RE: Backup Software

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Bob,

I have extension experience with it since I've been running it 
a few years and am an AppAssure partner. Support has improved in the past year. 
6+ months ago, support was pretty bad. I know most of the guys at AppAssure, 
and it's an impressive solution if you're running SQL & Exchange. BUT, your 
backup server needs to be really fast and have a lot of ram. Replay is pretty 
stable once it's working. There have been some version problems (4.5 was bad, 
but later 4.6 is good), but once you find a good version, you stick with it. I 
love the ability to restore directly to vmdk or vhd's (right-click and say 
restore to VM is pretty cool). I have clients replicate to company's equipment 
& it makes testing DR very easy. It's heavy on the WAN links, but 5.0 which is 
in internal beta, is dedup across all systems in storage vs dedup per server. 
Replay is a lot cheaper than DoubleTake and is far better for long term 
retention, BUT DoubleTake is better for failover functionality. Replay is good 
when you have mixed P/V servers. Some features don't work well such as "live 
restore" (restoring while the system is in use). But, for access to any backup 
point in time is very fast. We use a # of backup solutions, but like Replay due 
to easy of configuration and capabilities for DR.

-Ben

From: Bob Hartung [mailto:bhart...@wiscoind.com]
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 2:38 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Backup Software

Anyone have experience with AppAssure?

--

Bob Hartung
Dir of I.T.
Wisco Industries, Inc.
736 Janesville St.
Oregon, WI 53575
Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215
Fax: (608) 835-7399
e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com

From: Bob Hartung [mailto:bhart...@wiscoind.com]
To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
Sent: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:09:33 -0600
Subject: Backup Software

I've been researching backup software and I'd like to go with a disk-to-disk 
solution with offsite replication for disaster recovery. We currently are doing 
disk-to-disk-to-tape and it's taking too long. Plus I'm tired of people telling 
me they forgot to put the next tape in.

I'd appreciate any real-world recommendations on what's good or warnings on 
what's not so good.

Thanks.

--

Bob Hartung
Dir of I.T.
Wisco Industries, Inc.
736 Janesville St.
Oregon, WI 53575
Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215
Fax: (608) 835-7399
e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com

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RE: Backup alternatives

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,

I’ve deployed dozens of QNAPs and have 5 (1 -8 drive units) 
myself, and while they are high performance machines, support is lacking (but 
improving). BUT, you rarely if ever need support. Per Drobos, they are pretty 
looking. There’s a reason they won’t release hardware to benchmark type 
companies (website, magazines, etc), since it’s pretty poor compared to QNAP & 
Synology (SMB NAS leaders). QNAPs are VMware certified as well (I use 4 of them 
only for iSCSI targets & the other is a SMB based ISO repository). I prefer 
QNAP, but when support is a concern buy the Cisco rebranded units. Cisco sells 
3 QNAPs that are actually QNAP hardware but with Cisco SMARTnet support & Cisco 
“software” version. I just bought 2 of the 6 drive units for a client.

http://www.qnap.com/USEng/
http://www.synology.com/us/index.php
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/products/storage/nss300/index.html

-Ben

From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 12:30 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Backup alternatives

Interesting.

And I’ve deployed QNAPs and had nothing but service headaches. :-P I won’t 
deploy another one.

Just goes to show – we’ve all got different experiences…

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 12:23 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Backup alternatives

::shudders::

My DroboPro FS is a bonafide Dee-Oh-Gee.  It is inexcusably, inexplicably slow. 
 It can take an hour or more to delete (DELETE!) several hundred files. I've 
even SSHed into it and run a delete operation from the command line and it's 
the same deal.  I've also never gotten better than 18MB/s or so over gigabit 
into or out of it.

All in all, a terrific waste of money.  Other models may be different, but I 
would never get another Drobo product without having some sort of testing 
period first.

My QNAP TS-859U-RP+, on the other hand, is fantastic.

