Windows 7 on Vaio Z - Procedure

Honestly I did't try it yet with my GTM382 ......and I also looking for anyone did it ,
right now I need to now if the Vaio Smart Network V3 come with the GPS switch control and if it is compatible with the GTM382,
do you something about?

 

I have no idea. I never saw a GPS option with Vaio Smart Network.

 

Maybe the V3 verison has it !!!!
and maybe will work with my GTM382......this is my last chance
if not I'll find the solution in order to unlock my gobi2000 and place back to the laptop with the Smartwi

 

I have a Z570 with a GTM382 running w7 64 bit.

I installed Smart Network 3.0.0.9300 which recognizes the WWAN module itself and it can turn it on\off properly. One small problem is that if you restart windows the WWAN module will be turned on even if it was off before restart.

This is how you make the GPS work (it is the same process under Vista)

- it may be a good idea to upgrade the GTM382 to the latest firmware (there is no publicly available download for the firmware, I asked my dealer to do it)

- install the w7 compatible official drivers from option.com (you need to submit your IMEI and select GTM382 to access the files)

- now, if you have the WWAN module turned on and drivers installed, you'll have a COM port with title "GlobeTrotter MO40x Control Interface COM(x)". look it up in Device manager and note the COM port number.

- Now you need to enable GPS by connecting to the above COM port via PUTTY or HyperTerminal and send the command: AT_OIFACE=”GPS”,1
Here is the long description of the process.
Read here how you can connect via Hyperterminal.
After sending the command you need to turn off and then on the WWAN module.
You need to do this only once. The result will be that new com ports will be installed automatically: "GPS Control Interface" and "GPS Data interface"

- so the GPS is turned on but it is not tracking yet. To turn on tracking you need to send the command: AT_OGPS=2
You can do this by connecting to the COM port of GPS Control Interface (look up the exact com port number in device manager). The command to turn GPS tracking OFF is AT_OGPS=0. Or there is a small application that somebody made that can do this for you automatically (when proper shortcuts are created).
The small program can be downloaded from here.
here is how to use it:
run "GpsOnOff.exe COM13 on" to enable GPS
and "GpsOnOff.exe COM13 off" to disable it.
obviously you need to adjust the COM port number to your specific port of your GPS Control Interface.

If you have created the shortcuts it is just a click to enable gps tracking. this is the best way I could find.

- Once the tracking is enabled you can use any GPS enabled application to connect to the GPS Data Interface and receive signal. The GPS on the GTM382 is actually very good and fast.

hope I could help.
I assume somebody with the proper programming knowledge could write a small app to do the above automatically (like MinWi but it does not work on w7 64bit and GTM382 GPS)

 

Hello Raczkri,

thank you so much for your kind help........I hope I can be able able to do it ,
around a month ago I got the below information from Option:
http://www.option.com/en/support/knowledge-base/article/articleen-176
which is the same link that you used ......but I did some mistake when I tried to configurate the 2 ports,but now thanks to you i'll have less challenge with it.

at this point my question is :
is it more easy an organized the SmartWi with all commands into one window or the Vaio Smart Network + window command for the GPS?

honestly I don't want to open again my Laptop for place back the Gobi2000 that i removed time ago because was locked with verizon,
Raczkri,
would you please send me one print screen in order to see how the GPS start up is looking ?

thank you again for your great information,

 

Smartwi did not work for me, so that was not an option.

I'm not sure what screen capture are you referring to.

as I said, first you need to enable the GPS interface. This is a one time only thing, I did not make any screenshots when I have done it using Hyperterminal. Furthermore there are a few steps as described above in the option guide so cannot be included in one screenshot, but it is not really hard to do it if you follow the instructions.

as for turning GPS tracking on and off (which is the second step), i suggest you use the small application I have linked. once you made the shortcuts, it is just a click. there is no interface or window that pops up it is just works.
I have attached the screenshot for the properties of my shortcut, but you need to adjust the access path of the file and the com port number also.

Here is a screenshot of the properties of my shortcut for turning the GPS tracking ON. it is really simple.

After you have created the shortcuts you can copy them to the start menu for easy access..

If you are referring to the screenshot of the V3 Smart Network utility here it is. But it controlls the WWAN module as a whole and not the GPS of it.

(for some reason it does not show WAN, ETH and Modem for me either, probably the reason is that I did not use sony drivers for them, but the latest drivers from the manufacturers' site. VAIO Power management works with them properly though..)

