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Vol. 11, #10 - Mar 6, 2006 - Issue #566
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Seven Vista Flavors? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
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- EDITORS CORNER
- Sunbelt Forum Subscriber Expresses Gratitude
- More On Trashing Your LAN
- Quote of the Week
- ADMIN TOOLBOX
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- TECH BRIEFING
- Will Vista Mean Victory In The War On Rootkits?
- Windows Features You Can Live Without
- Windows Installer Cleanup Utility Kills Apps
- WINDOWS SERVER NEWS
- Exchange 12 Only On 64 Bit: Good or Bad?
- Seven Vista Flavors? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
- WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS
- Wanted: Beta Testers For Sunbelt Messaging Ninja
- What's New In CounterSpy Enterprise V2.0?
- WServerNews 'FAVE' LINKS
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
- WServerNews - PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
- Just Something FUN: Microsoft Research Steps It Up
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Block Unproductive Browsing And Costly File Downloads
Kerio WinRoute Firewall with OrangeWeb Filter will block
access to up to 72 categories of web content on a per-user
basis. Most IT managers have enough problems to deal with
without worrying about where users are surfing on the web.
The Orange Web Filter's biggest-in-class database has over
60 million URLs which Kerio WinRoute Firewall can block or
log access to. Continues...
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-WinRoute_Firewall
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EDITORS CORNER |
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Sunbelt Forum Subscriber Expresses Gratitude
I received the following email this week and wanted to share it
with you. It made me a very happy camper. There is no better
recommendation than this one as an invitation to the free Exchange
forum we host:
"Thanks Stu.
I recently helped a friend get a SysAdmin job here Redmond. That
event got me thinking about how so many things in my life have been
a result of my joining the Sunbelt-software Exchange list. To list
a few, being a Techwriter this will of course be a bulleted list:
- 3 out of the last 4 jobs that I have held came from people I met
because of this list; APCS in Florida, Dell, and now Microsoft
- My wife and I were introduced to each other through a friend
that I met via this list
- I meet the MVPS and became a part of that program at Microsoft
because of my level of community involvement that this list
helped me to start
- I attribute a great deal of what I know about technology to
learning from, and trying to help fix other people’s problems on
lists such as this
- Some of my closest friends from all over the world were introduced
to me by people that I met on the sunbelt list, For example, the
WL and WLKM
- A large number of my travels and trip destinations can be attributed
to going to places to meet people who have become friends through
this online community
- One of the greatest things for me has been the opportunities that
I've been given to give back to the community, helping people solve
problems, find jobs, move places, meet new people, and much more.
The single event of joining and becoming involved in this list has been
one of the greatest influences shaping my life over the past 9 years.
Stu, I don’t know if you realize the impact on people's lives you have
had by hosting the list's that your company hosts. I can say that from
my world it has made a significant impact. I for one am very grateful,
and just wanted to, yet again, say thank you for all that you have done
for all of us. Thank you very much Stu." -- Kevin Miller, Exchange
team, Microsoft.
Wow, many thanks Kev! I'm blown away.
For other WSN subscribers that want to experience this, here's where
you can subscribe to the Exchange List:
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-Subscribe
More On Trashing Your LAN
You guys definitely gave me good feedback on that one. Many of
you came back with responses like: "BP has the right idea. I was
at ground zero when one of Canada's five major chartered banks
got tagged by the Slammer virus. EVERY server in the org was
wiped and re-imaged--and this is an outfit with 60000+ employees!
By doing what BP is attempting you make a breach gain the bad
guys just ONE machine, not thousands."
Quote of the Week
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast
enough." -– Mario Andretti
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TECH BRIEFING |
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Will Vista Mean Victory In The War On Rootkits?
Planned security features in Vista aim to eliminate rootkits in
the Windows enterprise. Second in a two-part series. Rootkits are
driving Dan Kaminsky crazy. Kaminsky, a security analyst who runs
DoxPara Research, an independent research firm, spends a good deal
of time opining about rootkits on the firm's Web site. In a recent
interview, he was even more animated about why rootkits are ruining
lives. "We are computer people," he said. "We tell people their
lives will be better by using computers. Rootkits and spyware destroy
that experience."
Kaminsky is not alone in his frustration. Rootkits have become a hot
topic in IT security. And Windows, the most popular operating system,
is a favorite target of the hackers.
One bright light for Kaminsky is Vista, Microsoft's next desktop
operating system. "Vista is really trying hard to address this,"
he said "They are going to be cryptographically signing everything
in the core of the OS."
Kaminsky is referring to a new policy in Vista that will require
digital signatures on all kernel mode software running the OS on
x64 bit-based computer systems. All unsigned drivers will be blocked.
The idea is that blocking will stop the spread of rootkits and other
malicious programs. Technical background at SearchWinIT.com:
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-SearchWinIT
Windows Features You Can Live Without
The security risk associated with some convenient Windows features
often outweighs the reward. Windows hardening expert Jonathan Hassell
looks at some of these features and explains how to secure them.
