Pranas.NET

Amazon S3 is a great and cheap place to keep you SQL Server database backups.

The new version 7.2 of  SQLBackupAndFTP due to be released in June 2012 will allow you  to backup SQL Server databases to Amazon S3 directly.

Google Drive starts you off with 5GB for free. Seems like a great place to keep you SQL Server database backups.

Here’s how to backup SQL Server databases to Google Drive using SQLBackupAndFTP:

• When you install Google Drive, it creates a special folder. Everything that you put into this folder will be synced to the Google Drive in the cloud.
• Open SQLBackupAndFTP, select databases to backup, check “Store backups in a local/network folder” and set the folder to be that Google Drive folder.

Note that there’s a big drawback – Google Drive will sync only when you are logged in. For a solution that would allow you to backup to Google Drive at any time you need to wait till SQLBackupAndFTP v 7.2 that is due to be released in June 2012.

SkyDrive from Microsoft gives you 25GB of cloud space for free. Seems like a great place to keep you SQL Server database backups.

Here’s how to backup SQL Server databases to SkyDrive using SQLBackupAndFTP:

• When you install SkyDrive, it creates a special folder. Everything that you put into this folder will be synced to the SkyDrive servers in the cloud.
• Open SQLBackupAndFTP, select databases to backup, check “Store backups in a local/network folder” and set the folder to be that SkyDrive folder.

Note that there’s a big drawback – SkyDrive will sync only when you are logged in. For a solution that would allow you to backup to SkyDrive at any time you need to wait till SQLBackupAndFTP v 7.2 that is due to be released in June 2012.

It is very convenient to open Google Apps account and use Google as your mail server. However the simple email forwarding becomes a challenge. This post will explain how to setup email redirects in Google Apps. This assumes you are an administrator and know how to get to your domain management dashboard (from gmail’s wrench menu select “Manage this domain”)

Email forwarding with Groups (simplest to setup)

Create a group – all of it’s members will receive a copy of the email to this group. Sending from this group is also possible, but recipients (in Gmail) will see “john.smith@example.com via gmail.com”. Some claim it is unprofessional. We think it is minor. This method also saves you from creating new users – in free version you are limited to only 10.

1. Click Groups > “Create a new group”
2. Name the group and check “Also allow anyone on the Internet to post messages”
3. Add members (recepients)

Email forwarding with forwarders in user’s account (simplest to setup)

1. Create a new regular user
2. Login as this user to gmail
3. Go to “Mail

My favorite way of setting SQL backups these days is to combine SQLBackupAndFTP with Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to store 2GB for free – more than enough for the majority of small clients.

Here’s how it works:

• When you install Dropbox, it creates a special “My Dropbox” folder. Everything that you put into this folder will be synced to the Dropbox servers in the cloud.
• Open SQLBackupAndFTP, select databases to backup, check “Store backups in a local/network folder” and set the folder to be “My Dropbox” folder.

Note that there’s a big drawback – Dropbox will sync only when you are logged in. For a solution that would allow you to backup to Dropbox at any time you need to wait till SQLBackupAndFTP v 7.1 that is due to be released in the beginning of June 2012.

When you Remote Desktop to a Windows XP Professional computer, you always connect to the console (main/default) session.  This is the default for Remote Desktop to Windows XP Professional.  When you remote desktop to a Windows Server 2003 computer, the default is to start a new session.

This is how you can connect to the default/console/admin session:
Create a .bat file like this:

%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe “You RDP file” /admin

For options just run
%SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe /?

This post is a good reference

Introduction:

So you have a server and you need to implement SSL to allow secure (https) communication. What choices do you have? You can buy a certificate from certification authority or you can issue a Self-Signed certificate to yourself. The difference is that your browser “knows” it can trust the certificates from the authorities (it has it installed). But when the browser encounters the https connection with a server with the self-signed certificate, the user is presented with a message like this:

Thus, self-signed certificates are OK for test and development web sites, but generally not OK for public websites.

This article will show you the simplest ways to create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate.

Here are your options. (Or just go to the Best Solution )

Solution 1 (quite long, but recommended by Microsoft)

Setting Up SSL Using IIS and Certificate Server

MS recommends that you get the certificate from the certificate server. This means that you have to have an access to Window 2000 or Windows 2003 server with “Certification Services” installed. You use IIS MMC to generate request to this server. Then using browser you submit this request to the server. Then, when somebody at that server approves the request, you will get back a certificate.

See details at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=299525

Solution 2 (fast, but sometimes could be tricky)

Creating Self-Signed SSL Certificates using makecert.exe

It is a quite simple solution. The only problem is that sometimes it just doesn’t work, and it’s hard to determine what is wrong. The makecert.exe comes with VS.NET. It you don’t have .NET Framework 1.1 installed, the makecert might be outdated. You can download a newer version from http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/Update/5.131.3617.0/NT45XP/EN-US/makecert.exe

Just replace yourservername with the computer name of your PC and run:

makecert -r -pe -n “CN=yourservername” -b 01/01/2000 -e 01/01/2050 -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1 -ss my -sr localMachine -sky exchange -sp “Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider” -sy 12

Then go to the IIS “Web Site Properties”, “Directory Security”, “Server Certificate…”, “Assign an existing certificate” and select the new certificate from the list.

It works? Fine! No? Go to the Best Solution

Solution 3 (OK for not-technical users)

Download a test certificate from certification authorities

The certificate companies like VeriSign and Thawte issue test certificates, but they expire after 90 days or so, and the process of getting it could be quite tedious.

Solution 4 (The Best and Recommended)

Create a Self-Signed Certificate using SSL Diagnostics Tool

Avoid all this pain with a nice tool from Microsoft: SSL Diagnostics . Download setup.exe (2112 KB) from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=CABEA1D0-5A10-41BC-83D4-06C814265282&displaylang=en

Install it and run. In the main window of SSL Diagnostics, right-click the Web site level (shown by [W3SVC/<site number>]), and then click Create New Certificate.

That is it. You are done. Don’t forget to explore other capabilities of this nice tool.

Writing to Event Log is not simple, but very simple:

// Create an EventLog instance and assign its source.

EventLog
myLog = new EventLog();

myLog.Source
= "MySource";

// Write an informational entry to the event log.   

myLog.WriteEntry("Writing
to event log.");

EventLog is in System.Diagnostics namespase.

Before using the source of the EventLog, you have to create
it. But if you use the code like this:

//Create Event Log if It Doesn’t Exist

if (! EventLog.SourceExists("MySource"))

      EventLog.CreateEventSource("MySource",
"MySource");

you will get the error:

System.Security.SecurityException: Requested registry access
is not allowed.

Instead, go to registry editor (regedit), locate key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application
and create a new key with the source name