Firefox 1.5 is now available, on the heels of IE exploit

Posted: 4:57 pm
November 29, 2005
Uncategorized
1 Comment

Talk about impecable timing, Firefox 1.5 has been released in the wild and its available from Firefox FTP site and many mirror sites. If you’re lazy in USA and on Windows XP here is the direct link and the release notes. Considering that the release falls on the day of an extremely critical IE exploit with exploit DoS code and the ability to launch executables on your system. Talk about Scoble’s fireable offense term, using IE is really getting close to that SouthWest commercial where a lady launches the pinkslip virus 🙂

Exchange 2003 SP2 Faster Reboots

Posted: 2:46 pm
November 29, 2005
Exchange
1 Comment

Leave it to Microsoft to brag about how fast a server can reboot. 🙂 Joke aside, this doesn't seem to be news at all but it has come in my inbox about 50 times over the past few days so here is the summary. Famous Microsoft MVP, Daniel Petri, has produced a knowledge base article 555526 which basically explains that Exchange 2003 SP2 will reboot faster on a domain controller (read: SBS, if you're running Exchange on a DC in any other setup you need help) because Windows will notify Exchange that the box is about to shut down and Exchange services are shut down prior to Windows services (Active Directory) are shut down. This will automatically make your reboots faster. The news here is that Microsoft finally implemented a process that has been used in production servers for years. I have yet to see a production server where Exchange was allowed to shut down on its own – there is always a script that stops Exchange services and then calls for the box shutdown. So if you were freaked out by the reboot performance enhancement and the subsequent KB article, welcome to Exchange system administration 🙂

Exchange IMF bi-weekly updates start in December

Posted: 9:04 am
November 29, 2005
Exchange
4 Comments

I talked about the IMF going to bi-weekly upgrades with Exchange 2003 SP2 and here is the update from the man that was brave enough to kick them around at Barcelona's IT Forum this year:

"Microsoft has informed me that those updates will start appearing on Microsoft Update in mid-December. I’m also told that the Exchange team will be writing about this shortly on their blog and that a Webcast on this subject is scheduled on January 17th."

So keep your eyes on the blog. These are just IMF definition updates but the faster you get the definitions the more spam you can kill. If you want it realtime, you know what will defend your Exchange the best. 😉

SBS Show #6 Taped

Posted: 1:01 am
November 28, 2005
SBS Show
7 Comments

.. and wow did we have a lot of fun. Peter Galagher and Mark Stanfill from Inside SBS joined us and braindumped their support know-how. Thats the best way I can describe it. It is by far the most fun we've ever had recording this show and we got to act out things only done to the closest confidants… "The crazy SBS guru", "Sucidal SBS admin", "Helpless smallbiz owner" and Chris joined in with his impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. If there was ever a show we were going to get sued for, this is the one. I did say "damn" and we recorded for 1:45 so there is at least 30 minutes of editing involved that I hope Chris can help with a little bit. I'll try to get this out by EOD Monday but I sincerely doubt it will be ready until Tuesday. This is on par with SBS Show #3 in the amount of great advice for SBS newbies and seasoned gurus wanting to learn more about how things work. I know that one famous guru will want to listen to this webcast as they talk about the perfmon preset counters that can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site that look at SBS specific issues. P.S. Dig the new logo?

The week ahead

Posted: 11:45 pm
November 26, 2005
Events, Misc
Comments Off on The week ahead

Ought to be a busy week coming up. In addition to the PSS show that is coming up this week I'm set to release a number of new documents as well as a new "service" based on something that has been annoying me for a long time. Tomorrow: SBS Show with Inside SBS PSS crew Monday/Tuesday: Guide to Organising An IT Group – if you've wanted to start or manage an SBS/ITPRO group this will be THE doc to read. Exchange articles: – Working on customizing IMF v2. – Disabling specific users from sending mail – Understanding smarthost and smtp routing / route costs – Publishing your SPF Records – Implementing ETRN (related to that smarthost article) … and more than that. Also remember that we're now doing two SBS Shows a week: This week in SBS and SBS Show on weekends. It's going to be an interesting week, I look forward to the feedback on these new articles and anything else that comes up.

