My company has a long-standing policy of not allowing [employees to browse the Web], except for a few executives. I'm trying to change that policy, but I'm encountering a lot of resistance. Now we've discovered that some of our users are browsing the Web by using the proxy server settings in their browsers and going out on ports other than 80. On the one hand I need to find a way to stop this, and on the other hand I think it's a stupid policy in the first place. Can you give any technical advice as well as advice on what other people in my situation are doing with outdated policies?
My company already has a full-scale call center integrated with CTI [computer-telephony integration], CRM [customer relationship management], voice logging, workforce management, etc. I'm interested in the integration of the call center with the Internet so that my company can provide an additional channel for our customers to contact us.
Thank you very much for the informative and entertaining Test Center Rx. I am a network manager and I've found your advice to be helpful and educational even when I disagreed with it. Now I am making a job change and I thought you might be able to help me.
I wish to ask you if you know of any low-level disk-editing utilities. I am an IT trainer at a small volunteer organization that runs Microsoft Corp. Windows 95 machines. The students save their work in their folders, but unfortunately their hard work sometimes goes amiss or someone vandalizes the machine. We cannot afford client/server machines, and other methods that have been implemented were not very practical. It would be handy to have such a utility to combat this problem. Any information would be kindly appreciated.
I just came across an April 24 article that Test Center Director Maggie Biggs wrote concerning EAI (enterprise application integration). She wrote, "EAI vendors have done a good job of supporting data and application integration. And a few are going after business process integration. However, we need greater emphasis on supporting the latter" (see www.infoworld.com/printlinks).
Boy, do I have problems. It seems like every time I get [a problem] fixed, two more come along. Most of them seem to relate to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT, its file shares, and logging on to the domain. I have four locations, each connected to the Internet with varying speed connections and VPN connections between the locations. Things seem to work for Ping and FTP, but NT-based stuff is very hit-and-miss. Sometimes users will work fine for weeks and then all of a sudden not be able to log in or not be able to browse a share.
I have a Novell Inc. NetWare 4.11 network with two file servers. There are about 60 users with Windows 95 workstations running a variety of applications. All users have access to one of the servers (which I'll call Server1) through drive mappings, print captures, etc. No problem there. A small subset of these users -- about 10 of them -- has access to the second server, Server2. No problem there, either. However, there are several users who shouldn't have any access to Server2 who show up every day on Server2's File Server console. They are using up precious user licenses and are somehow authenticating access to Server2. Why is this happening, and how can I prevent it in the future?
I was wondering if you are planning to review and test the features, reliability, and the security of wireless LANs based on the 802.11b standard. We're considering purchasing such a network for a new office. The features and advantages would be a great asset vs. hard-wired network drops, but I'm concerned that someone could stand outside our building and get on our network.
I have two problems that I hope you can help with. The first is the more serious of the two: I have a database that needs to be online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. How do I back it up? I've tried setting backups to both disk and tape during off-peak hours, but it still slows the database to a crawl. As you've probably guessed, this is a Web application, so our users are from all over the world and our peak usage is starting to flatten. Soon there won't be any off-peak times. One way or another I need to back this thing up. Help!
Recently, we have gone through a round of memory upgrades for our Windows NT Workstations. I decided to take a closer look at how much memory we gained by checking Task Manager. After adding 64MB to a particular machine, I noticed that it gained roughly 55MB. I then checked on a machine that went from 128MB to 256MB and it had a similar shortfall, with roughly a 110MB increase. Obviously, NT as well as some other apps must be taking a bigger chunk of the RAM when it becomes available. Why does this happen? Is there some place to control how much an application takes, since it worked just fine with less before the upgrade?
I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do about Windows 2000 Server. I manage a network of around 20 Windows NT 4.0 machines that run Microsoft Corp. Exchange and Internet Information Server and that also act as file servers. I'm starting to get pressure from some of the other IT people here to upgrade, but I'm scared to do it this soon. I had no end of trouble with NT 4.0, after my 3.51 servers had been working fine forever. You always hear "wait for Service Pack 1," but SP1 for NT 4.0 didn't really help me. My servers weren't stable until SP3, which took quite awhile to become available. So, I'm concerned about what will happen if I run out and install Windows 2000.
My problem has to do with printing. We recently upgraded all of our workstations to new Pentium III systems running Windows NT Workstation. One of our print-queues is on a Novell Inc. NetWare box. Whenever anyone prints to this queue, a banner page prints. Now, I have gone into Client Services for NetWare [CSNW] under Print Options and made sure the box for Print Banner Page is unchecked under every user, but I still get this banner page. What am I doing wrong? Is there a registry setting somewhere I have to use? Do I have to edit a value? I checked the printer's setting (on our HP LaserJet 4S) at the printer's control panel but without success. Please advise before we run out of trees.
I am in the process of putting forward a recommendation for which SQL server our company should buy. I'm not a SQL person myself, and I'm confused by a lot of what I'm hearing. Our company has only one full-time developer; he has never worked with a SQL server, but he thinks Oracle is the best solution for us. We run entirely on Microsoft products, and I'm worried that Microsoft SQL Server might actually be a better solution (or at least easier for me to administer because it looks like it'll end up being my job). We are on a limited budget, and it looks as if the Microsoft solution would be cheaper, too.
I'm trying to solve my DHCP [Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol] problem, and I could use your help. I have an existing PDC [primary domain controller] that was running DHCP and WINS [Windows Internet Naming Service]. But I needed to replace the machine. First I set up a new BDC [backup domain controller] and promoted it to PDC so that I could take the old PDC offline. When I set up DHCP on the new PDC, I made sure the scope and settings were the same. I changed the IP address on the new PDC to be the same as the old one, so that my clients would still be able to find the WINS.
My company has around 20 Windows 95 PCs running on a peer-to-peer, unswitched Ethernet network. We have two of these PCs, also running Microsoft Corp. Windows 95, set aside to act as full-time file-and-print servers. This system is not secured in any way. We do not use passwords for any shared volumes or devices. I felt fine with this setup until recently when my company decided to install a DSL modem through a local provider. I insisted on a firewall on our site, but was told by the local carrier that their use of NAT [network address translation] would be all the protection we needed. The decision-makers in my company have put their trust in the provider and installed the DSL system. I can see NAT as a fine addition to a security system, but is it one by itself? Also, won't other customers on the same gateway but behind the NAT be able to have full access to our systems?