1. EDITORS CORNER: 
* Welcome to new subscribers / Recommendation works again
/ STAT licensing changes / !! WARNING: ResumeVirus !!
2. TECH BRIEFING: 
* Exchange Server Fault Tolerance/FailOver with Double-Take
3. NT RELATED NEWS:
* MS releases W2K DataCenter Beta 2
* SANS W2K security improvement project launched: 
4. NT THIRD PARTY NEWS:
* DELL Invests Millions in Double-Take. Microsoft Intros
Disaster Recovery Instruction online Seminar
* POSITIVE Change in STAT licensing model!
* New AutoShare applies permissions and shares home dir's.
* Why did Microsoft license ECM? Two words...
5. W2Knews 'FAVE' LINKS:
* NEW: This Week's 3 Cool HotLinks
6. HINTS AND TIPS:
7. THE NT/2000 STOCK WATCH - May 29, 2000 - It's a Bear market.
8. HOW TO USE THE MAILING LIST
Instructions on how to subscribe, sign off or change your address.

**************WINDOWS 2000 MAGAZINE - 25% Discount**************** 
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offer in W2Knews. You'll get 14 issues filled with the best 
practical, independent information about Windows NT and 
Windows 2000. You'll also get on-line access to the entire 
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issue. If you decide not to subscribe, return your invoice 
marked "cancel", and enjoy your FREE copy. 
http://www.win2000mag.com/sub/index.cfm?action=WinSQL&code=00INENTL 

**********************WHAT IS W2Knews?**************************

Sunbelt W2Knews (the original NTools E-News) is the World's first 
and largest E-Newsletter designed for NT/2000 System Admins that 
have the job to get and keep NT up & running in a production 
environment. Sunbelt launched this electronic newsletter early 1996. 
Every week we keep the Windows NT/2000 community informed and aware 
of new developments of NT and 3-rd party System Management Tools. 
You get hints and tips that will enable you to better utilize and 
understand Win NT/2000 and help to pass your Certification Exams.
Info and Stu's bio: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/w2knews.cfm

Via (separate) NTools E-NewsFlashes we will send you important 
breaking news like new service packs, killer viruses, etc. Sunbelt 
Software is the first and largest provider worldwide of Third 
Party System Management Tools for Windows NT. Tell Your Friends!
All back issues are here, searchable and indexed on key words:
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=nt-list&text_mode=0
-------------------------------------------------------------------

1. "EDITORS CORNER" 

Hello NT/2000 Pros, 

- If this is your first issue, welcome. We have noticed a lot of 
new people have signed up recently. Treat this as your sample 
issue. You can unsubscribe at any time but you'd miss out on 
some pretty urgent stuff like the new RESUME virus!

- Our 'Recommend a friend' works again. You can recommend a friend 
and when they subscribe, both of you make a chance on a $500 Amazon 
gift certificate! Check our welcome page and click on the man with 
dollar signs in his eyes... http://www.sunbelt-software.com

- Change in STAT licensing scheme! STAT is one of the best selling
tools we have. In Feb, 2000 the licensing of STAT was changed
and it was tweaked last week, favorably. If you looked at STAT
or asked a quote, call your Rep as the price may have changed.
Read the article below. 

- WARNING: ResumeVirus. Yes, another killer is on the loose. It's
a modified version of Melissa with a more vicous payload. This
is a Word Macro virus, spreads to everyone in the address book
and tries to delete all files in a bunch of directories and 
drives.

The subject of the email message in which it arrives looks 
like this: Subject: Resume - Janet Simons 
ACTION: ensure no one opens the attachment and, better, if you 
have the skills, to set up an email filter that stop any 
offending messages. (use Mail Essentials already? If no read 
the article on our website called 'Virus Protection too late?) . 
Tell your users to deactivate their executive summary feature 
in Microsoft Outlook, and only then delete the e-mail without 
opening. 

Last but not least, remember the remark I made a few weeks ago
about a major investment in one of our leading developers? Well
the news is out and it's really exciting. Read on about Dell and 
Double-Take!

