WebWatchBot Revision History

WebWatchBot 5.1.10 Released

26 Jun 2009 16:43:32 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.10 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

New KB: Remotely connecting to SQL Server 2005/2008 Express

1 Apr 2009 18:29:30 GMT

Configure a server running SQL Server 2005/2008 Express to accept connections from a remote client. (more)

New Tutorial: View the Status Report in a Web Browser

1 Apr 2009 18:28:56 GMT

This article will guide you through setting up WebWatchBot so that you can view the Status Report in a web browser on the same machine or a machine that WebWatchBot is not installed on. (more)

WebWatchBot Wiki Now Live

23 Mar 2009 18:13:02 GMT

Get answers to common questions, learn how to use the product and discuss the product with others.

Finding the Causes of Poor Performance in SQL Server, Part 1

23 Mar 2009 18:12:25 GMT

"Part 1: Rounding up the likely suspects." (more)

How to Get Management Buy-In for Software purchases

11 Mar 2009 12:45:27 GMT

"There is a good chance that the process of purchasing software or hardware in your organization involves several people. DBAs will often initiate a request, but are not normally trained in the arts of influencing the management decision process to ensure that essentials get purchased. It is becoming essential to understand how to get Management support for software purchases. Dan offers nuggets of wisdom" (more)

WebWatchBot 5.1.9 Released

25 Feb 2009 02:03:38 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.9 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

WebWatchBot 5.1.8 Released

30 Jan 2009 20:59:18 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.8 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

WebWatchBot 5.1.7 Released

11 Nov 2008 17:35:51 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.7 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

Monitoring ASP Performance

1 Oct 2008 17:21:41 GMT

"If you are running ASP pages on your server, the counters listed in Table 6.25 can help you determine how well the applications are performing. These counters provide the sum of the ASP performance counters for all processes hosting ASP; the data cannot be broken down by process." (more)

Monitoring ASP.NET Performance

1 Oct 2008 17:20:22 GMT

"ASP.NET includes a number of performance counters that you can use to track the execution of your Web applications. When you do steady-state running analysis, you might want to ignore the first request and also any one-time initialization costs for objects. For example, when an ASP.NET page is requested for the first time, there is always the cost of compiling an instance of the Page class. After the initial cost is incurred, performance improves for subsequent requests." (more)

Resource Governor in SQL Server 2008

1 Oct 2008 12:28:18 GMT

"SQL Server 2008 introduces a new feature called Resource Governor which enables Database Administrators to manage SQL Server workload and critical system resource consumption" (more)

Tuning SQL Server performance via memory and CPU processing

22 Sep 2008 13:05:08 GMT

"SQL Server memory can also impact performance. While having too much memory in a SQL Server system is a waste of money, having too little memory is extremely detrimental to performance. Unfortunately, determining when you need more memory in the system can be a bit tricky..."

WebWatchBot 5.1.6 Released

4 Sep 2008 19:01:37 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.6 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

Tuning SQL Server performance via disk arrays and disk partitioning

3 Sep 2008 13:36:52 GMT

"As a DBA, much of your focus is on performance tuning SQL Server. But have you spent time to tune the hardware supporting your SQL Server system? Are you using the optimal disk array configuration? Are the disk partitions aligned? This tip discusses how to get your SQL Server hardware performance in top shape � whether the system is already in operation or it's a new setup." (more)

Alerts for when Login Failures Strike

4 Aug 2008 15:02:31 GMT

When repeated SQL Server login failures occur, a DBA should investigate. It could just be someone repeatedly typing in the wrong password. Worst case is a virus attack flooding your network with connection requests. Receiving an e-mail while login failures are occurring allows DBAs to investigate and fix the issue as soon as possible. So how is DBA notified of login failures without flooding their inbox?" (more)

SQL SERVER Optimization Tips

26 Jun 2008 13:02:51 GMT

A collection of tips; some that have been around for a while, some worth noting, and a couple of new tips. (more)

14 useful and FREE online tools for DNS and network troubleshooting

20 Jun 2008 20:29:35 GMT

"When troubleshooting network or DNS problems related to your website, server or other online services, it can be very useful to have access to online tools that can help you narrow down the problems. This article contains 14 useful online tools that can help you with this. And they are all free." (more)

WebWatchBot 5.1.5 Released

18 Jun 2008 19:17:23 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.5 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here

Why Is My Website So Slow? Part 2

12 Jun 2008 18:30:35 GMT

In the first part of this series, two main areas that contribute to poor performance were discussed: hardware and software. Part 2 will discuss other software that can contribute to poor performance. (more)

Why Is My Website So Slow? Part 1

12 Jun 2008 18:27:31 GMT

New website developers and system administrators sometimes ask the question, “why is our website so slow?� The answer is often easy: the web server is overloaded, the database is being throttled by slow queries, etc. But how do you narrow it down and get to those answers? (more)

Network Cable Unplugged Causing Outages and False Downtime

11 Jun 2008 14:47:15 GMT

"Started having a problem with the generic error message network cable unplugged on several virtual machine guest OSs, running on Microsoft�s Virtual Server 2005 R2. The problem happens infrequently, however, it is difficult to catch without cross-monitoring (one VM monitoring another VM for network connectivity). " (more)

Introduction to SQL 2005 Profiler Part 1

10 Jun 2008 13:01:14 GMT

"Profiler is a tool that monitors the events and activity running on a SQL Server. Using profiler, this monitoring can be viewed, saved, and replayed. This article focuses on using Profiler with SQL Server 2005, but the tool is also included with SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2008" (more)

Understanding Web Site Bandwidth

5 Jun 2008 15:31:29 GMT

"Like many other terms, the technical definition of bandwidth is somewhat different from its use in reference to web sites and data transfer. For our purposes, and yours, bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred from your web site to the world. " (more)

Monitor physical server performance with VMmark benchmarking app

30 May 2008 14:31:42 GMT

"How many VMware ESX Server guest operating systems can your hardware handle? How can you compare the performance of a dual-core server running at 3.2 GHz with a quad-core server running at 2 GHz? When the storage components of your guest OSes migrate from the old Fibre Channel (FC) storage system, to the new iSCSI storage system, how does the move affect performance? To answer these questions, virtualization administrators can run benchmarks on sets of hardware, compare the results and discover which aspects of overall performance change. " (more)

Why good Windows sysadmins are easier to find than good UNIX or Linux sysadmins.

28 May 2008 17:04:14 GMT

"Orin Thomas stirs up the pot a bit by stating that it's a lot more difficult to become a proficient UNIX/Linux sysadmin than a Windows one. Read his reasons for that statement in his latest post to the Hyperbole, Embellishment, and Sys Admins" (more)

How to Integrate Performance Monitor and SQL Profiler

27 May 2008 12:59:30 GMT

"SQL Server profiler displays data about a large number of SQL Server events. Whereas Windows System Monitor graphically displays information about the server internals. You can merge the two sets of information and walk through a scenario viewing both perspectives using SQL Server Profiler." (more)

Twelve Tips For Optimizing Sql Server 2005 Query Performance

27 May 2008 12:50:06 GMT

Read the 12 tips for optimization

Three Levels of Web Application Monitoring

23 May 2008 19:58:23 GMT

So you are monitoring your web application, but are you really covering the 3 basic levels that will fully ensure it is available and responsive? Monitoring of a web application can be as simple as testing a single web page; however, going deeper and covering your bases is better. (more)

Measuring Performance of Stored Procedures

21 May 2008 13:43:42 GMT

"Database developers need to write stored procedures which are not only fully functional, but also which perform acceptably" (more)

HOW TO improve the front-end performance of a website - II

20 May 2008 16:57:20 GMT

"Steve Souders (once a Yahoo! now a Googler) who put up the most comprehensive set of best practices on speeding up web-pages is now following up that list with atleast 10 more in his upcoming book High Performance Web Sites, Part 2." (more)

Hacking Windows XP: Speed Up Your Network and Internet Access

14 May 2008 13:42:43 GMT

"This excerpt from the ExtremeTech book, Hacking Windows XP, shows you how to tweak the Windows XP System Registry settings to improve network and Internet speed. " (more)

Fix for poor network performance in Windows Vista

12 May 2008 15:32:17 GMT

"If you experience slowdowns or poor network performance in Windows Vista like slow browsing performance occasionally or all the time you might use a router or network device that is causing problems for Microsoft�s Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level. It�s not the routers fault or your fault but more something that is caused by how the new feature was implemented into Windows Vista." (more)

The Webmaster's Turbo Kit: 50-Plus Tips and Resources to Improve Your Site's Speed and Performance

6 May 2008 13:03:31 GMT

"By now, nearly everyone knows that an effective Web site must be speedy. Users have short attention spans and are generally not willing to wait for a bloated Web site to load. Take advantage of these tips, tools and resources, and you'll have a much better time capturing visitors' attention." (more)

Put the web server on a diet and increase scalability

5 May 2008 18:17:57 GMT

A detailed blog entry that discusses using HTTP sessions responsibly to ensure maximum scalability...which also affects performance.

Improving Java web site performance with asset caching

2 May 2008 18:29:27 GMT

"In this post, I�ll be talking about a solution I developed at my day job to improve the performance of our web site by allowing the browser to cache JavaScript, CSS, and image files. We were noticing that much of our traffic was from requests for these assets, rather than our page content. Since these asset files rarely change (once per production deployment), we wanted to have the user�s browser cache them until the next build." (more)

Performance and Tuning of MySQL

1 May 2008 13:44:40 GMT

Q&A covering performance and tuning of MySQL (more)

Improving SQL Server Performance

29 Apr 2008 13:40:21 GMT

Several good optimization tips for SQL Server (more)

How to boost the performance of Firefox

28 Apr 2008 16:30:02 GMT

"Monzilla (sic) firefox is one of my favorite browsers which have one feature pipelining which really make it really fast than another browser. By default it is disable, so make it enable to get good results." (more)

Website development: 5 tips to improve your webpage performance

25 Apr 2008 09:17:35 GMT

"Web page loading time plays an important role in drafting the destiny of the website. One of the biggest challenges posed by web developer during website development is developing download time friendly websites." (more)

Tips to Improve Your ASP.NET Web site performance

24 Apr 2008 07:47:56 -0400

"ASP.NET has been developed with lots of features which makes developer life easy. Start from ViewState, PostBack, Server Controls , User Controls and etc. All of them can make your web development experience fun and easy, but improper use of them can cause your site performance slowdown. Most of the controls generate overhead to the client and server. Therefore in this article, I I will list out about things you can do and don't to improve your ASP.NET website performance. " (more)

The Performance Benefits of Ajax

18 Apr 2008 10:57:05 -0400

In depth article and analysis of the benefits of using Ajax on a website. (more)

63+ best practice to optimize PHP code performances

15 Apr 2008 09:17:07 -0400

"...an old post by Reinhold Webber, a good list of consideration practice in optimizing PHP code performances." (more)

How to Improve Your Boot Time

11 Apr 2008 09:58:09 -0400

Some helpful tips on improving the amount of time it takes to go from powering on, to logging in. (more)

How to optimize and make Outlook faster

8 Apr 2008 08:10:33 -0400

Some useful tips on improving the performance of Microsoft Outlook (regardless of its version)

"As you may noticed, Microsoft Outlook tends to respond slower to your commands, as time goes by over your Outlook installation. We use to compare Microsoft Outlook with Microsoft Windows: they both needs constant tweaking and optimization, unless you are willing to reformat your disk and to reinstall Windows. But on the Outlook case, reinstalling it can bring lots of headaches and critical data may get lost during the process." (more)

WebWatchBot 5.1.4 Released

4 Apr 2008 16:45:28 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.1.4 is a recommended update.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions:
Download Here

View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

How to improve your wireless network performance

4 Apr 2008 07:54:37 -0400

"If you are connected to wireless network and you like to extend the range of wireless network, or you have some problems with weak signal or slow/variable connection, this is the right post for you. Those tips will help you to improve the signal for your wireless network or, some of them will help you for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network performance."(more)

24 Web site performance tips

3 Apr 2008 12:41:04 -0400

"Yahoo! Developer Network blog had an entry by Stoyan Stefanov and presentation from PHP Quebec conference. A few points to take away, in case you don’t feel like going through 76-slide presentation..." (more)

Optimizing Server Performance, Part 1

2 Apr 2008 07:46:34 -0400

"...tips were directed at WordPress users, but many carry over to traditional web applications as well." (more)

SQL Sleep

1 Apr 2008 07:57:54 -0400

"A new tool announced today will help all those DBAs keep up with the workload while trying to remain rested and refreshed." (more)

Other SQL optimization tips

31 Mar 2008 10:33:49 -0400

5 SQL optimization tips that are well commented on. (more)

Improving website performance

27 Mar 2008 08:42:18 -0400

"Website performance is becoming a bit of a lost art. As more and more people get broadband, and that broadband gets quicker, then website owners spend less time looking at performance. After all, when you have a quick connection, why bother?" (more)

Is SSD the Future of Storage?

