How nice would it be if you had a secure file transfer system built into your website? Secured with HTTPS, audited by YOU so you know WHO has permission exactly, and stored in a top tier data-center with 7+ layers of physical security and max web performance?

CornerEdge has built and hosted several of these file exchange and document management solutions for happy customers this year.   Contact us today for more information on how you can better service your clients with professionalism, ease, and the highest level of security for their information.

While having two complete setups of VMware is probably cost prohibitive, with the small footprint of VMware ESXi, you can use a simple workstation or even a laptop as a cold spare DR backup.  As you’ll see below, I have easily installed VMware on my laptop, and with a large enough hard drive, and enough memory, I could run a small to medium office server environment setup on my one laptop, or even a mid-range business desktop.  The cost of these is usually around $1500-2500, and when you consider the cost of a second server may come in at $5000 or more, this is a great low-budget way to have your office back up and working quickly in the event of a major disaster.

To do this simply, just power off the VM’s on a schedule that fits your DR needs and copy the files from the main DataStore and upload them the the DataStore on your backup setup.  You will want to make sure your backup processor is a 64-bit proc with VT enabled if you are running 64-bit VM’s, you have enough storage space for the foreseeable future, and definitely install as much memory as your budget and workstation will allow, and that should be it.

You clearly shouldn’t expect the same performance of this setup as you would get from a true server, but it would get people back online and running again while you work on the main server.

Here is a quick picture I took of my laptop running VMware ESXi just for fun.  I had installed ESXi on a USB stick, and booted to that when I powered on my laptop.  This install was originally done on a PowerEdge 2950, and without any modifications to the install, it came up just fine on an Dell Latitude E6500.  Simply carry a USB flash drive and a large external storage drive and you can have a backup ESXi server wherever you go.

Since this machine was part of a cluster, we simply migrated the VMs on the failed server to the other working ESXi server through vSphere vCenter Server.  The working VMware server was able to overcommit the available physical memory by almost 50% with room to spare.  We then took down the server with the bad drives to rebuild.  We also took this opportunity to install the OS onto a USB flash drive, which installed internally to the server, and remove the remaining two working hard drives to run a completely diskless server configuration.  With a small amount of configuring to VMware, the newly rebuilt server was ready to join the cluster again and the VMs were then evenly distributed throughout the cluster, all the while never having to power anything off.  That means never having to send out maintenance notices to customers that their hosted servers will be offline, and keeping out uptime in tact.  The whole process took only about 5 hours as well.  When was the last time a total failure on a system RAID drive, and nothing went down, and everything was upgraded and repaired in 5 hours?

I recommend it to power users, it a worthwhile upgrade in time savings alone when compared with outlook 2007.

The search and usability features have almost negated the need for my favorite too, xobni as well… more on that later.

-Russ

You’ll see this message:

So, prepare some extra time to un-install your older 32 bit applications before upgrading to 2010.  Its cleaner to use virtualization to maintain multiple client installs for development purposes anyway.

Our support team will NEVER send you a spam message like this below.

————————————————————

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by corneredge.net to notify you that we have temporanly prevented access to your account.

We have reasons to beleive that your account may have been accessed by someone else. Please run attached file and Follow instructions.

(C) corneredge.net

Windows Maintenance Tips: The Good, Bad, and Useless

You might be surprised which ones help performance vs. hurt performance.

It is no surprise when you install VMware, it installs some other information on the drives for the OS, but I was surprised to see files on the local hard drives when I was installing VMware on the embedded SDcard we typically specify with our servers.  Despite installing the actual OS on a separate flash drive, the install actually wrote some data to one of the drives on the server.

Compare DataStore1 which has VMware ESXi installed on it to DataStore 2 which has nothing but VM’s on it.  You can see there are a lot more partitions, which is why the DataStore won’t delete.  If VMware was installed on an embedded flash drive you would see less partitions on DataStore1, but still a lot more than on DataStore2.

The easiest way to avoid this is if you are installing to an embedded SD card is to not attach your hard drives or configure your virtual disks if you are using a RAID card until after the ESXi installation.  If the drives aren’t there, then the installation can’t write files to them.

If, however you have already installed VMware ESXi to the flash drive and don’t want to reinstall it again with the drives disconnected, the easiest way it from inside the RAID card utility at startup, just re-initialize the offending drive, which will delete all data that has been written to it and then you will be able to create the DataStore with the larger block size.

If you do not have the option of installing to an embedded flash drive, then my recommendation would be to create a 1GB virtual disk in your RAID card first, install VMware there, and then create the remaining disks in the RAID utility after.  Then, when you are creating the DataStore in VMware, you can specify the block size then.

