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WServerNews (formerly W2Knews)
Vol. 13, #27 - Jun 30, 2008 - Issue #681
MUST-READ: Litigation Strategies From A Major Law Firm

This issue of WServerNews is sponsored by
  1. Editor's Corner
    • BillG's Last Day
    • More On Electronic Bermuda Triangles
    • Webinar: Affordable, Carrier-Grade Best-in-Class Email Security
    • MUST-READ: Litigation Strategies From A Major Law Firm
    • Quote of the Week
  2. Admin Toolbox
    • Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
  3. Tech Briefing
    • Take Control Of Server Clusters With Microsoft's ClusDiag Tool
    • Will WiMax Impact Your Business This Year?
    • Storage Area Network (SAN) Basics Every SQL Server DBA Must Know
    • Managing User Profile Properties On Sharepoint Server 2007
    • Tip: Mastering Account Lockout Values
    • Tutorial: SAN Storage For Microsoft Exchange Server
    • Virtualization Tips: Taking Snapshots With Hyper-V
  4. Windows Server News
    • Microsoft Releases RTM Hyper-V For Download
    • Redmond Denies XP A Last-Minute Reprieve
    • Vista SP1 Reliability Patches Posted
  5. WServer Third Party News
    • What Is The Best Anti-Virus And/Or Anti-Spyware Product?
    • The Recent Batch Of Holes
    • New DNS Settings Alert Service
  6. WServerNews FAVE Links
    • This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
  7. WServerNews - Product of the Week
    • Watch a Demo and Get a Cool Free T-Shirt
Watch a Demo and Get a Cool Free T-Shirt

iPrism Web Filter leads the pack in stopping Web-based threats like spyware, malware, anonymizers and inappropriate content. Now, when you watch the iPrism in action, you get a cool t-shirt and a chance to win a 50" plasma TV. Better than software- only solutions, iPrism's powerful appliance-based technology protects at the perimeter and can be installed and working within minutes. And iPrism got 5-stars from SC magazine and has renewal rates of over 98%. Find out why! See the leader of the pack in action and get a cool t-shirt while supplies last!
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-iPrism-Web-Filter

Editor's Corner

BillG's Last Day

Gates is moving from making money to spending money on philanthropy. It's been a wild and sometimes grumpy ride for BillG as he grew Microsoft with Steve Ballmer to 100,000 staff. Will Gates leaving make a big difference?

From my perspective it won't. In the 20+ years that I have been following Microsoft, a clear pattern has been set and I do not see Redmond deviating much from that path, which you can see as either a good thing or just the opposite. The press has been all over this so I'm keeping it short. The best way to illustrate BillG's reign is to give you access to one of his emails to a team of people where he goes off on one of his typical rants.

And if I could give Redmond five pointers for the future, they would be:
  1. Focus on your strenghts, kill distractions like Xbox, advertising, etc.
  2. Truly innovate, not 'embrace and extend'
  3. Take a Google approach to upgrades: incremental and continuous
  4. Take MinWin as the basis of the new Windows 7, not the Vista kernel
  5. Don't be afraid to kill your cash cows
And here is Bill's rant. It's highly entertaining:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Gates-Rant


More On Electronic Bermuda Triangles

Whoa, this thing is much bigger than I expected! Many of you sent me reports and links about this, so many that I'm going to create a separate page with them and links to "sightings", probable causes and proposed solutions. Also, subscriber Tim Onstad sent me this challenge: "I am interested in finding out what happens with the tin foil. I hereby pledge $20 to cover your expenses. Please let me know when you have lined up enough sponsors and I will send you the funds immediately". That would be fun actually. Let me know if you are willing to spring for the 'Electronic Bermuda Triangle Fund'? [grin]

Webinar: Affordable, Carrier-Grade Best-in-Class Email Security

As email security threats continue to rise with higher volumes of malicious or illegitimate email making it into users' inboxes, many organizations are choosing to protect their corporate email by implementing layered protection not only at the server but also the perimeter. For the perimeter, Sunbelt Software now provides Ninja Blade, best-in-class email security appliances that deliver carrier-grade reliability to help administrators build a secure and scalable messaging infrastructure offloading workload from email servers. The appliances offer powerful inbound and outbound protection from spam, viruses, and malicious attachments, built-in disclaimers, and comprehensive rules-based email management.

