Sunbelt Windows NTools[tm] Electronic Newsletter
Vol. 2, #19 - October 6,1997
--- http://www.sunbelt-software.com ---

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Sunbelt Windows NTools E-News is the world's first and largest 
E-Newsletter designed for NT System Managers that have the job of 
getting and keeping NT up & running in a production environment.
Sunbelt launched this electronic newsletter so that we could keep
members of the Windows NT community informed and aware of what is
happening with 3-rd party NT System Management Tools, and to
provide hints and tips that will enable you to better understand
and utilize Windows NT. You'll find general Windows NT related
and third party news, technical information, and 3-rd party beta
and release information. By subscribing to NTools E-News[tm], you 
are also a charter member of the Sunbelt Field Test Bonus Program.
Sunbelt Software is the first and largest distributor worldwide
of Third Party System Management Tools for Windows NT with
subsidiaries in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Holland and Italy.
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This issue of Windows NTools E-News contains:

1. "EDITORS CORNER" 

2. "TECH BRIEFING"
* HOW TO INSTALL WOLFPACK - NEW IBM REDBOOK
* HOW TO GET NIC FAULT TOLERANCE AND BOOST THROUGHPUT

3. "NT RELATED NEWS"
* NT6.0: 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS SAY IT CAN BE DONE 
* DISASTER RECOVERY FOR NT 5.0 PROVIDED BY SEAGATE

4. "THIRD PARTY NEWS"
* NEW KANE SECURITY MONITOR GETS RAVE PRESS REVIEWS
* NEW ADAPTIVE SECURITY MANAGEMENT MODEL FROM ISS 
* COMPREHENSIVE REGISTRY MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT
* NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: EVENTADMIN

5. "HINTS AND TIPS - TIME SAVERS AND OTHER GOODIES...

6. "HOW TO USE THE MAILING LIST"
NEW Instructions on how to subscribe, sign off
and change addresses.

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1. "EDITORS CORNER" 


Hello Everybody, did you know we now have 35,000 subscribers?

To start with a correction, last issue we reported about the new 
code name of NT6.0. We got some feedback on that as it slipped
through the spelling correction, the funniest was this one!:
"What? even a MS bug in the new codename? Millennium is spelled 
with two "n"s. M. Schuler" Editor's comment: 

The recent Microsoft Developer's Conference has shown some really
interesting newsworthy tidbits that surfaced little by little.
Did you know that 5.0 will have full HighRes graphics Game-play and
high grade sound capabilities as well as plug-and-play and 
power management options? Better get a laptop with an 8 gig drive!

Microsoft decided to streamline the updates and bugfixes. There
are now two separate downloads: Service Paks that are just bug
fixes and Option Paks that add more features to the O/S. This
should make your life more easy. The Service Paks are shrinking
in size.

NT 5.0 will have a new feature called the Microsoft Installer
for applications. It will track everything on a machine's 
registry and manage DLL dependencies which means applications
will not have to take those into consideration when they are
installed and uninstalled. Support for the Microsoft Installer
will be a requirement for the Win NT logo program next year.

NT 5.0 will also make the NC and the Net PC redundant. Like I
have said a few times over the last years, NC's are a backward
innovation and won't have legs. With the Zero Admin features
in 5.0 you will be able to manage fleets of PC's pretty much
as simple as NC's. That gets you to the concepts of "Managed
PC's" but with a lot less effort than now. Andy Grove, CEO
of Intel, agrees with me ;-).

And one last item, I hope you guys will not be too upset if
I acknowledge our tech support team for a change. This is what 
I got back from one of our customers:

"I had read with interest your company's boast of the level 
and quality of your technical support offerings, and was, 
quite frankly, skeptical that you could live up to the standards 
you had set. After working with Joe these last couple of weeks, 
I am now a convert. He stuck with me all the way on this problem, 
working issues on his side while I was checking things on my side. 
What impressed me was that on more than 1 occasion he initiated 
contact with me to see how things were going, or to let me know of 
something new he had discovered. Please pass my appreciation to 
Joe's supervisor. Cordially, John Locke"

Thanks John, that's the quality level we constantly try to achieve.
Our Tech Guys are now in the process of filling up a Web-accessible
Knowledge Base will ALL known technical issues about NT 3-rd party
system management tools. This will come on-line soon, we'll let
you know.

