OnQ : Coolness

Third Tier on SMB Conference Call

eriq — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:09:21 GMT

Amy and I will be joining Karl Palachuk on today's SMB Conference Call to talk about Third Tier. The call starts at 9am Pacific time sharp. Register for the call at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/632770144. We hope you'll join us today!

LogMeIn to the Rescue Again!

eriq — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:55:40 GMT

We use and recommend the use of LogMeIn for some of our clients who need the ability to remotely access their workstations while away from the office. True, in some situations that type of remote access tool presents potential security concerns, but in those cases where it makes sense, LogMeIn has been a solid tool. Today I was reminded of one other reason I use it.

It won't come as a shock to anyone who reads my blogs that I'm primarily a Mac user. My main workstation is a Mac Pro (running several Windows "workstations" in Parallels and Fusion). It should also come as no surprise to know that every once in a while, a Mac will have some kind of problem and need a swift kick in the pants. Or at least a timely reboot (and I'm not talking about rebooting when updates come out). It doesn't happen very often, but today was one of those days.

I was testing something for a customer and I lost the video display on my Mac. Completely. Both monitors, gone. Apps were still responding (I could tell, because I tried to switch around within apps and certain keystrokes would generate an alert sound) and I could access the few file shares I have open on the Mac. But I couldn't see a thing, so I was driving blind, literally.

I didn't want to just do the hard reset, because I had a large number of apps open in my main Vista VM. I also had my Windows 7 VM open, as well as a 2008 Terminal Server with a number of apps running. I had a few Mac apps open, but nothing that wouldn't close down successfully with a normal shutdown.

I have LogMeIn installed on the Mac, so I first tried to access the Mac that way, in case it was a video card problem. Nope, when I opened the LogMeIn remote session, the screen was black and nonresponsive there, too.

I used RDP to connect into my Vista workstation, the Windows 7 machine, and the terminal server, and shut each of them down remotely. Then, just as I was about to go push the big power button on the front of the Mac, I saw the Options link in LogMeIn. Sure enough, in there was a button to initiate a restart of the machine, so I clicked it. And the Mac started a normal reboot process and came right back up.

I'm not sure what caused the display to go funky, but I was able to recover fairly easily. And I thought it was a tidbit worth sharing, since I hadn't used that feature before.

On Release

eriq — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:33:00 GMT

Last Thursday, I posted that the ISA 2006 with SBS 2008 whitepaper had been published by Microsoft. Tonight, the paper will get a very small refresh and be linked from the SBS: MVP and Community Corner at TechNet. There have been a lot of questions in the community about how to configure ISA 2006 to work in front of SBS 2008, and this whitepaper should answer the vast majority of the questions on that topic.

On Partnerships

eriq — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:11:00 GMT

There's been a lot of scuttlebutt over the last year or so regarding Microsoft's position with their partner community. Most of that has resulted in a general consensus in the SMB community that Microsoft is trying to cut their partner relationships and go direct to your clients. Several people have blogged their opinions about this, but I'm not going to dispute or confirm any of those other posts. The intelligent human being will take in a wide variety of information and make up their own mind about how they're going to deal with any actions they may see in their own sphere of influence.

But one thing I've found out that many Microsoft partners in the SMB space did not know was that there is a group within Microsoft that is actively trying to hook up with Microsoft partners and help promote their businesses in their local communities. No, this is not part of the SBSC program and the TPAMs that may or may not be helpful, this is an entirely different and independent group - the Local Engagement Team.

There are two public facing sites for this team. The first is the MSLocalBiz site (http://www.mslocalbiz.com) which is aimed at consumers. The other is MSLocalPartner (http://www.mslocalpartner.com) which is aimed at MS partners. The goal of this organization is to connect local partners with other local organizations to help promote Microsoft products to help solve issues faced in the small business community.

For more information about what the Local Engagement Team is all about, listen to eOnCall this Thursday, April 9, at 10am and 1pm Central time at the AirTunZ Rock station. I interview one of the Local Engagement reps, Michael Murphy, about the Local Engagement Team and what they're trying to accomplish with the local community. Each episode is only 15 minutes, so it's not a huge time commitment on your part, and you may find out that the Local Engagement Team could be a big boost to you in your local community. [The show in podcast format will be posted next week, and I'll update this blog with the URLs for the shows if you can't listen during the broadcast on Thursday.]

Listen to the show, then check out the MSLocalPartner and MSLocalBiz sites and see how working with the Local Engagement Team could help your business.

