THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

Mark Crall being the modest person that he is, talks about his amazing demo.  The amazing thing about it was how calm he was during the whole thing.  The entire time he didn't even flinch at all.

It was an amazing demo...both from a technical standpoint as well as a "man is that guy calm".

Views from Lunch at SMBnation....

These are the resources and links to "How NOT to patch" the talk given at SMBnation.com

• [Alert] - Microsoft Technical Security Notifications:  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/notify.mspx
• [Alert] -The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC): http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/
• [Alert] - http://www.microsoft.com/japan/security/default.mspx
• [RISK INDICATOR] - http://www.incidents.org/ - http://www.incidents.org/diary.html?storyid=3367
• [RISK INDICATOR] - milw0rm - exploits : vulnerabilities : videos : papers : shellcode:  http://www.milw0rm.com/
• [RISK INDICATOR]  - My own inbox (seriously)
• [RISK INDICATOR]  - http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron/
• [RISK INDICATOR]  - http://www.websense.com/securitylabs/subscribe/
• [RISK INDICATOR]  - http://www.eeye.com/html/resources/newsletters/subscribe.html
• [Alternative patching techniques]-  Jesper's Blog:  http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/
• [Risk info] - Microsoft Security Response Center Security Bulletin Severity Rating System: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/rating.mspx
• [Risk Info] http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/ 
• [Patch Pain indicator] - www.patchmanagement.org
• [Patch Pain indicator] - WU newsgroups - http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsupdate
• [Patch Pain indicator] - my own testing
• [Patch fix resources] - WU newsgroups - http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsupdate
• [Patch fix resources] - SBSC and Partner managed newsgroups - http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2006/09/09/747847.aspx

• [POLICY] Acceptable use policy - http://www.sans.org/resources/policies/
• [Technical help] Standard User/Non administrator
• [Technical help] http://www.threatcode.com
• [Browsing Helpers] - http://www.hautesecure.com/
• [Browsing Helpers] - http://www.opendns.com/features/domain_blocking
• [Group policy power] - How to set advanced settings in Internet Explorer by using Group Policy Objects: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274846
• [Group policy power] - Download details: Group Policy Settings Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=41DC179B-3328-4350-ADE1-C0D9289F09EF&displaylang=en

And I guess I should put a shout out for www.windowssecrets.com since I write Patch Articles for it :-)

A few little things to remember....

• Never leave your laptop unlocked
• Never leave a kiosk computer logged into your gmail account
• Never leave a kiosk computer logged into a RDP session

All things seen at SMBnation.com done on computers

(okay... so I did the first one....and I have photos of the second.... )

Dana is talking now about AuthAnvil VM which is a dedicated Win2k3 standard in Virtual server at $100 a month, the tokens will still be sold by Dana for AuthAnvil... very kewl.  So if you don't want to have the AuthAnvil on the same box (which may I say it's a very lightweight system)

http://www.authanvil.com/

Dana is up at the front of the full room talking about AuthAnvil and how it's able  to protect web security on any of web site, company web, RWW or any other web.  1.5 supports VPN as well.

Lots of cool stuff he's got for the small business space for better authentication and security.

(and yes, sorry Dana for being late to the presentation)

Dana has a 'at the show special' ... so if you were not here.. you snooze... you lose.

For those that are having allocated memory alert issues on their SBS boxes, all of posts regarding the commands and tweaks are located under the header of "Allocated memory"

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/tags/Allocated+Memory/default.aspx

If your sql instances are causing memory issues, those are the posts you need to review to make the necessary adjustments.

Mark Crall demo'ing StorageCraft and the standing room only at the back of the room....standing room only...

Handy Andy's blog about Intel and WinPE issues that was referred to in the presentation is at http://blog.sbs-rocks.com/?p=57

The marketplace at SMBnation ...Trend in this view and ThePlanet with Hosted SBS in the vendor marketplace at smbnation

Mark Crall was talking about how he saw what he liked in SBSC program and was really liking how Microsoft is stepping up to the plate.

Man he looks great on the big screen doesn't he?

Do you have a mission statement?  A value statement?  Larry is talking about what it takes to be a sucessful business.

He's talking now about "Finding a mentor".

