Title: Technical Reference for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: © May 2011 by Microsoft Corporation
Pages: 505
File size: .DOC, .PDF, .XPS, .EPUB, .MOBI (1-3 MB)
Price: FREE
Download URL: Click here for download.

Description:

This book includes technical information about the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provider for Windows PowerShell and other helpful reference information about general settings, security, and tools.

Another one from the mailbag:

Question – How do I change the timeout in SBS 2008? Users are complaining that Companyweb times out when they get involved in a phone call or when someone walks in their office.

Answer:

1. Click Start | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager (not IIS 6.0 Manager)
2. Expand the Server name | expand Sites | click on SBS SharePoint

   

3. On the Actions pane on the right side of that page, under the Configure section click Limits… 
   
4. On the Edit Web Site Limits dialog box you can configure your Connection time-out (in seconds), limit bandwidth usage and limit the number of connections. Below is a screenshot of the SBS 2008 default settings for Companyweb / “SBS SharePoint”.
    
5. Adjust your settings as needed, and click OK.

Here’s what each setting does:

Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731169.aspx

Just because a port is open in RRAS or ISA (circa SBS 2003) doesn’t mean that it isn’t being blocked elsewhere, like at the ISP or because port forwarding isn’t setup properly in your firewall. Sometimes you need an outside view of the external ports on your internet connection.

DISCLAIMER – Only open the ports you absolutely MUST have. Example, if you’re not running the POP3 connector or FTP, don’t open those ports! If you’re not sure about a port, check the Port/IP Lookup on Sans.org or ask someone who knows!

To check all of the commonly used SBS ports at once:

1. Go to www.grc.com/default.htm
2. Scroll down & click ShieldsUP!
3. Click Proceed
4. In the center box on that page, paste this string:
   21, 25, 80, 110, 123, 143, 220, 443, 444, 500, 987, 1701, 1723, 3389, 4125, 4500
5. Click User Specified Custom Port Probe

This scan will come back with a list of ports you entered and show the status.

Below is a handy chart that I stole from Susan and Windows IT Pro and updated a couple of times over the years.

Common Ports for Small Business Server (SBS)

**Note: The ports listed above in bold are required by SBS 2008, per Microsoft TechNet article “Managing Windows Small Business Server 2008 Remote Web Workplace”, including port 3389, but see article below.

***Question: Should I open port 3389 for remote administration or remote desktop connections?
Answer from Microsoft: “You no longer need to open port 3389. Windows Small Business Server 2008 uses Terminal Services Gateway to redirect traffic from port 443 to a selected desktop or server for RDP connections. You would need to use RWW or configure the Terminal Services client to use TS Gateway.”
Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sbs/cc817589.aspx

There’s also a post on the Official SBS Blog that talks about an IPSec issue back in 2008 that affected ports 1645-1646, 1701, 1812-1813, 2883 & 4500.

I’ll try to keep this form updated as time goes on and will keep a permanent copy at http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/sbs-ports/.

Recently announced: Microsoft Search Server Express is now available as a free download! It’s available in x86 or x64 versions too.

Download URL: Click here
File name: SearchServerExpress.exe
Size: 248 MB

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

• Processor: 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) (minimum)
• Memory: 2 gigabytes (GB) RAM (minimum)
• Operating System: Any of the following editions of the Windows Server 2003 or newer operating system with the most recent service packs: Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, and Web Edition.
• Hard disk: NTFS-formatted partition with 3 GB of free space (minimum)
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 with ASP.NET 2.0 enabled
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Components
• Note: Search Server 2008 Express can be installed on one computer only. It supports an unlimited number of Web front-end servers, but only one application server.

RESOURCES:

• Getting Started with Search Server 2008 Express
• Plan to Deploy Search Server Express
• Plan to Crawl Content
• Install Search Server Express

Title: How to Sell, Deploy, and Build Business with Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 and SBS 2003 R2
File Name: Selling_WSS_and_SBS_Kit.zip
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 11/15/2007
Language: English
Download Size: 3.2 MB
Download URL: Click here

Description: 
A new partner enablement tool that helps you create solutions using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2. Access the toolkit’s resources—including a process cookbook, technical documentation and marketing materials—to learn how to build your business by selling and deploying customized solutions.

