October 31, 2003
SQL Server Clustering, Failover, and Load Balancing
In a perfect hosted environment, your SQL server database would be replicated to several machines to ensure data availability in case of a data corruption. In addition, a failover would happen automatically if say, “Select * from sometable” did not work. Furthermore, when traffic hits start to over load a database, say with 5000 connection attempts, a backup server would come to the rescue and aid by absorbing the extra load. In a perfect world, all this wouldn’t be necessary because SQL Server 2000 would be able to handle 1 billion connections for every human on the planet with no downtime for patches, and most importantly, would never have security holes like Slammer. Ok ok, back to reality.
The perfect redundant database scenario is not a distant dream anymore. rjsNetworks.com has combined three different types of SQL server load balancing solutions to meet different customer scenarios. With the first being a simple data redundancy log shipping setup to a fully redundant automated failover system. In addition, these plans are affordable and priced to attract Small Business and Corporate customers with data centric organizations. SQL Server may have its flaws in security, but I admit that it is powerful and very reliable (with the correct redundancy of course!).
October 25, 2003
Microsoft XP and Java
Several customers have asked why XP does not have Java installed with IE. The reason is due to the antitrust laws and litigation between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems in early 2000. So several websites that still utilize Java applets and applications that use Java do not work with Windows XP. Here is the workaround and download of the Microsoft JVM:
http://www.rjsnetworks.com/rjs/download/msjavx86.exe
Steps to install the Microsoft Virtual Machine:
1. Download the file using the links above and save it to your harddrive.
2. Once the file is on your harddrive, execute it and thus load the Virtual Machine.
3. As the file begins execution, answer Yes to the License Agreement question and then once complete, re-boot your PC.
4. Once the PC is re-booted you should be set to go.
October 23, 2003
Hotmail Mail Issues
We have been working for several hours with Hotmail and our upstream providers to figure out why Hotmail has a very latent email delivery system. Emails being sent from many networks takes anywhere from 5 mins to 3 hours to be delivered successfully by Hotmail. This can result in many undeliverable emails, however, here is Microsoft's official explanation:
The traceroute issue, according to the guys here, is because UNIX uses high numbered UDP ports and Windows uses ICMP. MSN Hotmail blocks ICMP packets so that is why your traceroute is dying.
'As to the mail issue itself, the connection errors and slow delivery times that you are seeing at this time are consistent with the connection difficulties that many domains are having when sending email to us. MSN Hotmail is currently experiencing what amounts to a DOS attack by spammers who are attempting to overwhelm our filtering systems by increasing their connections to us by several orders of magnitude.
We have recently implemented new IP filtering procedures which we believe will alleviate the pressure on our system and enable legitimate mail to arrive unimpeded once more. As of now it is unclear as to how effective these procedures are as so many domains have backed up mail queues to us and it is taking quite a long time to process all of that mail.
I'm sorry I can't give you a definite resolution to the problem but we are aware of it and are working 24 hours a day to resolve the issue.'
At least it's a response. We at rjsNetworks.com are not having any issues with our mail systems.
October 21, 2003
Archives of Your Site
Ahhh....nostalgia! Have you ever wanted to see all the previous versions of your web site? Want to see how your site has progressed through time? Well we found this great tool online that shows YOUR domain and how it has changed through time. Going back to 1996, this site is brilliant...
October 20, 2003
Newsgroups with ASP.Net
If you are looking for a web based Newgroup post/search in ASP.Net, take a look at www.wimdows.net. Newsgroups are an evolution of old school bbs boards and have become knowledge bases of the entire development community.
