Specialized Computing Blog

Windows Server 2008 is Microsoft’s newest server operating system. This new version is not just ‘window’ dressing, there are major architectural changes and major new enhancements that administrators will welcome. Microsoft has concentrated on enhancing security by reducing the attack surface and making enterprise administration and configuration more consistent. In this course, Mark Long will introduce you to what is new and different about this new server operating system, while reinforcing the foundation of the world’s most popular server operating system. He will introduce you to the new management tools and scenarios, enhancements such as PowerShell, IPv6 and step you through the installation and basic setup of one of the most exciting new additions to the Windows Server family, ServerCore. To begin learning today, simply click the links.

Course Overview

Welcome

Prerequisites

Course Overview

History of Windows Server

Windows Server 2008 Overview

Windows Server 2008 & Vista

Windows Server 2008 Basics

System Requirements

First Look at Server 2008

Windows Server Architecture

The Vista Connection

Virtualization

Roles and Features pt. 1

Roles and Features pt. 2

Roles and Features pt. 3

Installation & Deployment

Differences About this Installation

Pre-Installation

Windows Imaging Format

Windows Automated Installation Kit

Installing Windows Server 2008 pt. 1

Installing Windows Server 2008 pt. 2

Microsoft Solutions Framework

Windows Deployment Services

Network Services

New In Network Services

Network Access Protection pt. 1

Network Access Protection pt. 2

IPv6 pt. 1

IPv6 pt. 2

TCP/IP Config

Toredo

Active Directory

Active Directory Overview

Active Directory Organization

New In Active Directory

Creating A Domain Controller pt. 1

Creating A Domain Controller pt. 2

Domain Functional Levels

Read-Only Domain Controllers

System Management

Group Policy

Group Policy Basics

Managing Group Policy pt. 1

Managing Group Policy pt. 2

Forcing Group Policy Updates

Troubleshooting Group Policy

New in Group Policy

File System

File System Basics

New in the File System

Full-Volume Encryption

Managing Windows Server 2008

Differences About Server Management

ICT Console

Server Manager

MMC

Storage Manager

Task Scheduler

Command-Line Tools

PowerShell

PowerShell

Installing PowerShell

Command Guide

Scripts

Security

New in Security

Security Configuration Wizard

Terminal Server

TS Basics

Remote Desktop

Installing TS

Remote Applications

Server Core

Server Core

Server Core Installation

Managing Server Core pt. 1

Managing Server Core pt. 2

Managing Server Core pt. 3

Course Wrap Up

Course Wrap Up

Credits

About The Author

Types of Networks

Just as there are different levels of groups of friends together, there are different levels of networks. The three most common are Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN). Let’s take a look at what makes these networks different and what types of hardware they commonly use.

Personal Area Network (PAN)

PANs are relatively short-ranged networks, usually intended for communicating between a couple of devices. This would be like you and your friends getting together and networking over lunch. PANs are usually found in homes, between a couple of computers and possibly a printer and scanner through the use of a router.

Local Area Network (LAN)

The local scene is an example of a LAN where many people can come together. This location is big enough for everyone, but they do not have to be in the same place. LANs are usually found in office spaces, where the server room may be in one area and the physical computers in another area. These types of networks generally use network interface cards, which are adapters installed on a computer with the responsibility of connecting that computer to the network.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

The last of the three types of networks is the WAN. This network would be similar to instant messaging with your friends or chatting with them via Skype. This type of network uses switches and hubs to help control the flow of data and communications over a long distance. Companies who have national or international conglomerates uses WAN’s to keep everyone in the company connected.

Going In-Depth With Computer Networking

It is simple to think about networking if you can imagine physical interactions between people. Computer networks work the same way. If you would like a more in-depth understanding of computer networking, seek out local classes or go sit with your IT department during your lunch. The art of computer networking truly is a fun world.

Next week, we’ll talk about Hardware and Software in general, and how it all works together to create a “personal computer”…

Networking

When you get together with your friends, you are networking. When you go to a party and meet new people, you are networking. When you use online media to communicate with others, you are networking. So it stands to reason computer networks work along the same guidelines. Computer networks relate to a group of computers, which are linked together, communicating, in order to share information and available resources.