 

do you have the GTM382W or E ???

 

GTM382E I have

 

Successfully installed Win7 and all drivers, booting is under 30s maybe less, didn't measure it.

What shocked me is the battery life indicated by Windows. I didn't have chance to try yet, if it's real. It's true that I also "upgraded" from Samsung 1st generation SSD to Intel 2nd generation SSD, but... I was used to to have up to 6 hours in Stamina and now the indicator is showing to me less than 2 hours with 100% battery... Is that normal?

Also, did someone successfully do something about that problem with Vaio Smart network, which turn on the WWAN after every restart, as it was reported many time before already...?

 

I think that I am not good in this!

where should I place this command?
AT command AT_OIFACE

shoul I replace the extra initialization command (+CGDCONT=1,"IP","ibox.tim.it")
to my modem GTM382 ?

 

I place the AT_OIFACE=”GPS”,1 to the Hyper terminal and it show up "no carrier"

help!

 

Hello Raczkri,

please see the att. picture and let me know,

thanks again,

hi raczkri,
now I found the GPS part of the ports 8 and 7 in the device manager,

 

Hello Raczcri,

I just download the small program GPS on/off but now I would to create the proper shortcut on and off and I need your help,

thank you

 

Hi Pinkpanter,

Sorry for the late reply I've just checked the thread, but I'm glad you could figure out how to enable the GPS using the info in my post anyways.

You are just before the finishline I have linked a screenshot of my shortcut to turn GPS on in one of my previous posts. Just use that as an example but change the path of GPSONOFF.exe to the folder you have actually copied it to on your computer, and change the comport number to the com port of your GPS Control interface (you can look this up in your device manager under ports).

after you have done it you can quickly check it if it worked, just connect using hyperterminal to the GPS Data interface (look up the exact COM number on your computer) If you succeeded you will see this kind of data coming in in the terminal window. These are the actual GPS data you receive.

 

Can someone point me to the correct driver for the WWAN card on a z591u ?

 

open your device manager and see what wwan you have .......maybe you have the Novatel WWAN !!!!!
if yes than use the below link:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNZ591U

 

Hello Raczkri,

this evening I checked if the GPS is working.........well it is working as per the below att. test ,

so at this point I think that I need the Garmin Mobile PC....right?

thank you again & kind regards

 

Does anyone know why Vaio Power Management wont start on my Z? I installed Power Management but I doesn't startup when I click on advanced settings in the vaio control center... Weird.

 

The latest power management is bugged (the one from 8/12/2009 , at least for the vgn-z41model, so i use the original one from the vgn-z51)

 

hey guys, one question, i cant get the WWAN to work under windows7 at all i have the qualcomm gobi device, and i tried all the drivers for it on th esony site (w7, vista and even for the newer model the vgn-z51), i have a vgn-z41wd/b. the thing is windows reckognises the modem and evreyithing but the connection manager says it does not so im out of knowledge.

 

Dear ric9887,

I am having problem to find the 5.0.0.0710 ...........
would you please be so kind to give me the link with your dowloaded file ?

thank you

 

Thx, installing the original version solved the problem.

 

Razkri ,

would you please let me know which Z use Smart Network 3.0.0.9300 ?

thank you

 

i don't know what vaio Z comes with this version originally, but I'm using it with a Z570N. That was the latest version at the time of my earlier post. since then I have updated Smart Network to version 3.1.0.11250. you can download the latest sony drivers from ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/ORIGINAL/

 

Thanks Raczkry

 

Actually, Sony has acknowledged this issue on their support page. See my post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5714158#post5714158

 

Hello NHT,

I have already got tired of my GTM382E for the GPS on/off and now I would like to install the Gobi 2000 .......(not UNDP-1),

do you know any one did it on the Z model W7 64bit?

 

Going to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\VAIO Smart Network\WWAN]
"dwAvailableStatus"=dword:00000001
"TimeOut"=dword:00000000

and changing 1 to 0 fixed this

 

Well done Kreed. That works a treat. Cheers.

 

It works only untill you turn on the wwan.
After reboot it's on again.

 

I have a VAIO ZX51, Win 7 64 bit Pro and to get the Qualcomm Gobi and bundled Orange Internet Everywhere working, I have to REPEATEDLY:

• Reload WWAN driver, and
• Then reload WWAN Manager (Orange)

From VAIO Recovery - with a reboot of course! Otherwise, I get a crash from the Orange S/W

Guess it is something to do with the Gobi - any ideas?

