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	New additional blog (Added August 2011). Mickyj Mindspill at msmvps.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 10 July 2006 SBS 2003 R2 No sleep tonight. I just received the Release to manufacture version of R2. Who need sleep anyway ?
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 9 July 2006 ACS Youth IT Meeting July 14th The ACS are presenting an industry night for the students of SA. Time to get in there and network. If you are coming to the event, please say hello. The only way to make it in IT is to share your thoughts, experiences and resources. If someone asks me for help at the event, I will oblige. Just make the first step, introduce yourself and start asking questions. (Just don't ask me anything tricky after my presentation!)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 8 July 2006 Valuable links I don't know what happened this week. I collected and used so many useful links on the internet that I had to record them here. This must have been my one week in the year where I get bombarded with items to research. Do you have a rogue machine taking your IP address ? All you have is a mac address ? Find the owner by locating the brand here Do you have an unknown piece of hardware and all you have is the FCC ID? Try FCC search or tacktech (2 x types of searches) or the main FCC website at http://www.fcc.gov Do you have a Combo DVD/RW drive and do not know what formats it supports ? Look here Are you migrating a computer to new hardware and do not know the Outlook email passwords, MailPV from Nirsoft dialup account details, Dialupass2 from Nirsoft Do you need to confirm the product keys in use ?, Produkey from Nirsoft or the Magicaljellybean (please ignore any antivirus messages on the Jellybean tool after you are comfortable this is not a virus)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 3 July 2006 Xcopy hiding folders ? I am trying to backup files as a scheduled task using a batch file. I am not using the /h switch with Xcopy, and it is not copying system files, but the directory it creates is hidden, hiding everything below it (the entire backup). This happens when I Xcopy the root directory of a partition (e.g. e:\), but not a subdirectory (e:\p). Whoa, weird but confirmed I don't know the exact reason it happens, my guess would be that when the system files from the root of the drive are being copied into the root of the backup folder, Windows (for whatever reason) marks the folder as system and hidden. Just something new to be aware of!
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 July 2006 SBS 2000 desktop faxing issues Again, I have people asking me about Desktop faxing. Allot of people dismiss desktop faxing as to hard and tell me it simply does not work. This is not true. Follow my guidelines on my Best practices page and everything should be ok. If it is not, ask Microsoft for a tool called T30LogPa.exe and start looking into the transmission detailed logs. You will usually find the fault is the modem or technology you are using. All my sites use desktop faxing and swear by it !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 July 2006 Get me out of trouble tools Tools I swear by, the tools that are absolute must haves ... Sysinternals and the Microsoft Error code tool (Officially called the "Microsoft Exchange Server Error Code Look-up tool"). Use these wisely and you will find you have everything you need to do your job. NEW! Microsoft has moved Sysinternals to Here
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 28 June 2006 SBS 2003 with Server 2003 R2 as a DC If you plan to do this, you will need to run both forestprep and domain prep on the SBS machine using the Microsoft Windows 2003 R2 Disc 2 (Drive :\CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP\adprep.exe /forestprep) and then join it as a ADC. Do not use other domain prep tools.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 27 June 2006 Peer to Peer (P2P) Rubbish ! Any peer-to-peer file swapping program, such as Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Blubster, E-Mule, Gnucleus, Grokster, Imesh, KaZaa, KaZaa Lite, Limewire, Morpheus, Shareaza, WinMX and Xolox is dangerous. It can degrade system performance, they are usually poorly written and consume vast amounts of storage. They May create security issues as outsiders are granted access to internal files. Often bundled with Adware or Spyware. You can innocently share music files or become a virus writers test ground (or be hacked). So please don't let your kids install these. It is not worth the repair bill just to get those hard to find music files. It is much safer to use iTunes. There is a reason why these programs are free. In the end, these guys always get their money !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 26 June 2006 Mythbusters Episode 45: Shredded Plane Just a quick comment on this episode, the tail of the shredded plane has the University of SA insignia. I was actually at the university when this happened at the pilot training fields at the Parafield airport. The images are very real and what occurred was also very real. This accident happened at the South Australian pilot training grounds. Strange that they needed to prove that this could happen, the evidence was there in a photo.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 25 June 2006 USB unplug tools If you are using Hard drive (USB) backups here is a utility to use to power down devices: Usb.zip from SBSusers.net If this does not power down the device try: 0316-208.zip (refer more here http://www.jsifaq.com/SUBQ/tip8400/rh8496.htm)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 24 June 2006 Outlook Express error 0x800C012E If you cannot send email with Outlook Express 6 and get the following error" An unknown error has occurred. Protocol SMTP, Port 25, Secure (SSL): No, Error Number 0x800C012E" The error code means Outlook Express *.dbx mail files are set to read only. Click Start, point to Find, then click on Files or Folders, In the Named box, type "*.dbx", in the Look In, C drive, then Find Now / Right click each *.dbx file, click Properties & clear the Read Only check box. Click Apply, then Close. Note the *.dbx files should only have Archive checked. You can also use the manage section of the Outlook Express tools to locate the file sore.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 23 June 2006 Install Windows 2000 Support Tools To install the Windows 2000 Support Tools: 1. Start Windows 2000. Note that you must log on as a member of the administrator group to install these tools. 2. Insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive. 3. Click Browse this CD, and then open the Support\Tools folder.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 22 June 2006 Ways to make an Exchange calendar resource If you have resources, such as conference rooms, cars, projectors and devices that you want users to be able to book as they invite people to meetings, you can use several possible methods: Maintain the resource as an Exchange Server mailbox and use a server-based script or event sink to accept bookings, or set it up as a resource so that Outlook 2000 and later can book it directly use a delegate to handle meeting requests automatically or manually, or allow at least some users to add and edit items in the resource's calendar directly Maintain the resource as an Exchange Server public folder holding appointment items More information on this is available at Slipstick.