Welcome to Brien M. Posey 's Section

Brien Posey is an MCSE and has won the Microsoft MVP award for the last few years. Brien has written over 3,000 technical articles and written or contributed material to 27 books.

In addition to his technical writing, Brien is the co-founder of Relevant Technologies and also serves the IT community through his own Web site at www.brienposey.com

Prior to being a freelance author, Brien served as CIO for a chain of hospitals. He was also previously in charge of IT security for Fort Knox.

Brien M. Posey 's Latest Contributions

Networking Basics: Part 18 - Sharing Resources: Date - Apr 24, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by explaining how to make resources available on a network.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 6: Date - Apr 17, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; This article concludes the series on testing applications for Vista compatibility by showing you how to analyze applications for which Microsoft hasn’t provided any compatibility information.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 5: Date - Mar 25, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; How to work through known compatibility issues.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 4: Date - Mar 18, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; This article continues the series on application compatibility testing for Windows Vista by beginning to analyze the data that was collected previously.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 3: Date - Mar 11, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; How to collect an inventory of the applications running on your network workstations.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 2: Date - Feb 26, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; This article explains how to download, install, and configure the Application Compatibility Toolkit.
Networking Basics: Part 17 - The OSI Model: Date - Feb 19, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; How the OSI model is used to help applications to communicate across a network.
Testing Applications for Vista Compatibility, Part 1: Date - Feb 12, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; This article will discuss two different methods for testing application compatibility with Windows Vista.
Networking Basics: Part 16 - The Windows Operating System's Role in Networking: Date - Jan 31, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; The role that the Windows Operating System plays in networking.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 7: Date - Jan 23, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Group policy settings in Vista focusing on Vista’s diagnostic capabilities.
Networking Basics: Part 15 - Universal Groups & Group Nesting: Date - Jan 15, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the discussion on Universal Groups and the concept of group nesting.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 6: Date - Jan 08, 2008; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article continues the discussion of new group policy settings in Vista by talking about settings related to Vista’s diagnostic capabilities.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 5: Date - Dec 04, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article goes over the group policy settings that are designed to help to control workstation hard drives.
Networking Basics: Part 14 - Security Groups: Date - Nov 20, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; The various types of security groups that Windows allows you to create.
Troubleshooting Remote Desktop: Date - Nov 06, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; Some reasons why it is sometimes difficult to establish a Remote Desktop session with a remote computer, and some workarounds to these various issues.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 4: Date - Oct 25, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article continues the series by discussing more User Account Control settings.
Networking Basics: Part 13 - Creating Groups: Date - Oct 17, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by introducing the concept of security groups.
Working With Network Monitor (Part 5): Date - Oct 03, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; This article concludes the Working with Network Monitor series by showing you how to extract readable data from a captured packet.
Working With Network Monitor (Part 4): Date - Sep 25, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; This article continues the Network Monitor series by examining various filtering techniques.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 3: Date - Sep 13, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Group policy settings that are unique to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.
Networking Basics: Part 12 - User Account Management: Date - Sep 05, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; How to create a user account and some basic user account management techniques.
Enabling Network Mapping in Windows Vista: Date - Aug 28, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; Enabling Windows Vista’s Network Mapping feature on domain networks.
Working with Network Monitor (Part 3): Date - Aug 16, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; How to begin isolating the captured data that you are interested in.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 2: Date - Aug 14, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Group policy settings that are unique to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Networking Basics: Part 11 - The Active Directory Users and Computers Console: Date - Aug 08, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; The Active Directory Users and Computers console and how to use this console to manage remote domains.
Working with Network Monitor (Part 2): Date - Jul 31, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; How to use Network Monitor.
Group Policy Extensions in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Part 1: Date - Jul 19, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Some of the more useful new group policy settings included in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.
Networking Basics: Part 9 – Active Directory Information: Date - Jul 11, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; How objects are stored in the Active Directory
Working With Network Monitor (Part 1): Date - Jul 03, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; How Network Monitor can be used to troubleshoot various types of network problems.
Networking Basics: Part 10 - Distinguished Names: Date - Jun 21, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; The basics of naming objects within a directory.
Implementing Web Single Sign On With Windows CardSpace: Date - Jun 13, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; How Windows CardSpace can be used as a single sign on solution for Web sites.
