The TAZ Blog

We made the Ingram Micro SMB 500!

2012-09-20T14:21:00.001-04:00

Today Ingram Micro announced their inaugural SMB 500 of fastest growing service providers.

We’re honored to be ranked #67 with an incredible 382% growth in 3 years! I’m sure humbled and honored to work with great people who have allowed us to achieve this.

Also thanks to our clients as well. I hope that working with us shows that you’re working with a growing service provider who really looks out for our clients.

Thanks for allowing me to toot our horn a little!

Storing Server Items

2011-04-28T13:04:00.001-04:00

Its always a pretty scary thing when a server goes down for a business. Downtime of any type is pretty hard to accept but when some of it can be avoided it’s that much more frustrating.

Your server may go down but what can you do to try and help keep that downtime to a minimum?

1. Always try and keep your IT provider’s documentation (you do have documentation for EVERYTHING right??) nearby or right when you can get it.

2. Any CD’s, DVD’s, documentation or anything else that came shipped with your server should be easy to grab as well.

3. Make sure that your backup drives are good and easy to get to. In the event that offsite storage has to be gotten in case of disaster do you know the process or procedure to get it back the quickest way? That would includes contact phone numbers or perhaps manual or documented usernames and passwords.

Just having all the above at your fingertips will help you to save precious downtime for your business.

Interested in a little leadership training the Disney way?

2011-03-17T22:46:00.001-04:00

I have to admit that I’m a kid at heart and enjoy our family trips to Disney. I’m also as many business owners are into always learning more about business leadership and better ways to do it. So when you can combine the two, what a great tandem!

Well during our recent visit to Disney World I was looking over the bookshelf and was interested about a Disney business book called Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell who was VP of operations for 10 years at the Disney World Resort. And I truly have enjoyed reading the book. The leadership principles in it are straightforward and as you read the book you feel that you’re getting a behind the scenes look at Walt Disney World and Marriott (Lee worked there a long time as well).

So check it out if you enjoy furthering your business leadership skills or just leadership and time management skills in general.

Bob Burg coming to Detroit

2010-06-04T13:55:00.001-04:00

If you haven’t had a change to check out Bob Burg speak then take 4 hours and listen to him. Motorcity Connect is having him come to Lawrence Tech to speak. For the price its a great chance to hear an excellent networker speak. Even if you pick up a thing or two it’ll be worth your time.

In our work as an Ann Arbor Network Support Company we make sure that we use the Go giver mentality that is mentioned in Bob’s book. Where did we learn this concept? It was being a part of our peer group Heartland Technology Groups where this is something that is used in all discussions to make us better organizations.

Its a privilege to try and help others with their Computer Support needs but in everyday life just helping out brings big rewards.

Check out the Go Giver and Bob when he comes into town.

A New Day for TAZ Networks and Michigan Network Support

2010-05-10T10:52:00.001-04:00

Its a new day at the home for TAZ Networks. We’ve moved into a spacious new office located very close to the Interstate in Brighton, MI. We’ve in fact tripled our space with plenty of room to grow. We’ve spent some long days and nights lately and I’m extremely proud of my dedicated and faithful team. I might just have a hard time getting some work done though as I sit in my office looking at 3 walls of windows on a beautiful day here.

Our new address is as follows:

4763 S Old US Highway 23 Ste A

Brighton, MI 48114

Now why do we say its a new day and not just any old office move?

First off we’re proud of the fact that we’re growing in Michigan with a commitment to get stronger, bigger and better. This means providing the best technology solutions for our Michigan Small Business and Medium Sized business clients. If you haven’t read a newspaper lately then you are probably the only one in the world that hasn’t read about Michigan’s struggles lately. We’re doing our part to reverse that trend and hope to hire 3 new people this year. We know its not the thousands that have been lost but hey you gotta start somewhere!

Secondly, we’re proud to announce we’ve included a data center in our design to facilitate backups and cloud computing for our clients in Michigan and elsewhere. Are you someone who is just tired of the cycle of paying for servers and throwing them out 3 years later? We’ve got you covered. Place your infrastructure into our center and let us manage the whole process for you. Or perhaps you’d just like to get that silly Exchange server off your neck or add some backup off site to your mix. We’re here to help. We’re excited about what the next several years holds for technology and we know that this will strengthen our efforts to assist Michigan Small Businesses with their network support and colocation needs for a long time to come. This will be a first for Livingston County as well. With our technology knowledge of Small Business Server, Exchange Server, and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology we can definitely provide several different options to our clients for their well being.

