Since last weekend I have been working on preparing a next financial year budget for supporting infrastructure of company.
Steve gave me rough outline of what all needed to be done. The most important being the Microsoft Software Asset Management for the whole company including our branches in America and Australia. After critical analysis of Microsoft Licensing Method its been found that we are on the verge of getting Microsoft Gold Partner Certified. I have created a document explaining the effect on our free licenses entitlement in case we get Gold Certified.
The next stage would be to create a group policy in Active Directory to scan all the machines across our LAN and WAN to perform software auditing task.
We could use Microsoft Software Analyser to scan all the machines and further polish the document explaining if we need any further licenses.

Dick McDonnielle had a scan meassage from McAfee Microsoft Outlook find vulnerability (925938). A buffer overflow message with description that a vulnerability exists in Miscrosoft Outlook that may allow for denial of service attack. A user would have to open a malicious e-mail attachment for an attack to occur. A successful attack would allow execution of code at the rights level of the victim's user account.
On following the recommendations I managed to download a update i.e. was KB924085. A microsoft office update and also updated his McAfee. I scaned his machine and that message did not occur again.

We had a task to install a business intelligence application Business Objects Enterprise on demo machine. After going through prerequisites we found that it reqired a database server and web application server which required configuring before hand.
We installed SQL Server 2005 and Java Web Application servers. Going through notes I had to develop a new empty database with login id and password as required.
Started with the installation and immediately message that it could not execute some file. I had to copy the contents of the disk onto the C: drive and run the files from there. After installation we could not log in to the application. It was asking for server name, login id, password and authentication. After comprehensive study of the installation notes it was found out that during application a default administrator and user account are created. We used those credentials to log in now. Every thing seemed fine until Stuart came back that he could not do anything when not networked and because the laptop was meant for giving demonstrations it had to work without a network. Then after some difficulties we manged to find out what could be the problem.
The application used Java web application server which always requires an IP address. When the system is not networked it would not have an IP address. So we created a network connection called loopback which has a private IP address and allows to make your own mini network.

We recieved the Dell PowerEdge SC440 server today which was supposed to be used to support Travelex applications. It was shipped without the operating system so the first task was to install OS on it. After successfull installation I noticed that the machine did not pick up the gigabit network controller driver so I had to put in the server installation CD and run the utility to update drivers only after going throught the installation instruction manual. The problem was resolved and I could now go to microsoft website and insatll all the security updates. Afterwards I installed the mcafee anti virus and joined it to domain. Then created a domain user account in the active directory and configured the machine for using that user account.

Sarah had problems with her notebook's keyboard and mouse. the cursor would keep drifting towards left whenever she tried to write anything anywhere. Her mouse pad did not work fine either. I first tried to look at the settings but could not find anything. Then opened the keyboard and replaced with another one. It worked fine after replacement revealing the cause of fault.

James's Dell Optiplex GX620 did not recognize the Lite-On DVD ROM. Tried to first scan for any new installed hardware in contol panel. Then replaced that ROM with another one which did not help at all. I simply meant that computer did not recognize any ROM. Rebooted the system and went to the system setup or bios menu. The CD or DVD ROM device was disabled. I enabled that and the system now recognized the device.

John Shouler had a couple of problems with his Dell Latitude D810. It did not allow him to write anything in the address bar. If he opens my computer and writes an address of some other location in the address bar there it does not allow him. Secondly the control panel kept on refreshing on its own. After looking at them I diagnosed it to be .net framework problem and after updating it I managed to resolve both the isues.
He even had an issue that there was message that popped up right hand bottom corner of the screen saying that wireless adaptor not installed. Actually he did not have his wireless adaptor enabled so I had to go to device manager and enable his wireless adaptor.
Later in the day we had a machine which had come down from Telford with some networking issues. It was not able to get an IP address from DHCP. On doing ipconfig it came with an IP address which was from outside our subnet mask. So I went to show all networks under start menu and on LAN connection went to properties. Selected tcp/ip option and found the properties to be set on specific IP address and DNS server settings. On resetting it to automatic the machine could manage to get an IP address.

Yesterday after getting a static IP address for mkhqspap server I installed VNC on the machine and ran the server service so that anybody could log onto it remotely using VNC viewer. After that I was supposed to install Oracle 10g application server disks to its hard drive.
The SBASE server went wrong. It did not display on the screen. I logged a call with Dell technician and diagnosted it to be a motherboard fault.
Jo Rosser emailed that she could not edit an excel file in sales directory under mkfile. It prompted her for a password everytime and because Paul Joy had created it and set the password up she didn't know it and Paul had left the business. I found that excel was password protected and after going through microsoft technet it clearly said that there is no way to disable it if you don't remember the password. So I had to come out with away that Jo could actually be able to edit it.
I Logged on mkfile as an administrator which gave me full control. Now I created another excel document and copied all the contents from the excel document which Paul had created onto new one and gave it the same name and replaced it. Jo could now see the same file at same location and edit it.

