IT idiots (HD 720p)

Episode 70: Windows 7 & Microsoft Mesh

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:27:05 +0000

Windows 7 is now in beta and just like the rest of the world we are impressed. It feels snappy, looks kinda nice, and the taskbar is great unless you are a geriatric and fear change. Unfortunately our screen capture software gave us grief and it was a CPU but it was the only way to show Aero. Next we look at Microsoft Mesh, great for syncing content between PCs, Macs and this bloody cloud I keep hearing about. Oh, sorry about the mobile phone noise, we won’t do it again!

Episode 69: Exchange, ActiveSync and the iPhone

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:34:26 +0100

The iPhone is out and it now has a place in the corporate world. In this episode we discuss the Exchange ActiveSync features such as the new autodiscover, remote wipe and enforceable security policies and then take you step by step through the configuration of Exchange 2007, DNS and the iPhone itself. Oh yeah and this feature is provided out of the box, no BlackBerry licenses required!

Episode 68: Windows 2008 Network Access Protection

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:50:20 +0100

Network Access Protection can deny/limit your access to the network based on the health of your system. For example, is there a virus checker installed, is he firewall up etc. In this episode we take our first look at Windows 2008 NAP, specifically DHCP enforcement. A little shoddy, but hey it gets the message across I recon.

Episode 67: System Center Configuration Manager - App Deployment

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:48:50 -0600

This week we turn our attention to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. in particular its software distribution features. After a gentle introduction to SCCM we attempt to deploy Quicktime player across the ITidiots network. Okay so we got a typo in the command line, but other than that I reckon we do a reasonable job of showing you the deployment mechanism and also troubleshooting techniques by viewing status messages and log files with SCCM Trace.

Episode 66: Windows Application Deployment

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:43:35 +0100

Maintaining a set of standard base applications across your network makes your life so much easier. Whatever the deployment method, System Center, LanDesk or just plain old group policies one of the main things you will need to do is achieve a silent install or at least one that requires no user intervention. In this episode we talk about Windows Installer (MSI) packages and introduce Orca, a tool you can use to customise your installation.

Episode 65: Windows 2008 - Hyper-V

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:31:36 +0100

Hyper-V is a key feature of Windows Server 2008. Virtual machines now communicate through a thin layer of software called the hypervisor, instead of sitting on top of a full operating systems, as with Virtual Server. Its pretty good, and we get some amazing results from our Dell £99 server, oh yeah and of course there is plenty of irrelevant banter.

Episode 64: The Asus EEE PC running Windows XP

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:50:39 +0000

Previously we showed the Asus EEE PC, in pretty much an out of the box configuration running Linux. Now Nick, or more specifically his Dad, has got Windows XP running on it, and it continues to amaze us. Despite what you might think it runs rather well, check it out......

Episode 63: Exchange 2007 SP1 High Availability

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:45:15 +0000

This week we are back to Exchange 2007. We discuss the availability options across all the roles but not after a bit of a banter so be warned! Anyway when we get back to it we demonstrate SP1’s new mailbox role feature, continuous cluster replication a great way to maintain an offsite replica of your mailbox stores.

Episode 62: Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:02:46 +0000

We continue to look at Windows Server 2008, this time at some of the new features found in Terminal Services. RemoteApp allows an application running on the terminal server to seamlessly integrate with the users desktop (a bit like Citrix). As well as that, we can now easily deploy the RemoteApp shortcuts to the desktop via an .rdp file, an msi file (for deployment via a group policy) or users could simply click on the application from a webpage to start the execution. Just watch and all will become clear.....

Episode 61: Windows 2008 Server Core

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:48:16 +0000

Previously we upgraded our Windows 2003 domain to Windows 2008 and now we add a Windows 2008 core server. Windows 2008 server core is basically a stripped down version of Windows Server 2008, no GUI, no tools, not even solitaire! Core servers can host a number of key services, e.g. DNS, Active Directory or DHCP and when adding these roles only the required files and services are added. Minimal footprint, minimal attack surface, and minimal patching. This 2008 product is looking good!

