The 12 Best Tricks for Windows Server 2012

While users are still debating about the usability of Windows 8, administrators are worrying about the use of Windows Server 2012, which is available either tiled or totally without a GUI on request. Underneath its new clothes, the new Windows Server variant has treasures to offer, as shown by the following tricks.

Trick 1: Efficient Use of Server Manager

Windows Server 2008 R2 in part already allowed administrators to manage the network with Server Manager. However, that was all fairly rudimentary. For example, Server Manager in Windows Server 2008 R2 could not install roles over the network, and the management of server roles was not very efficient. Windows Server 2012 is vastly improved. For example, in Windows Server 2012, you can install server roles and features over the network on other servers (Figure 1).

  Figure 1: Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 provides centralized management of roles and features.

Microsoft has combined the wizards for installing server roles and features into a single wizard. This approach makes the process easier and faster because only a single install is necessary. Server Manager automatically groups installed server roles together with the appropriate servers. Server Manager lists management tools directly in the Tools menu, and you can even edit the Tools menu. To do this, open the Control Panel and look for System and Security | Administrative Tools . Server Manager shows all of the links in this area in the Tools menu. At this point, you can add more links, remove links, and even create a folder structure.

To use Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 to connect to more servers, just click on Manageand then Add Servers . In the window, you can then search for servers, so you can manage them in your local Server Manager. In this way, you also create your own groups of servers, which you can combine in Server Manager. You can then view event messages for these groups. Note that you can only install server roles and features if you have previously connected to the appropriate server.

Trick 2: NIC Teaming

Windows Server 2012 can combine up to 32 compatible network cards in teams without additional tools. During setup, you can select whether you want to use the individual adapters in the team as standby adapters to improve availability, or whether you want to combine the speed of the adapters to increase performance. You can only combine Ethernet connections in teams. Bluetooth and WLAN are not supported. Additionally, all network cards must be connected with the same speed.

To create a NIC team, launch Server Manager and click Local Server . By default, NIC Teaming is disabled. To enable the feature, click on the Disabled link. A new window will appear. Here, in the lower right area you can see which network adapters in the server are compatible with NIC teaming. To create a team, just right-click in the Adapters and Interfaces window and select Add to New Team .

The Properties link lets you define additional settings for your NIC team. Windows Server 2012 uses the MAC address of the primary NIC as the MAC address of the team. Core servers also support NIC teams. You can handle the setup either with Server Manager on another server, or you can use PowerShell. In PowerShell, you can use Get-NetAdapter to view the individual team adapter candidates and use Enable-NetAdapter or Disable-NetAdapter to enable or disable individual adapters.

All commandlets for managing NIC teams can be listed using Get-Command -Module NetLbfo . To create a new team, use the New-NetLbfoTeam <team name> <Network Interface Cards>commandlet. A list of comma-separated NICs is required here. Windows Server 2012 removes the IP binding from the physical network interface cards and binds them to the new virtual adapter which the wizard created for the team. You can view the status of the team in the Server ManagerLocal Server section by clicking on the Enabled link by NIC Teaming (Figure 2).

                                                          Figure 2: Viewing the NIC Teaming status.

If the team and the associated adapters are shown as active , you can adjust the network settings for the team. To do this, open the adapter settings by entering ncpa.cpl on the welcome page. You can then see the new team. On Hyper-V hosts you can create multiple virtual switches on the basis of the various physical adapters and then create NIC teams within virtual servers. They use the individual virtual switches of the Hyper-V host as their basis.

Trick 3: Virtual Domain Controller – Cloning and Snapshots

In Windows Server 2012, Microsoft has optimized the use of virtual domain controllers.

In contrast to previous versions, snapshots and cloned domain controllers no longer pose a risk to the entire Active Directory. To virtualize and also clone your domain controllers optimally, at least the following conditions must be met:

• The PDC emulator must be on a domain controller with Windows Server 2012. You cannot clone the PDC emulator; it must always be available during the cloning process.
• The domain must already have at least two domain controllers with Windows Server 2012 because you can only clone the second. The first one provides the PDC emulator.
• The virtualization solution must support this new technology (VM generation ID). Currently, this is only Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012.

To discover whether the virtualization solution you use supports the new VM generation ID, check out the Device Manager on a virtualized server with Windows Server 2012. The driver for system devices must be the Microsoft Hyper-V Generation Counter with the vmgencounter.sys driver file.

Before you clone a virtual domain controller, you need to run the

Get-ADDCCloningExcludedApplicationList

commandlet on the server. This cmdlet checks whether there are applications on the virtual server that do not support cloning.

If the cmdlet discovers incompatible services, for example, the DHCP service or an antivirus scanner, a message appears telling you this.

The configuration for cloning is created in the DCCloneConfig.xml file. The sample file,SampleDCCloneConfig.xml , is located in C:\Windows\System32 .

