Broken Remote Web Workplace and SBS 2003?

Are your users having problems with SBS 2003 and Remote Web Workplace, specifically with the Active-X component and remote desktop? If so, Windows XP Service Pack 3 may be the culprit disabling the terminal server active-x component.

See’s Susan’s blog entry on how to walk users through the correction, http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/05/06/xp-sp3-rww-and-active-x-messages.aspx

If this is not the issue, then you should see another entry by Susan a registry fix for an issue caused by a Spybot false-positive, http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2005/09/22/67410.aspx

Thank you Susan for all your great posts!

How to stay on top of business, sports and tech news

Part of being a business professional, more specifically a Small Business Specialist, or “Jack of all trades”, requires keeping up on current events. This task gets hard to do when as technology professionals we’re stuck reading manuals, fielding technical calls, deploying test environments etc. etc.

To stay current I subscribe to our local city newspaper, The Outlook, our local state paper, The Oregonian, and the Wall Street Journal. Finding the time to get in my daily read sometimes becomes a daunting task, so to fill in the void and to stay current I turn to Newsgator and its great program FeedDemon.

FeedDemon allows me to create folders to organize my news by category, i.e. Business, News,  SBS 2003, Vista, XP, Sports etc. etc.

The cool thing about Newsgator’s FeedDemon is that takes advantage of Newsgator’s “Cloud” to sync all your folders/RSS feeds to your online Newsgator account, this allows you to have FeedDemon on multiple PC’s all synchronized with the same content.

There’s a client that Newsgator offers to sync your feed to Outlook, but to be honest my Outlook is busy enough so I’d just prefer to keep this stuff separate. There’s an online reader for those times you’re away from any of your PC’s and there’s also a mobile client.

If you’re looking to get a bunch of feeds quickly, just reply to this post and I’ll email you my Newsgator OPML file which can just import and be up and running.

For other RSS feeds see the following to posts:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/08/09/looking-for-rss-feeds.aspx

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/08/10/businessy-rss-feeds.aspx

Karl Palachuk recently posted his top 10 blogs, but I can’t find the post, so I’ll ping back with his list in a day or so.

Winantivirus 2007 and Winantivirus 2009

This week we had a new client come to us with a user’s system infected with Winantivirus 2009. The client’s desktop had no A/V, so easy to see how they obtained this little piece of malware. We started with a full install of Nod32 3.0 and ran a full system scan, Nod32 didn’t even detect the malware.

Thanks to a peer of ours, Mark Hicks with Hicks Technology, he had seen three of these attacks in the past month. He used http://superantispyware.com and for us it also worked in removing Winantivirus 2009.

Two-days later another existing non-managed client was infected with Winantivirus 2007, they had let their SonicWall TotalSecure lapse about two-days before. To remove this piece of malware we tried http://superantispyware.com it did not work, so we ended up using http://www.malwarebytes.org/ thanks to suggestions from users on the Nod32 forums.

Susan Bradley recently submitted to a Yahoo forum that the DNS vulnerability needs to be addressed on your networks ASAP, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SMBManagedServices/message/21586. We deployed OpenDNS on a few peer to peer client networks who didn’t spend the money on a SonicWall, then tested some Winantivirus links and OpenDNS blocked them, so this would be a good start for your friends/family and small business clients without a robust hardware firewall.

Outlook 2007 and adding public folders to ‘other contacts’

Today we had a client who wanted to add an additional contacts folder to their public folders then add that folder to their ‘other contacts.’ The client is running Outlook 2007 SP1 on a Hosted Exchange Server running Exchange 2003.

In clicking ‘add to favorites’ the folder would not show up. Exited Outlook, entered Outlook and nothing. Opened the file profile with ‘cached mode’ turned off, still nothing.

Searched Microsoft support, found no good solutions.

Then went to the Microsoft Outlook newsgroup and searched the board and found the solution along with a great resource.

We opened Outlook with a switch > Start > Run > Outlook /resetnavpane

It removed the previous ‘favorites’ but then allowed us to add the existing two folders along with the newly created public folder.

The great resource includes a long list of Outlook switches that can help in troubleshooting Outlook issues, http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm.

