Sep28

If you missed my chat with Karl Palachuk

You can download the audio of the conference call by clicking:

 

Download Now – MP3 format (9.5MB – 1 hour duration)

 

I enjoyed doing the call and hope that anyone listening got a better understanding about using and selling Sharepoint in their business as well a better understanding of what my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide has to offer.

 

As Karl mentioned in the call I’ll soon be in Seattle at SMB Nation doing a presentation on “Improving your business with Sharepoint”. So if you’re going to be at SMB Nation come up and say hi, I’d love chatting about Sharepoint, SBS or business in general. If you can’t make it SMB Nation then I’ll see what I can do about posting up the presentation for you to download.

 

In the meantime, enjoy the recorded conference call and let me know if you have any comments.

Published: Sep-28-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep25

I’ve been telling people about this for ages

I remember reading a long time ago about this sort of technology but now I’ve actually got some images I can show.

 

image

 

Looks like a pen right?

 

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It’s a pen and a PC all in one!

 

image

 

And even with my fat little fingers I’ll be able to use a mobile device properly. No more keyboards, the device projects a keyboard image onto the surface in front of you, where your fingers cut the beam is the letter it reads. Smart stuff!

 

Truly amazing but given the rate at which things are changing now days it won’t be long before Dell and HP will be selling pens and giving you a free PC eh?

Published: Sep-25-08 | 1 Comment | Link to this post

Sep25

Pimp my infrastructure

Found this over on Sean Daniel’s blog.

 

 

It’s part of a Pimp My Infrastructure promotion being run in the US (only for businesses in US as well). Nice if we could have something like this over here eh?

Published: Sep-25-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep25

A poster for every SBS’ers wall

Here’s a nice download from Microsoft. It’s a two page poster that covers the installation and setup of SBS 2008. It also has links to other information you’ll need to get SBS 2008 operational.

 

SBS 2008 Poster

Published: Sep-25-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep24

Not enabled after an upgrade

So I’ve learned more about upgrading Trend Micro CSM Suite for SMB 3.6 to Worry Free Business Security V5.0. What I’ve learnt is that some of the new features of the product are not enabled or optimal after an in place upgrade.

 

To check after an upgrade, open the Trend Console on the server, login and select the Security Settings. From the list that appears on the left select servers then the Configure button directly above it. From the list that appears on the left select Web Reputation. Your screen should now look like:

 

image 

 

Normally the Enable Web Reputation will be ticked but the Security level will be low. The recommendation is that it should be set to Medium. Remember to hit the Save button to record your changes.

 

If you now select Behaviour Monitoring from the menu on the left your screen will probably look like:

 

image

 

In my experience the Enable Behaviour Monitoring check box is unchecked. To obtain the greatest level of security against malware it is recommended that you enable this. Again, don’t forget to save your changes before you exit.

 

There, all done. Two simple selections to make your network more secure.

Published: Sep-24-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep24

Here’s a pretty cool site

Just came across this really nice offering from Trend Micro. I think the site tries too hard to be all glitzy and Web 2.0 and may be a little slow at time but it is a great resource once you get it running. The entry page is:

 

http://itw.trendmicro.com

 

You’ll see that I’ve clicked on the Trend Tracker to get a load of interesting statistics.

 

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You can navigate by clicking on the little page icons (looks a bit like the aero interface) in the top left of the window. Down the right hand side you’ll find a whole heap of handy links.

 

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When you click on the TrendIQ section you’ll also find on the left a number of videos which aren’t too bad. They maybe something worth showing your customers to give them a better idea of the security threats faced and why Internet security is important.

 

I haven’t seen any advertising of this site by Trend which is strange because I think it is a great resource.

