IT idiots (mp4/iPod)

Announcement: unwatchable

nicky@itidiots.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:47:20 +0100

It's new and completely unwatchable! Our weekly audio chat show in the unique style of Nick and Nicky will be released shortly. Each week we will cover a range of interesting news stories. Why I hear you ask? We like producing content but life is too busy to give over the time required to produce video content as we were doing. We have had literally hundreds of people suggesting the same thing, an audio podcast that we could do on a regular basis without too much planning.

Episode 70: Windows 7 & Microsoft Mesh

nicky@itidiots.com — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:27:33 +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 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:32:25 +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 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:51:07 +0100

Network Access Protection can deny or limit your access to the network based upon the health of your system. Is there a virus checker installed? Is the firewall up? If not prepared to be restricted or automatically remediated!. In this episode we take our first look at the new Windows 2008 NAP features, 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 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:29:33 -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 — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:44:23 +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 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:29:31 +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 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:48:50 +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 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:46:05 +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 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:18:20 +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 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:44:42 +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 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:59:30 +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 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:07:22 +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 — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:54:27 +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 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:18:40 +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 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:59:05 +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 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:31:59 +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 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:32:33 +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 — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:46:37 +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 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:55:10 +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 — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:39:40 +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 — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:04:59 +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!

Episode 50: iLife 08

nicky@itidiots.com — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:50:24 +0100

Well you wanted more Mac stuff so here it is..... In this episode we look at iPhoto 08 and iMovie 08 two of the main applications from Apple's new iLife suite. There are some great new features such feature rich web galleries to show off your photos and videos, a rewritten iMovie application which makes creating video and uploading to youtube a breeze and of course there is 'skimming' which you really need to see to appreciate. See our creation at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F1tIVkwwDHI

Episode 49: Exchange 2007 Introduction

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:52:12 +0100

In this episode we cover Exchange Server 2007, and talk about the new architecture and features. After installing Exchange into the ITidiots.com domain we take a look at the new management console and Outlook Web Access, the much improved web access portal. Then we randomly configure some of the new features and show you the outcome. Once again, unmissable!

Episode 48: BDD Lite Touch of Vista / Office 2007

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:58:57 +0100

Continuing on the theme of desktop standardisation, we look at customising a version of Office 2007 for inclusion in our standard Vista image. Customising Microsoft Office is quite straight forward, we take you through the different ways of customising an installation of Office 2003 and Office 2007. Then we use BDD 2007 to build our Vista reference machine, deploy the customised install of Office 2007, then image the resultant machine for delivery to all workstations. Finally we test the deployment of the image using BDD light touch initiated from a WDS server. Once again pretty explosive stuff!

Episode 47: Introduction to BDD 2007

nicky@itidiots.com — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:34:22 +0100

There are so many advantages to maintaining a SOE, or Standard Operating Environment. Just think how easy it would be for support your workstations if you knew that they were all from the same build, also users roaming for machine to machine would get the same end user experience which surely has got to minimize support. Microsoft BDD, or Business Desktop Deployment, is a great way to achieve a SOE. In this episode we introduce BDD 2007 and discuss it potential within the ITidiots.com network, then go on to demonstrate a Lite touch deployment of Windows XP SP2.

Episode 46: Windows Server 2003 R2

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 22:52:25 +0100

Windows Server 2003 Release 2 contains some great new features that help you manage your file server. Finally a quota system that you can enable on a folder and not an entire drive, it even has email reporting! Then there's file screening which can be used to prevent files of a certain type from being stored on the server. DFS replication replaces FRS which means that DFS replicas now replicate in a controlled and far more efficient manner. The list goes on, but that's all you are gonna see in this episode.

Episode 45: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery (070-290 Cramsession 5/5)

nicky@itidiots.com — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:04:08 +0100

The final part of our five part cramsession covering the MCSE 070-290 exam In this episode we cover Automated System Recovery (ASR) and use the Windows Backup utility to schedule a backup of files and the registry. Also we cover Shadow Copies which allows users to revert to a previous version of their files.

Episode 44: Managing and Maitaining a Server Environment (070-290 Cramsession 4/5)

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:07:19 +0100

The fourth part of our five part cramsession covering the MCSE 070-290 exam This episode covers Event Viewer, and remote server management using Computer Manager, Terminal Services in Remote Administration mode and a little bit of IIS. Also we cover some key perfotmance monitor counters.

Episode 43: Managing Access to Resources (070-290 Cramsession 3/5)

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:16:20 +0100

The third part of our five part cramsession covering the MCSE 070-290 exam This episode covers managing access to resources including share and NTFS permissions. Also we look at managing a Windows Terminal Server.

