As a developer, quite often you may have to recycle the application pool. IISReset is an option, alternatively you can just recycle a particular application pool.

Denny has a tip to just get this done!

cscript c:\windows\system32\iisapp.vbs /a "[App_Pool_Name]" /r

Source

If you want to allow your blog visitors to comment on blog posts you will need to explicitly allow them to do so. To achieve this, you will need to setup unique permissions on your blog.
Here is the procedure:
1. Open http://your_blog_url/Lists/Comments/AllComments.aspx
2. Select Settings > List settings
3. Select Permissions and Management > Permissions for this list
4. Open Actions >Edit permissions (confirm this action when dialog pops-up)

Now you can setup unique permissions for this list. From this step forward you can add permissions for a specific user. The best approach is to give the Visitors group "Contribute" rights for this entire list.

You will also need to limit user’s ability to edit and delete only his comments.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Open http://your_blog_url/Lists/Comments/AllComments.aspx
2. Select Settings > List settings
3. General Settings> Advanced Settings
4. Choose "Only their own? for Edit access option

Source

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Early this month, I did my exams for MCTS: Configuring and Administering MOSS 2007 70-630 exams and scored 1000/1000! Yeah, felt great for sure. Next on list is 70-631 and for sure I see that Becky  Bertram is on track for that as well. Becky has very graciously shared study guide for this exam. It’s not your run of the mill study guide. She has researched well and compiled list of links to resources for each and every relevant section. Now that surely is awesome! Thanks Becky! All the best.

List of links that can be helpful when studying for the MCTS: WSS Configuration exam from Becky Bertram

I have tried to twitter at least, if not blogging and today this post really got me to reference here for future - SharePoint and Twitter Web Part! Wow, this is really cool.

This Last week I have had been on Mindsharp SharePoint Designer Training with Kathy Hughes (SharePoint MVP) and really enjoying enjoyed the training. I haven’t been using SharePoint Designer a lot lately and this course has been a great refresher! I wanted to reference two good tools that I am sure you would appreciate when doing css - IE Developer Toolbar and Firebug for FireFox.

Of course

• SharePoint is best viewed in Internet Explorer
• SharePoint CSS is best understood with Firebug

Stay tuned for some cool SharePoint Designer posts.

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Yes, almost. I did not stand in queue for hours, nor did I pay a deposit to get my hands on this most sought after gadget of 2008. However with all the media hype, I was tempted to get one since I am looking for a new device. I already have Nokia E65 which is really my nerve centre of communication currently and I needed another phone for work related activities.

It so happens that I got my hands on an iPhone after all, despite ’sell out’ at Optus World. This was at a Vodafone store around 15 km from my home. I had the phone in my hand for 15 minutes and the verdict was - this is not for me.

7 reasons, I didn’t pick up the phone.

1. Copy Paste - Just can’t do it! Now that is ridiculous, how can you not have such a basic feature? I was stoned! I am so used to doing this for my emails, messages on my (now retired) HP iPaq 6365, that I just refuse to accept from a device that is hyped to be the gadget one must have this year!
2. GPS - Another disappointment! Just dumping Google Maps and giving you directions is not good enough. Where is the voice command that will guide you? Can we have a proper GPS system in place please? I don’t want to be driving around trying to read directions, it is worst then talking on the mobile and driving!
3. Bluetooth - Do you use Bluetooth to transfer photos, files or maybe connect to your laptop and possibly use as a modem? Then you are going to be disappointed! As of now, all you can use Bluetooth on the iPhone for are headset voice calls, period. Now that is not good enough for me. Thanks, but no thanks.
4. MMS / Video - Such basic functionality is missing.You cannot send images via MMS, I know not a big thing, since you can email these, but still.  In addition to this, iPhone won’t record video for you. Duh! Another basic tossed out.
5. Hello - Where is voice command? As mentioned above, GPS does not help you get to your destination using voice command and likewise you cannot use voice dialling.
6. WAF - Wife acceptance factor. Even without taking the iPhone in her hand, she dismissed the phone. She’d rather I get HTC TyTN II. Being a technologist better half she has always had this ’sixth sense’, one up on me. She can just look at the laptop or mobile phone and come to a conclusion - to buy or not to buy! Despite me having asked her last night, what phone should I pick up and the verdict being HTC, I went to check out the iPhone. She was right, iPhone does not technically appeal. All clear now for HTC TyTN II.
7. Vodafone - Did nail it ultimately for me. I might have considered buying the iPhone, but the store declined to honour the AU 29$ Jumbo Cap Plan. Sorry, online store offer only. Well that might sound reasonable, but they had actually used black pen to scratch out the cheapest plan! Ridiculous!

