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.

• SBS 2008 - WSUS Synchronizations and Exchange

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?

• The Official SBS Blog: Case in the Corner Series: Spiking CPU

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:

• The Official SBS Blog: Windows SBS 2003 Update Services Gives Error- The Element Already Exists in the Collection

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.

• Click to Attend: Windows Desktop Deployment Made Easy: Light-Touch Installation from start to finish

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:

• Mitch Garvis: Take Responsibility

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

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:

• Vantec 2-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI-E Host Card
• A SATA power connector is needed to power this card.
• Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock SuperSpeed

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

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

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.

• OWN NOC RSS Feed

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.

•  Make Magazine: American Journey 2.0

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:

• Original: Have U Rebooted Yet - 018 - Windows Roadmap

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.

• NoGeekLeftBehind Category: Have U Rebooted Yet

Some of my favourites:

• Have U Rebooted Yet – 017 – P2V

• Have U Rebooted Yet - 015 - The Cemetery

• Have U Rebooted Yet – 010

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:

• HUP Program Web site

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

• HUP Information Site

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

Light Posting For The Next Couple Of Weeks

Folks, we have been running at 110% for the last two years straight.

We are fortunate that we have a bit of time in between now and our next series of large projects.

So, we are going to step back a bit for the next couple of weeks.

We will be spending time with our families and enjoying some of the beautiful weather as well as some neat surprises for our kids!

Thanks for your support and for reading this blog on an ongoing basis.

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

SBS 2008 Install – No NIC Found For Xeon Processor 5600 Or Xeon 3400 Series Servers

We have found that SBS 2008 RTM or SBS 2008 with SP2 slipstreamed into the media will not find some of the newer Intel based NICs in our newer Xeon 5500/5600 and Xeon 3400 Series servers.

On one of our recent Answer File installs we were greeted with the following screen the next day:

Install Windows Small Business Server 2008

A network adapter was not found

We plugged in a USB flash drive that had the most current Intel ProSet driver executable on it.

We then clicked the Browse link shown in the screenshot above.

We navigated to the USB flash drive and double clicked on the ProSet file. Once the driver install routine spooled up, we made sure to select only the NIC Driver.

We were then saw:

Once the NIC drivers were set our SBS install routine continued on from there:

When we have a bit of time we will use the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Win 7) to inject the new Intel Pro Set drivers into the SBS 2008 SP2 WIM and burn a new DVD thus eliminating any further install interruptions.

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

Troubleshooting Flaky Systems Behaviours

Sometimes, we need to learn lessons the hard way.

I remember replacing the rear end on a 1500 series truck (mine) due to a major squealing sound that did not go away _after_ the change out. The problem turned out to be the hanger bearing. Lesson learned.

When it comes to computers, there is the workstation that behaves rather erratically over time. We would go through the regular troubleshooting steps looking in common problem areas such as software conflicts, memory issues, or physical problems on the hard drive’s platters.

Or, how about the printer that behaves fine for a number of days then stops responding or prints out funky characters instead of the page(s) sent to the printer.

The lesson being highlighted here has to do with starting with troubleshooting the small things first.

One of the small things that is common to both IT related problems listed above was that the interface cable turned out to be the culprit.

In the first example where the workstation was behaving flaky, the SATA cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard turned out to be the problem.

For the printer, the USB cable connecting the printer to its workstation was the problem.

It is probably due to just how rare a cable turns out to be the culprit in a problematic setup that we overlook changing them out as part of our early troubleshooting steps. We usually go to some fairly great lengths to troubleshoot a problem before a cable even becomes a consideration.

So, sometimes, depending on the errant behaviour, it may be a good idea to actually _start_ by swapping out whatever interface cable or cables. We can then eliminate them right out of the box.

BTW, when it comes to USB cables and printers, watch the length of that USB cable relative to the cable’s diameter. If there is a need to run a cable longer than the standard 6’, then make sure that the extra length cable contains a heavier gauge core cable set to reduce the possibility of signal loss between the PC and the printer.

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

Clients And The Cloud

We have been hearing a lot lately about the demise of the in-house IT model and how everything is going to shift into the cloud.

We are hearing this from business leaders, technology gurus, and even surveys.

So, what do our clients really say?

Do they know what HaaS and SaaS mean? Do they know what Cloud means?

Is there an understanding that in-house is the “Buy” model versus the Cloud’s “Lease” model?