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 21 June 2006 TCP/IP failure I came across a server that for whatever reason, had been running Vet antivirus. CA have brought out a new upgrade program and the Vet needed to be removed. Someone else did this but, after a reboot, no services started. The RPC failed to run, you could not stop or start services, Kerberos, TCP/IP, server service and the Active Directory all failed to start. The DNS and Wins snap-ons would not work and no one could logon. Obviously from the sea of red in the Event log, something was very wrong. The only clue we had was the iSafe Vet tool service was still listed in services but the C:\vet folder was not present. Obviously Vet had not uninstalled correctly. The strangest part of all this is the results for a "Ping" command at the prompt. This simply beeped at you and placed binary non-printable chars on the screen. It was obvious, TCP/IP was dead. We need to reinstall this. How do you do this for a Windows 2003 SBS server ? Everything needs TCP/IP. Do we uninstall and reboot ? Is this going to be a huge regedit and manual reinstallation ? NO! Firstly, a symptom of the fault: C:\>ping 192.168.16.1 Pinging Où?: with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.16.1: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=236 Reply from 192.168.16.1: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=236 Reply from 192.168.16.1: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=236 Reply from 192.168.16.1: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=236 Ping statistics for Où?: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 73ms, Maximum = 74ms, Average = 73ms Yes, we found precedence for this, take a look at Microsoft article 325356 and 317518 From these articles run "netsh int ip reset my.log" "netsh winsock reset" After a reboot I had to uninstall/reinstall DNS and Wins. Amazingly everything worked after a reboot and the sea of red was now blue. All fixed ? Nope. Everything worked except Exchange outbound email queues were building up. Obviously when Exchange is installed and especially in SBS, TCP/IP settings are altered. We just reset the Winsock to defaults. Interestingly enough, not all domains were halted. The exchange queues error log simply said "the remote server reset the connection". The advanced logging we could do, showed that the "bye" signal and the end of the data signal in the SMTP session was never sent or terminated. We could email users at hotmail.com but not other domains. We re-ran the CEICW. Refer 825763, we looked into DNS, refer 832223 and found the following in the event log Event Type: Information Event Source: DNS Event Category: None Event ID: 113 Date: 14/06/2006 Time: 15:14:40 User: N/A Computer: Server Description: The DNS server could not signal the service "NAT". The error was 1168. There may be interoperability problems between the DNS service and this service. We finally discovered, it was an MTU issue. We had to reduce the MTU to 576 for email to flow. Refer 314053 From this we edited Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services \Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\ID for Adapter Value Type: REG_DWORD Number (Name MTU) Valid Range: 68 - the MTU of the underlying network Default: 0xFFFFFFFF We found the right adaptor by comparing the IP address stored in the registry. Finally, a solution. It all now works. It is just a matter of finding the best balance for the MTU and network access.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 19 June 2006 SBS Users group June Hello readers, Yes, the June meeting was fun. I have had allot of feedback about the VBS scripts I am using to monitor NT4 and Windows 2000 servers. I will continue to find tune them and post them on the site once I am happy with them. In the mean time, to run vbs files on NT4 you need: WMI for Windows NT4 Internet Explorer version 5 Windows Script 5.6
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 10 June 2006 Vista Beta 2 availability it's waiting for you here: www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx Make sure you've got a DVD burner plus plenty of bandwidth & download allowance.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 9 June 2006 Roaming Profile Folder Permissions I have been asked numerous times how to fix a profile once the administrator has taken ownership of it. Here are the correct settings. NTFS Permissions for Each User's Roaming Profile Folder Users name - Full Control, Owner Of Folder Local System- Full Control Administrators- No Permissions Everyone- No Permissions For further information look at this web link
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 8 June 2006 Internal DDOS with Trend Micros Interscan I have a client with two Interscan servers. An NT4 upstream Interscan, (which ran out of HDD space) which sent alerts every few seconds to the downstream IMSS, causing services to hang, ISA to fail, Exchange failed to start, RPC failed and more. There were 6,000 emails outbound in exchange, 3,000 in IMSS. The issue was the SMTP and IMSS services could not start as there was simply to much inbound email. All this was caused by a lack of hard drive space on the first server (Trend pattern files filled the drive)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 7 June 2006 Event ID: 7000 Service Control Manager I have a client who rebooted their server. On reboot, Exchange, ISA and SQL services failed to start. The services.msc file was not updating with information about the status of services and the dreaded Event ID: 7000 Service Control Manager The service failed to start due to the following error: was occurring. Service: "store.exe", error "Incorrect function. is not a valid Win32 application." We found the fault in this case. It was a poorly written batch file that created a file in the wrong place. This occurred as a file called "Program" is located on the root of C: (or D: if you have apps on D:) drive. This is interfering with "C:\Program Files" directory and some applications get "confused" and fail to start. In this case, I could have renamed Program to Program2 or delete the file and then I was able to start the services mentioned above. Quicken is also known to cause this file to be created. Also on this day we were all notified that Microsoft Releases SBS 2003 R2 To Manufacturing CRN - Manhasset,NY,USA The Small Business Server (SBS) upgrade will be officially launched at Microsoft’s annual partner summit in July.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others (1 Reply) - Message from Clark 6 June 2006 Windows XP Explorer refresh issue If anyone has any idea, please email me. I have a clients site with mostly Windows XP Pro and a very strange issue. Windows explorer and some programs on the workstations are constantly refreshing. This causes a blinking sensation that drives the user of the system, insane. Obvious issues (Monitor refresh, video drivers, number of colours for the video card and service packs) do not appear to be the cause. I have tried SP2, reversed back to SP1/ I have tried hot fixes and more. One look at Google Groups tells me I am not the only one with issues. Some items I have looked at include The groups linked above Microsoft KB article 816375 "Prevent Automatic Folder and Icon Refresh" (Line 157) This system is unbearable for the user. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. The client is considering Windows 98.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 5 June 2006 Google.. our new life News on the grapevine is that Google just announced an online spreadsheet. This has been done before, look at iRows Also google has bought a web processor. I wonder when our problem for the day will be installing service pack 2 for Google office on a Googled version of windows?
