It’s official: Thursday August 21, 2008 Windows Small Business Server 2008 hit Released to Manufacturing (RTM) status!
More details on the official SBS blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/08/21/sbs-2008-released-to-manufacturing.aspx
KYSBSUG Meeting 08-20-2008 – ConnectWise
Just a friendly reminder that the Kentucky Small Business Server User Group (KYSBSUG) meets tonight:
Topic: ConnectWise
Date: Wednesday August 20, 2008
Start Time: 6:30 PM Eastern (GMT -5)
Location: Money Concepts, Louisville, Kentucky USA
Registration URL: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=130623
Description:
Are you bleeding billable hours? Are contacts, timesheets, scheduling, sales, email, accounting, projects and service tickets scattered throughout your organization with little or no integration between applications?
Then please join us this month for a look at one of the most outstanding and popular PSA solutions in the market today. Learn how ConnectWise can help you bring it all together. If you have it, come and share what you’ve learned. If you’re using something else, share that too. If you’re still looking, this is the place to be.
Door Prizes: The first 5 attendees will receive Starbucks gift cards, plus we have some USB flash drives and other nice swag. 🙂
Attendees can participate in-person or via Microsoft Live Meeting. But seating is limited, so register today!
FREE SBS 2008 Training Webcasts
Register today for this 8-part training series of Academy Live Windows SBS 2008 Core Technical Training. The presenters are David Fabritus, Nicholas King and Michael Toot:
- Windows SBS 2008, Part 1 of 8: Introduction
Thursday August 21, 2008, 12 PM – 1 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 2 of 8: Planning & Installation
Thursday August 21, 2008, 2 PM – 3 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 3 of 8: Migration
Friday August 22, 2008, 12 PM – 1 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 4 of 8: Management, Health, & Security
Friday August 22, 2008, 2 PM – 3 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 5 of 8: Messaging & Collaboration Management
Monday August 25, 2008, 12 PM – 1 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 6 of 8: Remote Access & Computer Mgmt
Monday August 25, 2008, 2 PM – 3 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 7 of 8: LOB Support & Troubleshooting
Tuesday August 26, 2008, 12 PM – 1 PM Eastern - Windows SBS 2008, Part 8 of 8: Virtualization
Tuesday August 26, 2008, 2 PM – 2 PM Eastern
Source: Chris Parkes Blog
2008 SBS Partner Group Tour Registration Open
Good news for SMB Resellers interested in getting the scoop on SBS 2008 – Microsoft has recently announced the SBS 2008 Partner Group Tour, so go ahead and block the date on your calendar (these are typically evening events).
Unfortunately, the tour can’t come to every city, but there are 14 stops planned so far. Here’s the current list of cities and dates, as of 7/27/2008:
| Date | City | Partner Group Lead |
| Sat 9/16/2008 | Redmond, WA | Steven Banks |
| Tue 9/19/2008 | Atlanta, GA | Rick Butler |
| Wed 9/20/2008 | Charlotte, NC | Mark Crall |
| Thu 9/11/2008 | Miami, FL | Scott Cayouette |
| Fri 9/12/2008 | Houston, TX | Tim Loney |
| Mon 9/15/2008 | Cincinnati, OH | Kevin Royalty |
| Tue 9/16/2008 | Chicago, IL | Cynthia Slade |
| Wed 9/17/2008 | Dallas, TX | Russell Clements |
| Wed 9/17/2008 | South Field, MI | Tavis Patterson |
| Thu 9/18/2008 | Waltham, MA | Scott Galbraith |
| Fri 9/19/2008 | New York, NY | Robert Patterson |
| Mon 9/22/2008 | San Francisco, CA | Steven Lai |
| Tue 9/23/2008 | Irvine, CA | Dave Seibert |
| Wed 9/24/2008 | San Diego, CA | Jim Muglia |
*Dates and cities are subject to change.
