Apparently I was ahead of the fad?

It's amazing to see that I've been running SBS 2003 at my house for almost 5 years now, and just now is it becoming a fad! Check out the Tech Net Geeks are running SBS at home.

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SBS UG Tour - Thank you Tampa!

My departure from Tampa ended the 2006 Small Business Server User Group Tour. I've had a great time travelling down the coast and talking to all of you. We really do appreciate the attendance levels we've hit. I hope you've enjoyed checking out the latest Vista and Office demos, learning about the "ribbon" and full text search. I also hope you've learned something about how Small Business Server 2003 R2 works. Again, if I can answer any questions, please feel free to drop me a comment on my blog, I'll reply to your comment with an answer (usually within a few days).

Let's see if I can recall some of the questions the Tampa croud asked:

Q: Can Vista's new Meeting Space be used from the Internet?
A: I don't believe so, it has to be the same network. We believe it will work over a VPN connection, although performance may very here.

Q: Can you revert back to the old toolbar in Office 2007?
A: Unfortunately, not. Although we believe the new ribbon will be more intuitive than the previous tool bars, and education will most likely only be needed for saving.

Q: Where did the Run command go from the start menu in Vista? How do we launch the command prompt?
A: you can simply type "command" or "cmd" into the search bar and it will run the command, or search the start menu and show you the link. You can also still press WIN+R to pop-up the old fashioned run dialog.

---

So now the tour is over, I can share with those of you who didn't attend, some of the great things you missed.

Office 2007

• A new navigation toolbar called "the ribbon" helps you use more features in Word/Excel/PowerPoint without having to search forever to find them.


• What you see *before* you get it, mousing over features changes the actual item on the page prior to you clicking so you can get the right formatting/feature everytime


• The hover menu. Save mouse movement by having common text tasks show up next to highlighted text in Word.


• Improved pictures/Graphics. No longer neccessary to import graphics to get a professional look and feel


• Integration with SharePoint v3. Link document libraries to Sharepoint for offline access, documents will sync up when you're back online. Overlay calendars and pick free/busy time, edit sharepoint calendars simply from within Outlook.
  
• SharePoint v3 - templates! Version Tracking! Recycle bins!


• Sharepoint Designer, a vastly improved environment for editing SharePoint replacing Frontpage

Windows Vista

• Full text search, everything


• Enhanced security using bitlocker
• 
  
• ReadyBoost to speed up your system with common tasks using a simple flash disk


• Aero "glass" UI, and the WIN+TAB 3D task switcher
• 
  
• The transparent sidebar with endless gadgets

Small Business Server 2003 R2

• Updated Server Status reports -- no more scrolling!


• Simplified patch management, critical patches are automatically approved!


• Customizable update management, reboot your PCs when it's convenient for you!


• Ehanced security and performance around Mobility


• Expanded CAL rights, use SBS CALs to cover additional SQL/Exchange boxes in the network


• File System Resource Manager. Get reports on disk usage, block file types (*.mp3, *.wma) from being stored on the server, directory level quota management

... and much much more

Remember, if you're not an SBSC, it's definately something to consider. I believe for a short time, contact your user group lead for discounts on obtaining this qualification.

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SBS UG Tour - Thank you Charlotte!

Well, we're past the half way point of the last leg of the SBS User Group Tour. I wanted to give a quick shout out to the folks in Charlotte for making me fell so welcome (especially MVPs Grey, Andy & the User Group lead, Marc)! If you're not a member of a user group, the Charlotte User Group is great bunch of guys n' gals.

So let's see if I can recall some of the questions we talked about last night:
Q:I use the SBS 2003 backup wizard, what's its deficiencies?
A: The SBS backup wizard was designed primarily for a single box backup solution. If you have additional servers in your network that you wish to backup, another solution may be in order. In addition, the Restore to new hardware, while it works if the hardware is similar (i.e. Dell-->Dell, HP-->HP) if you're moving to completely different hardware, the restore process is not optimized for this. Another solution was mentioned, but I can't recall it.

Q: Does SBS Backup use compression?
A: SBS backup is configured to use hardware compression. If the device the backup is going to supports it, the data will be compressed. In most cases, this means that the tape backup is compressed, but the hard drive backup is not.

Q:Are there any plans to include DFS (Distributed File System) in SBS for branch offices?
A: No. SBS is designed for smaller businesses, you'll want to keep your eye on Microsoft's Mid Market Solution, Codename: Centro. I can't disclose any more information at this time.

Q:Is there a way to upgrade my Windows Mobile 2003 device to Windows Mobile 2005?
A: You should check the website of the manufacturer, or the website of your cellular service provider, if an update is not provided for your device on these sites, chances are one is not available.

