documentation

Doing less with less - the glass is the wrong size!

I am an optimist by nature. I always look for the positive in everything. However, that is sometimes a challenge in today’s economic environment. There is a time when you have to be a realist and see the situation for what it is. Continued »

Will Microsoft ever get search right?

I am looking for some documentation on Powershell to better understand how to use it. Per Wikipedia: Windows PowerShell is an extensible command-line shell and associated scripting language from Microsoft. So, I went to the Microsoft.com home page at www.microsoft.com. I typed powershell into the Search field at the very top of the page. I clicked the magnifying glass… waited a few seconds… and NOTHING was returned! So, I clicked on the Live Search option and 39,500 results were returned. So, now when I go to the main Microsoft page and then enter powershell into the same search term field as before and press Enter, the Live search results get returned - filtered for Microsoft.com only. It seems like my Live search excursion “woke up” the main Microsoft website search into knowing some powershell content does exist at Microsoft.com

I have often been frustrated in the past when searching Microsoft support using the exact error or event code from a Microsoft system or application log and nothing gets returned. It just seems like Microsoft is still missing the boat when it comes to search.

So, I guess I will continue to Google for Microsoft support information until I can see that Microsoft is better able to search their own website from their homepage.

Thanks for reading & let’s be good network citizens out there!

Did you see this? - Microsoft Infrastructure Planning & Design Guides

Microsoft has become much better offering documentation beyond just marketing materials about their products and systems. The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario.

The guides available include:

• Exchange Online—Evaluating Software-plus-Services
• Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 with R2
• Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5
• Windows Server 2008 File Services
• Windows Server 2008 Print Services
• Infrastructure Planning and Design Series Introduction
• Internet Information Services 7.0
• Selecting the Right NAP Architecture
• Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology
• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• Windows Deployment Services
• Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services
• Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
• Windows Server Virtualization (for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1)

As you see, there is a lot of information here to absorb and make use of in your environment. I’m going to be checking out the Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 implementation guide. It’s gonna be an interesting ride but at least Microsoft is offering some free support assistance in the planning and design phase.

Try some of these guides out. Share with us your thoughts and how effective the guides were in helping your organization meet operational demands.

The larger world of free technical support - Craigslist computer forum

I recently came across the computer forums on Craigslist. I had heard of Craigslist previously but was not aware of the significant scope of what it offers besides classified ads. I’m not suggesting that folks leave ITKE to the Craigslist computer forums for support - far from that.

I have been watching some of the exchanges between posters on the forums. It amazes me what people will post when the environment provides seeming anonymity. ITKE does offer this also, but the moderators do a great job of keeping the Trolls away. The Craigslist posters do not behave in the same professional manner that ITKE users do. There are many writers on Craigslist that belittle computer user skills for those asking “noob” questions. There are also those who attempt to discredit or otherwise tear down answers from those who have real computer skills and knowledge.

For example, there was a recent posting thread reminding people that the Microsoft Tuesday patches had been released. One feature that Craigslist offers similar to ITKE is the ability to rate postings. Someone rated the patch Tuesday reminder as a “thumbs down” posting. This is really unprofessional behavior. The thread went on to describe that exploits were sure to follow the patches since hackers use the patches to reverse-engineer the vulnerability. Someone asked if the exploits could already exist. Of course they might, but the exploits would become more likely after the patches are released.

The thread also described how the patches are to protect users from themselves. Most users are tempted into doing something (downloading software, answering yes to some popup window, visiting that interesting website) that causes malicious software to do something on their system that is totally unintended by the users… so the patch is there to fix some things that might be otherwise used by these malware writers. Really patching is the only preventive mechanism. Antivirus is a detective method that detects when something is trying to do something it shouldn’t. Patching won’t let those things happen - unless the user makes a poor judgement call… we all do! I have even opened an infected PDF file thinking it was a legitimate document. Fortunately, AV was able to clean up after my mistake.

For some reason, some troll thought they would say that these postings were by a “know-it-all n00b”. It seems like this Craigslist forum user may be one of those miscreants who want people to remain ignorant and cannot handle someone else teaching others about safe computing and answering other users’ questions.

I would like to encourage ITKE readers and IT professionals to help make IT support forums professional and user-friendly. If you have time, watch the Craigslist computer forums, offer support to the users  who don’t have the same professional support available we have on ITKE. Make the trolls look even worse by treating the users with some respect. By sharing our knowledge and skills, we can help users use the computer in a productive manner. Thanks for reading this and hope you join me in sharing knowledge either here on ITKE and/or Craigslist.

Tools for documentation - Network discovery & monitoring

If you have not begun the process of documenting your network, then please begin as soon as you finish reading my first posting on Tools for documentation - screen marking & screen captures and this posting. These tools will come in real handy in a crunch to identify causes of issues and when you are not around to help with resolution.

The next tool I would like to describe is NeDi - short for network discovery. Take a look at this 4 minute movie about NeDi and what it can do for you.

A week with NeDi

Are you impressed yet? I know I was when I discovered this network tool and how it can be used and extended. Some of the screenshots below may help you with the decision if this tool will work for your environment or not.

Network Health

Device Listing

Network Map

Node Status

Device Write

I’m sure you have other tools and processes you use. Please feel free to share them with the others here and help make someone else’s life easier. Enjoy the movie above. I think the guy has a very good sense of humor and knows his movies!

Tools for documentation - screen marking & screen captures

If you don’t already document your network and configurations, then you should begin immediately as it is a never-ending task. There are lots of ways of doing this and I will mention some of those in future postings.

One of the best tools is simply capturing screen shots and placing those in a Word document. This provides the ability to build “how-to” documentation as well as documenting existing conditions when the screenshot was taken. A simple press of the PrintScreen key will capture the entire desktop. CTRL-PrintScreen or Shift-PrintScreen will do the same thing. ALT-PrintScreen captures only the current window.

The challenge at times though is focusing on a particular part of the screen or a smaller section of a window. The tools that I use for this are Gadwin Printscreen (freeware) and BYS ScreenMarker.

The Gadwin Printscreen application sits in the system tray and is called by a hotkey combination that you can define (or just take the place of the PrintScreen key). I use CTRL-F12. I like the application for selecting a rectangular region of the screen rather than an entire window or desktop. The screen captures can also be saved in various formats (bmp, jpg, gif, tif or png). This is much better than the BMP format that the standard printscreen capture does.

In combination with the Gadwin Printscreen, I have started using the BYS ScreenMarker utility. This allows me to make callouts or highlights on various areas of the screen before running the CTRL-F12 capture. So, I can highlight, capture and paste in quick easy steps into an email or documentation. This is particularly useful when sending information to technical support and highlighting information shown on the client computer.

Hope this tip is useful to you. What tools or tricks do you use to document your network?