Understanding DNS Recursion: Date - Jun 05, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; How recursive DNS queries work.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 7): Date - May 30, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How to configure a Vista client and how to test your NAP server.
Securing Printer Usage in Windows Server 2003 (Part 3): Date - May 10, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; How and when to audit network printers.
Networking Basics: Part 8 - FSMO Roles continued: Date - May 02, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Continuation of the discussion of FSMO roles.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 6): Date - Apr 24, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Creating a default authentication policy.
Securing Printer Usage in Windows Server 2003 (Part 2): Date - Apr 11, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Printer permissions and other security settings.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 5): Date - Mar 27, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; The process for creating authorization policies.
Securing Printer Usage in Windows Server 2003 (Part 1): Date - Mar 13, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; How to secure sensitive printers in your organization.
Networking Basics: Part 7 - Introduction to FSMO Roles: Date - Mar 01, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; The necessity of FSMO roles.
How Vista will interact with Longhorn Server: Date - Feb 21, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; The advantages of using Longhorn Server in environments where Vista has been deployed.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 4): Date - Feb 13, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How to configure the Network Policy Server.
Crash Course in IPv6 (Part 3): Date - Jan 30, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Protocols; A more detailed look at multicast and anycast addresses.
Networking Basics: Part 6 - Windows Domain: Date - Jan 23, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Discusses the anatomy of a Windows domain.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 3): Date - Jan 16, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Continues the discussion of installing Network Access Protection on Longhorn Server.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 2): Date - Jan 10, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Major components needed for implementing Network Access Protection.
A First Look at Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager, Version 2: Date - Jan 04, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How version 2 of Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager will fill some of the voids left by Data Protection Manager 2006.
Working with the Windows System Resource Manager (Part 2): Date - Jan 02, 2007; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How to allocate resources to an application defined within the Windows System Resource Manager.
Troubleshooting a DHCP Server: Date - Dec 27, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; A look at the various reasons why a DHCP server might fail to lease IP addresses and the solutions to those problems.
An Introduction to Network Access Protection (Part 1): Date - Dec 20, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; An introduction to Network Access Protection and how it works.
Working with the Windows System Resource Manager (Part 1): Date - Dec 14, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How to use Windows System Resource Manager to gain better control over your server’s resources.
Crash Crouse in IPv6 (Part 2): Date - Dec 07, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Protocols; IPv6 address formatting and the various types of IPv6 addresses.
Networking Basics: Part 5 - Domain Controllers: Date - Dec 05, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; What domain controllers are and how they fit into your network infrastructure.
An Overview of Link Local Multicast Name Resolution: Date - Nov 29, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; How link local multicast name resolution works.
How Longhorn Server’s Server Manager will Change Server Management (Part 3): Date - Nov 28, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; Two other features included in the Troubleshooting section; the Service Control Manager and the Performance Diagnostics utility.
Crash Course in IPv6 (Part 1): Date - Nov 15, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Protocols; An introduction to the IPv6 address space.
Networking Basics: Part 4 - Workstations and Servers: Date - Nov 09, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by talking about the differences between workstations and servers.
Managing Group Policy ADMX Files in Longhorn Server: Date - Nov 07, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article explains how Microsoft has replaced the ADM file format with the ADMX file format in Longhorn Server and Windows Vista.
How Longhorn Server’s Server Manager will Change Server Management (Part 2): Date - Nov 02, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article focuses on troubleshooting by showing Server Manager’s new Event Log interface.
Offline file caching in Longhorn Server: Date - Oct 26, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article takes a look at some of the ways that Longhorn Server facilitates offline file caching.
Networking Basics: Part 3 - DNS Servers: Date - Oct 18, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by talking about how DNS servers work.
How Longhorn Server’s Server Manager will Change Server Management (Part 1): Date - Oct 12, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article introduces the Server Manager and also discusses its capabilities and which Windows Server 2003 management interfaces it replaces.
Networking Basics: Part 2 - Routers: Date - Oct 04, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; This article continues the discussion of networking hardware by talking about one of the most important networking components; routers.
Windows Vista’s New and Improved Remote Assistance: Date - Sep 27, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; This article shows what you can expect from the new version of Remote Assistance.
Creating a core Longhorn server: Date - Sep 19, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This article explains what a core server is and shows how to deploy one.