Disclaimer: The Local Engagement Team is sponsoring the eOnCall program and has been since March 1. However, my working relationship with Michael Murphy started well over 6 months ago, and the sponsorship of the program grew out of our efforts to help EON Consulting get more involved in the Denton area. But, by sharing information about the Local Engagement Team with other partners, I'm actually reducing the cut of their budget I could be getting to help grow that business locally, so I'm certainly not gaining anything by sharing this information with the rest of you. :)

On Foundation

eriq — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:36:00 GMT

On April 1 (maybe not the best move), Microsoft introduced Windows Server 2008 Foundation, or at least that's the name of the product on the official product page. Sure, it won't be long before we're referring to it as "Foundation" or "Foundation Server" but I digress. The two important items I want to cover in this post are:

This product is not an April Fool's joke.
There is already a great deal of confusion about this product.

The first point is fairly self-explanatory. As to the second, yes, the official pages at Microsoft are a bit vague about the limitations of the product, and you do need to be aware that there are some specific EULA and product limitations for this system. Those details will be getting hashed out over time in cyberspace, and at least initially I don't think it's critical for the small business IT pro to get in a panic about knowing or not knowing what all of the limitations are. It's still going to be a bit before you can actually get the product from the OEMs (one of the restrictions), so you've got time to get the skinny on the details of the limitations. What is important to know up front, I think, is where this product really fits into the grand scheme of small business computing.

One common theme I've already seen hashed out in a number of forums is that Foundation is a direct competitor to Small Business Server and Windows Home Server. It isn't. In fact, it can be used to augment networks where Home Server or Small Business Server are already in place. One place where Microsoft does see a need to be filled is in the micro business space (if I can use that term, referring to the less than 5 user business or home business) where cash flow just doesn't allow for a business to implement Small Business Server. The micro business may not need all of the bells and whistles of SBS (perhaps they've already got hosted e-mail and/or SharePoint somewhere) but they do want or need a small server to handle a specific task, such as a central file server or print server, or even a LOB app server (especially if the app is not SQL based) or a small Terminal Server. While we haven't seen specific pricing on the software that the OEMs will be charging (as of the moment of this post), the idea is to have a small scale server available for a small business at a low price point. And in some cases, it makes sense. If a business is looking to purchase a small server in the $500 range, are they all that interested in purchasing an operating system that costs more than the hardware? Not according to the research that Microsoft has done.

So how can Foundation be used in a small business? Well, let's hit a few of the product specs and limitations up front to give you some background for this discussion.

Foundation is Windows Server 2008.
Foundation is limited to a single physical processor. That processor can have as many cores as possible, but Foundation will only be sold on single-processor systems.
Foundation is limited to a max of 8GB of RAM.
Foundation is 64-bit only.
Foundation is limited to a maximum of 15 users.
Foundation is only available through the major OEMs (Dell, HP, IBM, etc.) and not through the System Builder channel.
Foundation has no support for virtualization - it cannot be used as a Hyper-V host or guest.
Foundation can be a Domain Controller or a Member Server.

There are many other items not included in this list, but this gives us enough of a basis to discuss what roles Foundation could play as a solution for your clients. I'm going to limit the scope of the rest of this post using examples where the business has no more than 15 users.

If you already have an SBS server in place at a customer site, but you're needing to add a line of business application that you know isn't going to play well with IIS on the SBS server, Foundation might be a good fit. Since it's Windows Server 2008, it supports IIS (along with the other Server 2008 tools) and can be a member server in an SBS network. If the LOB application requires a SQL back end, it might not be a good fit for Foundation, thanks to the 8GB limit (SQL can be very memory-demanding).

Suppose you need to add a Terminal Server that will only be used by a couple of users in the business, and the applications they will be using on the Terminal Server are not memory-intensive. Foundation may make sense as a solution here. You will still need to purchase Terminal Server CALs and configure Foundation with the Terminal Services roles, but it will work.

Suppose you have a customer that has 4 computers in a peer-to-peer network looking for a server to centralize their shared data. They are happy with their current e-mail situation, and they're working on a tight budget. Foundation might make a good solution for them, as they can use it as a DC to use Active Directory for central authentication and file share security on the server.

These are just a few examples of how Foundation could be used to be a first server in a small organization or to augment services in an existing small network. In the new few weeks as the stories become clearer, I'll post some additional scenarios where Foundation could be used. In addition, I'm preparing for a presentation on Foundation server for the upcoming SMB Summit in Dallas in May.

