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Author Archive for KW – Page 19

Tampa Bay IT Pro Monthly Meeting

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 14 2014

Amy B.Amy Babinchak from Third Tier will be the speaker at the January 2014 monthly meeting of the Tampa Bay I.T. Pro User group (formerly the Tampa Bay SBS User Group).

  • Date: Wednesday January 15, 2014
  • Time: Meeting begins at 6:30pm, but please come anytime after 5:30pm for informal networking and food
  • Location: Meeting will be held at the offices of Mosaic Dealer Services (an SBS client of Kevin Weilbacher)
  • Subject: Vision of the Future
  • Presenter: Amy Babinchak
  • Join us remotely: Tampa.ics

Details:

Small business networks remained the same for many years. The standard was a server, some workstations and perhaps a networked printer. Many of us built our businesses on installing and maintaining those networks. Now things are changing rapidly and Amy predicts that cloud services will result in a 60% revenue loss from migration, installation and maintenance if she didn’t change a thing about her business. In this session she will share how she is changing her business, Harbor Computer Services, to meet the challenges ahead.

I’m going to attempt to distill the many documents that I wrote for the SMBKitchen Project on business planning into a single presentation about Harbor Computer Services and transitioning.

Amy Babinchak is a Small Business MVP and Owner Harbor Computer Services and Third Tier. Amy has been an ISA, EBS and SBS MVP and yet still contends that it’s not her fault that the products were cancelled. She has opened Harbor Computer Services as a firm specializing in small business technical support services in 2000 and Third Tier to assist other IT firms with technical challenges in 2008. She started into small business IT after realizing that they were not being taken seriously by most IT professionals. Amy has always enjoyed the business side of IT as much as the technical.

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Categories : Conferences, News, SBS, Servers
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Server Essentials and Small Business Server Resource Website

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 07 2014

Whether you are working with any version of Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS 2003/2008/2011) or Windows Server Essentials (2011/2012/2012R2), a great resource is The Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog.

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The official blog for Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server support and product group communications. There are plenty of great hints and information on installing and maintaining these products.

For example, a recent post addressed the question: “What happens when you release your domain name from windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials?”.

Want to know the answer? Click here to find out the answer!

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Categories : Essentials, News, SBS, Servers
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Received 2014 Microsoft MVP Award

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 01 2014

I just received the following email from Microsoft this New Year’s Day morning:

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2014 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Windows Server for Small and Medium Business technical communities during the past year.

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say “Thank you for your technical leadership.”

At Microsoft, we believe that technical communities enhance people’s lives and the industry’s success because independent experts, like you, help others extract greater value from products and technologies through the free and objective exchange of knowledge. As a Microsoft MVP, you are part of a highly select group of experts that represent technology’s best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others.
On behalf of everyone at Microsoft, thank you for your contributions to technical communities.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Director, Community Engagement
Microsoft Community Program Manager

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Categories : MVP, News, SBS, SMB
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Script to see if a KB update has been installed on a computer

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 29 2013

Often, when I am working on a workstation or server, I need to see if a particular KB update has already been applied (installed). Case in point: KB 2862330 was released in October as part of a set of USB/Kernel updates. Immediately there were reports of BSODs with Windows 7 and Windows 2008R2 systems.

Early investigation of this issue found that the BSOD could be avoided in most cases if KB 2533552 was installed prior to installing 2862330.

So, I found myself looking for a simple, easy way to determine if a KB update has been installed on a particular workstation. Gandlaf50 from the Spiceworks’ community forum posted a VB script solution. The script will ask you which computer to check, meaning you could run this from your workstation, and check another computer in your network.

  1. Download the script file to your computer
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  2. Rename it from findkb.v_b_s to findkb.vbs
  3. Double click to run the script.
  4. Enter the KB number you wish to check (enter just the number)
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  5. Enter the name of the computer to be checked
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  6. A message box will display informing you if the KB is installed or not.
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Voila!

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Categories : Servers, Tools, Windows, WSUS
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Windows Update running forever on XP and 2003

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 23 2013

There are plenty of reports of both Windows XP and Windows 2003 server systems stalling when running windows update (WU/MU). In some cases, they say that if you wait several hours, or perhaps overnight, the situation will resolve itself.

The long delay is (apparently) due to an IE detection process.

So, what does one do?

The suggestion is to download and manually install the December 10, 2013 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (MS13-097 / KB2898785). By installing it manually, you remove that detection from the workstation.

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Categories : News, Servers, Windows, WSUS
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Cloud Backup Calculator

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 25 2013

Backing up your business data to the cloud should be a point of discussion with each and every one of your customers. I’m not saying that it’s necessary to do cloud backup, but it should be addressed.

