RafaelWolf.com

A while ago I posted a beef with a software vendor I’ve had experience with called Sage.  They’re the makers of software like Peachtree Accounting, MAS 90, 200 and 500 oh and lets not forget the contact management software called ACT which by the way I actually kind of like.  The ACT division has something about it that’s different than the rest of the group, secondly I must say that the Peachtree group is my next favorite and lastly the MAS group which has a TON of ground to make up but from what I understand they’re trying.  I’ll give them credit there, they’re trying…I think…

For what it’s worth their MAS family of software is OK, not horrible, not stellar, just mediocre and still definitely 3rd (last place) on my list of the Sage products I’ve had the pleasure of supporting .  I suppose if we factor in the price it could even be called good and that it gets the job done (but still 3rd at this point in time).  For whatever reason though there is an animosity that resellers of the product have against people on the outside, IT people like me that are not in the Sage MAS Family Partner Network.  That basically means I didn’t pay to resell their software, I didn’t get training, I don’t get commissions and well, I’m just not good enough to click a mouse on their executable to install it and I sure can’t configure it because it’s such a complicated software (are you getting my sarcasm?).  I happen to charge less than their partners do and my systems don’t hang or need debugging.  My number one suggestion if you think about putting in Sage’s heavy application, a real server from Dell (Dual Core or better), 4 gig of RAM minimum, dual gigabit teamed nic’s and at minimum 10k RPM hard drives oh and you also NEED to connect your clients to gigabit Ethernet like your server is so they are all lined up at the same speed.  With that, bye bye bugs that are hardware or network related!

I received quite a few responses with my initial post, I laid out several issues and I appreciate all the great responses.  I recently came across Wayne Schultz’s post titled “5 assumptions I’ll make when debugging your MAS 200 server“.  Wayne actually posted to my initial blog about Sage and I signed up for his newsletter which I get regularly.  Because Wayne has so graciously posted a fair use clause on his site I’ve taken the liberty to re-post it here for the greater IT community with as you noticed, a link back to his original post above!

Begin re-post:

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One of the toughest things to diagnose are sporadic Sage MAS 200 errors. Typically these manifest themselves as Error 12 conditions or cryptic lockups that bring the MAS200 server to a grinding halt (usually mid-day or in the midst of a heavy processing day).

The first thing I’ll usually try with a MAS 200 server problem is running the server app as a program instead of a service. This seems to be especially helpful for larger sites (for sake of argument lets label a site with over 10 users as large).

If you’re seeing error messages like “Connection failure to host:[tcp]Servername;####;NODELAY;STREAM” when starting tasks – these can often be resolved with the tweaks from our site.

I’ve diagnosed more than a few of these in my career. While they’re highly annoying – they generally  can be resolved with  careful and systematic checking of configurations and settings.

My observation is that many sites however fail in diagnosing the error conditions. Below is my list of the top 5 reasons that problems go un-resolved (or in some instances such as failing to have a backup – get worse).

Top 5 Reasons Your MAS 200 Server Keeps Having Errors

1. The IT person didn’t do what I asked because they typically don’t know how and are too embarrassed to admit to you or the boss. If you’ve asked to have Anti-Virus exclude certain folders – check that it has been done. Similarly watch them make any changes (again). Yes, you’ll have to put up with some heavy breathing and sighs. This is something all IT people learn to do in school.
2. Even though staff will say  “It couldn’t be this” – check it anyway. Insist on it. Watch them do it. That goes for any of the Sage KB suggestions as well as instructions on excluding folders, files, etc on antivirus scans. Probably 40% of the problems go away when users actually try the fixes (as opposed to saying they tried them). (Tip: Always backup first – and be sure to read my #5 below).
3. The fact that Word and Excel run are totally irrelevant to any diagnosis of why MAS 200 won’t run — but the IT folks will hold that out as Prima Facie evidence that MAS 200 sucks, Sage sucks, Providex is a shitty language, SQL rocks, their MAS 200 consultant sucks, The Boss Sucks and their network is air-tight and better than any other on Planet Earth. You just have to develop a tough skin and keep running down the checklist.
4. Roughly 40% of IT folks have no idea what administrative rights are. In general I test for this right off by right clicking on the Start button and noticing whether “explore ALL” is an option. When that’s not present I assume the user doesn’t have administrative rights. Quite a few times after I do this and announce the results the IT folks disappear for a half hour or so. I’m pretty sure they’re going in the back to look up “administrative rights” in their “Server Administration for Dummies” book.
5. The IT staff don’t have a proper backup. Drag the entire \MAS90 folder (and all subfolders) to a separate location locally before starting.

