Tuesday 29 June 2010

Intel Server Technical Solutions Training 2010

Intel has announced that the server based Technical Solutions Training events are now available for registration.

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Alberta will have an event in Edmonton, AB (TST registration link for Edmonton) among other Canadian locations.

A Reseller account sign-in will be required for the direct link.

As an alternative, sign into the Reseller site and click on Training & Events to find a link to the TST registration page if an e-mail has not shown up in the Inbox yet.

We have always benefitted from our TST attendance in the form of getting to know some of our peers along with being able to speak one-on-one with some key Intel product engineers.

Tied into that has been the product specific training we receive via the course instruction. We have always learned some key information that we were later able to use in our Intel based server solutions via TST training.

Server building has always been a very good part of our business for our local clients. Even with the Cloud movement going on around us, server building will still be an important part of our network solutions architecture as we can tailor our server based solutions to our client’s specific needs.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Monday 28 June 2010

Configuring A Client For OWN Hosted Exchange and SharePoint

Lately, we have been fairly counter-Cloud in many of our blog posts in an effort to offset a lot of the Cloud services hype that we are seeing in our industry.

However, despite our expressing our _opinions_ on all of the hype around Cloud services and the many IT industry “prophecies” that come as part of that hype, we will always do our best to provide our clients with the best possible solution for their needs.

OWN

It is obviously no secret that we have partnered with Cloud service provider OWN for our client’s Cloud services needs around e-mail sanitation (ExchangeDefender) and hosted Exchange with hosted SharePoint (OWN product page).

Disclaimer: The signature in this post shows Vlad’s (his blog) appreciation for our support of OWN and their services.

We have partnered with OWN mainly for two reasons:

  1. Vlad and his business provide excellent value in the services they provide with those services being stable and highly available.
  2. If you read Vlad’s blog linked above, then Vlad’s honesty and integrity in business are pretty straight forward to see.

Besides the above two points, OWN’s product documentation is very good and so is the pre-sales and post-sales support provided by the OWN Support Team.

While we appreciate the MacBook Pro gift, we still stand behind OWN’s services because of the excellent service we have received since Partner Day 1.

Client Hosted Exchange and SharePoint

We have a client that is asking to have their Exchange mailboxes hosted. They are primarily on the go with little in-office time other than the office administration folks.

Because most of the business users are on the go, a Cloud based solution makes sense for them. They are looking for a relatively inexpensive solution that helps them step away from any in-house server setups.

With Outlook 2010 in place, they can have their original mailbox up and running and also have the newly created hosted mailbox configured in their Outlook making data transfer a fairly straight forward thing in this case.

So, we are in the process of configuring an Internet domain for them that will be used for their e-mail as well as hosted SharePoint access.

Here is an overview of what is needed to set up a client with OWN’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint:

  1. Internet domain name registered.
  2. DNS either with the registrar if provided or via third party/ISP.
    1. DNS A: www.sbscougar.ca  = site host IP.
    2. DNS A: sharepoint.domain.com = OWN’s SP IP.
    3. DNS CNAME: autodiscover.ExchangeDefenderServer.
      • The actual ED server name URL will be given after provisioning the mailboxes.
    4. DNS Catch-all removed.
    5. MX pointing to ExchangeDefender.
    6. Proper SPF record configured for the domain using the ExchangeDefender.com domain (previous blog post).
  3. Test the DNS.
    1. DNSStuff report:
    2. image
  4. Acquire a list of users requiring a mailbox and any aliases they may need.
    1. Primary: First@sbscougar.ca.
    2. Alias: Mail@sbscougar.ca.
  5. Set up a spreadsheet with the above list.
    1. An example:
    2. image
    3. We place this grid in our client’s audit notes to facilitate managing their services.
  6. Provision the mailboxes via OWN Partner Portal.
  7. If SharePoint is required then:
    1. Initiate a support request to create the SP site.
    2. Either designate a user as site admin or have an account available for OWN to use as site admin.
  8. Configure an Outlook 2010 Exchange mailbox with a provisioned mailbox to test all settings.
  9. Option: Provision an All Users Distribution Group (a la SBS).
  10. Client configures or we deploy/configure Outlook mailboxes for the client.
  11. In Outlook, import the user’s PST if needed.
    1. With Outlook 2010 it is possible to have two or more Exchange mailboxes. This can enable users to selectively copy and paste Outlook/mailbox content.
    2. The multi-mailbox ability also allows for a flexible change-over even if the same e-mail domain is being used.

Once we have the mailboxes provisioned and our client is up and running, we have the ability to create any needed Public Folders or Distribution Groups for their particular needs using.