Contents Include:

• Application Templates Overview for WSS v3
• Asking the Client to Agree to a WSS Demo Final.doc
• Helpful Technical Resources from Microsoft.doc
• Identifying Potential WSS Clients.doc
• Making WSS into a Secure Extranet.doc*
• Preparing Your Business to Sell and Support WSS.doc
• SBS Business Benefits Highlights.doc
• SharePointBackups.exe
• Site Administrator Homework Sample.doc
• Visio Windows SharePoint Process Flows 061107.pdf
• WSS 3.0 User Training Guide.doc
• WSS 3.0 Admin Training Guide.doc
• WSS 3.0 Site Demonstration Script.doc
• WSS 3.0 Site Intake Template Starter Site.doc
• WSS 3.0 Technical Setup.doc
• WSS Admin Training Agenda Sample.doc
• WSS Future Opportunities.doc
• WSS Packaged Offering StarterSite Sample.doc
• WSS Process Flow Steps Documents Objectives Toolkit Readiness.xls
• WSS StarterSite Intake Template.doc
• WSS User Training Agenda Sample.doc
• Your Ideal Pilot Client.doc

*If you’re looking for the document on creating a secure extranet using WSS v3 on top of SBS, it’s in this download.  This is the same WSS / SBS content released at Worldwide Partner Conference 2007 that everyone has been asking for over the last several months.  Basically, this stuff is a gold mine!

I love SharePoint.  I love Dilbert.  Put them both together and it’s like peanut butter and chocolate.  In fact, I love SharePoint and Dilbert almost as much as I hate monkeys (that’s a lot!)

THE FRUSTRATON
And as much as I’ve always adored SharePoint (even back in the STS 1.0 days), user adoption was always sluggish.  To this day I’m still floored by how many IT Pros / SBSers and even SBSCs don’t use their own http://companyweb site.  Unlike the ‘Field of Dreams‘, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come.

THE STING
So for several years I’ve been sneakily using the Daily Dilbert to lure reluctant end users into SharePoint sites.  Many users have absolutely no desire to hit http://companyweb or set it as their IE homepage. But add the Daily Dilbert to your intranet, add in a traffic cam web part, a weather radar, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly and consistently users hit the site.  And once users and small business owners are in the habit of using Companyweb, it opens their eyes and they start thinking about what else they can do with SharePoint.

Customer – “Hey, can we put links to our vendors on this site? What about HR documents? What about… “

You – “Sure, we can do that. Let me show you some of these ‘Fabulous 40′ templates Microsoft has released for SharePoint… “

They start recognizing that it can drive *tremendous* business value. And you can be there to provide those value-added services. Win-win.

THE DOWNLOAD
What you’ve been waiting for, the link to download the Daily Dilbert web part:

• Daily_Dilbert.dwp (1.66 KB)
  (Right-click and Save As)
  
  Note: This one web part works with both Windows SharePoint Services WSS v2 and WSS v3 sites.

THE INSTRUCTIONS
The SharePoint pros have already snagged the web part and left the building along with Elvis. But if you’re new to SharePoint, you’ve probably already tried to open the web part and didn’t know what to do with it.  So here are the step-by-step instructions to install that Daily Dilbert web part on your own SharePoint site (Note – make sure your SharePoint permissions let you upload web parts):

1. Right-click the Daily_Dilbert.dwp link above, and save it to your desktop
2. Open http://companyweb
3. In the top-right corner, click:
   - Modify Shared Page
   - Add Web Parts
   - Import
4. Click the Browse button
5. Locate the Daily_Dilbert.dwp web part you just downloaded, click OK
6. Back on the Add Web Parts page, click Upload
7. You should now see the uploaded web part directly under the ‘Upload’ button you just clicked, like this:

    

8. Drag the uploaded web part to the left to the location you would like to see it on your web page, and then let go.
9. Finally, click the “X” in the top right corner next to “Add Web Parts”. You’re all done!

THE PROPS
Major thanks and shout out to Brian Ritchie for developing his mega-cool Dilbert Web Service, and for letting me link to it. Check out Brian’s site at www.dotnetpowered.com

***Bonus Material ***

THE GUTS / HOW IT WORKS
Actually, the web part is the easy part. It’s like the peanut butter and chocolate mentioned earlier. This is just a combination of my ghetto image web part and Brian’s rockin Daily Dilbert Web Service that is doing the heavy lifting of calculating the daily URL.  So basically, this is just a) an image web part that b) points to a static URL, that c) contains a picture updated daily by Brian’s web service. 

Alternately (and VERY cool), you can use the code and instructions on Brian’s site to run your own Daily Dilbert web service (sa-weet!)

