Enabling Windows Remote Shutdown via RPC

Home automation tools like Home Assistant offer convenient integrations for remotely shutting down computers with Windows OS (and also re-powering on via WOL, triggering a power switch etc). To get the shutdown feature running, you need to prepare some simple steps on...

PowerShell / NSClient / Nagios: Check existence of certain USB devices

Scenario USB server devices, e.g. used for virtual appliances, can be error-prone when it comes to auto-reconnect USB client devices on startup. In addition, if you have to redirect USB license dongles to some virtual server, some devices might get "lost" from time to...

GPO, GPP: Distributing local printing restrictions for certain printers in AD

Scenario Local printers are deployed via central GPP to your domain's workstations. Some printers should not be used by certain users, but users should be able to switch workstations quickly, Solution Open Windows Print Management on a local workstation where the...

explorerFilePreview

Released a tool which can be used for non-Outlook PCs to be able to see email files (.msg, .eml) as preview in Windows Explorer. Get it via GitHub.

Replacing Dell PowerEdge R340 Fans

As I described in a previous post, Dell's 1U server fans are made to be efficient and definitely not to be silent. You can try to decrease the RPM to 1%, but they remain to be quite loud. Because I use the R340 in a quiet office and did not get useful support...

Silencing Dell PowerEdge Rack Server Fans

Dell servers in general are optimized for high performance and not to be quiet. However, in silent office environments, the fan noise can be annoying, especially the ones in 1U cases. Even if you do not need the server's full power all the time, the fans run way too...

Solved: Firefox opens 2 windows when opening links from other software

In some special cases it might happen that HTTP(s) links open as duplicates in separate Firefox browser windows, if they are contained in an Outlook email, Explorer shortcut (.lnk) etc. This behavior does not happen having another browser set as default, like IE....

Node.js and Windows Folder Redirection, User Permissions

Starting e.g.an Angular project using Visual Studio and Node.js, NPM will fill the user's AppData directory with thousands of files. Depending on your Windows domain network structure, the AppData folder might have been configured to be redirected to a central server...

Ubuntu upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04 to 18.04 Apache2 showing blank pages

Scenario You are doing a Ubuntu LTS upgrade from 14.04. Having new 16.04 installed, everything seems fine, but after the upgrade to 18.04, Apache shows only blank pages for PHP sites. Even simple commands like phpinfo() do not work. The common log files do not show...

Changing websites from HTTP to HTTPS, using Apache as Reverse Proxy for Exchange Server

Because of the EU GDPR / DSGVO regulations it is recommended to run websites secured with SSL certificates, therefore using port 443 instead of 80. But especially in small organizations the port 443 has already been used, in most cases for the various tools of MS...

AutoMapper with static ExtensionMethods for .NET Standard

Because the team of the original AutoMapper project removed several static methods with the start of v9, I created a project which keeps the most important static ExtensionMethods like Map() or ProjectTo for easier access. Get it via NuGet or Github. [github-commits...

C# ASP.NET Core MVC: Customized Controller Authorization Attributes

Using ASP.NET Core controllers, you can add e.g. the attribute [Authorize] to methods or whole classes to prevent unauthorized access. The following example extends this functionality by allowing access if the client user resides in the local network....

openTRANS for .NET Core

openTRANS is a collection of XML definitions for automated ordering systems, developed by Fraunhofer IAO. I partly implemented the openTRANS v2.1 definitions in C# .NET Standard 2.0. Get it on Github and NuGet. [github-commits username="DXSdata" repository="openTRANS"...

explorerFilePreview

Released a tool which can be used for non-Outlook PCs to be able to see email files (.msg, .eml) as preview in Windows Explorer. Get it via GitHub.

C# .NET WinForms: Setting a placeholder for a TextBox

Useful snippet for adding a placeholder text feature to a common Windows Forms TextBox like you might know it from HTML's <input> tag. Add e.g. to your ExtensionMethods: [crayon-6473fd4ca75cd665199723/] Result:     Reference

Visual Studio: Adding unmanaged DLL (or any) file to project’s NuGET package output

Goal We want to include an unmanaged DLL file to our VS project which produces a NuGET .nupkg output. We are using .NET Framework v4.6.1 in this case (should be equal with similar versions). The unmanaged file should be included within the generated .nupkg...

