IT Knowledgebase Articles

PowerPoint: Adding an Office Object to a Presentation Office allows referencing another Office application within a document as an icon (see Office: Adding another Document to an Office Document as an Icon) and clicking on it to open. However, when trying to implement this option within a presentation, the next slide is displayed. That is…

What TCP and UDP ports does my Exchange 2000/2003 Server use? For purposes of configuring firewalls or for troubleshooting communications issues, it may be useful to know what TCP/UDP ports Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server are using. This article is also true for Exchange Server 2003 installations. Protocol: LDAP Port (TCP/UDP): 389…

Port scanning is a technique used to determine the states of network ports on a host and to map out hosts on a network. In this article, I’ll go over the very basics of port scanning with the NMAP tool. NMAP Overview Port States NMAP will categorize ports as being in one of the following…

What are the considerations for the FSMO placement in Active Directory? Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory domains utilize a Single Operation Master method called FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operation), as described in Understanding FSMO Roles in Active Directory. In most cases an administrator can keep the FSMO role holders (all 5 of them) in the same…

The concept of server virtualization has been around for quite a few years now, but it seems to just now really be taking off.  The basic idea behind server virtualization is that many servers tend to be grossly underused.  It is not uncommon for a server to only use about 10% of its hardware resources. …

Knowledgeable people say that an un-protected machine that is connected to the Internet can and will probably be penetrated within 72 hours or less. Without proper protection chances are you will be targeted and penetrated – even if you have nothing secret or important to hide. That is why you MUST install and properly configure…

One of the most tedious day-to-day tasks for Active Directory administrators in medium to large organizations is the management of user accounts and their respective information, things such as resetting user passwords, clearing account lockouts, updating of phone numbers and additional information. It’s true that in Windows Server 2003/2008, Active Directory Users and Computers allows…

The “Paper MCSE” Imagine this scenario: You’ve been studying for the MCSE certification for over six months. You’ve gotten passing scores on all the tests. And now, Systems Engineer Certificate in hand, you decide to jump into the job market in search of your extra $10k a year in salary. Then the rejection letters come….

How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)? Memory tweaking is an important part of the System Administrator’s responsibilities. Having too much memory won’t hurt you, but this is something we cannot expect to have all the time. This page will give you some working tips on memory management for Windows 2000, Windows…

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition is a part of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family. It is an easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage server operating system that is optimized to be a complete Web hosting package. Windows Server 2003, Web Edition includes the following features: Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, which provides a robust architecture for building and publishing secure Web…