Issues with upgrading bandwidth, migrating ISP and changing topology

This is a note I took when migrating ISP, upgrading bandwidth (from 512 kbps to 1 megs) and changing topology into a more secure network.

Broadband pricing in Indonesia is getting down. I am sure there's gonna be another decrease of cost in bandwidth next year. It is now about half the price of the last year, that's not bad. And since things are upgrading, like the company I work for is upgrading it's system to VOIP thingy. Then I think it's time to set the network better now.

When I first got in the company, things were simple. Accessibility and availability were low. Employees had only Outlook Web Access (OWA) to access email from remote. OWA was good, but not good enough. They could have had the full MsOutlook features. I mean, when you have a laptop, why use OWA if you can have a complete feature of Ms Outlook? Well yes, OWA is good when you have only a very limited bandwidth, though.

Alright, then we took notes, what was feasible to enhance and what had to wait. Then we had it all in the list of what to do, what to reconfigure later on, like websites, FTP site, intranet, extranet, mail availability (Outlook, Outlooke web access, Outlook mobile access, Mobile outlook via microsoft activesync pushmail), data availability (such as via VPN) and web applications to support business processes.

Yes you know, the back technology would be, DNS, RPC over HTTP, IIS, Front-end Exchange Server, Back-end Exchange Server, Firewall, SSL with CA, ASP, WAP, dotNet, and of course we need to have a Demiliterizarion Zone (DMZ), so be certain in routing and firewalling. One of the most irritating problem is you need to make sure that the changing of IP address and the way your router routes network will be quite different. This will impact on everything not only security issues but also availability.

When migrating to new topology, remember to take notes of the prior conf of the firewall and translate it to new topoloty. In my case, my new topology is very different with the previous one, since I use the point-to-point IP as the router gateway as the internet address, therefore I hide the real IP I have. This is more secure yet more difficult to route and firewalled. I don't want any service such as push mail nor website disturbed.

Consistency among router-firewall-IIS is critical. Check out every detail like in the website header, address, services, port number, authentication setting. Since they are scattered all over IIS, router, firewall and Exchange Manager (at both front-end and back-end server) than taking notes is crucial.

It was quite an experience. Re-setting the router-firewall-IIS was a real pain in the a*s. But now it is working real good, so I guess everything turns out worthwhile then.

What to do when my C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution folder is bloating?

One of the things that my wife does not understand about me is why I spend more time with my computers more than with other things like cats or dogs. She thinks it is not healthy. You know what, in vice versa, I don't understan why I should keep cats or dogs.

I spend more time with my computers is simply I like them and I like them to be in good shape. I check every detail of them, renew, change, break one and get new one. I can't just break a cat and buy a new one, can I?

When I was playing with this VirtualBox on my Mac, I was a little shocked that my Windows on it was almost filling out my 15 Gigs of the virtual HD. What on earth that is? Practically I only installed Office 2007, Visual Studio 5 and some video/audio players. Then I find out my windows folder took 6.8 Gigs! WOOOW..

I heard about this windows being bloatware and all but did not think of it as serious. It was not this crazy usually. Taking a looke deeper I found:

1. c:\windows\softwaredistribution\download folder was 1.63 Gigs. Thats' definetaly not normal.
2. c:\windows\system32 took about 1.25 Gigs, well I guessed I could take it.
3. c:\windows\installer was 2.44 Gigs
4. c:\windows\assembly was 440 Megs
5. c:\windows\Microsoft.Net took 200 Megs

Others looke normal, they took from 0 kb up to tens of Megs, I thought they were ok. What needed to take care is issue no. 1 and 3. Let's dig it.

I've got this article in hand:
http://phorums.com.au/archive/index.php/t-182069.html
http://www.optimizingpc.com/optimize/deletefiles.html

We can conclude that c:\windows\softwaredistribution\download is safe to empty. That's right, just empty the folder not delete the folder. What I did was to copy the files within the folder and copy them into my external HD, just in case. I ran the windows update to check that everything was ok, that every update was recognised.

I did not find any c:\windows\downloaded installation\ , instead the folder in number 2.

To remove c:\windows\installers\ is not that easy. You may end up failing uninstalling software you already installed if you just remove it.

Here are some articles:
http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2007/01/31/how-to-safely-delete-orphaned-patches.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

I've got a feeling this is gonna be a little rocky. so I am gonna investigate a little more before doing it. After finding out that there's no orphan files by running msizap.exe with no results, I decided to cut the files in c:\windows\installer and then paste them somewhere in my external HD. I will return them later when I want to uninstall something. However, I don't have the guts to move all files in the directory. There's one directory I did not touch, that is C:\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\ under this directory I had Managed folder which also I did not touch. The names of the folders are too spooky to be touched. There's a blog that wrote scary things about this folder: http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2007/01/17/the-patch-cache-and-freeing-space.aspx

Therefore, I could only move 1.3 Gigs out of my windows, or totally 3 Gigs or thereabouts.
So far, so good. I will tell you later if this really causes issues. See you.

