Links

Here is Daniel’s List of Recommended Web links:
(Sorted in some freestyle alphabetical order)
Great Microsoft-related Knowledge Bases
These are the ones I’m currently using. Note that a very short description doesn’t imply that the featured site is less useful than one with a long description:

Link Description
Brian Madden Great resource for Citrix, Terminal Server, Bear Paw, and Thin Client information.
BrienPosey.com Nice articles and tips by Brien Posey.
Computer Performance Nice articles and tips by Guy Thomas.
EventID.net The Event ID database contains thousands of event IDs and comments provided by thousands of contributors. Needs a subscription but non-subscribers will get what they want too, and it’s sure worth the pennies they’re asking for.
Events and Errors Message Center Find detailed explanations, recommended user actions, and links to additional support and resources for Microsoft products, such as Windows 2000/XP/2003, Exchange 2000/2003, SQL Server and Office products.
FAQ for WindowsOr here:FAQ for Windows Formerly known as John Savill’s NT Faq. Many tips for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. Although many tips are in fact copied KB articles, the ones that are there are hand-picked and easy to find.
JSI, INC. – Tips & Tricks Like NT Faq, one of the first and finest tip repositories, with thousands of Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 tips and tricks.
kbAlertz kbAlertz.com is an e-mail notification system that scans the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base every night, and e-mails you when updates or additions are made to the technologies you subscribe to.
LabMice.net “If you work with Microsoft Operating Systems and Server products, this site is designed to save you time by helping you rapidly locate hard to find technical resources. You no longer need to scour through irrelevant search engine queries, and dig through a dozen different technical sites for information. We hand pick the best technical articles from hundreds technical sites and index them here by category and topic. Whether you’re writing a disaster recovery plan, troubleshooting a blue screen error, or defending your network against hackers, start your research here. We’re confident that we can help you find the answers you need faster, and with less hassle, than anywhere else on the web.”
MDGX Max Speed Used to be AXCEL216, now calls himself MDGX, but still has hundreds of great tips.
Microsoft Download Center As the name implies – Microsoft-related. If it’s public, you can find it here.
MSDN Home Page Home for Microsoft’s MSDN library.
Microsoft Exchange Server resource site Also known as MSExchange.org, this is a very good resource for Exchange-related articles and whitepapers.
myITforum.com Great resource for IT experts, loads of articles and tips neatly divided into subjects.
ProcessLibrary.com ProcessLibrary is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to know the exact purpose of every single process.
Search the Support Knowledge Base (KB) If you need a Knowledge Base (KB) article and Microsoft has made it public – you’ll find it here. See my MS Knowledge Base Search Tips page for more info.
TechTutorials Free technical articles with reference to some of the best knowledge bases around. Articles are updated weekly, well worth visiting.
The UltraTech Knowledgebase Viewer A very good knowledge base for MS-related articles written by Andrew S. Baker, one of the most active forum and mailing list participants there is.
Windows NT-2000-2003-XP Admin Knowledge Base Used to go with a different URL, now totally re-organized and has tons of useful articles and tips.
Microsoft Windows XP – Command-line reference A-Z Detailed information about the Windows XP (not just XP, also good for W2K and Win2003) CLI. In addition to the built-in tools, there are over 40 support tools included on the Windows XP/2003 CD. You can use these tools to diagnose and resolve computer problems. For more information about these support tools, see Download Windows 2003 SP1 Support Tools and Download Windows XP Reskit Tools.
Windows NT/2000/2003/XP Admin Knowledge Base Part of Windowsnetworking.com, a selection of hundreds of great Windows-related tips and articles.

Cisco related site

Link Description
Happy Router source for free Cisco networking articles & Tech-tips
PacketTrap Network Management Solutions – offering a free NMS available for download

Security related sites
Here are some of the ones I’m currently using:

Link Description
GFI Security Labs Here you can read the latest about new virus threats, try harmless but effective security tests online, access up-to-date information about email and network security, and more.
Magaf’s weblog Nice info about exploits and encryption (and much more).
Microsoft Security Bulletin Search Find Hotfixes and Security Updates released by Microsoft.
Netcraft UK-based company that’s providing network security services, including application testing, code reviews, and automated penetration testing. Has many interesting articles and tools.
Packet Storm Packet Storm offers an abundant resource of up-to-date and historical security tools, exploits, and advisories.
SecurityFocus “SecurityFocus is the most comprehensive and trusted source of security information on the Internet.” I tend to agree.
Trend Micro HouseCall Online Anti-Virus One of the best online Anti-Virus scanners. Trend Micro HouseCall is the only free online virus scanner on the market that supports multiple Operating Systems and multiple Browser architectures.
Windows (security) Resources A very large list of links to security-related sites. Nice to have.

