Security while playing Online Games

Many of us enjoy gaming and it makes the experience that much more fun when you can enjoy it with friends online. However, have you ever stopped to wonder and ask yourself, how safe online gaming is?

Online gaming

Technological developments especially the advent of personal computers in the 1970s greatly accelerated the growth of online gaming. Furthermore, the creation of high-speed (broadband) internet connections has stimulated the evolution of new gaming genres such as the massively popular multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs). Currently, some of the most popular online games are Dota 2 (one of my personal favourites), War Thunder, League of Legends, Planet Side 2, Lineage, and Star Wars: Old Republic.
It is estimated that half a billion people play online games on a daily basis. Most games can now be played on PCs, consoles, and mobile devices. According to a US based study, more than 40 percent of online time is spent on 3 activities - social networking (22.7%), gaming (10.2%) and emails (8.3%).
Online gaming has become a huge and lucrative industry. A recent global games market report showed that the global games industry reached revenues of USD99.6 billion in 2016 and could exceed USD102.9 billion in 2017. The popularity of online gambling has also increased and already had an estimated 937 million gamers in 2012. You can now play most of your favorite games such as poker,blackjack, baccarat, and roulette live, interacting with live dealers and fellow players. The thrill and excitement of winning is all the more exhilarating if you play for real world money. People can also play slots  in a secure online casino, lotteries, bingo, as well as place sports bets. Industry analysts predict that revenues derived from the global gambling market will reach USD 1,009 billion by 2020. Unfortunately, because online gaming is such a profitable industry, it is also set to become the next big target of cyber crime.

The Dangers

The results of a 2016 crime survey conducted in the UK revealed that 6 million online offences had been committed, and one in ten persons in that country had been victims of various cyber crimes. The report warned that people are “more likely now to be mugged online than in the street.” The most shocking statistics for me is that most of the time you have no idea that you’ve become a victim until it’s too late.
Some of the most common cyber crimes and risks associated with online gaming involve identity theft, fraud, phishing, stealing your banking and credit card information, counterfeiting, privacy violations, software piracy, hacking of email and social media profiles, computer virus attacks, cyber bullying, and kidnapping. Online shopping scams and those involving dating sites are some of the other cyber crimes to be on the lookout for. Crimes involving children are also increasing as they are more exposed and naïve when it comes to the dangers of playing online multiplayer games such as Minecraft.

Protecting yourself

So how can you protect yourself when gaming online? How well are you protecting your information from being stolen, used and sold? Some tips are just common sense and being alert and aware
To avoid some of the common risks associated with online gaming make sure that you incorporate the following tips to improve your online security.

• Start by just using plain old common sense. E.g. If a deal is too good to be true it usually is.
• Be alert, and be cognisant to the fact that the threat is real
• Internet security software
  • Ensure that you have installed up to date internet security software. This should include secure firewalls, antivirus and antispyware programs. Also secure all remote connections. Some good free software are AVG, Avast, and Malwarebytes.
• Passwords
• There are so many online activities that require a password - online banking, a multitude of social media platforms, forums, gaming, e-mail and tons more. Remember all websites don’t practice the same level of security. That is why you should NOT use the same password for the simple reason that if you have been compromised,they would have only gained access to that one platform.
  
• Consider using a password manager to encrypt your passwords. Always use strong passwords. I personally prefer to use long phrases e.g SummerIsGre@t , IL0veDota2, SeeingIsntAlwaysBelieving , WhoTheMan? , BigBoysDontCry . These are example of password that are long but easy to remember.
• Personal Information
  • NEVER disclose any of your personal information to other players. Also be careful not to reveal your personal information in your username, or where possible when creating a personal profile. Ensure that you delete all personal information should you sell your game consoles (mobile or pcs).
• Avoid Ad supported games
  • These games still need to make money and usually do so by selling your information to other websites that often result in unsolicited mail.
• Use reputable gaming platforms
  • Steam – a wide range of both free and paid games that practice good security such as two factor authentication, email verification, SSL
  • Casino.com if you prefer playing games to win real world cash. – Reputable, SSL and fully licensed
  • Clash of Clans – for mobile gamers on IOS and Android
  • Choose platforms that offer good email and telephonic support
• Children
  • If you are a parent, ensure that you set clear rules and guidelines for your children when they are playing online. It may be best for younger children not to be allowed to play online games with strangers.

