bruceb news

SBS 2008 - REMOTE ACCESS TO FILES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Outlook Web Access can be used to view or open any file in a shared folder on the servers in an office run by Small Business Server 2008.

Small Business Server 2008 improves many things about remote access to an office network. The main screen for Remote Web Workplace makes it easy to use Outlook Web Access or connect to an office computer, with nothing extraneous to confuse anyone.

Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 is so much improved that some people will use it instead of installing Outlook to access their Exchange mailbox. I just discovered another feature which is so good that it will figure prominently when I talk about SBS from now on.

There is a new "Documents" button in the Exchange 2007 version of Outlook Web Access.

Once it is configured, anyone can click on "Open Location" and put in the name of a shared folder in UNC format - \\ServerName\SharedFolder. The window on the right shows the name of the subfolders and files. At any point a location can be added to Favorites by clicking a button at the top. The folder names are shown at the top in a breadcrumb display to make it easy to navigate.

Most office users will be looking for files created in Word, Excel, or Acrobat. Double-clicking on a .DOC, .XLS, or .PDF file launches it in those programs, if they're installed on the remote computer.

Right-clicking on the file name provides the option to view the file in Internet Explorer or send it by email.

Documents cannot be saved directly back to the server - this is only a method to retrieve files.

This is extraordinary! I'm looking forward to introducing my SBS offices to this feature.

TECHNICAL NOTES

This feature is not enabled by default in SBS 2008; it has to be set up by opening Exchange Management Console with administrator privileges and opening Server Configuration / Client Access. Right-click on OWA and click on Properties to see the options for Remote File Servers. I was following the instructions in Eriq Oliver Neale's wonderful new book Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed but found one error. When you click the Allow button, the only allowed entry is the name of the server, not the network path to a shared folder. (And don't use the FQDN for the server unless that's necessary for some reason - the presence of a period in the server name will cause it to conclude that you've designated a FQDN and you'll have to add the domain suffix in the next section of the window.)

There are a huge number of ways to tweak the behavior of various file types to prevent opening something or require the web viewer for something else. The defaults are just fine for small offices. Once I figured out what to put in the Allow dialog, it started working instantly, with the exception of the web viewer for PDF files. That's on the list of things to fix someday.

MALICIOUS SOFTWARE REMOVAL TOOL

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Microsoft's recent announcement that it will distribute free antivirus software was unexpected but in some ways it's just an expansion of efforts by Microsoft that have been ongoing for years. In 2006 Microsoft began including the "Malicious Software Removal Tool" in the monthly automatic updates for every Windows computer. Every month, your computer is checked for dozens of specific bits of malware and cleaned if necessary.

In the last couple of months, Microsoft has targeted the fake security programs that are prevalent now - here's my writeup about one variation that presents realistic, professional-looking warnings of viruses and insistently tries to convince you to surrender a credit card number for $49.95 of useless software.

The removal tool runs automatically and silently. It does not need to be run manually, although it's always possible to visit the Microsoft web site for the tool and download it as part of responding to any possible virus or malware attack. It's not a substitute for an antivirus program - it doesn't run continuously watching for threats and it is not directed at all of the malware out there, just a specific set of programs that represent the worst of the current malicious software.

Anonymous data is sent back to Microsoft so it can track the effectiveness of the tool. In November, the removal tool cleaned bad stuff from almost a million computers in nine days, and in December, it removed the prevalent "Antivirus 2009" malware from 400,000 computers.

As always, the bad guys are getting better at imitating legitimate programs. Read carefully, be skeptical, and be careful out there!

MICROSOFT ENDS 2008 WITH A CRASH

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:15:00 +0000

A heartwarming story for the end of 2008! On December 31 every owner of a 30Gb Microsoft Zune woke up to a crashed device that couldn't be started. (The Zune is Microsoft's competitor for the iPod. Only 14 people own them, so this isn't all that significant except that it makes Microsoft look so deliciously boneheaded.)

After reports of the glitch started flooding in to Gizmodo and other gadget web sites, Microsoft started scrambling for an answer and eventually turned up a software bug related to leap years. The official answer: avert your eyes, don't ask a lot of questions, and put the Zune away until January 1, when it will be okay again.

Final snarky note from the New York Times (which Microsoft really deserves after this):

"On a more encouraging note, the various versions of Microsoft�s Windows
operating system, which power PCs in millions of homes and corporate cubicles,
appear to have made it through the last day of 2008 just fine."

It's the first day of 2009. My wish for us all is that we will have fewer stupid software bugs and fewer crashed gadgets, and more services that help us achieve our goals and enjoy our lives.

Happy new year!

FALLOUT 3

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

Sometimes it seems impossible to find a a couple of hours that can be spent away from the real world. People over 25 might find time for a good book but computer gaming belongs to the young - almost any good computer game requires at least a few hours to learn the controls and become familiar with the setup, and the best of them can easily hold your interest for anywhere from 20-60 hours. (Not to mention that most of the shooting games are so fast and require such twitchy reflexes that I couldn't have played them even when I was young. The sheer speed required to play Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead is mind boggling.)

If you're young at heart and have some time free, take a look at Fallout 3, a new game from the team that developed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's visually rich without requiring a rocket for a computer - if your Vista computer meets the specs that I suggest (including a 256Mb or better video card), it will run it beautifully. Theoretically it is the third game in a series that started more than ten years ago but it stands completely alone and no prior knowledge of the other games is needed.

More importantly from my old fogie perspective, it can be played slowly. Fallout 3 is a single-player role-playing game where your character explores an enormous environment, the ruins of Washington DC after a devastating nuclear war, with complete freedom to walk or run, fight or flee, explore randomly or follow the plot from start to finish. If you're new to this style of game, the first half-hour is a brilliant tutorial to help you learn the controls and build your character. The opening scene is literally your birth, where you choose your gender and the name of your character. You learn to walk as a toddler and learn how to interact with characters and use weapons while your character is still a child. When you finally step outside, you're ready to take on the world, and you're rewarded with a stunning view of a landscape that stretches for miles in all directions, all of it ready to be explored.