What do you think?

Despite all these shortcoming and given that we are tech-savvy, would you give into the media hype and still buy the iPhone?

First off, loyal blog subscribers a big thank you for your subscription and hanging in there. I am happy that you have stuck around, since I have not really been in touch with you all in last 3 months. You won’t be sorry for having been around, especially those from SharePoint land! Why?

Well, I have resigned from Education Queensland early last month and finished up in the last week of June. Took 10 days off and now I start afresh on July 9th, 2008.

I had been employed with Education Queensland for 5 years - I have been in Australia for 5 years Now that is long term in IT, but I have achieved some big milestones in these 5 years. I am more than happy. I got an opportunity to work on what I would call this planet’s largest SharePoint implementation - 1280 MOSS farms built using my command line unattended installation!

I tried to blog my SharePoint experience, although not as much as I wanted to, especially in last couple of months. Given that I blogged, specialised in SharePoint and was active on various social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter job offers were just coming every now and then.

SharePoint is ultra hot right now and given that demand exceeds supply, consulting in some form or other is the right thing to do.

Blogging and networking is the key to success today. This is exactly what I have experienced today, thanks to my blog, having been head hunted by one of the most renowned SharePoint Gurus - James Milne and Ivan Brebner. It is an honour to be working with such greats! I am looking forward to this.

I start with Myriad Technologies from July 9, 2008 as Senior Portals Specialist, joining the big leagues of SharePoint Consulting as have KK, Chandima, Ivan Wilson to name a few.

This means more SharePoint content naturally. In addition to SharePoint, I will be blogging more on Microsoft technologies then ever before.

Whew! I have not written in last 3 months ( you would know better). I have not blogged, literally. No excuses, just fact that I moved in to a huge house and had no internet access for 4 weeks. Can you live without internet for even a day? Well, I did. Although I had internet access at work, it is not same as home - because I don’t blog from work.

And then I resigned, so handover etc.

It’s all history now, something that I will always cherish. Now let’s start afresh - all SharePoint and Microsoft.

Stay tuned. Subscribe to email updates.

I have been using Live Mesh for quite some time now and have already reached 60% of my allocated quota

Today I received an email from The Live Mesh Team with a list of fixes implemented in the latest Live Mesh release.

Fixes

· Live Mesh is now available in all English-speaking countries (not just the U.S.)

· Removed the User Account Control (UAC) requirement when installing and using Live Mesh with Windows Vista SP1

· Index for Desktop Search now works with Live Mesh folders

· Fixed bug where an underscore in a Hotmail account name returned an "Invalid Hotmail Address" error

· Fixed bug with Silverlight 2 Beta 2 failing to load in Silverlight Media View

· Fixed bug where the notifier tooltip incorrectly indicated that Live Mesh Remote Desktop was unavailable for a computer running in non-admin mode

· Fixed bug where the Live Mesh folder icon was not displayed in the e-mail inviting someone to share a folder

· Fixed one of the bugs that caused Live Mesh to fail to start

· Fixed problem with Live Mesh returning errors when waking from sleep/hibernate

Have you signed up for Live Mesh? Ping me if you want an invite.

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Hi Guys! Long time no personal message. Have you checked out RSS Exclusive page recently? Well, head over there and you’d be surprised

On a side note, subscribe to email updates. Next month, I am going to be hosting a contest and some goodies lined up. So sign up for email updates or convert from rss to email.

This post will show you how to configure client aliases for SQL Server. One of the security hardening measures is configuring non-standard port for SQL Server instances.

A default instance of SQL Server listens for connections on TCP port 1433. If a client computer is unable to connect to the database on TCP port 1433, it queries the SQL Server Resolution Service on UDP port 1434.

To protect the database server, you can block the standard ports used by SQL Server and configure your SQL Server instances to listen on a nonstandard port.

Configuring client aliases for SQL Server

0. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager, and expand the SQL Native Client Configuration node.

1. Right-click Aliases, and then click New Alias.

2. In the Alias Name box, type the alias you wish to use when connecting to the database server.

3. In the Port No field, type the port number that you assigned to your SQL Server instance.

4. In the Server field, type the name of your database server.

5. Click Apply, and then click OK.

Alternatively

Start, Run, clicnfg

Enable TCP/IP protocol

Select properties

Select Alias Tab

Configure client aliases on your WFE servers and application servers using the above steps. You must install SQL Native Client and SQL Server Configuration Manager on each server.