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Common Answers For NT Problems v1.24

Last Updated: September 2000

On many of the Windows NT Support Lists which abound, you will find that the same questions get asked again and again by people who refuse to check the FAQs or list archives.

It has been my great pleasure to compile this list primarily for their benefit. This is version 1.24 of the Most Common Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions on the Windows NT Administration lists... 

In most cases, the questions should be quite obvious!  If you think of any more answers, please be sure to bring them to my attention. For more in the way of dealing with lazy admins, be sure to check out the Mad-Techies website...

On the other hand, if you seek true answers, visit my knowledgebase and answer a question or three!

• Add the appropriate user right on EACH workstation

• Add the user to the local Administrators group

• Add the user to the local Power Users group

• Avoid using FAT on your systems

• Be sure to perform a full backup beforehand

• Check Microsoft MSDN 

• Check Microsoft Resource Kits  

• Check Microsoft Support

• Check Microsoft TechNet

• Check out the Microsoft Whitepapers

• Check the awesome NT FAQ

• Check the awesome NT/9x utilities at System Internals

• Check the instructions at the end of this mail message on the NT lists

• Check your RAM

• Check your routing tables

• Check your subnet masks

• Copy the i386 directory to the hard drive

• DON'T use the driver from the NT CD

• Don't use .PSTs; they're BAD

• Don't use a cross-over cable

• Download the updated drivers

• Edit %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\AUTOEXEC.NT

• Edit %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\CONFIG.NT

• Edit BOOT.INI

• Enable Directory Replication

• Get a hub

• Get a switch

• Get a real router

• Go to START => HELP => FIND => text to search for

• Increase your Event Logs and set to overwrite when full

• Increase your Pagefile size

• Install NETBEUI on the RAS Server

• Install a second, compact instance of NT on your machine

• It is purchased separately

• It's a permissions issue

• It's in the Help files

• It's in the Resource Kit (Supplemental 3)

• It's on the NT Server CD (\SRVTOOLS)

• Look on Microsoft's Download site

• Make a Volume Set

• Make sure the SCSI bus is properly terminated

• Make the Pagefile static (same Initial and Maximum sizes)

• NET USE H: /HOME

• NO

• NT doesn't recognize FAT32 -- yet...

• NTFS drives do suffer from fragmentation

• Not with Software RAID

• Only with 3rd party utilities

• Partition Magic will allow you to do this

• Please provide more info about your config...

• Put the entry in %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers\Etc\HOSTS

• Put the entry in %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers\Etc\LMHOSTS

• Put your domain account in the local administrators group

• RTFM

• RTFM (This cannot be emphasized enough!)

• RTFM (Really!!!)

• Reapply the latest Service Pack

• Reboot the machine

• Remove NETBEUI

• Run NET /?

• Run UPTOMP from the Resource Kit

• Run WINNT /OX or WINNT32 /OX from the NT CD (Server or Workstation)

• SORRY

• Search BHS, WinFiles, or SoftSeek

• Search the registry using REGEDIT

• Search the web with Copernic 

• Search the web with WebFerret

• Service Packs are cumulative

• Stop the services manually

• Surround the command with quotation marks

• The primary partition should be FAT16

• There is a hotfix for that

• This only works with NT, not Win9x

• This requires an NTFS partition

• This was recently answered and may be found here: (NTSysAdmin List)

• This was recently answered and may be found here: (WINNT-L List) 

• This will be part of NT5 (Win2K)

• Time to buy new hardware

• Try a NAT and/or Proxy product: http://huizen.dds.nl/~jacco2/isdn/ipr_ispa.html 

• Try a NAT and/or Proxy product:  http://www.uq.edu.au/~gadmacka/the-nat-page/index.html 

• Try pressing F1

• Try: thecommand -?

• Try: thecommand /?

• Turn Auditing on

• Turn ON IP Forwarding

• Upgrade to NT Server

• Upgrade to NT Workstation

• Use ARP -a

• Use CACLS or XCACLS

• Use Drive Image or Ghost

• Use HIDDEN shares

• Use IPCONFIG /ALL

• Use NBTSTAT -R

• Use NBTSTAT -RR

• Use NET USE \\x.x.x.x or NET USE \\server or
  NET USE \\host.domain.com

• Use NET, NETSVC, SC or XNET

• Use NTRIGHTS (from the ResKit)

• Use NewSID

• Use PING -a

• Use RegClean 4.1a

• Use SUBINACL

• Use SUBST

• Use USRSTAT (from the ResKit)

• Use a Keyboard/Video/Mouse autoswitcher from Cybex 

• Use the NTSEC utilities

• Use the driver from the NT CD

• YES

• You can get this info at Microsoft's Security Site 

• You can get this info on NTBugTraq

• You can use batch files or Kixtart 

• You can use batch files or Perl for Win32

• You don't have sufficient rights

• You have to actually login to the domain

• You have to create individual shares

• You have to install NT last

• You have to install them locally

• You have to reinstall NT Server

• You need a boot manager like Boot Magic 

• You need a cross-over cable

• You need more RAM

• You need to be an administrator

• You need to use REGEDT32

• You'll be happier using DHCP

• You'll find the answer at JSI Inc.

• You'll have to edit the registry

• Your WINS database is corrupt