I grew up playing computer games and I love watching the kids play some of the exciting online games that are on the market now, but I can't make time for a game very often any more. I'm making a bit of time for Fallout 3 and loving it. Go read some reviews, click here to check it out on Amazon, and see if you might enjoy it!

WALLACE & GROMIT NEWS

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:59:00 +0000

There will be time next year for news about technology that affects your business. Let's focus on something more important.

On Xmas day, a new Wallace and Gromit short film, "A Matter Of Loaf And Death," was broadcast on British television! This is exciting news for anyone who enjoyed A Grand Day Out, A Close Shave, The Wrong Trousers, and The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Everyone likes Wallace and Gromit! The new film is just as wonderful as the rest. It will eventually be released in the US, although anyone familiar with Bittorrent can find a copy pretty quickly.

That's not all! In 2009 Telltale Games will release "Wallace and Gromit Grand Adventures," computer games from the same company that did such a wonderful job for two years on Sam & Max games. (Here's a bit more information about Sam & Max, in case you've forgotten.) Save up some free time!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM BRUCEB CONSULTING!

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

Starting in the late 90s, I sent Christmas cards to my clients and friends that I painstakingly created onscreen and printed out on an inkjet printer. When I started, few people had begun to explore the world of graphics and photos on computers, so it was interesting to get something created at home with a personal touch. The novelty helped people overlook that I'm not particularly creative and I'm partially colorblind.

It wasn't long before I was getting Christmas cards that you had designed on your computers with a flair that I could only envy. I gave up the Christmas cards.

During the next few years, some of you got unwanted CDs full of music that had struck me during the previous year. I've been enjoying rock music ever since that fateful Rolling Stones concert in 1972, and fancied that I might be listening to new music that other aging baby boomers might enjoy but might not discover for themselves. As the music industry splintered into smaller and smaller fragments, I found myself listening to such an odd little niche in the music world that last year's disc devoted to progressive rock was probably incomprehensible to everyone who received it. I can't pretend that anyone else is interested in the music I listen to now. Besides, burning a CD is not exactly cutting edge technology any more - more retro, in fact.

I gave up the Christmas CDs.

This year I have nothing to offer except my best wishes for happy holidays and a healthy and prosperous new year! Let's count our blessings and take a deep breath before we enter into 2009. I'm pessimistic because the economy is falling apart and optimistic because we have an administration that will bring common sense and creativity to the nation's problems, like sunlight and fresh air after a long darkness. I'm pessimistic because our technology is more difficult and trouble-prone all the time, and I'm optimistic because cloud computing and hosted services and virtualization will change and improve your businesses and your lives.

It will be an interesting year. I'm looking forward to working with you on technology problems - and technology solutions.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

IT TRUTH

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:04:00 +0000

COMPLAINT FOR XMAS DAMAGES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

Plaintiffs, consisting of the class of all children who on or about Dec. 24, 2008 were hanging stockings by the chimney with care in the reasonable belief that St. Nicholas soon would be there, sue defendant and allege:

1. This is an action for an accounting, damages and injunctive relief.

2. Upon information and belief, defendant is a citizen and resident of the North Pole, where he maintains his principal place of business. The court has subject matter jurisdiction of the amount pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1332.

Count I: Breach of Contract.

Throughout the fall of 2008, plaintiffs met with agents of defendant at various shopping malls to negotiate the delivery of certain goods on the evening of Dec. 24, for which plaintiffs paid valuable consideration in the form of exorbitant tie-in charges for photographs of the negotiating sessions.

Plaintiffs repeatedly informed defendant, through his agents, that time was of the essence in completing such deliveries. As of this date, many of the contracted goods have not been delivered.

Other goods were nonconforming and lacked batteries, rendering them useless to plaintiffs.

Count II: Deceit.

Defendant fraudulently induced plaintiffs to improve their conduct against their will by misrepresenting that defendant knows if plaintiffs have been bad or good, when, in fact, defendant lacks sufficient knowledge upon which to form a reasonable belief regarding such matters.

In justifiable reliance upon these representations, plaintiffs invested substantial labor in not shouting, pouting or crying, and at all times relevant hereto were good for goodness sake.

Count III: Infliction of Emotional Distress.

On the relevant night, defendant knew or should have known that plaintiffs were snug in their beds with visions of hand-held video games and name-brand athletic apparel dancing in their heads.

Despite such knowledge, defendant willfully and maliciously concealed off-brand goods and inherently worthless property such as sweaters and umbrellas in packages that misrepresented their true contents. Plaintiffs suffered severe emotional shock and fright upon opening such packages.

Count IV: Trespass and Conversation.

Defendant?s implied license to enter plaintiffs? premises terminated upon his substantial breaches of contract. Once on the premises, defendant exercised substantial dominion and control over an estimated 200 tons of cookies and 44,000 gallons of milk, converting such property and depriving plaintiffs of its beneficial use.

WHEREFORE, plaintiffs demand judgment for damages, injunctive relief and an accounting.

[Quoted from A Family Christmas, edited by Caroline Kennedy, as noted by Susan Bradley.]

PRINTER SOFTWARE & SLOWDOWNS

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:29:00 +0000

The headline tells the story of this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Severe system performance problems occur on a Windows Vista or Windows XP-based computer after you install HP printer software, version 11 (Microsoft KB960673)

To be honest, I don't know if I've ever seen this problem in the real world. "On a Windows Vista or Windows XP-based computer, you install the HP Customer Participation version 11 software that is included with Hewlett-Packard's new printers. After you do this, you may experience an overall slowing of your computer performance because of an error in this application."