After creating the DCCloneConfig.xml file, you can copy this to the folder with the Active Directory database, which is normally the C:\Windows\NTDS folder. You can only clone source domain controllers that are members of the Clonable domain controllers group in Active Directory. You also can only clone domain controllers that are not switched on. That is, you must shut down the appropriate domain controller before you can clone it.

Before adding the new domain controller to Active Directory, you must copy the DCCloneConfig.xml file customized by the cloning process from the source computer to the folder with the Active Directory database – that is, normally from the source computer toC:\Windows\NTDS on the target computer. Windows modifies the name of the file to show that a cloning process has taken place. Change the name back to DCCloneConfig.xml .

Next, you can either create a new virtual machine and use the copied hard drive, or you can import the exported server with the Hyper-V Manager or PowerShell. When you import, select the optionCopy the virtual machine . When you start the domain controller, it parses the DCCloneConfig.xmlfile and prepares itself for the cloning. You will also receive a corresponding message when Windows starts up (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Windows Server 2012 cloning Active Directory on the new virtual domain controller.

Trick 4: Modifying the Server Name, Server Manager View, and IE

Many of the tasks that are part of the basic server configuration can be handled directly in Server Manager. To do this, click on Local Server . In the middle panel you will see the different tasks and can launch the corresponding wizards by clicking on the links.

In the View menu, you can disable the Welcome Tile ; then, in Manage | Server Manager Properties enable the option Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon . Normally you need Internet Explorer to install drivers. In Windows Server 2012, advanced security is automatically enabled for Internet Explorer, which can interfere with downloading the drivers. You can disable advanced security for Internet Explorer in Server Manager as follows: Open Server Manager and on the left side, click Local Server . On the right side, click the On link next to IE Enhanced Security Configuration in the Properties section. In the dialog box that then appears, disable the option for Users or Administrators only.

After advanced security is disabled, you should be able to download drivers with no trouble.

Trick 5: Managing Windows Server 2012 with Windows 8

Microsoft provides the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) to let administrators manage Windows Server 2012 with Windows 8. Installing the tools on a workstation with Windows 8 gives you all of the administration tools you need for managing Windows Server 2012.

In addition to the various management tools for the server roles, the RSAT installation wizard also adds the new Server Manager from Windows Server 2012 to Windows 8. Using Server Manager, you can connect the various servers on which Windows Server 2012 is installed to the network. You also can use Server Manager on a Windows 8 workstation to install server roles on servers.

The Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 include Server Manager, management tools for server roles and features of Windows Server 2012, PowerShell cmdlets, and command-line tools for the management of roles and features. The Remote Server Administration Tools can be downloaded as a .msu file directly in the Download Center. To use Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 to connect to more servers, click on Manage and then Add Server . In the window, you can then search for servers and manage them in your local Server Manager.

Trick 6: Core Servers, Minimal Server Interface, GUI

Every installation of Windows Server 2012 has a Server Core as its basis. This provides all the essential command-line management tools, but it lacks all of the graphical management tools. You need to manage the server via some other server or with the Remote Server Administration Tools on Windows 8. During the installation, you can also opt to install Server Core mode. After the installation, you can easily install the management tools and the graphical interface on Windows Server 2012.

New in Windows Server 2012, besides the ability to install the graphical management tools on Server Cores, is the Minimal Server Interface. This installs the most important management tools for the graphical interface but is missing additional applications, such as Media Player, Explorer, and Internet Explorer. The desktop is also missing with this option. Many of the programs from the Control Panel and most of the administration tools for server roles and features, do work. The Minimal Server Interface is an intermediate stage between Server Core and servers with a graphical interface.

You can uninstall the graphical interface either in Server Manager or PowerShell. In Server Manager, use Manage | Remove Roles and Features . The Remove features page has a User Interfaces and Infrastructure field with three options:

• Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure – This refers to the management consoles of the most important graphical tools on the server. If only this feature is installed, and not the graphical shell for server and desktop experience features, you have a server with a Minimal Server Interface.
• Desktop Experience – This feature is especially intended for Remote Desktop Servers. It converts the server interface into a Windows 8 interface and provides tools such as Media Player, Photo Manager, themes, and more.
• Server Graphical Shell – You can disable this feature together with the desktop experience to use the Minimal Server Interface. Note that this also removes Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) and Internet Explorer from the server. You can also use this feature in PowerShell with the command:

Uninstall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell

When you install a Core Server, the server is also missing the binaries for installing the graphical interface. You will need either to configure an Internet connection for the server for the installation so that you can download the required data from Windows Update, or you need to enter the folder with the Windows Server 2012 installation files.

You can perform the install on Server Cores with PowerShell using the command

Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra

or you can connect with the server using Server Manager on a server on the network. Use the following commands in PowerShell:

Import-Module Dism

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -online -Featurename ServerCore-FullServer,Server-Gui-Shell,Server-Gui-Mgmt

Alternatively, you can do:

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:ServerCore-FullServer /featurename:Server-Gui-Shell /featurename:Server-Gui-Mgmt

to install the graphical interface.