Registration isn’t open yet, but when the ticket window opens, we’ll let you know ASAP. The closest stop to us is Cincinnati, OH on Monday September 15, 2008. Hope to see you there! 🙂
UPDATE: 08/18/2008 – Registration for the Cincinnati event is now open. Click here to register today!
Windows Live Messenger Spam
This must be the week of crazy screen shots.
My first IM spam from MSN Messenger:
No thanks!
Spyware – Antivirus XP 2008
Since some of my blog readers are end-users, and not IT pros, I wanted to pass along the following info.
The hot malware infecting machines lately seems to be "Antivirus XP 2008".
It starts simply enough:
(I especially like the typo of "aviailable" – nice).
The unsuspecting user clicks on the ‘e-card’ hyperlink, runs the download, and the next thing you know, you’ve got full-blown chaos on your hands:
Folks – I know that looks legit, but it’s not. Until you downloaded that "e-card" your computer wasn’t infected. You can tell by the colored AVG icon in the system tray (circled in green).
Notice how quickly it spreads (circled in red). It’s also in 4 places in the Start Menu, not shown in the picture. Also notice the ‘Vista style’ fake close button at the top of the window – this is on an XP machine. And there are apparently 3 windows popped-up, but there is only one program on the task bar for "Antivirus XP 2008". All stuff to look for.
In case you get bit, here’s a link for removal instructions for Antivirus XP 2008:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-antivirus-xp-2008
Crazy Screen Shots – How Big is Your Monitor
This screen shot comes courtesy of Cory Rammer:
OS: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with an S3 ViRGE DX/GX.
That equates to a grid of 640×480 monitors 15 wide x 20 tall (300 of them). That’s a lot of bling for a BDC. Actual setup is a single 800×600 monitor. 🙂
Peachtree Phone Support is Spendy
First, the crazy screen shot – check out the service category 😉
LOLZ. Wonder how long the hold time is for “*Coming Soon*” category of support? Silly web-programmers 😉
Now for the sticker-shock price per minute:
Fees:
For those of you playing the home game, that’s $5 per minute, or $300/hour. Not exactly chicken feed.
Initial Impressions:
1) A few mis-transferred calls, finally got in the right queue. Robot voicemail auto attendant asks for customer ID and then prompts for credit card number, but doesn’t give you enough time to type all the digits in. Prompts a second time – again, too short. Human attendant was actually nice and he was a total expert like workers we hire from the it company Calgary to solve IP connectivity issues.
2) Reached tech support – hold time was minimal (under 90 seconds). I was initially concerned with the thick accent on the other end of the phone, fearing that I was talking to a script zombie. But I was pleasantly surprised that the Peachtree tech actually did have a brain. He was articulate, thorough, and found a resolution for us when the (lousy) Peachtree KB site, Google & E-E came up blanks (and no error codes in the event logs). If you are looking for a quick business number solution, Then using a virtual number for WhatsApp can significantly enhance your business communications, providing a dedicated and professional contact point for customers. Discover the many benefits and learn how to obtain a virtual number for Whatsapp at Your Business Number, a trusted provider of such services..
3) Satisfaction – The tech did all this support by phone, and at one point requested that about 5 screen shots be emailed to him, which quickly led to the ‘ah-hah’ moment. Several minutes later, back in business.
Verdict:
Expensive. But valuable. The tech resolved the issue without stumbling, faking it or sending us down dead ends that had nothing to do with the real issue. And considering that ‘payroll waits for no man’, every minute counts on a payday.
Client = happy. Day = saved. Employees = paid.
Props:
1.5 thumbs-up. I would have gone w/ 2 thumbs up, but the $5/minute stings. Still, “nice job Sage Software / Peachtree tech”, spend that hard-earned money well!
Lazy Hackers
Dear ‘hackers’ of the world;
If you’re going to try and pretend to be Microsoft and fool people into downloading your malware / IE 7, at least come up with a better domain name!
"tierarzt-andersen.de"? Seriously? Punks! 🙂