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 4 June 2006 SBS servers need some form of UPS. Do you need to size up a UPS for your server ? Try the APC UPS sizer at the following link www.apc.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 3 June 2006 NON IT Topic: 000 .... The emergency hotline with soothing hold music. I was standing in the aftermath of an accident, calling for Police, Ambulance and Fire services whilst being on hold for 10 minutes. Around me there are two main concerns. One is the smoking upside down wreck that has rolled 30 meters from impact from a mini Cooper-s that was stationary at impact. Both cars are a write off and I was just behind the Mini. The driver of the unrecognizable wreck was doing 100 kms/hr in a 60 km zone. I can not believe that Morse code or smoke signals would have been quicker in raising the alarm.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 June 2006 Recycle bin for SharePoint My Adelaide May User group presentation on SharePoint was missing one item. Yes, you can setup a recycle bin for SharePoint. It ids a third party app located at these links seanda.blogspot.com www.gotdotnet.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 June 2006 Do you want to manually download the Spybot updates ? Try the following links spybotsd_includes.exe spybotsd_advcheck.exe spybotsd_mainapp.exe spybotsd_tools.exe Save these to a disk to manually update machines that do not have reliable or fast internet access
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 31 may 2006 NON IT Topic:Missing you all ! A big shout out to Jeff, my publishing contact at O'Rielly's, NY. Sorry I can not join you in Boston this year for Tech Ed. Another shout out to Kevin whom I wanted to catch up with at the SBS MVP get together in Las Colinas, Dallas, Texas. Also, to my Australian friends going to Tech Ed, Enjoy and be merry. Sorry to miss you all at these events. My Daughter is now my number 1 priority (for now). Eat, Drink be merry and learn heaps, marvel at the new technology and come back to tell me all about it !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 30 may 2006 NON IT Topic:Volunteers needed Every year world wide scouts run an event called "Jota". This is the Jamboree on the air and now includes Jamboree on the internet. We have a small team of volunteers helping with Admin, computers, radios and more. If you have your weekends free in October 06, if you are in Adelaide and can help, please let me know. We are after people to assist and join the team. We need your ideas and skills. Everyone is a volunteer and becomes part of a larger team. The event and your experience at the event will more than reward you. Email me !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 29 may 2006 Forgotten your XP desktop Administrator password ? Do you really need to retrieve your workstation password ? There are lots of utils to reset the password but this one is slightly unique. Offering to send you back the password details quickly with a premium price. Check it out at : www.loginrecovery.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 28 May 2006 UPS - Why ? Take a look at www.powershield.com.au/whyups.html Need I say more ? Building a SBS server, ... Think about your power protection. Using an SBS box ? ... think about your power protection. A workstation ? .. Think about your power protection !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 26 May 2006 Do you like cool web based tools ? Those who know me, or have crawled my site, know I love tools. Here are some to help with DNS and other items. www.demon.net/external www.dnsstuff.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 25 May 2006 NON IT Topic:Hello ? Sarah (my 9 month old daughter) spoke her third word today. What a hard word to say. "hello". She has not stopped saying it since. Strange how such a hard word came so easy to such a young mind. Maybe there is a lessen there for us all ?