Removing Zenoss User Account Gloriously

One of those long list of the pleasure of using MacOS X is the fact that it is a UNIX derivative. Being reliable, fast, network-native, secure and stable are some of its destiny and as in apple product tradition, it is packed in a sexy body, and very friendly. Yes, I slept with my mac often.

Being great and all, it is an ideal station to monitor network. That's when Zenoss came in. A very good software indeed. As all what I love, it also comes and goes. There was time to uninstall Zenoss. Well, some ex-girl friends are just too stubborn to get rid of (they usually love me too much) so is Zenoss. Removing the user account from Mac is hard.

This is what usually people do to get rid of an app:

1. uninstall it. Say in Mac you usually just "send to trash" it from the Finder.

2. Since you notice that Zenoss is still hanging out in the login window, so you need to delete it from the Group.

3. Delete the user from the /Users

After you logoff, you will still notice that the user is still there in the login window. That's when some people usually decide to cry.

Here's the steps for you to dry up your eyes:

1. Enable ROOT and the login as ROOT

Open Terminal, type: sudo passwd

then follow the instruction like making a new password and all.

Once root password created/changed, logoff and login as root.

To login as root, you need to click "other" in the login window and type in "root" (without quotes) and the password you've just made.

2. Make hidden files show

At the terminal type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killAll Finder

3. Delete zenoss.plist file

Navigate to /var/db/dslocal/nodes/default/users

then delete file zenoss.plist

4. Hide the hidden files back

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killAll Finder

logoff and watch the zenoss acount is gone now.

And be happy ever after.

Internet Printing Service, VOIP and Squid

Wait..
What do the three of them relate to each other? None! only I want to setup them all in my system. I am gonna upgrade my bandwidth to 1 mbps, and you know what! I already start wanting this and that to stuff into the bandwidth.

First, I want a VOIP off course. I cannot connect VOIP to any PSTN here. In my country it is illegal. Yes, that correct the government is crazy. There were already people put in jail for that.
I might be gonna use Asterisk, they say it's the best. Being learnt now.

Second, I want an Internet Printing Service. this is gonna be cool. I am installing it and now in the phase of heading a wall. I am having: "Printer Installation Failed Error Code = 2 EFF". Since this is a Friday night, I am gonna solve it by the monday. By the way, my back-end is W2K3, if you can help me out!

You know these VOIP and IPP thingy is gonna consume bandwidth. That's where Squid comes in hand. I have about 40 users that only access Facebook, MSN, Yahoo, Youtube and local portal like Detik.com, weddingku.com and some business web-sites.

It's gonna be nice.

Eventually My Bootcamp Is Giving Up on Me

Note:
This article was written before I found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218/ which explains uninstalling Office 2007 manually when "add and remove programs" is failing.

Been almost 15 moths now that my macbook was installed in dual boot mode. It was nice. I love it. Bootcamp was such a tough and nice, saviour of my daily life. Until just now, I have to retire it.

My office work is done in WinXP like ASP and VB coding. But yeah, I love web design as well. Therefore I had Adobe Suite like dreamweaver, flash, photoshop, and stuffs. Also I have this Visual Studio installed. Sure I have Ms Office 2007 trial to see how it works. Until then I could not uninstall it. I then checked the details of my installed softwares and I found some could not be uninstalled. Using third party software to uninstall them can be messy, so I won't do it. Leaving scraps of uninstallable software is always bad. That slows your system down. Some people call it Winrot phenomenon. Check Winrot term this website and also this article.

Damn. After I tried to uninstall it a couple of times and no luck, I decided to uninstall the whole WinXP and reinstall it from scratch. Hopefully a clean install.

A friend of mine once said, a bad luck never comes as a single event, it always comes in as a row of bad unlucky events. It happened to me. After those backing-ups and successfull installation, I could not activate my copy of windows. This is a legal copy of windows, so I could not figured out why. So I activated my copy via phone. I was very happy that I could login after that, until later on it asked for another activation after I rebooted the system. The very weird thing was it asked for an activation but as soon as I activated it, it said it was already activated and then kicked me out of the system. Geez, I could not login in any way. Of course I contacted microsoft to rectify this problem and it was solved until I rebooted.

And that's it I've had enough.

Then a light shone on me and a voice said: put it in a virtual machine, use VirtualBox! :-)

I've got it, I tried it and I was happy. Here I am, writing blog thru my WinXP on VirtualBox.

Iphone or Winmo 6.1, and what's your back-end, dude? Xserve or W2K3?

I've got a HTC touch HD in my hand. It's nice and sleek. I love it. Off-course I love Iphone too, which I don't have. I've got a macbook that makes it kinda cool to have an iPhone in company. For me it is kinda hard to decide to buy or not to buy my self an iPhone. Why? I'll tell you my story.

Back in Y2K, i've heard about this dream that Apple was gonna throw out an apple phone. That would be a killer. Cell phone business was huge, but it looked like it needed the "touch of Midas". Looking back to the history of computer and music, sure Steve Jobs was gonna do it again. This time the cell phone. And he did it.

iPhone was and is fancy.