I was alone today in the department and there was quite alot to be done. To make things worse my PC went faulty. I had left it on last evening as usual but found it switched off in the morning. On turning it on I found that the screen was not displaying anything though the system was running. I tried changing the monitor first of all which did not help. Then opened the system and replaced the graphic card which had the VGA port on it. Tried again but no joy. It seemed that there is problem with the mother board.
Steve had assigned me a task through email with high priority to configure an application server which would be called MKHQSPAPP. The rest of the details were on mail. I manged to grab a spare laptop and configured my email account onto that machine in order get the details and start with it.
I had to format a system in the server room and reinstall Windows XP on it and name the machine as MKHQSPAPP. After getting the system up and running with all latest drivers and security softwares I was supposed to get a static IP address for it.

Ulrik called with a problem that he could not browse internet from his laptop Dell Latitude D520. Every time he launched the Internet Explorer 7 it came up with an error and did not allow him to browse at all. I had to personally go to his machine and try it out.
It was not that straight forward because I knew that it would probably get sorted if I go to microsoft website and patch his machine but to get there I need browser which is not working.
So I went to task manager and started a new task from there and browsed to the microsoft website and repaired the browser.
Afterwards I had to keep myself busy with software asset management task.

Wireless went down first thing in the morning. Reboot did not help then I had to take the router off and plug in to another ethernet cable. Wireless got picked up now.
Jon Gyngell's machine needed sorting up. His machine had actually crashed and Chris got the hard drive replaced. Steven was building it from scratch and wanted me to start from where he left.
I along with Chris intalled three new dell Power Edge 2950 rack servers in the server room.

I have just returned today from a long holiday abroad. Before leaving I had completed auditing for hardware to be collected from the employees. I could see some of the hardware already been returned in my absence and hence had the task of updating the audit list which was created.

Later in the day Steve asked me to find the compatible memory upgrade to 4GB for a Dell machine. He supplied me with the Asset Tag No. and the Dell Service Tag No. I used the details diagnose that it was Dell Optiplex GX520 which could have maximum of 4GB RAM DDR2 PC2-5300.CL=5.UNBUFFERED.NON-ECC.DDR2-667.1.8V.256Megx64. Then I move on to find the best price for it from Crucial Memory.

Barney could not print of a shared printer i.e Heathers HP laserjet 3150 which is configured for him to use. It prompted that the server could not verify the machine. On looking at the properties of the configured printer I managed to notice that Heather's machine was identified using her IP Address. That was the problem because though all the machines within the company have static IP Address fished out by the DHCP server but still every time the machine reboots the IP Address changes. Heather's machine had a different IP Address now and thats the reason Barney couldn't print of her machine.
I deleted the set printer and configured it again using Heather's computer name file://// Laserjet instead of file:////100.1.1.197/Heathers. In this case even if her system is rebooted and IP address changes the computer name would not.

Steve Owles complained about his dell laptop D520 battery that it does not hold any charge anymore. It only runs with power supply connected to it. I had to run the diagnostic tool installed by dell on the hard drive. That did not pick up any problem with the health of battery.
Then I thought of using his battery onto another dell D520 just to see if it works well on another machine. Tried and it worked and eventually worked on Steve's laptop aswell (STRANGE).

I had build a new Laptop for Barney. While hand him over his machine he told me that since last couple of days his machine's been prompting that his password going to expire very soon and change it. So I changed his password onto his present laptop and shut it down and gave him away his new laptop. The job was not finished. He logged acall soon after that he couldn't log in using his new password.
So I had to go through it and found that he has been using wireless and hence his machine been using the cached password and not allowing him to use the new one. I put him onto LAN and asked him to log in. It worked for him.

Nigel Garrett could not archive some of his old e-mails on outlook 2003 for some reason. When he decided to archive all the emails before a particular date like 28/05/06 it meant all the emails before that date should have gone into a archive folder onto a network drive specified by him. There were a couple of odd emails which did not seem to getting archived and remained in his inbox.
I went through all his standard settings in first place and when nothing seemed to be working patched his ofiice professional 2003. the problem still did not resolve. Then on refering to some articles over microsoft technet I manged to find the way archive worked in outloook 2003. it explained that archiving doesn't only take into consideration the date email was sent ( that is what all of us see on last column of the outlook) but also the modified date (open the email and check under properties). On looking at the emails which were not getting archived on Nigel's machine the modification dates were different from the sent dates.
The only way to arcvive these emails was to drag and drop them.

