WOL (Wake on Lan) functions – can be extremely useful especially in remote management and deployment of resources. I have come across a neat little free utility named: SoftPerfect Network Scanner which although being freeware comes with a manner of useful functionality from small to large WANs so I recommend to anyone having a flick through the utility.

1. First download the utility – SoftPerfect Network Scanner and save to an easily locatable location – ie Desktop or My Documents/Downloads.
2. Extract the netscan zip file. There are 2 folders – one for 32 or one for 64 bit.
3. Open netscan.exe
4. In the Range from fields type the IP range you would like to scan – ie 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 and press Start Scanning to the right.
5. Depending on the size of your network – this may take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes.
6. Once completed press Ctrl+A to select all devices (You can also go into View, Quick Filter Hosts & select Shared Folders to help distinguish what machines are actually workstations).
7. Right click and select Wake-On-LAN, Send Wake-On-LAN signal to send the WOL packet to the workstations in the IP range.

Note: What I would recommend doing – is doing this process while you know the workstations have been started and instead of sending the Wake-On-LAN signal in Step 8 – select Save MAC to WOL Manager. You can then go to Options on the top menu of the Network Scanner and select Wake-On-LAN Manager – here you can add more workstations – clear the workstations by hostname/mac address and subnet that you do not want to include and specify a delay in sending out the Wake-On-LAN packets between workstations.

In this example I am using a – TD-W8960N.

I am only going to give you a brief outline on how to set this up as various people need various settings – however it is extremely easy to utilise and doesn’t require a router restart to take effect.

1. First navigate to the routers administration page – open your internet browser and navigate to: 192.168.1.1
2. On the left hand side Menu select Advanced Setup
3. Select Parental Control
4. Here you have 2 options – you can place a Time Restriction which will allow you to specify by time and day (by MAC address filtering) that will Block or Allow internet connectivity during certain periods. The second is URL filtering allowing you to place a block on certain URLs.

1. Unplug your TV from the power for 5 minutes to allow for power capacitors to clear charge.
2. Plug TV back into power and press the on button.

Note: If this fails to turn the TV on and blinking red lights still insist – contact your manufacturer or local television repair store. A few Samsung models (such as the Samsung Series 6 LCD sets) are well known for faulty capacitors which causes this problem.

Branchcache is one of those things – that can either be a blessing or a curse depending on how your network is setup.

Supported by Windows 7/Windows 8 & Server 2008 R2/Server 2012 – Branchcache is one of those technologies that I believe should be setup as default from the start – especially in larger organisations or enterprises.

First off – Branchcache is a method of “transparent caching” popular files from a network share to a more locally centralized – to the requesting computer – without increasing network bandwidth for a file that continuously gets pulled from a fileserver.

Hosted​

Branchcache hosted is a method of actually having a Branchcache server – on an actual physical remote site away from the main fileserver.

Say you request a file “Untitled.docx” from the fileserver (at the main location – which may be on the opposite side of the country from your location) – however some of your colleagues also have requested the same file. The hosted Branchcache server that is usually located closer to your physical location then the main fileserver – holds a “cached” copy which your computer will grab first. If no one had requested the “Untitled.docx” previously your Windows workstation will then retrieve the file from the main fileserver and the Branchcache server will then host the file for an amount of time – specified by your systems administrator – this allows faster read times on the files you are commonly working on and reduces overall network latency.

Distributed​

Branchcache Distribution is a method in which there is no local branchcache server available. This method is commonly used for smaller external remote sites – compared to the hosted method which requires a server setup. Through the use of the Local Group Policy distributed branchcache allows you to retrieve commonly used documents from other branchcache supported Windows workstations without the use of a dedicated server.

The files get “cached” onto the local workstations – allowing any supported Branchcache workstation to pick up the cached files without having to download the files from the network fileserver – reducing the continuous pull from the network fileserver and allowing for faster start – this method however is not recommended in a highly secure environment as files are stored on the local workstations.

Note: Both methods do a file check to make sure the file version you are opening – is the most up to date. If the file you are opening is out of date – to the one stored on the fileserver then Branchcache will automatically run the latest version and update it’s cache.

Help & Manual allows documents to be published to multiple formats – such as ePub & CHM easily.

1. First open the Project you want to publish _(in this guide I am using the Get_Me_Started example project).
2. Click on Publish (top menu)
3. Under Publish Format – select Apple iBooks (ePUB Format)
4. Then select Publish Now.