One of the first questions that is generally asked is: “How long will it take me to backup my data?”

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The folks at Highly Reliable systems posted an Upload Time Calculator which you may find useful. For example, it will take 8 days to backup 100GB of data on a T-1 line (1.5Mbps). But that time reduces to 2 1/2 days if your Internet upload speed is 5Mbps.

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Categories : Backup, SBS, Security, Servers, SMB, Tools
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How to fix ANY computer

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 13 2013

Yes, any computer – no matter if it’s running Windows, Apple or Linux.

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Kudos to Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal for the great insight!

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Categories : News, Tools, Windows
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Attending the 2013 Microsoft MVP Global Summit

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 13 2013

I have been a Microsoft MVP for Windows Server Small and Medium Business (formerly SBS) for ten years. One of the great honors I have as an MVP is the chance to attend the annual MVP Global Summit conference in Seattle.

This conference is an opportunity for MVP’s from around the world to come together, and to meet and interact with the Microsoft product team members for our respective products. There are nearly 4,000 MVPs worldwide representing 95 countries. Currently there are 36 MVPs worldwide selected to the Windows Server Small & Medium Business product line.

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I will be attending this year’s event from November 18-21, 2013 in Bellevue/Redmond WA.

However, I am not looking forward to the weather forecast for next week Smile

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Categories : Conferences, MVP, News, SBS, SMB
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CryptoLocker Round 3?

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 08 2013

I first blogged about the Cryptolocker ransomware a little over a month ago. Since then workstations and servers worldwide have been attacked and compromised, even with the best levels of software and hardware protection in place. And this “cyber nemesis” is still on the move, per a new advisory from US-CERT.

In early October I began a review of the computer systems that I manage on a daily basis to ensure that all systems were clean. Later in the month, I began implementing new security policies on those systems to block the attack and spread of the ransomware. These policies were based on documentation provided by Third Tier, a group of my fellow MVP’ers.

But, the party is not over.

Most often, the CryptoLocker gets loaded via a fake email from companies, such as PayPal or FedEx. However, I was just alerted from an I.T. friend of a version of the CryptoLocker that showed up as a voice mail attachment!

If I do not manage your systems on a regular basis, and you would like me to review your computer, and implement security policies to minimize the Cryptolocker attackes, please contact me at kw@kwsupport.com.

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Categories : Group Policy, News, Security, Servers, Tools, Windows
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Review of ShareMouse Utility

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 07 2013

This is my 3rd in a series of personal reviews of various “extend my mouse and keyboard” tools.

My office desk setup includes three 24” monitors connected to my Windows 8 desktop workstation (Dell Optiplex), plus a monitor on my Hyper-V 2012/SBS 2011 server (Dell T410), plus a Windows 8 touch-screen laptop (Lenovo) that I use for testing. And, when necessary, I have a 32” Samsung TV that I can attach using a USB multi-display adapter (Plugable’s Model UGA-2K-A).

So, being able to use one keyboard and mouse is an essential tool and a real time saver for me. (P.S. someday, if I can get the stuff on my desk cleaned up and put away, I’ll take a picture of my setup!)

Mouse Without Borders

In August 2012 I wrote about a product called Mouse Without Borders. I must say, it works very well. The only negative is that only works with Windows-based computers, so no Linux or Mac OS. They released an updated version in January 2013 that supports Windows 8/Windows 2012.

Synergy

In May 2013 I tested a similar product called Synergy, which does support Windows, Linux and Mac OS computers. I used Synergy from May to August, and for the most part, the product worked fine. One nagging issue I had with Synergy was that whenever I needed to reboot my server or workstation, Synergy did not always sync up properly. The services start up, but I had to keep playing with it, stopping and starting the services, until eventually it was in sync and working. Very frustrating. Finally in August I reverted back to using Mouse Without Borders.

ShareMouse

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This week I came across a new product called ShareMouse (from Bartels Media GmbH) and just installed it to give it a spin. So here are some first day impressions.

  • First thing to note is that it is very, very easy to install. After downloading the install file you are 4 clicks away (OK, Next, Next, Finish)
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  • It has a very intuitive screen manager to identify the position of my monitors for proper mouse movement.
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  • It supports both Windows 8 and Mac OSX 10.9
  • A simple, but very helpful, feature is that it dims inactive monitors, so you always know which computer you are working on
  • They offer a free version for personal use (two computers, two monitors)
  • The paid versions (standard and pro) offer ability to drag and drop files and folders between computers. They have enhanced the product so that you only need to install the license on just one computer in your group.
  • Comparison of their free, standard and pro editions

I will post a follow up on this utility after using it for a few more weeks.

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Categories : News, Servers, SMB, Tools, Windows
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