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Larry Lentz Lessons Learned
Windows NT
by Larry Lentz
The Value of Microsoft Certification

November, 1999
Larry Lentz is a Past President of Alamo PC. He is the owner of Lentz Computer Services. He has been a professional in the computer field since 1981.
Back when I received my MCSE (and everyone had to walk 10 miles to school each day, uphill, both ways, in the South Texas snow) the certification had a lot of clout. Recently there has been a lot of concern that it is getting too easy to obtain and that there are too many getting it who have little or no real experience. Those of you who have pursued it, successfully or not, know it is certainly not an easy goal to obtain. But there is concern that there are too many MCSEs and therefore the title is becoming somewhat meaningless. Granted, today it is almost a requirement if you want to be considered for even an entry-level computer position. 

When I was first certified, there were only 25,000 to 30,000 MCSEs worldwide. Now there are over 145,000! This would certainly seem like an explosion. Conversely, when I received my MCSE+Internet, there were less than 1,000 worldwide. Now there are only about 5,500. However, to put it all in perspective, I recently heard on the news that there are over 800,000 open positions in the computer industry requiring the skills of MCSEs. Suddenly the 145,000 looks like a big shortfall instead of a glut! 

There looms on the horizon a great equalizer. Microsoft is retiring the current Windows NT 4.0 certifications! The current 4.0 exams will be retired on December 31, 2000. Those who are certified with those tests must take the replacement tests not later than December 31, 2001 to remain certified. I am afraid that this will possibly discourage some of those who were only marginally qualified for the MCSE in the first place and don’t have the strong desire to continue with their education to complete the recertification process. The new certifications will require deep knowledge of Windows 2000. Those who are already MCSEs or who have taken all the core NT 4.0 tests, need only take the Windows 2000 Accelerated exam plus a Windows 2000 specific exam. It is all very confusing, especially if you are already certified. You can find more information at http://www.microsoft.com/mcp/certstep/mcse.htm. 

Can’t See Workstation on Network - Recently I added a couple of Windows NT workstations to an existing network. We were running TCP/IP, of course. However, I could not ‘see’ either of the two new machines from the network. I was able to PING them though. I looked in the Control Panel Services applet and found that the Server service was not running. I attempted to start it and was presented with an error message ‘Error 1130: Not enough server storage is available to process this command.’ Naturally I took out my trusty TechNet to find the answer. I found several references to this kind of error but none were related to Windows NT 4.0 Workstations! For the first time I decided to check out the ‘extra’ CD Microsoft started sending a while ago, the Knowledge Base. There I found my answer. Seems that this problem can occur when you install networking AFTER having applied a service pack. The networking drivers are then taken from the original NT installation CD and do not match the current operating system with the Service Pack. The fix was simple just reinstall the service pack. I did and they both worked as desired. The fix and problem seem to have had little to do with a lack of server storage as indicated. Another great and descriptive error message! 

Logging in with RAS
I have a client who needs to be able to dial in their Small Business Server and log in. We were able to connect OK and even see the other workstation on the network. But we could not get to any of the resources on the server. When we would connect, we would be prompted for a user name and password. It even asked for the domain, which it auto-filled correctly. However, we always received the message that no domain controller was available to service our request. Without logging in, we could not get to the server. We could get to the workstations because they were all Win 9x, which doesn’t have very strong log in requirements nor security. We finally resolved the problem by creating an LMHOSTS file in the Windows directory on the client’s notebook. In this file we placed an entry for our server that was also the domain controller. The entry looks something like this:  

10.0.0.2        NTSERVER        #PRE    #DOM:OurDomain
This entry tells Windows that the IP address of NTSERVER is 10.0.0.2. The #PRE tells Windows to preload this entry into the system’s address tables so it knows it right away. The #DOM specifies this as the Domain Controller for the specified domain. By specifying the domain controller, Windows now knew exactly how to request its logon credentials. The customer was now able to log in and access the server. 

Small Business Server Installation Gotcha
When installing Small Business Server 4.5, the setup routine requests the CD Key for Office 2000 CD. This is fine if you happen to have Office 2000 and the appropriate number of licenses. But what if you don’t? What if you only were trying to install just the basic SBS server and client software? Well, it turns out that what the setup routine is really asking for is the CD Key for your Outlook 2000 CD! This CD comes with Small Business Server 4.5. During the client setup, Outlook 2000 is downloaded from the server to the workstations. If you happen to have Office 2000, you can include that in your client setup as well and it will also be downloaded to the clients. Then you would want to use the Office 2000 CD Key as requested. Seems that the setup routine could have been a little clearer.