Online gaming is a dynamic and ever changing industry. Today’s gaming genres have come a long way since the early days of Atari consoles and Arcade gaming that was so popular in the 1980s. Gaming has also become firmly embedded in modern popular culture. So where to from here? Virtual reality games and games using artificial intelligence technology are currently being developed. These are new and exciting developments that will keep millions of gamers enthralled. It’s clear that gaming is and will remain a wonderful form of entertainment to connect with friends and family. However, safety should always remain a serious consideration when you are online whether you are gaming, banking, shopping, or connecting with friends on social media.

Have you been a victim due to lack of security on any online gaming platform? Do you use two factor authentication? Are there any additional security precautions you take when playing online, not mentioned here? Let me know in the comments below.

How to secure your Active Directory by tracking historical activities/changes

Active directory is arguably the most important part of your IT infrastructure – housing all user accounts and password data in a centralized place. Due to its very nature, ensuring the Active Directory is secure is both a complex and necessary task. To protect yourself against insider threats it is important to make sure you keep track of all activities and changes that occur in the past and present in your Active Directory through in-depth reporting and real-time alerting.
 

How to track, audit and monitor Active Directory activities and modifications

There are two main techniques for auditing Active Directory – native auditing and third party solutions.

1. Native Auditing

Auditing the Active Directory natively involves enabling the “audit object changes” option in Active Directory Domain Services. This feature can be implemented by enabling the Global Audit Policy and configuring the System Access Control List. By doing this, you can generate audit logs which can be tracked in the event viewer. To avoid generating an excessive number of logs, create audit exceptions through schema.
In previous versions of Windows Server, audit logs provided information solely on who made changes to which active directory object attributes. From Windows Server 2008 onwards, enabling auditing creates logs of old and new values as well.
Although these audit logs do display a substantial amount of information, using native processes like “Event Viewer” or “PowerShell” can be both a time consuming and ineffective method. This is mainly due to the lack of reports, alerts and graphical comparisons that you can get from the tools. For example, in order to perform historical change tracking, you have to manually compile audit data for each change and list them to make comparisons. This is essentially a full time job if you intend to perform regular and in-depth audits.
 

2. Third Party Solutions

Third party solutions can help you address all manner of security, systems management and compliance challenges by pro-actively auditing, monitoring and alerting on critical IT systems. LepideAuditor for Active Directory automates the auditing of Active Directory and provides over 270 pre-defined reports that can be delivered via the console or to any specified email address. Deploying an automated solution like this ensures that you get the maximum detail from your audits with the minimum amount of effort.
Below are some examples of the customized reports generated by LepideAuditor for Active Directory that can be used to track, monitor and alert on historic events/activities happening within the Active Directory:
Report I – The following image depicts three trends (in graphical view) as a result of the past events/activities in the Active Directory, including:
1. User Modifications Trend – This displays important operations performed by users, such as create, delete, modify, rename, move, security changes and permissions modifications.
2. Computer Modifications Trend – This report displays computer operations, such as create, delete, modify, move, rename, status change and permission modifications.
3. Group Modifications Trend – This graph shows all the operations performed on specific or numerous groups (a group of user accounts) such as create, delete, modify, rename, move, permission change and membership information (including the addition of new users and deletion of some users).
By hovering over the values you can obtain further details on the information displayed in the graph.

