2009 April :: Third Tier

Archive for April 2009 – Page 2

Apr
17

Book Winner Announced

by amy

As a thank you for taking the time to attend both our monthly webinar on Managing SBS 2008: Certificates and Scorpion Software’s, Selling Security to the SMB without using FUD roundtable yesterday, Dana Epp offered to reward someone with a copy of Eriq Neale’s book SBS 2008 Unleashed.

And the winner is…

As promised, I would like to announce the winner of a copy of Eriq Neale’s latest book, Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed. That person is Ben Ahquist from ByteSmart Services. Congratulations Ben! I’ll have Amazon ship you a copy later today!

For Dana full blog post go here. There is a link to the recorded session as well as some articles and tools that were referenced during the round table.

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, SBS 2008, Webinar

Apr
16

SSL Webinar Available for Download

by Eriq

The recording of today’s SSL on SBS 2008 webinar is now available for download from the Store. If you weren’t able to join the session, you can watch the recording to catch up on how to manage SSL with SBS 2008 with live demos of the entire process.

I’ve you’ve missed any of the other webinars, those are also available for download from the Store at http://www.thirdtier.net/store.

1 Categories : Eriq Neale, SBS 2008, Webinar

Apr
16

Q&A from the SSL Webinar

by Eriq

Here is the Q&A from the just-completed SSL on SBS 2008 webinar. Not many questions, so we either did a good job of covering the material in the webcast, or we had a lot of sleepy attendees!

Question: What is the URL for that blog post?
Answer: http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2009/02/installing-godaddy-standard-ssl.html
Question: this is great. We get to see reality.
Private Answer: Welcome to the real world
Question: Yup
Answer: Sometimes you’re the windshield.
Question: i had a customer order SSL cert from GoDaddy for their SBS box. Then they wanted to install a SSL cert to their Calyptix betwork/firewall box, which does not support the intermediate cert. Is their any problems with going to a different cert provider to get a second, different SSL cert for the same public domain name?
Answer: For devices with out the ability to add additional intermediate certs, it would be best to go with another trusted provider like Verisign
Question: Can I move a cert from a SBS2003 that I am decommissioning?
Answer: If the certificate provider allows you to re-key the certificate to your new server, then yes.
Question: Are there any recommended vendors for the SSL certs that people have used and feel they did a good job for the price?
Answer: We’ve used Dotster which issues a Thawte cert (so no intermediate cert needed). Only issues with them is making sure your domain registration is correct (no ex-employees as admin or techinical contact), but that’s the same with any SSL certificate provider.
Question: the certificate renewal process… how much effort is required each year on an annual renewal? Can it be disruptive to business?
Answer: You will need to load the certificate into any devices that required manually installation the first time around.
Question: We use two static IPs for autofailover. SSL certs works well. We use DynDNS now, used to use dns made easy. We use our domain name. Our GoDaddy Cert works fine without the itermediate cert, since GoDaddy is not a top level cert auth.
Answer: Good info. Any issues with Windows Mobile devices?
Question: Even with a paid cert, don’t I still have an issue using dyndns? since my cert if for domainname.net and using dyndns makes it domainname.dyndns.org
Answer: The certificate has to be assigned to your domain, not to dyndns.org. there’s an additional service you need to purchase from them to make that happen.
Question: ENOM have a very good cert for SBS
Answer: Good to know.
Question: Yes, I know I need to go with a different provider. But when you request a cert, it asks if you are using IIS or Apache. So we already have the GoDaddy cert for IIS, and now we want to get a cert for an Apache (Calyptix box) with the same public domain name.
Answer: Yes you can do that.
Question: I notice that this presentation is # 6. Are the previous presentations available to be viewed? If so, where?
Answer: http://www.thirdtier.net/store
Question: No with Win Moblie 6. No old stuff.
Answer: Thanks for that!
Question: Is it difficult to add an SSL cert to a website in SBS 2008 that isn’t part of the “package” SBS install?
Answer: Amy is answering this live.
Question: how do I get on the other session?
Answer: http://www.thirdtier.net/store/
Question: thanks
Answer: np
Question: one cert per ip address right?
Answer: yes
Question: Great info, thanks
Answer: thanks for attending!

