New HTTP POST DDoS Attack Tools Released

New HTTP POST DDoS Attack Tools Released - Darkreading

Moving your customers to BPOS or Office 365? Check their BANDWIDTH!

From my expereince in deploying BPOS, the customer's bandwidth is a very critical component in deciding how smoothly the migration is going to go thru.
I had customers with low bandwidth that a 4GB mailbox took over night to upload / migrate to BPOS.

Microsoft finally has a deep analysis tool of the customer's bandwidth.
Here is the blog post: http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2010/11/30/moving-your-customers-to-bpos-or-office-365-check-their-bandwidth.aspx

7 tools for Windows 7 rollouts | NetworkWorld.com Community

7 tools for Windows 7 rollouts NetworkWorld.com Community: "7 tools for Windows 7 rollouts"

Download details: Patch Registration Cleanup Tool

Download details: Patch Registration Cleanup Tool: "Patch Registration Cleanup Tool"

Brief Description
On a computer that has a Windows Installer based product installed, you may receive an error while installing an update for the product and the installation of the update may fail.

Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool

Here is a great tool for ROI calculations just like Branch Office ROI tool i posted about earlier.

This one is the "Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool"

The Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool was developed independently by ex-Gartner TCO/ROI experts at leading ROI tool developer Alinean, Inc. This ROI tool helps partners and customers examine current production server, development / QA lab, desktop and application virtualization opportunities, quantifying the potential savings, service level and agility benefits, investment and ROI for implementing Microsoft Integrated Virtualization solutions.

https://roianalyst.alinean.com/microsoft/virtualization/

SlySoft Download | AnyDVD, CloneDVD, CloneCD, GameJackal, Any DVD, Clone DVD, Clone CD, Game Jackal

SlySoft Download AnyDVD, CloneDVD, CloneCD, GameJackal, Any DVD, Clone DVD, Clone CD, Game Jackal: "Virtual CloneDrive"
From the latest Mark Minasi newsletter, it is mentioned that the ISO mounting tool, Virtual CloneDrive will work on Windows 7 for both 32bit and 64bit.

"Welcome to the Microsoft Branch Office Savings Calculator"

I have a client which is looking at the ROI for deploying servers to their branch office. Right now PCs/Laptop and even VoIP phones from the branch office connects back to servers and Call Manager in the HQ.

After doing a POC for a Branch Office Scenario, the high management did not approve the purchase of servers for the branch office, which happen to be a vessel. :)

I have been told by the technical manager to justify the branch office scenario using some ROI tool.
Searching around and even trying to do my own, i found this tool: The Microsoft Branch Office Savings Calculator. https://roianalyst.alinean.com/branch/launch.html
"The Branch Office Savings Calculator was developed independently by leading IT research firm IDC, and leading ROI tool developer Alinean, Inc. "

Within 30 min i had a cool 87 page reports and the summary one of 9 pages. i think with some more thing customizing my data, i could have some i could hand over to my client and the senior management.

Give it a try if you have a similar scenario.

Taking care of Win32/Conficker.B/Downadup infections.

Win32/Conficker.B exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE) for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2008. While Microsoft addressed this issue in October with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067, and Forefront antivirus and OneCare (as well as other vendor’s anit-virus products) helped protect against infections, many systems that have not been patched manually through Server Update Services and Microsoft/Windows Update or through Automatic Updates have recently come under attack by this worm. Attacked systems may lock out users, disable our update services and block access to security-related Web sites:

In response to this threat, Microsoft has:
· Updated the January version of the MSFT to detect and remove variants of Win32/Conficker.B. You can download this version from the MSRT from either the Microsoft Update site or through its associated Knowledge Base article.

· Created the KB article 962007 “Virus alert about the Win32/Conficker.B worm” to
provide public details on the symptoms and removal methods available to address this issue.

· Announced the release of the items and the virus threat itself on the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog.

