Script to get service tag from Dell device

I needed to get the service tag off my Dell laptop today, but i was in the middle of doing a million things, so didn’t fancy undocking it to look underneath.

So I put this quick vb script together to get the service tag.

If you’re not running any kind of NMS like SCCM, SCOM or SCE (which would gather the service tags for you) this may be useful to use if you need the tag from a remote host.
Enjoy!

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colSMBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * from Win32_SystemEnclosure")
For Each objSMBIOS in colSMBIOS
Wscript.Echo "Dell Service Tag: " & objSMBIOS.SerialNumber
Next

Configuring default FTP logon domain

If you’re still stuck in the dark insecure age of the internet and using FTP, you may want users to login to your FTP site using their domain credentials.

By default, the FTP service will use the local user database on the server itself (unless you enter your username in the domain\username format), you can however configure IIS to use a domain by default.

Take caution in doing this though, if you’ve ever put an FTP server on the internet, take a look at the event logs, it will have a ton of brute force attacks on it within minutes.
By default FTP will be trying to authenticate locally, which is a much smaller attack surface (fewer users) as soon as you point it at your domain, it’s going to have a much larger attack surface (more users)

You need to make sure you don’t have any accounts such as “test” or users like “mary” with passwords of “password” or any dictionary word at all. You should also tie the FTP site down to the specific users that need access, so if an account does get compromised it can’t be used to put data in the FTP directory.
With the above in mind, use an elevated command prompt to run the following on the FTP server

adsutil set msftpsvc/DefaultLogonDomain "YourDomainName"

This will set the default logon domain for all FTP sites.

Keeping up to date with technology (Specifically Microsoft)

There is plenty going on with Microsoft Technology at the moment, Windows 8, Windows Server 8, cloud, Configuration Manager 2012, the list goes on.

Keeping up to date with these while still doing a dayjob is a struggle.
I use the RSS feed functionality in outlook and I have feeds from a select few blogs, so when something interesting comes along, its dropped into my outlook.
Below is a list of feeds that I use:

Ctrl P - The Data Protection Manager Blog! -
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/rss.aspx

Windows Server Division WebLog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/rss.aspx

Windows Virtualization Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/rss.aspx

Forefront Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/forefront/rss.aspx

System Center Configuration Manager Team Blog -
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/rss.aspx

Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway Product Team Blog -
http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/rss.aspx

Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/rss.aspx

TechNet Blogs - http://blogs.technet.com/b/MainFeed.aspx?Type=BlogsOnly

The Configuration Manager Support Team Blog -
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/rss.aspx

The Microsoft Application Virtualization Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/rss.aspx

The WSUS Support Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/sus/rss.aspx

Enterprise Strategy UK - http://blogs.technet.com/b/enterprise_strategy_uk/rss.aspx