The most recent articles from Personal Computer World

Review: C2C Archive One Policy Manager server management software

Alan Stevens — 2008-03-21T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Friday 21 March 2008 at 00:00:00

The simple way to keep on top of your Exchange storage

No matter how well you manage your Exchange Server, the amount of storage it consumes is bound to be an issue.

Archive One Policy Manager addresses this by providing tools to archive large parts of the Exchange message store out to alternative locations, yet still provide users with seamless access to the information.

Archive One Policy manager works with any version of Exchange from 2000 onwards, including the Small Business Server implementation.

System requirements are minimal, just a reasonably specified Windows host, which can be the Exchange server itself if you want, although for large installs a dedicated system is recommended.

There’s no need for an SQL database and the repositories to hold archive messages can be created on any network-accessible storage, from direct-attached disks to network-attached storage (Nas) and storage-area network (San) systems. Integration with leading storage management and backup systems is also available.

A Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in manages the software with a wizard to guide you through initial deployment. Care is needed to make sure you build a suitable set of repositories and the most common approach is to build a separate repository for each year. That said, you could opt to archive by department or user group, customer, project and so on.

The next task is to configure policies to tell the software the archive criteria to apply – for example, to move messages to the correct repository based on the date of sending. Polices can then be scheduled to run in fixed time slots to fit in with backup schedules.

Controls over the amount of processing power consumed, and a number of preconfigured policies are included to help get you started. However, these really are just a start and any number can be defined with 46 selection criteria available and 23 Boolean logic options, giving thousands of options.

From the user’s perspective not a lot appears to change when Archive One starts working. Messages can still be accessed from Outlook and Outlook Web Access, although those that have been archived are marked with a special icon, with a brief preview available rather than the full content.

A hyperlink then gives access to the full message, with support for double-click retrieval in Outlook if the optional Quicklink client is installed, and pre-indexing for rapid searching.

In terms of benefits, the most obvious is the ability to reduce the amount of data directly managed by Exchange, reducing storage costs and improving performance. Backup times are similarly minimised, with data in repositories compressed and, once created, never modified, making them much easier to protect compared to dynamic message stores.

However, that’s not all you get, Archive One Policy Manager adds indexed search and message management facilities, to enable information to be retrieved far more quickly and effectively.

Compliance issues can also be addressed more easily and you can even locate and manage information held in local PST files, optionally migrating data back to the Exchange server store if wanted. Plus it’s all pretty seamless and, for the most part self managing, with built-in reporting and auditing tools to keep track of what’s going on.

We found it very easy to install, manage and use, but smaller companies may need assistance, which is available both from C2C and its resellers.

Review: VMware Server 2.0 Beta server virtualisation

Alan Stevens — 2008-01-18T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Friday 18 January 2008 at 00:00:00

Web-based management and more scalability are just two of the enhancements

VMware has announced a second generation of its free server virtualisation product with extended hardware and operating system support.

VMware Server 2.0 also benefits from a new web-based management interface and scalability enhancements and will be fully available by the middle of 2008. In the meantime, you can download and evaluate the software in beta format, just as we did for this review.

VMware Server 2.0 can be used by small businesses looking to both consolidate physical servers and host business desktops. It’s available in the same two formats as the previous version - for use on either Windows or Linux hosts and the hardware requirements are much the same as before. That means support for both 32-bit and 64-bit processors (Intel or AMD) including those with Intel-VT and AMD-V virtualisation extensions.

Unlike some other virtualisation tools, processors with virtualisation extensions are not an absolute prerequisite. However, they are needed if you want to take advantage of the support for 64-bit guest operating systems plus, of course, you’ll need 64-bit processors in the host server. A utility is also available to check that your processors meet these requirements.

Existing virtual machines can be hosted by the new server without any changes, on top of which support for a number of new guests has been added. Most notably Vista Business and Ultimate editions, Windows Server 2008 and RHEL 5.

Other enhancements include the ability to configure virtual machines with up to 8GB of Ram (up from 3.6GB in VMware Server 1.0) and up to 10 virtual network adapters. Two-way virtual SMP is also supported (as in the previous version) and you can have up to 64 virtual machines per host. The new server also now offers support for high speed USB2 devices.

A server operating system is required on the host system, which can be Windows 2000 onwards with support for Windows Server 2008 added in this release. Alternatively, you can host the software using Linux with support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 and the latest Novell Suse and Ubuntu distros now available.