Thanks!

Chris

 

Hi!

I am trying to install 7 64 bit on my VGN-Z11XN/B!

after install, I tried your guidelines but nothing seems to work.

No FN keys, no S1, S2 keys functioning and no STAMINA/SPEED either.

could you please help a bit

thank you

george

 

For those of you struggling to get your WWAN working, as I was (to the point of almost giving up), I'll explain here the method I used and try to be as verbose as I can to make it as easy to understand as possible. I followed the instructions of someone else, but am just reproducing them here with a few extra bits I think that might help.

I am carrying out this procedure on a Vaio VGN-Z31MN, on a fresh Windows 7, 64bit install. The instructions I'm basing this on were for a Vaio VHN-P19WN, so it is my guess that they will work equally well for most relatively modern Vaio's. As a bonus, it also made the S1, S2 and eject buttons work correctly, and all the brightness buttons and power saving stuff.

The instructions I follwed didnt mention if the other guy was doing this for 32 or 64 bit, and the downloads don't indicate one or the other. So this may work equally well for 32bit.

Firstly, I would advise you to create a system restore point before starting this method, so if you do something wrong you can roll back to it and have a very good chance of getting it working on the next attempt.

The drivers you need to download are detailed below, I downloaded them all before starting so I had them ready to go. Again, I want to point out that I followed the instructions of someone who did this on a different model, so its probably not that important to worry about looking for the downloads for your specific model on the sony support site - just download the ones I have linked to below. There may or may not be newer versions of each of these - I didn't even bother to look - all I know is that this worked.

1. Sony Shared Library 5.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/Sony_Shared_Library_5.3_5.3.0.11240.zip

2. VAIO Setting Utility Series 4.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/Setting_Utility_Series_4.3_092Q_4.3.0.14120.zip

3. VAIO Control Center 3.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/VAIO_Control_Center_3.3_092Q_3.3.0.12240.zip

4. VAIO Event Service 4.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/VAIO_Event_Service_4.3_092Q_4.3.0.13190.zip

5. Sony Firmware Extension Parser 8.0
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/SFEP_Driver_Sony_8.0_09Q2_O_8.0.0.1.zip

6. VAIO Power Management 3.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/VAIO_Power_Management_3.3_092Q_3.3.0.12190.zip

7. VAIO Smart Network 2.3
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Vaio/Original/VAIO_Smart_Network_2.3_092Q_2.3.0.12210.zip

Once you have them all downloaded and unzipped, you're ready to proceed. Its important you install each of these in the order I have given them above. I renamed the folders I unzipped each of these downloads into to start with a number just to remind me the order in which I had to work through them.

For each of the above downloads, just run the setup or install file in its directory before moving on to the next one. Some of the setup's will say to restart your computer when they have finished - so DO restart before moving onto the next installer. If they don't mention restarting, then just move on.

Important to note, that #5 (Sony Firmware Extension Parser 8.0) doesn't have an installer or setup file. What you have to do for this one is go to your device manager and you should see an Unknown Device. Choose to update the driver for this, and when it asks, select to manually look for the driver in a location you choose - you should point out the directory you unzipped this to. It should find what it needs to and install the driver for this. Once its done, you should have an entry in device manager for Sony Firmware Extension Parser under the Human Interface Devices branch. I will also point out here that when I went to do this step, I had 2 entries for Unknown Device - if you do to, try it on each of them until it works on one of them. When #5 is done, do #6 and #7.

When this is all done and you have rebooted, you should see the Sony Smart Network window on your desktop, working. If its not already enabled, you should be able to enable the WWAN device from here. I want to point out that if i put my laptop to sleep then re-wake it - I cannot re-enable the WWAN device without restarting the laptop. I can live with this.

At this point, I had a (?) entry in device manager for Qualcomm HS-USB which the next bits will resolve. I now created another system restore point so I could revert to this stage if I messed the next bits up.

