free DNS hosting

Whatever is your reason, here’s a list of free DNS hosting or NS service providers if you need one. Not that those DNS service or dynamic DNS services only supports shared third level hostname (i.e username.dns-subdomain.com) and not self own (core) fully qualified top and second level domain name are excluded from the list.

• Bur.st Networking - Provides domain hosting and domain seconding (secondary DNS), complete with mail hosting and backup mail server. Bur.st has a number of redundant name-servers, located at logicaly and physicaly separate sites. Only available to those physically live in Australia.
• dnsEXIT - provides reliable DNS Services free to top level domains for both business and internet users. The DNS supports Dynamic IP that means users will be able to run your own website, ftp, or mail servers via DSL, cable modem lines with dynamic IP. Features DNS Tools record creation wizard.
• DNS Park - Current promotion in AdWords campaign is offering free services just to try DNS Park service. The free service tokens do not expire so users can use them forever. Free services available are DNS Hosting, Mail Guiding, Web Guiding and Web Camping.
• DynDNS.dk - Current pricing for DNS Pro service is free which enables users to manage all name related aspects for own domain names. Include special features such as dynamic updateable IP-addresses and browser
  
  request forwarding (to another URL). All the standard name server settings (A-, CNAME-, MX-records etc.) can be controlled.
• EditDNS - Free DNS hosting supports A, CNAME, MX, NS, SRV, TXT, PTR, and AAAA records, backup DNS, dynamic DNS, sub-domains, web forwarding, e-mail forwarding, email hosting, e-mail backup, MX re-routing, and spam and virus email filtering. Europe and US nameservers available.
• EveryDNS - Provides static free DNS services as well as many advanced services such as Dynamic DNS resolution, Secondary service, AXFR service, and domain2web redirection.
• freeDNS.afraid.org - Free dynamic DNS and static DNS services, subdomain hosting, domain hosting, backup DNS, forward and reverse IPv6 DNS hosting (both .int and .arpa) and URL redirection or web forwarding. Support unlimited number of domains per account, all TLD, and record types including CNAME, A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, LOC, RP, HINFO, SRV records. Also features round robin DNS supported for load balancing and URL cloaking redirection. Users can edit TTL, Minimum, Allow/Deny AXFR’s, and approve/disapprove others from using hosts on your domain.
• Granite Canyon - The free public DNS service offers both primary and secondary DNS.
• Gratis DNS - Free DNS service in Danish language.
• miniDNS - Provides hosting for your own top-level domain name, support dynamic IP to fixed domain name mapping, and web based DNS record management.
• MyDomain - Sign up and register a free account to use the free web-based DNS Management service. No purchase necessary. Also included free e-mail forwarding, unmasked, masked or banner supported URL forwarding.
• Sitelutions - Free internationally redundant high-quality NS server for DNS (dynamic and static), URL redirection or forwarding). Supports domain parking and domain locking and using easy web-based control for DNS and redirection settings. Allows low TTL settings and instant dynamic updates.
• Twisted4Life - Free secondary DNS for domains which users have control of its DNS settings on primary DNS server.
• VCSWEB - Free DNS Service (a Primary and a Secondary) which support both static or dynamic IP address, with an easy to use interface that even beginners can use, whilst not restricting the more advanced users. All changes has real-time updates.
• VDirect - Offers free virtual web, domain and email
  
  redirection service, with cloaking and website statistics features. Advertising supported using a banner at bottom of redirected page, popup banner, or a banner delay page. Paid service for no adverts.
• XName - Provides primary and secondary name servers, which hosted on 3 name servers. Supports IPv6 AAAA records, .in-addr.arpa zones (PTR records), automatic modification of associated reverse (or normal) zone, dynamic update, and automatic refresh.
• ZoneEdit - Provides free managed DNS service and secondary name service with servers in US and Europe. Also offers free WebForward domain forwarding, MailForward email forwarding, starter web page and domain parking. Supports dynamic DNS (DDNS) and failover or load balancing. Free service limited to maximum 5 domains.

