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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

WindowsNetworking.com - Monthly Newsletter - May 2014

WindowsNetworking.com - Monthly Newsletter - May 2014

Hi Security World,

Welcome to the WindowsNetworking.com newsletter by Debra Littlejohn Shinder <http://www.windowsnetworking.com/Deb_Shinder/>, MVP. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on the world of Windows Networking. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: dshinder@windowsnetworking.com


1. The FCC net neutrality rules: What does it mean to your business?
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If you’ve been paying attention at all to industry news this month, you’ve probably been hearing about the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s new proposed “net neutrality� proposal that has stimulated hot debate. While I don’t want to get into the partisan politics of the issue, nor do I want to come out here as a proponent of one viewpoint or another, there’s no denying that there are logical points being made by both sides and the “right answer� isn’t as straight-forward as either the advocates or the opponents of net neutrality seem to think.

Over the last twenty years, businesses and individuals have come to depend on the Internet for many of our essential daily tasks, and there has been a growing divide between the providers of broadband services and their end users. Providers have invested millions/billions of dollars into building an increasingly fast and reliable infrastructure. I remember back in the early 2000s when we got our first T-1 line and thought 1.5 Mbps was blazing fast. Today my home office operates on a 75 Mbps FiOS connection and we pay about 1/5 of what we paid for that T-1 line. I have Verizon to thank for that.

The providers, of course, believe (not unreasonably) that they should be able to charge for their services as they wish and as the market will bear. They oppose the concept of net neutrality, the premise of which is that by law, they should be required to treat all data equally. This would mean providers could not prioritize traffic to provide "fast lanes" â€" for a price, of course â€" for particular types of content.

Net neutrality advocates base their support of government regulation on the also-reasonable idea that the Internet has become as essential as telephone service or electrical power and thus should be regulated like a public utility to prevent providers from engaging in data discrimination to block competitors’ content and/or degrade the quality of service for those that don’t pay extra.

Earlier this month, the FCC voted to accept a proposal that seems to be attempting to please both sides but instead seems to please no one. The proposal ostensibly creates more oversight to enforce net neutrality, but at the same time would still allow content providers to pay for better service to their customers, thus creating the “fast lanes� that are so feared by net neutrality supporters.

At this point, nobody is sure of the potential effects of data prioritization (or discrimination, depending on which side of the fence you’re on) on large and small businesses and consumers. Some believe imposition of net neutrality rules will raise costs of Internet access as content providers have to pay for faster transmission and pass those costs on to the customer. Others believe that regulatory compliance will cost broadband providers more money and result in their increasing their prices to customers.

The proposal passed by the FCC is only a first step in the process. The agency also voted to open up the issue to public input before the plan is finalized and implemented. Anyone can submit initial comments between now and July 15, and replies to the initial comments until September 10. Comments can be sent to openinternet@fcc.gov or via a form on the FCC web site at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=tobh4

Because the Internet plays such a massive role in our lives and is mission critical for most businesses, I believe all of us who are affect â€" and especially those of us in the IT industry â€" owe it to ourselves to educate ourselves on this issue and weigh in with our opinions as the government makes these important decisions.

By Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP
dshinder@windowsnetworking.com

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Quote of the Month - Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event. â€" Brian Tracy
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2. Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond â€" Order Today!
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Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond

By Thomas Shinder, Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Yuri Diogenes

From architecture to deployment, this book takes you through the steps for securing a Windows Server 2012-based enterprise network in today’s highly mobile, BYOD, cloud-centric computing world. Includes test lab guides for trying out solutions in a non-production environment.

Order your copy of Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond. You'll be glad you did.
<http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Server-2012-Security-Beyond-ebook/dp/B00CMQK0OG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387293428&sr=8-1&keywords=windows+server+2012+end+to+edge+and+beyond>



3. WindowsNetworking.com Articles of Interest
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Windows Server 2012 DNS (Part 1)
Windows Server 2012 has been designed to operate more on a service-centric, rather than a server-centric, network. That is a welcome change because managing network services is even more important than managing any individual server in today’s network environment. DNS is at the very heart of most enterprise networks these days. Without DNS, you wouldn’t be able to send or receive email, browse the Internet or have access to other critical services like Active Directory. The first article of Wilfredo Lanz’s network services series is dedicated to the Domain Name System (DNS) so begin at the beginning and check it out here:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/windows-server-2012-dns-part1.html

Is Windows 8.1 finally ready for prime time? (Part 2)
Companies have been slow to adopt Windows 8, but its latest upgraded version, Windows 8.1 with Update 1, just might have enough user-friendly and business-friendly features to convince some of them to take the plunge. After looking at the latest OS from the perspective of business use case analysis, the second part of my series gets technical and discusses the tweaks that Microsoft has made to the OS and why those enhancements matter to businesses.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-8/windows-81-finally-ready-corporate-prime-time-part2.html

