Win2K Pro on the Go
I read Sean Daily's Windows Client: "Win2K Pro on the Go" (November 2001, InstantDoc ID 22554) about using backup and restore to migrate Windows 2000 to new hardware. I want to move my Win2K installation and applications to new hardware, but I want to keep the same hard disk. Can I just move the disk and do an in-place upgrade to pick up the new hardware?
—Andrew C. Stanton
astanton@optonline.net
Depending on the particular hardware differences between the new and old systems, you might be able to successfully move a disk between systems. If you get a blue screen—typically, as a result of not having the right driver for your mass storage controller or some other subsystem mismatch—you might try one of these options: Follow the instructions in the Microsoft article "STOP 0x0000007B Error After Moving Windows System Disk to Another System" (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q271965) to resolve the problem, manually fix the problem through the Recovery Console, or perform an OS reinstallation after the disk is in the new system (an in-place upgrade installation on top of the existing one).
—Sean Daily
Problems with VPNs
Paula Sharick's "15 Tips for Troubleshooting VPN Connections" (April 2000, InstantDoc ID 8290) is helpful, but I still have a problem. Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0 is installed on a multihomed server. The server is a domain controller (DC), and RRAS used to work just fine. Proxy Server died completely, and recovery took about 3 hours. In the process, RRAS went down for all connections, internal and external. The error I got is TCP/IP reported error 733: Your computer and the remote computer could not agree on PPP control protocols. According to TechNet, this error shows up on Windows NT 4.0 servers, not Windows 2000 servers. I've reinstalled RRAS, Active Directory (AD—what a nightmare), and even the OS over the existing OS, but I still have the same problem. Neither disabling and removing the second NIC nor giving the second NIC internal and external IPs has fixed the problem. Any ideas?
—Jim Linebarger
jlinebarg@earthlink.net
The easiest way to figure out what's not working is to enable PPP logging in RRAS and run Network Monitor. Be sure you point Network Monitor to the RRAS NIC, then try a connection and look at the PPP and Network Monitor logs. I can almost always figure out what's not working with a packet sniffer, but sometimes I need to run it multiple times.
—Paula Sharick
I have a problem that "15 Tips for Troubleshooting VPN Connections" doesn't address. VPN appears to be installed on my Windows 98 client systems, and I'm instructed to add a new client in dial-up networking—but I don't have dial-up networking or a modem. I have a cable modem, and installing a regular modem interferes with the cable modem.
Unfortunately, the Add Connection Wizard in DUN won't proceed until I "install" a modem. When I install a fake modem that I don't have in the machine, the VPN device that's supposed to be there simply isn't. I'm stumped. Can you point me in the right direction?
—Michael "Mac" McCarthy
mac@devx.com
Win9x has innumerable problems with VPN connections: You fix one, and another crops up. Because Microsoft no longer supports Win9x, I highly recommend that you upgrade your legacy OS to a more current version. Win2K Professional makes a great VPN machine—one that configures and works in a heartbeat.
—Paula Sharick