Trick 7: Backing Up Virtual Servers

Veeam, the well-known vendor of virtual server backup tools, offers a free tool that lets you parse the backup of virtual Exchange Servers and restore individual objects (single-item recovery). Normal servers can also be backed up and restored in the same way.

The basis for this tool is the Veeam Backup Free Edition product. The backup software lets you back up virtual servers without any downtime – and not just virtual Exchange servers. The software also supports VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. With Veeam Backup Free Edition, you can even connect to System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2/2012 and integrate Hyper-V clusters. If you connect a SCVMM server to Veeam backup, the software can automatically scan all the attached servers and back up the virtual servers stored on them (Figure 4). The software not only backs up individual virtualization hosts but specializes in backing up the virtual servers.

                 Figure 4: Free backups for virtual servers with Veeam Backup Free Edition.

Trick 8: Testing Replication in PowerShell

You can discover the status of Active Directory replication in PowerShell with the commandlet

Get-ADReplicationUpToDatenessVectorTable <servername>

or a list of all servers with:

Get-ADReplicationUpToDatenessVectorTable* | sort Partner,Server | ft Partner,Server,UsnFilter

To view the individual sites and the domain controllers at these sites, use these two commandlets:

Get-ADReplicationSite XE "Get-ADReplicationSite" -Filter * | ft NameGet-ADDomainController -Filter * | ft Hostname,Site

To view the replication connections in the PowerShell, use the command get-adreplicationconnection . Other interesting commandlets include:

Get-ADReplicationPartnerMetadata XE "Get-ADReplicationPartnerMetadata" Get-ADReplicationFailure XE "Get-ADReplicationFailure"Get-ADReplicationQueueOperation

You can also view detailed information on the individual sites with

Get-ADReplicationSite -Filter *

in PowerShell.

Trick 9: Using Hyper-V Replication

Hyper-V replicas in Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Server 2012 let you replicate and synchronize virtual hard disks and complete virtual servers asynchronously between various Hyper-V hosts on the network. A cluster is not required. You can perform the replications manually, automatically, or on the basis of a schedule. If a Hyper-V host fails, the replicated servers can be switched online.

To make a Hyper-V host available for replicas, you will first need to enable and configure this option on the appropriate server in the Hyper-V Settings | Replication Configuration feature. Here, you define the data traffic and the servers from which the current server accepts replicas. Thus, you need to enable this feature first on all Hyper-V hosts.

If you are using Hyper-V Server 2012, you can also manage this server using the Hyper-V Manager on a different server and create the same settings in this way. There are no differences from the commercial editions of Windows Server 2012. Make sure you enable the Hyper-V Replicarule in the advanced firewall configuration (wf.msc ) named Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener . There is also a listener for HTTPS.

If you want to replicate a virtual server on another Hyper-V host with Windows Server 2012 or Hyper-V Server 2012, then after configuring the host, right-click on the appropriate virtual server and select Enable Replication (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Hyper-V replicas let you replicate virtual servers between hosts.

This step launches a wizard, in which you specify how to replicate the selected server from the source host to the target server. The virtual server on the source server will remain the same.

In the wizard, you also set the target server and the authentication type. What authentication the destination server accepts is defined on the target server in the Hyper-V settings (Replication Configuration ). You can also use the wizard to define which virtual hard drives you want to replicate. For the replication to work, you must enable the rules for the HTTP or HTTPS listener (depending on the traffic type you want to use) on the target server in the advanced settings of Windows Firewall (wf.msc ). The rules are already there, just not enabled.

Trick 10: Failover with Hyper-V Replicas

The advantage of Hyper-V replicas is that you can perform a failover in the event of a server failure. To do so, click on the corresponding virtual server that you have replicated in Hyper-V Manager and select Replication | Failover in the pop-up menu. You can also launch a scheduled failover. In this case, you start the failover from the server on which you operate the source VM.

Next, select the restore point at which you want to fail over and then launch the failover. This only works if the source VM is switched off. During the failover, the wizard will start the replicated server, which then becomes available via the network, just like the source VM.

The advantage of a planned failover of the source Hyper-V host is that Hyper-V can send changes that have not yet been replicated to the target server so that it has the latest version. After completing a planned failover, the old source VM then becomes the new target VM, and the old target VM becomes the new source VM for replication. This means that you can also reverse this process.

Trick 11: Configuring DHCP for Failover

DHCP failover in Windows Server 2012 allows the deployment of a fail-safe DHCP server structure without a cluster. DHCP failover supports two servers with IPv4 configurations. The servers can also be members of a workgroup; domain membership is not strictly necessary.

The DHCP failover feature lets you provide two DHCP server IP addresses and option configurations on the same subnet or in the same range. This information is replicated between the two DHCP servers. Configuring the failover to load-balancing, in which client requests are distributed to the two servers, is also possible.

Open the DHCP console on the DHCP server, right-click the DHCP realm in which you want the fail-safe, and then click Configure Failover . On the second page, enter the Partner Server and then click Next . You can also specify a common secret key for this failover relationship. You can also select the mode with which you want to use the fail-safe: either load balancing or hot standby. By default, Load Balance is selected. This means that two servers share the requests. After you have completed the setup, you can view the failover in the Failover tab of the IP range’s properties (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Configuring the failover relationship in Windows Server 2012 provides a fail-safe for DHCP.