And ultimately, will the Cloud really be cheaper than in-house?

In the long run, there is going to be a lot of jostling for our client’s e-mail and data. Control those and there is no turning back.

There are a lot of honest questions that need to be asked without the hype surrounding things.

Those questions are ultimately tied into what is best for our clients.

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

What Facebook Privacy? Search & See What’s Public and A Facebook Profile Delete Method

Here is an interesting read on Mark Zuckerberg’s possible view on Facebook user’s privacy:

• Business Insider SAI: Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won't Help Facebook's Privacy Problems

As with anything, the above IM conversation content may be taken out of context, but given Facebook’s history with user content privacy there may be shreds of truth in the attitude indicated.

An interesting site that polls Facebook for publically available information:

• Openbook: YourOpenBook.org
• Note that a random search word set will bring up results when the page first loads.
• The search terms and the results can be surprising and even a bit shocking in what they reveal.
• About Openbook

A Facebook Group page dedicated to deleting a Facebook account:

• How to permanently delete your facebook account.

If there is one rule of thumb for the Internet it is that anything published to the Internet can never be taken back.

As a result, _everything_ that we do from the moment we start publishing on the Internet whether via Twitter, Facebook, or other online venue needs to be carefully considered.

For example, someone applying for a job may not remember a big party from a few years ago. But, a prospective employer found the descriptions and _pictures_ of the “fun” that night via an online forum. Depending on the employer, the activities of that evening may very well weigh in on their hiring deliberations.

Given Facebook’s history with “private” bits published on their site, and the Terms & Conditions on many other sites that can hold our data, we need to be truly “Internet Street Smart”. Essentially, that means that we read those T&Cs and keep close track of any site’s data privacy settings and what those settings do.

If we don’t agree with with the T&Cs as well as the site’s privacy policy, then we don’t sign up.

Hat tip: Derek Knight.

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

Unicode Characters – The Interrobang?!?

I am into cars as has been mentioned in this blog before. Having discovered computers just as I was digging into my last year towards a Journeyman’s ticket as an automotive mechanic, I got the tech bug and never looked back.

We all know where I ended up with that bug now don’t we? ;)

• Image: Jalopnik

While reading the above Jalopnik article on the 2010 Ford Focus RS which looks to be an amazing little car, one of the lines in the article mentioned folks faces personifying the Interrobang (Wikipedia) when they first saw the Focus RS.

Having not heard of such a thing, I ventured over to the Wikipedia article to find the above character.

Ah, the writer in me sees the above character as being _very_ useful for those occasions where “?!?” just won’t cut it or other expressions/acronyms are just not quite polite enough! :)

Now, a neat thing is that Microsoft kindly included the Interrobang in their created for Office default font called Calibri.

This is what the Interrobang looks like in a Web based font: ‽

Note that in Windows Live Writer the character shows up fine. But, it may get toasted by the upload process to Blogger or by Blogger itself when it renders this post.

As mentioned, I see the Interrobang as being very useful for those of us that write. Now that I have discovered it, it will probably find its way into the various writings that I do.

• Unicode General Punctuation Range: 2000-206F (PDF)
• Interrobang: 203D
• MSDN Font Blog: Interrobang?! — Interrobang!?

From the MSDN Font Blog comments comes this little gem from Si:

• Interrobang keyboard shortcuts
• ALT+8253 (numbers on #pad)
• 203D + ALT+X (in Office Apps)

Both shortcuts work quite well. What I did not know was about the second one and how Unicode characters work in Office Applications.

In Microsoft Office type the Unicode string number with the keystroke combination ALT+X after it to bring up the Unicode character. After firing up Word and typing 203D then hitting ALT+X sure enough the Interrobang showed up!

To date, I would either used the ALT+# (not possible on a Microsoft Entertainment keyboard that has no separate number pad) or the Character Map tool in Windows.

Using the Advanced view I can search for a character quickly when I know its name then copy and paste it into my work.

Not bad from one Jalopnik article eh‽ :D

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 – Honda’s U3-X Personal Mobility Prototype

This is just too neat not to share:

The device is a pretty kewl unicycle.

The U3-X, if it goes into production, may be an excellent option for folks that are in need of an ultra portable mobility assistance device when they are out and about.

The U3-X could also be a good thing to have for technicians that need to work long term in a server closet! :)

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