Steps to Allow Access

1. Open the SQL Server Configuration Management application, 1) start SQL Services and set to start automatically, 2) start SQL Browser and set to start automatically; these are not started or set to start automatically when a new AMI instance is launched
2. While in the SQL Server Configuration Management application, go to the node, Network Protocols and find the Dynamic TCP port under the IP ALL section. Make note of the port to be used later.
3. Open the same following ports in the Windows Firewall:
   1. TCP <dynamicport> (from step #2)
   2. UDP <1434> (for the SQL Browser Service)
4. In the EC2 AWS Security Group of the server add the following ports:
   1. TCP <dynamicport> (from step #2)
   2. UDP <1434> (for the SQL Browser Service)
5. Turn off EC2 server hostname naming from the EC2 Administration Services application, rename the server according to your own server naming standards in the Computer | Properties panel, restart the box

Accessing the Server through SSMS

It’s important to note that there are four different ways to access the EC2 AWS SQL Server box from your local machine. To connect to a SQL Server Instance it’s necessary to use the name of the server and the port. If a default instance is setup, then the port, by default is TCP 1433, but this is not the case with EC2 AWS AMI servers.

The standard method to attach to the database server from an application or SSMS is “[<servername>][<ip>][\<instance>][,<port>]”

1. In order to use <servername>, you need to have some form of DNS setup, which is done automatically for an EC2, or you have done through Elastic IPs and your own DNS server (like GoDaddy). If you don’t have DNS, use the <ip> or <elasticip>
2. To access the <instance>, the SQL Browser Service must be started and the UDP 1434 port open in AWS Security Group and the Windows Firewall.

Examples

“aws.dns.server.name” comes from the properties of the EC2 instance properties. “ec2sqlexpress” is an example name of the SQL Server Instance. Using the IP must be the IP as provided through a VPC or the Elastic IP (not part of this tutorial). The port is represented as an example 411xx is not a real number, it must be what you find in the SQL Server Configuration Application.

• Example 1 using DNS and SQL Browser Service: “aws.dns.server.name\ec2sqlexpress”
• Example 2 using DNS and port: “aws.dns.server.name,411xx”
• Example 3 using IP (VPC) or Elastic IP and SQL Browser Service: “50.234.x.x\ec2sqlexpress”
• Example 4 using IP (VPC) or Elastic IP and port: “50.234.x.x,411xx”

Other Considerations

There have been some statements that SQL Server can’t run on a micro. Well, that can be true for the big SQL editions like Standard or Enterprise, and my considerations would be 2048 (my recommendation) to start.

As for another topic, I’m always pinning my CPU’s and my RAM at certain values.

For another topic, I’m always pinning my CPU’s and my RAM at certain values, because all too many times do I find problems with keeping the default installation settings. This is to say that the default installation uses all CPUs and all RAM. I will put turn on CPU affinity and take out 10% of the CPUs, if you have 10 cores, I remove 1 or 2 for the OS and Networking services and other support activities to run. The same goes for RAM.

Zipping capabilities are limited in these free OS versions. For example, it isn’t permitted to set password on the zip file, so make sure you don’t send sensitive information through the internet or to other people. It’s also not permitted to adjust how much compression is applied, or making an EXE version (for decompressing on a system that doesn’t have Zip capabilities). In order to get zipping with passwords and other enhanced features, you will still need to resort to purchasing an application, for the Mac, it can be StuffIt Pro; for Windows, it can be WinZip. There are other free utilities that that offer enhanced features for free, like from 7-Zip or WinRAR.

What is a Zip file?

Zip files are a way to take many files on a disk, bundle them into a single file and apply compression to them to shrink the final resulting files into a smaller result than the sum of the total set of files being package/zipped/compressed. The files are made of the original files represented in a compressed format. Many operating systems have built-in Zipping or compression capabilities now, so you won’t have to buy an application for simple compressing/bundling tasks.

In simple terms, if you have a lot of the same letters and numbers in a document, Zipping the document would count how many duplicates there are, where they are located, and take them how, thus compressing the document. The document is not readable in the compressed format, but it can then be “unzipped” and the document will be reconstructed to it’s original form with all the duplicate letters, numbers, and other characters.

