To Dev or not to Dev

Michelle and I attended DevDays 2007 held at the Sun Coast Conference Centre. I went representing SA Developer.Net in the new T-Shirts Craig managed to get flown down to me by Eben De Witt. I went with a fairly high expectation and I will admit the day was worth it. The Keynote was well presented and offered a lot of insight into all the new technologies Microsoft is investing time in. Ernst presented tracks on ASP.Net AJAX as well as website security, and I was astounded by the features Orcas will bring. I can't wait to get my hands on Beta 1. There were also tracks on Sharepoint Portal as well as Silverlight, which Michelle thoroughly enjoyed.

I don't want to give away to much for those that haven't attended yet and will blog a bit more about the event next week.

SA Developer has recently run a few events in JHB and the Western Cape around LINQ. Unfortunately the KZN audience is not ready for a talk on LINQ, however personally I am extremely interested in it. I found a set of brilliant articles on DotNetSlackers explaining LINQ in detail. It's currently in 3 parts and the first starts here.

Andre from The Mailowl Scrolls pointed me to this excellent article on reducing your website bandwidth by Jeff Atwood. It in short mentions the following methods to reduce web traffic costs:

1. Switch to an external image provider
2. Enable HTTP Compression
3. Outsource your RSS feeds
4. Optimize the size of your JavaScript and CSS

Definitely a few tips I am going to take into consideration when redesigning current platforms.

A List Apart has posted a brilliant article here about educating stakeholders regarding Web Technology. I think it's a must read for any Web Developer working with clients, as often they have very limited technical knowledge. ALA remains one of my favorite sites with some brilliant articles and design tips, as well as an awesome collection of CSS tutorials.

The SA Developer.Net Event Calendar for May 2007 is as follows:

First Talk:

When: 16th May 2007 18:00-20:00
Venue: I.T. Intellect, Shop 405b Level 3, Musgrave Centre, 115 Musgrave Road, Musgrave
Presenter: Various - Panel Group from the IT Industry
Topic: Getting into the IT Industry with Microsoft
Level: None
RSVP: Please RSVP here or e-mail severanc3 at gmail dot com before the 15th of May to confirm catering

First Social:

When: 19th May 2007 14:30-16:30
Venue: Mimmo's, Silverton Rd, Musgrave (Next to Mexican Chili, NewsCafe), Durban
Topic: Social
Objective: Get together because we can
RSVP: Please RSVP here or e-mail severanc3 at gmail dot com before the 18th of May to confirm booking

Second Talk:

When: 30th May 2007 18:00 - 20:00
Venue: I.T. Intellect, Shop 405b Level 3, Musgrave Centre, 115 Musgrave Road, Musgrave
Presenter: Willie Roberts
Topic: Introduction into ASP.Net 2.0 Web Data Controls
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
RSVP: Please RSVP here or e-mail severanc3 at gmail dot com before the 29th of May to confirm catering

Second Social:

When: 2nd June 2007 14:30-16:30
Venue: Mimmo's, Silverton Rd, Musgrave (Next to Mexican Chili, NewsCafe), Durban
Topic: Social
Objective: Get together because we can
RSVP: Please RSVP here or e-mail severanc3 at gmail dot com before the 1st of June to confirm booking

I previously mentioned that we received SBS 2003 as part of our Action Pack Subscription. I spent the last few days setting up our server at home and I am proud to say I have it all working. I do have one or two gripes about the software but as a whole it's a brilliant solution for any small business. With everything integrated into one DVD it makes the installation process simple and effective, and overall it's a joy to run. I had a few specific goals when I installed the system and I was able to successfully complete almost all of them.

Small Business Server & Active Directory

The installation of Windows Server 2003 R2 is pretty standard, with the installer configuring all the necessary drivers for my server box. The only driver I had to install separately was for my sound card, which is using a SoundMax sound card and drivers. For those interested I am running a low spec machine as a server, Celeron 2.4 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, GeForce 5500 256MB, 1 x 80GB HDD, 1 x 120GB HDD and a DVD Drive. It's not super powerful but ideal for home network, and will most likely be upgraded soon to a Pentium D 3.4 Ghz with another 1 GB of RAM. Once installed the configuration of the server is nicely controlled by the Server Manager, allowing step by step wizards for almost anything that needs to be configured. The server is running 3 X NIC's. The first is linked to a 4 MB ADSL line, the second to a 512 KB ADSL line and the third to the internal network. Once configured the rest of the SBS Suite needs to be installed separately. I also loaded Service Pack 2 for Server 2003 and Service Pack 1 for SBS 2003. Overall the installation was painless, and the configuration of the Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and other small bits and pieces easily managed through the Server Manager. I also found the SBS Official Blog to be a useful resource during configuration when unsure about something or just needing to know little tricks and potential problems during the installation.

