Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

I have just read the Technical Brief for Windows Home Server Drive Extender.

Update: that file link seems to be broken - I have attached the original PDF File

Here are some of the important points to note when using Windows Home Server:

• Hard drives are formatted before they are added to server storage. Make sure that you back up any important files that are on the hard drive before you add it to server storage. Formatting a hard drive deletes all files on the hard drive.
• Do not use USB 1.1. USB 1.1 is much slower than USB 2.0. The home server performs slowly if you connect hard drives to a USB 1.1 port. If you are using external hard drives, ensure that they are connected through USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 (for example, FireWire). USB 2.0 works best with one drive per controller. Performance suffers if multiple hard drives are connected to a single USB 2.0 controller. Using hubs to connect multiple USB drives to a single controller has a negative impact on system performance and is not recommended.
• If you unplug an external hard drive prior to using the Windows Home Server Console to remove it, the drive will be listed as Missing. In this case, you should immediately plug the hard drive back into your home server, and then follow the instructions in the Remove a Hard Drive Wizard to safely remove it.

WHS

The Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 was released just the other day, and I took the opportunity in the weekend to install it and then reconnect all the PCs to it. They all worked flawlessly. The most exciting thing is now my 2 Vista 64 machines are now connected and being backed up. Previously one wasn’t being backed up at all though there was no data on the machine, and the other which is my workstation was being backed up to an internal 500gb drive.

If you have a Windows Home Server I recommend downloading the upgrade as it also fixes the data corruption error previously found in a few small number of installs with multiple hard drives.

Microsoft Office

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.

I am working late tonight - getting some stuff cleared before a busy day tomorrow so that I can focus on a client deadline.

So as a way of reducing the number of webpages I have open in Firefox (currently 52) here's a whole bunch that I am tagging to delicious and closing for later review.

SBS server 2008 RC0 released to public for beta trial. We will be dlwonloading and installing this in a Virtual Machine to trial. We will be upgrading from SBS 2003 later in the year when SBS 2008 is released. The screen shots I have seen so far look awesome.