MANAGING DIAL UP ACCOUNTS

Its easy to have multiple dialup accounts where you can cherry pick from one single menu of numbers to dial. Create a desktop shortcut to c:\winnt\system32\rasphone.exe Now you will be presented with a menu of "previously" established account numbers from which to choose. Any previously set configurations such as redial on disconnect after X seconds, will still be obeyed.


MONITORING PROGRAMS RUNNING ON YOUR SYSTEM

The best defense against system worms and trojans is to know whats running in the background on your computer. Create a desktop shortcut to: c:\winnt\system32\dllcache\taskmgr.exe This will allow you to see all processes that are concurrently running on your machine as well as the amount of time they are using the CPU.


HOW TO STOP OR START A SERVICE

W2000/XP has the ability to selectively stop (or start) a program registered to run as a service (i.e. in the background). Create a desktop shortcut to: C:\WINNT\system32\services.msc This is a powerful low level utility. Make sure you understand services the operating system has running that are mandatory before shutting things down. In many instances you can set a service to run manually (on demand) in lieu of automatically at boot up.


HOW TO BRING UP A DOS BOX

W2000/XP does not have the ability to boot directly into a DOS environment like its predecessors. However it does provide for some limited DOS support through a utility called a Command Processor. Create a shortcut to your desktop using the following path: c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe You can now right click the blue bar on top of the dos box that opens and select its properties to control various parameters.


NETWORK TROUBLESHOOTING

There are several command utilities (they must run from a dos command box - see above) that come with W2000P for troubleshooting a LAN. These files are typically located in the WINNT/SYSTEM32 folder.

PING.EXE
Example: "PING 192.168.0.2" (less quotes) to test a peer on your LAN

NETSTAT.EXE
Example: "NETSTAT /?" to see all the options

IPCONFIG.EXE
Example: "IPCONFIG /ALL" to get your MAC address and other diagnostic information.
XP Pro use getmac /v The Physical Address shown is the MAC address.

Note: the switch or tail parameter "/?" will provide Help with any of the above utilities.


HOW TO CREATE A MENU IN A W2000/XP DOS BATCH

Because CHOICE is no longer supported in W2000/XP DOS batch processing there is a work around using the SET command for still providing menu option selections. Below is an example which should get you on your way.

-----------Begin-----------
@ECHO OFF
:REPEAT
CLS
ECHO.
@ECHO OFF
ECHO Yoda's BackUp Utility
ECHO.
ECHO [A] Backup A
ECHO [B] Backup B
ECHO [] Exit
ECHO.
SET /P mreply=Enter Choice :
IF %mreply% == a GOTO C1
IF %mreply% == b GOTO C2
IF %mreply% == c GOTO C3
ECHO Not a valid choice!
PAUSE
GOTO REPEAT
:C1
@ECHO ON
DO STUFF HERE
GOTO REPEAT
:C2
@ECHO ON
DO STUFF HERE
GOTO REPEAT
:C3
@ECHO ON
-----------End-----------