timbarrett – Page 42 – NoGeekLeftBehind.com

INVITATION: You are cordially invited to the 48th consecutive Kentucky Small Business Server User Group (KYSBSUG) meeting!

TOPIC: 4-Year KYSBSUG Anniversary Party (Meeting #48)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 6:30pm – 8:30 PM EST
VENUE: Fox and Hound Pub and Grille – Google Map
ADDRESS: 302 Bullitt Lane, Louisville, KY 40222
COST: FREE + whatever you choose to spend on food.
EXTRAS: Free appetizers, pool tables, really cool door prizes
WHO’S INVITED: KYSBSUG Members, IT Pros, Network Admins & folks interested in Microsoft Technologies
MAP: Click here of click the picture below for a satellite image & directions

The venue of the Fox & Hound should be very familiar to everyone. We’ve had one KYSBSUG meeting there already, as well as the Louisville Geek Dinner events. (Note – This time we’ll be on the right-side rooms as you walk in the door).

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY:

In March 2004, at a Microsoft TS2 event in Louisville, Kentucky, a very nervous Microsoft SBS user stood up in front of the crowd and announced the first SBS User Group meeting in Kentucky. Happily, people showed up at that first meeting, and they’ve showing up every month since then.

48 months later… it’s amazing how much has changed, even just from a software perspective.

For example, here’s some Microsoft software that’s come out since meeting #1:

Office XP Service Pack 3
SBS 2003 Service Pack 1
SQL 2005
Office 2003 Service Pack 2
SBS 2003 R2
Microsoft Vista
Microsoft Office 2007
Exchange 2007
Windows Mobile 6
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
Windows Home Server
Office 2007 Service Pack 1
Vista Service Pack 1
Office 2003 Service Pack 3
Windows Server 2008
Centro (Windows Essential Business Server 2008)
Cougar Beta 2 TR (SBS 2008)

…and that list is FAR from complete – there are tons more servers and desktop & productivity applications that have come out in the last 4 years.

HOW THE GROUP HAS GROWN

Our local SBS group in Louisville, KY has gone through quite a lot of meetings and changes since this all began. We started with 7 folks, 3 pizzas, a conference room, no WiFi, and no PowerPoint slides. Since then:

48 consecutive monthly meetings
130 subscribers to the mailing list
SBS Partner Tour March 2005 – Hosting.com (70+ attendees)
70-282 Study Group & Cram Sessions
SBS Partner Tour September 2006 – Indiana University (110+ attendees)
Live presentations by Microsoft TS2 & Technet folks
In-person & webcast presentations by Microsoft MVPs from Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Iowa & California
Meeting attendees via LiveMeeting and web cam from all over the USA, Canada, and even Belgium
Enough pizza, subs, napkins, plates, cups & 2-liters to fill a couple of minivans (at least)
And 1 really cool cake

It’s been a great ride, and we’d like to celebrate it with you. We’d like to ask your help in spreading the word about the event, and we look forward to seeing as many people turn out as possible. 🙂

REGISTER TODAY!
https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=126608

SPECIAL THANKS:

The Kentucky Small Business Server User Group would like to extend a special ‘thank you’ to Jeff Slyn (Owner) of SLYN Systems & Peripherals and Katie Goldstein (Event Coordinator) and Scott Hack (General Manager) of Fox and Hound Pub and Grille for their invaluable assistance in organizing this event! You guys totally rock!! 🙂

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March 10, 2008March 11, 2008

I Am the Melissa Rivers of Vladville

The SMB Community is an odd beast. Layers of relationships, politics, technical skills, information, money, experts and posers, givers and takers…
nothing is shocking really anymore. But it’s nice when things get mixed up a little bit though.

First, Jamie Strauss sent me a link to a new SBS video blog that is, in a word, ‘different’. Not your normal screen-cast or interview-fest or self-aggrandizing we’ve come to expect in the past from the community. The videos are ‘refreshingly different’ to say the least. And since I’m a staunch avoider of blog-on-blog action, I’ll let the videos speak for themselves.

And then there Vlad. Who is Texas. And bored. That’s never a good thing. Probably misses his Rumba already. He stopped by on IM tonight long enough to talk smack while on his hiatus. One comment led to another. Vlad wound up having to Google ‘Premarin’ and now I am the Melissa Rivers of Vladville:

Between Melissa and I, one of us is seriously offended, and I think it’s her.

