CTOBOB: Recent Episodes
Bob Pellerin
Everyone updates their VMware build on a regular basis. Right? Hum.. well.. maybe now is the time to get all those hosts (servers) patched! Name: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U2b-23305546.x86_64.iso Release Date: 2024-02-29 Build Number: 23305546 Latest version of VMWare ESXi fixed some USB related security holes The products affected by CVE-2024-22252, CVE-2024-22253, CVE-2024-22254 and CVE-2024-22255 include: To get…
First came the rumors. Then the sale of VMware to Broadcom. With it came a giant stick to the ecosystem’s wheel. VMware Essentials was promptly removed from the online store. The perpetual licenses sales were suspended. The manufacturers began sending it notices that vSphere was no longer a SKU for new servers. WTF, right? In…
Bob Pellerin draws on his extensive experience working in leadership roles on AI projects since 2004 to provide readers with a comprehensive guide on how to use AI to gain a competitive edge, increase efficiency, and boost profitability. As an active contributor to AI innovator, Vocodia.com, Pellerin has seen first-hand the benefits of leveraging artificial…
Back in March 2023 Microsoft quietly mentioned that it would begin actively blocking inbound emails from on-premise exchange servers in order to maintain a certain level of security. Although more or us have moved to the cloud based solutions, if you still have an old(er) Exchange server running now may be the time to read…
When your Mac is configured to use an external DNS server, it will typically try to resolve domain names using that server first before falling back to the internal one. This behavior is normal and is designed to ensure that your Mac can reach external resources on the internet quickly and reliably. If you want…
We are urging everyone to take this milestone to upgrade your VMware vSphere environment. Build 21495797 was just released! New Features Supervisor Services are now available on VDS based Supervisors – Previously the avalaiblity of Supervisor Services was restricted to NSX based Supervisors only. With the current release, you can deploy Harbor, Contour, S3 object…
How do you reset your root password for VMware vSphere vCenter 7 VCSA if it has expired on you? This appears to be common as we all mainly use administrator@domain.com to log in, so the root password isn’t used that much. I get it. you forgot to change it within the 90 days. Now what?...
If you get an error message after updating your Outlook 365 in early 2022 running on Windows 11, you may have found a bug. The good news is that by the time you found this there is an easy fix. If you tried this previously, like I did, then it wasn’t working. The newest version...
We all wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
The CTBOB Team.
Has your printer stopped working properly since you last updated Windows 10? There’s a good chance this KB manual update will make things right. KB5005394 cumulative update released by Microsoft applies only to Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019. LINK: Microsoft Update Catalog
I was updating a vCenter 6.7 a.k.a. VCSA recently and I became aware that the root password was expired. Keep in mind that we’re logging using administrator@domain.com so the root password isn’t used that much. Here’s how to reset it (Type in what is in the quotes without the quotes): Connect to the ESXi host...
A few questions were sent to me about the overall market and trends as to bandwidth and capacity. One writer suggested that we had reached “peak connection”. He suggested, now that we all have our phone, tablet and computer connected during these troubled time, that we have been pushed to be at that point of...
Let’s face it, the RDP isn’t as terrible as it once was with printing. Having said that, there are still instances when putting the checkmark next to the printer won’t work. Update both computers to the latest Windows 10 as a start. If you logged in correctly into the remote machine and can’t see your...
We are all affected by the COVID-19 situation. It is very important to remember when employees start working remotely to not only educate them but also to equip them with the proper tools to ensure better security. As more and more people work from home we are seeing more breaches and disruptions as individuals get...
Contingency plans Most firms have business continuation plans and contingency plans in place in this day and age. We are in a much better place than 10 years ago. Recommendations for remote access Take advantage of the cloud. If you are using Office365 and online solutions (SalesForce and so on) then your users can log...
As you can imagine we are swamped with requests to connect remotely and about the effects of the Coronavirus on the Internet. The good news is the we are all already using a lot of data with our cable cutting and our addition to content. Some providers may be strained. remote workers may see slower...
We’ve come across enough emails to warrant looking into the problem of sluggish keyboard response. It happened to us recently and we had a hard time understand what what the cause. Make sure you go through the usual steps. Check to see if something is using up your processor, RAM, of drive read/write cycles. If...
You connect to a Windows Server share and your Mac either won’t find the share, connect to it, or keep losing connection. Welcome to the SMB nightmare that Apple and Microsoft have created.
There was a time when it all just worked. Yes, SMB 1.0. The good old days. Then came 2.0 and 3.0. They are more “secure”, but they don’t play well with Macs. Surely this can’t be! Right?
Let’s look at what is documented about this issue and what some have suggested: Apple suggests using SMB 1.0 (not an option for the security conscious) or, wait for it, turn packet signing off. yes, apparently that sounds like a good idea to turn off the feature that was added for better security. Try this link for more on the Apple workaround: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205926
Another excellent workaround is from a company I know well. Acronis. Their Acronis Files Connect promises to “Make It Easy to Connect Macs to Windows File Servers”. Let’s face it. If there wasn’t a real problem this product would not exist. According to their product description “Reduces SMB protocol bugs, performance, and compatibility problems related to locked files and file naming issues, file corruption, permissions problems, non-functional Windows shortcuts, and other issues..”
Acronis basically adds AFP (Apple File Protocol) to a Windows Server making all the shares available using that native protocol. We have tested this solution and confirm that it works well and is stable.
I speak to a lot of engineers and designers. When I bring problems like this, I sometimes get comments like “everyone uses OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and so on so file sharing is a legacy problem.” I get it. The large firms want to sell cloud storage. Until everyone is comfortable (and legal allowed to) we don’t all want to be stuck with this type of basic connectivity problem.
Do you have stories or better workarounds? Drop us a note!
These may be of interest to you: Sharepoint selection not shown when more than 4 (four) SMB Shares are available to a user
https://openradar.appspot.com/22818424
Finder doesn’t display new files in folder for a very long time, if at all
https://openradar.appspot.com/26553177
Finder fails to write to SMB share
https://openradar.appspot.com/7899235