Third, we’re providing better facilities and monitoring as well for our existing clients. We’ll be installing new monitors on the walls to see at a moments notice if one of our clients is down or unavailable. This will give our help desk and technology teams instant access along with management the ability to work together to keep our clients up and running.

Fourth, with this new move we’ll be making a concerted effort to get our name out and let more people know about us. This means more dollars committed to sales and marketing. We think we have a strong organization that can help people and companies and we want everyone to know that. So if you’re reading this blog and have ideas I’m all ears! Let others know as well if you had a great experience with us or let me know if there are ways to improve our organization.

I’ve gotta say that I’m humbled by the increases in our organization. When I started TAZ Networks in 2003 I worked out of a basement with the goal of just providing the best Michigan small business network support. The views may have changed since then but the goal has not. However its no time to sit back and take it easy. Technology changes so quickly now that we have to keep moving forward otherwise we’re like the kid on the bike learning to ride who doesn’t realize you have to move forward to keep balanced and falls off very quickly. If you’ve got kids like me I’m sure you spent some long days in the driveway running behind your kids as they learn to bike.

Thanks to all of our loyal clients and if there is anything I can personally do to assist your organization to work with TAZ Networks or if you just have a technology question in general let me know. My email is on the right.

Michigan Healthcare Technology and EMR PM Solutions

2009-11-25T17:00:00.001-05:00

I’m happy to announce that TAZ Networks has just finished work on our new website for Michigan Healthcare Technology and EMR Solutions. As a business owner I know how nice it is to call in for local support on my HVAC unit or Accounting needs. Healthcare technology should not be any different. Unfortunately for most practices and providers when they implement a large Electronic Medical Record or Practice Management software program they usually receive support from somewhere half a world away. That’s why gloStream’s support model of using local technology providers interested me. So we’ve joined their partner program and received training on their EMR program, gloEMR. gloPM their practice management piece will soon be out as well.

Why did we do this? First and foremost I believe that tackling just a couple of verticals, (healthcare being primary) will make us a better organization to continue to provide strong solutions for our clients and not just the latest technology. gloStream’s solutions and software truly do make a difference in the practices they are implemented in and with 100% implementation rate who can argue? As our new website suggests we are THE Healthcare IT Company for you. Take a look at the website and be sure to give me your feedback.

Why is technology so important a step for the healthcare industry? One major reason is that technology should make our life easier. And EMR and PM programs do just that. I can’t imagine taking a paper chart of our clients home and updating each ticket manually. It’s all electronic and everybody gets notified. Unfortunately some very high paid doctors spend countless hours at night updating charts or worse yet having staff spend hours to look for them during the day. That’s where a great EMR that is easy to use and based on Microsoft Word comes into play. When an EMR is used the doctor or assistant updates the record and everyone can be notified in real time. No more deciphering that signature or note. Technology for the healthcare industry is probably only touching the surface of what we can do to make our client visits even easier and the information exchange that needs to happen when you or I go out of our primary care area and need updated health information fast.

I’m excited that we’re taking a big dive into this vertical and hope that if you need assistance you don’t hesitate to call us. We’re already leading the way with our Ann Arbor Computer service that is fanatical and catered to our clients. We hope that our healthcare clients see the same value in this software as we do.

Windows 7 Releases Today

2009-10-22T09:54:00.001-04:00

OK so unless you’ve been under a rock lately you know that Windows 7 releases today. You can check out the kick off at Microsoft via the web if you like.

We’ve been running Windows 7 since the early part of the year and overall all of our indications are that it is a winner. I’ve been posting articles on our newsletter about our experiences with Windows 7. The #1 thing obviously that will attract everyone is speed. It is snappier and just an overall better experience.

Early indications from our Michigan computer services client base are good as well. When we have clients asking us about something new rather than us pushing it we know that press is favorable. Windows 7 seems to be getting that PR. We’ve had more than a handful ask us our impression and what we like about the product.