Installation can take a while, especially on a Linux server, but the process is fairly straightforward and doesn’t require a huge amount of technical knowhow. Likewise, once installed, VMware server is fairly easy to get to grips with.

In VMware Server 1.0 a windows console was used to configure, manage and run virtual machines, with an optional web-based interface, which didn’t have as much functionality. In this release these are replaced by a single web-based interface (VI Web Access) from which you can do everything that was possible from the old server console. In addition, it’s possible to manage VMWare Server 2.0 hosts alongside those running ESX server using VMware Virtualcenter.

It took a while to get to grips with the VI Web Access, but all the tools to create and modify virtual machines, stop and start them, and so on, are there. A browser plug-in is needed to run the remote console and we did find it a bit sluggish in places. We also encountered a few issues starting the underlying services. However, problems such as these are to be expected in a beta release and should be ironed out by the time the product is fully released.

In the meantime VMware doesn’t recommend using Server 2.0 to host production systems, just for familiarisation and testing.

Review: Ipswitch Whatsup Gold Distributed network management

Alan Stevens — 2008-01-17T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Thursday 17 January 2008 at 00:00:00

Keep on top of your network with this easy-to-use system

Whatsup Gold is a well-established network and systems monitoring tool, capable of discovering a wide range of network devices and monitoring their availability.

It uses a graphical network map to display device status, changing the colour of the icons used and issuing alerts when a device needs attention.

The latest Distributed edition builds on this functionality enabling small companies to run the same kind of centralised network operation centre (NOC) employed by large corporates to monitor and manage their distributed networks.

The software at the core of the new distributed solution is Whatsup Gold v11 Corporate Edition, which can discover and monitor devices using a mix of SNMP (Simple Network Monitoring Protocol) and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) protocols.

It can also monitor systems running Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers and issue alerts using a variety of mechanisms including email, pager and text messaging, although additional hardware and software may be required to support some of these.

Two setup programs are provided to step you through the deployment, one to be run at the central site the other at each remote location to be monitored. An MSDE database is used to hold the data at each location and it’s important to understand that the software installed is a fully featured implementation of Whatsup Gold Premium able to monitor the local network standalone should the need arise. In addition, however, the remote consoles can be set to communicate with the central site over secure SSL-encrypted links.

Communication between sites is two-way, with operators at the central site able to both view the information from remote locations and configure the various implementations centrally. They can also create centralised reports to gather and display data from all the monitors on the network. The information from remote sites is also cached at the central location so that the last network state can still be seen even when the link is lost.

Whatsup Gold includes two types of console. A custom Windows-based implementation used for the bulk of the management, supplemented by a similar but slightly less functional browser display.

In addition, users of the Distributed edition get an application called the Ipswitch Dashboard Screen Manager which can be configured for a multi-screen display. This graphs and maps the devices for each network on an integrated, icon-based dashboard that makes it easy to view multiple networks at once. It can also be configured to cycle through a selection of Whatsup displays and other websites containing information that needs to be monitored on a regular basis.

Although aimed at the SME market, Whatsup Gold Distributed edition does require a fair amount of technical expertise to deploy. But then it is designed to be used by support staff with sufficient knowledge to get the most out of it so that shouldn’t be an issue. Support for Windows Server 2008 and Vista has also to be added, and should be available by the middle of 2008.

However, it’s far from cheap. Existing Whatsup Gold Premium customers can upgrade to a central install of the Distributed edition for just £285.71, but they still have to shell out for remote site licences and the final cost is dependent on the number of devices to be monitored.

On the plus side, it compares well against competitive products such as HP Openview and has a lot to offer companies that rely on a distributed network of systems to run their business.

Review: 1E Nightwatchman power management

Alan Stevens — 2008-01-09T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 9 January 2008 at 00:00:00

Help save the planet - and your cash - with this great shutdown tool

Whether you’re concerned about your carbon footprint or looking to save money by reducing your energy consumption, Nightwatchman, from UK developer 1E, will be of interest.

That’s because it allows you to shut down desktop PCs remotely with a centrally managed schedule, saving data from open applications in the process.

Now in its fifth generation, Nightwatchman needs to be installed onto every PC desktop on your network to be effective. It can be used with Windows 2000, XP and both 32-bit and 64-bit implementations of Windows Vista, the only other prerequisite being support for APM/ACPI power management.