0 Categories : Eriq Neale, Q&A, SBS 2008, Webinar

Apr
15

Remotely Installing This Month’s ISA Update

by Eriq

Just a heads-up for those of you who remotely install security updates for your customers. This month includes an update for ISA, and if you don’t know about it beforehand, you could end up in a bit of a jam.

As expected, when installing the ISA update, access to the Internet through the server is interrupted. Unlike some previous updates, however, when the installation of this update completes, Internet access is NOT restored. You don’t get Internet back until you restart the server.

So if you don’t have some mechanism in place for restarting the server automatically after updates install, you could find yourself, and your customer, in a rather unexpected place.

Categories : Eriq Neale

Apr
15

Breaking News! Free SBS 2008 Unleashed book

by amy

Dana Epp of Scorpion software (that’s AuthAnvil, RWW Guard, RWW Protect) is offering a free copy of SBS 2008 Unleashed to a lucky person that attends 2 excellent events happening on Third Thursday.

As you know at Noon, this Thursday is the next installment of our regular Third Thursday, Managing SBS 2008: Certificates. In this session Eriq Neale will educate us all on how to manage SSL certificates, whether self-signed or purchased in SBS 2008. He’ll be using live demo to show you how it’s done.

Immediately following Eriq’s presentation Dana Epp is hosting a round table: Selling Security to the SMB – Why trust matters and how you lose it when using FUD. Learn how to strengthen the trust relationship with your clients by providing educational based selling, helping you to identify potential sales opportunities driven by need… and not fear. The roundtable will be made up of Dana, Amy, Susan Bradley and Ben Yarbrough.

To be eligible to win Eriq’s book, you’ll need to sign up and attend both events. It’ll only take two hours of your time.

Here’s how to get signed up:

1. Third Tier. Managing SBS 2008: Certificates https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/meetingICS?id=F2FGNW&role=attend&pw=w%242S%3BM%60Wx&i=i.ics

2. Scorpion Software. Selling security to the SMB https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/733132802

I’ll be participating in both events. See you there! It’s going to be a great Thursday.

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, Events, SBS 2008, Webinar

Apr
15

Excel Security Update Applies to Mac Office, Too

by Eriq

Microsoft released a couple of updates for their Excel spreadsheet product in the slate of monthly updates for April 2009. The security issues addressed in the update also apply to the Mac version of Excel as well. As such, Microsoft has released updates for both Office 2004 and Office 2008 for the Mac. The files can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx. Because of the nature of the update, all Mac Office users are encouraged to install this update as soon as possible.

Categories : Eriq Neale, Security

Apr
14

This Thursday: Managing SBS 2008: Certificates

by amy

The Third Thursday has snuck up again. This month, Eriq Neale, will be educating us on how to manage SSL certificates in SBS 2008. There are significant changes for certificate management in SBS 2008 and your procedures are going to be different depending on whether you are using a public SSL certificate or a self-signed certificate. Eriq will show it all and demonstrate the configuration and management of certificates in live demo. Join us this Thursday at Noon eastern time.

When: Thursday, Apr 16, 2009 12:00 PM (EDT)
Scheduled to Occur: Once
Duration: 1:30

Third Tier has invited you to attend an online meeting using
Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=F2FGNW&role=attend&pw=w%242S%3BM%60Wx

Meeting time: Apr 16, 2009 12:00 PM (EDT)

Add to my Outlook Calendar:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/meetingICS?id=F2FGNW&role=attend&pw=w%242S%3BM%60Wx&i=i.ics

AUDIO INFORMATION
-Computer Audio(Recommended)
To use computer audio, you need speakers and microphone, or a
headset.

FIRST-TIME USERS
To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is
ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90703

TROUBLESHOOTING
Unable to join the meeting? Follow these steps:
1. Copy this address and paste it into your web browser:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join
2. Copy and paste the required information:
        Meeting ID: F2FGNW
        Entry Code: w$2S;M`Wx
        Location: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp
If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact support:
http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidLiveMeeting?p1=12&p2=en_US&p3=LMInfo&p4=support

0 Categories : Eriq Neale, SBS 2008, Webinar

Apr
14

Get a Free Copy of Windows SBS 2008 Administrators Companion

by amy

Microsoft Press is celebrating its 25th Anniversary by giving away “e” copies of books this year. This month, it’s the acclaimed Windows SBS 2008 Administrator’s Companion. You can get your copy here:

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator’s Companion (Pro—Administrator’s Companion) by Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford

As you do so, keep in mind that unless you also purchase a print copy, that Charlie and Sharon don’t get paid. That’s because authors get paid by the book sold, not by the pdf downloaded. If you’re like me that’s no problem because reading online is just something I can’t do for long. I need the print book if I’m really going to sit down and read. You can get it from Amazon.