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 24 May 2006 Microsoft Survey Time The Small Business Server Product Team would like to hear from the SBS User Community. This direct anonymous survey of the SBS User Community is brought to you by the SBS Product Team. You are invited to participate in the Windows Small Business Server Community program on the Microsoft Connect Web site at http://connect.microsoft.com. This Site has been set up to directly gather feedback anonymously from the SBS User Community. Your role in the SBS Community is important to us. Microsoft Connect enables you to connect with Microsoft developers, product managers, and other development team members to help us make our products the best they can be. To accept this invitation and become a member of this program, please follow these steps: 1) Use your Internet connection to visit our Web site at http://connect.microsoft.com. 2) Click on "Invitations" on the left-side menu. 3) You will need to sign in using a valid Passport and before you can continue to the "Invitations" page. 4) Enter your Invitation ID in the blank. Your invitation ID is: COMM-GKXK-WJKV 5) Click "Go." 6) If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you may be required to register before continuing with the invitation process. This a light registration and we will not use any information that you provide to contact you later unless you tell us otherwise. Now, please follow the steps shown to you by that program to become an active participant. Once you complete the steps, you will be automatically approved. From that point forward you should be able to log into this site using your passport account and take any surveys that are available to you. Here is the link to the survey: SBS Community Survey. You will find this link on the main page of the http://connect.microsoft.com site under Small Business Server Community Site. Feel free to pass this along to other contacts you have as well.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 22 May 2006 Thanks out to the community Tonight's SharePoint presentation was very well received. Thank you to all of those who attended. I hope you all enjoyed the presentation as much as I enjoyed giving it. Thanks to Kel, Brian, David, John and the many others who chipped in and asked the questions and supplied answers.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 21 May 2006 SBS Users group (Adelaide) Yes, come and chat yet again at the HP building on Frome Road. See you there at 6:30 with Pizza waiting. We will again cover SharePoint and some of the numerous items I have been asked. See you there !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 20 May 2006 What a cool idea ! 300 Va UPS in your 5.25" drive bay, Ultra Cool ! Check these out at www.powershield.com.au !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 18 May 2006 Forgotten Cisco client Password Ever forgotten your password ? Scary though it may be, a program called Cain and Abel will get it back from the Hex number in the PRF file. Great little tool for clients who forget their new passwords. Evil in the hands of the wrong person.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 8 May 2006 RPC over HTTPS After covering this in two previous posts (SelfSSL and RPC), I have been asked to provide the links to the documents I used so here they are. Configuring ISA Server 2000 to Support Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP - Part 1: Preparing the Infrastructure and Configuring the Front-End Exchange Server Configuring ISA Server 2000 to Support Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP - Part 2: Forcing SSL on the RPC Directories and Configuring IPSec Security on the Front-end and Back-End Exchange Servers Configuring ISA Server 2000 to Support Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP - Part 3: Binding the Web Site Certificate and Creating the RPC over HTTP Publishing Rule Configuring ISA Server 2000 to Support Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP - Part 4: Reviewing and Customizing the Web Publishing Rule While I am at it, here are a few others I reviewed to complete the task. Web Services Security - I Creating A Certificate For Outlook Web Access 2003 Using SelfSSL How to troubleshoot connectivity issues that are caused by RPC client protocol registry entries RPC over HTTP/Outlook 2003 problem Configure RPC over HTTPS - Exchange Server How to configure RPC over HTTP on a single server in Exchange Server 2003 Configure RPC over HTTPS - Outlook 2003 and ISA 2004 Configuring the Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP Client
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 5 May 2006 Microsoft For Partners It was great to see those who made it to the conference. Lots of wonderful information on Vista and Office 12 (2007). We had lots of informal chats about SBS in the foyer and continued on in the break. While we are talking about it, you have likely seen lots of info on Vista. Lets summarize some of this for you. Vista Yes, a Pentium 4 with at least 512 MB ram and a dedicated video card with DirectX 9 support and 64 MB ram is recommended. The video card is especially important as the GPU and onboard Video ram will now be doing the work and not offloading to the CPU. I would go with 256 MB ram of video ram for a good experience and 1 Gb local memory. PCI-e will be a great benefit and if you have onboard memory shared with the video, beef the machine to a minimum 1 Gb. The desktop engine, Aero, looks cool. The Search facility that is OS based and used in Office equally looks great. Adding Volume Shadow copy features to home workstations is super cool. The Windows sidebar and the funky add-on's are breathtaking. The new start menu tells you this is going to be a whole new experience. The Desktop is now designed for Wide screen display panels and gives lots of space for the user. The New Media player looks closer to other OS infrastructure and the new Alt-Tab process showing live windows and in 3D took my breath away. The Administrator privileges elevation process looks straight forward and in the end, a real computer and time saver. IPV6 is ready to roll, the firewall can now block incoming and outgoing packets and port requests. Windows Defender is beautifully built in (and now only scans system changes, not the entire drive) and the new method of elevating low priority system tasks when the system is idle (for maintenance etc) is a great idea. The systems rating tool is going to make upgrades easier to understand, the prefetch program loading is going to save lots of time and you can now extend prefetch with USB 2 plug in media and removable storage. Windows Update now appears as a local Application (This takes some of the internet mystery away a little) and the new IE7 is absolutely fantastic. The anti phising tools, the program isolation from your system and new RSS feed integration with searching tools is going to make this browser full featured and easy to use. The new reset all defaults in IE means reset all default settings (unlike previous versions). Spyware, be ware. I am looking forward to all this in the new year of 2007. I can hardly wait for this late Christmas present. BTW, there are going to be several versions of VISTA. (I will be queuing for the Ultimate version with MCE and tablet etc all built in). Office 2007 Equally stunning is Office 12 (2007). Combined with Exchange and using the new VOIP SIP standards, this tool is set to