My Psychic Facebook

Yes, it truly is. The image below shows what my sister would be asking me tomorrow at 7.43am.

What really freaked me out was, Facebook knew exactly what my reply to her would be at 8.16am tomorrow.

Frightening!

IE prompts for login.

I'm sure many of us would have come across this annoyance. Every time I try opening my SharePoint site, Internet Explorer 7 prompts me for login. Does this still happen to you even after you've:

• Checked and verified that Integrated Windows authentication/NTLM is selected under the web application authentication settings.
• Checked and verified that the URL is included in the Alternate Access Mapping (AAM) settings.
• Checked and verified that the SharePoint site has been added under Trusted sites in IE.

Now what? Well, my suggestion is to actually add the SharePoint site under Local intranet in IE instead of Trusted sites.

You do this by going to Internet Options --> Security (tab) --> select Local intranet --> click Sites --> click Advanced --> ensure the SharePoint site URL is there, then click Add.

All done, now click OK twice close you browser and give it a go.

Error Database Event ID: 5586

Ever got this error? Describing that an unknown SQL Exception 10054 has occurred, and as the description states some communication/connection seems to be the problem.

After poking around a little, I found a suggestion indicating that an update in account credentials would help. The surprising thing is, I've not changed any accounts nor passwords. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot using the stsadm.exe utility (see command below).

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin <domain>\<account> -password <password>

Voila! all works fine again.

Twitter: Over Capacity, a good sign

Well, I got this last night (GMT +8.00) clearly stating that "Twitter is over capacity".  I only follow a small group of people (44 at time of writing) and all SharePoint relevant/connected. The first thought that came to me when I saw this was "Wow! more goodies".

I look at Twitter as a centralised resource centre, with information, updates, stories, posts, articles, white papers all being tweeted with links. So, for those out there who are still doubtful about jumping onboard, please do so now, and you wont regret it.

Security Hardening your SQL 2005 Server

Microsoft's White Paper recommends:

• Blocking UDP port 1434 completely.
• Configure SQL Server named instances to listen on a nonstandard port.
• Block then reassign TCP port 1433 (database installed on default instance).
• Configure client aliases.

Basically it comes down to ensuring that only authorised computers can communicate with the SQL Server.

Block then reassign TC Port 1433

1) Click Start --> All Programs --> Microsoft SQL Server 2005 --> Configuration Tools --> SQL Server Configuration Manager.

2) On SQL Server Configuration Manager, on the left pane expand SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration. Under SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration, click on the corresponding entry (default instance will be Protocols for MSSQLSERVER).

3) On the right pane, right-click TCP/IP and click Properties. Click and select the IP Addresses tab. Every IP address listed for SQL Server will be listed as an entry.

4) Clear all the values for TCP Port and TCP Dynamic Ports.

5) Under IPALL, clear the TCP Dynamic Ports value. And in the TCP Port field, enter a port value for the instance of SQL Server to listen on. Eg: 22000

6) Click OK, and click OK again for the message box stating that changes made will not take effect until SQL Server Service is restarted.

7) Open up Service Console (RUN services.msc). Restart the SQL Server service.

8) Open up Event Viewer (RUN eventvwr). Under Application you will see a log describing your new setting.

9) Open up Windows Firewall from Control Panel. On the Exceptions tab click Add Port. Type in the name and port number to block the default TCP port (Eg: TCP 1433). Also ensure that the scope is set to Any Computer (including those on the Internet).

10) Select the port just created and ensure that it is unticked (closed).

11) Repeat the above 2 steps for UDP port 1434.

Configuring Client Alias

1) Open SQL Server Configuration Manager.

2) In the left pane, click SQL Native Client Configuration. On the right pane, right-click Aliases and click New Alias.

3) On the Alias box, enter a name for the new alias (Eg: sharepoint). Enter in the port number configured earlier (Eg: 22000). Also ensure that the protocol is set to TCP/IP and that the server name is filled in as well. Once done click on OK.

4) We can test the new Alias by opening up SQL Server Management Studio. On the login box, under server name, enter in the new Alias and click Connect. If successful you will be connected through with the proper objects all available.

Annoying Trojan.Zlob.G

If you're infected by this guy then you're going to be getting Windows Firewall window pop-up every few minutes. What's worse is, you'll be unable to surf or search the Internet. I ran Windows Defender and the a full-scan using Avira's AntiVir. Unfortunately, nothing got picked up. After doing some reading (on another PC) I found a way we can manually get rid of this nasty annoyance.

1) Restart your PC in Safe Mode (on Boot hold down F8) .

2) Navigate to \Documents and Settings\%userprofile%\Application Data\Google\

3) The Application Data folder on the above path is Hidden, so ensure you have the Show Hidden files and folders option enabled.

4) Inside the Google folder permanently Delete these 3:

• kjznal562565.exe
• spcffwl.dll
• T-Scan

Restart PC normally, and all done.

Spock People Search

Well, it's was really interesting to see this, an Internet based people search engine Spock. So SharePoint was not wrong in pushing People Search within a business. In fact, that would make more sense.

From what I can see Spock allows users to search for people by names, emails, locations, job titles and even organisations. It's still in beta by the way.

Hopefully exposure to something on the Internet would help educate and encourage users to realise the value they have within SharePoint People Search. Now wouldn't that be nice?  :)