26 Mar 2008 08:16:13 -0400

SSD (Solid State Drive) technology is not only smaller in size, it uses less power, makes virtually no noise, and is faster than a standard hard drive. If you don't know about this technology, then now is the time to learn. (more)

Yahoo!'s Latest Performance Breakthroughs

24 Mar 2008 09:17:35 -0400

"...the existing 14 rules, plus 20 new rules for faster web pages." (more)

Outlook 2007 Performance Issues? Here are Some Tips...

19 Mar 2008 10:45:43 -0400

"most cases, an upgrade to Office 2007 SP1 and some mail file maintenance will resolve the problem. But if you continue to experience issues, here are some pages that will help you troubleshoot:" (more)

How stubbing can hurt your performance on Exchange Server

14 Mar 2008 08:34:25 -0400

"To follow up on a previous post, The Death of Store Management. As many archiving vendors claim to help the overal performance of Exchange by stubbing email messages and offering customers the option to reduce the footprint of Exchange databases, the reality is that they actually hurt the Exchange Server performance by doing this." (more)

Monitoring Stored Procedure Performance with sys.dm_exec_cached_plans

13 Mar 2008 08:47:34 -0400

"[This article] will show how to use the sys.dm_exec_cached_plans DMW to monitor the performance of your stored procedures." (more)

WinVista SP1 - Network Throttle fix

12 Mar 2008 08:37:24 -0400

"Those of you who have already installed Windows Vista SP1 should know that there’s a small issue with network performance, especially when using Gigabit network cards." (more)

New Mozilla Firefox Offers Performance Boost and More

11 Mar 2008 10:59:56 -0400

"The fourth beta of the Firefox 3.0 browser was released Monday and includes more than 900 enhancements over the previous beta, Mozilla announced.

The creator of the open-source browser said the new beta includes improvements to performance and memory usage, fixes for stability, and platform-specific enhancements." (more)

New blog "Poor Performance" started

7 Mar 2008 09:00:58 -0400

New blog "Poor Performance" started by Tim Hodgson with ExclamationSoft to discuss website and server performance, including tools and methods to use to overcome poor performance.

5 Simple Ways to Speed Up Windows Internet Connection

7 Mar 2008 07:38:58 -0400

Your connection to the Internet can often be the weakest link to your website's performance. For those who do not have fully dedicated T1 connections, these tips can help make a small improvement.

Check List for Performance Optimisation in SQL Server Analysis Service 2005

6 Mar 2008 08:07:21 -0400

"No matter what your platform or the tools that you are using, performance is almost always the number one feature that customers require. In the case of SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS), there are four areas where we can improve the performance. They are database design, processing, querying and configuring SSAS. " (more)

Improving website performance

4 Mar 2008 07:53:49 -0400

Send Alert to the Windows Event Log

3 Mar 2008 08:17:17 -0400

Alerts can be from WebWatchBot to the Windows Event Log, using a freeware command line tool named "logevent.exe", published by Microsoft, which was originally distributed in the Windows Resource Toolkit. (more)

Monitor long-running jobs in SQL Server 2000

29 Feb 2008 08:33:46 -0400

"Monitoring long-running jobs in SQL Server 2000 is a complicated task. The problem is that the job execution history is written only after the first job step is completed. Therefore, if the first -- or only -- step of the job runs for a long time, you can't query any system table or function in order to capture its start time." (more)

ESX Storage Performance Tips

28 Feb 2008 08:48:41 -0400

"Thorbjørn Donbæk a Senior Storage Developer at VMware created a real cool presentation about ESX Storage Performance Tips. He has worked in the ESX storage group for VMware since November 2001 and enjoys OS level work and particularly in the storage area." (more)

5 Tips To Deal With Slow Computer Performance

27 Feb 2008 08:14:13 -0400

This article is squarely targeted at end-user's computers: "All computer users encounter slow performance or a sudden computer breakdown at one time or another. Quite often, registry problems are behind this gradual deterioration in your computers performance. " (more)

Speed Up Your Site! 8 ASP.NET Performance Tips

26 Feb 2008 08:49:20 -0400

"Now that you've added the finishing touches to your web site and unleashed it onto the world, fame, fortune, and success will surely follow -- won't it?" (more)

Hidden Network Tools in Vista

25 Feb 2008 09:25:51 -0400

"Windows Vista delivers an impressive line up of network tools that can be used to keep the operating system connectivity on a short leash.Users will be able not only to closely monitor the networking activity of the platform, but also repair network connections. The utilities are not new to Windows Vista, having survived in the operating system from previous Windows versions." (more)

Analyzing Device Application Performance with the .Net Compact Framework Remote Performance Monitor

22 Feb 2008 08:33:03 -0400

"Service Pack 1 of the .Net Compact Framework version 2 (see http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/archive/2006/04/21/580901.aspx) includes a new utility called the .Net Compact Framework Remote Performance Monitor (RPM). The RPM helps you diagnose performance problems in your application by providing a dynamic, graphical view of various runtime performance statistics. The performance statistics displayed by the RPM are those that are present in the ".stat" files in previous versions of the Compact Framework. See David Kline's blog entry "Monitoring Application Performance..." for a thorough description of all the counters viewable through the RPM." (more)

Essential BizTalk Server 2006 Performance Counters

21 Feb 2008 08:46:35 -0400

Microsoft's online guide to the essential performance counters exposed by BizTalk Server 2006 to detect bottlenecks. Use this guide to find out what you should be monitoring in WebWatchBot to gauge performance. (more)

Your Digital Photo Frame May Have a Virus

20 Feb 2008 08:40:29 -0400

You know that new digital photo frame you recently purchased? It may have come with a virus:
(more)

Does hyperthreading hurt server performance?

15 Feb 2008 09:18:21 -0400

This article from 2005 still holds some thoughtful insight into how CPU features affect overall performance. (more)

Tips for using SQL Server 2005 file and Filegroups

14 Feb 2008 08:33:28 -0400

"Here are some helpful tips to performance tune and optimize SQL Server 2005 by using file and filegroups." (more)

Windows Vista Performance Tips

12 Feb 2008 09:01:51 -0400

Safely increase performance on a PC running Windows Vista

PHP Performance Tuning Overview

11 Feb 2008 08:37:19 -0400

"There are many methods available to help you performance tune PHP. Some require little to no effort, while others take more time in analysis for potential opportunities." This article provides examples of how you can increase performance with PHP. (more)

Improve Exchange 2003 Internet connectivity, mail flow and performance

31 Jan 2008 13:43:31 -0400

"Internet connectivity on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is enabled by default, but larger organizations with multiple Exchange servers or domains may want to modify their Web connections to improve efficiency or to remove a single point of failure. This tutorial explains how to better manage email message flow between an Exchange organization and the Internet. You'll learn how to create an SMTP virtual server and then custom configure SMTP connectors, bridgeheads and routing groups to better respond to your email traffic patterns and improve performance. " (more)

White Paper: Top Ways to Enhance Load Balancing & Accelerate Application Performance

29 Jan 2008 08:35:28 -0400

"The flexibility to add functionality that accelerates application performance has become critical in meeting the larger business goal of successfully delivering applications over the Internet. All too often, problems with application performance are deemed to be a function of server hardware after network infrastructure has been ruled out. Simply increasing processing power in a server may have little or no effect on application performance and scalability. The same may be said for adding load-balanced servers to cope with increased load.

Read this Citrix white paper and learn about the important technologies that can enhance basic load balancing by reducing server workload and accelerate application performance. " (more)

Performance Wiki

28 Jan 2008 08:33:25 -0400

This useful wiki covers a range of topics, OSs, servers, databases and more.

Capture Network Traffic with Wireshark

25 Jan 2008 10:47:49 -0400

"Wireshark is an award-winning network protocol analyzer..." that helps with debugging and analyzing network traffic. It has the ability to filter based on HTTP traffic, which can be useful for finding a root cause of an error.

WebWatchBot 5.1.3 Released

15 Jan 2008 19:31:22 GMT

WebWatchBot 5.1.3 is a optional update that a bug fix.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions:
Download Here

View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.1.2 Released

14 Dec 2007 08:46:43 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.1.2 is a recommended update that includes significant and important bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions:
Download Here

View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.1.1 Released

16 Nov 2007 15:27:40 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.1.1 is a recommended update that includes a number of new enhancements and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

Update SQL Server table statistics for performance kick

16 Nov 2007 15:27:22 -0400

"Statistics are a very important and much unappreciated part of Microsoft SQL Server. In basic terms, statistics are metadata about the data within a table and they're created and updated on a column-by-column basis, not on the entire table. The database engine employs statistics when generating execution plans that are used to access data stored within the database. For that reason, having accurate and up-to-date statistics is crucial." (more)

WebWatchBot 5.1 Released

7 Nov 2007 19:04:13 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.1 is an recommended update that includes a number of new enhancements and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.0.7 Released

24 Jul 2007 19:40:33 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.7 is an optional update that includes a number of bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.0.6 Released

5 Jun 2007 12:29:54 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.6 is an optional update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices - Operational and Administrative Tasks

6 Apr 2007 11:28:09 -0400

"This white paper covers some of the operational and administrative tasks associated with SQL Server 2005 security and enumerates best practices and operational and administrative tasks that will result in a more secure SQL Server system. Each topic describes a feature and best practices." (more)

SQL Server Wait Events: Taking the Guesswork out of Performance Profiling

3 Apr 2007 06:42:41 -0400

"Measuring what is actually happening is always the best course of action when investigating performance issues on databases, rather than relying on cache hit ratios, or best practices, or worst of all, guesswork.

