OCNTUG Newsletter Volume 2 Number 5
May 1, 2004
(SoCal IT Professional Association)
Welcome Members, Visitors and Friends!
Inside this Issue:
The Operating System of the Future
QuickStart Offers Two Classes to OCNTUG Members at Reduced Rates
Meeting Announcement: May 13, 2004
Previous Meeting...
Random Access Department: Could a Loadfest be made more effective?
Final Notes…
Email the Editor
And Now, The News...
MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES THE OPERATING SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE
Code-named "Longhorn", the next version of Microsoft's premier operating system is scheduled for release in 2006, and will include both Server and Workstation versions. The new OS promises to be even easier to install than the present Windows 2003 Server.
To help them understand your current problems and frustrations with Server 2003, Microsoft will hold a one hour teleconferenced Feedback Forum with the Orange County NT User Group at our next meeting, between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. Their question is: What would we like to see in the next generation of Windows Servers? So if you have any input on possible improvements to be added to the new OS, or simply a desire to voice any concerns, frustrations, gripes, etc...BE THERE!
This meeting starts promtly at 6:30 p.m. for the telecast from Redmond. Come early! The first 150 members to arrive at the meeting will get a free copy of Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Enterprise Edition with a 25 user license!
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QuickStart
Intelligence Offers Two Classes to OCNTUG Members
Article by Brad Fischl
As always I will inform you of training events that I believe are of value to our members. Here are two events I think are worth looking at. If you are interested in either or both, email me at brad.fischl@quickstart.com and I will send you registration details. Seating is very limited in both events so don't procrastinate!
Course QSMS2K03 - Systems Management Server 2003- QuickStart Workshop (2 days)
http://www.quickstart.com/html/myqs/my_training/enrollment/coursedescription.asp?productnumber=QSMS2K03
Dates - May 20-21
Location - Quickstart LA -
http://www.quickstart.com/html/about/locations/s_losangeles.htm
Cost - $995
Instructor - Skyler Sypherd - Microsoft "Top Gun" Instructor (listed in top ten nationwide for MCTs)
_______________________________________
SQL Reporting Services LoadFest
Dates - May 17
Location - Quickstart LA - http://www.quickstart.com/html/about/locations/s_losangeles.htm
Cost - $50
Instructor - TBD (It will be one of QuickStart's SQL gurus)
Best Regards,
Brad Fischl
Meeting and Event Coordinator
Director of Education & Certification
OCNTUG
949-330-6839 - direct
949-330-6829 - fax
714-318-2664 - cell
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Meeting Announcement: Thursday, May 13, 2004
Article by Dick Porter, Membership Chairman
Sybari Advanced Spam Manager (SYBARI)
Network Administrators require powerful and automated solutions to significantly reduce spam and malicious content and their resulting impact on an organization’s network. The Sybari Advanced Spam Manager is an enterprise class, high-performance, anti-spam, and content-filtering component designed specifically to assist administrators in reducing the impact of spam messages and unsolicited mail traffic on their networks. Sybari integrates best-of-breed third-party spam engine technology to improve the accuracy of spam detection while reducing false positives and administrator intensive work. Designed as a stand alone solution or for use with Sybari’s Antigen, the Sybari Spam Manager delivers sophisticated message scanning for Microsoft Exchange and SMTP Gateway servers. www.sybari.com
Advanced Spam Defense (COMMTOUCH)
Organizations require robust, scalable solutions to reduce, manage, and eliminate spam, unsolicited mail, and malicious content from plaguing their networks and servers. With Sybari ASD, organizations have the ability to deploy a comprehensive, feature-rich, stand-alone, anti-spam solution which can be tailored to seamlessly support its needs and infrastructure. Sybari ASD offers all inclusive spam detection via two pioneering technologies, the Sybari ASD Spam Detection Service Center and the stand-alone Sybari ASD Enterprise Gateway Module. Together these two technologies make it possible for spam to be detected using effective techniques that are independent of the content of messages. www.commtouch.com
The big door prize for this meeting will be a portable USB Drive. Plus other fun door prizes and software.
As always please RSVP on the http://www.SoCalITPro.org website. The link is on the lower left hand side of the home page.
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At the Previous Meeting...