Warm regards,

Stu Sjouwerman
Email me with feedback at: [email protected]

Want to see a quick shot of the US Sunbelt gang after Monday
staff meeting? http://www.sunbelt-software.com/sungang.jpg

*****************SPONSOR: ECORA ********************************
HOW WOULD YOU ALWAYS LIKE TO HAVE CURRENT DOCUMENTATION FOR YOUR
NT and Exchange networks in a fraction of the time and cost it
would take to write manually? Ecora generates automated,
comprehensive documentation for your systems. In-house appliance
also available. A free trial takes only minutes. Go to:
https://www.ecora.com/cgi-bin/stats/b.pl?h=n

****************************************************************

2. TECH BRIEFING:

* Exchange Server Fault Tolerance/FailOver with Double-Take

A bit leery about using Double-Take to mirror an Exchange Server?
Representing the developer of Double-Take, I can tell you it most 
definitely does successfully mirror and replicate Exchange and 
that we dome some of our most extensive and intensive testing 
with Exchange server. How? Let me explain.

We run very large scale and long duration loadsim and mailstorm 
testing and simulate failures in various states to ensure absolute 
data integrity at all points in the process. The key to this is 
that fact that Double-Take preserves the order of write operations 
across files at all times. 

So, if an Exchange transaction involves doing a non-cached write 
to the current transaction log, then a "cached" update to the main 
edb file and updating the checkpoint marker, that entire sequence 
is captured, queued, transmitted and applied to the target in 
exactly the same sequence. That also means that a failure at any 
point in this process leaves the target files in a "consistent" state.

That is, a state that existed at a point in time on the source 
server (imagine if your powered off the source machine and brought 
it back up). Even if you tried to replicate a busy Exchange server 
over a small pipe such that that last 5 minutes worth of changes 
were "in-flight", queued on the source waiting for available band-
width to catch up, the target data on the target server represents 
exactly the same state that the source server was in as of 15 minutes 
ago and is completely "consistent" and usable as of the last update 
received. 

Of course as long as there is sufficient bandwidth to transmit changes
immediately, this would not occur and in any case would be a dramatic
improvement vs. rolling back to last nights tape backup which would 
be hours old. Plus, by intercepting changes at the byte level vs. the
file, disk or block level - Double-Take transmits the absolute minimum
amount of data possible across the line.

The documentation, scripts and utilities required for Exchange 
failover with Double-Take are located at 
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=111


****************************************************************

3. NT RELATED NEWS:

* MS releases W2K DataCenter Beta 2

MS's enterprise server group product manager Michel Gambier 
said last week: "Beta 2 is feature complete at this point".
And they did not cut any of the features that were in any
of the previous betas, or will cut any features from coming 
releases. In short, this is the real thing. But when will
we see the final version? The follwing step before final
release will be the Datacenter Release Candidate 1.

Up to now, everyone thought it would be June 2000 for the
commercial release, but as usual, the final RTM (release
to manufacturing) is going to slip into the summer. This
may the caused by the fact that the Datacenter server beta 
process is very different from the other W2K flavors.

You may not know this, but Datacenter is not available just
by itself. It's only sold by OEM's that provide you with a
full 'hardware & software' package. That is for reliability
reasons. This puppy is supposed to be a rocksolid 'Unix
killer' with uptime measured in many months at a time.

Microsoft has also more stringent testing procedures with
the Datacenter version. It required the OEM's (read IBM,
Dell, Compaq, HP, NCR, Unisys and the others) to test Beta 
2 on the actual hardware that will be sent to the customers.
For obvious reasons these betas are done over a few hundred
sites, not the 500,000 sites that were used for W2K server.

The other thing tested during this beta is not just the
combination of hardware and software but also the support
program that was created for Datacenter. It's called the
Windows Datacenter Server Program, and is a joint-support 
program between Microsoft and it?s OEM partners.

I'm pretty excited about this last version of W2K. It is the
Crown Jewel in the Winsows line-up and has high-end scala-
bility features such as support for 64 GB of memory and 
support for up to 32 processors, Winsock Direct, as well as 
availability and reliability features such as two- and four-
node clustering, process control and network load balancing. 