Enough said, here is the latest NT News!!

Warm regards,
Stu Sjouwerman

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2. "TECH BRIEFING"

* HOW TO INSTALL WOLFPACK - NEW IBM REDBOOK

David Watts sent me the following: "I work for IBM writing 
redbooks on server topics. The current project I'm working on 
is about clustering for NT, OS/2 and NetWare. The book is still 
in draft, but I've put five chapters of the book on the redbooks 
web page so that anyone can view them. These chapters are the ones 
describing clustering on NT, and in particular clustering using 
Microsoft Cluster Server. The text includes some IBM specific 
stuff, but also some general "how to install Wolfpack" and 
"how to configure Wolfpack" info." So I went over there and
had a look. Very useful, so get a bookmark set.

The URL is http://www.redbooks.IBM.com (then click on the 
"Redpieces" button) 
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* HOW TO GET NIC FAULT TOLERANCE AND BOOST THROUGHPUT

NIC's (Network Interface Cards) can be a nasty I/O bottleneck.
You had just invested in the latest high speed Double or Quad
CPU NT servers, upgraded to a 10-100 ethernet architecture, your 
NT workstations all have either 32 or even 64Meg RAM and still 
the application speed is not up to snuff. What the heck could 
be wrong?

Well, the NIC in your server may be the culprit. It receives and
sends many, many packets in an environment with more than a few
users. All that data for all those users needs to travel through 
that one single NIC? And what about being that card a single
point of failure? You are right, it sure is.

Well, of course there is a solution and it has been in existence
for quite some time in the Novell environment. The trick is to
plug two or even three NIC's in that server and balance the load.
When one NIC fails, the other two are still operational and will
carry on with servicing the network. This gets you a high degree
of fault tolerance on the NIC level. In effect, this creates a 
single, high-speed virtual NIC.

But that is not all, intelligent software can load balance both
incoming and outgoing packets over these multiple NIC's so you
can boost network throughput with 70% if you add one NIC, and
even 140% or higher with a third NIC. That will get those apps
really rocking. Obviously you have guessed by now that we would
not talk about this if we would not have something up our sleeve.

Creating a high speed virtual NIC can be a dramatic performance 
increase without overhauling your whole network. It provides a 
software-only solution that is easy to manage and configure.
Busy servers would be greatly helped with an "install-it-and-
forget-it" tool like this. Dell is already including it in some
of its Poweredge servers.

By now you are probably asking yourself what the product is that
performs all these miracles. It is called Balance Suite for Win
NT and..yes, Sunbelt Software has it ready for you as you read
this. Keep in mind that it is strongly recommended you have two 
identical NIC plus drivers. And to top the whole thing off, 
Sunbelt is going to bundle this product with a 3Com Etherlink 
3C905-TX 10-100 RJ-45 adapter (This bundle-offer is USA-only!)

Here is a limited FAQ, the rest is on our website.

Q: Are there any issues regarding type of physical server used? 
A: Balance Suite for Windows NT works on a wide range of PCs 
(386,486,Pentium, etc.). 

Q: Does a server with Balance Suite for Windows NT loaded 
require more server RAM? 
A: No, but it may be helpful. Balance Suite enables the server 
to handle more overall I/O transactions than before. Adding more
server RAM may be helpful in processing this greater load. 

Q: Any particular type or brand of NIC recommended? 
A: Because Balance increases the overall I/O of a server, bus-
mastering NICs (PCI, EISA, MCA) are recommended. 

Q: Is Balance Suite for Windows NT limited to any particular 
network cabling scheme? 
A: Balance Suite for Windows NT works with Ethernet (10Base2, 
10BaseT, and 100BaseTX) networks only. 

Q: Which types of network devices optimize throughput for a server 
running Balance Suite for Windows NT? 
A: Because Balance Suite increases the server's ability to service 
transactions, a switch offers the most performance benefits.
Switches are ideal because of their buffering and collision/error 
filtering capabilities. The most efficient network design involves 
the server's balanced NICs connected directly into a switch. Other 
network devices (hubs/concentrators, bridges, routers, workstations,
other switches) could then be attached to that switch. 

Q: How does Balance Suite for Windows NT avoid networking conflicts
when multiple cards are connected to the same network? 
A: For routing purposes, Balance makes the server visible only 
through the primary NIC. 

