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Vol. 11, #9 - Feb 27, 2006 - Issue #565
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Would You Trash Your LAN?
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- EDITORS CORNER
- Would You Trash Your LAN?
- March Seminar Overview
- Quote of the Week
- ADMIN TOOLBOX
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- TECH BRIEFING
- Who Can Make Sense Of Redmond's Security Offerings?
- Enterprises Overly Optimistic About Vista Security
- Rolling Back Patches
- Running System Restore from the Recovery Console (well, sort of)
- How To Repair Exchange-related IIS Virtual Directories
- WINDOWS SERVER NEWS
- Microsoft Eyes Six Core Windows Vista Versions
- Redmond Sends SMS R2 To Beta
- Server Slam: Windows Overtakes Unix, Linux Rising
- Vista Is Feature Complete
- Redmond's Response To The European Commission
- WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS
- Computer Security Awareness Videos
- Special Antispyware Offer For K-12!
- Double-Take for Virtual Systems --- Proven, Trusted and Reliable Replication - New White Paper!
- WServerNews 'FAVE' LINKS
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
- WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
- BOOK: Anti-Hacker Tool Kit, Third Edition
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Extend Active Directory to Unix, Linux, Mac
Seamlessly integrate your Unix, Linux, Mac, Java and web
platforms with Active Directory to strengthen security,
streamline IT operations, and enhance regulatory compliance.
By centralizing user and policy management in Active Directory,
you can extend secure single sign-on and global password policies
across Windows and non-Windows systems. Find out more about
Centrify's unique Zone-based access control. Free white paper.
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Centrify
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EDITORS CORNER |
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Would You Trash Your LAN?
The Energy group in BP has shifted thousands of its employees off
its LAN in an attempt to repel organized cyber criminals. I can
see some of where they are coming from but I think it's scary all
the same. Read this article and tell me what you think about this?
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Trash_LAN
March Seminar Overview
We'd like to invite you to attend the following seminars that
we are hosting in March:
"Winning the War on the Spyware Battlefield" - Join renowned
spyware researcher and Sunbelt's Director of Malware Research,
Eric Howes, for an engaging discussion on the scope of the
spyware problem. Hosted at the Microsoft office in Atlanta on
Thursday, March 23rd. Register here:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Spyware_Seminar_Atlanta
"What Every IT Manager Should Know About Protecting Microsoft
Exchange and Centralized Backup" ? Join Sunbelt and NSI Software
as we discuss strategies for implementing high availability,
remote availability and offsite disaster recovery solutions for
Exchange and other mission critical applications using Double-Take.
Hosted at the Microsoft office in Rochester, NY on Friday, March
24th. Register here:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-DT_Seminar_Rochester
Also hosted at the Microsoft office in Phoenix, AZ on Thursday,
March 30th. Register here:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-DT_Seminar_Phoenix
Quote of the Week
"Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms such as [wars, slavery,
and the like]...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal
rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor
matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant
than is a riot." -- Robert Heinlein.
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TECH BRIEFING |
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Who Can Make Sense Of Redmond's Security Offerings?
Microsoft's current offerings for anti-spyware, anti-virus and
anti-hacker services is such an overlapping jumble, it has some
of its own developers confused. What distinguishes Windows Defender,
Windows Live Safety Center, Malicious Software Removal Tool, Windows
OneCare Live, and Microsoft Client Protection from each other? Which
tools work together? Which don't? The Email Battles sites sorts it
all out... hopefully. [grin]
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Redmond_Security
Enterprises Overly Optimistic About Vista Security
A recent study reveals enterprises have high hopes for Vista's
security features. But Microsoft faces challenges convincing the
security market of its leadership abilities. Over at the SearchWinIT
site:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Vista_Security
Rolling Back Patches
Patches and hotfixes can break as much as they fix. Contributor
Serdar Yegulalp looks at some of your options when the need to
roll back patches arises. He details the procedures for a roll
back by hand and System Restore and provides the pros and cons
of each method as well as the benefits of third-party software.
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Rolling_Back_Patches
Running System Restore from the Recovery Console (well, sort of)
Recovery Console has no built-in way to run System Restore. If
the Registry is corrupted, it is possible to do a manual restore.
But the manual method is far from perfect. At SearchWinSystems.com
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Recovery_Console
How To Repair Exchange-related IIS Virtual Directories
Exchange Server depends on Internet Information Server (IIS)
virtual directories for a number of functions related to Outlook
Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access and ActiveSync. IIS virtual
directories are generally stable, but can become corrupted by
inappropriate administrative action. This step-by-step guide
provides instructions on how to repair them if they are damaged.
At the SearchExchange site:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Exchange_IIS_Virtual_Dir
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WINDOWS SERVER NEWS |
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Microsoft Eyes Six Core Windows Vista Versions
But they are still "thinking about it". Redmond seems to have
finalized the members of its next-generation desktop lineup. As
expected, stand-alone Tablet and Media Center Editions are no
more. They plan six basic editions of Vista, plus two more "N"
versions, these are the European version that don't bundle Media
Player.
Two of the flavors roughly resemble WinXP Home and XP Pro, but
with an extra Home edition bundling Media Center features. Next
two more enterprise editions with extra features, and a stripped-
down flavor without Vista's graphics or 64-bit capabilities.
According to the current data (which was on their website and
then yanked) Windows Starter 2007 is the bare bones flavor, and
is not Vista branded since it doesn't have Vista's Aero graphics
system, and it will only ship in a lowly 32-bit version. I'm fairly
sure that this engine will be used to create the cheap "developing
countries" flavor.
