Category: Uncategorized


  • From Xfinity Nightmare to AT&T Fiber Bliss: My 1 Gig Upgrade Ordeal

    Hey HopTechOne readers! It’s FlyswatterThe1 here, your resident tech tinkerer and wiener dog enthusiast. Whew, I’ve been through the ringer with Xfinity recently. What started as a billing inquiry, then a retention group offer to drop my monthly costs, into a multi-day odyssey of dropped speeds, endless support chats, and one hilariously inept “self-heal” process.…

  • From SMTP Hell to OAuth Heaven: Setting Up M365 Emails in WordPress (And Why Azure’s Your New BFF)

    Hey HopTechOne crewโ€”John here, still shaking off the caffeine crash from a 2AM WordPress war story that turned into an Azure boot camp. If you’ve ever stared at a blank OAuth tab wondering “Why me?”, this one’s for you. I was just trying to wire a simple WPForms contact form on hoptechone.com to ping my…

  • 20+ Years in IT Support? You Might Be SDM-Ready Without Even Knowing It

    Hey, HopTechOne crewโ€”it’s John here, your resident IT grizzled vet. If you’ve been slinging tickets, chasing down network gremlins, and keeping end-users from mutiny for over two decades (guilty as charged), this one’s for you. I just stumbled into “Service Delivery Manager” (SDM) roles while job hunting, and bamโ€”it’s like the universe saying, “Dude, you’ve…

  • Extending My TestVM Lab to Mobile: BYOD Android Tablet with Intune Work Profile

    By John Hopkins | HopTechOne.com | October 2025 In my ongoing TestVM project, I wanted to extend endpoint management beyond the Windows laptop (JH_5440_Laptop) to mobile devicesโ€”a key skill for field service engineers and healthcare IT roles where BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is common. This post details setting up an Android tablet as a…

  • Troubleshooting VMware and Kali Linux: Invisible Mouse Cursor and Beyond

    By John Hopkins | HopTechOne.com | October 2025 As part of my IT up-skilling journey, I decided to dive into virtualization with VMware Workstation (now free for business use) and Kali Linuxโ€”a powerful combo for security training and endpoint management labs. With my background in Fresenius IT support and a focus on secure device connectivity,…

  • Learnings and Next Steps

    This project taught me Intune policy scoping, registry troubleshooting, DNS propagation, and domain managementโ€”skills directly applicable to healthcare IT (e.g., secure PACS access). Key tools: PowerShell, dsregcmd /status, MX Toolbox. Next on the to-do list: Recreate Intune policy and test regedit lockout & NotepadDenyUser policies for Eagle.Talon@HopTechOne.com. Finish AZ-900 Cloud Concepts module on https://learn.microsoft.com. Cost…

  • Lesson 4: Guest Access and Teams Administration

    Setup: Enabled guest access in Teams Admin Center; invited external@hotmail.com and external@gmail.com to teams/meetings. Issues: Gmail user needed Microsoft account creation; Hotmail user had empty “My Apps” (normal for guests). Fixes: Guided sign-in, granted SharePoint “Can edit” for file access. Admin: Managed teams/channels, assigned meeting policies, used Entra ID for guest roles. Key Takeaway: Guests…

  • Lesson 3: Custom Domain Setup (HopTechOne.com)

    To brand the tenant professionally: Result: Emails now from @HopTechOne.com (e.g., JohnHopkins@HopTechOne.com). Registration: Namecheap (~$10/year) with Stellar hosting ($3/month) and free SSL. Verification: Added TXT record (MS=ms????????) in Advanced DNS; fixed CNAME for www. Email: Added MX, CNAME (autodiscover), SPF TXT; set as primary domain. Challenges: Propagation delays (24โ€“48 hours), Namecheap lockout (resolved via support).…

  • Lesson 2: Intune Policy Creation and Troubleshooting

    I created a Settings catalog policy to block regedit for Eagle.Talon: Issues: Policy blocked LocalAdmin unexpectedly (DisableRegistryTools = 2 in HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System). Eagle.Talon wasn’t blocked. Steps: Devices > Configuration > New policy > Settings catalog > “Prevent access to registry editing tools” Enabled, “Disable regedit from running silently” Yes > Assign to “NotepadDenyUsers”. Fixes: Removed legacy…

  • Lesson 1: Entra ID Join and Intune Enrollment

    The laptop was stuck at AzureAdJoined: NO and WorkplaceJoined: YES, blocking full Intune management. After removing the Workplace Join (dsregcmd /leave as SYSTEM via PsExec), I joined Entra ID: Intune Enrollment: Automatic via MDMUrl (https://enrollment.manage.microsoft.com/); device appeared as Compliant in Intune. GUI Method: Settings > Accounts > Access work or school > Connect > “Join…