Great search engines
Quickly find what you are looking for (also see my Other Search Tools and Search Tips pages):

Link Description
AltaVista
Ask Jeeves Online answer center for almost any topic you might think of…
Astalavista Search the dark side…
Cotse.net Big collection of search engines, if you need them…
Google Need I say more? T-H-E search engine.See my quick_search registry hack for a nice Google shortcut.
HotBot
MSN Search (beta) Fast, nice, good results, and built on MS technology.
RFC-Editor.org The RFC Editor is the publisher of the RFCs and is responsible for the final editorial review of the documents. The RFC Editor also maintains a master file of RFCs called the “RFC Index”, which can be searched online.
WebCrawler Claims to return search results from the web’s leading search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, About, LookSmart and others.
Whatis Online definitions and encyclopedia.
Yahoo! Remember them?

Blogs I read

Many more exist, I know, but these are the ones I currently read (most of them have RSS, XML or other methods of update pushing – I use RssReader but you can use your own favorite RSS reader to get most of these updates delivered to your computer):

Link Description
Aaron Margosis’ WebLog The Non-Admin Blog – running with least privilege on the desktop.
AntiMail Adi Oltean’s WebLog.
Eileen Brown’s WebLog Management, Messaging, Mobility and Real Time Collaboration.
blogs.msdn.com A very large (over 1400) collection of Microsoft-related blogs.
Evan’s WebLog Exchange, clustering, E2K3 SP1, cross-site moves, and other assorted ramblings.
Glen’s Exchange Dev Blog Blog by Glen Scales, related to Exchange and messaging.
Jim McBee’s Mostly Exchange Web Log Ramblings related mostly to Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003, bug notices, workarounds, tips, and stuff. Sometimes network, security, Active Directory, social commentary, politics, events, religion, or humor, but, well, mostly Exchange.
Michael’s meanderings… Exchange and other topics.
MS Exchange Blog One of the best available! Entries by Chris Meirick, William Lefkovics and Neil Hobson.
msgoodies Mostly about Microsoft infrastructure related technologies like Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and Windows. Entries by Dennis Lundtoft Thomsen and Per Østergaard.
Outlook Help Not truly a Blog, but has very good flow of information, related to (what do you think?) Outlook.
Sig Weber’s Playground Lots of info on SharePoint and OWA. Great download section too
Windowmaker’s blog Guy Teverovsky’s great Windows Blog
You Had Me At EHLO… aka the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.

Great Microsoft and general-related news sites
These are some of the places I begin my day with:

Link Description
Bink.nu
Flexbeta
ieXbeta
MSFN
Neowin.net
WinBeta.org

Exchange and Messaging-related user groups
These are some of the places you can collaborate with local peers and get help:

Link Description
www.mmmug.co.uk A UK-based Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group
www.eugeurope.org Eurogroup is another fast growing Exchange User Group

Great Tools-related sites (99% freeware)
Looking for a freeware tool? Need a specific script or add-on tool that will make your life easier? Look here:

Link Description
Freeware downloads at SnapFiles Formerly known as WebAttack. The freeware section has hundreds (if not more) of 100% freeware software.
JoeWare An impressive collection of 100% freeware tools written by MS MVP Joe Richards, mostly in the Active Directory area.
NirSoft 100% free tools by Nir Sofer. Has many password recovery utilities, network monitoring tools, and other useful applications.
SomarSoft Utilities Home for the DumpSec (formerly known as DumpAcl), DumpReg, and DumpEvt programs, as well as the Hyena Administration suit.
Sysinternals Freeware “The Sysinternals web site provides you with advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to Windows NT/2000/XP/2K3 and Windows 9x, Windows Me internals that you won’t find anywhere else. Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell alone write and update everything here.” This is a MUST!
Tools by Peter Kostov Nice freeware tools, mostly for TCP/IP and IE settings.

Great free e-mail services
These are some of the free e-mail services I use, most offer 1 GB of storage space or more, others are just plain good. If you happen to know about other free (really *free*) e-mail services that offer high storage space and do not overwhelm you with banners and ads – let me know and I’ll add them to this list:

Link Description
Google’s Gmail 1GB, need to be invited to get an account. Has free POP3 access.
Intermail Israeli-based, 1GB, some ads on top of the page.
MyRealBox “Only” 10MB, but totally spam-free and ad-free.
Walla Israeli-based, 1GB.
Yahoo! Mail 100MB.

Online resources and misc.
This list has a very big growth potential, and this is just a start. Note that I will only list free resources, and thus many commercial sites will obviously be omitted:

Link Description
BugMeNot Bypass Compulsory Web Registration. WOW!!!
www.dnsstuff.com Free domain name tests, IP tests, hostname tests and more.
Dodgeit.com Amazing! Pick a throwaway address, say: [email protected] Give that address out whenever you need to. Check deeznuts from homepage of dodgeit.com. You can also subscribe to RSS feed to keep an eye on the mailbox.

Please make sure you visit the Tips and Tricks section for a growing number of Windows 2000, XP and Exchange 2000 tips. See my Search and Search Tips pages for other knowledge links.