RS
On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 11:39 AM, Michael B. Smith 
mailto:mich...@smithcons.com>> wrote:
I like drobos. Fast, redundant, etc. But if you can drop an eSATA card into the 
open slot and get a 2 TB drive – that would be a lot cheaper.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Reimer, Mark 
[mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 11:28 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Backup alternatives

Sorry,

OS is Win2K3, 64 bit. But that might change if/when I update the file server.

I’m not too worried about software at this point, more of a hardware question.

I think there might be an open slot in the 2950. I was also looking into a 
simple NAS unit (one or two drive, with easy swappable (hopefully hot) hard 
drives).

Mark

From: Michael B. Smith 
[mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 8:52 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Backup alternatives

What OS? Any open slots in the 2950? (I can’t remember how many slots it has, 
but I’m pretty sure it has at least one.)

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Reimer, Mark 
[mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 10:47 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Backup alternatives

In September (20-23), there was a question about backup devices. My issue is 
related, but more open.

My tape drive died late last week. We back up about 1.5 TB per week (full and 
incrementals combined), so external HD is a very real option. The file server 
is older (Dell 2950). I don’t think there is a eSata port on it. Our internet 
connection isn’t very fast (20 Mb up and down), and quite busy, so a cloud type 
solution may not work well.

I’m open to any ideas you might have.

Thanks

Mark

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RE: RIM Outages NYC?

[Ben Serebin]

The Q&A was more helpful to understand that their "separate" regions are 
actually connected. I don't believe the root cause is accurate since they claim 
it's a "backlog" which is causing the North America issue.

-Ben

From: Kevin Lundy [mailto:klu...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 3:24 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: RIM Outages NYC?

Nor helpful nor informative
On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 3:22 PM, Cameron 
mailto:cameron.orl...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks for the link. Nothing said was a surprise.



On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 3:10 PM, N Parr 
mailto:npar...@mortonind.com>> wrote:
live press conf just started
http://www.rim.com/newsroom/service-update.shtml


From: justino garcia 
[mailto:jgarciaitl...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 1:16 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: RIM Outages NYC?

"What did the one #Blackberry user say to the other?..nothing,"
Good point
On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 2:12 PM, John Cook 
mailto:john.c...@pfsf.org>> wrote:
Short term they will have a lot of explaining to do but hopefully it press them 
to rethink their strategy. Use BP and their oil rig explosion as an example.
While many of us are aggravated with the issue I doubt many business that are 
heavily invested will make any changes - Android is not secure enough for a lot 
of RIMs customers and I doubt that this will push much IPhone in those areas. 
From a security standpoint the BES is still the king of the mountain, for how 
long remains to be seen.

John W. Cook
System Administrator
Partnership For Strong Families
5950 NW 1st Place
Gainesville, Fl 32607
Office/Fax (352) 244-1610
Cell (352) 215-6944
MCSE, MCP+I, MCTS, CompTIA A+, N+, VSP4, VTSP4

From: justino garcia 
[mailto:jgarciaitl...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 2:02 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: RIM Outages NYC?

What will this do to RIM?
Will Admin move to mobile IRON and ios or android or windows mobile?
Is mobile iron just as good as BES?
On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 12:18 PM, Andrew S. Baker 
mailto:asbz...@gmail.com>> wrote:
All over...
ASB

http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker

Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market...


On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 11:01 AM, justino garcia 
mailto:jgarciaitl...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Rim Outages NYC?



--
Justin
IT-TECH



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IT-TECH

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RE: OT - Blackberry Outage

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,

Snip from RIM website below. Summary: failure of testing redundant 
systems and not having enough redundant capacity.

Have numerous clients with BBs on BES across US, and have random users 
affected. I just alerted all my clients to the problems. I'm a big believer in 
the BB functionality, but I only see one way the BB platform will go, and it's 
sadly not up. I wish the BB hardware natively supported direct ActiveSync 
functionality.

-Ben

Tuesday 11th October - 21:30 (GMT+1)
The messaging and browsing delays that some of you are still experiencing were 
caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the 
system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not 
function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was 
generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal 
service as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience 
caused to many of you and we will continue to keep you informed.
http://www.rim.com/newsroom/service-update.shtml


-Original Message-
From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 11:31 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - Blackberry Outage

  RIM has an outage banner on their home page.