.NET Core Entity Framework DbContext Converter

Released a tool for .NET Core which optimizes the default output of .NET's "DB First" entity class file generator. It offers a more flexible re-generated DbContext.cs file and you can simply append it to your existing DB scaffolding command. Optimizes generated...

.NET: Optimizing LINQ SQL queries with AutoMapper

AutoMapper is not only a useful tool for mapping e.g. DB model classes to flatter ViewModels, it can also simplify and optimize SQL queries / expressions generated by LINQ. You can get it via NuGet for any .NET framework type. Example Let's suppose we have a simple DB...

.NET Framework, MySQL: Using DataSets in parallel with EntityFrameworkCore scaffolding

Keeping .NET projects up to date is simple in general, but when it comes to details of huge (and old) projects, it can be challenging. In this case, I created a .NET project with MySQL DB about 10 years ago, using mainly DataSets. They were quite easy to handle with...

Including Accord.NET framework in .NET ClickOnce projects

By default, you may install Accord.NET (powerful imagin/video/audio/machine learning framework) via NuGET and everything works fine on your VS development station. But after deploying your project via ClickOnce, you get a FileNotFoundException (e.g....

Using PS3 DS3 Bluetooth Controller with Stepcraft WinPC-NC USB CNC milling software

Assuming you have WinPC-NC USB 2.x installed, follow these steps to be able to control your Stepcraft CNC with your PS3 Dual Shock controller. With former methods like ScpToolkit, it was possible, but only via wired USB connection. Using the new approach below (from...

Gardena Sileno Firmware Update: Manual driver installation

Gardena uses a local Java application (p15g-client) combined with their website to perform firmware updates on the Sileno mowers. While this is a nice approach, Gardena does not mention cases in which the local drivers for the USB interface are not installed...

Remote controlling Mikrotik RouterOS with SSH and OpenHAB 2

  In a previous post, I explained how to set up Mikrotik Routerboards as a VPN gateway. This post is about how to remotely switch the VPN on and off via Smart Home visualization OpenHAB 2, so it affects your whole LAN. You can even switch to other VPN servers,...

OpenHAB 2 does not update its items on KNX bus events

Scenario openHAB is basically working, but does not always update items when they change (e.g. when a window contact closes or opens). However, testing via ETS works. Reason openHAB, especially version 2.x, offers a new option for the KNX interface configuration,...

Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa) with OpenHAB 2: Controlling Squeezebox, KNX, send HTTP and SSH commands

Amazon's Echo Dot is a great way to control your smart home via voice. If you are already using a visualization tool like OpenHAB for your smart home, it's quite easy to get it running. Because every smart home installation is configured very individually, I will only...

Convert DPT5/EIS10 2-byte octal value with PHP

  Using a KNX server like eibd with PHP in combination, you might come to a point where you want to convert the DPT/EIS encoded telegram values to decimal format. For some data types, it works by simply using PHP hexbin(), but it does not for 2-byte floating...

IP Intercom Doorbell App v2.0 published

Today we released DXSdata Intercom Doorbell v2.0 for Android. Main changes: Video and Audio stream support Several bugfixes Alternative video renderer option Layout optimization Notifications Get it!

Controlling a 4-Pin bipolar stepper motor with Raspberry Pi and motor shield

This tutorial gives you a quick and simple idea how to control a stepper motor via Raspberry Pi and a Python script. Parts Raspberry Pi 3 Deek-Robot Stepper Motor Shield v1 (includes an L293D motor driver) Nema 17 stepper motor, Type 42HS34-1334-04LA (4-pin, bipolar)...

Optimizing Gardena Sileno tyres

Sorry, this entry is only available in German. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.Modell: Gardena smart Sileno R100LiC Besonders bei etwas extremeren...

PHP Class for Gardena Smart System API

Gardena's robotic lawn mower "smart Sileno" (R100LiC") comes with a gateway module which is used for communication between the mower and Gardena servers. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no way to get direct API access to the gateway, so the commands have to be...
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