DHCP – There can be only ONE!

Well not really, there can be others but that out of the “scope” of this article. Once in awhile a problem comes into the network, either through a hacker or uneducated user, that they add a device (router, personal server, Linksys wireless router, etc) to the network.  What happens then is a conflict between your original DHCP server and the newly added device.

When this happens certain things may occur…

• Your workstations will get a IP from either your authorized DHCP or the rogue device.
• Workstations will not be able to connect to the Internet
• Workstations or Server may have duplicate IP addresses which means, no connectivity!
• Your authorized DHCP may get intermittent problems, such as not receiving pings.

Anyway, all of the above was such my case one fine Monday morning.  It isn’t fun because it wasn’t until I replaced network cables, switched NICs, and did a few other tests that I realized a rogue device was on my network.  So let me help you skip past all this mess and download a Microsoft tool to detect Rogue DHCP servers.

Rogue DHCP Server Detection

In short, there are a few other resources you can lean on for more in depth detection but I’ll suggest a tool for now.  DHCP Server Prevention is an entirely more difficult task and more complex, so I wont cover that in this article.  For the time being, and for diagnosis I suggest Microsoft’s Rogue DHCP Server Detection Tool.  You can download it below.

http://blogs.technet.com/teamdhcp/attachment/3260962.ashx

I’d like anyone else’s advice or experience with these problems!  I know we’re all in the same boat once in awhile when it comes to DHCP issues and connectivity!

Automating the installation of Windows XP (or even Vista) can save any technician a lot of time. Typical installations from scratch can often take a couple of hours. Who has this much time when you have computers lined up. Not me, that’s for sure.

The conventional, Microsoft approved method of automating installation is to use their solution or the WAIK. WAIK means Windows Automated Installation Kit, provided off the Microsoft website.  Don’t get ahead of yourself though and start downloading this! I have an easier solution for you.  Make use of Norton Ghost and everything is very simple.

What you Need

• A Couple Blank CDs
• Norton Ghost 14.0 Software
• Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)

Sound interesting? Read on…

Creating an Image with Ghost

1. Spend the time to make a "perfect" XP machine such as installation, anti-virus software, updated patches, customized settings, and Installations of any productivity software.

2. When everything is perfect, install your legal copy of Norton Ghost 14.0 on the machine.

3. Plug in your Preformatted external USB hard drive pre-formatted external USB hard drive. Make sure its recognized and ready for files to be written to it.

4. Start up the Norton Ghost software and first create a Recovery CD within the software. You’ll require the recovery CD that came with Ghost, as well as a blank CD. This recovery CD basically allows you to boot a machine from CD, right into the Norton Recovery console.

5. After the CD is done, Go to Tasks – Run or Manage Backups then One Time Backup. Click through the menus and choose the C drive as an included drive. Next choose the destination folder to one you create on your External Hard Drive.

6. You should use standard compression and also check "Verify recovery point after creation". Be sure to click on "Advanced" as well, to set "Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving". Make sure you set the MB to under 4000, since most external hard drives use FAT which has a 4 gigabyte limit.

7 Click ok then Next twice and then Finish. The backup will begin and notify you if its verification and success!

Was that so hard? No way. It was super easy. And guess what You have a perfect installation image of Windows XP now! You can save those files anywhere a server, external hard drive, or NAS even to use for fresh installations later.

Recovering an Image with Ghost

Ok so your hard drive is messed up or you want to re-image an old machine. If the machine is different, just install Norton Ghost 14.0 on it before you re-image, plus in the external HDD, and then create a recovery CD just like you did in the previous section. Then continue as below (do not make an image of the bad computer though!)

1. Put in the Recovery CD and reboot your computer and plug in the External drive. Make sure you can "Boot to CD". Sometimes you may have to hold down F12 (typically) to get to the Boot Menu and choose your CD-ROM drive to boot from.

2. When the system boots in, you’ll see a familiar interface. It will have some options but you will click on "Recovery my Computer"

3. At this point it will often find your external HDD, but if not, you can find it on your own on the next screen. Point it to the recovery folder and files of the hard drive image and click next.

4. Always choose verification and automatic reboot.

5. Click next through and Finish. The computer will start to re-image and then reboot.

6. Come back in 15-30 minutes and you should see the Windows Login screen. Congrats you did it!

Conclusion

Learning to image hard drives is a huge time saver and does not need to be as complicated as Windows Automated Installation Kit. As you’ve seen above, you won’t need certifications or a rocket scientist degree to run through the steps. After imaging a couple of times, you’ll be able to do it this way in your sleep! If large-scale automation is what you want, Norton also has some more advanced options to look into for Norton Ghost as well.

In conclusion, beat the learning curb and try out Norton Ghost 14.0 before anything else. I think you’ll be pleased.

- James

Related Blog’s on the Topic: A – B – C

Here is the list:

1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say “I don’t know” or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it.

2. Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. “I’m such an idiot”) will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you;  all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me;  you don’t want to start a call that way.

Had a few laughs? There’s More so Read On…

3. I am OK with you making mistakes, fixing them is my job. I am not OK with you lying to me about a mistake you made. It makes it much harder to resolve and thus makes my job more difficult. Be honest and we can get the problem resolved and continue on with our business.

4. There is no magic “Fix it” button. Everything takes some amount of work to fix, and not everything is worth fixing or even possible to fix. If I say that you just need to re-do a document that you accidentally deleted 2 months ago, please don’t get mad at me.  I’m not ignoring your problem, and it’s not that I don’t like you, I just can’t always fix everything.

5. Not everything you ask me to do is “urgent”. In fact, by marking things as “urgent” every time, you almost ensure that I treat none of it as a priority.

6. You are not the only one who needs help, and you usually don’t have the most urgent issue. Give me some time to get to your problem, it will get fixed.

7. Emailing me several times about the same issue in the same day is not only unnecessary, it’s highly annoying. Emails will stay until I delete them. I won’t delete them until I’m done with them. I will typically respond as soon as I have a useful update. If it is an urgent issue, let me know (see number 5).

8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.

9. Yes, I seem blunt and rude. It’s not that I mean to, I just don’t have the time to sugar coat things for you. I assume we are both adults and can handle the reality of a problem. If you did something wrong, I will tell you. I don’t care that it was a mistake, because it really makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want it to happen again.

10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.

The point is we are all trying to do our jobs the best that we can and it’s easiest to do that if we all work together, stop pointing fingers and give other people the space that we would like to get as well. If we can do that more often than not, things will go well and work out.  Hope you enjoyed the list – I know I did and had a few laughs!  If none of them make sense before calling me, go back to number 1!

- James