It is going to provide us with an unparalelled stability 
compared to what we are used to. It only works with a subset
of the Hardware Compatibility list to ensure reliability.
About time we get rewarded for our loyalty to the Windows 
platform! 
------------------------

* SANS W2K security improvement project launched: 

Windows 2000 security is far more complex than security in earlier 
versions of Windows. That complexity carries risk, risk that can 
be mitigated only through greater understanding of the available
configuration options, how each option affects security alone and, 
of far greater concern, how different combinations of options 
affect overall security.

As thousands of organizations deploy Windows 2000, they are 
experimenting with the many security options and discovering 
the impacts, the strengths, and the flaws in those options. 

SANS Windows 2000 Hardening Project is designed to capture the 
knowledge of the Windows 2000 pioneers and to develop consensus 
guides to configuring Windows 2000 safely for various applications. 
These are intended to be living documents that improve as both 
user knowledge and the maturity of the operating system itself 
improve. SANS is looking for people to help write these guides.

Sign up at: http://www.sans.org/newlook/projects/w2k.htm

*****************************************************************
4. NT THIRD PARTY NEWS:

* DELL Invests Millions in Double-Take. Microsoft Intro's
Disaster Recovery Instruction online Seminar

NSI Software (the developer of our best-seller fault tolerance
utility Double-Take) announced last week that it has received 
over $36 million in new equity funding from an investment group 
led by Seligman & Co. Inc., Dell Computer Corporation and a 
leading storage hardware company. The total also included a 
follow-on investment by Morgan Keegan & Company. 

NSI develops solutions that provides you with geographically 
distributed, continuous data protection and availability for 
multiple operating systems. In tech-talk that means a multi-
platform tool to first mirror and then replicate your mission
critical servers in real-time with fail-over capability. In
short, the kind of tool that keeps your business afloat.

"This infusion of capital is key to expanding our business" 
said Don Beeler, CEO of NSI Software. "Our market is growing 
rapidly, and our products continue to add real value to our 
customers. The funding will help us quickly bring our latest 
technology to market and expand sales"

Microsoft Intro's Disaster Recovery Instruction online Seminar 

We are happy to announce the the release of an on-line seminar on 
the issues and options for protecting Microsoft server clusters 
running on Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, EE. The seminar, 
available via the web, is entitled 'Microsoft Cluster Service 
Disaster Recovery. 

While server clusters are designed to prevent individual server 
downtime, they are still vulnerable to catastrophic local disasters 
such as power outages, floods and fires. The video demonstrates 
clear strategies and techniques for implementing off-site or remote 
protection for MS clusters. The video was shot using NSI's Double-
Take and PowerEdge servers from Dell.

If you use clusters (or plan to), this video is a great way to
learn about expanding on the capabilities of Microsoft Cluster 
Service to handle disaster recovery. Double-Take provides an 
additional layer of redundancy and both local and remote protection 
if you host critical business applications today on NT or 2000.

Double-Take allows asynchronous, real-time replication of data 
over any IP LAN, WAN or SAN link. The video seminar presents 
a number of off-site replication scenarios and how each can be 
used in providing various degrees of data availability from local 
disaster recovery sites to global disaster recovery centers.

If you have applications hosted on a cluster, you appreciate the 
importance of data availability. This video gives you the background 
to take your protection to the next level.

Availability

'Microsoft Cluster Service Disaster Recovery' is available at 
the Microsoft Seminars Online web site. Click for Streaming Video at: 
http://www.microsoft.com/Seminar/1033/20000323DisasterAJ1/Seminar.htm 
------------------------

* POSITIVE Change in STAT licensing model!

STAT is one of the best selling tools we have. It scans your 
NT/2000 networks for almost 900 holes. Last February the STAT
licensing was changed, and it was favorably tweaked last week,
after we got some market feedback. If you looked at STAT or 
asked a quote I strongly suggest you call your Rep as the price 
may have changed.