The system cannot find the file specified when opening Excel attachment in Outlook

The system cannot find the file specified when opening Excel attachment in Outlook

I have been getting this error for the last couple of weeks and today decided to troubleshoot it. Turns out there is an option in Excel "Ignore other applications that use DDE". Once I unchecked this my problem went away.

 

picture storage

http://www.flickr.com/ ß l prefer this, but it costs $24.95 a year for unlimited storage, but very cool.

http://www.google.com/picasa/ Google’s version of flickr, not as spiffy but they give you 10 gigs of storage for free.

http://www.snapfish.com/ hp version of flickr

http://www.kodakgallery.com/photovoice Kodak version

http://www.getdropbox.com ß this is really cool, you just drop pictures into your drop box and they get automatically uploaded to your account on the net. However it is limited to 2 gigs and is in beta

More I found but have not tried…

http://photobucket.com/

http://www.fotki.com/us/en/

Paid online backup storage:

http://mozy.com/

How many CALs does John Smith need?

How many CALs does John Smith need?

A few weeks back, I built a slide now referred to by several as the “John Smith” slide to help explain how User CALs work and to dispel some misconceptions out there (this slide was included in my SBS Licensing session that you can view online).  Since this has come up several times, I thought I would share it here with the explanation.  First, here is the slide:

 

 

(click on image for full size) 

 

So the question that seems to come up is, if you have an SBS User CAL, what is a User and how do log-in names work?

 

A User is a physical person.  In my slide, it is the physical person pictured there that I named John Smith.  John Smith the person has the SBS User CAL associated with him and he as a person can use that SBS User CAL to access the SBS Server from any device.  So as you can see in the slide, John Smith logs in from 5 different PCs.  How does that affect the number of CALs he needs?  How many physical Users is John Smith?  One.  As such, John Smith is covered by his one User CAL.

 

Well, what if John Smith has a “split personality” and logs in to the SBS Server using several different log-in names?  (Examples listed on my slide include: Jsmith, Johns, John_Smith, J.smith, John.Smith, Sales1, and Sales2)  How does that affect the number of CALs he needs?  How many physical Users is John Smith?  One.  As such, John Smith is still covered by his one User CAL.

 

So, User CALs are associated with a PHYSICAL USER.  They are not shared by Users, each User must have their own User CAL.  Once a User has their own User CAL, it does not matter how many machines they log in from or how many different log in names they use.  They are still one physical User and covered by the one User CAL.

 

Now, if John Smith the physical User were to log in from a device and walk away, can Sally Sue, a different physical User use that device?  Not unless Sally Sue has her own User CAL because John Smith’s User CAL belongs to him and cannot be used by another User.  So, if you choose to use User CALs, you need one per physical User.

 

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

 

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

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Licensing Basics: What are CALs (Client Access Licenses)?

Licensing Basics: What are CALs (Client Access Licenses)?

A Client Access License (CAL) is a license granting access to certain Microsoft server software. CALs are used in conjunction with Microsoft Server software licenses to allow Users and Devices to access and utilize the services of that server software. For instance, a company looking to utilize Microsoft Windows Server would acquire a Microsoft Windows Server license in order to install and run the Windows Server software on the physical server itself. In order to provide the rights for Users or Devices to access the Windows Server software running on the server, CALs would need to be acquired for those Users or Devices in order to do so.

Different types of CALs: There are three different options available for acquiring CALs depending on the needs of your company and the server software you are acquiring CALs for:

1. User CAL – A User CAL allows a single unique physical user to access Microsoft server software from many devices, such as a work computer, a home computer, a laptop, an Internet kiosk, or a personal digital assistant (PDA), without having to acquire CALs for each device.
• NOTE: We license by physical user, not log-in name. Take a look at the John Smith example for more on this.
2. Device CAL - A Device CAL allows any number of physical users to access Microsoft server software through a single device.
3. Processor License - A Processor License includes access for an unlimited number of users to connect from either inside the local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) or outside the firewall. You do not need to purchase additional server licenses, CALs, or Internet Connector Licenses when you acquire Processor Licenses. If utilizing Processor licenses, one processor license must be purchased for each physical processor.
• Processor licenses are only available for some Microsoft server products, such as: Application Center, BizTalk Server, Commerce Server, Content Management Server, Host Integration Server, Identity Integration Server, ISA Server, SQL Server, and Operations Management Server. There is a chart of server products showing which ones offer Per Processor licensing on the Microsoft CAL Guide page.
• NOTE: Windows Server, Exchange Server, and Small Business Server do NOT offer Per Processor options

