Brien Posey, Author at TechGenix

Configuring Windows Server 2003 to act as a NAT router

Windows Networking, Windows Server 2003 / By Brien Posey / November 17, 2005

More years ago than I care to think about, IP addresses were handed out to companies on an indiscriminant basis. As the popularity of the Internet increased, IP addresses soon grew to be a scarce commodity. Internet service providers began to strictly limit the number of IP addresses that they would lease to companies. This presented an interesting challenge. A PC has to have an IP address in order to communicate with the Internet, but there weren’t enough IP addresses left for every PC to be given one. The solution to this problem was a technology called Network Address Translation (NAT). Today, NAT is alive and well, and more popular than ever. In this article, I will explain what NAT is and how you can configure Windows Server 2003 to act as a NAT router.

Juggling Terminal Service Resources

Terminal Services / By Brien Posey / November 17, 2005

Thin client computing has been around for many decades. Although the basic underlying principles are the same for terminal sessions today as they were thirty years ago, the demands made against the servers that host terminal sessions have increased exponentially. Bloated applications and resource hungry operating systems place huge demands on terminal servers. In this article, I will discuss how you can plan your terminal server hardware so that your terminal service environment will run efficiently.

Slipstreaming Windows Service Packs

Windows Networking, Windows Server 2003 / By Brien Posey / November 1, 2005

Have you ever had to reinstall Windows in an effort to fix a malfunctioning machine? Performing a clean install of Windows is no big deal, but reinstalling a non service packed version of Windows on top of a copy of Windows that does contain a service pack can cause some major problems. One solution to this dilemma is to create a Windows installation CD that already contains the service pack. That way, when you install Windows, you are installing the correct version. In this article, I will show you how to create such a CD.

Using the Terminal Services through Internet Information Server

Terminal Services / By Brien Posey / October 21, 2005

Although the Terminal Services can be used as a management tool, sometimes firewall port issues or the unavailability of a Terminal Service client can make using the Terminal Services impractical. However, there is a Web based Terminal Service client included with Windows Server 2003. This client allows you to remotely access a Windows 2003 Server through a Web browser.

Active Directory Design Considerations for Small Networks

Networking / By Brien Posey / October 20, 2005

A lot of people who are new to networking or who work primarily on larger networks seem to underestimate the design considerations for small networks. It kind of makes sense when you think about it though. From an Active Directory standpoint, what’s really to consider? After all, most small networks have a single forest and a single domain. Even so, your network will run a lot more smoothly if you take the time to do a little planning first. In this article, I will discuss some of the issues involved in planning a small Active Directory deployment.

Outlining Components Needed for Creating a VPN Server

Windows Networking, Windows Server 2003 / By Brien Posey / October 13, 2005

Over the last few years, VPNs have gone from relative obscurity to great popularity. Even so, you don’t want to throw together a VPN haphazardly. After all, a VPN is a direct portal into your private network, and it is essential that it be secure. If your VPN isn’t secure, then nothing else on your network will be secure either. In this article, I will help you to plan your corporate VPN. In doing so, I will discuss the various components that make up a VPN and some of the decisions that you will have to make regarding those components.

Working With Application Pools in Internet Information Server

Networking / By Brien Posey / October 6, 2005

If your IIS Server hosts multiple Web sites, then buggy code within any one of those sites can bring down the other sites. I should know; it happened to me. Fortunately, there is something that you can do to prevent this from happening. In this article, I will show you how you can use application pools to prevent problems with a Web site from causing stability problems across your IIS server.

Using NSLOOKUP for DNS Server diagnosis

Network Troubleshooting / By Brien Posey / September 27, 2005

The DNS protocol has been around for decades and is a stable and reliable protocol. Even so, DNS does occasionally have problems. PING is a great tool for DNS server diagnosis, and I tend to use it quite frequently myself. However, sometimes PING just doesn’t give you enough information about the problem at hand. When you need more information about a DNS problem than what PING provides you with, you can always turn to the NSLOOKUP command. In this article, I will show you how to use NSLOOKUP.

A First Look at Longhorn Vista

Networking / By Brien Posey / September 13, 2005

Earlier this month, I got my copy of Longhorn Vista, Beta 1, the eventual successor to Windows XP. Although the new operating system does have a few kinks that need to be worked out, it does look promising. In this article, I will share with you some of my first impressions of Longhorn Vista Beta 1.

Protecting EFS Encryption Keys

Networking / By Brien Posey / August 30, 2005

If you have mobile users in your organization, then implementing security can be especially challenging. You must secure the users’ laptops in such a way that if the laptops were lost or stolen that sensitive data would not be compromised. One way of accomplishing this task is by using the Encrypting File System (EFS). In this article, I will explain how to counteract some potential problems when using EFS.