Our site contains information on the different ways that you can correct many MAS 200 errors. The key is to systematically try them all one by one and observe whether small changes to your setup are correcting the issues you exist with MAS200 lockups.

© 2009 – 2010, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Limited use is allowed provided you included the following link back to our site “Via: Schulz Consulting Sage MAS90 & MAS200 Consulting”

Comments

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End re-post:

I tried to post this but I’m unsure if at this time Wayne approved the comment.  On my site I like to practice free speech and I’ll post practically any comment that’s written with a human hand and that makes sense, even negative comments add to the greater good and knowledge base!

Here’s my comment to Wayne’s post…

Begin comment:

Hi Wayne, you posted on my site so I’ll post on yours if you don’t mind publishing my comments.  I find your 5 tips condescending to most IT professionals and in line with Sage and their partner network’s elitist views that their word is gospel and that most IT people outside of the sage network don’t know what they’re doing.   I see you commented on a client’s IT person deleting a file from a MAS directory.  This should indicate to anyone that Sage doesn’t understand “administrative rights” because you’re required to give all users of MAS full rights to the directory that Sage resides in.  That action in itself is ludicrous and shows poor design on the part of Sage’s product.  By design it gives anyone the right to delete whatever they want, truly a flaw with Sage not IT pro’s.  Your attitude and comment are classic examples of why Sage has the problems it does with the IT community at large (people off the Sage payroll).

Rafael

End comment:

Here are my thoughts on Wayne’s 5 tips to debugg your MAS 200 server.

1. Tip 1 and 2 deal with virus scan’s, has Sage not figured out how to deal with AV?  I find it quite odd that you have to exclude directories from anti-virus scanning so their product will run properly.  I guess it’s not the end of the world since end user file deletion to the Sage program directory is a much bigger problem, better tackle that one first!
2. Tip 3, this tip seems most unhelpful – what IT pro assumes MAS won’t run if a totally unrelated program won’t run?  This tip is perhaps the most insulting tip of the list and is it really a debugging procedure or just a poke at how inept you’re accusing your own client of being?  I don’t think I’d be your client any longer if you insulted me like that on a website that anyone in the world can read.
3. Tip 4, I’m sure that 40% statistic is pulled out of a joke bag for entertainment purposes…or was there a study done by Harvard you could cite?  Where did that number come from?  Lets bump it up to 80% for giggles and assume they all work in Sage’s MAS 90 Development Center!  As I’ve already noted several times the permissions are by (poor) design on the part of Sage not IT pro’s who are told to give those directory permissions.
4. Tip 5, it’s interesting how a “proper backup” is a drag and drop method.  I haven’t seen such a sophisticated method of backing up an application since Windows 3.1.  MAS is truly a stellar product!

To conclude I’d like to simply state that we should all be honest here.  Sage MAS 90, 200, and 500 are mediocre products, they certainly have flaws.  Wayne himself pointed out a glaring flaw in fact and in my opinion it’s a HUGE one because it’s at the core of their product.  <– I’ve bolded that for extra emphasis!    I’d hardly call giving full permissions to your program directory to every user of the system a “bug”, that’s a flat out security hole.  That practice which has been around forever (and I think it exists with Peachtree products as well) goes against every security and application development 101 class because it allows anyone to delete your content.  Definitely not a “bug”!

