HP ML10 Gen9 Network Drivers for Server 2012 R2 - ven_8086&dev_15b7&rev_31

Had a total nightmare finding drivers for this server - none of the ones on the HP website support it and when you try and get them from Intel there aren't any.

So if you need the drivers for the NIC with a hardware ID of ven_8086&dev_15b7 rev_31 , give the below a go:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23073/Intel-Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-Server-2012-R2-

Sage v24 Dataservice on SBS 2011 Server (missing sg50SdoEngine240.dll)

The new version of sage does not play nicely with SBS 2011 - when you run the installer for the data service it eventually gets to a point where it says your operating system isn't support (seriously Sage, what the hell?)

To get around this you have to install all of the components and prerequisites manually. Luckily, when you attempt to install the data service Sage leaves all of the installation files lying around in your user temp folder (%temp% at the run prompt and go to "Sage Accounts")

Once in there, you can go into the redist folder and ensure all are installed - if you run into error 0x80240017 whilst installing the dot net framework 4.6 (NDP46-KB3045557-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe) then you most likely need to install SP1 on your server (see here)

Once done, you can then go into the packages folder in the same location and run Sage50Accounts_DataAccess.msi (you don't need the ODBC one for just the data service).

If that installs - congrats!

However, If like me you receive more error messages about certain dll files not being registered (sg50SdoEngine240.dll in my case) and the services not starting, I had to re-run vc_redist.2015.x86.exe and perform a repair (this seemed to install with SP1, but the system really didn't like it) - this then let the software finally install.

Sage really need to sort stuff like this out, if they cant get the basics down then good luck to the people using the actual software.

Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 ERROR code 0x80240017 - SBS Sage Data Service v24

The recent sage update requires a new data service to be installed - it doesn't like SBS very much and I will be making another post about this but if you're trying to installed the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015  update and you receive error code 0x80240017 the first thing you should check is if SP1 is installed!

Creating a Wildcard Certificate in IIS and SBS 2011

I like to make certificate requets in IIS - its a bit more universal than using the SBS console. The below steps explain how to create a certificate request in IIS and then how to import that certificate into the SBS console to use on an SBS 2011 domain.

1. Open Internet Information Server (IIS)
2. Go to the server node (if your server is called "SBS" it would be the one that says "SBS" with your domain and username after it
3. In the main window scroll down to the section entitiled "IIS", find "Server Certificates" and then double click it
4. In the new section, click "Create Certificate Request" on the right hand side
5. Fill in your information
    a. Common name is the name of the domain you're securing, if you're having a wildcard certificate the common name should start *. (so *.microsoft.com for example)
    b. Organisation is the companys name who will own the certificate
    c. Organisation Unit is for the company department, we usually just use "IT"
    d. City/local/state/country are where the company is based
6. Click Next
7. Generally, most certificate authoritise will want your bit length to be 2048 (not always the case!) if so, change this
8. At this point, I would storngly recommend clicking the ... so you can save the request file somewhere useful rather than just giving it a name
9. Click finish and you will now have your CSR file ready to purchase a certificate
10. Copy the contents of the CSR file and then go to your certificate provider and follow the wizard.
11. When requested to enter your CSR, paste it into the window
12. On the next page, the CSR should then tell you the domain name its securing - at this point double and triple check its correct!
13. Gernally, an email will be sent to one of the domain contacts which you will need to act on to complete the certificate (I usually use postmaster@)
14. Once the certificate has been created it will be sent to you
15. Go back to IIS on the server and on the same menu on the right select "Complete Certificate Request"
16. Select the file taht your certificate authoristy have sent you (if they havent sent a file and just sent a plaintext response, simply save this into a text document then select that instead) and give it a friendly name (something you can reconize it by) and click OK
17. The certificate is now installed on your server and can be used as needed

(if adding to SBS 2011)
18. Go to the SBS console
19. Go to the "Network" button and select the "Connectivity" tab
20. Select " Add a trusted certificate" on the right hand side
21. Click "Next" and then select "I want to use a certificate that is already insatlled on the server"
22. Select the new certificate from the list and follow the wizard through

Certificate not appearing in the list in the SBS Wizard? Are you defintely sure the "Internet Address" is set to the same domain you've registed for the certificate?