Join Sunbelt Software on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 2:00pm EDT for an in-depth look at Ninja Blade that will explain the benefits of dealing with spam and viruses at the perimeter, along with features of Ninja Blade including:
  • Best-of-breed antispam and antivirus protection
  • Carrier-class Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
  • Comprehensive, rules-based email management
  • Global attachment filtering and disclaimers
  • Easy deployment and administration; integration with Active Directory
  • When: Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 2:00pm EDT
To register for this event please visit:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Ninja-Blade-Webinar


MUST-READ: Litigation Strategies From A Major Law Firm

"We write them a letter advising them we are considering litigation, sending it to the lowest level person in their legal group. We know it will take at least a month for this letter to bubble up. After 120 days we actually file the suit. Our first action is to discover e-mails, focusing on finding those emails that were created when the initial letter was sent. Typically, these have not been saved, and the backup tapes have already been rotated. We immediately press for a summary judgment based on destruction of evidence." -- Successful Litigator

Here is the source of this statement on Page 11:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Litigation-Strategies

And here is a cost-effective and easy to manage solution for this - SEA:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Sunbelt-Exchange-Archiver


Quote of the Week

"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." -- Carl Schurz, (1829-1906) U.S. Senator and Union Army general during the US Civil War

Thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber. Please tell your friends about us. They can subscribe here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Subscribe

Hope you enjoy this issue of WServerNews! Warm regards, Stu Sjouwerman  |   Email me: [email protected]

Do Not Renew Your Current Enterprise AntiVirus!

It's time to ditch expensive, bloated, old-style AV products! Save your IT budget and don't renew products from Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro. AV products are useless if the cure is worse than the disease - from complaining users and worse, users that uninstall AV from their desktop. It's time for next generation AV technology to step in! VIPRE Enterprise gives you a high-performance, single-engine endpoint agent, without compromising on detection and remediation of viruses, trojans, worms, spyware and malware, combined with a strong, fast, management console that WORKS. Check out the graphs and compare the resource usage between VIPRE and the rest.
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-VIPRE-Enterprise



Admin Toolbox

Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without

iPrism Web Filter leads the pack in value and performance. See the iPrism in action and get a cool t-shirt free!
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-iPrism-Demo

Get the new eBrief by Greg Shields on Active Directory. Click here for more details!
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Active-Directory-eBrief

Save yourself significant IT budget, management headaches and prevent end- user complaints that their PC slows down. VIPRE Enterprise is coming:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-VIPRE-Enterprise-is-Coming


Tech Briefing

Take Control Of Server Clusters With Microsoft's ClusDiag Tool

Whether you manage a single Windows cluster or multiple ones, ClusDiag is a powerful free tool for generating baseline reports and troubleshooting cluster-wide issues. This tip will explain how to download and install the tool, as well as collect logs, generate graphical or text-based reports and troubleshoot problems within a cluster.
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-ClusDiag


Will WiMax Impact Your Business This Year?

While WiMax appears to be set for commercial deployment in some U.S. markets by year-end, the technology itself has been plagued by various fits and starts. More of this article at:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-WiMax-Impact


Storage Area Network (SAN) Basics Every SQL Server DBA Must Know

Storage area networks mean better management and improved performance for your SQL Server environment - but only if you fully understand them. In this tip, SearchSQLServer.com contributor Denny Cherry explains concepts such as the importance of selecting your RAID level and storage tiers and also disproves the myth that SANs are 'magical devices.' (registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-SAN-Basics-for-SQL-DBA


Managing User Profile Properties On Sharepoint Server 2007

My Site in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enhances the portal world by promoting the sharing of information while protecting user privacy at the same time. This tip talks specifically about profile properties, and how this function can now be edited by users to improve the efficiency of search and content presentation. (registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Sharepoint-Profiles


Tip: Mastering Account Lockout Values

Some of the most confusing values of all the Group Policy settings are the account lockout values, whose sole purpose is to provide protection for passwords against hackers. Learn how tweaking account lockout values can save money for your company by eliminating help desk calls for users' account lockouts. (registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Account-Lockout-Values


Tutorial: SAN Storage For Microsoft Exchange Server

The reasons for deploying a storage area network (SAN) for Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 are compelling, but require careful hardware planning. In this tutorial, you'll learn the pros and cons of implementing a SAN, how SAN storage works, and why SAN can be cost-effective for large enterprises.
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-SAN-Storage-for-Exchange


Virtualization Tips: Taking Snapshots With Hyper-V

In this tip, learn about the Microsoft Hyper-V method of creating and applying point-in-time views of the status of your virtual machines - its "snapshots" feature. This user friendly tool can create VM snapshots from the Hyper-V Management Console and allows you to view your VMs as they once were. (registration required)
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Hyper-V-Snapshots


Windows Server News

Microsoft Releases RTM Hyper-V For Download

As they promised, Microsoft this Thursday came out with an early RTM release of its VMware-spooking Hyper-V server virtualization technology. You can get your hot little hands on it right now. Hyper-V is free (but lacks some features and polish) to users of most W2K8 flavors. But it is also available as a stand-alone product, called Hyper-V Server, for just 28 bucks per machine. Take that, VMware! For ESXi they charge $495 and for ESX Server $2,995. A standalone Hyper-V that works on W2K3 is still a few months in the future.

Redmond hopes that Hyper-V's low cost and their additional System Center and Virtual Machine Manager that gives you easier management of both physical and virtual servers ones will make you try and buy.