One thing I will say…if at all possible move directly to the 64 bit edition. I think sometimes we as solution providers are a little hesitant to push the envelope a little with our clients and this includes moving to the newest technology. I’ve been running 64 bit for quite a while now on Vista and now Windows 7 and I have to see I see absolutely no reason to stay with the 32 bit edition any longer.

If you’d like help with Windows 7 or need tech support for Detroit or Ann Arbor, give us a call.

25% of small businesses receiving a failing grade in IT

2009-07-27T15:02:00.001-04:00

Interesting release over on businesswire on the ineffectiveness of IT in small business. Small business owners can get their score by going to the IT effectiveness index and finishing a 10 minute survey.

And when you consider that 37% are getting a C that means that over half of small businesses are just letting their technology be another source of expense in their business.

Technology should be very effective in this day and age. And the business owner doesn’t have to be the one that worries about it.

The press release highlights the fact that security is a huge concern. As well it should be. Inability to prepare for incidents is huge as well. And lastly unacceptable downtimes of IT systems.

I agree that a small business with these 3 core things are a major source of anxiety and concern for most small business owners. Here in Michigan we see the same. When most small business owners in Ann Arbor or Detroit look to us for consulting or IT outsourcing it is because their current provider let them down with one of these three items.

How are we addressing these 3 concerns? Let’s take them point by point:

1. Security Protection. Our Computer Care Advantage program allows us to take over the IT environment for one flat fee a month. This causes security to be monitored by our 24x7 service that never falls asleep at the wheel. In addition our managed firewall service using Sonicwall allows us to monitor firewalls all for one set fee a month and make sure they are updated regularly. One thing we constantly see in small business is that due to lack of resources or time or knowledge a product may be fully in place but never utilized or updated for current protection methods.

2. Inability to prepare for events. Call it business continuity, disaster recovery, whatever you like but small business needs to have it. Not only technology solutions but also a written disaster plan as well. On the technology side we have our standby server technology, where the technology owner can sleep easy at night. We backup servers regularly to our device and then send the data over secured lines to a network center that can restore the data to another device and ship it anywhere in the world if a disaster strikes. That’s preparedness.

3. Downtime. Downtime sucks. No other way to put it. That’s why we guarantee uptime or your money back when you’re a client of our Computer Care Advantage program. We take responsibility for our actions and you shouldn’t have to worry about your IT.

Could we really help you? Well if you’re like Crystal Gardens we could save you thousands of dollars. We’re happy to help our small business friends in the Detroit, Howell, Brighton, Novi and Ann Arbor areas with their computer support and repair needs.

Electronic Health Records Stimulus Tour in Detroit

2009-05-26T16:59:00.001-04:00

So I attended the EHR Stimulus Tour today in Detroit. (The new Doubletree Suites/Fort Shelby is a great hotel now by the way although a little hard for parking.) It really is a new day for medical and healthcare organizations. Nothing like some good old government money to get the technology juices flowing.

The site above for the EHR Tour has some great resources to understand all there is to know for getting that stimulus money from the government. It will take some planning and now is the time to start.

For our outsourced IT healthcare vertical clients in Detroit and Ann Arbor Michigan this should be on the agenda for those quarterly business reviews we will be having. What is the best way to get to that money and how can we start now.

How Much Will They Get?

Starting in 2011 physicians can each get $18,000 for showing they have electronic health records instituted that has ePrescribing capability and connectivity to other providers. This goes down gradually for the next 5 years to a total amount of $44,000.

One 4.5 physician office in Holt talked about what they did to implement and how they spent $131K to implement EHR and practice management. $131K may sound like a lot but consider some of these benefits that I never even thought of:

Never a lost chart
Remote access the EHR system from anywhere and do your updating at night in the comfort of home
No longer wait for a chart pull
prescription refills are handled right on the patients medication listing
No more dictation costs
Automatically check drug allergy problems or conflicts
Get a list of clients for a drug recall in minutes not days

One interesting item from this doctor is that their FTE (full time equivalent) of front office staff went down. So their overall savings of salary was $91K/year. That is a huge number.

While EHR will be a pain in the first year having everyone buy in will be critical and understanding the long term benefits. Even without the stimulus money it’s a great decision but one now that is a no brainer.