In order to solve performance issues, you may take a gamble on buying a bigger box with the fastest CPUs, only to discover that it doesn't achieve anything. Understanding and measuring is the key to improving database performance. If, for example, you measure high log write times, then you know exactly what you should do: go look for ways to speed up your log drive(s), or take away the load on the log drives from other processes or queries." (more)

Terminal Server / Citrix Server Security White Paper

27 Mar 2007 08:36:48 -0400

"Looking to secure your Citrix and Terminal Services boxes? If so then you must check out Shane Wescott's Terminal Services and Citrix Server Secrity White Paper" (more)

Boosting compliance with real-time monitoring tools

27 Mar 2007 08:34:59 -0400

"Much attention has been paid over the last few years, especially after the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, to IT corporate governance and establishing policies that are driven by such regulations and the controls they stipulate..." (more)

Net Neutrality Up for Debate Again

27 Mar 2007 08:29:09 -0400

"The debate over network neutrality is alive and kicking, with the US Federal Communications Commission jumping in to examine the issue of net neutrality once again. As the FCC begins its inquiry into current practices of broadband service providers, some still question whether government regulation of the Internet is even necessary. " (more)

Unplanned Events Shouldn’t White Out Business Operations

21 Mar 2007 09:40:41 -0400

"Blizzard warnings were posted across the Midwest and East coast last month with meteorologists predicting record snowfall. Factor in the freezing rain, sleet and high winds, and thousands of homes and businesses were debilitated without power...So, what did I do? I jumped from Web site to Web site until I could access the information I needed and noted to not return to the sites that couldn’t handle the peak load of visitors." (more)

Virtualisations next frontier: security

21 Mar 2007 09:39:14 -0400

"The good news about virtual machines is that they're easy to set up, they can run a variety of operating systems and applications on the same host, and they can isolate different workloads. That's also the bad news, particularly when it comes to protecting your proliferating virtual servers from attack." (more)

Your New Security Risk: Photocopiers?

20 Mar 2007 13:18:46 -0400

"Sharp, one of the leading makers of photocopiers, recently commissioned a survey that indicated more than half of Americans did not know photocopiers carry a data-security risk because of their built-in hard drives. Although industry and security experts were unable to point to any known incidents of identity thieves using copiers to steal information, they said the potential was very real. " (more)

Most Computer Hacks Originate in U.S.

20 Mar 2007 13:17:33 -0400

"The United States is also home to more than half of the world's "underground economy servers" -- typically corporate computers that have been commandeered to facilitate clandestine transactions involving stolen data and may be compromised for as little as two hours or as long as two weeks, according to the new Symantec report. " (more)

Longhorn Server revealed: IIS updates to know about

16 Mar 2007 12:27:58 -0400

"One of the major bundled applications with any version of Windows on the server is Internet Information Services. And what a long road it's been since IIS 4, the first version of IIS, which came with Windows NT Server 4.0." (more)

WebWatchBot 5.0.5 Released

12 Mar 2007 14:52:28 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.5 is an optional update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 4.0.11 Released

9 Feb 2007 08:26:49 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.11 is a recommended update for customers using WebWatchBot version 4 that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

To download, please log into our website and click on the download link for this release.
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.0.4 Released

17 Jan 2007 14:58:15 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.4 is a recommended update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

WebWatchBot 5.0.3 Released

5 Jan 2007 07:36:02 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.3 is a recommended update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

SQL Server 2005 Is the One to Beat

4 Dec 2006 11:00:14 -0400

"Super-fast performance, robust toolset and better security options make Microsoft's latest database management system a must for most shops." (more)

Gartner Predicts Half of Data Centers Will Run Out of Power by 2008

4 Dec 2006 10:59:02 -0400

"If you don't think power and cooling issue is a problem with data centers, then you are either one of the lucky companies with only modest computing requirements or you have never lived with a server cluster. But the analysts at Gartner have jumped on the power and cooling bandwagon, and now say that half of the data centers in the world are going to run out of power by the end of 2008." (more)

WebWatchBot 5.0.2 Released

1 Dec 2006 12:35:53 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.2 is a recommended update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes.

Please view the download page for details and download instructions
here
View a complete revision history here:
http://www.exclamationsoft.com/webwatchbot/help/revision_history.asp

Ten Tips for Designing, Building and Deploying Server and Domain Isolation

15 Nov 2006 09:50:15 -0400

"Server and Domain Isolation (SDI) is a great solution for protecting your systems and your information against network attacks. SDI uses Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) for host authentication and network traffic integrity (and optionally encryption), ensuring that untrusted computers plugged into your corporate network -- maliciously or not -- cannot introduce worms or make targeted attacks to your servers, desktops, and notebooks." (more)

What's New in SQL Server 2005 SP2

9 Nov 2006 08:54:42 -0400

SQL Server 2005 SP2 changes little on the engine itself, but does make a number of improvements to Reporting services, the tools, Analysis services, and Integration services. (more)

Software security flaws begin and end with Web application security

9 Nov 2006 08:49:16 -0400

"According to a recent report published by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project, flaws in Web software are among the most reported security issues so far this year. It's easy to see why. After all, hackers are known to search for an easy target. Poorly configured or written Web applications are not only an easy target, taking the attacker straight to their goal -- data, and lots of it -- but also can be used to spread malware to anyone else who visits the compromised site." (more)

The Web App Security Gap

7 Nov 2006 09:22:14 -0400

"Attacks on applications quickly evolve in intelligence, but most enterprises' Web application security strategies are still stuck in the primordial ooze." (more)

The .Net Developer And SQL Server: Aspects To Performance Optimization

31 Oct 2006 12:49:18 -0400

Understanding some of the programming pitfalls when building applications that use a database back-end. (more)

When strange -- if not spooky -- network problems kept cropping up, techs went looking for the hidden culprit.

31 Oct 2006 12:45:40 -0400

"Sometimes a little low-tech common sense will resolve an unusual ghost in your network." (more)

Analysis of SQL Server Performance Data

30 Oct 2006 08:47:11 -0400

"There have been many write-ups about handling performance data from SQL Server on this website and in many other places. Here is a little twist with an implementable example of how to do this." (more)

Microsoft clarifies Vista licensing; users still irked

30 Oct 2006 08:37:38 -0400

"Microsoft Corp. yesterday attempted to clear up confusion over licensing of Windows Vista for power users who rebuild their PCs on a regular basis. But the answer from the software vendor did little to placate some users, who are still upset about Microsoft's one-machine transfer policy for Vista." (more)

Benchmarking and tuning Apache servers

26 Oct 2006 08:57:07 -0400

"Apache is the number one Web server running on Linux systems. There are a number of little things that can be done to tune Apache performance and to lessen its impact on system resources. One of these things is tweaking the memory usage, which can be a difficult thing to profile." (more)

After years of decline, data centers are back

26 Oct 2006 08:52:12 -0400

"More businesses looking for a little extra server space" (more)

Why you should protect your wireless network with WPA

24 Oct 2006 08:59:46 -0400

An interesting and eye-opening video: A group of people on a BBC television show use easily available software break into a WEP protected wireless network and find out what a surfer has been up to as well as having access to his computer and his internet connection.

Secure, test, go...

20 Oct 2006 08:52:31 -0400

"Blackhat hackers are now attacking applications directly, because it is easier than launching attacks through the network layer. In other words, they slip in undetected through the network, using legitimate packets and launch their attacks on the vulnerabilities found deep inside the applications." (more)

What’s So Important About Defragmentation?

20 Oct 2006 08:48:59 -0400

"There Are Benefits To Keeping Hard Disks Tidy" (more)

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 5.0.1

17 Oct 2006 15:29:57 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0.1 includes a number of important bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v5.0.1 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.8

Why Web services threats require application-level protection

12 Oct 2006 09:43:57 -0400

"Hackers will always look for the most vulnerable victims; those that require the least amount of effort to attack. When most networks built up their perimeter defense, hackers began to target Web applications. Now, with the advent of application-layer firewalls, hackers are moving on to Web services." (more)

ExclamationSoft Unveils Version 5.0 of WebWatchBot Performance Monitoring Software

12 Oct 2006 09:39:07 -0400

ExclamationSoft Corporation announces the release of WebWatchBot version 5.0, the latest upgrade to its performance monitoring software for web-based applications, servers, and network infrastructure.

I am not a number!

10 Oct 2006 09:06:59 -0400

UPC bar code symbols and the evolution to RFID. (more)

Stress Testing SQL Server and a Selection of Performance Counters

10 Oct 2006 09:02:34 -0400

A good methodology for stress testing your SQL Server installation by monitoring with performance counters in WebWatchBot. (more)

Achieving peak performance

9 Oct 2006 09:19:43 -0400

Only 1/5 of companies have automated their application performance testing procedures. (more)

Debunking the Common Myths of High Availability

9 Oct 2006 09:17:49 -0400

"Many are the myths and misunderstandings that surround high availability. Typically, they appear as variations on four basic misconceptions: It is costly, it is complicated, it is hard to measure, and it is hard to test. " (more)

Top 10 Web 2.0 Attack Vectors

9 Oct 2006 09:14:00 -0400

New technologies offer new ways of attacking a server and network.

Sept. Bug In IIS Impacts All IE Users, Too

6 Oct 2006 09:22:24 -0400

Admitting some confusion, a security group Thursday said it appears one of the vulnerabilities Microsoft disclosed last month affects more users than first thought.

Locking Up IT

6 Oct 2006 09:15:57 -0400

Security Tips To Keep Your Networks, Hardware & Environment Safe

SQL Slip Up

5 Oct 2006 09:56:48 -0400

An Update or Delete SQL query can really ruin your day.

Web Application Attacks Dominate IT Landscape

4 Oct 2006 15:06:48 -0400

"Attacks that capitalize on vulnerabilities in popular Web browsing software and targeted malware and phishing efforts dominated the first six months of 2006, according to Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report." (more)

ExclamationSoft releases WebWatchBot 5.0

2 Oct 2006 10:37:21 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0 includes 9 new monitor types: Performance Counter Monitor (CPU, Memory, and more), Process monitoring, Service Monitoring, SNMP Monitoring, Disk Usage Monitoring, File Monitoring, Event Log Monitoring, Trace Route Monitoring, and Custom Monitoring (monitor an exe, script or batch file).

Tuning IIS for PHP

27 Sep 2006 09:11:43 -0400

Here's something you don't hear about every day: the acronyms IIS and PHP in the same sentence.

Improve The Performance Of Your MySQL Server

27 Sep 2006 09:07:54 -0400

A list of tips and hints for improving MySQL performance.

Optimize database code to boost performance

27 Sep 2006 09:03:19 -0400

What to avoid in order to increase performance of your SQL code.

Application Security: Is It a Priority or Just Talk?

26 Sep 2006 09:01:58 -0400

Symantec contends that the need for application security has increased but the follow-through still lags.

Sifting Through an Overwhelming Amount of Security Data

26 Sep 2006 08:54:09 -0400

Keeping a watchful eye on your organization's security includes wading through more logs and data than ever. This article tells the tale of one system admin who is trying to get a handle on it all.

Spam Wars affects everyone

20 Sep 2006 09:52:24 -0400

"From outside the e-mail inbox, it might appear that the war against spam has reached a stalemate. Sure, the average computer user still gets a dozen or more unsolicited messages a day." (more)

Online Code Search of books from O'Reilly

15 Sep 2006 09:17:31 -0400

Ever wanted a snippet of SQL, C, Python, etc.? Search books from O'Reilly for complete source code samples.

Server virtualization growing in data centers

15 Sep 2006 09:09:37 -0400

IT Managers have been very accepting of server virtualization over the past year and the trend appears to show that acceptance will continue to grow. As clearly stated in this article there is no downside.