Bottom line, Foundation can be a valuable addition to the small business IT professional's solutions catalog. In cases where the cost of putting in an additional 2008 server into the network has been financially prohibitive for the smaller customer, Foundation may now make that type of solution more fiscally reasonable. Stay tuned for more information.

On Kindle

eriq — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:47:00 GMT

OK, so no sooner than I get my previous post online, I receive notice that Amazon has released a Kindle app [iTunes link] for the iPhone. So if you want to read SBS 2008 Unleashed in Kindle format on your iPhone, well, now you can!

On Electronic Delivery

eriq — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:37:00 GMT

i've been getting quite a few queries about electronic formats for the SBS 2008 Unleashed book, and I have good news to report. The book is available in a purchasable electronic format!

Kindle format: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Small-Business-Server-Unleashed/dp/B001QBPME6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236148900&sr=8-2

PDF format: http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=076868692X

Amazon is supposed to have the PDF version available as well, but that format hasn't been showing up. As soon as I get word that Amazon has the PDF version, I'll post an update back here.

I'm working with Sams to see about a hard copy/PDF bundle so that you can get both versions in a single purchase. Again, I'll update here when I have more info.

On Availability

eriq — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:43:08 GMT

While December 10 is the "official" release date, I'm proud to say that Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed has completed its press run and is en route to resellers as we speak. How do I know this, you ask? Simple - I've put my own hands on one:

Soon, those of you who have placed pre-orders will be getting you copies delivered to you, and those of you who choose to wait until you see a book on a shelf before purchasing should be able to go to your favorite bookstore and take a gander.

There are a number of people I need to thank who helped out with this project - it was far from a solo effort:Amy Babinchak, Steve Banks, Tim Barrett, Susan Bradley, Dean Calvert, Cris Hanna, Kevin James, Jeff Middleton, and Kevin Weilbacher added significant contributions to the book. Loretta Yates from Pearson was a great editor to work with through the project. And my wife, Anna, put up with the long nights and work weekends over the last year as the core writing of the book was done.

Hopefully you'll get as much out of the book as we did putting it together for you!

On Community

eriq — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Last week, I had the honor and privilege of attending Microsoft's sometimes-annual MVP Summit. This year, there were over 1700 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) in attendance, which is only a portion of the thousands of individuals who have been recognized by Microsoft for their support and activity in the community. This event is hardly a love-fest, though, because in general, MVPs are not apologists for Microsoft. Benjamin Romano summed up the relationship well in his article covering Stave Ballmer's Keynote speech to the MVP crowd, referring to the MVP community as "friendly but also highly knowledgeable and unabashedly critical." In many of the hallway discussions I had with MVPs from other product groups, there was one theme that was echoed almost unilaterally - MVP interation with the product groups this year was wide open with feedback flowing fully in both directions. For some groups, this was the first time this type of interaction had occurred. Some MVPs finally had an opportunity to interact directly with the people (yes, people) responsible for planning, coding, and marketing the various Microsft products, and give those people their thoughts on product direction, functionality, problems, successes, etc. (I must admit, that as an MVP within the WESS product line, I've almost come to take this level of interaction with the SBS product team for granted, but even our group this year had, I believe, our most open interaction with the product team to date. And that's not something that i ever want to take for granted, because it could very easily be removed.

I have received the MVP award three times now, and I continue to be honored by the recognition. I have an opportunity to interact with some truly amazing people, and I continually wonder why I've been chosen to be a part of this group. These people have a passion forthe Small Business Server product and, if possible, an even stronger passion for working with other IT Pros and end-users who ply their craft while using the product. The wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight that this group collectively possesses is awe-inspiring, and Microsoft is fortunate to have collected this group together and sought their opinions and expertise to help improve the product and their relationships with the community. Not that they get it right all of the time, but that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is that community exists with or without the presence of Microsoft. Whether I continue to be awarded MVP status or not, I will continue my activites in the community. I'm working harder to get more involved with my local SBS User Group, and after issues with my day job settle down a bit and I get further along with a certain book project, I'm looking forward to getting more involved in the newsgroups and the forums over at smallbizserver.net again. Right now my reality encompasses keeping my customers happy and keeping my publisher off my back for a little longer, not to mention keeping my home life in order, too. Working 70-80 hour weeks since the first of the year has put a strain on a lot of things, both in my personal and professional life. But while it would be easy to walk away from the community altogether, I simply cannot. Community has been an inspiration and resource for me for the last 20+ years, and I plan to continue working with and giving back to the community that has given me so much over time. If Microsoft chooses to continue to recognize that part of my life by awardin me with MVP status, great, but I'm not out to make a minimum number of newsgroup or forum posts, blog posts, user group meetings, conference appearances, etc., I see people who do, and that disappoints me, because I think theyre doing it for the wrong reasons. I'm not active in the community just to get an MVP award. I'm active in the community because I believe I have something to offer back, and that is what motivates me.

