SBS 2003 Team Chat Coming Soon

Just repeating posts by David and the SBS Official Blog 

(David’s post is broken at the moment for some reason!)

Small Business Server 2003 Chat (EMEA Community)

Join the Small Business Server team for questions and general discussion on SBS 2003. Bring your comments and concerns on the product and discuss them with the team.

Friday, July 13, 2007

12:00 – 12:45 P.M. British Summer Time (UTC + 1 hour)

7:00 – 7:45 A.M. Eastern Time

11:00 – 11:45 GMT

Join the chat room on the day of the chat:

 www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/chatroom.aspx

Click on the link below to add this even to your Outlook Calendar:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/vcs/07_0713_TN_SBS.ics

 Added to my calendar!

After dipping my toes into chat with some of the boys and girls overseas it’ll be nice to follow it up with another session (albeit at a more reasonable hour!)

 Anyone else planning on dropping in?

Drowning in the sea of information

I found a post over on MSBlog today that made me realise why i don’t class development/programming as one of my skills anymore.

The content of the post comes from various sources but talks about some of the things any serious developer should be learning in 2007

My career in IT looked like i was going to end up in coding. In one of my first jobs i was helping a quality control department at an engineering firm implement an ISO standard (QS 9000) and i was setting up document templates, and designing spreadsheets to collect statistics. The quality manager (let’s call him Dave…not his real name) wasn’t exactly computer literate but recognised how IT could help. He wasn’t up to entering data into the spreadsheets and creating new graphs all by himself so he asked me to make it “Dave-proof”

I started off just locking cells and hiding sheets that were not needed but it wasn’t long before i discovered something that i knew would be a powerful tool…..

Visual Basic for Applications

I started off predominantly using Excel and after starting off with just the macro recorder it wasn’t long before i was reading the language reference from the help files and coupled with some previous knowledge of BASIC from my Speccy days i was creating small spreadsheet applications like a production line. The quality department thought of more and more ambitious projects and it was a good deal for both of us. I was learning lots and they were getting programming done on the cheap. It wasn’t long before i graduated to VB5 and then VB6 and i eventually moved on to a small business support company who also sold accounting packages. I developed quite a few systems and also picked up Visual Foxpro and other technologies such COM Automation & ADO and dabbled with the WIN32 API (Dan Appleman was a god in my eyes! I’ve just discovered he has a blog)

However it wasn’t long before i returned to my original calling for networks, desktops and servers and to cut a long story such it’s how i ended up where i am now. As the original version Visual Basic .NET was released the company didn’t want to invest in any training and with my duties being moved onto support and installation of operating systems and applications my own personal learning learned in that direction

I really do love writing code. I was never going to be the next Bill Gates but i loved making stuff work! The experience really helped in other respects as creating VBScript for administration tasks is of obviously a similar ilk and i’m sure it will also help with PowerShell as that technology takes off

So anyway..back to where i started. The reason that post inspired this one is that it lists an awful lot of things you need to know just to get started. If had to know all that as well as everything else i currently need my head would explode! I’m not saying it’s impossible and i know there are lots of talented people that can successfully do systems and develop for both the desktop AND the web but i really don’t want to spread myself too thin.

I have got Visual Studio Express installed, I have some books on order and have the online resources bookmarked as i still feel there is value in knowing (and it’s still something i find interesting!) but it’s not going to be a priority 

Working in the SMB environment means we have an awful lot of tech to know about as well as the business issues that go with it…..but isn’t that why we love it?

Care In The Community

Sorry about the title…i couldn’t resist (it’s probably a UK only joke though i’d imagine?)

I was on my home computer late last night and it was nearly midnight so before i shut down for the night i randomly thought to myself

“I wonder if Vlad’s posted anything tonight”

I have no idea why, of all the webpages i could have visited i thought of Vlad’s specific blog…..bit spooky but anyway

He had a post called Why are we losing these great community resources?. It’s well worth a read and he makes some very honest and valid points (as always!) about people taking lots out of the SBS community and then wondering where it’s gone when they haven’t put anything back

I’ll be completly honest i’m still all pretty new to the community concept. The community was something i picked up on when we first started the business. I found blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, events, groups and most important of all great people who have a lot of knowledge and want to help other people. I decided i’d quite like to get involved in something like that which was what inspired me to create this blog in the first place. My aim was to get the business SBSC accredited and become more involved in person as opposed to just online. I passed the exam last week (though i’m still waiting for it to show up on my Live ID so i can actually sign up!) and i’ve been really pleased with some of the feedback i get from the my little bit of the internet (here!)

But after reading Vlad’s post it made me think, “what have I put back?”

