Downtime is good!

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Rob

In the world of IT downtime is bad. It is a term that is used to describe the amount of time that an IT system, be it a sever or workstation, is in a non- functioning state which in turn causes a user or users to not be able to work in a constructive fashion. To be fair, in the IT world some level of downtime is inevitable no matter how hard you work. So based on this, downtime is bad.

So what is the title of this post all about?

Downtime is also the term that we use to describe our time outside of work where we relax and in this context downtime IS good. We live in a fast paced, always connected world where we are expected to always be available there is very little downtime. This is why it is more important than ever to plan downtime in your life. I have realised this more so this week as I have brought the family away for a break. This has been made possible by our good friends at TCG Computer Services and Data Systems who have been available to handle any issues that my business cannot handle. This has meant that I have been able to get some good quality downtime, what plans do you have in place for yours?

You can find some great tips here http://www.relaxfocussucceed.com

As always, your feedback is welcome.

– Rob

Posted in Personal, Personal Develoment | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Not able to send emails using AirSync on SBS 2011

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Rob

This is something that I recently came across when we upgraded our office server and to be honest it had me stumped for a little while, but here is what I found.

Essentially we setup our new SBS 2011 Standard server using all of the MS consoles and wizards including the wizard to created the email address domain. After a few days I found that we could not send any outbound emails from devices that were using AirSync, these included Windows 7 Phones; iPhones; Windows Phones; iPads as well as a host of other devices that connect to Exchange using AirSync (formally ActiveSync). There is a great deal of information about this but all of it related to having an invalid character in the domain name. However, having checked through the setup there were not illegal characters in the domain name yet we continued to get the same error.

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What I found was that when you setup an ‘Accepted Domain’ the wizard will ask for a name as part of the wizard. This has traditionally been a descriptive name however this is where the issue seems to lie. In our case, what I did was changed the name to be the same as the domain name and it now works correctly.

Hopefully this should help others.

– Rob

Posted in IT Support, SBS | Leave a comment

Just one minute

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Rob

As a business owner you have one of the greatest gifts there is; that is you are in control of your own time. I recall when I first left my last job and started JPT Solutions I would struggle immensely to take an afternoon off as it just felt so alien, I just felt I should be working. But then, part of working for yourself or running your own business has to be that you are in control of your own time so what do you do?

As some of you will see there has not been a post on this site for some time and the reason for this is that I have been so busy with work that I have just not had any time to get to this, a poor excuse I know but none the less that’s where I’ve been at. I have been finding it increasingly frustrating as there are so many things happening that before I know it the day is over. While it is still very busy I am having to make time to get off the hamster wheel and make time for these types of activity which I do enjoy.

So I guess what I would like to do is throw this post open to the audience to see what great practical techniques you all have on handling these times and getting control back of you time. If you have the time to post up your thoughts in the comments that would be great.

Thanks in advance

– Rob

Posted in Business, Personal Develoment | 4 Comments

This changes everything….

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Rob

Every so often something comes along that really does change how things work and only last week this happened again, the implications are far reaching for the IT industry.

As you may be aware the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has begun to issue fines over breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA). Since there has been a large number of published data losses it cannot come soon enough for the general public.

Last week another set of fines were issue to Ealing Council at £80,000 and Hounslow Council at £70,000, you can read the full story here. What is so special about this case is that it involved the loss of two unencrypted laptops, one from each council, containing the details of around 1,700 individuals from an employee’s home. Ealing Council provides an out of hours service on behalf of both councils, which is operated by nine staff who work from home. The team receive contact from a variety of sources and rely on laptops to record information about individuals. Ealing Council was found to be in breach of the DPA as it had issued an unencrypted laptop to a member of staff which is in breach of it’s own policies. This process had been established for a number of years and insufficient checks were made to ensure that relevant policies were understood and adhered to by employee’s. Hounslow Council were found to have breached the DPA as they had failed to have a written contract in place with Ealing Council, they also did not monitor Ealing Council’s procedures established to operate the service securely.

You may be wondering why this changes everything? As an outsourced IT service provider there may be occasion where you may have to remove a laptop/desktop/server from site in order to action a repair of the equipment, a normal everyday IT activity. What this could mean is that if that device is then lost or stolen while in your possession and it is not encrypted then you will potentially share equal liability for the data loss. Since that liability can include a rather hefty fine of up to £500,000, not too mention the bad press that would go with it, then the impact on your business could be catastrophic.

The question now is, what are you going to do to mitigate your risk? Please feel free to drop a comment in on this as I would love to hear your thoughts

– Rob

Posted in Business, IT Support, Security, small business | 7 Comments

Cannot connect to the configuration database

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Rob

Following a series of Windows Updates to your server you may encounter an issue connecting to your Sharepoint website. If the site comes up with the message “Cannot connect to the configuration database” then this is the result of one of the updates applied. To resolve the issue follow the steps below on your server:

  1. Go to Start > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (or 2008) > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager
  2. Now navigate through the tree on the left side to “SQL Server Network Configuration” and select “Protocols for MSSQLServer”
  3. From the right pane ensure that “Named Pipes” is enabled
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  4. Once it has been enabled then you can restart the service “SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)”
  5. Now check the Sharepoint website to confirm that it is working again.

These steps resolved the issue on our server so I hope this will help others resolve their issue.

– Rob

Posted in IT Support, Microsoft, SBS, Sharepoint | 1 Comment