Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

It was announced today that there was a major DNS security flaw that could allow attackers easily to compromise any name server; it also affects clients.

Here are some specific news articles about this (for techies only)

• Slashdot
• Internet Systems Consortium
• Internet Storm Centre
• Microsoft Security bulletin

What does this mean for you?

Patch your Windows XP PC using Microsoft Update or Windows Update. If you have a MAC use Software Update to patch it. I am not sure if they have released patches yet for MAC but will update this when I find out.

I have full instructions and screenshots for Windows XP and Vista below – also a couple of screenshots for Server 2003 / SBS 2003, though server owners SHOULD know how and when to patch their servers.

Installation

As I previously mentioned I have been installing a Windows Home Server so as to test and evaluate it. I believe it is a product that is going to be very useful to a number of our clients.

I ordered the 120 day evaluation kit from Microsoft and it arrived about 10 days after ordering.

The Kit comes with 2CDs and a DVD in a cardboard sleeve and has a full licence key enclosed.

The DVD is an installation disk, and the two CDs are the client connector disk and the restore disk.

I had read the instructions first and also done a fair amount of research online so I was prepared. The machine I planned to install it on is a Pentium 4 Dual Core with 2GB RAM and 4 250GB Hard drives. It was running Vista, and was sitting in my server room. Its main use was to hold a large amount of Games, TV and Movies - about 600GB worth.

Following Scott Hanselman's, Steve Richards and Bill Gates lead, I have decided to share my office and workspace setup.

This isn't meant to be a gloat about the technology I use rather an explanation of the tools that I use in my job. Plumbers and electricians have cool vans full of all their gear and they probably spend more on that than I have on this.

My office is around 4 metres square, though one corner is chamfered off. In order to maximise the space available and still create enough room for my staff to work I have a real mixture of furniture. My desk is a curved reception desk I picked up second hand from the gym when they remodelled. It has nice deep drawers on both sides and the 90 degree curving space is an excellent fit for the 4 monitors I work on - 2 x 22" and 2 x 19" wide screens. It also holds current files and data, pens, blank cds, odds and ends and all the cables to connect my mobile phone, camera, video camera and creative zen. On top at each end I store things that I don't need to look at but need to access. In the middle I have a photo frame of my 4 kids and a Lego Bionicle I was given when leaving a client.

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Susan Bradley AKA the SBS diva is a SBS 2003 Legend!

Following normal Microsoft practice of patching what aint broke and then wondering why it is broke, I installed the Best Practices Analyser last week on my SBS2003 server. Previously it had been running absolutely perfectly. (well as perfectly as a Microsoft server can get - only needed restarting every 2 weeks or so)

The BPA told me my system was largely ok but I should fix some things. With the assistance of Susan I duly fixed these things.