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Anil John — Mon, 09 May 2005 18:03:00 GMT

This blog is moving!

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Acronics True Image or Norton Ghost?

Anil John — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 12:53:00 GMT

I am looking for some drive imaging software that I can use to take a snap-shot of both my Windows 2003 server and my XP Pro clients. After looking over the online specs for both True Image and Ghost, I am not exactly clear if taking an image of Windows 2003 is supported (XP is) in both products WITHOUT upgrading to the "Enterprise-class" version of both products.

In short, I want to do manual images of both Windows 2003 and XP Pro. I am not at this point looking for live/incremental snap shots of Windows 2003. Will the entry level versions of True Image and/or Ghost do this job? Any practical experiences to share on the usage of one or both?

Webpart troubles on the SBS2003 SharePoint "Companyweb" site

Anil John — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 21:39:00 GMT

I am currently running SBS 2003 with ISA Server. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was that SBS by default comes with a Windows SharePoint Services site ("Companyweb") and I wanted to explore custom web part development.

Well.. I have not even gotten to that point yet. Playing around with third party web parts, I installed SmilingGoat's FeedReader web part to bring up some RSS feeds on my SharePoint site and I am consistently getting the following error message:

Searching for your RSS feed has timed out.
If you use a proxy server, please make sure the address and port are correct in the Web Part settings.
If you do not use a proxy server, please validate the RSS feed URL is correct.

I have configured the proxy name and the proxy port on the web part settings within the shared view of the web part AND this is a stable feed that I am going against (The KBAlertz SharePoint RSS feed) AND I have no issues accessing the Internet via the browser that is configured with the same proxy settings.

So I put that on hold for a bit and deployed the SmartPart 1.0.0.0 web part which enable you to host ASP.NET user controls within it. After installation of the SmartPart in the GAC via the install routine, I drop the SmartPart List onto the "Companyweb" page and choose the provided "Dropdown Navigation Sample" example. The site at that point dies with the following error:

The "UserControlWebpart" Web Part appears to be causing a problem.

I have to go and disable/delete the web part in order for the "Companyweb" SharePoint site to come up again.

I am wondering at this point if there is anything unique about the SharePoint installation on the SBS 2003 box or if anyone has encountered such an error before. Bit frustrating!

I would very much appreciate any pointers anyone can provide to troubleshooting this issue.

Reliability and Security in a Home Network Environment...

Anil John — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 21:40:00 GMT

Like most computer savvy folks these days, the amount of digital "stuff" in my house is growing rather rapidly. That includes:

MP3 music files that I've ripped from my CDs
Photos from my digital camera
Videos that I've taken
Documents and Papers
Source Code stored in my CM system
Virtual Machine Images
and more...

Needless to say I have multiple computers in the house that are connected via both wired and wireless networks. Currently I am running a Windows 2000 Domain in the house as my server class machine, which is a bit old, is not one I have upgraded to Windows 2003. All my Windows 2003 machines are Virtual Machines :-)

Recently, I've bitten the bullet and am in the process standing up a server class machine that can run Windows 2003 at home. My requirements are that:

I need a redundant and reliable file storage for my network. A lot of the content that I have on the network is simply things I cannot afford to lose.
I want to lock down my wireless network.
ASP.NET Development environment.
I am seriously getting into collaboration via Windows SharePoint Services. So I am looking to make sure that I have an environment that I can play a bit with it.. A personal goal, at least for the home, is to have a shared calendar for the family.

(1) Starting out with the basics, I picked up a Dell server on sale. The only thing I upgraded was to bump up the memory and add a second network card to it. Redundant and reliable for me means that the storage in my machine needs to be configured either as a RAID 1 or RAID 5. For various reasons, I chose RAID 1. So, I also picked up a HighPoint RocketRaid IDE controller and two 200GB hard disks.

I am also picking up an external USB hard disk to which I intend to back up my RAID array on a weekly basis. I will be keeping this at work; a poor man's version of off-site backup. This way, at most I am not losing more than a week of data if something untoward happens to my entire home system.