But we all know that phone is not just a talking box. That's not what iPhone is meant to be, that's not any cell phone is meant to be. Like right now, cell phone is an extension of computer evolution. From mainframe to PC to cell phone. Apple put together the mobile evolution chains right.

Now, year 2009 is gonna be an interesting year. All phones will be iPhone-like phones. Check out Blackberry storm or check out all mobile phone operating systems. Be it Microsoft Mobile, Android, or Symbian, they are now quite alike. Apple has bent the mobile phone into an integration with computer world. All come along.

But the questions are, to me, still about function. Supposed you have an Microsoft Exchange server in your back-end, do you really still need a Blackberry to live? should it be a common windows-mobile-with-outlook phone be alright? I am sure so. Actually if you have a mail server with IMAP4 or IMAP-IDLE capability any phone with IMAP should be ok. They still push mails, don't they?

Good articles explaining the back-ends thingy of those gadgets at http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/685B09D3-950B-4B23-8B1F-A56D448F7208.html

What I see in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta and Bandung, is quite funny that most people fall for Blackberry eventhough they only use voice and sms just like what they do with entry-level phones. It is about coolness, not function. Why not iPhone instead? because iPhone is just too America centric, too far away. iPhone is not as cool as Blackberry for "non-computer" people. This mostly girls and young middle-class people using Blackberry don't really know Apple and its pioneering habits in techs and gadgets. They know Blackberry better with the campaign they've been doing.

That logic above is quite explaining that many people like myself as well have this wish for an iPhone. I don't even have an Xserve server. I have an Exchange2003 in my back instead. I think Steve Jobs knows that too, that's why he put compatibility between iPhone and Exchange and any IMAP4 (iPhone supports IMAP-IDLE too). Hypotetically, supporting IMAP-IDLE means supporting good email synchronization. Hypothetical because I haven't seen such as good sync with IMAP-whatever-version-that-is. I am sure if you have a winmo version 5 or up, you have tried to sync mail using IMAP, and I bet you failed to sync the "sent items" folder. There might be options like "copy sent items folders" and "choose folder to sync", but they just don't work.

I dont have an apple's Xserve server. Still I'm gonna buy myself an iPhone. Maybe.

Now, what do you wanna do with the device of yours?

Internet Explorer 8 Error Right After Update in Windows XP

IE 8 is cool indeed. Some has speculated on it's speed as the fastest of all web browsers in the universe. You can check this out: http://tonyseno.blogspot.com/ , however the article contradicts with http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/tested-google-chrome-vs-ie8-vs-firefox-3-1-462848 and this http://www.cnet.com.au/browser-battle-ie-8-vs-opera-9-5-vs-safari-vs-firefox-3_p4-339287694.htm and some others, including my own testing. But indeed Teno's article went along with this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/161616/browser_showdown_ie_8_vs_firefox.html .
I guess it is hard to pinpoint which one is the best with so many variables and not just the objective ones but also in a matter of taste and behaviour.

Most of all, I think, it is the fact that 90% of computer users are using any version of Microsoft Windows, which has Internet Explorer in it. That's why IE8 is such an important issue to discuss. Check the statistic at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp. And with all what Microsoft Windows can do, it all becomes a blessing... or a curse.

Some people are having issues with IE8 right after updating their PC thru Windows update. To be precise it is the installation of Software Distribution Service 3.0 that is bundled with the updates is the trouble maker. The funny thing is, Software Distribution Service 3.0 is not listed in the update. It is like the old pain in the *ss Windows Genuine Advantage.

The issues are listed :

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsupdate&tid=47ec8d20-a50b-4652-ac96-e13136fb22a3&cat=en_US_2231886c-4c59-45b0-92e0-8881ddf5f40b&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1
and also http://forums.techarena.in/windows-update/856021.htm
and also http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160450

Yes, google it and you will find troubles every where. But no solutions.

Here's the anatomy of the problem:
- a windows update came in, so it was then installed. No matter you installed it or by an automatic windows update.
- Internet Explorer 8 error. Just could not connect. It just froze once you put any address in the URL and hit enter.
- In the Event Viewer > Application you would have an Event ID 1000 error, saying "Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 8.0.6001.18702, faulting module entapi.dll, version 8.0.0.240, fault address 0x0000368a."
- Then you were so pissed-off so you switch to FireFox or Opera or Safari no matter nice and cool IE8 is with the great things so called "web slices" or "accelerator" in IE8. Now before you do that, I'll shed a light for you to overcome this.

Get a shower, have breakfast (after thru the horrible night trying to fix it) and take the pill. Here's the solution.

What I did to work around this was:
1. once you had the problem, check on your system restore.
2. there's a check point called Software Distribution Service 3.0, restore to that point.
3. after restored check the update you have taked that caused the headache.
4. in the High Priority list, uncheck (untick) whatever listed there, and check/tick "don't show this update again".
5. select/tick the other options in as "software, optional" and "hardware, optional", it doesn't matter.
6. you can update.

