SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » November 2006

November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: Analyze Your Web Traffic and Don't Take Tech Too Far

TAGS: Podcast

Hey, I could have been on time, but that tryptophan is a killer. So once I woke up and gathered my wits, I put together this episode. First we hit how to analyze your web site's traffic. Then, I get to site a few examples of how not to take technology too far.    Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 27, 2006 10:23 AM

November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Review: Quick, Cheap and Dirty Shared Storage

TAGS: SMB Hardware

If you're hosting out email and maybe CRM and accounting, too (ala Microsoft's Office Live concept), you may suddenly realize that all you're missing on your local area network is some shared storage space and maybe a few printers.

For small businesses--and even some medium-sized ones--that's easier and cheaper than you might think. Just close your eyes to the server ads and skip over the NAS propaganda; then just check out a network hard disk. Sure, they're good for the home, but if you've got 20 employees or less and just need a place to share files, they're made to order. I got Iomega and Western Digital to let me check a couple of theirs out.

Iomega sent me a StorCenter 500 quite some time ago, and I've been chugging on it for months with no hassles. She starts at about $440 and for that you get 500GB of storage spread across two disks in a single enclosure that can be configured as RAID 0 or RAID 1. Setting the StorCenter up is as simple as running an installation CD on each client. Run the full install and you'll get access to the StorCenter via a local drive letter or as a network share, and you'll get a full install of EMC's Retrospect Express backup software. Easy enough for users to configure. All that worked great under Windows XP, with the only trouble being that the StorCenter and Symantec's firewall didn't like each other.

My new Gateway notebooks both came with Symantec pre-installed, and this had to be temporarily disabled not just to install the StorCenter, but every time you wanted to access the drive as well. The desktop running ZoneAlarm didn't have that problem after it configured rules for the StorCenter and the Acer TravelMate 4062 running the straight Windows XP firewall didn't have a problem, either. My only ding under Windows XP.

Vista is actually a happier story. The Gateway 255E that I rebuilt as a Vista RC1 machine, the Dell M90 that got redone as an RC2 box and the HP DV9000 that Microsoft sent with Vista RTM pre-installed--all of these saw the StorCenter as a network share and simply granted access via the Networks tab. No client software required. Cool.

The StorCenter also comes with a couple of USB ports that act as print servers or as ports for additional storage expansion. I stuck a Toshiba 100GB USB hard disk into one USB port and this immediately became visible as additional space. Then I stuck an HP Photosmart D5160 inkjet printer on the other port and was able to configure it as a color printer share after playing around a bit with Iomega's config screens. I yanked the Toshiba and replaced with Iomega's own REV 70 drive and was able to configure that as a separate network share. So, in effect, you can build your own REV backup to your StorCenter shared drive, in essence mirroring the capability that Iomega builds into its higher end NAS boxes. The REV was a little tricky because it wanted a workstation, but it's doable with a little tinkering.

For $440, that's a lot of stuff.

The Western Digital NetCenter 500 is almost a clone of the StorCenter--but not quite as juicy. Basic package is 500GB of networked storage with a free copy of EMC Retrospect Express included. But it lacks in several areas: For one, it's a single 500GB drive, not two in a RAID config for redundancy. For another, it supports only 10/100, not 10/100/1000 like the Iomega. It also doesn't have two USB ports, just the drive. Then again, it costs about $400 so it's a little cheaper.

Differences include (apparently) the CIFS file system. The StorCenter seems to be NTFS. The NetCenter uses CIFS. What that means is that Vista was able to see and install the StorCenter with no help, while it couldn't do that with the NetCenter. XP runs everything but needs the included setup utility to work--that'll probably need to be upgraded for Vista. However, after running the right utility, I was able to let my sister's MacBook and my desktop Xandros Linux box see the NetCenter, while neither of those was able to see the StorCenter--though I think I could have gotten the MacBook to see it if I wasn't a chronically lazy layabout.

I haven't uninstalled either drive off of OliverNet. Right now the clients use EMC to backup to the WD, and then EMC also runs an evening job that backs up the WD to the StorCenter. Then once a week that backs up to the REV. Hey, I'm covered.