Why Windows Vista's Fax and Scan is Worth Paying Attention to: Date - Sep 12, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; In this article I will explain why it's worth paying attention to the new applet included in Windows Vista, Windows Fax and Scan.
The How’s and Why’s of Server Virtualization: Date - Sep 07, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; In this article, I will explain how you can create some virtual servers of your own.
Windows Longhorn: Using Group Policy to Control Device Management (Part 2): Date - Aug 31, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; This is the second part of this article series on how to control access to devices via group policy in Longhorn Server.
A Preview of Windows Vista’s Sync Center: Date - Aug 23, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; In this article I will give you a preview of Windows Vista's new feature called the Sync Center.
Creating Trusts Between Forests: Date - Aug 17, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; In this article, I will show you how and when to create a trust between two separate forests, through which every domain trusts every other domain.
Networking Basics: Part 1 - Networking Hardware: Date - Aug 10, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; In this article series, I will start with the absolute basics, and work toward building a functional network. In this article I will begin by discussing some of the various networking components and what they do.
Windows Longhorn: Using Group Policy to Control Device Management (Part 1): Date - Aug 09, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Server 2008; In this article I will show you how to control access to devices via group policy in Longhorn Server.
The Pros and Cons of VOIP: Date - Aug 02, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / VoIP; As great as VOIP is, it is important to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages before investing.
Get Ready to Run IPv6 (Whether You Want to or Not): Date - Jul 20, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Protocols; In this article I will explain what IPv6 is and why it may eventually be inevitable.
The New and Improved NTBACKUP Program: Date - Jul 12, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; In this article I will show you the improvements to NTBACKUP in Windows Vista.
Introducing Windows Vista’s Active Directory Search Tool: Date - Jun 28, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; In this article I will show you how the Windows Vista Active Directory search tool works.
Working With the Visio 2003 Connector For the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0: Date - Jun 20, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; In this article, I will show you how to use Visio 2003 to create an accurate diagram of your network. I will then show you how you can link MBSA 2.0 into that diagram.
Best Practices for Group Policy Based Application Deployment: Date - Jun 07, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; In this article, I want to share some techniques with you that will maximize your chances of a successful group policy based application deployment.
Decentralizing Patch Management: Date - May 25, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; In this article, I will explain some reasons why centralized patch management is often ineffective in large or geographically dispersed networks.
Registry Keys for Tweaking Windows Update (Part 2): Date - May 17, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows XP; In this article, I will continue the discussion where I left off in Part 1 by exploring the remaining Windows Update related registry keys.
Registry Keys for Tweaking Windows Update (Part 1): Date - May 03, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows XP; In this article, I will show you some registry keys that are associated with Windows Update. As I do, I will show you the various settings that you can assign to those registry keys.
File and Print Sharing in Windows Vista: Date - Apr 25, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; In this article I will show you how users can set up some share points of their own in Windows Vista.
Hardware Considerations for Windows Vista: Date - Mar 30, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; The general consensus regarding Windows Vista is that you are going to have to buy a new computer in order to run it. I have bought three brand new, relatively high end computers for the purposes of beta testing Vista. Of the three, Vista would not even install on two of them, and ran sluggishly on the third. In this article, I will tell you what I have learned about Vista’s hardware requirements through my first hand experiences.
New Security Features in Internet Explorer 7: Date - Mar 23, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; In Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft seems to have addressed many of the security issues that have plagued Internet Explorer for the last decade. Of course only time will tell if Internet Explorer 7 is really secure or not, but in this article I want to introduce you to some of the new Internet Explorer security features.
Introducing Vista’s Network Center: Date - Mar 07, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows Vista; If you have ever worked as a consultant or even just helped out a friend with a computer problem, then you have probably been in a situation in which you sat down at an unfamiliar workstation and had to get an idea of how the system was configured prior to working on the problem. Although Windows XP’s network configuration options are pretty straightforward, you usually can’t get all of the particulars of a machine’s network connectivity at a glance. In Windows Vista though, Microsoft has made it a lot easier to quickly gather information about how a workstation is connected to a network through a new component called the Network Center. In this article I will show you what the Network Center is and how it may eventually make your life easier.
