Scripting Blog [archived]

Formerly known as the "Hey, Scripting Guy!" blog

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Do I Query and Retrieve DNS Information?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I know I can use the DNS WMI provider and query a DNS server. But what if I am not using a Microsoft DNS server? Or what if I do not have admin rights on the DNS server? What happens then? I really do not want to resort to parsing the output from NSLookup. Can you hook me up?- BP(image) (image) Hi BP, You know, "...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Do I Create a New DNS Zone?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to create several new zones in DNS, and I do not want to waste time working through the GUI wizard. I mean, real network administrators do not use wizards. In the old days, this was easy: I’d just edit a .dns file and I’d be done. But with Active Directory integrated stuff, I cannot figure out where the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Create DNS Mail Exchanger (MX) Records and Have a Text File Generated to Show What Was Created?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! We are adding some new Exchange Servers to our messaging infrastructure, and I want to create some new MX (Mail Exchanger) records in DNS. I do not want to to create these records manually because carpal tunnel is not my friend and manual creation tends to introduce errors. I like having a text file that shows ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Do I Check Host Name Records?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! We are having name resolution issues at work. It is so bad that when my wife calls me, the guy in the other cube gets the call. This manifests itself in concrete ways as well. Opening Office Outlook seems to take forever; going to internal Web sites takes a long time; trying to connect to an Office SharePoint site...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Import Data into Office Access from Office Excel?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to do hardware inventory on all our workstations and on all our servers. I know System Center Configuration Manager can do this and a whole lot more. We actually have it budgeted for deployment next year. However, that does not help me now. We had a summer intern that went around and typed a lot of ...