The Holt practice now has 5 Servers to handle their workload and does need some IT support to help their practice here in Michigan.

One other concern was data backup and disaster recovery. The most they have been down has been 2 hours. That’s a discussion we’ll have with our clients because of our standby server technology we can get them back up and running in 30 minutes if something happens.

A good example used during the tour was that of airlines. You hardly ever talk to someone in person to book your ticket and now even get your ticket or check in your luggage. It’s all electronic. Why can’t healthcare be the same way? It sure could and needs to be to help lower some of the costs that folks see out there now.

SBS 2008 migration wizard not running?

2009-04-02T09:58:00.001-04:00

We got another weird error yesterday on another migration yesterday from SBS 2003 to Small Business Server 2008. Folks I can’t say it enough…this migration process just isn’t as easy as some may think. We’ve not had one single migration go according to the plan as of yet. Active Directory errors are the most prevalent but other items are appearing as well.

Here’s the latest:

We ran the migration and everything seemed to be fine. However when you try to run the SBS 2008 migration wizard you get the following error: "The migration wizard only supports migration from Windows Small Business Server. For more information, including supported versions and minimum requirements see the Migration Guide"

What the?? Our source server has and always will be a SBS 2003 machine.

So here’s the response from the newsgroups.

Based on my research, the problem may occur if the source OS is not

detected. Please follow the steps below to test the issue:

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Data folder on SBS 2008.

2. Open the info.xml file in an editor.

3. Search for "sourceservertype" and replace "Others" with "Sbs2003" (case sensitive).

4. Save the file with the original name.

Then, try to run the Migration Wizard again.

Hope this helps.

New Web Site up and running

2009-04-01T15:51:00.001-04:00

Time to knock out some quarterly goals and one of the biggest was a new website for www.taznetworks.com. Check it out and let me know what you think of the new design. The colors are more based on our logo and the predominant red that our logo includes. Email me your thoughts at tpatterson AT taznetworks DOT com.

One thing that we decided to do and I’m really happy about is putting our website on a content management system. We’re using the open source Joomla system and I’ll say right now it rocks. We can easily add and edit articles, have newsfeeds or RSS and easily edit menus and the like. It will allow us to create a more dynamic web site that clients and users will be able to pull content from rather than going to.

We have whitepaper downloads now and will be expanding that in the future for more information. We created a FAQ section as well for some questions we get regularly around here.

One major item next to our logo you’ll see is our new slogan that defines what I think technology should be all about, “Business Excellence Through Technology”. It all boils down to that. The client relationships, the hard work and all the new technology. If our clients aren’t seeing better businesses through the use of technology then I better just go join AIG for a bailout or something.

All in all I think web sites are always works in progress but I’m pretty happy with the way this one turned out.

The Last Techy test for me? 70-653 SBS 2008

2009-04-01T10:16:00.001-04:00

So yesterday I took what could be one of the last technical certification tests that I may take. As I do more and more of the business planning and focusing for the future of TAZ Networks I’m trying to do less of the technical work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a techy at heart but doing the day in day out work on tickets is not where I should be focused.

We’ve been working with Small Business Server 2008 for about 8 months now with all the betas and so forth. We’ve done several network migrations as I’ve detailed before and although I haven’t done as much of the work I’ve looked over the shoulders of the guys doing it and obviously played around in a test environment because as I said I’m a techy at heart.

So without really “studying” I walked in and took the 70-653 test yesterday at our local Prometric testing center. After about an hour of waiting for them to get the dang test ready I finally took it and got through it in about 45 minutes.

What are the takeaways? Definitely the biggest thing on the test is to know the Microsoft terminology of where items are at in Small Business Server 2008. There was a high emphasis on the migration process from SBS 2003 as well which I give high praise to the test writers for. That’s something that everyone should know. Not just how to set up the product from scratch but how to do the migration from SBS 2003.

If you’ve worked with Small Business Server 2008 for some time you’ll definitely be comfortable with this test. After working with SBS in some flavor for the past 9 years I certainly was.

Oh yeah and I passed with a score that even surprised me since I hadn’t really studied. Who am I kidding…I live for this stuff.

