Dennis

Server Core + IIS7 + PHP + MySQL

Wow. Take Windows Server 2008 Server Core + PHP + IIS7 + MySQL + WordPress, mix them together, will they blend well and work out as a nice concoction? Matty challenged me to this blend, and guess what, we have a powerful cocktail to offer after all!

I scuffled around to see if anyone had come up with this powerful blend. Surprisingly, no one offered it on Server Core. There are bits and pieces everywhere, but none quite fit the blend we needed. I then decided to take up Matty’s challenge and come up with one.

With my buddy Matty, we decided to take a spin for it (He challenged me to it). The whole ordeal was over in a day and we finally got it working. Thanks to another great pal in the next cube, Chris Ismael (Interop Expert).

Alright, here is the story on my adventure.

The Hardware

Matty brought me his machine for the adventure. A cool looking machine with a red glow. Deserves some mention because he sponsored this equipment to mess with. It is a Dell XPS. But it is more like desktop replacement than a laptop. ;-) It is powered by an Intel Core2DUO 2GHz with 4GB of ram. In this adventure, a Server Core installation took a mere 4 minutes to complete on this beast.

Windows Virtualization

I chose to do my adventure using Virtualization technology. I loaded a Windows 2008 x64 onto the Dell machine and installed the Virtualization server role. Using virtualization allows me to take snap shots in time. This will allow me to revert back to a previous time in seconds. So for example, if I crash and made a grave mistake, I do not have to redo or try figure out what to undo. Windows Server Virtualization is definitely a technology every one serious in optimizing the data centre should take a serious thought about it.

The Ordeal Begins

Alright, let’s get to our stuff and begin our adventure.

I will take you through Server Core, IIS7 with FastCGI, PHP, MySQL and WordPress. The rest are on your own. Seriously, there is nothing else apart from learning how to use WordPress. ;-)

Getting Server Core onto the Network

You will setup Server Core the same way as you setup a typical Windows server, except you select “Core” installation. The first thing Server Core will get you to do is force you to change your admin password.

A Server Core in Windows Server Virtualization (WSV) will not have any network card installed. We will need to install Integration Services into the Virtual Machine (VM). By the way, my tests so far, WSV allows my VMs to run 3 times faster than on Virtual Server 2005 R2.

Here are some tasks you need to get over;

1. Install Integration Services (Skip this if you’re not using WSV)

On the VM Connection Window, Click on Action -> Insert Integration Services Setup Disk or Hit Ctrl+I. This step loads vmguest.iso onto the VM’s DVD Drive and lets you access the ISO contents. In this case, the Integration Services.

Auto run won't happen. So you need to execute “<DRIVE>:\support\x86\ and execute setup.exe”
You will be prompted to reboot twice, go ahead.

This will load up the smooth mouse integration, NICs bla bla.. I'll save the details. Let’s move on.

2. Verifying NIC and IPConfig

If you have a DHCP server running on the network, you can skip this unless you want to use static IP configuration

To fix an IP Address;
netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=static address=<IPADDRESS> mask=<255.255.255.0> gateway=<GatewayIP>

To add a DNS Server entry;
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name="Local Area Connection" address-<IPAddress of DNS>

3. Changing the Computer Name & Joining a Domain if needed

Find out the current hostname: "hostname" (Take note of it)

To change the computer name:
netdom renamecomputer <Current Computer name> /NewName:<NewComputerName>

To join the domain (if you need to, Server Core and be in workgroup mode):
netdom join <ComputerName> /domain:<DomainName> /Userd:<UserName> /passwordd: *

4. Opening an Exception for MySQL

netsh firewall add portopening tcp 3306 "MySQL"

This step prevents a setup error in MySQL later.

You need to reboot at this stage to take effect: shutdown /r /t 0

5. Activation of Windows Server Core

If you are connected to Internet: slmgr.vbs –ato

Else to use phone activation:

slmgr.vbs –dti (Displays the Installation ID to be given to Microsoft)

slmgr.vbs –ato <ConfirmationID> (Activates server using Confirmation ID given by Microsoft)

Loading IIS 7.0 with FastCGI

This is where Microsoft has placed lots of focus on making IIS 7.0 highly secure, highly modular and highly interoperable. For more details on the installation commands, you may visit this web page for installation tips.

