The Global Catalog (GC) is an important component in Active Directory because it serves as the central information store of the Active Directory objects located in domains and forests. Because the GC maintains a list of the Active Directory objects in domains and forests without actually including all information on the objects and it is used when users search for Active Directory objects or for specific attributes of an object, the GC improves network performance and provides maximum accessibility to Active Directory objects. The Global Catalog server is the domain Read More

Understanding Document Specifications A document specification is theterminology used to signify a XML document that has been formally described. A document specification describes the records and fields in other documents. BizTalk Server only processes document specifications. The document specification describes relationships between different data items. This is done by organizing the items in a hierarchy. The document specification is actually a hierarchy of nodes with a root node at the top. The nodes beneath the root node can be records or fields. The lowest level of the hierarchy contains fields. Read More

Microsoft Cluster Service Overview A cluster is the grouping of two or multiple physical servers that are perceived to the network as one network server. The servers in the cluster, called nodes, operate together as one network server to provide redundancy and load balancing to the corporate network by resuming operations of any failed server within the cluster. Servers in the cluster provide access to network resources on the network. In this manner, a cluster provides a higher level of availability for network resources and applications hosted in the cluster. Read More

Wireless Network Concepts Wireless local area networks are defined by the IEEE 802.11 specification. The process of connecting to a wireless network is often transparent to the user, and using a wireless network is pretty much the same as using a wired Ethernet network for the user. A wireless network is classed, based on the scope of the network. This is also very much like classing wired networking. The different categories of wireless networks are: Wireless local area networks (WLANs): WLANs make it possible for data to be shared within Read More

Creating a newspaper can be a personal project for a circle of friends and family or a serious project that is meant for publication, distribution, or sale. Whatever the purpose, creating a professional looking newspaper is something for which most newspaper creators strive. Prospective newspaper creators do not need publishing software to pull it off and can actually make a great newspaper with Microsoft Word. The process of creating a generic newspaper style in Microsoft Word that can then be customized is generally simple and may be accomplished with the Read More

Network Load Balancing Overview Network Load Balancing (NLB), included in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 can be used if you need to provide increased levels of availability for TCP/IP applications. All versions of Windows Server 2003 include NLB. While NLB is automatically installed, it is not enabled. In a NLB cluster, client requests are load balanced between the servers residing in the NLB cluster, as specified by configured load balancing parameters. Servers can be configured to share the processing of client requests. NLB can also reroute any requests that Read More

Your hard drive is where your computer stores the operating system and most folders and files that it uses. Hard drives have grown in capacity over the years, and as storage capacity has increased so has the amount of data one can store on his or her computer. Knowing not only the capacity of your computer’s hard drive, but also the amount of free space available, is crucial when loading large applications such as a new operating system, office applications, or large files such as video or audio. There are Read More

A Windows Protection Error such as "Initializing device <device name> Windows Protection Error" can be received when either first starting Microsoft Windows or when shutting down your computer. The computer might then ask you restart the system. Windows Protection Errors are usually received by users of Windows 95, 98, and ME and these errors can occur for a number of reasons: An error resulting from damage to the system's registry An incompatibility occurring between the BIOS and a device attached to the computer A problem with the cache system A Read More

Active Directory is a distributed multimaster replicated database. All domain controllers host a full replica of the domain information for its own domain. Domain controllers in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 environments hold a read/write copy of the Active Directory database. In these environments, changes can be made to the Active Directory database on any domain controller within the Active Directory environment. Replication is the process that ensures that changes made to a replica on one domain controller are transferred to replicas on the remainder of the domain controllers. Read More

One way to customize a Windows Desktop is to change the Taskbar’s color. Changing the Taskbar’s color is not only simple, but takes less than a minute. Here is how: Change the Task Bar Color in Windows XP Start up the computer and right click any clear space (do not click any part of the taskbar or on any icons). A menu should appear. In this menu, select Properties. Select the option for Appearance in the menu that appears. Click the active title bar. Easily customize the Taskbar’s color. Click Read More