Installation takes just a few seconds - either interactively or automated - using a variety of tools such as Windows group policy or Microsoft System Center Configuration Server (previously SMS).

Once installed, the software itself is something of an anti-climax with no fancy graphical interface or central management console. Instead, there’s a very lightweight client designed to respond to commands which can be either issued directly (locally on the PC or remotely) or scripted. Scripts can be distributed and applied using almost any third-party network management tool, added to which you’re supplied with a group policy template to enable many of the basic Nightwatchman settings to be configured centrally via Active Directory.

The lack of a fancy management interface isn’t that much of a loss as, in reality, it wouldn’t add much in the way of value to this tool, which is solely about automating PC shutdowns. Anyway, the command line interface is quick and easy to master, with lots of helpful documentation provided as standard. It also fits in well no matter what management tools you have to hand.

We tested it by issuing commands locally and over the network to shut down a number of network PCs. We also experimented with scripting and found it very easy to power down, reboot and put PCs into a suspend or hibernation state when we wanted. Active users can be logged off with a warning to tell them of the impending shutdown, with a countdown timer another option, plus the ability to defer the operation if you want. Similarly, a shutdown can be deferred if applications fail to close properly or are forced to continue regardless.

A number of scripts are provided to close common applications gracefully before a shutdown occurs with any open documents backed up along the way. A local system tray applet can also be enabled to allow users to view the list of files backed up during the last log-off process which will be a help if problems with document versions arise.

Basic logging is also built into the Nightwatchman software, but for more detailed reporting you need the 1E Agility Framework, a separate tool designed to provide a complete picture of energy consumption levels on the Lan. Plus there’s another companion product available - SMS Wakeup - designed to work with System Center Configuration Manager and SMS, which enables network managers to turn PCs on remotely to, for example, more effectively implement patching and other software update strategies.

Although Nightwatchman doesn’t really do very much, it works well and what it does do is extremely valuable with huge savings to be achieved in terms of energy consumption and associated costs when employed on any small-business Lan.

Review: Prefix IT PrefixNE network management

Alan Stevens — 2007-12-13T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Thursday 13 December 2007 at 00:00:00

Management solution tailored to the smaller business

With increasing consolidation within the network management industry and the big players concentrating on their corporate customers, it can be hard to find an affordable small business solution.

UK developer Prefix IT bucks that trend with its modular PrefixNE product, priced to appeal to the smaller company that’s looking for a low-cost, comprehensive management platform.

The initial install is a manual affair requiring a number of folders to be configured on a central Windows server, which will be used as a data repository for the information gathered by the program.

That’s followed by the setup of the management console and general network settings, after which it’s a matter of discovering PCs on the network and pushing the required agent software out to those you want to manage.

Unfortunately there’s no support for anything other than Windows, but any version from Windows 95 onwards can be managed (including servers) and installation of the agent is, again, a very quick and easy process, taking just a few seconds. Moreover, although the agent does most of the work, communicating directly with the repository server, it’s very light in terms of processing and network overheads.

The management interface does take a little getting used to and what you can do from the PrefixNE console will depend on the modules purchased. Five modules are available, starting with the core Prefix Manage module, which provides facilities to manage hardware and software inventories and monitor software use, as well as providing a basic help desk and reporting facility.

The Prefix Enforce module then adds the ability to blacklist applications, stop users shutting down processes and control the network file sharing policy.

It also lets you restrict access to PCs and specific network assets. You can also restrict or block the use of flash memory drives, MP3 players and PDAs.

Prefix Guard is another security module which gives even more control over external and network storage, with tools to disable specific devices and ports and generally manage the flow of data in and out of the network.

Most customers will also opt for Prefix Act, which adds tools to distribute software and updates and automate tasks. For example, it lets you start and stop services, copy files around and shutdown and restart PCs remotely from the console as well as take remote control to troubleshoot problems.

And lastly there’s Prefix Critical Alerts, which lets you set your own rules to trigger alerts when specific conditions arise, as well as providing tools to analyse event logs for trends and potential problems.

We found PrefixNE very easy to understand and use. A basic level of technical knowledge is assumed, but it should be well within the scope of most small business network managers. We were also impressed by the performance, and you’re always working with up-to-date information rather than historical data, as is the case with some inventory-based products.

