Thursday, 9 June 2016

LDAP server installation and configuration step by step – RHEL7

openLDAP server installation and configuration step by step – RHEL7

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Manually Repair Windows 7 Boot Loader Problems

Boot From the Windows Install Disc

The first thing you’ll need to do is boot off the install disc, and then click through until you see the “Repair your computer” link in the lower left-hand corner.
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You’ll need to choose the correct installation of Windows and then click the Next button.
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And then you’ll get to the System Recovery Options screen, where you can get to the Command Prompt.
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Repairing the Master Boot Record

If you want to restore the master boot record, you can simply type in the following command:
bootrec /fixmbr
You can also write a new boot sector onto the system partition with this command (which is often more useful):
bootrec /fixboot
And of course, if you just use bootrec /? you’ll be able to see all the options.
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Replacing the Windows XP Bootloader with Windows 7

If you’ve managed to install XP on the same PC that you already had Windows 7 on, you’ll noticed that you can’t boot into Windows 7 anymore. You can use this command to fix that and restore the Windows 7 bootloader:
bootsect /nt60 all
Depending on the partition that you’ve installed, you might need to substitute the drive letter instead of “all”.
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Note: if you want to restore Windows XP back to the menu, you can open up a command prompt in Windows 7 and run this command:
bcdedit /create {ntldr} -d “Windows XP”
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Using the Automated Startup Repair

Of course, all this command-line stuff is probably not necessary in most cases. You can usually just use the Startup Repair option from the Recovery menu…
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It’ll check for problems and probably fix them. If not, then you can always use the command prompt.
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Wednesday, 30 March 2016

How to Reset Your Forgotten Domain Admin Password on Server 2008 R2

How to Reset Your Forgotten Domain Admin Password on Server 2008 R2

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Forgetting your password is always a pain, but luckily there’s an easy way to reset your Domain Administrator password. All you need is a copy of the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disk and one simple command line trick.

Replacing Utilman.exe

Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.
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Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.
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First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the utilman.exe file:
MOVE C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe.bak
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Now you will need to copy cmd.exe and rename it Utilman.exe:
COPY C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe
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Now you can go ahead and reboot your machine. When its done booting up again and you are at the Logon screen click on the Ease of access icon.
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I bet you weren’t expecting that open a command prompt  Smile To change the password type:
net user administrator *
Once you press enter you will asked to set a new password and then confirm it, when entering your new password don’t worry if you can’t see them as you type, they are invisible, they are however being remembered.
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Once you’re logged in again don’t forget to delete Utilman.exe and then rename Utilman.exe.bak back to plain old Utilman.exe.

Resetting Administrator Password in Windows 2012

  1. Boot from the Micrsoft Windows Server 2012 DVD
  2. From the Windows Setup menu, click “Next”.
  3. Select “Repair your computer”
  4. Under Choose and option, click on “Troubleshoot”.
  5. Under Advanced options, click “Command Prompt”.
  6. At the command prompt, run the following commands: d:
    cd windows\system32
    ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old
    copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
  7. Close the command prompt and then click “Continue”.
  8. The server should now boot and present the logon screen. Here click Windows Key + U.
  9. At the prompt you can now change the password, by typing the following command: net user administrator Password123 This will set the password for the Administrator user to be Password123 (case sensitive).
  10. Closing the command prompt, you should now be able to log back onto the server using the password you have provided in the last step.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

How to “Clean” a Flash Drive, SD Card, or Internal Drive to Fix Partition and Capacity Problems

How to “Clean” a Flash Drive, SD Card, or Internal Drive to Fix Partition and Capacity Problems

If your USB flash drive, SD card, or another drive isn’t working quite right, “cleaning” the drive and removing its partitions is one possible solution. This can fix problems with a drive that can’t be formatted or one that shows the wrong capacity.
This trick will also delete partitions that can’t be deleted with normal tools, like the graphicalDisk Management disk-partitioning tool built into Windows. This process will completely erase the partition table from a disk, allowing you to set it back up again.
Warning: This process will completely wipe the entire disk you select, so be sure you back up any important files first. You should also be very careful to specify the correct disk, or you could accidentally wipe the wrong disk.

Launch a Command Prompt as Administrator

First, you’ll need to launch a Command Prompt window as administrator. On Windows 10 or 8.1, you can simply right-click the Start button (or press Windows Key + X) and select “Command Prompt (Admin)”.
On Windows 7, you’ll need to locate the “Command Prompt” shortcut in the Start menu — you can just search for “Command Prompt” in the Start menu. Right-click the Command Prompt shortcut and select “Run as Administrator.”