Establishing Redundancy through Demand Dial Routing: Date - Feb 09, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Branch offices provide a special challenge when it comes to connectivity. If the WAN connection between the main office and a branch office fails, then the branch office is completely cut off from the rest of the network until the connection becomes available once again. Fortunately, there are some options available to you for creating redundant connections. In this article, I will explore some of these options.
Protecting Your Network Against Spoofed IP Packets: Date - Feb 02, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; These days, the vast majority of administrators go to great lengths to protect the files on their network. Typically, elaborate firewalls are used to keep outsiders away from file servers. The files residing on those servers often lie behind an intricate permissions scheme and are often encrypted. Complex auditing mechanisms might even monitor access to files. The point is that in this day and age, most administrators take security very seriously. What you might not realize though is that all of this security can be easily undone through the simple action of a user accessing a file through legitimate means. In this article, I will show you how this is possible and what you can do to fight back.
Dealing with a Device Driver Disaster: Date - Jan 26, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Invalid or corrupt device drivers can wreck havoc on a server, rendering the system unbootable in some cases. In this article, I will show you some techniques for recovering from even the worst device driver mishaps in a variety of Windows operating systems.
Making the Windows Server 2003 Indexing Service Useful: Date - Jan 19, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Last month I wrote an article that explained how to set up the Windows Server 2003 Indexing Service. The Indexing Service makes searching for information on your network a whole lot faster than using the built in Windows Search tool. The only problem is that the query interface is built into the server’s Computer Management console and is therefore not readily available to users. I got around this problem on my own network by designing a Web application that acts as a query tool for users on my network. In this article, I will show you how to build such an application for your own network.
Using Remote Storage To Extend Available Storage Space: Date - Jan 12, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Odds are that your file servers are filled with ancient files that nobody uses anymore, but that the lawyers say that you have to keep. Traditionally, such files have been archived to tape, never to be seen again. However, Windows Server’s remote storage feature allows you to move such files to tape while still allowing them to be available to users. In this article, I will show you how it’s done.
Understanding the Impact of RAM on Overall System Performance: Date - Jan 05, 2006; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Being that pretty much everybody that I know knows that I am into computers, I tend to get asked a lot of questions from friends and family regarding servers that they might manage or regarding their PCs at home. One of the questions that seem to come up most often is “Which upgrade will give me the most bang for my buck?” In most cases the answer to the question is that they should invest in more memory for their computer. In this article, I will explain why memory plays such a huge role in a computer’s overall performance.
Choosing Whether to Run Performance Monitor Locally or Remotely: Date - Dec 27, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; I have noticed lately that there seems to be a rather heated debate on various Web sites as to whether it is more appropriate to run the Windows Performance Monitor locally or remotely. There are good arguments on both sides of the issue, so I decided to put it to the test. In this article, I will attempt to answer the age old question of whether you should be running the Performance Monitor locally or remotely.
Working With the Windows Server 2003 Indexing Service: Date - Dec 20, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; As I’m sure you probably know, there are a number of system level services that are always running behind the scenes in Windows Server. In this article, I will explain why the Indexing Service is so useful, and I will show you how to use it.
Making Sense of Windows Routing Tables: Date - Dec 08, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; It’s amazing the way that time can go by. People tend to think of computers as being high tech, but the TCP/IP protocol has been around in one form or another for over three decades. As such, TCP/IP has had time to really mature and be made stable and reliable. When it comes to computers, nothing is foolproof though. When routing packets across a network, things do occasionally go wrong. In these situations, it is helpful to be familiar with the Windows routing tables. Routing tables dictate the flow of packets from the machine in question. In this article, I will show you how to view the Windows routing tables and how to make sense of the data that is contained within it.
Setting Up a DHCP Server for your Organization: Date - Nov 29, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; One of the most basic processes on a network is that of assigning IP addresses to network clients. Although there are many different types of DHCP servers that can do the job, you can configure Windows Server 2003 to act as a DHCP server. In this article, I will show you how.
Configuring Windows Server 2003 to act as a NAT router: Date - Nov 17, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; More years ago than I care to think about, IP addresses were handed out to companies on an indiscriminant basis. As the popularity of the Internet increased, IP addresses soon grew to be a scarce commodity. Internet service providers began to strictly limit the number of IP addresses that they would lease to companies. This presented an interesting challenge. A PC has to have an IP address in order to communicate with the Internet, but there weren’t enough IP addresses left for every PC to be given one. The solution to this problem was a technology called Network Address Translation (NAT). Today, NAT is alive and well, and more popular than ever. In this article, I will explain what NAT is and how you can configure Windows Server 2003 to act as a NAT router.