How Networking Works

Networks can consist of a multitude of machines, down to just a few. These may include laptop computers, desktop computers and a server, but also may encompass printers, scanners, data storage devices, fax machines and just about any other communication equipment you could think of. Of course, whether you are meeting with people in person, or online, there has to be someone available to help guide the conversation and keep everything on track. In the computer world of networking, this is known as the “data center,” usually located in the server room.

The data center is the headquarters of the networking team. All of the equipment necessary to maintain smooth operation of the network is kept inside an air-conditioned room. It is imperative to keep this equipment in top shape. If equipment starts to deteriorate, something could go wrong and there would be a negative effect on the entire network. If a connection comes un-soldered, the whole file storage department might be lost. If a cobweb shorts out the data communications side of the house, no transmissions will be able to get in or out of the network.

Of course, not everything has to be physical to go wrong. Since all of the devices are interconnected within this network, if something happens with one computer, it could damage the entire network. Think about the Christmas tree lights; when one goes out, the whole string goes out. If one computer is infected with a serious virus, the network may actually assist in spreading the virus between computers. Of course that is the worst case scenario. The first computer with the virus may be able to terminate it before spreading throughout the network, only sustaining damage to the communications portion of the network.

Next week, we’ll look at the different types of computer networks…

How Does This All Fit Together?

Let’s put this all together. Here is an example of how a server works and helps organize the jobs sent to it from a network experience.

For instance, in an office of 100 people, there may be multiple printers that have different printing capabilities, various file storage options, different levels of staff and different roles of varying importance. Let’s say that 15 people send a job or task to the server within a few minutes of each other. The server analyzes each job based on information such as IP address, proximity to the server and order of importance in processes. The server determines first, who has priority ranking – is the job coming from the CEO, the accounting department or sales? Then the server determines what resources the job requires – color printing or black and white? The server then can choose to send the CEO’s print job to high quality printer; the accounting department’s spreadsheet to the regular black and white printer; and, the sales department’s presentation to the copier.

Think about all the steps that are involved in any business small or large. The server organizes all the computer related tasks for the most efficient use of resources and speed. Depending on the size of the business, there may be many servers both on and off site. When a server goes down, all the technology related tasks become disorganized and things slow down or don’t function at all. The next time you are at the store or call your bank and they say “Sorry, we can’t help you, the server is down” you will now know that it is more than a convenient, technology based excuse to not do what you want them to.

Next week, we’ll look at what’s known as “Virtualization”…

Servers

How many times have you heard the term “the server is down” or “the server failed”? Most likely many! In today’s technologically savvy world, we have all become familiar with the term “server” but few people outside the Information Technology world truly know what it means or can describe accurately describe it. Servers are everywhere today from the grocery store, to our workplace to our schools, it’s time to be in the know!

What is a Server?

A computer server is a Central Processing Unit (CPU) on a network that manages the resources available to the computers attached to that same network. There are different types of servers; some can multitask between different sets of data and others can be dedicated to a single type of task, such as printing or file storage. Servers can be both on-site or off-site.

A computer server takes the task you are trying to accomplish and sends up the request to be processed. Computer servers have to put tasks into order of importance and many times, this is a first-come-first-serve basis. However, tasks can also be ordered by type of job, company department or individual positions within a company.

When a computer related job (task) is required, the server is the first line of contact. A job may be document printing, copying, faxing, file storage, data processing and more. It is the server that assigns each job to the most appropriate resource, gives it a priority ranking and places it in queue. This queue is designed to order computers into a tiered level of importance. If there were no organization, the server would get overloaded trying to process all of the requests at the same time and the result would be an inefficient, slow or broken system.

How does the server know what which jobs to process first? The server assigns the jobs based on a set of rules that the administrator of the server has set up. For instance, in many companies, priority may be given to particular staff or departments. Any jobs coming from the CEO’s office could be assigned top priority and be processed before any others. Servers also assign jobs based on available resources. For instance, it will send the color print jobs to the color printer, a fax to a fax machine and copies to a copier.