To keep things simple for our clients we create an All Users e-mail address for them out of the box. This gives them an out of the box ability to e-mail everyone in the company.

Not an OWN partner yet?

An excellent Hosted Exchange and SharePoint Getting Started Guide can be found here:

A PDF copy of the above DNSStuff report is available on our Blog Downloads page on our Web site.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday 25 June 2010

Practice CS 2010.1.3 Update Released

Thomson Reuters has released an update to their Practice CS product to 2010.1.3.

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A login to gain access to the download on Thomson Reuter’s Web site is required.

In this particular client’s case we are upgrading from 2009.4.3.

Since we are dealing with a major version change, the upgrade needs to be done on the server to make the necessary database changes prior to updating the clients. During the update process we are asked if we want to install the Practice CS client software to which we answer No.

As always, make sure to back up the server prior to running the Setup.exe!

Once the Practice CS software and database structures are updated on the server, run the Practice CS client on one of the workstations.

A warning will come up saying that the firm’s database will need to be updated and an integrity check run:

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Please note that this process will require a Practice CS account that has write permissions to the database.

Once the update process is complete, Practice CS and the database will be up to date.

All other clients can then initiate the client software update by double clicking on their Practice CS icon. Once complete, the desktop icon will look like:

image 

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

iTunes – Remove That Saved Credit Card Number

Sometimes, it is just too convenient to leave that credit card number embedded in whatever online site/merchant we visit for purchases on a somewhat regular basis.

But, at some point we need to evaluate that convenience relative to the position it places us in to lose our identity or money to online thieves.

We are looking at iTunes today because there seems to be an underlying possibility that iTunes accounts are vulnerable to attack.

As suggested in the various articles, remove that saved credit card information in the iTunes account. Another option is to use iTunes gift cards for any purchases to avoid exposing any credit cards to the iTunes system.

As always, we need to be aware of our financials by checking our online account status for all banking and credit card accounts very regularly.

Always check with the financial institution immediately if a suspicious transaction appears in the online statement.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Some Office 2010 Resources

A trial copy of Office 2010 is available for download.

The Office 2010 user guides are a good source for learning the product’s various abilities.

We manage our client’s Microsoft Office deployments using Group Policy. To do so, we need to create and link a custom GPO and import the respective templates into that GPO.

Since there are now two architecture based versions of Office, one for x86 (32bit) and amd64/x64 (64bit), we need to be mindful of any caveats to running the newly created 64bit version.

And finally, Microsoft has simplified the number of versions of Office down to three.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday 24 June 2010

QuickBooks Upgrade to QB 2010 Caveat

Our bookkeeping is done on QuickBooks.

We have some highly customized forms and templates that we use for our invoicing and purchase orders among others.

We did a trial run at upgrading our current QB 2007 company files to QB 2010.

Since we use the multi-currency capabilities of QB, we needed to wait until the 2010 version became available as the earlier versions of the new code base did not support multi-currency.

So, the verdict?

We lose all of our custom forms and templates. As far as the data is concerned, we need to dig in a bit deeper yet to see if anything was broken in the process.

So, we will hold off a bit longer on the upgrade for our production bookkeeping until things slow down a little more and we have finished migrating our own SBS network to SBS 2008.

As a result, time needs to be budgeted for rebuilding those forms when upgrading from earlier versions of QuickBooks.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 23 June 2010

QB Network Issues? Use the QuickBooks Connection Diagnostic Tool

There are times where troubleshooting a client’s QuickBooks Multi-User Mode connectivity problems can be a real rat’s nest.

This little tool is _extremely_ helpful in providing feedback on where things are broken.

Note that an e-mail address and an agreement to the Terms & Conditions for the tool will be required before gaining access to the download.

Once the tool is downloaded and the install routine is complete, an icon for the tool will be placed on the desktop.

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Make sure to elevate when running the tool by right clicking on the icon and left clicking on Run As Administrator. Otherwise:

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Once the tool loads, we see the following GUI:

image

Click the Browse button under the Test connectivity section to navigate to the network located QuickBooks company file.

Click the Test Connectivity button and a series of tests will be run to verify that the tool can connect to the file and subsequently open it in shared mode.

Given that QuickBooks requires a database TSR on the server to manage database connections to the company file, any firewall exceptions that need to be made on SBS 2008 or Windows Server 2008 and up will show up as a failed to connect error.