Got to install VPN for Barney. As soon as The client software was installed the System showed a blue screen and shut down. I shut down the system and reboot it in the safe mode and then pick the last best configuration. This let me get the system back to position without VPN installed on it. On refering with Alan I was supposed to try installing the VPN in safe mode using networking. The system tends to use the minimum drivers required in the the safe mode. Installed and logged back in as the administrator. The problem still persisted. The last option was to back up the hard drive and format it. Now installed the VPN first of all and configured the rest of the machine. IT WORKED.
Heather logged a call that her desktop toolbar disapeared all of a sudden. On having a look for "toolbar disapeared in windows XP" in google I managed to find that the registery has been corrupted by some kind of malware or adware. Using tweaks I had to edit the registery of the operating system and rectify the problem.

I was supposed to change the CD ROM with a DVD Combo on Dell Dimension 4100. It was not that staright away as I thought it to be. After opening the chasis of the machine I could not manage to get the ROM out until I reffered to manual available online under technical support.
Even after that it was real pain in the neck replacing that but somehow I managed and afterwards tested if it was working alright.
Barney had asked for access to a new Konica Minolta Bizhub C250 printer and also the one locally attached to Heather's desktop.
I had to get the configuration of the printer first and find out the IP address. After running the add printer wizard and configuring it using the drivers which came on the cd along with the printer it did not print the test page and showed an error: printer page error 8.5x11''. In first instance I could not figure out the problem since I never came across such a thing. On refering some online forums and manuals I could figure out that probabaly the printer was by default set to American standards and needed to be changed accordingly. After right clicking on the icon for the printer and selecting the page preferences I managed to make A4 the default page setting which resolved the problem.
Now I was supposed to configure laptop for printer attached to Heather's desktop. This time as well after going through whole of the wizard nothing seemed to be working and I had to again do a bit of reading. I found from articles that it would not work until the machine which the printer is attached to is sharing the printer and will only allow to print when the local machine is in ON state. I found that the machine was shut down which explains the reasons.

Gerry called that he could not map a network drive to his virtual PC. On going listening to him and following the errors I had to join his virtual machine to workplace domain which now allowed him to map the required drives.
Later he could not install any software to his virtual PC. On going through few articles I managed to find out that he needs to log in as an administrator before trying to install any piece of software. On doing so he was able to install oracle.

Ulrik could not manage to work offline on his outlook 2003. As a company standard we always configure it to allow users to work offline from home or locations where they can not find internet conncetion. I logged into his machine and initially worked online on outlook. Under toools>E-mail Accounts>select View or change existing email accounts>change>more settings>tick use cached exchange mode. Then closed the browser window opened it again and this time selected work offline. It did not show any error message and worked fine.

Alan provided me with the URL and ID password for our Cisco Virtual Private Network and trained me on how to configure it.I looged into the machine and did it individually afterwards and familiarised with it.

Gerry needed a Virtual PC 2004 installed on his HP desktop with Windows XP SP2 on it. I took the MSDN disk along and put it into his CD drive. It did not seem to pick up the CD. I noticed that MSDN disk was a DVD and Gerry desktop only had a CD R\W. I had to put the DVD into my machine and share it with Gerry. I installed the Virtual PC successfully. Now I had to put Windows XP as Virtual Machine. The problem being that I only had the MSDN disk for XP I had to again pull across network from my machine. Unfortunately that did not seem to work this time around since what happens is that when we run Virtual PC console it asks for the boot disk not allowing to select any network source. So I had no other option than to create a windows XP cd.

Yesterday till evening I could not manage to add Quinn as administrator of his laptop probably because the active directory sysnchronises with the domain controller overnight. I managed to sort that out in the morning.

It was a busy day as expected since I have been on a holiday. I had a new starter Mr. Quinn who required a new laptop so started the day with configuring a laptop for him. Ian Baxter wanted me to put the internet kiosk in place at reception. He had been facing password problem with his laptop as well. Everytime he launched his outlook 2003 it would prompt him for changing his password and even if he changes it nothing seems to be working out. I logged into his machine as an administrator of the local account and changed his password. Then asked him to log in and check if he was still facing that problem. Everything seemed alright to him and he was satisfied.
James Hollywood one of the software support guy logged a call that text in his outlook inbox would sometimes appear very big and makes it difficult for him to work. After asking him a couple of question he did not seem to be catching up well and I eventually had to log remotely onto his machine. I found that he had three different versions of outlook. All he needed was one good configuration of outlook onto his hard drive. I popped in a Microsoft Office 2003 CD into my drive and shared with him. Then using VNC installed office onto his machine from my drive.

Barney Quinn's laptop had one keyboard key missing so ended up replacing his keyboard aswell.