On the downside the documentation didn’t always tally with what we saw on screen, and it can be hard to work out exactly which modules you might need to get the tools you want though you can trial the package before buying, which always helps.

Price depends on the number of PCs and modules involved, with the cost spread over three years and paid monthly, making this an affordable management platform, worth more than a quick glance.

Review: I'm Intouch 6 remote control software

Paul Monckton — 2007-12-04T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Monckton, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 4 December 2007 at 00:00:00

Stay in contact with your PC and data when you’re away

The main function of I’m Intouch is remote control. By logging into the service using a standard web browser, you can access a remote PC just as though you were sitting in front of it.

However, accessing remote applications can be frustratingly slow, especially if you’re using dial-up.

I’m InTouch aims to keep you connected to your data while you’re away, and a simple remote control session isn’t always the most efficient way to achieve this.

Like most paid-for remote access applications, a file manager similar to Windows Explorer is provided, but I’m Intouch also offers some convenient features of its own.

The My Outlook function gives you local access to remote information stored in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Vista’s Windows Mail. This means your email interface will run at the full speed of your local PC, avoiding the frustrating lag inherent with low-bandwidth connections. You can also use My Outlook to manage your calendar and contacts remotely; for instance, from a PDA or web-enabled mobile phone.

A key new feature in this version is the remote chat facility. Vital for remote support, this was a serious omission in the previous release. To supplement this, My Webcams connects you to cameras configured on the host PC, providing remote surveillance.

An optional Stealth installation mode allows I’m Intouch to be installed in a way such that any user at the host PC would be unaware that remote access is occurring or that they are being monitored.

There are many free remote control applications available, but I’m Intouch offers a well-selected set of extra features that make remote working easier and more convenient, including dual monitor support, remote printing to a local printer and direct connection over a Lan.

Review: Softalk Share Server collaboration software

Alan Stevens — 2007-10-30T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 30 October 2007 at 00:00:00

Share folders in Outlook without using Microsoft Exchange

Outlook may be a very functional and popular email client but, by itself, it can’t be used to share contacts, calendars or other folders.

For that Microsoft would have you purchase and install a copy of its Exchange Server which can be expensive, not to mention complicated to manage.

Softalk Share Server addresses this by providing much the same information sharing facilities as Exchange, yet at a much lower price and with none of the Microsoft server’s complexity.

The Softalk software comes in two parts a central server component and an add-in for use with Outlook. Unlike Exchange, however, the main component doesn’t require a full-blown standalone server. Indeed, on a small network a reasonably well-specified Windows PC will do, just as long as it can be left on most of the time.

Another benefit is the ease and speed at which the software can be deployed. In our experience Exchange can take hours to get up and running, whereas it took just a few minutes to install the Share Server, including the database used to host the message store. To this end Jet and SQL Server Express engines are included for use on small deployments with SQL Server recommended for larger companies.

A separate client setup program is loaded onto the server and this needs to be run on each PC, either manually or by deploying it using the remote install tool supplied. By default, this will replace the local Outlook message store, used where the client isn’t connected to an Exchange Server, with an Imap (Internet Message Access Protocol) connector. The folders in Outlook still look and behave much the same but everything in them is stored on the Softalk server, with the contents of the original local store (the outlook.pst file), optionally, copied over as part of the process.

Alternatively, the Outlook plug-in can be configured to retain the local .pst file and folders and use the Share Server connector to provide a secondary file store. Or it’s possible to leave things exactly as they are and simply provide support for shared public folders.

Whatever the setup we had very few problems making the plug-in work and were impressed with how seamlessly it integrated into the Outlook environment.

Unlike alternative solutions there’s no need for any kind of background synchronisation which can cause delays. It was also very easy to manage the sharing process using the administrator console on the server PC. This lets you see all the folders on the server, then choose those you want to share and the individuals or groups of users who will be allowed access. Any type of folder can be shared, including contacts and calendars, and varying levels of access granted read, create, edit and delete.

It’s important to understand that Share Server isn’t a complete Exchange replacement in that it can’t be used as a local mail server. But then a lot of small companies use their ISP for this and it makes what is available (the information sharing) a lot easier to manage.

Tools to back up and restore the Imap store are also built into Share Server with facilities to recover individual folders if required. All of which makes for a very complete and usable solution for smaller companies looking to share Outlook contacts, calendars and other folders without having to buy or run Exchange.

