October 2006 - Posts
We take a break from my usual "song of the week" postings to introduce you to Aileen Paron. She is the wife of one of the SBS good guys at Microsoft - Dean Paron. Anyway, here is a link to her latest CD and some clips of her songs. Enjoy!
http://www.aileenparon.com
For those with MSDN or Action Pack subscriptions, you will soon see ISA 2006 showing up on your doorsteps. A normal (?) question may be: can I install ISA 2006 on my SBS server? One answer is: "Sure, you can do anything you want." But that would not be the right answer. The right answer is: "No way, Jose!"
Why? Because you not only break your EULA agreement, but more importantly, you'll break CEICW by installing ISA 2006 on your SBS server.
However, with ISA 2006 there is a new ISA Firewall Client that works with ISA 2006, ISA 2004 and ISA 2000, and it works on both 32 and 64 bit workstations. You can download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=45855498-66BA-43D3-A8F1-37837D380389
And you can find out how to distribute it to your users here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/isa/2006/firewall_client_share.mspx
Please note: when I tried installing the new Firewall Client, I had to uninstall the current Firewall Client first, and then make sure that Outlook and all IE windows were closed. I also had to reboot the workstations after installing the new FW Client.
Billy Joel's hit song, Piano Man, is a favorite with many groups. Hard to believe that it was 30 years ago that it came out. Like the Piano Man, we deal with all sorts of customers and users, who all have a problem to tell us or a story to tell. So, let's start singin'!
Piano Man
Its nine o'clock on a Tuesday morn
My emails have all shuffled in
The Action Pack disks are still next to me
And I wonder just where to begin
The voice mail says, "We've been down all night"
I'm not really sure what went wrong
But they're mad and upset, and want it fixed right
And I said, "It won't take me long"
La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da
Chorus:
Sing us a song, you're the 'puter man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, were all in the mood for a story or two
And you've got us feelin alright
Now John at the office is a friend of mine
He usually changes the tapes
But yesterday came, but the tapes they weren't changed
And now we've got a real mess
He says, Hey, I know this is killing you
As the smile ran away from his face
Well I'm sure that I could be a happy man
If I could get out of this place
Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da
Now Susie, I ask, where's our backup disks
The one's I gave you last week?
And she gives me a look, staring out into space
That says she hasn't a clue
Now their boss is screaming "I need it fixed"
When I suddenly discover the cause:
While John and Susie were having some fun,
The power cord got pulled from the wall!
Chorus:
Sing us a song, you're the 'puter man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, were all in the mood for a story or two
And you've got us feelin alright
I keep thinking about trying out those devices, like Netgear's HomePlug adaptors, that turns an electrical outlet into a broadband Ethernet port for room to room LAN conectivity without running Ethernet cabling!
If you're interested in doing this as well, I just came across a "don't do what I did" reminder: don't plug these adaptors into a surge protector. The surge protector blocks the surges ... which is exactly what is used to transmit the data!
A freqently asked question on the newsgroups is: "How do I prevent certain computers from showing up in the list of computers when using RWW?".
Well, Microsoft's TechNet provides a list of registry keys/values that can be modified via Regedit here: Click here
Wayne Small provides the specific answer to hiding certain computers from showing up in RWW here: Click here
1. From your server, run Regedit and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\RemoteUserPortal
2. From the Edit menu, click New > String Value
3. Give the string value a name of ExcludeList (with no space) and press Enter
4. Right click on the new field, and select Modify
5. Add the names of the machines you wish to hide, spearated by a comma.