WServerNews (formerly W2Knews)

Vol. 12, #30 - Aug 6, 2007 - Issue #636

A Guide To BIOS Beep Codes

This issue of WServerNews is sponsored by

Editor's Corner
- Lots of New Seminars
- SunPoll: Having Second Thoughts About Vista?
- Quotes Of The Week
Admin Toolbox
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
Tech Briefing
- A Guide To BIOS Beep Codes
- Use Pagedefrag To Defragment Immovable System Files
- Top Five Tips: Windows Security Testing
- Technical Guide: Performance Monitoring Tools For Windows
- Five Windows Desktop Tasks You Should Automate
- Avoiding Software Conflicts In A Windows Vista Migration
- Tutorial: Exchange Server 2007 Journaling
Windows Server News
- Watching Vista SP1
- IT Managers Fret Over Skipping Vista For Windows 7
- New Types of Security Attacks Take Stage at Black Hat
WServer Third Party News
- CounterSpy Enterprise Compared To Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise
- The Holes Never Stop
- Walt Mossberg Tests VMware's Fusion And Likes It
- Sunbelt Software Announces Special Offer to BlackICE Customers
WServerNews FAVE Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
WServerNews - Product of the Week
- Active Directory Activated Like Never Before!

Active Directory Activated Like Never Before!

Just released, rDirectory 2.0! Tap into Active Directory's potential
with composable web applications you can deploy in minutes. New &
improved rDirectory 2.0 combines an easy to use designer with templates
and preconfigured applications for secure solutions that leverage your
existing AD. It's the perfect system: a self-editable directory, a
template driven account creation tool, a way for users to create and
self-subscribe to email lists and groups, a self-service password reset
utility, a valuable tool for any help desk and more. Discover the
flexibility of rDirectory and new ideas on how to leverage AD will start
popping up. See why customers call rDirectory the "the most versatile
Active Directory tool available."
http://www.wservernews.com/070806-rDirectory2

	Editor's Corner

Lots of New Seminars Let's first get a few seminars out of the way! We have a new one that you might want to send some friends and family to. New: "How To Keep The Bad Guys Out Of Your PC" This is the first of a series of Seminars we are hosting in our Sunbelt Auditorium in Second Life. This seminar is for end-users and home-office users that need to be trained on PC security and how black hats are trying to steal their confidential data. There will be four Seminars, each held four different times to accommodate for timing. The dates of the first Seminar are: August 9th, 10am SL time August 14th 10am SL time August 21st 6pm SL time August 25th 6am SL time (SL time is equal to Pacific time, which is 3 hours behind Eastern). Seminars will be given by AbsolutWoman Sunbelter, who in real life is an experienced Network Administrator for a State Government. To register for these seminars, get a Second Life Avatar at Sunbelt (choose the 'Join Second Life option, this is free of charge) and arrive at the Sunbelt Auditorium at the indicated times: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Second-Life After you get your Avatar, or if you already have one, activate SL and click on this link to get directly to the Sunbelt Auditorium: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Sunbelt-Auditorium Learn about New Antispam Features in Ninja Email Security Live Product Demo and Technical Overview. Join Alex Eckelberry, President and Greg Kras, VP of Product Management for Sunbelt Software on Tuesday August 7th at 2:00pm EDT for an overview of the new antispam features of Sunbelt's Ninja Email Security for MS Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007. When: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 2:00 PM (EDT). Register here: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Ninja-Demo Upcoming Sunbelt/Double-Take Seminars We'd like to invite you to attend the following seminars: Seminar: "Recovery Made Easy for Exchange, SQL, and other Critical Applications" - Join Sunbelt and Double-Take Software as we discuss strategies for implementing high availability, remote availability and offsite disaster recovery solutions for SQL, Exchange and other mission critical applications using Double-Take. You will also hear about Double-Take's NEW solutions that power your keys to recoverability. Hosted at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, CA on Tuesday, August 21st. Register here: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Double-Take-Irvine Hosted at Microsoft in Atlanta, GA on Tuesday, August 28th. Register here: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Double-Take-Atlanta Hosted at the Westin Calgary in Calgary, AB on Thursday, August 30th. Register here: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Double-Take-Calgary SunPoll: Having Second Thoughts About Vista? October last year, we ran this SunPoll: "Now that Vista is close, what are your plans for rolling it out?" We'd like to re-run this SunPoll to see how the scene is now that Vista actually made it out. Here's the Poll: I'm deploying it the moment I can get my hands on it! We'll wait 3 months We're going to give it 6-12 months We'll wait till Vista SP1 comes out We're going for a slow-and-steady replacement process, when new machines get put in. I took it off my admin workstation, too many small annoyances. Vote here at the lower mid-bottom right column: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ Quotes Of The Week "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." -- Milton Friedman. "I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves." -- Jerry Garcia And thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber.