Virtual Center for VMware Server

Alan Stevens — 2007-04-25T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 25 April 2007 at 00:00:00

Manage your VMware servers from a single console

Winning a PCW Business Recommended award in our June 2006, the free VMware Server product we reviewed lacked only one major tool – a centralised management console.

This omission is addressed by a recent update to VMware’s Virtual Center application, although this revamped product won’t necessarily be of interest to everyone using the VMware Server platform.

To begin with, unlike the server virtualisation software itself, Virtual Center for VMware Server is a commercial application and far from cheap. We also found it quite complicated to get to grips with and were surprised at the resources needed to run it.

The main server component, for example, requires a Windows host with a fast processor and at least 2GB of Ram, with a multi-processor server and additional memory recommended for larger setups (more than 50 servers).

A database is also needed. This can be a simple Access-based affair for testing and evaluation, but for production use a full SQL Server or Oracle database is recommended.

Installation proved relatively easy, but only after thorough preparation and reading of all the supported documentation – something we strongly recommend to anyone contemplating deploying this application. The Virtual Center server then runs as a background process on the host server, managed by either a local or remote Windows-based Virtual Center Client.

A familiar hierarchical tree interface is the order of the day here, with VMware hosts organised into farms and virtual machines grouped/managed independently. However, you have to configure server farms manually.

A wizard helped us locate and add VMware Servers running on our test Windows Server 2003 and Linux systems. Any existing virtual machines were also discovered and added during the process, after which we were able to create, start and stop VMs from the Virtual Center client, as well as edit their setup and connect to the virtual machines via an integrated remote console.

We could do all of this already from the console that comes with VMware server. Virtual Center adds the ability to manage multiple servers from the one interface. You also get tools to clone virtual machines, and create templates that can be used for rapid deployment of new VMs. Plus, it’s possible to migrate virtual machines from one server to another for load balancing or when a server needs maintenance.

Unfortunately, there’s no live migration, as on VMware’s enterprise-class Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) platform. That means VMs have to be stopped before they can be migrated – not good where production servers are concerned. Neither is it possible to allocate processor or other VM resources, or dynamically balance loads as in VI3. The lack of any tools to take snapshots – provided by the built-in management console – was also something of a disappointment.

On the plus side, Virtual Center does add tools to monitor virtual machines and set alarms when, for example, a VM stops responding or CPU/memory usage exceed pre-set thresholds. However, you will need a critical mass of servers to make these and the other tools worth paying for.

On small deployments of less than 10 servers, it’s unlikely to save much time and money, with the free tools provided with each server just as effective and easy to use. Plus you still need to resort to the individual server consoles in order to take snapshots.

Review: Windows SBS 2003 R2 small-business server

Alan Stevens — 2007-03-06T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 6 March 2007 at 00:00:00

Still a great small-business bundle, but not an obvious upgrade

You may or may not have noticed, but at the end of 2006 Microsoft revamped its small-business server bundle, adding an R2 on the end of the name.

However, unlike other R2 updates, there isn’t a huge amount that’s new and existing customers should think carefully before upgrading.

To recap, Windows Small Business Server (SBS) is effectively the Windows Server 2003 operating system with a lot of reworking and extra tools intended to make it easier for ‘technologically challenged’ small-business users to install and manage.

It makes setting up a domain, managing users and sharing resources, for example, a doddle, with wizards and task-based management tools to help you on your way.

It also comes with a full version of Exchange Server, complete with Outlook Web Access (OWA), again with tools to make the popular email and collaboration server easier to set up and run compared with the standard package.

So what’s new in the R2 version? For a start, not the full R2 version of Windows Server 2003 – mainly because most of the changes in that were aimed at large enterprise users. However, there are some new tools worth having, including Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), which can be used to automate the download and release of Windows and Office patches to both network servers and desktop PCs.

You can get WSUS for free, but the implementation in SBS 2003 R2 is, again, wrapped inside a much simpler interface, making it more user-friendly.

Exchange has also been beefed up. You’re still limited to a maximum of 75 users, the same as for the SBS package as a whole. However, the total mail store has been increased from 16GB to 75GB, thanks to the inclusion of Exchange Server SP2, which also provides improved mobile email services and better protection against spam.

