Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

I have recently had a nosey at the latest incarnation of Internet Explorer - Version 8. Is it a Firefox beater?

A Beta 1 targeted for web designers and developers was released to the general public on March 5, 2008. Beta 2 is scheduled for release in August. Amoung the various security enhancments, IE8 is also said to have improvements to RSS, CSS and Ajax. Aswell as better support for web standards. Activities and WebSlices are the new kids with this release. Both have potential to become useful to the widget/gadget freak, and blog-addicts out there!



You can read the full feature list here!

For now I think I will stick with FireFox 3.0 - what a browser :)

Ever wondered what the limits are on Gmail?

"Ever wonder what the limits on Gmail activity are? Well, here's the answer, according to a Google Apps posting: "500 messages per day (i.e., you can hit 'Send' a maximum of 500 times); 500 unique recipients; 2000 total emails (for example, you could send one message to a group of 500 people four times)."



Thanks cNet

How to allow self signed certificates using rootinstall.asp

1. During the default installation of Certificate Server, a shared folder is generated to store the root certificate file. The default location of this folder is C:\Certconfig. In this folder, locate the root certificate file. The default naming standard is as follows:
   servername.domain.com_name_of_certificate_server.crt
   If you cannot find the root certificate file, search your hard drives for all files that end in .crt. Double-click each .crt file that is returned in the search and view its details to confirm that its serial number is the same as the serial number of the root certificate that issued your Web server certificate.
   
   To view the serial number of your Web site's root certificate, securely browse to your Web site (that is, use the https:// protocol) and double-click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of your browser. Click the Certification Path tab and double-click the top certificate. The serial number of this certificate should match the root certificate that your search returned.
   
   
2. Export the root certificate (.crt) file to a Base64 root certificate (.cer) file. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. In Windows Explorer, double-click the root certificate file.
   2. Click the Details tab and select Copy to file to start the Certificate Manager Export Wizard.
   3. On the second screen of the wizard select Base64, and on the third screen provide a path and file name for the certificate.NOTE: This is the file that you use in the sample ASP code that is provided in this article.
      
      
   4. Click Next and then click Finish.
3. Modify line 11 of the following code to point to the Base64 root certificate file that you created in step 2.

View RootInstall.asp code here

1. Save the modified code as Rootinstall.asp to your Web site location. By default this is \Inetpub\Wwwroot.
2. Browse to the Rootinstall.asp file from a client browser. If your root certificate is not already in the store, you are prompted to install it.
3. Click OK. The certificate is automatically installed into the Trusted Root Store on the client browser.

Thanks MS!

Server 2008 OTT!

The guys over at Trinity Computers in Germany have taken a real shine to the imminent SBS/EBS 2008 launch!

Draytek Vigor 2820n port forwarding issue

I have recently had an issue with port forwarding on a Draytek Vigor 2820n router. The job that I was working on was to configure port forwarding for Remote Web Workplace (RWW) through to a Vista Business PC. To do this you need to forward ports 443 and 4125 through to the SBS 2003, as well as configure RWW on the server, including the appropriate IIS security and permissons. This is normally straight forward!

The problem started when I finished the setup and tested locally using an internal URL (http://server/remote). This worked as expected and allowed me to logon to the client PC. I then tested from a remote PC and got an error message ("The Client could not connect to the remote computer. Remote conenctions might not be enabled...."). I recheck IIS and the permissons looked correct. This lead me to believe the issue was with the router!

I started by checking the router firmware (v3.1.1), and reflashing to the lastest version 3.1.3 - this made no difference. I then swapped out the 2820 for a brand new router, running firmware 3.1.3 - this made no difference either. Finally I swapped the 2820 for an old 2800. Port forwarding then started to work.

I have had similiar issues with 590x port forwarding for VNC. I could resolve with a simple disable/enable on each VNC entry.

I have reported this issue to Draytek UK - hopefully it will be resolved in the next firmware update.

How to change the location of WSUS updates

If you have ever made the mistake of putting WSUS on the system/OS drive, then you will need to think about moving it before you fill up the drive, and crash the server. Here is a short How to on what's involved.

1. Open a command prompt
   
2. Navigate to the directory that contains WSUSutil.exe
   
   
3. Type the following command: wsusutil.exe movecontent contentpath logfile [-skipcopy]

E.g. wsusutil.exe movecontent D:\WSUS1\ D:\WSUS-Move.log

Where D:\WSUS1 is the new path for local WSUS update storage, and D:\WSUS-Move.log is the path to the log file.

There is a great Technet page on managing WSUS from the command prompt. You can find it here!

Using nslookup to check an MX record

I know plenty of admins who use web based DNS searches to check mail exchanger records (MX) - Personally, I don't like them. If you need to quickly check an MX record, then I suggest you use the command prompt. Also with Windows PowerShell on the horizon with Windows Server 2008 it makes a lot more sense to know the code.

1. Open a Command Prompt
   
2. Type nslookup
3. Set q=mx (This sets the query type to "MX" (Mail Exchanger))
4. domainname.extension (e.g. blogger.com

I have used blogger.com in the example below.

SharePoint exam 70-631

Well this morning I took the 70-631 WSS exam and passed with 100%. There was a total of 41 questions, covering all the expected skills. I revised using Transcender, VPC, and one of the Microsoft Press SharePoint books.

• Deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)
• Monitor Windows SharePoint Services
• Configure Security for Windows SharePoint Services
• Administer Windows SharePoint Services
• Manage Customization
• Configure Network Infrastructure for Windows SharePoint Services

I scanned in my results sheet for those of you who are intersted. I'm also pretty happy with the 100% score 8)

70-630 is booked for mid July (soonest date), but it will be difficult to top 100% :)

Microsoft exams

Over the past few months I have been more-and-more spending time working with SharePoint. As a result I have decided to do the two relevent MCTS exams, 70-631 *WSS and 70-630 *MOSS. Wish me luck!

WSS - Windows SharePoint Services

MOSS - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

I found this very good graphical representation of the differences.

Small Business Specialist certification

Today I took the Microsoft exam 70-282 (Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business). The exam covered quite a varied number of topics - including DNS, WINS, WSS, Terminal Services/RDP, RWW, OWA, Backups, NLB, SMTP, Exchange, Active Directory, FTP, Fax, SNMP, WSUS, Group Policy, and SQL.

I used Transcender and the MS Readiness website to prepare, and passed with 876 out of 1000.

Roll on SharePoint!

Vista UAC

I will show you how to disable UAC in another post :)

Early years

I originally took an interest in computers with my trusty Commodore Amiga 500+. I upgraded the RAM to 1Mb, and added a second floppy drive to allow 2 disc programs to load faster. Oh it makes me laugh when I think about it.
I also managed to spend hours clicking my way through the primitive menus of WorkBench 2.0 - It was light years ahead of the 64, which most of my friends had at the time.

Email to blog

This is an email to blog test. Pretty cool if it works.

:)

Aaron
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Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device