irasmith

I have used the BroadBand Forums when I was searching for specific answers about my home DSL matters. The only forum where I have seen a networking area is actually on the Linux Forums site, where networking both between Linux systems and Windows systems is covered. I did a quick search on Google for the keywords networking forums and a lot of hits came up, so you might want to give that a try and see if any of the results returned provide what you are after. Hope that helps

I am only just starting to work on web projects in 2.0, so my projects aren't huge by any means, but so far my 512 meg of memory 1.7ghz Pention laptop is doing alright in terms of speed. If my projects outgrow my laptop then I may have to resort to a desktop unit and then just RDP into it. Sorry, I love the mobility of my laptop :)

This is such a good thread of thoughts and comments, I am thinking that we have all been there on more than one occassion. In my early days of programming, I would just sort of take off doing steps to generate the code and all along the way thinking of ways to improve it and would just start off on that as well. Now that I have gotten older, and hopefully wiser, I have sort of trained myself to resist the initial urge to continually improve. What I do instead is make notes that get worked into a plan of future release so that I can remember all the cool ideas I had along the way. But I do not stop the intial release to work in some of these cool things. The initial release is always very basic, but solid. Later, as I work on bug fixes or adding in features that others have requested, I re-visit my list and incorporate some of those items as well. It is really a process of incremental growth, but it is designed and controlled growth that permits me to get something out and at the same time work in a cool change or two as well. There are other more formal ways of working toward becoming better at managing the balancing act. One such way is the Agile development concept where you do indeed do incremental development with each release providing some form of functionality to the user. I personally have not actually partaken in the Agile way but I have done a lot of reading and studying on its methods and processes. At the other end of the scale is the document everything in one sitting, design in one sitting, and then code in one sitting, with the fully completed software being delivered in one lump. I will not condem this approach as I have done it many times before and am sure in my programming life I will do it again. But I tend not to consider this the mode I want to do all the time. Being a middle of the road kind of person, I tend to use something less extreme than either of the above two methods. Yes I still do requirements planning and that type of documentation, but instead of attempting to document everything all at one time I work with Use Cases to do somewhat lightweight but still adequate documentation. Later, as I work on the program, things get revisited and details get ironed out for that particular piece I am working on. Just my two cents worth anyway :)

Ok, after putting some more thought into this, and doing a bit of searching in material I had previously read, I suppose I can answer my own question. I guess it's ok to do that, isn't it? :) Rather than focusing in on user groups as in the term, the best way to do this I think is just focus in on the user(s) and collectively they can become the user group. Naturally you wouldn't want all of your users within the user group, but a select few who are product champions and the like will do. This view then puts things back in perspective, at least for me, of just doing the normal things you would do with users to obtain requirements. There is plenty of material in Software Requirements 2nd Edition on getting requirements from users and even more advice in More About Software Requirements Thorny Issues and Practical Advice. So for anyone who stumbles onto this thread, hopefully this will help you if you have the same type of question that I originally had.

Just curious if anyone knows of any documenation sources on line or in book form relating to advice/information on creating and utilizing user groups in software development. If anyone has information relating to this, I would appreciate your input.

Thanks to both your post, and some further digging around on my own, I am starting to get to the bottom of things. I ended up ignoring the IP addresses returned in the message notifiying me the email did not go through. I instead logged into my shared hosting account and looked up its IP address. I then verified that IP in the SORB database and saw its listing there. Since my domain is on a shared server, I opened up a support ticket with my hosting provider to inform them of the issue so they could work on resolving it.

Thanks for the reply, yep I did check the ip address as well or at least to the best of my ability based on what was reported back in the email that bounced back to me and that also came back with a notation that it was not listed in their database. Perhaps it may have something to do with how the email was sent. Even though I have my own domain name which has email and all associated with it on a shared hosted server, I tend to do most of my emails locally on my desktop using Outlook and have Outlook configured to make use of the server to send/receive email. So perhaps somhow that is tripping it up. What is odd is that I used another email account of mine not associated with the domain name, my primary email account associated with my Internet provider for my home DSL account and the like. The initial email from that account to my relative bounced back with the same kind of error message. I checked the domain name and IP address in the bounced email and those also checked out as not being listed in the database. So I waited about an hour or so after the initial attempt and resent the message from my non-domain associated email account and this time it went through. I have never had this sort of issue before, and of course I have no way of knowing if any other person(s) whom I email are on service providers that make use of the SORBS database. I only know of this one relative that has a provider that makes use of it and know of it because of my emails getting rejected at times. Perhaps its just me but I think the idea of classifying and rejecting email based on IP address is a bad idea. Seems it penalizes those of us who do not have our own private servers when someone on the shared server does the junk email thing to cause the whole server to be classified as rejectable.