Trick 12: Providing iSCSI Targets via Virtual Hard Drives

Windows Server 2012 can do more than access iSCSI targets, it can also serve up virtual disks as iSCSI targets on the network. To do this, you must install the iSCSI Target Server role in Server Manager with Manage | Add Roles and Features | File and Storage Services | File and iSCSI Services .

After installing the role service, you can use Server Manager and select File and Storage Services | iSCSI to create virtual disks that can be configured as iSCSI targets on the network. With the wizard, and as anywhere in Server Manager, you can also create virtual iSCSI targets on other servers on the network. For this to work, the iSCSI Target Server role service must be installed on the corresponding server.

In the scope of this setup, you can define the size and the location of the VHD(x) file. Additionally, you can use the wizard to control which server on the network is allowed to access the iSCSI target. You can also use an iSCSI target to provide multiple virtual iSCSI disks. After creating the virtual disks, you can use the context menu to change the settings.

Upgrade Your Wireless Router to Get Faster Speeds and More Reliable Wi-Fi

If you haven’t upgraded to a new wireless router in a few years, you might want to seriously consider it. That old router may still be working, but newer ones will give you better Wi-Fi.

You probably have some new devices that support modern wireless networking standards, so there’s no sense in slowing everything down with an outdated router.

Why You Should Care

That’s fine if you’re completley happy with your Wi-Fi, but most people probably want more speed, coverage, and reliability. It’s easy to overlook the wireless router sitting on a high shelf when upgrading your gear, but you shouldn’t. It’s the device through which all your devices get their internet connection, and even our tips for speeding up your wireless network will only get you so far if you hold onto an old router forever.The humble wireless router can often be overlooked if it’s still running stable and providing a solid connection to your devices. Many people are still using routers running old wireless standards for just this reason.

Specifically, new wireless routers support new wireless networking standards that offer higher speeds and less interference. You aren’t getting everything your new laptops, smarpthones, tablets, TV streaming boxes, game consoles, and other network-connected devices have to offer if you’re using an outdated router. That’s why things like streaming Netflix in HD over Wi-Fi just aren’t possible if you’re using too old a router.

How to Find What Wireless Standards Your Router Supports

Look for standards like “802.11ac”, “802.11n”, and “802.11g”. 802.11ac is the most recent — if you have that, you’re golden. 802.11n is a bit older, but still in reasonably widespread use — still, it’s not the best you can get. 802.11g is rather dated and you should definitely consider upgrading if you’re still using an old router that only supports this standard.Before worrying about this, you might just want to check which standards your router actually supports. There are a number of different ways to do this. On some routers, the supported standards might be printed on the router itself — perhaps on the bottom. They’ll definitely be printed on the box the router came in. However, you can always find the model number on the router itself and plug that number into a web search engine. Look at the router’s specifications and check which wireless standards it claims to support. (You may also be able to find this information in your router’s web interface, too.)

802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, and 802.11b

Here’s a quick rundown of the common wireless standards you should know about:

• 802.11ac: This is the most recent wireless standard. Unlike 802.11(b/g/n), it can operate at 5 GHz instead of 2.4 GHz. This means less wireless interference and a more reliable signal. In theory, it can achieve up to 866.7 Mbit/s in data transfer speed. 802.11ac was finalized in 2013.Here’s a quick rundown of the common wireless standards you should know about:
• 802.11n: This is the previous most popular wireless standard. Unlike modern 802.11ac, it can only operate at 2.4 GHz — that means more interference. In theory, it can achieve up to 150 Mbit/s in data transfer speed. 802.11n was finalized in 2009.
• 802.11g: Before 802.11n, there was 802.11g. Like 802.11n, it’s limited to 2.4 GHz. 802.11g can only achieve data transfer speeds of up to 54 Mbit/s in theory. This standard was finalized in 2003.
• 802.11b: This standard is even older, as it was finalized in 1999. It offers speeds up of up to 11 Mbit/s in theory.

Remember that these speeds are theoretical, and you probably won’t see anything near that fast in the real world. But this cuts both ways. Sure, 802.11ac won’t be nearly as fast as promised, but 802.11n and 802.11g are even slower than they appear to be at first

There’s more to the standards than these few points, but take it as a quick look at the relative interference and speeds in comparison between these standards. If you’re still using an old 802.11g router for some reason, well — you’re using a wireless standard from twelve years ago. It’s time to upgrade!

How to Find Which Wireless Standards Your Devices Support

Modern devices released recently should support 802.11ac, and this will only become more common going forward. Practically all devices you’re using should support 802.11n at this point.

You can still use old devices that support older wireless standards with modern routers. Modern routers can be backwards-compatible if necessary. But, if you have a bunch of new devices that support 802.11ac and you’re still using 802.11n — or, even worse, 802.11g — that’s a very good argument for upgrading.

