Firefox opens up with a black screen in all profiles

I had a Dell Latitude E6220 on 32 bit Windows 7 SP 1 and each time I'd open up Firefox in any profile, the screen was totally black.  This did not happen in safe mode (hold down shift while starting Firefox) or when I RDP'd to the computer.  I reset Firefox settings to no avail.

The solution was to disable hardware acceleration via Options -> Advanced.  If your Firefox is opening up with the black screen, you can disable hardware acceleration in safe mode.

SSL cert errors for old Exchange server after you've already moved to Office365

My users began getting SSL cert errors in Outlook after the SSL cert on my old mail server expired.  This was weird because I had moved my company's email to Office365 more than a year earlier.  It looked something like this:

Quick research led to the idea that Outlook was looking at the autodiscover for the internal server when connected to the LAN as opposed to the CNAME record that pointed to autodiscover.outlook.com

The fix . . .

First run this on your old mail server in an Exchange shell to see where your autodiscover is currently pointing:
Get-ClientAccessServer | fl AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri

If it's pointing to your internal server with the expired certificate, that's a problem.  To fix that, run this command in the Exchange shell (assuming your server is named server1):
Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity "server1" -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri "https://autodiscover.outlook.com" -AutoDiscoverSiteScope "Mail"

or I could disable internal autodiscover via this command (assuming your server is named server1):
Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity “server1″ -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri $NULL

To do list when an employee departs an organization

When an employee leaves an organization, these are the steps that should be followed after his/her departure:

1. change password in ADUC
2. change password on email service, if managed separated
3. remove user from all distribution groups he/she may be a member of
4. ask the user's manager what should be done with his/her email.  This post discusses common options

List of changes to make in mailman listserv from list defaults

This list of changes is under general options:

The list administrator email addresses. Multiple administrator addresses, each on separate line is okay.
administrator email address


The list moderator email addresses. Multiple moderator addresses, each on separate line is okay.
administrator email address


Send monthly password reminders?
No


Send welcome message to newly subscribed members?
No


Maximum length in kilobytes (KB) of a message body. Use 0 for no limit.
8000



Under Privacy Options -> Recipient Filters:


Ceiling on acceptable number of recipients for a posting.
0

Retrieving a document from Office 2010 when you close it and choose not to save

A user showed this to me - a method for retrieving a document from Office 2010 when you close it and choose not to save.

Let's say you've got a document and choose "Don't Save" when you close Word.

You can re-open Word and go to File - Recent and click on "Previous Unsaved Documents"

You'll find that you have your list of unsaved documents available for you to open.

Configuring VOIP priority on a Fortigate firewall

IMPORTANT NOTE - If you are sending your voice traffic over a route based IPSec VPN, the WAN interface you'll be referencing will the the name of the VPN interface (for example DCtoSF instead of WAN1).


I put together this list of CLI commands to enter on a Fortigate firewall to give VOIP traffic priority.  Some instructions may vary based on your setup, but I took most of these from Fortigate cookbooks and then fixed all the typos.  I use the CLI commands because the GUI (my preference) didn't have all the options where they were supposed to be in my test box.  I tested this on Fortigate 40C running version 5.0 of the firmware.

config firewall shaper traffic-shaper
edit voip
set maximum-bandwidth 1000
set guaranteed-bandwidth 800
set per-policy enable
set priority high
end


then

config firewall policy
edit 6
set srcintf internal
set srcaddr all
set dstintf wan1
set dstaddr all
set action accept
set schedule always
set service SIP
set traffic-shaper voip
set traffic-shaper-reverse voip
end


Please also note these steps for disabling SIP ALG and other processes to allow VOIP phones behind a Fortigate firewall.

Setup for a new user on an existing computer - edited 8/24/14

Edited 8/24/14 - this is a list of things to do when creating a new user and adding him/her to an existing computer.

1. Create user in Active Directory (and if applicable) separate server where mail is configured
2. Add user to appropriate distribution lists (allstaff, etc)
3. Boot up computer and as required, change the name of the computer to include the appropriate initials for the new user
4. Install all applicable updates (for Windows and Office)
5. Ensure all applicable programs are installed including (but not limited to):
   a. PDF995
   b. Adobe Acrobat Standard/Reader
   c. NitroPDF
   d. MS Project
   e. MS Visio
   f. TightVNC
   g. Skype
   h. Google Talk
   i. QuickBooks
   j. Malwarebytes
   k. Java
6. Make sure MS Office is up to date on the applicable version for the organization
7. Configure Outlook for company's mail server
8. Confirm antivirus is installed and up to date
9. Set up user for any shared staff calendars and/or contacts lists
10. Configure VPN connection with access for all users and save username and password and put icon on desktop
11. Add user as local administrator on new computer
12. Put appropriate icons for frequently accessed programs on desktop (Computer, Word, Excel, Outlook, terminal server icon, VPN icon, accounting software if applicable)
13. Add user to address book on company scan to email copier 
14. Disable WLAN card when connected to wired ethernet if possible (configurable in device manager for Dell branded WLAN cards)
15. Alter user's name on phone 
16. Alter extension's voicemail to email properties 
17. Make sure the user's phone is not forwarding to another person
18. Confirm backup is working properly for the new user.
19. Set up mobile broadband card
20. Track computer's serial number in inventory spreadsheet and make sure user's name is noted as current user for computer