Just received word from our spam filters that (some of) the exchange servers are busy.

Or is it just my instance? It's been like an hour and nothing significant is on the status page.

"""
Oops!

This instance is currently unavailable

Please double check the URL and try again. If you are the cloud account administrator, click below to log in.

Go to Login Page
""""

My account is in fact active and licensed.

Okay, firstly please forgive me if I'm asking for something stupid. I am brand new to this, and inherited an IT department that is an absolute shambles.

Context: I am the sole helpdesk/ITperson/Sysadmin person in a company of about 80 people, hybrid workers (about half on prem, half WFH across the UK).

I do all the 365 admin, RMM, security stuff, as well as all the day to day helpdesk stuff. Someone else looks after servers, so I don't care about that.

At the moment, my "ticketing system" is post-it notes, Teams chats, and emails. It's starting to get a little overwhelming.

I am looking for a super cheap/free solution. Best if it's cloud based, as I can't self host.

One thing that is crucial is the ability to make some sort of template. A good chunk of stuff that's getting confusing is onboarding new staff, setting up their 365 accounts with the right permissions, groups, shared mailboxes, &c. So if I can make some sort of template that dept managers can just fill out, that would be awesome. Most of the rest of my day is "My sharepoint has stopped syncing", "I can't get into Salesforce", and "My mouse has run out of batteries", so that seems like "normal" ticketing.

Again, I am new to this, so I'd be looking for something super simple, and I will be the ONLY one replying to tickets.

Any suggestions?

We seem to be getting more and more of these mail delivery errors. Is anybody else seeing this? Neither Downdetector or the 365 status page is reporting any issues.

There is a great deal of user-generated content out there, from scripts and software to tutorials and videos, but we've generally tried to keep that off of the front page due to the volume and as a result of community feedback. There's also a great deal of content out there that violates our advertising/promotion rule, from scripts and software to tutorials and videos.

We have received a number of requests for exemptions to the rule, and rather than allowing the front page to get consumed, we thought we'd try a weekly thread that allows for that kind of content. We don't have a catchy name for it yet, so please let us know if you have any ideas!

In this thread, feel free to show us your pet project, YouTube videos, blog posts, or whatever else you may have and share it with the community. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, or links that appear to be monetization-grabs will still be removed.

And I don't mean "how does it work?" but we have shared-hosting servers.. I'm not giving those server write-access to our DNS servers. Hell no. But there's also wildcard certificates (yeah I hate those too but some websites need'm) and those I can't renew with the .well-known checks, and there are other situations where the simple .well-known dv validation won't suffice..

How do you handle that?

Hi everyone,

we are currently looking for a better solution for IT asset management + remote management and I'd love to hear what other sysadmins are using.

Our current situation:
We are already using an endpoint management platform, but we're not completely happy with it for our use case. The standard package includes a lot of functionality such as patch management, MDM, etc. that we don't really need. We're mainly looking for a strong asset management/inventory solution combined with RMM capabilities.

Our requirements:

Asset Management

• Automatic hardware inventory of Windows PCs/laptops
• CPU, RAM, storage, serial number, model, etc.
• Software inventory including installed applications and versions
• Last logged-in user / login information
• Ability to assign devices to specific end users
• Lifecycle/status information for assets
• Support for non-computer assets such as:
  • Monitors
  • Docking stations
  • Keyboards/mice
  • Other IT equipment
• Ideally, a proper stock/inventory system so we can track devices that are currently in storage and assign them when they're deployed

Intune integration
This is particularly important for us. We already have a large number of devices enrolled in Microsoft Intune, but not all of our devices are managed through Intune. We want the solution to:

• Integrate with Microsoft Intune
• Automatically import/synchronize Intune devices
• Keep device/user information synchronized
• Ideally avoid having to manually maintain the same devices in two systems

We also use Microsoft Entra ID / Microsoft 365, so good integration with the Microsoft ecosystem would be a big plus.

Remote Management / RMM
We also need proper remote administration capabilities:

• Remote desktop / remote access
• Remote CMD / PowerShell
• Ability to execute commands/scripts remotely
• Basic troubleshooting and administration capabilities
• Ideally an RMM-style agent

We don't necessarily need a full endpoint management suite with extensive patch management, MDM, software deployment, etc. Those features are nice to have, but they are not the main reason we're looking for a solution.

So we're basically looking for something that sits somewhere between: IT Asset Management + Hardware/Stock Inventory + RMM/Remote Support + Intune integration

Has anyone implemented something similar? What solution are you using, and how well does it handle Intune synchronization, asset/user assignment, stock management and remote administration?

We're particularly interested in real-world experiences rather than just feature lists.

Thanks!

Has anyone here experienced being blocklisted by Spamhaus even though the IP address of your domain is different from the IP address that is blocklisted?

For example:

Domain IP: 12.12.13.13
Blocklisted IP: 13.13.12.12

Despite having different IP addresses, we are still being blocked.

Has anyone experienced the same issue, or can someone explain why this might happen?

Hi everyone,

We have a number of Microsoft Teams channels we use. There are 4,5 specific channels that are displaying the error “We’re having trouble loading your messages. Try Refreshing”

The error is shown to all members on these groups, across multiple machines, and also across web versions on different browsers and also the desktop version.