But I know that HP has been doing a terrible job of supplying software with their printers for the last few years, so this is just an extreme example of a bigger problem. HP's installation and uninstallation programs take waaaay too long, they install useless and unrequested services to monitor registration and ink cartridge status and software updates and customer satisfaction and phases of the moon, and if you're lucky you can also print. Typically there are no options during setup to reduce the amount of clutter installed from the CD. Sometimes (but not always) there are simpler drivers on the HP web site for people willing to take manual control of the process.

The result is that I'm not too keen on HP printers lately, because the quality of the hardware doesn't matter if the software brings down your computer. It's not like HP is the only offender - I've spent hours trying to squash a nasty little Epson status monitor that slows things to a crawl if a shared printer isn't online. The biggest reason to prefer Brother printers for the last couple of years is the simplicity of their software.

Remember one of the important rules for being responsible for your computer: always do a custom install of any software and take the time to understand the options and decline items that don't apply to you (especially unrelated products included because one big company paid another big company - Google Desktop/Google Toolbar/Windows Live Toolbar/Open Office and so many more.) You won't avoid all the unnecessary stuff but you can minimize it that way.

QUICKBOOKS PRO 2009 - FREE!

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:12:00 +0000

On Monday, for one day only, you can pick up a copy of Quickbooks Pro 2009 for free at Staples.

This appears to be a real offer. Staples stores will sell Quickbooks Pro 2009 for $159, after applying a $40 "instant rebate."

There will be coupons in the store to mail in for a $159 rebate.

There are more details in an email from an Intuit representative here. Quantities at the stores will be limited to stock on hand but this isn't a bait and switch deal - the stores have been bulking up their inventory. ~~The same offer will reportedly be available online on the front page of the~~ ~~Staples web site~~. You can buy it online from the Staples web site. Don't forget to print out the rebate form!

Quickbooks is the only game in town for a small business. If you haven't upgraded recently, this is the time to do it!

Karl Palachuk, one of the best bloggers on small business technology, had this to say recently:

"The undisputed 800 pound gorilla among small business finances is Intuit's QuickBooks. No one loves it. Everyone uses it.

"Overall, QuickBooks does a great job or they wouldn't be where they are. Having said that, their program is amazingly bloated, filled with annoying spam and popups, and they have some of the worst technical support in the history of software.

""Everyone" integrates with QuickBooks. That is to say, everyone does something with QuickBooks. Most of them import and export aggregate data and lose all the detail. As a result, many people who could be "integrating" QuickBooks end up doing double-entry in their line of business application and QuickBooks."

Looking for an alternative to Quickbooks? Microsoft has several accounting programs that might look like contenders. Karl quotes a summary from Ernest Cook of Better Idea Group to clarify the current status of the various accounting programs from Microsoft.

"Due in no small part to the overlay in markets focus and similarity of the names, many people over the years have confused the Small Business Financials, Small Business Accounting and Office Accounting products so let me clarify for the group:

"Small Business Financials is based on the "Great Plains" code base. A quick call to Customer Source today confirmed that I can say publicly that Microsoft has NO plans on creating any more new versions of this product. The LAST version of this program is version 9 and if you have a client on an earlier version and is still current on support they could upgrade to that version. If they are NOT current on support, they need to start planning on what they will migrate to. In short, Small Business Financials is in fact going away +++ DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO YOUR CLIENTS +++

"Small Business Accounting - This product was written from scratch in 2004-2005 with a target market of 1-5 users. The only version that has this name is the inaugural edition that was labeled 2006. Due in no small part to the iterative nature of the initial product, a "service pack" came out later in the year but was still called SBA 2006. It had SQL 2000 technology and was based on the .Net 1.1 framework. Anyone that is still running this program and "stuck" on the workflow should, at the very least migrate to Office Accounting 2009 +++ Small Business Accounting is GONE - DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO YOUR CLIENTS +++

"Finally...

"Microsoft Office Accounting - The first version of this was in 2007 and was a direct descendant of "Small Business Accounting". The BIG difference is that the 2007 version was based on .NET 2.0 and SQL 2005 technology and Microsoft broadened the offering by creating a FREE "express" version and pushed it thru download sites etc.
In 2008, some bugs were fixed and new functionality was added to the product, most notably the addition of a Spanish language version. The most current version, 2009 was recently published and consists primarily of resolutions to issues that had been brought up by customers and partners for quite awhile.

"As an ISV who has invested a SIGNIFICANT amount of money into my products that need Office Accounting to work, it would be easiest for me to tell you that Office Accounting has a bright future and tell you to recommend it to your clients. I can't do that. I am NOT investing anymore time or money in the Office Accounting product line. Not only that but friends on the list might also be interested in hearing that I am migrating my own company books BACK to Intuit's QuickBooks."

See you at Staples!

ANOTHER IE PATCH

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:31:00 +0000

This morning Microsoft released a patch for Internet Explorer to prevent an exploit that became publicly known in the last couple of days. The fear is that the bad guys will quickly come up with ways to demagnetize your credit cards and kill your pets if you don't install the patch. Your computers will be updated automatically tonight and might restart. The patch has a severity rating of "Critical."

You should install the patch. But the usual articles are appearing about how this demonstrates that Internet Explorer is unsafe and anyone using it deserves scorn or pity, depending on how generous the author is.

The bad guys move very quickly and this exploit will presumably start being used more widely but at the moment its only public appearance has been on a few hundred Taiwanese or Chinese web sites set up to steal online gaming passwords. It's not a good time to visit porn, hacking, cracking, serials and key-gen websites. I dunno, maybe I just know nice people, but I don't know many people who will have a problem with that. If you follow the rules at the bottom of this post, none of these exploits will ever mean much to you!