In addition to this, LepideAuditor for Active Directory can also generate detailed reports that show any changes in the usual trends of permissions being granted to users. This includes permission analysis of the historic events/activities in the Active Directory.
Report II – The below report shows domain modifications made by users in an easy to view grid alongside details regarding users whose accounts have been created. You can delve deeper into the reports by filtering based on user path, who created the account, when the account is created, where it is created, “from” field and more. In this image, the custom filters “this month” and “administrator” have been applied to generate a report of the administrator’s activities in the current month.
The detail of each row in the report is displayed on the right hand side under the “Detail” column, as shown in the image.

 

LepideAuditor Suite includes numerous exclusive features designed specifically to ensure that users are provided with complete visibility into activities taking place in the Active Directory. Some of these include the following:
 

1. All Modification Reports for Active Directory

LepideAuditor Suite tracks Active Directory modifications and displays all potential changes, along with before and after values, for the objects being modified.

2. Real-time Alerting

Whenever any suspicious behavior, activity or event is encountered in the Active Directory environment, LepideAuditor Suite sends real-time alerts in three different ways: Email notifications (sent straight to the inbox), LiveFeed alerts that continuously track changes as they happen and the LepideAuditor app – a mobile application that allows users to receive instant alerts straight to any Apple or Android enabled device.

3. Powerful Search Capability

LepideAuditor Suite possesses a powerful search functionality that allows users to locate relevant data quickly and easily. All searches can be saved directly to the console for future reference.
 

Conclusion

Securing your Active Directory is a critical part of your IT security plan, and tracking the changes (both current and historical) that your users are making in this system is a reliable method of detecting suspicious activity. Third-party solutions, like LepideAuditor for Active Directory, provide you with a 360-degree view (both graphical and grid based) of all the events happening within your Active Directory – including displaying “who,” “what,” “when” and “where” details for all changes made. By automating the auditing of your critical IT systems you can ensure that you are getting the maximum amount of detail with the minimum amount of effort.
This article was written by Satyendra Tiwari for The Funky Tech Guy. Follow him on twitter @satylepide

Elon Musk shares his interplanetary fantasy but his inspiration is down to earth

When I came across this article I knew that it was something I wanted to share not because of one man's journey towards interplanetary space travel but rather the story of one man, risking everything to achieve his dreams. He has personally pledged his entire fortune on achieving his vision and dream.

The lesson I take from this is that there is a whole,different life outside of our everyday and sometimes mundane, everyday living. It's filled with routine. Some people never leave their city and some don't even leave their community. To them that is life. That is all they know. They don't know what is out there.
As he famously says:

It would be an incredible adventure. It would be the most inspiring thing that I could possibly imagine. Life needs to be more than solving problems every day. You need to wake up every day and be excited about the future, and be inspired and want to live. ~ Elon Musk

When was the last time you woke up in the morning feeling truly excited about something?

So go out there and live your dreams,however big or small. You may want to take a tip from,in my opinion the most inspirational piece ever written.


The video below is Elon Musk’s dream. What is your dream? and what have you done recently to bring yourself closer to achieving it.

You can read the full article below:
Elon Musk shared his interplanetary fantasy but his real message is down to earth | Lynne Everatt | Pulse | LinkedIn:

3 Easy Ways To Grant the rights to modify AD group membership and be Successful

Problem:

You would like to grant a non domain admin user the rights or permissions ,e.g your servicedesk staff, the ability to modify the group membership but only of certain groups.
There are two very easy ways of doing this and a third more granular approach if required.

Pre-requisites:

Ensure you have created an AD group and assign your users you want to grant access to this group. If possible, create a separate OU to house all the groups you intend to give rights to.

Option 1 - Delegation of Control

1. Right click the OU where the groups are and click Delegate Control… then click Next
2. Select your AD Group
   
   
3. Select Modify the membership of a group and click next
   
   
   
4. Click Next and Finish

Option 2 – Managed By

Note: you can use this on an OU or individual group.

1. Right the same OU then click Properties
2. Click the Managed By tab then click the Change… button
   
   
   
3. Specify your group and click OK

Option 3 – Using the security tab

If you need to be more granular,do it this way as it allows you to see exactly what permissions are associated with a given task and you can add additional permissions.