Version numbers matter: Just like the Server products that CALs are associated with, they have version numbers. For instance, for Windows Server 2003, there is a Windows Server 2003 license and there are Windows Server 2003 CALs. The version number of the CALs being used to access the server software must be the same or higher than the version of the Server software running. As an example, once Windows Server 2008 is released, if you were to purchase a license of Windows Server 2008 to replace your Windows Server 2003 (or if you had Software Assurance on your Windows Server license and received the 2008 version through your upgrade protection) and install that in your company, your Windows Server 2003 CALs would no longer have rights to access the server running Windows Server 2008, since the 2008 version is newer than the 2003 version. As such, you would need Windows Server 2008 CALs to access the Windows Server 2008 server software. Again, if you have Software Assurance for your Windows Server 2003 CALs when Windows Server 2008 is released, then you would receive rights to Windows Server 2008 CALs through the upgrade protection included in the Software Assurance. Note: You can purchase newer CALs to access older server versions. For instance, a Windows Server 2008 CAL can be used to access a Windows 2003 server since the CAL version is newer than the Server version.

Different Microsoft server products: If you are running multiple Microsoft server products, remember that there are CALs associated with each and you would need to acquire the appropriate CALs for each. For instance, if you are running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, you would need both a Microsoft Windows Server CAL and a Microsoft Exchange Server CAL to access these servers since Microsoft Exchange uses Active Directory (Windows Server technology) for authentication; therefore, you are accessing both the Microsoft Windows Server and the Microsoft Exchange server when checking your email.

Multiple servers in domain: Microsoft server CALs can be used to access multiple servers of the same kind throughout your domain. For instance, if you have a Windows Server 2003 Device CAL for a workstation, that Windows Server 2003 CAL gives that workstation the rights to access any Windows Server 2003 throughout the domain, not just a single Windows Server 2003.

Here is some more information on CALs that you may be interested in:

• How many CALs does John Smith need?
• Device CALs and User CALs. What’s the deal?
• Windows 2003 Terminal Services – What licenses do I need? Examples both with and without SBS 2003.
• SBS R2 Extended CAL rights. What does this mean?
• Microsoft CAL Guide
• “Introduction to Office, Windows, and Server Licensing For Partners” webcast on demand
• The “30 in 30” – Questions: 2, 3, 11, 12, 23, 31
• Ever wondered how SBS CALs relate to member servers and what changes with SBS 2003 R2 for this?

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Published Tuesday, November 06, 2007 11:40 AM by mssmallbiz

Filed under: Licensing, SBS, Events & Webcasts, Partner Information, Windows Server, Licensing Basics, Exchange

Comments

 

How can you tell if your client has User or Device CALs for their server?

How can you tell if your client has User or Device CALs for their server?

I saw a question recently from a Partner stating that they had a new client and were trying to determine if the CALs they client was using were User or Device CALs.  The way to determine which your client has is actually quite straight forward:

1)     If they purchased a server license that came with 5 CALs initially, those first five CALs can be User or Device and they get to determine which they are upon installation.  You should check their original Server license to determine if it came with 5 CALs.

2)     For each CAL pack beyond the initial 5 that came with the server, they would have had to purchase either User or Device CALs.  Simply look at the licenses they purchased to see if they are User or Device CALs.

What if you cannot find the original licenses to see if the server had 5 CALs or to see if they are User or Device CALs?  You might want to read my, “How can you tell if your client has OEM, Retail Box or Volume License software?” post since there is a chance they may no longer have the license rights to use the software they have installed, unless they purchased their licenses through Volume Licenses which are electronic licenses that cannot be lost.