Episode 42: Managing Users, Computers and Groups (070-290 Cramsession 2/5)

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:59:51 +0100

The second part of our five part cramsession covering the MCSE 070-290 exam In this episode we cover creating users, computers and groups using Active Directory Users and Computers and then using scripting. We then tackle the subject of user profiles and demonstrate local and roaming profiles.

Episode 41: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices (070-290 Cramsession 1/5)

nicky@itidiots.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:41:13 +0100

The first part of our five part cramsession covering the MCSE 070-290 exam. Our first venture into the cramsession arena, and we want your feedback! Due to forum feedback we have decided to actually get into gear and start recoding MCSE cramsessions, this is the first one so let us know what you think. This episode covers the ‘Managing and Mainitaining Physical and Logical Devices’ section of the syllabus, including coverage of Device Manager, Software RAID, Driver Signing and BOOT.INI.

Episode 40: Performance, Logs and Alerts

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:24:56 +0100

Did you know that Windows Server comes with its own monitoring and analysis tool? It is pretty powerful too, you can even monitor all your servers from one location! Anyway, watch us monitor our server in realtime, record information to a log file for later analysis, and create an alert to record important information when the server is busy

Episode 39: Virtual Windows Clustering

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:47:07 +0000

Windows clustering provides ultimate fault tolerance, basically you can have two machines, called nodes, presenting a single ‘virtual’ server to the network, and this virtual server can run on any node. If one node dies, then the virtual server simply runs on the other. Testing for clustering usually involves expensive hardware but in this podcast we show you how you can set up a virtual cluster using 4 virtual machines, one domain controller, two nodes, and one VM running Linux based openfiler for the shared iSCSI storage. Use this as the basis for building your Exchange or SQL clustering test lab.

Episode 38: RAID and NAS

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:58:00 +0000

Covering basic RAID levels and its configuration on a Windows 2003 server, followed by coverage of Openfiler, an opensource NAS solution based on Linux. One of the key differences between this and other solutions, such as FreeNAS, is its iSCSI target support. We check it out by connecting a Windows 2003 server to it using the Microsoft iSCSI initiator.

Episode 37: Routing and Remote Access

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:01:19 +0000

Windows Server 2003 comes complete with its own routing and remote access service, funnily enough referred to as Routing and Remote Access Service, or RRAS. To be honest most organisations would probably make use of hardware solutions but RRAS can be used quite effectively for smaller organisations. In this episode we setup RRAS to receive incoming VPN connections and secure access by using a Remote Access Policy. Oh yeah, for anyone currently studying for their MCSE, RRAS and Policies form a large part of the networking MCSE exam.

Episode 36: Introducing Linux (Ubuntu)

nicky@itidiots.com — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:56 +0000

Have you ever installed Linux and wondered what to do next? Most Linux distributions ship with a full suite of great applications ready to use, but to make the ultimate desktop it is likely that you will need additional software such as video codecs, Skype and Azureus! To a new Linux user, installing additional software can be a little daunting. In this episode we show you how simple it is to download and install new applications, using APT (advanced packaging tool), Automatix and Synaptic Package Manager. We also take you through customising the visual theme of Ubuntu.

Episode 35: SQL Server Basics

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:04:01 +0000

SQL is everywhere nowadays. Sharepoint, Systems Management Server, Microsoft Operations Manager, and Windows Server Update Services all require a SQL server database. In this episode we have a look at the installation of Microsoft SQL 2000 and cover basic database recovery. Okay, SQL 2005 is out now, but you will find that most organisations are still making heavy use of SQL 2000. Also, the points covered in this podcast will also largely apply to any version of SQL, including mySQL. Watch us install SQL, then backup and restore a database using Transact-SQL statements, it is really good fun, well it is if you don’t have much of a life like us.

Episode 34: The DoD networking model

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:40:16 +0000

Time for a bit of theory this week. We take a look at the Department of Defense four layer networking model and talk about how it maps to the seven layer OSI model. See the DoD model come alive as we show you the four layers in action using Network Monitor. Not quite as exciting as it might sound, but not too shabby!

Episode 33: VMWare Fusion and Ubuntu

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:51:56 +0000

This week we look at a beta copy of VMWare for the Intel Mac, which excites us as we are generally quite sad. Anyway, the product looks great. watch us take our first look at Ubuntu running under VMWare Fusion and also test compatibility between VM Machines created on a PC, will it work?? Watch and find out!

Episode 32: Terminal Services

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:11:43 +0000

It's festive and it's late but hey it was xmas right? Anyway here is our attempt at making Terminal Services look sexy. Look out for the intro tune by Shabih.

Episode 31: Nintendo Wii (console special)

nicky@itidiots.com — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 21:58:15 +0000

With the Nintendo Wii making it's hugely awaited launch here in Europe we thought we would take an extended look at this latest gaming console. We take a detailed look at the machine, what you get and how it works. Great live action featuring our 1st dual camera podcast. Technologies: Nintendo Wii, wii controllers Wii Sports (tennis, baseball, bowling, boxing, and golf), Monkey Balls, and Rayman.