Basically, windows will intall Software Distribution Service 3.0 when installing one or some of the high priority updates. My guess is, it prohibits anything "illegal" or "considered illegal" software installed in the OS. And how microsoft judges the installed software as legal or illegal is not always accurate. The software that is incorrectly judged as illegal is mostly Microsoft Office 2007. Check my previous article http://burningzeppelin.blogspot.com/2008/12/move-ahead-to-vista-office-2007-or-even.html, this was year 2008.

I am now investigating Microsoft Office 2007. I need to now the best times and worst times we're gonna get with Ms Office 2007 before I really use it company wide. You know what, some day Vista or Win 7, Office 2007 and IE8 will be the standard tools in most offices. May be most companies are gonna use them, although less but still majority( http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp ) . Some will switch to Linux and Apple, why? Because if you use Windows OS but still have problems with it's application (browsers or word processor) then what good is that to have a great OS without the ability to get the job done?

Solution for ActiveSync Issues with SupportID 8600050D and EventID 3005.

I just could not believe it, how activesync issues with SupportID 8600050D and EventID 3005 have put very bad psyco impact on IT confidence. To find the cause of this error message:

"there has been a change on your server that requires you to re-synchronize all
items on your device. all changes made since your last successful sync will be
lost do you wish to continue?"

was a real pain in the a*s. The problem is vast and pervasive. Google it up, you will find these isssues all over the world. I wrote the anatomy of the issue in detail at ActiveSync error, now are you ready to get very miserable? . You know what, it took me 6 months to figure out the solution.

These are basically what to do to resolve it, not in detail. Back up your server including the mailboxes bofore doing this:

1. Backup all your users' mailboxes. Convert it to PST files so they still be able to access their previous emails locally. Also keep the backup in your server. I know this is tough and will harvest complain. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do, that's a professional call.
2. Istall the PST files to your users Outlook, test them all before kissing the OST files good bye. Make sure the OST files are gone. You must be aware that using Exmerge to fetch PST out of Exchange has problems with files more then 2Gigs. So google up to mock around this issue. I am not gonna detail it for you.
3. Make sure your Exchange Back-End server is routable. It means you are gonna use Public IP for this. Make sure your firewall configured real well for God's sake. Yes, for God's sake, because if anything happened (like an intruder formatting your drive) to your Exchange Back End server and you don't care for God's sake then He might not care for your sake. And believe me only He can help you with that.
   To make your Back-End server routable, you might need the help from your Internet Access Provider. That depends on your topology, but mostly you will need their help.
4. Make sure your DNS is correct. Make sure you have complete MX and PTR records.
   
5. Recreate the CA Certificate at your Font-End server. This step is mandatory, it is very important to have new certificate. Make sure you inform the whole people on remote are to reinstall the certificate in their machines later on, otherwise RPC-over-HTTP connetion between outlook and exchange won't run.
6. Restart Front-End and Back-End Exchange server.

That's it, mate. Your PushMail through ActiveSync is now working. Yes we need more than 2 days to fix that. As you know the steps above are not in details, I am sure you can break them in details yourself.

- Zep

Mail Issues, Clients Perspective!

I wonder why there's so few articles discussing email issues as in clients perspective. Usually what we discuss is about servers and protocols. You know what, I believe the most valuable thing and also the center of any kind of messaging system is the users, the people. Users are the ones that should take benefits of the system or otherwise the real victims would be the users. So, we should take it bottom-up from users to servers, shouldn't we?

My office uses Ms Outlook mostly/officially as mail clients. And as we all usually do, the email clients are treated as dashboard. We keep it open all the time, from the moment we take a seat until we leave office, Ms Outlook is sitting there. The pop up notification as emails came in is just nice.

Yes, that's why I use Ms Outlook in the center of my universe. Why not using it as the spot where all things happen, like putting gmail account in it, also hotmail. Yes hotmail's Outlook Connector is a nice little thing that makes our universe centered in our desktop, the Ms Outlook to be precise. O, yea, put in also your email accounts from your side job. Use Pop3 or IMAP4 connection, isn't that fine or what? Now you are ready to go.

But then you begin to feel it. The slowliness. Ms outlook or any kind of email client is supposed to be multithreaded, but in this case still you need to queue what you are doing. That's why you still see the mail in the outbox is still hanging in there, not knowing when it will get out from your outbox and really sent. In cases like this, I usually recommend my users to:

1. "Cancel server request" by right clicking the outlook icon in the system tray.

2. Click in the "send and receive" button.

3. Those two steps sometime solve the problem (the outgoing emails are gone and move to sent folder), but it is quite often it doesn't. If it doesn't solve it then..

4. Quit outlook (it will prompt you to click ok although there are emails in the outgoing folder) and then open outlook again. You need to wait a few seconds before starting MsOutlook again to give time for the previous Outlook process to stop.

It's very annoying when you are in the middle of something big and something intercepts only because some silly email is hanging in the outbox folder and don't want to leave from there. I dont have much data yet, but I am damn sure that's because queueing problems, usually happen with users that have many mail accounts. Let's dig deeper...

The issues might arise from:

1. Simply too many accounts, as a generic issue in email client. Frankly I doubt this theory, because it happens with outlook with only two accounts too. One exchange account and another is IMAP4 account.