I don’t think Sage will be as widely accepted in the IT community until it breaks their current corporate culture of elitism both in their office and in their partner network.  It’s so hard to take Sage and their reseller network seriously when they talk about server infrastructure, networking or their own product as I sighted on my initial post  because they don’t give you the respect or dignity you deserve as an IT pro.  They in fact chase their tail when you ask them technical questions especially about their product’s user capacity (as though 10 simultaneous users was a “large” user…Peach Tree Quantum does 30…maybe more now?).  It always seems to be a he said – he said game of finger pointing between IT pro’s and Sage resellers.  Unfortunately posts like Wayne’s and this very post propagate the animosity between the IT community and Sage + its reseller partners.  I’d have to believe though that since I’m relatively new to dealing with Sage that this is a well rooted tradition which is confirmed by other more experienced IT pro’s who have posted to my initial Sage post.  That post can be found here if you’d like to read it –> Link.

If you’re reading this and you’re thinking about buying a Sage product think long and hard about it.  A cheap price shouldn’t be the only motivation for purchasing a product.  Feel free to ask me what I think about Sage or their competitors and I’ll give you my honest answer!  I am not a reselling partner of any product so I have no vested interest in selling you either way.

Take note that when I was doing an initial investigation for these types of products that Micro$oft never even called me back, they had no real phone number for me to call and I couldn’t get past the gate keepers so God only knows how good or bad their product is or how it performs next to Sage’s.  Thinking about it for a moment I think they’re quite different in operation actually.  The one glaring positive that Microsoft has over Sage is that I don’t think Microsoft will tell you to give your end users full access to their program directory

To all my brothers and sisters out in Internet land!  I had an unusual time finding this download, I finally found it on some obscure Micro$oft website but have since lost the actual link.  I tried to find the link for a colleague and I gave up shortly thereafter realizing I already had the file and that I could just send it to him.  If you’re looking for the RoboCopy Gui (which also includes robocopy.exe) get it here!

–> RoboCopy Gui

Robocopy is a great utility, it’s a bit more robust than xcopy, it has some great options like backup mode which from what I gather uses the system account to leverage shadow copy for backing up files with different permissions than the user you’re running your script with.  It’s good stuff all around.

Here’s an example robocopy script I happen to use, it backups up end user files once a week.  I run it 4 times per month and store the data in 4 different locations, week1, week2, etc, etc.  It backs user data up, then my next line says to move the log to a different location and finally it calls my email notifier letting me know the job was complete.

• robocopy “\\myserver\users” “E:\myusers_Users_Backup\Week1″ /E /SEC /COPYALL /V /XO /LOG:”Week1_backup.log” /FFT /Z /B /ZB /R:10 /W:30
• move /Y “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.MYDOMAIN\Application Data\Microsoft Robocopy GUI\Scripts\Week_1_backup.log” “E:\Users_Backup”
• call “\\myserver\myshare\somesubfolder1\User Documents\Week_1_Email_Notification.vbs”

I did a brief search online for an IE8 ADM file for group policy.  I didn’t particularly find anything of interest and the one I did find had errors in the file and wouldn’t work so in my impatience I decided to extract the IE8 installer from Microsoft and see what it had to offer me.  I found what I needed!

If you just want to get this over with and download IE8′s ADM group policy file, right click here and select “save as” –> Link

For the more adventuresome that want to know how you get it or if you want to get it because you don’t trust the link to that Trojan horse above (joking) then this is how you do it!

