Got an email from a client this morning complaining that he could not access his SBS 2003 Remote Web Workplace.

He was getting a 403.6 error -- IP Address rejected.

This didn't make any sense, since we want every IP address to be able to access the site and access to the site was fine earlier in the week.

Even after re-running the CEICW (Configure E-Mail and Internet Connection Wizard) a few times, I couldn't connect to the site from outside the local subnet.

The only thing that had changed recently was our swapping out of their existing router for a new Linksys WRT110.

I've set up enough SBS boxes to know which ports we want to open. So I clicked on the "Applications and Gaming" tab and put in the mappings for ports 25, 80, 110, 143, 443-444, 3389 and 4125.

However, I didn't put them where I thought I did.

When you click on the "Applications and Gaming" tab in a WRT54G router, you're taken to a "Port Range Forwarding" page.

Linksys has been doing itthis way for years.

Not so in the WRT110 series!

Now you're brought to a "Single Port Forwarding" page. It looks kinda similar:

But instead of there being a port RANGE, it's a single port. So when you put 443 in the first box and 444 in the second box of the WRT110, it MAPS 443 to 444, and that causes your SSL authentication to fail and your IP to be rejected. It doesn't work like you think. For that, you need to go here:

And if you were to put 443 and 444 in the boxes, then it all works...

So, the moral of the story is, make sure you're forwarding your ports correctly.

Ran into a couple snags trying to install VMWare Server 2.0 onto Windows Server 2003 R2 today, and figured I'd share in the workarounds:

First issue was an error when trying to launch the setup program: "The System Administrator has set policies to prevent this installation." Hm. I'm the system administrator, and I don't recall setting any such policies.

Happily, Jason Boche -- a VMWare Virtualtization Evangelist -- wrote a blog entry which explained a simple fix. Apparently this is part of Windows 2003's new "high security" mode, and I suppose I can't fault Microsoft for it... much.

Jason's solution is thus:

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. gpedit.msc <enter>
4. Drill down to Computer configuration
   1. Windows Settings
      1. Security Settings
         1. Software Restriction Policies
5. Right click Software Restriction Policies
6. Choose Create New Policies
7. On the right hand side, right click Enforcement
8. Choose Properties
9. Down below, choose All users except local administrators
10. Click OK
11. Close Group Policy
12. Open a Command Prompt
13. Run the command gpupdate /force <enter>
14. When local group policy is finished updating, re-run the VMware Server 2.0 setup

Worked like a charm. Thanks, Jason!

Second up was once the install started running, I got stymied with "Error 1718: File c:\windows\installer\randomstring.msi was rejected by digitial signature policy."

According to Shawn Bass' blog, there's an issue with the WIndows Installer engine and big MSIs. Microsoft has made a hotfix availablewhich, after a reboot, took care of things.