Windows Phone GDDR3 - no data connection!!!

I recently upgraded my Nokia Lumia 1020 to the GDDR3 update that was made available to developers (Link to the GDDR3 install), and noticed that I no longer had a data connection when not on WiFi.  It took me a little while to notice since I work out of my house 99% of the time.  My first thought was that there was something incompatible with my carrier's network and the GDDR3 update, and was not happy.  But, that thought passed quickly and I set out looking through my phone's settings to see what new feature may have turned off my data connection. 

Eventually I found the problem and wanted to share this with everyone else, just in case you installed GDDR3 and ran into the same issue. 

• On your phone, go into Settings
• Access Point
• On this screen I noticed that the access point on my phone was changed to AT&T 3G.  I changed this setting to AT&T - LTE - Lumia, and I was now able to use my data connection again.

I hope this helps anyone else that may have run into this same issue.

Windows 8.1 BSOD while connected to my Nokia Lumia 1020 on internet sharing

A few weeks ago I was still running the Windows 8.1 Preview and my laptop would BSOD (blue screen of death) within a few minutes after connecting to my Nokia Lumia 1020 in internet sharing mode.  I thought that maybe it was due to the Windows 8.1 Preview bits, so I just stopped tethering until I installed the release version of Windows 8.1. 

I upgraded to the full release version of Windows 8.1 last week and decided to see if the tethering was still an issue.  I connected to the Nokia Lumia 1020, and within a few minutes BAM!  BSOD.  So, it was definitely not an issue with the preview.  I started doing some research and found that the issue resided within the Network Connection properties of my tethered session with the Lumia. 

The short fix is that you need to enable FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) on the Wireless Properties of the connection to the Lumia.  The only problem is that the only way to set this property is to actually connect to your Lumia, which can be an issue when your machine will BSOD when you connect to you Lumia.  So, after a few crashes, the machine stayed connected just long enough to allow me to get to the settings. 

Here are the steps for enabling FIPS:

• Enable Internet Sharing on your Lumia
• Settings
• System
• Internet Sharing
• Toggle the sharing option to ON.
• Remember your Broadcast name and Password on this screen as you'll need it when connecting on your machine
• Tethering to your Lumia on your Windows 8 / 8.1 machine:
• Left click on the network icon in the system tray, and the list of available connections are shown on the right side of your screen.  Click on the network connection with your Nokia Lumia broadcast name, and then click connect.  You will need to enter the password for your phone's tethering (if you haven't done this previously)
• At this point your machine is connected, and it may or may not BSOD immediately or it may BSOD within a few minutes.  The point is to not waste any time with the next set of instructions, it's now a race against time.  :)
• Setting the FIPS property:
• Left click on the network icon in the system tray and select:  Open Network and Sharing Center.  You will see your network connection on this screen.  Shown below is the network information for my internet connection with my Lumia:

• You will now want to left click on the blue text (shown above as Wi-Fi (Nokia XXXXXXX), this opens the Wi-Fi Status screen shown below, click on Wireless Properties

• On the Wireless Network Properties screen, click on the Security tab (shown below), and then click the Advanced Settings button.

• Finally, this is the screen that allows you to enable FIPS on your network connection.  Hopefully you were able to get to this screen on the first try before your machine BSOD a few times.  :)

• Simply check the Enable Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance for the network, and you should never see the BSOD again when tethered to your Nokia Lumia.

How to factory reset a Nokia Lumia 920

I recently upgraded from my Nokia Lumia 920 to the amazing Nokia Lumia 1020 and wanted to reset the 920 to factory settings so I could give it to a friend.  I went through the recommended approach:  Settings - About - Reset to Factory Settings.  The phone rebooted and then got stuck in the "spinning gears" for a very long time.  I thought that I bricked the phone. 

