April 2011 - Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Telephony systems
by Andrew Hodgson 14 Nov '12

14 Nov '12

Hi all, Our current Call Manager 4.x servers are creaking under their age, and we are looking at replacing this either with a new Cisco telephony system or a completely new system altogether. The system has to use IP as the connection to the handsets, as we don't want to add in more cables. Has anyone any experience in deploying a new Call manager setup, or a similar telephony system, and how was the accessibility? Thanks. Andrew.

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let's talk Backup Exec
by Ryan Shugart 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Hey everyone: I just got a promotion at work, and with the goodness of a promotion comes more responsibilities. I'm now in charge of our backup infrastructure. We run Backup Exec 12.5, and have 16 or so media servers in various branch offices around the world. While Backup Exec used to be very accessible, over the last two versions accessibility seems to have gone into something of a decline, I already use scripts just to read the main table of jobs, and might need more just to get around the scheduling window so I can actually schedule a job. I'd consider the rest of the program accessible but clunky, tabbing doesn't always bring you where you think it will, on some screens tab order seems to be dynamic. Backup Exec also has an odd way of bringing up alert windows and grabbing your focus, even when you tell it specifically not to. While clunkyness is OK on one server, when you have fifteen individual servers to manage and no way to do it in a centralized fashion clunkyness is less acceptable. This is also less than a quarter of my new responsibilities as well. The current admin has the remote desktop console setup with all the Backup Exec servers in his favorites, stays logged into each server with a Backup Exec window open, and flicks from screen to screen and can easily glance at the output from each job. For us screen reader users, that doesn't work well. I've already got e-mail alerts set up and am using some Outlook rules to sort failure jobs out from successes, but was wondering if there's anything else I can be doing? I'd think people in really large environments with hundreds of media servers aren't logging into each server on a daily basis, so there has to be better ways to handle this. Any ideas? Thanks. Ryan

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Mac Users?
by David Mehler 26 Apr '11

26 Apr '11

Hello, If there are any Mac users on this list can you please write me offlist? I'd like to know your level of Mac experience. I've got the opportunity to get a used Mac and am wondering if it's a good deal or not, wanting to expand my knowledge in to Macs. Thanks. Dave.

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users of OpenDNS?
by David Mehler 20 Apr '11

20 Apr '11

Hello, Anyone using OpenDNS? If so, when the client pops up in the task bar is there something special you have to do to get it to speak? It is not for me. I've got it installed and got the dns servers set, but am not noticing any reduction. Is there another step? Thanks. Dave.

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windows automatic installation
by John G. Heim 18 Apr '11

18 Apr '11

I'm trying to follow the instructions for creating an answer file with the Windows Automatic Installation Kit. When you install WAIK, it includes documentation including a step by step guide. Following the step by step guide, I have created an answer file but the installer doesn't seem to find it when I boot from the installation CD. I have tried it on two different computers. I have tried putting the answer file on a flash drive and on a diskette. I have tried nameing the anser file both Autounattend.xml and Unattend.xml. But no matter what I do, it always comes up at the page where it asks you to accept the license agreement. So its not doing an automatic install but I don't know if its not finding the answer file or if there is something wrong with the answer file. My answer file is reproduced below. Note that one of the keys is AcceptEula which I figure means "accept user license agreement". The value is true. Yet, it still asks me if I want to accept the license agreement. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <DiskConfiguration> <Disk wcm:action="add"> <CreatePartitions> <CreatePartition wcm:action="add"> <Size>40000</Size> <Order>1</Order> <Type>Primary</Type> </CreatePartition> </CreatePartitions> <DiskID>0</DiskID> <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk> <ModifyPartitions> <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add"> <Format>NTFS</Format> <Active>true</Active> <Label>system</Label> <Order>1</Order> </ModifyPartition> </ModifyPartitions> </Disk> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> <Disk wcm:action="add"> <DiskID>00</DiskID> </Disk> </DiskConfiguration> <ImageInstall> <OSImage> <InstallTo> <DiskID>0</DiskID> <PartitionID>1</PartitionID> </InstallTo> </OSImage> </ImageInstall> <UserData> <ProductKey> <Key>49JCX-4VFQC-9K8HX-XDDJ2-XMHDG</Key> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </ProductKey> <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula> <FullName>John G. Heim</FullName> </UserData> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale> </component> </settings> <settings pass="oobeSystem"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <Reseal> <Mode>Audit</Mode> </Reseal> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/tmp/install.wim#Windows 7 ENTERPRISE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend>

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Extend wifi from ethernet with 1 ssid?
by Ben Mustill-Rose 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Hey all, I'm looking to increase wifi coverage but I don't want to use a device that will broadcast an extra ssid. To give you an idea, the layout of the network at the moment is: modem router access point combo ethernet to another floor switch computers and new device I've installed WDS setups before which would solve my ssid problem, but that only works when your doing wifi > wifi as opposed to ethernet > wifi and my router doesn't support it anyway. I know that I could just plug in another access point to the switch and turn off dhcp, but that still leaves me with the problem of having 2 ssid's which I don't want. I'm not really looking to break the bank doing this; I just want to extend the wifi so that Its a bit more reliable in our garden for the few warm days we get a year and it just so happens that the room with the switch in it is quite high up and faces the garden. Anyone know what I should be looking to purchase? Cheers, Ben.

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orca with custom live cd's?
by Zameer Mahomed 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Hi guys, for those of you who use linux, I have a question regarding integration of audio as well as speech in to existing live cds. Assuming you know or heard of a program called parted magic, or perhaps any program that uses linux for getting a job done, be it an anti-virus or utility program, Is it possible to have audio support so as to integrate orca? If perhaps these things can't be done, forgive my ignorance, I've really not used linux ever! Regards

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NVDA with various program categories?
by Zameer Mahomed 11 Apr '11

11 Apr '11

Hi guys, I'm really no system-admin and appoligise for off-topicness here. I'm sure as a system administrator, you often get to sort out pc's where files that are corrupted need to be replaced, cleaning viruses, installing operating systems etc. I'd appreciate your input if you could perhaps, please tell me if you use NVDA as a screenreader? If yes, what program/s along with NVDA do you use for the following categories?: disk partitioning? file recovery? anti-virus/spyware? In a normal windows installation, I have no problem with this but, i'm thinking of trying to make a windows pre-environment and using NVDA as it doesn't rely on video-hooking as jaws and window-eyes does. Your help would be much appreciated, Regards

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security essentials installation unattended
by David Mehler 10 Apr '11

10 Apr '11

Hello, Does anyone know if it's possible to do an unattended installation and update and configuration of security essentials? I'd like to get that working if possible. Help appreciated. Thanks. Dave.

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installing firefox 3.6 unattended?
by David Mehler 08 Apr '11

08 Apr '11

Hello, Does anyone have a procedure for installing the latest firefox 3.6 unattended? I had firefox 3.0 going that way, but the switches don't appear to work anymore. It's time to update my unattended dvd so firefox is on the list. If anyone has this info i'd appreciate it. Thanks. Dave.

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