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January 17, 2001 12:00 AM

Daily Answers

Windows IT Pro
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My Practical Peripherals Pro Class 288 PC Card modem is driving me crazy. The modem seems to be in working order, but Windows NT always gives me a Port is Busy error message. What's going on?

Ridiculous as this solution might sound, you need to boot into NT 4.0 while the Easy-Jack connector is still in the modem. After you've booted NT, simply pull out the jack and connect your phone line.

The Port is Busy message is deceiving. If, during setup, I set my ISDN line speed to a value that is too high, I get the same message. Obviously, the port isn't busy; NT simply isn't returning the proper error message.

My company recently purchased an Iomega Jaz drive. No matter what I try, I find that the tool drive is password-protected. I can't even format it. What do I do?

Despite Iomega's claims to the contrary, I believe the drive is indeed password-protected. Either that or the partition and file information is proprietary. Reboot the system, and run a low-level SCSI format command on the drive. Use Disk Administrator to set the partition, then format the drive. Note that Disk Administrator can't assign an extended partition to removable media.

I've inherited a set of strangely formatted tapes that I can't erase using NT Backup. Do you have any suggestions?

To solve your problem, you can add the /nopoll switch to NT Backup. Nopoll means exactly what you'd think: Don't poll the tape's contents. Use the /nopoll switch only to erase tapes.

I'm trying to install Microsoft Access 97 on a Windows NT machine that previously ran Access 2000. The installation completes successfully, but when I try to run Access 97, I get the error Microsoft Access can't start because there is no license for it on this machine. How can I fix this problem?

You're experiencing a common problem among users attempting to downgrade from Access 2000. Fortunately, a fairly simple solution exists for this mysterious problem, which involves a TrueType font file.

First, find the hatten.ttf file in the \%systemroot%\winnt\fonts directory (i.e., the default location). Second, rename the hatten.ttf file to, for example, hatten.sav. (You can use any unused extension.) Third, reregister Access 97: Rerun Access's Setup and use the /y switch (i.e., setup/y).

When I attempt to install Microsoft Office 2000, I get an error message that states Installer terminated prematurely. How do I fix this problem?

First, try installing Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 or later before you perform the regular Office setup. You'll find IE on the Office 2000 CD-ROM, or you can download it from Microsoft's Web site.

If that fix doesn't work, try renaming the odbccp32.dll, odbcint.dll, and msdasql.dll files. I tend to use the .old or .sav naming convention, but almost any unused extension will work. After you rename these files, run Setup again. If neither option solves your setup problem, try downloading the latest Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) from Microsoft's Web site.

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Comments
  • Scott Douglas
    11 years ago
    May 17, 2001

    I am responding to the article where a user asked if WINS would be improved in Win2K since he was having so many problems in NT4. Sean pointed out all of the benefits of switching to Win2K and the ways that WINS is improved.



    Always upgrading is probably not the best choice. Here is a system admin that was never able to get a relatively simple service to work in one OS, and you are recommending that they switch to a much more complex OS to solve this problem. It would be more beneficial to determine the cause of the problem in his current system instead.



    I managed a network that included 40+ locations using WINS, and was able to solve browsing issues. Originally I had targeted WINS services running on at the BDC at each location then relying on replication between them. This quickly proved to be bad. WINS does not replicate well when you have lots of servers running the service. I limited the servers to 1 WINS server and a replication partner. I then enabled WINS Proxy on each remote BDC, which used to have a setting in TCP/IP properties in 3.51, but in 4.0 it is a registry mod (NT W/S also suppports it).



    After these changes we no longer had any browsing issues. In the next 18 months that I administered the network I never had to deal with a corrupted WINS database. We even did a business resumption test where we brought up NT on new hardware in a remote location, and when we switched the network over during the test, not a single server or workstation was lost - see documentation at Microsoft on how to backup and restore WINS.



    Win2K may be able to manage multiple WINS servers better, but your advice is right on in one way: limit the number of server running WINS just like administrators should be doing in NT4.

  • Steve Endow
    11 years ago
    May 08, 2001

    Thank you so much for printing the first tip in Sean Daily's Tricks & Traps: "Daily Answers" (February 2001). I was so frustrated thinking that I had to endure a brutally slow Internet connection whenever I had to PPTP from my speedy home connection into my corporate office (which just happens to have the slow Internet connection). I also couldn't make a PPTP connection when I used VNC to remotely control my computer because after I connected with PPTP, my PC switched to the corporate gateway and disconnected me in a heartbeat. Your tip came to the rescue--and none too soon. What were previously painful PPTP connections are now wonderfully convenient. My telecommuting life has improved dramatically.

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