Here’s the code for the Daily Dilbert web part if you want to see what it looks like inside:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<WebPart xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2″>
  <Title>Daily Dilbert</Title>
  <FrameType>Default</FrameType>
  <Description>Thanks go to Brian Ritchie for kindly providing this web part! Be sure to visit his website at: http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbert.aspx by clicking on the help button.</Description>
  <IsIncluded>true</IsIncluded>
  <ZoneID>Left</ZoneID>
  <PartOrder>2</PartOrder>
  <FrameState>Normal</FrameState>
  <Height />
  <Width />
  <AllowRemove>true</AllowRemove>
  <AllowZoneChange>true</AllowZoneChange>
  <AllowMinimize>true</AllowMinimize>
  <IsVisible>true</IsVisible>
  <DetailLink>http://www.dilbert.com</DetailLink>
  <HelpLink>http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbert.aspx</HelpLink>
  <Dir>Default</Dir>
  <PartImageSmall />
  <MissingAssembly />
  <PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/msimagel.gif</PartImageLarge>
  <IsIncludedFilter />
  <Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>
  <TypeName>Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ImageWebPart
</TypeName>
  <ImageLink xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”> http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbertservice/dailydilbert.axd
</ImageLink>
  <VerticalAlignment xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>Middle </VerticalAlignment>
  <HorizontalAlignment xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>Center </HorizontalAlignment>
  <BackgroundColor xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>transparent </BackgroundColor>
</WebPart>

***Extra Old Skool Bonus Material***

Back in the day before Brian’s Daily Dilbert web service, I used a similar WSS v2 stock image web part and linked it to a Dot Net Nuke site that hosted the Daily Dilbert.  Straightforward, but effective. 

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you can’t use a stock image web part in WSS to link directly to the Daily Dilbert website GIF, because the image name changes every day.  For example, today (11/21/2007) the image name is dilbert2002222371121.gif.

THE END
Again, much respect to Brian for the web service. Also, props to Scott Adams, the talented creator of Dilbert. If you liked the web part, be sure and leave a comment below. And if you like the Dilbert cartoon, be sure to click the words “Daily Dilbert” at the top of the web part each day – this will take you directly to the www.dilbert.com website where Scott can get the traffic he rightly deserves for creating such an awesome cartoon. Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone who attended the November 2007 Kentucky Small Business Server User Group (KYSBSUG) meeting last night on "Best Practices".

SPECIAL THANKS:

• Thanks to all who attended, especially those traveling from Lexington.
• Also, MAJOR thanks to Matthew Snoddy from Network Therapists for presenting!  We’re really looking forward to the Lexington SBS group launch in January!
• And thanks to those who stayed after to attend the WHS build

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

• Lee Johnson from Sentry Computer Systems took home the copy of Windows Home Server

  Congratulations Lee on finally winning something

URLS MENTIONED LAST NIGHT:

• SBS 2003 Best Practices Analyzer v1.3 (1.1 MB)
• Exchange 2003 Best Practices Analyzer v2.8 (6.8 MB)
• ISA 2004 Best Practices Analyzer v5.5 (2.8 MB)
• WSS v3 & MOSS 2007 Best Practices Analyzer (1.4 MB)
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v2.1 – Beta 2 (1.3 MB)
• Visio 2007 Connector for MBSA 2.1 (1.1 MB)
• LookInMyPC (1.2 MB) – LookInMyPC generates a complete, comprehensive system profile that includes information on all installed hardware and software. Additionally it provides system diagnostic information such as details on running processes, installed services, startup programs, Windows updates and hot fixes, active network and Internet connections, TCP/IP port usage, event log detail, and much more. All this is provided in an easy to read, formatted report that you can view and print using your web browser.
• AccessEnum v1.32 (51 KB) – AccessEnum gives you a full view of your file system and Registry security settings in seconds, making it the ideal tool for helping you for security holes and lock down permissions where necessary.
• JDiskReport v1.3 (0.6 MB) – JDiskReport enables you to understand how much space the files and directories consume on your disk drives, and it helps you find obsolete files and folders.

  The tool analyses your disk drives and collects several statistics which you can view as overview charts and details tables.

  This is ad-free uncrippled no-charge binary multi-platform software that never expires.  (Requires Java).

• The Dude v2.2 (1.8 MB)  – The Dude is a network monitor that will enable you to scan all the devices within a network subnet and then draw a map of the network devices and tell you where your workstations are connected and warn you of service problems.

  Better still, your network doesn’t need to be internal. If your company has a network between offices, The Dude will enable you to map the entire network.

• PsEXec v1.9 (1 MB) – PsExec, from Microsoft / Sysinternals is a light-weight telnet-replacement that lets you execute processes on other systems, complete with full interactivity for console applications, without having to manually install client software. PsExec’s most powerful uses include launching interactive command-prompts on remote systems and remote-enabling tools like IpConfig that otherwise do not have the ability to show information about remote systems.

  Note: some anti-virus scanners report that one or more of the tools are infected with a "remote admin" virus. None of the PsTools contain viruses, but they have been used by viruses, which is why they trigger virus notifications.

• System Information for Windows (SIW) v1.71 (1.3 MB) – SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner.