2. Incompatibility between Mail Server and client. This could be it, non exchange accounts are usually hosted in Linux servers. However, this shouldn't be the cause since operating system should not have anything to do with the mail server's job, they should be independent. The mail system should only concerns with protocols, credentials, and DNS.

3. Ms Outlook has handicaps to handle IMAP4 or other than MAPI and RPC over HTTP. I have a stong feeling about this as the cause. Can anybody provide evidence to approve or disapprove it? I will really appreciate it.

4. Queueing or multithread problems with Ms Outlook to handle too many email accounts. Again, any evidence to prove or disapprove it would be very appreciated.

That's all folk. I am setting up a small lab consist of two exchange servers (front and back server topology), a linux server for an IMAP4 email server, and two desktop for email clients. I will back to you to report the findings.

The Sender Policy Framework, the hot shot retired or revived?

Spam issues has never been easy. We know that. The ancient IT heroes have told us stories how SMTP was not meant to be built secure. But now, in the era of gadgets, mobility, and messaging everywhere, I am sure it is worth to take a look at what we have as anti spam.

I am running exchange servers for in the office. Those servers are great. Really, you can have everything you can expect from a mail server with so many pluses. With exchange you will have much more than mail, you will have the whole business attached with you.

Well, there is a slight thing you need to know. It's the capability to handle spam emails that is a little short there. Exchange 2003 is not hot with it. With me, I put a GFI Mail Essentials installed in the back end. With a litte fine-tuning, everything is fine. Until then..

My boss was a bit pissed off by some emails he sent did not delivered to some recipients. He sent it from his phone with IMAP protocol. I definitely looked very stupid because the recipients were in the same domain. Our domain. OK, I won't assume a thing. I needed to look. Then I found the email was sitting there in the Junk Mail folder. Yes, I frowned. How come emails from the same domain get into junk folder?

I am sure to fix this, I need to mock around the exchange server, again.

My first suspect was the Intelligent Message Filtering in the Exchange Server. To provide proof I have to change the setting in the Global Setting - Message Delivery. Change some setting, increasing the SCL level for Junk Mail. No Luck.

Well, how about disable the Intelligent Message Filtering filter from the SMTP at all the servers. Yes I did it, and still no luck.

My second suspect was the GFI Mail Essentials settings. I change the Sender Policy Filter level to Low, and voila! it works.

Well yea, it works, now but still leave me with wonder, why the heck this SPF marks emails from cellphone in the same domain as Junk? I checked the SPF text in my DNS. it allows all to send email. So it should be ok. But why not???

Incoming Windows 7, What's Behind the Buzz?

Installing Microsoft Windows operations systems were always nice and easy. But installing Windows 7 was incredibly easy, compared to Windows XP installation which I have been experiencing hundreds of them. When installing Win XP we sometimes had a crash a little bit, but turned out to be OK. Installing Win 98 do you remember? yes, sometimes we had to reinstall it to have a clean install. But, however they were easy.

I installed a Windows 7 in a dual boot mode. You know, I just don't want to lose anything I've been working on. They are mostly in my Win XP. 

After done installing, I was rather shocked by the degradation of visual quality compared to that i've been experiencing with, that is Vista. Windows 7 is somehow not as 'blink-blink' as Vista. Well, yeah, I must tell you I also have an Acer notebook with Vista business installed, and my favorite a MacBook. I use Vista because Microsoft someday has to leave WinXP to either Vista or now Win7. I don't know, when done installing, I just didn't feel as good as when I first saw Vista. Not that they look alike and I had this taste of Vista first and therefore not being surprised to Win7 because I already got used to something alike at the first place. But rather, the visual quality itself is degraded, Windows 7 however looks rather slum. I am sorry to say that but it does.

Anyway, the dual boot is running great. I installed Win 7 in a different partition, same hard disk. Installed it as custom installation. It is running perfectly well, and about dive to it deeper.

The Cool Mac Dashlets

I was really amazed by the first time I did the programming in Mac. Created a Widget for dashboard was just awesome.

The development environment that was so called SDK was indeed a big bunch of files. Yes, I mean BIG. Consuming some gigs of my hard drive. But tell you, they are worthwhile. I am not such a Mac Mania or something, but from my little experience with Mac. I know it is something great.

I used widgets. Both in Mac dashboard or Windows Vista sidebar. Vista's sidebar is good also, but I haven't got any that I could consider a significant plus. Somehow Mac is different. Mac pays respect for our space in desktop and booting time. I think Mac tries to get rid of unnecessary things from desktop, therefore Stack and Dashboard (as it is now) were created.  You'll be amazed of how fast a Mac machine boots up. That's a really big point.

Vista's sidebar occupies some significant space in desktop. The good thing about it is that it would be very beneficial if you use it as a dedicated dashboard for applications or services needed to be monitored all the time. Unfortunately, that kind of applications or services won't be too many. Until now I don't have any because all important things are already taken care of by the respective applications that deal with them. 

However, widgets may provide a better way of remote computation. It is like having widgets as application agents. To be extended to mobile computations, it will be even better. For me, they are all thin terminals and very potential ones.

