Getting a PI to update when on a network

Now we have a RV I wanted the pi to copy media files over when it is on the network. I have a share for our DVR where the media files are placed (HD Homerun + Emby) and wanted to copy certain TV shows over automatically when the RV is home and I put it on the network.

Now I can go down the BASH scripting route but I do not know that space very well. However I do know the PowerShell space well so installing it made sense. Following the instructions Installing PowerShell on Linux I made a cheat sheet so it is faster if I have to rebuild t a later time.

Make the Calendar in Microsoft Teams use the same keyboard shortcut as Outlook

I use keyboard shortcuts a lot and in outlook I am used to the Ctrl+1/2/3/4 to go between mail, calendar, contacts, etc. In teams I found myself using Ctrl + 2 to go to the calendar which actually brings you to the Chat tab. I know I could use Ctrl + 4 but you know muscle memory…

Then I found out you can reorder all the tabs on the left, so not I have Chat at the top just like my mail Ctrl + 1 followed by Calendar which means it is Ctrl + 2 which is now very similar to Outlook!

iPhone hotspot issues? Getting it to work with windows.

Had an issue the iPhone hotspot would not work on windows, it would see the network and try to connect, on the phone the hotspot bar at the top would appear and disappear. Simple solution… Go to settings and change the name of your iPhone and remove any single quotes (’) from the name. Go back and turn the hotspot on and enjoy the connection. Well it worked on my computer :)

Getting a DietPi image running on Hyper-V

Why? Because it is faster to test installs and adding items to the DietPi installer with snapshots! Also it makes a great small Linux installation to run other items off in Hyper-V.

1. Go get the VirtualBox VMWare x64 image from the DietPi site. http://dietpi.com/#five
2. Download the QEMU disk image utility from https://cloudbase.it/qemu-img-windows/
3. Extract the VirtualBox VMWare image, it is a ova file. At this point we need to take the actual disk image out of this file. I use 7zip for this purpose. Right click on the ova file and open archive. Then extract the VMDK file out.
4. Extract the QEMU disk image utility to the same folder as the VMDK file and then run the following command changing the file names as needed:

.\qemu-img.exe convert ‘.\DietPi_v120_VirtualBox-x86_64-(Jessie)-disk1.vmdk’  -O vhdx -o subformat=dynamic ‘.\DietPi_v120_VirtualBox-x86_64-(Jessie)-disk1.vhdx’

Getting HP Officejet Pro 8620 scan to network working

So, tried to do this. Failed… Why? not because there was a issue with the share or the user/pass combination. It was the SMB process and stack locations in the I/O request packets (IRPs) that are used by Windows. Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc734424(v=ws.10).aspx

To fix

To increase IRPStackSize for the server:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click to select the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanserver\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type IRPStackSize, and then press Enter.
5. Right-click IRPStackSize, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, ensure decimal is selected and put in 20. Increase by 2 until it works. I ended up using 28.

Restart the server service to test or restart your PC. The process restart is faster :)

Two-Factor Authentication and your Microsoft Account

I have just moved to Two-Factor authentication, there was a bit of work to get everything signed in again but the additional security is worth it. I use my Microsoft account as a central hub for everything, it is on all my PCs at home and work, I have a WP8 that I log into with it, I use it to log into Skype. Basically if someone takes it you have access to everything I have. In addition I have lots of photos and file on SkyDrive now and do not feel like having to deal with the issues if that is compromised. The process is fairly easy and I have the simple steps below so if you have a Microsoft Account I would recommend enabling it.

Networking with MoCA

I was looking at getting the house wired for Ethernet. I do not have any major requirements at the moment, I do not intend to stream HDMI over the network :). About as bad as we get is streaming from the media centre to an extender (XBox 360) which is around 1.5Mb for a HD stream. I found out about MoCA and did some research, from what I could tell it would meet all my requirements, better still I did not need to get anything re-wried as we have points at every place in the house that I wanted a network outloet. I picked up 2 of them which gave me 4 points, I now have a nice stable network (Wireless N was spotty when streaming from my Media Centre to the XBox 360) which allows me to stream and move my server to a out of the way location in the house. It does not have the same capabilities as a fully wired Cat6 network but for my needs it works a treat!

Making a shortcut to Libraries in Windows 7

I use AutoHotKey for automation, I needed to make a link to the Libraries in Windows 7 as they hold all my info in one place now. To do this just use the following line. [code lang=“autohotkey”] Run, “%A_AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\Documents.library-ms” [/code] Replace Documents with the library name.

Setting Max memory usage in SQL Server

When running SharePoint locally it is a good idea to control the memory usage of SQL. To do this use the SQL query below. [code lang=“sql”] sp_configure ‘max server memory’, 1024 RECONFIGURE GO [/code] A good article that goes through some of the areas you need to look at in relationship to memory is located at: http://www.eraofdata.com/blog/2008/10/sql-server-memory-configuration/

Getting the Central Admin URL for a Farm in SharePoint

I recently needed to get the Url of the CA for a SharePoint farm, after a bit of hunting in the API it was tracked down under the SPAdministrationWebApplication object.

C#

[code lang=“csharp”] SPAdministrationWebApplication caWebApp = Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.Local; var url = caWebApp.Sites[0].Url; [/code]

PowerShell

[code lang=“ps”] $caWebApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local $caWebApp.Sites[0].Url [/code]