Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Update – December 2017

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Our November update took us to 15.0.4981.1000 and today Kb 4011284 nudges us up a few builds to 15.0.4989.1000.

What’s Fixed

This update fixes the following issues:

  • Kb 4054669 Can’t set the maximum number of contacts for a Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) user
  • Kb 4054671 “The requested operation was blocked by policy” error when signing in to Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4054670 Delegates and call forwarding settings are removed in Skype for Business Basic for Office 365 ProPlus users

Continue reading ‘Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Update – December 2017’ »

Tricking Windows 10 into talking to an old SBC

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Deliberately circumventing browser security is NOT a good idea.

OK, with that mandatory common-sense warning out of the way, those of you who know why we’re doing this are welcome to continue reading.

Today was the *second* occasion in the last fortnight where I’ve needed to talk to a customer’s SBC that was still running a relatively ancient version of firmware – and none of my browsers would let me circumvent modern-day security practices to access these “unsecure” sites. The Catch-22 is of course that the only way to upgrade their inbuilt web-server to use currently secure protocols is via their present-day obsolete web-server, which your browser is “correctly” shielding you from.

These are the sorts of messages you’ll encounter if you try to browse to a Sonus or AudioCodes SBC that’s been neglected, languishing on old firmware, and unless you’re mighty lucky, you’re not going to get anywhere:

 

IE

Can't connect securely to this page

This might be because the site uses outdated or unsafe TLS security settings. If this keeps happening, try contacting the website's owner.

IE-CantConnectSecurelyToThisPage

Continue reading ‘Tricking Windows 10 into talking to an old SBC’ »

Add-WindowsFeature for AudioCodes IPP Express

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I hit a snag earlier this week when installing AudioCodes’ IP Phone Manager Express.

The installer adds the usual Windows Features/Roles – but it does so assuming the media is in D:\sources\sxs, and it’s not something you can change.

IPP-WinSourceD

Rather than just remapping drives & folders when there was an opportunity for some PowerShell, I manually translated the DISM commands back into their PowerShell equivalents so I could easily install them myself. When I then re-ran the installer it found no additions were necessary and was able to continue on its merry way.

IPP-DISM-EnableFeature

add-windowsfeature -source c:\temp\sxs -name net-framework-features,Web-WebServer,Web-Server,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Redirect,Web-App-Dev,Web-CGI,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Security,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Client-Auth,Web-Cert-Auth,Web-Url-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-IP-Security,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-DAV-publishing,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Scripting-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Service,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Metabase,Web-WMI,Web-Lgcy-Scripting,Web-FTP-Server,Web-FTP-Service,Web-FTP-Ext,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-NET45,Web-AppInit,Web-WebSockets,Web-CertProvider,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

I hope this is helpful to someone in a similar situation.

Revision History

25th November 2017. This is the initial post.

 

– G.

Review: SEFAUtil Server – Enterprise Edition

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Earlier this year I looked in some depth at the Beta version of Landis Technologies’ “SEFAUtil Server”.

It’s since hit a formal “GA” milestone, and I’m pleased to see it’s a more stable platform as a result of its lengthy gestation.

If you’re not familiar with Microsoft’s “Secondary Extension Feature Activation Utility” for Lync and Skype for Business – or why there’s a burning need for third-party add-ons like SEFAUtil Server – have a read of the intro from my Installing SEFAUtil Server and pop back here when you’re done.

Continue reading ‘Review: SEFAUtil Server – Enterprise Edition’ »

Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Update – November 2017

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Our October Security update took us to 15.0.4971.1000 and today Kb 4011255 jumps us up 10 builds to 15.0.4981.1000.

What’s Fixed

This update fixes the following issues:

  • Kb 4051054 Phone number instead of contact name is displayed for an Active Directory contact in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4051055 A contacts group is deleted when renaming the group by using the Delete key in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4051056 Anonymous meeting join fails if the meeting organizer is disabled for federation in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4051057 Can’t join a meeting through Lync Web App after the meeting can’t be joined from the Skype Meeting Add-in in Outlook

Continue reading ‘Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Update – November 2017’ »

Review: TechSmith Snagit 2018

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The screen-grabs here at greiginsydney.com are these days all captured & refined by TechSmith’s “Snagit” screen-capture utility. Prior to becoming an MVP I relied entirely on the free Windows “Snipping Tool”, but that all changed when TechSmith was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy of Snagit. It quickly became indispensable, and so I purchased a separate copy for my work PC.