Hope you enjoy this issue of WServerNews! Warm regards, Stu |

Email me: feedback@wservernews.com

	Admin Toolbox

Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without Volume Manager in the W2K Server world would let you resize a partition on a server. DiskPart does this for a Windows 2003 Server: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-DiskPart You may not know this, but the Community Edition is actually free, so download rDirectory and webify your Active Directory. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-rDirectory-Community-Edition CounterSpy was just tested by Consumer Reports, and came out as #2, but was almost half the price of #1! Read more about how others scored: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-CounterSpy-Review The Sunbelt Personal Firewall has a Limited Time Special where the price is cut 50% and it now only costs $10.00. This is a no-brainer: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall

	Tech Briefing

A Guide To BIOS Beep Codes Serdar wrote: "It's hard not to develop a fondness for printed documentation when your one PC dies and you have no access to online manuals. One such worst-case scenario recently occurred when the PC I was working on refused to boot. Instead it issued a beep code which I didn't know how to decipher. Since I had no other machines handy, I called up a friend and had him look things up for me. This pocket guide to BIOS beep codes gives you fast access to the startup error sounds for motherboards using BIOSes from AMI, Award and Phoenix Technologies. Here is the rest of the story: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-BIOS-Beep-Codes Use Pagedefrag To Defragment Immovable System Files Fragmentation affects not just a system's data and applications, but its system files as well. Sysinternals' PageDefrag is the rare freeware tool that can defragment system files. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-PageDefrag Top Five Tips: Windows Security Testing Without proper security testing measures, you have no idea how secure your Windows systems really are. All of your careful planning and configuring will be for naught if you aren't aware of where hackers can and will access your network. But by following these Windows security testing tips, you can be sure to avoid dangerous security breaches. Learn penetration testing best practices, how to plan for the inevitable security breach and how to create a solid security assessment report. (registration required) http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Windows-Security-Testing Technical Guide: Performance Monitoring Tools For Windows A good chunk of a Windows administrator's systems management efforts focus on performance monitoring. Every day, admins continually monitor the performance of their servers and server operating systems. This guide examines some of the tools that Windows administrators can use to optimize their performance monitoring processes. (registration required) http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Performance-Monitoring Five Windows Desktop Tasks You Should Automate There are desktop tasks Windows administrators should automate so they can put their time to better use. In this guide, get expert information on five tasks that should be automated, and access tools and tactics admins can use to perform this automation process. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Desktop-Tasks Avoiding Software Conflicts In A Windows Vista Migration Before considering a Vista rollout, take an inventory of existing apps to determine how well they will work under the new operating system. Learn how in this tip! http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Vista-Migration Tutorial: Exchange Server 2007 Journaling Journaling in Exchange Server 2007 has been enhanced for compliance and e-discovery to include more granular native Exchange archiving options. In this tutorial, Exchange MVP Brien Posey offers an overview of how journaling works in an Exchange 2007 environment, explains how to enable the journaling agent on a Hub Transport server, and provides step-by step instructions on how to create, modify, disable and delete journaling rules through the Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Exchange-2007-Journaling

	Windows Server News

Watching Vista SP1 Redmond seems unable to quite make up its mind about a "Vista Performance and Reliability Pack" and "Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack" that leaked this week. It is supposed to have come from outside-of-Redmond W2K8 beta testers. But then it vanished. There is now speculation that this may be a part of (or perhaps the whole thing) the still expected mysterious Vista SP1. Many Vista deployments are waiting for this. We are doing a new SunPoll on that very topic today. Microsoft keeps mum, and calls them 'updates'. Erm, yeah sure. Well, keep your eyes on Patch Tuesday, this August 14th! These 'updates are supposed to fix performance issues and include additional file formats and hardware support. Keep in mind that Redmond promised Google and the DoJ that this SP1 would change the way Vista Search works.... IT Managers Fret Over Skipping Vista For Windows 7 IT shops running Windows XP are worried about whether to wait for the next OS release, dubbed Windows 7. A Gartner desktop expert says the fuss is premature. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Windows-7 New Types of Security Attacks Take Stage at Black Hat The world's leading security authorities got together this week at the annual Black Hat conference where, once again, attendees learned new and interesting ways to compromise IT security. Elsewhere at the conference, hacker extraordinaire Joanna Rutkowska successfully defended her undetectable implementation of a rootkit. eWEEK has the story: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Black-Hat-Conference

