Setting up Windows 7 VPN Server

A few notes on setting up a VPN server in Windows 7 i have found while doing so on my home computer.

Setup the VPN server by following this guide

Test the VPN server from a computer outside the network (ie dont try and connect from a local computer – some consumer routers wont let this happen and can confuse the issue)

Note that TCP port 1723 must be forwarded as well as IP port 47 (GRE) traffic, details of which are explained here

If the VPN connection is not working, then there are some tools from Microsoft to debug the issue.  Download the tools from here, start pptpsrv.exe on the VPN server and then run the pptpclnt.exe tool on the client.  This will allow you to determine if the traffic is getting through as required.

NOTE: You need to stop the Routing and Remote Access () service so that the server exe can bind to port 1723, otherwise this will not work!

It can also be useful to put your PC in the DMZ in your router temporarily to eliminate blocked traffic as a potential issue.

Hopefully at this point you have a working secured VPN.

Official BlueSoleil Driver Support For Macbook Pro Unibody Bluetooth Coming Soon!

Some exciting news for MBPU users running Windows – I raised an issue with BlueSoleil support and they have contacted me RE supporting the BT hardware in the Macbook Pro Unibody laptop line-up.  I have been corresponding with them and sending stack traces, etc so that they can officially add the hardware to an upcoming release.  This means no more hacking required to get BT to work – yay!  I’ll let you know when i know more as they have promised to contact me for testing before it is released.

Bootcamp 3.1 Update Released

So Apple finally got around to releasing the update to the Bootcamp drivers which officially support Windows 7.  I have them installed now and as expected there is basically nothing to write home about.  Nothing has been improved or added that couldn’t be achieved before.  I guess the difference now is that instead of having to manually extract and install a bunch of drivers, they are all packaged correctly so that everything is fixed in this latest release.  Oh did i say everything?  I mean everything except the fact that the sound levels are still screwed.  My gosh how hard is it Apple!  Sure the SPDIF light does not stay on when in use but the sound volume level through the speakers is very low and the centre speaker does not appear activated.  Anyway its a step forward – download them here (64-bit) and here (32-bit).

Procreate 1.1.1 Released!

This minor release of Procreate fixes the following issues: Support for 64-bit versions of Windows Support for XNA 3.1 (3.0 or greater required) You can download the latest version from the Procreate homepage.  Thanks to all who provided feedback.

Wake On LAN (WoL) Magic Packet Sender Utility

Do you want a small, self-contained utility to remotely wake your computer?  As promised here is a utility you can use to do just that. This small utility offers the following features:

• Wake a computer from a location that is external to the LAN
• Wake a computer from within the LAN
• Automatically store any number of host configurations for repeated use

Follow this guide to ensure your computer is setup correctly for use with WoL. If you are behind NAT or a firewall, ensure the port you specify for each host in the utility is forwarded to the relevant computer. At this point you may be wondering why i chose to write yet another WoL utility when there are already several free alternatives available. The problems i found with existing solutions could be grouped into one or more of the following:

• Many utilities try to send a broadcast packet to the destination host from a location external to the LAN. 99% of consumer routers block these kinds of packets because they are commonly used in hacker attempts - hence the packet never makes it to the host. This utility does not use broadcast packets when sending externally so it does not suffer from this issue
• The inability to wake hosts both externally and internally (broadcast is used internally since IP is not known)
• The inability to save host configurations, requiring the details to be re-entered every time you want to wake a host

This motivated me to write this utility which allowed me to provide all the above functionality. Hopefully you find it useful – feel free to leave a comment if you want something improved or find it useful. Oh and browse the source if you are new to WPF and want to know how to write a simple app. Note that you will need at least the .NET framework 3.5 installed to run this application. This comes included with Windows 7.

Executable

Source Code

Divided Registry In 64-bit Windows

Ever tried to run an old program under a 64-bit OS and found that it just wont work, even when you try every possible compatibility mode setting and running as Administrator?  Many people don’t realise that there are some key differences that can often prevent a program from working.

Both Program Files and the registry are split into 32/64 bit variants, in case there are 2 versions of the same program that need to be installed.  This recently caused an issue for me where i had to manually apply a registry patch to get the game to ‘work’ – under Windows XP it worked fine but would not work under Windows 7 64-bit.  The reason was because by default, the registry patch gets applied to the 64-bit registry, however the game was looking in the 32-bit registry.  The easiest way to solve this is to use the 32-bit version of regedit to apply the registry patch.  You can start it by running:

%systemroot%\syswow64\regedit

Then open and apply the registry patch.  See here for more information

Showing the Compatibility Button in IE8

After having used IE8 since it came out, i can say that compatibility mode is absolutely essential for quite a few sites that are still using IE7 hacks that don’t play nice with the new version of the browser.  Having control over when to use compatibility mode is essential and can be turned on by clicking the button in the address bar:

If you can not see this button in the address bar, it is almost certainly due to the ‘feature’ i just discovered in my last install of Windows 7.  In this install i did something i almost never do – use the default settings.  By default, IE8 sets the option to Include updated compatibility view website lists from Microsoft.  When this option is enabled, the compatibility button is hidden from the address bar because it is assumed that the updated list from Microsoft will include all sites that you will ever need.  In practise i have found this is not the case and i wouldn’t expect it to be – how can MS expect to trawl every website and ensure they work. 

Fortunately, re-enabling the compatibility view button is simple.  Simply go to Tools –> Compatibility View Settings to open the following dialog.  Then turn off the Include updated website lists from Microsoft setting and click OK to save.  A few seconds later the compatibility view button will re-appear in the address bar and you can click it to view a webpage like you are using IE7.

So in short, if you used the recommended IE8 settings the first time you ran IE8 (which is likely for a lot of people), the issue above is very likely to be the cause of the compatibility view button not displaying in the address bar.  At some point in the future most websites will be written with IE8 in mind.  Until then, this button can be a lifesaver, especially with Flash enabled pages.