  Users report sporadic email, at best.  SMS works.  Our BES says it's had 
contact with the handhelds and RIM's servers, but Pending Data Packets is 
steadily increasing and Forwarded Messages is barely moving.  (We're on 
Verizon, homed in North-East US.)

  According to the CNN article, RIM's core switch died, and the failover 
didn't.  They fixed the switch issues, but now their system is overloaded due 
to the backlog.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
  ~

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RE: Another QNAP question

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Richard,

I always enable it. Performance is good enough with it enabled. 
If you’re volumes are TB+, makes sense in my book. Worth the single digit 
performance hit.

-Ben

From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 12:34 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Another QNAP question

Do any of you seasoned QNAP owners use the "Bitmap" feature?  Reviews seem to 
be mixed about the size of the performance hit.

Thanks

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RE: VMware vSphere 5 Licensing and Pricing Update

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,

My comment on new VMware pricing…. if you knew me, you would 
know I’m a BIG proponent of ESXi for ease of deployment, stability, & features. 
But, after heavily working with Hyper-V R2 “Core” in a 2 node cluster config 
for about a year (recently expanded to 3 node), I’m willing to bet vSphere 5 
will cause more harm than good. Danger for VMware is around the corner with 
next version of Hyper-V since it comes with async off-site replication for free 
among other features. VMware is in BIG trouble. Yes, Hyper-V takes a LOT longer 
on setup, but Hyper-V is still cheaper (labor + software) vs the crazy new v5 
pricing (& even v4 pricing – software + labor). In light of this VMware price 
gouging (aka vTax), I’ll start to push clients to Hyper-V if they need 
clustering.

Microsoft details features in next version of Hyper-V
http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/08/01/beware-the-vmware-memory-vtax-plus-good-news-for-hyper-v.aspx

-Ben

[cid:image002.jpg@01CC5E73.A1305110]
Technology & Exchange Server Consulting
Office: 646.470.9051
Mobile: 646.319.9051
--
Founder / President
New York Exchange User Group
1st and Only Microsoft Exchange Server Group in NYC
--
From: Harry Singh [mailto:hbo...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 12:24 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: VMware vSphere 5 Licensing and Pricing Update

My post didn't mean to suggest or infer any deficiencies in VMware's QA 
process. And VMware doesn't necessarily need to be deficient when releasing an 
update after GA which may address added functionality that was either left off 
or not exactly "ready" for RTM. Because I won't deploy a GA release has 
everything to do with my past experience with vSphere 4.0 GA and the breadth of 
updates/changes/fixes/enhancements available when U1 became available.  I speak 
from my own standards and will, more oft than not, wait for Update 1 before I 
seriously plan for vSphere 5. This doesn't apply to just installing vSphere 5 
and getting familiar with some core nuances and functionality. This also 
doesn't apply or need to make sense to everyone, it's just my own perspective 
based on my own technical experiences with VMware.

There was also nothing specifically stated that they wouldn't go straight to 
production either. [cid:image001.png@01CC5E73.08DA3570] Semantics really, but 
my inference was guided towards the the time it sometimes take to deploy a 
fully prepared lab environment (in some cases) vs the time it would take for 
VMware to release update 1.

I would imagine most deployment approaches will always be governed by the 
organizations you're dealing with. And if org X wants to make the move, then 
the better business practice would behoove you to move forward while preparing 
the org with as much information as possible. If after the knowledge exchange 
is done and you and the org are comfortable with a GA release of vSphere 5, 
well then rock-n-roll.

And for the record, I'm pretty sure the GA of vSphere 5 is more than production 
"ready". I just apply my own standard, based on my own experiences.






On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 11:44 PM, Andrew S. Baker 
mailto:asbz...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Even accounting for the number of changes that might be found in a GA release, 
do you have any specific experiences you can cite that would lead you to 
believe that VMWare will have been that much more deficient in the QA processes 
of 5.0 vs 5.0.1?   Or, are you simply adhering to some standard process that 
you feel works for you?

