WServerNews: The PC makes a comeback

In this week’s newsletter

Bought any new PCs lately? Patching over VPN. The best defense is a good defense! Keep your router safe. When trouble comes a’knockin. Getting off Microsoft’s email blocklist. Mnmlsm. Plus lots more — read it all, read it here on WServerNews!

Enjoy this week’s newsletter and feel free to send us feedback on any of the topics we’ve covered — we love hearing from our readers! And please tell others about WServerNews! It’s free and always will be free — and they can subscribe to it here. Thanks!!!

 

Got questions? Ask our readers!

WServerNews goes out each week to more than 200,000 IT pro subscribers worldwide! That’s a lot of expertise to tap into. Do you need help with some technical problem or are looking for expert advice on something IT-related? Ask Our Readers by emailing your problems and/or questions to us at [email protected]

 

Editor’s Corner

This week’s observations and ruminations from Mitch Tulloch our Senior Editor…

Bought any new PCs lately?

PC sales which have been in decline for several years suddenly bounced back in Q2 of 2020:

Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Grew 2.8% in Second Quarter of 2020 (Gartner)

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-07-09-gartner-says-worldwide-pc-shipments-grew-2point8-percent-in-second-quarter-of-2020

Traditional PC Shipments Continue to Grow Amid Global Economic Slowdown, According to IDC (IDC)

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS46691020

Why is that? I think two things have been driving this reversal:

  • More employees working from home because of the pandemic
  • Parents whose kids are stuck at home doing home schooling because of schools being closed due to the pandemic

The first situation affects businesses whose employees use desktop PCs in the office. Most companies are probably loathe to allow their employees to take their business PC home to use for working from home, so they probably bought new laptops for them or gave their workers a one-time stipend for purchasing a laptop.

The second situation has happened a lot with families that have several children but only one family computer at home. So families like this are likely to purchase at least one additional computer, either a laptop or desktop.

I’ve seen both happening around me in my own circle of colleagues and friends. What about our newsletter readers? Have you bought more computers either for home or work? What’s the experience been like? Has it been difficult to get the kind of machine you wanted because of global supply-chain issues? Did you purchase refurbs instead of new PCs? What would you advise to others, either in business or doing home schooling, when it comes to buying PCs these days?

Email your stories and comments to us at [email protected] and we’ll share them with our readers to help them make good decisions during these challenging times.

Patching over VPN

With more people working from home using VPN connections to the company office, the question arises how corporate IT can ensure employee’s computers are properly patched without utilizing excessive VPN bandwidth. I’ve seen a couple of different approaches on how best to do this.

One company I know employs a split-tunnel VPN and has remote users download patches directly to their PCs using Windows Update while the PCs at the office are patched using WSUS. Another company that uses WSUS at the office follows a different approach by positioning a second WSUS server on the perimeter network (DMZ) and not allowing it any connectivity with what’s inside the corporate network. They then use Group Policy to point all their PCs to this server. The result is that remote users only get their PCs updated when they’re not on the VPN.

What are our readers doing at their organization? Email us at [email protected]

The best defense is a good defense!

A security-minded colleague recently pointed me to a free resource called “A Defensive Computing Checklist” that is maintained and kept updated by Michael Horowitz. The resource covers things to be aware of and specific defensive steps to protect you against threats that come against you using various vectors like email, websites, phone scams, and so on. Check it out:

https://defensivecomputingchecklist.com/

Keep your router safe

While we’re on the topic of security, how necessary is it to keep your router from getting hacked? Michael Horowitz also has another site that focuses exclusively on the security of routers, and it has some pretty good suggestions you should pay attention to:

https://routersecurity.org/

When trouble comes a’knockin

And finally, who hasn’t had trouble with Windows 10 at one time or another? Ed Bott has some help for those who feel helpless in this area:

The ultimate Windows 10 information hub: Everything you need in one place (ZDNet)

https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-how-to-help-windows-10-ed-botts-tech-support-troubleshooting-guide/

Good guy, that ol’ Ed is — he’s been around the block a few times, hope he keeps truckin’

Got more thoughts about anything in this newsletter?

Email us at [email protected]!