Big Brother is Monitoring! Really! Jason Michael of Tevora Business Solutions, http://www.tevora.com, presented an utterly fascinating, if somewhat scary, discussion and demonstration of Computer Associates' eTrust Network Forensics application. Developed to detect cyber terrorism, Network Forensics monitors and analyzes all network traffic, providing realtime network diagnostics. More than a simple enhancement to intrusion detection technology, this forensic analysis tool is for the serious security investigator, whose responsibilities include risk mitigation, incident response, and compliance. Network Forensics offers data collection and visualization, pattern and content analysis using engram binary analysis, and forensic analysis and investigation. It enables viewing of transmitted data and tracking the source and destination of the packets.
Using previously collected data, Jason demonstrated how Network Forensics can display a realtime, graphical analysis of data flow through a network, how specific data paths can be isolated, and the IP addresses of the sending and receiving systems pinpointed. He also showed how the software enables viewing the text and images transmitted. Although it cannot immediately decrypt encrypted transmissions (yet), it can read the headers, and the encrypted files can be captured for later analysis. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies use this software to track terrorist activity, as well as child pornography on the Internet. Yes, Big Brother is watching. Don't you feel safer now?
The second presentation of the evening, given by Robert Ingrum, ringrum@gatewaytelnet.com, described the Shoreline Voice Over IP product line. Shoreline switches use VMX, a closed operating system; yet it provides easy web-based management, with no central console required. Also the system can use any phone, analog or IP, reducing the total cost of the system. Users benefit from the Shoreline system through unified messaging, realtime call handling and handling modes, collaboration, office "hoteling", and even softphones. As phone system go, Shoreline is the wave of the future! See it now at Gateway Telnet, http://www.gatewaytelnet.com!
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Random Access Department: Could a Loadfest be made more effective?
A week ago, I attended a Windows Server 2003 Loadfest, a free training session designed to help iron out the bugs (if there are any bugs)
in the processes of loading and configuring the Server. I would say it went reasonably well (and that's how I filled out the evaluation form), but as I was leaving, one of the other engineers mentioned a problem that I have noted with just about all of the Microsoft training courses that I have attended. When you solve a math problem, you can always check your answer by plugging the answer back into the equation, and verifying that the answer you get is correct, or that the equation balances. In our training courses, we are given step-by-step instructions on how to reach an endpoint, but there is almost never a method given to check your work, and verify that what you did actually works. Yes, if you can ping the server, it probably works, but were the settings actually correct? And what happens when you followed the steps (or thought you did), and you don't get the results expected? (In one particular lab, certain folders should have been created in the DNS server, but only if you pointed to your own server, and this was not clearly explained in the text, nor by the instructor.) Does the instructor have the time to help each and every person in the class resolve the resulting confusion? How do you configure the loopback address, if the server won't permit you to use 127.0.0.1, and the instructor isn't available to help because he's helping three other students, and the details are not in the text? And if the instructor's slide on screen was not included in the text, and you missed seeing that slide because you were otherwise engaged, how do you recover from the error? The books rarely offer sufficient troubleshooting tips in the lab exercises.
Oh, and those books...another problem. The book for this loadfest was a poorly organized collection of powerpoint slides, un-numbered, and the chapters were not in the sequence presented by the instructor. It became almost impossible to determine where the instructor was in the text. Also, like most Microsoft curriculum texts, there was no Index. How is the reader expected to return to an important topic if there is no index and no page numbering? Folding corners?
I have no gripes about the instructors...they're always top-notch professionals with extensive experience. But I think they might be more effective, if someone had more carefully planned out, and written down a concise lesson plan, and done a more thorough job of creating a training manual. You know, when you're asked to fill out the eval form at the end of a session, and your cpu is overloaded with data, and half of your multiple threads are running continuous loops while going back over what you thought you learned, and you're tired, hungry, and starting to think about the long drive home, and where you'd rather be just then, you're likely to say that everything was just fine, but...was it? Of course, if they wanted to hire someone to help create such curricula, someone with both teaching and writing experience, I might be persuaded to help...for a reasonable fee...
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Final Notes…
> Microsoft announces the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2, with major security enhancements. Visit http://www.microsoft.com to get it!
> CULMINIS, INC. now has 183,000 members, worldwide. It is now larger than INETA.
> The SoCal IT Pro Association will offer email address service to its members. Watch for the announcement, soon after our name change becomes official.
> Job Postings are now available on the OCNTUG website. Postings are open to employers and consultants looking to hire new employees directly, not to headhunters (agents or agencies).
See you at the meeting on Thursday, May 13, 2004, enjoy!
Robert Holtzman,
Editor
rholtzman@netzero.net
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OCNTUG Newsletter
Volume 2 No. 5 05/01/04
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