Anyway the error installing was,

Setup is unable to connect to SQL Server with the connection information provided. Verify following:

Digging trough the installer log I found TCP/IP was disabled so simply enabling the did the trick.

That’s it for now.

The sad thing is that Belkin does not supply Windows 7 X64 drivers for it, luckily I found another driver that works like a charm.

You can get if from http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?id=31

Just download this one from the site

If there is a new version you could probably use it but this one is working for me.

Today I had a problem like this and couldn’t find the problem anywhere. I then remembered Eric Meyers great reset CSS and added it to the page. Magically everything fell into place. I felt like a moron since I forgot to add it earlier.

Anyway, you can find this great and useful CSS reset at http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

Just go to this site on Adobe.com and submit your Adobe Reader Distribution Agreement. You’ll get documentation on how to extract the MSI. If you don’t know how to deploy the package you can then take a look at my guides here and here. Hope this information helps anyone still looking for the guides.

NOTE: Upgrade guide available

Adobe Acrobat Reader
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Adobe Customization Wizard 8
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3564

Next install the Adobe Customization Wizard and fire it up.

Preparing the installation package

Now let’s extract the .msi file from the Adobe Acrobat reader installation file. If you downloaded the Acrobat Reader installation package to the desktop you can copy & paste the command otherwise change the path to match your system.
1. Select Run from Start menu and paste the following
“%UserProfile%\Desktop\AdbeRdr811_en_US” -nos_ne
2. Click Ok.

3. When the Setup screen clears select run from the start menu again and in the run field paste %temp%

4. Copy the Acrobat Reader 8 folder to your desktop

Next let’s change some of the .msi settings using the Adobe Customization Wizard.

• Open the AcroRead.msi file using ACW.
• Go to the setting EULA and Online Features
• I usually like to suppress the display of the EULA. Be sure to read the EULA before you do this because you will be accepting it on behalf of your whole organization by selecting this.
• I also disable all updates. The reason to do this is because we will be installing and upgrading this package trough Group policy in the future, and we don’t want users to upgrade to something the IT department hasn’t had time to test in our environment.
• I like the Open/Save dialog because I really want to choose if I want to download or just open a PDF. So I check that one to.
• All software purchases are handeled by the IT department so we disable the Purchase Adobe Acrobat feature
• You can check the other settings also if there is something else you want to change if not just go to the next point.
• Choose File>Save package.

Now you have a customized Acrobat reader package to deploy with Active Directory group policy.

Setting up the Group policy deployment

Group policy management console

I like to use the Group policy management console. You can just use the group policy editor but the management console gives you a good overview on how your policies are linked and a list of your policies. So if you don’t have it download GPMC SP1 from Microsoft

Install it to your server or your desktop. It really doesn’t matter.

Create the file share

To deploy the application it needs to be accessible to all the computers that are going to install it so firs we need to create a file share. Choose a fileserver in your organization and copy the Acrobat Reader 8 folder from your desktop to that share. In my example it will be \\odin\userapps
I like to use the share userapps since it describes what is in the share and it isolates the share from other shares.

Create the policy

No let’s create the policy to distribute the software. Open the group policy management console ( you can find it in administrative tools). Expand the domain and Group policy objects. Right click on group policy objects and select new. Name the new GPO Default software installations, because we can deploy all our standard software this way, not just Acrobat Reader. I also have a OU (organizational unit) in Active directory named Workstations where I keep all my normal workstations, this simplifies the linking of group policies.

Now that you have your GPO created right click it and select Edit. To install Acrobat reader for every user using the workstation we assign the installation to the computer not the user policy. So expand Computer Configuration – Software settings – Software Installations.
Then from the Action menu select New – Package. The setup will ask for the location of the file so navigate to the fileserver and the share where you stored the AcroRead.msi package. Select it and click open.

In the deploy software box check Assigned, this will install the package to the computers, note that published is only available when using user policies. Click Ok.
The package should now be in the list.


Close the group policy object editor.

Link the policy

We are now almost done. The last thing to do is to link this group policy so that computers in the organization start using it.
To do this just drag the newly created Default software installations policy to the OU you want to link it and drop it there. In my case the Workstations OU.

That’s it. You are done. When the computer updates to the new policy (cycles are 30-180 minutes) it will automatically install the package on the next reboot. If you want to try the package out immediately you can open a command prompt (CMD) and run the command

This will trigger the computer to refresh the policy immediately.
For questions on using group policies use the comments or visit our forums

Update guide

You can find a update guide on how to upgrade to Adobe Acrobat reader 9 at http://www.nixadmins.net/2008/08/20/upgrade-to-install-adobe-acrobat-reader-9-centrally-using-active-directory-group-policies/

I’ve always liked the way CentOS works, it’s a very stable and working distro even if it doesn’t always have the latest software. This is why I had to manually install the latest stable Firefox, since Firefox 2 has many nice plugins I use. Here is how I did it.

First off all we need to install compat-libstdc++-33. Otherwise Firefox won’t run.

