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Vol. 11, #30 - Jul 24, 2006 - Issue #586
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Look In Your Crystal Ball For Me?
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- EDITORS CORNER
- Look In Your Crystal Ball For Me?
- Microsoft Acquires Winternals Software
- The State Of Spam: Worse
- Quotes Of The Week
- ADMIN TOOLBOX
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- TECH BRIEFING
- ISP Outage, And Looking For Internet Weather Sites?
- Yet Another Way For Users To Clog Bandwidth
- Deep Dive Into The File Server Migration Toolkit
- Desktop AV Lets 80% Malware Slip Through?
- Fast Guide: Active Directory Security
- MS And XenSource Cooperate For Server Interoperability
- Step-by-step guide: Laptop Hacking
- WINDOWS SERVER NEWS
- Microsoft Pulls Plug On Private-folder Software
- Lord Of The Windows - An Internet Operating System Fable
- Office Goes Vertical
- WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS
- How Do Ninja Customers Like Sunbelt's Support?
- Healthcare Organization Tackles Complex Directory Scenario
- Double-Take Continues Awards Pursuit
- WServerNews 'FAVE' LINKS
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
- Cut 30% Or More From Your Exchange AV Budget With Ninja
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TechMentor Conference, October 9-13, Las Vegas
Redmond magazine's TechMentor provides real-world training - by
expert instructors - on managing, securing and troubleshooting
Microsoft Windows server systems. Join IT managers and network
admins for 100 sessions on hot topics such as Active Directory,
disaster recovery, GPO, wireless security, Vista and more. Learn
from Mark Minasi, Todd Lammle and others as they deliver in-depth
training, without the marketing spin. Register today and save!
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-TechMentor
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EDITORS CORNER |
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Look In Your Crystal Ball For Me?
Every so often, I'm asking you about the next threat you see on
the horizon. It's an open question, so you can be creative. Since
you guys are fighting in the trenches, you have a pretty good idea
what you are faced with in present time. That knowledge allows you
to extrapolate as well. Pull out your Palantir and let me know what
you believe will be the next big threat 12 months from now!?
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Crystal_Ball
Microsoft Acquires Winternals Software
Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell have been snagged up by Redmond.
And they deserve to be, as they have been making significant and very
useful contributions to the Windows Market. Congrats from all of us
at Sunbelt Software. Current Winternals products will be withdrawn
from the market as they're integrated into existing or new Microsoft
product offerings. The Sysinternals community site and tools will
likely continue to be available, but that is not completely sure,
so grab those tools while you can. Mark will become one of only 14
Microsoft Technical Fellows, taking his place alongside legends like
Windows NT guru Dave Cutler and Jim Gray. Mark and Bryce are looking
forward to making Windows an even better platform for all of us, and
I'm sure they will. Official Press Release at:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Winternals
The State Of Spam: Worse
InformationWeek just came out with an in-depth article about spam.
They started out with: "Filters have gotten so effective at keeping
junk e-mail away from users that there's little public outcry against
spam today. But behind the scenes, the problem is worse than ever--
and it could mask a serious, real-world threat". Next, they went
into great detail about the fact that 80% of email traffic was spam
in Q1, 2006, and what the factors are that cause it. "The vicious
content in the e-mail stream right now is beyond belief," says Neil
Schwartzman, chairman of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial
Email (CAUCE) in Canada. "We're not talking about the old scams we saw
from a few years ago. It's a lot nastier." I'm strongly recommending
to read this article, as it gets a lot of important data together in
one package that you can use as ammo to get your security budget:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Spam
Quotes Of The Week
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. -- Aristotle
"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's
accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."
-- Earl Warren
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TECH BRIEFING |
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ISP Outage, And Looking For Internet Weather Sites?
Will Bordeau sent me the following links that help with above
question: "This one tends to be my favorite, but it's a good
idea to know more than one in case a widespread outage or high
latency prevents one of them from loading, which would typically
be the whole reason for going to a site like this.
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-InternetTrafficReport
This one is pretty good too:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Internet_Weather
Yet Another Way For Users To Clog Bandwidth
A new app called Pando lets users send home videos, giant presentations
or entire folders of original quality photos to anyone with an email
address. The technology uses torrents to do it. I'd check it out and
see if it can be blocked from your corporate network.
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Pando
Deep Dive Into The File Server Migration Toolkit
Why should you care? Because you've still got old and crusty NT and 2000
file servers you'd love to turn off. But you can't, because your users are
still using files on them. Or, perhaps you've used one or two servers to
deploy software using Group Policy Software Deployment (and now you're ready
to re-purpose those servers.) You can't turn 'em off until you've done some
magic to maintain the server names (even though you're turning those servers
off) and move the files. So, what are you going to do? Check out this
newsletter to find out!
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Migration_Toolkit
Desktop AV Lets 80% Malware Slip Through?
Without naming names, the head of the Australian Computer Emergency
Response Team (AusCERT) said today the top desktop antivirus
applications will let about 80 percent of the latest malware slip
through. Here is the article so you can read the whole thing. Ouch:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Desktop_AV
Fast Guide: Active Directory Security
Windows Active Directory has become one of the key components to enterprise
management, and many companies use it to control large portions of their
networks. With so many factors dependent on the successful administration
of AD, security is especially important. This guide offers plenty of must-
know tips on maintaining a secure AD environment, starting with the basics
and moving on to more advanced practices. SearchWinIT.com (free registration):
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Secure_AD
MS And XenSource Cooperate For Server Interoperability
Microsoft said development has begun on technology that provides inter-
operability between Xen-enabled Linux and Microsoft Windows Server.