take over your desktop. The search is the same OS built search and is fast. The Research panes and encyclopedias contained within have been there a while but now you know about them. The Ghosted menu's are obviously pushing the video card hard and the new menu ribbons look interesting. I am unsure how macros and custom buttons fit into this but I am sure the old VBA is still there under the cover. The new Real-time font and formatting previews are very exciting. Microsoft Excel looks and feels like it has been rejuvenated. With it's temperature style Excel cells and score carding, this software can do only what VBA gurus could do in the past (and with two mouse clicks). Zooming in and out has been greatly simplified and the system looks much smarter in general. Microsoft PowerPoint, the unsung hero, has suddenly become extremely cost effective and useful. The smart art will rearrange your points into a much nicer view and help you make that presentation sing and dance in record time. Microsoft Outlook can now preview embedded Office attachments (no loading office programs or running macros), it is better at categorizing data and items, tasks follow you in your calendar until you dismiss them, new calendar tools make viewing and comparing two calendars simple and much much more. At the heart of all this is the Microsoft open XML standard. Documents now have extensions such as Docx, PPTx, Xlsx. The open standard allows other productivity suite software to make tools to easily edit these files. Every OS and every software application should see the same document formatted the same way. This is allot like the PDF file which is a transportable file, viewable under any operating system with a PDF reader. The docx etc files are actually Zip archive files. You can rename the file to ".zip" open the file and peer into the XLSX or DOCX files. The data, styles and much more are all stored as individual files. This means you can take a style and use it in another document. You can also manually edit files and recover from any data loss. Front page is now called SharePoint Designer 2007. This brings me to SharePoint 2007. No point in asking if it will upgrade from the current WSS 2 (Unknown) however there are some exciting things on the way. SharePoint is designed to work with Office. You can control complete work flows and push items into word etc. You can have all your file templates in SharePoint and can even install Excel server and run Excel on a browser for those without Excel. You can expose logic (E.g. from Excel) as a web form or web part. You can use info path to create the forms and retrieve data from databases. You can also setup a SharePoint site and edit PPT files and merge different items together to form a final presentation. You can allow live updates to your presentations as master files are updated. The new search allows you to view searches much like google. Relevant links to sites down the side and the core data in the centre. You can have a people registry in the mysites and even reach into backend systems for queries (like SQL, Oracle, basically anything with an ODBC connector). You can use the business data connector to collect data and even link to items like Virtual earth to do searches. Again, lets wait for Jan 2007. Another late Christmas present. Finally, some of the new items in Exchange 12. There will be support for Voice mail, a calendar concierge and SharePoint integration. We will get file system access through OWA (to file links etc), you will be able to read emails, calendars etc all with voice recognition over the phone. The Antispam features have been immensely increased, you can add server side email disclaimers, advanced attachment filtering, sender reputation services, email archiving and high encryption. Exchange will have new role based installs and Exchange 2007 will only be available for 64 bit systems. (this reduces I/O by 70%, can handle 4 x more users, reduces disk space required by 1/4 and allows larger inboxes). There will be OWA web parts, new command line scripts, web service API's and managed live meetings. Again, Look for this Jan 2007.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 4 May 2006 Install SharePoint Services (WSS) on SQL 2005 on Windows server standard This is not easy. It does not always work first time. Install Windows SharePoint Services with SP2 Download the Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide and refer to the section called "migration from wmsde to SQL server 2005" When/if things go wrong refer to : How to remove and how to install the Windows Small Business Server 2003 SharePoint Services companyweb Web site Moving Windows SharePoint Services Databases
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 3 May 2006 Spyware hidden in the Internet temporary files ? Ever cleared your internet cache and the Spyware remains hidden in the Temporary Internet Files ? Want to delete the painful rubbish ? If you open the Temporary Internet Files you get a simple cache view and the real folders and files are hidden. You can empty files manually from this view and yet, some files remain. If you want to delete these files easily (Other than manually using the command prompt, manually changing into the right folders, running dir/a to find the files and folders and then attrib -h to show the files) Try the following at the command prompt. It will create a T:\ drive (or whatever letter you choose) where you can look into the temp files under my computer, select and delete the rubbish. subst t: c:\"Documents and Settings"\%username%\"Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files"
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 May 2006 The day a small City grew up. Today I am on Pirie St in the city. I am witness to the destruction caused by a 3am explosion. I hear a man was killed and three business were destroyed. Looking at the destruction it reminds me of the Bali bombings. Today SA has lost it's innocence. I can not believe the carnage and the damage to building quite some distance from the main explosion. The power and immense heat of this explosion evident everywhere. Maybe it is time to head back to the country life :)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 May 2006 ConnectingUP 06 Today I presented as an MVP at the ConnectingUP 06 Conference in Adelaide. I can not believe how starved for information people are. I went through the new Not for profit tools available from Microsoft Listed here. I also discussed how my projects have worked and why they were successful. Thanks to all who attended.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 27 April 2006 What a birthday present ! My Birthday 27 April (also happens to be the 26th in Russia and the anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor disaster) is now know as the day my 8 month old daughter produced 2 teeth. Fatherhood is amazing and just when you get used to something, children do something new to make you smile. I would not miss this for the world.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 6 April 2006 Seagate, Maxtor, the world ? Yes, it appears Seagate has purchased Maxtor. Wonder what will happen to the one touch range. Personally, I like Seagate. The only item they made I hated was the Travan backup unit. Lets see how they come out with the Maxtor technologies branded Seagate. I guess eventually all major players will consolidate. Read more at www.seagatemaxtor.com