Q: How many NICs can be balanced in any one server? 
A: A minimum of two NICs are required to provide any performance 
or reliability benefit. Balance will support as many cards as
Windows NT will allow.

Q: What operating systems does Balance Suite for WinNT support? 
A: Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3. 

Q: What frame types does Balance Suite for Windows NT support? 
A: Ethernet: Ethernet_802.2, Ethernet_802.3, Ethernet_II, and 
Ethernet_SNAP 

Q: What protocols does Balance Suite for Windows NT support? 
A: TCP/IP and IPX/SPX. NetBIOS traffic is supported, but is not 
balanced. (All NetBIOS traffic will go through the primary NIC.) 

Q: Does Balance Suite for Windows NT support full-duplexing? 
A: Balance Suite for Windows NT supports both half and full-
duplexing. 

Q: Is it possible to balance dissimilar NICs together? 
A: Yes, in some cases, it is strongly recommended to use 
identical NICs and drivers.

Q: How does one determine if Input/Output is truly being balanced 
across multiple NICs? 
A: Balance Suite for Windows NT includes a client application 
that monitors I/O traffic in real time. By looking at this screen, 
you can see the current and historical levels of data traffic 
on each NIC. 


Q: What happens to the network if one of the balanced NICs fails? 
A: Balance Suite for Windows NT monitors the balanced NICs to 
make sure that they are still working. Every 10 seconds Balance
Suite sends out a directed watchdog packet, which travels from 
one NIC to the next. If anything (failed NIC, bad cable, loose 
cable, failed Switch port, etc.) inhibits the watchdog packet 
from completing its path, Balance Suite recognizes the failure 
and dynamically rebalances among the remaining viable NICs. 
Workstations logged in through the NIC/connection that failed 
can auto reconnect if their client software supports automatic 
reconnection. Other workstation shells will receive an abort,
retry,fail message which will reconnect to a viable NIC when 
a retry is done.

It's only about 3 Meg to download so here is the place to get
your hands on it: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/balance.htm
--------------------------


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3. "NT RELATED NEWS"

* NT6.0: 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS SAY IT CAN BE DONE

Microsoft told the press last week that this year they will
up their R&D budget from 2.1 to 2.5 Billion dollars. Their
research team is laying the foundation for Millennium (2 n's).

They have decided that the future of operating systems is
in distributed processing, they are now working on an O/S
that will span more than one computer. It basically will
again raise the level of abstraction to a higher level, and
is pretty revolutionary they admit.

Millennium is going in the direction of self-configuring,
self-monitoring, self-tuning, secure and easily scalable.
Architectures such as higher abstraction, just-in-time
binding, O/S introspection and irrelevance of storage and
location are going to make it happen. 

This of course has a lot to do with Zero-Admin as well, it
sure is going in that direction! Self-repair would also be
an item that would fit in this list, but practically nobody
is willing to have their servers hooked up 100% of the time
to Microsoft, and have new chunks of O/S automatically loaded
onto their servers. I think _that_ is going to be taking it
a bit too far ;-).
---------------------------------


* DISASTER RECOVERY FOR NT 5.0 PROVIDED BY SEAGATE

Seagate Software, announced its selection by Microsoft to 
develop the System Disaster Recovery utility for NT 5.0. 
Code-named Phoenix, the new System Disaster Recovery utility 
works in conjunction with the NT backup utility, developed 
by Seagate Software, to quickly and easily restore failed 
servers and workstations to the point of last backup, whether 
full, differential or incremental. This next-generation 
enterprise management utility offers a reliable solution 
that helps provide total data availability. Microsoft plans 
to include System Disaster Recovery utility with NT WS 5.0 
and NT Server 5.0. 
--------------------------------

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4. "THIRD PARTY NEWS"


* NEW KANE SECURITY MONITOR GETS RAVE PRESS REVIEWS

As you know, Sunbelt selects the best tools in the Industry
and supports them with mainframe quality tech support. I just
wanted you to show the latest reviews that KSM has had:

There has been a great deal of press about the KSM in the past 
two weeks. Here are the highlights:

BackOffice Magazine's Best Of Show Select Award --Windows NT 
Show, San Francisco, 8/97

