FAQ - JC Kelly - Technology Consultants

McAfee TPS: 100% CPU utilization

Nitix: Find PPPoE password

Outlook: sent items with IMAP

Update - These instructions are valid for Outlook 2003 and earlier editions. In Outlook 2007, Microsoft finally mastered IMAP support. OK, maybe "mastered" is too strong a word but the following work around is no longer required.

By default, Outlook in IMAP mode saves sent messages in the local Personal Folder (PST) Sent Items folder. Use the Rules Wizard to save sent messages in a folder on the IMAP server. Please note: In Outlook 2000, these procedures only apply if you have installed Outlook with the Internet Mail Only option. To determine your installation type, on the Help menu, then click About Microsoft Outlook. You should see "Internet Mail Only" if you have the Internet Mail Only option installed. Note that in Outlook 2002 to enable this rule you will need to upgrade to MS Office Service Pack 2.

Also, the second part of this solution (Sections 3 and 4) also pertains to problems users may be having in Outlook regarding the fields shown in their Sent folder. A lot of users can only see the "From" and "Received" fields in their IMAP Sent folder, which is useless in most situations. Sections 3 and 4 resolve that issue.

Create Sent Items rule
On the Tools menu, choose Rules Wizard, and then click New
Choose Start from a blank rule
Select Check messages after sending, and then click Next.
Check the box next to uses the form name form
Click on the underlined form name in the Rule Description box.
Click the pull down menu and select Application Forms
Choose Message
Click Add, click Close, and then click Next
Check the box next to move a copy to the specified folder
Click on the underlined specified folder in the Rule Description box
Choose your IMAP server Sent folder. Click OK, and then click Next
Click Next again to skip exceptions
Specify a rule name, for example, Sent Items
Click Finish, and then click OK.
Disable local Sent Items
Warning: The Sent Items rule will become disabled without warning if there is a network interruption. If local sent items is disabled and the rule becomes disabled, no copies of sent mail will be saved. If local sent items is enabled, one copy of sent mail will be saved locally and a second copy will be saved on the server. It is recommended that local sent items be enabled.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Preferences Tab, click E-mail Options.
Disable Save copies of messages in Sent Items Folder check box
Customize current view of Sent folder
Select the Sent folder on IMAP
From the View menu choose Current View, then choose Customize Current View
Click Fields button
Remove From and Received from Show these fields in this order box
Add To and Sent to Show these fields in this order box
Move fields up (or down) as desired
Click OK to close the Show fields window
Click OK to close View Summary window
The Sent folder on IMAP now has the correct view but the columns are not populated.
Populate the To and Sent fields
Select the Sent folder on IMAP
Choose rules wizard from the Tools menu and click New
Choose Start creating a rule from a Template
Choose Notify me when important messages arrive and click Next
Disable marked as importance and where my name is in the To box
Click on the underlined a specific message, type any text, and then click OK
Click Next until you reach the last step of the wizard
Enable Run this rule now on messages already in Sent box and verify Turn on this rule is enabled
Click Finish, and when the rule has finished processing, delete the rule

Windows: Joining Windows 7 to a SAMBA domain

Windows: mapping a drive using "Connect As"

I ran into this Windows "gotcha" while installing a Net Integrator for a client to replace a NAS device that they had outgrown.

The client has six departments and wants to set up a team, or group, directory for each department. Each team must be uniquely password protected so that only the respective team members can access that team's data. Some employees must be able to access data belonging to more than one team. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. We'd create an account for each user and assign the users to one or more teams as required.

In this case, we don't have client access licenses for each user so we need to make use of password protected teams and use the Windows NT/2000/XP ability to connect as a different user.

The user logs onto his machine using username and password and then attempts to map to a network drive i.e. serverteamA. Because his username/password combination is not valid for that share, the user will be prompted to login as another user. He can then supply the team name and password i.e. teamA/passwordA and the connection will be made.

The fun begins when the user requires access to teamB as well. If he goes to the drive mapping dialog and selects "Connect using a different user name", he will be prompted for the name and password i.e. teamB/passwordB. The mapping will fail with the error "The credentials supplied conflict with an existing set of credentials." Windows is telling him "I'm already using a valid name and password for this machine - don't try to confuse me." The key phrase is "for this machine". Once Windows has a connection to a given machine, it will insist on using the credentials that were successful the first time. We need to convince Windows that it hasn't got a connection to this machine...

If we add the following enteries to the HOSTS file

serverA 192.168.0.100
serverB 192.168.0.100
serverC 192.168.0.100

and map the drives using serverAteamA, serverBteamB and serverCteamC, Windows will think that is trying to connect to shares on three different machines and will work correctly.

If you have a local DNS (domain name server) you could add records there instead of the HOSTS file and thus avoid having tp provide a modified HOSTS file for every machine on your network.

Remember, computing doesn't have to be this hard but you're using Windows.