The feedback we have had from you has been really good and the
STAT program provides an excellent benefit. The one issue we
had with the new licensing was the discrimination between 
servers and workstations introduced with the Version 3.0. That 
licensing model was modified to address this concern.

The new pricing model is based on JUST the number of targets 
to be scanned by the STAT product. The new model is called
Zero Waste Licensing [tm] and I think that you will all respond
quickly and positively to this new opportunity. Basically, it
is _very_ competitive. Already bought STAT? Definitely time
to call your Rep. We have good news there too.

There is no better time to think about NT/2000 security !
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=899
------------------------

* New AutoShare applies permissions and shares home dir's.

AutoShare is a time saving utility that will automatically apply 
the proper NTFS permissions and then share each user's home 
directory as it is created.

If you want to "root map" a drive to each user's home directory, 
and your clients are a mixture of Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000, 
you'll probably need to share each user's home directory. Then 
using the ScriptLogic Manager's Drive Tab, or other logon script 
(such as KiXtart), you can map a drive letter directly to each 
user's shared home directory. 

It requires time-consuming administrative effort to first grant 
the proper NTFS permissions and then share each and every one 
of those folders! AutoShare is the time-saving utility that 
will automatically perform these mundane tasks for you. 

AutoShare runs as an NT/2000 service and detects when a new 
user has been created in the domain database. Once a new user 
directory is detected, AutoShare will apply the proper NTFS 
permissions and then share the new user's home directory.

Only for sale in the Sunbelt Online Shop. Just $99 per server.
Check here: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=298
------------------------

* Why did Microsoft license ECM? Two words...

Why Microsoft licensed ECM to keep 3000 servers in Redmond 
in reign? Justs two words: Configuration Management.

Until now, there has been NO automated way to identify 
configuration problems _before_ they cause expensive downtime 
and generate support calls. You were not able to quickly 
pinpoint the root of configuration problems after a support 
call comes in, or standardize your server/workstation 
configurations to comply with your corporate standards.
Imagine the headache if you manage 3000 servers. . . 

Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM) gives you the power 
to prevent Windows NT/2000 server and workstation configuration 
problems before they impact your business operations. It also
provides fast resolution of configuration problems and it helps
you standardize NT/2000 server and workstation configs to 
implement best practices and support compliance with standards. 

ECM collects thousands of data elements for each of your systems 
and plugs them in a centralized SQL database for easy retrieval. 
In addition, ECM has proven itself scaleable in some the largest 
computing environments in the world (read Microsoft Redmond).
This tool gives you the power to monitor, manage, audit items 
including but not limited to:

Hardware 
Software 
Service Packs 
Hot fixes 
Service Account Passwords 
Local Account Passwords 
Service Status and Control Devices 
Disk Space 
File Versions 
IP Information 
Processes 
Event Log Settings 
Remote Job Submissions 
Registry Information 
Shares 

ECM can automatically discover new and existing Windows NT/2000 
machines for you as they are connected to the network by others.
It can then utilize its enterprise configuration data repository 
to identify specific instances in which configurations do not match 
your established policies. ECM arms you with the data you need 
to proactively diagnose and remedy problems caused by changes in 
configuration variables.

This is a high-end tool for sites with quite a bit of servers.
You need a beefy server to run it. It's got quite a bit of power,
but this beast needs to be tamed. Feel like a getting on top of
your network? Grab ECM by the reigns and put it through its paces.
Download: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=522

****************************************************************

5. W2Knews 'FAVE' LINKS: May 29, 2000

==============
The new Microsoft X-Box site has some pretty cool features:
http://www.xbox.com/xbox/flash/home.asp
==============
Protect Outlook against viruses with the new office update. But 
be warned, it may screw up some applications so test, test, test!
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/Out2ksec.htm
==============
This site is an excellent resource for NT/2000 admin pros. You
should check it out! http://www.ultratech-llc.com/Personal/Files/
==============
****************************************************************

6. HINTS AND TIPS: 

RE your article : * Some email viruses spreading WITHOUT opening 
attachment This is over 6 months old. Microsoft issued a security 
bulletin last October about this. I personally stop ActiveX 
coming thru our firewall which is more effective
Contributed by Ricky Foro. Thanks!


