My Small Business Server 2003 suddenly for no apparent reason reverted to its original 5 user licenses. I had actually lost 15 CALS without any obvious cause. The only other issue with the server at the time was low disk space.

It turns out that this is a known bug that occurs when an SBS Server runs low on disk space on the OS drive. It can also stem from improper AV Scanning/Removal or poor system resources, etc.

To fix your licensing problem please follow these steps.

1. Find licstr.cpa & Autolicstr.cpa files under thew c:\windows\system32 folder.

Note: Make backup copies of these files to C:\Temp just to be safe.

2. Rename the original licstr.cpa to licstr.old.
3. Rename autolicstr.cpa file to licstr.cpa.
4. Restart the License Logging Service. Start, Run, Services.msc, locate the service and restart.
5.Goto Server Management Console -> Licensing, refresh the page and you should now have your original licenses in tact.

I hope you too have Found A Fix!

I needed to be able to access more than one pc in the office network remotely using Remote Desktop Connection. Since RDP is set to use port 3389 I had to make several changes.

1. Change the default port number on the second (listening) computer. To do this;

- Start Registry Editor. [Start, Run, Regedit]
- Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
- On the Edit menu, click on Modify, and then click Decimal.
- Type the new port number, exampleand then click OK.
- Quit Registry Editor and restart the computer.

2. Modify the router to port forward this new port number to the specified IP address of the specific machine you are trying to connect to.

Note: You should ensure that both router firewall and software firewall allow access via this port.

 3. Make sure you specifiy the new address:port when connecting over RDP.

I hope you too have Found A Fix!

The ahsay online backup failed with the message “Expect log sequence ‘xxx’ but found ‘SERVER\Microsoft Information Store\ First Storage Group\xxxxx.log”

The solution and description to this error is set out below;

The problem occurs because another backup has already initiated a change in the log sequence.

To fix the problem, disable all other backup systems (NT Backup, Backup Exec, etc) and restart the online backup.

I could remote on to a Server  using Logmein.com but could not operate the keyboard or mouse on the target machine. The computer was behaving like it was non-responsive. In the bottom left-hand corner of the screen I could see the following message; “Your Input is being blocked”. This is due to a faulty mouse on the target device.

The solution/workaround and description to this error is set out below;

Answer 1: Once connected, select options and enable the ‘Lock Keyboard’ option. Once you have blocked local keyboard access on the target machine, you wll then be able to operate it.

Answer 2: Replace the faulty mouse.

I Hope you too have Found A Fix!

I discovered that my Small Business Server (2003) was extremely very slow to respond to basic tasks.  Printers were not working,  browsing files and folders was slow and users were complaining of  overall speed issues. On further inspection, I learned that C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\ folder had over 6gb of logfiles. The question was, could I delete these files and more importantly, can I prevent this from reocurring?

The solution and description to this error is set out below;

Unless you need to report who is connecting to your (1)  Web site,  (2) and/or SMTP server, you can delete the files in these folders . If you are not interested in this information, you can turn logging off on the SMTP Virtual Server in Exchange System Manager, and on the Default Web Site in IIS Manager.

 To do this;

1. Open IIS. Then right click on your default web site, and from the Web Site Tab, you can uncheck the “Enable Logging” section. Alternatively, you can slect properties and modify the path for these log files to an alternative location.

2. Open Exchange System Manager. Click on Administrative Groups, Servers, <Exchange-db- name>, Protocols, SMTP and right-click on ‘Default Virtual Server’ and select properties. You can also uncheck ‘Enable Logging’ here or again, modify the path in the properties section.

I Hope you too have Found A Fix !!

I was trying to transfer all my VPN and dial-up settings from my old computer to a new one without having to recreate each one separately.

The solution and description to this error is set out below; 

1. Find the Rasphone.pbk file in the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk folder on your old computer. Note: The Application Data folder is a hidden folder. To view this folder, follow these steps:
2. Open the All Users folder, and then click Folder Options on the Tools menu.
3. Click View, click Show hidden files and folders, and then click OK.
4. After you have created all your connections, copy the Rasphone.pbk to a safe location, and then copy the Rasphone.pbk file to the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk folder on the new computer. Note When you replace the Rasphone.pbk file, you are prompted to confirm the file replacement. Click Yes to replace the file.
5. Restart the computer to view the connections

Note: This will not transfer usernames and passwords. Just Settings..

I would like to acknowledge the assistance and thank Microsoft for their solution.

I hope you too have Found A Fix!!

I couldn’t uninstall WSUS application. “a network error occurred while attempting to read …”

The solution and description to this error is set out below; 

The solution to this is to download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.  Using this application you can force a removal of any program. You can download the file here  

I would like to acknowledge the assistance and thank Microsoft for their solution which can also be found here. I hope you too have Found A Fix!

My Computer kept getting the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). I needed to be able to analyse the windows minidump file to fully understand what was causing the computer to randomly reboot.

The solution and description to this error is set out below;

1. Download and install the http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx debugging Tools from Microsoft.
2. Locate your latest memory.dmp file – for example; C:\WINDOWS\ Minidump\Mini081505-01.dmp or whatever
3. Open a CMD prompt and cd\program files\debugging tools for windows\
4. You should see the following; c:\program files\debugging tools>
5. Type the following:

Firstly

kd -z C:\WINDOWS\ Minidump\Mini081505-01.dmp(or replace with the path to your dump file)
(it will output loads of information)

Secondly

.logopen c:\debuglog.txt

Thirdly

.reload;!analyze -v;r;kv;lmnt;.logclose;q

You will now have a debuglog.txt in c:\, open it in notepad and read it carefully. I recommend looking out for PROCESS_NAME: X

You should type X into Google and find out what this process is related to. Whatever is causing the problem you should then install, remove, update, etc accordingly.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance and thank Techspot for their solution which can also be found here

I hope you too have Found A Fix!

The Dell Server was rebooting intermittently approximately at least once every week. The server would blue screen and reboot. The event logs indicated several messages such as;

1.The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the pool was empty (Event ID:56 / Source: mraid35x)

2.The driver failed to allocate memory (Event ID:2019 / Source: Srv)

The solution and description to this error is set out below;

First, if you have WSUS installed, disable the service or remove it temporarily. Also , remove Dell’s OpenManage Systems Management solution, for Servers, Storage, Networking, and Client products. I’d recommend removing this after you remove WSUS or verified that this was not the main issue. After this you could visit Dell to download the most recent version of OpenManage. If this has not resolved your problem i would then try the following

I would like to acknowledge the combined assistance of Techspot and various other websites in finding this solution.

I hope you too have Found A Fix!