Use diskpart to Clean a Disk

We’ll be using the diskpart command to do this. Before continuing, be sure you’ve connected the USB flash drive, SD card, or whatever other drive you want to clean to your computer.
To launch the diskpart tool, type the following command into the Command Prompt window and press Enter:
diskpart
Have diskpart list the disks connected to the computer by typing the following command and pressing Enter:
list disk
Examine the output of the command to identify the number of the disk you want to clean. Be very careful here! If you select the wrong disk number, you’ll clean the wrong disk and you could lose important data.
In the screenshot below, we can see that “Disk 0” is 238 GB in size and “Disk 1” is 14 GB in size. We know that our particular USB drive is 14 GB in size. This tells us that Disk 1 is the USB drive connected to the computer, and Disk 0 is the computer’s internal system drive.
Once you know the disk number you want to select, type the following command, replacing # with the number of the disk you identified above.
Warning: Be very careful you specify the correct disk number! Enter the wrong disk number and you’ll end up blowing away everything on the wrong disk.
select disk #
The diskpart command has now selected the disk you specified. Any actions you perform will now be performed on the selected disk. To completely wipe the selected disk’s partition table, type the following command and press Enter.
Warning: This will erase all data on the selected disk! Be sure you have backups of the important data before continuing!
clean
You’ll see a “diskpart succeeded in cleaning the disk” if everything worked properly. You’re now done. Close the Command Prompt window to continue.

Partition and Format the Disk

You should now be able to initialize, partition, and format the disk like you normally would, using the graphical Disk Management tool built into Windows. You could also use the diskpart command to do this, but it’s probably easier to use the graphical interface.
To launch Disk Management on Windows 10 or 8.1, right-click the Start button and select “Disk Management”. On Windows 7, press Windows Key + R, type “diskmgmt.msc” into the Run dialog that appears, and press Enter.
You’ll see the disk now has no partitions. Right-click the unallocated space and select “New Simple Volume” to create a partition on the disk and format it with your desired file system. By default, Windows will create a single partition that spans the entire drive.


Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

 Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

Whether you’re formatting an internal drive, external drive, USB flash drive, or SD card, Windows will give you the choice of NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT. The Format dialog in Windows doesn’t explain the difference, so we will.
FAT32 is an older file system that’s largely relegated to USB flash drives and other external drives. Windows uses NTFS for its system drive, and it’s also ideal for other internal drives. exFAT is a modern replacement for FAT32, and more devices support it than do NTFS — although it’s not as widespread as FAT32.

FAT32





FAT32 is the oldest file system here. It was introduced all the way back in Windows 95 to replace the older FAT16 file system.
This file system’s age has advantages and disadvantages. Because it’s so old, it’s the de-facto standard. Flash drives you purchase will often come formatted with FAT32 for maximum compatibility across not just modern computers, but other devices like game consoles and anything with a USB port.
Limitations come with that age, however. Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size — that’s the maximum. A FAT32 partition must also be less than 8 TB, which is less of a limitations — but still a noticeable one if you have a new, high-capacity mechanical drive.
While this file system is okay for USB flash drives and other external media, you won’t want to use this for an internal drive. It lacks the permissions and other security features built into the more modern NTFS file system. Modern versions of Windows can no longer be installed to FAT32, and must be installed onto drives formatted with NTFS.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, Mac, Linux, game consoles, and practically anything with a USB port.
Limits: 4 GB maximum file size, 8 TB maximum partition size.
Ideal Use: Use it on removable drives for maximum compatibility with the widest range of devices, assuming you don’t have any files 4 GB or larger in size.
USB Devices Over Keyboard

NTFS

NTFS is the modern file system Windows likes to use. When you install Windows, it formats your system drive with the NTFS file system. NTFS has file size and partition size limits that are so theoretically huge you won’t run up against them. NTFS first appeared in consumer versions of Windows with Windows XP.
Aside from these limitations, NTFS is packed with other modern features. It supports file permissions for security, a change journal that can help quickly recover errors if your computer crashes, shadow copies for backups, encryption, disk quota limits, hard links, and other various features. Many of these are crucial for an operating system drive — especially file permissions.
Your Windows system partition must be NTFS. If you have a secondary drive alongside Windows and you plan on installing programs to it, you should probably go ahead and make it NTFS, too.
However, NTFS just isn’t as compatible with other operating systems. It’ll work with all recent versions of Windows — all the way back to Windows XP — but it has limited compatibility with other operating systems. By default, Mac OS X can only read NTFS drives, not write to them. Some Linux distributions may enable NTFS-writing support, but some may be read-only. None of Sony’s PlayStation consoles support NTFS. Even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 can’t read NTFS drives, although the new Xbox One can. Other devices are even less likely to support NTFS.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows, but read-only with Mac by default, and may be read-only by default with some Linux distributions. Other devices — with the exception of Microsoft’s Xbox One — probably won’t support NTFS.
Limits: No realistic file-size or partition size limits.
Ideal Use: Use it for your Windows system drive and other internal drives that will just be used with Windows.
hard drive with blue reflection. see portfolio for similar concepts.

