We run a Dell-branded EMC SAN at a regional office. After hearing that Windows 2003 Server SP1 is a clean service pack that has caused very few software errors or conflicts I was considering installing it on a test server. Fortunately I had other reasons to call Dell’s EMC team today and brought up SP1.

Do not install SP1 on Windows 2003 Servers connected to Dell/EMC SANs (and possibly EMC SANs). The Dell technician I spoke with mentioned being very busy this week removing SP1 from Windows 2003 servers that had gone BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The Dell tech expects EMC to release updates to the Navisphere and/or PowerPath software to solve these issues soon.

My Future Testing Plans:
An interesting point in this is to always test all aspects of a production environment. This doesn’t mean to duplicate the production environment, especially in a medium-to-small company like mine. Not everyone can afford test labs like Microsoft, or even Fortune 1000 companies with “retired” SAN hardware in a closet. It would probably suffice to keep a workstation on the shelf with Windows Server 2003 and an HBA installed. During a late night or weekend window try to connect the SAN to the workstation’s HBA and install SP1. While you’re at it, throw a few minutes of the free IOMeter at the connection to see if the problems Dell’s tech mentioned can be found before rolling something into production.

Based on some good news in the media I almost took a chance that could have made for even more work and downtime. I got lucky, but I won’t depend on it next time.

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From a command window, DOS script, or any other shell code the Windows environment variables in the list below can be referenced by adding a “%” before and after the variable name. All of these values are returned as strings. The values can be piped (the “>” command in a “DOS window”) to text files or used in other scripting languages. Also, here are detailed descriptions of some of the more common environment variables.

For example, to find the user profile folder and write it to a textfile:

1. Open a command console (”cmd” at the Run… prompt).
2. Type “echo %userprofile% > C:\file.txt” and press Enter. The path to that resource will be printed to screen. (Without the “> C:\file.txt” the value is printed to a line in the command window)
3. Open the C:\file.txt file and the path to the currently logged on user’s profile will be listed.

Semi-complete* Windows Environment Variable List

• ALLUSERSPROFILE
• APPDATA
• CD
• CLIENTNAME
• CLUSTERLOG (probably only on Windows Server clusters)
• CMDCMDLINE
• CMDEXTVERSION
• COMMONPROGRAMFILES
• COMPUTERNAME
• COMSPEC
• DATE
• ERRORLEVEL
• FP_NO_HOST_CHECK (only with FrontPage installed?)
• HOMEDRIVE
• HOMEPATH
• HOMESHARE
• LOGONSEVER
• NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS
• OS
• PATH
• PATHEXT
• PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE
• PROCESSOR_IDENTFIER
• PROCESSOR_LEVEL
• PROCESSOR_REVISION
• PROGRAMFILES
• PROMPT
• RANDOM
• SYSTEMDRIVE
• SYSTEMROOT
• TEMP or TMP
• TIME
• USERDOMAIN
• USERNAME
• USERPROFILE
• WINDIR

* These are all I could remember or dig up from the one book I looked in. Please add more in the article comments & I’ll add them to the list. Thanks to ByteHead for four recent additions.

Article tagged: Windows, Environment, Variables, Paths, System, folders, user, accounts, userprofile, shell

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Belkin Wireless Access Point and Repeater

My rating: 5 out of 5

A client of mine has a (very) large house and because of a long-ago remodel the only cable hookup into the house is in a far corner of the downstairs - while there are three PCs upstairs so the kids can do their homework (aka: instant messaging endlessly). To get a wireless signal through four walls, a floor, and 200 ft. of space, instead of attaching antennaes to the existing Linksys wireless router and every wireless card in the house, I decided to try an active signal repeater. An active repeater

With very few options on the market the Belkin F5D7130 access point was one of the least expensive ($85 at the time, now $65). The good reviews and extra attention Belkin had been getting after their release of pre-N, 802.11n gear also helped make up my mind.

The installation and setup process to configure the unit as a repeater was simple. I plugged it in, assigned an IP on my client’s subnet (although that isn’t even necessary) through the straighforward web interface, and then added the MAC address of the existing access point. A yell from upstairs not more than 5 minutes after I had started to configure the device let me know it was working …already.

Despite a limited feature-set and a simplistic web interface, the F5D7130 router is a 5 out of 5 when using it as a repeater. I haven’t seen a setup this easy or fast on any wireless access point yet; normally something doesn’t work right or needs to be double-checked. Like all wireless devices this is vulnerable to hacking, even if it’s not the primary access pint on a network, be sure to configure WEP encryption &amp update the firmware to support WPA. Just one warning , this device will strengthen Wireless B, G and N singals, but with only one antenna it doesn’t support the full pre-N/MIMO wireless range. Screenshots and one-page setup instructions can be found at Tom’s Hardware.

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It is commonly suggested to run AdAware and/or SpyBot anti-spyware softwares repeatedly to completely clean malware from PCs. After running these programs multiple times I have seen it corrupt the Windows XP’s Winsock2 registry settings and even the TCP/IP stack. An indication of the corruption is the following error messages:

• When DHCP attempts to renew the IP address or when using the Ipconfig GUI interface: “An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket…” or “An error occurred while renewing interface ‘Internet’”
• When renewing the IP address, running ipconfig /renew command: “An error occurred while renewing interface local area connection…”
• When connecting to the internet via Internet Explorer, IE: “The page cannot be displayed”

Fix with Windows XP SP2 Already Installed

1. Click the Start button, select Run…, type netsh winsock reset, and press Enter.
2. Reboot the PC and attempt to connect to the internet.
3. Consider reinstalling antivirus and firewall programs. Step #1 may affect their ability to operate correctly.

Fix without Windows XP SP2

1. Click the Start button, select Run…, type regedit, and click OK.
2. Navigate to the following registry keys and delete them:
      >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
      >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
3. Restart the computer before the next step.
4. Right click the primary internet connection, select Properties…
5. For a LAN or High-Speed connection select the General tab, for a Dial-Up connection select the Networking tab
6. Click Install…, slect Protocol, click Add, select Have Disk, and then type C:\Windows\inf into the Browse field.
7. Click the OK button, select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”, and click OK again.
8. Restart the computer and attempt to connect to the internet.
9. If the above solution worked, repeat steps #3-8 for each network connection on the PC

In case the previous steps do not solve the corruption, there are two Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that cover this issue in more detail:

• How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259/
• How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357/

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