KWSupport

SBS2008 Wow Fact #1

kwsupport — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:33:00 GMT

I'm sure everyone will have (or should have) their own list of things that they really like about SBS2008. Consultants will find things that benefit a sale or installation, whereas an IT professional or an office person using SBS every day will find other things that are attractive to them. My list of SBS 2008 WOW factors tend to be right down the middle ... some have the end user in mind, while others will have either the IT administrator or consultant in mind. With each WOW factor, I will also point out things that are lacking or missing. Perhaps some of these items can make it into a future service pack or R2 release.

The very first WOW factor on my list has to be the improved OWA (Outlook Web Access). I used OWA in SBS 2003 quite a bit. But whenever I showed it to a customer, my conversation usually went something like this: "Yes, there is a web version of Outlook available in SBS. It's called OWA, but you really only want to use it to view and reply to incoming emails ...". I then went on to tell them more about the limitations in OWA, such as the effort required to find contacts or access public folders, rather than the features of OWA.

Although OWA in Exchange 2007 is still not perfect, it's come a long way, baby, from its 2003 days. The UI is cleaner and resembles Outlook 2007. Searching for contacts is easier, it interfaces with Sharepoint, and you can easily access other user's mailboxes without having to logoff. Additionally, the ability to create and manage Rooms and Equipment as users will be well received by many of my customers. The calendar interface has been completely redesigned.

What's missing? My number one complaint with Exchange 2007 / Outlook 2007/ OWA 2007 is the lack of an integrated, single source signature system for end users. A user should not have to set up their signature in Outlook, only to have to setit up again in OWA or in Outlook on a Terminal Server. For now, we must still rely on third party solutions from companies such as Symprex or Exclaimer.

Want to learn more about OWA 2007 in SBS? Check out these links:

Client Features in OWA
New Features in OWA 2007 (pdf)

Microsoft OfficeLive eBooks

kwsupport — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Microsoft has two eBooks (PDF format) that are available for download:

Build A Website That Sells

Take, Manage, and Grow Your Business Online
Microsoft Office Live Small Business and Entrepreneur Magazine are committed to helping entrepreneurs start and nurture their businesses by providing solutions that can be put into action immediately. Get your free copy of "Build A Website That Sells: 10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Website." This 54-page downloadable e-book in PDF format includes tips, techniques, and tools to help you design an effective and engaging Web site.

Microsoft OfficeLive Small Business

Microsoft Office Live Small Business services basically is a set of Internet tools that can help small businesses owner setup and get an online business up and running quickly and easily– all you need is a computer and an Internet connection. Over the Microsoft Office Live Small Business eBook, small business owner can understand more about Microsoft Office Live Small Business internet tools and how to use Microsoft Office Live small business internet tools to build your e-business online. Meanwhile, this ebook also teach how to do online marketing to boost your business over the web. if you interest build your online business with Office Live Small business services, you can download this Microsoft Office Live Small Business eBook (in PDF) first and understand their services. However, the free eBook is available until October 19, 2008 only.

SBS2008 - Get on the Bandwagon!

kwsupport — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:10:00 GMT

I arrived home last night at 9pm after attending a week long in-depth training session on the new Windows SBS 2008 Server platform. My interest level in SBS 2008 might have been described as lukewarm, at best, prior to this week. But now I can't wait to get some customers on board with this latest version of SBS.

As I write this post, I'm thinking of the scene in The Music Man, where all the town folk are lined up along the side of the street in anticipation of the Wells Fargo Wagon arriving bringing the brand new band instruments. And the anticipation builds and builds!

I see this SBS 2008 release in a similar light to convincing the people in the town of River City, Iowa to invest in the purchase of band instruments for their children. SBS 2008 may look like just another server release without a lost of sizzle and "wow" factors on the outside. But once you touch it, hold it, and start working with it, there are many things that will catch your interest, and perhaps say, "Wow, this is exactly what my customer has been asking for!".

What are some of those "Wow" factors?

Well, you're going to have to stay tuned for further posts from me this week to see my list of "Wow" factors. Meanwhile, you can start humming along: "Oh, oh, the Wells Fargo wagon is a-coming down the street..."

