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OK, here’s another geeky one more for our own reference than anything else. If you are running a Windows 7 workstation on a Server 2003 network (including SBS 2003), the Previous Versions functionality may appear to be broken. You may see either nothing listed in the Previous Versions window, or everything may appear with the same date stamp. Windows XP workstations continue to function correctly.

There is a very quick fix to be applied to the server. Simply delete the following registry key

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\Parameters\DisableDownLevelTimewarp

No reboot is required. The fix is immediate.

UPDATE: We have had a situation recently where deleting this key changed the symptoms, but did not resolve the problem. In this case we re-added the key, and set the value to “1”, which did resolve the issue successfully.

I’ve been wanting one of the new Apple iPads since they were released in Australia a few weeks ago, but could I get the one I wanted? Noooo I could not. No 16g+3G for you! Apparently there’s a world wide shortage of this model or something-or-other. So today I coughed up the extra for the 32g+3G model. Same functionality, just cost a bit more. So day one impression? I love it!

Now let me say for the record that this thing won’t be for everyone. Some people are going to hate it. There’s certainly some things about it that I’m not a huge fan of. The fact for me though is that I carry around a laptop, and most of the time all I use it for is email, Office documents and the occasional bit of remote server support. In theory, all things the iPad should be able to do perfectly well.

The good news is, so far so good. I am (of course) writing this post on the iPad, and as a touch typer can say that I would prefer a proper keyboard, but apart from that it’s an extremely simple and functional device. Time of course will tell whether it becomes indespensable, or is relegated to the gadget graveyard.

Here’s an interesting one that we’ll be watching closely. Apparently the OS4 software update for iPhones recently released by Apple is causing problems with some Exchange servers. I’m guessing that the more iPhones you have hooking into your Exchange server the more likely this problem is to occur. Apple has released a quick and easy patch for the problem, but the patch must be installed on each iPhone individually. See the link for more details.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398

Every now and then something comes along that is so simple in design and, even better, that simply just works, you can’t help but pause and wonder why on earth someone didn’t think of it before now. When was the last time you needed quick access to a file, but weren’t at your computer? Maybe all you’ve got with you is your iPhone? Or maybe you’re struggling to move large files between you and a client because they’re too big to email? Enter Dropbox.

The premise of Dropbox is painfully simple, in that it simply gives you a new folder on your computer. In fact, you can create a folder on any computer or smart phone that you care to install the Dropbox program on. But the magic is that, in effect, each device has ‘the same’ folder – in that, each time you save your document, the latest (and same) version of the document appears in each location.

So picture this; you’re working on a big project at your desk, saving key documents into your dropbox folder. You get a call from the client with a problem onsite, so you jump in the car and rush out there. Onsite there’s a problem with a supplier delivery that would be easy to sort out…if only you had your documents on hand. But wait! Dropbox to the rescue! You wip out your iPhone, open up your dropbox folder, and there’s the document you need, right where you saved it before leaving the office. Dropbox certainly isn’t the first product of its kind, but of all the ones we’ve tried here at the Garden Shed, it has one big advantage over the others – it works. And best of all for up to 2Gb of storage, it’s free! Now Dropbox won’t replace your server based storage (for a range of reasons), but in its place it has to be the best tool we’ve come across in quite a while.

This is one that’s cropped up more than once, so for my own reference I’m sticking it up here as a post.

Situation is that an Exchange 2007 distribution group has the ‘Managed By’ field set to a certain user. That user however is unable to manage the group membership as the setting may imply. When attempting to do so they receive the message

Changes to the distribution list membership cannot be saved. You do not have sufficient permission to perform this operation on this object.

This behaviour is by design. For details on granting the appropriate permissions check out this post…

http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2009/09/giving-user-enough-rights-to-manage.html

Right now, we’ve got a problem, and we need your help. We’re picking up so many great new clients and challenging projects that we’re having trouble keeping up. We’re only a small team, so every single team member has a big impact; we need the right person, and we need them now!

We are looking for a level 2 technician with the right skills and a can-do attitude. You’ll be hands on with everything from onsite to remote to project work, covering servers, desktops, networks, you name it. You’ll need a great attitude, and love working directly with clients. Think you’ve got what it takes? Here’s the fine print…

What skills and qualities are we looking for?

• 2+ years experience working with SMB clients
• Demonstrated customer service focus. Must enjoy working with clients.
• Formal qualifications required. Tertiary, diploma or relevant industry certification (MCSE, etc)
• Strong SBS base, as we primarily work with the Microsoft stack. Cisco, linux, scripting, etc an advantage.
• Reliable vehicle and a current Queensland driver’s licence
• Excellent communication skills and personal presentation

What’s on offer?

