The first has been a pesky one for some time, though it seemed to do no harm. If you are running Windows NT on a machine with an Adapted SCSI adapter, then you may have seen this one. If you look in your System Log using the Event Viewer, you may see a bunch of red 'stop signs' indicating an error. The one we're looking for has the message 'The driver detected a controller error on \Device\ScsiPortO'. And it's associated with source 'aic78xx'. 

In trying to resolve this, I naturally brought out the handy-dandy TechNet. TechNet had many references to this specific error. However, most of them dealt with earlier versions of NT, like 3.51. A somewhat common thread I found though had to do with the Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter and perhaps the 3COM network interface card (NIC). Well, the Adaptec 2940 is standard equipment for just about any server I'd build, as are 3COM NICs. 

Unfortunately TechNet was not very clear on how to solve my specific problem. The 3COM NIC that was mentioned was not the one I used. Eventually I discovered the real problem. Seems that when you apply the NT Service Pack 3, if overwrites the SCSI adapter driver. To correct this error, you must reinstall the driver. The appropriate driver is available from Adaptec's web site (http://www.adaptec.com/support/overview/aha2940uw.html). There are several to choose from here. Pick 7800V3022.EXE. Copy it to a temporary directory and then 'run' it to expand it. It will create three new folders, Disk1, Disk2, and (you guessed it) Disk3. 

Disk1 is the only one we care about if you're running NT. Inside that are two more folders; Win9x and WinNT. Inside the WinNT folder (sounds a lot like one of those Russian Christmas dolls) you will find yet two more, 3_5 and 4_0. 4_0 is where our NT 4.0 drivers are. Go to the Control Panel and start the SCSI Adapters applet. Click on the Drivers tab and then the Add button. When asked, select 'Have disk' and then drill down until you get to the 4_0 directory. You should see the Oemsetup.inf file. Click 'Open' to select this. Remember this entire directory path because you will be asked to specify it again. (I don't know why this applet isn't smart enough to remember it…). 

You will probably be told that the driver already exists and will be asked to choose whether to use the 'Current' driver or the 'New' one. Select the 'New' one or this exercise has been in vain. Once complete, you will need to reboot your server. This can be done any time and doesn't necessarily have to be done right away. However, do so as soon as it is convenient. After that boot, check the System Log. Hopefully the red Stop Signs for 'aic78xx' will be gone. 

Ran into another printer problem recently. NT is a wonderful print server but it does have some quirks, especially if you set up DOS printing. I was trying to install a printer on the server and no matter what I did, I could not get it to work. Whenever I tried to print, I would get errors stating it couldn't find the 'network' printer. There had been a network printer configured for the server to use previously. I deleted this entry on the server and still no help. Finally I realized the answer. 

I happened to run Net Use from the command prompt and found that LPT1 (which was where this new printer was connected) had been previously redirected (from the command prompt) to print to another network printer. This is accomplished by issuing a command like '>TT>Net Use LPT1: \\mynetpc\printer'. This had been required for the server to print reports from DOS before the new printer was added to the server. 

To resolve the problem, I simply issued 'Net Use LPT1: /d'. The /d means delete. Then when I ran Net Use, nothing showed up for LPT1. I was then able to configure the printer and use it from the server and from the other workstations on the net. The fix was easy, finding it was the hard part. 

I said last month that I would give you a few words about some of the neat new things in Small Business Server 4.5. One nifty item is the ability to administer it over the Internet. If you are a remote administrator as I am to most of my clients, this can be very handy. This is accomplished using Net Meeting. 

With Net Meeting, you can establish a session between you and the remote server. From the controlling workstation, you would 'Call' the server by pressing the Call button and entering the server's IP address or full domain name (server.mycompany.com). Someone has to be at the remote server in order to answer this call and that provides a level of security. If Net Meeting is not running on the server and the call is not actually answered, then you won't get in. Once the connection is made, the person at the server would bring up the SBS Console (the SBS administration tool) and then 'Enable Sharing' from Tools in the Net Meeting menu. From that point on, the controlling workstation will have a copy of the SBS Console and can manipulate it almost as though they were on the same machine (but a bit slower). 

The person at the server can see everything that is being done as well. This can not only be a great admin tool, but an excellent learning tool as well. With it, the administrator can show someone exactly how to perform a certain task or correct an error. And you don't have to do it over the Internet. You can do it on your own internal TCP/IP network. What if you are the administrator and the server is in another part of the building. You can set up the Net Meeting connection and administer from your own desk at will.