As with routers, the standards a device supports can generally be found on its device’s specifications page. Check the box the device came in or perform a web search for its model number to see what wireless standards a device supports, if you’re curious.

HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware

Today we’re taking a look at the home networking hardware: what the individual pieces do, when you need them, and how best to deploy them. Read on to get a clearer picture of what you need to optimize your home network.

When do you need a switch? A hub? What exactly does a router do? Do you need a router if you have a single computer? Network technology can be quite an arcane area of study but armed with the right terms and a general overview of how devices function on your home network you can deploy your network with confidence.

Understanding Home Networking Through Network Diagrams

Rather than start off with a glossary of networking terms—and in the process slam you with a technical terms with no easy point of reference—let’s dive right into looking at network diagrams. Here is the simplest network configuration available: a computer linked directly to a modem which is in turn linked through a phone line/cable/fiber optic uplink to the individual’s internet service provider.

It doesn’t get less complicated than this arrangement but there is a price to pay for the ultra-simplicity of the setup. This user cannot access the internet with a Wi-Fi device (thus no access for smart phones, tablets, or other wireless devices) and they lose out on the benefits of having a router between their computer and the greater internet. Let’s introduce a router and highlight the benefits of using one. In the diagram below we’ve introduced two elements to the network: a wireless router and a laptop connecting to the network via that wireless connection.

When should you use a router? Given the low cost of home routers and the benefits gained from installing one on your network you should always use a router (which almost always includes a firewall feature).

Home routers are actually a a combination of three networking components: a router, a firewall, and a switch. In a commercial setting the three pieces of hardware are kept separate but consumer routers are almost always a combination of both the routing and switching components with a firewall added in for good measure. First let’s look at what the router function does.

At the most basic level a router links two networks together, the network within your home (however big or small) and the network outside your home (in this case, the Internet). The broadband modem provided to you by your ISP is only suited to linking a single computer to the internet and usually does not include any sort of routing or switch functionality. A router performs the following functions:

IP sharing: Your ISP assigns you one IP address. If you have a desktop, a laptop, a media box on your TV, and an iPad, that one IP address clearly isn’t going to cut it. A router manages those multiple connections and ensures that the right packets of information go to the right places. Without this function there would be no way for a person on the desktop and a person on the laptop to both browse the web as there would be no distinguishing between which computer was requesting what.

• Network Address Translation (NAT): Related to the IP sharing function, NAT modifies the headers in packets of information coming into and out of your network so that they get routed to the proper device. Think of NAT like a very helpful receptionist inside your router that knows exactly where every incoming/outgoing package should go and stamps the department on them accordingly.
• Dynamic Host Configuration: Without DHCP you would have to manually configure and add all the hosts to your network. This means every time a new computer entered the network you would have to manually assign it an address on the network. DHCP does that for you automatically so that when you plug your XBOX into your router, your friend gets on your wireless network, or you add a new computer, an address is assigned with no human interaction required.
• Firewall: Routers act as basic firewalls in a variety of ways including automatically rejecting incoming data that is not part of an ongoing exchange between a computer within your network and the outside world. If you request a music stream from Pandora, for example, your router says, “We’re expecting you, come on in” and that stream of data is directed to the device that made the request. On the other hand, if a sudden burst of port probing comes in from an unknown address your router acts as a bouncer and rejects the requests, effectively cloaking your computers. Even for a user with a single computer a simple $50 router is worth it for the firewall functionality alone.

In addition to the inside-to-outside network functionality outlined above, home routers also act as a network switch. A network switch is a piece of hardware that facilitates communication between computers on an internal network. Without the switching function the devices could talk through the router to the greater internet but not to each other—something as simple as copying an MP3 from your laptop to your desktop over the network would be impossible.

Most routers have four Ethernet ports which allow you to plug in four devices and have them communicate via the switch function. If you need more than four Ethernet connections you’ll need to upgrade to a router with a larger port bank (a rather expensive proposition that will usually only boost you up to eight ports) or you can pick up a dedicated switch. Note: You only need to upgrade if you’re running out of physical ports for hard line connections. If you only have one computer and one networked printer plugged into your four-port router (and everything else on your network is Wi-Fi based) there is no need to upgrade to gain physical ports. That said, let’s take a look at a network with a dedicated switch.

Although the four-port limit on the super majority of home routers was more than enough for most home users, the last 10 years have brought a significant increase in the number of networkable devices within the home. It isn’t uncommon to have multiple computers, multiple game consoles, media centers, printers, file servers, and more that all connect to the Ethernet LAN (while you may get away with putting your Wii on the Wi-Fi network for things like dedicated video streaming and media server access it is much preferable to have a hard line connection). Once you’ve reached that level of device saturation it’s necessary to add in a switch with eight, 16, or more ports to properly support your growing home network.

