Alexander’s Blog

The new Microsoft Certified Master series offers advanced technical training and certifications on Microsoft technologies that go beyond any product training offered outside of Microsoft today. IT professionals who successfully complete the program and certification testing validate their skills as product experts who successfully design and implement solutions that meet the most complex business requirements.

Master certification enables senior IT professionals to demonstrate and validate their technical expertise on Microsoft server products and authoritatively differentiate themselves to prospective employers and customers. Master certification is a primary prerequisite for all technical Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) certifications.

Microsoft offers three Master-level technical certifications, all of which deepen and broaden the technical skills of experienced IT professionals.

To be eligible for Master certification, the candidate must be a current Microsoft Certified Professional (with a Microsoft Certification ID) or an eligible Microsoft employee. Specific technology requirements vary by platform.

To achieve Master certification, candidates must fulfill the following training requirements:

Registration is scheduled to start in July 2008. Classes are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2008. Click here for more details.

Okay, so you know all about World Wide Web (WWW) or else you won’t be reading my blog but have you heard about World Wide Telescope (WWT) from Microsoft Research? Microsoft defines WWT as “a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.”

WWT is a single Web-based program that connects to data residing on multiple servers across the Internet and presents it in a seamless, interactive way. There are lots of things you can do in this application. To get started you might want to take advantage of one of the many guided tours. While you are in the tour you can pause the tour and come back later to rejoin where you left off.

Microsoft is providing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities. Click here to access the WWT homepage then click on the Download icon in the upper right hand corner, or you can click on the Experience It link to get to the Download link. If you are into astronomy, you’ll absolutely love WWT.

TIPS

1. You must use a browser that has JavaScript enabled (such as Internet Explorer) and the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed. If you don’t have the Flash Player installed you will have the option to download it when you access the WWT homepage.

2. Once the application is installed you can access it in Windows Vista under All Programs, Microsoft Research.

3. Use the mouse to navigate around the galaxy by clicking and dragging. For example, if you view earth, you can click and drag to spin the earth until you get where you want then use your wheel mouse to quickly zoom in or zoom out.

4. If you are an advanced user and want to select one of the many telescopes, you must download and install the 5MB ASCOM platform and a telescope driver to control your telescope. The ASCOM Initiative is a loosely-knit group of astronomy software developers and astronomy device manufacturers devoted to vendor-independent plug-and-play control.

NOTE: I noticed that on my Internet Explorer page the page freezes after 99% content is loaded. I have to hit the refresh key (F5) to get it to 100% and access the Web site. The application is pretty buggy and don’t be surprised if WWT application crashes and you can’t get out of it. In that case run Task Manager (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC) and on the Processes tab kill the process WWTExplorer.

Windows Server 2008 offers both Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway) and Terminal Services RemoteApp (TS RemoteApp) features. Although they both offer Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) over HTTPS, the main difference between them is that TS Gateway allows you to publish the entire desktop while TS RemoteApp publishes only the application.

For example, if you have a need to allow one of the vendors access to an application on your network so the vendor can support it you might want to consider TS RemoteApp in Windows Server 2008 as a solution. You can simply publish the application on a Windows Server 2008 in the DMZ, or behind an ISA firewall, without having to worry about setting up Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) for the vendor. As an administrator, you can use the TS Gateway to have full, secure access to the entire desktop.

I am working on securing the entire network for one of my clients. I ran into this article on TechNet that targets the specific area of extranet and how you can best secure it. The article is full of valuable information for securing your extranet environment and is called Plan security hardening for extranet environments.

Part of the article discusses this extranet hardening tool that’s offered by Microsoft. It’s called Extranet hardening planning tool: back-to-back perimeter (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85533&clcid=0×409).

The tool will help you figure out which ports are required for our ISA Server, routers and firewalls. This tool is a Microsoft Office Visio file that you can edit to customize for your own environment. For example, here are some things that you can do with this tool:

• Add your custom port numbers, where applicable.
• Where a choice of protocols or ports is provided, indicate which ports you will use.
• Indicate the specific ports that are used for database communication in your environment.
• Add or remove requirements for ports based on:
  1. Whether you are configuring e-mail integration.
  2. Which layer you deploy the query role to.
  3. If you are configuring a domain trust relationship between the perimeter domain and the corporate domain.

If you are trying to get your external NIC on the ISA Server obtain an IP address from a DHCP server and can’t, check out this KB article 841141 from Microsoft. This solution applies to both ISA Server 2004/2006.

The external network adapter on your ISA Server 2006 or ISA Server 2004 computer cannot obtain an IP address from a DHCP server

SYMPTOMS
When you try to configure the external network adapter on your Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 computer or on your ISA Server 2004 computer to obtain its Internet Protocol (IP) address from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, the external network adapter does not receive a valid IP address.

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the default ISA Server system policy does not permit DHCP replies from external DHCP servers to the ISA Server computer.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, follow these steps:
1.    Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft ISA Server, and then click ISA Server Management.
2.    In the console tree, click Firewall Policy.
3.    In the right pane, click the Tasks tab, and then click Show System Policy Rules.
4.    Click Allow DHCP replies from DHCP servers to ISA Server.
5.    In the details pane, click Edit System Policy.
6.    Click the From tab.
7.    Click Add.
8.    If you know the IP address of the external DHCP server, follow these steps:
a.     In the New list, click Computer.
b.     In the New Computer Rule Element dialog box, type a name for the DHCP computer rule element in the Name box, type the IP address of the DHCP server in the Computer IP Address box, and then click OK.
c.     Expand Computers, click the DHCP computer rule element that you just created, click Add, and then click Close.
To add the external network instead of the specific DHCP server, expand Networks, click External, click Add, and then click Close.

Note Microsoft recommends that you add the specific DHCP server instead of the external network to make the ISA Server computer less susceptible to external attacks.
9.    Click OK, and then click Apply to save the changes and update the configuration.
Note This procedure is for renewals only. If you do not have an IP address, you may want to allow DHCP traffic from any network until an address is leased. If you do not already have a lease, the “specific DHCP server” setting in step 8 will not work because Windows will be forced into DHCP Discover mode. This mode is strictly for broadcast traffic.