I searched high and low and it seemed that everyone else that tried to reset their phone had this same issue.  Ugh.  Many people posted different key combinations, power cord plugged in / unplugged, shake it twice and do a break dancing spin on your head.  At some point one of the combinations worked and I was able to complete the factory reset.  So, to help out anyone else that is having this issue in the future, I figured I would approach this scientifically and provide the steps needed to successfully reset the 920 to factory settings.  So, I hope that this helps someone, and more importantly will help me again in the future when I want to reset another Lumia and need to remember the steps.  :)

Without further ado, here are the steps, please feel free to share with others:

1.  On your phone, go into Settings - About
2.  Select "reset your phone"
3.  Select "yes" on both Warning message.
4.  Your phone will restart and when it comes back on, the gears will be a spinning.
5.  Let your phone run until the battery completely drains.  This is the only way that I found to actually turn off the phone.
6.  Remove the SIM card.
7.  Plug the phone into the charger to power it back on, and also press and hold the Volume Down button immediately after plugging in the charger.
8. The phone will turn on and will go to the Nokia screen and then turn off.  All attempts to turn the phone on will result in the Nokia screen displayed, or the "charging" image, or the spinning gears. 
9.  Press and hold the Camera, Volume Down, and Power buttons until the phone vibrates.  When the phone vibrates, release the Power button only.  Keep pressing the Camera and Volume Down buttons for the entire reboot cycle until you see the spinning gears again.  This time, the spinning gears should only last a few minutes and then go into the normal reset, and you should have your phone working again.

I was able to factory reset two Lumia 920's with these steps.  A black 920 and a white 920.  It was not a very straight forward process, and took quite a while each time, but in the end, this is what worked.

I hope it helps.

Tough Mudder Philadelphia 2013

Although it's not technology related, it was a great team building time at Tough Mudder Philadelphia 2013.  Team Misery Loves Company - Part Deaux completed the course in less than record time, but we completed it.  :)

Sorting by date (not alphabetically by month name) in SSRS 2008 R2

We've all created reports in SSRS 2008 R2 that have date values in them.  And by default, the sorting is alphabetically by month name, like this:

This is obviously not what I wanted when I created my report to sort by date.  So, with a couple changes, and a new calculated field, we can fix this. 

Go into the Report Builder Design view.  Right click on your dataset name in the Report Data pane, and choose:  Add Calculated Field. 

In the Dataset Properties window, select the Fields section.  Then click the Add - Calculated Field button.  Type in a name for our date sort field.  I usually use:  MonthSort for the name.  If you are sorting on a different date part, then name the new field accordingly.

In the Expression field, type in the following:

This tells SSRS to format our Month field as:  yyyyMM.  So, April 15, 2012, would be formatted to:  201204.  So, now that we created the field, we need to have our report use it.  Click Ok to close the Expression window, and Dataset Properties window.

My particular date field happens to be a Row Group named:  Month.  So, I need to update the sort on this grouping to sort by date value, and not alphabetically on the month name.  So, I will right-click on the month grouping in the Row Groups:

Click on Group Properties.  Then click on the Sorting section, and change the Column to Sort by to our newly created MonthSort field.

Click Ok to close this window.  And run your report.  You will now see the month values sorted by month value, and not alphabetically.

To use Report Builder, you must install .NET Framework 3.5 on this computer!?!?!

I ran into a weird issue today in Sql Server Reporting Service 2008 R2 and wanted to share in case you run into this too.  Here is the back story:

 

I installed SSRS 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and was trying to create a report using Report Builder from the SSRS web interface.  When I clicked on the "Report Builder" menu item, I got this error:

 

To use Report Builder, you must install .NET Framework 3.5 on this computer.  To visit the Microsoft Download Center and install .NET Framework 3.5, click install.

 

Now, I know that the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 by default; but who knows, maybe something was wrong with my installation.  So, before I clicked on Install, I figured I'd check to see that I actually have the framework feature enabled (who knows, maybe I really screwed something up).  

 

So, opening the Server Manager and going to the Add Features screen, I see the following:

Hmm, the framework is installed and enabled.  Alright, maybe something got screwed up somehow.  So, I click on the "Install" button.  It takes me to the download site and the .NET Framework 3.5 is downloaded.  I run the installer and get:

Ok, I've come full circle here.  This is awesome.

 

At this point, remembering that someone else probably has already experienced this same issue, I head out to the interwebs ;).  Lo and behold, someone has experienced this besides me, and they posted a solution to my immediate problem.  Wonderful!  So, for the time being, I make the necessary changes that they offer up, and voila!  Report Builder 3.0 works now when I click on the link. 