As a side note, historically people often relied on hubs because they were so much cheaper than pricey switches. A hub is a a simple network device that does not examine or manage any of the traffic that comes through it—it’s a “dumb” network device—by contrast switches actually interact with the data packets and actively direct them. Because hubs have no management component there are frequent collisions between packets which leads to an overall decrease in performance. Hubs suffer from a number of technical shortcomings which you can read about here. Consumer grade networks switches have fallen in price so steeply over the last 10 years that very few hubs are even manufactured anymore (Netgear, one of the largest manufacturers of consumer hubs, no longer even makes them). Because of the shortcomings of network hubs and the low prices of quality consumer-grade network switches we cannot recommend using a hub. When you can pick up a perfectly good high-speed 8-port switch for $25 there’s no good reason to use an outdated hub on a home network—if you’re curious why a network admin would ever deploy a hub you can read about it here.

Returning to the topic of switches: switches are an excellent and inexpensive way to increase the size of your home network. If you outgrow the bank of four ports on the back of your router the simplest thing you can do to expand your network is to purchase a switch with an appropriate number of ports. Unplug the devices from your router, plug all the devices into the switch, and then plug the switch into the router. Note: switches have absolutely no routing functionality and cannot take the place of a router. Your router likely has a four-port switch built into it but that does not mean your new eight-port dedicated switch can replace your router—you still need the router to mediate between your modem and switch.

Decoding Network Speed Designations

Now that you’ve got a clear picture of how exactly your network should be physically configured let’s talk about network speeds. There are two primary designations we are interested in: Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Let’s take a look at Ethernet first.

Ethernet connection speeds are designated in 10BASE. The original Ethernet protocol, now 30 years old, operated as a max speed of 10 Mbit/s. Fast Ethernet, introduced in 1995, upped the speed to 100 Mbit/s. Gigabit Ethernet was introduced shortly after that in 1998 but didn’t gain much traction in the consumer market until recently. As its name suggests, Gigabit Ethernet is capable of 1000 Mbit/s. You will commonly see these designations noted on networking gear and its packaging as 10/100 or 10/100/1000 indicating which Ethernet version the device is compatible with.

In order to take full advantage of the maximum speeds all the devices in the transfer chain need to be at or above the speed rating you want. For example, let’s say you have a media server in your basement with a Gigabit Ethernet card installed and a media console in your living room with a Gigabit Ethernet card but you are connecting the two together with a 10/100 switch. Both devices will be limited by the 100 Mbit/s ceiling on the switch. In this situation upgrading the switch would boost your network performance considerably.

Outside of transferring large files and streaming HD video content across your home network there is little need to go out and upgrade all your equipment to Gigabit. If your primary computer network usage involves browsing the web and light file transfers 10/100 is more than satisfactory.

Understanding Wi-Fi Speeds

Wi-Fi speeds are designated by letter, not by number. Unlike the easy to translate number-as-network-speed designation we find with Ethernet the Wi-Fi designations actually refer to the draft versions of the IEEE 802.11 networking standard that dictates the parameters of the Wi-Fi protocol.

802.11b was the first version widely adopted by consumers. 802.11b devices operate at a maximum transmission of 11 Mbit/s but the speed is highly dependent on signal strength and quality—realistically users should expect 1-5 Mbit/s. Devices using 802.11b suffer from interference from baby monitors, bluetooth devices, cordless phones, and other 2.4GHz band devices.

802.11g was the next major consumer upgrade and boosted the max transmission to 54 Mbit/s (realistically about 22 Mbit/s accounting for error correction and signal strength). 802.11g suffers from the same kind of 2.4GHz band interference that 802.11b does.

802.11n is a significant upgrade to the Wi-Fi standards—devices use multiple-input multiple-output antennas (MIMO) to operate on both the 2.4GHz and relatively empty 5GHz bands. 802.11n has a theoretical maximum of 300 Mbit/s but accounting for error correction and less than ideal conditions you can expect speeds in 100-150 Mbit/s range.

802.11ac is a huge upgrade that brings wider channels (80 or 160 MHz versus 40 MHz), more spatial streams (up to eight) and things like beamforming, which sorta send the waves directly to your device instead of bouncing all around, making things much faster. How much faster? There are some models that can do one gigabit per second. It’s extremely fast.

Like Ethernet, Wi-Fi speeds are limited by the weakest link in the direct network. If you have an 802.11n capable Wi-Fi router but your netbook only has an 802.11g capable Wi-Fi module you will max out at the 802.11g speeds. In addition to the speed limitations there is a very pressing reason for abandoning the oldest popular Wi-Fi protocol 802.11b. You must use the same level of encryption on every device in your network and the encryption schemes available to 802.11b devices are weak and have been compromised (WEP encryption, for example, can be compromised in a matter of minutes by a moderately skilled child). Upgrading your Wi-Fi router and wireless equipment allows you to upgrade your wireless encryption as well as enjoy faster speeds. If you haven’t done anything to secure your router now would be a good time to read our guide to locking down your Wi-Fi network against intrusion.

