There are times when we try to visit a website an can’t get to it. Sometimes it’s because the site is down, out our ISP is having routing or DNS resolution issues. To check of the site is down for everyone or just you, use the site www.aretheydown.com to check the site availability from a server connected to a high-speed, redundant internet connection. It’s free.
Quick Storage Migration (QSM) enables the migration of the storage of VM from one location to another. For example, suppose you have virtual machines on a leased SAN (SAN 1). The lease runs out and you decide to upgrade to a new SAN (SAN 2) with more capacity, better performance and additional capabilities. Quick Storage Migration allows you to move the virtual machine which resides on SAN 1 to SAN 2.
QSM relies on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). QSM can move the virtual disks of a running virtual machine independent of storage protocols (iSCSI, FC) or storage type (local, DAS, SAN), with minimal downtime. Under 1 minute of downtime in most cases.
Read the post on QSM, see some comparisons, and get a detailed understanding of how it works on the Microsoft Virtualization Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/06/25/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2008-r2-quick-storage-migration.aspx
It’s been reported that some have experienced a ‘slow in network speed (especially at great distances), dropped signals, or can’t connect to network notifications’ when using over Wifi when they have upgraded to the Windows 7 RC from Windows Vista.
To troubleshoot this issue Open the “Network and Sharing Center” click on “Change Adaptor Settings” in the left pane. Now Right-click on the Wireless Adaptor and choose “Properties”, and click the “Advanced” tab.
Before you change anything else start with changing the “Mixed Mode Protection” to ‘RTS/CTS Enabled’.
If you are still having issues here are some of the setting you can change around to try and boost your signal and reliability of the connection:
Remember that changing some of these settings can affect the battery life on a laptop computer. So start with the lease aggressive setting and then gradually increase them if needed to get the performance you need.
From the Today@PC World blog:
The biggest question on everyone’s minds with regard to Microsoft Security Essentials is how well it can detect and remove malware. The early returns are in, and Microsoft Security Essentials performed well overall in initial malware detection testing provided to PC World by AV-test.org.
When put against AV-Test’s “WildList” collection of 3,194 recent, common viruses, bots, and worms, Microsoft Security Essentials detected and removed each and every one of the malware samples. How does this compare to other security products? AV-Test coordinator Andreas Marx notes that “several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet.” In addition, Microsoft Security Essentials put up a perfect score with zero false positives—it didn’t flag a single clean file as being malicious. AV-Test also took an initial look at Microsoft Security Essentials’ rootkit detection, testing it against a few rootkit samples, and found “nothing to complain about.”
Read the rest of the blog post and comments at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/167325/microsoft_security_essentials_the_first_test_results_are_in.html
Download Microsoft Security Essentails beta http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/market.aspx. The beta and the final release will be free.
IBM announced today the general availability of their IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, version 1.1
You can find all of the IBM solutions for System Center on this page:
Description
The IBM Deployment Pack for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is used to configure IBM hardware components, prior to deploying Windows using Microsoft SCCM. The Deployment Pack completes the end-to-end deployment scenario in environments where IBM-specific configuration steps are required, including RAID, RSA2, BMC, and BIOS.
Deployment Pack 1.1 files:
MSI Download: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/systems/support/sysmgmt/ibm_dp_1.1.10.0.msi
User Guide: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/systems/support/sysmgmt/ibm_dp_sccm_v1_1_users_guide.pdf
Release Notes: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/systems/support/sysmgmt/ibm_dp_sccm_v1_1_release_notes.pdf
You can download the Dell Deployment Pack for Configuration Manager (Server Deployment) from here http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Deployment+Pack+for+Configmgr+%28Server+Deployment%29.
Description
The Dell Deployment Pack (DDP) is an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI)-based tool that integrates directly into the Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 (ConfigMgr) console. It eliminates the need for command-line tools and scripts normally used in the Dell™ OpenMange™ Deployment Toolkit (DTK) software. To configure and deploy your Dell systems, you need to select configuration options and commands on the GUI using drop-down lists and check boxes (see "Using The Dell Deployment Pack"). These selections make your system deployment an easy, automated task.