Like I suggested earlier, I prefer to tailor my deployment approach to the 
specific of the products and organizations that I'm dealing with.

Given that there was nothing in Martin's post which specifically suggested a 
production deployment sans testing, I'm rather intrigued that you would infer 
such.

ASB

http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker

Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market…



On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 11:07 PM, Harry Singh 
mailto:hbo...@gmail.com>> wrote:
No crime of negligence would be committed if you apply this process to a lab 
environment or pilot deployment, absolutely.  But, there are some cases, in my 
experience, where either preparing your lab environment for the right amount of 
compatibility prerequisites or allocating enough resources and time to a lab 
environment become time consuming or considerably drawn out. That being said, 
considering VMware isn't considerably slow to release their first update to 
their GA products, in my opinion, it would take a strong business (read: 
financial, compliance) requirement not to wait and deploy their updated product 
in my lab environment or pilot deployment. But again, that's my opinion for 
this particular vendor, which in my environment is the "mothership".  
Notw

RE: find duplicate files

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Bill,

Sorry for the delay (but this list generates a lot of email). The 
developer of FolderSizes has a great tool called Duplicate File Detective and 
he has it in 64 bit & multi-threaded and supports removing dups as well. It's 
very feature rich. FolderSizes rocks as well. Far faster than an open-source 
WinDirStat.

http://www.duplicate-file-detective.com/

-Ben

-Original Message-
From: Bill Humphries [mailto:nt...@hedgedigger.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 11:48 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: find duplicate files

Hi all,

Any suggestions for a tool that I could use to search for duplicate files on a 
20tb Xsan?  Although it primarily has Macs attached to it, I do have one 
windows machine.

Thanks.

Bill

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
  ~

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RE: QNAP iSCSI target for ESX 4.1

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Richard,

Cisco doesn’t have anything similar to the TS-859U-RP. That’s 
an excellent unit. Other comment is disable EVERYTHING but iSCSI (e.g. Network 
Services & Application Servers). And recommend you test the unit for 1-2 months 
before you go into production including rebooting it a few times to insure all 
HDs are proper detected on reboot. My normal testing is to put a lot of load on 
the hardware & monitor it (ping every 5 seconds 24/7 and make sure it doesn’t 
drop packets even on load).

Good luck,
-Ben

From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 10:00 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: QNAP iSCSI target for ESX 4.1

Doh!

I just ordered a TS-859U-RP+ and 9 drives (on the supported list) from Newegg 
yesterday.

Thank you very much for the information and thoughtful review.  I might order a 
smaller unit as a spare for emergencies.
On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 11:13 PM, Ben Serebin 
mailto:b...@reefsolutions.com>> wrote:
Hello Richard,

I have 5 different models of QNAPs all running iSCSI from ESXi. 
I run VMs directing from them and use others for storage LUNs and while QNAP is 
rock solid, I would NOT recommend QNAP in a production VM running environment 
unless you’re willing to deal with a 1 week RMA process with no Advance RMA 
options. Outside of this, performance is excellent when you separate interfaces 
and VLAN it. My concern is support, since I had 1 unit experience NIC issues, 
and it was a real challenge to get them to swap the unit. Having said that, 
Cisco sells rebranded QNAPs (3-4 different models) and offers proper business 
support. If you want to deploy this right, buy via Cisco. Also, make sure you 
hard drives you buy are on the QNAP compatibility list.

Rebranded QNAPs from Cisco
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/products/storage/nss300/index.html

Good luck,
-Ben

From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com<mailto:rich...@gmail.com>]
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 2:09 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: QNAP iSCSI target for ESX 4.1

Anyone using a QNAP device as an iSCSI target in a VMware ESX 4.1 production 
environment?  Any experiences you can share?

On a related note, I'm thinking of adding some iSCSI datastores in addition to 
the ones already presented via FC from my EVA.  Any reason that's not a good 
idea?  We have a number of VMs that don't have significant I/O requirements 
(think WSUS servers and the like) that I'm thinking of moving off of the 
expensive storage to an inexpensive iSCSI solution such as a QNAP array.