	WServer Third Party News

CounterSpy Enterprise Compared To Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise A new comparison is posted on our website for CSE and Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise. Please be sure to read the "Making Sense of it All" sections - these help position our products against the competition. Here is the PDF: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-CSE-vs-Symantec The Holes Never Stop SNSI uses the latest Mitre Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list of computer incidents. It also contains the latest SANS/FBI top 20 vulnerability list. SNSI also uses the latest CERT, CIAC Microsoft and FedCIRC (Department of Homeland Security) advisories. New vulnerability updates for this release include: W3162 Panda Anti-Virus .exe file handling - W2K, XP, W2K3 W3161 eTrust Intrusion Detection Release 3.0 vulnerability in caller.dll S485 Libfreetype, Xorg multiple vulnerabilities - Solaris 8 - 10 S484 Emulex SAN adapter driver hangs - Solaris 8 - 10 S481 LibX XInitImage Vulnerability - Solaris 8 - 10 Sunbelt Network Security Inspector version was 1.6.73.0 released Aug 2, 07). Sunbelt Software recommends you download the new SNSI version 1.6.73.0 and scan and patch your machines today. To get the latest SNSI version, visit: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-SNSI Walt Mossberg Tests VMware's Fusion And Likes It Fusion is another option for running Windows, and Windows programs, on a Mac. The program from VMWare let him switch between each operating system rapidly and smoothly without slowing down his computer. He likes it a bit better than Parallels, and it's 80 bucks. (The link to the Wall Street Journal may require you to register): http://www.wservernews.com/070806-WMware-Fusion Sunbelt Software Announces Special Offer to BlackICE Customers Registered users of BlackICE can switch to Sunbelt Personal Firewall for free. Clearwater, FL - August 2, 2007 - Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security software, today announced it is offering current customers of BlackICE PC Protection (formerly known as BlackICE Defender) a one year subscription to a full version of its award-winning Sunbelt Personal Firewall for free. IBM Internet Security Systems announced on Tuesday, the End of Life for BlackICE PC Protection. BlackICE will no longer be sold after September 19, 2007 and will not be supported after September 29, 2008. "We are excited to extend this offer to current BlackICE customers," said Stu Sjouwerman, vice president of marketing for Sunbelt Software. "Sunbelt is committed to providing security protection to Windows users and wants to reassure BlackICE customers that their PCs are protected while online, using Sunbelt Personal Firewall." Availability and Licensing Under this special promotion, all registered users of BlackICE PC Protection can get a free one year subscription to the full version of Sunbelt Personal Firewall and includes all of the features, toll-free support, and updates of a standard subscription. To benefit from this special offer, users can visit the link below and complete a short form or call toll free at 1-800-336-3166. The special offer period begins today and will be available for a limited time. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Save-BlackICE About Sunbelt Personal Firewall The Sunbelt Personal Firewall (formerly Kerio Personal Firewall) is a powerful and industry-leading firewall that provides firewall protection as well as host-based intrusion prevention (HIPS) and content filtering. The product has received a PC Magazine 4-star review and the 2006 Windows IT Pro Readers' Choice Award for Best Firewall/Desktop.

	WServerNews FAVE Links

This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff. The Best Geek Quotes, Sayings, and Phrases - 1 to 10 http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Geek-Quotes Google Earth is known around the world. Less well-known is Google Earth Enterprise which companies, organizations and government agencies use to view their global data and imagery. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Google-Earth-Enterprise People keep on building new types of vehicles. This hovercraft "flying boat" stays in the air because of the so called "ground effect": http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Hoverwing As a follow-up on last week's bike video, here is some one doing it on just one wheel. Kris Holm is considered by most to be the worlds greatest mountain unicyclist. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Mountain-Unicyclist 6 Things You Must Do Before You Die: Geek Edition http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Before-You-Die Sunbelt has a channel on YouTube, with the fave videos we produced over the last couple of years. http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Sunbelt-on-YouTube The Red Arrows, the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom, have performed nearly 4,000 displays in over fifty countries and are regarded as the world's most skilled aerobatics team: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Aerobatics A new anti-theft device for your iPod and iPhone. Hide it in a Zune. 'Humor': http://www.wservernews.com/070806-HideaPod One of the legendary commercials of a Dutch Insurance company, featuring a wild ride through San Francisco in a bumper car.: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Auto-Insurance Will it shred? Hard drives being shredded with an industrial shredder. There is no better way to "wipe" a hard drive than this: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Hard-Drive-Shredder 'Spider Cat' climbs up a wall. Just Cool: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Spider-Cat A guy tries to court a young woman who is taking her dog for a walk: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Dog-Food A first look at the Asus Eee PC, a $199 ultra-portable laptop, which is due out later this year: http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Asus-Laptop

	WServerNews - Product of the Week

Active Directory Activated Like Never Before! Just released, rDirectory 2.0! Tap into Active Directory's potential with composable web applications you can deploy in minutes. New & improved rDirectory 2.0 combines an easy to use designer with templates and preconfigured applications for secure solutions that leverage your existing AD. It's the perfect system: a self-editable directory, a template driven account creation tool, a way for users to create and self-subscribe to email lists and groups, a self-service password reset utility, a valuable tool for any help desk and more. Discover the flexibility of rDirectory and new ideas on how to leverage AD will start popping up. See why customers call rDirectory the "the most versatile Active Directory tool available." http://www.wservernews.com/070806-Active-Directory