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 5 April 2006 Your new PC .. Is it a mac ? Ever wanted to run Windows XP on a Mac ? Take a look at the following links All about the new Mac, Windows features How to install XP on a mac (44 mb)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 April 2006 1900 shots on one charge I can not believe it, My Canon 30D SLR Digital camera takes 1900 shots on one battery charge. This is incredible when compared to consumer branded Digital Cameras. I am very happy with this Camera and firmly believe the Canon product to meld together the best technologies. The Lenses are superb, the EX flash series are fantastic and the features obtainable from the menu system are far superior to any other SLR or non SLR cameras. Well done Canon.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 April 2006 Download the full IE6 First download the file Ie6setup.exe Now use the following command to download the full distribution set "C:\Downloads\ie6setup.exe" /c:"ie6wzd.exe /d /s:""#E"
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 31 March 2006 No Https ? After uninstalling some Spyware and other annoying pests, I found I could no longer surf HTTPS websites. First thing to do was into Internet explorers advanced settings and check that the SSL1, 2 and 3 were enabled. I then tried winsockfix and finally re registered some DLL files. All fixed. If this happens to you try the following regsvr32 softpub.dll regsvr32 wintrust.dll regsvr32 initpki.dll regsvr32 dssenh.dll regsvr32 rsaenh.dll regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll regsvr32 sccbase.dll regsvr32 slbcsp.dll regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll You can also find more information here and here !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 30 March 2006 Task bar vanished ? I have a client with no taskbar, start menu or notification tray. This sort of makes his PC useless. If this happens to you, try TaskbarRepairToolPlus! Or ToolbarRepair. Get these and more from Kelly's Korner or discussion boards
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 26 March 2006 Hard Drives know, they just know. Would you believe it, 3 days out of a 3 year warranty my Hitachi drive in my Vosonic VP2060 media unit has failed. They are psychic ! They know how to inflict pain.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 25 March 2006 Cable found with metal detector Ever needed to locate a cable ? Do you have a metal detector ? I have a cheapy from Ebay and 300m square of asphalt to locate a cable under. The owner of the property bored a hole 600 mm down, ran a cable and draw string and then promptly forgot where it was and put asphalt over the top. It took us 45 minutes but we found the cable run :)
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 24 March 2006 Bad Run commands Ever had something run that insists on running on bootup and you could not locate it ? Looked in the Win.ini file (for a line starting load=), looked in the Autoexec.bat or Autoexec.nt ? Looked in the start-up program group on eth start menu ? Looked in the registry at the current user and system run keys ? HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Still can not find it ? Have you looked at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\explorer\run
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 23 March 2006 Worried about a tsunami ? For those of you who do not know the metro (ish) coastline of SA, my parents are putting a transportable home on a large piece of land in a gulf protected by two headlands and Kangaroo island. Whilst I hear the local sailing club is fearing global warming as the tide is dropping and exposing more and more reefs, my parents are having council approval issues. They need to raise the height of the house to cater for Tsunami's. It almost requires to be above the roof of their neighbor. One would suggest, a wave this height in such a protected area would mean Adelaide would be in real trouble. What is the council thinking ? Surely a house this high is not going to stand long after a Tsunami and surely this is a ridiculous stipulation. This must be a sign of the times. I guess we are in 2006.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 22 March 2006 Enter the realm of the spyfalcon Since 16th February, we have had a new Trojan. This slippery varmint does not show up as a process, even with the tools from Sysinternals. I guess this is the first of the rootkit stealth Trojans. After scanning the registry, using Spyware and antivirus tools, we were no further and the spyfalcon tool was going along it's destructive way. Finally I have found a tool to handle it. Such a merry dance of hide and seek that this lead me on that I have added this new tool to the tools section of the web page. You just might need this. NEW! Microsoft has moved Sysinternals to Here
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 18 March 2006 Aggghhh 0x80004005 I love Exchange 2003 and SBS 2003. I love Active sync via GPRS. I hate PDA's with the error 0x80004005. After much research I realized a simple truth. Backup your PDA to a flash memory card, hardware reset the PDS to factory default, resetup, install the server certificate and then configure the PDS for GPRS synchronization all will be fine. Don't mess with the 0x80004005 error. Flatten your PDA !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 17 March 2006 The roam of death A client calls to say they can not logon .The screen sits there applying policy and settings. 2 hours later, the client gives up and calls for help. Turns out the client took his laptop home, let his kids rip DVD disks to the desktop and then he brought the laptop to work and roamed a 26 Gb profile ! Watch out for this !!!
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 15 March 2006 When is a HP Netserver not a server? When it will not run with a mouse. We have found out through much research that the HP Netserver range have a video conflict with the mouse driver Under Windows 2000. If you disable the video card, run in VGA mode all will be fine. If you boot in safe mode or take the mouse away, all will be fine. I really wish there was a better fix than running in Std VGA mode !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 14 March 2006 Where for art thou file extension ? Nice little look up took at http://filext.com/
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 13 March 2006 My real pen name is ..... I have received my first check for my involvement with the production of a book ! Finally, after years of writing articles, websites and editing books for free, I have moved up to being paid ! This adds a legitimacy to that which I have struggled with for years. Literacy !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 11 March 2006 ISA 2004 server downed ! If your server is underpowered, over busy or just has an MSDE issue, if ISA tries to query the MSDE and does not get a timely response, it shuts down all interfaces including local host ! This is a big gotcha for all out there who need their servers to be actually serving (I.E us all). If this happens and you get an event ID 14147 , turn ISA into a flat file logging system. Here's an article about the firewall service and ISA 2004 lockdown mode: msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/isas... And here's another about ISA entering lockdown mode because of logging failures: www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/isa/2004/plan/disableloc...
