Jay's Rant

Windows 2008r2 Remote Desktop Login Problems - IIS and https security issue

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:55:37 +0000

I am a adamant user of Remote Desktop service provided by Windows Server 2008 and 2008r2.
I started with Windows 2008 server, upgraded to 2008r2. Everything worked same as before, including gateway and RDP.
I had a static IP with Roadrunner, then switched service to dynamic IP and started using DynDNS.com to track my network IP.
This is when several problems occurred.

Problem 1: (could not RDP to VM’s through internet or locally - issue with FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name)
First thing needed was to reconfigure router (Dlink DIR655).
-changed static setting to dynamic.
-updated firmware to 1.33NA.
-no DNS server settings (reset to 0.0.0.0)
-no mac address cloning (reset to 00:00:00:00:00)
-reset wireless settings back to original (forgot to write down settings before firmware update, but found my old notes
-configured advanced/virtual server for gateway and RDP accesses both.
-without static IP, my FQDN was now coming up with server.socal.rr.com and causing name resolution problems. I resolved this problem after much research and several attempts including running CMD and ipconfig /registerdns. Not sure what fixed local FQDN problem, but it got resolved. (Test with IP number of RDP PC to see if you can connect with IP number if FQDN is the culprit.)

Problem 2: (could not connect via internet to gateway server)
-I did a lot of testing and changes, research on web, tried several suggestions. Connecting to gateway finally resolved, but could not connect to RDP through gateway, which became problem #3. I will come back and add to resolution to problem 2 if I can remember the steps that resolved that issue.

Problem 3: (RDP from gateway screen was giving invalid certificate error.)
-tried resetting self signed certificate several times. Did not resolve issue. Connecting to gaetway gave me the server certificate, but in the RDP session it gave certificate error. I noticed that the domain name in the certificate error was for an internet domain name that I had previously used from my web site when I created a redirect to my gateway server for convenience. This was very puzzling. Found almost no information on this scenario. However, one link gave me a clue (insert link here). The problem was that the domain name was not providing the correct certificate validation and thus RDP was failing. More research led me to IIS.
-Noticed that a RDWeb folder was added to IIS. Originally, the gateway server was using TS folder in IIS. So instead of connecting remotely to https://server.com/ts I tried to connect to https://server.com/RDWeb and got error. Tried http://localhost/RDWeb and that worked. Issue was in binding for https in IIS for Default Web Site. Was missing certificate! Added the server’s self signed certificate and connection was successful.

Summary:
My static IP was working but dynamic IP started the name resolution problem. That resolved led me to gateway connection problem. That resolved led me to certificate problem. The fix was here was to switch from using TS/gateway to using RDWeb/gateway. This was because I upgraded my server from 2008 to 2008r2. Did not find any info on this being an issue on TechNet, unfortunately. would have saved a lot of time. I found this out by creating a new Hyper-V Vm on server 2008r2 and comparing settings between the new gateway (which worked) and the older gateway which was not connecting. 10 days and many hours later, all is working (so far).
Will update this blog with new info if it is necessary.

Review of Cavalry 1TB NAS Hard Drive - RAID, USB 2.0 - Network Attached Storage

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:21:48 +0000

This uses same software (generic 3rd party) as the SansDigital MN2L Nas. Very basic and tedious to navigate. Like the drives inside and if you need raid 1 (mirroring) which is why I got it, then this will do the job. Transfer speeds are acceptable for large files, I save video files, hence raid 1. This product is by far one of the lowest priced on the market (calculate price of just 2 500gb sata drives alone). I liked it so much I am now ordering my 4th unit. Installed in Windows home office network, mix of xp and vista machines (32bit and 64bit - all pc’s access shared device no problems). Gave it low ease of use score for the generically limited software (but once installed and shared, don’ need software any longer). Performance is acceptable for storage, do not use it for heavy access. Value makes me very satisfied and will buy more as my storage needs grow.

Data Storage (strategy part 2)

admin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:58:44 +0000

For speed and reliability and ease of backup I recommend:
Mirror the OS drive (C:) – this drive should be fast and I would recommend 10k drives – nice.
Raid 5 the data volume for storage (D:) for space and cost. Better yet, use external raid like a NAS device that can be shared without pc being on.

Mirroring the boot drive and only installing apps does two things. One, drive is mirrored for failover. Two, smaller size makes for quicker image backups (saved to the Data drive). With a program like Acronis True Image you can set a schedule to backup you drive periodically. Make a clean backup of base install for “factory” restore capability and then make weekly/monthly backups for quick restore of updates since original backup. This image backup insures that if your mirror raid fails and wipes out both drives, you can restore to new drive outside of array. I have had to break a mirrored array and my Dell pc which destroyed the data on the mirrored drives (who thought of this concept?) Also, the image allows you to upsize your drive(s). You can replace the mirrored drives with larger ones.

