Alexander’s Blog

When I am teaching classes, my students sometimes ask me questions about licensing for various Microsoft products. Back in the NT days, it was relatively easy to tell students how the licensing worked because there were only a few options. In recent years, it seems easier to get a PhD in Nuclear Physics then to try and understand licensing for Microsoft products. In fact, the licensing has become so complicated to understand that I doubt if even Microsoft sales people have all the answers to our questions.

Luckily, Microsoft has this Volume Licensing portal which is very helpful. Microsoft deserves credit for creating this Web site full of useful information. Consider it a Microsoft licensing encyclopedia. Besides other great information, it also includes an online Microsoft Licensing Advisor (MLA). This advisor is a wizard that walks you through your particular scenario and gives you a quote.

SharePoint Licensing

SharePoint licensing is a bit more complicated because it involves Windows Server and SQL Server in addition to SharePoint Server. If you are looking for SharePoint licensing, this SharePoint Licensing Q&A is a great resource.

Another good resource for SharePoint is a third-party tool called SharePoint Price Calculator from Bamboo Solutions. This is not a licensing tool but it helps you figure out the total cost of SharePoint and its related products, such as Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

SharePoint 2010 can be used to set up intranet, extranet, and Internet sites.

Intranet sites are licensed using a Server/CAL (Client Access License) model. SharePoint Server 2010 is required for each running instance of the software, and CALs are required for each person or device accessing a SharePoint Server.

Extranet and Internet sites are licensed using a Server-only model—no CALs are required.

Here are some additional details from Microsoft’s Web site.

SharePoint Server 2010: Intranet Scenarios

Client Access License

The Standard CAL delivers the core capabilities of SharePoint 2010:

• Sites: A Single Infrastructure for All Your Business Web Sites
• Communities: An Integrated Collaboration Platform
• Content: ECM for the Masses
• Search: Relevance, Refinement, and People (excludes FAST Search)
• Composites: Do-It-Yourself Business Solutions (excludes Access Services and InfoPath Services)

For more details on the specific features in the Standard CAL, see Edition Comparison.

Enterprise Client Access License

The Enterprise CAL delivers the full capabilities of SharePoint 2010:

• Sites: A Single Infrastructure for All Your Business Web Sites
• Communities: An Integrated Collaboration Platform
• Content: ECM for the Masses
• Search: Relevance, Refinement, and People includes FAST Search)
• Composites: Do-It-Yourself Business Solutions (includes Access Services and InfoPath Services)
• Insights: BI for Everyone (includes PerformancePoint Services, Excel Services, and Visio Services)

Note that the Enterprise CAL is additive: To access the Enterprise edition features, a person/device must have both the Standard CAL and Enterprise CAL. For more details on the specific features in the Enterprise CAL, see Edition Comparison.

SharePoint Server 2010: Internet/Extranet Scenarios

SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Standard

SharePoint for Internet Sites, Standard, delivers the core capabilities of the SharePoint 2010 Standard CAL for use on an Internet or extranet site. This server license is designed for small and mid-sized companies, and deployment is limited to a single domain and related subdomains. A domain is a combination of a public domain (such as .com, .net, .org) and a second-level, proprietary domain (such as MyCompany, MyOrganization, MyClub). Examples of valid domains are MyCompany.com, MyOrganization.net, and MyClub.org. Subdomains are any URL prefixes to the left of the second-level domains.

SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise

SharePoint for Internet Sites, Enterprise, delivers the full capabilities of the SharePoint 2010 Enterprise CAL for use on an Internet or extranet site. This server license also includes the rights to FAST Search for use in Internet or extranet scenarios. You can deploy a single server license of SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise, as a SharePoint server or a FAST Search server—but not both concurrently.

If you don’t find answers to all your questions on Microsoft’s Web site, you can contact Microsoft in United States at 800-426-9400. In Canada, contract Microsoft representative at 877-568-2495.

Summary of Resources

1. Volume Licensing Portal
2. Microsoft Licensing Advisor
3. SharePoint Licensing Resources
4. SharePoint Licensing Q&A
5. SharePoint Price Calculator

Have you run into some interesting errors or humorous Knowledge Base Articles lately? Well, I run into them once in a while. Here are a few. Sometimes in the middle of an intense troubleshooting session you deserve a little relief. Check em’ out.

The reason for this error was that the operation completed successfully

This error was on my SharePoint server.

The Windows SharePoint Services Timer service depends on the Netlogon service which failed to start because of the following error:

The operation completed successfully.

According to this screenshot from May 25, 2011 I used Adobe Acrobat Professional last time on April 23, 2072. That’s 61 years from now.

Last Used On 4/23/2072

Sometimes you need to slow down while surfing the Internet.

You’re disruptively hitting our Dell Factory Outlet web servers too fast, please slow down your incoming HTTP requests to our web servers. Thank you for your cooperation.

Microsoft KB article 282850: Cookies Lost After Upgrading to Windows XP

Microsoft KB article 281923: Hair color of the “person” icon for a user group becomes gray if the group contains more than 500 users

Microsoft KB article 228001: Network Adapter Does Not Work if Unplugged

Microsoft KB article 830680: Forgotten Password Wizard Prompts You to Insert a Disk into Drive C

Today I decided to compare Google Maps to Bing Maps to see if there is a major difference. I wasn’t looking to compare the street views, I wanted to compare the bird-eye views. Unfortunately, Google only offers the aerial view, while Bing offers both an aerial view and a bird-eye view. So this is what you see when you use Google and Bing. This is the same aerial view of downtown Seattle location with the best Google and Bing have to offer.

Click on the images to see the finer details.

Google

Bing

If you are an Information Technology (IT) professional, or are just starting your career in the IT field, you might want to look at Microsoft TechNet subscription. My students often ask me about the price of various software and where is the best place to purchase operating systems and applications. When it comes to Microsoft products, TechNet subscription is a great way to evaluate Microsoft products.

TechNet Plus Direct is available for $349 as an online only subscription enabling access to full version, evaluation software from the convenience of a private, centralized download center.

TechNet Plus Single User is available for $599 as a DVD subscription that includes access to the download center for online access to evaluation software in addition to the software available on the DVD.

You can purchase Microsoft TechNet Subscriptions directly from Microsoft or through a local reseller. Click here for more information.

My students often ask about the common port numbers that they need to know for Microsoft certification exams. A lot depends on the exam you are taking. For example, for Active Directory exam it will be helpful to k now the ports that Active Directory uses. For Exchange, the ports that are used by Exchange, etc. , In general, here are some of the common port  numbers that are good to know. For a more detailed list check out the article TCP/IP Port Numbers.

TCP 20 FTP (File Transfer Protocol – Data)

TCP 21 FTP (File Transfer Protocol – Control)

TCP 22 SSH (Secure Shell – Remote login protocol)

TCP 23 Telnet

TCP 25 SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

TCP 53 DNS (Domain Name System)

TCP 67 BOOTPS (Bootstrap Protocol Server)

TCP 68 BOOTPC (Bootstrap Protocol Client)

TCP 80 HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol)

TCP 88 Kerberos

TCO 110 POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3)

TCP 119 NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol)

TCP 123 NTP (Network Time Protocol)

TCP 137 NetBIOS (NETBIOS Name Service)

TCP 138 NetBIOS (NETBIOS Datagram Service)

TCP 139 NetBIOS (NETBIOS Session Service)

TCP 143 IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol)

TCP 161 SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

TCP 389 LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

TCP 443 HTTPS (HTTP secure – used for SSL)