Windows Update Services 2.0 (WSUS)

The next application I got my teeth into was Windows Update Services. This service allows you to run a local copy of Windows Update, and centrally download all the necessary Windows Update to be distributed off the network. The setup is fairly straightforward, however be warned that a total update refresh can cost you 11 GB+ of bandwidth. I only downloaded the required updates for the software we do have and this totaled to around 3 GB+. However the rollout to the local machines are now a lot smoother, and the long term saving in bandwidth will be worthwhile. I also loaded Service Pack 1 for WSUS. The client configuration can be done via the Group Policy, either through the Active Directory domain or directly editing the local Group Policy using gpedit. Both works brilliantly. The next revision of WSUS was recently released, however it is not fully integrated into SBS 2003, and will only be available in the Longhorn version of SBS.

Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 (ISA)

The next application I got running was Internet Security and Acceleration Server. This is the Microsoft equivalent of ipchains and squid. The system will fairly much configure itself, and once you've loaded Service Pack 3 also offers neat little tweaks like HTTP Compression. There is also no need to set up the proxy and caching servers, and it works great with all the machines having default gateways pointing to the ISA Server. I have my Internet completely opened and it has made no visible difference to browsing or downloading speeds, and seems a lot more stable. Reporting is very thorough and creating and configuring rules extremely powerful. I use Dynamic DNS and even have my VPN configured and working, along with web access to my Exchange server and Remote Web Workplace, so I am able to work on the network even outside of the home office, which is a major plus as far as I am concerned. My only gripe is the failure of ISA to use the 3rd NIC, as I would like to route my traffic between the two lines dependant on what is being done on the network. However it is something I can do without, however I have found references to plug-ins that are able to add this functionality. The next revision of ISA, ISA 2006, has been released but will also make it's appearance in the Longhorn Edition of SBS. I also found ISAServer.org a valuable resource when configuring the ISA server.

Exchange Server 2003

I have setup Exchange Servers in the past, and found the configuration and setup for straightforward and simple. My only real issue with Exchange 2003 is the inability to select the e-mail address to use for sending when composing a message, but again it's something I can overlook. Outlook Web Access is a brilliant solution for remote e-mail and the new RPC over HTTP solution also works very well. The server was configured to manage 5 domains and so far I've had very few hassles, even being able to read my e-mail from work using Web Access, and getting G-Mail to connect using POP3 to download my mail to my phone. I also have Service Pack 2 loaded along with various updates required for Vista and Office 2007 compatibility. Exchange Server 2007 will be a feature of Longhorn SBS.

Conclusion

I am satisfied that SBS 2003 offers all the necessary products required to run a small business environment at a very reasonable price. Apart from the specific items I've highlighted, there is a few other nice solutions provided with SBS including

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
• Client Application Rollout
• Sharepoint Portal Services
• Remote Web Workplace
• Multimedia Streaming Server

Anyone out there who has a company of between 2 - 75 users should seriously consider getting SBS 2003 as a well rounded solution, easily maintainable and extremely stable.

Michelle owns a company called Eskhaleni Technologies, who are registered Microsoft Partners. Because of this she qualified for a Action Pack Subscription, and we both have been on an extensive drive to sort out all our software licenses. We ordered the subscription at the end of March and it earlier this week. I was suitably impressed with the range of software that the subscription comes with for a meager R 2508.00 per annum license fee. A complete breakdown of the applications and licenses included with the subscription is available here. What peaked my interest is the Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 that comes with the subscription, and I am in the next few days planning on upgrading the network and install it. I am particularly interested in the Exchange 2003 and ISA 2004 that is supplied with it, and also noticed R2 comes with Windows Update Services (WSUS).

Michelle and I recently decided it's time to legalize, and we have spent some time reviewing the software we use and need. I was amazed to find quite a few open source or freeware replacements for most of the software I used to have in my collection, including Photoshop (Paint. NET), ACDSee (Faststone Image Viewer), and Nero (ImgBurn). We have since removed all software we don't have licensed. I did however buy licenses for Total Commander as well since it is a everyday tool I can't be without. There is only 3 more applications we have to buy licenses for in the next few months and then we will be happy. It's strange how suddenly I have become more aware of the importance of supporting software developers as well as the companies providing these software solutions.