Overall, I like the Iomega better, though the WD was by no means an ineffective peripheral. They both offer gobs of shared storage with about 25 minutes of setup time for five clients. The Iomega is more versatile for Windows-centric networks, while the WD is a good bet for small shops using Linux or the Mac.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 21, 2006 01:25 PM

November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)

More Oliver on Internet Radio

TAGS: Podcast

I get the feeling that my Emerging Enterprise podcasts have become massively popular. I'm suddenly getting seated in restaurants ahead of the line, I'm ordering food that's not on the menu and groupies are throwing their underwear at me wherever I go. It's fantastic...up until I wake up as me again.

But in case you do like the EE podcasts, I've got six weeks of more Internet radio at the My Technology Lawyer Internet radio show. I'll be having a segment with MTL's host, attorney Scott Draughon, about SMB technology and business issues every Thursday for the next six weeks (excepting next Thursday, due to Turkey Day, of course).

You can download or stream my first segment here.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 17, 2006 03:38 PM

November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: Office Live Huzzah and Where's the Bill Pay?

TAGS: Podcast

This week we talk about why I love Office Live and why the Microsofters should have done it sooner. Then we talk about why they should have put eBill pay in there.    Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 17, 2006 10:33 AM

November 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft unveils Aggreg8

TAGS: SMB Applications

We were just having a lengthy editorial discussion on the merits of LinkedIn--fast becoming the social networking standard for those looking to 'socialize' business-to-business. Well, nothing gets successful without a little Microsoft competition.

So now, those developers who were using LinkedIn have another option. Microsoft is calling it Aggreg8. Lets developers and other geeky types create a profile, join discussion groups, find and add favorite conent lists, etc. It's got a definite geek business spin, but the atmosphere is supposed to be fairly casual.

Worth checking out if you're a custom programmer with a Microsoft bent looking for new clients.

(via BetaNews)

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 12, 2006 10:23 PM

November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: DIY Dashboards and Evolutionary Notebook Stress

TAGS: Podcast

This week we talk about giving your boss a special holiday gift: a do-it-yourself ultra-custom business dashboard. After that we talk about all the hoopla surrounding the evolution of the notebook and how to make sense of it all for the SMB set.   Listen!

Posted by Ted Samson on November 10, 2006 09:43 AM

November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Does Vista Kill Third-Party Disk Encryption?

TAGS: SMB Applications

I'm dinging away at a hands-on of the Vista RTM release, but figured I'd hit this topic now because I've had some reader inquiries.

Vista has a new system accessory, a drive encryption utility, called BitLocker. It's not part of the integrated package unless you opt for the the Enterprise or Ultimate versions, but for those SDKs, BitLocker can offers encrypted folders or volumes--even using Active Directory and/or WIM files. Nice way to be able to spread out a secure desktop right off the image stage.

Only issue for IT admins looking to use BitLocker is that much like the rest of Vista, it wants new hardware. Specifically, it's looking for for an implementation of the Trusted Platform Module 1.2--which happens at the chip level. TPM is a hardware crypto key generator and password management system--IBM's (Lenovo's) was the last one I saw and they're pretty solid.

New notebooks are coming out with TPM-compliant motherboards and chipsets--though it's still something you should look for if you're about to buy a small fleet of new Vistabooks. Not guaranteed to be there.

You can run BitLocker without TPM, but then you're forcing your users to store their crypto keys and passwprds on USB tokens. More complexity: The system is going to want to look at that key prior to full startup, so the USB device needs to be read during boot. That's something that needs to be enabled under BIOS--yet another thing to check before buying your new Vistabox.

BitLocker setup is pretty easy--but surprising in some aspects. For one, it wanted to default direct to an encrypted partition. Not just an encrypted folder or set of folders. I tried making the partition as small as possible, but the smallest seems to be 1.5GB. According to the Microsoft BitLocker notes I finally found, this partition stores all the boot materials. The other partition is where everything else sits--Vista, data, MP3s, stolen credit card data, whatever.