"The data collection feature alone will be worth the price 
of admission." PCWEEK

"Let[s} a system administrator know that something is rotten 
in the state of the network." ENT

"A 'burglar alarm system' for Windows NT machines?help[s] IT 
managers do what, until recently, seemed impossible: catch 
network and system breaches as they happen." Information Week

"KSM is nevertheless a must-have for administrators who want 
to get a better handle on daily network security." PCWEEK

"Using artificial intelligence KSM can let you know when hackers 
slip past your firewall and tell you what they are doing." 
PC Magazine

"A tool to help administrators batten down the Windows NT security
hatches." ENT

"24-hour protection against external and internal hackers and 
notifies security administrators of attempted Windows NT Server 
break-ins in real time." Computer World

"Can conduct an exhaustive search of the security on servers, 
provide in-depth data on vulnerabilities. Even [taking] action 
(such as paging administrators) when problems arise." PCWEEK

You can have a look at KSM and download a copy at our website:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ksm.htm
----------------------------

* NEW ADAPTIVE SECURITY MANAGEMENT MODEL FROM ISS 

New SAFESuite Architecture Empowers Organizations To Manage
Security Risks Through Automatic Detection and Response 
Capabilities.

Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS), announced a new model for 
internal and external security risks. It's SAFEsuite product is a
complete adaptive security management system for the enterprise.

The tremendous rise in Internet connections and private intranets 
has resulted in a serious, global network security problem. 
Despite the availability and implementation of security safeguards, 
such as firewalls, encryption and authentication, networks remain 
vulnerable.

In order to maintain a consistent, widespread level of security 
across all network devices and applications, organizations need 
the added capability of automatically monitoring, detecting and 
responding to threats and vulnerabilities. This process is called 
Adaptive Security Management.

"Network administrators don't have the time or resources available 
to keep up with the growing number of network security risks," 
said Jim Hurley, Senior Analyst at market research firm, Aberdeen 
Group. "ISS' cutting-edge, adaptive security approach, augments 
traditional security to provide a much needed, complete risk 
management solution."

The model defines 4 essential steps to the Adaptive Security 
Management process. These include:

1. Ongoing and comprehensive detection of security vulnerabilities. 
Frequent, automated network security scanning to detect security 
weaknesses. 

2. Automatic response to security weaknesses.
User-defined responses such as alarms, automatic correction and 
dynamic reconfiguration of network devices.

3. Around-the-clock intrusion detection of security threats. 
Real-time monitoring and intrusion detection of misuse of 
internal network resources and external network attacks.

4. Automatic response to security threats.
User-defined responses such as alarms, actively terminating 
the connection, logging the activity based on detected threats.

ISS' SAFESuite is a complete adaptive security management system 
that includes a comprehensive line of leading network security 
detection and monitoring tools -- Internet Scanner, System S
security Scanner and RealSecure. Together, SAFEsuite detects and 
responds to the full range of network security problems whether 
they are vulnerabilities that exist in the network or threats 
resulting from internal activity or external attacks. Visit the 
ISS Web site at http://www.iss.net.
-----------------------------

* COMPREHENSIVE REGISTRY MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT

KeyVision is the first tool to provide a centralized repository 
for Web-based monitoring and management of the Windows NT/95 
Registry enterprise. With KeyVision, system administrators can 
easily and quickly diagnose configuration problems and update 
or change machine configurations en masse. 

KeyVision audits all changes to machine Registries, issues 
standardized reports and deposits these changes in a central 
ODBC database. KV system administrators utilize the browser-based 
graphical user interface to group machines for easier management, 
establish rules that when broken result in a notification and 
conduct mass or individual Registry updates/changes to get 
problematic machines back online. 

Check it out at: http::/www.keyvision.com
--------------------------------

* NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: EVENTADMIN

Event Log Management starts to become a popular category of NT
Utilities. SeNTry (an originally UK product) was bought by the
US company Mission Critical and they are releasing this with
an increased price. LogCaster was announced recently as a highly
technically advanced event log manager and now a third, low-end
product sees the light of day: NTsecurity.com announced the 
release of EventAdmin(TM) for Microsoft Windows NT(R). And do
not forget that the Kane Security Monitor is also doing a lot
of it's work by real time event log monitoring. Time to start
looking at this category and pick one if you have more than say
5-7 NT servers!