1. Download IE8′s package from Micro$oft –> Here
2. Make sure you have an archive utility like 7-zip or winrar that can extract exe files
3. Open this folder on your network “\\domaincontrolernamehere\c$\WINDOWS\inf”
4. On your domain controller rename the “inetres.adm” to “inetres.adm_original“
5. Now navigate to the folder with the extracted files, the brand new IE8 extracted contents
6. Copy the “initres.adm” in that folder to your domain controllers inf folder “\\domaincontrolernamehere\c$\WINDOWS\inf”

* I’d also recommend copying this to your local clients (your computer) “C:\Windows\inf folder” just in case you’re managing group policy from that client.

Now, open your GPMC (Group Policy Management Console) and you should see all new options.  Note that the IE8 ADM is compatible all the way back to IE6 or so I’ve read on MSDN forums.

Installing Skype on Ubuntu

Not sure anyone really has a problem with this BUT I thought I’d post it anyway.  The only “problem” I had were a few Skype dependencies that Ubuntu 10.04 didn’t already have installed.

1 – Open a terminal (I usally call it a command shell or shell)sudo -i

2 – Type in your password so you can work as “root”

3 – apt-get install libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-xml libqtgui4 libaudio2
* I noticed these dependencies not installed on my machine

4 – Download Skype:  wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-32

5 – dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_i386.deb

6 – From a command shell type:  skype

Get it while it’s HOT!  For years ClamAV has probably been protecting you to some degree without you even knowing it.  It has historically been used for appliances like email servers, web servers, file servers, etc and usually only on a Linux OS.  Why?  Because that’s where it all started .

At one point they had a Windows version of ClamAV called ClamWin but it must have been a few years ago it vanished (or at least seemingly vanished) because they decided to develop it further.  I have been keeping my eye open and occasionally checking for a Windows version and it’s now finally out!

If it’s good enough to scan your email it’s good enough to protect the desktop.  I suppose there are several schools of thought on this.  One saying you’ll want one AV scanner to scan inbound files on the server, a different one on the firewall (if it has that feature) and yet another on the desktop.  Sure – but for home losers like us anything that’s both good and free works for me!

The good thing about ClamAV for windows:

• Real-Time Scanning
• Simple feature set
• Folder exclusion
• Open Source

The bad thing about ClamAV:

• Doesn’t seem to do a “full system scan” from the gui, I have a batch file to help you though (for WindowsXP, ClamAV version 1.0.26, feel free to edit for your OS’s directory path –> Here)
• Currently have to be “online” for it to scan (they plan on offline in the future)

I’d HIGHLY recommend it though, it’s good enough for me!  –> Download

The Sharp AR-M237 or other Sharp models might give you a bit of grief if you use Linux or use a Linux CUPS print server with the pleasant error “PostScript printing not licensed for this printer” printed on the page from a Windows host.  I was trying to print both from an Ubuntu Linux host and print from Windows via the CUPS print server on a Linux host.

How do you fix it?  I bet you can’t WAIT for the fix right? 

Linux Hosts:

I did search a bit on this one and I came up with a fix for the Linux host but I forgot where I found the reference (sorry to my source).  From your Linux host do this – instead of picking the actual Sharp driver for Ubuntu slide up to Generic category and try using a PCL 5x or 6x driver (x standing for any version of the number, example 5e, etc) then select “Generic PCL…CUPS+Gutenprint…Simplified…”, it’s the (recommended) option.

Now your Linux host shouldn’t have a problem printing to the Sharp!

CUPS:

So – if you have a CUPS print server you’ll need to do something slightly different.  For your driver you want to stick to the Generic category but pick “Generic GDI Printer Foomatic/gdi“.  Your Linux host will NOT be able to print itself but it will act as the proper conduit for a Windows GDI print driver from Sharp or the other Sharp PCL drivers.

Note:  I’ve had some luck using a web gui for CUPS / SAMBA called SWAT, check it out – you might like it!

