Hello, I'm   Jason

This week I finished up my first Windows Server 2003 domain implementation. It was very interesting to see how 2003 differs from 2000. The biggest thing I noticed is security. At least on the surface, 2003 appears to be more secure. By default, everything is “turned-off” including allowing passwords that do not follow the new complexity rules. Passwords are not allowed unless they contain 1 upper-, 1 lower-, and 1 digit character as well as be 6 characters in length. Overall I thought the new security enhancements were a bit of a pain. I’m sure I’ll be thanking MS later for them!

I have been working on a downloadable and installable mail server. The mail server is based on a previous release given to me by Lumisoft, a development company oversees. The mail server will be available for beta testing sometime late next week. I finally fixed an issue I was having with the service installation and uninstallation. Actually, now that I have gotten to this point, I realized that the Win MSI I have created actually forces me to install and uninstall the service in a less clean manner. Anyway, for most Win Services, there are a few basic techniques you can use to install, uninstall, start, and stop the services. I have compiled these into a little utility in which I will post the link for download on this blog site in the next few days. In the meantime, a fellow blogger has helped explain the basics. Unfortunately, I was already past that point, but his insight will indeed help others in the future. You can read his suggestions by visiting the WindowsForms.com Forums.

I have been busy lately working on starting up a .Net User Group in my area. This has held me back from posting many blogs. Hopefully I will get back into the blogging sometime in the next 2 weeks or so.

One question I often get asked is “Where can I find web services?” Over the past few months, I’ve been searching around and have found a few good places to look:

Before writing this blog, I experienced what every writer does when starting out. I had the worst case of “Gee, what can I write about?” It was horrible. So, I decided that before I begin, I might as well introduce myself.