For this adventure, I will install the minimum required. I used the following command;

start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;IIS-CGI

To verify the installation, use this command “oclist” and verify the installation.

Loading PHP

Reference: Using Fast CGI to Host PHP Applications on IIS7
Download: Non-Thread Safe PHP 5.2.1

Extract contents of downloaded files onto c:\php\

Updating the PHP.INI File

- Copy c:\php\php.ini-recommended c:\php\php.ini
- Notepad c:\php\php.ini
- Change: extension_dir=”c:\php\ext”
- Uncomment: extension=php_mysql.dll
- Add: Extension=php_gd.dll
- Save the file php.ini and exit notepad

Creating PHP Handler in IIS 7.0

Reference: Using Fast-CGI to Host PHP Applications on IIS7

appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/fastCGI /+[fullPath='c:\php\php-cgi.exe']

appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/handlers /+[name='PHP-FastCGI',path='*.php',verb='*',modules='FastCgiModule',scriptProcessor='c:\php\php-cgi.exe',resourceType='Either']

Setting Default Document to index.php

appcmd set config "Default web site" /section:defaultDocument /enabled:true

appcmd set config "Default Web Site" /section:defaultDocument /+files.[value='index.php']

Loading MySQL

Download: MySQL 5.0.45

This is the only section where you will encounter a GUI setup. ;-) Enjoy.

Running the Setup:
Execute the file, mysql-essential-5.0.45-win32.msi
At Welcome, Click next
Select Typical, Click next
Click Install, Next all the way and Finish.

Instance Configuration will now begin:
At Welcome, Click next
Select Standard Configuration, Click next
Select Install as Windows Service, Click next
Specify the root password and Click next
Click Execute and Finish

Creating a MySQL Database

Reference: PHP on IIS7.0 Wordpress
Execute “c:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysql.exe –u root –p”
Key in your root password specified earlier.

mysql> create database wordpress;

mysql> grant all privileges on wordpress.* to ‘wordpress’@’%’ identified by ‘password’;

Loading Wordpress

Reference: PHP Applications on IIS7 - Wordpress
Download: WordPress

Extract the download file’s contents into c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wordpress\

Next make a copy of the WordPress Configuration Sample file;
cd c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wordpress
copy wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Edit wp-config.php

We need to modify the wp-config.php to reflect the right UserID, Password, MySQL Database Name and server. So we need to modify these 4 attributes to reflect what we have setup so far; DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_HOST

// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');    // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');     // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');    // Change this to IP address of your database

We are done. Open a browser from a client that can see this server we have setup. Browse to http://<Server>/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php and start configuring the WordPress application.

Conclusion

We now have a running Web Server (on Server Core) with PHP enabled running the WordPress application. In essence, we have pieced together the following technologies; Windows 2008 Server Core + PHP + MySQL + IIS 7.0 + WordPress.

Off my mind, there are many aspects which are compelling;

- Small foot print - Server Core is light in foot print. Much lesser binary. Takes about 1/4 to 1/5 the footprint of a full install. Disk storage is less demanding.
- Small surface attack area - Less binaries, less requirements to update the binaries if a vulnerability is discovered
- Requires less resources to run
- Concentrated workload
- Fast and speed server provisioning

I had fun in this adventure and thanks to Matty and Chris. We are looking out for more fun and will share with you what we have. If you have an idea or would like to know more, contact me or Matty anytime. Drop us an email today.

BTW, this is a support scenario in IT Pro Momentum. So if you like to give Server Core running IIS7 a try in your environment and receive a free 1 year TechNet+ Subscription, wait no further, drop me an email now.

/Dennis

Teck Sin on 802.1x NAP

Last friday, I had the privilege of meeting 2 members of the Windows Insiders Group. Teck Sin and Yong Teck, at their nice office off the sunny West Coast of Singapore. Just a short walk away from West Coast park. Yup, nice place to work right? Just minutes to the sea side. Imagine you are so frustrated with work, you could just walk to the seaside and jump in. Just kidding.. ;-)

Teck Sin works for a Process Control company (cannot be named to ensure privacy. Hey !! Respect that.) He is in a team of 5 which provides IT Infrastructure support to about 1000 users. I’ve just visited his office on Friday afternoon. Wow, awesome work the company does. His company does process control for customers and produces precision control equipment and stuff like that. That wide variety of IT infrastructure support is just awesome and looks like a lot of fun.

