Transfer Mozilla Firefox Settings

More and more people are using other web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Cometbird, and Safari making the old classic web browser "Internet Explorer" seem ancient.  Due to the increase of these third party web browser programs some people may want to know how to transfer all of their settings, favorites, and add-ons from one of these third party browsers on computer A to another browser on computer B.  Your friendly neighborhood IT department has the rundown for you, at least on the Mozilla Firefox program.

Make sure Firefox is installed on both computers and then do the following:

1. Locate the folder that ends with ".default" for Firefox on your old computer:
• For Windows Vista or Windows 7 computers the folder is located in the following section:  C:\Users\(Your Username)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox
• For Windows XP computers the folder is located in the following section:
  C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Username)\Applicaton Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
• For MAC OS X computer the folder is located in the following section:
  ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox Profiles/
2. Once you have located the ".default" folder, right mouse click and choose "copy"
3. Once you have copied it, navigate to the ".default" folder on your new computer, right mouse click, and choose "paste"
4. You should get a window that pops up asking if you want to override the folder that already there.  You would say yes to override and replace or replace depending on your operating system
5. Once the folder gets finished, open up Firefox and all of your bookmarks, favorites, and settings should be good to go.

If you would like more information on this process or if your operating system is no listed above, please click on the following link
http://www.myfirefox.co.uk/tips--tricks/transfer-settings

Enable SSL 3.0 Server 2008 SBS and SBS 2011

Most people who are running Server 2008 SBS and try to use the SSL 3.0 protocol on it may have gotten a little frustrated with it because the server doesn't understand anything connected to this protocol. The server will connect with the protocol but first you need to do some configuration in the registry keys. Make sure you are signed in as the domain Administrator on the server and do the following:

1. Make a backup of the Registry (Just in case you need to restore the registry)
2. Open "regedit" and add 3 new keys (SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, and TLS 1.0)
1. The code for making SSL 2.0 is as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELProtocolsSSL 2.0
2. The code for making SSL 3.0 is as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELProtocolsSSL 3.0
3. The code for making TLS is as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELProtocolsTLS 1.0
3. Once the protocol keys are made, go in under each protocol folder and create Client and Server keys. (The code for this is the same as above except for adding the word "Client" or "Server" at the end.)
4. Next you have to go in the Client and Server keys and create a DWORD (32 bit) value called "Enabled" for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, and TLS 1.0.
1. Some general information for this is as follows: DWORD (32bit) Value Value name = Enabled Value date = 0 Value date can be set to “1″ – Enabled or “0″ – Disabled
5. Next step is to setup some Ciphers by going to the following key in the regisrty: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELCiphers.
6. Once in the Ciphers key section you are gonna make 3 Cipher keys. To do this right click on "Ciphers", "New, "Key" and make sure the following is in the key:
   1. For the first cipher put in the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELCiphersRC2 128/128
   2. For the 2nd cipher put in the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELCiphersRC4 128/128
   3. For the 3rd cipher put in the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSecurityProvidersSCHANNELCiphersTriple DES 168/168
7. Once those 3 cipher keys are in, close out of the regedit program, and reboot the server to apply these keys.
8. Once the server comes back up, the SSL 3.0 protocols should be able to talk to the 2008 SBS and/or SBS 2011 server without any problems.

For a more detailed rundown of the process for these steps, contact the IT dept via this blog or click here.

Moving Exchange 2010 Mailboxes to New Hardware

We recently completed an Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 migration from a Dell PowerEdge 2950 to a repurposed Dell PowerEdge 860 server.  After the migration was complete, we reformatted the PE 2950 and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, then installed Exchange 2010 SP1.

When I was ready to start moving the mailboxes from the PE 860 to the PE 2950, the "New Local Move Request" option was not present in the Exchange Management Console Action Pane.  After some Google searching, I found the following Exchange Management Shell command that was necessary to restore the move request option >> Get-MoveRequest | Remove-MoveRequest -Confirm:$False

Apparently, the mailboxes moved from the previous Exchange 2007 server were still in some type of move state, even though the mailbox moves were completed and Exchange 2007 uninstalled.

iTunes 3002 error

Many of you may get a 3002 timeout error when you run the iOS 5 update on your Apple devices or another time out error. Your friendly neighborhood IT department has found a way around this. Here are the steps:

1. Close and quit iTunes, if your iTunes is open


2. Navigate to the location on your computer where the iOS updates are located or have been downloaded at


3. Highlight that specific update for your device (It will be a file with the .ipsw file extension on it


4. Copy that .ipsw file to the following device location on your computer’s hard drive
   a. For Windows 7 computers it will be located in:C:\Users\”YourUserName”\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\”YourAppleDevice” Software Updates
   b. For MAC computers it will be located in:“Home folder”, Library, iTunes, “YourAppleDevice” Software Updates


