BlackBerry Bold

One of the latest mobile devices to come out of the RIM camp is the BlackBerry Bold. I personally use a BlackBerry curve but I have had a chance to check out the Bold and I have to say I wish it was smaller.

In this day and age of devices getting smaller and smaller it would make sense they would have made a device to trump the curve. Of course the screen is better, and it has WiFi now but I’m not a big fan of it’s size. Also the keyboard for me doesn’t seem as easy to use as the Curve’s although that would most likely be a personal preference.

What I do like is the inclusion of WiFi. More and more cell phone companies need to start doing this, not just on cool phones like the iPhone and the Bold, but also on normal everyday cell phones. Up here in Canada our cell phone costs are a lot more costly as compared to other countries around the world and I think a move to WiFi across the board would be a great idea.

-RP

New Web Browser Google Chrome Released

Hi folks, Google has just recently released their new web browser called Google Chrome. I recently had a chance to try it and I have to say it’s a great first effort on Google’s part.

 Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer Firefox personally but anytime another browser comes out on the market to challenge the dominance of Internet Explorer, that’s a good thing! It will be interesting to see where Google takes it from here.

 I think one of the things that makes Firefox so great is the large availability of third party themes and add-ons, it makes for a very powerful web browsing experience. If Google Chrome can embrace this it would make for a great Firefox alternative.  Also Google Chrome seems to be quite quick at rendering web pages as compared to the competition. That can only bode well for Google.

 -RP

VMWare Infrastructure Client now runs on 64-bit

Hi folks, just a quick update to a previous blog post. The VMWare Infrastructure client now runs on 64 bit as of 3.5 update 1 and VC 2.5 update 1. No need to perform any tricks or hacks to get it to work. Just install it as per usual and it should work just fine.

-RP

Microsoft relaxes licensing around virtual mobility for 41 server applications

Hi folks, before when you had to move virtual machines from one server to another using technologies like vmotion you had to ensure you had a license for the server applications on both host physical servers. The only way you could move this was if you did it once every 90 days.

Microsoft has now announced that they have removed the 90 day restriction and are allowing moving of virtual machines between host physical servers for 41 server applications. They call it “Application Server License Mobility”.

This is great news for the virtual world and Microsoft has obviously done this only now due to Hyper-V. Like I said before, this competition can only be good for the consumer. When licensing expensive server application products this can save a significant amount of money in your IT budget!

You can read about this further at these links:

Microsoft Press Release regarding the relaxing of it’s license policy

Microsoft: Application Server License Mobility (word doc)

-Raj

How to configure your BlackBerry to delete messages on the BlackBerry device and in your Outlook Inbox in a BES environment

One of the simplest configuration checks you should do when having BlackBerry synchronization issues with deletions in a BES environment is to check your reconciliation settings.

First go into the Messages section of your BlackBerry. Then click on the BlackBerry button to access the menu for Messages. Then click on options and select Email Reconciliation which will take you to the appropriate settings. Ensure that the settings look as follows:

Delete On: Mailbox & Handheld

Wireless Reconcile: On

On Conflicts: Mailbox Wins

 If these settings aren’t set, then go to each field and change them to match my settings. That should do the trick!

-RP

Deleted messages on BlackBerry are not showing up as deleted in Outlook Inbox and read messages are not showing up as read.

Another common BlackBerry synchronization issue is also when you delete messages on the BlackBerry and the message does not get deleted from your Outlook inbox even if you click on “Reconcile Now” from the BlackBerry menu. Also another common effect is that when you read a message it doesn’t show up as read on the other side and still shows up as a ‘NEW’ message.

This problem usually stems from a DLL mismatch. There are two very important DLL files that are integral to the proper running of your BES server and those are cdo.dll and mapi32.dll. The versions of these DLL files need to be the same on your BES server and your Exchange server. The easiest way to do this is when you are patching your Exchange server you ensure that you patch your BES server with the exact same patches. This will ensure that things are always in ‘sync.’ You can check the version of a file by right clicking on it and going to it’s properties and then checking the ‘Version’ tab.

Now if you think you have patched everything and the DLL files are still mismatched, then you can just copy the DLL file from the Exchange server to your BES server and then register the DLL file using the regsvr32 command and then the path to the DLL. For example, to register cdo.dll you would type: regsvr32 cdo.dll ‘C:\program files\exchsrvr\bin\cdo.dll’.

I of course would like to remind you that before doing any of this to ensure that you always have a full backup of the server you are working on in case you blow something up. Also I would not copy DLL’s from the BES server to the Exchange server, that can cause some interesting results and it is probably a path you do not want to go down. Instead make sure you are copying from the Exchange server to the BES server as I had mentioned above.

After the DLL files that have the version mismatch have been copied and registered, then reboot the BES server and test out deletions and read messages again. You should see that things work as intended now.

-RP

Shift deleting of message in your inbox not deleting on your BlackBerry?

Another common BlackBerry question I get is regarding deletion of messages. I could probably write a whole novel about all the different issues you can run into with BlackBerry synchronization but I’ll spare you the pain and just mention a few things.

When people hold the shift key down and hit delete to permanently delete items in their Outlook it doesn’t give the BES server (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) time to process the deletion so the deletion doesn’t synchronize and in turn your BlackBerry still shows the message as available. How do you fix this? You need to turn on “Hard Deletions” in your BES server. What this does is it allows the BES server to process the shift-deletion of emails so they synchronize properly.

You can do this by following the instructions at this Blackberry Knowledgebase Article Doc ID KB14142.

-RP

Remote access when on the road

So I thought i’d talk a little bit about remote access since I was just away on vacation for a week. There are a lot of technologies out there you can use for remote access, all of them promising complete access to your network while you’re on the road. I’ve always found adopting multiple technologies for a good comprehensive remote access strategy works well.

One of the easiest things to implement for the network administrator on the road is Terminal Services. As long as you own Windows Server you can purchase terminal services licenses to give you remote access to your network for multiple users. If you just want administrative access then you can just use RDP (remote desktop). However if you want extra control and power then I would suggest using a product like Citrix to achieve your goals. For the small business Citrix Access Essentials is a great single server product you can use to give you access to published applications and granular control over what users can access remotely. You can also combine this with the Citrix Access Gateway and give yourself SSL access to your network and everything integrates quiet nicely.

You can get more information regarding Citrix at http://www.citrix.com.

 -RP

Intel releases USB 3.0 Spec

Hi folks, it looks like we have yet another new technology on the horizon, the next USB spec, USB 3.0! Intel just recently released the spec.

The new USB 3.0 spec suggests speeds of up to 4 GB/second. This is great news for the IT industry as USB has quickly become the predominant connection standard of choice for users looking for a way to connect their peripherals to their computers.

 You can read more about it here.

-RP

VMWare Update 2 Bug Fixed

As you may have now heard, VMWare has fixed the bug with update 2. They pulled the update and were finally able to release a fix. What does this tell us?

Even the largest of companies can have issues with their Q&A processes. No matter how perfect we endeavour to be there is always the human error factor. Does this mean you should abandon all your VMWare projects and head to greener pastures with Hyper-V and XenServer? I’m sure with the FUD machine in full swing, quite a few people from opposing camps will advise you to do this.

The fact of the matter is that will serve you no good as all of these companies will be sure to run into their own problems at some point in time. Like I’ve said before, if you adopt a proper patch management strategy you can avoid 99% of these problems.

Here is the link to the knowledge base article that outlines the issue and the fix with VMWare.

http://kb2.vmware.com/kb/1006716.html

-RP