Video 45 posted

I have just completed another video that is now available on YouTube. This video looks at the recycle bin facilities available on Windows Sharepoint V3. You’ll see how the two stage process allows users and administrators to recover deleted files if necessary. The recycle bin is one of the major improvements of Sharepoint V3 over previous versions and makes life much easier for users and administrators.

Click here to view the video directly on YouTube. Don’t forget all my other videos on YouTube which you can access via http://www.youtube.com/saturnalliance. As always, comments and feedback are welcome.

Why people don’t use Sharepoint

There are two markets here that I plan to address with this post. Firstly, the SMB technology reseller and secondly the client.

I hear everywhere in SMB community that Sharepoint is the great untapped product (that’s right), we should be doing more with it (that’s correct again) and it has greater revenue potential for the reseller (right again). So why the hell isn’t it being implemented? Simple. Firstly, the SMB reseller has probably never looked at Sharepoint, they don’t understand what it is, how to install it, how to maintain it and so. “I’ve already got too much to do” is the common catch cry. Ok, but is the stuff your doing generating you profit or is it just fund to play with? Is there a way you could be more efficient? Or do you just love playing with the technology?

Most SMB resellers seem to run their business in total disarray. Put simply, they don’t have a business, they have a hobby! They enjoy “fiddling”. They don’t want to get involved with running a business, marketing and stuff, they just want to “fiddle”. I have no idea how some of these people stay in business (but they do admittedly). Most are technically excellent but business paupers. They make money sure, but do they actually make a profit? Could they walk away from their business for even a week? Could they put a value on their business if they wanted to sell it? Are they getting value for all the time they “fiddle”? I doubt it. All they want to do is “fiddle” believing the better they “fiddle” the more they’ll get paid.

They believe that their technical skills are superior to other resellers and that’s why they have their clients. Wrong! Search engines and blogs are levelling the playing field. Now anyone who knows how to search properly can be just as skilled as anyone else. Every day, technical knowledge is being devalued simply due to the reach of the Internet. So what’s left? For some who “fiddle” not much because they don’t have any other skills to offer. They don’t understand their own business so how the hell do they hope to understand their customers’? If something breaks, they are there promptly to fix it but when it comes to helping a client be more efficient in their business processes they are lost because their own business is a mess.

So a “fiddler” looks at Sharepoint, shrugs their shoulders and continues on installing Windows updates. “No use to me“, “I don’t understand it“, “It doesn’t do very much” and so on and so on. They want to be the technician and nothing else. Unless you use a tool like Sharepoint in your business you are never going to understand it. Imagine not using Excel in your business. Guess what? It’s a tool just like Sharepoint and there doesn’t seem to be any problems using that does there? But enough bagging of resellers, I’ll let them get back to manually installing Windows updates while I continue ranting.

Now if the reseller has no idea about Sharepoint then the poor old client isn’t going to either are they? The stuff that comes from Microsoft is confusing and targeted at Office Sharepoint Server simply because that makes revenue for Microsoft (understandable). So even if they slightly cotton onto the benefits of Sharepoint who is going to install it for them? Not their reseller (who is still busy in background installing Windows updates). Even if the client finds someone to install it, who is actually going to help them integrate their business processes into it? Not the reseller because they have no idea about running a business, they’re too busy with their hobby.

So sadly Sharepoint sits in a corner neglected and unused. Finding resellers and customers with the drive to want to change their business for better and become more efficient is almost impossible these days. So many places I see should have the sign “We do things the same way because that’s the way we have always done them” plastered above their front door (wouldn’t do any good on their web site since if they even have a web site they don’t make use of that either!). In these tougher economic times doesn’t it make sense to look at improving your business? Most say “nahh, takes too long” which translates to “I’m too afraid to try something different and potentially fail“.

Sharepoint has a lot stacked against from every angle and boy is it an uphill battle. The saving grace I see is that eventually all our technology will be living in the cloud and Sharepoint (or some iteration of it) will happily fit inside, unlike some resellers and customers. But, I could be totally mistaken because, as I said, some people seem to do pretty well out of their hobby! Maybe I’m the one who has it upside down?

Sharepoint and inbound emails

One of the benefits of locating a Sharepoint v3 server on a member server rather than a Small Business Server 2003 is that it can be configured to receive inbound emails. This means that you can create a standard Sharepoint v3 list and assign it an email in your domain and then have any emails sent to that address routed directly to the Sharepoint list.

So what good is that? Initially I thought that we could use it for customers to send support requests via email. That way they could go directly into Sharepoint, be assigned to various people and the whole support process tracked. However, I thought that an even better idea would be if all the SBS monitoring reports were sent there! This has a lot of benefits when you think about it. Firstly, all the reports are stored where everyone in the business can access them. Secondly, they are all saved together in one library but more importantly they are all sortable and indexable now. This means that if I want to compare a report of one customer from one day to the next all I do is filter the current Sharepoint view to only show that customer. I can then easily view every report for that customer and compare.

If you now extend this further and have alerts and reports from anti virus, firewalls and what not all going to the same Sharepoint then it creates a very powerful monitoring tool. Using the inbuilt power of Sharepoint you can really create some useful means of viewing your data using views. Say for example I only want to see all the Trend Antivirus warnings that have come in, I simply create a Sharepoint view and bingo I have the information I need, in the format that I need. I am yet to see a CRM package that can do that. I can even create totals for these emails so I know how many have come in over a period.

So far the major downside is the fact that I can’t preview the emails that come in like I can in Outlook. To view the contents I have to actually click on the item and open it. Given some more time I’m sure that I can overcome this. However, this is more than offset by the ability to search all the reports that come in. For example, if I think I have seen that error before but unsure when I simply do a standard Sharepoint search and all is revealed. I have already used this a number of times and wonder how I did without it before.

I continue to be amazed at the versatility that Sharepoint can provide, it is all just a matter of understanding what it is capable of and then putting your mind to it. It is also amazing to me that Windows Sharepoint Services is FREE! But sadly, it is also amazing how many people (especially IT providers) don’t use it. Their loss I say because I can say without doubt that Sharepoint has changed the way that my business operates.

Planning

Ask a room of people who would like to make $1 million dollars and you’ll probably find that most hands are high in the air. Now ask, of those people with their hands up to leave them up if they ACTUALLY have a plan to make $1 million dollars? I will bet that almost every hand in the room will drop.

Interesting isn’t it? The gulf between desire and achievement is very wide for most people. Most seem happy to wish, wish, wish for something, hoping with blind luck that they’ll achieve their goals. There is a chance that they will, don’t get me wrong, but generally that chance is so slim that it isn’t worth contemplating but there still is a CHANCE. So how do you increase the odds of achieving something you desire? Planning.

If you want to get somewhere what do you need? Two things. One, you need to know where you currently are and two, you need to know how to get where you want to go. Planning helps you work out how to get where you want to go. Planning is really not of benefit once you are in motion it needs to be done before you act. Now, I’m not saying that you won’t have to adjust your plans along the path to your goals but planning involves investment up front before committing resources towards the goal.

Planning may also help you realize that perhaps the goal that you thought you wanted is not really what you wanted after all. Smart people and businesses plan. Why? Simple, they want to increase their chances of success. You can never guarantee success in this life as luck does play a part but planning greatly improves your odds so the chances of failure are almost minimal.

If it is so simple why doesn’t everybody do it, you may well ask. Again, simple. Planning requires work, effort, sweat, investment, etc prior to any result. In today’s society we have brainwashed into the concept of have now, pay later. That works for a while but sooner or later the bills come in (sorta sounds like the current financial mess the world is in at the moment eh?). I am always surprised by the number of people I know who live by the seat of their pants. Many seem to be able to skate by but I know that sooner or later there is bus with their name on it coming around the corner.

Sure planning does involve work up front but it is a little like financial interest, you gotta invest before you can get paid any interest don’t you? The more you invest the bigger the payoff becomes right? Problem is most people want to start drawing on their interest BEFORE they have even invested a dollar. Come on, get real. Don’t waste your time telling me you’re going to be a millionaire unless you are going to tell me how you are planning to do it. Anyone can claim they are going to be a millionaire, very few can actually back it up with a plan!

Going all the way

I’ve been frustrated of late with my ISP at home not being able to provide ADSL2. Finally, there was little option but to change ISP’s, no big drama there. When I started to think about making the change I also decided that perhaps now would also be a good idea to get rid of the normal phone provided by the telco and go totally VoIP. Would that be possible? Would there be any savings? Read on for the story.

The first step was to have ‘naked’ ADSL installed. With normal ADSL you need a phone service connected before you can get ADSL. This means that even if you don’t use the phone you still need to pay the line rental charges. Now, ‘naked’ ADSL means that you can have ADSL BUT you no longer need a normal phone line. All you require is a copper connection. The good thing about getting ‘naked’ ADSL with my new ISP was that they would install the ADSL2 service and disconnect the existing phone for me automatically. No argument there boys, go for it.

On the nominated day my old ADSL service stopped, I reconfigured my modem/router with the new ISP details and bamm, I’m running ADSL2! Nothing could have been simpler. Now, phase 2, a VoIP phone that supported inbound calls.

When you think about it, having a phone line is still a very good idea, especially in case of emergencies whether your own or someone you know. My next challenge to work out the best way to have a phone without having a ‘traditional’ phone line. Initially I considered a pre-paid mobile phone but decided that being a technology bloke I decided to bite the bullet and get inbound VoIP working. Next stop my new ISP.

I logged into my client console, clicked on the application for VoIP and within a few clicks I had an inbound phone number and a plan that cost me nothing per month in rental and allowed 10c un-timed calls nationally – bonus! So now I had faster ADSL, no line rental and a phone that people can still call me on! All of which added up to a significant monthly saving. The only issue was how to use my existing handset on the new VoIP service.

The solution turned out to be the installation of a Linksys Internet Phone Adapter (model PAP2T around $60). All you do is plug it into the broadband modem/router, logon and configure via a web page and connect an analogue phone and bingo, you’re in business. Now, I must admit that it took me a little longer to work out the Internet Phone Adapter simply because I’d never used one before. Once I determined where to put all the login information for the VoIP account I was up and running. I have to say that there are hundreds of settings on this device, I really wonder what they all do? Maybe, one day. The cool think about this Internet Phone Adapter is that it has the facility for two lines. This means I could configure a different VoIP account to work on the second line. I could even get a VoIP account from a different provider. Thus, if someone in your house calls interstate a lot you get the cheapest VoIP provider for that on the first line and if someone else makes a lot of mobile calls you get the cheapest VoIP provider for that on the second line. The potential savings and possibilities here with VoIP are mind blowing.

So bottom line is that I have faster broadband, no line rental, ability to utilize my existing telephone handsets, have cheap calls, will save a packet each month and it was all really, really easy to get up and running. Truly amazing. Now I can say that I have gone all the way with technology at home!

Networking basics course starts tomorrow

It’s not too late to sign up for my latest Networking Basics course to be held at Macquarie Community College on Marsden Road Carlingford from 7-9 pm over the next three weeks.

The upcoming Networking Basics course will provide you with a solid foundation to understanding the technologies around things like TCP/IP, Windows Network and Internet programs and protocols. Each attendee will have access to their own machine to work with and the sessions are highly interactive with a focus on understanding the concepts through questions and hands on work.

For more information about this course (or any others that I run at Macquarie Community College visit :

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=list&cat=IT+TRAINING&subcat=NETWORKING

I am also happy to announce that from term 3 I will now be presenting networking courses at Chatswood, also through Macquarie Community College. More details on these courses as the time nears.

If you would like to know the content of any of my courses and whether they would suit your needs, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

SQLVDI and Shadowprotect errors

Do you have ISA 2004 and Shadowprotect installed on your SBS2003 server? Seen these types of errors in the logs?

VSS 6013
Sqllib error: OLEDB Error encountered calling ICommandText::Execute. hr = 0x80040e14. SQLSTATE: 42000, Native Error: 3013 Error state: 1, Severity: 16 Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server Error message: BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

SQLVDI: Loc=SVDS::Open. Desc=Open(control). ErrorCode=(2)The system cannot find the file specified. . Process=1908. Thread=8372. Server. Instance=MSFW.

It would appear that the MSDE database used by ISA2004 for logging (as demonstrated by Instance=MSFW) isn’t very VSS compliant! Worse still given the right set of circumstances the ISA Services would fail and the whole server would be brought to grinding halt.

The best solution seems to change the logging in ISA2004 from MSDE to text file. To do this:

1. In the Microsoft ISA Server Management console click ‘Monitoring’ -> ‘Logging’ tab in the centre pane.
2. In the right pane, click the ‘Tasks’ tab, and then click the appropriate task:

- To log the Web Proxy service data to a file, click ‘Configure Web Proxy Logging’.
- To log the SMTP message screener service to a file, click ‘Configure SMTP Message Screener Logging’.
3. On the ‘Log’ tab, click ‘File’.
4. In the ‘Format:’ field, ensure that ‘W3c Extended log file format’ is selected.
5. Click ‘Options’ to confirm or to modify the following parameters: (This step is optional.)
- ‘Store the log files in’
- ‘Log file storage limits’
- ‘Maintain log storage limits by’
- ‘Delete log files older than’
- ‘Compress log files’

Hopefully that way when Shadowprotect runs, since nothing is being logged to the MSDE database, hang ups won’t occur. The general result I found on the Net is that logging of ISA 2004 should be set to text file only as it is more stable.

The Great Game

Did anyone else out there ever play Spycraft: The Great Game? I did, probably 10 years or so ago now but I still remember not eating or sleeping until I finished it! Now. I have played plenty of fantastic computer games over the years but Spycraft must rank as in top three.

So what is Spycraft about? Well you can look it up on Wikipedia but basically you are a CIA operative having to solve a case that leads you through a maze of twists and turns, requires complex solutions and choices. Best part is the outcomes change depending on what decisions you make. Thus, you can play the game over and end up with a different result. Even better the game plays like a movie because it is extensively filled with video interaction which back then was truly amazing. Don’t be fooled, this was a quality production that included many top listed actors of the age.

Anyway, I could drone on and on about how great this game is but I will refrain. After playing the game, I lent it to a friend who also loved it but promptly lost it after playing (isn’t that always the way?). That was until recently when it turned up during a clean up. Now, as everyone knows the world has moved on and we have Windows XP as the standard PC platform these days. Guess what? Spycraft won’t run on XP. DAMM. Since my friend couldn’t get it running they returned it to me.

Now I am not that easily defeated. So I tried it on my XP machine and sure enough, no go. The problem has something to do with the video drivers. Back then Spycraft needed a pretty flash graphics card so it could do the videos and perhaps that ability has been removed now in XP. Who knows? Bottom line is it won’t run. I checked the Internet and had my worst fears realized, Spycraft and XP = no go.

Hmmm…I wonder. The games was designed for Windows 98/95 so my next idea was to use Windows 98 in a Microsoft Virtual PC. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a Windows 98 Microsoft Virtual PC at the ready. I wonder if it run in Windows 2000 Professional which I did have at the ready? Guess what? It does!

So the solution is to download Microsoft Virtual PC , which is free, install that on your XP machine, then install Windows 2000 Professional into Microsoft Virtual PC, which you didn’t hear from me, doesn’t need activation but hey you are only evaluating it right? Next, install Spycraft. Sure you get a few warnings during the install and one when the game runs but from what I’ve seen so far everything WORKS! Magic. If you need help with Virtual PC see my Youtube clip on Microsoft Virtual PC.

Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend? Reliving my Windows 98 gaming days. They just don’t make ’em like this any more.