The ‘Cloud’ when it fails

Yesterday Amazon’s S3 was down for several hours, the second major outage this year. The article below makes the following argument, we’re all used to a small power outages here and there no big deal, right? What happens when that power outage affects an entire state, country or the world?

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_services_browser/s3_outage_software_minus_services.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

No, Amazon S3 doesn’t power the world, but for a small MSP providing hosted services to 300 to 400 customers facing an outage effects your entire customer base, not just one or two.

I believe the transition to the cloud is here, is necessary but planning for outages has to be accounted for in both your business plans and your clients plans. I recently posted several questions on Yahoo’s SMB Managed services forum, of which both questions went unanswered.

The first series of questions;

1. “How do you draft an SLA for a hosted service, one in which you’re just the middleman?”
2. “Do you state, Hosted Exchange is provided via XYZ?”
3. “If the provider is offering your a 10% money back if there’s an outage, does that get passed on to your client at 10% of their marked up rate?”

The second series of questions;

1. When you face an outage with one of your providers how do you handle that outage? For example, you have 300 hundred clients on hosted exchange, the provider goes down, how do you notify all of these users?
2. When the client calls screaming and yelling, do you explain that we provide XYZ hosted solution via this company and they are currently down? Technically the client doesn’t care, they just want specifics how did this happen, when is it going to be back up and how are you going to prevent this in the future? So how do you properly answer these questions? I don’t know isn’t a good enough answer.

I propose these questions went unanswered because people are just choosing to ignore the issue and just trusting that their signed agreements cover the “we’re not responsible for lost time, revenue etc. due to downtime.” Unfortunately those agreements do zero to help you when your clients are firing you.

When I look at some of the biggest providers in the state of Oregon who are reselling hosted services, they do not cover any of these questions with the client. When you ask about backup for hosted exchange all they offer is that it’s a redundant network, and the client has 7 days of deleted item retention via OWA recovery. To me that’s not good enough, there should be the ability to recover the entire mailbox for a reasonable fee.

I don’t have the answers either or I’d be offering them via this entry, but I’d sure like to hear some good guidance somewhere in the community.

SBS 2008 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

If you have new customers needing to move from a peer-to-peer workgroup to their first server then the coming 6 – 12 months will be difficult, get SBS 2003 now and swing to SBS 2008 a year from now…or just wait? That’s a hard one to answer, one that will require analysis with each respective client; however, if they need a solution now then you should consider SBS 2003 with SA.

Everyone has heard, SBS 2008 is going to be more expensive, right? So your first thought, even if the customer is not going to deploy the server in the next six months, I should move on SBS 2003 adding SA to lock in the pricing. Well if you look at the pricing of SBS 2003 with SA compared to the new pricing without SA it’s about a wash.

Example (currently):

Ten-user environment

SBS Standard 2003 with 5 included cals along with SA is $781.
SBS client 5 pack along with SA is $690
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/howtobuy/pricing.mspx

Total: $1,471

Example (Future):

SBS 2008 Standard with 5 included cals NO SA $1,089
SBS 2008 Standard 5 pack NO SA $385
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/essential/sbs/pricing.mspx

Total: $1,474

The question for the client, are the additional benefits included with SA worth buying now when they won’t be using them until 6 – 12 months from now, if at all. The other unknown is what will the pricing for SBS 2008 with SA be? Is it not published because it’s too early or because there won’t be SBS 2013?

The biggest issue for clients on the initial release of SBS 2008 Standard is if they’re running LOB apps will these LOB apps be 64-bit compliant.

For example, the QuickBooks 2008 database server component currently doesn’t list Windows Server 2008 and doesn’t mention whether it works in a 64-bit environment, Susan have you tested this?

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/small-business-accounting-software.jsp?view=sysreqs#tabAnchor

We have customers running other similar programs requiring a server based licensing and database module; PeachTree, Master Builder and more.

Other’s have proposed that SBS 2008 should be dead on arrival, http://www.vladville.com/2008/05/not-singing-with-the-choir-in-2008.html. I agree entirely with the comment about the low-end client and the budget crunch, specifically in today’s economy. We’re seeing these low-end clients saying no to much needed basic infrastructure like desktops! I’m OK with running this 6 or 7 year old desktop as our primary business machine, WOW! To the other degree the slightly larger business who likes to stay up on things, having to wait almost two years to get Exchange 2007 because they’re locked into Exchange 2003 on their SBS box. The same is true for the other components i.e. SharePoint and more.