Or better yet, you can order 10 AuthAnvil tokens, keep your clients safe and let Dana Epp buy you a copy. Find out about this offer here: http://blog.scorpionsoft.com/blog/2009/04/get-a-free-copy-of-windows-small-business-server-2008-administrators-companion.html

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e55005c8f988340115701a12a1970b

0 Categories : Announcement, SBS 2008

Apr
13

SMB Summit Postponed, but Why?

by amy

You’ve probably heard the news that the conference has been postponed from elsewhere by now and rather than yet another post announcing the postponement, I was hoping to have some news to post on the postponement as to when the postponed conference would be rescheduled. But alas nothing yet.

It’s disappointing, for sure. We worked hard to gather up the best topics and speakers for the technical track that the conference has ever seen. But it is understandable. SMBTN, the organizer of the event, has to put out $250,000 before a single attendee shows up at the door. That’s a lot of risk for a group of volunteers. So when the attendance doesn’t look strong, events get cancelled.

Why wasn’t attendance strong? That’s the real question here. Is it the economy? Well, that’s a good excuse but business owners need to continue to invest in their business even (or maybe especially) when it’s down. Or maybe it’s because there were so many events scheduled around the same time.

[Note: The following is Amy’s personal opinion.]

Where did these other events come from? Seismic, ConnectWise, AutoTask, TechData, and don’t forget the ever prolific Everything Channel, MS TechEd, MS WWPC…they are all having conferences. I know I’ve not named them all either. What’s different about these, is that they aren’t community led. They are vendor events. Not that they aren’t valuable but in our market space we have been blessed to have community led events like: SMB Nation, SMB Summit, MSPSN and HTG. IT Pros in the enterprise don’t have community events, they only have vendor led events. When you have the choice to attend a vendor event or a community event the choice should be clear. Choose community and the community gets stronger. A strong community means you as an IT Pro in this market space have a stronger peer group from which to pull. It’s all win-win. But if we don’t support community driven events, they will go away and vendors will win. I don’t want to work where my only source of information comes from vendors; I want to be better than that. So please support community events.

0 Categories : Events, SMB Summit

Apr
9

Windows 7 on VMWare Workstation 6.5

by edwin

I was at the Microsoft Canada Energize IT Windows 7 Installfest event in Ottawa and volunteered to assist with the attendees while they were doing the installation. While the supported installation options during the event were clean install, upgrade, dual boot or virtualization using Hyper-V, Virtual PC or Virtual Server, a few of those who came were asking if they can install it on VMWare. Now, I have been working with VMWare for years now and my take on this is if its a Microsoft operating system and it runs on the Microsoft Virtualization products, it will definitely run on VMWare. I was making suggestions about how to go about it and the caveats when working with VMWare, I have never seen Windows 7 yet. So what I did was to fire up my VMWare Workstation and started installing Windows 7, just so I can answer the questions knowing I had he experience of doing it rather than just saying "I know it will work." I used the ISO image provided by Microsoft and the installation went really fast. If you've installed Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 before, the process is pretty similar. I guess I'm on my way to playing with the Windows 7 image just to get the hang of it. And one thing is for sure, it will work on VMWare - even with 512MB of RAM.

Categories : Edwin Sarmiento

« Previous Page

Archive for April 2009 – Page 2

Book Winner Announced

SSL Webinar Available for Download

Q&A from the SSL Webinar

Remotely Installing This Month’s ISA Update

Breaking News! Free SBS 2008 Unleashed book

Excel Security Update Applies to Mac Office, Too

This Thursday: Managing SBS 2008: Certificates

Get a Free Copy of Windows SBS 2008 Administrators Companion

SMB Summit Postponed, but Why?

Windows 7 on VMWare Workstation 6.5

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