I hope this helps take away some of the confusion on why you cant delete a DataStore on a clean install with no VM’s even created.

Anybody with a hotmail account, Windows Live account, or msn account should take the time to change their password. This is confirmed by Microsoft, and a customer of mine had this happen to him: someone used his compromised password to send bad links to several of… his contacts.

More details here

And the main reason I was so impressed is that I did the upgrade to my workstation with the following specs:

- Easily 10 different USB devices & 2 different hubs plugged in at all times
- Firewire used for video editing
- close to 100 applications installed from all over the place.
- VMWARE workstation installed running test machines & extra virtual network devices
- 12 gigs of ram
- two different RAID Configs for two sets of hard drives etc…

bottom line, its NOT a simple computer to upgrade.  I work the crap out of this machine daily, and it upgraded fine initially.

And that’s where I’m starting to struggle.  Just today:

1. I lost the nice Windows Aero feature.  Seems pretty hard to get back, which doesn’t make any sense.  The troubleshooter can tell me that my desktop manager services aren’t running, but I can’t turn them back on.  WHY so complicated?  Running this OS without the Aero is dull, I feel like I’m being punished and thrown back to a retro windows 2000 look now.  Let me switch it on if I want!!  I guess I’ll have to troubleshoot it for hours now to fix it.
2. I lost audio randomly, but after 5 minutes of waiting for the “troubleshooter” if fixed the service that wasn’t running.. how did it get turned off?  But wait my youtube videos don’t play sound now??
3. I’ve had a few programs crash/not work… a crystal reports runtime issue mainly for now…older programs, but still….
4. Backup – I have a buffalo terastation, an incredibly simple network storage device that I use for backup on my network.  The new Microsoft BACKUP program will NOT allow me to send a backup to a device without Network authentication of some unknown kind, so I can’t do a backup of files to my incredibly simple network storage unit.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!  I have to setup a Microsoft machine on my network for backups???  COME ON!!  I literally tried basic auth with a user name and password I was able to config and test, Microsoft backup won’t use it.  sweet!  I know, I’ll use an incredibly simple file replication tool instead.  Just use Karen’s Replicator if you need to run a backup.  It actually works over the network.

SO, hang in there, and don’t upgrade yet.  Microsoft has some patching to do and I’m stuck grumpy in windows 2000 land with crap I have to fix.

When I upgraded my workstation to windows 7 earlier last week, I found that Kavoom! is not compatible with windows7.   (Or at least that’s what windows told me.  I honestly didn’t try re-installing, I couldn’t find the original download)  I went to check the Kavoom website for an update, and NOTHING?!  The site has been down for the last two weeks… so it forced me to look into a new solution.

Of course I easily found Synergy+ – a free tool that does the same thing.  Not as smooth of a setup process, but it seems to work fine.

So Kavoom is gone, but we are not lost… and perhaps the free option explains why they are gone.   Its a shame when a fair product that sells for $30 goes out of business due to a free solution.   Go open source, but its not fun to be a developer who owns an eliminated product… which is better?

UPDATE: Synergy also works with MAC and Linux… so yes, its cooler than Kavoom… its so nice to have my mac working also… 4 screens!

I learned that Comcast has decide to centrailze and essentially “customize” our DNS service so when something is not found we are re-directed to their own search page.

Here is some more information:

Comcast Re-direction goes nationwide

Your Rights with comcast DNS Re-direction

DON’T PUT UP WITH THIS!

Re-direct your DNS to an outside service like Open DNS.  I did this and my problems are SOLVED!

Here are the instructions for you newbies:

Open DNS Step 1

For advanced users, just use these servers:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Fast DNS lookups are here again!

Here are some setup tips on setting up SMTP relay over port 587 securely.

After setting up your network with a back-end Exchange 2007 Hub Transport/Client Access/Mailbox server and an isolated Exchange 2007 Edge Transport server in a DMZ or separate internal network, try setting up an IMAP connection to the Exchange Client Access server.  Since all incoming mail traffic is supposed to flow through the Edge Transport server, you set up that as the endpoint for your outgoing SMTP server in your mail client like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, but no matter what you do, it just won’t work without authentication.  The Edge Transport server is not (or at least it’s not supposed to be) a member of the domain, and therefore cannot authenticate the user.

One way to fix this is to set your firewall(s) to pass SMTP Submission traffic to the back-end Client Access server (CAS).    Mail will  be sent first to the back end Exchange Client Access server for authentication, and then be forwarded on to the front end server for external delivery.