Thanks,
RS

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

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RE: QNAP iSCSI target for ESX 4.1

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Richard,

I have 5 different models of QNAPs all running iSCSI from ESXi. 
I run VMs directing from them and use others for storage LUNs and while QNAP is 
rock solid, I would NOT recommend QNAP in a production VM running environment 
unless you’re willing to deal with a 1 week RMA process with no Advance RMA 
options. Outside of this, performance is excellent when you separate interfaces 
and VLAN it. My concern is support, since I had 1 unit experience NIC issues, 
and it was a real challenge to get them to swap the unit. Having said that, 
Cisco sells rebranded QNAPs (3-4 different models) and offers proper business 
support. If you want to deploy this right, buy via Cisco. Also, make sure you 
hard drives you buy are on the QNAP compatibility list.

Rebranded QNAPs from Cisco
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/products/storage/nss300/index.html

Good luck,
-Ben

From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 2:09 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: QNAP iSCSI target for ESX 4.1

Anyone using a QNAP device as an iSCSI target in a VMware ESX 4.1 production 
environment?  Any experiences you can share?

On a related note, I'm thinking of adding some iSCSI datastores in addition to 
the ones already presented via FC from my EVA.  Any reason that's not a good 
idea?  We have a number of VMs that don't have significant I/O requirements 
(think WSUS servers and the like) that I'm thinking of moving off of the 
expensive storage to an inexpensive iSCSI solution such as a QNAP array.

Thanks,
RS

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RE: I need a Landline! You read that right.

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Hank,

Yes. Voip.ms offers other plans starting at $0.99 and a few 
others. They are very responsive and actually technical. Use the chat off the 
website

-Ben

From: Hank . [mailto:hgedr...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2011 10:50 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: I need a Landline! You read that right.

I ported our land line to Callcentric a few years ago. At the time they were 
one of the few carriers that could accept the port from our exchange.

Does voip.ms<http://voip.ms> offer other plans than they show on their website? 
I can only find that the DID flat rate is $4.95 to $5.95 and outbound is either 
$0.0052 or $0.0125/min.

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 5:24 PM, Ben Serebin 
mailto:b...@reefsolutions.com>> wrote:
Hello All,

I know this is old, but wanted to share in case it helps 
someone (I spent a few months determining my options and testing different 
solutions). I recently dropped Vonage after about 9 yrs for my home setup and 
switched to a significantly cheaper and more flexible solution. Vonage is too 
expensive (~$37/month) & I didn't need all their crazy features since it needed 
to be "wife friendly" (non-tech) & support a standard 2 line Panasonic cordless 
phone. And more importantly their pricing over the last few years included 
double digit pricing increases for "taxes & surcharges". I also have a Google 
Voice I wanted to incorporate. 2 options...


-  Get a OBiTalk (hardware) which allows you to dial out/in via an 
analog or IP phone via a SIP provider or Google Voice (supports 2 SIP or phone 
line options or combination). Yes, your grandmother's analog phone (needs touch 
tone, sorry no pulse) could be dialing out for FREE via Google Voice. 
http://www.obihai.com/ The folks behind OBiTalk use to work for Cisco, there 
hardware is rock solid stable. Very user friendly for non-VoIP people.

-  Use a SIP provider (I like voip.ms<http://voip.ms>) since it's very 
cheap and has EVERY feature you could dream of. Spoofed calling (my SPA has 6 
caller ID profiles), Asterisk support, phone trees, e911 or no e911 to save the 
money. If you're really smart & thrifty, you get e911 on 1 line and none on 
line 2 and do call routing when someone dials 911. You can get almost unlimited 
national for $4.95 INCLUDING ALL TAXES & SURCHARGES. And it's 6 sec billing. 
E911 is $1.50 extra a month. You can port #'s over (adds $2 a month), etc. I 
love these guys. I have extra DIDs for $0.99 a month. It's mind blowing.

FYI: I have an OBi110 (it's so popular - people scalp them) & a Cisco SPA509G 
IP phone.