Windows Server 2012 R2 and BYOD (Part 6)
Brien Posey’s comprehensive coverage of this very broad topic continues this month with the sixth installment, in which he guides you through the process of setting up a web app that you can use for testing purposes, after previous instructions on installing the Windows Identity Foundation and Internet Information Services. Get the latest in this series here:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-server-2012/windows-server-2012-r2-and-byod-part6.html

Provisioning Virtual Machine Clouds with Windows Azure Pack (Part 1)
Long-time WindowsNetworking.com author Mitch Tulloch presents this first in a short series of articles on provisioning virtual machine clouds with Windows Azure Pack, walking you through how to use the Best Practices Analyzer to validate your Windows Azure Pack deployment.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/cloud-computing/provisioning-virtual-machine-clouds-windows-azure-pack-part1.html


4. Administrator KB Tip of the Month
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Set Network Adapter Power Management Settings

This month, we’re treated to a tip from well-known Microsoft scripting expert Ed Wilson, who answers a commonly-asked question and shows us how to use PowerShell to configure Network Adapter Power Management Settings.

The question: You have a Windows 8.1 computer and want to configure the Wake on Magic Packet setting for a specific network adapter. How can you do this?

To find out the answer, check out the Admin KB tip here:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/Windows8/AdminTips/Network/set-network-adapter-power-management-settings.html

For more great admin tips, check out http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/


5. Windows Networking Links of the Month
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TechEd 2014: Design Considerations for BYOD
Another TechEd North America has come and gone and from what I hear, it was a good one. Although it was held here in Texas this year (Houston), I was over 3500 miles away, in Alaska. My family was well represented, though, by my husband, Tom; he and his Microsoft colleague Yuri Diogenes gave a great presentation on a topic that is near and dear to the heart of every IT pro these days (or maybe the bane of their existence, depending on your perspective): the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and how to give end users the flexibility to use their personally owned laptops, tablets and smart phones for work while maintaining a secure and stable network environment. If you had to miss it, you can watch it the same way I did: on the web on MSDN’s Channel 9 web site:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/PCIT-B212#fbid=

Net Neutrality: What does it mean for your business?
It seems everybody has an opinion about so-called net neutrality laws that have been in the news recently, with many consumers and businesses alike confused about how the passage of such laws would affect them, directly and indirectly. People are worried about whether changes will affect the quality of needed network services and whether they will result in higher prices for network access. If you want to know more about the FCC net neutrality measure that was approved on May 15th, check out these articles:
http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/730901/
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/051514-faq-net-neutrality-281620.html?hpg1=bn
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-the-fccs-net-neutrality-rules-would-mean/

Unified Communications Trends
The data is in from InformationWeek’s 2014 Unified Communications Survey and some of the results might be surprising. Despite the big push “to the cloud� over the last few years, a mere three percent of respondents said they were going “all in� with the cloud for their UC deployments, with a hefty 40 percent planning to keep it completely on premises and the rest presumably opting for a solution that combines the two. The good news is that 81 percent of companies are using or planning to use security products specifically made for UC systems (the bad news is that the other 19 percent aren’t). To find out more of what the survey reveals, check out the infographic here:
http://www.networkcomputing.com/unified-communications/6-uc-trends-to-watch/d/d-id/1252760?



6. Ask Sgt. Deb
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QUESTION:

I need to know how to import a virtual machine in Hyper-V and I like using the command line whenever possible. Can you help me out with that? - Rick

ANSWER:

Hi, Rick. If you prefer the command line, I’m guessing you’re a PowerShell fan. You don’t say which server OS you’re running and that makes a difference, too. In earlier versions of Windows Server, you needed to export a VM before you could import it. In WS 2012 R2, you can actually import VMs that you didn’t previously export, saving you a lot of frustration when your original OS is unavailable for some reason.
You can import a VM using the GUI by invoking the Import Virtual Machine wizard, but that’s not what you want to do. Instead, you can use PowerShell’s Import-VM cmdlet. Here are instructions:
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-server-2012/q-how-can-i-easily-bulk-import-virtual-machines-windows-server-2012-hyper-v

Here are instructions on importing multiple VMs with PowerShell, from Microsoft’s Scripting Guys blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/05/31/import-multiple-virtual-machines-with-windows-powershell.aspx
Finally, you can even import a VM that has VHDs in different paths, although the process is a little more complicated. You’ll find instructions for doing that here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2014/04/14/importing-a-vm-with-vhds-in-different-paths.aspx

Hope that helps!



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