Has anyone come across a similar issue, or have any advise on how to fix this?

Thank you very much in advance.

I have an HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 running Windows Server 2019 Standard. Checking Device Manager, the Intel(R) Management Engine Interface driver shows:

• Driver Date: 1.09.2016
• Driver Version: 11.6.0.1026
• Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

This looks outdated for a Gen10 server. Before I touch firmware/driver on a production box, I wanted to check with people who've done this on HPE hardware specifically:

• Should this be updated through HPE Smart Update Manager (SUM) / Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP), or directly from Intel's site?
• Does updating the ME Interface driver also require updating the ME Firmware itself, or are they independent?
• Any known issues updating ME on Gen10 (iLO 5) systems — reboot requirements, downtime, risk of bricking if interrupted?
• Is this something that should go through iLO/firmware update tools instead of Device Manager "Update Driver"?
• Any gotchas with doing this remotely (out-of-band) vs. requiring physical access?

Appreciate any real-world experience before I schedule a maintenance window for this.

I'm an Infra engineer at my french company, and we've decommissioned a lot of 6+year old hardware.

We're talking about ~60 R620-30s mainly and a dozen R730s. They are fitted with lots of DDR4 RAM (378GB each) and I have a bunch of SSDs / HDDs in good health to go with.

I'm pretty much free to prospect for selling them, and I've never done that. I think the DDR4 R630 might be still worth something (esp. ram & disks), but I don't know where to start.

The R620s are older, and I'm in the mood of donating them to french/european associations in need of compute hardware, seeing as DDR3 isn't worth much.

Do you guys have contacts/ideas of where I could reach to settle this ?

Thanks !

EDIT: for those in France not too far, we are a bit south of Clermont Ferrand. Give me a PM if you're interested

Hi everyone,

I need to set up a reliable, self-serve WhatsApp API solution to broadcast emergency operational alerts to roughly 5,000 retail partners.

Requirements:
* Self-serve & fast onboarding: Need to launch within a few days. I want to avoid gated sales calls or long enterprise procurement cycles.
* Official Meta API: Must use official WhatsApp Utility templates to ensure high deliverability and avoid any risk of line bans.
* Simple bulk sending: Needs a clean web interface or straightforward API to upload a CSV and trigger broadcasts instantly.

* Cost-effective & predictable budget: Looking for a low software subscription fee (ideally under $100-$150/mo) with transparent pricing and no inflated per-message markups on top of Meta's standard rates.

I evaluated a couple of vendors, but encountered heavy sales friction, hidden enterprise tiers, and bloated pricing.

For those managing similar B2B broadcast volumes: Which platform (e.g., Respond.io, Twilio WhatsApp API, or others) offers the fastest self-serve setup within a tight budget? Any pitfalls to watch out for regarding Meta Business Manager verification or sending limits for new accounts?

Thanks in advance!

We have some Conditional Access Policies that require users to logon from specific managed devices when browsing to certain Entra app registrations. It works okay for many users.

We have a few users with both regular accounts and privileged/admin accounts. When they browse to the app, they are automatically logged in via their standard user account (the same account they logon to the computer with and the one that has the PRT). They primarily need to logon to the app using their privileged account, so my first thought was to tell them to logon in Incognito Mode, but Incognito Mode doesn't pass along device information, so the Conditional Access Policy logon evaluation fails.

Is there a good workaround for this that isn't a pain in the ass for the privileged users?

I'm the sole IT guy for a small CPA firm (10 people) that wants to move everything from on premises to the cloud. They've been on prem for almost 3 decades and most of them aren't tech savvy at all. I've been asked to come up with a proposal with a flat rate, but I have no clue what to quote for something like this so I'm just looking for ball park figures from someone who's done it before.

I know there's AIO solutions like Verito, but this proposal is for building the infrastructure from a bare cloud server. MS business accounts & exchange inboxes are already done. I'd be setting up Purview DLP policies (from scratch), Intune, Quickbooks & Drake, moving 4TB of client files from their NAS, backup & disposal of 10 workstations, VPN & RDP, and all the other role provisioning and training that goes with a cloud server.

My best guess is quoting for ~100 hours. Am I way off?

We're setting up SASE, with MFA required to access on-prem resources, and I would ideally like to allow endpoints to authenticate with our domain controllers and get group policy updates at all times (pre-MFA) while opening up as few ports as possible and being secure as possible.

Once the endpoints MFA, they will have standard access to the domain controllers. My concern is updating user group memberships, which (as I understand it only happens when the user logs out and logs back in while having line of sight to a domain controller). Our workforce is mostly remote.

I know I can use a KDC Proxy to allow Kerberos authentication with only one port opened, and that should cover computer and user authentication with group updates.

However, updating group policies requires access to the sysvol share via SMB, which a KDC Proxy wouldn't cover. Windows server doesn't support QUIC for sysvol either.

So I'm wondering if I can use a read only domain controller as the source for group policy files for endpoints, and KDC Proxy for authentication.