Ok, once you have been able to enable the WWAN device you can install the WWAN driver and connection manager. These 2 things, I downlaoded from the sony support site, from the page for my specific model. If you can find them on a page for your model then best download those, else you might be able to get away with just downloading the same ones I did. In any case, this is what I downloaded:

WWAN Driver
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/info/info.aspx?l=EN_GB&url=VAIO/Original/WWAN_Driver_R5_Generic_1.x_32bit_64bit_E_6.0_6.0.6.3_ALL.zip&m=VGN-Z31MN_B

WWAN Connection Manager
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/info/info.aspx?l=EN_GB&url=VAIO/WIN7UPGRADE/WWAN_Connection%20manager_R5_Generic_ENU_1.x_32bit_64bit_E_1.0_1.0.0.1_ENU.zip&m=VGN-Z31MN_B


To install the two things above, I had to go into control panel and disable User Account Control (You can re-enable it once these 2 things are installed). I originally tried to install these without disabling UAC a few times, but it never worked - I always still had that Qualcomm HS-USB thing showing in device manager (or it would just change to COM6 or COM7 etc), so I was glad I had made that system restore point earlier. To disable UAC, go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control Settings and slide the slider all the way down. If I remember correctly, it prompted me to restart - so restart before installing the WWAN driver and WWAN connection manager.

If you followed all the above steps correctly, you should now have it all functioning.

TIP: I never ever used system restore points before, but from doing this i strongly suggest you do.

TIP: A little while later, my Sony Smart Network thing disapeared and i couldnt re-enable the WWAN device. Somehow some of its program files vanished - just reinstall the Sony Smart Network thing from above, and all was fine again.

Thanks to the poster of these instructions

 

i have a vgn-z590 (us model) here. which euro model does it correspond to? VGN-Z5 as well?

is there anywhere an up-to-date windows 7 description? the first post contains some drivers that i can't find neither on the esupport.sony.com nor on vaio-link.com. also can i use the drivers from the european site for the us model?

many thanks!

 

Thank, thank, thank mailslat - for the more verbose version of the fix!

I tried for hours to get the WWAN card on my Vaio VGN-Z31MN working with Windows 7 64-bit professional and a "3" SIM card. The one thing which I now realise I was missing was the Sony Firmware Extension Parser 8.0, which is not actually listed as an essential download in the Sony Windows 7 software download page for this machine. I would never have guessed that the WWAN + SIM card had anything to do with "a human interface device" and a "Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device".

And it is true that the very last stage of the process, once the parser thing is there in Device Manager (open this by right clicking within Devices and Printers) you need a final reboot (after installing the WWAN drivers). This results in the system loading the driver for the WWAN card.

A couple of additional tips though:-

Tip No. 1
There is a two stage process for installing the WWAN drivers. First by clicking on the Windows batch file (extension ".bat"), all the compressed files are extracted into two other folders. Then you need to go into those two folders and click on setup.exe in each one (or just setup if your settings are such that the extensions are not shown). These setup programs then install the drivers. Then as mentioned above, you must reboot to load them. However, I had a problem installing the WWAN drivers and I believe this has happened to other people as well. Some of the files would not extract because of a "path too long" problem. On my machine, this was because the folder names created by the installer for the WWAN drivers were so long that they went over the Windows limit (which I believe is 256 characters) when added to my own user name (which is actually quite short). The fix for this problem is as follows. When you click on the Windows batch file it tells you where the files are going to be extracted to, but it gives you an option to change the folder name. I would suggest changing it to WWAN_DRIVERS on your hard disk, or something like that which is much shorter than the suggested name.

Tip No. 2
The connection manager which is used on the VGN-Z machines is OneClick Internet. I could not get any help file for this working so how it works is a bit of a mystery. I think it is possible that I got the sequence of downloads in slightly the wrong order, because when I started OneClick Internet it started to look for the Verizon Network, and also insisted on a username and password which I don't think we use in the UK. I believe Verizon is a mobile phone company in the USA. But the VGN-Z machines are sold in the UK. So you need to change the settings on OneClick Internet to suit your sim card. To do this, click settings and tab to where you can change the carrier details (sorry after I did this the tab disappeared altogether and I can't remember what it was called, but I seem to recall it was the one on the extreme right hand side), and for "3" anyway you can choose Generic (UMTS). Changing this caused OneClick Internet to say that some firmware was being loaded into the connection manager (seemingly through my wired internet connection, not the sim), the 3 network was then found, and the APN setting was automatically loaded in the profile. For "3" this was "three.co.uk" without the quotation marks. It is possible that if you get the loading sequence correct in the first place then the correct firmware is loaded automatically.

 

So; I'm in Holland, I have a T-Mobile SIM. The Gobi 2000 is all set up, I have OneClick Internet running, with the correct firmware and it detects the SIM and the network.

Problem is, when I hit connect, I get this; "Connection error. Error = 0".