Also, don’t forget to to check off the TLS or SSL security option and change the outgoing SMTP port number to 587 for SMTP Submission, rather than port 25 for standard SMTP traffic.  And now, you should be sending mail securely.

Verizon DSL in NJ  is now forcing you to send ALL SMTP outbound mail through their own servers.

Change the port number in the “Advanced” section of your email program from Port 25 to Port 587. Detailed instructions on how to change the port settings on your computer can be found at www.verizon.net/port25.

In outlook “Favorites” and “Favorite Folders” DO NOT mean the same thing.

To add a public folder to your “Favorite Folders” view in the “Mail” view in Outlook:

1. Navigate to the “Folder List” view in Outlook.

2. Navigate to any public folder, right click, then select “Add to Favorites”.

3. Still in the “Folder List” view, go to Public Folders >> Favorites >> [foldername].

4. Right click on the “Favorite” that you just created, select “Add to Favorite Folders”.

5. Your public folder will now appear in the “Favorite Folders” pane in the “Mail” view of Outlook.

For example, I might have a user’s name separated into 2 distinct data fields: User_Name_First and User_Name_Last, but I want it displayed in the DropDownMenu as “User_Name_Last, User_Name_First”.

Maybe you can relate.  What are the options?

1.  Modify your database query to merge the fields in the SELECT.  This is likely the most efficient solution, but not always the most practical depending on your environment.

2.  Add a new DataColumn to the result set, enumerate through the results, and set the value of the new DataColumn upon each iteration.  Does the job, but not very efficient or elegant.

How about this… go ahead and add a new DataColumn to the result set, but make it an Expression Column.  Example:

oDataSet.Tables(0).Columns.Add(new DataColumn(“MyNewFieldName”, System.Type.GetType(“System.String”), “CurrentField1 + ‘, ‘ + CurrentField2″)

I finally stumbled upon this solution (as simple as it seems) and it is such a relief!  I feel like a goof since it  never occurred to me until now, but its not the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last.  Many online searches yielded several comments on the first 2 options above, but not much else.  Now that I am on this side of the fence, I find it curious as to why there isn’t much discussion on this technique.  Maybe there is a lot of overhead to it?  Not sure, but certainly seems better than iterating through the result set record-by-record.  Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I ran the installer for Mac OS 10.6 on my mid 2009 iMac 24 inch with 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor and all went fine, took a little longer than I expected, about 30 to 45 minutes, but not bad. All my software seems run fine so far, Adobe Web Premium CS3 apps couple CS2 apps, Rosetta Stone, and most importantly Ghost Recon! I am excited to get some Exchange support in Mail, however no shared or public folders show and calendars do not connect. There is a huge performance increase with VPN connections and reading remote directories on Windows and Mac systems.

I have not fully tested everything yet but I will and update this post in the near future as I test the system more.

Oh, and while I was at it I  treated my iPod to the new iPhone OS 3.1, sweet, copy and paste!

Some recent data from Intel shows that most netbook buyers are buying them for a second computer:

These machines are made to be a good secondary notebook or entry level child’s computer, not a full time computer.  They just don’t have the horsepower.

Its another story of the good old adage: you get what you pay for.

So, go ahead and get a net-book if you need a machine to get on the web quickly and check the weather or some stocks, but don’t get it to be your primary business computer.  You’ll be waiting for its slow processor, lack of ram, small hard drive etc… and ultimately loosing productivity.

I can’t tell you how happy my $2000 laptop makes me when it FLIES through whatever I ask it to do.  If you want your business to be ahead of the curve, get a laptop with an SSD (Solid State) hard drive, plenty of RAM, and go for it!  You will not be disappointed, and will make up the extra expense in time saved very quickly.

Contact our team at corneredge.com if you have more questions or interest.

Ok, so your hard drive fails.  How do you diagnose the failure?  Is it the click of death?  Are there bad heads, bad clusters, a stuck spindle? Does it sound fine, but just not load?

When its making strange noises, this site might help you decide exactly what has happened with a close listen to the drive:

http://datacent.com/failing_hard_drive_sounds

A lot of times these noises mean you are toast, or in for a costly repair & data recovery job.  If you have backups, this can serve for great entertainment to satisfy your inner geek.  You’ll know exactly what happened…

Without backups, well, at least you can add the exact diagnosis to your new data loss nightmare story.  But those stories are getting REALLY old these days, so please make sure you are getting good backups, there is no good excuse.

-Russ

I can truly:

• Answer all calls on my office phone – via my software phone on my laptop.
• Make all calls with my office caller id with my softphone – caller id says I’m in the office to customers, so what if there are birds in the background.
• Access all my data on the virtual office system, outlook anywhere, & external sites via the internet
• Enjoy this beautiful weather!
• Have the freedom to sit down and work ANYWHERE with my verizon air card & laptop.