I will admit, though, that attending the Summit, despite the stress of travel, etc., was actually a bit of a break for me, and one that I needed to get myself re-energized to tackle the next 3-6 months. I have a book to finish, and when SBS 2008 gets released, I'll have a number of community members to help get adapted to the new product. That's going to take a lot of energy, and honestly I was reminded of the reason for it during my week at Summit last week.

For those who are interested, I've blogged about my week's activities on my personal blog, under the Summit2K8 category.

On Securing RDP

eriq — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:26:00 GMT

Last December, I worked out an arrangement to better protect our clients for whom we provide primary support. This involved finding ways to tighten access their severs via RDP (the infamous port 3389). There are a lot of different takes on controlling access to port 3389 out there, from simply not allowing it at all through the firewall (which works for SBS boxes running Remote Web Workplace, provided there's not a problem with IIS on the box at the time you want to access it) to configuring the firewal to allow inbound port 3389 connections only from specific IP addresses. For our purposes, neither of these options, nor the other similar variations, really worked for the way we conduct our business.

Enter Dana Epp and Scorption Software. Dana is a Security MVP from Vancouver whose software development company has been developing security products designed fo the SMB market for a couple of years.

After working with two of his tools, AuthAnvil and RWW Guard, we finally developed an approach that mitigates the risks of opening port 3389 to the internet, yet still allowing our opration a reasonable level of access for support and maintenance. Here's the approach we're taking.

Create a secondary administrative account with the same name across all of our supported servers.
Change the password on the Administrator account to be a really, really secure password.
Modify the local security policy to deny the Administrator account the ability to log in via terminal services, effectively limiting the Administrator account to a local console login only (which also does not affect any services running with that account).
Install the WinLogon Agent component of AuthAnvil on each client system and point it back to the AuthAnvil system running on our servers.
Configure AuthAnvil on our servers to have a grouped account, whose name matches the secondary administrative account we created on our supported servers, and add local users to that grouped account who are allowed to log in to the remote server.
Add the Administrator account to the AuthAnvil Override security group on the local server so that the Administrator account does not require a token to log in to the server.

We have started rolling out this configuration this month, and so far it is working according to plan. The benefits of this arrangement include:

Local access to the sever is still possible with the Administrator account and no security token.
Remote access to the server is limited to the secondary administrative account, which also requires the use of a security token to successfully log in.
The access logging in AuthAnvil gives me an accurate accounting of hich of my staff accessed one of our support servers and when.
When staff turnover occurs, access to remote systems is denied in a single step by disabling the employees token in the main AuthAnvil system.

So for the cost of equipping my staff with the security tokens, we are able to increase the security of our supported systems with two-factor authentication, while blocking remote access to the Administrator account at the same time.

None of this would have been possible without Dana's efforts to bring quality security products to the SMB space at an affordable price. It's a very small price to pay for the enhanced security benefits our client base is receiving.

On iPhone and Exchange

eriq — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:07:00 GMT

It's official! Apple will support connections to Exchange server in the next version of the iPhone, according to Apple's web site. No date has been made publicly available for the release of the next version of the iPhone software, nor does Apple indicate if the company will make the iPhone available through carriers other than AT&T. But for those who have been asking about if Apple will support Exchange Active Sync, the answer is apparently yes.

And yes, I have applied to be in the Enterprise Beta for the iPhone 2.0 software.

On SBS 2008

eriq — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:42:00 GMT

Yep, it's now official. Microsoft has released some additional information about the next version of the Small Business Server product line, and we can finally start sharing some infomation about it.

SBS 2008, what we had lovingly called Cougar up until now, is part of a larger family of products known as the Windows Essential Server Solutions, which includes Cougar (SBS 2008) and Centro (Essential Business Server 2008) as the first two members of the family. The Official SBS Blog has information about the product lines, and Microsoft has posted a page for the product family as well.

The most significant change in SBS 2008 from previous releases of SBS is the inclusion of a second server in the Premium edition, moving SBS from a single-server solution to a two-server solution. SQL 2008 is included in the Premium edition along with a license for Windows Server 2008 to put SQL on the second server.

