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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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Ace consultant Brian Dent of CompuDent Systems points out an interesting corollary to the speed increases from Comcast:

Just one caveat I’ve run into.  A lot of the existing routers can’t handle a 50Mbps incoming signal.  I have a 50Mbps account with a SonicWALL TZ 180e 25U.  The ports are 100Mbps but the throughput is limited to 20Mbps.  So you can get all this speed but it doesn’t do you any good if the equipment in-between can’t accept it.

And another little gotcha that some people might not be aware of regarding network speeds.  My Dell notebook has

[…] 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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I have shared a bit of wisdom with many of you when we’ve talked about setting up 802.11 wireless networks:

People who depend on wireless networks call me about connection problems.

People with wires don’t.

Wireless technology is just swell. Millions of people use it every day.

But if you’re making a decision about how to set up your home or office network, think long and hard about hiring someone to run network cables between the locations where desktop computers are located. You’ll plug in the computer and bang! everything will work without a hitch.

You can […] continued

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Outlook Web Access can be used to view or open any file in a shared folder on the servers in an office run by Small Business Server 2008.

Small Business Server 2008 improves many things about remote access to an office network. The main screen for Remote Web Workplace makes it easy to use Outlook Web Access or connect to an office computer, with nothing extraneous to confuse anyone.

Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 is so much improved that some people will use it instead of installing Outlook to access their Exchange mailbox. I just discovered another feature […] continued

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One glitch in the SBS 2008 migration nagged at me – it didn’t make sense that the computers with the individual version of Windows Live OneCare were not reporting in to the SBS 2008 console, which tracks the security status of all the workstations on the network.

This is a sample of the new console for managing workstations in SBS 2008.

A handful of the computers running OneCare were able to get through and the server reported they were secure. I looked in vain for firewall exceptions for ports or services that were different on those.

It […] continued

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Let me leave a few notes behind about some of the glitches during the migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. I don’t have many answers but perhaps it will help someone to know that I’m able to commiserate with them. (Loyal clients – this is not aimed at you and it won’t help you get your work done. I’ll be back to general interest topics next week!)

As background: I was migrating an SBS 2003 server with a very basic configuration – no ISA, no use of Sharepoint, a single NIC and external firewall, and no particular pre-existing issues. […] continued

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More notes on the new release of Small Business Server 2008.

Small businesses have more options than ever before as they grow to 5-10 people and begin to think about adding a server or two. Some businesses will be able to reduce costs by using a hosted mail service and only using a server onsite to share files and printers to a small group. But that won’t be right for all businesses – SBS 2008 has across-the-board improvements in an already impressive product and it will still be the right choice for many offices looking to step up […] continued

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I spent the weekend migrating a 20-person law firm to new servers running Microsoft Small Business Server 2008. If I did my job right, the first impression on Monday morning will be that very little has changed – folders with firm documents will open up, Outlook will show mailboxes full of mail, and people will get to work. (Crossing fingers. Knocking on wood.)

In the next few weeks I’ll tell you about some of the things that have made a very positive impression so far. Without making a big deal about it, Microsoft has developed a consistent look for […] continued

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Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 will be released on November 12. Veterans of SBS 2003 are finding many things to like in the new version; I’ll have more to say about it in the next few weeks. Here’s an early look at the features and changes in SBS 2008.

At about the same time, Windows Live OneCare will be upgraded to version 3. If you already use OneCare, the new version will presumably be sent to you automatically, it will restart your computer, and it will cause enough glitches that I’ll be busy on the phone for a […] continued

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