ThirdTier Press Release

kwsupport — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:53:00 GMT

Two great friends and fellow MVP's - Amy Babinchak and Eriq Neale - have combined forces to start ThirdTier, a new business venture providing support to the IT professionals in the SMB marketplace. Here is their press release:

Eriq Neale and I have launched a new company today. It’s called Third Tier. The company formalizes the remote support services that we have both been offering from some time. We will be adding subject matter experts to cover a wide variety of software in use today at the SMB.

Support Services for IT Professionals

Press Release

Contact: Amy Babinchak

Phone: (248) 890-1794

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 3, 2008

IT Support Services for Professionals

Royal Oak, MI, October 3, 2008: Amy Babinchak and Eriq Neale, MS MVP’s, Authors and Speakers, have teamed up in a new business venture to provide remote support services to IT professionals. By formalizing and centralizing the remote support services of highly skilled professionals across a wide range of products ThirdTier.net will be the place where IT professionals turn to when they need assistance to resolve that tough problem for their client. Third Tier will also offer SMB focused vendors the solution to the difficult problem of supporting a wide variety of skill sets in the SMB market space, thus making it easier for them to offer their products to small business customers.

· Central location for IT Professionals to contract experts on a wide variety of technologies to remotely assist in problem resolution.

· Experts providing vendors the solution to product support in the SMB market space.

Uninstalling ISA 2004 from SBS 2003

kwsupport — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:19:00 GMT

As you may know, SBS 2008 will be released on Nov 12, 2008. Migrating from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 will require some work and planning. For sites running SBS 2003 Premium with ISA 2004, you have some additional prep work. You will need to uninstall ISA 2004 and disable or remove your 2nd NIC prior to starting your migration from SBS2003 to SBS2008. But, this is not as daunting of a task as you may think. In fact, I just did it this weekend on my own internal SBS 2003 production server.

Blog History:
1.0 Original blog
1.1 Information on uninstalling the Firewall client from workstations has been expanded and moved to Step 2 in the process.
1.2 Add Step 12 to address issues with self-signed cert and remote access (RWW, ActivySync, etc.)
1.3 Add information in Step 2 on uninstalling ISA Firewall client "quietly".
1.4 Add information on Trend Micro/other 3rd party software

Some preliminary notes before we begin:

Note 1. With ISA 2004 we use two NIC's. I refer to the 1st NIC as the External NIC, that is, the one connected to the router. This NIC uses the IP range of the router. Let's assume that IP range is 192.168.1.x.

Note 2. I refer to the 2nd NIC as the Internal NIC, that is, the one connected to the switch/hub for your internal LAN. A separate IP range is used for this second NIC. I generally use a 10.0.0.x range, while others may use 192.168.16.x or something else.

Note 3. The process I describe will result in using the external 1st NIC as our only NIC and disabling or eventually removing the 2nd NIC. This means that all of our internal workstations, WAP's and network printers will be be assigned IP addresses using the IP range of the first NIC.

Note 4. Finally, after disabling the 2nd NIC, we will need to move around some cables between your serverm your switch and your router.

Uninstalling ISA 2004:

1. As always, make sure you have a full backup of your SBS2003 server. An image backup is best (IMHO). After backing up, reboot your server and make sure there's no event errors you need to address before proceeding.

2. While the server is backing up, this would be a good time to go around and uninstall the Microsoft ISA Firewall Client from each workstation.
- If you only have a small number of workstations, you can uninstall the Firewall client via Add/Remove Programs on each workstation.
- However, you can also do this via a command line that you could place in a batch file and run from each workstation. Thuis will uninstall ISA Firewall Client "quietly". See the Microsoft Technet article for more information.
- Some people have reported that you may issues with uninstalling the Firewall Client if you wait until after you uninstall ISA itself.
- Also, it has been reported that if several users log onto the same workstation, uninstalling the Firewall client does not clear the proxy settings in IE for the additional users.

3. Uninstall ISA 2004 from Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. NOTE: if you are not able to uninstall ISA, see the Troubleshooting remarks at the end.

4. Towards the end of the uninstall process, you will be automatically prompted to run the CEICW wizard. As you step through the CEICW (Connect to Internet Wizard), I suggest using all the default options provided. This will configure your server to still use both NIC cards, and configure the Microsoft Firewall. You may be wondering why we don't configure CEICW right away to only use one NIC. Call me old fashion, but I like doing one thing at a time. In this case, we will uninstall ISA and make sure the server is working and then proceed to remove the second NIC.

5. After uninstalling ISA 2004 and reconfiguring CEICW you should be prompted to reboot the server. Even if you are not, you should reboot the server, and verify the server is functioning properly.

