CyberStreams Blog

Finally found a solution to an Exchange 2010 migration issue that’s been plaguing me for weeks.  It was preventing me from moving mailboxes from the old Exchange 2007 server to the new Exchange 2010 server that was located at another site and connected by a site-to-site VPN. 
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Exchange 2010 has lots and lots of great features.  I could go on and on about how this technology can impact a business and how previously so many of these functionalities where with not available or a 3^rd party tool was required. 

For me there are a few things that REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAILY: 

#1 – Outlook ‘always’ connected to Exchange.  Just like the way your PDA is always connected to Exchange, if you Computer is on the internet Outlook will automatically connect directly to Exchange via an SSL VPN connection.  Outlook Web Access is great, in the end, Outlook is better.  Not having to log in to a VPN of any kind to leverage the fully functional Outlook vs. OWA is a time saver and is just plain cool. 

#2 - Outlook Web Access has so many great improvements.  I am most pleased with the ’Nickname’/'autofill’ funtion.  This is the functionality where when typing in the name of an email recipient Outlook attempts to auto populate this field.  In OWA previously this was it’s own working data base.  i.e. the short cut auto fill options you had where only associated with emails you had originated in OWA…which basically means you were looking up the address for most anyone you were not ‘Replying’ to.  NOW this little file is based on the Exchange server and available from either location.  TIME SAVER!

#3 – Outlook Web Access again, the ability to see other network users calendars.  So useful…what else can be said.

#4 - Outlook Web Access again, the ability to browse network folders.  Technically in the last edition, however this saves so much time I want to make sure anyone reading this notices this great feature.

I could go on and on…but these are my favorites.

For more information please go to the Microsoft Exchange 2010 website:  http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/default.aspx

The ‘meaty’ details of what is new in Exchange 2010:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298136.aspx

Have fun!

Small Business Server 2003 comes with Sharepoint installed and yet no management software for the SQL portion. Consequently the log files can grow and fill up the system drive. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently ran across a strange error while updating a client’s certificate that they use for their Exchange 2007 system.  It turns out that its a pretty random error but when it occurs certificates can longer be installed or removed in Exchange.  The system has either forgotten where it put the Private Key for your certificate or the certificate store is corrupted.  With past versions of Exchange you would be using IIS for all the certificate management anyway, but with Exchange 2007 and onward you have to use the Exchange Management Shell to properly manage the certificate for use with your email system.

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As a primarily PC support company and PC users, this is a question we hear often enough. Apple does a good job of maintaining the “Apples don’t have problems” mystique when this is not the case.

Most of the time it turns out there is a perception issue. Case in point, a call I took from a client a couple of days ago who was having troubles with a certain web site he uses. Within seconds of launching the java applet it would crash his copy of Internet Explorer 8. So at one point as we were troubleshooting the issue he asked the above question, “How come this never happens on my wife’s Mac?”

One of my first questions to him was, “Have you tried this website on your wife’s Mac?” and the response was, no, the website would only work on PCs. The short of it was that the website’s programmers have a site compatible with a very narrow set of devices; it has to be windows running Internet Explorer 7 or earlier, no Windows Defender, and no intrusion protection on the Sonicwall firewall. It does provide some great tools for him, but it also forces him to operate with some fairly hefty security vulnerabilities to do so.

But ultimately, is the problem or faults Microsoft’s or the web site designer’s? Microsoft’s Vista operating system was perceived as buggy when it first came out, and indeed it was a problematic upgrade for many users, but in actuality roughly 29% of the crash data collected by Microsoft early on was from video card drivers from a specific hardware manufacturer. To re-state that, nearly a third of the crashes (many were not the traditional crash requiring a restart) in Vista were not caused by anything Microsoft did, but a separate company that they had no control over and just had a working relationship with. Microsoft, however, wound up with the egg on their face because all the user saw was that their computer crashed.

In the case of the afore-mentioned client, it was not that the Mac was more stable, but that it was more limited in what it could do because of a third party who had no affiliation with either Apple or Microsoft. This is a situation that people should keep in mind. Apple would love it if you bought in to the hype and mind set, but it really is making a descision on false pretenses.

The internet has changed the way we do business and it has changed the way we act as customers.  Specifically the way customers do research on a company or a product.  From blogs and Amazon customer reviews to Tweets and the entire range of ‘Social-Not-Working’ mediums. 

The internet has made us all much ‘smarter’ consumers, at least that is how it appears. 

But how accurate is that review on Amazon?  Is that blogger an unbiased source of information?  For the last few years many people just assumed everyone was submitting an honest opinion, but how could that really be possible, everyone honest?

The FCC and the courts are attempting to make people and businesses liable for their statements.  And this is where the business owner needs to be watchful.  Now bloggers whom have any affiliation with a company must identify themselves.  Obviously we want employees to identify themselves when they promote their own business.  Now the even the person whom received a free product, or receives free service associated with a product they review, must identify themselves. 

