I was trying to connect to Google talk at work the other day via a third-party IM client called Miranda.  I downloaded a Google protocol (which actually runs on Jabber) but I couldn't get it to connect with the standard settings.  I figured it might be because my company has a firewall that blocks most ports, so I downloaded the official google talk client to see if it would work.

It went through a couple iterations of trying to connect to the server... and then... SUCCESS!  So why could it connect and my local client wouldn't?  As I assumed it was using a different port to connect.  Here's what I did to find out what port the application was running on.

I'll start with a high-level overview that power-users should be able to understand easily.  Then I'll break it down in a little more detail with the detailed steps needed to find out which port the application is running on.

High-level Overview: 

1. Open the Task Manager and find the PID for googletalk.exe 

2. Open the command prompt and run the " netstat -o -n" command

3. Find the PID in command prompt and find out which port it's running on. 

Detailed Steps

1. Press Ctl+Alt+Del to open the Task Manager (on some systems you may have to click the Task Manager button)

2.  In Task Manager, click View > Select Columns

3. Make sure the PID (Process Identifier) checkbox is checked and press OK

4.  Click the Processes tab, then scroll through the list and find the application you are looking for. Make note of the PID next to it.

5. Open command prompt: clcik Start > then click Run > type in "CMD" and press enter (a black command prompt should open)

6. Type in " netstat -o -n" and press enter*

*You can also add "-a" to the command to have it show more port information (all applications and listening ports)

7. Find the item in the list that has the same PID as you noted above. 

8. To find the port, look at the under the Foreign Address column and make note of the number after the colon.*

*This is typically called a socket and is in the format IP.add.re.ss:portNumber.  For Google talk this was 72.14.253.125:443 - meaning that the port number was 443 (which happens to be the default port for SSL connections).

So I'm working in Microsoft Excel today and I get this great error message.  It's about as unspecific a warning as you can get.  I've been working with Microsoft products for quite a while, but this message has to be one of the best (REAL) messages I've ever personally seen.  Here's the image:

Catastrophic failure?  Ever been in the middle of writing a long paper and had Microsoft Word crash on you before you could save your work?  I always thought that was a catastrophic failure.  As a side note - always remember to save your documents often!

At least this time I was doing something that is out of the ordinary and is data intensive.  For anyone who is technically inclined, I was querying a local database and converting that data to a local data cube for analysis with ProClarity. Ignore this line - In acronym land that would be: using MSQE in Excel to hit an SQL db using ODBC to do some BI analysis on my EUs in EMA for FPD with my PC from TX in the USA.   Some of the tables have over 50,000 rows of data, but I've done the exact same query before.

Oh well, I thought  

I noticed that I was having a lot of failed redirects for flamingcube.com for this file.  I decided to find the old archive and repost the information. For history's sake, here it his.

 These instructions are pretty long, so it might be worth printing them out. 

Here's the Fix:

1. start computer (safe mode is not necessary)
2. make a double rum and coke
3. drink very fast then make another
4. ok now for the fun part
5. click start then run then type cmd and click ok.
6. type the following line verbatim
7. taskkill /im wuaumqr.exe /f
8. the system will tell you that the task at whatever pid that is was loaded has been terminated.
9. type exit
10. launch windows explorer
11. goto c:\documents and setting\all users\startmenu\programs\startup
12. remove dcom.exe
13. get another rum and coke we are just getting started
14. run regedit
15. click on my computer
16. press control f (for find)
17. type winsock2
18. erase any setting that points to wuaumqr.exe only erase files that point to "wuaumqr.exe all other files are ok
19. go back to top, click on my computer and press control f
20. type wuaumqr.exe
21. delete anyfiles that point to this location
22. go back to my computer and press control f
23. delete any files that point to dcom.exe (if any)
24. get rum and coke, smoke cigarette
25. exit registry
26. click start then run the type msconfig and press enter
27. uncheck the box pointing to wuaumqr.exe
28. click apply then exit msconfig (ok)
29. rum and coke
30. click start then run the type cmd and press enter
31. type cd\windows\system32
32. type attrib wuaumqr.exe -h
33. type del wuaumqr.exe
34. type cd\
35. type dir download_me.exe /s
36. if this file exist on your computer goto that directory and type line 37
37. attrib *.* -h -a -r
38. type del.
39. type cd\
40. get rum and coke
41. type dir dcom.exe /s /a
42. if this file exists goto that directory and repeat steps 37 - 39
43. type exit
44. reboot system
45. when system boots a message will pop up telling you that you are using a utility check the box marked "don't show me this message again, reboot system and get one more rum and coke for the evening

Download a Floppy Disk boot creator:

1. Copy the i386 directory from your installation CD to the hard-drive of the computer you will be installing the Operating System on.
2. Download and run a boot-disk creator from above. Make sure you have a clean floppy, it will be needed for this.
3. Reboot the computer with the floppy in it.
4. Run WINNT once you have accessed the i386 folder. (ie. navigate to C:\i386\ using the "CD" command then run WINNT)
5. Follow the installation process.

- OR -

1. Copy the i386 directory to your hard-drive or specify the shared network path as the sourcepath (with the [/s:sourcepath] trigger)
2. Run the command line utility [command or CMD from the Run line]
3. Navigate to the location of the i386 folder using the CD command (ie. "C:\> cd c:\i386")
4. Run the command: WINNT32
5. Follow the installation process