The UltraTech Zone

This is the sixth part in a series of articles tracking the implementation of virtualization on my home network.  Planning for the project originally started at the end of 2007, with some equipment purchased in early 2008, but the bulk of the work was completed in the past 2 months. For those interested in seeing how this all played out over ...

It has been a very productive year so far, as it pertains to my ongoing Home Network Re-Engineering Project.  In fact, the past few days have been especially productive. I was finally able to fix the hardware problem that prevented my old domain controller from booting, and since the boys’ old Windows XP machine began to fail (spontaneous ...

For the first time in over a decade, my home network saw no major improvements for almost 2 years. Let’s just say that the past few years have been interesting…  From March 2008 until December 2009, several major undertakings that I had planned for my networking environment were put on hold.  Additionally, I suffered a few hardware ...

Just a quick few notes as the Summer of 2009 draws to a close – much faster than desired… Vacations… We didn’t take our summer trip to Cape May, NJ this year but we did finally get out to Stokes State Forest for our annual camping expedition.  It was fun and refreshing – even with all the work of setting up the tent!   It ...

The past month or two has been interesting for my home network from a technology standpoint.  I have a server that went down because of a motherboard issue; I need some new drive rails to bring my Windows 2008 server online; my cable service from Comcast went out for a couple days; and I finally made the jump to Verizon FIOS. It’s only been ...

On June 26, Microsoft released Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing. You can download it today! Now, I can really finish up with my home network virtualization project, which has been languishing because I haven't had a lot of free time. A few reviews of Beta and Release Candidate code can already be found on the web, including this ...

I haven't posted in a few weeks, but not because I don't have anything to write -- it's because I haven't mastered the art of dividing my time across all needs and wants. Here are a few thoughts that hint of posts to come: I need to write about Strategy, Leadership, and Success, particularly in a corporate context.   I have a number ...

I just finished reading an article on Windows Vista from InfoWorld, and it makes several really good points. Windows Vista brings a lot to the table that gets de-emphasized by the masses.  It's funny that when Microsoft releases a product that is primarily a refinement of the previous version (XP vs 2000), there are complaints about having ...

It has been officially available for a couple weeks now, but some of us have been running it for over a month at this point.  Of course, outside of the MSDN and TechNet avenues, the only way to get it was due to a Microsoft mistake. In any event, my home and work systems have seen tremendous benefit from the upgrade to Service Pack 1 for ...

After many months, and a few miscellaneous upgrades to other parts of my network, I'm finally about to get a jump on my home virtualization overhaul project.  A number of things have changed from the original plan, however. Since that plan was presented back in October, Microsoft has released Windows Server 2008, with a beta of Hyper-V, ...

I have a little bit of everything to share today. Professional Networking LinkedIn has performed quite a few upgrades in recent days, and they've upgraded their site quite a bit.   It looks nice, I must say.   I hope this is just the beginning of them implementing some long-awaited changes, such as the ones I compiled last ...

If you're a 64-bit Vista user, that is...  It looks as though the users of Vista x64 can obtain Service Pack 1 via Windows Update. I've already started down the MSDN path for obtaining the Service Pack, but that has presented its own set of issues.  (TechNet is also another option for obtaining the Service Pack for x86 or x64 ...

The list server is back online after a hardware failure (power supply). All mail sent to the lists since Saturday, January 19th, should make its way to list recipients within a few hours. Thanks for your patience.

More precisely, the list mail server replacement is finally online.  My venerable 400Mhz Pentium 2 server is no longer providing any services on this network.  It has been replaced by an AMD Sempron 3400+ running Windows 2003 R2 x64. Just another step in my home network modernization efforts.    I can't complain, though, as I ...

I posted an announcement over the weekend that my List Mail server had gone down.  I'm pretty sure that the power supply was all I needed to change, but due to a series of parts failures and upgrades over the past 4 or 5 months across various systems, I'm fresh out of power supplies. More importantly, the list server is running on the oldest ...