Good times. 🙂

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

March 9, 2008March 9, 2008

Twitter and Darth Vader

Sunday morning, pretty day outside. Meeting was canceled due to snow-removal issues, so that injects some extra free time in my day. But the Daylight Saving Time change took some of that free time back away. 🙁 And this freaky early DST has me checking my watch every 20 minutes, which feels weird and is messing with my mind. So I’m chilling out, listening to some Portishead, doing some much MUCH needed spring cleaning, and basically avoiding thinking about doing my taxes.

Seriously, I have no idea where all this ‘stuff’ comes from, but it just keeps piling up. Books, CDs, papers, software, posters, AC adapters that go to who knows what – just gobs and gobs of stuff… in piles. I even found 2 copies of Vista and 2 Office 2007’s, which is really cool. So hopefully when my wife gets home she’ll be proud of me for un-rubbling the place.

Anyway, the big clean is done and I decided to take a break and check up on email and Twitter. Interestingly, I got the most unexpected funny email. Mind you, not ‘ha ha’ funny, but just weird enough to make me smile on an already surreal day:

I mean, that just looks bizarre, doesn’t it? ‘Twitter’ sounds like the name of a ship or something. 🙂

See, @DarthVader has been MIA from Twitter since January, and I thought he had gone the way of @BobaFett. But apparently the Dark Lord is alive and well, currently tooling around SXSW in Texas with all the cool kids. (Hey @sMoRTy71, make Louisville proud while you’re there!) So today it was nice to see what’s going on, and Darth is totally cracking me up because he doesn’t break character and is using quotes like, “I find my lack of trousers… disturbing“. Just wrap your head around that mentally – Darth in Austin, TX posting tweets about not finding his pants. Makes for a funny mental picture, or maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, thanks for the add Darth, and thanks for keeping the internet interesting. 🙂

And just because I can, here’s a nice Darth video:

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March 5, 2008March 5, 2008

Whitepaper – Deploying WM6 on SBS 2003

Whitepaper Title: Deploying Windows Mobile 6 with Windows Small Business Server 2003
File Name: SBS-WM6_122107.doc
Version: 3.0
Date Published: January 2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.8 MB
Pages: 49
Download URL: Click here

Description:
Do you want to add Windows Mobile devices to your network? Is your network based either on the Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS) server software with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or on Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2? If so, you can use the step-by-step instructions in this document to deploy devices that are powered by the Windows Mobile 6 software on a Windows SBS network.

Contents

Step 1: Install ActiveSync 4.5 or WMDC 6.1
Step 2: Enable Mobile Services for Users
Step 3: Configure the Firewall and Web Services
Step 4: Install a Certificate
Step 5: Configure Windows Small Business Server
Step 6: Configure Device Synchronization
Step 7: Test the Deployment

Source: Sean Daniel’s blog

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March 5, 2008March 5, 2008

Cougar – Screen Shot of SBS 2008

If you haven’t seen what Cougar (SBS 2008) looks like yet, Ron Grattopp (TS2 Presenter extraordinaire) posted a picture of it on his blog last week.

Here’s a copy of the Cougar screenshot:

Looks a lot like Windows Home Server, doesn’t it 😉

Thanks for the screen shot Ron!

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March 5, 2008March 5, 2008

OWA Is Horked – Missing Graphics

From the Help Desk file…

Reported Issue: Users report Outlook Web Access (OWA) ‘looks funny’ or ‘messed up’ and is missing the graphics. The main body says “Loading…”.

There is also no screen color, just a bunch of hyperlinked boxes with red X’s.