Q:Can I Upgrade to R2 and not upgrade SQL 2000?
A: No, all components must be upgraded, it's in the Microsoft SBS FAQ. For a little bit of more information, I started a thread with our marketing folk to see why this was the case.

That's all I can remember, again, thanks to all who attended, the SBSC private sessions as well as the actual event. And thanks to Grey who went out of his way to drive me around! (PS. Grey actually has a voice, I don't think I've heard him say more than 5 words at a time before! ;o) )

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SBS UG Tour - Thank you New York!

We just wrapped up the NYC event, I think it was a great success! Thanks to "Jonny Cash" for hosting the event in his user group. Thanks to the Microsoft folk who helped present and facilitate. Here are some of the questions we had in the room.

Q: When is R2 going to be available?
A: I thought it was, but I've heard this now in multiple places, so I went back to our release management for the story. R2 will be in the October Action Pack, it's available via open license today, Retail it varies by distributor, and there are no guaruntees as to when it will be available, and major OEMs are distributing it already.

Q: Does R2 have the ability to purchase 1 CAL at a time?
A: Single CAL is available only through a bundled offering for Open Value licensing (ie. a purchase of XP, Office, and SBS together). Everyone who knows *how* you can get this is off traveling around the world. I'll try to update this post when I get the answser, if someone knows, please reply to this post for the benefit of others.

Those are teh questions that I recalled, if there was one (or another one) that you wanted answering, please feel free to post it as a comment, it will get answered.

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SBS UG Tour - Thank you New England!

Well, Just finished wrapping up the New England User Group event. Thanks for hosting! I had a great time presenting, and believe the content of the whole night went really well.

So, as promised here are the questions that popped in my head as questions that were asked that I wanted to make sure the world got answers for:

Q: If I run SBS at work, and SBS at home, how can my laptop be used on both networks? do I use the http://homeserver/connectcomputer wizard?
A: No, if you have more than one domain, pick the domain you want the computer to spend the most of it's time in. This domain will manage that computer with patches, software, policies, security etc. Every other domain you acquire an IP address from is considered a "public" network to that laptop. When wishing to access resources on that other domain (provided you have access to it) you need to cache your credentials in your domain profile for your work network. To do this you can access \\homeserver\users and click "remember my password", or you can do it the more robust way, by going into Control Pannel, Users Accounts, Advanced Tab, Manage Passwords button. In here you can add the domain account for your 2nd or 3rd domain to automatically pass these credentials for access to these sites.

Q: How come Outlook 2003 has to be running in order for Exchange 2003 SP2 IMF to filter junk email?
It doesn't. My guess as to what's happening is the Exchange IMF filters are set lowers than Outlook 2003's filters. There is a relationship between the SCL index of Exchange and the SCL (High/Medium/Low) of Outlook 2003. On my home server, I have EXTREMELY rare false positives with 7 to permanently delete and 3 to move to junk email. I probably get two peices of junk in my inbox a month, and one real peice of email in my junk email box a month, pretty good levels if you ask me. As I mentioned tonight, an SCL of 3 or 4 on Exchange, works out to a HIGH in Outlook, so plan accordingly and adjust these numbers over time! Don't make drastic changes!

Those are the two that stood out in my mind, if there are others New England, drop me a comment and I will answer them.

New York, see you tomorrow night!

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System Center Essentials Wiki - running SCE on SBS premium

Hey, for those hardcores who want to learn as much about System Center Essentials as possible, here is a Blog post for you.

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Windows Mobile + Feature Pack Rules!

I'm out here in Boston for the SBS User Group Tour, and we have a little panic. Apparently now I'm supposed to be doing the presentations for Vista and Office above and beyond SBS R2. Hrm, problem, because I don't have the hardware/software combo to demo it (laptop needs to be XP, because Vista RC1 has a driver bug for this specific video card on outputting to the external monitor... kinda needed for presentations).

My User Group Lead, Scott, says "Oh, we'll just call Blah Blah" at the Microsoft office here in Redmond, she'll hook us up, oh wait, I don't have her phone number here".

Out comes my shiny Windows Mobile Phone, I click Contacts, then Find Online, type in her last name and click Find.

.... At *blazing* edge speeds, her contact information comes directly down to my phone, I open it, click on the work number and the phone is ringing!

Did you hear me? It's ringing! No 411, no Operator, no "call to the buddy back at the office", it's just ringing!

I leave a voice mail, she calls me back, we had the presenter mixed up and I'm off the hook. I still had to bost about Windows Mobile 5 with the Feature Pack.

Rock on!

