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Vol. 13, #16 - Apr 21, 2008 - Issue #670
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Slow Vista File Copy Nightmare Solved
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- Editor's Corner
- What Do You Do When Someone's Out To Get You?
- 'Windows Collapsing?' SunPoll Results
- New SunPoll: Antivirus For -Which- Mobile OS?
- Quotes of the Week
- Admin Toolbox
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- Tech Briefing
- Slow Vista File Copy Nightmare Solved!
- New Service Pack Coming For SQL Server 2005
- Free Email and File Archiving Seminar
- New User Interface In Windows Vista May Affect Applications
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Migration Tutorial
- Free Security Testing Tools For Windows Handheld Devices
- Windows Server News
- Webinar: Filling The Gap In Exchange Auditing
- A New (No-cost) Way To Monitor Your Windows Systems' Performance
- Dell Has Best PC Quarter in Two Years
- WServer Third Party News
- Top Five Email Archiving Products
- VKernel Virtual Appliance Identifies Virtualization Bottlenecks
- WServerNews FAVE LINKS
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WServerNews - Product of the Week
- Unmatched Web Filtering Performance, Plus Get a Free T-shirt
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Unmatched Web Filtering Performance, Plus Get a Free T-shirt
|
When it comes to managing your Internet access, don't break your
budget and tie up your resources with a complex software solution
like Websense. Get the iPrism Web Filter! iPrism's powerful h-Series
appliances offer a model to fit any requirement and performance
that leaves Barracuda in the dust. Need more convincing? iPrism got
the highest rating from SC magazine, 5 stars, and our renewal rates
are over 95% -- no one can match that. See a demo, get a free
T-shirt and maybe win a 50" plasma TV. How cool is that?
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-iPrism
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Editor's Corner |
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What Do You Do When Someone's Out To Get You?
For some organizations, the biggest threat is not the 'common' spyware,
viruses and other malware that we see so often. Rather, if you have valuable
intellectual property, or operate in a sensitive government, financial,
defense or law enforcement field, the chances are high you are getting
targeted attacks through Spearphishing and social engineering.
Through these techniques, often with email and infected office documents
as the transmission vectors, they can bypass your perimeter defenses and
mine confidential and sensitive data. What do you do when your AV vendor
has no signature for the threat and is blind to what's already gotten in
to your network? Sunbelt has the answer, with our CWSandbox automated
malware analysis system. We have two solutions. First is a no cost,
on-line analysis tool where you can submit malware samples. The results
often come back within the hour but at peak times can take longer:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Submit-Malware
Second, if you work in an organization like the ones mentioned above, or
need regulatory compliance and need to do malware analysis real-time and
in-house you can license Sunbelt's CWSandbox for internal usage. More at:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Sunbelt-CWSandbox
Read more on what BusinessWeek has to say on the subject. Yes, patch your
systems and educate your users, but don't rely on that alone with what's
at stake with your data in the wrong hands. This article has good ammo:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-E-spionage-Threat
'Windows Collapsing?' SunPoll Results
"What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away" -- meaning performance
advancements on the hardware side are quickly consumed by the
ever-increasing complexity of the Windows/Office code base.
A whopping 57% of you said some radical change is required. Well, WSN
reader Rob O who is a systems analyst came back with the following
suggestion. Tell me if you like this idea? He said: "The notion of
rolling out an entirely new OS to replace a current one is definitely
an archaic one that will indeed cause Microsoft to fail. The time is right
for a subscription-based incremental update plan. With that, there's
no reason Windows XP couldn't keep on serving our needs for another decade.
Having worked with every version of Windows made, XP is plenty stable when
used on quality, well-established hardware.
"Gartner suits, not unlike the often-sensationalistic Ziff-Davis analysts,
do not live in the real world with the rest of us. Instead they sit high
upon their pristine pedestals and stir up grief from their lofty isolation.
Those Gartner guys have no clue how much commotion these bold statements
create for those of us down in the IT trenches. Our IT directors often
have knee-jerk reactions to these analysts' over-the-top reports.
"To the Gartner guys, I'd pose the question, "What exactly are these
rapidly-changing user needs that Windows XP isn't meeting? What more is
it that you do require of an OS?" Certainly, the fluff and flash of Vista
is not needed, nor is the considerable expense of advanced hardware to
sufficiently support all of the needless eye candy that it brings. We have
brand new, business-grade, dual-core Dell boxes that lack the oomph to run
Vista well. But they're like greased lightning on XP."
Send me email with your vision at feedback@wservernews.com.
New SunPoll: Antivirus For -Which- Mobile OS?
Here is the new one: "If you are responsible for Enterprise endpoint
security, for which mobile OS platform would you want dedicated
Antivirus software?
- Symbian
- RIM Blackberry
- Windows Mobile
- Apple OSX Mobile (iPhone)
- Other
Vote here, lower mid-right column:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-SunPoll
Quotes of the Week
Two Mark Twain quotes about books this Week:
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who
cannot read them."
"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody
wants to read."
Thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber. Please
tell your friends about us. They can subscribe here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Subscribe
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Next-Generation Email Security for Exchange
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"So far, I'm impressed with the product. I was worried that Ninja would
take too many resources on our Exchange server. That has not happened."
-- J. M.
"Spam email is getting more complex by the hour! Ninja helps speed up
the learning curve by being easy to understand and implement. Support
has been beyond expectation! Keep up the good effort!" -- J. R.
"Product works well, and the best part about your Product is the customer
service and support. The open communication from your Engineers and forums
is paying huge dividends and makes the experience of your product that
much better." S.S.
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Ninja-Email-Security
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Tech Briefing |
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Slow Vista File Copy Nightmare Solved!
WSN Reader Nick's Vista Horror story in last issue has a follow-up. He wrote:
"I MAY have finally turned the corner on Vista turning me gray and bald,
although what little hair I have left after the last 4 weeks is definitely
going gray :) I bought a MS Wireless Desktop 1000 to install on that Latitude
ATG 620 with Vista Business that has been torturing me. Certified for Vista.
Install Intellipoint 6.1 off the disk. Plug in the receiver. No joy. It wants
the disk. Says the disk has no drivers. WTF. Download and install Intellipoint
6.2. Plug in the receiver. No joy. It wants the disk.
Now, we've been to 'Trinity and Beyond.' Where do we go from there?
Chixulub asteroid impact? Call MS hardware support (They were good).
Eventually discover that NO new hardware (i.e. thumb drives, wired
keyboards, anything) will install. OK. Uninstall SP1. Install Intelli
point 6.2 again and Lo! and behold! the hardware installs. Great.
Test the network response time without SP1. Now, there is nothing particularly
old, creaky or obscure in my setup. I've got a PowerEdge 800 running SBS 2003
for a server and a Cisco SB2024 Gigabit switch. It took 5 MINUTES to copy a
61 MB file. Sigh. Install SP1 again. Hey, the hardware still works AND I
can install other new hardware. It's a miracle. Test the network response
time, again. Now it takes 40 seconds to copy that 61 MB file. XP only takes
8-10 seconds. It beats 5 minutes, but it still ain't great. So I start
googling for post-SP1 slow-file-copy bug problems. Eventually, I come
across a reference to Mark Minassi's blog that deals with the autotuning
feature of the new TCP stack and that even relatively new switches and
routers may not like the autotuning 'feature'. (SP1 by default undoes all
the tweaking that poor bastards like me have been flailing away at to try
and fix this EVIL.) So I enter the following into an Administrative cmd
window:
C:\> netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
Now I tried that pre-SP1 and it didn't make a darn bit of difference. But Lo
and behold! The 61 MB file now comes down the pipe in 6 seconds. So I test
pull the SP1 mega-executable from the server (434 MB) Takes 1 minute 34
seconds. Run the same test on XP. Takes 1 minute 53 seconds. It's a miracle.
We still aren't smiling. Its been a full year, a service pack, and a
command line tweak to get performance better than what XP had to offer.
MS has burnt a lot of credibility with me with their utter silence on
this issue--and how, if they eat their own dogfood, that this issue ever
got out the door without being caught and killed. But there is light at
the end of the Vista tunnel--and maybe all the hair I have pulled out
will grow back in brown and not gray :)
New Service Pack Coming For SQL Server 2005
The Microsoft SQL Server product team has promised another cumulative
rollup for its current database release.
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-SQL-Server-2005-SP
Free Email and File Archiving Seminar
Independent experts Mark Diamond and Greg Forest of Contoural will explain
how an email and file archiving strategy can help you reduce storage,
quickly respond to litigation and compliance problems, increase IT
productivity and reduce backup and restore times. This event is coming
to New York City in June and five other cities throughout the year. Seats
are filling up quickly, sign up today!
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Archiving-Seminar
New User Interface In Windows Vista May Affect Applications
Security, release-related issues, and user experience are three areas
of concern when migrating applications over to Windows Vista. In this tip,
learn how to overcome these challenges for a smooth transition.
(registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Vista-UI
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Migration Tutorial
Exchange Server 2007's new architecture can make migrating to the new
messaging platform a challenge. This Exchange 2007 Migration Spotlight
features expert webcasts and tutorials that offer best practices and
deployment planning considerations that will help you achieve success
and avoid potential pitfalls that may arise along the way.
(registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-E2K7-Migration-Tutorial
Free Security Testing Tools For Windows Handheld Devices
With the growing need for security on Windows-based desktops, protecting
handheld devices can be equally as crucial but overlooked. In this tip,
expert Kevin Beaver discusses some tools to help secure your smart phone
or PDA at no cost.
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Security-Testing-Tools
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Windows Server News |
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Webinar: Filling The Gap In Exchange Auditing
Exchange is first and foremost an e-mail server, and when e-mail servers
were first designed, no one foresaw the massive dependence that would
develop between organizations and their e-mail servers. Today 60% of
organizations process revenue-generating orders via e-mail and approx.
75% of corporate intellectual property is being transmitted via e-mail.