Slipstreaming Windows Service Packs: Date - Nov 01, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Have you ever had to reinstall Windows in an effort to fix a malfunctioning machine? Performing a clean install of Windows is no big deal, but reinstalling a non service packed version of Windows on top of a copy of Windows that does contain a service pack can cause some major problems. One solution to this dilemma is to create a Windows installation CD that already contains the service pack. That way, when you install Windows, you are installing the correct version. In this article, I will show you how to create such a CD.
Active Directory Design Considerations for Small Networks: Date - Oct 20, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; A lot of people who are new to networking or who work primarily on larger networks seem to underestimate the design considerations for small networks. It kind of makes sense when you think about it though. From an Active Directory standpoint, what’s really to consider? After all, most small networks have a single forest and a single domain. Even so, your network will run a lot more smoothly if you take the time to do a little planning first. In this article, I will discuss some of the issues involved in planning a small Active Directory deployment.
Outlining Components Needed for Creating a VPN Server: Date - Oct 13, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Over the last few years, VPNs have gone from relative obscurity to great popularity. Even so, you don’t want to throw together a VPN haphazardly. After all, a VPN is a direct portal into your private network, and it is essential that it be secure. If your VPN isn’t secure, then nothing else on your network will be secure either. In this article, I will help you to plan your corporate VPN. In doing so, I will discuss the various components that make up a VPN and some of the decisions that you will have to make regarding those components.
Working With Application Pools in Internet Information Server: Date - Oct 06, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; If your IIS Server hosts multiple Web sites, then buggy code within any one of those sites can bring down the other sites. I should know; it happened to me. Fortunately, there is something that you can do to prevent this from happening. In this article, I will show you how you can use application pools to prevent problems with a Web site from causing stability problems across your IIS server.
Using NSLOOKUP for DNS Server diagnosis: Date - Sep 27, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; The DNS protocol has been around for decades and is a stable and reliable protocol. Even so, DNS does occasionally have problems. PING is a great tool for DNS server diagnosis, and I tend to use it quite frequently myself. However, sometimes PING just doesn’t give you enough information about the problem at hand. When you need more information about a DNS problem than what PING provides you with, you can always turn to the NSLOOKUP command. In this article, I will show you how to use NSLOOKUP.
A First Look at Longhorn Vista: Date - Sep 13, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Earlier this month, I got my copy of Longhorn Vista, Beta 1, the eventual successor to Windows XP. Although the new operating system does have a few kinks that need to be worked out, it does look promising. In this article, I will share with you some of my first impressions of Longhorn Vista Beta 1.
Protecting EFS Encryption Keys: Date - Aug 30, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; If you have mobile users in your organization, then implementing security can be especially challenging. You must secure the users’ laptops in such a way that if the laptops were lost or stolen that sensitive data would not be compromised. One way of accomplishing this task is by using the Encrypting File System (EFS). In this article, I will explain how to counteract some potential problems when using EFS.
Windows Server 2003 Performance Tuning: Date - Jul 28, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Computers running Windows operating systems always seem to have a way of slowing down over time. If your server seems to be running more slowly than it should, then you have a couple of choices. You can add some extra memory and maybe a processor or two and hope for the best, or you can figure out why the server is running so slowly. There are lots of different things that can cause a server to run slowly. In this article, I will explain how you can use some of Windows’ built in diagnostic tools to determine the cause of your server’s sub-par performance.
Issues Involved In Converting Basic Disks To Dynamic Disks: Date - Jul 21, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; One of the Windows Server 2003 features that I’ve always found most useful is the ability to convert basic disks to dynamic disks. The advantage of doing this is that the Windows operating system allows you to span a single volume across multiple dynamic disks. By spanning a volume across multiple disks, you can create a larger volume than what a single disk can hold, you can achieve better performance than what a single disk would provide you with, and you can even achieve a degree of fault tolerance against hard disk failure. Even with all of these benefits, there are some serious issues that you need to be aware of before you even think about converting a basic disk into a dynamic disk. In this article, I will discuss these issues.
