ExchangeDefender for Service Providers (Video)

Posted: 5:02 am
April 9, 2007
Exchange, ExchangeDefender
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Untitled document

ExchangeDefender service providers have been playing with the new MSP control panels we’ve developed for the v3 release. I’ve unfortunately been very much under the weather but I took a moment earlier tonight to record a brief instructional video. It shows you just how easy it is to customize the service, roll out to new customers and continue to support them. Service Provider battle is a hard one to design software for – on one hand you have extreme power users and technies that want access to everything, on the other hand you have the sales guy whose sole job it is to process orders, and if the look and feel of the screen change even the slightest he is paralyzed with fear. I hope we danced close enough to the middle to make everyone happy.

Check out these videos demonstrating ExchangeDefender SP:

ExchangeDefender for Service Providers (wmv)

ExchangeDefender for Service Providers (flash)

ExchangeDefender (and really all the new services and releases) are taking the same public input / scrutany development process I started with Shockey Monkey, meaning that if there is a legitimate need for a feature… by god we’ll build it in!

SMB IT PRO Conference in New Orelans Hotel Sold Out

Posted: 7:37 pm
April 8, 2007
Events
Comments Off on SMB IT PRO Conference in New Orelans Hotel Sold Out

I got some bad news this Thursday when I called in to make a hotel reservation for Jeff Middleton’s IT PRO conference in New Orleans – the hotel has sold out its block of rooms at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. They still had rooms but they did cost a little more.

Thursday and Sunday, $129

Friday and Saturday, $149

The executive suites were $50 more per night so if this is a budget trip for you time to book that room is now. If you didn’t get a chance to attend SMBTN’s conference a few weeks back this is probably the best opportunity to attend an SMB conference you’ve got this year so call the hotel and get your reservation in line. The conference is May 26th and 27th so you’ve still got the chance to get a cheap flight

See ya in New Orleans.

Update: Word from Jeff is that the hotel block is not full – apparently when you call the national line you get a different response than when you call the hotel direct. I called direct and ended up being bounced up to the headquarters. So heads up when you call, make sure you don’t get redirected

Cluster-like Non-Clusters for SMB Messaging

Posted: 6:02 pm
April 7, 2007
Exchange
3 Comments

Courtesy of two empty bottles of Nyquil comes the first long article I have written in well over a year. To be honest I was under an NDA for most of that time and couldn’t write about it even if I wanted to but I do want to urge you to shift your thinking when it comes to deploying services in small business. Just because you’re a small business does not need mean you need to accept a small uptime / availability.

I wrote an article on the system I put together last night between 3AM and 4AM:

http://www.vladville.com/articles/thinkcluster.asp

Hope you enjoy it, here is the premise:

Regardless of size, no business can afford to be without e-mail access these days. Combine that with the more and more services we pile on these mail servers and you’ve got the making of a perfect SMB disaster. Mail servers are far more than just “mail”, they drive groupware functionality, faxing services, calendaring, mobile device security as well as remote document and file access. We have consolidated and built a civilization on top of a single box yet haven’t raised our budgets and expectations to drive what used to be spread over multiple servers, workstations and was the sole job of a few part time employees. The following article helps you take a look at your small business infrastructure and realize the potential in new cluster-like features in Microsoft Exchange 2007. Read more here..

Personal note: Convincing SBSer to consider clustering is like doing a lobotomy on a chimp: way too much mess and the patient looks brain-dead. The PSS team made fun of me when I presented this content to the DFW SBS group and two people feel asleep during my presentation. Regardless, I believe this is the future and I thank you for taking your time to consider it. We are no longer stuck spending tens of thousands of dollars on enterprise gear AND we can get high end enterprise reliability using commodity hardware. The only thing standing in our way is the notion that we have to stick to a single system and that we should be bulding disaster recovery systems INSIDE a single box instead of spreading the redundancy out.

Where in the world is Vlad

Posted: 3:54 pm
April 6, 2007
Vladville
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Everyone has been asking where I’ve been.. Yes, I know Dev / Exchange Connections is in town, yes I got the invitation, yes… But folks, I’ve been friggin dying over here. I was leaning over my laptop the other night and my nose dripped on the keyboard. As I went to wipe off the snot I sneezed – less than a minute later I was all clogged up, couldn’t breathe, etc. If there was such a thing as a flu-voodoo Vlad doll out there someone sure as heck stabbed the crap out of it.