White Paper: The Ten Features Your Web Application Monitoring Software Must Have

13 Sep 2006 10:03:01 -0400

"It’s hard to find an important business application that doesn’t have a web-based version available—and for good reason. By deploying business critical applications to employees, customers, and business partners over the web, companies have created new revenue opportunities and cost savings." (more)

The cost of poor website performance

13 Sep 2006 09:35:05 -0400

"business impact of varying page download time has not, until now, been defined. This paper seeks to provide data that allows website owners to understand the business impact of their web application performance." (more)

Is Data Warehousing a Fad?

13 Sep 2006 09:27:38 -0400

Are there real benefits to looking at data differently advantageous? (more)

IT: Tasting their own medicine

13 Sep 2006 09:20:07 -0400

IT Companies have long promised ROI, efficiency, and productivity but have only now begun to do it themselves. For example, SAP now runs SAP software...a novel concept. (more)

Measuring Application Performance In SOAs

12 Sep 2006 09:19:44 -0400

"The growth of applications using the .NET platform has generated an increased emphasis on performance measurement and analysis." (more)

How to Chose the Right Web Host for Your Business

12 Sep 2006 09:10:35 -0400

"Just because a Web hosting company is big does not mean it is stable and secure. In fact, many of the biggest filed for bankruptcy protection or were saved by being sold to some other company -- in some cases causing uncomfortable transitions in service for their clients." (more)

Fundamental Security Problems for Storage Vendors

11 Sep 2006 08:54:31 -0400

An insider who used to work for the U.S. Federal Government who now works for Hitachi, states that storage vendors do not understand the potential security risks for their own systems, including storage. (more)

How do I... Install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server Management Studio Express?

8 Sep 2006 08:55:28 -0400

Step by step instructions (more)

Code Analysis Tool Checks for Security Vulnerabilities from the Inside Out

8 Sep 2006 08:55:48 -0400

"Security Compass web application auditing tool (SWAAT) is a free static web application source code analysis tool, primly designed to help developers diagnose and locate potentially dangerous portions of source code that could be exploited by attackers and lead to security breaches in your application." (more)

Immediately Useful Utilities for SQL Server DBAs

7 Sep 2006 08:59:00 -0400

Resource kit, command line, and SQL Queries to put in your DBA toolbelt.

Prepare yourself to upgrade to SQL Server 2005

7 Sep 2006 08:55:19 -0400

The two most important issues facing database administrators when preparing to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 (more)

HTTP Traffic Cop: ISA Server 2006

7 Sep 2006 08:44:27 -0400

ISA Server 2006 offers better bandwidth monitoring and control. (more)

91.6% of Respondents Indicated that their Call Center Monitors Agent Interaction with Customers

6 Sep 2006 08:56:19 -0400

We've all heard the recorded message when calling the customer service department, "This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes", but it is somewhat surprising that the calls are actually listened in on.

Troubleshooting Tips for Virtual Server 2005

6 Sep 2006 08:46:42 -0400

Server virtualization has been booming for the last year thanks to Microsoft first releasing a decent product then recently making it free. But, like all software, things can go south with little warning. In this article, get some good advice for figuring out why your virtual server has crashed.

Poor Application Performance Costs 1 In 3 Enterprises Loads of Money

5 Sep 2006 10:04:04 -0400

"Poor Application Performance Costs 1 In 3 Enterprises Over £1 Million Per Year Research Reveals Inadequate Performance Testing Processes In 89% Of Organisations." (more)

Organisations Making Progress with IT Management

1 Sep 2006 10:03:04 -0400

IT Management is making progress compared to 10 years ago, but still has work to do in areas such as project management, portfolio management, demand management and resource management.

Error Messages - Don't Give Away your Web Application Secrets

1 Sep 2006 10:02:33 -0400

Detailed error messages, while helpful to website application developers, can actually be a backdoor for attackers or another piece in the puzzle to infiltrating your web server.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Replication Using SQL Server 2005

1 Sep 2006 10:02:11 -0400

Introduction to the SQL Server 2005 Replication Monitoring Tool

What you need to know about IIS 7

31 Aug 2006 11:24:59 -0400

The future of Microsoft based web servers.

6 Tips for Sane User Interfaces

31 Aug 2006 11:17:19 -0400

This article upgrades the old adage "Jack of all trades, master of none" by providing an example of a company with a one person IT crew who subsequently makes unintentional mediocrity of everything. The article concludes with 6 tips to avoid poor web user interfaces when staffed with one person or many.

Free Wireless Hotspots Are New Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

30 Aug 2006 10:00:40 -0400

"Public wireless access points, such as those found in airports and coffee houses, may be imposters; recent tests by Authentium at a major airport showed up to 90% of hotspots could be hosts to man-in-the-middle attacks and identity theft." (more)

Build Smarter ASP.NET File Downloading Into Your Web Applications

30 Aug 2006 09:52:57 -0400

Dynamic links, resumable downloads and more. (more)

Application Delays Eat Up 24% of IT Staff Time

30 Aug 2006 09:48:39 -0400

A slow application is something everyone has experienced: "Consider these findings from a survey released Tuesday by Symantec Corp.: 86% of employees say application performance latency lowers morale."

The best way to reduce delays is through prevention by early performance testing, measurement and monitoring. (more)

Spend Less Time Looking for Logs

29 Aug 2006 08:24:19 -0400

"Ever sit frustrated in front of a broken domain controller and think, "Man, is it me or does the event log just suck?" Well, here's a hint: it's not you." (more)

Managing the virtual realm

29 Aug 2006 08:21:44 -0400

Managing servers within servers seems a little odd and a bit like being within the Matrix. (more)

Installation Guide to Installing Windows Server 2003

25 Aug 2006 10:40:55 -0400

Thinking about moving to Windows Server 2003? Use this guide to pre-plan your installation. (more)

Secure, monitor and manage

25 Aug 2006 10:32:10 -0400

The new mantra for system administrators (or really old for those who have been screaming it at management for decades). (more)

The Ins & Outs Of Data Center Environmental Monitoring & Security

25 Aug 2006 10:31:26 -0400

"Mention “monitoring” in a word association game with most IT professionals and chances are they will immediately think of traditional system management software and the administrative processes that go with it. However, servers and network devices are sensitive and require a controlled physical environment for reliable performance..."(more)

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.8

25 Aug 2006 09:45:27 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.8 includes a few minor bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.8 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.8

60 Performance and Optimization Tips for your Website

24 Aug 2006 11:47:50 -0400

Learn and implement vital tips on increasing your website's performance. Find out how to make general improvements, how to optimize images, tweak HTML source code, get better results from ASP and ASP.NET, tune your database, and enhance IIS. (more)

SOA's Missing Link

23 Aug 2006 09:45:47 -0400

"Businesses reap maximum benefit from SOA only when they can validate things are actually working 'behind the screens'" (more)

Designing for Performance, Monitoring, and Optimizing

23 Aug 2006 09:42:13 -0400

"[H]ow do we design a service and SOA with optimized performance? Here are a few tips" (more)

Troubleshooting Tools: Best of the Best

23 Aug 2006 09:37:33 -0400

"Here are the tools that your fellow administrators loved most:" (more)

Automating your network-monitoring process

22 Aug 2006 10:14:57 -0400

Manually checking network components can be tedious and time-consuming, but there are plenty of ways to automate the task

Tales from the data centre

21 Aug 2006 09:43:24 -0400

"Whether it is server management, seamless scale-ups or DR, there is always the need for role models to look up to. Here we present three organisations which share their server implementation success stories." (more)

DNS could slow broadband service

21 Aug 2006 09:36:41 -0400

"A broadband provider's claim of superfast speeds may only be as good as its weakest link, which could be its domain name server software."(more)

Network Design Strategies

18 Aug 2006 13:36:25 -0400

"Before you can begin to design a physical network, however, you first must determine your needs. What services must you provide to your user community? What are the resources you'll need? If you have to compromise, what will it take to satisfy the most users or to provide the more important services? You then will have to take into account network protocols, applications, network speed, and, most important, network security issues; each of these figures into a network's logical design. Another important factor your management will probably force you to consider is cost—you can't forget the budget. These factors make up the logical design for your network. You first should decide what you need and what it will take to provide for those needs." (more)

Incorporating Web Application Security Testing Into Your Quality Assurance Process

18 Aug 2006 13:28:13 -0400

Security is more than just preventing easy to guess usernames and passwords, it starts with the QA process. (more)

Checklist: Monitor Your Web Site's Performance

17 Aug 2006 10:09:40 -0400

"The goal of monitoring performance is to ensure that, at any given time, your site is available to visitors and that your pages load quickly. There are numerous ways to measure the performance of a site, and an increasing number of tools and services can help. Use this checklist to learn what aspects of performance are critical to e-commerce success, so you can choose the monitoring method that's right for your business." (more)

What You Need to Know About Web 2.0

17 Aug 2006 09:12:39 -0400

"You may have heard the term "Web 2.0" used a lot lately — even on this Web site — and wondered whether Al Gore's been tinkering with the Internet again. Fear not, he's left Silicon Valley and Washington behind to shake things up in Hollywood." (more)

10 Easy Tips to Help You Kill Your Website's Performance

16 Aug 2006 10:44:07 -0400

Website performance is a reflection of the efficiency and credibility of your company or organization. From the most technical power users to people just learning how the Internet works, a slow website is a slow website.

Sometimes the best way to avoid poor website performance is to create a checklist of things NOT to do. (more)

ServePath Announces New SLA

16 Aug 2006 09:47:43 -0400

Almost unheard of in the hosting industry, one company stands out: "ServePath (servepath.com), a dedicated server provider, announced at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo its new Service Level Agreement (SLA). ServePath's SLA guarantees specific levels of network performance and service, as well as provide a credit of 100 minutes of free service for any minute of downtime to ensure customer satisfaction."

Unfortunately, like most hosting companies, the devil is in the details: "Details of the SLA include highly technical elements of Internet network performance to dozens of other networks around the world..."

Return resources to the system to improve .NET performance

16 Aug 2006 09:44:48 -0400

"The promise of .NET's garbage collection feature meant no more worrying about object cleanup since .NET handles everything behind the scenes automatically. But I continually face database connections gone bad as developers fail to clean up after themselves. I'll explore this problem in more detail and suggest how you can avoid such issues in your project."

"Monitor those connections
I've been working with a client that has several .NET applications built by another consulting firm, and these applications are performing well with the lone exception of managing its database connections." (more)

The weakest link (humans) includes the security people

16 Aug 2006 09:43:00 -0400

"I know many of the reasons why ID theft is such a problem. Anything from phishing attacks, the new two-factor man-in-the-middle attacks, poor web server security (patching, services, etc.), and the list goes on." (more)

Home Web Server Security Part 2

16 Aug 2006 09:40:55 -0400

"...the dangers that are involved in hosting a Web Server using your home computer, and how fast a web server can be taken down. This article is going to discuss what you can do to prevent hack attacks, and also help you learn about web servers in general." (more)

Special delivery: Keeping the email flowing ...Without servers or network collapsing under the load

16 Aug 2006 09:38:27 -0400

"As any email administrator will tell you, managing the content of a constant flood of incoming and outgoing messages is only half the battle.