Also like Ethernet, upgrading to the maximum speed—in this case 802.11n—is best suited for people moving large files and streaming HD video. Upgrading to 802.11n will have a negligible impact on your web browsing speed but will have an enormous impact on your ability to wirelessly stream HD content around your home.

Net User command for administrators in Windows

The Net User is a command-line tool that was introduced in Windows Vista and is available in Windows 8 too. This tool can help system administrators to add or modify user accounts or even displays user account information.

Net User command

You can use the net user command to create and modify user accounts on computers. When you use this command without command-line switches, the user accounts for the computer are listed. The user account information is stored in the user accounts database. This command works only on servers.

To run the net user command tool, using the WinX menu, open a Command Prompt, type net user and hit Enter. This will show you the user accounts on the computer. Thus, when you use net user without parameters, it displays a list of the user accounts on the computer.

The sytax for its usage is:

net user [<UserName> {<Password> | *} [<Options>]] [/domain]
net user [<UserName> {<Password> | *} /add [<Options>] [/domain]]
net user [<UserName> [/delete] [/domain]]

Using net user with the appropriate parameters allows you to carry out several functions. You can use the following parameters with the net user command:

• username is the name of the user account you want to add, delete, modify, or view.
• password will assign or change a password for the user’s account.
• * will produce a prompt for the password.
• /domain performs the operation on the primary domain controller of the current domain on computers running Windows NT Workstation which are members of a Windows NT Server domain.
• /add will add a user account to the user accounts database.
• /delete will delet a user account from the user accounts database.
• Net user Change Password

As an example let us say you want to change the password of a user. To change a user’s password, log on as an administrator, open an elevated command prompt type the following and press Enter:net 

user user_name * /domain

You will be asked to type a password for the user. Type the new password and later again retype the password to confirm. The password will now be changed.

You could also use the following command. But this case, you will not be prompted. The password will be directly changed right away:

net user user_name new_password

The 4 Most Confusing Concepts in Networking Explained

Takeaway: Networking can be complicated, but its most basic concepts are actually quite simple.

Networking can be complicated; the bigger the job, the more tiny puzzle pieces you have to figure out how to put together. At the most basic level, however, many of the networking concepts that seem most complicated are actually rather simple ... barring their implementation, of course. Here's an overview of some of these key concepts. 

IP Addresses

 IP addresses are like the physical address for your house or your phone number: They provide a way to map a physical device to a number, whether it’s a PC, a router or a mobile device. IP Version 4 is still the most common form of IP address, although IP Version 6 is starting to emerge as IPv4 addresses are exhausted. (Learn more about the two versions in The Trouble With IPV6.)

IP addresses are typically written out in dotted decimal form, with four "octets" separated by dots. It’s actually a representation of the 32 bits in IPv4 addresses, with each octet making up eight bits. Although the highest number in an eight-bit byte is 256, 0 is reserved, so the range of each octet is really one-255. 

IP Version 6 addresses, on the other hand are 128 bits long and are written in hexadecimal. They’re only starting to come into use as IPv4 has been exhausted. 

Historically, IP addresses were divided into classes, which were determined by the initial numbers in the address. Class A had a range of one-126, Class B from 128-191, and Class C ranging from 192-223. The number of networks these addresses can host varies, with class A having a maximum of 126 hosts with 16,77,214 hosts per network. These addresses also differ on how much of the address is reserved for the network and how much of it is available for the host. For example, a class A address reserves the first octet while leaving the rest available for the host, while a Class C address uses three octets. It’s possible for network administrators to subdivide networks even further, which leads to subnetting.

Subnetting

Subnetting is a way of dividing up IP addresses in an attempt to use them efficiently. This is done by means of a subnet mask. As previously mentioned, traditional IP addresses reserve part of the address for the network and leave the rest for the host. This is known as a subnet mask, which can also be represented in dotted decimal form. For example, the default subnet mask for a Class A address would be 255.0.0.0, while a Class C address would be 255.255.255.0. 

Another way to represent them is using Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). CIDR simply appends the subnet mask using to the IP address. In her book "Essential System Administration," author Aeleen Frisch uses the example of the 192.168.10.0. This class C address would be written with its subnet mask as 192.168.10.0/24, because the first three octets add up to 24 bits. There are plenty of good networking books that can go into greater detail. There are also calculators that can help you determine the best subnetting scheme that makes sense for your network.

Subnetting reserves some addresses available for hosts and designates them as small networks, hence the term "subnet." While there are fewer hosts available, it can be easier for administrators to manage than having one large network. (Learn more about this area in 8 Steps to Understanding IP Subnetting.)

Routing

So, you have addresses for your networks squared away, but how do you get packets from point A to point B? Routing, of course. While it might sound complicated, it’s actually quite simple. Despite the complexity of the Internet, sending packets across the hall or across the world is easy and reliable.

Most TCP/IP networks are configured to have a gateway, which is either a specific piece of networking equipment or a computer with two or more connections between different networks. This is what the term "router" means. The connection of different networks is also the true meaning of the term "Internet."

