Running Lync 2013 client on DirectAccess Computer

I am a big fan of Microsoft DirectAccess technology, for those who are not aware of DirectAccess, Its Microsoft new Remote connectivity solution where users on the Internet get Intranet connectivity to their corporate network without installing any client or initiating any software like old traditional VPN.

Microsoft DirectAccess is purely based on IPV6 and Lync 2013 is fully supporting IPV6 and Lync 2013 clients using DirectAccess should work without any problem.

If any one encountered problems making Lync calls or connecting to Lync on a DirectAccess Computer then you need to ensure that IPV6 is enabled on the Lync 2013 Server as per the below image.

This can be achieved as follows:

1. Open the Lync 2013 Topology Builder from an old file or download the topology
2. Edit the properties of the Lync server and in the General Properties ensure that IPV6 is enabled.
3. These settings need to be published from the Action Menu - Topology - Publish

Now you can enjoy Lync 2013 over DirectAccess Connection.

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Cracking Wireless WEP using BackTrack article published in Hack Insight Magazine

A couple of month ago i was asked by the Hack Insight Magazine editor to write an article on the famous BackTrack 5.0 R3. Hack Insight - a line of Hack Insight Press which is the new publication devoted to IT Security. Its a good Magazine with different security articles on different platforms.

It was a new experience and i was really excited with this kind of publication. I picked the Wireless WEP cracking as i can see many people still adopting it, this article will show how easy to crack a WEP key using BackTrack.

My Article was published on the March 2013 volume. The link to download/Read the article is: http://www.hackinsight.org/articles.php?article_id=8



So Take a look and let me know what do you think :)

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Microsoft Lync 2010 client / XP machines connectivity with Lync 2013 Server

After a successful implementation of the Microsoft Lync 2013 we faced a problem with our legacy Windows XP machines that are still existing on the network and need to access the Lync 2013 server. This was not possible because Lync 2013 client is only supported on Windows 7 or Windows 8. The Lync Web client doesn't support all features especially the Audio/Video conference features on XP machines (Greyed out).

As a solution we tried using Lync 2010 full client on Windows XP machines. When we try to login from Lync 2010 Client in the Windows XP or even Windows 7 we received the below error.

“Microsoft Lync 2010 is not a version that can be used to sign in to the server”

 
In Order to allow backward compatibility for Lync 2010 clients on Lync 2013 server, you need to do the following:
 

1. Open Lync 2013 Control Panel
2. Click on Clients – Client Version Policy
3. Click the “Global Policy” – Edit – Show details
4. Double Click “UCCP”
5. At the bottom under Action: select “allow”  - Ok
6. Back to the Global Policy Settings Select OC Version 4.0.7.7577.4103 and allow it as previous policy (Default was block)

 The below screen shot is provided for more elaboration.

 

 



Hopefully this should be helpful for anyone facing the same problem.

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Microsoft Update List for Hyper-V

A lot of IT Professionals are moving to Hyper-V and they need to keep updated with all Hyper-V hotfixes, updates and Service Packs. The Below links are for Hyper-V on both Windows 2012 and Windows 2008R2. Some of these updates/fixes are intended to fix specific problem, so don’t apply them unless you have this specific issue. 

1.       Windows 2008R2 Hyper-V

 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1349.hyper-v-update-list-for-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx

 

2.       Windows 2012 Hyper-V 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15576.hyper-v-update-list-for-windows-server-2012.aspx

 

Thanks to the above wiki creators.

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UAG 2010 File Access application fails to open/start after UAG 2010 SP3 implementation

After the install of UAG 2010 SP3, all of the portal applications worked fine except for the File Access application. I tried several options with the application, removing it and adding it back but never worked till I asked my friend Ben Ari (UAG Senior Escalation engineer) as I thought it was depreciated. It turned out to be a glitch or bug after implementing the UAG 2010 SP3 and to fix you need to do the following:

 

1.       On the UAG server, Navigate to the following folder under UAG installation folder \Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway\von\FileAccess

2.       Edit the file “default.asp” (I took a backup first before any change)

3.       Modify the word cint to parseInt on Line 20 (Or you can search the file as it appears once). Make sure that the “I” in “parseInt” is written in caps (Check below screenshot)

 

 

4.       Save and activate your Forefront UAG

 It should be noted that incase there are more than one UAG server in the array, this change should be applied on all servers manually by the same method and steps above.

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UAG 2010 Portal error 403.14 after applying UAG 2010 SP3

The UAG 2010 SP3 was officially released on Feb 20, 2013 as promised by the UAG team to resolve several issues mainly to support Microsoft new systems and applications (Windows 8, Server 2012, Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013...............etc). Thanks UAG team.

Download Link:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36788

Release Notes: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2744025


I will discuss my SP3 installation process and my comments for a successful implementation in another Post. One of the main issues that i faced after the installation of the UAG 2010 SP3 was that all my users were unable to access the UAG Portal page or any published site on the UAG (Mail OWA, SharePoint............etc) and the following error is Displayed:

Forbidden Directory, Listing Denied Error code 403.14

Microsoft has a good KB that deals with this error (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961172) however in my case i needed to reboot the IIS later on. The Steps done to fix this issue is as follows:

1. Open Forefront UAG management on the UAG server.
2. Open/Explore the Trunks under the HTTP and/or HTTPS connections.
3. Right click each Trunk and select Disable.
4. Save and Activate the UAG configuration.
5. Right Click the trunks again and select enable.
6. Save and Activate the Configuration again.
7. Open the IIS Manager
8. Highlight your server name and from the actions hit restart to restart the IIS. This should do the trick.

Hopefully this should help anyone facing this problem after UAG SP3.

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Microsoft UAG backup using DPM 2012

I have been working on this issue for some time and it was always failing with different kind of errors, i consulted Microsoft Team as well and finally it worked with me. I am using DPM 2012 but it shouldn't differ with any earlier DPM version as 2010. The main blocking issue here is the TMG component on the UAG server. Remember that its highly recommended not to touch the TMG configuration on the UAG however this is one of the rare cases that need the administrator to tweak some TMG settings. To enable the DPM to backup UAG and install the client you need to do the following (Make sure to take Full backup from your TMG settings and Rules):



1. Ensure the File and Printer sharing is checked/Enabled on the UAG internal Network card.

2. From the TMG console- Firewall Policy. On the right pane click show system Policy rule

3. You need to disable system Rule number 2 (Allow Remote Management from selected computers using MMC) by Right clicking the rule and edit system policy, I am assuming the default TMG rules are not touched before.

4. You need to disable System Rule number 22 (Allow RPC from Forefront TMG to Trusted servers)

5. From the Right Pane, in the toolbox section create a new Protocol under user defined. The Protocol parameters as follows:

Primary connection: Type: TCP, Direction: Outbound, Port range: 135-135

Secondary Connection: Type: TCP, Direction: Outbound, Port range: 1024 - 65535

6. Final Step, create a new Access Rule (Make sure to move it to the top). Allow - All outbound traffic except selected (Choose - RPC All interfaces) - From DPM server (Create computer object with DPM IP address)- To Local Host (UAG server) - All users................etc



Save the Settings and ensure they are Synced from the monitoring tab. Now try to install the Agent from the DPM on the UAG server and take a simple test backup.

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