1. Right click either the OU or specific group you would like to grant access or modify right to
2. Click Properties
3. Click the Security Tab
4. Click Advanced
5. Click Add
6. Select your Group
7. On the Object tab Select Descendant Group Objects and enable:
   • Read Members
   • Write Members
     
     
     
     
8. Click OK until all windows are closed

That's it

Hope this has been informative. If you have any comments or questions do so below.

Solved: How to Delegate Access for your Helpdesk or Servicedesk In Active Directory

Hi,
Today I want to share with you a simple best practise that I have often seen overlooked and not implemented.

The problem

Have you ever started at a new company and found that everyone has domain admin access? The technicians,the admins,the non technical boss and even the level 1 service desk staff? I have, in almost every company I started. This without saying,poses a huge risk,not just from a security point of view but also the fact that so many people have the potential to either intentionally or unintentionally $uck $hit up. Either way you have your hands full and enough on your plate to still have to worry about one of your servicedesk staff to start digging in things they learnt about in their mcse class.
So how do we go about mitigating this risk and applying the best practice for least privilege access (You only have access to do the things that enable you to perform your job)

The Solution

I usually tackle this in a few ways

1. I get the backing of the decision makers by informing them of the risks to the business and what I can do to resolve it. This way if they decide to do nothing you have it in writing that they were made aware of the risk and its all on them.
2. Next you will usually dish out an e-mail or go speak to the managers of the respective sections to find out their needs and roles. Essentially you need to know who does what before you can even begin with the technical bits
3. Now that you have that information on who does what its allot easier to go into AD and create some groups. In my example I have 3 levels of support which is what I found most common at all the companies I worked. They are
   • Level 1 Support – Service desk- They do your quick fixes and generally require the following permissions
     • Reset password
     • unlock an account
     • change password
     • Read Access to all users attributes.
   • Level 2 Support – Desktop Engineers ,technicians generally have a few more:
     • Reset password
     • change password
     • unlock account
     • read attributes of an AD user
     • Create users
     • modify Active Directory Groups
     • Join Computers to the domain
     • Rejoin Computers to the domain
     • Unjoin computers from the domain
     • move computers to the proper OU
   
   
   • Level 3 Support – Network or Systems Admins usually have domain admin access depending on the size and organic structure of the company. Larger companies will have more granular roles,rights and permissions where as the the generalist Admin will usually have domain admin rights and whatever he/she grants to themselves
4. I create NEW administration aka adm accounts for each support user. e.g For the user John Black with a username of jblack I create admjblack. I simply add adm as a prefix.
5. I then create AD security groups e.g Sevicedesk_Firstline , ServiceDeskdesk_Secondline and so on. Be sure to give good descriptions.

OK so now that we got that out of the way, lets get to the fun bit of actually configuring this.

How to Modify Office 2016 via GPO and Office 2016 Administrative Templates

We are in 2016 and Microsoft has released another version of Microsoft Office 2016. If you have deployed any Office 2013 settings then you will need to install the new administrative templates in order to deploy settings to Office 2016.
1. Download Office 2016 Admin Template files
2. Once downloaded, run the downloaded file and extract the contents to your machine , e.g c:\2016templates

3. go into the admx folder and copy all the .admx files to YOUR domain controller \\DOMAINNAME\SYSVOL\DOMAINNAME\Policies\PolicyDefinitions

4. Now copy the .ADML files (Language files) to \\DOMAINNAME\SYSVOL\DOMAINNAME\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-us


5. All you need to do now is test that it worked. Open your group policy editor,edit an existing or create a new policy and navigate to User Configuration –> Policies –> Administrative Templates
You should see all the Office 2016 Apps available to you.

That's it. This is how you install Microsoft Office 2016 Administrative Templates
Are you customising office in your organisation?  If so what have you implemented that has been either requested or helpful.
I hope this has been informative for you. Please like,follow and comment if you have any questions.