Then download the latest version of Firefox and unpack it to /usr/lib

Set the link for the binary

Setting up the mplayerplug-in

Shutdown firefox and restart and you should have a working setup.

Microsoft Certifications
Recently, I have been pursuing Microsoft’s flag-ship server certification…

Introduction

In the Information Technology, the best way to show your knowledge and skills
in a given area is to certify. IT Certifications are available from nearly all
major hardware (Cisco Systems) and software (Microsoft) vendors, as well as
others (CompTIA).

Microsoft Certifications
Recently, I have been pursuing Microsoft’s flag-ship server
certification Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. This requires 4
core and 3 elective
exams. After your first Microsoft certification exam, you obtain your
Microsoft
Certified Professional (M.C.P.) designation. After completing 2 core
exams, and
2 electives, including one Operating System exam, you receive the
Microsoft
Certified Systems Administrator (M.C.S.A.) credentials.

Exam Preparation

In my experience, many different methods of exam preparation is necessary. Each
person’s experience tends to vary, as well as methods required for different
exams, but there have been a few methods I have found helpful in preparing for
exams from different vendors.

1. Gain Experience with the
   topics. Certification without experience, in my opinion, does not
   show that you know your stuff, but rather that you know how to pass the
   exam. If you are writing an exam on Windows XP, install it on a test
   system and destroy the operating system then see if you can bring it back
   to life. Play around with every option you can find.
2. Study authorized materials.
   You wouldn’t use a cookbook for reference when performing a task on a
   computer, would you? Make sure that the materials you are using to study
   for an exam with are approved by organization administering the exam. Microsoft
   Press and Sybex,
   among others, offer a wide range of comprehensive materials for exam preparation.
3. Practice, Practice,
   Practice. Practice exams are a great tool to assess what you know and
   what you don’t. Though these are exams are not necessarily accurate as to
   the outcome of your exam, it will present the information in accurate ways
   to test your knowledge. Out of the practice exams I have used, I have
   found that Measure-Up and Test King are very good,
   providing challenging questions and great explanations. PrepLogic exams are good as
   well, though the exams seem a lot easier, or at least less wordy. Though I
   have not had any experience with them, Transcender
   exams are said to be very effective as well.
4. Review the exam
   objectives. Though time consuming, I like to sit down with a copy of
   the exam objectives and write out all of the points that come to mind for
   each one. Seeing the outline should trigger your memory on certain
   concepts and you should be able to recall the information that each
   objective requires. A free study guide from Cramsession
   may also be beneficial for last minute review.
5. Prepare a cheat-sheet.
   It’s not what you think… Usually, I prepare a single piece of paper with
   all of the key concepts that are focused on in the exam. Yes, this is possible.
   Create acronyms for lists. Think of related, non technical explanations
   for a concept. For example: a differential backup is like rolling a
   snowball; as you go, the backup (snowball) becomes larger. Create diagrams
   or flowcharts for operations that might be required. Cheat-sheets are
   handy for last minute review. And don’t take them into the exam.

Taking the Exam
Most people get nervous in an exam situation, and for good reason. The minimum
score required for a ‘Pass’ isn’t always the good old 50% mark. The questions
are difficult and the exams are expensive. Here are a few tips on what to do on
the day of your exam and what to do in the exam room.

1. The night before.
   Relax. Don’t get uptight about the exam coming up. I usually like to go
   out for a jog or walk to clear my head. Don’t review late into the night.
   Get to bed at a half decent hour so you are rested for the next day.
2. The morning of. Eat a
   good breakfast. Review the cheat-sheet that you prepared previously and
   nothing more. If you don’t know the information already, you are not going
   to. Plan to get to the exam at least half an hour early. You can use this
   time to get comfortable at the testing location, supply the test
   administrator with your information, and use the washroom before you get
   into the exam.
3. In the exam room.
   Remember that cheat-sheet that I mentioned? Before the exam starts, you
   usually have a period of time to go through the exam tutorial, etc before
   the exam timer starts. In that time, I usually try to re-create the
   cheat-sheet in the dry-erase board that they have given me. This usually
   results in being less flustered as the exam goes on because you have
   regurgitated most of the information you know already. Proceed through the
   exam and if you get hung up on a question, don’t work on it for a long
   period of time. Instead mark the question and come back to it later -
   there may be another question later on that helps to explain the problem
   one. Most exams give lots of time, so don’t worry too much about that.
4. After the exam. You
   may pass, or you may fail. Passing an exam does not mean you will not need
   that knowledge or your study materials anymore. In fact, you will be
   surprised with how often you will need the little things that you learned
   while preparing for the exams in the real world. You study guides may also
   make for a great reference guide in the case of a problem as well. Every
   once and a while, take a look at your cheat-sheet and see if you still
   know your stuff. Unfortunately, failing an exam happens to everybody.
   Don’t get down on yourself too much about it. Get back at the studying as
   soon as you can while the information is still fresh in your mind. Try,
   try again.

The information outlined here has been gathered throughout
my experiences with IT Certification. Each person’s path to becoming certified
will be a little different, but hopefully this guide can help you.