Published: Sep-24-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep21

SMB Conference call

Got some time to kill Thursday morning the 25th of September (Sydney, Australia time)? Well, between 7 and 8 am Sydney time I’ll be chatting with Karl Palachuk from SMB Books about Sharepoint. To register go here:

 

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/895127356

 

and don’t forget to convert the times to your local timezone (in Sydney it’ll be 7 am on Thursday September 25 2008, while in the US it will be Wednesday, September 24, 2008 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM PDT).

 

The topic will be Windows SharePoint. We'll focus on the strategic side of customizing and selling SharePoint. We'll also talk more generically about developing a business around customizing existing products.

 

I hope that you’ll be able to join us.

Published: Sep-21-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep21

Basic user operations in SBS 2008 video

Here’s a new video I’ve created that steps you through some of the basics for working with users in SBS 2008.

 

 

I appreciate that it is very simple but I wanted to give people who haven’t yet seen SBS 2008 a quick overview of how easy it is. Going forward I plan to create more SBS 2008 videos and start to dive deeper into the capabilities of the product. Till then enjoy

Published: Sep-21-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep18

Login errors after Trend upgrade

Recently, I did an upgrade from Trend CSM Suite for SMB 3.6 to Trend Worry Free Business  Security v5.0 on an SBS 2003 R2 Premium system using ISA 2004 as the firewall. The update went fine and no errors were encountered. That was until I received the server report logs the following day.

 

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I got thousands of failed logins and the login process appears to be random junk as you can see above. Turns out that when you do an upgrade to the latest version of Trend, which includes a new feature called Web Reputation, you don’t get prompted for the proxy details for that component.

 

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So previously with SBS 2003 Premium you probably had the proxy settings working under Preferences > Global Settings, problem is, with the new version of Trend you also need proxy settings for the Web Reputation and Behaviour monitoring. Once I had entered the same proxy login settings as I had for the Product updates area above I expected to see no more failed logins.

 

Oh how wrong I was! I now started seeing tens of thousands of failed login attempts instead of just thousands. What the hell? When I called Trend support they pointed the finger at Microsoft. Ahhhh no, the Trend update was the only thing that has been done to the server. Trend’s response? Sorry, we can’t help, have a nice day.

 

So after discovering some other SBS people who had the same issue I worked out (through the shared error experience) that the username and password fields for the Web Reputation proxy setting MUST BE less than 14 characters each! Yes, you read right, less than 14 characters for the login name AND the password. Anything over that and there will proxy login failures. In my case I actually had to create a new server user and remove the login domain\username and change it to simply username. The login for the product update area can remain as domain\username and be longer than 14 character but the details for the Web Reputation can’t.

 

Now really how can this sort of issue happen in this day and age? Clearly it does and it is us poor IT support people who are left to sort the crap out, in my case WITHOUT assistance from Trend. So if you experience the same issue, this solution worked for me and I hope it also works for you. Roll on Trend Worry Free Business Security 5.1.

Published: Sep-18-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Sep18

I think this is way cool

What I really love about Sharepoint is that it is so extensible. You can not only add Sharepoint web parts but you can also include stuff like embedded YouTube videos, Google Calendar and other standard HMTL. In that vein, have a look at what I’ve been able to do with the following page:

 

Supportweb embedded SBS videos

 

When you click on a link (only two at the moment) a window should display over the current Sharepoint page and one of my YouTube videos will start playing inside a box. To return to the Sharepoint page simply click the Close button or just click outside the video box.

 

What I like about this solution is that it is simple to deploy and allows streaming video (or any other web content to be displayed) over the top of an existing Sharepoint page. That way I don’t have to host the videos on my Sharepoint site and I don’t have to use my bandwidth to display them, I let ‘someone’ else do all the heavy lifting. I think that is way cool.

 

I’ll be working to incorporate all the videos I have done up here shortly and completely link it  from the main page. In the meantime drop me a note and let me know what you think, I’d love to get your feedback.

 

Subscribers to my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide will get full details of how they can implement this in their own Sharepoint sites very soon. Don’t you wish you were a subscriber?

Published: Sep-18-08 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

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