I am really baffled because the last few weeks I have been unable to send emails to a family members email address. The emails bounce back to me with the message "Your server IP address is in the SORBS DNSBL database, bye". I am using the same email account as always, one of my domain name email accounts. I have gone to the SORBS site and verified that my domain name is not listed in the database but the emails still will not go through. I have gone so far as to create an account on the SORBS site and login, hoping to find some sort of way to get a support ticket to them but after searching all over I can find no way to contact them. There is some wording which would lead one to think if you clicked on the word 'here' or some other key words that you would be taken to a different web page for help but none of the words that lead you to think they are links are actual links but just words and I can't click on any of them. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Very cool on everything turning out fine and you getting the real software and not something else. I fully understand that feeling as I certainly want to get the real thing when buying software. I'm guessing at this point that everything will be DVD based, which is fine as it is certainly less matter to keep up with and both my laptop and desktop have DVD drives in them, so I should be set for that. Thanks for the advice, it has helped give me a clearer thought pattern in all of this.

Does MSDN magazine come included with the MSDN subscription? I ask because you mentioned you get it for free and that you also have an MSDN subscription. I have seen some of its articles on line and have enjoyed them very much, so I am thinking about going for it as well but did not want to subscribe to it if it came as part of the package deal. I would say at this point that I am not so much nervous about doing the MSDN subscription as I am just settling in on which subscription would be right for me as the first time try. It does take a bit to go through what each level of subscription covers and then trying to peg based on that what my own use and growth needs would be for the near term future. I am getting close to deciding that the Professional level would be the one for me to start with, so I guess it is time to get nervous now since I am getting close to the final decision and ordering :)

Previously I have been using VS.NET 2003 Professional by itself meaning that I have never done the MSDN subscription thing. At this point I am very seriously considering the MSDN subscription, the Professional level one, for VS.NET 2005 Professional edition. I was wondering if anyone knew if the MS eLearning courses were avaible at no additonal charge to MSDN subscribers or if the prices associated with those courses still would need to be paid even if I was an MSDN subscriber?

I can well understand the situation you described. My parents purchased a new computer that has MS Works version 8 on it and while knowing some of the basics of Word and the like, some of the other features and things that you can do with it they haven't done before and not sure how to go about doing. So I was thinking perhaps I could find a book on it which would help them out. We've already been through the cycle of them trying to email me documents and such they created in Works. I've got Office 2003 Pro at home and well, I couldn't open the files they were sending me because I didn't have Works. Unfortunately though, I have not been able to find any books on their particular version. It seems that the most recent books on MS Works date back to version 6 of it several years ago. I am reluctant to attempt to acqurie that book because a lot can and does change in two version releases and therefore it would end up being more confusing than anything else. Thanks for the information, I am running under the impression that there aren't any third party books on the subject matter.

Actually, what you think is free for the Express editions is only free for the first year. At least that is what some of the information stated as I was reading the various screens on my way to download the Express edition. If I recall correctly, the plan is to provide the express editions free for the first year, after that there is a charge, can't recall what they quoted as being the target price tag for the express editions, it's not a lot in comparison to the other products though. Putting in my two cents worth, and from a somewhat different viewpoint, the Express editions may be an avenue to provide initially a zero cost and later a lower cost way for those who program as a hobby or for those who program for Open Soruce projects. One of the big roadblocks for .NET programs making it into Open Soruce was the high cost of the IDE, compared to what other languages like Java and PHP were providing. If you are an avid PHP programmer, you could get from Zend the equivalent of the VS.NET Professional IDE for less than half the price and if you wanted to use something totally Open Source then Eclipse was right there waiting for you (at least I think it could be used for PHP). Anyway, it was just a thought so figured I would share it as to why I think the Express editions exist.