The new HYPER-V description page of the RTM code is here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Hyper-V-Page

And the download itself is here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Hyper-V-Download


Redmond Denies XP A Last-Minute Reprieve

Redmond laid to rest rumors that they might reconsider pulling XP from retail shelves and from most PC makers next Monday. Bill Veghte, the Senior Veep who manages Microsoft's online and Windows business groups, confirmed that June 30 would indeed be the deadline when MS halts all shipments of boxed XP copies to retailers and stops licensing the OS directly to major computer manufacturers.

Vista SP1 Reliability Patches Posted

Redmond released a reliability update this week for Vista SP1 that fixes several bugs in the service pack, including one that threw off errors when users tried to run large apps, such as it's own Excel 2007 and Windows Media Player. The update, posted Tuesday to MS download servers, will be pushed to users automatically next month via Windows Update, a company engineer said on a support forum yesterday. Get it here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Vista-SP1-Reliability-Patches


WServer Third Party News

What Is The Best Anti-Virus And/Or Anti-Spyware Product?

This is a an unedited copy of a posting on the CounterSpy Enterprise Discussion Forum we host. (Only names have been removed)

Subject: RE: What is the best Anti-Virus and/or Anti-Spyware product you've ever used and why do you say so?

"Good day,

"Even with the problems we've experienced with our install of CSE, I still believe that Sunbelt has the edge over their Anti-Malware competitors on many levels. The support team is the best I've ever worked with. They are knowledgeable, quick to respond, show genuine concern for your issues, and are like pit bulls when troubleshooting problems. (Joe F., Jeff C., Shawn L., Nick S., Zachary S.) The dev team is forward thinking, never resting on their laurels. They seem to always be looking ahead to improve the product, make it more effective, and listen to customer needs when developing new versions and updates.

"The Sales team is very responsive to our needs and always letting us know of upcoming changes, releases, and deals. Dave Heald is the BEST. If not for him, his patience, tact, and great skills, we would not have looked at CSE.

"Management...I love the way they are in tune with the company and the products. The fact that Alex monitors this discussion group and is always providing input and information says it all. He cares and won't settle for being less than #1. Nice job! Keep up the good work!"
And now imagine you get all this with a certified integrated antivirus + antispyware enterprise application like VIPRE. Check the beta here:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-VIPRE-Enterprise-BETA


The Recent Batch Of Holes

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 Checks
L789 Openoffice.org & openoffice.org2 rtl_allocateMemory error - RHE
L790 XFree86 Server multiple vulnerabilities - RHE
L791 XFree86 Server multiple vulnerabilities - RHE
L794 Dovecot mail_extra_groups flaw - SciLinux
L796 Gpdf CairoFont::create embedded font error - SciLinux
L799 MySQL lack of table statement privileges - SciLinux
L800 Nss_ldap race condition request answer flaw - SciLinux
L802 Setroubleshoot diagnostic message write error - SciLinux
L803 VSFTPd memory leak deny_file option flaw - SciLinux
L807 Evolution iCalendar timezone data flaw - SciLinux
L812 XFree86 Server multiple vulnerabilities - SciLinux
L814 Freetype2 16-bit & Printer Font Binary flaws - FC
L815 Xemacs automatic fast lock execution error - FC
L816 Gallery2 mutiple XSS and user bypass errors - FC
L817 PHP escapeshellcmd() & other function flaws - FC
L818 ClamAV petite.c out-of-bounds read error - FC
L819 Freetype2 16-bit & Printer Font Binary flaws - RHE
W1931 Novell iPrint client ActiveX Vulnerability - W2K XP W2K3


Updated Checks
W1142 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - McAfee
W1986 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - Symantec
W1999 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - Trend Micro
W2067 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - F-Secure
W2070 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - CA eTrust
W2997 Windows Media Player 6.4 Format Vulnerabilities - W2K3
Sunbelt Network Security Inspector version 1.6.106.0 was released June 26, 2008.

Sunbelt Software recommends you download the new SNSI version 1.6.106.0, scan, and patch your machines today. To get the latest SNSI version, visit:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-SNSI


New DNS Settings Alert Service

DNSstuff just announced an new version of a useful service that alert you if your DNS settings are improperly configured and they give you tips how to fix the issue before the errors impact network performance. DNSalert 2.0 is priced as a subscription at $99 per year for one domain:
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-DNSalert


WServerNews FAVE Links

This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.



WServerNews - Product of the Week

Watch a Demo and Get a Cool Free T-Shirt

iPrism Web Filter leads the pack in stopping Web-based threats like spyware, malware, anonymizers and inappropriate content. Now, when you watch the iPrism in action, you get a cool t-shirt and a chance to win a 50" plasma TV. Better than software- only solutions, iPrism's powerful appliance-based technology protects at the perimeter and can be installed and working within minutes. And iPrism got 5-stars from SC magazine and has renewal rates of over 98%. Find out why! See the leader of the pack in action and get a cool t-shirt while supplies last!
http://www.wservernews.com/080630-Web-Filter-Demo