Month: June 2008

Body: … then you need your head examined. With SBS 2008 on the horizon for release later this year, Microsoft have been promoting Software Assurance as they key way to get our customers some form of technology protection as they purchase SBS 2003 right now.  In addition to the various rebates Microsoft are offering the SBS resellers (www.sbsrebate.com) they have just announced the formal entitlements for Software Assurance on the official SBS Blog. As for the technical details, yes – you will need to ensure that the customer has a 64bit server to run SBS 2008, and ISA WILL need … Continue reading If you are not selling Software Assurance for SBS 2003…

Body: Yes – that’s right 500 partners around Australia that have seen a fairly intensive insight into SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 from Robbie Upcroft and myself.  Over the last 3 weeks, we’ve been to the 5 major capital cities around Australia to ensure that the partners who are invested in the community, i.e. those that attend via the SBS Groups / SMB IT Professional groups around Australia and those in the SBSC channel. Robbie Upcroft has been a breath of fresh air in Microsoft Australia and I believe will be a key reason why SBS and EBS will be … Continue reading 500 Not out!!!

Body: I’ve had a few people mention to me that after they’ve installed the latest Trend Worry Free Business Security 5.0 on their SBS servers that they have had some new errors in their event logs.  I’ve not seen this in the upgrades that I’ve done so I’ve been a little perplexed as to what it is that they are all talking about.  Thanks to Norm Hughes from Quadrant Computers and the Melbourne SBS Group, who has given me the errors he’s seeing and some explanation he got from Trend Micro on the issue. Here are the error messages from … Continue reading Trend WFBS 5.0 Errors after installation

Body: One of the cool tools I’ve mentioned in my talks around Australia this week and last week is a free tool that works with Visio to diagram your network.  This tool is only available for free until June 30, so you need to act fast to grab it. Check it out here http://www.solarwinds.com/register/index.aspx?Program=583&c=70150000000DWUM Category: Software I use Published: 25/06/2008 4:12 PM

Body: This week at the Perth SMB IT Professionals Group, Sandi Hardmeirer, used my laptop to demonstrate ways that potential spyware attacks could take place on unsuspecting users without them even clicking on links in a web page.  She showed us a video which displayed how a well respected website was infected with malvertisements (bad advertisements) that redirected the user to other websites without any interaction at all.  Following the redirection the bad website would proceed to install malicious code on the users PC for their own nefarious purposes. During the demonstration, Sandi attempted to visit a URL that was … Continue reading Trend WFBS 5.0 Blocks Malware…

Body: Last night @ the Perth SMB IT Professionals Group meeting, I met the orange shirt brigade, also known locally as PCGuru 🙂  These guys are a small SMB focused group that stand out from the crowd if for nothing more than their bright orange shirts.  Their Managing Director – Jason Jordan told me about their funky cars they use to drive around in – check out the pictures below.   Jason also gave me some thoughts on the local market too.  PCGURU focuses on the 5 to 50 seat market and has recently made the transition to decide NOT … Continue reading Funky Advertising – PCGuru

Body: Sandi Hardmeier is a respected MVP and a good friend of mine.  She’s been fighting against all kinds of malware in her after hours for the past umpteen years now and has single handedly prevented some potentially major infections (say like 220 million users of MSN Instant Messenger that were at risk). Up until now though, Sandi’s day job has NOT been involved in IT as a primary role.  She’s been in the legal field for 20 or more years and has been taking on the bad guys online in her spare time.  The bad guys however should be … Continue reading Be afraid…very afraid… Sandi gets a real job 🙂