Download the Dell Deployment Pack for Configuration Manager (Client Deployment) from here http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Business+Client+Operating+System+Deployment
Description
Get detailed examples and hot tips on using Dell tools and Microsoft deployment technologies to get the most out of your investment. Become an OS deployment hero using tools such as pre-defined model specifc cabs, Dell System Software, and Client Deployment Packs!
You can download the ISO files that contain the “HP ProLiant Server OS Deployment for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007” product from this link:
http://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPICE-SC
The entire thing is licensed as one kit, so you need to purchase the license that covers it all. It’s licensed two ways:
Description
With this first release of the HP Insight Control Suite for System Center, HP delivers Operating System Deployment (OSD) capability, Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), enhanced inventory, the HP Server Updates Catalog, an iLO Advanced license, licenses for HP Insight Power Manager and Performance Management Pack, and HP specific management packs for System Center Operations Manager to optimize deployment, virtualization and configuration of your HP servers being managed by Microsoft System Center.
InfoWorld published an article titled “Pigs fly! Microsoft leads in security” on Friday, June 19, 2009. they also quote other articles published on SANS, CNET, and ComputerWorld. I never thought I would see this type of article in the mainstream press even if it is true.
Some Notable Quotes from the article:
I ran into this series of articles on eWeek.com and InternetNews.com about the cost of running WebSphere on Windows Server vs. WebShpere on IBM AIX 5.3.
Since this type thing happens between vendors I thought that IBM’s response to the challenge was kind of funny – IBM Declines Challenge, Asks Microsoft to Kill Anti-IBM Website. As far as I know, this type of legal response is not very common.
What’s even better about this particular instance is the follow up response to IBM from Steven Martin, on the Microsoft Platform Product Management team – Developer Platform Product Management – Development Unfiltered From code, to cloud to comedy. Steven offers to pay for a third-party operated “bake off” to prove the performance claims on WebSphere on Windows vs. on AIX… and IBM declined. If IBM really wants to make their case, I think they should accept the challenge and show what they can do rather than send out the lawyers.
Geek entertainment at its best.
PR Newswire published this article http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/06-02-2009/0005036961&EDATE expressing concerns for the video search results content filter in Bing, which has video preview built into the results. There is some concern from parents and businesses about the video preview of restrictive content.
A few things to be aware of with filtering video results in Bing:
Companies which are concerned that some users will Disable Adult filter:
The OverDirve Media Console is being used extensively by Public and Corporate Libraries to deliver electronic content to members. Using OverDirve Media you can download Audio Books, Videos, and E-Books. On Windows based PCs, OverDirve Media uses Windows Media Player to deliver audio Book and Video content. Because of this, OverDrive Media requires that a security update be applied to Windows Media Player so it can control the rights and the expiration of the content (DRM). This update has to be applied before you can download content to the computer, not just play the content. You can typically apply this security update simply through the OverDrive Media Console.
If you try to apply the update through the console and it fails, it’s not so obvious. What will happen is when you try to download content, you will see a message like this: ‘Unable to acquire a license to play the selected title. the selected title requires a newer version of the Windows Media Player security upgrade’…
Trying to install the update again from the OverDrive Media Console, still doesn’t work if you try it again. The OverDrive Help file and the OverDrive web site is useless in trying to figure out how to fix this issue.
The fix to this problem actually comes from a Microsoft DRM Update that you can access here: http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/en/indivit.asp.
The DRM update is not delivered through Windows Update for some reason. Once this update is applied you should be able to download and play content.(If you still can’t, now try rerunning the update from within the OverDrive Media Console again.
Next generation web search technology is releasing to the public next week! Called “Bing” it’s a more of a “decision engine” than a search engine. Yes, this is the official name of the new search site Microsoft is launching which has been rumored by some websites to be called Kumo (which now points to Live.com) over the last few months.
With the over billion dollars Microsoft has spent in acquiring acquiring FAST (with powers sites such as www.oodle.com and www.autotrader.com) and PowerSet and the MS Research investments they have made, the search results rock!
Being able to preview Bing and the new improvements personally, I can say that it is a different search experience compared to Live, MSN Search, Yahoo and even Google. And I like it!