Now i’m not keeping score, and it was late but the list in my head was something like this

• I write this blog (small contribution)
• I comment on other people’s blogs (get me a MVP! quick!)
• I paid for Jeff Middleton’s Swing Migration (granted i got a lot out of that!)
• I paid for Harry Brelsford’s SMB Consulting Best Practices (again i also got a lot out of that)
• I replied to the survey that’s been put out this week (1 reply to a generic survey that helps MS more than the community as such)

It’s not a very long list…..and even if i could think of some more i get far more out than i put back in

So i was thinking “what can i do straight away”

What was even more spooky was Vlad’s next post, SBS Chat, and it seemed to answer that question straight away. The chat was due to start virtually as i was reading it which was even more spooky (SBS Karma catching up with me?)

So i thought i’d lose my SBS chat virginity and show my virtual face.

I was a little apprehensive as i’m just little old me and i wasn’t sure if i’d be able to contribute anything but at least i’d be able to see how it all works (getting more out again!!)

So i logged in and straight away i see lots of names i recognise (they were lots more people there and i saved a list….but i left my pen drive at home!!!)

Vlad, Jeff, Dana, Susan, Andy (Goodman) to name but a few

This was a big deal to me….they are SBS-blogging celebrities and i was like some star stuck 13-year old scared to speak in case i said anything stupid

So after i said hello they all thought i was after the free t-shirt Vlad has promised for the 20th person to login  (congratulations Mark!)   This didn’t inspire me with confidence!

It’s been a long time since i used a chat room with tons of different conversations going on at the same and in combination with the latenss of the hour i struggled to follow it in parts. I did eventually keep up and tried to join in where i could and hopefully i wasn’t the annoying newb

I did enjoy it even though some of the conversation i was completly lost on as it was more US focussed (the weather in Florida/price of laptops & tablet pcs) i was sad when i finally had to log off (the fact it was 2:30am made it a bit easier though) and i left with lots to reflect on (which meant i didn’t get to sleep till about 3:30am!)

I’m hoping that isn’t my first foray into the monthly sbs chat but the lateness probably means i wont to all of them. Does anyone know if there is a UK equivalent?

There is one thing i’m working on for the blog i hope will be a useful contribution…but thats all i’m saying for now

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to speak to me last night and hope to catch again

SBS 2003 SP2 installations

Service pack 2 almost has Susan’s seal of  approval. It’s a great post that talks a lot of common sense about any major patch/service pack installation.

Plan it….think about what your doing and don’t blindly install without at the very least having some sort of backup!

If you follow the process in Susan’s post you should be fine

To date i’ve only installed one SP2

The installation went fine and without any major issue

It wasn’t until this morning that i realised i hadn’t checked to see if i’d been effected by the Help and support issue

I checked and…and it wouldn’t start

Windows cannot open Help and Support because a system service is not running. To fix this problem, start the service named ‘Help and Support’ 

This support article offers a hotfix and a workaround

I decided to use the workaround
WORKAROUND
To work around this issue, you must reinstall the “Help and Support” service. To do this, follow these steps:1. Close all applications that use HelpCtr Service.Â
2. At a command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:

• %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HelpSvc.exe /regserver /svchost netsvcs /RAInstall
• %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HSCUpd.exe -i %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscmui.cab
• %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HSCUpd.exe -i %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscsp_*3.cab

I couldn’t get the last command to work

“Installing package: C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscsp_*3.cab …
Error (hr = 8007007b): The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.”

Then i noticed a quote mark at the start of the command so tried a couple of strategically placed quotes of my own but it wasn’t having any of it

So i opened up the %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries directory to have a look

I spotted the hscsp_l3.cab so modified the command to include the L

• %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HSCUpd.exe -i %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscsp_l3.cab

This worked fine and help and support started working again

Wireless Paradise

Who doesn’t love wi-fi?

Isn’t it great when you sit out in the garden, reading your favourite blogs? (mine right?)

or when you can send emails from the comfort of your sofa?

or at the office when you can take your laptop into a meeting and are still able to pick up emails, grab that file you forget, etc, etc

So why is it so expensive difficult when your out and about?

Surely the original idea of wireless access was about being connected anywhere?

I hadn’t really given it much thought to be honest but i have been in a couple of situations where i could have done with internet access but either struggled to find somewhere or after seeing the price deciding i didn’t need access THAT much

So why am i suddenly bothered? (and why am i asking so many questions?..see another one!!)

I read a post over at Web Worker Daily that discusses franchises that are a “web workers best friend” and mentions places such as Starbucks, McDonalds and Borders. There were comments that mentioned there are also lots of free offerings.

That got me thinking about free access in the UK. I used the jiwire.com site to look for local hotspots and as with the Web Worker post there are plenty of places you can get paid for access. McDonalds, Starbucks, Borders, Texaco garages, Hotels, pubs, motorway services but free access is (in my experience) pretty hard to come by

For how often i currently use it i can’t justify the cost of a monthly subscription or a 3G data card. But i think it’s a chicken and egg sort of thing. If i did splash out for either of those i’d probably still get my monies worth.