I haven't seen anything yet, but as with all things new I am sure MS will have a period of time in which both the old and new certifications and exams will be available. It would only make sense to do so in order to allow those who were already part way through complete the particular certification they were working on. I began early this year to work toward the current exams but a major project at work sidetracked my time this year and well I didn't get very far. At this point I am starting to look at the new certifications and am sure I'll go for one of them. Figure might as well since .NET 2.0 is just coming out and what better time to get into something than when it first hits the ground.

I've got an off topic question that I haven't been able to resolve, so here goes. Does anyone know what version of Word, Access, etc., the MS Works version 8 suite uses? I'm asking because I am trying to find books or other reference materials for someone who is a home computer user and purchased a computer with MS Works version 8 on it. I've searched Amazon and various other places for books on MS Works 8 but can't find anything.

Would anyone happen to know at this point if the encryption is stronger within SQL 2005 when using SQL Authentication mode in a .NET based web application?

Interesting to note some of the differences between the two methods. For those reasons mentioned, I can see why in an Intranet environment using Windows Authentication would be the better choice to keep the maintenance overhead low and the like. In an Internet setting where you have the web application on a web server in a DMZ zone and a SQL server behind a firewall, you really have to use SQL authentication in order to make the connection to the SQL box from the web application, or at least in my mind that is how I would see it needing to be set up. You wouldn't be in a domain environment under those conditions for Windows authentiation to work or at least I don't see how you could be.

I have noticed that when dealing with ASP.NET applications that need a database back end, you have the options of using either Windows integrated security or using SQL Server authentication. I have done some searching on my own and I have not been able to find resources which discuss the pros and cons of each approach, which one is the suggested approach to use as best overall, and the like. Can someone either point me to resources that disucss these matters or perhaps if no resources exist then drop a reply back with some of their own personal thoughts and experiences on this matter?

I'm making this posting here because it was some of you fine folks who first pointed out SourceGreat Vault to me and I thought perhaps some of you who use the product might be able to help clue me in on something. I have been handed some source code files for a project that I know had to have been tied in to VSS and I am pretty certain that the VSS bindings were not removed from the source code files before they were handed off to me. I do have access to VSS if necessary, but after working with SourceGear Vault for some time now I really like it and don't really want to have to change or use two separate source control systems. Am I oversimplifying things if I just take the source code files I have been given and try to place them into my SourceGear Vault system directly just as I would any 'plain' file that has not been in another source control system before? Would I need to use the VSS Import tool that SourceGear Vault has to import the files instead of just directly loading them in? Or would I need to first load the source code files into my on VSS system and them use the import tool from SourceGear Valut to import them? Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at the information on line and that is going to be one very nice feature to have when it is officially released and I start using it :) For the meantime though I'll have to do things the manual way. The project I'm invovled with is in .NET 1.1 and of course I am sure there will be some things we have to do at a point to get it up to .NET 2.0.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had not looked into UML too much at this point but will check into it some more. :)

I was wondering if anyone could point me to either some on-line resources or provide book title(s) that have templates or examples of ways to document the classes in a program? I realize that there is no one 'supreme' template that will provide everything I need and want, but a template gives me a good place to start my documentation as I work on the project. I have the Software Requirements book by Karl Wiegers which deals with documenting the requirements and such, and there are very good templates with it that I have used and modified somewhat to fit my needs. I'm not at the point where I'm starting to lay out the classes, methods, and properties and would like to follow current practices of documenting those as well. Any suggestions or resources that you could point me to would be greatly appreciated.

While originally born and raised in soutern Indiana for almost 16 years, my family moved to the country outback of Kentucky a couple of weeks before I hit 16. In 1993, I moved even further south to the homeland of Country Music deep in the heart of Nashville Tennessee. :)

I thought I would make a post to say not to bother answering this one at this time. I have found some information through discussing the matter with some folks of the network types and what I wanted to know can be done and in reality is more a question of network structure than anything else.

I have hit upon something I need to figure out, and normally I have a clue as to where to turn and look for references, but this one has me a bit stumped. My situation is that I am looking to deploy an ASP.NET/C#.NET application on a web server that is in a DMZ. The application does need database access and the SQL server it would need to connect up with sits behind the protective boundaries of the DMZ. Can someone suggest references or resources that I could read to learn how my application can be deployed in this environment and what things I would have to do to permit the application to converse with the SQL server?