exFAT



exFAT was introduced in 2006, and was added to older versions of Windows with updates to Windows XP and Windows Vista.
It’s a file system optimized for flash drives. It’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without all NTFS’s extra features and overhead, but without FAT32’s limitations.
Like NTFS, exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits. This means you can store files that are larger than 4 GB apiece on a flash drive or SD card if it’s formatted with exFAT. exFAT is a strict upgrade over FAT32, and should be the best choice for external drives where you want a lightweight file system without FAT32’s file size limits.
exFAT is also more compatible than NTFS. While Mac OS X includes only read-only support for NTFS, Macs offer full read-write support for exFAT. exFAT drives can be accessed on Linux by installing the appropriate software.
While exFAT is compatible with Macs — and will be compatible with some devices that don’t support NTFS, like digital cameras — it still isn’t quite as compatible. Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 doesn’t support it, although the Xbox One does. The PlayStation 3 doesn’t support exFAT drives, although the PlayStation 4 reportedly does. Various other older devices may only support FAT32 instead of exFAT.
Compatibility: Works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of Mac OS X, but requires additional software on Linux. More devices support exFAT than support NTFS, but some — particularly older ones — may only support FAT32.
Limits: No realistic file-size or partition-size limits.
Ideal Use: Use it for USB flash drives and other external drives, especially if you need files of over 4 GB in size. Assuming every device you want to use the drive with supports exFAT, you should format your device with exFAT instead of FAT32.
Usb Flash Drives

NTFS is ideal for internal drives, while exFAT is generally ideal for flash drives. However, you may sometimes need to format an external drive with FAT32 if exFAT isn’t supported on a device you need to use it with.

Monday, 18 May 2015

How to Access Blocked Websites, View Restricted Sites

How to Access Blocked Websites, View Restricted Sites

Most of us find ourselves in situations where a website we wish to visit is blocked by a software or by our ISP (Internet Service Provider). So the question arises, how can we access blocked websites? The answer to this is simple: Proxy websites. Before going into details, let us know a bit about these proxy websites. 

Proxy Websites

A proxy website acts as an intermediate source between the user and server the site being contacted is hosted on. Users send requests to proxy websites which conveys them to the site's server. The reply received by the proxy website is then forwarded to the user's computer. This gives an impression to ISP's and blocking softwarethat the user is visiting the proxy website but in reality, s/he is visiting the site which was blocked. Thus, proxy servers also provide extra security to users by hiding their online activities from their ISP's.

Acess Restricted Websites

Commonly Blocked Web Sites

The sites which are most commonly blocked at workplaces, schools and offices include websites like Facebook, Orkut, Blogger (blogspot), Google News, Typepad, eBay, MySpace, YouTube, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Bebo, Google Talk, Gmail, Photobucket, AOL AIM, Flickr, Twitter etc. In some countries, social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit are also blocked. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China have even blocked access to mainstream media websites like The New York times. A proxy website can be used to easily access these blocked websites. As proxy websites hide a user's location, they can also be used to access popular websites which are restricted to particular countries and block users from other countries from visiting them.

Types of Proxies

There are two types of proxies. First, there are web proxies which have an interactive interface; and second, the proxy servers which work on the basis of IP Addresses and port numbers. Proxies can also be segregated on the basis of anonymity into Anonymous, Transparent and High Anonymous depending upon the amount of privacy they provide.

How to Find Proxy Websites and Proxy Servers

A simple Google search containing the word "proxy websites" is likely to return a lot of useful results. However, most of them are likely to be lists containing proxy servers which you can setup using their IP Address and Port Number. So, in order to find interactive proxy websites, you will have to search for something like "Facebook Proxy Server" or "Twitter Proxy Server". A search like this is most likely to return interactive proxy websites with which you can access your blocked website by simply entering the URL in URL field. If you want additional securityand anonymity, you can opt for a paid proxy server.

If you do not want to search, here are few popular free proxy websites you can use:-
  1. http://www.spysurfing.com/
  2. http://proxify.us/p/
  3. http://kproxy.com/

How to access Blocked websites

How to Setup Proxy Servers using their IP Address

If you wish to visit your blocked website using a web proxy, you do not need any setup. However, if you wish to use a proxy server that can only be accessed by using its IP address and port number, you must configure your browser to use it. Follow the instructions given below to setup this type of proxy in your browser:-

Google Chrome and Internet Explorer Users

Google Chrome uses the same network settings as Internet Explorer. So, in order to configure Google Chrome to use a proxy server, you have to configure Internet Explorer. You can configure a proxy server in Internet Explorer by following the instructions given below:-

  1. Start Internet Explorer.
  2. Click on ToolsInternet Options.
  3. Click on Connections Tab, select your Network Connection and click on Settings.
  4. Check on Use a Proxy Server for this Connection.
  5. In the Address field, add the IP Address of your Proxy server. In the Port field, enter the Port Number.
  6. Click on OK and OK again.

Mozilla Firefox Users

Mozilla Firefox users can configure their browser to use a proxy by following the instructions given below:-

  1. Start Mozilla Firefox.
  2. Click on ToolsOptions.
  3. Click on Advanced Tab.
  4. Click on Network tab.
  5. Click on Settings.
  6. Encircle Manual Proxy Configuration.
  7. Enter the IP Address and Port Number at the appropriate place. In most cases, it will be a HTTP server.  
After you have successfully configured your browser to use the proxy server, you will be able to access blocked websites whenever you browse the internet with your browser.