I currently have a simiar “debate” with my in-laws. The claim they don’t need broadband as the £5 a month they pay for their dial-up access is ok for their online banking, email and occasional research but i believe that if they made the move to broadband they would find themselves doing more with it….i digress

There is an article by Barry Colins on the Times Online where he gives his opinion on “the wifi rip off” and asks why can’t coffee shops, sandwich bars, pubs, etc provide free wi-fi with the theory being that it will attract more custom, people will stay longer (and buy more!) and help bring more custom at off peak periods

I also found an article on Zdnet about “virtually free wi-fi” where you buy something and get a thirty minute access code. This is something i’d like to see more of but if i went into somewhere like Starbucks and got free wi-fi i’d buy a drink and probably some food anyway.

There is also the “community wi-fi” option. Richard over at the TubbBlog has been using the FON system. It’s a nice idea in practice but i’m not sure how that would work in towns and city centres?

With people taking laptops everywhere, PDA’s becoming more commonplace, mobile phones with wi-fi capabilites and UMPC’s such as the ASUS EeePC on the way at affordable prices ($200!!) and more and more services becoming available that would be useful on the go such as mapping and directions, search, twitter, wehanghere and trustedplaces (the list goes on!), i feel that more widely availble internet access would help push mobile device uptake to the next level

There is also the option of local authorities providing city wide wireless as a public service but until councils see a massive benfit for themselves and the populus it would be political suicide with hospitals, schools and more important social schemes desperate for funding. Though it’s not all doom and gloom on that front as Norfolk county council were the first council to provide a large scale wireless infrastructure

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few years as mobile phone data rates fall and the introduction of technolgies such as Wi-Max

Hopefully it’ll all be good for us tech-types!

SMB Consulting Best Practices

I wasn’t going to post about this until i’d finished reading but i’m enjoying it so much i couldn’t wait

 

SMB Consulting Best Practices Harry Brelsford

Well worth picking up. I placed the order and it actually arrived from the US before a book i’d ordered from Amazon UK on the same day

The start of the book is aimed at would be (or just starting out) SMB Consultants who want to know all about organising and running a successful (thats the important bit!) small business consultancy

It covers areas such actually deciding if your up to it, writing a business plan, marketing, sales, building client relationships, financial management, picking a niche, a nice big section on SBS 2003 and plenty of other resources that will be of use regardless of who long you have been in business

The reason i picked this up was that after we moved offices i decided we could use the opportunity to revamp some of our processes, procedures, strategies, etc as they are not quite as efficient as i’d like. I was looking for some resources that would give me a fresh perspective but couldn’t find anything that grabbed my attention but i’m sure was glad i found this.

I know Vlad is a big fan of The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice so i think that is next on my purchase list

 Anyone else got any business books/blogs/websites etc that are worth checking out?

Make Your Opinion Known

This has been all over the SBS-o-blog-o-sphere  today but just in case you’ve missed it!

The SBS WW Community Survey 2007 is up and running…go fill it out and let them know what is good and bad about the SBS Community. If Microsoft don’t know what you think they how can they help improve things

Do it now!

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Just saw a link on AceyBongo’s XBox Life that links to an article on IGN with new details of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 

YAY!

I’m a massive Pro Evo fan and 95% of my XBox time is dedicated to it. I’ve been playing Konami’s finest ever since it was International Superstar Soccer on the SNES/N64

One thing i love about it is that you have to relearn the game with each version instead of just rechurning the same game but with better graphics and updated teams (you know who i’m talking about!).

However, one of the new features though is that the game will learn as you play. I think this will take the game onto the next level when playing against the console as it is a little stupid and always falls for the same tactics. Though nothing beats playing against someone else.

Thank goodness for XBox Live!

Rename Computers

*-*Update *-*

Edited the post as i just spotted you can’t see all the command! 

 *-*

How do you name computers on your networks?

Since users make such great use of Remote Web Workplace i’ve taken to naming them the same as the user name (obviously this is dependant on one person having their own PC)

It means the user doesn’t have to remember a PC name, when logging in remotely. They click on “Connect to my computer” and look for their name 

“But what if that person leaves the company?!” I hear you cry

Well I have a batch file that I run from the server for renaming computers. It’s much quicker (and not as messy) as doing it manually

Netdom RenameComputer AndyParkes /NewName:AndyParkesPC  /UserD:MyDomain\Administrator 

/PasswordD:*  /Force /ReBoot

pause

Note: The netdom command and it’s parameters are supposed to be on one line. I’ve seperated here for readability 

The pause is so that i can view the output when it’s finished.

If i was going to improve this i’d get it to prompt for the new and old computer names but this is a task i perform so infrequently that it’s easier to just edit the batch file

Also note the * for the password is so it prompts for the password. You can save the password in the batch file but who wants to leave their admin passwords lying around?!

Note. NetDom is part of the Windows XP support tools so you’ll need to load that if your going to do it from your PC

SBSC Exam

I’ve just got back after taking the 070-282 exam so we can qualify as Small Business Specialists….

and i passed!

It wasn’t quite the exam i was expecting but i passed so thats the important thing

Hopefully it wont be too long before it registers against my Live ID so we can get signed up as an SBSC partner and i can start annoying people at any SBSC only events :-p