 

Uniform Server Uniserver Zero VIII - PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:/UniServerZ/core/php56/extensions/php_curl.dll' - The specified module could not be found.\r\n in Unknown on line 0

Another day, another dedicated server. This time, one running Uniserver Zero XIII. Client wanted to stop using the standard Unicontroller as logging in after a reboot to start the webserver was a pain and wanted use the UniService plugin instead.

Downloading and installing the service plugin was fine, however when attempting to browse certain Wordpress sites we were receiving the following error:

PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'C:/UniServerZ/core/php56/extensions/php_curl.dll' - The specified module could not be found.\r\n in Unknown on line 0

For some reason, the UniServer plugin is unable to load the php_curl.dll file - it appears to be related to other assemblies that this file uses.

The fix was to add the PHP folder to the system path variable. To do this,

1. Bring up the system properties
2. Go to "Advanced System Settings"
3. click on the option that says "Environmental Variables"
4. Scroll down the "System Variables" list and find Path
5. Click "edit" and at the end of the variable, add ; c:\uniserverz\core\php56

Depending on your path and PHP version, you may need to alter it (for example d:\uniserver\core\php71 if you are running PHP 7.1 with an extraction on the D: in Uniserver)

Once done, click OK and close the window - restart the Apache service and it should be working

Error updating Wordpress - Download failed.: No working transports found

I was recently involved in migrating some websites to a new dedicated server. After getting the new sites online, the owner of the server tried to perform a WordPress update but he following error occurred:

Download failed.: No working transports found

Upon investigation, it seems that by default the PHP ini that we were using had the module curl commented out and this needs to be available for the updates to run.

To resolve this you need to stop Apache and then edit the live php.ini file on your website and find the line that reads:

;extension=php_curl.dll

You can then remove the semi-colon from the front so you just have:

extension=php_curl.dll

Restart Apache and try the update again

Update 13/09/2017

Further to the above, the issue may persist if running under Windows and the PHP folder isn't registered as an environmental variable. I found this to be the case if falling back to an older verison of PHP under Uniserver.

To resolve this problem, you need to go system properties and then environmental varibles and add the PHP folder path to the "Path" option under system variables.

Its contains a lot, so don't delete it! just add a semi colon at the end and the extra path. In my case it was: ;C:\UniServerZ\core\php56

Mothers Day Sticker - Best Mummy (Free large transparent PNG file to download and use)

I hate having to pay for something when I don't really need to. That being said, I wanted to add a little sticker to a picture of my wife and son, however most of the 'sticker' sites like Fotor have them as premium content so you have to pay to get access to them.

Rather than paying, I thought I would just create my own instead. And here it is, free for you to download and use if you so wish!

To all the mums out there, happy mothers day x

Click here to download as a transparent PNG

Exchange 2010 SP3 upgrade on SBS 2011 - Setup cannot continue with the upgrade because the 'console' (Windows SBS Console) process has open files. Close the process and restart Setup.

During an installation of  SP3 for Exchange 2010 on an SBS 2011 server, this error appeared when performing the readiness checks. Having rebooted the server and ensured that the SBS Management console was shut it seemed a little odd.

However, launch task manager I could see that the "console" process was still running even though the window had been closed.

I ended the console task and re-ran the readiness check which then passed. Problem solved.

No verification email when trying to reset office.com or live.com password

We've recently had a few problems with older machines they have required a re-installation. However, the newer versions of office are often tied to a users email address and they can never remember the password, so we end up trying to reset the password to re-download office and activate it.

Some of the spam filters that our clients use have been refusing to let the verification emails through - they're just totally disappearing into the ether.

We added @microsoft.com to the spam filter white-list, but this didn't help.

Turns out, you need to add: @account.microsoft.com as this is the domain that Microsoft send password resets from. 

Hopefully it helps someone out