Super-Networking Blog

First thing you are going to need is the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools

You then are going to want to find two programs, instsrv.exe and srvany.exe, I would recommend making a new folder on the root of your drive and pulling over a copy of those two files. So say a folder called myservice you really could name is anything you want.

Next what you need to do is register a service to run srvany.exe with the name of your choosing. Open a command prompt and go into the folder myservice.

Command would be:

instsrv.exe “My Service” c:\myservice\srvany.exe

-Switch “My Service” with name you want the service to have.

Next you need to tell srvany.exe what program you want it to run as a service.

Go into the registry using regedit find this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\My Service

-Add a new sub-key call Parameters under My Service

-In the Parameters key create a new string value named Application

-Set the value of it to the full path of the executable file location. Be sure you use “” around the path.

That should be it, you might have to reboot otherwise go into services.msc and start your service. You should be good to go.

So you install .Net and you want to run State Server, you look into the documentation on setting up State Server to run and it basically tells you start the service and set it to Automatic.

All other configs for the asp.net state server service happen in the web configs right? Wrong. So what do you do when you setup your webconfigs to point to your state server, you start the service and you get tons of state errors. You check out all the IPs in the webconfigs, everything looks right. You even get state errors from the webapps that are running on the same server as the state server service. WTF right?

Well it could be a security setting for the asp.net state server service. The way to test this is you change your webconfig that is on the same server as the state server service to 127.0.0.1 instead of its official IP address. If it now works you need to change a registry setting.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\aspnet_state\Parameters\

AllowRemoteConnection needs to be set to 1

The thing that throws you is that even if that is set to 0 you would think that it would be able to talk to itself but it doesn’t think any IP other than 127.0.0.1 is local.

So continuing on the config things through the registry topic, not because I am trying to be a hardcore geek but because I need to bootleg something.

So what do you do when you only can get on a box (Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2) remotely and the firewall is enabled. Either out of shear luck or in my case shear skill, you know it, you can stop the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service. Then you can remote desktop into the box.

Say now that you want to enable the firewall on one of the adapters and not the other. You go into properties on the adapter - > go into Advanced - > Settings. It tells you the service is stopped and if you want to configure it you will need to start the service. If you have it start the service you will be kicked off the box with the firewall now on, back to square one.

So what you do is go into the good old registry:

HKEY_Local_Machine\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile
-or-
HKEY_Local_Machine\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\DomainProfile

Change the setting of firewall from on to off. 0-Being Off and 1-Being On. Now start the ICS service and you should stay connected and the firewall should stay off on the box.

Now you can go into properties on the adapter you want the firewall on - > go to Advanced - > Settings - > Click “On” in the general tab then go to the advanced tab and uncheck the adapter you want the firewall turned off on. Ok out of everything and now you have the firewall enable on the adapters you want and off on the others instead of by default all adapters go on/off together.

Best part is you didn’t have to drive to the remote location to do it.

Hey do you need to get rid of NetBios on your network interface but when you try to do it through network properties your server crashes?

Then do it through the registry:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters\Interfaces\Tcpip_AdapterID}\NetbiosOptions

NetBIOSOptions = 0 | 1 | 2

0 - Uses NetBIOS setting from the DHCP server.

1 - Enables NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

2 - Disables NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

Reboot to make your settings take affect.