The sheer volume of email, coupled with the increasing size of files that users want to send, also puts a staggering load on the network and servers. At the same time, end users are resisting attempts to limit the size of their in-boxes, demanding the right to stash gigabytes of mail and attachments on the server." (more)

Seven Ways To Boost Application Performance

15 Aug 2006 09:51:37 -0400

"When it comes to boosting application performance, it's about a lot more than just the bandwidth. "

"We optimized the network and upgraded all our links to T-1 lines, and the field offices didn't notice a huge difference. That's when we realized bandwidth can't be everything and we needed to investigate other means to improve application performance."

Many paths to the fast lane - Agencies have multiple options to speed up their wide-area network links

14 Aug 2006 09:31:42 -0400

"“You’d think because of the increased bandwidth, you would have heard a lot of rave reviews from end users,” said Chris Finucane, chief technology officer and director of the OIG’s service and support division. But that didn’t happen.

In fact, some employees were complaining about the slow response times of certain applications, such as e-mail." (more)

Embracing Windows Server 2003: Tales from Early Adopters

14 Aug 2006 09:30:05 -0400

"Moving to a major new operating system is always daunting, but for these four companies, the switch to Microsoft’s latest OS was well worth it. In part 1 of this four-part series, a small ISP moved for the speed improvements as well as server consolidation." (more)

Bot spreads using latest Windows flaw

14 Aug 2006 09:27:16 -0400

"Security firms reiterated advice to companies and home users to patch their Windows systems this weekend, after a bot program was detected on Saturday using a recently fixed flaw to compromise computers." (more)

Five Steps to Enable Security Processes and Technologies

14 Aug 2006 09:23:06 -0400

"Public exposure of private data is becoming a regular occurrence, but the majority of these incidents can be prevented if companies implement the proper security best practices, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts have identified the top five steps to prevent data loss and information leaks." (more)

Measuring SOA performance a complex art - Conventional systems-monitoring techniques aren’t enough for the SOA era, some users say

14 Aug 2006 09:20:16 -0400

"As companies become increasingly reliant on service-oriented architectures to support mission-critical transactions, monitoring the performance of web services — which can be more complex than traditional system monitoring — is quickly becoming an IT priority.

The nature of an SOA — multiple loosely coupled services interacting to link applications or perform a business process — is prompting some companies to create a strategy that separates management of SOA systems from IT systems management, to ensure that services are continuously available." (more)

Gartner: Top 5 Steps to Dramatically Limit Data Loss and Information Leaks

11 Aug 2006 09:34:56 -0400

"Public exposure of private data is becoming a regular occurrence, but the majority of these incidents can be prevented if companies implement the proper security best practices, according to Gartner. Gartner analysts have identified the top 5 steps to prevent data loss and information leaks. The first is deploying content monitoring and filtering." (more)

Enterprise Windows: Easing network monitoring

10 Aug 2006 09:14:57 -0400

"[We] find that the total amount of network monitoring that's been going on since we finished UAT (user acceptance testing) is ... nada, you can imagine the initial reaction." (more)

Windows Server 2003 SP2 Will Be 'Limited Scope'

9 Aug 2006 10:20:47 -0400

"Microsoft will deliver a second service pack for Windows Server 2003 before the end of the year, but it won't be anything like last year's SP1, the company said last week. Microsoft said the compatibility issues of Windows Server 2003 SP1 were a necessary byproduct of the security improvements that operating system brought. With those changes out of the way, SP2, now in the first round of beta testing, should be less disruptive while introducing a "few limited-scope features." (more)

Five common Web application vulnerabilities

8 Aug 2006 11:25:12 -0400

"The attacks explained in this article are:

Remote code execution
SQL injection
Format string vulnerabilities
Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
Username enumeration" (more)

GARTNER: Top 5 Steps to Dramatically Limit Data Loss and Information Leaks

8 Aug 2006 11:20:14 -0400

"1. Deploy Content Monitoring and Filtering (CMF)...
2. Encrypt Backup Tapes and (Possibly) Mass Storage...
3. Secure Workstations, Restrict Home Computers and Lock Portable
Storage...
4. Encrypt Laptops...
5. Deploy Database Activity Monitoring." (more)

Evolution of a user interface, before you see it: why tabs are taking over the wor

7 Aug 2006 09:28:09 -0400

"This profusion of windows does mean, I'd suggest, that gradually, more and more applications that used to offer multiple windows as their basic way of working (including VoodooPad) are moving towards tabs. Browsers first; iTunes already does; Office (the PC version) is doing something like it; and I think that it's pretty obvious that it would be smart for Apple to implement this in the "Leopard" version of Finder, because it would stop one having dozens of those Finder windows cluttering up the desktop." (more)

The role of content management in avoiding plant downtime

7 Aug 2006 09:25:19 -0400

"Stopping unscheduled downtime is one of the core objectives of organisations that own and operate process manufacturing facilities, utilities and other major assets and infrastructure." (more)

Measuring SOA Performance Is a Complex Art - Companies look to separate IT systems management from SOA management

7 Aug 2006 09:18:59 -0400

"...As companies become increasingly reliant on service-oriented architectures to support mission-critical transactions, monitoring the performance of Web services -- which can be more complex than traditional system monitoring -- is quickly becoming an IT priority.

The nature of an SOA -- multiple loosely coupled services interacting to link applications or perform a business process -- is prompting some companies to create a strategy that separates management of SOA systems from IT systems management to ensure that services are continuously available."

Google launches 'neighbourhood watch' malicious website warning system

7 Aug 2006 07:46:15 -0400

"Google has teamed up with the Stop Badware Coalition to warn its users when they may be about to visit a web page that contains malicious or deceptive code.

If a user clicks on a search result that may lead to a dodgy page, users are first directed to a warning page at stopbadware.com telling them that they may be about to put their computer at risk:

"The website you attempted to visit has been reported to StopBadware.org as a site that hosts or distributes badware. You landed on this page because members of the public reported this website to StopBadware.org as hosting or distributing badware." (more)

F5 Solves The Problem Of Slow Web Applications With New Release Of WebAccelerator™ Product

4 Aug 2006 12:39:40 -0400

“F5’s WebAccelerator has significantly increased the performance and response times of our IBM WebSphere applications, providing our customers an enhanced online retail experience,” said Harry Roberts, Senior Vice President and CIO at Boscov’s Department Stores, LLC. “Its flexible, intelligent, and reliable application acceleration capabilities have lowered TCO and enabled us to meet our strict budget requirements.” (more)

Web Application Security Testing In Your QA Process

4 Aug 2006 12:37:50 -0400

"Many companies are under the impression that testing for Web application security simply involves a cursory check for easy-to-guess usernames and passwords." (more)

Web apps magnet for hackers

4 Aug 2006 12:37:02 -0400

"Organizations using intranets or the Internet to interact with employees, clients, citizens or donors must realize that the software applications enabling these interactions can pose significant security risks." (more)

SPI Dynamics to Highlight Web Application Security Hacking Trends at Black Hat 2006

4 Aug 2006 12:34:59 -0400

"S.P.I. Dynamics, Inc. announced three of the company’s leading researchers will highlight the latest hacking trends at the upcoming Black Hat 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 2 and 3, 2006. This year’s Black Hat includes a significant number of talks focused on Web application security - a clear indicator of the impact Web applications are having on future trends in security." (more)

Those Incredible Shrinking Servers

4 Aug 2006 12:31:22 -0400

"Done well, consolidation and virtualization can cut computing costs while improving performance" (more)

The incredible disappearing sysadmin

4 Aug 2006 12:27:01 -0400

"New technologies are making it easier than ever to do without the expensive techs who monitor servers, sending their jobs offshore." (more)

Wireless cards make notebooks easy targets for hackers

3 Aug 2006 09:01:06 -0400

"Security experts have spent the last couple years warning laptop users to take care when accessing wireless Internet hotspots in cafes, airports and elsewhere. At Black Hat USA 2006 Wednesday, two researchers demonstrated just how easy it is for malicious attackers to compromise the wireless cards within those laptops." (more)

Pitfalls Of Server Virtualization

28 Jul 2006 09:36:05 -0400

"It’s More Than Just Technical

Virtualization has come to the forefront recently for several reasons" (more)

End user experience matters

28 Jul 2006 09:29:17 -0400

"IT has changed the way we run our business and undoubtedly, most organizations nowadays run enterprise applications that automate their mission critical business processes. Most of the time, however, half the IT projects are delivered over budget or fail to meet business objectives." (more)

Digg Fans Deface Netscape Site

27 Jul 2006 14:57:14 -0400

Website hijacking is nothing new; however, it does remind those who monitor websites to perform content checks to guard against this prevalent problem.

WebWatchBot 5.0 Beta Released

26 Jul 2006 23:01:30 -0400

WebWatchBot 5.0 Beta has been released to a select group of customers and will be released to the general public in the coming weeks.

The next major release of WebWatchBot will focus on system monitoring to give users better insight into the systems that run IT infrastructure for a complete end-to-end picture of system performance and availability.

Click here to sign up for the Beta Program

HP To Acquire Mercury Interactive For $4.5 Billion

26 Jul 2006 23:01:32 -0400

With Mercury Interactive's stock price at a low enough level, HP swoops in and acquires one of its up-and-coming rivals.

FAQ: (WebWatchBot) SQL Server uses a large amount of memory (memory leak)

2 Jun 2006 12:37:37 -0400

SQL Server uses a large amount of memory (memory leak)

Performance Monitoring Tools - SQL Server 2000 Index Tuning Wizard

30 May 2006 09:42:23 -0400

"Indexes have one of the highest impacts on performance within the database, followed by proper design" (more)

25+ ASP Tips to Improve Performance and Style

26 May 2006 07:18:46 -0400

If you are using IIS and ASP, these tips will serve as a good checklist to improve website performance.

.NET Performance

25 May 2006 07:32:41 -0400

"Thomas Lee looks at the fundamentals of performance analysis and how you can optimise the four key resources of your PC" (more)

Ten Usability Heuristics

24 May 2006 09:42:26 -0400

These are ten general principles for user interface design (more)

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Strategies and Tactics: Website speed: How fast should your website be?

23 May 2006 10:24:11 -0400

How fast does your website load and how fast should it be? People in the industry often talk about the mythical "sub-second page load", but how many websites actually deliver sub-second response times and is it a realistic goal or expectation?

The most popular websites on the web today do load quickly. For example, yahoo.com and google.com which contain simple text and a few small images load on average in 1 second which is admirable. Amazon.com which has dynamic content and numerous images weighs in at a hefty 5 seconds on average. At the far end of the scale the popular online auction house, eBay.com, can take even longer to load.

The Internet giants don't meet the gold standard of page load response times; therefore, should you be worried that your website doesn't load in less than 1 second. Yes and no. The obvious bottom-line is to have your web pages load as quickly as possible, while taking into account business objectives for your website.

E-commerce websites, which have more images and use a database back-end, will take longer to render a web page. For websites that contain pages with more than 10 images shown on a web page, consider two suggestions:

First, host images on a separate web server than the main web server. This allows a web page to load quickly in the client's browser. To the user, the page will appear to load very quickly, even though the entire page has not completely loaded all of the images.

Second, don't run the database server for the website on the same machine as the web server. When push comes to shove for machine resources, both the web server and database server will slug it out and slow all operations down.

For all websites, consider server side caching your best friend. The .NET framework includes useful built-in caching to conserve server resources and offers a considerable boost in performance over standard ASP driven websites. Also recommended is Port 80 Software's httpZip which can handle web pages, regardless of how they are created whether it is ASP, ASP.NET, php, or vanilla HTML.

