Given changes to Windows backup formats in Vista/7/2008 the following tools may be rather useful as W7 and 2008 become ever more common:

http://www.jmedved.com/default.aspx?page=vhdattach
http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/overview.php?nID=4

this 2nd one can even allegedly be used [with care] with Vista native VHD backups. or
http://www.winmount.com/mount_vhd.html

which allegedly also allows one to write to the VHD as well.

Alternatively, if you need quick access to VHD backups, you can mount them directly from the 7/2008 Disk Manager, but the mount doesn't survive a reboot.

Also VHDTool - command-line tool which provides useful VHD manipulation functions including instant creation of large fixed-size VHDs.

I'm in love...

I guess I should qualify that statement. I've been working on finding a firewall to deploy to our customers. 

Gradually more and more of our customers want or need 2 ADSL lines for fail-over and/or VoIP traffic quality purposes. So the task was to find a robust router that importantly wasn't going to be deprecated or discontinued for a fair while so we could standardise on it. Our problem recently with low end ADSL routers is that we'd find a nice one, then after a few months we wouldn't be able to buy it anymore.

So low cost and sophisticated enough to do :-

• Dual WAN failover - in both directions.
• Ability to chose what traffic leaves which WAN interface. i.e. LAN to WAN/WAN2 control.
• Standard firewall filtering
• NAT and 1-1 NAT
• Port forwarding and port mapping
• Static routes

We bought a Netgear Dual WAN router to investigate the commercial dual WAN routers, as we have had good experiences with their equipment. However on testing it didn't quite do everything I wanted. Particularly be able to choose the exit route of different traffic on our network. It also left me worried that choosing a commercial solution would leave us open to having the product changed or upgraded.

We've been a fan of IPCop's for a long time as we've always found that standard firewall routers have either lacked features or been out of the range of the SME budget. For those customers that have needed a featured firewall we've always used IPCop's. Using an old PC or a new mini-ATX PC and putting IPCop on it has made our lives much nicer in the last 5 years. However IPCop doesn't support dual WAN and there was nothing on the roadmap to suggest it was going to be implemented. The other thing was that being hard drive based, IPCop's are always going to be more prone to failure than an embedded firewall due to the mechanical nature of hard drives. We'd considered putting IPCop on CF-cards, but figured that since they weren't optimised for flash based drives, that the OS would rapidly wear the drive out.

However there is the dual-WAN capable pfsense, and after checking out a virtual appliance and being suitable happy with it, I decided to buy an ALIX embedded PC. This company sells them with m0n0wall or pfsense pre-loaded so I bought 2 for testing and waited for it to arrive.

Adobe's annoying download manager bypassed.

After updates to the Exchange contacts, client reported not being able to see the updated version.  All contacts are shown correctly when accessing webmail but not from within Outlook.

Outlook 2003 was in this instance configured to use the Exchange mailbox in cached mode, the OAB had not replicated to the local machine after 24 hours, so I followed the instructions in the Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article: Administering the offline address book in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

To Force Outlook to update it's OAB (Global Address List)

• On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Download Address Book.
• Exit Outlook and then restart it. After Outlook starts, the offline address book download will start one to five minutes later.

Useful website that gives the ability to dump any type of text (or code) to transmit it as a URL (can be very useful in IM and IRC applications)
Has a post expiry time-limit that can be set.

I get a few people ask me (usually in social situations where I'm trying to think about anything other than work!), "What is the cheapest office set-up I can do?" for their new small business. runPCrun are many things, and while we believe we are the best solution considering time,cost and quality, we happily admit we're not necessarily the cheapest solution and this can be important when starting a cash-starved first business. After all, engineer time costs money, and custom solutions can take plenty of time and work, especially when having to consider existing infrastructure, user ability, the budget for the coming year and so forth.

However, if you don't have an existing solution, you have the opportunity to start afresh without having to worry about legacy issues or other issues about moving and migrating your data. This is the viewpoint I will be addressing this article from. (as migrations are a whole different ball game). That, or you just do it yourself and get your hands dirty!

The solutions I am presenting are cheap, and they can all be set up with little or no technical expertise.

Broadband

There are many cheap broadband solutions these days. Just remember that a lot of these cheap or free broadband offers are great when they work, but can cause grief when they don't. If price is your main criteria then great, but don't expect A1 service if/when there is a problem. We believe since broadband is important these days it's worth going with a quality supplier,and you can find them here at ISPreview.co.uk. (We personally recommend Andrews and Arnold* for a good service and reliability and BeThere* for fast, unmetered and cheap)

Broadband is very easy to install these days, a supplier will simply send you a pre-configured router which you just plug in. If you need to migrate suppliers remember to ask for a "MAC code" (a migration code that helps the move become quicker and easier)

Phones

Services like Skype and Gizmo give you the ability to send and receive calls from your PC, including extra features such as voicemail. VoIP providers like VoIPTalk or A&A will do the same service, and will allow you to use VoIP phones which sit like regular phones on your desks. Lastly there is the Voxhub service which can give even more options in line with expensive PBX systems when you have more than one employee or multiple phones and wish to have IVR menus and much, much more.
Something else we've found useful about all of these services is that small businesses often move several times in their early stages (they start in their house, then get a small office, then move to a bigger office etc). VoIP technologies prevent your phone number being tied to your physical location, thereby making such office moves much simpler.
Lastly, there are the normal phone suppliers and the dial-through comparison service - the International Call Checker for those using existing technology and trying keeping costs down.

Fax 

There are plenty of Fax to Email services for that odd occasion you may need to send or receive one of these "pre-email era messages". Don't buy a fax machine, buy a scanner! If you just want fax to email, you can request a FREE UK fax number courtesy of Andrews and Arnold.

Email, calendar, website

Buy your domain name through Google via Google Apps for Your Domain, and you can instantly have a domain name, calendar and simple website creator. This solution will fit most non-IT based small businesses extremely well. Also included is Google Docs and Spreadsheets, with which you can keep your documents with Google, negating the need for your own infrastructure for storing, backing up and accessing your documents on-site or remotely. All you need is a web browser and a broadband connection! (Recently I've also noticed Zoho appear on the scene, and seems well worth a look.)

• Google Mail - Fast, searchable email with less spam.
• Google Calendar - Organise your schedule and share events.
• Zoho

Office and other software

Using Open Office instead of Microsoft Office can literally save you hundreds of pounds/dollars per PC. Just make sure you save in the Word Document format (or PDF) if you are sending documents to other people. Here are some training videos if you want to see how easy it is to use, and it's pretty similar to Microsoft Office in my opinion. Or use the aforementioned Google Docs and Spreadsheets which will ask which format you'd like when you send the document. For everything else there's usually an open source or free alternative.

• Google Docs - Create and share documents on-line and access them from anywhere
• Basecamp - Project management and collaboration. Collaborate with your team and clients. Schedules, tasks, files, messages, and more.
• Highrise - On-line contact manager and simple CRM. Keep track of who your business talks to, what was said, and what to do next.
• Backpack - Information organizer and calendar. Gather your ideas, to-dos, notes, photos & files on-line. Set email and mobile reminders.
• Google Maps - View maps and directions

Backup

You must not forget to backup - period. If you can't trust yourself to backup your vital data to CD or USB Flash, then subscribe to one of the many data backup services. Mozy/MozyPro seem to be a good company, as well as BackupDirect* and Data Deposit Box.

Conclusion 

Get into the wise computing mindset as well as setting up your office well at the start (with guidelines such as these) and you will be enjoying productive computing for many years to come. Good luck!

* means there is some referral or partnership with these suppliers via the links given. Check out our stance on reviews and recommendations.