April Fool Joke? Nope, Windows Server 2008 Foundation is real

2009-04-01T10:04:00.001-04:00

So today is April Fool’s day but Microsoft announced something that will no doubt affect small businesses. Windows Server 2008 Foundation is a server that is focused on the smallest of small businesses with 15 PC’s and under.

I haven’t seen all the specs on this beast yet but it sure sounds like just plain Windows Server 2008 with a hard limit of 15 connections. Will this hurt the Small Business Server market? I have to think it will. Especially if the price is so low. This server is only going to be sold by OEM manufacturers so if HP and Dell really ratchet down the price of servers including this software we’re going to see a proliferation of small businesses that have it. Especially when it’ll be the featured product on their home pages, much the same as we see a proliferation of small businesses buy that $299 desktop that is woefully underpowered.

Will TAZ Networks work with it? Sure we will, but will we lead with it? No we won’t. Small Business Server just has too many good features from remote control of your desktops (again I’m not thinking this will be included in the product) to the best email system on the planet today, Exchange 2007. The list goes on…but you get the idea. You get what you pay for.

Now will we end up supporting it? I’m sure we will because as small businesses grow they come to us for computer support and we’ll see them have this Server Foundation. Great to build on but maybe not something that will work moving forward. At that time a real discussion will have to be had on the pros and cons of moving forward to another solution.

The other option is that businesses that want a prime repository for data space but will use the cloud or Exchange hosting services for email will use a server like this.

Most of the companies that use us for outsourced IT or computer support have a real commitment to technology. There is a real cost to that and to be most effective you have to use the best products at the right price point not the cheapest products at all cost.

Whose in Your bracket? Windows 7 or SBS 2008?

2009-03-19T12:11:00.001-04:00

So today is the day when most of us slack off and March Madness begins in earnest. With special thanks to the NCAA and CBS you can stream in high quality all of the games to your desktop. Man what a day for the lazy button for all of us to be hit.

And for me although I live in Michigan/Michigan State territory I bleed Orange and Blue. Go Illini! I think they can win even though Western Kentucky has been picked everywhere because it’s a 5/12 matchup.

So that got me thinking. With the current economy it might turn into a bracket thing with technology for you and your company.

There are some cool products out there that reduce cost and help increase productivity. We saw some features yesterday at a Microsoft Partner briefing here in Michigan. But because of cutting costs it might be a situation where you can only pick one, “your bracket champion” to move forward with.

What would that be?

Well I gotta tell you that in my bracket would definitely be Windows 7. Even if it were matched up against Small Business Server 2008 in the regional final I think that Windows 7 would prevail and get to the Final Four. Why? Speed and increased productivity alone are the greatest factors. There are also some pretty compelling reasons coming out with the later server versions as well.

Another item that probably would get to our final four is Unified Communications. This can save a company big money right away and decrease travel expenses.

So who’s in your technology Final Four? Will you have a champion at all this year or are you just moving on to Football and forgetting the tournament this year? That may be a mistake because the business that turns a blind eye is the one that gets a kick in the butt.

Oh and by the way…I’ve got Louisville in my bracket.

SBS 2008 Migration Error: "Microsoft Exchange": 0x80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the server.

2009-03-19T12:02:00.001-04:00

So one of the first migrations we have done and we encountered the above error right away while trying to uninstall Exchange 2003 from the source server. Most folks will direct you to a KB from Microsoft on the postmaster account. However our Exchange install log (check in the root of C: for yours) showed something different that is posted at the bottom of this post.

Essentially is pointed to another Active Directory problem. And for migration sake the advice from Microsoft was don’t worry about troubleshooting trying to get Exchange Server 2003 off of the source server through Add/Remove programs…it’s not worth it. Go to the KB How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396 and perform that and then demote the source server.

Folks all I can say is that if you’re migrating Small Business Server you’re going to get very familiar with adsiedit and the above KB on manually uninstalling Exchange Server 2003.

If you’re not familiar with adsiedit then here’s my advice: step away from the server with your hands in the prone position and give a call to someone who can assist you. You’ll really mess everything up very quickly if you’re not careful.