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We do the following to make sure that the QuickBooks database management setup has exceptions in the SBS 2008 or Windows Server 2008 Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

We add the following port exceptions on the server (click to see the full shot):

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  • Program Allow: QBCFMonitorService.exe
  • Program Allow: QBDBMgrN.exe

Be mindful that any updates to the two QuickBooks service on the server may break the rules. A recycle of the services after an update plus a test connection via client based QuickBooks in Multi-User mode will confirm that things are working as they should.

The QuickBooks Connection Diagnostic Tool can do the same without needing any QB logon or password information.

Caveat: The tool will only work if QuickBooks is installed on the machine or VM being used to test the connection!

Further reading:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Please Support Eric Ligman By Filling Out A Quick Survey

Eric Ligman has helped the SMB community significantly.

His blog posts on navigating the sometimes confusing waters of Microsoft Licensing are awesome.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Tuesday 22 June 2010

In Between Visits

This critter decided to take a rest on the riverside platform's pile where I stopped to eat and take a break.

It's a marmot according to a fellow on the platform with me.

Late flower blooms here too so the area smells wonderful.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for reading!

Philip

Sent from my SBS Integrated Windows Mobile® phone.
--
ExchangeDefender Message Security provided by MPECS Inc: Click below to verify authenticity
http://www.exchangedefender.com/verify.asp?id=o5MLLXW2000726&from=philipelder@mpecsinc.ca

Cloud Hype and a Cause For Pause – OWN, Microsoft, and Intuit

I have always been a bit of a sceptic. From business to life, one needs to be very careful about giving one’s word and accepting another’s.

In business, we have business relationships that have been built up over the years. Our longest standing client relationship is now running over 11 years!

In those business relationships, we have built up a strong trust between us and our client contacts and business owners.

As a result, we have an understanding with our ongoing clients that sometimes things do not work out quite the way we would expect them to. For the most part, when things don’t work, the problems tend to last hours instead of days and we do our best to make up for any lost time.

In our experience with Cloud vendors such as OWN (our primary Cloud partner), there have been a few service related issues causing slow downs, but so far we have not seen a complete service outage other than for server/cluster reboots.

As we can see, most of the indicator’s in OWN’s NOC status has to do with ongoing maintenance.

Now, let’s have a look at Microsoft’s Cloud offering in the form of BPOS:

The MOSN RSS link comes to us courtesy of Susan Bradley.

When we look at Microsoft’s RSS feed, we can see that there are a lot of service outage reports.

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From here we look at Intuit’s latest:

In Intuit’s case, this latest outage lasted around 2 days for most customers with some still dealing with issues after that.

The Cause for Pause when it comes to hype about the Cloud is to make sure that the Cloud services we choose on behalf of our clients, or that they choose, are indeed the best option for them.

Microsoft or OWN?

When we look strictly at hosted e-mail and SharePoint, we can see by the above two RSS feeds that OWN provides a far superior uptime and service quality to the Microsoft offering. Yes, OWN has been at it a lot longer than Microsoft . . . and it shows.

Only time will tell if Microsoft’s offering provides the same level of Cloud service performance and stability as OWN’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint solution does.

Intuit

Part of any evaluation is to look at the costs associated with being disconnected from those Cloud based services.

For folks needing to process payroll during that two day outage at Intuit Online, there was probably a lot of nail biting going on by both management and their employees.

On top of payroll, any inventory, sales, or other business related activities would have been impacted. Calculating the lost time and revenues for these business aspects can be very difficult.

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Internet Connection

If a client’s Internet connection goes down and they are totally cut off from the Internet, the cost associated with this type of service outage needs to be considered. A USB modem via cellular or other wireless form of Internet connection for critical PCs may be an alternative backup plan.

Conclusion

Just as it is with any other new technology, we need to test and make sure that any Cloud based service will follow through on its promises.

We need to dig deep into a Cloud based vendor’s reputation or lack thereof and find out if they really follow through on their commitment to provide good value and trouble free services.

Since the Cloud is a relatively new push, we are seeing a rush of new vendors vying for a piece of the Cloud pie. These new vendors are essentially untested technologies and should be approached as such . . . with great scepticism and caution on behalf of our clients.

And finally, the question to ask any business owner is, “How long can your business be down before the possibility of closing the doors looms?”

Obviously this question must include _all_ aspects of a business’s processes to provide a thorough answer not just the usage of Cloud based technologies.

Some light reading:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

David Moisan & SATV – A Good Glimpse Into A Non-Profit’s Technology Needs

David Moisan is the IT Director for Salem Access TV in Salem Mass.

We have crossed paths over the last number of years due to SATV’s running SBS as their principle server.