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 10 March 2006 Can not FTP anything ? ISA 2004 FTP service is marked read-only by default. Refer Here and here
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 March 2006 Commonwealth games bound ! I will soon be off to the Dress rehearsal of the Commonwealth games opening. I understand the seats are very good and the night should be great ! Thanks Microsoft.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 March 2006 Sarah says dada at 6 Months old ! What a buzz. My little daughter knows who her Dad is !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 28 February 2006 Commonwealth Games Time Zone Transition - Updates Available The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in March 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. The governments of five of the eastern states (Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania) have changed the Daylight Savings Transition date, moving it forward one (1) week from the last Sunday in March to the first Sunday of April 2006. This change may affect some of Microsoft's software including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office. Microsoft has developed a solution to account for these changes. For more information, including software updates. please visit this link for the update update My install "cheat sheet" Download from http://www.microsoft.com/australia/timezone/2005.aspx for windows XP Extract the files into \\servername\netlogon\timezone folder on the local server Create a batch file called \\servername\netlogon\timezone.bat run the following commands in the batch file %logonserver%\netlogon\timezone\setgames2k6-nti %logonserver%\netlogon\timezone\gettz.exe %logonserver%\netlogon\timezone\settz /i 2147483898 this will update whatever machine this batch file is run from I test the server (Does not need a reboot etc) Then run this batch file on all workstations at your site or include in all logon scripts in use. The running user needs to be a local admin of their PC for this to work.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 27 February 2006 Veritas Backup ... Or not to backup ? Companies using Symantec's Veritas Backup Exec are facing a dilemma after Symantec warned of security flaws in the software, but pulled some of the patches due to quality issues. Symantec warned that flaws in the Backup Exec Remote Agent could allow attackers to cause memory access violations or use up all system resources, causing the system to crash and lose backup capability. Could this mean we will soon have Veritas Internet and security suite ?
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 26 February 2006 Office 12 Public folders are here to stay (for now). Take a look at This link
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 25 February 2006 Setup RPC on Exchange STD (Non SBS) Whilst it is not as hard as ISAserver.org would have you believe, setting up RPC over HTTPS for Outlook on Exchange STD server is not easy. You need to create a self signed certificate using SelfSSL.exe (IIS Resource Kit) Apply the certificate to the IIS listeners for the RPC folder, set the permissions and test. I just wanted to blog that I have done it and it works ! If you need help and the links to the material I used, email me.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 24 February 2006 Snipers on eBay should be shot Ever bided for anything on Ebay ? The price stays low for the first few days. It might creep up for the last day and go a little wild in the last few seconds. This is because the bidders are not human. They are software bidding tools called snipers. You can not beat a sniper. Even if you download your own Sniper, chances are you will not get the item. I hate Snipers. I have lost to them several times and I think they should be outlawed.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 23 February 2006 Using Selfssl To create a self Signed security certificate, download the IIS resource kit. Run a tool called Selfssl. Make sure all certificates you create use the DNS name of your external connector. Download from Microsoft here Run the following command line: selfssl.exe /n:CN=mail.domainname.com.au /k:1024 /v:365 /s:1 /p:443 This creates a 365 day certificate for mail.domainname.com.au of key size 1024 and bound to the IIS virtual site 1.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 20 February 2006 Aficio FTP server ? We just found a poorly performing network. We found that ISA was not being used (it was purchased) and one NIC on the server was disabled. This means the network all goes direct to the broadband for internet. We rearranged things and put ISA , 2nd NIC back how it should be and then found the speed problem. Something was trying to FTP out to the internet. We then found an Afico copier, running win98 in the firmware with FTP running wild. Just goes to show, you can control everything you know about and can only handle the rest when you come across it !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 18 February 2006 Furnace blowback My job takes me everywhere, into all kinds of business and environments. The most impressive thing I have seen, was today. A furnace blowback. I saw the tones of metal pouring into the casting when suddenly it exploded. Hot metal flying everywhere. It was a rain of orange and puddles that were solidifying. I so wish I had my camera with me. If you want to see what a blow back looks like, look here.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 17 February 2006 Trend Micro RBL+ Service I am trying out the Trend Micro RBL+ Service. This is a method of blocking incoming email from spammers from known compromised IP addresses. I will post back how this goes ! (This is also called the Network Reputation Services).
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 16 February 2006 Copyworld Roadshow Wow, thanks for the support. A large number of my readers turned up. The Roadshow was great. We gave away some VPN ATA devices, a TV and cameras etc. We had hundreds come to talk to us about IT and Small Business Server. Thanks to all of you who made the show a success.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 12 February 2006 Alcatel training Yes, I am now officially an Alcatel OmniPCX office installer. These boxes are amazing. The can be file servers, fax servers, VPN concentrators, Proxies and much more (As well as being PABX's). These units from France are exceptional !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 11 February 2006 Beauty in the eye of the ... I think I should start a what the ? Category. I guess if you are into expensive men's grooming, wanted to buy more than a haircut, you would want some wireless hardware. Take a look at this link to make sense of my comment ! http://www.beautysalon.com.au/product-detail/161/ce/B0002ZH71S
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 10 February 2006 Well Done Microsoft Free 70-282 (Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business) certification exam for Small Business Specialist candidates. This offer was limited to the first 1,000 Microsoft Partner candidates through Microsoft. Well done Microsoft. This is how you invest in your future !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 9 February 2006 Mac OS X Worm Reported So I have a PC and I feel the pressure from Mac users. I feel their glances and even hide when they mention vulnerabilities and say that Microsoft designed viruses ... No more ! Proof that the more popular an OS becomes, the more it gets hacked and the more viruses are made to take it down. Welcome to our world Apple Check it out here! and here !
