InformIT Windows Server Newsletter - Oct 5, 2004

[InformIT Windows Server]

Title: InformIT Windows Server Newsletter - Oct 5, 2004

InformIT Windows Server Newsletter Oct 5, 2004 Win an iPod mini! Solve the Find the Bug Challenge! and you could win an iPod mini and a copy of Adam Barr's brand-new book, Find the Bug: A Book of Incorrect Programs. It's all part of Bookpool's 10th Anniversary Celebration going on now at www.bookpool.com. While there, check out this month's special sales on Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall PTR, and Cisco Press titles. Visit Our Sponsor Windows Server Reference Guide Your Host Scott Fulton You've heard the hubbub about the recent release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The controversy surrounds the fact that it does break some applications, including even Microsoft's own enterprise software. But that's not a Windows Server issue... or is it? When enterprise apps break, it matters to you, even though Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 may not see the light of day until next year sometime. I'll explain what the fuss is all about with Service Pack 2. I don't know about you... And I mean that sincerely, I don't know anything about you, and frankly, that's part of the problem we've been having these past few years. If you think about it, we don't talk much anymore. In lieu of direct communication and personal problem solving, we've managed to erect new and unique technological barriers between ourselves. A few weeks ago, I was in a Home Depot where I noticed a husband and wife with a new pair of Nextel walkie-talkie phones. One was trying to contact the other about, I think, the different grades of paint; the other was looking for plastering material, so they were in two different areas of the store. The husband couldn't make out what the wife was saying to him, so he started marching up and down the aisle, trying to locate some mysterious "sweet spot" that may have been built-in to various Home Depots across the nation, where Building Materials can be picked up more clearly from Paint on a walkie-talkie. As I walked further in the store and found myself in Building Materials, I noticed the wife was doing the same thing: marching frantically from spot to spot, shouting "Hello...Hello!...Sam!...Sam?" into this little open lid as though it were a vortex into a deep, dark, eighth dimension where distances are all short and life makes sense. Throughout all points in the entire store, you could actually hear both parties in this frantic search, along with their persistent little B-flat tripleted beeps for which Nextel is literally seeking copyright protection, like two lost quasars drifting aimlessly into a universe of entropically distributed home improvement accessories. For at least ten minutes, this goes on, each member looking for the appropriate spot to contact the other member. What they don't realize during this frantic shouting into two-inch-square dimensional vortexes (there's a sale on those at Home Depot, by the way) is that, at least three times that I saw, they passed right by one another without noticing because they were so busy trying to find the spot where they could hear one another through the phone. At last, they actually bump into one another. And what do they do? Do they each remember the questions they had? No, they trade phones and resume their frantic march. Technology, it would appear, has made our lives more complex. File that under "D" for "Duh." Fortunately, we're in the business of publishing books that serve the function—if not to help remove some of that complexity—at least to point it out to you so you know that, at least, we know about it too, and we're not stuck in some eight-dimensional vortex or black hole of incommunication, some "Nextel cup," if you will, without an event horizon of possible escape. So here to address the problem of technological complexity and how it makes life ever more complex, is Richard Murch with the first installment of his series, Managing Complexity in IT. Last week, we talked about IPsec, and how encrypting everything by default can be a major step toward truly reliable security for your network. This week, Andrew Mason presents Network Security and Virtual Private Network Technologies, which demonstrates how Cisco Systems utilizes IPsec in the implementation of a modern VPN. Conceivably, properly encrypted packets can actually increase signal reliability when voice or audio traffic is carried over a VPN. I can think of at least one couple who could use a little encryption about now. Perhaps Home Depot can start installing virtual hot spots in some of its most trafficked aisles. Visit The Windows Server Reference Guide New Content   Articles and Sample Chapters All Articles and Sample Chapters Details Emerge on the First Windows Mobile Virus (Part 3 of 3) By Cyrus Peikari, Seth Fogie, Ratter/29A Details Emerge on the First Windows Mobile Virus (Part 2 of 3) By Cyrus Peikari, Seth Fogie, Ratter/29A   Weblogs All Windows Server Weblogs XP SP2: Big Difference Causes Unexpected Change By Scott Fulton Changing the Argument (part 3) By Scott Fulton Changing the Argument (part 2) By Scott Fulton  Subscribe to the Windows Server Reference Guide RSS feed. New Books and Safari Online Books   Book Store All Windows Server Books Windows Server 2003 on HP ProLiant Servers By Gary Olsen, Bruce Howard Published by Prentice Hall PTR � Oct 15, 2004 Premium Member Price: $44.99 USD (Save 25%) Windows XP in a Snap By Preston Gralla Published by Sams � Jul 30, 2004 Premium Member Price: $18.74 USD (Save 25%)   Safari Online Books All Online Books Canning Spam: You've Got Mail (That You Don't Want) Published by Sams � May 13, 2004			Spotlight: New Book End-to-End QoS Network Design is a detailed handbook for planning and deploying Quality of Service solutions that support the new generation of delay-sensitive applications. This book goes beyond discussing available QoS technologies and considers design examples that illustrate where, when, and how to deploy various QoS features to provide validated and tested solutions for enterprise voice, video and data. Weblog of the Week: What Would You Do? During a local conference, our security guide reports, a consultant raised an interesting question. What would you do if one of your clients had suspicious porn on their computer? Would you report it, or keep your mouth shut? Grab Our Windows Server RSS Feed You can get our Windows Server Reference Guide additions and weblog entries in your RSS Aggregator — click here to grab the code! Become a Member and Save up to 25% in Our Book Store! Profile yourself with InformIT and you'll receive an additional discount — up to 25% off many titles in the InformIT Book Store. The best part is that this offer will never expire! Safari Clip of the Week Preview an excerpt from Safari, our online subscription service, with a new clip each week! This week: Partition Types, from The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook.

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