Coupled with IBM's Xen endorsement, experts are seeing it as a broadside
against VMware. At SearchServerVirtualization:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-XenSource
Step-by-step guide: Laptop Hacking
Laptops with sensitive data are getting stolen every day. Contributor
Kevin Beaver says the best way to secure your laptops is to understand
how they will be attacked. He provides the basic attack methods and a
set of preemptive measures in this step-by-step guide.
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Laptop_Hacking
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WINDOWS SERVER NEWS |
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Microsoft Pulls Plug On Private-folder Software
A bunch of system admins immediately made a lot of noise when
they saw the support ramifications of this new private folder
code that came out of Redmond. And MS listened and thank heavens
pulled it from their website. ComputerWorld has the story:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Private_Folders
Lord Of The Windows - An Internet Operating System Fable
Recently one of my friends, a computer wizard, paid me a visit. As we
were talking I mentioned having recently installed Windows on my PC
and that I am very happy with this operating system. I also showed
him the Windows CD, and to my surprise he threw it into my micro-wave
oven and turned on the oven. Instantly I got very upset, because the
CD had become precious to me, but he said: 'Do not worry, it is unharmed.'
After a few minutes he took the CD out, gave it to me and said: 'Take
a close look at it.' To my surprise the CD was quite cold to hold and
it seemed to be heavier than before. At first I could not see anything,
but then on the inner edge of the central hole I saw an inscription;
an inscription finer than anything I have ever seen before. The
inscription shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a
great depth:
4F6E65204F5320746F2072756C65207468656D20616C6C2C204F6E65204F5320746
F2066696E64207468656D2CDA4F6E65204F5320746F206272696E67207468656D20
616C6C20616E6420696E20746865206461726B6E6573732062696E64207468656D
'I cannot understand the fiery letters,' I said. 'No,' he said 'but
I can. The letters are Hex, of an ancient mode, but the language is
that of Microsoft, which I shall not utter here. But in common English
this is what it says: "One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them"
Office Goes Vertical
The excellent Mary Jo Foley from Microsoft Watch got hold of some
interesting announcements, one of these is about Office. This may
impact you, so here's the heads-up. "Biz Division President Jeff
Raikes Hints About the Future of Office: Raikes acknowledges there's
an "Office for Sales" SKU coming down the pike. We figure there are
plenty of other vertical/horizontal Office SKUs coming in the next
couple of years, as well." Yup, this may mean you are going to
have to support several different flavors of Office. Oh Joy.
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WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS |
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How Do Ninja Customers Like Sunbelt's Support?
Just a snippet from one of our discussion forums:
"Thank you to everyone at Sunbelt for all their hard work getting
the release ready for distribution." -- Chuck
"I second that. Sunbelt has proven to be the best vendor I have
worked with in a long time. They are always quick to address any
issues I encounter with their product, even if the issue was due
to my own stupidity or refusal to read documentation. Keep up the
good work gang! -- Paul.
And here a letter we received this week:
"I just wanted to take a minute and let each and everyone of you
know how thoroughly impressed I have been with the support of Ninja
during this week. I was one of the many that was having some
significant problems with Ninja and I'm very pleased to say all
issues have been resolved and were in a time ly manner. I could tell
that the support team was handling a very large volume of calls in a
very short period of time but they stuck by me and worked with me
until everything last question of mine was answered. As an single
person IT shop, I have to hold my vendors to a higher standard because
I need them. Sunbelt continues to meet or beat these standards and
that is why I will remain a customer for as long as I'm in IT.
Mucho Thank-o to Sunbelt for supporting my efforts" --
Andy Shook, MCSE+Messaging, CCNA
Director of Information Technology
NP Closing Network, LLC
You can find Ninja here. It now runs on more than 2,000 production
servers. Download it now and get full-feature SMART attachment
filtering for free.
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Sunbelt_Messaging_Ninja
Healthcare Organization Tackles Complex Directory Scenario
A large healthcare organization with thousands of users as well
as hundreds of offices, clinics, and other sites needed a way to
create a unified directory of the organization. The challenge was
an IT architecture consisting of many different platforms, none of
which allow for easy integration of identity information. The
organization turned to Namescape, a Microsoft(r) Certified Partner,
to deploy rDirectory, which uses Microsoft Active Directory(r)
Application Mode (ADAM) technology. Using ADAM and rDirectory, the
healthcare organization was quickly able to implement a custom
directory solution that shares the security features of Active
Directory but can be deployed across a disparate IT infrastructure.
More at the Microsoft "Evidence" Site:
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Healthcare
Double-Take Continues Awards Pursuit
Double-Take Software continues its pursuit of Award Domination for
the year of 2006. Double-Take for Virtual Systems was nominated for
The Storage Product Guide Global Product Excellence Award in the
Data Protection category. Voting Ends August 2nd. Please hurry and
cast your vote.
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Double-Take
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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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Cut 30% Or More From Your Exchange AV Budget With Ninja
- A state-of-the-art Attachment Filter for FREE
- Dual industrial-strength AV engines for your Exchange server
- Dual highly effective antispam engines
- Powerful, third-generation, all-in-one messaging security
with a central management console and optimized performance
- Significantly lower total cost of ownership
- Highly Responsive 24/7 US-based Technical Support
- More Plug-ins coming soon!
Click now to get started today with Ninja's SMART attachment filter!
http://www.wservernews.com/060724-Product_Week
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