List of South Africa and International Newshost Servers

Hi all, In a previous guide on How to Setup Sickbeard and SABnzbd – Step by Steb Guide as well as How to Setup NZBDrone now known as Sonarr you will undoubtedly hear me refer to your news servers, either using the ones from your ISP or using a free for life server such as Xsusenet.com
Below is a list of news servers you might find useful

Most Common South African ISPs specific News Servers

You can find a full list of ALL South African ISPs HERE

South Africa ISPs with FREE News Servers

ISP	Host	Connections	Retention (Days)	Ports
Telkom	News.saix.net	2	10	119
Internet Solutions	News.is.co.za	3	?	119
Afrihost	News.afrihost.co.za	10	200	119
Axxess	News.internet.co.za	5	200	119
Cybersmart	None	None	None	None
Mweb	None	None	None	None
WebAfrica	News.wa.co.za	5	90	119
Crustal Web	News.crystalweb.co.za	15	2000	119
Vox	None	None	None	None

Internationally Free USENET Servers

There really is only one news server that I use and would recommend. Thats Xsusenet . Its free for life and has been really reliable for the past 5 years now atleast. You will see me use them in my videos.
Here you can find a rather comprehensive list of other free news hosts @ http://www.freeusenetnews.com/
Xsusenet Limitations – 2Mb/sec download limit

	Host	Connections	Retention	Ports
Xsusnet  *username and password will be provided	free.xsusenet.com

2

10 Days

119

Vmware vCenter Converter – Unable to locate the required Sysprep files. Windows 2003 Server

You about to convert a windows 2003 Server machine and get the error above.
Warning: Unable to locate the required Sysprep files…..
Luckily there is an easy fix.
1. Mount or insert the 2003 Server CD/DVD or .ISO
2. Use something like winrar or even better 7zip to copy or extract the contents from deploy.cab which can be found on the CD at X:\SUPPORT\TOOLS



3. Copy the files from the deploy.cab file to C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\svr2003

Close the Converter and re-open it. You should no longer have this issue.
Comment if you have any questions,issues or suggestions.

DO NOT Visit these sites

There are thousands of websites lurking in the dark web, wait for any passes by to pounce on. The use various tactics to gather or steal or information, from IP addresses,geo location to credit card information.
Below is a list of websites you should NOT visit because its almost guaranteed to be malicious, especially to naïve,unprotected internet users. If you have the urge to click on any link below, I urge you DON’T,unless off course your an infosec (Information Security) student and doing it for research purposes.
*Misspellings or misrepresentation Tactics*
----------------------------------------------
http://www.aresgalaxy.com
http://www.edonkey-software.com
http://www.edonkey-mp3.com
http://www.emule-software.com
http://www.poilet.com
http://www.kaaza.com
http://www.kazza.com
http://www.kaza.com
http://www.kazaalite.com
http://www.kazaa-lite.tk
http://www.k-lite.tk
http://www.kazaalite.nl
http://www.kazaa-download.de
http://www.kazaagold.com
http://k-litetk.com
http://www.kazaalite.de - Beware, links on the page prompt for download of star dialer.



http://www.kazaa.de - Same as kazaalite.de. Again, beware of star dialer.
http://www328.ws1.internetservice.com - Same as kazaa.de and kazaalite.de.
http://www.kazaa-file-sharing-downloads.com - Fishy executable present here.
http://www.klitesite.com
http://www.klite.tk
http://freewebhosting.hostdepartment.com/k/kazaalitetk - Redirects to klitesite.com.
http://kazaa.freakin.nl
http://www.kazaa-gold.com - I discovered this site while reading Sharmans copyright infringment complaint to google.com.
http://www.kazaamedia.com
http://www.kazaaplatinum.com
http://www.kazaa-plus.net
http://www.kl-kpp.net
http://www.kazaa.co.kr
http://www.ikazaa.net
http://www.supernova.org
http://www.suprnova.com
http://www.slsk.org - Old soulseek domain, that now links to a mainpeen dialer (scumware).
http://www.sharaza.com
http://www.winmx-download-winmx.com - WinMX based scam.
http://www.musicdonkey.net/