Another significant change applies if you go for the more expensive Premium edition (£770 ex Vat for five users). This includes a bundled copy of Microsof t’s SQL Server database, as well as its Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) firewall and Office Frontpage technologies. Here, SQL Server 2000 Advanced is replaced by SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition, based on the latest, much improved implementation of the Microsoft database technology.

Finally, there’s a subtle but significant change in the way the client access licence (CAL) is worded, which doesn’t affect how the software works but does have legal implications. Previously, each client PC required a CAL to access the SBS 2003 server, which also allowed for connections to other Windows servers, but not those running Exchange or SQL Server. With the new CAL, no additional licences are required to legitimise access to such systems.

Whether SBS 2003 R2 is worth considering depends on what you have already. For those who are looking to deploy a Windows server for the first time, it’s a no-brainer, providing everything needed in one easy-to-use package. Moreover, it’s what most server vendors will pre-install.

If you already have SBS 2003, upgrading is less clear cut. It’s not difficult, shouldn’t cause a huge amount of disruption and you could qualify for a free upgrade. However, restrictions apply (check the Microsoft website for details) and it all takes time and effort. So if you don’t need the new features, you might want to stay as you are until a more significant release comes along.

Review: Xensource Xenserver for Windows

Alan Stevens — 2007-03-02T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Friday 2 March 2007 at 00:00:00

Xen and the art of server virtualisation

It has taken a while, but open-source Xen virtualisation technology is now available as a ready-to-run package that can be used to host Windows as well as Linux virtual machines.

As such, it could be considered alongside more established virtualisation products from Microsoft and market leader VMWare. However, the new Xenserver is quite different and, on this first showing, nowhere near as capable or polished as the competition.

You can’t just order a copy of Xenserver. It must be downloaded from the Xensource website and it’s pretty massive – 650MB.

That’s because it comes in the form of a CD-Rom image which, once downloaded, needs to be burned to a bootable installation CD or copied to a TFTP server for network deployment.

You then have to install the main Xenserver Host component, but unlike VMWare or Microsoft’s Virtual Server, Xenserver doesn’t run as an application under an existing host OS. It has to be installed from scratch onto a bare system. The Xen Hypervisor then runs natively to provide, supposedly, better performance and flexibility than hosted solutions.

The install procedure is semi-automated and much like installing Linux, mostly because that’s what you’re doing: installing a modified Debian Linux (used for its driver support) plus the Xen Hypervisor.

Most industry-standard processors, storage subsystems and network adapters will be identified and configured automatically, although compatibility isn’t guaranteed and problems could arise on older platforms.

We used a Dell Poweredge server with an Intel Xeon processor, but AMD is also supported. Another big difference from other virtualisation products is the need for processors with support for Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualisation technologies.

Other applications will use this if they can, and Xenserver will get by without if you only want to run Linux, but it’s essential for Windows virtual machines.

Xenserver is also particular when it comes to the versions of Windows it will host. The only choices are Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Server 2003, although this can be either the Standard or Enterprise edition with support for SP1 and R2 implementations.

Only 32-bit Windows can be used and, at present, there’s a limit of one virtual processor and 2GB of memory per VM. You’re also limited to eight concurrent virtual machines.

Guest operating systems are installed in the same way as on a physical server and the same licensing restrictions apply.

To manage Xenserver, you have to install a Java-based management console on another network PC. You must then connect to the remote server to create new virtual machines, start and stop them and so on.

You can tweak allocated resources (the virtual machine has to be stopped), check performance and connect to the remote console via an integrated VNC tool or, on Windows guests, Remote Desktop. Tools to convert existing physical servers into virtual machines are provided.

We had no real problems with Xenserver, but we didn’t find it as easy to configure or manage as rival products, such as VMWare Server. Neither did we see a huge benefit in terms of performance, getting similar results with the benchmarks we ran.

It also requires a fair amount of technical expertise and, in its current format, is not likely to threaten VMWare or Microsoft alternatives, especially as a small-business solution.

Review: Log Me In Hamachi virtual private networking

Alan Stevens — 2007-01-18T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Thursday 18 January 2007 at 00:00:00

Build secure networks quickly, simply and for free

Log Me In Hamachi enables you to build a secure private network quickly and easily, linking PCs together over the internet.

But there are limits to what you can do with it and if you want to match all the functionality of a conventional virtual private network (VPN), a good deal of extra configuration work is required.

The basic software is very quick to install, the Hamachi setup creating a virtual network adapter and associated control applet on each client. Using this you then either create a new private network or join an existing one.

