I had an interesting issue the other day ~ redirecting the print job in a terminal services session!

Ok, that sounded WAY too geeky for the majority of readers so I’ll attempt to explain (bear in mind I AM a geek, so this might not make any sense at all!)

Terminal Services (TS) is a technology which enables users to log into a ‘session’ on a server and use resources from that machine instead of the local machine.
It’s a great technology for businesses with a head office and branches, as it means that the branches can use the same resources as the HQ.

In practice, imagine a business with several branch offices and one HQ all trying to share a database like Act! for instance.
Terminal Services allows the branch offices to log into a ‘session’ on the server and use the database as if they were in the HQ ~ mainly to speed up the process and configure specific security.

Now that sounds interesting :?:, but what happens when you print? You might think that the system would simply use your own local printer, but it’s not that simple. By logging in to a TS session you are using the server as a PC and not your local machine so in theory, if you print, it would use the SERVER’s local printer, not yours. In practice, it should use your PCs local printer, thanks to some clever technology called ‘Easy Print’.

Easy print, simply detects you local printer and sends the job to that instead of the servers printer. Microsoft say you don’t even need a printer driver whist using this (though I found out that is not true )

In my case, one branch office could print locally, another could only print out at the head office (pretty useless, this branch office was in Leeds, the HQ in Dewsbury!)

The solution was to configure the TS server as a printer manager and install the drivers for the local printer on to it ~ the EXACT version of the driver is important as any difference stops it from working. Once I realised this, then everything worked as expected
Simply using the same driver as I installed on the print manager worked fine, and any future printers will just need to have the drivers added to the print manager.

Let’s hope this little nugget saves some other techies’ some frustration

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On a more personal note…
My GF has the week off – this is a good thing BUT – usually I get to leave the house later than her and get a good lie in whilst she gets ready and heads off.
Not this week
She’s left luxuriating whilst I drag myself to conciousness and head out into the world at large…

I don’t think I like it! :eek:

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One of my clients related a tale of woe today ~ he’d had an issue and (oddly) instead of calling me decided to go it alone.

Initially he’d had a problem with his Blackberry device after installing an ‘update’ which nuked his configuration.
He then decided to backup, reinstall and restore is current config ~ A moment of brilliance I might add. :)
After backing up, he uninstalled his software and reinstalled a later version ~ again, all good so far.
Once his software was installed he tried to restore the backup, with no success. This is where the problems start in earnest…

The error was reported as “cannot open file xxx.xxx, select a program to open this file with” (or some such), so he decided to find a program to open the backup file.
After tripping round some of the more dodgy ‘free’ software sites, and thoroughly infecting his system with spyware, he purchased the Pareto Logic driver fix tool ~ a mere $40.

The Pareto Logic software is a fake

Many hardware and software errors later I get an email detailing the problem.

Simon spends most of the afternoon backing up his data and rebuilding his laptop…

Sadly this will turn out to be a costly mistake

On the upside, his laptop is now a speedy little beastie!

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Despite the recession, we seem to be doing extremely well :)

Historically, this quarter (the 2nd business quarter) is a little down on both turnover and profit. This is mainly due to the big holiday month of August ~ for some reason, people don’t seem to care about their computers if they are jetting off to warmer climes ~ people are odd.
With the start of the school holidays, we can almost see the drop off of calls.

Not this time!
We are getting more and more busy

Whilst discussing this with a colleague of ours (he is more like an non-executive director really), he said it’s our business philosophy which has been right, and now we are reaping the rewards.
It’s a great feeling to see your own business start to flourish, though the sceptic in me expects it all to go quiet again

I heard on the news recently, that more and more people are thinking that the recession has bottomed out, and that things are getting better, but people also expect it to take quite a while to settle down again.
I can agree with this…

If we all start thinking that these problems are coming to an end, then things should look a little rosier.
Though if you have just lost your job, I can see this would be hard…

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I heard from Jaimie at inet Engineers the other day.
He had heard from a client who we tried to help but “didn’t want to spend any money at the moment” on the things we recommend for ALL businesses (backup systems, antivirus etc…)
Apparently, they have just had an office destroying fire. In it they lost ALL of their computer records and stock.
Try to imagine that for a moment – ALL records of sales, invoicing, orders, clients, suppliers, financials, products and stock gone.
I think it unlikely that their business will recover
It’s a real shame, but a little foresight by the directors could have saved most of these losses.

If you are in a similar position, don’t think it wont happen to you, ‘cos if it does it’ll be too late…
Pay about £15 – £20 per month for an online backup AT LEAST!!
It might be the best investment your business makes…

Call us to discuss

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Check the time of this post ⇑
Suffice to say it’s a bit early and, thanks to a coughing fit, I’m awake! (and not currently very popular to boot ) 
I’m a little sick of it – especially since I need to pop over to Manchester tomorrow. A good drive away…

Thought i’d better post on this worm sweeping the nation.
If you are in any doubt about the level of threat to your systems get this
Its the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser.
It’ll tell you what you are missing in terms of security patches and config.
The patch for this current worm is numbered KB958644 – you should also have a good antivirus product (which we can get you for a good price)

I’m going to surf for a bit to calm down, then try sleeping again (and getting warmed up – it’s effin’ freexin!)

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