6. After rebooting the server, rerun CEICW. From the Broadband connection screen, you will want to select the 'My Server uses a local router' option instead of the 'Direct broadband' option, in order to tell the wizard you want to use only one NIC card. Be sure to have your ISP's DNS IP addresses availble to enter when requested. You will get a pop-up box along the way warning you that you are using one NIC, and therefore the SBS firewall cannot be configured. Click to proceed.

7. Once CEICW has been reconfigured, you can disable the 2nd NIC and then reconfigure your network setup. First take the cable that's currently plugged into your server's first NIC, and plug it into an available slot on your internal LAN switch. Then move the cable that's plugged into your server's 2nd NIC and plug it into the 1st NIC. What we now have is that all of your workstations and server are still plugged into the switch, and the switch is connected to the router.

Alternatively, if your router has an unused additional LAN port, you could have left the setup with your 1st NIC alone, and simply unplug the cable from the 2nd NIC into the available port on your router.

8. You are now ready to reboot your server one more time.

9. After the server comes up, be sure to review and change your Network Bindings configuration on your server. Go to My Network Places > View Network Connections Connections, then click Advanced > Advanced Settings. Make sure your 1st NIC is listed fiirstingm and that it has File & Printer Sharing and Client for Microsoft Networks binding enabled. Remove those bindings for your 2nd NIC, which is now disabled.

10. If you have network devices that were assigned static internal IP addresses (such as network printers or wireless access points), you will need to go in and reconfigure DHCP and adjust your DHCP range accordingly, and then go to each network device and reconfigure their new IP address.

11. Go around and reboot each workstation or network device, and verify that they all communicate back to the server. Check IE settings to ensure that proxy settings have been turned off.

12. Check remote access (RWW, OWA, ActiveSync for cell phones), especially if you are using a self-signed SBS cert. You may need to reload the new cert on laptops and cell phones. If you are stillhaving issues conencting remotely, check IIS on your server. It may have generated a new (second) 'Default Web Site'. Stopping the new one, and starting up the old one will restart remote access.

13. Review and reconfigure any 3rd party software on your server to not use a proxy server. For example, with TrendMicro, you would go to Preferences > Global Setings to turn off proxy server.

ISA 2004 UninstallTroubleshooting:

If you run into problems when uninstalling ISA Server 2004, don't fear. Kevin Royalty offers the following steps:

1. Install and run Microsoft's Windows Installer Cleanup Utility on your SBS server and then reboot your server
2. Reinstall ISA 2004 from the SBS 2003 Premium CD.
3. Note: if you used to have ISA 2000 on this server, you may get an error. You can click OK, and then NO to continue to install ISA 2004 from the SBS SP1 disk 3.
4. Reboot
5. Uninstall ISA 2004
6. you may now return to Step 3 and continue with my instructions.

Hope this helps!
-kw

O Microsoft!

kwsupport — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:27:00 GMT

O Microsoft!

View Video
Format: ???
Duration: 1:36

WHS PowerPack 1 Reminder

kwsupport — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:27:00 GMT

Just a reminder to those of you who were on the WHS PowerPack 1 beta: Remember to uninstall PPK1 beta, and then after rebooting WHS, be sure to run Windows Update pull down the final release version of Power Pqck 1 (KB944289).

I love my WHS! (And it's saved my "you know what" one more than one occasion)

Enjoy!

SBS2008 and Sharepoint

kwsupport — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:51:00 GMT

I've listened to three live web training sessions on SBS2008 recently. On all three sessions, they had Microsoft Partners share their "real world" customer experiences with the early betas of SBS2008. I was interested (perhaps surprised?) to hear all three Microsoft Partners rank Sharepoint 3.0 as being one of the major hot topics for their customers.

One of the partners emphasized that we should NOT view Sharepoint as an optional extra, just as most of us do not view Exchange as an option to SBs, but an integral part.

If your only experience with Sharepoint ahs been with version 1.x/2.x, perhaps it's time to take a look at Sharepoint 3.0! Did you know it now supports Blogs and Wikis? Or take a Demo tour of Sharepoint 3.0!

Enjoy!

SBS2008 Answer File

kwsupport — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:57:00 GMT

For all of you SBS old timers, one of the new features with SBS 2008 is the Answer File. By using the answer file, not only can you streamline and automate the initial setup of SBS 2008, which speeds up the setup process, but it also allows you to ensure that you setup every customer consistently, and generate a supporting document.