There are still a number of questions that we don't have answers for yet. The release date has not been announced. Full details about the technologies that will be bundled with SBS have not been published yet. I'm sure some of this information will be made available from Microsoft through the remainder of the development cycle, but I'm also sure that there are a few things we won't know until we get actual shipping media in our hands.

In addition, I'm also glad to officially announce that I'm working with a team of authors to bring you Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed, which is expected to hit the bookstores around the same time the product is actually available in the marketplace. The authoring team remains under strict NDA about the product, so we won't be able to share any NDA information until the product, and the book, are finally released.

On Nordstrom's

eriq — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:36:00 GMT

I woke up to a bit of a surprise this morning. I had a voicemail from Nordstrom's on my business and cell phone. Now, I don't normally shop Nordstrom's, but it is in the area and I am familiar with them and their offerings. But their call was to let me know that they thought a charge on my American Express card was suspicious, and they wanted to confirm the order before they completed the order process.

What was the order? A $700 handbag. Metallic brass in color. To be shipped to an address in Redmond. Obviously not mine.

At this point, I have no problem endorsing Nordstrom's as a company I would gladly do business with. They alerted me to the fraudulent charge even before American Express did (and AMEX did contact me immediately after Nordstrom's did, and since I was able to contact AMEX back first, that's where I finalized the cancellation of the order) and put the order on hold waiting my confirmation. That's a level of customer care that I can identify with as a business owner, and as a consumer as well.

Thank you, Nordstrom's, for making this an amusing story instead of a billing nightmare.

On Translation

eriq — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:03:00 GMT

Late this last week, I had a bit of a surprise when I came home and found a package from my publisher sitting on the doorstep. It looked like a box of books, and since I hadn't ordered any additional copies of the book, I really had no idea what it might be.

So imagine my complete surprise when I opened the box and found three hardback books with a black cover and a note letting me know that the SBS 2003 Unleashed book had been translated into Polish! That's correct, "Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. Księga eksperta" is now available at your favorite Polish book reseller. Or so I've been told.

The note that came with the shipment said "we hope you're pleased with the translation." Since I don't read Polish, that's going to be difficult. But I did skim through the book and noted that many of the screenshots were redone in the localized version of SBS. But not all. The Mac screenshots were left pretty much intact. As were many of the Exchange shots. But that's about all I can tell.

Anyone who reads Polish want to review the book and let me know if they did a good translation?

On Conversion

eriq — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:12:00 GMT

Amy Babinchak and I gave a presentation at the Trend Micro/SBSFAQ.com SMB Security Summit in Sydney (talk about alliteration) in November, and we discussed the security implications of providing remote support to clients. In the discussion, we mentioned a number of tools that can be used to provide remote support. Historically, I'd been using two different tools, primarily for my cross-platform clientele. For about two years, I've had a subscription to GoToMeeting that I've used for a significant majority of desktop support as well as for those clients who had problems with RDP and/or RWW. For about $40/month, I was able to have as many different support sessions (one at a time, as I purchased as single seat) as I wanted, and was able to resolve many problems. GoToMeeting is primarily geared at webcasts, but it's ability to allow diffferent attendees to "share" their desktops made it possible to not only view but remotely control another computer. As I mentioned, I used this quite a bit for desktop support, but also some on servers. The downside to GoToMeeting is that it requires Java on the remote device, and not all servers have Java installed, and not all users want Java installed on their servers. I'm not saying that Java is a bad thing, but for most servers who do their job sitting headless in a corner (where they should be), Java can be an extra load and tool that needs to be updated regularly for security purposes. And, the process to get the remote software loaded and configured for remote control could be a bit smoother. Still, it's a solid tool, which allowed me to record sessions as needed, and it just flat worked. But GoToMeeting does not support the Apple platform, and since a lot of my business involves those cross-platform situations, G2M didn't help.

Actually, until Adobe introduced Acrobat Connect, there really weren't any options for remotely controlling a Mac. Sure, you could walk the person through turning on the VNC services build into Mac OS X, then either configure the router to allow inbound VNC or make a VPN connection into the remote network to then access the VNC services, but it's just ugly, and when you're trying to troubleshoot a Mac problem, often times the effort to get VNC access working just wasn't worth it. But Acrobat Connect uses Flash technology as it's communications layer, and they developed the tools to be able to allow a Mac to connect into the system and be the controller or the controlled system. Given that I have a Mac PowerBook that I carry with me in the field, this was beneficial as I was able to enter into remote sessions controlling either a PC or a Mac from my PowerBook when I was out of the office. This was much more efficient for me than connecting to my terminal server to run GoToMeeting. And at about $50/month for the single user subscription, it made sense. Now I could control either Macs or PCs using Connect, and I could do it from either my Mac or my PC, whichever was more convenient.