Anyway, I was meeting Teck Sin to see the good work he has done around Network Access Protection. Teck Sin has implemented a pilot of Windows Server 2008’s Network Access protection through 802.1x. He implemented that with CISCO Catalyst 3560.

He found that NAP is able to enforce a base level of protection for clients when network access is required. That protects the clients from virus and worm issues that mobile workforce may bring along back to office and spreads around. NAP is able to enforce that you have Firewall turn on (if its not, NAP can be set to turn it on), Antivirus installed and up to date, and the clients have up-to-date software updates.

Teck Sin finds that NAP is a very compelling technology that should seriously be given some thoughts. It can tremendously elevate and ensure the level of health before clients participate in network access. However, in Teck Sin’s pilot, he wasn’t able to get hold of System Health Validators from his Antivirus vendor and thus, couldn’t put a full testing to it. But he is definitely going to try and get his hands on them and test it again. Meanwhile, he is having fun with his NAP setup.

He also learns how to handle non-802.1x and non-nap clients (print servers and like), and they need to be addressed before general rollout. I encouraged Teck Sin to go further and push the pockets of NAP and exchanged a few ideas. Yong Teck was there too. I learnt quite a bit from the ground. Thanks to Teck Sin and Yong Teck for hosting me.

I think staying ahead of competition and peers is important for the IT Profession. NAP may not hit you right now, but if it hits you, are you ready and confident to implement and handle them? The very difference in being a competent IT Pro is the ability to move ahead and stay abreast of the pack. Teck Sin and Yong Teck displayed that and kudos for staying ahead.

I am here in Microsoft to help IT Pros in Singapore stay ahead and updated with our latest offering (to be released in H1 2008), Windows Server 2008. If you are interested to find out more on how to learn more and get invited into the IT Pro Momentum program (which Teck Sin and Yong Teck are in), drop me an email at i-dchung@microsoft.com For his efforts, Teck Sin is given a 1 year TechNet+ Subscription.

Join the IT Pro Momentum (BTW, its free), or lag behind… Your choice.. May the force be with you!! (Sounds familiar?)

/Dennis

3 Heros i want to recognize...

 At a recent event, Community Technology Update 2007, held on 3rd Nov 2007, i had the privilege of meeting 3 IT Pros whom have contributed much to their own companies.

They have done various projects that made use of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and an impact in their own organizations. To recognize them for their efforts, through a program, they will teach receive a 1 year subscription of TechNet+.

I had a privilege of presenting them a small gift, a Microsoft Lifecam NX6000 worth about $170 SGD for their efforts.
<<== Suhendar Gunawan from Siemens IT Services (Implemented Active Directory)

<<== Desmond Kung from Pluto Technology (Implemented Network Access Protection)

<<== Pom Figuaroa from Avanuts Training (Implemented Windows Deployment Services)

I'm still on the look out to help more IT Pros in Singapore and seeing them put Windows Server 2008 to good use. If you are keen implementing Windows 2008, please drop me an email. (i-dchung@microsoft.com) I look forward to receiving your email.

/Dennis

I'm WebCamed... ;-)

I got a huge surprise this morning.

I received a present from Marcelo in the US who sent me this Microsoft Life Cam NX6000.
Its really cool and fun...

Anyway, i just took a picture of myself with Jocelyn for fun. 

Go get one. It takes Video at 2.0 Megapixels, photos at 7.6 Megapixels
Has a built in Mic and integrated to my MSN Messenger, Office Communicator and guess what... Camtasia too. Way too...

I'm going to heavily abuse this camera for work.

/Dennis

Windows 2008 Connections (RRAS, IAS, TS)

The above holds information on the number of connections supported in each edition of Windows Server 2008.
So if you using Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, you will be able to support only 50 IAS connections.

/Dennis

MKLink command in Windows Server 2008

I came across this command which i thought was very interesting.

It allows you to create a "Directory Junction" and lets you basically redirect all requests in the system to another location you define. You can use this to "fool" a program or script that looks for that folder.

Lets see what the command can do. For a reference of the command, click here.

Here's the story;

1. Create a physical directory in Windows 2008.

md c:\dennis

2. Create a Junction reference to c:\dennis

mklink /d /j crazy c:\dennis

3. List the directory under C:\

I can now traverse the junction "crazy" just like any folder. However, there is one small difference. Whatever you put in c:\crazy\ will show up in c:\dennis. The junction is a redirect if you think about it.

