Microsoft ranks Broadview #1 in Manitoba and TOP 10 in Canada out of 9400 Partners

Microsoft ranks all Partners based on several criteria. While competencies and certifications are important, customer satisfaction is key to achieving a superior ranking.

Daylight Savings Time is coming March 11, 2007 - Is your network ready?

Software created earlier than 2005 is set to automatically advance its timekeeping by one hour on the 1st Sunday in April, not the 2nd Sunday in March this year. Many vendors do not support a fix for this. What does that mean for you?

Multi-Monitor support using Remote Desktop Client

Dual monitors can help staff get more done – and Microsoft’s recent update to the Remote Desktops Connection client now supports dual monitors on the remote client. Now you can use both monitors when connected to a remote system!

Broadview & Fortinet Security Appliances

Broadview Networks is a Fortinet Gold partner, with FCNSP and FCSE Certified Technicians. When it comes to Fortinet support, we’ve got you covered!

HP PurchasEdge

PurchasEdge rewards you for purchasing original HP supplies. Redeem points for free HP products. Easy Online Ordering with Broadview! Here is how PurchasEdge Works...

Broadview Media- Web Server Upgrades Complete

Broadview has recently done a complete upgrade of our Web Servers and the Plesk Control Panel to deliver our customers state-of-the-art web hosting. Our Web Servers are located in a mission critical data center to provide world-class hosting for our customers.

Broadview Networks Announces a #1 ranking in Manitoba and Top 10 in Canada out of 9400 Microsoft Partners.

Microsoft ranks all Partners based on several criteria. While competencies and certifications are important, customer satisfaction is key to achieving a superior ranking.

Broadview is proud to be a Manitoba success story. We would like to recognize our loyal customers and outstanding staff who have each contributed to our continued growth and success.

Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in Exchange Deployment, Active Directory & Identity Management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Office Systems Deployment, and Storage Solutions. Microsoft Competencies achieved by Broadview:

• Advanced Infrastructure Solutions
• Data Management Solutions
• Information Worker Solutions
• Licensing Solutions
• Microsoft Business Solutions
• Mobility Solutions
• Networking Infrastructure Solutions

We'd welcome an opportunity to show you why Microsoft has ranked us #1 in Manitoba. Please contact us.

The standard dates for North American Daylight Saving Time (DST) change in March 2007. Previously, DST began on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. As of March 2007, DST begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

Impact of DST 2007 Changes on your Network

When the DST dates change in March 2007, Servers, Desktops, and handheld devices will not update their clocks for the affected time zones if no patches for impacted software are applied. As a result, your applications may not display correct time zone information for certain time periods during the year.

Businesses, and individuals who use any hardware or software that is sensitive to date and time transactions, and utilizes a local time zone, or interacts with systems that use a local time zone (versus the universal UTC time zone used for many world wide business transactions) could be impacted by these changes in Daylight Saving Time.On your typical computer server or PC, the automatic decision to change to Daylight Saving time is generally made by the underlying Operating System, such as Microsoft Windows or Unix. However, applications often also perform date and time manipulation, and may make a similar automatic decision, or use date/time calculations in other ways.

Generally, before March of 2007 patches will be available for currently supported Operating Systems. This means that older operating systems such as Windows NT, Windows 95, or any Sun Solaris version before 2.8 won't have official patches made available for them.

Depending on complexities in your business, a few patches from your software and OS vendors will fix this concern with little or no interaction on your part. However, on the other hand, this could involve a lot of work, involving many individuals.

If you are in a time zone that does not switch into Daylight Saving Time, you may still have to patch applications if you software communicates ith systems that are in those time zones. For example, calendar and scheduling programs, for example. Otherwise, you may find that you for a conference call an hour early or an hour later than other members of your call.

How to prepare for the DST 2007 upgrade

Research needs to be done in all areas of an organization to ensure that in March 2007 time is as time should be. This should include an analysis of how time related events and time manipulation occur in all hardware and software devices, software applications and the interaction between them. Just as with Y2K, each system will need to be tested to ensure it passes handling the change into and out of Daylight Saving time on the correct dates/times in years past 2006, as well as correctly calculating any calendar related information into the past and future.

After the OS has been dealt with, each application must also be examined and tested to understand if there is date/time sensitive code within. This also applies to stand alone hardware such as network devices, routers, switches and even some alarm panels. Appropriate upgrades or patches may also be required in these instances.