Most Exciting Next Decade of Internet and Computation

A guy once told me that this century is gonna be an interesting century. It's gonna be like a renaissance of computing era. Well ,it was in an occation when some robotic guys hang out and concluded that the exponential progress in computer development would change our definition of life in this century. I couldn't deny the fact and it was so real. With Moore's Law and industrial economy nobody would say other wise.

I think this decade will also be very interesting in computing and internet too. By the beginning of the next decade we will have these new definitions:
- cellphones have to be smartphones or touch screens.
- every body in the civilized earth will have to have pushmail in hand.
- every body knows every body else, in terms of their mind as in personal blogs and shared photos, and also in terms of phisical location as every device they carry is in fact a gps device.
- self employee and professionals will rejoyce the joy of infrastructure previously own only by big company (enterprise) by using public internet services such internet document storage, calendar, notes, contacts and all sync'ed. Hey, you don't need to buy those tech nitty-gritty anymore.

With smaller size of terminals, you know your cell phones are the next terminal, with more powerful feature because you have all resources connected to them. it simply means MORE mobility, LOWER entry barrier to hi-technology infrastructure, MORE access to resources. Basically all will be connected and more productive, anywhere on earth. And common peaple like you and me will have no excuses to be lame. Competition will be interesting, mate!

Imagine IT Done The Right Way

People that have been to Jakarta must have dropped to Gambir Train Station even for once. I am sure of that. And I am also sure that those people will have to carry this dissapointment to wherever he/she went. Say, you're going to Bandung with Parahyangan Train you will have to go in line, stand up in the queue for may be 1 hr and make a wish hoping the ticket will still be available when you stand up in front of the booth. Yes, people sometime spend hours and than found out that the ticket was not available. 

My question is why we should be in queue in one ticket booth while there are many other booths empty. Tickets are just a bunch of numbers, why not just let the computer and the network do it easier. With a proper software and a network, you can just stand in front of any ticket boots. I am sure that a queue is not needed this way. Furthermore, the system can always provide realtime info on haw many tickets are still available. 

I wonder why it seems so little of IT systems in Indonesia Government systems or Government-owned company systems are done right. Still, nobody seems to care.

In Gambir Train Station case, we know that trains are GPS-able. We should have known if a train is detained somewhere and is gonna be late. Or how many passengers there are, daily, weekly or whatever seasonly they are. They are all calculate-able, anticipate-able. But again, try go there to buy a ticket, and you will get dissapointment.

IT systems are just tools, mate I know. It's the man behind the gun that is important, but. If the men behind IT systems just don't give a shit of what they are doing then any system will be a waste. Bullshit in - bullshit out, dude.

Yes, that's the point I guess.  If an expensive system just don't work, then it must be because of this "bullshit in - bullshit out" principle. So you know that people behind the system just don't mean to be better. Then the complete phrase would be "bullshit in - bullshit out - bullshit system - bullshit people", and that what Gambir Train Station is.

I believe that IT people should be aware of this situation. Try to deploy real IT, not a bullshit system that we know won't work. I know this is hard. Frankly my intuition is saying that maybe less then 10% of Indonesia Government IT projects are effective, budget-wise and operational-wise. If you have data to approve or disapprove it, I will be very grateful if you share me some.

Anyway, IT is now moving fast forward, everything is connected and transparent. So why don't we?

 

MacBook with IPAQ Modem, What a Happy Day!

Experiencing MacOS X is really something. I install 2 OS in the gear, first MacOSX off course. Then the other is Win XP Pro with Bootcamp. Firstly, I use windows because all of my office work was on Windows, off course. I use all microsoft stuff in the office from workstations, file server, mail server, DVR and all. And I was kind of scared that my MacBook will not provide satisfaction to my boss. So there it is, I have two OS.

Another thing that I love most is my IPAQ 612 Business Navigator. I'll say it is a cool stuff. With Windows mobile running in it, it is heaven. I like surfing the net using my IPAQ as the modem with connection thru USB to my Windows on my MacBook. Yes, I had to run Windows when using it before I knew my MacBook could use it's modem with Bluetooth connection.

It is awesome. Now my MacBook is really a magic box for me now. I don't know, maybe MacBook would work better with its spouse: iPhone. I haven't think much of iPhone though.   My Ipaq is new, functional and have this pushmail mechanism with its Windows Mobile 6. However, my office's mail server is Ms Exchange so Windows Mobile seems to be OK now. I might shift more to apple based gears though since I get less and less using Ms Windows. Gotta tell you, Apple is addictive, mate.

O, by the way, IPAQ 612 does not have its own GPS. It has to have an external GPS, that is the only glitch, i think. The rest is wonderful.

 

Move Ahead to Vista, Office 2007, Or Even Windows 7, Anybody?

It is pretty sad if in year 2008 we are still using a bunch of products of year 90s like Windows XP or even Office 2003. C'mon, we are living in a very fast growing world. Remember, the (real) computer was only born in year 80s, that's two decades ago. And guess what, we are still using the same software for the last decade.