Either way, special mediation servers hosted by Log Me In are used to establish the UDP connections involved, after which all communication is peer-to-peer and encrypted for security.

Once connected it’s possible to chat with other members, share files and run applications like VNC and Remote Desktop. However, the Hamachi client does need to be installed and connected at both ends in order for tools like Remote Desktop to work.

Moreover, to access resources on Nas (network-attached storage) servers and other systems without the Hamachi client installed, a deal of additional setup work is required both on the client PCs and intervening routers.

On the plus side, Hamachi will work with most Nat (Network Address Translation) routers, firewalls and proxy servers. The basic product can also be used for free to support networks of up to 16 users. Plus there’s a chargeable premium version which adds extra network management controls and additional capacity.

We found Hamachi very easy to use and there are Linux and Mac versions as well as a Windows client. However, additional development work is needed to enable it to work seamlessly with Nas and other network servers.

Review: Mobile Net Switch

Alan Stevens — 2007-01-16T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 16 January 2007 at 00:00:00

One-button setup of network and Windows settings

Changing your network settings every time you need to work from home or at another office can be a complicated, tedious and time-consuming, but Mobile Net Switch can change all that.

More than that, this utility doesn’t just stop at network settings; it even lets you configure multiple profiles containing everything from your logon name, password and drive mappings to web, email and desktop preferences, all of which can be applied dynamically, at the click of a button.

Simple in concept and equally simple to use, Mobile Net Switch can be downloaded and installed on any PC running Windows 2000 or later. It can also be used with Windows 98 and NT, although these platforms aren’t supported and will only work if you download and install WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) from the Microsoft website.

Start the program and an easy-to-follow console is used to add, edit, copy and remove profiles with online and Pdf documentation to help. The default profile will contain your existing setup to which you can add others, for example to configure a notebook for use on a home Lan or to connect to another network where you have to work on site.

A series of menu tabs splits the settings into different categories, starting with a main menu, where you can specify a username and password to use, with the password encrypted and stored in the Registry. Associated drive and printer mappings can also be set here, along with the name and port of any proxy server you may need to use.

On the network menu, you can then choose the connection to set up and choose either automatic configuration using DHCP or manual IP addressing. You can select an appropriate wireless setup for use with the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration option if available. The XP desktop firewall can be configured through the Mobile Net Switch profile, along with Netbios and other advanced settings.

Elsewhere, you can configure the start-up page for your browser (Internet Explorer and Firefox are both supported) and set the screen resolution, desktop wallpaper and volume level you want to apply. The default time zone, printer and Outlook or Outlook Express email profile can similarly be configured plus, with a little bit of extra preparatory work, it’s even possible to avoid bounced emails by telling your software which SMTP host to use.

Lastly, additional entries can be added to the local hosts file, plus you can choose to execute custom scripts before and/or after a profile is executed, making for very a comprehensive list indeed.

Despite this, profiles are quick and easy to build, and applying one couldn’t be easier. Just click to activate it, either from the main console or optional desktop tray icon, and the settings are applied immediately. No need to log off or reboot; the changes are made and you’re good to go straight away.

It was delightfully simple. We did, though, need a few practice runs to get the exact setups we wanted. We also found it important to change all the settings that might apply because, with multiple profiles, you can’t be certain what the existing setup will be.

Still, you soon get used to how it works and it quickly becomes an invaluable tool. And it costs about £16 ex Vat to register the fully functional download and remove the initial registration screen.

Review: IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5

Alan Stevens — 2006-11-06T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Monday 6 November 2006 at 00:00:00

It’s good to talk, and even easier with Lotus Sametime 7.5

Instant messaging (IM) and web conferencing are fast becoming essential business collaboration tools, but public services lack the security many companies look for.

IBM’s Lotus Sametime addresses this by allowing you to host your own secure IM and conferencing systems with, in the latest 7.5 release, a raft of extra features and functionality.

With this release IBM has completely rebuilt the Lotus Sametime product using the open-source Eclipse development framework.

You still need a Domino server but this doesn’t have to be used for email, and users can be authenticated against any Ldap service, including Active Directory. Sametime chats can also be logged and archived in an auditable format. Plus there’s an optional gateway to securely connect Sametime networks together and provide links to public IM services from AOL, Google and Yahoo.

