CPU Requirements for Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 Server

I've decided to recertify my MCSE with the latest Microsoft Technologies. As I've been studying for the Windows 7 exam I've been reading more on Microsoft's Hyper-V 2008 R2 Server and was interested in playing around with it. Turns out there are some strict CPU and BIOS requirements for running it properly, though. The "server" has to support certain hardware Intel and AMD virtualization technologies. If you're like me and only have old hardware in your personal graveyard building a suitable test platform for Hyper-V Server might not be so easy. I found an outstanding web page to help me, though:

VT-x Capabilities for Intel Processors
AMD Download to test your processor

Haven't found a page from AMD like the Intel one yet. If I see one in the future I'll mention it, though. Sadly nothing in my computer graveyard makes the grade, but maybe the link will help someone else trying to do the same thing. :-)


About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.

TechNet Purchase Causes Fraud Block on my Credit Card

It was a wonderful afternoon. Dropped off at Best Buy with my son to pick up some CD-R and DVD-R disks and my card got rejected. Such a wonderful feeling to hear "I'm sorry sir, but do you have cash or another card?" when you're having a nice, lazy Friday afternoon with your boy...

I just looked at the balance online last night to see what I needed to pay this month and it was fine. Nowhere near the limit, even. So I came home and looked again and saw the new fraud block notice. I called the number and had to work a little to get past the first lady. I try to be nice to those people because they're the minimum wage front line fodder. No use in pressing them for info they don't have. Finally get through to the fraud people and do they have an answer? Apparently the computer flagged my TechNet purchase from the Microsoft Online Store as suspicious. The MSDN renewal from a few days before, which was for more was fine, but the TechNet one raises the flags? Ugh... Anyhow, they gave my home number one call this afternoon and when we didn't answer my card was blocked. Is it just me or is that completely over the top? One call? If someone doesn't answer one call their card is immediately blocked? And they couldn't even give me specific guidelines as to why that purchase caused the alert?

I've had several alerts on our personal card in the last couple years but that bank didn't block the card immediately. I got multiple calls and from what I can remember always called the number from answering machine messages later. But the card was never blocked so that you look like a fool standing there in line. I think I need to change banks. I already "fired" them for personal accounts a few years ago in favor of the one that had more customer friendly procedures, but they don't have business accounts. I truly hate dealing with banks...



About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.

Likes and Dislikes about this first version of the iPad

Well, been using it daily now since it came out and figured I'd jot down my likes and dislikes in a quick bullet list. It's not a review per se, just me saying what I like, don't like, and what we don't really use:

Dislikes:

• Can't print. Seriously, this sucks...
• Can't switch between user accounts. That means if you want to sync with MobileMe you'll have to decide which family member the iPad syncs to. We've chosen not to sync as a result.
• Wireless connectivity took a lot of effort to get working. Almost returned it for this reason.
• Once wireless is working, it's clearly slower than my other Apple equipment and distance affects it more.
• Can't open pdf files in iBooks. Had to buy a third party tool, which works fine, but iBooks should really import and open eBooks that are in pdf format.
• No easy way to sync files to the device. The pdf reader I purchased has me upload them via a web browser from another computer.
• I really, really wanted to use Pages and Numbers, but the reviews of the first versions show way too many problems. The apps can't use iDisk with MobileMe. I find that astonishing, and without being able to print I'll wait until the programs are more complete before getting them. This makes any business usage for me pretty much nil to none...
• iMovie doesn't sync to it as easily as iPhoto does. You have to export them out to disk and then put them onto the iPad. That means creating another folder to exclude from Time Machine backups so I don't waste backup space and exporting everything I want, then importing it to the device via drag and drop (open to hearing easier methods). It needs to be as easy as iPhoto is. There's too much involved right now for regular folks to easily get their home movies into the iPad.
• The keyboard lacks most of the languages my iPhone has. Since I love to use it for language study and looking up words I really want to see my missing languages included.
• Can't get foreign books in the iBookstore any easier than getting foreign TV shows and movies in iTunes. This ticks me off to no end... I can order from the German Amazon website easily and with the same account info I use on the U.S. Amazon site. It just knows me and I order things. I should be able to do the same with iTunes. In today's world there's just no excuse for limiting these things based on geography.