So it's time to move on. Get to the next level. I remember this movie "The Pirates of Silicon Valley", there was a scene when Steve Jobs said something like "this (computer) is replacing the dead culture" thing. Well, I think, using the same thing and doing the same thing for a decade must be a some kind of dead culture too. So yes, let's move on.

However, how are we gonna do it? well, it is clear that at this decade we only have 3 platforms which are: Microsoft, Linux or MacOS (which is actually built from UNIX). Let's talk about Microsoft based things first, we're gonna talk about the others next time.

We are now having this Vista or Windows 7 and Office 2007 around for some time. Isn't it wonderful to experience new ways to do what we do? It is supposed to be. But you should consider these:

1. Changing tools to do what you do is not that simple. Because it is about getting the job done. It is gonna be very painful finding out that your problem become doubled just because you can't operate the tools to get it done. Sure you know the outcome of your job, but first you have to know how, and that is about mastering the tools. Office 2007 or Vista is using a very different 'metafor' with their predecessors.

2. Actual issues with the new tools.
Many Vista users are going backward to Windows XP, the precise figure is 35%. Check this link http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/21/one-in-three-new-vista-machines-downgraded-to-xp/ and this http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/XP-a-quietly-official-alternative-to-Vista/0,339028227,339282323,00.htm?feed=pt_windows_xp .
Office 2007 looks very nice indeed, but for some people it is not as cute as it looks, check this link http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142 . Mate, 42% of false positive is just horrible.

Off course there are some mocking around that can fix that, but those ways are mostly illegal. For curiousity this link will provide some amusement http://www.hackingspirits.com/vuln-rnd/defeat-oga.pdf . Inter

In my opinion, if you are an effective kinda guy, use your current windows XP and Office 2003 and stay living in a decade ago, unless you have some IT Dept to throw the blame to.

ActiveSync error, now are you ready to get very miserable?

Note: the issue discussed here is already resolved as described in Solution
for ActiveSync Issues with SupportID 8600050D and EventID 3005.

It was a happy era when everything was simple and my exchange server was only one. I know it wasn't very fancy having monochrome DOS environment. Yeah, we've got colorful digital world now. But, hey, it's a jungle now. Those DLLs and classes, components and objects just overtook the world from our understanding. we dont know which is which anymore. Take activesync for example. Have you had an error with Support ID 8600050D which also left an event ID 3005 in your event viewer? OK this is my story about support ID8600050D and Event ID 3005.

This issue has this symptoms:
First sync was fine, all emails, contacts etc are sync'ed. But then PPC detected a change in the server so it needs to re-sync. then it re-sync'ed, that's when you get the error:
Support ID 8600050D (that says you need to re-sync because there's a change in the server and you will lose all that have beed sync'ed before) then it loops, re-sync and re-sync endlessly.

Okay, here's the detail.
I have 2 running Exchange 2003 SP2 servers, with Front-end back-end scenario.
Both running on Windows 2003 SP2.
FE has GFI mail essential to be the antispam.
FE and BE has mcAfee antivirus.

And then I have these errors.
in the activesync : Support ID 8600050D , that says

"there has been a change on your server that requires you to re-synchronize all items on your device. all changes made since your last successful sync will be lost do you wish to continue?"

in the W2K3 even viewer (FE) : event ID 3005 (that indicates HTTP error 409, I could not find a record regarding this error in C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\HTTPERR)
however I could see records in C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\W3SVC1 in both servers and it seems like they both could talk to eachother.

If you google them, you will find them every where. Mostly no solution, but some solutions found seem to be not uniform, I mean different solutions for the same Error code (or I should put it the same error code for different problems, confusing hey?). Here are almost similar cases that already been resolved:

a. http://www.ureader.com/msg/1175332.aspx , unfortunately my problem is not exactly the same. I had the Microsoft-server-activesync folder right there. But Matt's solution is interesting though, I have a feeling that it might be a path to resolve my issue.

b. http://www.webservertalk.com/printthread.php?s=05b2d2175b6656fce7f64bce5c02d686&threadid=1478873 , This is good. Despite of its originality in resolving this issue, and the fact that my system doesn't have anything in the header as he sugested, this article makes me want to investigate how my domain constructed. I might find my mistakes there.

c. http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=817379 Horray! here's a word from Microsoft. Ooops, it is not what I am having now, instead, it recommends to have a front-end like I do, except that I installed a new back-end.

d. http://www.petri.co.il/problems_with_forms_based_authentication_and_ssl_in_activesync.htm this site is amazing, the articles are both deep and practical. But I think the article only applies for single server. Poor me!

e. http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Exchange/microsoft.public.exchange.clients/2004-10/0407.html , I thought this was totally a different issue. But he had a similar topology with mine and he fixed it with point c. above. It is strange, because in the Microsoft's article it is explicitely mentioned that this should not be done if you have a Front End server. But anyway it worked for him! why why..

f. http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/activesync/136379-activesync-error-8600050d.html this is for syncing PPC and Desktop, I am talking about PPC-Exchange.