• $60K + super
• Convenient Albion location
• A full range of work – onsite, remote, server, network, desktop.
• Further education/training opportunities
• Make your mark. We want to grow. Do you?

Want to join our team?

To apply, send your CV and a covering letter that tells us:

• What interested you most on our website – www.grassrootsit.com.au
• In your opinion, what makes good customer service?

If you’re anything like I used to be (and still am to an extent), If I had a file and it needed to be saved it was going in ‘My Documents’ or at work my ‘G Drive’. It made sense I mean it was my document it seemed like a perfectly sensible place for it to go… little did I realize that ‘My documents’ soon became ‘My Nightmare’ Even worse was when ‘My Documents’ got so out of control I just started saving to the desktop. I remember thinking ‘I’ll surely see it there’… It didn’t take long for my background image of the junior cricket team I coach to disappear along with any ideas I might have had of where anything was on my computer.  It got so bad that I thought I had developed early onset Alzheimer’s! I could have sworn I’d created a document at some point I just could not for the life of me find it in ‘My Documents’. Sound familiar?

I thought that this organisation affliction may affect more than just me so here are a few tips on getting organised tech-style.

First of all if you are organising your work computer it’s probably your Company drive that needs some work usually named something like ‘G:’ or ‘F:’. It is also worth mentioning that files saved to the server (e.g. your company drive, G: etc.) will automatically be protected (backed up), if you are however simply saving to your ‘My Documents’ folder or Desktop then your documents aren’t necessarily backed up. Just think about what that means for a second. If you computer crashes, or perhaps you leave your laptop in a taxi – your documents are gone, and there won’t be much that can be done to recover them. Scary thought, huh?

Now let’s get to organising… to start, DELETE everything you don’t need. Give your PC a good solid clean out.  If you remove all superfluous files at the start it will make every other step a lot easier.

 Now saving everything to your Company drive folder isn’t a bad thing (in fact it’s generally encouraged); you just need to have neatly organised sub-folders within. Below are a few tips for devising a system that makes sense.

• A good way to think about your computer filing system is to start broadly and narrow down from there, clicking on a few subfolders will be far less irritating than not even knowing where to start.
• Keep it simple – Use as short a naming scheme as possible, especially for folders. Consider the broad areas in which you work in and name folders accordingly. It may be for example; ‘Clients’, ‘Marketing’ and ‘Sales’. You can get a little more detailed when naming a specific document.
• Adopt a naming system that you use for all your documents, make sure that it is something that can be sorted easily i.e. by date or client name etc.  Here at Grassroots IT our main focus is on our clients, this means we deal with multiple clients daily so the system that I have adopted looks like this “clientname_date_description”, also I use the United States date format so that it is sorts in order of creation in my folders.
• Try to get a naming scheme to be implemented across the board in your workplace, if this is not possible ensure you re-name any files you save that are emailed to you to fit in with your system.
• Avoid excessively large folders, if you have a great need for a large folder e.g. you have a thousand clients a good way to make this folder manageable is to create folders to sort them alphabetically i.e. have ‘A_Clients’, ‘B_Clients’ folders etc.
• Avoid having a Miscellaneous folder or maniacally saving to your desktop, if it’s important enough to save than take the extra 10-30 seconds and file it properly it could save you ample time and heart-ache in the future. Also this will help to avoid saving those files that really don’t need to be kept.
• Last but not least ALWAYS BACK UP if you’re backing up all your files regularly AND they’re organized you will always have what you need at your fingertips. remember this is done automatically if you’re saving to your server.

Try applying these simple tips and any others that work for you to your work or home computers, the same can also apply for your email inbox so you can efficiently get through your days without the unnecessary stress of a messy ‘My Documents’ or Company drive.

Sickies, mental health days, playing hookie, call it what you will. There are even those times when people are genuinely sick (and not just gutted at the latest loss by the Reds). I started to feel sick on Tuesday and early on in the day, decided that it was going to be better to work from home rather than inflict my cold (as I thought it was at the time) on everyone else in the office. So, from about 11am on Tuesday, I was working from home, sitting on the couch with my laptop and a mobile phone. Unfortunately, my “cold” turned out to be bronchitis and I spent the Wednesday, Thursday and most of Friday asleep, drugged up on various cold & flu meds, antibiotics and painkillers or on the couch with my dog and about a bajillion episodes of Law & Order on Foxtel to keep me company.