Is it rocket science? No way! But it sure is a great tool to use. For example, by disabling the unattended mode, you can use the answer tool as a way to train a junior employee on the SBS 2008 process. Also, if you wish to use something other than the default .local internal domain suffix, you are required to use the answer file.

So, how do access and use the Answer File generator with SBS 2008? All you need is the first SBS 2008 DVD and a USB key. The Answer File generator (SBSAfg.exe) is found under the Tools\ directory on the DVD, Fill out your answers, and click Save As. The anser file is saved as SBSanswerFile.xml. Copy the XML file to a USB drive (be sure to put it at the root level, and not in a sub folder on the USB drive).

Insert your SBS 2008 DVD and the USB key in the computer to be installed, and boot up from the DVD. Proceed through the initial screens where you make sure you have an initial disk partition prepared. The installation process will automatically look for your answer file and if found, will use the information on it.

What if you have problems or errors in your answer file? No problem! The SBS 2008 nstallation process will stop at any screens where information is either missing or inaccurate, and allow you to fix the problem ommediately. If the error cannot be resolved, you can also select to create and store an error file back to your USB key to review at a later time.

The time saved by using the answer file can be significant. So,be sure to give it a try!

SBS 2008 Song & Dance?

kwsupport — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:32:00 GMT

SBS2008 is quickly rolling through its beta testing and the official release has been set for Nov 12, 2008. So, i thought it would only be appropriate to get people fired up by putting together a small tribute to the past versions of SBS, and a look forward to SBS2008 (with kudo's to the Canadian national anthem). Enjoy!

First, you will want to display or print out the words and music: O Microsoft Lyrics and Songsheet (PDF file)
Then, click on this link to hear the full recording: SBS 2008's O Microsoft! (WMV 9Mb)

P.S. It works best if you sing VERY LOUDLY so as to drown out my voice!

SBS Rocks!
-kw

Windows Search 4 (WS4)

kwsupport — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:22:00 GMT

I never thought I would find myself recommending the Windows Desktop Search utility to anyone. But, perhaps with version 4, they finally are getting it right! The prior version (Windows Desktop Search 3) is now named Windows Search 4. And this is from someone who used the Lookout product for years- that is until Microsoft bought the product, and tried to turn it into MSN Search. I then switched to Lookeen when I moved over to Vista and Office 2007 last year.

I've been running WS4 on my Vista SP1 box for all of 24 hours, but already I can say the improvement over the prior Microsoft versions is noticeable - meaning faster. To give it a fair shake, I completely uninstalled Lookeen from the system. I cannot say yet whether it's as good as Lookeen (or Lookout). So, stay tuned for further updates.

-kw

More on my TrendMicro WFBS Update

kwsupport — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:19:00 GMT

I upgraded my Trend CSM 3.6 to their new Worry-Fress Business Security (WFBS) Advance 5.0 solution for SBS, and like the hero from the movie The Rocketeer, I can say, "I like it!". Without even digging into all the new features, I can say that the spam filtering is much improved, and the Trend console seems snappier and more responsive. The console interface otherwise is the same as before, except with a fresh, up-to-date look to it.

On the new feature side, they have a new 'location awareness' settings for laptops that move around inside and outside the office that I want to try on my laptop. This version also supports Windows Home Server.

The inplace upgrade went very smooth. I simply downloaded and installed WFBS Advance right over my current CSM 3.6 setup. One word of caution: I was installing this via an RDP connection to my SBS server, and perhaps three times during the installation process, it will appear that your RDP connection has been disconnected. Don't do anything - it will resume on its own.

Cheers!
-kw

Trend Micro renames/enhances CSM

kwsupport — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:48:00 GMT

For those of you using Trend Micro's Clent Server Messaging (CSM) suite for your SBS servers, you should know that Trend Micro on June 2, 2008 recently rebranded the CSM product to "Worry-Free Business Security Advanced (WFBS)" and released version 5.0.

If you are using CSM 3.5/3.6 and are under maintenance, you can upgrade to WFBS Advanced at no charge.. Upgrading to WFBS will preserve all your current CSM configuration parameters. Click here for instructions from Trend Micro on how to upgrade to WFBS. To download the WFBS Advance installation file (768MB), click here.

I'll post back after I've installed it on my test server.