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Mobilizing the Microsoft Stack - Mobility Road Tour

Hey Folks,

Starting on 10/2, the Microsoft TS2 group will be showing off some of the latest gadgets, plus have reps from Verizon, Brightpoint, and Palm at many of the sessions. For the first 40 Microsoft Partners, there will be FREE Windows Mobile devices (The catch is that they have to deploy a Windows Mobile solution within 60 days of the event; details are on the invitation link). Apparently, registration is limited, so sign up today!

10/02/06 - Monday, Washington, DC
10/02/06 - Monday, San Francisco, CA
10/03/06 - Tuesday, Downers Grove, IL
10/03/06 - Tuesday, Malvern, PA
10/04/06 - Wednesday, Southfield, MI
10/04/06 - Wednesday, Dallas, TX
10/04/06 - Wednesday, Phoenix, AZ
10/05/06 - Thursday, Tampa, FL
10/16/06 - Monday, Irvine, CA
10/19/06 - Thursday, Waltham, MA
10/25/06 - Wednesday, Raleigh, NC
10/26/06 - Thursday, Iselin, NJ
11/03/06 - Friday, Denver, CO

Just click a link to sign up!

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SBS Usergroup Tour

My week of travel is arriving soon. I'll be heading to the east coast of the US to complete the final leg of the Small Business Server User Group Tour. I'm hoping to use this blog to post the questions and answers that I get from the usergroup tour.

Anyways, it's going to be a fun week. Boston on Monday, New York on Tuesday, Charlotte on Wednesday and Tampa on Thursday, then travel back to Seattle on Friday.

If you're on the east coast, make sure you stop in at one of the events! See you there!

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R2 Ready to Rock again!

A little while ago, I posted about an R2 recall. Our R2 team put the pedal to the metal and have re-released the entire product in all languages!

Good job guys!

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Looking to run Vista RC1 on SBS 2003?

Look no futher!

[Updated to include x64 Vista clients on 9/19]

Our Client Deployment PM, Becky has put together a little guide to help you through the pop-ups, errors and just down-right confusing steps...

**********************************************************************
With the release of the pre-RC1 32-bit Vista, we thought we’d update you on what the known issues are for joining a Vista client to an SBS 2003 SP1 or SBS R2 network. Of course, if you just want to manually join the Vista client to the SBS domain w/out using our tools, that is also supported. You just won't have the SBS-specific client customizations.

How to join the pre-RC1 32-bit Vista client to SBS
The known issues and workarounds for when you try to deploy applications using the SBS tools and for when you actually join the client to the SBS network using the SBS tools are described. This will not be the user experience once we release an update to our tools.

Create your user and computer account on the SBS Server
At the SBS server, create the user and computer accounts using the SBS tools (eg. run the Add Users and Computers task on the To Do List).

1. Choose a computer name – if you choose a name different from the existing Vista client name, it will be renamed when it is joined to the domain


2. Select client applications to deploy
   
   
   • Client Operating System Service Packs – this cannot be deselected, but it won’t be installed anyway because it’s for Windows XP and Windows 2000.
   
   
   • IE 6.0 – you can deselect since IE 7 is on Vista – leave the Advanced Client Computer Settings for IE selected to have SBS home page and favorites still set
   
   
   • Outlook 2003 – deselect if running Office 2007 – leave the Advanced Client Computer Settings for Outlook profiles settings selected to have SBS settings for Outlook 2007 configured
   
   
   • Shared Fax Client - you can deselect since Fax client is on Vista – some of the fax settings in the Advanced Client Computer Settings will be configured, but some will not. If you select this, it won't hurt anything, but you'll get an error that it cannot install during the Client Setup Wizard.


3. Mobile Client and Offline Use page
   
   
   • Connection manager – for 32-bit, this will work
   
   
   • ActiveSync 3.8 – don’t bother selecting. Vista has a newer version included. If you select this, it won’t hurt anything, but you’ll get an application compatibility error when it tries to deploy and it won’t install.

*Note: If you're running ISA 2004 on your Server, please make sure to read the ISA Specific Blog Post before continuing

Join the Vista client to the SBS network
Until we release an update to our tools, you will need to do several workaround steps to use the SBS tools to join a Vista client to the SBS network.