• Understand what you are good at....
• Understand where you want to go...
• Design mission/vision/values to guide your business.
• Grow your business intelligently

Books to read

• Good to great - Jim Collins
• E-myth revisited
• 5 Disfunctions of a team
• 5 temptations of a CEO
• Think and grow rich
• The great game of business

Exclusive contest for SBSC partners in the USA only - Grand prize is a Grand Canyon Colorado River raft trip, helicopter tours, Las Vegas, etc. 

Next month the details will come out more on this contest....

Eric Ligman is talking about the exclusive SBSC benefits.... the first that I love is the 4 hour guaranteed SLA for the newsgroups. 

Eric is talking now about how hard it is to come in behind "the guy".   To better brand the SBSC there's a new USA based campaign to raise brand awareness of SBSC.

www.Wevegottaguy.com

Eric Ligman announces the new campaign to raise awareness....(and this is the just the beginning landing page so look out for more)

(Amy and I checked... www.wevegottagirl.com isn't yet parked :-)

Resources for SBSC

• D&H has www.dandh.com/sbsc
• SBSC resources - tpam, newsletter , web site, webcasts, RSS
• "Get the edge" contest in FY 08, get activated and tell them about your success
• Not a SBSC member?  www.smbizspecialist.com

Don't forget...these are "webcasts" not podcasts as I orginally blogged... and they will be recorded

So if you can’t attend live and fully participate, I understand and I hope you’ll drop by for these sample content sessions! AND we certainly hope that we’ll see some of our virtual friends at SMB Nation 2008 (tentatively October 2008 again in Seattle).

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx?product=1&competency=Windows+-+Home+Server

I should be sad, but instead I'm very proud and excited to know that our "Gramps" of SBS is now "Gramps" of Windows Home Server.  For many many years he had been (and . will still be) the "Dad" of our SBS group.  He's the one that always taught me to be patient with folks, to treat all people with respect.  Thus in hearing that our "Gramps" is now the first Home Server MVP and he will now be the 'rock' of Home Server, well it's sorta hard to explain how one feels about Grey.  Just that he is, and always will be the way we treat people in community. 

Grey .. he's just "still Grey" as his tag line always has it...

The SBS Cougar was seen live and in person.. thanks to Karl Palachuk for the gift!

Scott Cayouette is  leading the SBS group leaders meeting at SMBnation...and we're talking about how to grow the group, how to ensure that there isn't leader burnout, how to pick topics, and how some of the best meetings are just the "what worked for you" meetings.

One of the things that I need to do is to use the groove site.  Scott is doing a WONDERFUL job ensuring that people are participating in the meeting tonight.  Kudos to Scott for ensuring that there's a ton of group sharing tonight.

Keep the vendor sessions short, and the sessions peers to peers are the most highly rated.

If you are interested to see if there is a SBS partner group in your area, www.sbsgroups.com is the web site for listing all of the user groups.

(and thanks to Exclaimer for sponsoring the event and being a vendor that has been a Small Business Server partner)

Anne and Wayne blog about the TechNet pages that got updated....

http://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=34

http://thenorwichgroup.blogs.com/fieldnotes/2007/09/the-new-microso.html

What else was talked about here as well is sooo cool is that the Technet team is using SBS (which ...as they said... they are starting with SBS as it's one of the most vocal communities out there (gee... no. go figure :-) and we're going to be the testbed for having a TechNet wiki.

Like the msdn wiki, SBS will be able to comment and edit and build our own comments to the documentation.  They will moderate it, approve it and possibly roll it up into the final information. 

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx

So we can annotate our own community content coming by next year.  What is so cool is that SBS's community will be the first one to do this. 

SMB Nation To PODCAST Four (4) Speeches

Complimentary!

It was nearly 20-years ago that Woodstock was held on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York. During the show - sheer madness emerged! Crowds were much larger than anticipated and simply ran over the gates and ultimately the conference organizer bellowed that famous phrase "it's now a free concert."

With that context - welcome to SMB Nation 2007, the fall conference starting in 48-hours at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond. While our situation isn't exactly that same as Woodstock (economic realities require us to maintain an overall fee structure for full participation), we have been blessed with over 700 participants and we're very excited that over 60 percent of the attendees are new to SMB Nation!