Lately, David has had some very good blog posts on the need for technology in his organization. He provides some good insight into the how they use technology and why they need it.

He also speaks to the juggling that a non-profit has to do in order to finance their needed technology.

David’s blog:

Some of his SATV technology posts that are excellent reads:

Contributing To Our Communities

We deal with a number of local as well as remote non-profit clients. We get to see first-hand just how difficult it is for them to make any real advances in their technology usage due to financial restraints.

For us as IT providers, we need to give back to our communities. One way to do so is to contribute in some way to a non-profit’s technology needs. We can do so by donating some of our technician’s time, giving significantly reduced labour rates, or by offering technology to them at little or no cost.

It is up to us to choose which non-profit’s mission statement and services best fit with our own business vision then create an offering plan that works and make contact with the Executive Director of the organization.

In the end, we both benefit from helping them out.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Monday 21 June 2010

SBS 2008 – Exchange SP 3 Is On, Now What?

Microsoft has released Exchange 2007 SP 3.

Now, with Exchange 2007 SP2 we needed to download a special wrapper for SBS 2008 so that the Exchange SP did not break anything.

When we read through the KB on the new SP, we can see that it is clearly indicated that Exchange 2007 SP3 will install on a production SBS 2008 without needing to do much beyond disabling the Forefront services if present.

Note that the Service Pack should be applied after running the Getting Started Tasks Wizards to avoid complications in IIS on SBS.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday 18 June 2010

Channel 9: Top 5 Features in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

If you have a few minutes to kill and would like to have a look at some of the new features in PowerPoint 2010, then check out this Channel 9 video:

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Doug Thomas who is a content producer for Office.com goes through and explains each of the key features now included in PowerPoint.

The video is also a good place to send client users when it comes time to introduce them to PowerPoint 2010 and its new features.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Travel? AAA/CAA (AMA in AB) has Excellent Travel Insurance Plans

Just before our last family trip outside of Canada, I was chatting with a friend of mine, Kevin Atkey, about the flight costs and the travel insurance costs associated with the online vendors.

Up to that point, I had a number of trips into the US under my belt with the online merchant’s travel insurance being purchased for each trip.

He asked if I had an AMA (Alberta Motor Association) membership which I do for both Monique and myself. He indicated that he had an annual travel insurance plan that covered his whole family for any travel in the year of coverage for a very reasonable rate.

On my next visit to AMA I found out that the cost to cover my family for one year for any trip up to 15 days in length over that year of coverage cost the same as the sum of the previous two online merchant travel insurance packages.

Oops . . .

So, we picked up a family package that included the 15 days of travel coverage for medical, extraneous medical, dental, and more. The plan includes an option to extend coverage beyond the arbitrary 15 day limit on this particular plan as long as the exception is coordinated ahead of time.

Sometimes, the obvious is completely missed as was the case here. Fortunately, the cost of not asking the right people the right questions was minimal.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday 17 June 2010

SBS – Setting WSUS Synchronization Frequency

In our SBS 2008 Setup Guide V1.5.0 at step 22 we indicate some customizations to the WSUS setup.

  • 22: Make changes to the WSUS Setup:
    • WSUS Classifications: Enable all except Drivers.
    • WSUS Sync Schedule: Increase synchronization frequency schedule depending on what products are installed on the server.

If we have Forefront Server Security for Microsoft Exchange licensed on the SBS 2008 box, we would set a synchronization schedule of once per hour.

Now, since we use ExchangeDefender for our e-mail sanitation needs, we generally do not need to synchronize WSUS with such frequency as Forefront would not be installed.

However, we tend to set that frequency to at least 6 checks per day which equates to synchronizing every 4 hours.

Why?

In the above blog post, Damian examines an issue with a SVCHOST process causing a spike in the SBS server’s CPU.

After some troubleshooting by Damian, the problem turned out to be the Windows Update client and a series of Forefront updates.

Here is another WSUS update related issue that hit us:

So, when a problem fix is published by Microsoft to WSUS, it will not hit SBS until the next scheduled sync. The default is 1 sync per day (24 hours).

Our setting the WSUS sync schedule to every 4 hours is our attempt to mitigate any possible problems we may encounter.

WSUS Driver Classifications

As far as not allowing drivers to come down through WSUS, we do this for heterogeneous networks that still have Windows XP Professional installed on physical hardware.

For homogeneous Windows 7 networks, which are starting to be the norm, we enable the Drivers classification as the drivers delivered have been consistently stable in both the update process and in post update system stability.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Mitch Garvis Presenting at EMUG Tonight: Windows Desktop Deployment Made Easy: Light-Touch Installation from start to finish

Fellow MVP Mitch Garvis will be presenting at the Edmonton Microsoft User Group this evening.