OK, there is one other tool that did allow control of a Mac before Acrobat Connect came along. That was LiveMeeting. It had the same metholdology as G2M and Connect, in that it is a conferencing application that allows for remote control, but from a cost standpoint, it really wasn't a player in the SMB market. Microsoft did, and I think still does, use LiveMeeting to provide remote support when you call CSS for support, but hey, they own the technology, so it's easy for them.

During the presentation, Amy spoke about the tool she has been using for a couple of years, LogMeIn Rescue. Unlike G2M and Connect, LogMeIn Rescue was designed as a support tool, not a conferencing tool that could be used to take control of a remote system for support. There were a lot of great features in Rescue that aren't available in G2M or Connect, such as tools to collect hardward and software information about the remote system with the click of a button. One of the biggest "wow" factors for me was the ability to actually reboot the remote machine into safe mode and automatically reconnect with Rescue when it completed the Safe Mode boot. Holy cow, that's incredibly useful! But at around $100/month for a single technician license, I wasn't that taken as that covered the cost of both tools I was using to get me cross-platform support. Sure, the goodies that LMI provides over G2M and Connect were nice, but since I'd still have to keep Connect around for Mac support, dropping G2M in favor of LMI didn't make a lot of fiscal sense.

That is, until I saw that LogMeIn was working on providing Mac support, not only for their LogMeIn Free product, but also for Rescue. So in mid-December, I signed up for a free trial of LogMeIn Rescue to test out the Mac functionality.

And it worked. Flawlessly.

For two weeks, I used LMI for every remote call, Mac and Windows, and was just amazed by the power of the solution as well as the ease of use for the client end. The client-side experience was very straightforward, not requiring a whole lot of instruction on my part to get the user connected and me in control. LMI is not based on Java or Flash, but its own technology tools that install easily. There's also an easy option to get the tool to install as a service, so you can log out and log back in to the remote device with a different username/password without having to necessarily give that information to the remote user. But being able to have a single solution to give me Mac and Windows support as seamlessly as LMI does was the kicker.

So, as of January 1, 2008, I'm dropping G2M and Connect in favor of LogMeIn Rescue. The only drawback to Rescue is that I have to run the technician's console on a Windows system. There's not any public word about development of a teechnician's console that will run on a Mac. But given that I can connect to a terminal server and run the console from there, it's usable when I'm out on the road with only my PowerBook at my disposal. Not great, but it works. And I'm learning about so much more that Rescue does that Amy didn't have time to discuss during the presentation that I'm already considering getting a second technician license for my staff, rather than using the same license for all of us. And yes, I've already discussed this with the fine folks at LMI and that's perfectly within the scope of the license.

This is just one way I'm helping to ensure that the remote support we are providing to our customer base is as secure as possible. I'm in the process of implementing another system that I'll blog about when we get it done, as it gives me an entierly different level of control over who has acces to my client's systems, whcih helps protect them as well as us.

On News

eriq — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:11:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by a freelance journalist in the North Texas area for an article he was planning to write for the Dallas Morning News. The article, titled Not just the geek squad, appeared in the Sunday October 28 edition of the DMN. This is the second time I've collaborated with Noble Sprayberry on an article for the News, and this time they sent out a photographer to put my mug in print alongside the article.

The DMN has a habit of taking content and putting it behind a Subscriber Only shield after a while, so I'm not sure how long the link above will be good for.

On Leopard, Part 3

eriq — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:02:00 GMT

A Saturday morning trip to the area Apple Store finally got me my very own copy of Leopard. I would rather have had the media in my hands on Friday as indicated with the initial order, but I need to get outside sometimes, or so people keep telling me.

At any rate, I've now done two Leopard installs as tests, and so far, so good. One clean install on my non-Intel Powerbook took about an hour. I had a couple of issues with kernel panics on startup, but I'm not certain that it wasn't because of an issue with the external hard drive I was using for the install. The other was an upgrade to a clean build of Tiger on an external drive, and that went well.

I'm working today to get several Mac connectivity docs updated with Leopard info. Those docs will be posted at my Lessons Learned blog, and I'll be putting together a version with screen shots that will be available over at smallbizserver.net.