It's natural to be curious about using another program when there is so much coverage of IE's patches.

A lot of people talk about Firefox, which achieved quite a distinction this week when it was named the Most Vulnerable Software Program running on Windows. "In 2008, Mozilla patched 10 vulnerabilities that could be used by remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via buffer overflow, malformed URI links, documents, JavaScript and third party tools." Four of those vulnerabilities have a severity rating of "Critical," three have a rating of "Severe," and three have a rating of "Panic."

Perhaps you'll consider Opera, an open-source browser with a good reputation, which yesterday released an upgrade that fixed seven security problems that "could lead to remote code execution if an Opera user is tricked into surfing to a maliciously rigged Web page." Two of the bugs are rated "Oh My God," three of them are rated "Apocalyptic," and two of them are rated "Purple."

You'll want to look into Apple's Safari browser, whose last patch in November fixed 11 security problems - four were rated "Meltdown," and the rest were rated "Zesty."

A few of you are so tired of constant updates and security problems that you'll buy Macs for yourself this Xmas. This week Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.6, the sixth update since the Mac OS was released just over a year ago. Apple recently urged all Mac users to install antivirus software, but it's not because Macs are insecure! Don't be thinking that! It's because, um, antivirus programs can be used by the kids for fun and interesting science fair experiments. Yeah, that's it.

Wanna be safe? Use Internet Explorer, keep your computer up to date, and follow these rules.

Antivirus software will not always protect you against malware if you click OK at the wrong time!
Don't click on strange URLs! Follow links with carefree abandon to and from legitimate sites, but don't click on links that arrive in spam e-mail, instant messages, web forums, or IRC chats, or that start from an untrustworthy web site.
Never, never, never open email attachments unless you know with 100% certainty that the attachment is something you expected and want to receive.
The bad guys are liars. They will say anything to get past your defenses, without conscience or remorse.
Please, be careful out there!

OUTLOOK EXPRESS & OTHER OLD THINGS

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:52:00 +0000

Lately I've seen this message turn up out of nowhere on Windows XP computers that do not run Outlook Express.

I don't know why it's turning up now after years of staying quiet but it reminds me that Outlook Express is one of several obsolete Windows components that can be safely removed from most Windows XP computers.

Open Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs and click on the left on Add/Remove Windows Components.

I routinely remove some of the items in the list that comes up. If you think you might be using any of them, please do not uninstall them. I don't want any silly mistakes.

MSN Explorer This was Microsoft's attempt to create a customized browser that looks like America Online. It's unclear why anyone would want to look like America Online.
Outlook Express This is now obsolete and replaced by Windows Live Mail. Look, let me reiterate - if you're using Outlook Express for your mail, don't uninstall it! This is not the same program as Microsoft Outlook, of course; if you're using Outlook, you can safely uninstall Outlook Express.
Windows Messenger This is NOT the same program as Windows Live Messenger, the one that most people use. If you have a useless instant messenger icon down by the clock that's always said "Not connected," it's probably a remnant of this program.

Uninstall them by unchecking the box by each item.

You may see an error message about MSN Explorer. I don't know what it means but in my experience it's harmless if you click OK.

TROUBLESHOOTING A SLOW INTERNET CONNECTION

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

Sometimes you'll hear me groan or sob quietly when you describe a simple problem. Let me give you an idea of some of the things that go through my head when a problem comes up. Take this as an example:

"My Internet connection is slow."

Your Internet connection is fine; your computer is slow.

Your computer is running normally but it has malware installed that is using up all your bandwidth sending out spam email.

Your computer's network card is going bad and needs to be replaced.

Your connection is saturated by another computer in the house that's downloading movie torrents.

Your DSL line has some problem - line noise, static, or the like.

Your cable/DSL modem is going bad and needs to be replaced.

Your router is going bad and needs to be replaced.

There is something causing interference that affects your cable/DSL modem - an appliance, a cordless phone, or something outside the house.

Your DSL filters aren't installed correctly - maybe the DSL line is filtered, maybe the voice lines aren't.

You have a bad network cable somewhere - between the cable/DSL modem and the router or between the router and the computer.

The interesting thing is that I have personal experience with each and every one of those, so I know they aren't theoretical possibilities. All too often there is no way to know where to start! Only one of them is likely to be the source of the problem, and it will look obvious in hindsight. I can gather clues from a lot of different places - I've learned a lot of tricks over the years so I'll do things you wouldn't think of to track down the problem. But make no mistake, computer problems can be elusive and maddeningly time consuming!

This is on my mind because I'm dealing with a troublesome DSL connection used by a small business with a simple Sonic DSL circuit (provisioned by AT&T). After two weeks and multiple visits and lots of time spent checking logs and working with Sonic, the business has a new network card in their server, a new router, a new DSL modem, and new CAT5e cables. Only after that work was done did we get to the point that Sonic could identify errors on the line justifying an AT&T service call. AT&T made its first visit and claimed to have identified and fixed the problem, but it was quickly apparent that things weren't any better, so we're waiting for a second AT&T visit. Hundreds of dollars in new equipment and fees for me to investigate, replace equipment, and deal with Sonic, and the problem is not solved.

Optimistic but frustrated. That describes how I feel often about technology. Sound familiar?

DISNEY VIRAL VIDEO

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:20:00 +0000

A lot of companies are trying to cook up the next viral video, the link that will be passed from person to person until we're all heartily sick of it. I wouldn't expect the Disney corporation to be successful at that - but I have to admit, this is a very nice piece of work. Go to the Sun 7 News site for a very special video!