There's also a resoluton by recreating Microsoft-Server-Acrivesync virtual directory in the Exchange System Manager. I forgot the link, sorry. Done that as well, no luck. Well I think if someone had this problem and resolved it by this resolution then some other problems might need a recreation of all virtual directories in the ESM. Off course, it has big risks like OWA, OMA and activesync just dont run.

This issue really makes me pull my hair. In a short list what I did to investigate this issue were:

1. Used Exchange Best Practises Analyzer Tool (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DBAB201F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3&displaylang=en) , download it from microsoft. Check your config to match exchange best practices. Then made adjustment needed.

2. used Eseutil to defrag and repaired all mailboxes (edb) and used Isinteg to assure they were ok and fixed, as you know doing this takes a lot of time. After I did this I could sync a perfect synchronization again for once, and then error again.

3. checked event viewer both FE and BE. You will see that the error only arose at FE. also check other logs: HTTPERR at windows/system32/LogFiles/httperr , and took a good look at C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\W3SVC1 as well. Compared logs from FE and BE. I found out that connection was really established between the two servers, but FE would have event ID 3005 which is HTTP error 409.

4. checked all the configs in the IIS virtual directories and ESM. making sure nothing was wrong. microsoft has this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937635 article which I think for single server, but this article also makes a perfect match for Back End server when I see it.

5. uninstalled antivirus at BE, FE and both. no luck. So I reinstalled them back again. Some say some antivirus just doesn't work along with exchange. No luck.

6. uninstalled antispam from FE and moved it to BE. In case it ruins datastream. Just no luck

7. installed another exchange server (Back End) and created some mailboxes there. Basically I built an exchange back-end server from scratch. No luck, the problem remains.

You know doing those above are very exhausting, waste of time and unproductive. But they were things that have to be done systematically so I was supposed to have an glimpse of what was really going on with my activesync. Still, I don't have any strong argument where to look. The outcome of those actions is that I have less of possible causes, which is not bad.

Now, at this time I suspect it must be 1 of 3 things that make my life miserable:

1. Mailboxes are corrupt (those edb and stm). My suspision on this is getting less and less, though, since I already did Eseutil and Isinteg many-many times. And also when I created new mailboxes in a new BE mailserver (point 6 above) they all experience the same error.

2. My Front end server has errors in it somehow. so I need to reinstall it. This error could come from IIS or Exchange installation or both. Most possible is Exchange installation errors.

3. My Domain stucture is not correctly built. I have some evidence that my domain structure is not a perfect stucture. This can cause IIS and Exchange (mailboxes) have problems when talking to each other. As we know DNS has a big role in IIS running well such as addressing, authentication, DAV and multiple sites host. And we also know that activesync connection relies on IIS.

I think those three are what left unconcluded.

I have some additional notes concluded from other cases, to consider:
- In desktop activesync failure, some sorted out by fix PST (using pstscan.exe, it is one of the program files\common files\ .. just search for it there), or remove/uninstall third party add on from outlook, or rebuild connection (by deleting both server and mobile device from desktop/mobile activesync)
-In exchange - mobile connectivity, resolution may involve Non_IPM_subtree folder in microsoft-server-activesync folder, or require recreation of microsoft-server-activesync virtual directory at ESM, remove site header at IIS, or reconfiguration of IIS default website and it's subfolder, or Security setting at IIS and ESM.
-Event viewer in the FE only that shows error.

Looking at both points above, we can say the problems are somewhere among exchange mailbox store, IIS and overall exchange server. And it must be in the Front End server.

This is a very short story of what's going on in the past 3 months I've been working on. I know it might not give you a sufficient detailed picture of the issue, but if you google it up or you once had a similar problem you will realize to the pervasiveness of this problem.

Ok, I need a hand here. I am in a huge problem. Anyone can help me is my hero, please.

Note: the issue discussed here is already resolved as described in Solution
for ActiveSync Issues with SupportID 8600050D and EventID 3005.

Wipe Your PPC, Watch Out!

I've been playing with my beloved PPC. Well, I shouldn't have put it that way.
Yes the boss just bought me an IPAQ 612 which is very cool, but the thing is I have been mocking around with exchange 2003 SP2 with FE-BE scenario with Activesync that never worked. I'll tell you guys about the story later, it's a long story, a hell of a story.

Last night I was very tired and upset about the whole activesync thing and intended to reset and would just call it a day. Well, after put back the config on exchange servers, I reset my PPC and I thought wipe it with mobileadmin would do it. Sync'ing the PPC with my laptop always got me back the phonebook though.

And i wiped it. And Geez, my HP IPAQ 612 took very very long time to reboot!. Off course I panicked. After about 5 minutes it didn't even boot to windows. And when it did, I've lost all my files. Not just phonebook and the messages, but the entire things that I already put in there, including the files in the memory stick (4 gigs microSD). Yup, all songs gone.

I knew this tools was supposed to be really good at doing the wipe thing for security purposes. I just did't know it was more cleaning than factory recovery or hard reset can do, because hard reset can only reset data on the phone not the memory stick.

So then I had to re-sync the PPC to my laptop, and put my files together again. Just made my day perfect..