Episode 30: SharePoint (As taught by a girl!)

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 20:49:32 +0000

A girl talks us through what Microsoft SharePoint Portal server is all about. Su-Fay (girl) guest presents this one, and takes us through the installation of SharePoint and shows us how to knock up a quick site for Nick to store his important documents. If this one is crap, blame the girl!

Episode 29: Home Theatre Mac mini

nicky@itidiots.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:57:58 +0000

A mac mini makes a superb home cinema PC. Watch us demonstrate what it can do. Load of people are now considering having a PC in their lounge. Look a great alternative solution from Apple, the Intel Mac Mini. It is next to silent, cheap, powerful, comes with all the software you need, the list goes on, just watch the podcast!

Episode 28: Getting Involved

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:23:11 +0000

Want to start contributing to ITidiots? This week we show you how. We were not able to bring you a full show so this will just have to do till next week.

Episode 27: Groupware

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:23:53 +0000

Okay so what is groupware and what will it do for me and my organisation? This week Nicholas Hill demonstrates eGroupware, showing us how to install and configure it up. This weeks guest is Jonathan Hill who shares his thoughts on the subject.

Episode 26: New Virtualisation Technologies

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 22:20:30 +0000

Our guest presenter shows us three new virtualisation technologies for windows. We are really glad to welcome our first guest presenter Stephen Hill onto the show to talk about Sandboxie, Moka5 and MojoPac. With three new products on the market we felt it was high time we took a look at some free tools to do the job.

Episode 25: Exchange 2007 (The Full Frigging Deal)

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:18:20 +0000

Migrating from Exchange 2003 to 2007 in around 30 mins. We all know Exchange 2007 will be a 64 bit product but we get our hands on an early beta copy to take a first look at how migrating from 2003 to 2007 can be done in an afternoon of playing around. Follow the complete cycle in this great episode.

Episode 24: Wordpress (Nicky's First Blog)

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:26:24 +0100

Host your own blogging website with this great FREE product! If you liked Joomla! then you will love Wordpress and if you don't know what Joomla! is you haven't been watching! This product makes it so easy to host your own elegant and extensible blogging website. In fact it is so easy Nick can use it, well sort of. Watch us install and setup our first Video Blog.

Episode 23: Logon Scripts

nicky@itidiots.com — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:25:01 +0100

Create your very own vbs logon script with our template and this podcast. Visual Basic logon scripts can be quite daunting but they are extremely powerful and incredibly flexible. You can do practically anything. Using our template you can quickly create a logon script that maps drives, connects to printers, verify if an application exists and even check the registry.

Episode 22: Installing Windows Vista (Virtually)

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:48:41 +0100

If you only see one progress bar podcast this year, make sure its this one It is about time that we started to look into Windows Vista, so in this episode we install it for the first time. An excellent podcast to watch if you have no concept of what a progress bar is, but other than that it is largely devoid of techncal content. Go on, watch us watch the progress bar!

Episode 21: Systems Management Server

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:02:42 +0100

What with our 3 servers and 2 client machines, the management of our network is becoming a pain so we introduce Systems Management Server to help. This episode is an overview of the product, We also celebrate our 21st episode with an amazing firework display (Its actually quite embarassing really). Oh, yeah a little bit of bad language in this one, not much around 4 or 5 words I guess. And back by popular demand (2 posts) Shabih is back to give us advice on bad breath!

Episode 20: Active Directory Administration

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 16:32:43 +0100

Users, Groups and Resource Sharing
This week we start to build up the ad.itidiots.com Active Directory Domain with resources, all using Best Practices. This includes creating users, groups and assigning permissions to a shared folder and a network printer. Also we use a group policy to give our users a home directory stored centrally on our file server. Amazing stuff really.

Episode 19: Back on Track

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:00:07 +0100

Administration Tools, Custom MMCs and Taskpads This week we turn our attention back to our virtual network which now contains domain controllers, an Exchange server and a WSUS server. As the servers will be hosted in the other room, we need to find a way to administer them from our client machine, in this case Windows XP. This podcast shows the installation of Windows Administration Tools on Windows XP, creating custom MMCs and taskpads.

Episode 18: WSUS: Windows Server Update Services

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 22:52:06 +0100

Make sure that all of your client machines are kept automatically up to date with the latest patches, drivers and service packs. Fixes and patches are now a part of the operating systems life-cycle. It can be a real pain to find out if a patch is required on your client machines, to test it, and finally deploy it. Oh yeah, it would be useful to find out if the update actually worked! WSUS is a free product from Microsoft for use in corporate networks. Its main purpose is to synchronize with the Microsoft Update Server on the Internet to keep up to date with the all available patches, fixes, etc. Then, once the updates have been successfully tested, they can be approved for automatic deployment to all the clients. This podcast shows the installation of WSUS, Group Policy configuration, synchronisation of updates, approval and update deployment. What more could you ask for?

