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Here’s a procedure for people working in a very small business that don’t want to call me for every routine task.

Very small businesses frequently have a single folder for all company or firm files. It’s almost always mapped to a drive letter, so everyone stores all work files in the “N:\” drive or the “P:\” drive. Everyone has full permission to add, edit, and delete files and folders in the COMPANY or FIRMDOCS folder. There are subfolders for each client or project, so things get a little cluttered and messy after a while, but it works well […] continued

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Exchange Defender has a new tool for previewing quarantined messages.

Exchange Defender is the service used by many businesses to quarantine spam and scan incoming and outgoing mail for viruses before delivering mail to the company server. Exchange Defender sends a daily report listing all quarantined spam, as well as providing add-in software for Outlook and an online control panel for reviewing quarantined messages.

(Exchange Defender is well suited for any business running Small Business Server; almost all my clients with Microsoft Small Business Server rely on Exchange Defender. You need a partner to set it up for […] continued

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There is more frustration with passwords than almost any other part of our interactions with computers. Part of the frustration is the difficulty of remembering them, of course, but there is also no consistency to help you understand when a password is required or what it’s for.

Passwords will be a fact of life for a long time. They are crucial to our security as we move forward into an era when our data is stored online or is accessible online. Frequently it is only a password that protects you against identify theft or financial loss. I’ve written […] continued

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Windows Search 4 is one of the most valuable services on your computer. It’s highly recommended for everyone using a Windows PC, as well as for servers in small businesses, but it is remarkably difficult to find out if it’s installed and working. I’ll give you some background, then show network administrators a trick for Windows Server 2008.

Briefly, Windows Search 4 efficiently indexes all of the data on your computer – the file names plus the full contents of every file, plus everything in your Outlook mailbox – and allows you to do searches that return results […] continued

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Here’s an Outlook feature that was new to me – there’s a way to overlay two Outlook calendars.

It’s becoming common for people in small businesses to share Outlook calendars. It’s easy if you have an Exchange mailbox in a business with Small Business Server or a mail system run by Microsoft Online Services.

Sharing your calendar is as simple as clicking on “Share My Calendar” to generate an email message with a link that automates the process.

When you open a shared calendar, it opens side-by-side with your own calendar. The checkboxes at the left make […] continued

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Trying to help a very small business decide on technology that will last for 5-10 years has always been an interesting challenge, and the choices are completely different now than they were just a few years ago. Small Business Server 2003 was an obvious choice for a long time but Small Business Server 2008 is only one of many possibilities now, and I’m frequently recommending alternatives, especially for businesses with 4-10 computers where SBS 2008 might be overkill.

Microsoft has quietly released an interesting product, Windows Foundation Server 2008, and I’m not sure yet where it fits in. It […] continued

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This is for my clients whose mail is protected by Exchange Defender.

Some background for the rest of you: Exchange Defender is an inexpensive service that filters and archives all the mail sent to a business. It strips all virus attachments, drops all misaddressed messages, and holds onto the spam. Only legitimate messages are delivered to the server at the business. The effect is to drastically reduce the load on the server and the business’ Internet connection. In addition, Exchange Defender keeps a searchable archive of all messages sent and received by the business for as long as a […] continued

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Backups – Introduction
Backups – Data Backups vs. Drive Images
Backups – External Hard Drives
Backups – Software for Data Backups
Backups – Online Backups
Backups – Image-Based Backups
Backups – Seagate Replica
Backups – Windows Home Server
Backups – Small Business Server
Backups – Recommendations

We’ve talked extensively about different ways to back up individual computers, but even the smallest businesses (and many homes) are likely to have multiple computers that should be backed up. Let’s talk about a little-known way to accomplish that.

Microsoft released an interesting operating system under the name Windows Home Server late in 2007. Here are the notes I […] continued

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Many people are looking for an easy way to use their home or office computer remotely. I’m starting to push LogMeIn Pro as the best way for many people to set up their remote access.

Remote access to a computer at another location has obvious appeal for people leaving an office who would benefit from being able to get on the office computer after hours. Or perhaps you have a notebook computer and it would help to access the home computer to run Quicken or get an address. Most of the remote access choices allow you to use […] continued

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Two issues have come up several times for my SBS 2008 clients connecting to Outlook Web Access or their office computers.

OUTLOOK WEB ACCESS

If you go to your remote access web site (e.g., http://www.domainnamenet.com, or http://remote.domainname.com) and click on “Check email”, Outlook Web Access will appear and be fully usable, but it will time out and return you to the login screen after it’s inactive for a short time – ten minutes in my experience. That’s not a huge problem but […] continued

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