If you are in a pinch and want to know the temporary work around to fix the problem, here's the link that I reference above:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/78zqdau .  And just in case that link is no longer valid, here is what the author recommended:

• In IE9, Go to the Tools menu, and click F12 Developer Tools.
• This will bring up this window at the bottom of the browser:

 

• Click on Browser Mode:  IE9, and then select:  Internet Explorer 8

• Now, when you click on the Report Builder link, it works.

But, being curious and not being satisfied with just "how" do I fix the problem, I want to know "why" was there a problem in the first place?  So, that's what this post is about:  understanding the problem in case I see something like this again I can fix it. 

Debugging Details:
Ok, so I enlisted some help from friends:  Fiddler, .NET Reflector, SSRS Logging, and Adam Tuliper.  [Yes, one of those is not a tool].

The first thing that I wanted to do was see if there was anything in the SSRS Log file that may provide some additional information.  So, I set the logging level to verbose on SSRS.  This is done by modifying the following file:  C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10_50.YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin\ReportingServicesService.exe.config. 

Specifically, set the following values to a value of 4 (which is verbose):

• DefaultTraceSwitch - set it to:  "4"
• RSTrace\Components - set it to:  "all:4"

The following screenshot shows the section of the config file that contains these nodes:

After I set the loggin level to verbose, I then loaded the Folder.aspx page in both modes (IE8 and IE9).  I saved the logs from each run into separate files and compared the files with my favorite comparison tool.  This showed me the following:

In IE8 mode:

In IE9 mode:

So, in IE9 mode, there was additional logging information about a .NET assembly.  Sadly, there was no explicit error or anything that would tell me exactly why the difference in the log entries.  But, we had something to go on:  differences in the log entries can tell you much.  And what this tells us is that SSRS emitted additional logging about loading a .NET assembly under IE9 mode vs IE8 mode.

Enter Fiddler and Adam:
At this point, I turned to Fiddler and Adam.  I performed the same tests with Fiddler that I performed earlier with the SSRS logging.  I loaded up Fiddler and then loaded the page under both modes, and then compared the results of both.  Since the log sort of pointed us to a .NET assembly, Adam asked me to look at the User Agent in the requests.  So, here are the two requests:

IE8 Mode:

IE9 Mode:

Ah ha!!!  The USer Agent is the difference between the two modes.  So, our thoughts are that the Folders.aspx page in SSRS is looking at the header to detect whether or not the .NET Framework is installed.  And since in IE9 Mode it cannot find the ".NET CLR 3.5" entry it assumes that the framework is not installed. 

So, this brought us to this page from Microsoft regarding IE9 User Agent changes:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/03/23/introducing-ie9-s-user-agent-string.aspx

Here is some text from this link:
"An important change for site developers to know is that IE9 will send the short UA string by default."
And more importantly:

Well, that solves that mystery.  This is definitely something that I'll keep in mind in the future when using IE9.  I'm glad that I dug into this more than just accepting a simple work around that I found on the internet.  I hope this helps someone else that not only wants to know the work around, but also the "WHY?" and fully understand the solution. 

I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Tim

Part 1 - Integrating SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SSRS 2008 R2

[NOTE:  Ok, finally I have some time to polish up this post and get it published on my blog.  Sorry for the delay but work and family life has kept me very busy the past few months].

Part 1 of this series will focus on integrating SharePoint Foundation 2010 with SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2.  Why SharePoint Foundation 2010 and not SharePoint Server 2010?  Wel, three reason really: 

1. Cost - it is "FREE"!!!  You can't get much cheaper than that.  :)  Of course, there are other things that you must purchase, like hardware, OS licenses, an Internet Connector license, etc.  But, the cost of SharePoint Foundation Server itself is free.  Now, if you do a simple Bing search, you'll be able to find a few ISP's that will provide a SharePoint environment for you, for a monthly fee. 
2. I love a challenge - Sure, I can probably have a better Business Intelligence experience right out of the box with SharePoint Server 2010 and all of the features that are offered with it, but I really like a challenge.
3. How Far Can I go? - Lastly, I just want to see what sort of Business Intelligence story I can put together using SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 and a little bit of work.  Can I pull off a "dashboard" that could rival something in SharePoint Server 2010?

