Fix slow connection to windows shares in Ubuntu 12.04

I had this annoying issue with my Ubuntu 12.04; it wouldn't connect sometimes to a NAS system in my network. Sometimes it would, other times it would say can't connect to share. I was pulling my hair (what ever is left after all those years in IT support) when finally I found a mention to the same problem online. Now there were a few suggestions that unfortunately didn't work for me. At the end I did a bit of mix and match and I got a solution:

open a terminal window and type the following:
sudo apt-get install smbfs winbind


Next type in:
sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf
to open the nsswitch file for editing

There is a line showing the following:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

change it by adding the word 'wins' before the 'dns' like so:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns mdns4


One quick reset later, and my Ubuntu would connect to the share straight away!

I would like to thank all the people that contributed to this solution. Unfortunately I can't remember all the web sites I got ideas from, so a big THANK YOU to each and all of you.

Windows firewall is missing in Services

That is mainly due to a virus/malware infection. To repair the registry entries do the following:

*** Taken from http://www.hageltech.com/blog/2012/02/07/base-filtering-engine-problems.html ***

First of all apply the firewall registry fix: 

http://dl.hageltech.com/blog/Firewall-Repair-Windows-7.reg

Then apply the BFE reg fix 

http://dl.hageltech.com/blog/BFE-Repair-Windows-7.reg

Fix permissions in the registry:

1.     Open Registry Editor (type regedit in Start Menu):

2.     Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\BFE\Parameters\Policy

3.     Right-click and select Permissions

4.     Click Add, enter “Everyone” and click OK

5.     Click on Everyone in the list at the top, and check the “Allow Full Control” checkbox below.

6.     Click OK to dismiss this dialog.

**********************************************************

Copy and paste the following to a .bat file and run it as Administrator.

sc config MpsSvc start= auto

sc config KeyIso start= auto

sc config BFE start= auto

sc config FwcAgent start= auto

net stop MpsSvc

net start MpsSvc

net stop KeyIso

net start KeyIso

net start Wlansvc

net start dot3svc

net start EapHostnet

net stop BFE

net start BFE

net start PolicyAgent

net start MpsSvc

net start IKEEXT

net start DcaSvcnet

net stop FwcAgent

net start FwcAgent

If you get an Error 5 for MpsSvc do the following:

Fix permissions on the SharedAccess registry

1.     Open Registry Editor (type regedit in Start Menu):

2.     Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess

3.     Right-click and select Permissions

4.     Click Add, enter “Everyone” and click OK

5.     Click on Everyone in the list at the top, and check the “Allow Full Control” checkbox below.

6.     Click OK to dismiss this dialog.

And that’s it.

Add a Google search function to a web site

To add a Google search function to a web site add the following code:

*form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search" target="_blank"**

*input type="text" name="q" size="31" maxlength="255" value="" /**

*input type="submit" value="Google Search" /**

*/form**

Replace * with < and ** with >

And that's it.

Removing Rythbox from the sound indicator in Ubuntu

To remove, or add another media player, on the sound indicator on Ubuntu do the following:

• Install Dconf-editor (use sudo apt-get install dconf-tools)
• Run it with Dconf-settings
• Navigate to com.canonical.indicator.sound interested-media-players 
• And delete the name of the media player you don't want to have, or ad the one you want.
  

Manually resync local time with Microsoft clock service

To manually sync your computer's local time with Microsoft's time server type the following (or create a batch file) in console window:

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:”time.windows.com” /syncfromflags:manual
w32tm /config /update
net stop w32time
net start w32time
w32tm /resync /nowait

And that's it. No more problems. Just make sure you actually have connection to the Internet because it won't wooooooork.

Creating desktop launchers in Ubuntu 12.04

To create a launcher in the desktop download first Gnome Panel:

Sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel

and then type in this command:

gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new

A dialogue box will appear. Add all information and press OK. Your new shortcut is ready.

Adding Java on Ubuntu

To add Java from Oracle and not the OpenJDK just type the following into a terminal window:

Sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

This will download a script that will install Java. The PPA doesn't actually contain files it self.