On the client side Sametime Connect software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs with a slick new interface offering rich text editing, emoticons and, for the first time, a spell checker to help keep everything grammatical.

The new client also lets you send documents and other files directly from within a chat window, even capture a part of the screen and send it using IM, which is useful for helpdesk operators trying to troubleshoot problems.

It’s also a lot easier to find people in this version with searchable buddy lists and a new business card facility which pops up more detailed information when you hover the mouse over a name.

Screen sharing is another useful collaboration feature, enabling participants to work on documents and run applications co-operatively. Plus you now get Skype-like VoIP (Voice over IP) facilities. So, add a headset and all you have to do is click on a button to talk directly to your IM ‘buddies’, either one-to-one or as part of a conference call.

Similarly you can organise ad-hoc or formal web conferences using Sametime, with a user-friendly management interface that requires very little in the way of technical expertise.

Another big advantage of the Java-based Eclipse framework is the ability to add functionality using plug-ins, both from IBM itself and third-party developers. IBM includes support for presence this way, with the Sametime server working out your location based on where and how you log in. Other users can then see exactly where you are and, if just down the corridor, simply pop in for a chat rather than calling you online.

Other plug-ins can also use the presence information. For example, there’s a plug-in to find a restaurant based on your location while within IBM itself users can find out where the nearest printers are in any office worldwide.

The list of third-party plug-ins is growing already and the software will also work with the next version of Notes, being developed using the same Eclipse framework, and which will also incorporate a lot more of the Sametime functionality as standard.

For companies already using Lotus Domino, Sametime is an easy and inexpensive add-on. Others, however, may find the need to deploy a Domino server costly and a bit of a chore, although a small-business Express implementation is available.

Alternatively you may want to wait for the upcoming Linux server release (due out in the first half of 2007) which will be based on open-source middleware and do away with the Domino dependency altogether.

Review: 2X Application Server

Alan Stevens — 2006-10-12T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Thursday 12 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Shared applications on Windows, Linux and Mac desktops

As well as thin-client desktops, Windows Terminal Server is frequently used in conjunction with Citrix Presentation Server to provide ordinary PC users with access to hosted applications.

However, Citrix isn’t the only vendor to offer this type of add-on, with similar functionality also available using the 2X Application Server from 2ux.

The 2X package employs the standard Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) rather than Citrix ICA and, although not as configurable as Presentation Server, it is quicker and easier to deploy.

It also costs less, with a free version available for customers with five clients or fewer.

The core software needs to be loaded onto a Windows 2000/2003 server configured and licensed as a Terminal Services/Server host, and is installed like any other application, with a simple Windows console for setup and management.

Using this you can stop and start both the background service and an optional web proxy to tunnel everything over http rather than using standard TCP ports for each of the protocols involved.

The web proxy also adds support for a portal, enabling users to access applications from a browser. However, the 2X Application Server client still needs to be installed to run the applications and, in the current release, portal access is only available for Windows clients.

The applications are also installed on the server and published just by browsing to the main executable used to start them. Access can then be limited to specific domain users, computers or IP addresses and a suitable icon selected. But that’s about all there is to it.

Web publishing is similarly straightforward, just a matter of clicking on a button to generate the required source code. We used IIS running on our Windows server to host the portal, but other web servers and remote hosts can also be used.

There are also facilities to customise the portal template to suit company style.

Out at the user end the 2X Application Server client needs to be installed to run applications. This is available for Windows 98 or later with the option of downloading from the portal. Clients for Apple Mac and Linux PCs, though, must be distributed and installed separately.

We had no real problems with any of the clients, although we had to configure additional compiler libraries on a couple of our Linux PCs – fairly standard practice for Linux applications.

However, we were disappointed to find that the Linux client needed to be run from the command line and that we had to type in a plain text password when scripting a session. A GUI version is due in the next release, but wasn’t available at the time of testing.

We published a number of applications, including Internet Explorer, and tunnelled them to Windows and Linux clients. It was a bit surreal running Explorer from a Linux desktop but the browser worked as expected, as did the other applications we tried.

Note, though, that in each case the application is hosted in a user session on the remote Terminal Server, with limited access to local resources other than printers.

Clearly something of a specialist product, 2X Application Server will appeal to small businesses that are looking to benefit from the lower management costs associated with server-based computing.

In particular, it will interest those who want to publish individual applications without the complexity and cost of the Citrix alternative.