Finally, servers also organize tasks based on efficiency. A server can recognize when one resource is being utilized and send a job to another resource to increase overall efficiency. A good example of this is a large print job. If one printer has been assigned a large (100 pages or more) print job and a small 2 page job comes through, rather than assigning it to the printer printing the large job and make the requestor wait, the server will assign it to a free printer.

Next week, we’ll look at how this all fits together…

If you have a computer and want to share files with others, there are different ways to do so. Depending upon your operating system, you can share several files with the other users of the computer, or even with other people on the network.

To share files in your computer, follow these steps:

1. Determine what files you want to share.
If you have a single file to share in your computer, copy it by right clicking on the file itself and click on copy. This will put the file in the computer’s memory for future use.

2. Look for the shared documents folder.
If you are using Windows Xp, click on Start on the lower left corner of your screen. This will open a small window. Look for “My Documents” and click on it. Another window should appear.

3. Click on “Shared Documents” on the left panel.
On the new window that appeared, look at the left panel under “Other Places”. Under that, you should be able to see “Shared Documents”. Click the link. The window should change.

4. Select the folder you want to put the file in.
On the “Shared Documents” window, there are at least three subfolders. These are Shared Music, Shared Video, and Shared Pictures. If your file belongs in any of the categories, you can simply double click on it. Otherwise, create a new folder by right clicking on the white screen. Select “New” on the small window and click on “Folder”. A new folder should be visible on the same window. You can rename the folder if you wish.

5. Paste your document.
After selecting the folder that will contain the file, you can now paste it. Right click on a white spot again. Click “Paste”. The window should now show your file. The file is now ready to be shared with other users of your computer. If the computer is part of a network that has file sharing enabled, the users of the other computers would be able to access the file as well.

Here are the simple ways of sharing files in your computer. Of course, you can use simpler ways of doing it like using a network disk, a flash drive, or a CD. But if you just follow these steps, there should be no need for additional hardware.

Your home broadband, typically ADSL or cable modem access, usually has a different speed for downloading and uploading respectively. Typically you will have a downlink speed in the range of 512 kbit/s up to 8 Mbit/s and an uplink speed substantially lower than that, often 128 kbit/s to 1 Mbit/s. However, even when downloading things from the Internet, traffic flows in both directions, because the protocol that is used to transfer the data uses acknowledgments to make sure that the data has been transferred properly. Since your download speed is substantially higher than your upload speed, in a lot of cases you will not be able to use your full download speed if you are uploading data at the same time.

Your Internet service provider will often quote the speed of your home broadband as being “up to” a certain speed. There is a reason for that. Let’s say you have a home broadband connection of up to 2 Mbit/s in download speed and up to 512 kbit/s in upload speed. Does this mean that you are always guaranteed to get that bandwidth for your transfers?

Definitely not! In fact, all Internet service providers sell much more bandwidth than they can actually deliver. If all the customers of a service provider would try to use their connection to download at the same time, the average bandwidth would be much lower than the maximum value given. In fact, it is not uncommon to sell 50 times more bandwidth than they can actually deliver.

Does this mean that they are tricking you? It certainly sounds so, but this is a practice that has been used a long time, even in telephony networks or cell phone networks. If everyone in the world tried to use their telephone at the same time, it simply would not work. But that just doesn’t happen, most people only use the telephone occasionally.

The same thing applies to your home broadband. Most customers in your service providers network only use their home broadband occasionally. Some users fill up their broadband all the time, and there are those that rarely use it at all. But on average, the usage is quite low compared to the maximum possible. For instance, when you’re surfing on a web site, you spend most of the time reading the pages. Also, most people only spend a fraction of their day in front of their computer at home.

If the service provider was going to guarantee that you could always get your maximum bandwidth, your home broadband would be much more expensive. The service provider would have to make sure that you had dedicated bandwidth for your usage only. This would be a waste, and cost much more than most people are willing to pay.

Instead, service providers carefully monitor the bandwidth usage in a network, to make sure that connections are not overloaded. Some low quality service providers will overload their connections more, and give you a lower average bandwidth.