Making Your DNS Service Fault Tolerant: Date - Jul 07, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Most network administrators know that Active Directory is dependant on DNS. What you might not realize is that there is a good chance that your DNS server is performing several other critical tasks in the background. A DNS failure can be more catastrophic than most people realize. In this article I will explain why this is the case and how to avoid such a situation.
Troubleshooting Basic TCP/IP Problems: Date - Jul 05, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Network Troubleshooting; Over the last several years, TCP/IP has gone from being the protocol that only geeks use, to a universal protocol that everyone uses, thanks to the widespread use of the Internet. TCP/IP has been around for decades and is a solid, reliable, mature protocol. Most of the time when there is a TCP/IP related problem, the problem is related to the way that one or more of the hosts on the network are configured. In this article, I will walk you through the process of troubleshooting some common TCP/IP issues.
Analyzing Traffic With Network Monitor: Date - Jun 30, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; As an administrator, it’s important for you to keep tabs on the traffic that’s flowing across your network. I’m not saying that you need to be intimately familiar with every single packet that’s sent or received, but you need to know what types of protocols are flowing across your network. Monitoring the network allows you to have a better understanding of how bandwidth is being used. It also allows you to find out if users are running file sharing programs, or if some kind of evil Trojan is silently transmitting information in the background. What you might not realize is that Microsoft has given you a tool that you can use for monitoring network traffic. Appropriately, the tool is called Network Monitor. In this article, I will introduce you to this tool and show you how to use it.
Subnetting to Increase Performance: Date - Jun 23, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; There comes a time when a network becomes too big and performance begins to suffer as a result of too much traffic. When that happens, one of the ways that you can solve the problem is by breaking the network into smaller pieces. There are several techniques for splitting a network, but one of the most effective techniques is called subnetting. In this article, I will explain what subnetting is, and how it works.
Firewalls 101: Date - Jun 02, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Firewalls have become an indispensable part of computer security, but they can be intimidating for a new administrator. In this article I will explain the inner workings of a firewall and some common firewall features in an easy to understand manner.
Beating The Summer Heat: Date - May 24, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Summer heat can wreck havoc on your servers. If you’d prefer to spend your summer boating or barbequing than fixing servers, then check this story of how I coped with the extreme heat in my own server room.
Making the Transition to Gigabit Ethernet: Date - May 03, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Recently, I was having problems because my nightly backup wasn’t completing within the allotted amount of time. I solved the problem by upgrading my network to gigabit Ethernet. Now, my backups complete in record time and everything on my network runs more quickly. In this article, I will show you how it’s done.
Managing Application Directory Partitions: Date - Apr 07, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Being that the Active Directory is nothing more than a large, extensible database, applications can be designed to store data and configuration information within the Active Directory. This allows the application’s data to be replicated to multiple domain controllers, giving the application a degree of load balancing and fault tolerance. If you have such an application though, it is considered good practice to put the application into a dedicated partition. In this article, I will show you how.
Using Group Policy to Deploy Applications: Date - Mar 31, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; No one likes the idea of manually installing new versions of applications onto each individual PC in the office. Fortunately, you don’t have to. In this article, I will explain how to use the Active Directory to deploy applications, even if those applications don’t come with a Windows installer package.
Making The Transition From SUS to WUS: Date - Mar 24, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Although the Windows Update Service (WUS) is still in beta testing, WUS is an important software release and it’s worth looking at now. In this article, I will explain how to implement WUS and have it co-exist with your existing SUS deployment. I will then explain how you can begin testing WUS and make the transition once WUS is finally released.
A First Look At Microsoft’s Istanbul: Date - Mar 18, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Istanbul has long been the code name for Microsoft’s next client for Live Communications Server. Just a couple of days ago, Microsoft announced that the official name for Istanbul will be Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. In this article, I will take a look at this new product.
Performing Resultant Set of Policy Queries with the GPRESULT Tool: Date - Mar 10, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows XP; The hierarchical nature of group policies can make troubleshooting group policy related issues very cumbersome, especially on unfamiliar networks. One way to greatly simplify the troubleshooting process is to use Windows XP’s GPRESULT tool. In this article, I will introduce you to this tool and show you how to use it.
Profile and Folder Redirection In Windows Server 2003: Date - Mar 01, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Assigning roaming profiles to users can greatly reduce your day to day workload. However, implementing roaming profiles can become a nightmare unless you know how to avoid the performance problems associated with them. In this article I will discuss the advantages and the common pitfalls associated with roaming profiles.