Once you look at their licenses, you will see how many User or Device CALs they have for their various servers.  Remember that User CALs and Device CALs cannot be transformed into the other type after purchase, so be sure your clients are making informed decisions prior to purchasing their CALs to ensure they are choosing the option that is most appropriate for them.  The only times you can switch from User to Device CALs or vice versa is:

1)     If you have Software Assurance for your CALs: when you renew your Software Assurance, you can renew for the other type of CALs instead.  (i.e.: if you have Device CALs with Software Assurance, when you renew your Software Assurance, you could purchase the User CAL Software Assurance instead to renew the SA and convert to User CALs then)

2)     If you have a company-wide Agreement for your CALs, such as the Small Business Desktop Advantage or Desktop Professional, then you have the right to have the CALs be User or Device and you can switch at anytime during the term of your Agreement.

I also cover this in more depth in the “Introduction to Office, Windows, and Server Licensing for Partners” webcasts I gave if you want to view the replay.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

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http://www.eset.com

blocking referers

I was searching for help for the same problem. A photographer client suddenly had 1gb of bandwidth per day (up from his usual 100-150mb).
So I went to "latest visitors" in cpanel, under "Analysis and Log files" and quickly found the culprit to be a referring page from stumbleupon.com

To fix it, I found this for .htaccess file:

PHP:

---

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^<a href="http://" target="_blank">http://</a>(www.)?stumbleupon.com
RewriteRule .* - [F]

---

and now, when you click the link to his site from the offending stumbleupon page, you get a lovely:

quote:

---

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /images.php on this server.

---

Works for me! Hope that helps.

public preview small business server 2008

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc184870.aspx

Published: May 28, 2008

Designed for small businesses, Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an affordable, integrated server solution that helps you protect your business data, increase productivity and present a more professional image to customers – giving you the tools you need to help grow your business capacity. And when you download the latest public preview software, you're automatically registered to access valuable public preview resources assembled in one convenient location.

Please review the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Public Preview system requirements before you proceed. Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration.

Use the following product key to activate your trial of the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Public Preview software. 

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Standard Product Key: YH2BV-9YMTM-MP7DC-KDCH4-FC9C3

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Premium Product Key:

• 1st Server: YH2BV-9YMTM-MP7DC-KDCH4-FC9C3
• 2nd Server: 242HC-R6RR6-WM2M8-J4BMK-7VV9R

The Public Preview software is being made available so you may test and explore the software.  As this is not final release code, you may not test the software in a live operating environment. 

 

microsoft business critical partner support

Microsoft response to Q&A in comment section (Call-Back support announcement)

 Microsoft response to Q&A in comment section (Link to original post)

 

Community Question:

Are we to assume this excludes business down? Does this mean that "Server Down" support calls will no longer be free?

 

Microsoft Response:

This business change includes Business Critical Partner Support yet does not change any of the benefits of that program.  Business Critical cases continue to be offered at no charge to our partners, the only change is that we will call you back once you call into 1-800-936-4900 to create the incident.  Please note - we currently do not allow Severity "A" or BCPS cases to be submitted online (we plan on adding this in the future), at this time the online tool only covers "Pay Per Incident" or contract cases (Software Assurance, MSDN/TechNet, etc.). 

 

Please continue to call BCPS cases into customer service until we update our online submission portal.

 

Community Question:

If someone calls with a CritSit will they be given a live transfer?

 

Microsoft Response:

A Critical Situation (CritSit) is a Premier offering (http://www.microsoft.com/services/Microsoftservices/srv_premier.mspx) and not a Professional support level offering.  This business change is only for Professional SBS level customers, all Professional level SBS incidents will be handled on a call-back basis.

 

bogus mx records to stop spam

By Mark Joseph Edwards Quirks in the mailer programs spammers use to deliver mail can be turned against the senders. This week, I share with you a little-known technique you can use to block a lot of spam before it ever reaches your mail server.

Simple DNS changes eliminate unwanted junk mail

Spam is — of course — a bane on the Internet. It drags down mail-server performance, puts a large load on mail clients, bothers recipients to no end, and causes us to spend money on antispam tools when that money might be better spent elsewhere.