Business found to be trying to slip this by the consumer will be penalized.  Business owners need to coach their staff and are responsible for what their staff is stating on the internet about themselves or even competitors.

A few recent articles on CNN.com highlight this significant issue of balancing free speech with devious marketing. 

Manav Tanneeru covers how business and individuals are being found liable for the comments they make.  In “Can the Law Keep Up with Technology?” we see the recent libel court case associated with a Twitter post Cortney Love made regarding her dissatisfaction with a professional designer.  We also see a property management business won a libel case where a former tenant made damaging statements about the apartment they rented, statements that were not true.  

Conversely, Rick Klau’s article on “In Defense of Bloggers’ Free Speech” is attempting to publicize the importance of free speech within society and how the various mediums have evolved over the years in a similar fashion to the way blogs are proliferating across the internet.  Specifically, how important these mediums are to the global society.  Censorship must be stopped.

Business owners need to be aware of their rights to protect themselves as well as their duty to facilitate the behavior of their staff and affiliates when commenting on their business on the internet.  This ‘hat’ is going to consume a lot of time and resources.

The developers over at Microsoft have created a handy web tool called the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer.  It’s easy to find.  Just head over to:  www.testexchangeconnectivity.com.  It’s a simple web page that lets you test all manner of connection types to your Exchange system.  A few of the tests it can do are:
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I recently finished upgrading the rest of the office over to Windows 7, as well as rebuilding my own laptop to the final release instead of the RC version.  Of course the first computer I started on had a broken DVD drive so I had to find an alternative way to install it.  I probably could’ve copied the disc over to a USB drive or use a USB DVD drive, but it got me thinking that I should setup a network installation point instead and use the PXE boot capabilities of these computers. 
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I have deployed several offsite CDP’s for clients that have one onsite recently. There is always the need to weigh their options when making this decision. What is the cost of the extra hardware and maintenance of it versus the cost Sonicwall charges to offsite the data at their facilities. What we have been finding is that after the first year the hardware pays for itself in cost savings if you have more than 50GB of offsite data. This is a significant cost savings over time and although it is hard to quantify, in the event of a disaster having your data offsite but, in the same locale will save a lot of time and money. Here I am comparing being able to go pickup the offsite CDP with all the data on it and deploying it within a couple of hours at the new temporary office versus downloading it from Sonicwall or having them send it via USB hard drive. This, along with virtual backup servers insures a very small amount of down time, in a disaster which an unprotected business could not recover from.

At Cyberstreams we always recommend offsite data protection and there are many options available but, this is one of the better ones out there because of the significantly reduced amount of downtime. Remember though, the CDP only holds data they are part of the solution not all of it. Disaster recover needs to be planned out, but as I stated before an offsite CDP coupled with backup virtual servers is a rocksolid, efficient, and fairly inexpensive way for small and medium sized businesses to achieve this.
Okay now that I have stated why we do this let’s get down to the configuration tips and tricks I have learned through doing these:

1. First you will need to do the initial configuration through the web GUI to do the intial configuration.

2. Once the initial configuration is complete register it online, to do this you will need to login to you Mysonicwall.com account.

3. After registering on Mysonicwall.com you will need to complete the registration in the CDP by logging into the Enterprise Manager Console, this will ask you all the technical and contact info. You will need to your registration code from Mysonicwall.com here.

4. Now you are ready to begin moving data from your original CDP (downstream) to the new one (upstream). Sonicwall and I recommend doing this onsite because, if you have a large amount of data it can saturate your bandwidth.
          a. Note: when beginning migrating the data onsite use the hostname of the CDP and not the IP address. I am not sure why but, Sonicwall chose to associate the CDP’s by IP rather than serial number. So if you use the IP onsite, then take it offsite and change the IP it will purge and re-download all the data.
          b. To do this login to the Enterprise Manager and click edit, the set offsite location.

5. To verify it is working, connect to the upstream CDP using the Enterprise Manager under the Status screen click on the Agent Summary tab.
        a. Note: currently you cannot see the actually data on the upstream CDP using the Enterprise Manager, you just have to trust it is there. This is being addressed in the newer revisions and should be out in the next few months we have been told.

Summary:
Although it is not a perfect solution when it comes to configuration and troubleshooting, it is a very effective backup and disaster recover solution, that when deployed correctly presents tremendous value to any business that relies on technology. I don’t know about you but, I don’t know any company that does not rely heavily on it’s technology!

This is a fantastic tool for those people who need help with a problem but the person helping them is at a different location.  It’s called the Problem Steps Recorder and it’s brand new with Windows 7.  It will record screenshots and list the steps a user takes while it’s recording and then assemble all that data into a zipped up HTML document you can send to someone. 
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