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Performance Monitoring for Bottlenecks [Chart]

Jeremy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:33:40 +0000

Steven Choy posted this excellent article on MS TechNet back in August of 2008. I still consider it an excellent starting place to determine where various bottlenecks may be occurring on systems. I’ve taken the liberty to summarize the information contained in the article and created a chart for convenience. Enjoy! (Click image for larger version)

Create Custom Music on Hold for Cisco UCME

Jeremy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:56:24 +0000

Here’s one from my personal tip jar. This is well documented on Cisco’s website, but sometimes it’s just nicer to have this type of info in bite-sized portions. As nice as the canned music on hold files are that come with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, sometimes you just want to add that personal touch. [...]

Grant Full Access to All Mailboxes in Exchange 2010

Jeremy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:01:48 +0000

Here’s a little time-saving tip for working with mailboxes in Exchange 2010. Normally if you need full access to another user’s mailbox in Exchange 2007/2010 you would highlight their mailbox in the Exchange Management Console and the choose “Manage Full Access…” from the action pane. You would have to do this individually for each mailbox [...]

RD Gateway/Web Access Outside the Firewall

Jeremy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:58:05 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to work with one of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2’s neatest features: Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) and Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access). If you aren’t familiar with these features, check out a brief summary here. The setup is fairly straightforward, as outlined here and here. However, I did [...]

Recover from IOS Armageddon

Jeremy — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:20:19 +0000

Ok, maybe it’s not that extreme, but losing power to a Cisco router or switch, while performing an IOS upgrade, after you’ve deleted your existing IOS can be a headache. While not a disaster, you can plan on spending about an extra 45 minutes or so to recover. Here’s the lowdown: Summary You’ll need to upload a [...]

Random Death [Smartphone Annoyances]

Jeremy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:05:22 +0000

My phone has been suffering from a bad battery and random death. I would keep my phone charging constantly in the car, at work, or at home, then when off the charger for a small period of time, I would notice that it was dead. Totally dead; no charge left. This has left me so [...]

Exchange 2010: Simplify OWA URL

Jeremy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:17:12 +0000

Exchange Outlook Web Access is a wonderful feature, but directing users to access it on their own can be a patience testing proposal if you’re not using URL redirection. For example: you’ve installed Exchange 2010, configured all the appropriate roles, including the CAS (Client Access Server; responsible for OWA), and deserve a hero’s welcome, or [...]

Enable WiFi in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Jeremy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:03:35 +0000

I recently took the plunge and decided to setup a dual-boot configuration on my laptop. I’m already running Windows 7, which is excellent by the way, but my geekier side has always dreamed of using a linux distribution regularly. Ubuntu is one of the friendliest Linux distros out there, and with all of the buzz [...]

Got a Virus? Don’t Panic!

Jeremy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:01:20 +0000

My last post dealt with being proactive and installing a good anti-malware solution that won’t eat up all of your processor cycles. This post will deal with the reactive side: You suspect you may already have a virus….NOW WHAT?! How bad your computer is infected will determine what you need to do to get rid of the [...]

Best AntiVirus software?

Jeremy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:16:32 +0000

This is a question that I get asked often by friends and customers: What should I use to protect my computer from X? Here are my current recommendations for antiX software (x = virus, malware, phishing, etc.). Keep in mind this is for home and small business (10 or less computers) users only; larger [...]