Fix: Unable to Message Skype Contacts

This was a weird one. Skype on my Windows Phone stated "Messaging Unavailable" for my Dad.

The Skype apps would not present any form of his contact.

While logged in to the OneDrive site I saw a Chat bubble. I clicked on it and typed in his name.

Low and behold his contact came up BLOCKED in red.

Huh?

I didn't do that and nowhere else in the Skype ecosystem on any of my devices did that status come up.

So, I unblocked him but still no joy.

I had him log on to the OneDrive site, click the chat bubble beside the bell, and search for me and sure enough, I came up BLOCKED.

After his unblocking me our mutual contacts lit up.

Yo Skype, what the chicken?!?

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service
Twitter: @MPECSInc

Storage Live Migration: Where's the Move Status?

We're in the process of re-working a client's cluster setup (Dell MD3220 DAS + (2) Dell R520 Hyper-V Nodes) by adding drives and a new LUN.

Note that until the new RAID array on the MD3220 has finished initializing the drives will remain Read-Only.

A Storage Live Migration (SLM) can be initiated from within Failover Cluster Manager, Hyper-V Manager, or via PowerShell (Move-VMStorage on TechNet).

To see how things are moving along we can check in Hyper-V Manager:

The VHDX in question is over 500GB in size and it's taking a while to move!

Note that the VM remains online all the while and also once the SLM completes.

Once we've completed our storage re-organization we have some new workloads to configure.

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service
Twitter: @MPECSInc

Client E-mail Warning for the Current Malware Campaigns

This went out this morning. The first place in any "security strategy" should be to train the human.

Folks,

I hope you had a great summer!

With anti-SPAM services getting better and better the malicious folks out there are getting a lot more subtle in their efforts plus we’re seeing an uptick of baddies in the Inbox.

Things to note in the message below:

1. The FROM domain @fmelaw.com does not match the domain in the link
2. After hovering the mouse over the Here link the URL listed contains a bunch of gibberish
3. Watch for language, spelling, and grammar errors as there tends to be a lot of them
4. Is the Subject and/or Sender legit? Call them first!
5. Do NOT open any Word documents and especially do NOT click Enable Macros if prompted!
6. Be cautious with any PDF attachments. If in doubt call the sender or forward to here with a question.

NOTE: We are seeing _a lot_ of compromised e-mail addresses and mailboxes as a result of users opening something or clicking on something they should not have.

One attack vector is via a Macro enabled Word document harvests both E-mail and Addresses to send out _replies_ to a legitimate e-mail thread/conversation. If the Word document gets clicked on and a prompt comes for enabling Macros the Word document is BAD. CLOSE Word and SHIFT+DELETE the e-mail!

If in doubt, don’t open or click on it! Do _not_ hesitate to call or forward the questionable content!

Thank you and have a wonderful day! :)

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service
Twitter: @MPECSInc

Enable 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) Everywhere It's Available!

Yes, it's a bit of an extra inconvenience.

But, that inconvenience may save the account and any data associated with it from being hijacked!

As an example, after logging into my Microsoft ID and heading into the Security section I can check and see if there is anything out of the ordinary.

And, low and behold what do I find? That I've attempted to log on from some interesting places!

2FA is enabled on this Microsoft ID and all others. Amazon, Blogger, Microsoft,and any other that offer 2FA has it enabled.

There's absolutely no way in this day and age that it should not be used.

Thanks for reading. :)

Philip Elder
Microsoft High Availability MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
Our Cloud Service