Again, pretty simple, but you need to think about it prior to installing Vista--otherwise you'll need to repartition after installation. Time consuming and a pain in the booty. Best to make this part of an OS image and distribute it that way.

Do that, and BitLocker can talk directly to Active Directory, which can generate the crypto keys and feed them to the each system at network signon. Overall a pretty sophisticated setup. And it can handle partial or full-disk encryption.

No, I haven't tested ot yet to get an idea of system overhead or whether it works reliably for the road warrior set. Work on that over time. Even so, I've got to say that the partition installation piece means that certain third-party disk encryption products still have a future. TrueCrypt or Cryptainer, for example, simply create an encrypted file volume with an ultra-strong password. More individual, but definitely quicker on the setup front. Plus, they're free just like BitLocker.

On the other hand, for SMBs looking to centrally manage a whole series of encrypted drives, BitLocker offers a lot of sophistication right there in the OS.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 8, 2006 02:13 PM

November 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)

How to Pick a Pack of Pickled POS Systems

TAGS: SMB Hardware

Let's take a little break from the Vista/Office 2007 stuff. Still have a couple to go there, but I'll get to them. Just need something else before I OD on Windows.

POS=Point of Sale. Means cash register. Which is why many SMB managers treat it like an appliance. And it still can be if you just hop into Staples and pick a cheap one off the rack.

But with a little care, you can turn your cash register into a fount of information--and if you're using it in more than one location, that information bennie just multiplies.

The key is inventory management. All PC-based POS systems can handle the cash & credit card stuff. The reason to turn a computer into a cash register is inventory management. The PC in your warehouse stays in touch with the PCs running your cash registers. It lets sales people know what's left in the warehouse, how much it costs and when you can expect new stock.

The combination can let managers know what's selling, what's selling the best in which locations, see what's on back-order and how to manage it--all the stuff you'd expect.

Which one to pick is the next question. There are many of them. Both from big companies (Microsoft) all the way down to open source packages that are entirely free and run on the Penguin (check Freshmeat or SourceForge and you'll find dozens). How to choose?

Figure in growth. If your retail outlets are set to expand, make sure your POS vendor can supply your growth.

Figure in your customers. How do they pay. If it's credit cards and cash, that's one thing. If it's credit cards, cash and debit cards, that's something else. Make sure your POS vendor can support all the ways your customers want to pay.

Make sure the POS can talk to your warehouse. If you've already got a barcode-based warehouse inventory system, make sure the POS system can communicate with it. Barcodes are fairly well standardized nowadays, so there's little reason you should have to replace an existing warehouse inventory system simply because you're adding a POS front-end.

Think accounting. Making sure your cash register can talk to your corporate accounting system is pretty much the whole point, but there's talking and the there's talking. I've seen some POS platforms that consider printing an end-of-day sales report for hand-keying into the accounting app "communicating". That just won't do today. Whatever POS system you choose, it MUST be able to fully update your accounting system electronically and on a scheduled basis. No exceptions.

Once you've made a list of all the POS systems that meet these criteria for you then you can worry about price.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 7, 2006 06:37 PM

November 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: Generators and Small Biz Leasing

TAGS: Podcast

This episode we're talking about that one component to data centers that most guys seem to want to avoid: The generator. Then we talk about why more small businesses should think about leasing rather than just plunking down their hard-earned cash.   Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 3, 2006 11:03 AM

November 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Living With Office 2007 Beta Part III

TAGS: SMB Applications

And we're back again--gonna buckle down and get this freaking thing done. This time it's Access and OneNote.

ACCESS 2007
Last time I talked to Microsoft, I told them that as far as I was concerned, the best-redesigned app out of the whole Office 2007 suite was PowerPoint. Just love all that quick-preview/advanced graphics/ease of use stuff.

But when I asked them what they thought the most powerfully redesigned app out of this suite was, they said Access 2007--no question. Made me wish I used Access more so I might know what they were talking about. But I'm a resourceful guy, so I grabbed an employee of a customer whom I knew did a lot of Access work, and asked her what she thought.