From a feature set point of view, I'm very pleased with what I've seen thus far with Leopard. Screens is a practical virtual desktop tool that I've been missing for a long, long time. Time Machine looks like a very capable backup tool, which can hopefully be used to back up to a network device in addition to local disk. Safari launches and runs much faster than before. I really think that Mac users have a lot to be happy about with this version of the OS. I'll be interested to see how it fares with Parallels and Fusion and some of the other tools that I use in my business daily, but initially I'm on board with the new OS, now that I finally have my hands on it.

On Leopard, Part 1

eriq — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:16:00 GMT

Today is a big day for the Mac community - Apple is releasing Leopard, otherwise known as Mac OS X 10.5, at 6pm local time around the globe. Apple Stores around the world are putting on large showcases and thousands and thousands, if not millions, will be flocking in to pick up their very own copy of the OS. Unless you pre-ordered, that is.

Those who went to the Apple Store on-line on October 16, 2007, could pre-order Leopard (in the single-serving or family pack packages) to be delivered on October 26. So if you didn't want to wait in line with the mobs who will be converging on the Apple Stores (and other places that sell Mac stuff, let's not forget them) to get their copies, you could order on-line and get it shipped to your very own address, wherever that is.

So yours truly placed his order on October 16 and arranged his work days for October 26 and 27 to focus on Leopard. The plan is to have an updated "Connecting your Macintosh to SBS 2003 via SMB" document ready for publication by Monday so those who find themselves in that situation can get the Leopard Mac connected with minimal effort and hair pulling.

Only there's one small flaw with that plan: the Store shows that my order has not shipped yet. Kind of hard to received something today that hasn't been shipped yet.

Well, I've worked with a number of other vendors who have had issues getting shipping information updated in their on-line order systems. I can recall a number of times when tracking information was not available on the vendor web site until after the package arrived at its destination. So, I'm thinking (hoping) that's the case with Apple. Still, it warrants a phone call.

Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have called. Not only does Apple's tracking system show that the product hasn't shipped yet, it shows that it hasn't even been prepped for shipment. So unless there's a large quantity of Leopard boxes in a warehouse in the DFWD area (which wouldn't surprise me, honestly) and they're arranging for a same-day shipping process, I'm not hopeful that I'll actually be removing the shrink wrap on Leopard today.

Still, this could be all of Apple's plan for keeping control of when Leopard actually gets in the hands of the public. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the shipping information hasn't been updated deliberately to keep the information under wraps. I think that's giving Apple a little too much credit, though. I think I'm set up for a bit of a disappointment today and will have to wait until Monday (Lord, I hope it's not later than that) to crack the case and start working on the docs.

In the meantime, I updated the "Connecting a Macintosh to SBS 2003 via SMB" document to address some of the user interface changes that both Apple and Microsoft have introduced into the various software pieces since the original posts were made almost three years ago. Hopefully that will be useful for someone...

On Irony

eriq — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:38:00 GMT

For the last couple of months, I've been working (at the request of a couple of my clients) to enter the Apple Authorized Business Agent program with my business. I've had several clients who have started incorporating the Macintosh platform into their businesses and wanted to be able to help us get "credit" for the sale of Mac hardware that we've been discussing with them. Which, really, is the whole point of the Business Agent program. Two clients specifically have been holding off on Mac purchases specifically until we've got the program up and running so they could make sure we get the appropriate credit.

So how ironic is it that the first purchase that goes through our online store is none other than Susan Bradley? Not that Susan has been a Mac basher by any means, in fact, she has a Mac category on her blog (granted, there's a lot of links that point back to posts I've put up, but then her blog is read by thousands, and I'd like to personally thank both of you who are reading this blog). I just never would have dreamed that I'd help push a Mac sale into Susan's hands, or that she'd beat me to the blog post about it. OK, maybe I'm not so surprised that she beat me to the blog post.

Just goes to show that you never know...

On Partner Event Kits

eriq — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:43:00 GMT

This past week, I had an opportunity to use the SBS Partner Event Kit that Microsoft is making available for promoting Small Business Server at events. Our Chamber of Commerce has a Mega Mixer once or twice a year, which is basically a "vendor expo" for area Chambers and Chamber members to promote their goods and services to other area Chambers and Chamber members. This time, I knew I wanted to have a booth (not only to support the Chamber but also for promotion and name recognition, etc.) and about the time I signed up for the booth, I got notification about the Partner Event Kit and followed the simple instructions to request the kit. The rest of this post covers my experience with the kit and the entire kit process, so feel free to skip if you've got no interest in the kit or my experiences.