Vladville giving Thanks

Posted: 5:01 pm
November 25, 2005
Podcast
9 Comments

Well its Thanksgiving and a very important turn for Vladville the blog. This is post number 200 and the blog is about to cross into its 4th month of existance. So far I've averaged 31,000 sessions per month and managed to piss off some very important people and motivate counltess others to understand Exchange/SBS better and get involved in the IT Pro community. My Exchange articles have been downloaded collectively over 29,000 times and my SBS Show podcast has been downloaded over 65,000 times. Here are some important milestones:

  • SBS Show Podcast #3 downloaded 16,000 times in its first week out.
  • SBS Show downloaded over 65,000 times in under 1 month.
  • I answered an Exchange support question on Exchange to a gentleman from India.
  • I answered an Exchange support question in a foreign language to a Serb from Canada.
  • My Exchange articles have been downloaded 29,000 times.
  • SBS Show #3 and #4 generate 40 incoming voicemails and a dozen email questions.

So thanks to Susan Bradley, thanks to Susanne Dansey for promoting me world-wide, thanks to Jeff Middleton, Anne Stanton, Tracey Daugherty, Guy Haycock, Charles McCubbin, Ron Gandiza and Brian Kruse who supported the Orlando IT Pro association, my Microsoft buddies (Greg Boyd, JJ Antequino, Blain Barton, Rene Alamo) that didn't hang me upside down by my balls when I told them I'm considering Google's offer, Beatrice Mulzer for putting me in her books and smacking me around for doing too much free stuff, as well as Mike Iem and Eric Ligman for supporting the little partners in Florida, Albert Churba and Dave O'Keefe for helping with OWN every time I asked and Katie for supporting everything I do till 5AM. Thank you personally and thank you on behalf of the concerns and community that Vladville represents.

Beatrice’s New Book Is Out

Posted: 10:26 am
November 24, 2005
IT Culture, System Admin
8 Comments

And yes, thats me right next to Harry. I had dinner with Beatrice and Harry about a month ago and I was quite happy that they decided to put me right next to Harry. I'm not sure exactly what I said but Harry's response was: "Yes, you're my right hand man." Joke aside, its quite an honor to be recognized as one of the top SBS consultants. As you can see by this blog, SBS is something I do 15-20 hours a day and if you're so inclined you can get the book and see how we've built a small empire at OWN using SBS. You can buy the book at smbnation.com and find out what all the other guys are up to in the SBS world. I was talking to Roger Otterson yesterday and he brought up the point that we all get together because we are techies, where we can really help one another is in the business. This book is about business and you need a copy.

A day in a life of a sysadmin

Posted: 11:25 pm
November 22, 2005
Misc, System Admin
1 Comment

Well, it could be worse… I could be a network admin… Did a huge presentation on Linux for our group, in the usual Vlad style – from concept, through installation all the way to the catch. Everyone seemed to like it, especially Microsoft. Told you guys to trust me! Waited in the line, didn't get the Xbox. Now I'm lurking on eBay with Eric Ligman trying to find a buy-it-now. What a day.

December Webcasts

Posted: 9:57 pm
November 21, 2005
Events, Microsoft
2 Comments

Eileen Brown, your technical webcast concierge, is coming through again with a long list of good webcasts to take up your lunch hour (at least if you're on the east coast). Office Webcasts for December Real Time Collaboration Webcasts for December Portals Webcasts for December Messaging & collaboration Webcasts for December MOM & SMS Webcasts for December Mobility Webcasts for December If I had to narrow it down to two.. Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (Level 200) and Managing Windows Mobile Devices with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (Level 300)

Internet Explorer Exploit

Posted: 11:42 am
November 21, 2005
Security
4 Comments

According to SANS: The UK group "Computer Terrorism" released a proof of concept exploit against patched versions of Internet Explorer. We verified that the code is working on a fully patched Windows XP system with default configuration. The bug uses a problem in the javascript 'Window()' function, if run from 'onload'. 'onload' is an argument to the HTML body tag, and is used to execute javascript as the page loads. Impact: Arbitrary executables may be executed without user interaction. The PoC demo as tested by us will launch the calculator (calc.exe). Mitigation: Turn off javascript, or use an alternative browser (Opera, Firefox). If you happen to use Firefox: This bug is not affecting firefox. But others may. For firefox, the extnion 'noscript' can be used to easily allow Javascript for selected sites only.