(2) I love my Tivo but when it comes to security, it has some issues. My Tivo is set up with the Home Media Option such that I can play all of my MP3s, which are stored on my W2K server, via my Home Theater system. In addition, I can display all of my photos, again stored on my W2K box, on my TV. The Tivo is connected to my home network via a USB Wireless adapter and goes out over the network for program updates etc.

The issue I have is that the highest level of encryption Tivo supports is 128 WEP. It does not support WPA at all! This has limited my ability to upgrade the security of my Wireless network. So, I've gotten irritated enough that I am pulling wires to my Tivo to convert it from wireless to a hard line. Once this is done, my plan is to implement 802.11x authentication with certificates and lock down the the network.. Now, if I you ask me if I REALLY need to do this, the answer would be, probably not.. But I can, so I will :-)

(3) (4) Now this is the interesting part, I could install Windows 2003 with WSS and get *some* of the functionality that I want (ASP.NET/Collaboration). But why bother? There is a solution out there that will give me all of the components that I am looking for (Windows 2003, WSS, Exchange, SQL2K) supposedly integrated rather well and designed to run on a single box. Windows Small Business Server 2003.

From what I've seen of and heard about this product, it seems to be ideal for what I am looking for within the house. I am thinking that if I install SUS on top of the standard SBS 2003 install, I would also get the ability to update and patch the machines on my network as well.

The only decision I have not made as of yet, is where to put the SBS server on the network. I am currently connected to the Internet via a cable modem, which in turn is coming into a Wireless router with hard line ports. The router has NAT capabilities and has a built in simplistic firewall that has done the job for me so far. But SBS 2003 premium comes with ISA server and I have 2 NICs in the box, so I could hook it up to be Internet facing. Or I could simply hook up the SBS machine to the internal network behind the Router. I'll have to think a bit more about it..

One resource that I am finding extremely helpful is "Windows Small Business Server 2003 Administrator's Companion" by Charlie Russel, Sharon Crawford and Jason Gerend.

Our Man in the Mid-Atlantic ...

Anil John — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 21:41:00 GMT

I live and work in the state of Maryland in the U.S. which is classified as the Microsoft Mid-Atlantic district. If you want to get information and help at a local level from Microsoft, you need to know the local players. And the level of support and engagement you get is often very subjective and dependent on the perspectives of the local representatives of the Empire.

Unfortunately, all too often what you run into is a pure sales driven attitude with no thought given to any type of long term relationship building. Even though there is more transparency at the Home Office (Redmond) level, I personally do not believe that Microsoft, especially at the local level, really get relationship management and long term relationship building. But that is a topic for another day.

Fortunately, there are exceptions to every rule and we in the Mid-Atlantic district are fortunate that we have TWO exceptions to the rule. And those exceptions go by the name of Geoff Snowman, our local Developer Community Champion and G. Andrew Duthie, our local Developer Evangelist.

These guys DO get it and are simply awesome!

Together, their responsibilities cover everything from User Group Support to Enterprise Customer Support. With the wide variety of technologies and products that I've been looking at recently, there have often been questions that I needed answered and these guys have come through every time with information or pointers to resources who have the information. I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a very public "Thank You" to both Geoff and Andrew.

The side-effect of having an interesting job ....

Anil John — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 21:09:00 GMT

.... is that you become very engaged at work. And this is a good thing!

These days I am focusing a great deal on Collaboration (Both real-time and asynchronous), Business Process Management, Service Oriented Systems implemented via web services and more, all within a framework that has very high security needs.

On top of that I am also Blogging internally, which on some levels draws in some of the energy that I used to spend on Blogging externally. I could blog to my external blog from work and I know that my employer would not have any issues with it (yup, we've talked about it). But I've made a conscious decision to NOT blog to my personal blog from work simply to separate my work voice from my personal voice. Which means going forward I have to make a more conscious effort to put more of a balance between Blogging at work and Blogging at home.

