Sunday, January 31, 2010

Get Active Directory names via command line

Working on domain member server without any AD tools available, I needed to confirm the display name of an AD user. I was only supplied the logon user name. A common example might be Joe Smith being the display name and the logon / SAM user name being jsmith.

The commands involved are dsquery and dsget, both quite powerful.

Given the AD logon username is webmaxtor in the MAXTOR.LOCAL domain, the associated request and result returning the display name might be:

H:\>dsquery user dc=MAXTOR,dc=LOCAL -name web* | dsget user -display
display
Web Administrator
Web Maxtor
dsget succeeded


Since two names appear on the list, we know two users are returned and can see the logon / SAM names via:

H:\>dsquery user dc=MAXTOR,dc=LOCAL -name web* | dsget user -samid
samid
IISadmin
webmaxtor
dsget succeeded


Running the dsquery command without the piped dsget can also return all sorts of useful information all by itself.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Cisco TSAPI client configuration hangs

Using Windows XP sp3 and Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.0.1, I find that clicking Configure on the Phone and Modem Options in Control Panel hangs on some machines.
Attempting to restart the Telephony service indicates the Remote Access Connection Manager service is a dependency.

Unfortunately, I have not researched the implications of disabling this service as of yet but doing so and setting Telephony to start automatically seems to allow configuration appropriately.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

WII remote and Lenovo T61 Bluetooth connection

My Lenovo T61 uses what looks like a Widcomm / Broadcom Bluetooth stack.
Although other sites indicate there are problems connecting the WII remote to your Lenovo T61, this Smoothboard wiki provides a very concise tutorial on doing so.

The missing link for even starting the procedure is hitting Fn+F5 first, assuming you haven't trashed all of pre-installed ThinkVantage software.

There you will at least be able to verify your Bluetooth radio is on.

Whoops :)