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BIZUX

Advanced Network Troubleshooting

The Microsoft VPN Problem causing Error 721

Recently a client of ours wanted to connect to a Microsoft VPN down in Canberra. He works here in Brisbane with a MS XP Pro PC and is connected with a static ip address to a Linux server. The problem was that he could connect to Canberra from home on a wireless network but not from work. At work he could connect to the internet and send and receive mail but not VPN into Canberra. There is a lot of stuff on the net about opening port 1723 and enabling the GRE protocol 47 but no detailed information about how to do this. Many tech's just give up and buy another router. Here is just another advantage of using Linux with it's IP Tables firewall.

The fix was as follows:
1. On his computer create a new VPN network connection and specify the static ip address of his computer and the dns primary and secondary addresses.

2. Add the following to the Linux firewall iptables

# Forward PPTP VPN client traffic
   $IPT -A FORWARD -i $IF -o $INIF -p tcp --dport 1723 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
    $IPT -A FORWARD -i $IF -o $INIF -p 47 -m state –state     NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
    $IPT -A FORWARD -i $INIF -o $IF -p 47 -m state --state     NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

This is just one of the many tip sheets published by Business UX to aid the Microsoft Support Community. Please enquire about others in this same series entitled "Advanced Network Troubleshooting" appearing regularly on this page.

Fixing the Microsoft Picture Manager Activation Issue

Download the file ID_10031.DPC by clicking here or spend 2 hours on the phone to Microsoft.

Save the attachment [ID_10031.DPC’ file] to your Desktop.
Click ‘Start’ and click on ‘My Computer’
Click on ‘Tools’ on the Menu bar on the top and then click on ‘Folder options’
Click on the ‘View’ tab and:
Select ‘Show Hidden Files and Folders’
Uncheck ‘Hide Extensions for known file type’
Click ‘Apply’ and then click ‘OK’.
Search for ID_10031.DPC
You will find two identical files in two different locations

If OS is Win XP
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 and C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

If OS is Vista
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 AND C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Prohybridr

Browse to these locations.
Rename the files ‘ID_10031.DPC’ to ‘ID_10031.OLD’
Paste the file ‘ID_10031.DPC’ from your Desktop in these locations

Restart the Computer and open MS Office Picture Manager.

If this does not fix the problem, Microsoft have now published additional help at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941469

The Business Office Good Practice Guide

Why you should never open an attachment sent to you by an unknown person.

This evening Monday November 3, 2008 I received an email from a “Jerry Steward” entitled “Keys of Activation” containing an attachment called Activation_key.zip Jerry is a fake name for ojtw@bock-partner.com received via the server p23180-adsau07doujib3-acca.osaka.ocn.ne.jp somewhere in Japan. The website www.bock-partner.com belongs to an organisation in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Possibly the security on these sites has been compromised.

The sender wrote this message

Hello,

Your account was temporarily suspended on demand. Please, activate your account using the keys which are in the attached Word file.

If you have any questions you can address to one of our offices in your city.

The attachment was not a Word file but an executable file containing a virus. The concerning thing is that only 6 out of 39 virus scanners¹ detected this file as a virus and the others gave it a clean bill of health. Please see the attached pdf for the results of these tests, they are surprising considering many of the top names in anti-virus detection did not pick this up. I can only put this down to the newness of this virus. Some 2 days later I ran the same test again, this time 17 out of 39 virus scanners detected the virus. Click here for these results. Notice that the CA (Vet) anti-virus company completely failed to recognise the problem. This is the same company that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia uses to produce its Net Bank Guard Dog security solution. If the file was inadvertently opened then the only recourse in cases like this where the PC has been compromised is to reformat the hard drive and reload the operating system.

The email tricks the end user into opening a payload which load programs which then compromise the PC. The attachments may be airline tickets, stock reports or other interesting documents designed to attract the curiosity of the unwary.

1 Thanks to VirSCAN.org, the FREE on-line scan service