To IT Pros, this can be a huge impact. Say for example you have lots of scripts that references a folder called c:\dennis. For some reason, storage in that path is not available anymore, so you kind of have to update to perhaps another location. You can either change all your script references, or use the journal. ;-)

To remove the journal entry, use your normal delete commands like "del" or "rmdir".

Be very careful when you use the "del" command. If you specify "del c:\crazy" in this case, it will remove the journal and all the files in c:\dennis\*.* Use with care. It'll prompt you, just don't be fast fingered like me. ;-)

Well, if you're really fast fingered like me, you have Shadow copies to help you do a quick restore.

/Dennis

Join the Community Event (CTU2007)

SGDotNet and SG Windows Group has once again banded together to present a major community event. Here are some major highlights for the event.

1. Meet the expert session (Exchange, Active Directory, Windows, ASP.NET, VB.NET, C# experts will be there)
2. HALO3 Shootout
3. Out of Band Tracks (Live Tools and Vista Backup & Restore)
4. Faces Campaign
5. Win lots of prizes (Vista Ultimates, MS Press Books, O'Reilly Books, HALO3, San Cruzer Thumb Drives...)

To learn more about the event, visit http://www.sgdotnet.org/events/ctu2007

Speakers are from Microsoft Communities and Microsoft Singapore. Be sure to catch these speakers and join them for yet another community event.

Hurry, limited spaces. Previous community event was over subscribed!!! Register now or face regrets.

Event is on the 3rd Nov 2007 9am to 6pm, lunch will be provided.

/Dennis

Want your PHP scripts to connect to SQL 2005??

Now you can. Microsoft has released a SQL 2005 Driver for PHP CTP.

It is a PHP5 extension that allows you to read and write information/data to a SQL Server 2005 from within PHP Scripts. Isn't that good, one more choice of database for PHP users.

To get it, download from here, Get SQL 2005 Driver for PHP.

Also, IIS7 in Windows Server 2008 is also able to support PHP. Which means, users of PHP now has a new hosting choice (IIS7) and a new database source (SQL 2005).

Another good news for the ability to inter-operate.

/Dennis

Setting up Catalina in Office Communicator 2007

In a previous post, I'M UC Enabled. I shared with everyone that i'm UC ready.

Well, i've been enjoying it so far. There are a lot of excitement around it. I could now make calls from anywhere and receive calls anywhere. Really nice.

Just earlier on, a friend, Kit Kai, was asking me how my Catalina works. Well, Catalina is designed to work with Office Communicator 2007. Its really just a "speaker" and "mic" peripheral, of course, it is more than that.

After you plug in Catalina, its drivers are loaded. From there, you load up OCS2007. From Tools, locate "Setup Audio and Video". In my case, i wanted to use Catalina with my Creative Headset with Mic to talk in OCS2007.

Through the first dialogue, i chose to use catalina as my handset. The catalina has a hook and off hook feature just like a normal phone. If i lift up the handset, OCS will pop up on my screen and i get a chance to key in the number i want to call. If someone calls me, i could just lift up the handset to answer without touching my laptop.
	On the next screen, for speaker/microphone setup, i chose to use my laptop's speaker and mic. I plug in my Creative Headset HS-390 and took over the laptop speaker and mic.

Using the above settings, i'm able to choose if i want to use my Creative headset, or the catalina. The headset is convenient, i don't have to lug around Catalina to make a phone call. The next thing i'm trying to explore is that Catalina comes with its own headset, want to try grab hold of that and see how it works.

/Dennis

Avoid SQL Server Data Modeling Mistakes

The Singapore SQL Server User Group is having a guest speaker.

If you're into SQL and you're available, please join them.

Event Details:

Avoid SQL Server Data Modeling Mistakes

Presented by: Kevin Kline, Technical Strategy Manager (SQL Server)

Kevin Kline has more than 18 years of experience in the IT industry and is a recognized SQL Server expert. In addition to being a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, Kevin is a regular contributor to database technology magazines and discussion forums. Kevin is the author of the O’Reilly titles SQL in a Nutshell and Transact-SQL Programming. He is currently president of PASS - the international SQL Server user group.

Even though data modelling has been around for some time now, it’s difficult for database professionals to succeed as designers without some tips and techniques.   