-kw

SBS2008 Public Beta now available!

kwsupport — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:56:00 GMT

Wahoo! The public beta of SBS2008 is available as of today (5/28/2008) from the Microsoft download site. If you interested in testing this release candidate, registration is required. Hardware requirements include a 64 bit platform, 4gb memory, and a 60gb hard drive.

Remember ... this is beta software, and is not to be run in a production environment. The purpose of the beta is to get more hands and eyes on the software and to provide feedback to Microsoft.

-kw

SBS Community Survey

kwsupport — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:34:00 GMT

OK, folks, please take 3 minutes and respond to Microsoft's 3rd annual SBS Community Survey. This survey is all about the SBS community, where you find your support, what blogs you find useful, etc. Kevin Beares, who is doing this survey, has done a tremendous work in promoting and supporting SBS through the community, the MVP and the partner channels.

So, go ahead and click the link ... it will only take 3 minutes and I promise, it won't hurt!

And thanks!

XP SP3 and HP

kwsupport — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:53:00 GMT

Well HP finally admits there's an issue (surprise, surprise) with XP SP3 and some of their AMD systems. They are recommending to their users to NOT install SP3 until they have a prerequisite fix available for download later this week. Read more here.

-kw

XP SP3 and MCE (Revisited)

kwsupport — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:20:00 GMT

Well, SP3 is now officially out, and many people have encountered the problem I did after installing SP3 where the system going into a continual reboot cycle. Jesper Johansson has written a very detail, in-depth post on the causes and fixes for this situation (click here).

I will be giving his workaround a try later this week on my wife's XP MCE computer (HP with an AMD processor!) to see if SP3 successfully installs.More latewr.

-kw

USB Drives and Slow Server

kwsupport — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:19:00 GMT

I know that there are plenty of posts that deal with issues related to external USB drives on servers, such as problems when rebooting the server, or the server acting strange when a USB drive is not removed properly. But until today, I had not encountered any of these scenarios.

Situation was that the server was slow to log on, and clicking on 'My Computer' took several minutes before it would display the full list of server drives. My first attempt to resolve the issue was to uninstall the A/V, but that did nothing. I then tried rebooting the server, but to no avail.

Finally, I noticed that there should have been two external USB hard drives attached that the customer uses for rotating real time backups. These were assigned as drives L: and M:, but M: did not show any drive attached. So, I clicked on the handy-dandy green check icon to safely remove the missing USB driver, and voila!, everything started working.

Hope this helps someone down the road!

-kw

SBS/EBS 2008 Prices and Public Beta Announced!

kwsupport — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:16:00 GMT

This SBS Team posted the following announcement today:

Today Microsoft announced the following prices for the Windows Essential Server Solutions family:

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Standard Edition software, including five CALs, $1,089 (U.S.); additional CALs $77 each (U.S.)
Windows Small Business Server 2008 Premium Edition software, including five CALs, $1,899 (U.S.); additional CALs $189 each (U.S.)
Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Standard Edition software, including five CALs, $5,472 (U.S.); additional CALs $81 each (U.S.)
Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Premium Edition software, including five CALs, $7,163 (U.S.); additional CALs $195 each (U.S.)

We also announced availability of the public beta, which is available here: http://www.MultiplyYourPower.com.

Dell and resetting BIOS

kwsupport — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:02:00 GMT

People who know me, know that I don't like hardware! I was working on a client's computer (older Dell 8200) yesterday that wouldn't boot up. I went ahead and put in a different hard drive. But every time I would boot it up, it would display the "Primary Hard Drive 1 Not Found". I would go into BIOS, and it would show the drive. And if I pressed F1 from the error, the computer would go ahead and boot up.

I messed around with the BIOS settings enought, that ultimately it was not booting at all, but coming up with a "Strike f1 to retry boot, f2 to enter system utility". After some stumbling around, I found the following recommendation for resetting the BIOS and getting past such problematic warnings and errors:

When the F1 or F2 screen come up, make sure that:
1) CAPS LOCK LIGHT IS ON
2) NUMBERS LOCK LIGHT IS ON
3) SCROLL LOCK LIGHT IS ON
ALL 3 LIGHTS ON KEYBOARD MUST BE ON...

Then you press:
1) (ALT TAB) E
2) (ALT TAB) F
3) (ALT TAB) B

The computer will restart on its own and reconfigure the IDE settings.