Sunday, February 17, 2002

Let me give you a little background on the product that I use and support:  a product called Microsoft Small Business Server .  It is built for Small Businesses that have less than 50 computers.  It comes with Windows 2000 Server, Exchange 2000, ISA Server [Internet security and access for this box], IIS [web hosting], the ability to share a modem, the ability to share faxing, wizards to assist in setting up the box and a few other features.  I call it the Rodney Dangerfield of the Servers as it has a bit of an undeserved reputation in the Server industry.  When it first came out [SBS 4.0] it was buggy, limiting and computer installers hated it.  SBS 2000 is not like it's earlier version.   There are a few things to remember though..... 1.  Don't host your own web site [even though you can].  It's just not worth the potential for hackers coming into your server through that open port 80. 2.  As all installed apps must be on one box, you must be a little bit more paranoid....have virus protection on the server checking all emails before they hit the desktop. 3.  Make sure you have a good backup and you test that backup.    7:35:22 PM     comment BTW if you want to easily search for a Microsoft knowledgebase article and you know the number, go into Internet Explorer, type in MSKB and then the number of the article.... i.e. MSKB 314147, hit enter and voila...right to the article. 12:13:21 PM     comment Yesterday I found out that Windows Update doesn't always update Windows.  1.  314147 is seen by Windows XP as a critical hotfix and installed by Windows Update 2.  314147 is not seen by Windows 2000's as available on Windows Update. 3.  314147 is notified as not being installed on said Windows 2000's by a Shavlik Hfnetchk pro version 3.6.91 Interesting that Windows 2000 machines were not doing a proper report of the critical hotfixes that were needed. What's 314147?  That's the recent hotfix for the SNMP vulnerability [Simple Network Management Protocol].  Apparently this vulnerability has been known for some time but they've being trying to keep it quiet so they could get all those routers on the Internet patched up.  Obviously in this world of no secrets...you can't keep it a secret for too long.  I ran a SNMP tester program available for download from SANS and found that all of my Hewlett Packard Jet direct devices inside of my printers were broadcasting SNMP.  To be on the safe side, I went into both my ISA server and set up a port blocking for ports 161 and 162 and then also went into my firewall/router and did the same.     12:03:33 PM     comment Net security: Are we ever safe?. MSN Messenger's got worms, browsers have holes. What are experts doing about it? Meanwhile, Microsoft and a security firm duke it out over alleged security concerns. [CNET News.com] 11:50:19 AM     comment The week in review: Net insecurity. Despite assurances from tech giants that shoring up security is of critical importance, Web surfers and programmers alike are bombarded with alerts concerning network vulnerabilities. [CNET News.com] 11:48:25 AM     comment

© Copyright 2002 E-Bitz - MS Small Business Server MVP. Last update: 2/17/2002; 11:48:26 AM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.