Where to get SharePoint Foundation?
So, getting started with SharePoint Foundation was pretty simple.  With an MSDN subscription and the right download URL's you'll be good to go in no time.  First, you'll need to download SharePoint Foundation 2010 from this link:  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5970

My environment:
For this series, I am going to use the following hardware / software:

• Development machine - Dell XPS17, 2.5gHz quad core, 16GB ram, 256GB SSD internal and 500GB internal 7200 HD, Windows 7 64 bit.  This laptop is sufficient to run up to four virtual machines.
• VMWare Workstation - I am using VMWare Workstation 8.0, but you could really use any software that you are most comfortable with.  I've used others, and I prefer VMWare Workstation.
• Virtual Server - like I mentioned above, I am going to create a single virtual machine with Windows Server 2008 R2 to contain both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Sql Server 2008 R2 instances.  This may not reflect the same sort of environment that you are looking to setup, but it is a start and hopefully will get you going and then you can take it from there.  [NOTE:  I will be putting together a multiserver example of SPF 2010 / SSRS 2008 R2 integration in a later blog series.]

Server setup / installation:
I don't want to reinvent the wheel or try to paraphrase from any of the existing sources on the web that cover installing Win2k8 R2 and SPF and SSRS; especially when these resources are so well written.  So, shown below are the high level steps and corresponding links that cover each step.  This will get you setup with a good Win2k8 R2 VM with SPF / SSRS integration.  If any questions arise while you are following through these, please add them to the comments section and I'll do my best to provide answers / guidance.

• Setting up a BASE VM Server image -
• Description - This is a great resource for establishing a base server that you can then clone for any development purpose.  The end result is that you have an image that you can clone and use for any development project.  In this example, we'll then use this base (well, a copy of it) to install SSRS and SPF. 
• Link - http://keithelder.net/2008/06/30/setting-up-windows-server-2008-vmware-virtual-machines-for-net/
• [NOTE - I skipped Steps 7, 8, and 9 in the above link]
• Cloning your machine -
• Description - This is just a note to remind you to make a copy of the VM that you created in the previous step.  There are resources in the help section of VMWare Workstation that will help you through this, but here are the steps:
• In VMWare Workstation right click on the VM that you just created and select:  Manage - Clone, then follow the wizard:
• Clone From:  The current state in the virtual machine
• Clone Type:  Create a full clone
• Virtual Machine Name:  SharePoint Foundation - SSRS Dev [Feel free to use whatever name you want for this option.]
• Virtual Machine location:  I store my VM's on an external USB 3.0 drive housing, but select the location where you store your VM's.
• Click Close.  The wizard will now clone the BASE VM that we just created.  For the rest of this blog series, we'll use this cloned VM not the BASE VM.
• Server Roles -
• Open the Server Manager tool, and then click on Roles.
• Click on Add Roles
• Add in the Web Server role and the Application Server role.
• Configuring the Server to be a domain controller -
• Description - In my examples, I am going to have my development server setup as a domain controller, follow the link below to setup your VM to be a domain controller.
• Link - http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/36200/How-to-setup-Windows-Server-2008-Domain-Controller
• Installing SPF and SSRS on the VM -
• Description - The following Microsoft TechNet and MSDN articles explain how to install SharePoint Foundation (SPF) and Sql Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on the same server.  Follow these links below in this order:
• Link - Follow Step 8 from this link:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx, to ensure that you have all the necessary roles / features for SPF.
• Link - This link walks you through installing both SSRS 2008 R2 and SPF on your server:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677368.aspx
• I also installed Analysis Services since I wanted to use the Adventure Works cubes in my example.
• I am using a default instance, not a named instance.
• Report Services Add-in installation -
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905871.aspx
• Configuring Report Server integration in SPF -
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326213.aspx
• Activating Report Server -
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677366.aspx

Ok, at this point,you should have a virtual server setup and running and ready to move on to the next part which gets into the meat of this blog series for creating a report dashboard with SPF 2010 and SSRS 2008 R2.