At the SearchWindowsSecurity.com site. The next article explains
how to do part of this.
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-Security
Windows Installer Cleanup Utility Kills Apps
How *do* you get rid of an application that Windows won't let you
uninstall? Use the Windows Installer Cleanup utility, which is
included with Windows Server 2003 as part of the Windows Support
Tools. This is actually a very useful article at SearchWinSystems:
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-WinInstaller
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WINDOWS SERVER NEWS |
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Exchange 12 Only On 64 Bit: Good or Bad?
There's been a discussion raging about this. There are a lot of
people that hate it, and a lot that say hey no big deal, we are
going to 64 bit anyway. Paul Thurrott of the WindowsITPro site
has some very sane observations and I share his perspective:
"My gut feeling is that a 32-bit Exchange 12 version wouldn't provide
the consolidation and performance benefits needed for such an important
upgrade, and by limiting the server to x64, Microsoft can overcome
this problem."
And here is why, there are good technical reasons for this, but the
main one is RAM. "At issue, of course, is memory: 32-bit systems can
access only 4GB of RAM, and Exchange 12 needs more than that for
larger installations."
And keep in mind that when you have bit the bullet and go to x64,
you are going to be able to do some serious server consolidation!
You can only get your hands on the current Beta 1 release via a
small and limited beta program. The next one will be open to the
public, so you can get your hot little hands on it. Better start
making noise about budget for a 64-bit test server! Redmond still
expects to ship Exchange 12 in late 2006 or early 2007.
Seven Vista Flavors? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Subscriber Nick Meyer from Grande Prairie Canada wrote me, and
I agree wholeheartedly... :
"On the Vista front, I told MS at a Technet briefing in the fall
when we heard rumors of 7 SKU's that as technicians the answer is
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. I was surprised that 700+ people gave me a
standing ovation for that! It is too darn complicated--"Oh sorry,
you bought Vista home, no you can't do remote desktop."; "No, you
needed to buy Media Center edition to use that swanky new remote
control you bought off the shelf"; "How the heck do you turn off
Simple File Sharing--oh you can only do that with Vista Pro, darn"
"Somebody once called it the "unixification" of Windows. When Vista
hits shelves you'll have a bunch of Windows 2000 Server flavors,
Server 2003 flavors, W2K Pro, XP Home and Pro, couple of Media
Center 200x's and SEVEN?! flavors of Vista. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"
"Make it a configuration wizard, like SBS has. Want to change from
home to pro? Run a wizard, poof. Added the necessary TV-in/out
card and want Media Center? Run the wizard, poof. And make EVERYTHING
one price, too. I am *so* tired of not being able to buy ANYTHING
off the shelf because they're ALL loaded with XP Home 'cause it
is a hundred bucks cheaper..."
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WINDOWS SERVER THIRD PARTY NEWS |
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Wanted: Beta Testers For Sunbelt Messaging Ninja
We have been running Ninja in-house since November last year (as
per the 'eat your own dogfood' rule). We have had a handful of
sites running it in closed beta for a few months. One University
site is already running the AV module in a production environment
to protect 13,000 mailboxes, and now it's ready for public beta
so YOU can get your hot little hands on it now!
If you have an Exchange server you are able to use for testing,
and want easy to use, powerful, fully integrated, policy-based
antispam, antivirus and world-class attachment filtering, send
an email to beta@sunbelt-software.com. In the subject say NINJA
BETA and we will send you instructions for download and the beta
forum where we will discuss your test results. For Ninja specs:
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-Ninja
What's New In CounterSpy Enterprise V2.0?
Here is what CSE 2.0 is going to bring with it's release. We
expect it May '06:
Deployment Wizard Improvements:
- Ability to run pre and post install actions
- (Ability to be configured by Support as well)
Performance and Scalability:
- Support up to 5000 Agents on a single server basic server
(over 5x perf increase)
- Performance monitors at key locations in the Services
Agent:
- New Threat Engine (lower memory footprint)
- New Active Protection
- Blocks changes from happening
- Reduced CPU time
- Allows admin to specify custom "allowed" active protection items
- Allows admin to specify custom "blocked" active protection items
- Incremental threat definition updates
Console:
- Persist some UI config and grid settings
- UI Enhancements to Agents Grid
- Massive speed increases when managing agents and viewing history
- UI changes for new AP settings, simplified configuration
- Display version threat was added/changed in database
Reporting:
- New database layout so that custom reports could be written directly
from the database
- Allow user to export to HTML
- Large increase in speed of reports
- Fix reports for new schema
Find out how many machines in your network are infected by using
the free SCAN AND REMOVE (the current version 1.5 works great)
and get the new V2.0 in a few months!
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-CSE
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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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Just Something FUN: Microsoft Research Steps It Up
Do you have one of those wildly popular Dance Dance Revolution dance
pads at home? Ever think of using it to do e-mail? That could happen
if a technology demonstration at Microsoft on Tuesday escapes into
the wild. Read more at the ENTMag site:
http://www.wservernews.com/060306-ENTMag
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