The files that don’t compress well are JPG photo files and other formats that already in a “compressed” format. It does still mean thought that you can “package” or “bundle” your files using Zip even though the compression may not reduce the file size. This is particularly important when you want to send one file to someone. For example, you have 50 new photos you’ve taken of a place you visited, you want to send those to someone, zip them up in to one “zip package” file. This eliminates sending all 50 files. The compression won’t be good, so the file will be large, so watch out for that. But you can still send the single file.

How Do I Zip Files?

This can be accomplished the same way on either Mac or Windows:

1. Pick a set of files, or a folder that contains the files to package/compress
2. On Windows, right-click and “Send To | Compressed (Zipped) Folder”
3. On Mac, right-click or ctrl+left-click and choose “Compress Files”

A single file will be created with all original files packaged and compressed and bundled into it for storage, email delivery, or thumb-drive transport.

Use the link to find the free patch to update your machine and get it working again. In short, this worked!

1. follow the link
2. download the software
3. begin the installation
4. answer the questions to uninstall the old HP Mediacenter software and install the new
5. start the Mediacenter

The disc was recognized and started playing the movie. Finally!

The Long of the Story

I bought the X Men trilogy blu-ray for my wife for Mother’s Day and tried playing it in our HP Pavilion dv7-1273cl laptop. It didn’t work. It initially started when I had previlus model of HP laptop in December of 2008, but the fan failed. I returned it and purchased a more updated model. Now having the fan taken care of the same problem still existed for the DVDs.

But, thanks to this posting on the HPs forums I found the link to take care of it.

Originally, we bought Horton and it didn’t work. I bought Batman, it worked. I now bought X Men and it didn’t work … consistently. Now that I’ve done the patch, all of them, so far, are working.

Hope this helped you out too.

1) Right-click on your Taskbar
2) Click Properties menu item
3) Make the Taskbar tab active
4) Untick the Group similar taskbar buttons

If you have a handy tip that you’d like to share, please forward it to us.

Researchers at eEye Digital Security have built a Conficker detection software that can be installed and run on your machines and network to see if any systems are compromised or vulnerable to Conficker. Be sure you download and run this utility on your system as an extra precaution. Download the software here (http://www.eeye.com/html/downloads/other/ConfickerScanner.html)

There is no beginning or ending date identified that a system could be infected; so it’s imperitive to always have your system up to date. The most frequent time to update a system is, if not daily, then weekly. By visiting here, you can obtain a discount on BitDefender on our main site at (http://www.snapjag.com).

Microsoft, as of February 2009, is offering a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the people that have built and distribute this virus. This is a great incentive to signal to the technical community to find out who is doing this. If we all take the initiative to find out what we can and let the authorities know, we can help make the digital community much safer, reliable, and fun.

I consider virus’ to be the graffiti of the real world. It’s sick, wrong, and dirties the environmental experience that draws so many people to the internet. If you need assistance to rid yourself of this or any other virus’, or you have any other technical computer problem, contact SnapJag and you’ll receive a discount on our services. Mention the Ad code “snapjag_av_discount15″. If we can’t help you get rid of your virus and get your system back up and running, whatever it takes, you don’t have to pay for the services. Ever! We feel that when you pay for a service, you should receive to your expectations, or you won’t be charged.

This happened to me and I wanted to do what we do best, get all the information together and provide a solution. I truly read through about 15 to 20 blogs where there were no less than 20 entries to try and find a solution. Some people supplied solutions. I tried almost all of them, but didn’t fix it, at least not my problem.

I’ve spent the night figuring out a solution to this issue. This problem has had a ton of people up in arms. There’s nothing but flaming comments for Microsoft not having a solid solution; myself included. What a sour experience. And I’m usually in a favorable mood with MS.

All because of a patch that’s gone “bonkers”. Patch article number KB938371 is the purported problem. The update is a pre-requisite hotfix, which by the way, cannot be removed once it’s installed. Even after I performed Windows updates and having restored back to the original point through the Restore Points I still had the problem.

In a few words, it has to do with the drivers, plain and simple!

There are many ways to resolve this issue, but I soved the problem through a third-party application. I purchased the DriverCure software by ParetoLogic. It immediately found low-level drivers (for the HID and USB and Bluetooth components) that were out of date including a few others; it downloaded and installed them. After rebooting the machine, my USB ports worked and the devices were active!

Now this was the easy way, but it cost me $49.00. Although I’m positive the solution can be done without cost. It might be an arduous task to go through. You’ll have to sift through all the HID devices in the Device Manager, identifying all the manufacturers, find their websites, finding the installation packages, making sure they are the latest drivers, installing them, and hoping all that was right. =)

There are other techniques too; sometimes they are more complex and not so straight forward. At SnapJag.com we want to put together solutions that are “Geek Speek to Plain Talk”(TM) threads.

I’m no noobie but I like giving support to people offering a solid, simple solution even if it might cost a few dollars without much headache. If you’re up for trying on your own, then follow the instructions at this link.

• Workaround for dead USB ports in Vista after update

Another article vaguely refers to this issue here.

Summary

I’m very confident of this solution because I bought the laptop brand new from Costco on Saturday, and I immediately started working on the computer. And everything worked. I performed the updates and started having the problems. I restored back to the original Restore Point but the problems still existed.

My new computer make and model is a HP Pavilion dv7-1273cl Entertainment PC with the following specifications:

• 500 GB (5400 RPM)
• 4 GB Ram
• Duo Core Intel Centrino
• 17″ HD display
• Blu-Ray DVD+-/CD+-RW
• Bluetooth and Wireless LAN
• Windows Vista Home Premium

Problem

I haven’t had my USB devices since my computer drivers update. I could certainly use the touchpad on the laptop, but I am a programmer and DBA and need to work fast. So using an external mouse (either corded or bluetooth) is essential but totally useless.

HP has nice registration and setup screens that I went through in about 10 minutes. I decided to turn off the pre-instaled Norton Security and install my favorite BitDefender. I did that. Then, my curiosity got the better of me, and this is when all heck broke lose … I bought two Blu-ray discs at Costco (since this is my first Blu-ray player) and would watch them while I setup them machine. The DVD player came up and said that the firmware, software, or some-rather-annoying message appeared. I decided the next step was to update the system. So, I did a Windows update and sought a repair of the DVD problem. About 20 updates were available, and I ran throught those.

Let me say at this point that as of right now, 12 hours later, I haven’t revisted the issue about the Blu-ray. But can’t fix it still. Will work on and provide a solution if others are having the same problem. =(

After restarting the machine and finishing the updates my external Microsoft miniature mouse wouldn’t work. I thought that was odd. Now and again I would turn off the wireless so I didn’t have any compromises while installing virus protection and had seen initialially that the Wireless and Bluetooth statement would appear in the bubble that would appear because of toggling them off and on. But now I didn’t see those either. It’s as if the Bluetooth and the USB interfaces and shut off. Which in actuality, they had done.

Solution

I used DriverCure from ParetoSoft and it found the underlying drivers that according to Microsoft were up todate, but because Microsoft keeps a different versioning system than the vendors, it appears to be bassackwards.

I understand it costs money to use ParetoSoft to find and correct the problem. But it was the best $40 I’ve spent because I could move on and get work done without having to individually investigate, find, and install each of the 25 driver inconsistencies.

I wanted to get the new Lexar Professional UDMA 300x speed Compact Flash card for my DSLR and I’m finding out a few things needed to make this all work.

First, my Nikon D70s doesn’t transfer at the 300x speed and not many new cameras do. The camera will still use the CF and at the highest rate the UDMA will allow for the cameras slot. That’s OK, I wanted to get the images downloaded off the card as fast as possible. So, I had to get all the components together that would allow the fast possible speed, yet be a complete high-speed set so when the time comes to upgrade the other devices, everything is at it’s peak.

The components required from photo shoot to post-processing are the following.

Camera to memory card to memory card reader to computer

Each of these have different transfer rates. The Camera (CF) being about 70x, the memory card reader (9 pin 1394b Firewire) is 300x, the computer (Apple Macbook 6 pin 1394a Firewire) is about 150x.

Because the Lexar camera reader has 9 pin 1394b Firewire connections and the Macbook has 6 pin 1394a Firewire connections. I am having to find an adapter that bridges this connection “disconnect”.

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