WINDOWS LIVE SYNC ARRIVES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Microsoft has released Windows Live Sync, a free utility that syncs folders among two or more computers and makes it possible to share synced folders with others. It is the successor to Foldershare - and really not much more than a facelift for Foldershare. It accomplishes an important goal for Microsoft, though, by integrating the service with the Windows Live ID authentication that is driving all the other online services from Microsoft. Here's the blog from the Windows Live Sync team.

If you're not familiar with Foldershare, here's some background and an explanation of the basic principles. Windows Live Sync runs continuously on your computer; you can designate any folder and Windows Live Sync will copy the contents of that folder to any other computer of your choice running the software. The two folders will then always be kept in sync - if something is deleted from the folder at one end, the same file will be deleted at the other end, for example.

The program only copies files when both computers are turned on and running the program online at the same time. That can cause confusion - I know people who shut down their office computer at the end of the day, went home and turned on their home computer, and were disappointed that they didn't have their synced files. I was ready to criticize them for being unclear on the concept but what I found was that this is a hard concept and frequently leaves people confused or frustrated. I don't want to dissuade you from trying it! Just plan to give it some attention until you have that "Aha!" moment.

Windows Live Sync closely overlaps the Live Mesh service, but as far as I know the two services run on completely different underpinnings. I have this vision of the two Microsoft teams fighting it out for dominance and we'll find out at some random time which one is the victor and which program will die. Maybe they'll both live forever. Maybe they'll both be renamed and squished together by spring. Who knows?

There's an interesting detail in one blog today: apparently Windows Live Sync will be quietly included with every copy of a new version of Windows Live Photo Gallery due soon. That might just be to help people make their photos available on every computer in the house, or perhaps to make it easy to share photos with friends and grandparents. But I've also seen speculation that it will be set up to automatically copy your photos to the online photo storage space provided for free by Microsoft (which is now tied in to the Skydrive service). This will take careful work - many people are overwhelmed by all the names floating around and are ready to drop out at the first confusing bit.

FOLDERSHARE USERS: You'll be prompted to install this update automatically. There may be some confusing bits - you'll have to associate it with a Windows Live ID (and create one if you haven't done that yet), and you'll have to start from scratch to set up shared folders with others. Let me know if you have any problems!

WINDOWS & MESH UPDATES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:51:00 +0000

Ho hum. Another day, another batch of updates.

Microsoft released its regularly scheduled monthly updates last night. Your computer may have restarted automatically last night or it will tonight.

If you are using Live Mesh, there is an update that reportedly improves a number of features. Mesh may prompt you to install it at some point soon - I'm not sure if it's completely automatic.

You might want to take a look at the available updates proactively. Go to the Microsoft Update page. In Windows XP, you'll arrive at a web site where you can click the Custom button; in Vista, you'll open up the built-in update program where you can click on View Available Updates.

In addition to any required updates, you'll likely see some "optional" updates. Some of those are interesting! I found the Live Mesh update listed there today. If you're on Windows XP, you might find Windows Search 4.0, a truly useful tool. Perhaps you never got around to Internet Explorer 7, which is significantly safer to use than IE6.

Be careful installing hardware updates that way. If your hardware is working, you may want to be conservative and not install an updated video driver or network card driver. I have mixed feelings about suggesting that because many of the new drivers can be a significant improvement, but installing hardware drivers through the Windows Update system does not always go smoothly and I don't want you to blame me.

The other optional updates are likely to be safe. See if there's anything you're missing!

PAYPAL STUDENT ACCOUNT

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:25:00 +0000

I've been using my PayPal account more frequently to buy things online. It's connected to my checking account, so a payment made with PayPal is withdrawn directly from the bank account. Typically the payment requires a transfer to a different browser window for the PayPal authentication, then back to the merchant's web site, which in the past had sometimes been a tricky dance for Internet Explorer to handle. Lately all the transactions have gone smoothly. The merchant gets all the name and address information from PayPal so it's frequently faster to finish a transaction.

It's a little harder to use Quicken to reconcile payments from the checking account that go through PayPal. If you download transactions directly into Quicken from the bank, the check register shows a PayPal transaction but doesn't get the name of the actual merchant. (Recent versions of Quicken are supposed to integrate with PayPal to download transactions directly from PayPal online but I haven't been brave enough to try it - the reports aren't very encouraging.)

Many of you are moving more and more of your purchases online, and buying online will come even more naturally to our kids. PayPal is testing an interesting service, the "PayPal Student Account." You can't try it yet - it's being tested by an invitation-only group.

The goal is to give teenagers some financial independence but let the parents keep some control. Parents with a PayPal account set up a sub-account for each teenage child and put in some money (a single chunk or a recurring amount like an allowance). The child can spend the money anywhere that PayPal is accepted online, or (optionally) can be given a MasterCard debit card.

Parents can set alerts to monitor the account and can disable the account any time. And my favorite feature - if a teen needs money unexpectedly, he or she can send a text message to PayPal ("Get $50), and PayPal in turn will send a text message to the parent, who can approve it and transfer the money with a reply text message.

The New York Times noticed this a few days ago. No word on when it will go into broader testing or get a full release.

SBS 2008 - ONECARE POSTSCRIPT

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:06:00 +0000

One glitch in the SBS 2008 migration nagged at me - it didn't make sense that the computers with the individual version of Windows Live OneCare were not reporting in to the SBS 2008 console, which tracks the security status of all the workstations on the network.

This is a sample of the new console for managing workstations in SBS 2008.

A handful of the computers running OneCare were able to get through and the server reported they were secure. I looked in vain for firewall exceptions for ports or services that were different on those.

It took a while to track it down, and in the end it wasn't the firewall after all.

Many things on a Windows Server network are controlled by "group policy," a very extensive set of rules that can be applied from the server to the workstations to control everything from network communications to your browser home page. There are thousands of settings that can be closely controlled with group policy.