Data modelling tools do not automatically guarantee success. Today’s entity relationship design tools incorporate good design principles and model-checking utilities. They also generate fairly good DDL. But the “garbage in, garbage out” principle applies – you may just end up with a pretty picture of the garbage as well. The programs cannot compensate for the inefficient database design and may make it even worse.

Join SQL Server MVP and President of PASS, Kevin Kline as he:

1. Identifies the issues that can arise from relying only on modelling tools

2. Discusses the 10 most common modelling issues you will face when transforming data models from logical (conceptual) to physical

3. Describes how to correctly identify and resolve serious problems

4. Provides best practices to resolve issues

Date:            17 Oct 2007 (Wednesday) –Light Refreshments Will Be Provided

Time:             06.45– 9.00 pm SHARP! (Please come on time).

Location:     Level 21 Floor, Microsoft Singapore, One Marina Boulevard.

Entry Is By Registration, Please email the following details to sqlugsingapore@mvps.org , with the details indicated below. Pls register early as we need to confirm the no of people for food,etc.

Name, Designation, Company, Tel No, Email, Event

17th Oct Evening with Kevin Kleine

This session (on 17th Oct 2007) is open to SGSQLUG members exclusively - so please ask your colleague / friend to register as a member at http://sgsql.sqlgroups.com. Upon Registration as a member, they can then send a mail to confirm their participation for the session with details indicated above.

/Dennis

Can't find Viridian in your Windows Server 2008 RC0 ??

Can't find the Windows Server Virtualization role in your Windows Server 2008 RC0 build?

Look for the Viridian bits under c:\windows\wsv and install the bits in order you find there.

After which, you'll find the roles listed in the Server Management.

For more details, check this blog from the virtualization team. http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2007/09/28/windows-server-2008-rc0-and-virtualization-ctp-faq.aspx

/Dennis

Avantus knows what quick deployment is (WDS)

Do you think deployment of Windows Operating System to many machines are a pain? You’re not alone. I used to come from an environment where I need to have a quick turnaround time for computers. Yes, as you probably have guessed, I was helping to managed computer classrooms. I used to work in such an environment about 2 years back and I can tell you, deployment of operating systems and applications to these classrooms can be a pain in butt. I had to spend like hours a day to setup about 10 machines for a classroom and there are some 10 classrooms to setup. So you can imagine the weekends I had wasted doing such setups.

The pain is now gone:

Since the Windows Server 2003 days, Microsoft released a solution called Windows Deployment Services aka WDS. It has much improved from the days of RIS since Windows 2000. But has evolved so much, that its mature and good to use. However, a big issue still exists, the contention for network bandwidth limits the effectiveness of such a deployment.

If you had an image that is about 5GB in size and you had to deploy to 10 machines, that is 5GB x 10 = 50GB of traffic on the network. For that massive form of transfer, you better have a Gigabit network, else you can forget your weekends again.

Microsoft’s upcoming server, Windows Server 2008, has a new and improved WDS. This time it supports Multicasting. Which means the same 5GB image to 10 Machines means 5GB traffic on the network. Sounds good isn’t it. It is. If you want to learn more about it, here’s a step by step guide.

Avantus Cuts Deployment Time using WDS

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following up with Pom Figueroa, Consultant Trainer and System Admin, Avantus Training Pte Ltd, on solving his pain point of managing his classroom turnover. Avantus is a great partner of Microsoft, and for the past four years, they have been awarded the CPLS Partner of the Year award.

Anyway, Avantus has about 10 classrooms which typically are occupied during the office hours. So turnover of the classrooms must take place during the weekends. A huge problem is that the machines must be ready for a new class on Monday. Time is short, pressure mounts on the technician/trainers and the network to have the training images out to the machines in the classroom.

Prior to deploying WDS, they had to stay and waste hours deploying an image for a classroom. That eats into the social life of their technician and trainers. After learning about the capabilities of WDS in Windows Server 2008, Pom decided that Avantus should give WDS a go.

Right now, after the deployment of WDS, Pom finds it so easy to create an image of a reference machine and reuse it for mass deployment. To make it better, the deployment can be fully automated. So what used to be a manual task, is now automated. To tip it further, there is multicasting, traffic on the network isn’t as massive as before and deployment now takes only a fraction of what was needed before.