[16:34:39] ScPRQ_ServerIsNotRUSResponsibleServerInTheNonEmptyOrg
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\excommon\prereq.cxx:3133)
           Error code 0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the
server.
[16:34:39] CCompServer::ScCheckEVSPrerequisites
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\exsetdata\components\server\compserver.cxx:1358)
           Error code 0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the
server.
[16:34:39] CCompServer::ScCheckPrerequisites
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\exsetdata\components\server\compserver.cxx:955)
           Error code 0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the
server.
[16:34:39] CComExchSetupComponent::ScCheckPrerequisites
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\bo\comboifaces.cxx:1598)
           Error code 0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the
server.
[16:34:39] CComExchSetupComponent::ScCheckPrerequisites
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\bo\comboifaces.cxx:1598)
           Error code 0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the
server.
[16:34:39] === IGNORING PREVIOUS ERRORS === HrSetProblemOnInstallAction,
while calling ScCheckPrerequisites
(f:\titanium\admin\src\udog\bo\comboifaces.cxx:1399)
           The operation has completed successfully.
[16:34:39] Setup encountered an error while checking prerequisites for the
component "Microsoft Exchange":
0X80072030 (8240): There is no such object on the server.

Small Business Server 2008 Migration Error

2009-03-19T11:55:00.001-04:00

Well we’ve done several migrations from small business server 2003 to small business server 2008 and we’re seeing a consistent theme. Migrations aren’t easy. Plain and simple. This stuff is suppose to get easier and it’s not unfortunately. Even for folks who work day in and out with small business server.

That’s why if you don’t have a IT company like TAZ Networks to fall back on for network support or network troubleshooting or network installation you might be spinning your wheels very quickly. At least we know who to call when we can’t figure something out.

I’ve never had to have folks on our team call Microsoft so much as in the last month. Perhaps it’s because we’re just getting our hands around this migration thing but I just don’t see that because each scenario is truly different.

#1 thing to make sure of: That your Active Directory is in order before you even start a migration. And most of these items are caught on any best practice analyzer as well. Make sure that NTFRS log doesn’t have any yellow or red items or you may be in for a long migration.

I’ll blog about our standard installation of small business server 2008 in another post (we do everything in Microsoft virtualization using Hyper-V for migrations) but rest assured it will take some time to get done.

So hang in there on your small business server 2008 migrations and installations and if you need our help please feel free to give us a call. If you are going it alone then let the games begin and take a close look at that active directory.

How is your business outlook for 2009?

2009-01-13T14:16:00.001-05:00

Thanks to all for their support of our webcast yesterday for Microsoft’s 5W/50 program.

One informal poll that we had for computer companies out there was to see how business looks for 2009.

We had about 65 attendees and here’s the results we got:

The same as 2008: 17 - 47%

Worse than 2008: 12 - 33%

Better than 2008: 7 - 19%

So what does that tell me? For one thing the old 80/20 rule applies. 80% think it won’t be such a great year. 20% do. Isn’t it funny how that always appears in business?

Secondly, most people are being realistic. I think we’ve got to be with the current economic climate. Only 19-20% think they will generate more revenue in 2009. Count me in the 19%. I think we will do better but will it match 2007 and 2008. No it won’t. I know that right now in January.

Around 80% see either the same or worse figures than 2008. That’s a BIG number. No doubt to continue to grow in this economic climate will require more work not less. It will require dedication and it will require being better justified with each and every dollar you spend.

I think that’s where we come in as IT providers. We can definitely provide most folks out there with better spending of their dollar so they can get $5 back or more with every one they spend.

A prime example is our unified communications offering. Just having that allowing for remote teleworkers or remote branches to be tied in over the Internet could mean serious dollars to the bottom line of those monthly recurring bills.

Our computer care advantage program is another area to save money. I know that no one wants to see someone lose their job but if people are and you can replace an individual with an entire fleet of techs for less than the cost of a part time person would you do it? I know I would. I have my family to think about. It may sound mean but realistically we have to be as lean as we can otherwise your business won’t be around very long.

So are you in the 80% or the 20%. Funny how the 80/20 rule always applies in just about everything in life. Hopefully this can be the year you’re in the 20%.