Next up is Vista Home Basic. It's aimed at single-PC homes and is
the basic version of Vista. This version comes in the "N" version
for Europe. One step up is Vista Home Premium, and of course has
Media Center and Media Center Extender features, plus a support
for Cable Card.
Windows Vista Business more or less replaces the old XP Pro, and
it adds features such as Virtual PC, multilanguage user interface
and "Cornerstone" technologies such as Secure Startup and full-
volume encryption. And then there is the mysterious "Vista Ultimate"
adds that will add still more goodies! Perhaps there will even be
a special SMB version (Small Medium Business) but we'll see at
the end of the year.
Redmond Sends SMS R2 To Beta
Microsoft last Tuesday released the first beta of System Management
Server R2 and said the software would be generally available in May.
SMS R2 includes two prominent features, a new catalog service that
will let users download third-party patches directly into SMS and
a new vulnerability-scanning engine to discover misconfigured
software.
SMS R2's catalog features are part of the new Inventory Tool for
Custom Updates. The tool allows third parties and application
developers to create and publish a catalog of updates using the
same formats used for Microsoft Update, which is Microsoft's Web-
based download center for patches. SMS R2, which now only scans
the Microsoft Update catalog, will be able to scan catalogs posted
on non-Microsoft Web sites and download the patches into SMS for
later distribution. Currently, users must download the non-MS
patches manually, repackage them in the proper formats and then
import them into SMS. More at InfoWorld:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-SMS_R2_Beta
Server Slam: Windows Overtakes Unix, Linux Rising
eWEEK has an interesting article. Windows Servers are now outselling
UNIX servers. This is based on IDC and Gartner numbers that came out
this week. The trend is toward Windows and Linux while RISC and
mainframes showed decline. Server consolidation caused server
sales to slow down somewhat. Details at eWEEK:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Windows_Unix_Linux
Vista Is Feature Complete
This week's build of Vista, the February CTP (Community Technology
Preview), is "feature-complete", Redmond says, which means that all
of the fundamental features that Vista will offer are now completely
in the code. The user "experience" will continue to be worked at,
bugs fixed, compatibility an performance will improve, however
the basic form of the OS system has been cast in concrete, and
from here on out expect to see mainly fine-tuning.
Redmond's Response To The European Commission
Interesting reading if you are into this kind of thing. The written
discussion between Steve Ballmer and EU Competition Commissioner
Neelie Croes. Microsoft made them public:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-MS_ECSO
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WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS |
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Computer Security Awareness Videos
Check these out, there are a few good ones you can use to train
your employees. They were made for students, but a lot of staff
would benefit from them too! The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and
Network Security Task Force and the National Cyber Security Alliance
announced the winners of their computer security awareness video
contest, which was held as part of a national campaign to raise
awareness of and increase computer security at colleges and
universities. The contest searched for two categories of short
computer awareness videos that addressed a broad range of security
topics or focused on a single security issue. Submissions were
developed by college students for college students. The winning
videos are featured at the site and will be used in campus security
awareness campaigns and efforts. The contest included 62 video
submissions from 17 universities. The winners were selected for
creativity, content, quality of information; overall effectiveness
of delivery; and technical quality. Check the winners out here:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Security_Videos
Special Antispyware Offer For K-12!
Need spyware protection but have a limited budget?
When it comes to spyware protection, schools continually face unique
challenges including multiple operating systems, diverse user bases,
and limited budgets.
To help effectively combat these challenges, Sunbelt Software is
excited to make spyware protection more affordable. With our new
"Save Our Schools from Spyware" program, Sunbelt is providing deep
discounts for any public or private K-12 educational institution
on CounterSpy Enterprise.
The offer is open to any K-12 for-profit, non-profit or public
educational institution and includes an unlimited site license
with up to three years maintenance. That means no additional
license expenditures, no support costs, and no maintenance or
upgrade costs for up to three years!
You need a cost effective spyware solution that also provides
the best spyware database in the industry, CounterSpy Enterprise
gives you:
- Second-generation anti-spyware tool built from the ground up
for enterprise deployment and easy centralized management.
- Scalable, policy-based, solution that supports several methods
of agent deployment including silent push install, an MSI file
or a self-extracting executable.
- Proven best-of-breed tool that is powered by constantly updated
and robust threat database.
Together we can "Save Our Schools from Spyware". Try CounterSpy
Enterprise and see how easy (and affordable) protecting your
school from spyware can be:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-CSE
Double-Take for Virtual Systems --- Proven, Trusted and Reliable Replication - New White Paper!
Double-Take(tm) for Virtual Systems allows for the use of lower-cost
virtual machines as high availability and disaster recovery targets,
making disaster recovery more affordable. When you combine the
accessible data protection capabilities of Double-Take with the
flexibility and efficiency of virtual systems, you can have the
confidence that your company's most valuable data is safe. If you
want to learn more about this, please contact your Rep or Reseller
and ask for the new white paper that explains the installation.
Read the new White Paper! click here: (PDF)
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-DT_Virtual_Systems
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WServerNews 'FAVE' LINKS |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
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WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK |
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BOOK: Anti-Hacker Tool Kit, Third Edition
McGraw-Hill/Osborne fully updated this book to provide you with
complete details on the latest and most critical security tools,
it offers extensive reviews on brand-new hacking tools, including
wireless, forensics, anti-virus, phishing, pharming, and more.
The book aims to feature "best practices" for using security tools,
giving background not only on how to use a tool but also on the
underlying reasons of why and when to use a particular tool. Through
the use of screenshots, code listings, example tool usage, and case
studies, the authors show how each tool can be used in certain real-
world situations. It covers Windows, Linux/Unix, and Mac OS X. A
CD-ROM with essential security tools is included. More at Amazon:
http://www.wservernews.com/060227-Anti-Hacker_Toolkit
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