System: Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2

Details: Here is a screen shot of the error condition

Dead Ends:

Outlook Mobile Access is working fine
Event logs aren’t throwing any errors
ASP version is good
Restarting application pool didn’t help
Restarting IIS didn’t fix it either

Diagnosis: This was a permission issue. SSL wasn’t enabled on OWA

Resolution:

Open IIS Manager
Navigate to Server Name / Web Sites / Default Web Site / right-click Exchange / choose Properties.
Click on Directory Security, and in the Secure communications box, click Edit.
In the Secure Communications window, make sure Require secure channel (SSL) and Require 128-bit encryption are checked.
Hit OK, OK and Restart IIS

If those boxes are already checked, take a look at the NTFS permissions on the hard drive for the IIS folder. And if you do have to eventually reinstall Outlook Web Access, be sure to check out Henrik Walther’s article, “Fixing a Damaged or Incorrectly Configured OWA 2003 Installation“

Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

March 4, 2008March 4, 2008

Beta – Xobni – First Impressions

Recently I started using a new Outlook plug-in called Xobni (thanks for the invite Nick!) Xobni isn’t new. In fact Bill Gates talked about it over a year ago:

What Xobni Does

Basically, Xobni (pronounced ‘zob-nee’) lets you track email relationships, conversations, connections with others, and (my favorite feature) provides a no-search list of files exchanged with others. It also provides metrics on what time of the day someone emails you.

Here’s an example from my personal email account,
and just for fun, we’ll pick on Kevin:

Top Section – Name, Emails Received, Time of Day, Emails In (received) vs. Emails Out (sent) and includes To From CC and BCC, and Rank based on the number of emails to and from this person.

Contact Info – Phone (this is automatically pulled from email body), link to schedule a meeting, link to create an email.

People Connected to… – These are contacts that I’ve CC’ed in an email to Kevin, or contacts he’s CC’ed me on.

Conversations with… – Threaded conversations with this contact.

Files Exchanged with… – My favorite feature! Whether I sent the file to Kevin, or he sent it to me, it shows up here. VERY nice.

LIKES:

The ‘Files Exchanged’ folder (obviously)
The time chart at the top. This has actually been pretty helpful in identifying when someone is typically in front of their computer
The ‘Stay In Touch’ feature – This shows who you haven’t emailed in a month, 2 months, 3 months or longer.

DISLIKES:

The contact card in Xobni is limited and doesn’t pull a photo from the Outlook contact card (you have to add it manually)
No mobile version
Can’t see a list ranking with all the people (who’s #1, who’s #500) as far as I can tell. If you want to know where someone is, you have to hunt them down first.
I’m not clear if the metrics go away when you delete items (I think it tracks the archive though).
No way to change the time zones for senders

Regarding the time zone issue, I could go either way on this one.

Take Susan for example, she’s in California (GMT -8) and I’m Kentucky (GMT-5). So, while it’s true that sometimes she sends email when it’s 3AM for me, it’s only midnight for her, so it’s a bit confusing at first glance because it looks like she’s still up at 3AM (maybe she is 😉 :

With Wayne in Sydney, Australia (GMT +10), it’s even more noticeable with the time difference:

So, if I look at the chart, before I even try to send Wayne an email, I know that if it’s before lunch time for me, he’s probably asleep down under.

And resource-wise, I’ve been pretty happy w/ Xobni:

Right now Xobni is a closed-beta, but I’ve got some invites left. If you’re interested, log a reply to this post.

And if you’d like a bit deeper look at Xobni, here’s a link to a video tour:
http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/

UPDATE – I found out Wayne already blogged about this, but my post is prettier and I’ve already typed it all, so I’m posting it anyway 😉

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February 23, 2008February 23, 2008

Vista Ultimate & SP1 in Next Action Pack

Per Ron Grattopp’s blog (Microsoft TS2 Presenter Extraordinaire) , the next Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) update will include Windows Vista Business w/ SP1 slipstreamed.

That’s cool, but even cooler, the MAPS update will contain one copy of Windows Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1.

Per the Microsoft Partner web site:

Mid-March 2008 delivery of Microsoft Windows Vista Business with SP1 in a special Action Pack shipment to partners worldwide. To make it easier for you to deploy the final release of Windows Vista SP1 for internal use, all subscribers will receive full code. Not currently an Action Pack subscriber? Find out how to subscribe. New subscribers will receive Windows Vista with SP1 as part of the April 2008 Welcome Kit.

One license for Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 (full code*) for internal use, so you can discuss this product’s benefits and features with customers who need a single PC to fulfill their work, travel, and entertainment needs. This software will be delivered in the regular Action Pack quarterly update (April 2008) for current subscribers, and for new Action Pack subscribers starting in April 2008.