As I’m typing this, I’m seeing Vlad’s argument much clearer, maybe SBS is dying a slow death. Moving a small business client to Server 2008 with hosted exchange services provides a lot more flexibility.

The pricing for Server 2008 is affordable; $999 and $199 for the 5 pack of cals.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/pricing.aspx

Hosted Exchange is getting less expensive, bigger mailboxes and with good vendors more reliable.

As more and more apps move to the cloud the dependence on the local server will be less and less outside of a file and print receptacle.

Adobe 9 is out, a better download link

Adobe Reader 9 is Adobe’s latest release which proposes better security, the jury is out on that.

The download via Adobe’s website includes a checkbox to include/exclude a desktop eBay shortcut and also bundles in some of Adobe’s new online cloud services.

If you’re looking for a clean copy of Adobe 9 without the fluff, use this link, ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.0/enu.

After the install there’s is another update from the Adobe built-in updater.

Refresh adding more memory to SBS 2003

This is one of those posts that’s just a reminder for folks to create a best practices and/or a project checklist i.e. Karl’s Super Good Project Planner for even the little things.

If you’re adding more memory to an SBS box there’s more than just power down the box, add the memory boot backup let the BIOS see the RAM ensure the system is up.

I’d like to enhance on this a bit.

1. Validate that you have a good backup
2. Notify all users that system will be down for 1 hour
3. Understand how your SPAM service spools email i.e. Postini you can manually start spooling email rather than waiting the default 15 minutes
4. Power down the system, add the RAM
5. Post power up ensure that all services started
6. Proceed to adjust the memory allocation monitor (http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/06/07/433707.aspx)
7. Review the event logs
8. Re-enable email and/or start unspooling email
9. Email users to let them know the system is back up and running
10. Post-memory install, i.e. next day, check the task manager and see what services are gobbling up the new RAM, if it’s a SQL instance are they even using that instance i.e. SharePoint 2, considering throttling down the memory, see Susan’s post (http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2005/02/04/34984.aspx)

Top 25 Online Backup Companies

Looking to see what’s going on with backup, specifically online backup options? Then Backupreview.info is a good resource, they offer reviews, interviews and more. They also offer a good RSS feed.

Here’s the top 25 online backup companies according to Backupreview.info.

http://www.backupreview.info/2008/07/01/top-25-for-july-2008/

Blackberry, iPhone…trying to understand

As a consultant, and technology enthusiast, I’m always looking for a better way to do things, whether that be software or hardware. If you’ve reviewed some of my blog posts then you’ve probably found that I’m a big proponent of Windows Mobile.

So my latest expedition is to implement Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and a Blackberry, but before I take the plunge I already see the package completely failing as a solution for our small business clients. Why? Simple, price, the requirement for Blackberry Enterprise Server is ridiculous.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/server/exchange/#tab_ddetail_subtab_pricing

To make matters worse, adding BES creates an additional implementation cost to the client. Worse is ongoing support means that I have one more tier or channel of support to resolve client issues.

1. Mobile provider (i.e. ATT, Sprint, Verizon)
2. Blackberry Support
3. One more layer of software that needs to be checked on the client server
4. Add that I must email clients that BES will be down for scheduled outages (http://crackberry.com/reminder-planned-blackberry-outage-americas)

My other reservation is if Blackberry hardware is so much better, why are they trying to emulate Windows Mobile hardware. The new Blackberry Bold has a look very similar to the Motorola Q9.

 

So the next competitor to Windows Mobile, the iPhone, wait is that Microsoft’s Activesync providing the enterprise sync to Exchange? (Deployment guide) Yes indeed it is, so technically the iPhone confirms that Activesync with Exchange is a reliable solution. So isn’t the iPhone just another hardware device in the line up of Microsoft Mobile Phones? It is if you look on our list of ‘Exchange approved phones’ that we hand out to our clients.

So is my Blackberry expedition dead before I even start, very likely. The iPhone plunge, that may still be on the horizon but I’ll need to see 40GB or 80GB model first.