technical solutions and commentary

This is a long but important post if you are an owner a domain name. There is an internet scam that has been occurring on the internet targeting domain name owners. I was personally approached by this scammer and thought it important to post information about it since it is still going on.

If you own a domain name, you may receive an email from a person using a free email account; likely toughguy.net, yahoo.com, or yahoo.it. He will state that he has some extra money and is using it to invest in interesting domain names. He’ll ask if you would like to sell the domain, how much you would like for it, how you would like payment, etc. If you reply stating with what you would like for the domain, he will reply back and say “Ok.”, but then insist that an appraisal is made of the name. He will say that he doesn’t trust just anyone, but want an independent appraisal, and he will “suggest” some companies to use.

On the list are a few appraisers which are expensive and one which is cheaper. It is typically “FastDomainSales.com” which *was* very likely the same as “allfordomains.com”. After you pay for an appraisal he will reply and tell you that was more than he had in mind, and then will offer to try and sell it for you if you have 30-40 days. He typically signs his email with “CEO” and “MCSE / MCSD”.

Ho is this a scam? It appears that this person is getting kickbacks from allfordomains.com or hollywooddomains.com for driving business to them with this scam. It’s possible that this person even set up these “appraisal” sites himself and is scamming people to get them to buy appraisals, and potentially to get credit card numbers.

If you are using “allfordoamins.com” or “hollywooddomains.com” be cautious. The domain of “FastDomainSales.com” has currently not been renewed and is defunct. If you are approached by someone wanting to buy a domain name from you and insists on an appraisal, tell them ‘if they would like to purchase the domain, they should pay for the appraisal from their service of choice. This is standard practice in all other markets that use appraisal services, such as real estate buyers, since appraisals are designed more or less to protect the buyer. Tell them after they receive the appraisal you can continue negotiations”. If it is a scam they will likely reply back trying to get you to pay for the appraisal.

There is more information on the discussion boards about this on www.namepros.com and www.namematters.com if you are interested in looking further into this scam.

Here are a couple of samples of what a typical email from this scammer looks like:


We are interested in wwwdoamin.com.

Here is another one he might use:


Hi,

Chinese researchers are developing a robot that can clean and guard the home. It should be ready by the end of the year and cost between $1200-3600 depending on the model. It is supposed to be somewhat intelligent with recognition abilities and the ability to plug itself back in to recharge. The story is here.

I have made available a new paper entitled “Field Notes on Active Directory Best Practices” on the IT edge web site. It consists of my personal field notes on the best practices I have developed over the last 6 years implementing, migrating to, and managing Active Directory. It contains notes on DNS for AD, DC tips, OU design guidlines, and a lot of pratices on Group Policy management and creation.

If you find this paper useful please leave me a comment on this blog entry, or send me feedback at systemsengineer {at} yahoo {dot} com. If you would like to link to the paper or make some of it’s content available on your own blog, please provide the proper credit and link back to this site (www.itedge.net).

As with any post or document I make available there is no warranty or guarantee of accuracy. Also known as, “Use at your own risk”.

I thought that these 16 rules from Bob Parsons the Founder and CEO of ‘The Go Daddy Group’ where good reminders for continuing work on our self-improvement. You can see his blog at BobParsons.com. He host’s a weekly Podcast as well which you can hear at RadioGoDaddy.com.

Here are his 16 rules:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think. There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what the Union Civil War general, Tecumseh Sherman said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time.”

The above rules for survival is included with the permission of Bob Parsons (http://www.bobparsons.com) and is Copyright 2005 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.

In my job I do a lot of project work. I recently decided to get a book to really learn the project management process and principles. I had a good basic understanding of the process, but decided to take my knoweledge of PM to the next level. I picked up “The Complete Idiots Guide to Project Management” at a discount book store when I was traveling and found this book to be an awesome resource. It takes you through the Project Initiation phase through the close-out phase. It is filled with tips tat I found valuable even in the smallest of projects. The writers provide real world scenarios and guidence and explain Project Management in easy to understand terms.

If you want to learn more about Project Management but don’t want to get a hard to read “technical” PM process book, this is a great book. It’s a fairly easy read and really understandable and doesn’t cost a lot like some of the other PM books I’ve looked at. I would recommend it.

Last month Microsoft announced the new Windows OneCare service targeted at consumers. They are now taking applications for beta testers. Microsoft as the beta version of the Windows OneCare website up with information about what OneCare is and what it will provide (anti-virus, anti-spyware, simplified backups and PC maintenance).

It looks like this service was designed to compete with the AOL/McAfee Anti-virus solution and the Earthlink/Norton TotalAccess solutions… while providing additional PC maintenance tools. There hasn;t been any information on the pricing for this product/service but if it’s competative, it should a valuable tool for consumers.

Microsoft launched the Microsoft Update site for corporate (non-consumer) users. Micorosft Update provides a single source for Windows, Office, and hardware driver updates.

Windows Server 2003 is redirected to this new site when access through the Internet Explorer “Tools > Windows Update” menu. It appears that Windows XP, at least the OEM version, is still using the Windows Update site. Typing in the update.microsoft.com address takes the XP client to the new site with a redirect to a Windows Update v6. Apparently MS doesn’t want to give consumers the ability to take advantage of the ‘one-stop-updates-shopping’ site. At least not yet.

Microsoft added tabbed browsing capabilities in Internet Explorer. Tabbed browsing is enabled through the new MSN Search Toolbar. According to the toolbar site, the new toolbar is US English only, and the requirements are Microsoft Windows XP/Server 2003/2000 & Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later.

Enabling the toolbar and tabbed browsing takes an additional 4-5MB (estimated) system memory. IE adds the options to ‘Open in new background tab’ or ‘Open in new foreground tab’ with a right-click on a link in a web page. Using ‘Ctrl + T’ will open a new tab, as well as using a ‘+’ symbol on the toolbar.

In my opinion, there is a large draw-back to using the tabbed browsing with the MSN Search Toolbar compared to the Tabbed browsing capabilities with Firefox. With the IE tabbed browsing, another toolbar is placed under the MSN Search toobar. This means instead of only having one additional bar under the address bar, there are now two. This takes up more viewable ‘real-estate’ of the browser. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to combine the MSN Search Toolbar and the Tabbed Browing toolbar’s in order to use less space in the header. Another draw back compared to Firefox is that in IE the tabs show up immediately (even when only one page is being viewed in a single Window) and takes up space on the header, whereas Firefox doesn’t display the tabs across the top of the window until a second Window is opened in a tab.

If you like tabbed browsing in Firefox, download the MSN Search Toolbar and give the IE tabbed browsing a try. Don’t expect too much however, because the MSN/IE teams still have some work to do with the tabbed browsing usability in IE. I’m sure the next rendering of IE tabbed browsing will be much improved.

WindowsDevCenter has an atricle that discribes how to use the remote registry editor to enable Remote Desktop on a remote server. See it here.

How to disbale the “Shutdown Event Tracker” (aka the ‘enter reason’ for shutdown box) in Windows Server 2003?

Using Group Policy
You can do this via local computer policy or group policy. Open your policy editor and go to…
"Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Display Shutdown Event Tracker"

Choose “Disable” and close the policy. Run ‘gpudate‘ on the server to refresh the policies.

Using RegEdit
Go to the Key:

(if the ‘Reliability’ entry is not there you must create it.)