For those that have not been present for any of Mitch’s presentations, he has a very engaging presentation technique.

His content is always relevant and he is an awesome speaker.

One of his blog posts that is a really good read on the recent “lost” Apple iPhone 4G debacle and Gizmodo:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 16 June 2010

USB 3.0 – Is It Worth It?

We are gearing up to do some testing here in the shop of some new USB 3.0 gear.

The components:

We will use a standard 7200 RPM Seagate SATA drive to provide the baseline for performance. We will then use a Western Digital 150GB VelociRaptor and an Intel 80GB G2 code SSD drive to push the USB 3.0 bus to its limits.

We already know that USB 2.0 gives us a real world throughput of about 35MB/second.

We have seen eSATA give us around 60-70MB/second in our own real world testing and usage of the connection.

So, we look forward to seeing if USB 3.0 is all its cut out to be.

Once we have a good idea of what the speed advantages are, we will install the Vantec USB 3.0 PCI-E Host Card into one of our lab servers with an SBS 2008 OS installed. We will configure the SBS Backup to run once an hour. Hopefully we will be able to gain some insight as to whether the Vantec card will work with our servers.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday 10 June 2010

Ever see what a 3D printer can do for prototyping?

We are doing a bit of research on 3D scanning and reproduction.

This is some pretty neat stuff:

The above video gives us a pretty good idea of where the technology has gone since the last time we were researching solid printing on behalf of a client.

Essentially, anyone looking to develop a product prototype with the need to conceptualize the finished form of that product, this technology is a perfect fit.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 9 June 2010

OWN Hosted Services – Network Operations Status RSS Feed

For those I.T. providers that have partnered up with OWN for hosted services along with ExchangeDefender services, OWN’s NOC (Network Operations Centre) RSS feed is a must.

We have subscribed to the feed on our workstations as well as Windows Mobile phones so that we can be aware of any service issues that may impact our clients.

We use OWN to provide the following Cloud services to our clients:

  • Hosted Exchange via Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTPS).
    • Includes Public Folders if needed.
    • Also includes a dedicated SharePoint site.
    • Protected by ExchangeDefender too.
  • Hosted off-site backups.
  • E-mail sanitation and continuity services via ExchangeDefender.
    • E-mail sanitation and reporting to the end user is second to none.
    • LiveArchive feature gives clients access to legit e-mails up to a year or more after the e-mail date.
    • LiveArchive feature provides access to legitimate e-mail if the in-house Exchange server is down.
  • Hosted SharePoint
    • Our own Web site runs on OWN’s SharePoint services.

The hosted services prices are quite reasonable for the level of service we receive from OWN.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Neat Tech – American Journey 2.0 – Make Magazine contest winners build a Caravan Track app for Ford’s Sync powered by Microsoft

This is pretty neat.

Folks were invited to develop an app for the Sync platform that is powered by Microsoft and found in many of Ford’s current vehicles.

The winning group of students built a social media integrated application for tracking a caravan of vehicles.

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We can see a lot of great uses for this application.

Very well done and congratulations to Team Bobcat on the win.

From the above article on the team:

John Ciccone, Collin Hockey, Sangmi Park and Joe Phillips make up Team Bobcat, the student think tank that came up with Caravan Track, the winning application of the American Journey 2.0 open innovation research project between Ford and the University of Michigan.

Caravan Track allows a cluster of vehicles traveling together to track each other along the journey. The application was installed in a 2011 Ford Fiesta for the ultimate test drive to the 2010 Maker Faire in California.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Have U Rebooted Yet – Comic by fellow MVP Tim Barrett

Tim Barrett has a pretty neat little comic strip he publishes on his blog NoGeekLeftBehind called Have U Rebooted Yet.

This latest one really describes a lot of the angst in the SMB/SBS community:

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Check some of the other comics as they can be both quite funny and very astute in their comment on our industry as in #18 above.

Some of my favourites:

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Good job Tim! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Office 2010 Home Use Program Site

The Microsoft Licensing console has an old URL that still indicates Office 2007 for HUP.

The correct site is:

This site will give eligible users the ability to obtain their Home Use Program version of Office.

Essentially, any company that has Software Assurance on their Microsoft Office products gives that company the ability to have their users obtain a copy of Office for their home computer for a small shipping fee.

A two for one deal if you will.

With users working with Office 2010 at home, their familiarity with the product grows a lot faster than if they were only using it at work.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer