Category: Windows Server

Categories
HowTo Guides Windows Server

Which ports need opening for SBS 2003

When using the full functionality of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 – it is necessary to open or forward ports within your router config. Port forwarding is needed to allow your SBS server to be ‘visible’ from the internet, and to allow incoming connections such as email, or remote web workplace. The following ports are required :

SMTP 25 – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
HTTP 80 – Home Page Web
SSL 443 – Home Page Web Secured
HTTP2 444 – Second SSL Secured on alternate port for SharePoint
PPTP 1723 – VPN Connections
RDP 3389 – Remote Desktop Protocol (only needed for direct access, if using RWW website, only 4125 is needed)
RWW 4125 – Remote Web Workplace

If using Outlook over HTTP (also called Outlook Anywhere) the above ports are all that are required, however – if you have any users who still use the ‘original’ iPhone or users who require POP email – the following port forward are needed:

POP3 110 – If using POP3 mail connections
IMAP 143 – iPhone 1st Generation
IMAP SSL 993 – Even better for iPhone 1st Generation

Categories
Backup Windows

Attix5 and Backup Exec conflicts

We have encountered some issues with clients who already use Symantec Backup Exec and are adding additional off-site backups using Attix5. The problem is caused by both Attix5 and Symante BE using the same listening port (Port 10000) to talk to the backup agents. It seems that the Attix5 dominates the battle, and Backup Exec will then fail with the error :

Completed status: Failed
Final error: 0xe000846b – The resource could not be backed up because an error occurred while connecting to the Backup Exec for Windows Servers Remote Agent.
Make sure that the Remote Agent is installed on the target computer and is running.

??To get around this error, you can change the Attix5 listening port by following these instructions :

  1. Stop the ‘Attix5 Professional’ service within ‘Control Panel’ – ‘Administrative Tools’ – ‘Services’.
  2. Right click the Attix5 icon in the system tray and select ‘Exit’.
  3. Close any instances of Attix5 that are running.
  4. Browse to the Attix5 installation directory (by default C:\Program Files\Attix5 Professional\) through Windows Explorer.
  5. Make a backup copy of the ‘a5backup.properties’ file and store it somewhere safe.
  6. Open the original copy of the ‘a5backup.properties’ file and add the following entry at the bottom of the file, ensuring that there are no trailing spaces or carriage returns:- 
    service.port=10001

    Close the file and save the change.

  7. Start the ‘ Attix5 Professional’ service and open Attix5 Professional.
  8. To confirm that the change has worked, execute the following command from a command prompt:- 
    netstat -anb | more
  9. You should see an entry similar to the following:- 
    TCP � �127.0.0.1:10001 � �� 0.0.0.0:0� � � �� LISTENING � � � 160
[a5backup.exe]
  10. If the port shows as ‘10001’, the change has been successful.
Categories
Windows Server

Closing terminal server sessions remotely

I had another occasion today where “The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections” due to abandoned sessions and was unable to remotely gain access to a server using Terminal Services because both sessions are used up. I can use another server to check the status of the first one, or in my case I can connect into a client computer remotely. As long as the logged in user has administrative rights on the non-accessible machine I would run this:

qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12

Where 12.12.12.12 is the IP address or name of the non-accessible machine.

This will display something like this:

> qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
console 0 Conn wdcon
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
rdp-tcp#470 Bob 1 Active rdpwd
rdp-tcp#471 Jane 3 Active rdpwd

Now I know that Bob and Jane are the two that are logged in. Since Jane left the office 20 minutes ago I know that she forgot to log off. I don’t know where Bob is but I only need one session so I’ll ignore him for now.

To disconnect Jane’s session (number 3 as shown above) I would type this:

rwinsta /server:12.12.12.12 3

Strange names?. This came from the Citrix Metaframe days which Terminal Services has descended from. It stands for:

qwinsta = Query WINdows STAtion
rwinsta = Reset WINdows STAtion