Regular P2P scam type sites

http://www.fileminer.com
http://www2.music-download-network.com
http://filmgimp.org
http://www.filesharingfriends.com
http://www.mp3ebook.com
http://www.symynet.com/educational_software/kazaa_light.htm - Looks to me to be just a cheap plug for an amazon.com product (an MP3 CD player).
http://www.bolton-heaton.freeserve.co.uk/kazaa.htm - Not only do they link to yet another scam site, they also link to many forms of adware and spyware including
gator and aluriaaffiliates.
http://www.emp3downloadhq.com
http://www.unlimitedshock.com
http://www.songs4free.com
http://www.mp3u.com
http://download-central.mp3u.com
http://www.americamp3network.com
http://www.mp3university.com
http://www.downloads-unlimited.com
http://www.download-mp3-now.com
http://www.imusicshare.com
http://www.musicdownloadcentral.com
http://www.downloadsociety.com
http://www.mp3musiczone.com
http://www.mp3rocks.net
http://www.247downloads.com
http://www.mymusicinc.com
http://www.mp3advance.com
http://www.songfly.com
http://www.mp3musicworld.com
http://www.charliespiano.com/downloadable_music.php - Links to an existing scam site.
http://www.freeality.com/emusic.htm
http://www.free-mp3-music-player-downloads.com
http://www.mp3yes.com
http://www.mp3.abandonware.nu
http://www.mp3high.com
http://www.mp3shock.net
http://www.mp3advance.com - This one was being displayed on BeatKing through the Google ads
http://www.my-free-music.com
http://www.findanymusic.com - Claims it's legal; obviously a scam.
http://www.xvidmovies.com/ - The main culprit is (http://www.xvidmovies.com/movies/)
http://www.moviedownloadcity.com
http://www.hqmovies.net
http://www.gettingmovies.com/Movies.html
http://www.compareshopsave.com/moviesites
http://k-lite-legal.com - Another claim of legality.
http://www.imovieshare.com
http://www.easymusicdownload.com
http://www.flicksunlimited.com
http://www.completemovies.com/index2.html
http://www.download-mp3-music.com
http://www.freemovieserver.com
http://www.mp3perfect.com
http://www.mp3downloadcity.com
http://www.downloadshield.com
http://www.legacymp3.net
http://www.crazymp3s.org
http://www.21-century-mp3.nu
http://www.greekmusicmp3s.com
http://www.filesharingcenter.com
http://www.unlimitedshock.com
http://www.mp333.com
http://www.mp3madeeasy.com
http://www.mp3grandcentral.net
http://www.mp3-network.com
http://www.morpheusultra.com
http://www.flixs.net
http://www.charliespiano.com/downloadable_music.php
http://www.compareshopsave.com/moviesites
http://www.completemovies.com/index2.html
http://www.ondemandmp3.com

HOW TO– View VCE Files for FREE

So you've read the official guide, watched all the CBT Nuggets and TrainSignal videos and got some hands on experience either at work or using a LAB environment. All you need now is to do some practice questions to prepare you for the exam. This is where a site such as examcollection.com comes in which holds practice questions for many different exams in the form of VCE files. They claim the VCE files are free,which it is, however, you still need their software ,the VCE Exam Simulator.
Many of you would know by now that the .vce files downloaded from exam collections have an encryption that can crash any previous version of the software. So if you bought their software a while back,guess what,you wont be able to use it any longer as it seems they have become greedy and went for a subscription model. This essentially means you can only rent their software and can never buy it outright and also means that whenever you want to study and prepare for an exam,you will have to fork out quite a hefty sum of money.