But, I do like going to work... :-)

Steps to a successful BizTalk Installation

Anil John — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 23:05:00 GMT

Looks like Scott has successfully installed BizTalk server.

It would appear that it did not take the esoteric combination of full moon, chickens and virgins as he was originally envisioning, although I personally think that the combination of the scented candle and Ganesh has a lot to do with it :-)

BTW, if you are not subscribed to Scott's blog you are missing a very fine combination of technical know-how and humor. I would also be remiss if I did not mention that he, together with his co-worker Poonam, runs one of the best quality technical sites for .NET out there - OdeToCode.com

Local MSDN Event Report

Anil John — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:38:00 GMT

Today I attended a Microsoft sponsored MSDN event in our local area. The presentation was by our own Developer Community Champion, Geoff Snowman. The topics on the agenda were:

Object Oriented Programming in .NET
Location Intelligence using MapPoint Web Services
Optimizing ASP.NET 1.1 Web Applications
ASP.NET 2.0 Membership & Personalization

My primary reason for going was to get an introduction to the MapPoint Web Services as that is something that I am interested in looking at.

I do have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the other topics. While OO is not something new to me, Geoff had one of the most lucid explanations of the pillars of OO (Abstraction, Inheritance, Encapsulation and Polymorphism) that I've ever heard. The fish/shark example was an interesting way of conveying the message.

Regarding the MapPoint presentation, I actually did get exactly the type of introduction that I was looking for on the MapPoint Web Services and it looks like it is something that I may be able to use. The nice bonus is that if you have a Universal Subscription to MSDN, you get a 1 year low volume MapPoint query access included in the sub, which is very cool.

Optimizing ASP.NET 1.1 Web Applications was also a great intro to the topic and Geoff demonstrated both using the Application Center Test tool as well as the SQL Profiler to get to the heart of possible performance bottlenecks in your app. He also pointed out a very valuable resource which is put out by the PAG on this topic, which is their tome on "Improving .NET performance and Scalability", which is THE bible for improving the perf of .NET apps.

The last topic was ASP.NET 2.0 membership which gave the audience a taste of what is coming. Geoff was certainly hitting the time limit with this topic. In all fairness to him, and as someone who has done presentations in that type of setting, I personally thought that four topics was a bit too much for the time allotted.

The audience was... interesting. As an officer in the local .NET user group (CMAP) as well as a presenter, I look forward to an audience that is interactive. This crowd was much quieter and I got the impression that some were there just to get out of the office and pick up the swag.. In any case, a markedly different subset of developers than the ones I usually deal with. Hopefully the fact that Geoff ran over and these guys had to wait until he was done to participate in the drawing for the swag won't impact his presentation scores :-) In any case, I got what I wanted out of it and the people who were there to learn did as well.

The only complaint I have is as usual about.... Security :-) Yup, the VPC's were configured to run as Admin.. again! C'mon guys, as presenters you should be setting an example of how you run your desktop and development environment and running as Admin does NOT send a good message!

Marketing at Microsoft...

Anil John — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 22:45:00 GMT

Heather is looking for a few good resumes over at Microsoft... Link and be found.

I thought about it, posted a link, thought about it some more, changed my mind and took down the link (all within the span of 2 minutes). I like my life :-)

Dual Monitor setup without a second monitor!

Anil John — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:16:00 GMT

I've been wanting to try out a dual monitor setup for some time now but don't have a second monitor. But what I do have is a Toshiba Tablet PC that normally is not being used at the same time as my primary PC.

Enter the MaxVista software. This is a software only solution that requires a simple network connection between your primary PC and a second machine that is going to be used as the second display. I install the Maxvista software on my primary PC, run a little viewer software on my tablet and now have a second monitor next to my primary one! No fuss, no muss and the great thing is that I can individually set the resolution on the second display to match the native resolution. My tablet is running at 1400 x 1050 so using the software I get full use of that screen real estate.. Very nice indeed.

Definitely recommend that anyone who is interested check it out @ http://www.maxivista.com/