Without accurate tracking of Exchange mailbox activity, organizations find it
difficult to react to administrative and security-policy violations, which
affect their ability to ensure compliance. Organizations can incur lost
productivity and system downtime if faced with undetected, undesired changes
to critical objects in Exchange. Without awareness of changes to critical
objects, such as who made the change and the before and after values,
organizations cannot efficiently address unwanted change.
In my next webinar in the "Filling the Gap" series I will take on the gap in
Exchange auditing. Unfortunately, Exchange was built without native tools and
instrumentation to provide the level of monitoring and audit trails of
administration, configuration and usage activity required to meet today's
compliance requirements.
In this case, the gap is filled with the InTrust Plug-in for Exchange. The
Quest InTrust log management and monitoring platform is a good fit for my
Filling the Gap series thanks to the extensible architecture of InTrust which
has allowed Quest to fill gaps in native auditing and monitoring capabilities
of the Microsoft platform with plug-ins where needed.
In my brief presentation I will show you why Exchange monitoring is so
important to security and compliance and then Brian Hymer, Solutions Architect
at Quest, will demonstrate how the InTrust Plug-in for Exchange solves the
problem. If security is important to you and Exchange is part of your network
you won't want to miss this webinar. CAN'T MAKE THE LIVE EVENT? Register
anyway - we'll send you a link to the recorded version. -- Randy Franklin Smith
Filling the Gap in Exchange Auditing
Thursday, May 15, 2008
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Click here to register
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Exchange-Auditing-Webinar
A New (No-cost) Way To Monitor Your Windows Systems' Performance
They're everywhere in your organization: Windows desktops and Windows servers.
Optimizing their performance is a key task for IT administrators, whether they
support desktops, e-mail servers, SQL servers, databases, or file shares. And
understanding the performance effects on these Windows systems of new software
loads, hardware configurations or operating system updates is yet another job
in and of itself. InfoWorld developed Windows Sentinel and the product is free:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Windows-Sentinel
Dell Has Best PC Quarter in Two Years
IDC reported Q1 worldwide PC shipments. They increased 14.6% to just under
70 million units. But the shipments in the U.S. were only up 3.5% compared
to Q1 2007, and IDC thinks this will be the same in Q2.
Notebooks are the fastest growing segment, and IDC VP Bob O'Donnell says the
trend is moving from one laptop per household to one laptop per person.
If you compare the big vendors regarding their growth percentages, HP grew
slower than the other four in the Top 5 with 17.4% worldwide and their
growth was flat in the US. Dell is finally moving into retail and because
of that had its best quarter in two years, increasing 21.6%. Number three
was Acer, however they had a U.S drop of 20%. Lenovo increased 21% and
Toshiba was up 20.6%.
For the U.S. Dell still remains in the top spot with about 31% of the
compared to HP with 25%. Interesting to see that Apple is now in fourth
place with 6% of the market and up a whopping 25.1%.
Worldwide though, HP trounces Dell with 19.1% marketshare to Dell's 15.7%.
Acer sits at 9.9%, Lenovo at 6.9% and Toshiba at 4.4%.
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WServer Third Party News |
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Top Five Email Archiving Products
SearchStorage did some research and came up with their 5 best Exchange
Archivers. Sunbelt's Exchange Archiver made the Top 5. Here is what they
had to say about it. At the end is a link for all 5 tools:
"Sunbelt's Exchange Archiver for Microsoft Exchange is a very clever package
that offers email archival and management and seeks to optimize storage of
the archival data. This optimization makes it attractive to small businesses
that want to minimize storage resources dedicated to email archives. The
package is also a worthy add-on for service providers that want to offer
archive management for email on top of other storage services with a low
incremental cost. And Sunbelt addresses the evolution to mobility by
offering features that can manage the email generated by BlackBerry devices."
Here is your shortlist: (registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Email-Archiving-Products
VKernel Virtual Appliance Identifies Virtualization Bottlenecks
VKernel announced that it was ready to ship its Capacity Bottleneck
Analyzer virtual appliance. The appliance is designed to help you with
your VMware ESX environment by identifying current and future capacity
bottleneck issues in order to help lower the cost of each virtual machine
while working towards providing higher performance. More of this blog at:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-Capacity-Bottleneck-Analyzer
The 14-day trial download link for the Capacity Bottleneck Analyzer Virtual
Appliance is below. Find current VMware capacity bottlenecks (CPU, memory,
and storage) and predict future ones:
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-CBA-Download
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WServerNews FAVE LINKS |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
|
|
WServerNews - Product of the Week |
|
Unmatched Web Filtering Performance, Plus Get a Free T-shirt
When it comes to managing your Internet access, don't break your
budget and tie up your resources with a complex software solution
like Websense. Get the iPrism Web Filter! iPrism's powerful h-Series
appliances offer a model to fit any requirement and performance
that leaves Barracuda in the dust. Need more convincing? iPrism got the highest
rating from SC magazine, 5 stars, and our renewal rates are
over 95% -- no one can match that. See a demo, get a free
T-shirt and maybe win a 50" plasma TV. How cool is that?
http://www.wservernews.com/080421-iPrism-Web-Filtering
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Email me: 