Below you will find my guide on an alternative way on how to view vce files.
Part 1 - How to view .VCE Files - Preparation and pre-requisites
Part 2 - How to view .VCE Files - Configuration and Demo
The Pre-requisites

• Blue stack player. You can download it here.
• If you don't have a google account,get one here. google account
• VCE Files free sign up if you haven’t already

1. Install the Blue Stack Player . Essentially this is an Android emulator giving you the ability to install almost any android app or game. Installation is very simple. SImply follow the prompts. You will soon find out its allot more useful than just for VCE. Using it to play your favourite android game in full screen with great graphics is just one Enjoy


2. You will need to access the Android Play Store and for that you will need a google account. Most of you will already have one but in case you don't you can head over to https://accounts.google.com/signup

3. Open the Blue Stack Player,fine the search field and type A+ Player.
Click Search and complete the One time setup


Follow the prompts and complete the sign in process.

4. After signing in you will have access to the Google Play Store
Follow any further prompted actions.
Now that you have the base and the pre-requisites installed go to page 2 for the fun bits
If you are not keen on reading then follow this step by step video - how to guide.

FIXED: Symantec Endpoint Protection Won’t Install Windows 10

So I’ve just received my new Windows 10 Laptop and want to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1.6. I received the following error “the wizard was interrupted before Symantec Endpoint Protection ( SEP ) client could be completely installed” (See Image Above)

Every time it would go through the process of installing,and then rolling back. The strange thing is that on some notebooks it worked just fine.

The Solution

1. The first step is to disable the windows defender real-time protection. If you not sure how to disable it go to –> How to disable Windows Defender

 

2. After running the setup again I got a prompted to reboot.

3. After rebooting and logging in disable Windows Defender again.

4. Go ahead and re-run the setup. Your installation should now proceed.

 

Additional Tips on troubleshooting Symantec Installation Issues.

Find the .net framework version using powershell

As you may have figured out by now there is no quick and easy way to find the .NET framework version currently installed on your server.
Here is a quick and simple way.

1.

Copy and paste the script below into a powershell window and press ENTER. Thats it.

Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP' -recurse | Get-ItemProperty -name Version,Release -EA 0 | Where { $_.PSChildName -match '^(?!S)\p{L}'} | Select PSChildName, Version, Release

2.

Copy the contents of the script above and place it in notepad, then save it as filename.ps1.  To use you simply call the file. See below



I hope this has been informative for you.

Get your Free R50 Shopping Voucher RIGHT HERE

Some of you may have heard of the website OneDayOnly.
Its simple really, they get hold of a product, slash its price and then offer it to you for OneDayOnly. You've got 24 hours to take advantage of the deal before its gone forever.
So what are you waiting for? Head on over to OneDayOnly and claim your free R50 voucher to buy whatever you want.

FREE GAME: Multiplayer 8 Ball Pool

This game is addictive and fun but best of all you get to play with other people online.
ENJOY!

Play 8 Ball Pool

Play 8 Ball Pool / More Sports games

How to: Recover from a domain controller failure

 

I took this how to from a document I wrote some time back but the information herein is still accurate for how to recover a domain controller. At the time i was working at an insurance firm and managed 6 domains. Budget was low and found that the domain controllers was on regular PCs. Needless to say they weren't reliable. I found myself using this procedure regulary for domain controller recover.
I hope this has been informative for you. Like,share and comment.

Preparing a New Server

a. Reinstall the Operating System using Windows Server 2008 R2/2012 R2
b. Give it a temporary name and IP, just to connect to the network and get updates etc.
c. Install all current updates and service packs
d. Install  Antivirus
e. Install DNS
f. Install and configure SNMP
g. Then wait until AD is ready