According to her, the app is different right from the start. The ribbon is a big difference, but so is the initial startup screen that immediately drops the user on a icon-heavy short cut view towards common Access databases, a right-side history of recent work and a left-side connector to local or locally shared templates as well as Office Online.

Access 2007 Start View

Next, she fell hard for the Navigation Pane. This sucker is anchored to the left of the tabbed data view. Apparently, it replaces something that was called the Database Window in Access 2003. The Nav Pane organizes all the database objects and lets database architects create custom groups, assign names and add other database objects to the group. All in a nice tree format. It's easy enough that I may break down and learn to play with it myself.

She started messing with Embedded Macros, too. She says this is brand new to Access 2007 and should really enable amateur database developers to get some high-end performance out of their work. There's a bit of a learning curve, but she says that being able to do away with VBA code to do things like add shortcuts or buttons, is a real boon. (Cynic me, I'm wondering about security and reliability, but I guess only time will tell.)

She later emailed me some more impressions. Foremost is an upgrade to the Report Designer. As the rest of the Office 2007 suite has gotten a big boost to visual and layout tools, so has Access. The Report Layout View lets developers visually design a reporting front-end--placing controls, formatting text, all the good stuff. She likes it very much.

She did have a couple of downsides for folks looking to use older Access databases within the new 2007 interface, however. Both User Security and Replication are dead. You can still manage both of these if you stick with the old Access 2000-2003 formats, but if you go to the new Access 2007 format, you're out of luck. There are new tools to replace both in the updated file format, but backwards compatibility is shot.

OneNote 2007
This is one of the apps that didn't get a ribbon upgrade. In fact, OneNote didn't get too much of an upgrade in any sense--which has the upside that at least you won't be getting too many help desk calls on this one.

One new feature I really did like is the ability to import a presentation slide-by-slide--well, almost new. So when the PR guy whips out his presentation, you can ask for a copy off his thumb drive. Drop that onto your desktop and you can literally drag and drop it onto the OneNote notebook. Just check the 'print out' option when the drag-on dialog pops up:

This is doable in OneNote 2003, too, but the print-out always comes out in black and white. OneNote 2007 does the whole thing in color, so you can keep your presentation and your notes in one place like this:

Click here to view

Another new thing in OneNote 2007 is that Notebooks are much easier to manipulate as files. OneNote 2003 simply created a My Notebooks folder under My Documents and drops everything there in a semi-understandable hierarchy. OneNote 2007 lets you continue to store notebooks in this folder, but also lets you store individual Notebooks anywhere in the local file system, the network file system or on SharePoint file collab sites. Just right-click the notebook's tab and select Save As:

While this sounds great in practice, it can actually backfire. OneNote 2003 never required a save option. Close it and your notes are saved. But with the ability to save different notebooks in different places, there's a chance you can overwrite or modify notes you didn't intend to modify. That'll need a little training.

Aside from that OneNote is still a solid app. I was hoping for a more significant upgrade to the handwriting and tablet features, but I guess they've got leave something for Office 2009.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 2, 2006 10:54 AM

November 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Living With Office 2007 Beta Part II

TAGS: SMB Applications

Apologies for the wait. I'll crank through the rest of these in the next couple of days.

As promised, this post is on Excel 2007 and Word 2007.

EXCEL 2007
Being a writer, I try to avoid Excel as much as possible. As a small business operator, however, that's a fruitless pursuit.

Fortunately, next to PowerPoint, I found Microsoft's new ribbon to be really effective under Excel (above). 'Course, that's probably because I don't use Excel so much, so a new interface won't bother me there as much as it would under other applications. On the plus side, I liked how the ribbon organizes all those parts of Excel that tend to make me scratch my noggin. Formulas, for example, are easily organized by type and placed into simple drop-down menus. The hover-help system really helped me here, too.

For Excel pros, Excel 2007 has a number of new features. Our local Excel users commented that they liked the formula auto-complete feature, which auto-suggest complete formulas based on both context and history. Larger spreadsheets, especially those to be used for reports and such, also benefit from a new Page Layout feature that lets you see what the final product will look like with all formatting changes applied--tho it seemed much like a print-preview funtion to me, it's easier to get to.