Episode 60: The Asus Eee PC

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:01:29 +0000

In this episode we get to play with Nicks’ new toy, the Asus Eee PC. Its quite amazing really, for around £200 you get an ultraportable notebook with a 7 inch colour display, ethernet, Wireless LAN, stereo speakers, microphone, webcam, 512Mb of memory, 4GB solid state drive and a full suite of applications on a Linux platform. It can even run Windows XP too! What’s going on here? It just doesn’t make any sense! You couldn’t even buy an iPhone for this kind of money, or even a copy of Vista!

Episode 59: Nick’s Small Business Server Migration Part 2

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:07:04 +0000

Upgrading a server between Christmas and New Years was not the best idea in the world. Anyway we managed to get email up and running after a little bit of hastle, wear Christmas hats and pull a cracker. After that it was all a bit too much and we decided to have a part 3. Please note, this episode is largely devoid of technical content and enthusiasm!

Episode 58: Nick’s Small Business Server Migration

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:55:20 +0000

This weeks training video screencast is a light hearted (christmas episode) look into the world of small private business. If you work in the public sector and would like to see how a state of the server setup should look like then this week's episode is not for you. Nick recently replaced his companies entire server setup with a DELL £99 special and this week we see exactly what Nicky thinks would be the best way of migrating things forward. The entire episode was filmed on location in England.

Episode 57: Upgrading to Windows 2008

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:22:02 +0000

This week, using release candidate 0 of Windows Server 2008, we upgrade the ITidiots.com Active Directory domain to Windows 2008. Technically upgrading the domain is not so hard, there are just a few things you need to consider, for example the FSMO role holders, schema extensions, DNS and of course ensuring you have a rollback plan. The real challenge is ensuring there is no adverse impact your existing infrastructure, applications and services, and that we cannot help you with!

Episode 56: Windows Server 2008 - A first look

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:58:52 +0000

Windows Server 2008 is now in release candidate and the MCSE exams are already out. I guess we had better take a look to see what has changed. In this episode we demonstrate the new Windows 2008 user interface, administration tools, and chat about some of the new features. To be honest it is looking rather good!

Episode 55: Windows Server Update Services 3.0

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:34:59 +0100

Keeping your servers and clients up to date with the latest patches, and security updates can be a real pain, but unfortunately they are so important. WSUS 3.0 simplifies the management and deployment of updates throughout your network. It is free, simple to use, and provides some great reporting, implement it now!

Episode 54a: Ashford in High Definition!

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:29:43 +0100

Okay you have seen our new high definition video camera, you have seen the tools we, or more specifically Nick, uses to edit now see the end result.

Episode 54: AVC HD SD1

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:13:07 +0100

In this weeks video training screencast: We take a good hard look at the new Panasonic HDC-SD1 high definition camcorder. So what makes this so special, well lets start with the fact that almost nothing can edit the files! This new AVCHD format will allow you to record 40 mins of 1440x1080i on a 4gb SD card but how good is it as a camcorder and how do you edit with it? Nick shows us how this week using Pinnacle Studio 11 and Sony Vegas 7.0

Episode 53: Exchange 2007 Part III

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:59:23 +0100

Back for the third installment of Exchange Server 2007. Previously we installed Exchange 2007, and configured it to send and receive Internet email. In this episode we introduce an Edge Transport server as a way of securing internet email and configure Edge Synchronization to ease the administration of the organization. Thats not it, next we configure Local Continuous Replication and demonstrate failure and recovery. Man we are good, if I were you I would donate now!!!

Episode 52: Joomla 1..5 Beta

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:44:21 +0100

Hosting your own fully function and easy to maintain website is simple with Joomla! DId you know that our website uses Joomla? Anyway, in this episode Nick demonstrates the latest version of Joomla, and show you how to quickly set up great looking website in around 30 minutes.

Episode 51: Exchange 2007 Part II

nicky@itidiots.com (ITidiots TV) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:12:14 +0100

By popular demand we get back to Exchange 2007. Following on from episode 49 where we installed Exchange, we describe how Internet Email works and then go on to configure recipient email address policies, send connectors and receive connectors which enables our organisation to exchange email with Internet recipients. Follow this episode and with the help of dyndns.org and a little bit of NAT you will be able to make your Exchange Lab more realistic which will help you gain a better understanding of the product. Watch it, implement it and host your very own mail server, forget gmail!