I just purchased a Zotac small form factor PC.  I mistakenly thought this would also record TV for me, what was I thinking?  It must have been that second glass of wine clouding my judgment!  After trying to get Linux MCE working on it I decided to just scrap that idea because it wasn’t working out, the KDE interface is clunky, I had video problems on my Vizio 26″ TV where the desktop was stretched too far on the edges and I couldn’t figure out how to easily reposition the start menu.  Not only that, Linux MCE’s latest release blew up my networking and I couldn’t easily configure it to get back onto my network.  It was truly a mess and I don’t consider myself a Linux Newb anymore, I’m not an expert but I’m savvy but trying to figure out everything Linux MCE blew up on my Zotac would have just taken too much time!

So with the recommendation of the posts on NewEgg about this machine I am giving Ubuntu and XBMC a shot.  I haven’t actually gotten to the XBMC part yet because I ran into an issue with allowing Ubuntu 10.04 to share files, also – XBMC’s apt-get install procedure isn’t working so that will take some time for me to figure out (God I hope I don’t have to compile from source!).  The option for file sharing is there but only Blue Tooth is enabled by default (What’s up with that Ubuntu?).  In the file sharing control panel it says “This feature  cannot  be enabled  because the required packages are not installed on your system“.  How irritating! That’s not the only irritating thing about Ubuntu 10.04, like there’s no device manager or system information installed. That would be equivalent to Windows not installing a device manager so you couldn’t look at your hardware, you’re flying blind. Now – back to the file sharing snafoo.

This has a simple resolution, after mucking around on the net trying to find an answer I thought, what if I just:

1 – Create a folder somewhere
2 – Share it

I did that, I created a “Media” folder on my desktop, right click it, left click properties, click the “share” tab then click “Share this folder”. Ubuntu 10.04 will squak and say you don’t have xyz thing installed but then prompts would you like to install it? It then goes out and gets the appropriate packages. A simple reboot and you’re set. You can now share your folders with the sharing tab + set permissions to those folders (or not).

I wish Ubuntu 10.04 would come with a few more standard options like a device manager and with file sharing packages ready to go.

Note:  Getting into BIOS on a Zotac Mag – Delete Key, keep on pressing it till you get in!

I recently bought a Zotac Mag (<– USA site, their Japanese site is horrible), it’s a micro PC (although most call them “mini pc’s“) you can use it for an everyday desktop or if you know how you can turn it into anything you want because; for its size it’s relatively quick.

The one from NewEgg where I purchased it was a decent package.

• Intel 330 Atom (Dual Core)
• 160 Gig SATA hard drive
• 2 Gig of RAM
• $308 out the door including tax + shipping

One problem though (well, not the “only” problem), was how to upgrade the BIOS without using the Windows utility they include.  After racking my brain on this one for literally HOURS and trying different things I put in a support ticket out of frustration.  I suppose that for a “geek” putting in a support ticket with a vendor is the modern equivalent of a guy asking for directions because he’s lost while driving and scouring his routes over on the map to no avail.  Shortly after submitting my support ticket though I took another look at the current BIOS boot options.  There is was, their BIOS makes NO SENSE.

What their BIOS does (and no other BIOS to my knowledge) is only lets you boot your “1st device” and it doesn’t show USB disk devices as a bottable device.  By default the first boot device is the on board internal hard drive and even though you may have a USB Pen drive plugged in it doesn’t see it.  How completely dumb is that?  If you have a USB floppy, CD or DVD ROM drive it shows up in the list as an option to make them 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc but a USB Pen drive IT DOENS’T DO!!!

So – here’s what YOU need to do for upgrading your BIOS in a Zotac Mag because their BIOS is completely, mmmmmm – dumb (to be kind).  I suppose this isn’t totally without Windows since I have a few laptops with Windows my instructions for making the boot disk leverage those to make the pen drive BUT I know you can also do the same thing from Linux…I just didn’t have to

1- Have a pen drive with at least 256 meg of storage (it’ll get erased so backup your files)

2 – Download Ultmate Boot CD (the 4.11 ISO)