Planning Trust Relationships in a Windows Server 2003 Environment: Date - Feb 15, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; In a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 based forest, every domain automatically trusts all of the other domains in the entire forest. However, there are situations in which this automatic trust relationship constitutes a major security risk. In this article, I will explain what some of these situations are and how you can create the necessary trust relationships without posing a security risk.
Troubleshooting Windows Shutdown Problems: Date - Jan 25, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows XP; One of the most common, but most overlooked problems with the Windows operating system are shut down problems. People tend to place a low priority of fixing Windows shutdown problems, but these problems can be symptoms of something more serious. In this article, I will explain how to diagnose a Windows shutdown issue.
Understanding How Cluster Quorums Work: Date - Jan 13, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Quorums are one of the most often misunderstood topics in clustering. In this article, I will explain what a quorum is, what it does, and what some of your quorum options are.
Resultant Set of Policy Planning and Logging: Date - Jan 06, 2005; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Because of the way that Windows collects group policy elements from so many different sources, it can be difficult to predict what security policy will actually apply to a specific user. However, a utility in Windows Server 2003 allows you to accurately predict the outcome of policy changes and to track down the source of an unwanted policy.
Diagnosing Server Performance Problems With Server Performance Advisor: Date - Nov 25, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; The Windows Performance Monitor is a great tool for analyzing a server’s performance. The problem is that it can be complicated to use and the results can be hard to understand. However, Microsoft has recently released a new tool that will test a server’s performance for you and compile the results into an easy to read report. In this article, I will tell you all about it.
What You Need To Know About The Shift to 64-Bit Computing: Date - Nov 23, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; For several years now, there have been rumors that 64-bit computing would soon become mainstream. We may have finally reached that point, but there are some problems. The market is filled with competing 64-bit standards, each requiring their own special version of Windows. In this article, I will explain what you need to know about the various 64-bit systems that are available today. As I do, I will talk about the limitations imposed by each.
The Dark Side of Windows XP Service Pack 2: Date - Oct 26, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows XP; Although I haven’t had any problems with Windows XP Service Pack 2 myself, for many people, installing the service pack has become a nightmare. In this article, I will explain how you can better prepare for the Service Pack installation to minimize your chances of having problems.
Streamlining the backup process with Microsoft’s Data Protection Server: Date - Oct 12, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Although it is extremely common for organizations to back data up to tape each night, the technology behind tape backups is over twenty years old. At the same time, network administrators are being asked to back up more and more data in less and less time and to be able to perform nearly instant restore operations. The old tape backup technology is having a hard time keeping pace with such demands. Fortunately, Microsoft is about to release a new, disk based, backup solution called Data Protection Server that is designed to solve all of these problems. In this article I will tell you all about it.
What Can You Expect From Windows Server 2003 "R2": Date - Oct 06, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; Microsoft has announced a new version of Windows Server 2003 that will be released late in 2005. Although details about this new release, code named R2, are sketchy, R2 promises to greatly enhance the Windows Server platform. In this article, I will attempt to separate fact from rumor and explain what you can expect from R2.
Using Software Restriction Policies To Keep Games Off Of Your Network: Date - Sep 01, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Unauthorized software such as computer games decreases productivity, robs your network of resources, and jeopardizes your network’s security. However, you can preserve your network’s integrity by using software restriction policies to control what software users are and are not allowed to run.
The Pros and Cons of Running Virtual Server: Date - Aug 25, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / General Networking; Microsoft’s soon to be released Virtual Server 2005 helps cut hardware cost by allowing you to simultaneously run multiple virtual machines on a single server. Before you consider deploying Virtual Server 2005 though, you need to understand the various caveats and implications associated with virtual machines.
Deploying the Windows SharePoint Services: Date - Jul 01, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; The Windows SharePoint Services are a free ad-on for Windows Server 2003. They allow users to collaborate on projects while preserving multiple versions of shared documents.
Working with the Windows Server 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Service: Date - Jun 24, 2004; Section - Articles & Tutorials / Windows 2003; New to Windows Server 2003, the Volume Shadow Copy Service provides users with a way of restoring files themselves without having to involve you. This article explains how to implement and configure this service.