This is what Pom has to say, “This is my basic principle… If you’re doing a particular task and it is repetitive, there MUST be a way to automate it. All you need to do is take a step back, look into the scenario and try find a solution. For this particular scenario, I see WDS as the perfect solution for addressing our problem.”

WDS isn’t just for Classrooms or Lab. It can be fitted as part of a Business Desktop Deployment aka BDD process. If your  organization is doing a mass deployment of an operating system like Vista, WDS may be the answer for you. It will help you reduce deployment cost tremendously. You can deploy Vista in fully automated fashion without intervention. How cool is that?

If you like to learn more about WDS, feel free to ping me at i-dchung@microsoft.com with subject “ITPRO: WDS Deployment”.

Related Resources:

Introduction to Deployment Services

Step by Step for Windows 2003 WDS

Step by Step for Windows 2008 WDS

/Dennis

Facebook Song

Hey, you guys on facebook?

Someone sent me this video. A song actually, very nice... You should see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b-fJxzpK7s

Actually, i've been quite put off by facebook.
I think the next level of problems will surface from Facebook.

Social Engineering security problems. So if you're using Facebook, don't put too much real information in there. And if you receive information, don't trust them too much too.

Oh, on a side note, all those crazy Vampire applications just pisses me off.

Having said all that, its still a good social networking site, just a added pinch of salt.

/Dennis

Met 2 Community Heros today...

I had the privilege to meet 2 community HEROs today.

Vinod Panika from VirtualGrub.Com (Left) & Shaji Firoz from MessagingTalk.Org

Vinod started a community site known as VirtualGrub. Shaji was nice enough to hook Vinod up with me. Thanks Shaji. The local community in Singapore will now have a Virtualization expert to talk to.

Vinod, who works in EDS, has vast experiences deploying virtualization solutions based on both Microsoft and VMWare offerings. He has strong interest to learn and share about Microsoft's upcoming Windows Server 2008, which has Windows Server Virtualization.

So if you're interesting to try out Windows Server Virtualization, download Windows Server 2008 RC0 64bit. And if you decided to have it run in your environment, i want to know the great things you're doing. Get in touch with me at i-dchung@microsoft.com. I may give you some help and resources for free.

If you like to read about the success story of Vinod with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, visit here.

Let's welcome Vinod to the community :-) We're expecting to learn about Virtualization from you.

/Dennis

UC Enabled !! :-)

A part of an internal Dog-Fooding process, i've signed up to dog food Unified Communications.
Microsoft Singapore is launching UC on 23rd Oct 07 at Suntec City.

If you're interested to find out what UC is, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/uc

There are a bunch of systems that needs to make UC happen, but once its up, its awesome.
You also have a list of Optimized IP Devices designed for Office Communicator 2007.

Here is a list of them. http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft/microsoft-office-communications-server-2007-optimized-ip-devices.asp

As for me, i am issued with a Microsoft make. Code named "Catalina". A model by Microsoft, model 1106. Yes, facilities took away my normal phone. My phone number stays the same. Say there is no interruption and no need to inform my contacts of my updated phone number.

The label at the bottom of Catalina

Catalina

Screen Shot of Office Communicator 2007

Unified Communications is awesome. I can't detail all of them here in this single Blog entry. So i'm going to attempt to talk about it more over the next couple of weeks when i find time out of my work.

Meanwhile, just come fun stuff i found out.

I'm new to this, so i'm learning too. Its awesome what it could do.
It is now integrated to my Outlook.

Integrated to my Outlook

I used to have to scramble through my phone (Dopod 838 Pro) search a contact and call using my normal phone (Yeah, wanna save on my mobile charges). UC is now integrated to my Outlook on my computer. So right now, as long as i have an Internet Connection, i could make a phone call through my laptop.

Check out this screen shot.
So what i do now is from my outlook, i search for a contact whom i wanna call, and click on Call, select a number, and off it goes. Calls in progress.

I can then choose to use either the Catalina, or a mic and speakers attached to my laptop to talk.

Alternatively, i could use Communicator and type in the name of the person i want to call. It instantly searches through my Outlook contact list and anyone else in the organization on my contact list and surface the numbers.

Really awesome. I could now make phone calls without taking attention away from my laptop. I bought a Creative headset for this. Its really cool. You guys should seriously check it out.

I'll post more about my adventure in UC later on. Don't you just love gadgets and technologies.. I just can't get enough of them...

/Dennis