I came across a site recently where an ingenuitive sales person had installed convinced the customer to have users logging onto a Virtual Terminal server for their MYOB and not use the SBS as a TSE. Great idea unfortunately the implementation was a little less well considered.
I won’t go into all the gory details but some of the sites I found with good tips on how to correctly configure TSE VM’s are:
http://www.stefanschuller.com/guides/guide-optimize-performance-citrix-vmware-esx.html
and
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/gabeknuth/archive/2007/08/27/a-short-guide-to-virtualizing-presentation-and-terminal-servers-on-vmware-esx-3.aspx
As a person that rents, I don’t have the option to use a patch panel and run CAT6 cables into each of my rooms. I am forced to live with ugly blue cables around the house or compete for spectrum with my neighbours using a wireless network. When I upgraded my MCE one of the components I added was a duel radio 802.11n (draft) PCI card with external antenna.
Once 802.11n was released as a certified standard, I started looking around for a new Access Point that would be able to support the HD video content I use around the house. Reading over the forums and reviews I came upon SmallNetBuilder and their review of the NetGear WNDR3700 Wireless GBit router.
The device ran duel radio’s 802.11abgn, had 4x GBit interfaces and wouldn’t break the bank. My current NetComm 3G18Wn was running 11n but only had 100Mbit ports and didn’t work properly with the iPhone. When I received the device I swapped it in place of the NetComm leaving all the wireless details the same.
- GOOD: One of the funky features is when using Windows 7, WINDOWS takes you through a wizard to configure and secure the access point. Simply put in the PIN from the bottom of the device, next, next, finish and your AP is configured.
- GOOD: All my existing devices connected without any hassles and transfers between the WHS and PC are much faster using the built-in GBit switch.
- GOOD: There are buttons on the front of the AP which let you enable and disable the wireless plus unlock it for several seconds to let a new device associate.
- BAD: My only problem with the device is that it expects to be the internet gateway for your network. If your lucky enough to have a CISCO 877 (with IPv6) as your DSL modem and firewall, the WNDR3700 cannot use a LAN address as the default gateway.
OPINION: Well the title says it all. If you don’t have a 11n access point at the moment, go pick up one of these. It associates at 300MBit and I get at least 80-90Mbit/s throughput over the wireless around home. It can stream WTV files to the MCE plus DVDs to the NetBook at the same time.
Have you ever needed to run several separate subnets on the same physical network (not VLANs) to use different routers?? A good example of this is a single Wireless network where you want to run more than 243 devices but you don’t want the overhead of a Class B subnet.
Simply create your Class C address ranges, each in a separate DHCP scope. Then select all the new scopes and add them to a new superscope. Now when any clients from this network request addresses, they will be sent any address from the appropriate range. More information is in KB161571.
What you don’t do is use Superscopes to group several VLAN’s at a single site. That just breaks stuff. (Trust me)
Software as a Service is one of the new big things. Describing this to several of our customers has proved difficult. I saw this Video at BIG last month and think it goes a long way for basic understanding.
For all non-flash readers, the video link is Software-Plus-Services