Likes:

• Switching keyboard languages on the fly is awesome for language study. Eliminates flipping around paper dictionaries almost completely.
• I love not having to be at one of our iMacs or lug around my business laptop to surf on the couch or in the kitchen while cooking. I used to use my iPhone for it, but this bigger screen is great! I had my bread recipe up and walked around getting the ingredients and it's big enough that you can lay it on the counter and read while moving around.
• Having the kids favorite TV shows and a handful of movies ripped and on the iPad for excursions is great. Since most of them are in German it's great for Dad's language practice as well. :-)
• Having the Photo app with our iPhoto library in it is great. Took it to Grandma's house for Easter dinner and people enjoyed handing it around looking at the pictures a lot.
• Love reading on it, though I'll be happier when I can get foreign books easily.
• Some of these news applications have convinced me 100% that print media is going to die sooner than anyone realizes. I'll be a happy camper when the Deutsche Welle iPhone app is updated to the iPad, but it's clear to me in looking at the iPad apps produced by USA Today, Yahoo Entertainment, AP, BBC, NPR, ABC Player, Reuters News Pro, etc that these kinds of devices are going to be how we consume this kind of information in the future. Star Trek is here...

Things we don't use:

• We don't use the mail app. We see it as a family device and since you can't switch between users it's too insecure for mail.
• We don't use it for music. We use my wife's iPod and it's nice mount for music in the house. Can't see any reason to put a bunch of music on this thing to listen to.
• Contacts and Calendar just aren't getting used. My wife still loves the hanging calendar. She's never adjusted to the digital world so far, and I doubt it'll change soon. Since we don't use it for email we don't really need contacts either. Besides, it only syncs with one person's account. Whose Contact list would you choose in a multi-user situation like we have? A group calendar at least makes a little sense
• The Maps application isn't too useful when you can't print. We just use a regular computer for that stuff since we've generally wanted printouts.

About The Author Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.

iPad WiFi woes continue into day four

Well, I'm at the last straw with my iPad. Tonight I'll set it back to factory standards completely and see how it behaves after that. This is depressing because I like it so much. I've scoured the Internet for fixes. Lots of people are having WiFi problems so there are plenty of suggestions out there to follow. I have a Verizon FiOS Actiontec MI424-WR Rev C router that's worked great for close to two years now. Firmware is up to date. I've had countless wireless devices working great on it for a couple years now with the default settings I used. I should have updated them a long time ago so I used this as an opportunity to make the following changes:

• Change from WEP to WPA (this seems to have cut down on the bad wireless password messages more than any other change)
• Changed "Wireless Mode" from 802.11b and 802.11g to only supporting 802.11g
• specified channel 11 rather than leaving it on "automatic"

I've reset the network setting on the iPad multiple times and set the option "Ask to Join Networks" to "Off" as many have recommended on the boards. So how is it now? I'm sitting in our bedroom, which is the furthest room in the house from the Actiontec router, writing this on a 27" iMac and getting great WiFi reception. My iPhone has great WiFi reception here too. The iPad moves between one bar (which it has presently) to three bars and the browser is noticeably slower than the iMac or the iPhone. It's fast when I'm in the other rooms, but signal quality really does degrade back here. Our house is a single level with 1500 sq ft, so it's not like I'm a football field away or anything. I'm five feet from the door which has line of sight to the router (very simple floor plan). It's also still prompting me saying it has the wrong WiFi password periodically, though a good bit less than when I first got it on the network. Outside of the iPad I have my MacBook Pro, two iMacs, the Time Capsule, my iPhone, my wife's iPod Touch and the Printer all working great with strong signals. I've never had any of them give me messages about incorrect passwords either.

So far I love the device so it's going to make getting a refund very difficult on me. I've never turned in an Apple device before, but every time I get that dialog saying it has the wrong WiFi password I just want to throw things. I really, really want it to work properly. :-(


About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.

iPad wifi problems

Don't know about others yet, but I've been having chronic problems with my wifi connection getting dropped with this new iPad. If it continues to be this bad I'm going to have to look into a replacement, though. Even when I try to reconnect about 1/3 of the time it prompts me for my key again. There aren't any problems with the other two computers, laptop and printer I have set up so I don't think it's the wifi network device. Nice, dropped me just now... Anyhow, other than this I love it. Can't wait until a few of my favorite apps are updated to support it. :-)


About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.