Episode 17: Parallels: Windows on a Mac?

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:20:54 +0100

Parallels for the Mac: Run Windows/Linux/DOS!! on a Mac On a previous episode we showed you VMWare and went through its uses. Now we look at Parallels, a similar product available for the Intel Mac. Basically Parallels emulates a virtual x86 environment and this environment is capable of supporting most x86 based operating systems, for example Windows XP or Linux. In this episode we use Parallels on the new Intel Macbook to run Windows XP, and Windows 2003 server. It really is a great product, and at version 1.0 it can only get better

Episode 16: Exchange 2003 Installation

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:04:11 +0100

A guide to the installation of Exchange 2003 server and advice on delaying tactics! Shabih continues to be a rather dubious show host in this one which was basically shot far too late at night to be of any worthwhile use. Anyway we talk about the installation of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and try to secure Shabih a Thai bride whilst waiting for the installation to complete.

Episode 15: Joomla!: Lets get hosting

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:42:37 +0100

A step by step guide to installing joomla!, a great open-source instant website Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites, check out www.itidiots.com, to complex corporate applications. Basically you can create a pretty cool website, with forums, shopping carts and members in around, well the length of this podcast!

Episode 14: Command Line, Harness the Power!

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:14:30 +0100

Do you remember DOS? Well, some of the commands used in DOS are still extremely useful today We start off in DOS and end up in a Windows Server 2003 command prompt. Come and see just how amazingly useful piping, and the FIND command are. We also introduce some Active Directory command line utils, DSADD, DSQUERY and DSRM.

Episode 13: VMWare

nicky@itidiots.com — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:27:06 +0100

Setting up a virtual test lab using VMWare. You only need one machine to do some amazing things! You could also use, Virtual PC or Parallels Operating system virtualisation software has so many cool uses. It basically allows a single machine to host several operating systems simultaneously. For example you could set up a complete virtual network of two servers and two clients.Great for testing applications, operating system upgrades, security patch testing, application packaging, MCSE study, the list goes on....

Episode 12: How to Video Podcast (on a budget)

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:15:21 +0100

Want to do a video podcast? It's not hard and it costs us around $400 all in, including camera, microphone, software and web services.

Episode 11: TCP, Ports and NAT

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 21:31:28 +0100

This week we look into TCP ports and NAT, and show you how you can host your own services on the internet via port mapping. Great for accessing you machine from the Internet (RDP) and hosting your own webserver.

Episode 10: eBay and Suppositories

nicky@itidiots.com — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:55:43 +0100

What with the World Cup and great weather we couldn't be bothered to get technical so we teach Shabih how to sell his first eBay item, a rather dubious digital camera.

Episode 9: Group Policy - Part Two

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:56:19 +0100

Okay, last week was all about theory. This week we start implementing our group policy design to restrict our users. Covers implementing a group policy using the GPMC, to restrict our Windows XP client machines and users.

Episode 8: Group Policy - Part One

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:33:28 +0100

We look into Group Policies, and see how they can help us secure our Active Directory network

Episode 7: DNS - Part Two

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 16:33:28 +0100

Our two episode DNS finale. Active Directory Integrated DNS this time. Okay we were a little over optimistic with the amount of VMs, the laptop can support in this one!.

Episode 6: DNS - Part One

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 27 May 2006 16:33:23 +0100

We start our two episode look into DNS. In this episode we add a secondary name server to our Ashford Branch, and discuss DNS basics.

Episode 5: DHCP

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 20 May 2006 16:33:33 +0100

OK, we have domain controllers, we have discussed IP addressing. Join us as we discuss and add DHCP services to our network

Episode 4: IP Addressing

nicky@itidiots.com — Mon, 15 May 2006 19:19:10 +0100

We start to unlock the mystery behind IP addressing. Includes description of an IP address and what the subnet mask is used for. Health advice for people with foot hygiene issues!

Episode 3: DCs, Sites and Replication

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 06 May 2006 16:33:42 +0100

We add an additional domain controller to the ITidiots.com network followed by a discussion of Active Directory sites and replication.

Episode 2: Installing our First DC

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:33:46 +0100

We start to build the ITidiots network, beginning with our first Domain Controller. More health advice from our resident pharmacist.

Episode 1: Domains vs Workgroups

nicky@itidiots.com — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:33:51 +0100

Introduction to the team followed by Domains vs Workgroups discussion. Nickys asks our pharmacist Shabih for some personal health advice.