In conclusion, set realistic goals for your website's page load times. Take into account all of the pieces of software needed to create the pages on your website and constantly work on different aspects to achieve performance gains.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Performance: Interpreting Trends

22 May 2006 11:03:20 -0400

Websites exhibit trends that provide performance monitoring gold. Right now, the response time of a website is different than it was 5 minutes ago, 5 days ago, and even 5 years ago. Because of these differences - no matter how small - a trend will emerge to offer some interesting results.

There are four important trends to look for when analyzing response time performance data:
1.) Hour of the day, showing the slowest performing and fastest performing hour(s) of the day.
2.) Day of the week, showing the slowest performing and fastest performing day(s) of the week.
3.) Day of the month, showing the slowest performing and fastest performing day(s) of the month.
4.) Day of the year, showing the slowest performing and fastest performing day(s) of the year.
(A fifth trend, month of the year, can be important to businesses that operate on a seasonal basis.)

For an online retailer, the fastest performing response times could be during nighttime hours and the slowest performing response times could be during daylight hours. Response times with expected fluctuations may indicate that the web server is being taxed during busy periods in the day and may suggest that load balancing could alleviate the burden. A flat line trend with little variation but a high response time may indicate that the server is sized too small, needs optimization, or needs help with load balancing.

Trend data is one of the best tools for proving that your web servers are up to the task of delivering web pages to your customers at all times and in a timely manner. Monitor your website, collect response time data, and analyze reports showing trends to get a broader view of your website performance.

Copyright 2006 ExclamationSoft http://www.exclamationsoft.com

Who to include in the initial Web team to kick-off a Web project.

19 May 2006 09:40:31 -0400

The first question in setting explicit web site objectives is: who should be involved? (more)

SQL Server Performance: Query Tuning vs. Process Tuning

19 May 2006 09:08:27 -0400

In the different projects where I perform a performance audit or am involved in performance tuning, I often find that while queries and stored procedures function correctly, they are not efficient in processing larger data sets. Many OLTP databases are set up as OLAP databases to handle single records instead of a record set as a whole. (more)

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Strategies and Tactics: Defining SLA (Service Level Agreement)

18 May 2006 13:07:12 -0400

SLA means different things to different people. In many companies and organizations, the agreed upon definition can be different between departments and even individuals.

Simply put, an SLA is an agreement between two parties for a service to be provided. Focusing on websites, the most commonly agreed upon metric comprising SLA is uptime.

Since there is no gold-standard agreement on how uptime is defined, how do groups and departments within an organization define uptime?

System administrators may define uptime is the amount of time a server is up and running. They may or may not include the amount of time that a service or application is up and running or that the server is connected to the network. Advertisements for web hosting companies often tout "99.99% uptime guaranteed", but rarely define how that number is measured or achieved. Most likely, the number is based on the amount of uptime that the server is powered on and "online"

Application developers and webmasters may define uptime as the amount of time that a web server is up and running. They may or may not include the amount of time that a specific page is being served error free. If uptime were measured at the web service level, uptimes would realistically be between 95-98%.

People in Sales and Marketing may define uptime as the amount of time that the customer is not complaining that the website is down or cannot be used due to an error. This group of people tend to have the strictest definition of what constitutes uptime because they are on the front line receiving the most feedback from the users. If uptime were measured at the application level, uptimes would realistically be between 92-98%.

Differing definitions of uptime are neither right nor wrong. The point is, organizations must come to an agreement of what constitutes downtime and decide on a realistic uptime goal for measurement. Once monitoring begins, it will become apparent after a short time - one week - what the uptime is. With that number, SLA agreements can be written with more detail and clarity.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Strategies and Tactics: Which is better for website monitoring: Ping, Port, HTTP or Transaction?

17 May 2006 11:06:27 -0400

All monitoring types, e.g. ping, port, and http, are not created equal. In fact, the differences between these types are broad.

When monitoring a server with a ping, a small packet of information - random data - is sent and echoed back. Monitoring a server with a ping will at the very least signify that the server is running. If the response time of the ping is slow over a short period of time, it may also indicate that the server is busy or that there is some network congestion. On a scale of 1 to 10 of monitoring effectiveness, a ping ranks a solid 3. It provides the most basic metric for server health, but still cannot inform you if that server is doing all of the jobs it needs to be doing, such as running a web server, database, etc.

Monitoring a server by connecting to a port tests the ability to connect to a server and to a specific tcp port. Common tcp ports include but are not limited to: 80 for the web server and 25 for the outgoing mail server. Monitoring a port is effective for knowing that a server is up and running and that a specific service listening on a port is responding by accepting connections. On a scale of 1 to 10, port monitoring ranks a solid 6. Port monitoring is a step up from ping monitoring since a port monitor will inform you if a specific job is being performed by a server.

Monitoring a server by http provides a richer and deeper level of monitoring. Like ping monitoring, one can test that a server is running, and like port monitoring, one can test that a specific port is working and being serviced. However, http takes monitoring one step further. Http monitoring will download data from a specific URL, whether it is HTML, a gif file, a PDF file, or any other type of document. With this downloaded data, one can test that data through searching or comparison for validity and gain a broader picture of how the server is behaving. If the URL requested generates HTML from a database even more of the server's health is exposed. On a scale of 1 to 10, http monitoring ranks at the top - a 10.

When deciding which method to use for monitoring, take into account how important the server is that you are monitoring and how much needs to be tested. If you are just interested to know when a server crashes completely, use a ping monitor. If you are interested to know when a server crashes and/or if a specific service stops responding, use a port monitor. To understand when a web application and a URL stops behaving properly, always go with an http monitor.

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.6

16 May 2006 12:51:00 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.6 includes bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.6 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.6

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Advanced Monitoring: Web Forms

15 May 2006 10:45:31 -0400

Web forms are everywhere and for that reason, they should be monitored with the same weight if not more than any other page on a website. Due to some initial complexities or lack of understanding, it can be hard to monitor a page with a web form, but it shouldn't be.

A web form is a web page that contains one or more data entry fields. It can be as simple as a newsletter signup that only requires the input of an email address to an e-commerce system that includes many fields in a form and multiple pages of forms. Under the covers, simple and complex forms are handled much in the same way.

In HTML source, a form includes the form tag (). There are different types of input tags: "text", which accepts alphanumeric text entry and is the most common, and "submit" which is a button that the user can click to send the completed form's data back to the web server. There are two different ways to send the completed form's data back to the server called the form "method", that are GET and POST.

The GET method takes the forms data and appends it to a URL which has a limitation of 1024 characters and less commonly used. The POST method is the most common way of sending a completed form's data back to the server, and is commonly referred to as POSTing data.

By POSTing data, one can monitor a web form as if a real user were entering form data and sending it to the server on a regular basis. By exercising a form in this way, one can be assured that a web form is behaving properly when a real human being is entering and submitting form data.

Since most web forms when POSTed send data to the server for processing, to be inserted into a database or sending an email, one can expect a few different aspects of a website application to be tested: the web server obviously, a back-end database, middleware such as transaction coordinators, and email servers.

When formulating a website monitoring strategy, ensure web forms are a key part of it. A critical web form on your website could be broken at any time, but with the right website monitoring software keeping a watchful eye, you can lessen the impact and reduce downtime.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Performance: Measuring Database Performance

11 May 2006 11:33:53 -0400

Poor database performance is often neglected since it is occasionally identified in two instances: during development - hopefully before customers and clients notice problems - and when slow performance is obvious and detrimental to your customers and clients.

Aside from the need to immediately fix slow database performance affecting users, the question that is rarely asked is, "when did the performance problem start?" The answer to the question is easily answered if the database is being monitored throughout its lifecycle.

Websites driven by database back-ends are held ransom to a database's performance. Because of this, an effective website monitoring strategy includes monitoring of a database server, pages that use a large number of database queries and pages that use potentially problematic database queries.

Focusing on database queries, a page that uses a large number of them is a prime candidate for monitoring on a continuous basis, i.e. once every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, one or all of the queries employed by that web page should also be monitored by directly running those database queries and measuring the amount of time taken to connect to the database and execute the query. Comparing statistics side-by-side will help pinpoint potential problems when analyzed by time of day, day of week, and basic website traffic statistics. Furthermore, database queries that are not seen as a problem in development can emerge as a problem after deployment with monitoring and historical data.

Web pages that have known long running queries should be monitored to determine when they are at their worst and if it is acceptable that they remain unchanged. For example, a database query used in a batch reporting process that is known to take a long time may be perfectly acceptable since it may run in off-hours.

Database monitoring is essential for database performance measurement. Only through the gathering of performance data can educated decisions be made to improve poor performance, and instituting an effective database strategy should begin early.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Performance: Measuring Website Performance

10 May 2006 11:48:54 -0400

Performance: Measuring Website Performance

What is the performance of your website, e.g. average response time per page, total load time of a transaction, etc.? 5 seconds? Less than one second? Are you sure?

Website performance monitoring is more than just keeping count of the number of visitors and page views a website receives. Companies and organizations that don't actively monitor performance, usually react to problems with performance only when they occur. A proactive strategy is to continually monitor performance by collecting data early and often.

The key performance measurement is response time: the total amount of time it takes to load a web page from start to finish, including images and anything else that is on a page. This key metric must be measured by a tool that does not use a client-side cache - think Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc. - and must measure all aspects of a web page.

Response time measured in this way is like gauging the experience of a first-time user to your website who may or may not revisit based on how fast your site loads. It is not the same as a person in your company who is visiting your website for the fifth time today, whose browser has most of the images cached and possible the web page HTML source as well.

By measuring response time on a regular basis over time, a response time average can be calculated and trends will emerge. For example, after collecting data once every 5 minutes over one week a comprehensive view of performance will emerge based on: hour of the day and day of the week.

With trend data, important conclusions can be drawn. If performance is affected by the hour of the day and directly proportional to traffic, then over time, decisions can be made such as adding new hardware, load balancing, application optimization, etc.

Furthermore, collecting and analyzing data when website changes are made, educated conclusions can be drawn to whether a change has helped or hindered website performance.

To get a sense of how good or bad your website's performance is, measurement of your competitor's website performance is essential. A simple example is to measure your home page against 5 competitor home pages, collecting data once every five minutes for a one week period.

After competitor data is collected, side-by-side comparisons will immediately reveal who the winners and losers are in the website performance competition. If XYZ Company's website is faster than anyone else's, you can bet that they aren't losing potential customers due to slow performance.

Response time is everything. Response time data collected over time is the only way to truly understand your website's performance; and, monitoring your competitors' website performance can give you a competitive advantage.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Advanced Monitoring: Web Transactions

9 May 2006 10:04:45 -0400

Knowing a website's weak points is the key to maximum uptime, and the only way to identify weakness is through comprehensive monitoring of multiple web pages on a site. If a website is a chain, then each web page is a link in that chain; and, as the adage goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Monitoring a website by stepping through a pre-recorded transaction is the most comprehensive test one can perform on a website at the application level. Monitoring transactions provide coverage of the most important pieces of a website: customer response forms, shopping carts, data-entry forms, etc.

Transactions are little more than a set of web pages that are repeatedly executed in order. Each "step" in the transaction is a web page that can be static or dynamic with web forms, images, authentication and anything and everything else a web page contains.

Transactions measure user experience through monitoring accuracy of web page output and responsiveness of individual steps and the transaction as a whole.