I’m out of comission for a while, see ya.

Compiz and Beryl Merge

Posted: 2:15 am
April 6, 2007
Linux, Open Source
1 Comment

Perhaps one of the best developments in the Linux GUI world in quite some time, two of the biggest projects that bring eye-candy to Linux are getting together! If you’ve never seen Beryl in action just search YouTube for it, it will blow you away.

And just in case you’re thinking – so what, what kind of an idiot is impressed by the shiny objects? Well, how do you explain Vista and every single Mac user? UI usability is big, and this is a sign that things like Gnome and KDE now get to stand shoulder to shoulder with the others.

Patch Tuesday: Cousin Joel Returns

Posted: 10:36 am
April 5, 2007
Security, System Admin
1 Comment

(Note: All Windows Server post-SP2 issues will be refered to as Cousin Joel edition)

Microsoft released an out-of-band patch yesterday to cover the recent .ani/.cur exploits. These are causing confirmed issues with Windows Server 2003 SP2, SBS 2003 SP2, Windows XP, etc.

Here is something from Susan.

In short, you might need another reboot this month. Some have reported that restarting the system manually (Start, Shutdown) does not produce the same result as Reboot Now prompt after the patch installation. I have no scientific data to back that one up but if it works for you any differently please let me know.

Followup comment:

Susan Bradley says:
  btw
Susan Bradley says:
  change that to start, shutdown and ensure you select reboot
Susan Bradley says:
  otherwise on a remote machine you just turned it off 

Ok, if you’re reading this post and needed to see that disclaimer.. please.. do not come back to Vladville. It’s only a matter of time till you find something sharp laying around here and you hurt yourself. That big loud box in the “computer room” is a wine cooler, do not touch it, CEO has 1882 Merlot in it, if you break it you’ll be fired.

Consulting Tips: BTFS

Posted: 10:55 am
April 2, 2007
IT Business, SMB
5 Comments

If anyone ever develops a Vlad wind-up doll it better be able to say “Bring the f… solution!”; So pardon me if I repeat this again. One of my partners wrote in today to say the following:

“When we talked Friday I was on my way to meet with a potential new client.  I had a very good meeting with and have a very good chance to win their business for a managed services contract.  I included Exchange Defender in my proposed services and they seemed very impressed with the services.  I got the impression that Exchange Defender set me apart from the other consultants they have talked to”

Most people doing IT consulting are not businessmen by training. They are engineers or technicians, trained to spot and isolate a problem and design a solution to that specific problem. A Dilbert if you please.

In IT consulting, however, engagements are not about spotting problems and isolating solutions to those specific problems. The objective is to understand what the PHB (Pointy Haired Boss) is saying and to keep him talking as long as humanly possible. Get the big picture of whats going on, not the bullet points for your proposal. If you’ve bit Microsoft’s Bullshit Assessment Kit hook, line and sinker you should just go shoot yourself. Really. Go get a job with H&R Block. If you sat in front of a business owner and asked 500 questions to be entered into some Proposalator 5000 you’re more qualified to be a data entry person for people that can’t figure out Turbotax than an IT consultant.

The only question the business owner has is why they should do business with you? All you know the rest of the Computer Help section of the Yellow Pages is meeting with this person today so what sets you apart? What is it that you can provide above and beyond the Geek Squad and Jimmy Joe Bob Bait & Tackle, LLC?

Bring the entire solution. What do you do? If your answer or marketing collateral can be summed up in 10 seconds you’re dead meat. This isn’t an elevator pitch, you’re not screaming into the girls ear at a dance club, you’re not paying per minute.. you better answer why someone ought to be working with you. Listen, most people would rather not be talking to you. They look at IT as an expense, they do not like dealing with computer problems and you’re there to make that problem go away. They are taking the time away from something else they would rather be doing and interviewing people to take care of annoying problems. If they could avoid having to go through this process ever again, they would.

So tell them all the problems you are able to help them address, even if they don’t have them  right now. Why? Because down the road they may, and if you look like you’re more than “we install and support SBS networks” dime-a-dozen laid-off-IT-guy, you get the client. Offer solutions, not products.