Can you work from anywhere? Call us today for more information how you can free yourself from the confines of a traditional office environment. You deserve this level of efficiency and ease of technology access.  We can help you drive your business ahead of the curve.  This is easy, and its time you took advantage of it.

Looks like I’m not alone:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/10/editorial-taking-the-iphone-3gs-off-the-job-market/

I agree with that article.

-Russ

Lets hear it from you:

On of the ways I’ve been able to keep my office cool is by taking advantage of windows Vista’s ability to SLEEP.  yes, it works, and works almost as well as a MAC!  go figure.  Between that and our virtual office system, I can work much more efficiently and cooler!

I recommend trying it if you are running vista, and while you are at it, check out some of these other power saving tips.  Many of them will help you manage your heat too!

“10 power-saving myths debunked “

Posted in CES Systems, Corneredge News, Tech post Tagged: cooling, heat management, power saving, virtual office, vista sleep ]]> http://blog.corneredge.com/2009/07/08/power-saving-myths/feed/ 0 Russ http://blog.corneredge.com/2009/06/23/warning-microsoft-security-alert-kb910721-is-a-scam/ http://blog.corneredge.com/2009/06/23/warning-microsoft-security-alert-kb910721-is-a-scam/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:23:32 +0000 Russ http://blog.corneredge.com/?p=240 ]]> Yesterday afternoon spammers started sending emails with a link to malware via a false Microsoft security alert.

Don’t be fooled, and don’t click on it!

The emails look like this:

Brief Description
Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express. This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express and offers the highest levels of stability and security.

Instructions

* Install Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721). To do this, follow these steps:
1. Run attached file officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe
2. Restart Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express

Quick Details

* File Name: officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe
* Version: 1.4
* Date Published: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:03:27 +0300
* Language: English
* File Size: 81 KB

System Requirements

* Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000; Windows 98; Windows ME; Windows NT; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Windows Vista

* This update applies to the following product: Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/v/post/4889

http://www.dscoduc.com/post/2009/06/17/Beware-of-the-KB910721-spam-email.aspx

In 3 separate cases last week, with both a storm and a pearl, I had this problem.  We are running the LATEST BES OS (v4.7) which was realased in the last few days, and even after I wiped the phones, it would NOT do the enterprise activation.   Again it gave me a “contact system administrator” error on the blackberry.

Finally I installed the blackberry messenger software on the clients computer.  Just by installing the software and connecting the phone, the enterprise activation worked.

For verizon customers you can get the software here:

http://vzw.smithmicro.com/blackberry/download.aspx?ct=corporate

For Sprint customers: (Pearl selected in this case)

http://www.nextel.com/en/software_downloads/pda_smartphone/blackberry_8130.shtml

download the “BlackBerry Desktop Manager Version 4.7”

My Mobiler screenshot

How do we remotely make sure our client’s Window Mobile smartphones are configured correctly?

Thanks to the folks at MTUX (www.mymobiler.com), they have put together an awesome freeware tool: My Mobiler v1.23.  It requires Activesync which can be downloaded for free from Microsoft and the USB cable to connect to your computer.

If we pair My Mobiler + Logmein we have an super efficient way of remotely viewing the screen of their Windows Mobile phones.

This helps us service our customers even better plus it helps us being even more green, we do less driving and less shipping of equipment.

At Corner Edge we love to be efficient.

-Elias

Setting up Blackberry Professional Software for your Exchange environment may seem daunting- you get your arms into SQL, Exchange permissions, MAPI profiles… but the task is actually very simple, and with these four video guides from Blackberry the task couldn’t be simpler.

One strong recommendation we would make is to install SQL 2008 Express BEFORE installing BPS; it makes the install go much easier than if you use the SQL 2005 Express packaged with BPS.

http://www.blackberry.com/select/professional/installation_toolkit/module_1/

http://www.blackberry.com/select/professional/installation_toolkit/module_2/

http://www.blackberry.com/select/professional/installation_toolkit/module_3/

http://www.blackberry.com/select/professional/installation_toolkit/module_4/

Multiple monitors are great for productivity.  Here’s a tip to use multiple monitors with your remote desktop or terminal server connection.

Use the “/span” and “/f” command line switches for the Microsoft remote desktop client for dual monitor support.

e.g. to remote desktop into a Terminal Server named “myRDPname” from the command line and get the RDP client to span dual monitors in full screen mode:

mstsc /v:myRDPname /span /f

If you use the /? switch you can see all the command line arguments.