Not the most useful diagnostic ever.

Anyone have any suggestions / experience with this? I've done a fair bit of Googling and got nothing; Sony have no clue what OneClick error codes mean.

(When I try to connect through Windows, I get "APN is incorrect", which it *really* is not).

(Finally, I note OneClick claims three bars of five, Windows claims one bar of five. I moved the laptop to a location where I had with Windows two bars from five; still the same errors for both software).

 

"Number of bars" for indicating network connectivity doesn't have a universal system.
To double the range, you need to quadruple the signal strength. So what's displayed as four bars on one system (that shows power) might be displayed as two bars on another (that shows range).

To make it even worse, some just measure the dB attenuation of the signal, and dB is a logarithmic scale. Displaying that linearly leads to a display that will show full bars most of the time, and then drop off towards 0 or 1 very quickly once the signal reaches a certain point. In which case you might not notice any difference whatsoever between one bar and four bars.

In short, don't worry about number of bars, and measure your network throughput instead (once you're connected, obviously).

 

So, it works now.

There was nothing wrong with my Vaio-side setup.

The provider hadn't done something - activation, something like that - and this morning, it all works.

Last night, I took the SIM out and made a call from my phone - I had a suspicion the network needed to see the SIM *do* something, to then go activate it. Maybe that helped. Maybe it was totally unnecessary.

I also note that, as ever, from the customer point of view, the service/configuration/behaviour of the provider is disjoined and broken. Large companies are inherently unable to provide correct information to customers.

This is one of the reasons forums are so important. People figure out information - basic, essential, you-can't-make-the-service-work-without-this information - the provider is incapable of providing - or where the provider provides specifically incorrect information.

For those of you using Ben in the Netherlands, here's what you need to do;

1. follow the Gobi 2000 driver install instructions in this thread; unlike every other piece of hardware you've ever seen, installing the drivers is not what you need to do to make it work - it's just a red herring in this case - you need to install about six different pieces of software, almost none of which have any obvious connection to mobile broadband

2. here I'm guessing a bit, but; I put the SIM in my laptop first, because I wondered if it would associate in some way with the first device it saw. Later, I put it in my phone to see if it needed to do other things; other things happened, but I don't know if they were necessary. Don't forgot to try making a call from the SIM from your phone - this may be necessary to get Ben to activate the account/SIM.

3. You DO need the WebToGo OneClick Internet connection manager, because it offers Gobi 2000 specific functionality which you need to get the Gobi 2000 working. First, you need to select the correct Gobi 2000 image, and you can only do this from WebToGo. Go to Settings and to Firmware. You need to select the correct firmware for your provider. For me, if there is autodetection, it didn't work. I had to manually select the correct provider (T-Mobile in my case, Ben is a brand of theirs).

4. Also in WebToGo, you will find a profile, which is used for the login attempt. This profile is set up with default values - you might guess they came from the SIM and so are correct, but you'd be wrong. For example, the login name is "webtogo". For Ben. the APN is "internet.ben", the username and password are empty - you leave them blank. Select "Use automatic DNS settings". You don't need to use a proxy. Note Ben do NOT tell you the APN name, either in the package you're sent or in email. If you *know* what it is, you can search for it on their site and find it, but you're never going to find that yourself manually! I found it via Google.

5. You don't get told your phone numbe in the package Ben send you. I found mine out by sending an SMS from the Vaio - you can do this via WebToGo, by clicking on the SMS button, which brings up an app for sending/receiving SMS.

7. You can send SMS even though you can't connect to the mobile broadband functionality, so you can find out your phone number this way.

8. Even with your phone number (and it's the SIM number, not the contact number you gave to Ben when you joined), you can't log into your account on the ben.nl web-site. It tells you "I don't know your phone number". Ignore any information on the site about you having been sent when you joined Ben (which to me meant when I opened my account, because I had a few emails then) an email with your password in. You were not sent that password when you bought your SIM; you haven't yet been sent that email. For me, I was using the SIM yesterday from about 2pm onwards. That email arrived this morming at 5.42am. There's a big gap where you're very confused and wondering why the hell you can't log in.

9. Having set everything up, when I clicked on Connect, I received the following; "Connection error. Error = 0". This seems to mean "the provider hadn't activated your SIM/account yet, you just need to wait".

10. I suspect when the time comes you *can* log in on the Ben site, your account is ready and will let you connect to mobile broadband.