Tell all your friends about WServerNews!

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Tip of the Week

>> Got any IT pro tips you’d like to share with other readers of our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

Getting off Microsoft’s email blocklist

If you use Outlook.com aka Hotmail aka Windows Live Mail etc and your IP address gets on their blocklist for some reason and you can’t send or receive mail using your account, go to this page and fill out the form there to request support:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/supportrequestform/8ad563e3-288e-2a61-8122-3ba03d6b8d75

If they reply and say that they’re routing your ticket but nothing happens for a couple of days, contact them again and re-state your problem in detail. Eventually you should get an email from them saying that your IP address qualifies for mitigation and the block will be removed in 48-72 hours. If this period of time passes and you still find that your mail bounces, rinse and repeat!

The same advice applies when you’re an enterprise that finds their corporate email server is getting bounce message when users send emails to external @outlook.com email addresses. Fill out the form and keep pushing until Microsoft rescinds the block on the IP subnet on which your corporate mail server resides.

 

Admin Toolbox

>> Got any admin tools or software you’d like to recommend to our readers? Email us at [email protected]

dbatools simplifies SQL Server instance migrations and best practice implementations:

https://dbatools.io/

Use sp_who3 to first view the current system load and to identify a session, users, sessions and/or 14 processes in an instance of the SQL Server by using the latest DMVs and T-SQL features:

https://github.com/ronascentes/sqltoolbox/blob/master/sp_who3/sp_who3.sql

SmarterMail is a scalable business email server that meets the needs of small businesses, enterprise organizations and web hosts and ISPs:

https://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/business-email-server

 

Factoid – Mnmlsm

Fact: While minimalism has its fans, this popular architectural trend has its downside when it comes to building public spaces:

Source: https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/576715/

Question: Have your feelings towards minimalist architecture changed during this pandemic? I personally feel that such spaces feel even colder and more distant when fewer people are allowed to inhabit them at any one time. Bring back plush opulence, I say! More ornamentation and color and warmth!! Down with simple, clean spaces! Hooray for clutter and chaos!!! ๐Ÿ™‚

Email your view on this subject to us at [email protected]

 

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Conference Calendar

>> Got an IT conference or event happening that you’d like to promote in our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

Connect IT – Aug 24-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada

https://www.connectit.com/

Data Center World – Aug 24-27 in San Antonio, Texas

https://tmt.knect365.com/data-center-world/

SharePoint Fest – Aug 24-28 in Seattle, Washington

https://www.sharepointfest.com/Seattle/

Infosecurity Belgium – Sept 9-10 in Brussels, Belgium

https://www.infosecurity.be/

SPTechCon – Sept 14-17 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

https://www.sptechcon.com/

Microsoft Ignite – Sept 21-25 (Virtual)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite

VMworld – Sept 28 (Virtual)

https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/index.html

Black Hat – Sept 29 – Oct 2 in Singapore

https://www.blackhat.com/asia-20/

Infosecurity Denmark – Sept 30 – Oct 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark

https://www.infosecurity.dk/

Midwest Management Summit – Oct 11-15 in San Diego, California

https://mmsmoa.com/registration/mms-2020-midway-edition.html

European Cloud Summit – Oct 20-22 in Frankfurt, Germany

https://www.cloudsummit.eu/en/

European Azure Conference – Oct 27-29 in Nice, France

https://www.europeanazureconference.com/

Infosecurity Netherlands – Oct 28-29 in Utrecht, Netherlands

https://www.infosecurity.nl/

European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference – Nov 9-12 in Amsterdam, Netherlands

https://www.sharepointeurope.com/

DevOpsCon – Nov 30 – Dec 3 in Munich, Germany

https://devopscon.io/munich/

 