5. If there is currently a .ipsw in that folder on your hard drive, remove that file and replace it with the one from the network


6. Once that file has copied, make sure your Apple device is connected to your computer and open iTunes back up


7. Give iTunes about a minute to see the new iOS file and a dialog box should come up automatically about an update


8. Click “Update” and follow all the prompts to update the iOS
   

The process will first take a backup of your current device, apply the new iOS, then restore your device from that backup it took at the start. This process will take about 10-20 minutes to complete and once it has finished it may take iTunes another minute or two to put all of your apps back on your device.

Applying the iOS 5 Update Manually

As some of you may already know, Apple has finally released its latest software iOS 5. When you decide to update to the new iOS, you will have a choice between letting iTunes do the update automatically or doing the update manually. Here are the steps to do the update manually:

1. Go to the following site and pick the device you want to update:
   http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/12/ios-5-download-available/
   


2. Once you have found the device save the file to your desktop or wherever you want the file to be stored at



3. Once the file has downloaded navigate to the location of the file and change the file extension from .zip to .ipsw and click Yes when the dialog box comes up to confirm the changes.


4. With your device plugged into your computer and iTunes open, click the following depending on what system your device is synced to:
   a. For Windows = Hold down the “Shift” button and click the “Update” button in iTunes for your device
   b. For MACs = Hold down the “Option” button and click the “Update” button in iTunes for your device
   


5. A window should open up asking you to point to where the new iOS is located at. Navigate to the folder location where you have downloaded the iOS 5 file for your device and click “Open”
   


6. Now all you have to do is follow all the prompts and wait for the update to finish. The update should take about 10-20 minutes
   

As always if you have any trouble or questions you may contact your friendly neighborhood IT department by leaving a comment on this blog site and we will get back with you.

Unable to use Windows Updates on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 behind a WatchGuard Firewall

I recently installed Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1 on an older Dell PowerEdge 2950. Dell does not make a server update and build utility for 2008 R2 on old PowerEdges. I manually initialized the RAID-5 array and booted to the 2008 install DVD. Windows found all the hardware and everything seemed to be running great until I was unable to successfully install Windows Updates with error 80072EFE. After 3 days of searching everywhere, a MS Knowledgebase article that explained the 80072EFE error as ERROR_INTERNET_CONNECTION_ABORTED.

We have two HTTP policies set in our WatchGuard XTM510 firewall. One is very restrictive and applies to most clients and devices on our network. The second policy is much less restrictive and allows more liberal access to http resources. We only use the second policy when there is an access issue for a user that we cannot resolve by adding application types of bypassed URLs to the policy.

Windows 2008 R2 SP1's Windows Update components must be more "sensitive" to the deep inspection that takes place in our first policy. Windows Updates would fail everything under policy 1, but when I added the server's host IP to policy 2, the updates ran perfectly.

MAC - Windows 7 Shared Printer

With more MACs being deployed in the Windows server environment there is one thing that every IT person, professional and amateur, will encounter and that is trying to connect a Windows 7 USB connected shared printer to a MAC computer or laptop. Before telling the user who requested the shared printer on the MAC what you really think of them, your friendly neighborhood IT department has found a solution. It involves the "LPD Print Service" on the Windows computer and the "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" section on the MAC. Make sure the printer is on and shared out then do the following steps:

1. Open the Control Panel on the Windows 7 machine
2. Select "Programs and Features" from the menu selections
3. Click "Turn Windows Features on or off"4. Click the plus sign beside the "Print and Document Services" and make sure the "LPD Print Service" box is checked
5. Click "Ok" and/or "Apply" and close out of everything in the Windows 7 machine
6. On the MAC computer / laptop open the "Print & Fax" area via the "System Preferences" section
7. Click the "+" sign on the bottom left hand side to add the printer
8. In the window that opens up, click the "Advanced" button located near the top on the right hand side (If you do not see the "Advanced" button then right-click anyplace on the toolbar and then select "Customize Toolbar" then you can add the Advanced button it)
9. Select the "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" in the "Type" drop down field list
10. In the "URL" section, put your cursor after the "//", and type the name of the Windows 7 machine followed by the printer shared name. An example of this is in the following: Windows7ComputerName/PrinterShareName11. Select the approate driver for the Windows printer you want to connect
12. Click "Add" and you should be good to go
13. Do a test print to bring up the box that asks for a username & password for the printer
14. Put in the username & password of the Windows 7 user in the boxes
15. Click "Ok" and the test page should print on the printer

For more detailed steps on this issue, click here.