Now, this little diversion has a couple of points which I’ll summarise here before going into more detail.

1. If you’re well enough to work, but sick enough to infect everyone else in the office, working remotely is a great way to keep up your productivity without spreading germs etc and making everyone else sick
2. If you’re ACTUALLY sick, as in really truly sick, then don’t stress yourself any further by trying to work when you really should be resting. It’s taken me a long time to learn this and funnily enough, it’s come from the person who you’d think would be most likely to want me to work – ie, my boss.
3. I’ve been sick and would appreciate chocolates, flowers, get well cards etc

Now, a recent study (friendly, journalistic article link here) has shown that offering employees flexible work hours or working locations can have a positive benefit on both their job satisfaction and job performance.

One of the great things about Windows Small Business Server is its flexibility to accommodate multiple levels of remote access. For example, if your employees have a desktop in the office and want to work from home, SBS offers a platform called Remote Web Workplace. This allows you to take control of your PC in the office over the internet, as if you were sitting in front of it. With a little bit of tweaking/configuration from our side of things, we can even make sure that you can print to your local printer as well as any of the normal printers in the office.

If you normally use a laptop and it travels with you, we can set you up with a VPN connection to allow access to your company data files whilst you’re offsite. So, there’s no more forgetting important documents when you’re on the road or at a meeting with a client.

Best of all, SBS also allows for remote access to your emails through a variety of methods. There’s a website you can access, which looks and feels just like Outlook. We can also set you up with your office emails on your laptop from anywhere in the world. If you *really* want to be in contact 24/7, we can even configure a large number of mobile devices to pull down your emails, calendars, contacts etc from your mail server.

All of these options make for great flexibility in terms of working from home or elsewhere. It also allows you to remain in contact with the office while attending conferences/meetings interstate or overseas.

Now, as for point 2, if you are sick, as in REALLY sick, don’t push it. A report for Medibank Private commissioned in 2007 shows the staggering cost of what is being called “presenteeism”. The bottom line is that employees turning up to work whilst still sick costs Australian employers more than 3 times the cost of absenteeism. That’s $7 billion in lost productivity from absenteeism as opposed to $25.7 billion from presenteeism.

Of that $25.7bn, $17,476,000,000 is from direct losses in productivity. That figure alone is more than twice the total cost of lost productivity from absenteeism. What this tells me (from my totally un-scientific viewpoint), is that employees who come to work for 2 days when they’re sick, could take 4 days off to get better and we’d still come out financially ahead.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were working whilst sick for 2 days, there’s a good chance that a single day’s rest and relaxation would probably have done the trick. So, in essence, taking time off to recover when you’re sick looks to be about 4 times more productive as going to work. You can tell your boss that the next time you’ve got a cold or whatever strain of flu hits us this year

Finally, we come to the last and most important point of my post. This is my favourite chocolate, these are the most expensive flowers I could find, and my ideal get well card should have puppies and kittens on the front and $100 notes in the middle

Being able to see colleague’s calendars in Outlook can be very useful for co-ordinating meetings, arranging appointments or just being a sticky beak.  In Outlook Calendar, in the Navigation Pane, there are several links to help you get started quickly with calendar sharing.

Open a Shared Calendar

You can open another person’s default Exchange Calendar if the person has granted you permission to do so. If the other person whose Calendar you want to open has not granted you permission to view it, Outlook prompts you to ask the person for the permission you need. If you click Yes, a sharing request e-mail message opens automatically. The message requests the person to share his or her Calendar with you and also provides the option to share your default Calendar with him or her. After you access a shared Calendar for the first time, the Calendar is added to the Navigation Pane. The next time you want to view the shared Calendar, you can click it in the Navigation Pane.

Research In Motion (RIM) today introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express – free new server software that wirelessly and securely synchronizes BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server.

I’m a little confused about this announcement today by Dynamic Business, given that there has been a ‘free’ version of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) around for a while now. First it was called Blackberry Enterprise Server Express, then renamed to Blackberry Enterprise Server Professional, and now we seem to be back to Blackberry Enterprise Server Express. Technical details are a little slim, even on the official Blackberry Page, so it’s hard to piece together what’s so ‘new’ about this. The one bit however that does stand out is that this version is supported on SBS 2008, a definite improvement over the previous (?) version of the professional/express edition.

The product isn’t available until later this quarter, and we’re yet to see what ‘free’ actually means in this instance. One can only hope that RIM are pushing back against competitive platforms such as Windows Mobile and iPhone (which require no additional server software to function), and therefore free truly will mean free.