I had another interview with a recruiting company this morning and after the interview I was asked to complete two Windows2000 server tests. Both of them were on the setup and installation of Windows2000. The scores had been marked with an average of all the people across the consulting company who had taken the tests and I was suprised to see that the average was about 55% (I think – it could have been less). Although I found some of the questions hard, some of them were easy and quite a few of them were ambiguous – just like the Microsoft exams really. However I was pleased to get the results of 70 and 71% correct. I think if I had known I’d have been tested on these programs I would have swotted up a bit. I also think that some of the answers were incorrect.
One of the questions was “Which of the following servers can NOT be configured to use dhcp for a network address”. The answers were Dns server, dhcp server, AD controllers, print server, Wins server. I know for a fact (because I’ve done it in the past) that you can use dhcp for all of the above. Not necessarily recommended but it is possible. By setting a dhcp reservation for the mac address of a DNS, AD Controller and DHCP server , it is possible to have it use dhcp to get an address. The answer, according to MS, was that the last 2 were ok as dhcp servers….personally I beg to differ, but you just have to remember that there is the right way, the Microsoft way, the Real World way and the I can’t believe its not butter broken way.
Anyway, with those results, hopefully that will give the recruiter proof that I know what I’m talking about even if I don’t have the certifications to prove it. However the good thing is that they will have online training and also sponser the majority of the costs for accreditation once employed so I will be able to get my certs soon.

A useful place to download all those post sp4 hotfixes, some of which would normally need a call logging with microsoft are at Pubforum. As this is an unknown source, you really need to be sure the files you are downloading are legitimate.

First working day of the year and I’m already stressed out! Kristen’s car decided to start playing up – I managed to drive about 30 metres up the road when it just conked out. Various attempts at trying to start it failed,with the engine just not firing. Jump leads didn’t help at all so we’ve got to arrange a visit back to the garage (and it only passed it’s MOT less than a month ago.
Today we finished the last of the 98-W2K/XP upgrades. One of the machines the user was unable to connect to one of our domain controllers – all of the other domain controllers were fine apart from this one and other users on that machine were also fine. netdom was coming up with errors saying that the trusted channel didn’t exist (didn’t have time to get the exact error message) so I figured the machine account on the network was missing. Removing and adding back onto the domain didn’t make any difference.I had to remove from the domain, change the computer name and then add it back to the domain again.
The other machine works fine except it won’t change the scheme under display properties/appearance. Selecting a different scheme just switches back to the original one, you are unable to scroll through the list of schemes and the apply button is permanently greyed out. Again, logged on as a different user, the problem doesn’t exist. I can’t work out where the settings are being stored or how to fix it…..yet. Thankfully I have 2 more days before the user comes back to the office.
Oh and I’ve also spent the past four days with a REALLY sore/stiff neck for no obvious reason. I had to work from home in a still position three days ago as it was too painful to drive (and i couldn’t move my neck from side to side). It’s almost better now, still stiff though 🙁