1. Connect the network cable for your Vista client to your SBS network


2. Log on to the local Vista client as the restricted administrator account that was created during Vista Setup.


3. Find an IE icon, right-click it (eg – there is one on the taskbar), and then click “run as admin” (this is a workaround for a known bug with our ConnectComputer page and IE protected mode)


4. Accept the User Account Control (UAC) prompt


5. Browse to http://computername/ConnectComputer


6. If you haven’t done so already, answer the questions on the IE first-run page about anti-phishing, etc.


7. Click the intranet information bar (gold bar) prompt and Enable intranet settings. (note – the intranet settings are automatically enabled after you join the domain anyway, but you have to do it now or ConnectComputer won’t work)


8. Click Connect to the network now


9. Click Install for the security prompt that appears for if you want to install SBS software.


10. Complete the SBS Network Configuration Wizard. You cannot select a profile to migrate – this is a known issue.


11. Accept the prompt to restart (so we can join your computer to the domain). At the logon prompt (ctrl+alt+delete) you may need to switch users and then logon using the account that you just assigned to this computer.
    
    
    • Click Switch User, and then click Other User
    
    
    • Enter username and password for SBS user just assigned to the computer
    
    
    • Accept the UAC prompt for the SBS client setup (there is a WSBS window minimized and flashing that is a UAC prompt).
      
      Note – if you don’t accept the LUA prompt before a timeout period, the application returns an error that it has timed out. If that happens, you’ll need to log off and then log back on.


12. x64 Vista clients have to do these additional steps. non-x64 clients can skip this step.
    
    
    • UAC will ask for an account name. You need to click the LOCAL admin account and then enter the password. As soon as you enter this, you’ll need to enter your domain credentials for the user account that you are adding to the computer (the SBS domain admin account works fine too).
    
    
    • Click OK to the warning that the Client Setup Wizard couldn’t delete a special account created to migrate user settings.
    
    
    • Click the Pearl button (the new name for the Start button), point to Computer, and then right-click and click Manage.
    
    
    • At the UAC prompt, click the LOCAL admin account and then enter the password.
    
    
    • Double-click Local Users and Group and then click Groups. Double-click Administrators. Click Add, and then enter the name of the SBS domain account(s) that you are adding to the computer. You’ll then need to enter the Network Password for the domain user account that you are joining to the domain (the SBS domain admin account works fine too).
    
    
    • Click Users, and then delete the _sbs_netsetup_ account.
    
    
    • Log off and then log back on using the user account assigned to that computer.
    
    
    • The computer does another reboot and then you need to log on again.


13. Click Start now to start the Client Setup Wizard – depending on what you selected for the client applications to deploy and depending on the applications, some applications will install/configure
    
    Note - If you selected to install a printer that requires a driver, you’ll need to accept the UAC prompt.

Post-SBS Client Setup tasks
We have a few of our custom client settings that won’t get configured. Here are a few workarounds.

1. Manually set a few Windows Firewall settings
   
   
   • Start, search for Firewall, and then click Windows Firewall
   
   
   • Click Change Settings and then accept the UAC prompt
   
   
   • Click Exceptions and then enable both Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop
     
     Note – there are some other Group Policy settings from the SBS domain that aren’t being applied, but you can still work.


2. Using OWA – you’ll need to install the hotfix for KB article 911829 on the SBS server.


3. If you’re using Outlook 2003, you’ll need to accept the prompt for making Outlook the default mail client.


4. If you are using Fax on your SBS server and use the new Vista Windows Fax and Scan, you’ll need to set the fax server the first time that you send a fax.


5. Turn off the logon script for your user account if you don’t want the UAC prompt every time you log on. Basically, at each logon we are resetting some SBS custom client settings which results in a UAC prompt to allow us to do this (yes, we’ll fix this). If it annoys you, turn off the logon script for the user account that you are using to logon to the Vista client.

Note, if you are running the Premium version of SBS w/ ISA 2004, the ISA Firewall Client currently has compatibility issues w/ Vista. See KB article 911077.

Non-joined Vista clients accessing SBS
If the Vista client isn’t joined to your SBS domain, but you want to use Vista with either Outlook over the Internet (aka RPC over HTTP) or Remote Web Workplace (aka RWW) and you have a self-signed certificate, you’ll need to add the cert to the client as follows: Find an IE icon, right-click it (eg – there is one on the taskbar), and then click “run as admin”. Browse to RWW and install the cert in the trusted store.

That's all there is to it!

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I saw this Dilbert online, and thought of R2

Yep, I saw this dilbert online and thought of R2



Of course, all the rights of this picture belong to Scott Adams.

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The Many T-Shirts of Leszek

When your solving networking problems, it's always good to have a little relax/fun time. And what better thing to do than make a YouTube Video. This one's a classic!

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SeanDaniel.com hits the road!

That's right, I'm heading to the east coast of the US to "walk the line" down the water ...

For more information, check out this really cool video. Dates are included. I'll personally be doing the dates from September 25th and beyond, which include: Boston, New York, Charlotte, Tampa.

Hope to see you the Usergroups!

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