As data is collected over time, important metrics are gathered: response time delays with individual steps, response time delays between steps, identification of where and when bottlenecks occur, capturing output from web pages that produce errors (HTTP 404, HTTP 500, etc.), and content verification.

Transaction monitoring should begin during development of a website and continue to evolve through the life of a website. As each new web page is developed it should be added to the transaction for immediate and continued testing.

As the site grows, pages can be broken out into groups to isolation potential problem areas. For example, a group of "About Us" and "Contact Us" pages, which are normally static, should be set up to monitor for content verification with less emphasis on responsiveness. Also, a group of shopping cart pages should be set up to monitor for content and error verification and most importantly responsiveness. As the shopping cart is monitored over time, a trend will emerge, pinpointing the slowest pages that may need to be revisited for performance enhancements.

Strengthen each link in the chain by defining a monitoring strategy that includes transaction monitoring. Identify crucial areas of a website that need continuous transaction monitoring that over time will provide metrics for improving website performance and the user experience. Start early in the development phase of a website and reap the benefits of the information gathered.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Taking Action: Cell / Mobile Phone Alerts

8 May 2006 09:52:14 -0400

At 3 a.m. the last thing anyone wants to hear is their mobile phone ringing. In most cases this is true if the person on the other end is calling to complain that a server is down and something has to be done RIGHT NOW. If a cell phone is going to ring at 3 a.m., most people would agree that receiving a short text message is preferred to an angry voice.

Receiving a short text message, SMS message, or even a full-blown email message on a mobile phone today is easier than ever and costs less than a call on a pay-phone. In Europe, most mobile phone carriers enable SMS for messaging and in the United States and Canada, cell phone carriers provide each and every phone an email address, making the sending of email a snap.

Cellular phone carriers in the United States offer customers an easy way to send an email text message. Most mobile phone carriers assign an email address to the cell phone in the form phonenumber@carrier.com/net:

Carrier Cell Phone Number Format Message Length
Cingular 0001112222@mobile.mycingular.net 160 characters - From, Message, Call Me Back At phone number and Subject
AT&T Wireless 0001112222@mobile.att.net 110 chars for message. Subject length restriction is not provided by AT&T
Nextel 0001112222@page.nextel.com 140 characters for message
Sprint PCS 0001112222@messaging.sprintpcs.com 160 characters for message
T-Mobile 0001112222@tmomail.net 140 characters for message
Verizon Wireless 0001112222@vtext.com 160 characters for message

The following is a short list of Email to SMS services that you can use to send email alerts to your SMS enabled phone or device:

SMS enabled mobile phones outside of the United States, can still receive email alerts through SMS services:
TextMagic - sets up an email address with their domain. You send an email to that email address and the message is relayed to your mobile number.
Free SMS Text - allows you to send 10 free SMS text messages every day (visit site for details).
StreetData (Australia) - provides an email to SMS gateway service for Australia.

Not being in front of a computer at all times, does not mean that you cannot be connected. By using your mobile phone as a always-connected device, problems can be resolved quickly when notification is a phone call away.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Monitoring Failures: Interpreting HTTP Status Codes

4 May 2006 11:21:45 -0400

HTTP status codes are a standardized set of numbers a web server uses to respond to a web browser in a concise manner.

When a user enters a URL in the address field of a web browser and clicks "Go", the browser is making a request from a web server. In response, the web server sends back a status code and in most cases some text that is in HTML format.

The status code makes it easy to know exactly what happened at a particular moment on a web server and help website monitoring software determine how to act.

HTTP status codes are broken up in groups by number:

100-199: Informational
200-299: Success
300-399: Redirection
400-499: Client Error
500-599: Server Error

The 100 HTTP status codes are typically used by proxies to indicate that the request should continue and are infrequently encountered by the Internet population as a whole. When monitoring, HTTP status codes in this group should normally indicate success.

The 200 HTTP status code group indicates the perfectly fulfilled request 99.99999% of the time. In the monitoring of a website, HTTP status codes in this group should normally indicate success unless one is not expecting for example, "HTTP 204: no info to return" - an odd and rare HTTP status code.

The 300 HTTP status codes always indicate redirection or the server's attempt to fulfill a request by sending the client to a different location or web page with the exception of "300: server couldn't decide what to return". HTTP status code 300 could be handled as a failure, where as all other 300s should be handled as success with additional internal actions to be taken.

The 400 HTTP status code group indicates an error on the part of the requester, typically the web browser. Failures from this group include the well known "404: object not found" which can mean that the web page was moved, deleted, or the requested URL was mistyped. Other important 400 HTTP status codes include "401: access denied" which indicates that the requested URL requires authentication: the client should provide authentication credentials or the authentication credentials provided were incorrect.

The 500 HTTP status codes denote an error fulfilling the request on the web server. "500: internal server error" is a common error that typically means that an error may have occurred in the web server software or a web application running within the web server software. "503: temporarily overloaded" is considered a severe error which should be addressed immediately as it can mean that the web server is under malicious attack or a web application contains an error that is causing total failure to fulfill new requests.

In conclusion, HTTP status codes provide a quick and easy way to categorize and identify the state of a web server at any given moment. By configuring website monitoring software to trigger success or failure based on HTTP status codes, one can have a good handle on the health of a server.

1 Status codes are taken from RFC 2616: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Monitoring Failures: Introduction

3 May 2006 10:32:45 -0400

In the world of website monitoring and server monitoring, failures are well known and cover a wide spectrum of undesirable events. Specifically, there are two categories of failures: planned and unplanned. Unplanned failures have two sub-categories: hardware failures and software failures.

Hardware failures can manifest themselves as software failures but are detected in different ways. Slow disk reads can mean a hardware problem, dropped packets can indicate a network problem, and random crashes and reboots can mean faulty memory.

Software failures can cause much frustration with cryptic error messages or mysterious and unreported failures. A bug in software can appear at any time and cause outages that repeat based on events or other software interacting on the same machine.

The importance of defining failures is one that leads to a monitoring strategy of identifying when to be notified in order to take corrective action. There is little argument that hardware failures should always trigger notification, so that corrective action can be taken immediately. Software failures are not so cut-and-dry.

Take for example, a website that occasionally - once a week - produces an HTTP 500 "Internal Server Error". Since the error only appears once a week, it is prudent to investigate the cause of the error, but it is certainly not time critical.

If the same web server and web page were to suddenly produce an HTTP 301 "Redirect", with a location of an entirely different website, it would be imperative to investigate immediately.

The bottom line on failures is that a policy of what constitutes failures and the prioritization of the severity of those failures should be discussed and put into place in every organization to ensure a solid monitoring strategy.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Taking Action: Executing a Command

2 May 2006 08:59:32 -0400

When server downtime must be kept to a minimum and taking preventive action is not possible, quick and responsive problem resolution is key to shortening downtime. Restarting a server or process can get things going again, but it can also mask the problem and increase downtime.

How does one decide which to do: restart the server - read reboot - or restart the process generating the error?

Take for example a web server that is generally error free and bears a moderate load of traffic. In the case of an outright failure to connect to this web server - connections are actively refused - it is probably best to alert via email to diagnose the problem first before restarting the server. This is especially true in a load-balancing situation where you have other servers that can pick-up the load for a short period of time. When only one server is involved, it may be best to simply restart the web server software. For Windows Operating Systems, e.g. Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, one can quickly restart IIS with the command "iisreset.exe" which is located in the \windows\system32 directory.

In the case of an error message or HTTP status code that denotes an error, restarting the web server software or restarting the server may not help at all. If the error is caused by faulty web application code, or a problem with the database, the error could reappear as soon as the web server is back up and running.

To monitor for these types of situations, one should put in place a two-pronged strategy. First, monitor for connectivity loss and setup actions to either restart the web server software process or restart the server completely. Second, monitor for error conditions and alert the appropriate people who can investigate the problem and find a permanent solution; restarting the process or server is simply overkill.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Basic monitoring: Databases

1 May 2006 10:55:00 -0400

Database monitoring is an essential piece to your server monitoring solution. Problems with the database server, the database engine, or database queries can cause misleading errors as slow response times of web pages.

Two approaches to database monitoring can be taken: First, use monitoring during the development phase to ensure that as data is added and the database structure changes no adverse affects are observed. Second, use monitoring of production data to ensure unanticipated problems do not arise occasionally and ensure there do not show a negative trend.

The most effective way to monitor a database is to connect and query.

First, ensure that a connection can be made to the database on a regular basis. The connection should take less than 1 second - at best the connection should have zero latency. If a connection takes over 1 second for an extended period of time, red flags should go up.

Second, monitor for database integrity by running a simple query. Ideally, the query should be a select statement that does not affect the data adversely. Query results should be tested for accuracy by searching for expected text and responses should be within expected times. Queries that take longer than expected may indicated the need for SQL query optimization where as trending slowness may indicate a better database optimization strategy, e.g. indexes, table structure, etc.

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.5

28 Apr 2006 16:16:54 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.5 includes bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.5 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.5

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Basic monitoring: Dynamic websites

28 Apr 2006 11:59:14 -0400

Dynamic websites are increasingly becoming more common on the web today. Websites such as Amazon.com and yahoo.com offer dynamic content that changes each visit to a particular page.

Dynamic sites can potentially have more problems than static sites due to all of the pieces and parts that generate a web page for a website. This is where continuous website monitoring software comes in. By monitoring each piece in the website "puzzle", one can identify a problem when it occurs.

For example, a website that has dynamic content will at a minimum employ a web server and a database server. By monitoring both the web server and the database server for response times, one can determine if the web server is slow or if the database server is slow.

A good approach to monitoring this scenario is to monitor a web page that utilizes a database connection and to monitor the database by executing the one of the same database queries used on that page. Ideally, the query should be a select statement that does not affect the data adversely.

Monitoring multiple web pages will increase monitoring coverage and eventually pinpoint trouble spots over time through trend analysis.

TIP: (WebWatchBot) Basic monitoring: Static websites

27 Apr 2006 10:46:46 -0400

The common definition of a static website is one that has web pages with an .html or .htm ending; however, most sites are actually static - they don't change on a constant and frequent basis. Non-static sites include e-commerce sites, think Amazon.com or Yahoo.com. These sties change the page every time it is rendered and viewed.

If your website is static, then you have better options on monitoring. For example, during monitoring entire web page source can be compared for validity. Take for example a very simple web page that contains the following HTML source:

Test Page

A Watch Item can then be configured to search this page each run to ensure that exact source is the same. If the source changes, an alarm can be triggered.

This type of test is useful to ensure that an error has not occurred or the HTML source has changed unexpectedly.

Seagate Introduces Monster Hard Drive - 750 GB

27 Apr 2006 10:27:57 -0400

An interesting story on how hardware continues to advance despite pundits claims that theoretical maximums are being reached.