****************************************************************
7. THE NT/2000 STOCK WATCH - Friday May 26, 2000. It's an 'Official
Bear market.

52 WK 52 WK P/E WEEK
SECURITY CLOSE HIGH LOW RATIO CHNG
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced Micro Devices... 74 92 7/8 15 5/8 53 -11.7%
BMC Software............. 42 1/16 86 5/8 36 42 -1.0%
BindView Development Corp 6 15/16 45 3/4 6 5/16 -3.4%
Cisco Systems............ 54 15/16 82 26 +2.8%
Citrix Systems Inc....... 46 5/8 122 5/16 21 7/8 71 -2.9%
Compaq Computer.......... 26 1/8 34 18 1/4 71 -4.7%
Computer Associates...... 50 7/8 79 7/16 42 5/16 41 +2.9%
Data Return Corporation.. 14 1/4 94 1/4 13 1/2 -28.7%
Dell Computer............ 42 3/8 59 3/4 31 3/8 66 -9.7%
Electronic Data Systems C 63 3/4 76 11/16 47 7/8 43 +4.1%
Gateway Inc.............. 46 13/16 84 28 3/8 33 -4.9%
Hewlett Packard Co....... 118 1/8 156 67 37 -6.3%
Intel Corp............... 117 9/16 145 3/8 50 1/8 51 -0.2%
Intergraph Corp.......... 5 1/64 10 1/4 3 3/16 -8.5%
International Business Ma 106 15/16 139 3/16 89 3/4 26 +0.2%
Legato Systems Inc....... 9 7/8 82 1/2 9 1/4 -16.8%
Micron Electronics Inc... 8 1/4 20 11/16 8 1/2 19 -13.4%
Microsoft Corp........... 61 7/16 119 15/16 60 36 -5.5%
NCR Corp................. 40 13/16 52 5/8 26 11/16 12 +10.3%
NetIQ Corporation........ 31 5/8 81 1/2 14 3/4 -23.1%
Network Associates Inc... 20 7/16 37 3/16 12 3/4 -3.5%
Novell Inc............... 7 31/32 44 9/16 7 7/8 14 -12.0%
Oracle Corp.............. 67 90 11 1/4 -4.3%
Qualcomm Incorporated.... 66 1/16 200 21 1/2 85 -25.9%
Seagate Technology....... 53 5/16 76 25 1/8 12 +3.6%
Silicon Graphics......... 5 13/16 18 7/8 6 -15.4%
Sun Microsystems Inc..... 73 1/4 106 3/4 27 80 -5.1%
Sybase Inc............... 19 31 9 25 -9.2%
Symantec Corp............ 62 1/2 81 5/8 22 5/8 24 +0.3%
Unisys Corp.............. 23 3/4 49 11/16 19 1/2 14 -2.0%
Veritas Software Corp.... 107 1/16 174 17 1/4 +4.8%
Dow Jones 30 Industrials. 10,299.24 -3.0%

*******************************************************************

8. "HOW TO USE THE MAILING LIST" Instructions on how to subscribe, 
sign off or change your email address

TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE LIST (Tell your friends!) 

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

Or by email, send a blank message to the following address:
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_____________________________________________________

TO QUIT THE LIST

1) The Web Way:
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choose the NT-List, use your email address that is at 
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2) The Email Way: Simply follow the personalized 
instructions at the very end of this newsletter.
_____________________________________________________

TO CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS

First unsubscribe and then resubscribe as per the
procedure above.

********************************************************************

FOR MORE INFORMATION

On the World Wide Web point your browser to:

For the newsletter and our website:
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Email for US sales information to:
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At the time of this newsletter's release, all links were 
checked to verify their accuracy and validity. However, 
due to the ever changing pages of various sites, some links 
may later prove to be invalid. We regret any inconvenience 
should you be unable to open any of these links.
********************************************************************

Things Our Lawyers Make Us Say:

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 informa-
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INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS"
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
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The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the
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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.
1996-2000.

(email me with feedback: [email protected])