Computer support articles » Jenny

How to choose a tunneling protocol

Jenny — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:08:04 +0000

Which tunneling protocol should you use for VPN?

Virtual Private Networking in Microsoft Windows supports two tunneling protocols: L2TP and PPTP. Which VPN tunneling protocol should you use in which circumstance? Here’s a quick guide:

Use PPTP if your enterprise doesn’t have a CA to issue computer certificates and if you need compatibility with VPN client computers running legacy Windows platforms.

Use L2TP if your VPN connections require data integrity and non-reputability and not just the data confidentiality that PPTP provides.

Use PPTP if your VPN clients may be located behind NATs as most NATs can be configured to work with this protocol but not with L2TP.

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How to choose a tunneling protocol

Enable MMC Version 3 in Windows Server 2003 R2

Jenny — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:01:00 +0000

To unlock the newest version of the Microsoft Management Console in Windows Server 2003 R2 you will need to perform the following steps…

Windows Server 2003 R2 comes with the newest version of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC Version 3.0). However, in order to use this functionality you will have to unlock it in the system registry.

1. Run your registry editor (regedit.exe from the run prompt)
2. Navigate to HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftMMC
3. From the Edit menu, select New > Key
4. Enter the name as “UseNewUI” and select “OK”
5. Exit regedit.exe

Article written by MyComputerAid.com

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Enable MMC Version 3 in Windows Server 2003 R2

Prevent accidental deletion of OUs

Jenny — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:01:55 +0000

Trying to prevent accidental deletion of OUs
Someone asked me if you could prevent admins from accidentally deleting OUs in Active Directory as the consequences of doing so could be very bad indeed. The answer of course is that No, you can’t prevent admins from doing anything because they’re admins! You need to train your admins properly and ensure you hire people who are careful and responsible.
However, one small but very nice feature of Active Directory in Windows Server 2008 (formerly called Longhorn) is that when you try and delete an OU you are prompted with an Are You Sure warning message. For more information about Active Directory in Windows Server 2008, see my book Introducing Windows Server 2008.

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Prevent accidental deletion of OUs

Finding global catalog servers

Jenny — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:00:14 +0000

How to find all GCs in a domain
How can you quickly find the global catalog servers in your domain? Two command-line tools can be helpful here:
1. First, you can type repadmin.exe /options * and use IS_GC for current domain options.

2. And second, you can type nltest /dsgetdc:corp /GC

Article written by MyComputerAid.com

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Finding global catalog servers

Using the Employee-ID attribute in Active Directory

Jenny — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:56:29 +0000

Using the Employee-ID attribute in Active Directory.
Active Directory has an Employee-ID attribute for user objects but unfortunately this attribute is not exposed in UI (i.e. in Active Directory Users and Computers) so you can’t easily configure it if you want to use it. You can of course configure this attribute of a user account using one of the command-line tools for managing Active Directory such as LDIFDE or DSMOD, and you could also use ADSIEdit or even ADSI scripts to configure it. What you may not be aware of however is that you can programmatically extend ADUC to expose this attribute in the UI. To learn how to do this, download the ADSI SDK and install it and look in the SamplesDSUIuserextuserproppage where you can learn how to create an extension for employee ID and thumbnail photo.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com

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Using the Employee-ID attribute in Active Directory