As per Eric's post, I e-mailed the group requesting the kit on the date of my event, and got an e-mail response asking for some additional information. I e-mailed back the response, and the next day I got confirmation that I'd been approved to use the kit and they collected other information, including shipping address. They made it very clear that they'd ship the kit two days before the event, I'd get it the day before the event, and I'd have to return it the day after the event. I also took them up on the offer to have my company logo printed on a 6'x3' banner for a fee. I had a banner made up a couple of years ago, but information changed and it's no longer usable, so being able to get another banner was a real plus. We went back and forth a bit making sure they got the image file for the banner in the right format, and they even asked to get a couple of additional updates because the first print on the banner didn't quite match up with the logo colors they were expecting, so rather than get a banner whose primary colors were purple and dark green, I got one that had the proper shade of blue and light green. Big plus on customer service on that point.

Two days before the event, I got the e-mail that the kit had shipped and I'd have it the next day. This is unfortunately where things began to get a bit interesting. Towards the end of the day I should have received the kit, I called and asked if they had a tracking number for the package. They sent me the number, and showed that the kit was still scheduled for delivery, but if I didn't get it soon, that I should call the shipper and ask. When it hadn't shown up by 4:30 local time (building closes at 5:30) I called. The shipping company (well, the specific agent I spoke with) wasn't very friendly or helpful, but told me that there was no way that a package of that size (it weighed in at 138lbs apparently) would get sent overnight. I asked when I could expect it, and was told that they should get it to me by noon on the day of the event. Since I had to start setting up no later than 2pm for the event, that was going to cut it close. I communicated this information back to the folks who shipped the kit to bring it to their attention and went home.

The next morning, I got into the office at 7:30 and checked the tracking. At least now the on-line tracking showed that it had left the original facility. It also said that it had left the facility in Ohio at 4:35 that morning. I'm guessing that was EDT, which meant it was only 3:35 my time, but I was curious to see if it really was going to get from Ohio at 3:35am CDT to Denton, Texas, by noon. I called the carrier to see if they could give me an ETA on arrival so I could make sure that someone was at the office to receive the kit, and was pretty much told "no." I had a 10am meeting that I couldn't reschedule, so I left my associate at the office to wait for the package. Not so big brownie points to the shipping company, and I've already submitted that feedback to the appropriate parties.

I got back from the meeting in time to start packing to head over to the event, and sure enough, there was the kit, in all its massively large crate glory. Yeah, I can see why it might weigh 138lbs. The case alone looked pretty heavy, but there's no doubt that the contents of the crate were well-protected.

So we cracked open the crate to look at the contents. As advertised, there was a 19" LCD flat panel display (which hadn't been used before, so the next guys that get it, we left it in really, really good condition for you), table banners for SBS 2003 and Server 2008, an SBS 2003 standing banner, and three clear holders of propaganda (propaganda included). Also present was an extra banner with the company logo.

Rather than try to manhandle the shipping crate to the event, we packed the individual components, along with a computer, extension cord, power strip, keyboards and mice, and our own marketing materials, and headed over to the event. Our booth was near the front of the setup, and we hung the company banner first thing.

Then we set up the standing banner and hung the SBS 2003 banner on the main table. We set up the LCD display on that half of the table to help hold the SBS banner in place. I opted not to use the Server 2008 banner as I didn't want to cause any confusion as to what we were hawking. Then we put up the marketing collateral and finished out the rest of the table.

Even once we put the people in the booth, it still didn't look too bad.

As for the demo, the Kit was supposed to come with a DVD of SBS demos, but didn't (I confirmed with the folks that put the kit together that the DVD wasn't missing, even though it was in the list of items that should have been in the Kit), so we improvised. We built a Vista workstation running Office 2007, and had Outlook via the Internet connected back to a test SBS box at the home office. We also had an RWW session up connected to a test workstation hung off the test network. We also had a shortcut ready to go to connect to the RWW login page on my production box to demo AuthAnvil. And all this was done with a Verizon USB wireless broadband adapter (no networking available at the facility). No huge surprise, but folks not familiar with SBS were surprised at all it could do.

Overall, the event was a success, and having the kit really polished off our appearance at the event. I for one am thrilled that MS has made this kit available, and I hope that this post about the kit and how we used it can answer some questions that others may have had about whether using the kit would be a good idea. I can say for certain that the next opportunity I have for an event like this I'll definitely check to see if I can get the kit again.