ROI calculators

I was searching for ROI calculators and here are two links which are pretty neat.

http://nucleusresearch.com/microsoft-roi-support-center/
https://roianalyst.alinean.com/microsoft/iotool/launch.html

New patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance for Developing Intranet Applications

New patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance for Developing Intranet Applications

If you're building SharePoint intranet applications, you'll find this guidance valuable. It includes reference sample code and documentation that leads you through key architectural decisions, application of good design principles, and takes the mystery out of deployment and application update.

make data from SharePoint libraries and list available in WSRP format

Here is the toolkit which makes this possible.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WSRPToolkit

Very often in project with integration is crucial, WSRP capability is asked for. Personally i experienced this with government projects.

Using scripts to automate SharePoint Server 2007 installation

Here is good resource for using scripting for deploying SharePoint components for farm deployments.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135694&clcid=0x409

Some cool MIcrosoft technology demos

Found some cool demos from Microsoft (http://mspublicsectordemos.com/default.aspx)

Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0 helps organizations maintain virtual machines that are stored offline in a Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager library. While stored, virtual machines do not receive operating system updates. The tool provides a way to keep offline virtual machines up-to-date so that bringing a virtual machine online does not introduce vulnerabilities into the organization’s IT infrastructure.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8408ecf5-7afe-47ec-a697-eb433027df73&DisplayLang=en

Did you know about the Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator?

Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator
http://www.codeplex.com/CoreConfig

Event ID: 5333 Error.

I was getting the following error in my SharePoint. It was tracked by System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Event Type: ErrorEvent
Source: Office SharePoint ServerEvent
Category: User Profiles Event ID: 5553
Date: 9/22/2008
Time: 11:00:02 AM
User: N/A
Computer: yourmomma
Description:failure trying to synch site bc0e54f5-b924-48b7-9196-0e383c80a078 for ContentDB ab1e590d-582c-4bdc-9ce5-47ec2607372a WebApp b3d80439-d3b8-4749-afc1-5a88e720ea9f. Exception message was Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)).

Some quick search on the web found me this cool tool
SharePoint Inspector. http://www.codeplex.com/spi.

this tool allowed me to decode the database id and web application in the event log error to web application and database instances.

From there a quick stsadm based on a fix here, it all worked out :)

Hope this helps you too

Looking to add social networking component to SharePoint?

Check out the blueKiwi SharePoint Connector article at the SharePoint Team blog.
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/06/08/how-we-did-it-bluekiwi-sharepoint-connector-and-officeassistant.aspx

Note: blueKiwi Software is the leading European provider of Enterprise Social Software.

I am presenting at TechNet Security Series Seminar IV

My topic:
Session 2: Using Log Parser for Correlating Window’s log data for Forensics in Investigating Intrusions
Time: 3.20pm to 4.05pm

Synopsis: Microsoft has Application, Security and System event logs built into the OS from Windows®NT v3.51 forward. This session will dwell into understanding how this logs can be configured properly to audit success and failures of all security related events. Additionally, other services (IIS™, ISA™, Routers etc.) have their own logs that contain vital information independent of the OS.

Next, we will learn about what is Log Parser, how does it work and what can it do. Next we will walk through some scripts and even build some from scratch to identify many suspicious activities. Most of the time these activities are going to be followed by some sort of malicious activity. So next, we will attempt to find these indicators by checking the files and system services for “strange” activity. Finally, we will look at other “cool” Uses of the Log Parser.

Link to the event: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8861657

Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007

The planning tool is a guide to get started with planning a OCS 2007 delopyment topology.

There topologies provided are testing to work in the configuration provided. Some additional links and documentations are provided.

You can download the Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06793661-cd69-4490-bb4b-e97dd271209d&displaylang=en

Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map

The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps developers visualize the different programs, servers, services, and tools that will help them build solutions. It allows them to drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and build custom Office Business Applications (OBAs).

Install the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2
Windows Vista Users
Install the Microsoft Office Interactive Map via ClickOnce.
Note: Firefox users will need to install the FFClickOnce extension first.

Windows XP Users
The following prerequisites are required:
.NET Framework 3.0
.NET Framework 2.0

If these components are already installed, you can install the Microsoft Office Interactive Map via ClickOnce. Otherwise, install the prerequisites and run the application.