Podcast Corner

Automating Workflows using Power Automate with Sandy Ussia (RunAsRadio)

http://runasradio.com/

Everything You Need To Know About Wireless ISPs (Heavy Networking)

https://packetpushers.net/series/weekly-show/

VMware acquires Datrium for DRaaS (Virtually Speaking)

https://www.vspeakingpodcast.com/

OpenRoaming (Clear To Send)

https://www.cleartosend.net/

Edge to Cloud: This isn’t Your Father’s Tractor (The CTO Advisor)

https://www.thectoadvisor.com/podcast

Yubico Chief Solutions Officer Jerrod Chong (Risky Business)

https://risky.biz/netcasts/risky-business/

AAD Alternate Login ID and Sensitive by Default in SharePoint (Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast)

https://www.msclouditpropodcast.com/

Microsoft’s Q4 Earnings and the Rest of the News (Microsoft Cloud Show)

http://www.microsoftcloudshow.com/podcast

Defending Your Security (Windows Insider)

https://insider.windows.com/en-us/podcasts/

 

New on Techgenix.com

5 Kubernetes security incidents and what we can learn from them

Kubernetes is not inherently insecure, yet Kubernetes security incidents continue to grow. The reason appears to be the sheer complexity of the platform.

https://techgenix.com/5-kubernetes-security-incidents/

Customize Azure DevOps work items to improve your projects (Part 2)

Here’s Part 2 in our series showing you how you can customize Azure DevOps work items to better control and track your projects.

https://techgenix.com/customize-azure-devops-work-items-part-2/

Review: IT ecosystem monitoring solution NetCrunch 10.6

You need to monitor your IT infrastructure to avoid disasters. NetCrunch 10.6 is a monitoring solution for your entire IT ecosystem. Here’s our review.

https://techgenix.com/monitoring-solution-netcrunch-10-6/

Adding custom error messages to your PowerShell scripts

PowerShell error messages are helpful โ€” if the user can figure out what they mean. Make your end-users’ experiences better with custom error messages.

https://techgenix.com/custom-powershell-error-messages/

Back to the future: IBM launches Watson Works to help offices reopen

As offices reopen, companies face challenges when their employees return. IBM’s Watson Works can help large companies get back to normal in abnormal times.

https://techgenix.com/ibm-watson-works-offices-reopen/

 

Fun videos from Flixxy

Goats Are Awesome

The goats are awesome!

https://www.flixxy.com/goats-are-awesome.htm

Zeus Calls Pandora In 2020 To Ask About The Box

Zeus dials up Pandora on Zoom to ask her what happened with the box.

https://www.flixxy.com/zeus-calls-pandora-in-2020-to-ask-about-the-box.htm

Animatronic Spy Gorilla

Animatronic Spy Gorilla’s incredible encounter with a gorilla troop in the wild.

https://www.flixxy.com/animatronic-spy-gorilla-incredible-encounter-with-gorillas-in-the-wild.htm

Rona Barrett Interviews Donald Trump In 1980

Rona Barrett interviews Donald Trump in 1980. A historical footage.

https://www.flixxy.com/rona-barrett-interviews-donald-trump-in-1980.htm

 

More articles of interest

Essential serverless concepts to master before deployment

Serverless computing can be incredibly beneficial — but easily misunderstood. Before adoption, have a clear understanding of proper use cases and app design principles.

https://searchitoperations.techtarget.com/tip/Essential-serverless-concepts-to-master-before-deployment?Offer=Content_Partner_OTHR-_2020July17_TG_A1

Understanding persistent vs. nonpersistent VDI

You have a big decision to make when you deploy virtual desktops: Do you go with persistent or nonpersistent VDI? The choice often comes down to storage.

https://searchvirtualdesktop.techtarget.com/feature/Understanding-nonpersistent-vs-persistent-VDI?Offer=Content_Partner_OTHR-_2020July17_TG_A2

Use disaster recovery standards to guide pandemic planning

International quality management and compliance standards can help an organization kick off a disaster recovery plan for unprecedented scenarios, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/tip/Use-disaster-recovery-standards-to-guide-pandemic-planning?Offer=Content_Partner_OTHR-_2020July17_TG_A3

PowerShell 7 remoting expands management horizons

Connecting to different operating systems to manage them from PowerShell requires SSH setup, which is less onerous in the version 7 release.

https://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tutorial/PowerShell-7-remoting-expands-management-horizons?Offer=Content_Partner_OTHR-_2020July17_TG_A4

 

Send us your feedback!

Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at [email protected]

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