5 of 5 week starts tomorrow: 5 things I did to optimize time as a web 2.0 ceo

Posted: 9:18 am
April 2, 2007
Vladville, Web 2.0
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Lg-go-away-tshirtEvery time someone thanks me for all the blogging, podcasting, vlogging and that other stuff I actually do for living, they can’t hold back but ask: “I don’t know where you find time to do it all!”; Now as much as I try to bite my tongue and not say “Perhaps you should not have freeones as your home page”; I politely thank them and walk away. 

Honestly, most people just have no respect for their time. Karl Palachuk has spoken and written on many occasions about how every minute of his day has to be accountable. Howard Cunningham has a similar procedure that only applies to business.

Last year I made a committment to myself to spend less time working. I’ve been able to cut down my workdays from 20 hours a day to about 6 but unless you’re fluent in PHP and PowerShell it just doesn’t apply to you. I challenged myself to spend at least hour a day automating the tasks I was doing, even if that meant I couldn’t keep my ETA and SLAs alive. I figured that if I had the discipline to start gradually reducing the repetitive tasks from my life by the end of the month I’d have a lot more time on my hands and more time to do automation. So March was an interesting month to say the least.

Since Jan 1 I’ve done so many things that have virtually washed away hours of committment from my schedule. Most of these things can be done by anyone in any CxO-ish role. I’ve broken them down into categories:

  • Outlook 2007
  • Going Virtual
  • Google, Google, Google
  • Meetings, appointments and chats
  • Karl Palachuk(tm) & Erick Simpson(tm)

Over the next five days I intend to talk about these five things that helped me reduce the time committment and stress related to running a business. I hope everyone reading this blog would share their own tips on their blogs so we can circle-blog the entire effort and give people that are struggling with time management some indication to the light at the end of that tunnel (or that suite or that office or that starbucks you spend 90% of the daylight hours hunched over a laptop)

Just to make it interesting, the winner gets a free Think Geek shirt and a Shockey Monkey shirt. Behold the power of the free shirt!

Florida Wins The NCAA Basketball Championship

Posted: 1:11 am
April 1, 2007
Misc
Comments Off on Florida Wins The NCAA Basketball Championship

Florida_Gators_logoOn behalf of Florida Gators everywhere please allow me to extend my condolences to the Ohio State fans on having their butts handed to them yet again by the mighty Florida Gators. Football, basketball, it doesn’t seem to matter.You’ve come a long way and at least you got the best seats in the house to watch a whopping, thats worth something too, right?

P.S. Several of you bothered to email me to let me know that the game has yet to be played… I don’t see how that makes any difference but thanks for the email. Go Gators!

Groove vs. ESET/Nod32

Posted: 7:47 pm
March 29, 2007
Microsoft, Web 2.0
Comments Off on Groove vs. ESET/Nod32

So all my friends have been playing with Groove for about a month and I never joined the party. Frankly, I never could get Groove to work. I had a few hours to kill today so I figured I’d finally get this thing fixed and having been over a month since I last tried to get it to work I figured I’d take a shortcut (ie: IM to sbradcpa: “Hey, whats with ‘can’t find provisioning server’ thing in Groove) from which point I was redirected to PSS Canada. Apparently Dana had the same problem and the PSS reference is important for two reasons: First, it took him 20 minutes to answer my IM, followed by “They don’t have Google search in America?” and “I have to go, but if you have a problem later I’ll help again, SRX07…”

So what made me so “special” – well, apparently my antivirus software wasn’t playing along. I couldn’t get my Groove on (I know, I know) because I have a 64bit Vista workstation with way too much RAM and I can’t get a decent A/V solution for that so I have to deal with the third world software makers (ESET).

Bottom line — ESET/NOD32 hates GROOVE.EXE. If you’ve got the combo and you’re getting the “Groove 2007: Unable to contact provisioning server” you need to add GROOVE.EXE to the IMON exception list. Details here..

It’s all in the Relay Server URL configuration (which Groove gets on it’s own, its not modifiable as are other parameters on your Advanced Network Settings). Because Groove is being intercepted by IMON you’re not getting to the relay server and are instead stuck with the grooveDNS://backwardscompatibility.groove.net – but add GROOVE.EXE to the exception list and voila, you’re set with a *relay.groove.microsoft.com relay server.

As for NOD32. Open up your Control Panel > IMON > Setup > Miscelaneous > Exclusion > Edit > Add > C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\GROOVE.EXE