Pricelessware – Contents: “the best of the best in Freeware ” contains many of the usual suspects; OpenOffice, Mozilla, etc. but also dozens more. All free, at least for the trying.

by Thomas A. Limoncelli and Christine Hogan

This is an important book. It provides an exhaustive analysis of the problems and practices of maintaining an extensive IT infrastructure from the desktop computers, to the network, to the server room. It covers staffing, discusses the “help desk”, budgeting, inventory management, and security. For those who are perplexed about Active Directory, there is an excellent discussion of name spaces and DNS. This is a book for the techies, their technical supervisors and their managers. Managers: if you want to know what the hell your computer support staff are supposed to be doing each day, it is in this book.

From the Preface:

… These six pinciples are recurring themes in this book.

• Simplicity means that the smallest solution that solves the entire problem is the best solution. It keeps the systems easy to understand and reduces complex interactions between components that can cause debugging nightmares.
• Clarity means that the solution is not convoluted. It can be easily explained to someone on the project or even outside the project. Clarity makes it easier to change the system, as wellas to maintain and debug it.
• Generality means that the solution solves many problems at once. Sometimes the most general solution is the simplest. It also means using vendor-independent open standard protocols that make systems more flexible and make it easier to link software packages together for better services.
• Automation is critical. Manual processes cannot be repeated accurately nor do they scale as well as automated processes. Automation is key to easing the system administration burden, and it eliminates tedious repetitive tasks and gives [System Administrators] more time to improve services.
• Communication between the right people can solve more problems than hardware or software. You need to communicate well with other SAs and with your customers. It is your responsibiltiy to inititate communication. Communication ensures that eeryone is working toward the same goals. Lack of communication leaves people concerned and annoyed. Communication also includes documentation: document customers’ needs to make sure you agree on them, document design decisions you make, document maintenance procedures. Documentation makes systems easier to maintain and upgrade. Good communication and proper documentation also make it easier to hand off project and maintenancde when you leave or take on a new role.
• Doing the basics first means that yo ubuild the site on strong foundations by identifying and solving the basic problems before trying to attack mre advanced ones. Doing the basics first makes adding advanced features considerably easier, and it makes services more robust. A good basic infrastructrue can be repeatedly leveraged to improve the site with relatively little effort. Sometimes we see SAs aat other sites making a huge effort to solve a problem that wouldn’t exist, or would be a simple enhancement, if the site had a basic infrastructure inplace. This book will help you identify what the basics are and show you haow the other five principles apply. Each chapter looks at the basics of a given area. Get the fundamentals right, and everything else will fall into place.

Available at Amazon

Mapi-Lab is a company that builds add-in applications for OutLook. This latest, Mapi-Lab, found at on the excellent Office WebLog adds a host of automation tools for sending and classifying eMails.

The Mozilla developers have released Thunderbird, an open source, (free) replacement for Outlook Express which will run on Windows, Macintoshes, and Linux desktop computers. Those who use the Netscape Messenger eMail program will feel right at home. Screenshot

One possible misconception about the program; it is not a replacement for the full-blown Microsoft OutLook. It does not include a calendaring program, and it does not integrate with Microsoft Exchange. Thuderbird is an attractive modern replacment for OE. But wait! There’s more! Check out the feature list.

One objection I’ve always had to instant messaging is that all of the free programs available for doing this had numerous bells and whistles, as well as adware, spam, pop-ups, noises, animation, and whatnot. A second problem has been that the various systems don’t all talk to each other. Still, there are legitimate applications for IM. A nice “quiet” version of an IM client is the GAIM client. This works with AOL instant messaging, Yahoo, IRC, and Jabber, among others. It can also work with multiple systems simultaneously.

We are using IM for real-time chat during video conferences between the master control room and the sites in the field. It allows a short quick message from one site to another; ‘Raise the mic volume in Springfield! or ‘What number am I supposed to dial?’ Since the majority of technicians had AOL accounts, it was simple just to get another and assign it to my GAIM client.

For those who are not in the education market, and who are not buying multiple software licenses buycheapsoftware.com is a reliable source. Recent pricing:
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2: $138.00
Norton Antivirus, retail version $39.00
Office Small Business $219.00

They offer “OEM” versions of software, meaning just the disks without retail packaging or documentation. This is the software that would be included by a dealer when shipping a new machine.

If you have a few idle moments… check out the free system profiler at Belarc. Tells you everything you want to know about your computer. (How do they do it? It looks as if it mines the Windows registry.) But there are all kinds of interesting things including the model and capacity of your hard drive, and memory.

The free download is for individual use only, nor for your organization. A corporate version is $19.95/year ($399 minimum) i.e. for 20 machines. This allows you to use a web-based application to create a profile for your machine.

The latest beta version of Onfolio now integrates with the FoxFire web browser (on Windows machines). An added bonus, it also contains a newsfeed reader which seems to be a substantial improvement in functionality and appearance over my last current favorite, Sharpreader

As an organizer, a reporter, and now a newsfeed reader, Onfolio, in its latest incarnation really deserves a look.

For a sample Onfolio report, take a look at the Voice Over IP Resource Guide

A few months back, Microsoft bought an anti-spyware company. It has now re-issued that software under a Microsoft name, without changing much else. The beta of this software is available for free.

I just did a scan of my own workstation, and the software reported that there was no spyware on my computer. I then rescanned with my old favorite SpyBot Search and Destroy, and…yup…15 problems were detected.

Wireless networking allows you to roam about an area with your laptop computer unteathered to a network connection…and (hopefully) your power cord, if you have a fully charged and functioning battery.

In buildings where it is difficult or impossible to run network cable, a wireless network allows you to connect to your local area network or the internet with much the same speed and convenience as you would with a wired connection.

In rooms where you want to set up a temporary network, such as a conference room, a wireless access point can be plugged into an existing wired connection to extend the network to laptop computers throughout the room.

Wireless gear from vendors such as D-Link, Linksys and NetGear is inexpensive. You can equip yourself with a wireless access point, and network card for a laptop for under $200.00. Speeds have increased from 10 megabits per second to 54 megabits and beyond. The D-Link AirExtreme series will exchange data at a theoretical 108 megabits per second with other AirExtreme units; that is, you need to have both an AirExtreme networking card in the computer and a router or access point from D-Link. This brings you into the realm of speeds similar to a wired network.

If you tried wireless a couple of years ago and were disappointed, get the latest generation of hardware and try it again. You will be amazed at the improvements.

A couple other ideas:

When you create your wireless network you have the opportunity to change the name of the “broadcast beacon”. Typically this is set with a default name like “linksys”. If you choose to change this, remember that the name will be visible to other wireless users, so don’t choose something obscene (like a bonehead neighbor of mine has), or something readily identifiable.

Once you have got your network connection running, satisfactorily be sure to turn on the encryption feature. Without this, anyone can connect to your network, just as if they plugged into a network jack.

Resource: Jeff Duntemann’s Wi-Fi Guide Second Edition