December 2006
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About

I am The Cyberwolfe and these are my ramblings. All original content is protected under a Creative Commons license - always ask first.
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Never again

You should all know by now how much contempt I hold in my heart for Microsoft and all the things they have shoved up our collective ass for the past 10 years. I can tell you truthfully, it could be worse:

You could be studying to take a Microsoft Exam.

So here I have been spending a large amount of my time over the past few years learning how to secure a computing environment due to the vast plethora of security holes in MS operating systems. Then my Boss and I get the great idea of me becoming the Company’s Security Advisor, so I start delving even deeper into the mysteries of Hackerdom to better defeat the buggers when they come a-knockin’.

Then comes the discount exam voucher for SBS2003, which would be a useful thing to have. The exam itself shouldn’t be too hard, because it only covers one (albeit amalgamated) product – except for one little caveat:

It’s a MS exam, so therefore ALL of the answers will be geared toward a “MS is the BEST!” mindset. And those bastards have rigged trick questions into the exam.

“Whadya mean ‘trick’ Wolfe?” Well my son, it means that each question’s answer will be tailored to the MS universe, but they will occasionally give a multiple-choice answer that may include an actual best practice from the real world – which is wrong, because MS is the BEST and therefore anything involving a real-world answer is the trick question.

Case in point: how much RAM would you need in a server designed to handle up to 75 users? Real-World answer: minimum of 2GB. MS Answer: SBS 2003 requires a minimum of 256MB RAM, we recommend 384MB.

Can I install SBS 2003 on this little-ol’ Pentium III I found in the closet? Real-World Answer: No, dude, we need to chuck that puppy and get you some decent hardware. Xeon or Opteron at least. MS Answer: why yes, as long as it’s 300MHz, but 550MHz would be better.

How should I secure my network? Real-World Answer: well, we need to install a DPI firewall device on your internet connection. MS Answer: No problem – we’ll just turn your server here, the lifeblood of your company, into a NAT firewall, so it can inspect all traffic and filter out all of the attacks.

Are you out of your freaking mind?!? “No sir, you don’t need a fence, this here rooster that manages all yer hens is plenty tough enough to fend off that there coyote when he comes a-trottin’ into yer henhouse.”

This is going to give me a headache.

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