Office365 problems

Customer reported issues with their Office365 exchange today.
I actually had to call the supportline to get the status address for the services. Not that this helped. As it was with the Admin Dashboard all services where greenlighted. When I turned to the office365 forums the tune was another. When i posted my sorrows I got feedback from Russia, Sweden, Germany and Norway. Probable cause is the storm Sandy which has caused some havoc in the Big Apple central network node. Maybe the atlantic cable, though you would think this wouldnt happen since we got our own datacenters here in Europe.
Anyways here are some good statuspages that proved difficult to find.
Check speed to MS Services : http://speedtest.emea.microsoftonline.com/
Status of services: http://Status.mange.microsoft.com
Create ticket: http://Manage.microsoft.com/getsupport
Supportnumbers for Sweden: 020-160 58 99 (they try real hard to hide these)

Update  121101.0938
Services started to function again around 1600-1700  GMT+1 yesterday.
Still no updates on the status pages above though, which I find disconcerting. Whats the point of a uptime chart if MS only updates it when they feel like it?
Link to post for the issue : http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/160/t/74129.aspx

Error when creating user

Problem: Get error when trying to create a new user in Server 2008 AD.

Keywords: Active Directory Domain Services Windows cannot set the password for the admin because: Error 0x800708c5

kind of cryptic isn’t it?

Solution: Password wasn’t complex enough. Added a big letter and it worked fine. Still not the best errormessage.

Microsoft License Calculator

Overview over what licenses you get for each compency as a Microsoft Partner
https://www.microsoft.com/partner/licensingcalculator/default.aspx

Firefox and Sharepoint authentication

I like sharepoint, and I like firefox. The two don’t like each other.

To get rid of pesky authentication everytime we login to sharepoint with firefox do as follows:

1. In firefox address field: about:config
2. Find network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris
3. Edit field and add all sharepoint addresses you want to remember password for. Seperate addresses with ,

Note that this assumes that you’ve actually saved the credentials for the site earlier, via Internet Explorer or Credentials Manager.

References:

http://tech.kateva.org/2009/01/how-to-use-firefox-with-sharepoint.html

Multiple dnsregistrations for multihomed servers

Sometimes I have more than one NIC on a server. I have my reasons for this.

This can give issues with the wrong address responding in the network. For example a user trying to reach the fileserver suddenly get answers from the fileservers other NIC, which isn’t even on the same subnet. Of course this results in a timeout until the users computer figure out that the other address for the fileserver actually works.

This is because the fileserver in this instance, have two addresses registered in the DNS.

When I remove the other, wrong address from the DNS, it’s back in an hour or so. Since all NICs are registered when netlogon service restart every hour or so.

To rid us of this annoyance and let us have our multihomed machines in solitude :

1. Disable Register this connection’s addresses in DNS

2. Disable NetBios over TCP/IP

3. Disable DNS-listening on specific interface

Outlook autocompletes my name

Outlook per standard is autocompleting my name when I'm composing emails. Very good feature for some, but I feel it lacks personality when I always finish my emails with my full name. If I want to be formal I have the signatur for that.

The culprit in Outlook 2010 is Quick Parts and the Autotextfunction.

To disable

1. Open new mail
2. Ribbon Insert
3. Text>Quick Parts>AutoText>Organize and Delete
4. Pick the building block to remove, usually “Firstname Surname”
5. Delete
6. Done.

 

To verify, start writing your name and use F3 after 3-4 letters to force autocomplete to activate. It should result in nothing.

References:

http://www.msoutlook.info/question/330

Outlook delays when pasting from webpages

To get rid of delays when Outlooks formatting gnomes kick in

1. Outlook>File>Option
2. Mail>Editor Options > Advanced
3. Area “Cut,copy and paste”
4. Change pasting from other programs to merge formatting

References:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28478/copy-and-paste-in-outlook-without-messing-up-your-formatting/