Enjoy,
-Ben


From: Sam Cayze [mailto:sca...@gmail.com<mailto:sca...@gmail.com>]
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 3:09 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: OT: I need a Landline! You read that right.

So...
Thought I'd build a nice new home office in the basement.  After layers of new 
insulation, soundproofing, and drywall, my cell phone no longer works down 
there!  Oops :-\

Considering how much I telecommute, I need to get some sort of landline 
installed.  VOIP/SIP/Digital through Comcast, I'm considering it all.  But, I'm 
not too well versed on the options avail.  I still support an old PBX at our 
office, and built a SIP fax service/server, but my telco experience is pretty 
limited outside of that.  I'd like to avoid Comcast (Personal reasons and I 
often cancel it and go through our Municipal WiFi).

Any suggestions you guys have off the top of your head?  A good service that 
sticks out that you would like to plug?

Something that incorporated with Google Voice would be a plus... (Not sure 
anything does).  I do use the new Sprint/Google Voice offering, so I can mask 
the new number with my Sprint number, and I can easily have my Sprint number 
ring the new number too.

Thanks.  Open to ideas.


-Sam



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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RE: I need a Landline! You read that right.

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,

I know this is old, but wanted to share in case it helps 
someone (I spent a few months determining my options and testing different 
solutions). I recently dropped Vonage after about 9 yrs for my home setup and 
switched to a significantly cheaper and more flexible solution. Vonage is too 
expensive (~$37/month) & I didn't need all their crazy features since it needed 
to be "wife friendly" (non-tech) & support a standard 2 line Panasonic cordless 
phone. And more importantly their pricing over the last few years included 
double digit pricing increases for "taxes & surcharges". I also have a Google 
Voice I wanted to incorporate. 2 options...


-  Get a OBiTalk (hardware) which allows you to dial out/in via an 
analog or IP phone via a SIP provider or Google Voice (supports 2 SIP or phone 
line options or combination). Yes, your grandmother's analog phone (needs touch 
tone, sorry no pulse) could be dialing out for FREE via Google Voice. 
http://www.obihai.com/ The folks behind OBiTalk use to work for Cisco, there 
hardware is rock solid stable. Very user friendly for non-VoIP people.

-  Use a SIP provider (I like voip.ms) since it's very cheap and has 
EVERY feature you could dream of. Spoofed calling (my SPA has 6 caller ID 
profiles), Asterisk support, phone trees, e911 or no e911 to save the money. If 
you're really smart & thrifty, you get e911 on 1 line and none on line 2 and do 
call routing when someone dials 911. You can get almost unlimited national for 
$4.95 INCLUDING ALL TAXES & SURCHARGES. And it's 6 sec billing. E911 is $1.50 
extra a month. You can port #'s over (adds $2 a month), etc. I love these guys. 
I have extra DIDs for $0.99 a month. It's mind blowing.

FYI: I have an OBi110 (it's so popular - people scalp them) & a Cisco SPA509G 
IP phone.

Enjoy,
-Ben


From: Sam Cayze [mailto:sca...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 3:09 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: OT: I need a Landline! You read that right.

So...
Thought I'd build a nice new home office in the basement.  After layers of new 
insulation, soundproofing, and drywall, my cell phone no longer works down 
there!  Oops :-\

Considering how much I telecommute, I need to get some sort of landline 
installed.  VOIP/SIP/Digital through Comcast, I'm considering it all.  But, I'm 
not too well versed on the options avail.  I still support an old PBX at our 
office, and built a SIP fax service/server, but my telco experience is pretty 
limited outside of that.  I'd like to avoid Comcast (Personal reasons and I 
often cancel it and go through our Municipal WiFi).

Any suggestions you guys have off the top of your head?  A good service that 
sticks out that you would like to plug?

Something that incorporated with Google Voice would be a plus... (Not sure 
anything does).  I do use the new Sprint/Google Voice offering, so I can mask 
the new number with my Sprint number, and I can easily have my Sprint number 
ring the new number too.

Thanks.  Open to ideas.