A comprehensive set of readiness resources to arm you to sell and support Windows Vista SP1 solutions for your small- or midsize-business customers as momentum builds.

Exciting incentives and promotions that reward you for learning, using, and selling SP1.

Source: https://partner.microsoft.com/40052827

So be on the lookout for the mid-March MAPS update. And thanks for the heads-up Ron.

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February 15, 2008

Downloading Vista Service Pack 1

As Susan pointed out yesterday, Vista Service Pack 1 is available for TechNet Plus subscribers.

Since I can’t find my TechNet info, the good news is that Vista SP1 is also available for MSDN subscribers:

The EXE version weighs in at 434.5 MB:

The ISO DVD version is a stout 1.13 GB:

Download speeds are pretty quick this morning.
1.13 GB in 18 minutes. I like that. 🙂

We’ll post the public URL when it hits general consumption status.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

February 13, 2008February 13, 2008

KYSBSUG Feb 2008 – Windows Mobile Hands-On Lab

Are you interested in setting up a Windows Mobile device with SBS, but just haven’t gotten around to doing it?

If so, you’re not alone. Next to Windows SharePoint Services, Windows Mobile devices are the most under-used killer technology in SBS.

This month our topic for the KYSBSUG meeting is a free hands-on lab / boot camp to get IT Pros and network administrators comfortable with testing, rolling out, and supporting Windows Mobile devices with SBS.

In addition to offering training on Windows Mobile 5 & 6, we’ll also provide resources for connecting Palm mobile devices (such as the new Palm Centro) and Apple iPhones with SBS.

If you’re shy and have never used Windows Mobile devices before, this event is for you! We’ll take you from a-to-sync. 🙂 Or, if you’re already are a Windows Mobile pro, you’re still invited to attend, compare notes on local wireless carriers, help users with the labs, and be registered for the door prizes.

You are invited to register and attend in person!
Cost: FREE

Event: KYSBSUG February 2008 Meeting (#47)
Topic: Windows Mobile Hands-On Lab / Boot Camp
Date: Wed Feb 20, 2008
Time: 6:30 PM Eastern – 9:00 PM Eastern
Location: Money Concepts
Address: 323 Townepark Circle
City St Zip: Louisville, KY 40243
Registration Required?: Yes
Invitees: IT Pros, Network Administrators, KYSBSUG Members & Geeks
Registration URL: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=125230

Below is a list of what you’ll need to complete the lab.

Note: If you’re missing any of the pieces below to complete the lab, don’t worry. You’re still invited to attend to receive a copy of the simulator software and to see what pieces you need to put in place to properly configure a Windows Mobile device on your (or your customer’s) network. Just be sure to bring a flash drive.

IMPORTANT – You DO NOT need to have a Pocket PC or SmartPhone to complete this lab. We will provide attendees with a Windows Mobile emulator that runs on your PC. (We also have a Palm emulator as well).

To complete the lab you will need:

Laptop PC (Vista or XP) with WiFi
1 GB of RAM
1-1.5 GB available hard drive space
Remote access to an SBS server with RWW properly configured (CEICW already run & ports open in your firewall)
An ‘A’ record pointing to your RWW site (such as remote.domain.com or server.domain.com)
Administrator credentials for your SBS server
AC powerstrip / surge protector or extension cord
1 GB or larger USB flash drive

OPTIONAL – If you DO decide to bring a SmartPhone or Pocket PC, please also bring:

Your Windows Mobile device
The charger / AC adapter
The data cable / cradle
Any software (CDs) that came with the phone
An SD / Mini SD / Micro SD card (whatever your device takes)
A card reader or adapter to read the SD card on your PC

There is already a lot of interest in this topic and seating is limited, so please register early to guarantee a seat.

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Author: timbarrett

Invitation – 4-Year Anniversary of the KYSBSUG

I Am the Melissa Rivers of Vladville

Twitter and Darth Vader

Whitepaper – Deploying WM6 on SBS 2003

Cougar – Screen Shot of SBS 2008

OWA Is Horked – Missing Graphics

Beta – Xobni – First Impressions

Vista Ultimate & SP1 in Next Action Pack

Downloading Vista Service Pack 1

KYSBSUG Feb 2008 – Windows Mobile Hands-On Lab

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