The robustness of the Internet is due to its simplicity. Each router only knows about the networks it’s connected to, but you can send packets to hosts across the hall or around the world. If a router gets a packet, it simply forwards it onto the next network until it gets to its destination. You can see this process in detail using a tool known as a traceroute, although it's known by different names on different systems. 

Each packet is set with a time to live (TTL), the maximum number of "hops" across different networks it can make. Each hop reduces the TTL. If it gets to zero, the packet is simply dropped. This is usually the result of some misconfiguration along the line, such as a network sending packets in circles. This rare, and it’s amazing how reliable the Internet is.

DNS

Addresses are fine, but you can’t really memorize them. The Domain Name System (DNS) is what creates those Web addresses that we are most familiar with. It's DNS that maps IP addresses to names. 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) maintains a list of top-level domains, such as .com and .org. There are more than 250 global TLDs, as seen on ICANN’s microsite

Each machine has a host name file somewhere that maps names to addresses, but this gets unwieldy even with more than a few machines. Just try to imagine millions of machines around the world. DNS is a decentralized system, which makes this process much easier.

The key to DNS’s success is its ability to perform recursive lookups. If a DNS server gets a request for a name it doesn’t know, it will ask another server, which will ask another server and so on until it gets an answer. DNS servers typically cache their names to make this faster.

Despite its simplicity in operation, DNS can be challenging to set up, and the process includes more detail than can be covered in this article. Fortunately, there are plenty of guides that can outline this sometimes daunting process. A good one is Craig Hunt's"TCP/IP Network Administration." (Learn more in DNS: One Internet Protocol to Rule Them All.)

Change Your IP Address From the Command Prompt

Most everybody can figure out how to change their IP address using Control Panel, but did you know you can set your network card’s IP address using a simple command from the command prompt?

Changing Your IP Address

Changing your IP information requires two commands, one for your IP address, subnet mask and default gateway and another for your DNS settings. In order to change your IP address we use the netsh command, the exact command you want to use is the following:

netsh interface ip set address name=”Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.1 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.254

This assumes the following:

• The name of the interface you want to change the IP address for is Local Area Network
• You want to statically assign an IP address of 192.168.0.1
• You want to set a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
• You want to set a default gateway of 192.168.0.254

Armed with this information you should obviously switch the settings out for some that are suited to your network. You might, however, be wondering how you can go from using an already set static IP address to getting an address from DHCP. In this case the command you are looking for is:

netsh interface ip set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=dhcp

Changing Your DNS Settings

As far as DNS goes you only have two settings to set, a primary DNS server as well as a secondary one. The command to set them is almost identical, to set your primary DNS server you will want to use:

netsh interface ip set dns name=”Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.250

This again assumes a few things:

The name of the interface you want to change the primary DNS setting for is Local Area Network
The IP address of the DNS Server is 192.168.0.250

To change the IP address of the secondary DNS server you will need to specify the index parameter:

netsh interface ip add dns name=”Local Area Connection” 8.8.8.8 index=2

The above command would set your network adapter named Local Area Connection to use a secondary DNS server address of 8.8.8.8 (which is the Google public DNS servers, incase you didn’t know). The last thing you might want to do it set your DNS settings to be assigned dynamically, which can be done through the following command.

netsh interface ip set dnsservers name=”Local Area Connection” source=dhcp

That’s all the command line magic you are going to need to impress some of your friends, so what are you waiting for?

How to Backup/Restore Internet Information Services using GUI or Command line for IIS 6 and IIS 7

Here is a step-by-step method to take IIS back, remember taking IIS backup is very important before modifying or doing any changes on the IIS based website and virtual directory

IIS 6.0

The First method is by using GUI Mode

1) Open Internet Information services (IIS) Manager

2) Right Click the server name and click on All Tasks and select Backup/Restore Configuration

3) Click on Create Backup option to take backup

4) Type the backup name in the Configuration Backup Name

5) If you want to Encrypt/ Password Protect the backup file, Select the option: Encrypt backup using Password and provide password of your choice

Note: Remember the password to be used during restore.

6) Click on OK and you are done

7) While restoring the backup just select the Backup Name you want to restore and click on Restore option

8) The same way if you want to delete any existing backup, use Delete option

The second method to take IIS 6 backup is by using the command Line

1) Open a command prompt

2) Run the command as you see in the below example

Example command : Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /s /u Administrator /p /backup /b NewBackupName

IIS 7

First Method Using GUI 

Unfortunately, by default GUI mode is not enable, to enable it follow the instructions in the below article

http://www.iis.net/downloads/community/2009/07/iis7-backup-restore-ui

Second Method Using command 

To backup IIS configuration: 

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe add backup "Backup-Name"

To restore that backup:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe restore backup "Backup-Name"

To delete a backup:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe delete backup “Backup-Name"

Once the backup command is successful, the files can be verified in the default location C:\windows\system32\intersrv\backup\Backup-Name

Refer Microsoft official Document : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd819406.aspx 

Systemadminthings always recommend its reader to check the Official Document for the steps describe, you can find the links in after each steps