As a Windows computer ages, the number of third party applications that users download increases. Many of these programs automatically configure themselves to be opened when Windows starts eating away at the resources available for the computer to perform routine tasks. This can significantly slow overall computer speed. Users can mitigate this problem by changing the Windows startup options to only include the applications that they really need started every time they reboot the Windows computer. The startup program listing can be modified with the System Configuration utility or by Read More

Network Infrastructure Security Overview Network infrastructure refers to the grouping of physical hardware and logical components which are needed to provide a number of features for the network, such as connectivity, routing and switching capabilities, network security, and access control. The physical infrastructure of the network refers to the physical design of the network together with the hardware components. The logical infrastructure of the network consists of all the software components required to enable connectivity between devices, and to provide network security. The network's logical infrastructure consists of software products Read More

The file msdtc.exe is the main component of the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) by Microsoft Corporation. The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator is an application that is primarily used in allowing several other client applications to include more than one source of data in a single transaction. After performing the required task, this transaction manager program then functions to commit the distributed transaction among the servers included in the mentioned transaction. The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator runs in all platforms/versions of Windows. This application is normally installed by certain Windows Read More

Automated System Recovery (ASR) Overview Previously, in the Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 2000 operating systems, the emergency repair disk (ERD) feature was used to recover the system when disasters occurred. Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 now include the Automated System Recovery (ASR) feature for recovering the system in disaster situations. The Automated System Recovery (ASR) feature is a new feature found in the Windows Backup utility. ASR should be used to restore the system when all other disaster recovery tools are unavailable or do not work. ASR Read More

Authentication in IIS Authentication in IIS verifies whether a user attempting to access a particular website, can indeed access it. Authentication is the process that verifies whether the user can access the site which he/she is attempting to access. The authentication methods which can be used to authenticate users in IIS 6 are listed below. Each authentication method can be used to authenticate users attempting to access Web sites. However, only Anonymous access and Basic Authentication can be used as an authentication method for FTP sites. Anonymous access: This authentication Read More

Department of Defense Network (DoD) Network Model Introduction Back in 1960, systems were primarily made up of mainframe computers, and were typically owned by fairly large companies and government institutions. Because mainframe computers run different proprietary software, and due to mainframes not being able to communicate between each other, special code (interface) had to be defined so that one mainframe could interrelate with a another mainframe. When an operating system changed between the two mainframes that were exchanging data, the interface had to be rewritten so that the two mainframes Read More

If you are unable to repair a corrupt database that has been caused by a system failure, a virus attach, a power failure, or a similar disaster, you can first delete the WINS database and then entirely restore it from a backup. The WINS management console is a comprehensive tool which can be used to plan and perform a WINS database backup. Once the database backup directory has been specified, by default, WINS takes complete backup after every 24 hours and stores it in that directory. The WINS management console Read More

SMS Database Maintenance Tasks The main SMS database maintenance task that you need to perform is to implement a backup strategy for the SMS site server and SMS database server. A backup is the process of archiving data and system files on a computer to a different location on a hard disk, or other media type. A backup plan or strategy should detail the data that has to be backed up, the manner in which the data should be backed up, the frequency at which the backups should occur, and Read More

If you find that multitasking is a way of life, autodialers can help keep everything under control. In the Microsoft Outlook environment, autodialers become another set of mouse clicks you make as you work through multiple projects simultaneously. In many respects, the question is not how to use an autodialer, but how it can be better used. The Basics The entire autodialer process works from your contacts list. Just go to the contacts list and select the contact number that you would like to call. On the toolbar you will Read More

Proxy Server Overview Proxy Server enables you to connect the private network or LAN to a public network such as the Internet, by acting as a gateway for internal client computers to the Internet. Proxy Server is a secure gateway which you can use to provide Internet connectivity for IP and IPX based networks. A gateway is a computer that makes it possible for two networks to communicate. Proxy Server services should run on one computer to which both the private network and the public network is connected to. The Read More