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 8 February 2006 Damn the Beige box, I want a Mac So you have seen the latest Intel Ad ? Wonder what all the fuss is about ? Feel like you have been hard done by ? This is the Crappiest Ad I have seen. It outwardly has a reasonable message whilst trashing my deep feelings for the career I have had for the last 20 years. Well done Apple, I won't be buying one (You elitist bunch of non conforming, class creating, IBM hating creeps). Having said that, I have allot of Apple using friends. They are all cool. It is just the Ad and the elitism it portrays.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 7 February 2006 A website to show to your geekiest friends Take a look at this one. Turn off IE's pop-up blocker and enjoy. It is worth the look.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 6 February 2006 Hooray ! Some of the documents I worked on have been released to the General public 1. Running Multiple Servers in a Windows Small Business Server Environment. (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=60081) This document takes a detailed look at running multiple servers in a Windows SBS environment. It discusses customer environments, relevant Microsoft technologies, and integration scenarios to help you plan your network deployments. 2. Step-by-Step Guide to Adding and Managing Additional Servers in a Windows Small Business Server Network. (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62145) These step-by-step instructions help partners add and manage multiple servers in a Windows SBS environment. It guides them through the processes of configuring the Windows SBS server, configuring the server for the environment, connecting the server to the domain, and managing the new server using the Windows SBS management console.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 5 February 2006 Little known time saver Iisreset Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) since version 5.0, have a command-line utility, Iisreset.exe, which can be used to restart IIS or schedule restarting your computer. This is a godsend since the introduction of Spam filters and web based admin tools. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/202013/EN-US/
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 4 February 2006 Overlapping IP addresses So many times I have had other people talk to me about routing issues. They have created a massive mess for them selves simply because they placed IP addresses internally and externally on a two network card server, in the same range. Please keep them apart. This is what a router does and how it works. It needs two network ranges and it communicated between. This is also what allows NAT and firewalling/packet filtering needs this to function. Pick a standard and stick with it. You will not regret it. Use 10.0.0.x externally and 192.168.0.x internally or something similar. It also helps when you are trying to fault find. If you do go for similar ranges, be careful with netmasks. No good having two Networks cards in a similar range and being a router if the netmask allows overlap.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 3 February 2006 SBS ports Yes, I am still being asked for the list of valid SBS ports and IP ranges. For information look at : www.mickyj.com/sbs.htm The Common SBS ports are 25, 80, 443, 444, 1723, 4125 and 3389 to SBS Server The Private IP ranges are Class A - Any addresses in 10.x.x.x Class B - Addresses in the range of 172.16.x.x-172.31.x.x Class C - Addresses in the range of 192.168.0.x-192.168.255.x
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 2 February 2006 Rotary presentation What a day ! I presented about Microsoft, the Community and charity work. What a reception ! The presentation started painfully with projector issues and to much light in the room. It started rocky but ended up rocking. Thanks to all my MVP mates for help preparing for this one.
	Send feedback about this particular blog Read Feedback from others 1 February 2006 A UPS a day, keeps the IT technician away! You will never believe the amazing thing that happened today. I need to set the scene. I have a difficult client who is happy to survive on dialup modems (one per pc) to get internet. (huge phone bills and internet bills) No network, all individual inkjet printers onto each PC and Windows 95 with office 97. The client sees no reason to upgrade or add to the hardware in anyway. He does not want IT advice and all advice I handed out was as a friend. I have never earnt a cent from the client so they are more of a prospect if anything. I have spent 6 months pointing out how I can help him and he finally bit the bullet December 05. I started the project this morning. In this project is a network, laptops and UPS's. (My employer is the state distributor for PowerShield UPS equipment so I had to put these in) My first move was to place all the new laptops/PC's onto UPS's. I fired up an old one to check a setting and bang, a loud explosion and sparks flew everywhere just outside the office window. I thought someone had thrown a firecracker into the roofing. I then noticed the old PC I was on, without the UPS, was fried. I also noticed the strange glow in the lights. In all the years this company has been in this location, never before has a truck driver been dumb enough to try and cross under low power lines with a high load. He had a B double truck with a Semi trailer on the back and then the second trailers load. He pulled down the 11 kva lines which were dancing around in the street and the catenary wires were about to bust with the added weight of all the fallen lines. I can't believe the situation. I added UPS's to the entire site only 30 minutes earlier. Talk about paying for themselves !!!! Every laptop and PC except the unprotected ones, work fine. What a coincidence! Obviously the client now hangs on my every word ! Boy, I wish I had my camera before the Police locked the roads down.

New additional blog (Added August 2011). Mickyj Mindspill at msmvps.com

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