For the rest of the world *unable* to attend - we have VERY GOOD NEWS!. We are working with Aaron Booker (a fellow Small Business Specialist) who owns Hardlines in Bellingham, Washington USA to bring FOUR SESSIONS to you as a COMPLIMENTARY Podcast. (I'm shouting in UPPERCASE because I am so excited!).

To attend the Podcast of four selected sessions, you will need to REGISTER for the specific sessions of your choice (see below). Note that these complimentary Podcast sessions represent less than ten percent of the total conference content but it gives you, the remote attendee, the opportunity to attend SMB Nation 2007 virtually for just a sampling!

The four complimentary sessions Podcasts (90-minutes in length) are :

Session 1A: KEYNOTE

September 29^th - 9:00AM PST GMT-8

Eric Ligman, Microsoft US Senior Manager Small Business Community Engagement

Arnie Mondloch, Director - Marketing and Relationship Engines, US Partner Group

You must register here to attend Eric and Arnie's lecture:

http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=121576

Session 2A: Tcat - Certification Secrets Test Taking Tips

September 29^th - 10:45AM PST GMT -8

"....I know that but couldn't remember it on the exam !@#$$%..." Tcat will share his secrets that helped him overcome life challenges to earn multiple certifications, write books and become a well-respected international speaker and trainer. His passion is helping other people achieve effective results in all aspects of work and personal life with a special emphasis on passing exams! Take the first steps - listen intently for Tcat - and then prepare for and take your certification exam!

You must register here to attend Tcat's lecture:

http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=121580

Session 5B: Larry Schulze - Getting the Right People on the Bus - HR Topics that Matter

September 30^th - 9:00AM PST GMT -8

You need to add people to grow, but hiring can be a painful process. This session will show you the best practices to hire someone that is the right fit for you, your business and your culture. Whether it is your first hire, or just another new face on your team, you will learn how to recruit, hire and integrate new employees into your business. You'll better understand why the right timing is important and why managing employees today is different from many years ago. Plus, this session will cover how to create an employee manual and why this is important to your business.

You must register here to attend Larry's lecture:http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=121581

Session 6B: Dana Epp - Mitigating Business Risk in a Remotely Accessible World

Identity and access management for small business. Join Dana in exploring how to securely protect your customers from potentially risky remote access with the use of strong authentication. Learn how to better validate the identity of remote users (including you and your employees) and discover how to provide effective audit logging to track remote usage like never before. Is that really employee 'Bob' from accounting trying to get in, or a hacker that captured his Active Directory login credentials? Come see how to find out!

You must register to attend Dana's lecture: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=121582

So if you can't attend live and fully participate, I understand and I hope you'll drop by for these sample content sessions! AND we certainly hope that we'll see some of our virtual friends at SMB Nation 2008 (tentatively October 2008 again in Seattle).

When you are off the domain you have a couple of options... leaving the laptop in a workgroup mode and RWW'ing back to a desktop, or you can log in with cached credentials.  Most default servers have a setting such that laptops or any domain devices that aren't physically attached (or see the domain) to the domain can log into a 'phantom' domain.  The profile is still there, and offline files are there and what not.

I'll write more on this...but the bottom line is just because a laptop can't be tethered to a domain is not a big thing these days in a mobile workplace.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913485 .. more about cached credentials there...

I think I figured out why my Quickbooks 2006 has no issues with LUA on this formerly XP that was hacked up to run Quickbooks as non admin and now running Vista... because the registry hack ups I did are still on this system....

http://www.threatcode.com/group_policy.htm

See those registry edits?  They are still here on this system.

Then I'm running it with a XP sp2 compatibilty.... but bottom line if your version of Quickbooks won't run without admin rights in XP, you will need to determine what hacks you need to do in XP and do likewise in Vista.

Now the alternative is again, the only setting that you should consider, is to go into Vista and change the policy so that administrators silently elevate... but PLEASE do not consider shutting off UAC as an appropriate solution as that will remove IE in protected mode.  Changing it so that the elevation to secure desktop occurs silently is a reasonable solution/choice in this transition era we have right now.

Shutting UAC off completely is not.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906025.aspx

Determines how the user is prompted prior to running a program with higher permissions

Any misspellings in this post probably caused by the fact that I'm in the airport at 5:30 AM in the MORNING and I'm NOT a morning person....