Need a Web Content Management Solution? Try Joomla

2009-01-09T11:01:00.001-05:00

OK so I’m definitely not a web guru but I have to admit that trying to keep web content in order can be a true hassle. And making easy edits and adds to a website can be a major anxiety for most people and business owners.

If you’re in this boat then I suggest trying out Joomla. Recommended to me by one of my HTG peers I’m checking it out as an Open Source alternative to the myriads of items out there. It has strong support and is pretty cool under the covers.

FTP Server not working externally in Windows Server 2008

2009-01-09T10:49:00.001-05:00

One of the great things now about Windows Server 2008 is the included advanced firewall. It is very granular and better security is always appreciated.

However as with more security usually comes more difficulty is getting rules correct and services working.

Recently we moved our website over to Server 2008 and also our FTP server. FTP was working fine from the server but any external clients couldn’t browse the contents of the FTP directory.

FTP is kind of one of those funky protocols that really is useful but horrible for security and configuration.

First thing I recommend is going and getting IIS 7 FTP from Microsoft. It’s not included in the DVD’s for Windows Server 2008.

The next step is to read the firewall document.

You’ll notice down the doc the part about stateful FTP filtering for data connections…that was our problem.

We needed to issue the following command to get it right:

netsh advfirewall set global StatefulFtp enable

So keep those Windows Firewalls on, don’t just disable them and forget em but dig in a little and keep yourself secure.

Vista Sync Center and Offline Partnership after Migration

2009-01-08T14:34:00.001-05:00

OK folks so we did our Small Business Server 2008 migration this past week during the down time when everybody else takes off work. (Yeah we took off a couple of days as well so it’s not all violin music) I’ll present my findings in another post but I wanted to send out something that has been bugging me since the migration.

On my Vista Business laptop I had our company share directory enabled for offline use via the familiar “Always Available Offline” item that Vista gives you the option for. This was great and allowed me to take company information with me and even function as an up to date backup if need be….security risks and storage aside.

But now after the migration and we’ve moved the data I didn’t stop those partnerships. Now I have all this data and a dead partnership that I don’t need anymore. And worse yet since I couldn’t connect Vista in it’s wise functioning won’t let me stop the syncing or the partnership.

So what does a wise computer user do?

Thankfully I found a little known reg hack that will allow you to blow away the sync center database upon reboot and start afresh. Here’s the steps:

In registry, create a DWORD value called FormatDatabase under
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters. To this value, assign the value of 1.

Then restart the computer.

Now make sure that you don’t need anything else in the sync center and that you’ve updated anything offline already as it will indeed blow away everything and start fresh.

For me it did the trick. I restarted logged in a little longer than normal and it automatically set up my sync for my desktop and My documents to the new redirectedfolders area on our new SBS 2008.

Maximizing Success in Troubled Times Webinar

2009-01-08T14:16:00.001-05:00

Hey folks and hope you’re having a great start to 2009. If you’re a Microsoft Partner please join me as my buddies Karl Palachuk and Scott Mallet and I present on Maximizing Success in Troubled Times. We’ll go over current things to consider in the solution provider arena and how to prevent problems in 2009.

When:

Monday January 12th. 12 PM EST.

To Register:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=259605

Michigan 8 Year Recession and Technology

2008-12-08T09:22:00.002-05:00

So we got some great news yesterday in the Free Press that Michigan is the only state in the Union mired in an 8 year recession. Others are starting to see some of the affects that we've come to know here. Frankly if I would have seen this 5 years ago I might not have started my business out of fear.

But good entrepeneurs have to face facts that sometimes we will see downturns and we have to be prepared for these just as we're prepared for anything else. (Disaster recovery anyone?)

So what can you do to tighten those belts and look ahead? Speaking from the technology sector we have to look for things that will save us money in our business and use technology to do that, not just spend to get the latest toys, black Friday aside. (Man I love my new Blu-Ray player!)

Also we might have to face that facts that saving money might mean moving job responsibilities around so that one of our own doesn't do so much in the way of technology but allows someone else to handle it. Outsourcing is a fact of life and right now just makes sense for most business. That's why so many folks are looking at having their vital apps hosted somewhere and not deal with building a network infrastructure themselves.

