Enable or disable Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS Mode

The computers use either of the UEFI mode boot or BIOS mode boot. When installing an OS, the hard drive must be configured for the booting mode. Otherwise, we may not be able to install the OS. This video shows you how to switch the booting mode on Dell computer.

1. Press F12 when turning on the Dell computer. Select BIOS Setup.

2. If you want to use Legacy BIOS mode boot, you must disable Secure boot.

3. Go to boot sequence, check Legacy under boot List Option.

4. Go to Advanced Boot Options, check Enable Legacy Option ROMs.

5. Apply and exit to Save the settings.

Please view this step by step video:

How to download and install Windows 10 Update Assistant

If you have a problem to install Windows 10 updates automatically, you may onside to Download Windows 10 Update Assistant from Microsoft website and install it manually. Here is how.

  1. Search “Windows 10 Update Assistant ” in an Internet browser.
  2. In Windows 10 Update Assistant page, click on download the Update Assistant.
  3. Click on Download Now.
  4. Save it to your local computer or run it.
  5. Follow the Wizard to install the update.

please view this step by step video:

Download and install Windows 10 update manually

If you have a problem to install Windows 10 updates automatically, you may onside to Download Windows 10 update from Microsoft website and and install it manually. Here is how.

  1. Access the Microsoft Update Catalog website: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx
  2. Enter the update package number into the search bar, for example 4566782. Click Search.
  3. It will show the search results. Select the correct version that’s compatible with your PC. Then click download.
  4. Click on .msu link to download it.
  5. Double-click on .msu file to install the update.
  6. You may need to restart the computer.

Please view this step by step video:

How to Manage Multi-Factor Authentication for a user in Office 365

After enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on Office 365, you may need to manage MFA for a user. This article shows you how to enable/disable, enforce and manager user settings.

1. Sign into the Microsoft 365 admin center with global admin credentials.

2. Click on Users.

3. In the Multi-factor Auth status, select the options such as Any, Enable, Forced.

4. Check the username you want to manage.

5. You will have options to Disable/Enable, Enforce and Manager user settings.

6. If you click on Manage user settings, you will have these options: Require selected users to provide contact methods again, Delete all existing app passwords by the selected users, and Restore multi-factor authentication on all remembered devices.

Please view this step by step video:

How to enable/disable Multi-Factor Authentication in Office 365

To enable or disable Office 365 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is just turning Security default on or off. You will do that on Azure portal. This article shows you how to do so.

1. Sign into the Microsoft 365 admin center with global admin credentials.

2. In the left pane choose Show All and under Admin centers, choose Azure Active Directory.

3. It redirect you to Azure Active Directory admin center. Alternatively, you just login Azure portal. Now, click on Azure Active Directory.

4. In In the Azure Active Directory admin center choose Azure Active Directory > Properties.

5. At the bottom of the page, choose Manage Security defaults.

6. Choose Yes to enable security defaults or No to disable security defaults, and then choose Save.

Note: If you have been using baseline Conditional Access policies, you will be prompted to turn them off before you move to using security defaults.

please view the step by step video:

How to use paloalto Firewall Monitor 1 – Traffic Filter Examples and troubleshooting

Palo Alto Firewall not only allows you to monitor activity on your network, but also is a useful troubleshooting tool. This article shows you how to monitor and troubleshoot related to Host Traffic.

  1. To access Monitor, login admin account. Click Monitor.
  2. In the left , you have these Filter options:

3. Examples.

Example 1: To shows all traffic from host which ip address is 10.0.200.15, use this command: (addr.src in 10.0.200.15) .

Pay attention to these important info such as From zone, To zone, Destination IP, Port, Application, Action, Rule in next page. 

Example 2: To show all traffic to a destination which IP address is 52.242.211.89, use this command:

(addr.dst in 52.242.211.89 ) .

Pay attention to these important info such as From zone, To zone, Destination IP, Port, Application, Action, Rule in next page.

Example 3: to shows all traffic coming from a host with an IP address of 10.0.200.35 and going to a host destination address of 52.242.211.89.

Example 4: To shows all traffic coming from addresses ranging from 10.0.200.10 – 10.0.200.100, use this command: (addr.src in 10.0.200.1/30).