Windows Server 2008 and SBS 2008 introduced hundreds of new group policy settings, but the workstations do not recognize them until new Group Policy Client Side Extensions are installed (Microsoft KB 943729). The group policy extensions are available through the Windows Update system but apparently are never offered as anything other than an optional update - ignored by OneCare and apparently ignored by WSUS, the system built into SBS 2008 to keep workstations up to date.

Sure enough, most of the computers had never installed the Group Policy Client Side Extensions. When the update was installed, the SBS 2008 console reflected their secure status about an hour later.

One more thing for the SBS migration checklist!

SBS 2008 - MIGRATION GLITCHES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:09:00 +0000

Let me leave a few notes behind about some of the glitches during the migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. I don't have many answers but perhaps it will help someone to know that I'm able to commiserate with them. (Loyal clients - this is not aimed at you and it won't help you get your work done. I'll be back to general interest topics next week!)

As background: I was migrating an SBS 2003 server with a very basic configuration - no ISA, no use of Sharepoint, a single NIC and external firewall, and no particular pre-existing issues.

MIGRATION WIZARD

Microsoft provides a detailed guide to the migration procedure. (Have you noticed that Microsoft's documentation has been getting better and better lately? There's much less ambiguity about what to click next - each step is described in precise and accurate detail.) The guide was great.

SBS 2008 begins a migration when a USB stick with an answer file is inserted in the new server before the SBS 2008 installation starts. Several people have reported that the USB stick has to be present when the server is turned on or SBS 2008 is likely to miss it. After installation, the first and most important item on the SBS 2008 is the "migration wizard" that leads through all the steps required to be successful.

I was about two-thirds of the way through the wizard when I took a break and installed the Server 2008 updates that were waiting. When the server restarted, the migration wizard crashed with a mysterious error that proved impossible to fix. I researched it and got nowhere. I removed a couple of the updates that conceivably might have unsettled something and got nowhere.

The wizard never came back to life. Fortunately most of its steps only lead to help files that describe the process for actually accomplishing each task by going into AD or MMC consoles or the like. I think - I think - I was able to finish the migration and cover the remaining steps without the wizard. There is still room for some surprise glitch - I'm going to cross my fingers when I demote the source server.

MAIL MIGRATION

I expected the mailbox migration to be slow but was still surprised. The Exchange 2003 mailbox store was about 25Gb after I pruned and archived as much as I could from the biggest mailboxes. The mailbox move took just about ten hours.

PUBLIC FOLDERS

I had no luck moving the public folders, and didn't really expect to, given the reports I had read. That may have been the result of a pre-existing glitch on the source server - this server, like several other of my SBS 2003 servers, throws up an error message when I try to do anything to the public folders in Exchange Server Manager. I've researched that one, too; I've removed the SSL requirement from EXADMIN in IIS, and a few other things suggested in other places, to no avail. I exported the public folders to a PST and stored them for now, since public folders were not being actively used and may not need to be implemented at all on the new server.

BACKUP

The most mysterious problem involves the backup system. The firm had been using ShadowProtect to back up to an NAS and two rotated external Maxtor hard drives. The backup built into SBS 2008 looks like it will be just fine but it does not directly back up to an NAS. I connected a Maxtor drive, formatted it, and ran the backup wizard. Hmm. Error message at the very end.

Since the message says "Cannot configure backup schedule," I started trying every scheduling option - once a day, twice a day - as well as swapping in the other (identical) hard drive, and couldn't get anywhere. I couldn't find anything in the logs at all. I got the flavor that it might be caused by the server disliking the external hard drives.

I'd like to talk to the person who thought it would be helpful to write: "If this problem persists, contact the person who provides you with technical support." It made me irritable.

ShadowProtect claims that the current version will back up SBS 2008 servers. With any luck I'll be able to install that and never know the answer to this one.

PHONE PASSCODES

This isn't a glitch, just something to warn your users about. By default, Exchange 2007 enforces a new passcode requirement on Windows Mobile phones (and iPhones) syncing with the server. Users are forced to set up a four-digit password that will be tapped in every time the phone is used. I'm sympathetic to all the reasons that this is an important security measure, but I'm also sympathetic to the desire to keep my job and not be fired by the attorneys who began flipping out immediately. It's possible to turn the requirement off in Exchange Management Console / Organization Configuration / Client Access / Windows SBS Mobile Mailbox Policy, which then allows it to be turned off on the phones. The iPhone balked and refuses to relax, even after the policy was changed, which apparently is a known glitch.

SERVER CERTIFICATE

I was determined to allow my users to continue to use the familiar URL for remote access, even though it didn't match the naming scheme preferred by SBS 2008. The email domain is www.bigfirm.com, say, and my users have been reaching RWW at www.bigfirmnet.com for years. I have a GoDaddy SSL certificate for www.bigfirmnet.com and heck, I just like it. Plus I've got migrations coming up where I know it will be difficult to work with the web hosting company to set up a subdomain and MX records for the primary domain name.

The Internet address wizard insists on getting the primary address and only allowing RWW to be reached at the same address with a prefix - remote.bigfirm.com or something like it. I had to work around that by lying to the wizard that the primary domain name was bigfirmnet.com, which (in Advanced Settings) would then let www.bigfirmnet.com be the remote access address.

When that was in place, then I could set the primary email addresses back to @bigfirm.com in Exchange Manager / Organization / Hub Transport / Email address policies / Windows SBS Email Address Policy.

ONECARE

Windows Live OneCare has been a trusted friend but it does make me a little crazy sometimes. SBS 2008 expects to get feedback from each workstation about its security status and apparently OneCare isn't set up to let that happen. So far I haven't found the firewall port or other hack that will let the workstations report in, so they're all showing in the server console as "unknown." I can't even find a definitive statement that it's possible or impossible with the standalone version of OneCare. I'm not going to install OneCare for Server so I may just not get good feedback in the console until we switch to Trend Micro. I was hoping to procrastinate on that - everyone has been used to OneCare for a long time - but change happens.

DRIVE MAPPING

Drive mapping is supposed to be accomplished in Group Policy now. I was comforted that other people online said they had trouble with it, because I couldn't make a mapped drive appear on a workstation no matter what I did in Group Policy. After a fruitless half hour of researching and trying things, I put the nice simple logon script in the folder and assigned it to everybody. I feel kind of crude, but it works.

SHARED PRINTERS

Another little headache - it was easy to install 64-bit drivers for network printers and share them from the server. At least, it was easy once I stopped clicking on the "Add printer" button and getting an "Access denied" message when it tried to set up a TCP/IP port. Right-click in the Printers folder and click on Run As Administrator / Add printer - ah, that's intuitive! Sheesh.

Out at the first workstation, I was reminded forcibly that there were no 32-bit drivers around, so I downloaded the corresponding 32-bit drivers for a few of the printers (a couple of HP Laserjets and a Toshiba copier) and went to add them on the server using Additional Drivers on the Sharing tab. The server thought that was a terrible idea - it never agreed that the 32-bit drivers corresponded with the 64-bit drivers. (I read somewhere that it was known problem with some HP drivers but I had the same epxerience with the Toshiba drivers.) So I parked the 32-bit drivers where I could get to them, went back to the workstation, and browsed to the 32-bit drivers when the workstation tried to connect to the shared printer and rejected the 64-bit drivers. Nope! The workstation also didn't agree that it was a match. It was the closest match, trust me - these were the identical 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for the same model running the same PCL level.

Fortunately, we already had reason to be running a Windows XP virtual machine on the second server with Hyper-V. I've shared all the printers from there and I bet it's rock solid.

A migration is a complex project! I think it went smoothly. These are the kind of glitches that happen constantly, every day at every level. Some of them will happen to me the next time, others will come up that are brand new. It's the nature of IT today. With luck I'll bring good instincts and a lot of experience and use them both the next time I come to your office!

SKYDRIVE UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Windows Live Skydrive has been updated with a new look, 25Gb of free storage space, and new options for storing and sharing photos. There is some integration with an updated version of Windows Live Photo Gallery but I haven't yet explored how that works. If you're not using Skydrive yet, here are my notes about it.

That's 25Gb of free online storage space. That's a lot of space! Hotmail users have also been bumped to 25Gb of free storage space for email, in addition to the Skydrive space. You can share files with the world or with individuals and there's no longer a need for people to sign in with a Windows Live ID to see a shared file.

The redesigned front page for Skydrive is quite elegant. I don't see a big advertisement like the one in the screen shot from last month. Ah! I get it now. The ad is displayed if you look at someone else's Skydrive space, or if you're not signed in. The elegant display is for your own Skydrive account after signing in.

Folders that contain photos are set apart automatically, and they look just great, with built-in controls for slideshows and very nice thumbnails. When photos are shared, it appears people can download the full-sized files instead of being limited to a low-resolution version of a photo - a common problem with online photo services until recently.

The folder shown below, by the way, contains my favorite wallpaper images for widescreen monitors, gathered from all over the web. You probably know this but bear in mind - if you get a full-sized image onscreen that you like, you can right-click it and click on "Set as desktop background" to make it your wallpaper. With these images, for example, if you click on a thumbnail, you're taken to a page showing a small version of the individual image. If you click on that image and click on "Open," you should see the full-size image. That's the one to use for your wallpaper. Go take a look!

SBS 2008 - SSL CERTIFICATES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:46:00 +0000

Let me give you a quick overview of the kind of issue that makes it fun to be a consultant.

When you go to a web site where any personal information is going to be exchanged, you're likely to see the web site address change from http:// to https://. The data is encrypted (has a "Secure Sockets Layer" or SSL) and is reasonably well protected against eavesdroppers. You'll see it at banking sites or almost anything involving money or payment, as well as on web sites for access to company networks and other places where data should be confidential.

When you go to http://www.wellsfargo.com/, the bank's web server presents its security certificate from a known certificate authority, a big company that has done some checking to ensure that the server actually belongs to the company whose name is on the web site. Your browser examines it and agrees that it looks authentic, then it does some cryptographic things that convince it that the certificate was really issued by the big trusted authority. When it's satisfied, it proceeds automatically to https://www.wellsfargo.com/ and shows you a happy padlock icon in the address bar.

Until recently, SSL certificates were only used by big companies: they were expensive, required annoying paperwork, and the whole process was technically difficult.

Small Business Server 2003 wanted remote users to log into its great Remote Web Workplace over a secure SSL connection but couldn't saddle small businesses with the headache of buying expensive certificates, so it used a workaround. By default an SBS 2003 server presents a "self-signed certificate." Essentially the server vouches for itself and tells your browser that it's safe and trustworthy.

That sounds a bit flaky but it worked well enough for a long time, until security concerns began to trump everything else. Business people began buying Windows Mobile phones to sync their Outlook folders over the air and for a while it was possible to convince them to accept the SBS server's self-signed certificate, but it got harder and harder to accomplish - it required finding the right tool to install the certificate on the phone and the manufacturers were nervous about giving people access to the depths of the phone's operating system to do that. Now it's almost always impossible.

Meanwhile Microsoft began to add new security warnings to Internet Explorer as part of its hardening over the last few years. Now when you go to a site with an SBS 2003 certificate, you get this ominous warning:

If you go past the scary warning to the company's RWW site, you get the unhappy red IE address bar instead of the happy padlock:

Fortunately, a few companies began offering inexpensive SSL certificates with a minimum of fuss. GoDaddy.com offers SSL certificates for only thirty dollars per year that are accepted by most computers, phones and other devices. SBS consultants began to work out elaborate documentation for installing them on SBS servers. Many consultants made it a standard part of setting up a server running SBS 2003.

