Reporting Services authentication on a Windows XP workgroup

After setting up my RAID server, I had installed Reporting Services on it, but until today I had not been able to connect to it from other computers in the workgroup. I would get the login prompt, but it would not accept any valid users.

After a lot of wasted time googling down the wrong trails, I finally found this excellent article that does a great job of explaining and provided the solution: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpsimsh.html

The problem is on Windows XP, "simple file sharing" is turned on by default AND when it is, no matter what logon / password you use, the server uses the Windows Guest account instead. So even though I entered BlahBlahTest as the username, I was getting access denied messages because even through BlahBlahTest has access, Guest does not.

The weird thing is that I had tried turning off simple file sharing earlier in the night, and not only did it not fix the Reporting Services problem, but it also broke the file share I already had set up under simple file sharing; so I had turned it back on immediately.

The next day, I read this article, tried turning off simple file sharing again, created a new share -- for testing... both the new share and the existing share were fine, AND Reporting Services authentication worked perfectly. Weird and frusrating, but I'm happy it's fixed!

I had tried setting up VPN and a few other things requiring authentication a year or more ago, and had all kinds of problems. Now I realize that it was probably the same issue, it was ignoring the account I had set up, and using the Guest account instead. I'm excited to try some of this stuff again. Blogging this to remember what the deal was and save hours of googling again :)

Another useful thing I learned is that with Windows XP and higher, you can go into User Accounts on the control panel, and on the sidebar there is an option to "Manage your network passwords". By adding entries here, you aren't forced to use the same user on both the server and client machines. If your client user is different, just store the appropriate name and password for the network share here so you aren't prompted each time. Cool!

Just make sure simple file sharing is turned off on the server so it's not actually using the Guest account. ;)

Missing Winamp context menu options

This has been bugging me for a while. I thought I tracked down the problem after some digging on the Winamp forums. I hoped uninstalling Magic ISO & Nero ShowTime might solve it. Still no luck. I just want to be able to "Enqueue in Winamp" again.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=235637e0f396983044d17290c1c55e1e&threadid=266117&perpage=40&highlight=context+vista&pagenumber=2

Weirded out

Instead of typing in the URL to get to this site and submit that last post, I googled my own name; and was shocked to see that the second link on Google for my name is a Youtube video of, apparently myself getting shot in the butt with a paintball gun!?!? I don't remember that happening! I don't know those people... Freaky....... !

How to fix Xbox Live so I can chat with and join games with Ben

I keep having this problem, where Ben and I can't connect to each other's games, or connect to audio chat on Xbox live. To fix it:

The problem is that you need to get "NAT" to show up as "Open" instead of "Moderate" or "Strict" when you run the Xbox 360 network test. If you can get that, it's fixed.

Ports 88 and 3074 need to be getting forwarded to the Xbox 360 IP address. I had fixed this before, but started seeing the problem again after the Xbox IP address changed and the ports were getting forwarded to the old address. That's why I'm writing this blog entry.

However, when I tried to fix it, I set the Xbox IP to be a static address. That didn't work out. Just keep the Xbox network settings at "Automatic" and update the router to forward the ports to the new address instead.

That should work!

Note to software developers

• Do NOT, as a part of your software installation package, install or offer to install some other completely unrelated software package. Certainly, NEVER install it by default.

Of course, this whole practice started with spyware, where that "cool game" your kid downloaded silently installed some additional software that hijacks your browser and takes down your internet connection. But it's starting to really frustrate me to see installers for software from somewhat respectable companies install unrelated software from other companies, some of which are also somewhat respectable.

And just to be clear I'm not talking about a game that requires DirectX installing DirectX, or an application that requires the .Net framework installing the .Net framework.

The sort of thing that makes me mad is what happened just now when I was installing an update to the Java run time environment. Can someone tell me what the *@#! the Google Desktop has to do with the Java run time environment getting updated? Because for some reason asking if I want to install it is a step in the Java update installation process!

Java, Google... shame on you!

On a side note, no, I do NOT want to install the Google Desktop. I DO religiously use the Google toolbar and the Google DeskBAR, but I did not like when they stopped the DeskBAR and forced the entire DeskTOP on you. Luckily you can still find the last DeskBAR installer on the internet and it still works great!

Some other offenders, that used to be just great software but started adopting this horrible practice are:

• Adobe Reader installing Yahoo toolbar
• Nero installing Yahoo toolbar
• Winamp installing "eMusic", AOL shortcuts, etc.
• Daemon Tools installing some "search" software
• Real Media player... the worst... I stopped installing it a long time ago

STOP DOING THIS... It's bad... ok?

Customer Service Calls From Hell

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html

http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/13/cancelling-aol/

Certified

I passed my second Microsoft certification exam over the holiday break. So now I can say that I am Microsoft certified with the title of: "Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2005". :)