Manually Changing the Time On March 11th Will Not Work

You can't find a patch for your OS or Application? You are considering trying to 'set the time by hand'?

Setting the time by hand on March 11th will not work in most instances. Not only will you then have to do it three more times during the rest of the year (3 weeks later, and again twice in the fall), your computer will also not really be at the correct time. For example, 12 Noon EST = 12:00 EST = 13:00 DST = 17:00 GMT. Those represent the exact same time, stated in different ways.

If you try and set your computer on March 11th, most unpatched (for DST 2007) Operating Systems will know you should still be in EST, and you will just be putting them one hour ahead.

The transition on March 11th goes from 01:59:59 EST to 03:00:00 DST. An unpatched computer would show 02:00:00 EST. If you try and set the time by hand, in most instances, you will only be able to set it to 03:00:00 EST. Yes the hour will be correct, but the timezone will be wrong. (Some versions of Windows allow you to override the DST setting, but you still have to deal with it four times per year, and in most cases, there are already patches available anyhow). And if you have an NTP client on the computer (as most Windows and Unix servers do these days) that keeps the computer time correct (computers are no good at keeping accurate time on their own), it will no longer run (letting the time drift by seconds or minutes per day), or it could just go and change the time back on you, since its job is to keep your computer time c orrect in the first place. And, as mentioned above, you will have to deal with this 3 more times this year. And four times every following year until you upgrade or retire the server.

In this instance, it might be better to leave the computer alone and live with the wrong time, but at least a time that is expected, and still synced to your NTP server. The time, while in the wrong time zone will represent the real time, just represent it in a timezone someone might not expect to see when everyone one else has moved into Daylight Saving Time.

Broadview is here to help! Contact Us today for assistance with your network.

Declining hardware prices and increasing demands for productivity improvements have influenced business investment in multiple monitors for the desks of executives, power users, and administrative staff. LCD display units have decreased the desktop footprint compared to CRT monitors, and since the launch of Windows XP back in October of 2001, laptop manufacturers have been improving on adapter and driver support for multiple monitor on portable equipment. Today, it is rare to find a laptop that will not support extended Windows Desktop on an external display.

Another emerging trend is the growing familiarity and reliance upon remote desktop technologies. Increasingly, IT Professionals and power users count on remote desktop services to connect efficiently to remote networks to perform business related functions, from support to day-to-day job functions. It's not uncommon for a remote worker to rely exclusively upon remote desktops to connect from a home office or remote location to their business Terminal Server or even to their work desktop via Remote Web Workplace if their network core is Small Business Server 2003.

Microsoft recently released an updated Remote Desktop Connection client (Terminal Services Client 6.0) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 products. Download links and related information about this product update is available at: support.microsoft.com

One of the interesting new features in the updated Remote Desktop Connection client is support for spanning multiple monitors!

If you have multiple monitors on the system you are running the Remote Desktop Connection client from, you can stretch the virtual desktop of the host system to span your monitors. It's important to note that only rectangular shapes are supported - dual monitors with different resolutions will not work with multiple monitor spanning.

If you know the resolution you want for the virtual desktop (great for when you wish to have a less-than-full screen window span monitors), you can now state explicitly the dimensions you desire:

mstsc /w:2048 /h:768 /v:"server"

The above example would create a full screen spanned virtual desktop on two 1024x768 resolution displays.

Or, if preferred, the Remote Desktop Connection client can figure out the size automatically (great for full screen view):

mstsc /span /v:"server"

The above example would create a full screen spanned virtual desktop to match the rectangle size of your dual displays.

There are some limitations of dual monitors and the updated Remote Desktop Connection client:

• The total resolution on all monitors must be less than or equal to 4096 x 2048.
• The remote session sees the virtual desktop as one very large virtual desktop. It doesn't know you are using two monitors.
• All monitors must be aligned side-by-side, and have to be the same resolutions. Vertical alignment is not supported.

In order to make the most of the dual monitor support, a very nice little tool to have installed on the Remote Desktop host system is SplitView (splitview.com). This inexpensive tool adds two buttons to the top right corner of system windows in the title bar area. By pressing the left arrow, the active window is directed to move to the left and use 50% of the screen width. By pressing the right arrow, the active window is sent to the rightmost 50% of the screen. As the virtual desktop is split equally, the consequence of these actions in a Remote Desktop Connection is to move the window to the left or right display on your desk.