EventAdmin gives Windows NT administrators a central point 
for collecting, storing and analyzing the information contained 
in event logs. EventAdmin enables administrators to utilize 
event logs information for network analysis, security 
assessment and reporting. 

EventAdmin stores all event log information from distributed 
servers and workstations in a central ODBC-compliant database. 
The ODBC-compliant database allows you to use the analysis 
tools of your choice, such as Microsoft Access and Microsoft 
SQL Server giving you power, simplicity and flexibility.

Sample MS Access database distributed with EventAdmin provides 
several predefined reports and allows you to create additional 
reports to meet your needs.

AuditSet is a part of EventAdmin kit, allows administrators to 
establish and maintain enterprise-wide security logs auditing 
policy.

EventAdmin Demo can be downloaded at:
http://www.ntsecurity.com/Products/License/DemoAgreement.html
----------------------------


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5. "HINTS AND TIPS - TIME SAVERS AND OTHER GOODIES...

Sunbelt has updated the Powerpoint Presentation with the catalog
of the bestselling products we have available. You can download 
this puppy via our free download library, it's about 50K zipped.
Here where it is: http://www.ntsoftdist.com/libform.htm
--------------------------------

CertifiedConsultants is a new professional online 
consulting service covering the full spectrum of development 
and support issues for Windows NT & BackOffice related products.

1. 40+ MCSEs, MCSDs and MCTs (only the top certificates) resolve 
your requests according to their expertise
2. All have solid experience in their specialty areas -- so 
reliable solutions are reached quickly
3. Consultant participates in an email discussion with you until 
a satisfactory solution reached -- or NO charges!
4. Very reasonable rates! ($29.95 to $99 - VISA, MasterCard)
5. Simple questions to complex integrated issues -- requests 
accepted online 24 x 7
6. Consultants assigned (email discussions begin) same day when 
request received Mon - Sat, 9am - 9pm EDT

To enter your request or get additional information, visit their 
site: http://www.certifiedconsultants.com 
------------------------------------

Microsoft, in support of the Net?s first NT Specific search engine, 
will showcase NT Seek on their respected Sitebuilder?s Network 
toward the middle of October. We wanted to give you the chance 
to try NT Seek, http://www.ntseek.com before everyone else does. 

Try the new NT Seek, the Internet?s first comprehensive search 
engine devoted exclusively to on-line support of Microsoft?s 
Window?s NT operating system and related subjects.
------------------------------------

From WINDOWS Magazine: Rebuild Icons
To rebuild all your Desktop icons in a few seconds, find the
ShellIconCache file in your main Windows NT directory, then 
delete it. Log off and log back on again, and your icons 
should be rebuilt from scratch. The ShellIconCache file holds 
copies of all the Desktop object's icons for speedy redraws 
and can occasionally get corrupted.
----------------------------------


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6. "HOW TO USE THE MAILING LIST"
Instructions on how to subscribe, sign off
and change addresses

TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE LIST

Go to: 
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/scripts/lyris.pl?join=nt-list
and fill out the form, simple & easy: 1 minute work.
_____________________________________________________

TO QUIT THE LIST

Two ways to do it: 

1) Go to:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/scripts/lyris.pl 
choose the NT-List, use your email address that is at the
bottom of each newsletter and leave the list via the
web interface.

2) Simply forward any newsletter you get to this email address:
[email protected]
_____________________________________________________

TO CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS

First unsubscribe and then resubscribe as per the
procedure above.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

On the World Wide Web point your browser to:

For the newsletter:
http://www.ntnews.com
For our website:
USA: http://www.sunbelt-software.com

Email for US sales information to:
[email protected]
Email for US Tech support to:
[email protected]
Email to the US Editor:
[email protected]

Email for European Sales to:
[email protected]
Email for European Tech support to:
[email protected]

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Legal Stuff:
This document is provided for informational purposes only. 
The information contained in this document represents the
current view of Sunbelt Software Distribution on the issues
discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt
must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not
be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt
and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any
information presented after the date of publication.

INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS"
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT.

The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the
use of this document. This document may be copied and
distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text
must be copied without modification and all pages must be
included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright
notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This
document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks
acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software Distribution,Inc 1997.

(email me with feedback: [email protected])