The real geeks also liked the beefed up support for PivotTables (now support hierarchical data) and User-Defined Functions, which can now fully support Excel 2007's increased column/cell count (1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns--just enough for my credit card bills).

For us normal mortals, however, Excel 2007 is simply easier to understand. They've spruced up its graphics capabilities, too, making 3D-graphs and charts both easier and snazzier--once you figure out how to get to them on the ribbon, that is.

This extends to more than just charts and graphs, tho. The new Excel makes formatting a spreadsheet with a specific look, much easier. Values can be more easily organized, reports better formatted, you can even apply themes to entire workbooks--excellent way to spruce up those year-end financials.

After talking with Microsoft, there's one other thing that stands out about Excel 2007: We're all going to be touching it more. Excel 2007 is being used as a primary or alternative front-end for a number of Microsoft applications, including Accounting 2007, the Dynamics family, SQL Server and more. By adding features like CUBE functions, Excel has a much easier time importing, organizing and displaying outside data sets. I'm going to keep trying to avoid it, but I think it's a hopeless quest.

WORD 2007
Now this is where I live. And, yes, the ribbon bugged the hell out of me almost the entire two weeks. Once your mouse gets the new icon locations into its memory, it's admittedly a mite quicker to find whatever I'm looking for.

What's to like? If you're a blogger, then Word's new blogging feature might help you. I say might, because setting this up is still not a slamdunk. It couldn't handle publishing to a privately held blog like this one. It did manage to let me post to the Technology Filter blog, but there's still some issues to be worked out with photo uploading and similar details. Still it's at least as good as LiveWriter and you can take advantage of SmartArt right then and there.

SmartArt is available across the whole Office 2007 suite. It's a smart diagraming tool that lets you pick a basic diagram look, add you specific text additions and then modify the diagram (say, with more data) or change the entire look of the diagram (to another chart type, for example) without losing any of the data. Lets people collaborating on a document easily change everything, including the artwork. YOu can even add fancy diagram effects for a cooler overall look.

More Word 2007 tools: Academics will like the new auto-generation of bibliographies and content citations. Can even connect to online Web services to talk to online references--but all that wasn't yet enabled under the beta.

We editor/writer types get a host of new conveniences. Word count is enabled in the status bar, for instance. And Microsoft has included something called Building Blocks, which is a fancy form of the clipboard. Let's you store oft-used pieces of text in there so their easily accessible for future use--very handy for lawyers that constantly rebuild specific contracts, for instance.

Spell check has been noticeably improved. Microsoft has upped Word 2007's ability to examine the context of a word rather than simply the spelling. Seems to reduce the number of possible or wrong choices. I was skeptical that this would work through everything day-to-day, but so far so good. Me likey.

Great new selection of style sheets, cover sheets, templates and themes. Quick styles is another time saver--a way to organize all these new formatting views. Under Word 2003, you'd have to apply a formatting change, check it out, then hit Undo if it didn't appeal. Quick Styles lets select your text, then simply mouse over the formatting toolbar to see how things affect that text. This is a paradigm you'll find throughout the Office 2007 suite, especially PowerPoint.

There's much more to Word 2007 if you have back-end server support. Word talks to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Information Rights Server, and can do some really cool stuff in conjunction with InfoPath. We'll be looking at these capabilities in an upcoming Test Center review, where we'll put Office 2007 in front of a full complement of back-end servers.

The basic end-user Word experience is solid. If you're still confused about PDF and OpenDoc support, here's the skinny on that: Native PDF support is out, but after Office 2007 ships, users will be able to download a free add-in that will provide PDF creation support across the entire suite. OpenDoc is for the future. Microsoft is working with other developers to create a format that can talk to the new Office docx format--but that'll take a little extra time.

Meanwhile, day to day, no problems to report. Microsoft says it's increased reliability for the upcoming RTM version, but I never had a Word problem in two weeks--and I'm in Word about as much as I am in Outlook. Recommended all the way.

Posted by Oliver Rist on November 1, 2006 01:17 PM