Many MoBo’s do not Raid 5 the boot OS and you may likely have trouble when using utilities and some software on the partitions. For various reasons, I do not recommend Raid 5 the boot drive. Also I have learned to keep data off the boot drive to keep it lean and easily replaceable. I now store _ALL_ data on file server or NAS drives to allow me to access data from any pc at any time, thereby making me not just drive fault tolerant, but pc fault tolerant! Downside is having to install software on multiple pc’s in case one crashes and licensing issue (i.e.: cost). But that aside, I took my older home office pc offline with 0 (ZERO) downtime and NO interruption of service! Although now I only have one pc L running at home.

How do I not use my C: drive for data? I store NO data on any personal pc (well, temporarily maybe, depending on the app, i.e.: video editing for speed of access and rendering). All standard apps (like MS office, email, scans, docs, etc. are all saved immediately to the network volume (i.e.: file server or NAS; either is a good option). (Note: file server can be just a shared low end pc that supports the Raid 5 volume, which is why any fault tolerant NAS can do the trick). The hard part of this scenario is making my apps default to NAS folder instead of My Documents. This can be done for some apps, but not all, so I simply placed a shortcut icon in My Documents folder to bounce to the NAS folder for saving data. I even trained my wife how to do this so her pc is also fault tolerant.

Products to consider: (2 examples that look interesting)
ReadyNAS NV+ at http://www.readynas.com/
Drobo at http://www.drobo.com/products_droboshare.aspx

Christianity

admin — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:52:30 +0000

Christianity is the only exclusive club that will allow anyone to join.

Paperless Office part 2 (types of DM’s)

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:12:14 +0000

There are at least 2 main types of document managers (here on referred to as DM’s). The first group uses a database system, either proprietary or standard database. The second group uses standard file type that are stored as individual files on your computer. I have been burned many times in the past by relying on database software because it really limits portability (what happens when you change pc’s or your computer crashes?) These DM’s require you to install the front end interface as a software manager of the documents. This may be a good idea in some office evironments, and is most likely the better solution for data security in an office, but I do not like the idea of being locked into a certain software that holds all my files. Again, been there, done that, been burned. So for portability, easy of access from different pc’s on a network, and using industry standards (.pdf, .tif, .jpg) file types, I like the second type of DM. This way I can read, move, copy, or email an individual file without the DM software. This is not to say all that cannot be done with the database DM, indeed, they frequently have far more features and (bells and whistles) than the non-database DM’s (and the pricing of those reflects the feature list). I really like the .pdf standard as it is quite popular, easy to use, and almost everyone who surfs the web has had to install at some point a .pdf reader. I won’t cover security in this post, but if you are scanning everything like credit card statements, bank statements, etc. you will need security to protect those .pdf’s and folders.

Paperless Office part 1 (introduction)

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:56:19 +0000

OK. I’m going to start a series on my take on paperless office. First, great idea! Second, not so easy to implement the ideal solution on a low budget. (Low budget = less than $300.00 for software and less than $500.00 for scanner hardware)

I have tried several scanners and several ocr (optical character recognition) / document managment software. A scanner is a must (how else do you convert paper to electronic bits of data on the computer?) OCR is good, but can be optional as it is mostly used to convert scanned documents into editable documents. You don’t need OCR if all you want to do is electronically “photocopy” all your documents for electronic filing (which is my main goal to eliminate file cabinets full of paper in which that I can never find anything anyway.) Document managment is vague in that technically, if you scan everything into separate folders (or move them after your scan into specific folders) then you are document managing simply by using the window’s file system. However, a scanner document manager is more handy in that it will show the folders and it is much easier to find, file, and retreive those documents that you have painstakingly scanned.

Redirect home page of domain to word press (or any other .php in sub-folder)

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:39:41 +0000

This is the recommended method to “redirect” a domain to word press without moving the files. Set the Directory Indexes page (under web services) to (hp_wordpress/index.php index.php index.html) and it redirects your home page to this list in order of priority.

Data Storage (strategy part 1)

admin — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:20:29 +0000

I have changed my strategy with pc’s. I am now concentrating on sleek (meaning not maxed out) pc’s with all data storage on-line on server / NAS device. That way I can use any pc and access data from any machine on the network. I am working on TS (terminal services) on windows 2008 to run the apps from the server as well. This is not going as I’d hoped, but it shows promise in that I can install one instance of (some) software and maintain on the server instead of across several pc’s (ever get annoyed at all the updates on several machines?) I currently store NO data on my pc (including email - Outlook), all data is stored on file server and backed up every hour to NAS device so if server goes down, I simply re-map data vol to NAS and continue to run. And since I am not willing to be down at all, I also back that up hourly to 2 separate usb drives. Why so many? Because I have an over inventory of USB drives! J My bad for buying several 160 Gb USB drives awhile back and then needing way more server storage, so now I have several of these USB drives hanging out so I thought I would use them for multiple backups. The only down side is the electric bill, but that is easier to pay than data recovery service of my drive crashes.

Do your opinions count?

admin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:46:15 +0000

Opinions, everybody has one.

I have learned a lot about things that I have seen and tested. I always try to be honest and truthfull (yes, there is absolute truth, more on that later). I want to share experiences on life, religion, business, and tangible stuff, especially computer related (software and hardware) in future posts. I hope to keep everything short and to the point. Hope it helps all who visit.