Note: you cannot specify an actual range but can use CIDR notation to specify a network range of addresses.

Example 5: To shows all traffic with a source OR destination, use this command: (addr in 10.0.200.15).

Case 1: The client can’t access some websites.

Situation: the client has a problem to install Office 365. It takes a long time, sometimes 24 hours to install office 365.

Troubleshooting: We feel it is firewall blocking to access Office websites. ( addr.src in 10.0.200.15 ) and ( subtype eq deny ) command confirms it as shown next page. Note: Most those IP addresses are located outside of USA, which we block.

Please view this step by step video:

How to create Network Teaming in Windows Server

This how to is based on Windows Server 2019.

  1. To create Network Teaming, go to Server Manager>Local Server.
  2. NIC Teaming is disable by default. Click Disable to enable it.
  3. With the NIC Teaming open, click on TSAKS in TEAMS.
  4. Click on New Team.
  5. Type the Team name; check all NIC# you want to be in this Teaming.
  6. For more settings options, click on Additional properties.
  7. You have option to configure Teaming mode such as Static Teaming, Switch Independent, LACP.
  8. You have option to configure Load balancing mode such as Dynamic, Address Hash, Hyper-V Port.
  9. You have option to configure Standby adapter in a case the active NIC is down, the standby will be active.
  10. If your system has a VLAN, you click on NIC Teaming Default VLAN to setup.
  11. NIC Teaming may take a few minutes to create and show you the status. 
  12. You can also check the status of Team Interfaces.
  13. To edit the current NIC Teaming settings, you can go to TEAMS>TASKS>Properties.
  14. To Remove the Teaming you created, or disable it or make a change, go to ADAPTERS AND INTERFACES>TASKS.
  15. If you click on Properties, you have each NIC info such as MAC Address, Configuration role and status.

Please view this step by step video:

How to extend Disk Volume in windows

Situation: The client has a server running Windows 2019. The server comes with one disk (Disk0) with two drives C and D. The C drive is out of the spaces and you want to extend it since the disk has enough spaces. here show.

  1. If you has Unallocated space, you can right click on the current drive to extend it. If all drives are allocated, the Extend Volume is grayed.

2. If one of volumes has more free spaces, you can Shrink Volume for extending other volume by right-clicking  on the volume and then click Shrink.

3. In Shrink window, Enter the amount of spaces to shrink. Then click on Shrink.

4. After shrinking, you will have unlocated volume.

5. Now, right click on the volume you want to extend, click on Extend Volume.

6. In Extend Volume Wizard, click Next.

7. Select the amount to extend and click Next.

8. In Completing the Extend Volume Wizard, click Finish.

9. Now the C drive has more spaces.

Please view this step by step video:

Understand of CNAME Record

A Canonical Name (CNAME) records can be used in the Domain Name System (DNS) to alias one domain name to another domain name. A common example is a subdomain aliasing to the root domain name, for example, users accessing “ mail.chicagotech.net” are referred to the root domain “chicagotech.net”. Another example is pointing from several websites owned by the same organization to a primary website.

To cerate a CNAME, You must cerate A record first and point it to the server IP address. For example, create root domain name, chicagotech.net points to its IP address 162.241.252.20.

Then create a CNAME record pointing to A Record or Root domain name. For example points subdomain name www to the root domain name.

You can create more CNAME as shown below.

Notes: 1. A CNAME record must always point to another domain name, never directly to an IP address.

2. A CNAME cannot be placed at the root domain level, because the root domain is the DNS Start of Authority (SOA) which must point to an IP address.

3. CNAME record cannot co-exist with another record for the same name. It’s not possible to have both a CNAME and TXT record for www.chicagotech.net.

4. A  CNAME can point to another CNAME, although this configuration is generally not recommended for performance reasons.

5. MX and NS records must never point to a CNAME alias.

6. An A Record maps a hostname to one or more IP addresses, while the CNAME record maps a hostname to another hostname.

7. The ALIAS Record, like CNAME, also maps a hostname to another hostname. However, the ALIAS Record makes it possible to have other DNS records on the same hostname, while CNAME does not.

Please view this step by step video: