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.

Lean and mean

Now that I have one of my Windows XP workstations running full time on a Microsoft Virtual PC I decided that it was time to reduce the amount of RAM that it consumes. Nearly everyone knows there services in Windows that you can turn off to save memory and generally improve performance. What most people don’t know (including me) was exactly what services you can and can’t disable.

That is now all solved with the Black Viper site. You can choose any current version of Windows and see which services can be disabled. You’ll find a table that gives you options for each version and allows you to customize your settings based on what type of system you want to run ( i.e. minimal, power user, etc).

After using the information on the Black Viper site, I was able to reduce my Windows XP RAM usage from 415MB down to 305MB. Sure 100MB of RAM may not sound like much but that is greater than a 25% reduction! Best part was that after a reboot the system didn’t complain and everything I needed ran.

So if you are looking to pare down the amount of RAM Windows is using take a look at the Black Viper site.

What you can’t afford to waste

Can you tell me something that you never get back? Something that is gone whether you use it effectively or not? If you said time then you’re right. It amazes me these days that people constantly claim they don’t have enough time yet they fill their existence with useless and wasteful activities. In a era when technology is supposed to set us free what people don’t seem to realise is that they are becoming more and more a slave to it.

Most modern technology is designed to be interrupt driven. It is designed to make you stop whatever you are doing and pay attention to it. Don’t believe me? What do you do when your mobile phone rings? Answer it. What do you do when an email comes into your inbox? You stop what you are doing to read it. You allow yourself to be on instant messenger not to keep in touch but to allow other people with nothing better to do to interrupt you. Look at things like Facebook and Twitter (which I have been evaluating recently). Are these productivity tools? In some cases maybe but I can tell you I’m sick of getting poked, asked to play Texas Hold’em poker and fight it out in Dope Wars. Don’t you people have anything better to do?

See what I mean? We are allowing technology to dominate our lives. We are allowing it to dictate what we are doing. How the hell can you hope to produce anything of quality when you are constantly being interrupted? Don’t forget it is not just the interruption that you have to deal with it is the requirement to get back to what you are doing that also takes time. The crazy thing is that technology actually allows us to be in control but we don’t seem to use it. Mobile phones have voice mail, emails get saved until we need them and so does stuff on Facebook and Twitter. We however seem in such an almighty rush to respond to thing immediately.

One of the best books I have read recently is The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. He argues we should be working less and enjoying life more. He argues that most people are simply seeking to interrupt your day because they are bored and need something to do and worst of all they expect an instantaneous response. If you read the book and then step back and think about what he is saying you’ll find it makes a lot of sense. We all have a ‘dance card’ (hours in the day) that only is so big and we can only fit so much on it. You need to decide the highest value items that are going on the card and accordingly the lowest value items that don’t belong on the list. The only way you are going to fit more onto your ‘dance card’ is to be more efficient with your time and guess what? Some stuff just ain’t going to fit on!

My advice is to start valuing your time more, because if it has no value then you’ll give it away for free and people will just keep coming back for your handouts. Focus on what you want to achieve and plan to achieve it. Ask yourself if you are making the best use of your time because, guess what? Even if you aren’t you are never going to get it back again!

Without this you’re screwed

I think that I have mentioned this topic here before but some recent personal experience has brought the issue to the forefront of my thinking again. All the management, how-to and motivation books that you read these days seem to over look on very important aspect – your health.

If you aren’t healthy then you can’t function, you can’t earn a living and you are generally a burden to someone else. Most people skate happily through life not really taking care of themselves until it is too late. Consider if you bought a car ran into the ground. It isn’t going to last nearly as long as one that gets serviced regularly. I doubt there are many people out there who would do that to a car they own these days but many let their health slide in a similar fashion. Sure, regular service costs time and money but over the long run the productivity benefits are HUGE. I think that the same applies to your health.

If you are an integral part of a small business then imagine how that business would operate if you weren’t there? Maybe it wouldn’t be able to generate income, then what would happen? This is not to mention any personal costs that may also arise. The older you get the more chances there are of things going wrong, especially if you don’t take the time to maintain your health. Ever noticed the difference between when you feel run down and when you feel rested? The better your health the more able you are to cope with life’s stresses and strains. Put simply, your constitution is far more resilient with a little care.

Problem is I think that nobody is really responsible for your own health expect you. It is something that is all too easy to neglect. The longer you let your health fall away the harder it is to get it back. It is not impossible mind you but it becomes harder with each day that you choose to neglect it.

My question to you is, have a regular personal health plan in place? Sure, you may have a business plan but do you have a health plan, because in many cases without your health you have no business. You don’t have to train like an Olympian to win a gold medal but you do need to do something on a regular basis to maintain the best health you can. The easiest way is simply to incorporate as a regular part of a day. Sure, doing research on the net for a solution to problem is great but if you are laid up in and can’t do that how does that help you. It is important to see you health as a business asset and continue to work to improve it. If you don’t then probably nothing else is really going to matter is it?

Video 44

Just completed the upload of a video introducing Outlook Web Access. As usual you can view it on our hosted YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/saturnalliance.

I’ve tried a few more fancy additions using Camtasia which hopefully makes the video more professional. I must admit that when I view it the resolution seems poor (is that just me?). It may have something to do with the bulk video uploader I use. Basically, you upload a video once to the site and then you can upload from there to multiple video hosting sites, including YouTube. It must undergo some sort of conversion process when it gets uploaded from the bulk site to YouTube. Nobody seems to have complained as yet so I will assume that it is just me. Even if they did I think I would still use the bulk uploading site since it allow me to not only upload to a whole swag of sites but also track statistics, which is really handy to know what is being viewed. If someone really wants a better quality file then I’m happy to make that available (be warned, it is >50MB!). So simply contact me (robert@saturnalliance.com.au) to arrange.

Take a look and let me know what you think, just remember that I am still limited to creating videos of not more than 10 minutes. This is a YouTube imposed limit and the only way that I can get that upgraded is to have lots and lots (I mean thousands) of subscribers it appears. So tell everyone you know to subscribe so I can get the account upgraded and add more content.