And you don't necessarily need to have dual monitors on the host system! The host might have only one monitor, but you can still span the single virtual desktop across your dual physical displays on the Remote Client PC system. For people who use remote desktop connections on a regular basis, you can get more out of your remote sessions and your investment in dual displays with the updated client and the /span switch! Adding the third party application to assist in managing the windows in your virtual desktop will only improve your overall experience.

Fortinet's award-winning FortiGate™ series of ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security systems detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more � all in real time. As the recognized leader in Unified Threat Management systems, and with a complete range of products, subscription services and support bundles that work together, Fortinet can provide the most comprehensive, cost effective and manageable solutions available for protecting networks of all sizes.

Why choose Broadview Networks to support your Fortinet? Our staff are certified!

When it comes to configuring Fortinet products, Fortinet certified professionals have the skills with the products and knowledge of principles of network security and configuration alternatives best for our customer's networks. Broadview Networks technicians have achieved both FCNSP and FCSE Certifications; the Fortinet Certification Program provides validation of knowledge and skills as they pertain to the Fortinet family of products and services.

As companies continue to invest in their security infrastructures, they are also looking for a ways to validate the knowledge and skills of their network operations staff. In response to this, Fortinet has introduced the Fortinet Certified Network Security Associate (FCNSA) designation and the Fortinet Certified Network Security Professional (FCNSP) designation.

The FCNSA designation certifies that technicians have the expertise necessary to manage the day-to-day operations of FortiGate devices. The FCNSP designation certifies that technicians have the expertise necessary for the installation and configuration of all FortiGate features and functionality. FCNSP's are able to configure multiple FortiGates taking advantage of features for large-scale environments such as HA and redundant VPNs. In addition to FortiGate devices Fortinet Certified Network Security Professionals have a good working knowledge of other Fortinet products such as FortiManager and FortiLog.

Broadview Networks certified technicians are the best option when it comes to support for Fortinet products!

Broadview has recently finished a complete upgrade of our Web Servers which continue to be protected by Fortinet. Our Web Servers are using world-class hosting infrastructure, and the now the newest version of the Plesk control panel software.

Hosting Infrastructure Overview

Our Web Servers are located in a mission critical data center to provide world-class hosting for our customers. To ensure the fastest and most reliable routing of traffic there are multiple connections to major Internet backbone carriers with OC-12 and Gigabit Ethernet connections using the BGP-4 routing protocol. The Data Center has N+1 redundancy throughout, including multiple HVAC systems and redundant power including diesel generators.

Plesk Control Panel Overview

Plesk 8 is the most advanced control panel currently available. All of our virtual web hosting plans come with the Plesk advanced web hosting control panel. Here are some of the examples of what you can do with this interface:

• Add/modify/delete your email accounts
• Setup your web stats
• Manage your files on the server
• Change your password
• Verify your disk usage
• Manage your log files
• Protect some sections or your website with passwords
• And much more !

Some New Features on Plesk 8

Brand-new Desktop interface option - Plesk 8 boasts quick and efficient task-oriented desktop, while retaining the ability to use old, traditional interface, and offering the options of switching between old and new interfaces, and even using both at the same time. Now administrators have quick access to major management functions and they have immediate access to mission critical information and statistics. The task-oriented design also allows administrators to create "favorites" and "shortcuts".

Interface Control Management - This feature enables Plesk administrators to easily and efficiently manage the visibility of the control panel buttons. Plesk administrators have the flexibility to maintain a simpler, cleaner interface for end-users by hiding the controls for features that are not installed from Plesk users. Plesk 8 introduces the concept of client interface templates, which eliminates the need to adjust interface settings on a per-client basis. This can considerably speed up your client interface management.

There are three customer login levels in Plesk with each level having its appropriate roles and responsibilities:

• Client/Reseller - Top tier login account where the users are given domain creation rights from the System Administrator. Clients can administer groups of domains using a single login.
• Domain Owner - Second tier individual domain owner accounts with predetermined permission sets and interface for single domain administration.
• Mail User - This is the third tier individual mail account which allows the user to log in to their own private interface and manage passwords, spam filters, anti-virus settings and much more.