Microsoft to release Windows Server 2003

Microsoft to release Windows Server 2003

By Brian Livingston

San Francisco will be even geekier than usual on April 24 as Microsoft descends on the city for the formal ceremony releasing its long-awaited server operating system, Windows Server 2003 (formerly entitled Windows 2003 .NET Server). The product is positioned as an upgrade to Windows 2000 Server.

I’m not going to write about Server 2K3 here this week, because the OS isn’t officially out yet. I also don’t want to make this issue of Brian’s Buzz on Windows too long by dwelling on Windows Server, considering that there are many other subjects I’m covering in the sections below.

Instead, I want to invite you to send me your experiences, findings, and challenges with Server 2K3. Microsoft is describing it as a more secure server and has released a white paper explaining why. Whether you were an early beta tester or are just now installing Server 2K3 for the first time, what are your thoughts?

To send me more information about this, or to send me a tip on any other subject, visit WindowsSecrets.com/contact

Solutions to working with offline files

In my last issue, reader Glen Looby presented a problem that plagues his users when they move from one office to another. As he put it:

• “We use ‘offline’ files for our laptop users, typically comprising their personal and shared folders on the network. The problem we have is that when the user works from another office but on the same domain (we’re in New Zealand and the office is in Australia), Windows connects the drives to the original location rather than ‘work offline.’ “

I asked for input on the best solutions, and several readers provided a surprising array of answers. Because any one of these could help you solve a problem of yours, I’ll print more than one answer here.

Mike Smith explains two simple settings:

• “Choose ‘Synchronize’ from the Tools menu in Windows Explorer. Click on the Setup button. You will find several options that will probably fix the problem. Two options pertain to automatic synchronization. These are to automatically synchronize when logging on and when logging off. Glen will probably choose to have neither of these selected. There is also an option to “Ask me before synchronizing.” He may want to select this to make sure that it does not synchronize. He will then be able to work with the offline files.”

net use command:

• “Ask your IT weasel to create an ‘offline’ shortcut to a command session with a batch file containing

net use commands to change drive assignments, then pause.

“When the user completes their MS Office work, they click on the command session and hit any key to continue. Execution continues, reassigning drive assigments back to ‘corporate’ connections. This task could also be broken into two or more icons (batch files) for multiple configurations.

“The magic is in the net use command. Type net use /? for info on this useful tool.”

Joel Gegerson developed his own short batch language solution:

• “I’ve been working around the offline files issue in 2000 and XP by using the Robocopy.exe utility from the Resource Kit. I made a batch file with the following contents:

robocopy “servershare” “C:Synch” /E /XO /V /ETA
robocopy “C:Synch” “servershare” /E /XO /V /ETA

“It’s definitely not perfect (delete a file from one spot and it’ll get re-created the next time you run the batch file), but it works OK for me and required no more $$$.”

Finally, Carl Houseman points out that there are little-known Registry settings that allow you to define the connection speed at which Windows 2000 switches from offline files to online files. These settings are described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 263097:

• “Any network speed that is less than or equal to 64,000 bps is considered a slow connection for offline files. This setting can be overridden through the following registry DWORD value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
 CurrentVersionNetCacheSlowLinkSpeed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindows
 CurrentVersionNetCacheSlowLinkSpeed

“The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE value overrides the HKEY_CURRENT_USER value if both are present. The value represents bps divided by 100, so the default value of 64,000 is stored as 640 in the registry.”

Because Glen Looby’s roaming users were connected to their home offices by a 512 Kbps frame relay, changing their SlowLinkSpeed values to a number greater than 5120 could keep Windows from attempting to use files across the Internet.

I’m sending a certificate for a free book, CD, or DVD of their choice to all the readers whose comments I printed. Thanks for your input.

The mysteries of the USB coffee warmer are revealed

In my last issue, I wrote that I’d found an ad on a Japanese site for a coffee-cup warmer (pictured at left) that plugs into your USB port. Because I can’t read Japanese, I couldn’t say how much the device cost or whether it was available in any countries outside Japan. But it seemed like a very funny idea.

Several readers came to my aid with helpful information. John Weber, who describes himself as “a coffeeholic in Portland,” sent me a link that questioned whether a USB port had sufficient voltage to heat coffee. The forum page, run by HalfBakery.com, received numerous pro and con comments, including supportive ones from a poster named JKew:

• “My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that 2.5W is sufficient to raise 300ml of water by ~11 degrees Kelvin an hour – ignoring any cooling losses and ignoring the mass and heat capacity of the mug. Flipping it around, this suggests that a USB port is capable of maintaining the temperature of 300ml of water which would otherwise cool by 11 degrees an hour.”

Fortunately, reader Arent Smit of Lake Cowichan, BC, Canada, provided a translation of the Japanese text, showing that the USB device doesn’t have to heat the coffee, just keep it from losing heat as fast as it normally would:

• “The bottom surface is warmed up by the USB power source and with heat retention by the thermal insulating material from which the sides are made. This prevents hot drinks from cooling down.”

Finally, reader Howard Yamaguchi reports that coffee is sold in heated cans that stay warm with help from the insulated sides of the USB cup holder:

• “In Japan, every street corner, train station, and other public area has a gazillion vending machines selling drinks of every kind. Coffee, both hot and cold, is sold in cans of various sizes. The hot coffee sold in cans is heated in the vending machines.

  “What the device being advertised at the Japanese Web site does is keep the already hot cans of coffee (45 degrees C) hot for a longer period of time (around 40 degrees C), for 30 to 60 minutes. It states that it cannot heat a cold can of coffee up to the temperatures stated.”

So there you have it. If you’ve seen something equally wacky on the Web, tell me about it at WindowsSecrets.com/contact