November 2007 - Posts
We kick off December with the first of 25 Christmas / Holiday song parodies.
We start with one of my favorites, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Listen
Said the PC to the little Mac,
Do you see what I see? (Do you see what I see?)
Way up over there, little Mac
Do you see what I see? (Do you see what I see?)
Bill Gates, Bill Gates, working through the night
While he tries to make Windows right,
While he tries to make Windows right.
Said the little Mac to the PC nerd,
Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)
Playing on the TV, PC nerd
Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)
I'm good, I'm great, better than you know
'Cause I don't need DOS, it's too slow
'Cause I don't need DOS to make me go
Said the PC nerd to the mighty king,
Do you know what I know? (Do you know what I know?)
While you stay in Redmond, mighty king
Do you know what I know? (Do you know what I know?)
The Mac, the Mac, simply has to go
Let us see how it works in the cold,
Let us throw it out in the snow
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say (listen to what I say)
Power off your Macs everywhere
Listen to what I say (listen to what I say)
It's time, it's time, the time is finally right,
Let us bring out Vista tonight
Let us bring out Vista tonight!
For several years, there has been an on going discussion on whether or not to enable the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file for an SBS server. By and far, the consensus of opinion has been to NOT use the /3GB option - especially considering that WSS 2.0 or later versions do not support the /3GB switch.
And, finally, this KB article includes a lot of additional information on the /3GB issue (with thanks to SG for the reminder!):
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/06/30/439628.aspx
Vista handles self-signed certificates differently than XP. If you don't set it up properly, RPC over HTTPS will not work properly for you. Here's what to do:
1. Run IE as an administrator (Right click on IE, sleect 'run as administrator'
2. Enter the https URL you wish to visit
3. Click through the certificate error
4. Click the Certificate Error button in the address bar
5. Click View Certificate, then click Install Certificate
6. Click 'Place all certificates in the following store' option and then choose the 'Trusted Root Certification Authorities'
Step 6 is the key. If you choose the option to let it determine the place to store the authority, it will store it in your Personal store, which is not trusted by IE.
And thanks to Russ for the reminder on this procedure!
RWW in SBS 2003 does not allow you to define 'per user' restrictions. Here's an interesting work around if you want to ensure that a particular user can only access specific computers:
1. Go to: Server Management | Standard Management | Users | (rt click) the user account | Properties | Account (tab) | Log On To... | The Following
Computers...
2. Then add the target member server to the list AND also add the SBS server. You need the SBS server specified so that the user can authenticate to the
server when logging into RWW (however, he will not be able to log onto the SBS server itself).
3. The user will "see" all workstations (and the member server) in the RWW list of computers, but will only be able to log onto the member server itself.
But there's even more information, if you go to the actual newsgroup thread that this information was pulled from.
Cheers!
I'm sure this is posted in other blogs, but just in case ... if you are running SBS2003 and ISA2004, after installing ISA's service pack (SP2 or SP3), you may find that you can no longer access iTune's store. The reason is that with ISA 2004 SP2, users had to disable the compression filter. But with SP3 you have to turn it back on.
The cause of the problem is that iTune sends back compressed HTML data, whether or not you (as the client) requested compressed data. You can see the error if you monitor activity from the ISA management console. You will see the following failed connection in the ISA logs:
Log type: Web Proxy (Forward) Status: 50 The request is not supported. Rule: SBS Internet Access Rule Source: Internal Destination: External (xx.xx.xx.xx:80) Request: GET http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/........
You can fix the problem in two easy steps through the ISA Management Console:
1. Enable compression - on the left frame drill down Configuration > Add-Ins, right click on Compression Filter, click Enable, then click Apply along the top
2. Identify the iTunes Servers to ISA: on the left frame click on Configuration > General. Click on the Define HTTP Compression Preferences in the middle frame. Click Add to add a new computer set. Name the new set iTunes (or iTunes Servers). Click on the Add button and then add in the following IP ranges:
17.250.236.0-17.250.236.255
67.28.122.0-67.28.122.255
69.44.123.0-69.44.123.255
89.149.169.80-89.149.169.97
194.109.192.0-194.109.192.255
207.138.126.0-207.138.126.255
Click on Apply and you should be good to go.
Note: iTunes will frequently use different IP ranges. So, if access to the iTune store stops working in the future, simply monitor ISA for the IP range being used, and then add the new IP address range to the computer set.
Hope this helps!
Just as a reminder ... if installing W2K3 SP2 on an SBS 2003 box, there is a Microsoft KB article (555912) outlining some "known issues" and how to resolve/fix them: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555912
Lookout was a marvelous tool for quickly searching through Outlook email and local files fast. It was a mainstay of every computer I used. That is, until Office 2007 came along, and Lookout would not work.
I was recently pointed to Lookeen as a possible replacement product for Lookout. It's still in beta, but you may find you like it!
http://www.lookeen.net/en/2,0/Product.html
If I had not already stepped up to the plate, and converted my primary workstation to Vista, I would not be writing this post (see http://msmvps.com/blogs/kwsupport/archive/2007/07/02/vista-sbs2003-and-the-4th-of-july.aspx).
I think once in awhile it's good to laugh at one's self. And since I am using Vista (and like it!), I feel I can offer this Vista chuckle for the day:
http://blip.tv/file/340692
-kw
It's always good to remember that various documents exisit for the SBS environment.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx
For example, here's how to hook up a member server to an SBS network:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62145
Microsoft officially announced the big brother to SBS --- Windows Essential Business Server 2008. This is SBS for the mid-sized companies, and will use e a minimum of three servers.
http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/11/07/5955270.aspx