"Running out of room on your PC for storing all those must-have music videos? Not to worry. A new monster hard drive from Seagate has you covered with 750 GB of space. " (more)

WebWatchBot v4.0.4 Known Issues

24 Apr 2006 11:35:36 -0400

A number of known issues are currently being addressed for the upcoming version 4.0.5 maintenance release:

Version 4.0.5 - Projected release date: 28 April 2006
Change: Transaction Recorder: Pages with invalid certificates were being prevented from being loaded because the warning dialog was being suppressed.
Change: Alarm: Command tab, program to execute is now encoded in the database to allow for special characters. Conversion of data is automatically done on upgrade.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.1): Watch Item/Transaction Properties: Change to number of consecutive failures does not always save. Fixed.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.2): Reports: Chart not saved with report to a non-local directory. Fixed.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.3): Transactions: If "Continue if step fails" is enabled and a transactions step fails, the transaction will now fail.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.4): Transactions: Deleting an orphaned transaction step caused the Watch List to not update until another change was made. Fixed.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.5): HTTP Watch Types: HTTP settings, Search Tab, the Snapshot functionality was not retrieving web pages. Fixed.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.6): HTTP Watch Types: Searches with search text taken from snapshots incorrectly reported a search failure. Fixed.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.7): Maintenance Mode: Change made to reduce resource usage problem when there are over 100 Watch Items.
Bug Fix (4.0.5.8): Log: Incorrectly reporting failed when success.

TIP: Control Alt Delete (Ctrl-Alt-Del) when in Remote Desktop

24 Apr 2006 11:33:54 -0400

Ever try and send the keystrokes Control Alt Delete (Ctrl-Alt-Del) when in Remote Desktop/Terminal Services and get unexpected results?

The trick is to press Control Alt and End (Ctrl-Alt-End).

FAQ: (WebWatchBot) After creating a transaction, a popup appears stating that there are orphaned Watch Items

11 Apr 2006 09:19:47 -0400

SYMPTOMS
After creating a transaction, a popup appears stating that there are orphaned Watch Items. This problem only occurs in v4.0.4 build 14400

RESOLUTION/WORKAROUND
Three solutions available:
1. Download the hot fix here: http://www.exclamationsoft.com/ExclamationSoft/download/WebWatchBot4.0.4hotfix.zip
Then unzip the one file (wwbgui.exe) in your WebWatchBot installation folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\WebWatchBot 4The build number should show 14401.

2. Download and install the full install of WebWatchBot v4.0.4 build 14401: http://www.exclamationsoft.com/ExclamationSoft/download/WebWatchBot.zip

If you do not want to install the hot fix or the full install, use the workaround:
3. Click the button "Do Nothing" to ensure that the Watch Items are not deleted or made non-transaction exclusive.

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.4

10 Apr 2006 07:53:43 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.4 includes includes new enhancements and bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.4 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.4

Internet Users Fail To Spot Phishing Sites

6 Apr 2006 07:13:59 -0400

"Web users largely ignore the browser warning signals that could allow them to verify the authenticity and trustworthiness of a Web site, research has claimed. " (more)

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.3

21 Mar 2006 09:36:21 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.3 includes includes new enhancements and bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.3 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.3

User Interface Design Still Matters

21 Mar 2006 08:14:42 -0400

Form wins over functionality when it comes to how the user experiences products.

Websites and networked servers at risk of downtime thanks to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks

20 Mar 2006 11:22:04 -0400

VeriSign Warns of Massive Net Attacks

"Although it is possible to prevent or stop DoS attacks by blocking the Internet addresses from which the attacks originate, it is not a simple process to block these new DNS attacks, said Frost & Sullivan analyst Rob Ayoub. For the most part, he said, all a business can do is carefully monitor its traffic, have benchmarks in place, check out any spikes, and limit traffic or block specific requests if it needs to. " Read more on newsfactor.com

Will your PC keep pace with Vista?

16 Mar 2006 08:59:27 -0400

Windows Vista is clearly on the horizon and it has a hefty list of system requirements; most notably a powerful graphics card. New tools from Microsoft will evaluate your computer and make recommendations on what to upgrade in order to run the new OS.

Vote Now! Smtp.NET nominated for Readers Choice Email Control of the Year!

15 Mar 2006 16:40:03 -0400

CLICK HEREto cast your vote for Smtp.NET on the asp.netPro magazine website.

The survey takes just a few minutes. Smtp.NET's category is "E-mail Control" (Page 3, half-way down the page). Don't forget to click "continue" through the entire survey so your vote is counted. At the very end, please consider voting again for Smtp.NET for the "Product of the Year".

Thank you for your support!

McAfee Update Kills More Than Viruses

14 Mar 2006 07:22:11 -0400

"A recent virus-definition update from security firm McAfee incorrectly flagged several applications as viruses, even removing the core Microsoft Excel executable from some users' computers."

Some versions of McAfee's virus scanning products have been known to block email being sent from tools such as NetMailBot, Smtp.NET and WebWatchBot. Check the FAQ for more information if you are having problems sending email and you use McAfee's products.

Everything about sending Emails in ASP.NET 2.0- Part 1

11 Mar 2006 12:34:48 -0400

.NET makes sending email from your asp.net web based application easier with built in libraries:

"Sending emails, automated or otherwise, is frequent requirement in web applications. Enquiry forms, orders, newsletters, alerts and notifications are some of the examples wherein emails are often used. In this article we are going to see what ASP.NET 2.0 (or .NET framework rather) has to offer for sending emails from our web applications."

For more complex asp.net email sending including features such as authentication and mail merge, you will need to find something more powerful - Smtp.NET

FAQ: (WebWatchBot) The Log Pane shows an error message for all of my Watch Items, why?

10 Mar 2006 10:37:39 -0400

SYMPTOMS
The Log Pane shows an error message for all of my Watch Items or the log files are never created even though the log type is not set to "none".
An error message is displayed in the log pane:
"The log file {logfilename} does not exist or cannot be opened."

CAUSE
If you switch WebWatchBot from Windows Application mode to Windows Service mode, you may experience this error. This is because your logged in user account and the service's user account are different and may have different permissions for the data directory.

RESOLUTION
To resolve follow these steps:
1. Stop the WebWatchBot service: Tools -> Stop Service
2. Select the menu: Help -> Exclamationsoft Support -> View Data Folder
3. Close WebWatchBot Manager
4. Delete all of the sub-directories that are named with numbers only, or change the permissions of all files and sub-folders so that "Everyone" group has full access.
5. Start WebWatchBot.

ExclamationSoft Releases WebWatchBot 4.0.2

27 Feb 2006 11:03:39 -0400

WebWatchBot 4.0.2 includes includes new enhancments and bug fixes.

Review changes here: Revision History

Download v4.0.2 here: WebWatchBot v4.0.2

Boost Performance and Reduce Code Use With SQL Server Aggregate Functions

22 Feb 2006 12:02:42 -0400

"Aggregate functions, a staple means of summarizing large volumes of data for serious database developers, are mainly used for generating business data reports. Aggregate functions allow you to retrieve summarized information from a table by operating on a set of data as a whole rather than on each data element. These functions contribute to keeping unnecessary load and coding out of the display pages. This article will acquaint you with aggregate functions such as MIN, MAX, COUNT, and AVG, which easily let you perform tasks that you may have thought needed extensive programming codes to accomplish. Besides returning a single summarized value, aggregate functions can also perform common DBA tasks such as deleting duplicate records." (more)

Web Performance Tuning

25 Jan 2006 09:18:28 -0400

Chapter 4 of O'Reilly's book on Web Performance Tuning offers helpful insight for webmasters or anyone concerned about a website's performance.

FBI: Most Companies Get Hacked

22 Jan 2006 08:45:35 -0400

In its release on the survey, the FBI quoted Frank Abagnale, security consultant and subject of the movie "Catch Me If You Can": "Every company, both large and small, should study this survey and use the data as the basis for making changes. Those who ignore it do so at their peril."

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2003

19 Jan 2006 09:32:17 -0400

"For most customer workloads, Windows Server 2003 performs very well out of the box. However, you may want to tune certain server settings to obtain incremental performance gains, especially when the nature of a server workload will not vary much over time. This document describes important tuning parameters and settings that can result in improved performance. Each setting and its potential effect are described to help you make an informed judgment about its relevance to the system, workload, and performance goals." (more)

WebWatchBot Revision History

WebWatchBot 5.1.10 Released

New KB: Remotely connecting to SQL Server 2005/2008 Express

New Tutorial: View the Status Report in a Web Browser

WebWatchBot Wiki Now Live

Finding the Causes of Poor Performance in SQL Server, Part 1

How to Get Management Buy-In for Software purchases

WebWatchBot 5.1.9 Released

WebWatchBot 5.1.8 Released

WebWatchBot 5.1.7 Released

Monitoring ASP Performance

Monitoring ASP.NET Performance

Resource Governor in SQL Server 2008

Tuning SQL Server performance via memory and CPU processing

WebWatchBot 5.1.6 Released

Tuning SQL Server performance via disk arrays and disk partitioning

Alerts for when Login Failures Strike

SQL SERVER Optimization Tips

Top 10 things you must read about VMware Performance

14 useful and FREE online tools for DNS and network troubleshooting

WebWatchBot 5.1.5 Released

Why Is My Website So Slow? Part 2

Why Is My Website So Slow? Part 1

Network Cable Unplugged Causing Outages and False Downtime

Introduction to SQL 2005 Profiler Part 1

Understanding Web Site Bandwidth

Monitor physical server performance with VMmark benchmarking app

Why good Windows sysadmins are easier to find than good UNIX or Linux sysadmins.

How to Integrate Performance Monitor and SQL Profiler

Twelve Tips For Optimizing Sql Server 2005 Query Performance

Three Levels of Web Application Monitoring

Measuring Performance of Stored Procedures

HOW TO improve the front-end performance of a website - II

Hacking Windows XP: Speed Up Your Network and Internet Access

Fix for poor network performance in Windows Vista

The Webmaster's Turbo Kit: 50-Plus Tips and Resources to Improve Your Site's Speed and Performance

Put the web server on a diet and increase scalability

Improving Java web site performance with asset caching

Performance and Tuning of MySQL

Improving SQL Server Performance

How to boost the performance of Firefox

Website development: 5 tips to improve your webpage performance

Tips to Improve Your ASP.NET Web site performance

The Performance Benefits of Ajax

63+ best practice to optimize PHP code performances

How to Improve Your Boot Time

How to optimize and make Outlook faster

WebWatchBot 5.1.4 Released

How to improve your wireless network performance

24 Web site performance tips

Optimizing Server Performance, Part 1

SQL Sleep

Other SQL optimization tips

Improving website performance

Is SSD the Future of Storage?

Yahoo!'s Latest Performance Breakthroughs

Outlook 2007 Performance Issues? Here are Some Tips...

How stubbing can hurt your performance on Exchange Server

Monitoring Stored Procedure Performance with sys.dm_exec_cached_plans

WinVista SP1 - Network Throttle fix

New Mozilla Firefox Offers Performance Boost and More

New blog "Poor Performance" started

5 Simple Ways to Speed Up Windows Internet Connection

Check List for Performance Optimisation in SQL Server Analysis Service 2005

Improving website performance

Send Alert to the Windows Event Log

Monitor long-running jobs in SQL Server 2000

ESX Storage Performance Tips

5 Tips To Deal With Slow Computer Performance

Speed Up Your Site! 8 ASP.NET Performance Tips

Hidden Network Tools in Vista

Analyzing Device Application Performance with the .Net Compact Framework Remote Performance Monitor

Essential BizTalk Server 2006 Performance Counters

Your Digital Photo Frame May Have a Virus

Does hyperthreading hurt server performance?

Tips for using SQL Server 2005 file and Filegroups

Windows Vista Performance Tips

PHP Performance Tuning Overview

Improve Exchange 2003 Internet connectivity, mail flow and performance

White Paper: Top Ways to Enhance Load Balancing & Accelerate Application Performance