October 10, 2003
Mailto: Tag Options
The mailto tag in html is a powerful tag with serveral options that are not exploited or commonly used. By using the options in the mailto: tag, prepopulation of email can be powerful and more informative to your end user using their familar default email client. Here are some options:
SENDING MAIL TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS
Add additional email addresses after the first, seperated by a ",":
mailto: foo@bar.com, bar@foo.com, buffy@slayer.com
ADDITIONAL MAILTO: COMMANDS
Sender is the person who selects the mailto: link
Recipient is the person who will receive the mailto: email
TO - same as using "," in the mailto: line
Recipient's name will appear in the To: line, along with all the other To: addresses. Sender will see all addresses in the To: line. Recipient will see all addresses in the To: line. Can be changed by Sender.
CC - carbon copy
Recipient's name will be in the Cc: line, along with all the other Cc: addressees. Sender will see all addresses in the Cc: line. Recipient will see all addresses in the Cc: line. Can be changed by Sender.
BCC - blind carbon copy
Recipient's name will appear in the Bcc: line, along with all the other Bcc: addresses. Sender will see all addresses in the Bcc: line. Recipient will see no addresses in the Bcc: line. Can be changed by Sender.
SUBJECT - default text for subject line
Text following this command will appear in the Subject: line. Can be changed by Sender.
BODY - default text for email body
Text following this command will appear in the Body of the email. Can be changed by Sender. NOTE: You can add linefeeds to text in the body by adding the hex code of a linefeed, %0A where you want the linefeed.
All of the options are added in the mailto: tag. Here's the format:
EXAMPLE:
October 05, 2003
Verisign - Have you noticed?
So you misspelled a domain name....a new page started to popup last month that had Verisign headers all over it. We noticed this and started frantically double checking our DNS servers to make sure they were not being attacked in anyway. Well, it turns, marketing's finest emerged a few months ago when Verisign reengineered its DNS to reveal a helpful page rather than a DNS error page.
Good things can't last forever (in Verisign's case), and the hard work the folks at Verisign had done was just slapped on the wrists. Go ahead, mispell those domains! Verisign cannot market its products to you anymore!
October 02, 2003
Outlook 2003 - Ultimate E-Mail Client
I have been using Outlook 2003 since the Beta release earlier this year. It is clearly one of the best mail clients I have used yet. I reviewed Thunderbird a few months ago, and needless to say love the freeware/open source. However, my day-to-day needs are met solely by Microsoft Outlook 2003, and it is worth every penny.
Junk Mail Filter - The junk mail filter in this new version is powerful. In addition to our server-side junk mail filter, out of 150-200 emails I receive a day, I get 5-6 spam messages making it past both filters. Junk Email filters do not work well with IMAP since the Outlook only works on messages fully downloaded from the server (POP3). No big deal here for most users.
Reading Pane - This feature is brilliant. The reading pane is clear, and probably uses Microsoft Reader fonts for a crisp look and feel. The pane, looks like a piece of paper on the screen, a great feature if you are connected to your email 24/7.
Group By Day View - By grouping messages by day, I can quickly view and categorize important emails and personal emails. The grouping provides a day-to-day journal of emails received-replied-forwarded and those that have not been replied.
Quick Flags - This feature is a great little utility (included in Thunderbird as well). You can quickly flag messages with colors for priority, remembering what color means what is a little more difficult even if there are only five (trust me, I tried to remember but remembering anything over 2 really makes my head hurt). Again, this does not work in IMAP; an almost necessary feature that is a big downfall.
Visual Appeal - Microsoft is great a making things look pretty. Outlook 2003 is no exception and benefits from a overhaul from Outlook XP. The framework is great, the usability is brilliant, and I even like the default layout.
Attachment Blocks - I hate this. EXE are blocked as well as most other file formats. This is a great safety precaution, but new viruses are coming in the forms of Microsoft Security Patches and in ZIP files. So if you are not smart enough to check the source, then most likely this block does not make much sense. I did figure out how to remove this, a registry hack of course.
IMAP Crashes - Another downfall. Frequent disconnects and IMAP crashes take place after extended periods of time. A restart of Outlook is required to maintain stability; annoying but not a big issue.
Here are some screen shots, what do you think?