But all is not lost: A little-known technique helps reduce spam levels on mail servers without costing you anything other than a few minutes of your time. (See Ian "Gizmo" Richards's Best Software column today for tips on blocking spam from client PCs.)

Spammers typically use a number of tactics to deliver junk mail. Some spammers rely on third-party mail servers that relay mail from any sender (typically called an open relay). Others use computers that have been assimilated into botnets, custom mailer software designed to behave similarly to a regular mail server, or any number of other tactics.

In my battles with the spam that is sent to the domains I manage, I have found that many spammers use custom mailer software. As it turns out, a lot of those custom programs have quirks that we can take advantage of to fight back against the spammers.

Before I explain how to do that, you need to know a little bit about how mail servers deliver messages. When a legitimate mail server tries to deliver mail to a recipient at a third-party domain, it first looks up the mail exchange (MX) records for that domain. The MX records tell the world which mail servers receive mail for the recipient's domain.

Each MX record is configured with a numeric priority level that determines which is the primary mail server, the secondary mail server, and so on. The lower the priority number, the higher the precedence. For example, an MX record with a priority of 10 takes precedence over an MX record with a priority of 15. That precedence order is the core of the technique I'm about to explain.

The custom mailer software used by spammers typically uses only the mail server with the highest precedence — the one with the lowest priority number. So even if you have five MX records for five mail servers in your domain, the spammers' mailer software will usually try to deliver mail to only one of them.

If that server doesn't respond, the mailer software simply drops its attempt to deliver the spam message and moves on to the next recipient on its list.

Conversely, legitimate mail servers will try to deliver the message to the other four mail servers in the order of precedence listed in a domain's MX records. If none of them responds, or if you have only one mail server — and thus only one MX record — then a legitimate mail server will most likely hold the message and try to resend it for a period of time determined by the mail server's configuration.

In short, legitimate RFC-compliant mail servers make several attempts to deliver mail, while a spammer's custom mailer software will likely make only one delivery attempt.

That's why you can eliminate a lot of spam by using a bogus host name to create an MX record for your domain and give that record the highest precedence by assigning it the lowest priority number. Then give your real mail servers' MX records a lower precedence than the bogus entry.

Since the fake server will never be reachable, a lot of spam will never be delivered to your domain. At the same time, legitimate mail will make it through as long as the sending mail server adheres to typical SMTP mail-server specifications (nearly all of them follow the specs).

The host name you use for the fake MX record can be any name that does not resolve via DNS. For example, you could create a set of MX records using the names listed below; blackhole.domain.tld is the bogus host name that has no corresponding 'A' record (i.e., address record) in DNS, while mailserver1 and mailserver2 are real mail servers.

IN MX 5 blackhole.domain.tld.
IN MX 10 mailserver1.domain.tld.
IN MX 15 mailserver2.domain.tld.

The actual syntax for creating DNS records varies depending on how your DNS tables are configured. The example above provides the gist of what you or your network administrator needs to know in order to make this technique work for you.

I've been using this spam-blocking tactic on one of the domains I manage for well over a year and half. It's important to note that I have not seen any instance where legitimate mail flow was hampered as a result.

Nevertheless, test your own results carefully! If anyone complains that mail they sent to you is bouncing, they're probably using a noncompliant mail server. Those instances should be incredibly rare, or nonexistent.

The spam levels for the domain I used to test this technique dropped like a rock. Before implementing this method, one particular e-mail address at the domain was receiving more than 1,000 spam messages every day. Shortly after I implemented this technique, the overall spam level dropped by well over 60 percent. Your results for total spam reduction will vary, of course.

If you run your own in-house DNS servers, you (or your network administrator) can configure MX records without much problem. However, if you use a hosting company to handle your DNS, you may have to ask the company to configure the bogus MX record for you, or you might have to use a custom Web-based DNS configuration interface provided by the hosting company.

In the latter case, it may be necessary to trick the interface into allowing you to define a bogus MX record by first creating an 'A' record for the bogus host using a bogus IP address.

After doing that, you then define the bogus MX record using that bogus host name. When you're finished, delete the 'A' record, since you don't want the bogus host name to resolve to any IP address.

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