enter
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer \Advanced
Verify the value of Hidden entry is 1.
Then Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL
In the right pane of that window, verify that the “CheckedValue” value type is REG_DWORD type. And also check its value data is 1 or not. Virus may change it to any other number.
If CheckedValue’s value type is not REG_DWORD, please delete CheckedValue entry from there.
Then create a new DWORD Value and name it as CheckedValue. And also put its Value data as 1.
In that same window itself please verify the “Type” value type is of REG_SZ, and its value data is radio.
Then Go to HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Explorer\Advanced
Verify the value of Hidden entry is 1

Microsoft Windows XP's Boot Sequence

2009-08-28T04:09:00.000-07:00

As with other Windows Operating Systems, when you turn on your PC, it goes through an elaborate boot up process. It begins when the computer performs the POST (power-on self test), followed by the POST for each adapter card that has a BIOS, for example, your video card. The BIOS then reads the MBR (Master Boot Record) which is in the first sector of the first hard disk and transfers control to the code in the MBR which is created by the XP Setup. This is where Windows takes over the startup process.

What comes next? Here's what happens:
The MBR reads the boot sector which is the first sector of the active partition. This sector contains the code that starts Ntldr which is the boot strap loader for Windows XP. The first role of Ntldr is to allow full memory addressing, start the file system, read boot.ini and put up the boot menu. IMPORTANT: Ntldr must be located in root folder of the active partition along with Ntdetect.com, boot.ini, bootsect.dos (for dual booting) and Ntbootdd.sys (needed with some SCSI adapters).
Selecting XP from the boot menu causes Ntldr to run Ntdetect.com to get information about installed hardware. Ntldr then uses the ARC path specified in the boot.ini to find the boot partition. The one where Windows XP is installed. It might look like this:
default=multi (0)disk (0)partition (2) WINDOWS [operating systems]
multi(0)disk( 0)partition( 2)WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fast detect Ntldr, then, loads the two files that make up the
core of XP:
Ntoskrnl.exe and Hal.dll. These files must be located in the %
SystemRoot%System32 folder.
Ntldr reads the registry files, selects a hardware profile, control
set and loads device drivers, in that order.
Then, Ntoskrnl.exe takes over and starts Winlogon.exe which starts
Lsass.exe (Local Security Administration) , this is the program that displays the Welcome screen (If Professional Edition-the Windows Log
On dialog box), and allows the user to log on with his/her user name
and password.