-Sam



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

---
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~   ~

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Reading Shadow Copies from volume

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,

Any ideas how to pull shadow copies from a hard drive that's original 
OS [2003] doesn't exist? All data was recovered except for 1 important file. A 
separate volume was used for Shadow Copies. I'm trying to pull a single file 
from the Shadow Copies, but so far haven't found any way to do this. I've read 
about VSS volumes where you prepare for export/import, but there's no export 
"xml" file, so any other ideas on how to re-import or read this data? 

Thanks,
-Ben

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~   ~

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RE: connecting TO a XP PC via RDP AND getting multi-monitor support

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Angus,

Your last link on the MSDN blogs was pretty good. It appears 
it's a "RDS" (Remote Desktop Services - new name for Terminal Services) related 
feature, which is 7 or 2008 R2. Only way to know for sure is to try it. I'll 
recommend to the client to proceed and will post back if it's approved and the 
results. I'm only concerned about RDP's support for multi-monitor on the 
desktop level.

Thanks again,
-Ben

From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:angu...@geoapps.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:29 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: connecting TO a XP PC via RDP AND getting multi-monitor support

On 17 May 2011 at 10:49, Ben Serebin  wrote:

>  I'm well aware of the "span" feature in RDC 6.0 for outbound RDP
> connections to a multi-monitor environment, BUT I'm trying to do something
> DIFFERENT. I need to know and find something documented that says inbound
> (yes, inbound) to what level OS (XP SP3, Vista, 7, etc) is required to get
> multi-monitor support. So, I have a client that uses real desktops + RDP
> connections + vpn (sigh) for remote workers, and I need to get a remote
> worker operational with a multi-monitor setup on their desktop. Any helpful
> insight is appreciated...

Interesting question.  UltraVNC over a VPN should support this natively.  Cost 
is the same as RDP, but IMHO it works better in this case.  I have used 
UltraVNC inside a LAN control multi-monitor computers from a client with only 
one monitor and it works.

No personal experience with RDP on multi-monitors, but the 3rd link on this 
search for me:

rdp multiple monitors - Google Search
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=rdp+multiple+monitors

leads to this article:

Remote Desktop Dual Monitor Support tip
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft/remote-desktop-dual-monitor-support-tip.asp

To have the remote computer's desktop span two monitors, simply type 'mstsc 
/span' at a command prompt (i.e. Start, Run, cmd.exe, mstsc /span). This 
feature is sometimes called continuous resolution. To toggle in and out of 
full-screen spanned mode, press Ctrl+Alt+Break.

The TMCnet article recommends a commercial app for tricky situations (or maybe 
if you're using XP):

SplitView | Split your monitor! Multi monitors for Remote Desktop ...
http://www.splitview.com/

Lower down in the same search I found an MSDN article on using multiple 
monitors with RDP:

Using Multiple Monitors in Remote Desktop Session - Remote Desktop Services 
(Terminal Services) Team Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/07/01/using-multiple-monitors-in-remote-desktop-session.aspx

but it seems like this really only works right connecting from Win7 to 
Win7/WS2008R2 and you said you're using XP & Vista.

Let us know how you end up getting this working as I could use this too ;-)

A


--
Angus Scott-Fleming
GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona
1-520-895-3270
Security Blog: http://geoapps.com/



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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RE: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Matt,

You can whitelist per IP ranges (school admin IPs will get youtube, 
while kids won't or vice versa) if you get the Premium version. I would only 
ever recommend the Premium version (skip Standard). Like someone else said, 
this is the basics, don't expect real reporting, etc. Just blocking. It works 
pretty well. It's also dirt cheap ($83 for the TZ100 see url below). It's 
almost free that that price. I'm not promoting this site (but I've bought via 
them before). I've also deployed WebSense one of the most full featured content 
filtering solutions on the market, but it sounds like you need real basic 
filtering which is what SonciWall offers for CF.

http://www.sonicguard.com/ContentFilteringService.asp

Another trick is to use DHCP MAC address reservations and allow all the 
computers to use DHCP but control who gets IP based and then have the filtering 
work that way. Or good ol' static IPs. There are different ways to deploy this.