  This standalone utility does not require installation (Portable Freeware) – one less installed program on your PC as well the fact that you can run the program directly from an USB flash drive, from a floppy, from a network drive or from a domain login script.

If you’ve got a member server in your SBS network (especially if that server is a beefy SQL box) it may make sense from a performance standpoint to install Windows SharePoint Services version 3 on the member server instead of directly on the SBS box.  This is actually a pretty straight-forward process, but in case you’re not totally comfortable with WSS v3 yet, the procedure is documented below using a combination of a Microsoft e-book and the WSS on SBS instructions Chad came up with for SBS. 

Note:  This free WSS v3 e-book is NOT the whitepaper Chad mentions in his article.  This is a digital book: "Deployment for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technology". (189 pages – published May 2007)

There are two downloads on the page (the second is for an upgrade scenario).  Choose the first install (1.1 MB).

Once you’ve downloaded the Deployment e-book, jump to page 23:

1. Install Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0 from the Windows Server 2003 CD 1.
2. Disable "Run WWW server in IIS 5.0 isolation mode"
3. Install .NET 3.0
4. Enable ASP.NET v2.0.50727
5. Install WSS v3

   (Select Advanced Install, Select Stand-Alone server type, Choose your data location)

6. Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

   (This may require a restart of the services IIS, SharePoint Administration Service and SharePoint Timer Service.)

7. The default web site will be http://servername/default.aspx
   Credentials to access the site should be in the format DOMAIN\user_name and the normal domain password.

   >>This is where we switch from the Microsoft e-book to Chad Gross’ "Companyweb & SharePoint v3 – Part 4" instructions <<

8. Following Chad’s original instructions in WSS v3 Part 4, starting with "(insert cheesy on hold music . . . )"

   Login to the SBS server and create the new Host (A) record for http://intranet that points to the private IP address of your member server, and be sure to create the associated pointer (PRT) record.

9. Follow the rest of Chad’s instructions on that page to extend the default site to http://intranet (you may have to delete the ":80" port from the URL at the bottom of the configuration page so the final URL is http://intranet and not http://intranet:80)

   >> Now leaving Chad’s instructions <<
    

10. If you refresh IIS you’ll notice that the SharePoint – 80 default site is gone.  However, your old "Default Web Site" (the http://servername) is still there.
11. Right-click the Default Web Site, click Properties, click the Home Directory tab, select the "A redirection to a URL" radio button, in the ‘Redirect to:’ text box type "http//intranet". Click OK.

    

12. Right-click the Default Web Site and start it.
13. Now http://servername and http://intranet should both take you to http://intranet (be sure to test it from your SBS box as well).  If the link isn’t working, make sure you flushed your DNS cache in step 8 above.
14. Login to your http://intranet site, click Site Actions / Site Settings / Title, description, and icon / rename your site "Intranet"
15. Download and deploy your templates from the Fabulous 40 collection. Be sure to read the readme.txt enclosed in that download.
16. Last, but certainly not least – BACKUP!!

    Chad mentions backing up your old WSS v2 http://companyweb site in Part 3, but the stsadm for WSS v3 is located in a different position, namely:

    – WSS v2 uses ..\60\bin
    – WSS v3 uses ..\12\bin

    The command I use to backup the WSS v3 http://intranet test site is shown below (yours will vary depending on the target location of your backup files):

Start / Run / CMD / Enter

CD C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin <Enter>

stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://intranet -filename "E:\WSSv3Backup\intranet_backup.dat" -overwrite <Enter>

Of course, you can use the system timer to schedule that backup daily if you like. 

Once you get past getting your feet wet with WSS v3, be sure to check out the section, "Administering backup and recovery for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology" on TechNet (especially if you’re running SQL as your database engine) before rolling out WSS to client sites.

Does your SharePoint http://companyweb site running on SBS 2003 or R2 still show missing icons for PDF files you’ve uploaded?  Tsk-tsk.

Solutions:

GOOD – Back in the day we used to fix this problem manually by uploading the 16×16 PDF icon, updating the XML file, and restarting IIS.  Tedious, but effective.

BETTER – Then in 2004 Chad Gross [SBS-MVP] created a cool ZIP / batch file to automate the PDF insertion process for Windows SharePoint Services 2.0.

BEST – Skip forward to 2007 and Chad’s super-handy tool has gotten WAY better.  The new version works with WWS 2.0 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0!  Chad’s rewritten it in VBS, updated the icon to a newer PNG, and it creates an output logfile at C:\pdficon.log so you can make sure everything went smoothly.  Mega sweet!  Download the NEW PDF icon tool and try it out today!

I carry it on a USB drive keychain with my other must-have utilities.  Getting a PDF icon to display in SharePoint has never been easier.  Thanks Chad! You rock!!

Source:  Chad’s Blog