SBS 2008 still begins with a self-signed certificate but a wizard is included in the initial setup checklist to help purchase a third-party certificate.

The wizard wasn't helpful to me in a migration where I already had a domain name with an existing certificate. I found myself burrowing deeply into IIS and feeling my way through the process. I was successful but it took some interesting tricks to get everything to work correctly.

The experience exposed another interesting feature of Exchange 2007. If a company runs the web site http://www.bigfirm.com/, it can set up http://remote.bigfirm.com/ as a subdomain that leads to their internal company network. Set the company's MX record for incoming mail to http://remote.bigfirm.com/ and give that address to the business people for remote access. SBS 2008 has wizards to help get the domain names registered and set up in Exchange.

Then if a business person goes home and sets up Outlook 2007 for an Exchange Server at http://remote.bigfirm.com/, Outlook will configure itself automatically with the settings to connect over the Internet to Exchange Server at the office. It's not necessary in that case to configure the deep proxy settings that have been required until now to set up Outlook for RPC over HTTP. Microsoft thinks the technology is so cool that it blessed it with a new brand name, "Outlook Anywhere." (SBS 2008 does some of the magic to accomplish that, thank goodness - otherwise it requires deep surgery in ADSIEDIT and the Exchange command line console.)

That works fine, I'm sure, but I used a different naming scheme when I bought domain names for all my SBS clients for their remote access. SBS 2008 does not like that arrangement one little bit. And it's only easy to set up a subdomain and manipulate MX records if you have full DNS control over the ISP for http://www.bigfirm.com/. A small business will frequently have set up their web site with small hosting companies and web site designers that are, shall we say, not always easy to work with.

You see what I mean, I'm sure - it's fun!

SBS 2008 - ADMINISTRATION NOTES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:05:00 +0000

More notes on the new release of Small Business Server 2008.

Small businesses have more options than ever before as they grow to 5-10 people and begin to think about adding a server or two. Some businesses will be able to reduce costs by using a hosted mail service and only using a server onsite to share files and printers to a small group. But that won't be right for all businesses - SBS 2008 has across-the-board improvements in an already impressive product and it will still be the right choice for many offices looking to step up to a new level of technology as they grow, as well as for offices ready to migrate from an old server that's ready to retire.

Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 was the first polished release of a complex suite of products tied together with various wizards and limitations designed to make it easier to manage. It combined Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and Sharepoint, plus ISA Server (a complex firewall manager) and SQL Server for LOB database applications.

One of the best features in SBS 2003 was a management console that brought together virtually every administrative tool that an IT person might need, from a variety of places - Microsoft Management Consoles for various network services (DNS, DHCP, Active Directory, Group Policy), Exchange System Manager, IIS, and more, plus specialized screens for easy access to all the housekeeping necessary for users, computers, monitoring, and other tasks.

The new management console in SBS 2008 does not cover as many services as the SBS 2003 console. Instead, SBS 2008 requires far more use of the individual administrative tools built into Windows Server 2008. The SBS Console is, however, deceptively simple - it was the center of most of my setup chores and will cover 95% of the day-to-day network administration.

The redesigned consoles for Server Manager and Exchange Management Console aren't as visually pretty but they've been extensively reorganized to make them easier to use.

Make no mistake, though: although I keep talking about how easy it all is, the reality is that Small Business Server has never been easy enough for a non-technical person to set it up correctly. The IT world is getting more complex and SBS 2008 reflects that - I had to visit some very deep places indeed to accomplish a pretty straightforward migration.

SBS 2008 - MIGRATION NOTES

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:35:00 +0000

I spent the weekend migrating a 20-person law firm to new servers running Microsoft Small Business Server 2008. If I did my job right, the first impression on Monday morning will be that very little has changed - folders with firm documents will open up, Outlook will show mailboxes full of mail, and people will get to work. (Crossing fingers. Knocking on wood.)

In the next few weeks I'll tell you about some of the things that have made a very positive impression so far. Without making a big deal about it, Microsoft has developed a consistent look for many of its screens for administrators, just like the ribbon bars that first appeared in Office 2007 and are now being used for many Microsoft programs. It's a clean, intuitive layout.

The first improvement that will really be noticeable at the law firm will be when the attorneys connect remotely to the new server. Here's a screen that will be familiar to many of you - the first screen that appears when an Small Business Server 2003 user goes to the web site for remote access. It's not bad, except that the only choice that anybody ever clicks on is Remote Web Workplace. All the rest of the words and choices are superfluous.

This is the same screen in Small Business Server 2008.

After logging on, these are the choices in SBS 2003.

There's nothing wrong with that, but again, only two things matter - access to Outlook, and remote access to an office computer. The rest rarely matters to anyone trying to get their work done. Here's the same screen in SBS 2008.

The same design choices carry through to all the screens that I will see as the administrator. There are a lot of new places for me to look for things and a lot of new things to learn, but the design changes will hopefully make it easier to absorb.

ACROBAT TRAINING VIDEOS FOR LAWYERS

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Click here for a list of Adobe Acrobat training videos, focusing on features for lawyers. There are related blog articles for many of the topics, and some videos are still to come - you'll have to check back.

The list covers the basics (including the differences between printing to PDF and the PDF makers in Office programs, which is more interesting than you thought), binders and portfolios, PDF comparison, OCR, security, redaction, Bates numbering, forms, and more.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

noreply@blogger.com (bruceb) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:23:00 +0000

All my best wishes for a peaceful Thanksgiving, surrounded by family, happy computers, and cooperative turkeys.