3 – Download Pen Drive Linux

4 – Download the latest BIOS from Zotac

5 – Extract the BIOS zip file from Zotac

6 – Use Pen Drive Linux to create your bootable USB version of Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD)

7 – Create a folder on the pen drive called “BIOS”

8 – Follow this set of instructions:

• Put your Pen Drive in the Zotac and fire it up
• To get into the  Zotac BIOS keep pressing the “Delete Key”
• Once you’re in the BIOS Menu:  Boot > Hard Disk Drives > Change “1st Drive” to your bootable Pen Drive with UBCD on it > Escape key >      Escape Key > confirm you want to “Save and Exit” which will reboot your Zotac Mag.  Note that this has NOTHING to do with the “Boot Device Priority” where a “normal BIOS” would have put your pen drive.  This will make the Zotac use your Pen Drive as the main hard drive, you won’t even see the onboard hard drive in the boot priority list after making this change BUT it’ll get reset back after the BIOS upgrade automatically.
• UBCD boots off of pen drive – Get into the Dos Utilies, select Free Dos, don’t touch your keyboard just let it time out on the defaults.
• Execute these DOS Commands because the first prompt is a Q: drive…
• C:
• cd BIOS
• afudos old.rom /o
• afudos putnameoframfilehere.rom /B  /P  /N  /X /C
• Reboot with a control + alt + delete

* Note that “afudos xxxxx.rom /o” simply backs up your current BIOS in case anything should go badly.

Done – let me know how it goes because I couldn’t find ANYTHING on the net about this problem, remember…I wasted HOURS of my life on it. Remember me in your will

I was on Dell’s website today (and yesterday in fact) looking at an Inspiron 560s.  Dell’s website has 4 different “systems” with various options, bells, whistles, etc.

Here’s the current link:  –> Inspiron 560s

After going online to try and “Personalize” a system I noticed the website intentionally steering me to a model with a higher base price just to get the video card I wanted (it was $100 dollars more).  According to the “Tech Specs” all those systems are basically the SAME!  The case and the motherboard in all Inspiron 560s systems are the exact same, they then layer various types of processors, memory and hard drives on top of the foundation.  Nothing new right?

Here’s the old bait and switch:

What I’ve discovered is Dell tricking the unknowing consumer to pay more than they need to by NOT offering the same options for a “lesser” model thus, to get the add on video card (NVIDIA GeForce^® G310 512MB DDR3) you are forced to buy the more expensive model.  You DON’T need to buy the more expensive model because the NVIDIA card will in fact go into the less expensive model but who’d know that if you’re just some non-nerd shopping for a computer?

As a side note, Dell has begun saying “This quote is only good for today” and they’re no longer honoring the typical 30 day quote time.  This too is a typical high pressure sales tactic used to pressure consumers into pulling the trigger early.  It’s subtle but effective!

Dell – your bait and switch practices are shameful!  So are your subtle high pressure sales tactics!  Are you owned by ABC Warehouse another infamous bait and switching company with high pressure sales tactics (Read more here –> Link)?

NTP stands for “Network Time Protocol“, it’s a method for computer time synchronization.  If your computer is a member of a Windows Domain your computer automatically synchronizes to the PDC or Primary Domain Controller.  The problem is, where does the PDC synchronize to? I found the domain clock off by 5 minutes today (and it wasn’t the first time), which I suppose isn’t that big of a deal unless you use the computer clock for things like appointments or meetings.    Better late than never right?

I found a cool website called ntp.org that will allow you to leverage their extremely accurate time servers.  If you have a windows server try these commands!  This is a combination of commands found here and here:

Network time is controlled by this method: net time /setsntp:pool.ntp.org
You can “refresh” a server or workstation with this command: net stop w32time && net start w32time

* I failed to mention this and I’m editing this old post.

Server command:  net time /setsntp:pool.ntp.org

Workstation command: net time /setsntp:yourserver.com

This way all your network hosts are staying on your internal network and you’re not killing poor ntp.org with all the requests