-Ben

-Original Message-
From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:mr...@ephrataschools.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:55 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering

The feature we really need is user based access in it's most basic form. Users 
are able to access sites A, B, and C, but nothing else (your basic whitelist) 
while letting a privileged user to also go to sites X, Y, and Z while still 
being filtered from xxx.com. I do not require AD integration or in depth 
reporting in this case.

> If you're trying to do more complex filtering (e.g. whitelisting per 
> AD logged on user, skip it)...

Does this mean it cannot do what I require? Thanks again for your feedback.


--Matt Ross
Ephrata School District


- Original Message -
From: Ben Serebin
[mailto:b...@reefsolutions.com]
To: NT System Admin Issues
[mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
Sent: Tue, 17 May 2011
06:36:13 -0700
Subject: RE: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering


> Hello Matt,
> 
>   It works well if all computers are treated equally. Simple, 
> effective, and low cost. If you're trying to do more complex filtering 
> (e.g. whitelisting per AD logged on user, skip it), but if you can 
> whitelist based on IP ranges, it works well (requires CFS Premium version).
> 
> -Ben
> 
> REEF Solutions
> Technology & Exchange Server Consulting
> --
> Founder / President
> New York Exchange User Group
> 1st and Only Microsoft Exchange Server Group in NYC www.nyexug.com
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:mr...@ephrataschools.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:37 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering
> 
> Sorry for the previous blank post, it was sent prematurely. 
> 
> I know some of you guys are fans of the SonicWalls. I'm looking at the 
> TZ100 for a remote lab of 12 workstations. What I'd like your opinion 
> on is the content filtering feature. I'll be getting a sales pitch 
> tomorrow, I'm sure... But any feedback for or against the filtering 
> will be helpful while evaluating this solution.
> 
> Thanks in advance. 
> 
> 
> --Matt Ross
> Ephrata School District
> 
> 
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
> <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~
> 
> ---
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> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
> 
> 
> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
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> 

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connecting TO a XP PC via RDP AND getting multi-monitor support

[Ben Serebin]

Hello All,



I'm well aware of the "span" feature in RDC 6.0 for outbound 
RDP connections to a multi-monitor environment, BUT I'm trying to do something 
DIFFERENT. I need to know and find something documented that says inbound (yes, 
inbound) to what level OS (XP SP3, Vista, 7, etc) is required to get 
multi-monitor support. So, I have a client that uses real desktops + RDP 
connections + vpn (sigh) for remote workers, and I need to get a remote worker 
operational with a multi-monitor setup on their desktop. Any helpful insight is 
appreciated…



Thanks,
-Ben

P.S. This is my first posted question to the group. I’ve been watching on the 
sidelines. Thanks again.

[cid:image001.jpg@01CC147A.59BCC1D0]
Technology & Exchange Server Consulting
--
Founder / President
New York Exchange User Group
1st and Only Microsoft Exchange Server Group in NYC
--








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~   ~

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<>

RE: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering

[Ben Serebin]

Hello Matt,

It works well if all computers are treated equally. Simple, effective, 
and low cost. If you're trying to do more complex filtering (e.g. whitelisting 
per AD logged on user, skip it), but if you can whitelist based on IP ranges, 
it works well (requires CFS Premium version).

-Ben

REEF Solutions
Technology & Exchange Server Consulting
--
Founder / President
New York Exchange User Group
1st and Only Microsoft Exchange Server Group in NYC
www.nyexug.com

-Original Message-
From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:mr...@ephrataschools.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:37 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Sonicwall TZ100 content filtering

Sorry for the previous blank post, it was sent prematurely. 

I know some of you guys are fans of the SonicWalls. I'm looking at the TZ100 
for a remote lab of 12 workstations. What I'd like your opinion on is the 
content filtering feature. I'll be getting a sales pitch tomorrow, I'm sure... 
But any feedback for or against the filtering will be helpful while evaluating 
this solution.

Thanks in advance. 


--Matt Ross
Ephrata School District


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  ~

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