If you could save your Office Manager (who 9 times out of ten is the IT contact) 5 hours a week to focus on business development and getting new business and perhaps you're paying that person a total of $30/hr with salary and benefits then at the end of the month you're paying $600 just for IT in house and that doesn't include projects or hiring an expert.

For $600 a month a business with 10 PC's and a server could definitely get a high level of service from an IT house with regular maintenance and 24x7 monitoring included. Technology is taken care of and now your Office Manager can help grow revenue rather than waste it.

The same is true of projects. Small Business Server 2008 is a tremendous product however I'm sure we'll see less call for it this year than when Small Business Server 2003 came out. Why? Benefits. The price per payback just might not be there if you simply use your existing hardware.

However what about the 3-4 server shop with 100 desktops? They might definitely want to consider the new Essential Business Server 2008 and on top of that virtualize it with Hyper-V which we have found to be rock solid. That will be our default configuration going forward. Why? It's all about the payback. Now you can have one bigger server running 3 servers inside with lower energy and cooling costs that give a direct ROI.

Another cost that kills business monthly is telecommunications. Recently I did an audit for a company that has a T1 direct to another location and a new lease on an old key telephone system. The cost of just those 2 things? How about $1100/month. What if you could wipe that out immediately, install a cable modem and a point to point VPN installation (security aside for some industries) and now have the same functionality for $100/month in telecommunication costs with a new phone system that might cost you $400/month. How long is the ROI on that? 9-12 months perhaps? And you're getting better technology.

We say it time and again but technology should be about improving the business not slowing it down or just looked at as an expense. If someone sees technology as a necessary evil those are the folks that we just walk away from during our assessments because they won't get it and see the opportunities to grow in an 8 year recession.

Blackberry Controller Service Not Starting and Event 5003

2008-10-17T10:12:00.002-04:00

OK I'm not a fan of the Blackberry and SBS. It works but I really hate the additional setup on the SBS server. However we do it because we aim to keep our customers happy. Some services such as TMobile just don't have great Windows devices as of yet.

However we've had more issues with the Blackberry Enterprise Server software in the last week than we've had the entire time I've been running this place.

The Blackberry Controller service would not start up and we would get an event 5003 that was populated in the event log. After some digging I found the issue.

The root cause is the Microsoft Patch MS08-37 that affects DNS ports.

Going here http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/articles/787/KB16001_f.SAL_Public.html I quickly found out it was the DNS server causing the issue.

So I stopped the DNS server service and then started the Blackberry controller service. Voila, working like a champ. However that won't help the next reboot.

Well the SBS Blog folks are my heroes. This contribution alone to the community is worth every ounch of effort that those folks put into it to keep us informed. By going here: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/07/17/some-services-may-fail-to-start-or-may-not-work-properly-after-installing-ms08-037-951746-and-951748.aspx you see that you can reserve the DNS ports not to check.

Follow that post and add ports 4070-4071 to the mix. Now reboot. OK all set!

Stinking blackberry or as a client called them this week suckberry.

Michigan Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Seminar

2008-10-13T09:34:00.003-04:00

One thing that I see over and over again with small businesses is the need for a disaster recovery or business continuity plan. Did you know that 94% of small businesses fail after a disaster? Your data is your business. Make sure you have a plan for it.

For that reason we created a newly developed seminar called "Building a Business Continuity Plan for Michigan Small Businesses".

We're going to talk about some of the disasters that could happen right here in Michigan and the best way to avoid them. And how we can bullet proof our data from loss due to equipment failure, fire, flood or other disasters.

Join us please. We're going to limit participants to 30 so please sign up today. Best of all...it's FREE. Come out and talk about Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity over some breakfast and get back to the office before you're missed.

Sign up today.

Microsoft gets involved in the Financial Bailout

2008-09-30T09:29:00.001-04:00

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=WWJAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Pretty surprising when we see Microsoft get involved in political issues. They’ve kept a pretty good stance of not being affected and seeing revenues grow. I think this is an admission that everything including the technology sector will go down if financial stability isn’t seen soon. Technology has weathered the hits pretty good lately but we also have to be realistic and understand that if everyone else is having trouble, technology will too. That includes those of us serving the small business market. Even though Michigan has been taking a beating the small business market has been primarily good due to increased interest in starting new businesses. Without money or capital to start up that will dry up very quickly.