Service providers also use the same over provisioning for business customers, but the “over provisioning factor” tends to be much lower. This is not surprising, because a business connection is used by many people so on average these connections will be more utilized than a home broadband connection. Furthermore, a business customer generally pays more for the same bandwidth, so the service provider can afford to give a higher quality to these customers.

Setting up a wireless LAN at home to share computing resources is becoming more and more popular. Wireless LAN manufacturers have simplified the process of setting up a wireless LAN to just a few quick and easy steps. However, like any computer hardware, wireless LAN can work for months or years and then all of a sudden, it stops working. Before you call in the professionals to check your wireless LAN, here are a few simple things you can do to troubleshoot the wireless LAN yourself.

1. First of all, save your work and restart your computer. If you have access to the wireless LAN router and broadband modem, restart them as well. This simple technique has a surprisingly high success rate.

2. If this technique fails, the second thing is to check for loose connections. If you have a USB or PCMCIA wireless LAN card, ensure that it is seated firmly in the slot. If you have an internal PCI wireless LAN card, you will need to open the computer casing to check the connection.

3. If a loose connection isn’t the cause of failure, the next thing to try is check Windows’ My Network Places. Are there any new network icons that appear there? Sometimes, your wireless LAN card may detect another network nearby that has a stronger signal and connect to the new network instead. If My Network Places showed any unfamiliar network name, simply remove it. Then double click on your own network name to re-establish the connection.

4. If there is no new network nearby, you can try to bring your computer right next to your wireless LAN router. If this works, then it is likely to be a case of interference. You should think carefully what has changed recently in your house. Maybe you have added a new cordless phone or other equipment that use radio waves. Try switching them off one at a time to determine the source of interference.

5. If you can’t determine any source of interference, you can now try resetting the wireless LAN router to its original factory setting. You can login to the router’s control panel using a web browser and look for the option that allows you to restore the settings to the factory defaults.

If none of these techniques worked, it is likely that there is a hardware failure in your network. You need to unplug each piece of hardware in your wireless LAN in turn to figure out where the failure is. Once you identify the source, call the manufacturer and report the fault. In the event you are unable to isolate the source of failure, call the manufacturer and seek their advice. They should be able to advise you on how to troubleshoot your network further. Just remember to stay polite and be patient.

Wireless networks are becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. Especially if you have broadband Internet access, a wireless router can give you instant communication with the world that is worthy of the science fiction I grew up reading!

The idea of reading email while lounging by the pool, text or instant messaging while doing the laundry, or lounging in the Jacuzzi listening to your MP3 collection is appealing to us all.

Unfortunately, many, or even most, wireless units don’t come with security features already functioning. This may not seem like a big issue to someone who is simply setting up a home network, but there are a number of potential problems you should consider.

The most serious problem is the increase in identity theft. If your network is unsecured, the personal data on your wireless electronic equipment is also unsecured. The order you just placed for a book at Amazon may have given your contact and payment information to an unscrupulous hacker!

Nearly every town in which “WiFi” is common will have “War Drivers” and “War Chalkers” at work. These are people who walk or drive around town with wireless equipment, searching for unsecured networks. The “Chalkers” then live up their name, marking curbs and other public items with chalk so that others can more easily find and exploit your network.

Not all “War Drivers” are hackers, of course. Many just want to use your network for free, but the risk is high if you don’t learn how to protect yourself. You can usually find quite a bit of free information as to how to secure your network at the website of your router’s manufacturer, or by doing a search in a search engine for a phrase like “secure home wireless.”

Beyond the truly malicious, there are also your neighbors who may find your network by accident and enjoy nosing into your activities and using your Internet access at will, slowing down your network speed in the process.

Even many businesses use cheap, home-use quality equipment for their company networks. With the poor security often found on small business networks, anyone with a basic knowledge of wireless can access sensitive company and customer data.

If you are unable to secure your network yourself, there are many service companies who will do it for you. A search of your local yellow pages or an inquiry at your neighborhood computer store should yield professional help and get your private data private again.