Sunday, June 8, 2008

More new docs

MOSS Integration and a Global Deployment guide.

Link here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc135653(TechNet.10).aspx

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Free MDM tools from Enterprise Mobile

Kudos to my colleagues in Engineering (yes, even you, Mark ). Announced today are a pair of very cool tools. Did I mention 'free'?

from the message Tomas Vetrovsky sent internally today:

"The purpose of releasing the utilities at no cost to the users was to demonstrate the knowhow and extended knowledge Enterprise Mobile has in regard to the challenges in the mobile space to prospects, customer and the Windows Mobile community.

Both tools are available from the website: http://tools.enterprisemobile.com which is linked from our main web www.enterprisemobile.com and will be also submitted to various blogs, medias etc. You can point anybody who is interested in downloading the utilities to http://tools.enterprisemobile.com where they need to provide an email address and can optionally fill in additional information about their mobile environment.

So without further due let me introduce:

Windows Mobile IP Utility
This utility combines basic troubleshooting tools commonly available on the desktop and widely used by IT Staff and Administrators (ping, traceroute, ipconfig) with some more advance capabilities (ping sweep, speed test) into one package that is compatible with WM 5, WM6 and WM 6.1
Windows Mobile IP Utility enables easy troubleshooting of connectivity on Windows Mobile devices, enables and eases out troubleshooting of MS SC MDM VPN connections and even enables troubleshooting of PCs connected to the same network as the WM device i.e. WiFi network.

Windows Mobile IP Utility provides:
• IPCONFIG for all adapters on the Windows Mobile device
• PING to any host or destination
• PING SWEEP of multiple hosts within the specified range
• Traceroute to any host or destination
• Speed Test to check your connection speed and performance
• Is compatible with WM 5, WM6 and WM 6.1 devices
• Requires .NET CF 2.0 (additional install for WM 5 devices, in ROM for WM 6 and later)


GUI CAB Signer Utility
This utility provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for signing CAB files (files used for installing software on WM devices) in order to easily creates secure mobile deployment. MS SC MDM requires each software distribution to be digitally signed, which may be a challenge for the Mobile Administrator using existing process and procedures. The utility makes the signature step super easy and simple.

GUI CAB Signer Utility provides:
• Graphical User Interface for CAB signing for easier and simpler process
• Enables faster deployment through visual verification of certificate
• Can be installed on any PC running Windows XP or Vista

I would like to extend HUGE thanks to the Architecture team, specifically to Steve Catron for the CAB Signer, Koush Dutta for the IP Util, to Dave Field for writing the specs, to Chris for working on the website (over the weekend!), to Mark Riley for his suggestions and testing as well as for demonstrating the capabilities to the ATT crowd and providing very good feedback!!! The Services team was also very helpful with comments during the testing period and had great suggestions for future version!

I am really happy to work with such a great team and now you and your customer can enjoy the same benefits by using the Utilities located at http://tools.enterprisemobile.com

Don’t forget to tell all that if they make their job easier, just imagine what happens if they hire Enterprise Mobile to help with the rest of the mobile deployment…"

I share Tomas' sentiments; Enterprise Mobile is a purty darn cool place to be in the midst of!

Oh, and make sure your Security Team know before you EVER try a ping sweep. Probably the safest way to use this is against the VPN Pool address ranges, and nowhere else - this is what it's actually intended for, so you can check for responses from connected managed devices. A wonderful capability, but one that's sure to trigger all the alarms on your HIDS and NIDS, so play it safe and get permission first.