Lohman's Resistentialism

Here's how you change your default server core shell to powershell.  But read everything before you do:

set-itemproperty "hklm:\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon" shell powershell.exe

To change it back to default, it isn't as simple as setting it to cmd.exe.  Here's what is set by default:

cmd.exe /c "cd /d "%USERPROFILE%" & start cmd.exe /k runonce.exe /AlternateShellStartup

And set-itemproperty doesn't like any of that.  So before you change it to powershell, run this to backup the current setting:

get-itemproperty "hklm:\software\Microsoft\windows NT\currentversion\winlogon" Shell | select -ExpandProperty Shell | out-file defaultshell.txt

Then to bring that back in:

$defaultshell=get-content .\savedshell.txt

If you close the command prompt on a server core console, recover it by:

Task Manager

File, New Task

TYPE SCONFIG

then maybe use this other stuff

Change NIC Name:

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces  (if none, remember to install vmware guest tools)

netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" newname="LAN"

Set IP:

netsh interface ipv4 set address LAN static 10.10.10.21 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1 1

Change Hostname:

netdom renamecomputer %COMPUTERNAME% /NewName:DC01

shutdown -r -t 00 -f (after changing hostname)

Enable Ping Responses

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”ICMP Allow incoming V4 echo request” protocol=icmpv4:8,any dir=in action=allow

Setup New Forest/Domain

dcpromo /unattend:c:\unattend_dcpromo.txt

After first run, it throws an error about the password not matching policy.  The first run clears the SafeModeAdminPassword from the unattend_dcpromo.txt.  Add the password, repeat the above command, and then the dcpromo operation will complete.

Unattend_dcpromo.txt

[DCINSTALL]

InstallDNS=yes

NewDomain=forest

NewDomainDNSName=resistentialism.local

DomainNetBiosName=resistentialism

SiteName=Site_01

ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain

ForestLevel=3

DomainLevel=3

DatabasePath="%systemroot%\NTDS"

LogPath="%systemroot%\NTDS"

RebootOnCompletion=yes

SYSVOLPath="%systemroot%\SYSVOL"

SafeModeAdminPassword=putsomethinginhere

Open Firewall for Remote Administration:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="remote desktop" new enable=yes

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Administration" new enable=yes

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Windows Firewall Remote Management" new enable=yes

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Volume Management" new enable=yes  (remember that this needs to be run both on the server and the client from which you will be managing that server)

Server Core Installation GSG

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753802(v=ws.10).aspx

NetSH Reference

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=4702

A non-technical article on how and why your computer can talk to other computers on the internet. The internet is a group of computers that all elect to plug in to the same global network and communicate with each other.  In essence, the internet is very similar to your home or office network.  It's just a network with some computers plugged in to it.  A very very extensive network, with many many computers. When you pull up a web page such as Google.com; you are sending electricity across some wires to another computer.  The other computer then sends electricity back to you.  Your computers know how to turn this specially formed electricity in to a picture on your screen.  The electricity is similar to morse code.  If your computer sends a special sequence of blips and beeps worth of electricity across the wire; then then other computer will understand it and send other bleeps back. The computers know how to find each other because each computer has a string of numbers assigned to it that are called IP addresses.  That IP address is similar to your street address for your home, or your telephone number.  If one computer wants to talk to another computer across the network, it sends out some electricity on the network cables that are intended for a specific IP address.  An ipaddress looks something like 192.168.1.1 or 10.10.0.1.  The address is 4 sets of numbers, separated by periods. When you launch your web browser and navigate to http://www.google.com; your computer is actually communicating with one of these IP addresses: 74.125.224.50, 74.125.224.48, 74.125.224.52, 74.125.224.49, 74.125.224.51. Can you imagine what it would be like if instead of typing google.com, you had to remember one of those numbers?  I know what that's like because I used to do that.  Before we were able to use words to talk to each other's computers, we had to maintain our own lists.  We would call a friend, on the phone, and ask them what the address was for their computer.  I used to have a book with ip addresses written down in it.  After a while we started using a file called 'hosts' to store that information.  And then someone finally decided that most humans don't like remembering extremely large sets of numbers so they invented something called a name service. Name Service, or DNS, is software that runs on a computer and translates names in to IP addresses.  It's easier for humans to remember a word like google.  So we computer guys setup DNS servers that store all of the names and numbers in it.  When you type in google, your computer first asks the DNS server what the address is for google, and then it talks to that address.  Remember when we all used to use phone books?  DNS is very similar to a phone book.  In fact, there was a time where our office computers used Name Service software that was named Yellow Pages!

[Note:  A server is nothing more than a computer that performs a specific task.  Servers are often physically larger than your home computer because they have extra stuff inside of them to help keep them running.  Your home computer has one electrical plug.  Servers often have 2 or 3 electrical plugs so that if the electricity on one plug stops working, then other plug can keep it going.  But in reality, a server is just another computer.]

When you have multiple computers at home, you can connect them together so that they talk to each other and share the internet.  In order to accomplish that connection you have to plug the computers in to a network switch.  The network switch is just a little box that all of your computers plug in to.  These switches can be called by other names, such as hubs, routers, and access points.  Here's one that I use at home:  These switches handle the task of passing the communication from your computers to the correct destination.  They work sort of like a map for the other computers, by maintaining a list of which computer is plugged in to which "jack" in the switch.  They are the physical connectors that allow your two computers to physically pass electricity to each other. Are you familiar with a power strip, or an extension cable with multiple plugs on one end?  This is kind of like a power strip, but for network data (which is just very weak electricity). The back of that network switch has 4 ports that you can plug your home computers in to.  You run a skinny little cable with a square plug -named the network cable (or ethernet cable, or lan cable)- from the back of your computer, to the back of this switch.  You would also run a network cable between your modem and port #1 on this switch. Then if the computer on port #2 wants to talk to the internet, this little switch will redirect all of your network traffic out through port #1, across the internet cable.  If you plug a printer in to port #3, when you send 'printing traffic' to the network, this switch knows that the printer is on port #3 so that's where the traffic is sent to. Here's what the back of the network switch looks like.  Those square holes are where the network cables plug in to:

There is more required in order to setup the network and make the computers communicate effectively.  But if you were ever wondering how that network switch works, then this is a very simple explanation.  It automatically sends the electricity coming from your computer, across the network cable, to the cable at your destination. In summary: 1)  Your computer sends out electricity across its network cable in order to talk to other computers.

2)  The network switch, redirects the electricity to where it needs to go.

This brings to mind one project where we needed a repetitive task performed as soon as possible, at the lowest possible cost, with no chance of us ever needing to repeat this task ever again.  Instead of spending a few days coding a solution, I satisfied that requirement by hiring a temp to come in for a day and push a button.  My human solution was 3 days faster and less expensive by $1100.00.

It is now one of my goals to someday use a horse as a component in a technical project.