Snagit gives me a lot of editing power in a small economical package. I love how what I call the “munching tool” (aka “cut out”) lets me imperceptibly remove white-space, or add tear-marks to show where I’ve removed part of an image for brevity. I can delete text (like an unwanted date-stamp) leaving only the background, blur sensitive details, highlight the important bits, and much more.

Compare an original with the edited version:

SonusGrab-Original

SonusGrab-Edited

New: “Grab Text”

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Polycom VVX & Trio Time Zone Location Description

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I was working on a Polycom VVX configuration file recently and it took me a while to find where the timezone cities were defined: all I had was a mysterious integer.

I found them in the PDF “3725-49078-018a-uc-software-skype-for-business-deployment-guide-5-6-0.pdf” but for future reference I decided to copy and re-post them here.

From the PDF: “The following two parameters configure a time zone location description for their associated GMT offset”

  • device.sntp.gmtOffsetcityID
  • tcpIpApp.sntp.gmtOffsetcityID

Here’s one in context (with Sydney showing in this example):

<device device.sntp.gmtOffsetcityID="113" device.sntp.gmtOffsetcityID.set="1" />

Continue reading ‘Polycom VVX & Trio Time Zone Location Description’ »

Office 2016 client path prevents SfB MOH playing

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It’s been a big week for Music On Hold. I’ve found a bug in the Office 2016 client that kills MOH if you mute, and another one again – this time related to the path your Office installed itself into.

The symptoms were simple enough: internally, or for external parties when the Sonus SBC’s own MOH feature was disabled, putting callers on hold resulted in them hearing silence.

I thought this was going to be a simple client policy fix, but nup:

get-csclientpolicy | ft identity,*music* -auto

Get-CsClientPolicy-MOH

Continue reading ‘Office 2016 client path prevents SfB MOH playing’ »

SfB 2016 client bug: Mute kills MOH

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I encountered a quirky little bug while chasing a Music On Hold (MOH) problem this week.

It seems that in all current flavours of the Office 2016-based client I can lay my hands on (MSI & C2R), activating Mute will suppress the transmission of MOH from the client. This probably isn’t going to be something most users will encounter, but will be exacerbated if you’re running a util that automatically engages Mute – like removing your wireless headset might do.

Its easily reproducible: with the call on hold, toggling Mute on and off will do the opposite to the music. While you’re muted the far end will hear silence & is at risk of hanging up thinking they’ve been disconnected.

MutedCallOnHold-edit

This issue won’t however be apparent to external callers if you’re using a Sonus SBC and its in-built MOH feature: that continues to play to the PSTN caller regardless.

Affected releases

I’ve confirmed it occurs on these releases of client:

  • C2R Version 1708, 8431.2094 (Monthly Channel)
  • C2R Version 1710, 8713.1000 (Office Insider)
  • MSI Version 16.0.4549.1000

Revision History

14th October 2017: This is the initial post.

 

– G.

Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Security Update – October 2017

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This week’s Security Update seems to have touched a few items and of course the Office 2013-based Lync/SfB client is no exception. Our September update took us to 15.0.4963.1000 and today we jump to 15.0.4971.1000.

Kb 4011179: This security update resolves vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Office file. To learn more about these vulnerabilities, see Microsoft Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVE-2017-11786.

What’s Fixed

This security update contains the following improvements and fixes:

  • Kb 4042815 Improves the conference experience for active speaker video stream in VDIv2 in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4042811 “The video preview won’t show” error occurs when you start a video call in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) in VDIv2
  • Kb 4042814 Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) sign-in fails when the client moves from internal to external Internet connection
  • Kb 4042810 Duplicate working numbers for contacts are displayed on the call drop-down menu in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4042812 Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) doesn’t display who changed the whiteboard content in a meeting
  • Kb 4042817 Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) crashes when the computer resumes from sleep or hibernate mode
  • Kb 4042809 A user’s department isn’t displayed on their contact card in Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013)
  • Kb 4042813 Can’t automatically log on to Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) that has the December 6, 2016, update installed
  • Kb 4042816 Adds a new Show/Hide My Video button for VDIv2 users to minimize the self-view video in Skype for Business 2015

Continue reading ‘Lync 2013 / SfB 2015 Client Security Update – October 2017’ »