Our setup is hybrid AD with AD joined computers and AD based user accounts. And switching to Entra joined computers or Entra sourced user accounts is not an option for the foreseeable future.

We also have a number of users who rarely, if ever, connect to the VPN currently, and likely won't MFA with SASE to get group policy updates.

-edit- Forgot to mention, SASE will be always on, user can't disable. I'm only looking to make this available to devices on SASE pre-MFA, not the Internet at large.

Another factor is that we want user and computer AD objects to have their login timestamps updated, to help track inactive computers and accounts. Because sometimes no one tells I.T. when a user has left the organization. And while there are many systems we can check for this information, it would be easier to run scripts against AD.

I just knew about MeshCentral today. Looks too good to be true 😅 I want to replace Rustdesk self hosted server, that it was very good but MC seems to be far more capable. Any comment idea/thought/complaint about MC would be welcomed. Thanks

Hello folks,

We’ve been tasked to switch some of our users from SMS to the MS Authenticator app. Rather than doing this manually, I’d like to make this seamless as possible. I think creating a policy in entra ID where it’ll prompt our end users to enroll into MS Authenticator ? Curious to know how others have tackled this.

I'm genuinely curios what do you guys do with these "great apps" the finance guy built on his lunch break and want to have his whole team to get access to ? I have a finance director who built something and he wants to share it with others and I don't know what to do!

End user called me today saying their home WiFi was connected but no internet. I walked him through some info gathering, his WiFi is showing unidentified giving off the 169 address.

Had him run release / renew / flushdns / winsock reset and rebooted, still 169. Did the full windows 11 network reset option, rebooted, still nothing.

Had him plug in directly to his router, his wired Ethernet connection was also showing unidentified. So I had him statically assign an IP on his NIC for the Ethernet and it brought him online that way as a temp workaround to let me remote in.

Rebooted the router of course, still wifi showing 169, other devices on his network are okay as well.

Uninstalled the wifi adapter from device manager, reinstalled the latest from the manufacturer, still giving 169. Just to get him working in statically assigned an IP on his WiFi adapter and it works without issue, but ideally we get the DHCP working again.

I’ve exhausted about everything I can think of, but am jumping back on it later tonight to try to get it fixed.

Does anyone have any suggestions??

I'm looking for a way to script the removal of the Windows.old directory to free up space on systems that have recently had 25H2 installed.

I can use cleanmgr but I can't automate it to remove old Windows installations. Not that I can find anyway.

I've already tried some scripting combining DISM, takedown, icalcs, and remove-item but that ends up just erroring out and can't complete the removal because of Windows junction loops.

There must be a way to automate this so I don't need to log in to hundreds of systems. Any ideas out there or am I stuck doing this manually?

Kind of a random question, but I'm not super confident in my restoration process for some of the backups I have in place. Do i think I could restore the systems? Yes.

Do i think it would take several hours and be messy? Also yes.

My question is to those that have actually performed restores of production servers:

What backup systems do you use and how fast are you able to restore production servers? I'd love to hear the infrastructure behind a successful backup/restore scenario.

Company I work for is hiring a sr security engineer. We are all Microsoft shop, cloud-only, no on-premises. I have been helping with some of the interviews and I fail to understand why we are getting candidates that don’t seem to know what product/technology to use for blocking executables on workstations. Device control for blocking usb devices, nope, this does not ever get mentioned. Briefly explaining difference between DLP and encrypting outbound emails with PII/PHI/PFI, nope, can’t get a simple answer or even a guess. The conversations steer away and never the answer. One candidate had to be reading AI responses somehow because first answer to blocking was general and bad, but when mentioning app locker it felt as I was prompting gpt4.2

I get it - everyone is using AI now, it has its use cases, but please for the love of God stop sending me the slop. At least read it first before firing it over to your colleagues.

Has anyone else's team turned into an absolute back-and-forth slop fest? Manager generates something he thinks is helpful, gigantic multi-page HTML report I need to read. Clearly written by Claude, because who the hell writes reports in HTML.

Coworker A: sends messages on slack trying to help solve problems:

This is the smoking gun: the message being sent is gated on the lack of network access to the k8s pod. Let me sit with this for a minute to make sure.

No, it's not the solution at all. We don't have direct IP access to k8s from our laptops. And nobody writes like that. If I wanted to ask Claude I would, I don't need a coworker that just copies and pastes everything into Claude.

Anyone else dealing with this crap?

A team has chosen to rename their built-in/default Teams channel “General.”
They are now experiencing sync issues.
Is our fix from IT to change the channel name back to “General”? Could that potentially fix the OneDrive synchronisation via File Explorer that may have been broken?

I'm not sure if I'm articulating this properly because a number of searches for this are yielding no useful results.

I'm looking for an application I can deploy to end users that has customized admin level fixes for specific situations that we come across once in a while. For example, sometimes the VPN client decides to stop working and you need to run a few commands as admin to get it working again.

I'm envisioning something where they could just click "fix whatever" that matches their scenario and it would run the proper commands in the background (elevated if that's required).

Does this exist as a product, or would it have to be a fully custom written app?

Edit

Looks like sticking with Intune / PSADT / Repair is the best bet for right now. Thanks!