11. Once everything is going, I think you can use the normal Windows wireless manager to connect to mobile broadband. I tried initially to manually set up an entry, but I couldn't find any way to do it. Then I noticed Windows had done this by itself. You need to configure that entry and set the APN name to the correct value.

12. Final note; Sony don't know what the error codes from WebToGo are. One thing though. I told the guy I had my own install of Windows (which puzzled him - "why would you do that?"). He said Sony don't support custom installs. However, what they appear to really mean is *they can't promise to fix it for you*. I think this is, from their POV, the main issue - with their install, part of the deal is they *HAVE* to fix things. Obviously, with a custom install, it's impossible - you could utterly have screwed up your Vaio. But regardless of the custom install, they will answer the questions you send to them - so they *could* be helpful at getting the information you need to fix it. I didn't have to ask questions, in the end, since someone else - in this thread - figured out Sony's mess about what has to be done to get the Gobi working.

All in all, Sony stink (appalling driver install for Gobi) and Ben stink (appalling customer experience - total lack of information and existence of misinformation). I have a degree in Computer Science, twenty years experience with Windows and I write Windows drivers and *I* couldn't see WTH was going on. I have *no* idea how someone who *isn't* an out-and-out computing professional *ever* gets this stuff to work.

 

So I'm connected over T-Mobile. HTTP works, SMTP/POP works, SSH works.

Windows File/Folder Sharing isn't working. I also note Steam doesn't seem to be able to scan any servers. Bad feeling about this :-/ have other people got file/folder sharing working over mobile broadband?

 

Sorry if this is overly obvious or if it is just an EU-model problem with the Smart Network vs the US's SmartWi, but I've done a few* clean reinstalls and simply followed the directions Sony gave:

Sony eSupport - VPCZ11FHX/XQ - Software Updates & Drivers

I install the SmartWi last and I've had no problems. The newer version is much easier to work with than the WWAN option in the 1st gen Z's. Kind of unfortunate since I purchased an HTC EVO 4G and use it for broadband now.

*A few means far too many times

 

You are trying Windows file sharing over a VPN, yah? Almost all ISP's block RPC at their core, so you will need a tunnel to the device you want to share with.

The Steam problem is likely with your Windows firewall or some other security package. That should work fine.

 

Most internet service providers drop packets to ports 138, 139 and 445. The reason is that these ports are almost universally used for hacking, due to the historical lack of decent security mechanisms for Windows file sharing.

And even for those who allow it, it's not always too useful, due to too high latencies, and a need to disable WINS resolution and instead use local LMHOSTS tables.

In other words, if you need to use Windows file sharing over the internet, you should establish a VPN connection.

 

Barely beat you to the punch, Arth1 although your reply is easier to understand

Ports 138, 139 and 445 are generally used for RPC and are indeed the bane of Windows Server admins existence everywhere. RPC is used for much more than file sharing, but it is a huge risk to present these ports to the interwebs.

Where I work, we universally block these ports on our core network devices along with some others like RDP.

 

Windows file sharing yes, over a VPN, no. Just over the internets. Works fine from my friends place, via his 802.11 and regular ISP.

No firewall. I haven't proved it and no reply from T-Mobile (Ben) yet, but I think the ports are blocked.

 

Is this still true? Windows 7 encrypts and I've configured a local account to be required.

 

That's a home group and is made for a home network, but the issue with security remains.

From the help file:

You can safely trust your home setup if you are connected behind a router or wireless access point.

You should not trust any public networks, like the network your ISP assigns you to if you connect directly to your DSL, FIOS or cable modem.

A rule of thumb: don't trust the internet, trust private networks only. If you want to get fancy, these private networks are generally part of the RFC-1918 specification and are 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x or 172.16.x.x

 

No - I'm not using home groups; I don't have one set up. The encryption/public folder sharing is configured in network profiles. There is a network profile for 'public' - the internets.

Exactly; because the public network is not trusted, encrypt and account required and don't publish the list of shared folders.

 

Hi, I have a Vaio Z VCPZ122GX, I opened it and started it up, it started up on Windows XP. Do you know why? Or how I can upgrade to Windows 7, I have the serial underneath my laptop. I feel so stupid.

 

hi i perchased a vaio z1290 cto (i7 620, 1920x1080, 128ssd, 4gb ram...) with win 7 home because i already have a win 7 ultimate but can we use the drivers coming with the z12ahx/qx posed at sony support since they are made for win 7 ultimate, since thy have the same components ?