Preparing Active Directory

a. Seizing Roles

i. On another domain controller in the same domain as the failing DC determine what roles the failing server had by typing netdom query FSMO at the command prompt

ii. Seize the roles on a command prompt by typing in the following (See Figure Below)
iii. Ntdsutil ENTER
iv. Roles ENTER
v. Connections ENTER
vi. connect to server <servername>, where servername is the name of the server you want to use, and then press ENTER
vii. q ENTER
viii. ? “For a list of roles you can seize”
ix. Seize Role <role you want to seize>

b. Cleaning up MetaData in Active Directory

This is the process of removing the failed Domain Controller from Active Directory.
WARNING!! Please take note that using the ntdsutil utility incorrectly can have serious negative consequences on Active Directory. If you not sure DONT DO IT! J
i. At the command line, type Ntdsutil and press ENTER.
ii. At the Ntdsutil: prompt, type metadata cleanup and press Enter
iii. At the metadata cleanup: prompt, type connections and press Enter
iv. At the server connections: prompt, type connect to server <servername>, where <servername> is the domain controller (any functional domain controller in the same domain) from which you plan to clean up the metadata of the failed domain controller. Press Enter.
v. Type quit and press Enter to return you to the metadata cleanup: prompt.
vi. Type select operation target and press Enter.
vii. Type list domains and press Enter. This lists all domains in the forest with a number associated with each.
viii. Type select domain <number>, where <number> is the number corresponding to the domain in which the failed server was located. Press Enter.
ix. Type list sites and press Enter.
x. Type select site <number>, where <number> refers to the number of the site in which the domain controller was a member. Press Enter.
xi. Type list servers in site and press Enter. This will list all servers in that site with a corresponding number.
xii. Type select server <number> and press Enter, where <number> refers to the domain controller to be removed.
xiii. Type quit and press Enter. The Metadata cleanup menu is displayed.
xiv. Type remove selected server and press Enter. You will received a warning message. Read it, and if you agree , press Yes

xv. At this point, Active Directory confirms that the domain controller was removed successfully. If you receive an error that the object could not be found, Active Directory might have already removed from the domain controller.

xvi. Type quit, and press Enter until you return to the command prompt.
xvii. Metadata clean is now complete and you can continue with the next step of setting up the server to connect to AD again.

Setting up the replacement server

Switch on the new server, at this stage it is already setup.
i. Make sure the new machine has the correct hostname and IP address. The hostname will be identical to the failed machine.
ii. Go start run and type in DCPROMO
iii. Follow the steps of adding a NEW domain controller in an EXISTING domain. Join it to the same domain the failing DC was in.
iv. Make sure DNS is selected.
v. The installation will begin
vi. After it has replicated you will get a screen to say its complete.
vii. DNS will automatically populate because Active directory Integrated zones are being used.
viii. Reboot the server, check if everything is working
ix. Recovery is COMPLETE!!

Important Notes:

a. The five FSMO roles are:

· Schema master - Forest-wide and one per forest.
· Domain naming master - Forest-wide and one per forest.
· RID master - Domain-specific and one for each domain.
· PDC - PDC Emulator is domain-specific and one for each domain.
· Infrastructure master - Domain-specific and one for each domain.

b. What will happen if you don’t perform the seize in time?

FSMO Role	Loss implications
Schema	The schema cannot be extended. However, in the short term no one will notice a missing Schema Master unless you plan a schema upgrade during that time.
Domain Naming	Unless you are going to run DCPROMO, then you will not miss this FSMO role.
RID	Chances are good that the existing DCs will have enough unused RIDs to last some time, unless you're building hundreds of users or computer object per week.
PDC Emulator	Will be missed soon. NT 4.0 BDCs will not be able to replicate, there will be no time synchronization in the domain, you will probably not be able to change or troubleshoot group policies and password changes will become a problem.
Infrastructure	Group memberships may be incomplete. If you only have one domain, then there will be no impact.

c. DO NOT seize this role on a Global Catalog!

Do not put the Infrastructure Master (IM) role on the same domain controller as the Global Catalog server. If the Infrastructure Master runs on a GC server it will stop updating object information because it does not contain any references to objects that it does not hold. This is because a GC server holds a partial replica of every object in the forest. UNLESS all DCs are GC Servers