In Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, when you create a virtual machine that uses hard disks that are connected to the virtual SCSI controller you can get better performance than when using virtual IDE controller-connected hard disks. In Virtual Server, virtual SCSI controllers have major performance benefits over virtual IDE controllers, and because of that…
Installing Windows Server 2008 is pretty straightforward and is very much like installing Windows Vista, but I thought I’d list the necessary steps here for additional information. For those of you who have never installed Vista before, the entire installation process is different than it used to be in previous Microsoft operating systems, and notably…
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is an old and venerable protocol, especially useful for Internet publishing. It may seem that Microsoft has not done much work on providing a robust, secure FTP. But that’s all about to change. Microsoft has just created and released a new FTP service that has been completely rewritten for Windows Server…
A packet sniffer is usually used to analyze network traffic. The reason for using a packet sniffer (or simply called “sniffer”) is to configure the NIC to work in a mode called “promiscuous” mode. Without going into that mode, Ethernet network interface cards normally work in a “filter” mode that ignores all traffic that doesn’t…
In the previous article, I showed you how to install the Print Management console. In this article, I will continue the discussion by showing you how to migrate other network print servers to the network print server that you’ve created. Network Printer Migration Now that you have an enterprise print management server in place, you…
I’m probably revealing a little too much about my age, but when I first started working with Windows Server, the current version was Windows NT Server 3.5. One of the interesting things about that version of Windows was that like all of its successors, it had the ability to host network print queues. At the…
In Windows Server 2003, functional levels were an extension of the older mixed/native mode concept introduced in Windows 2000. In Windows Server 2008 this was further extended to include new features and benefits, and are used to activate new Active Directory features after all the Domain Controllers (DCs) in the domain or forest are running…
What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)? A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a group of two or more computer systems, typically connected to a private network, that communicates securely over a public network (typically the Internet). VPNs may exist between an individual machine and a private network (client-to-server or remote access) or a…
When Microsoft created Windows Server 2008, one of their many goals was to simplify the deployment process. In fact, you can perform a manual server installation with just a few mouse clicks. One of the side effects to such a minimalist approach to the installation process though, is that you may find yourself having to…
In the first part of this article series, I talked about the differences between a stand-alone DFS namespace and a domain based DFS namespace. The next thing I want to discuss is the replication topology that will be used by your DFS servers. Why Replicate? When I have introduced the concept of DFS to clients…