I took Beta exam no 70-448 last July, because I was curious how’s difficult it is. It is a Business Intelligence exam, a foundation for MCITP for SQL 2008 BI. I’ve touched SQL 2008 since it’s CTP 5 release so I’m quite familiar with the stuff.

I sat almost 3 hours in the testing room, clicked the finish button to end the exam. There was no on the spot scoring for beta. So I did not really know if I passed or fail. But I felt that I pass even with no flying marks. After more than 4 months, I just received email from MS learning. They said that I passed the Beta. Wow, It seems magic to me.

From: Microsoft Certified Professional Programs
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 11:22 AM
To: Muhammad Choirul Amri
Subject: Congratulations on Your Microsoft Certification! Access Your Benefits
Congratulations on earning your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification! We hope you enjoy the benefits of your certification and of membership in the Microsoft Certified Professional community.

In fact, my knowledge on SQL 2005 helped a lot to clear the exam. I did not do special preparation for it. It was a free offer, so nothing to loose at my side. I really relied on my prior knowledge on SQL 05, play around with SQL 08 and of course my real world experience in the past. This is also a prove that at least I know the stuff better. I was not cramming the book and practice test to shot the test.

I logged in to my MCP transcript, and MCTS SQL 2008 BI Charter member is already under my belt. Yes, I’m the charter member.

I joined the rank of first 200 people who cleared this paper. I can’t wait to receive the welcome kit. Hopefully there will be something special for Charter Member

Now I challenge my friend Kasim and Zeddy. If you dare to fail, try the beta exam.

Posted by mca | 3 Comments »

In the past, I was a network admin. I played with Windows Server flavours, Linux, mail server (mdaemon, exchange), proxy (wingate, winroute, ISA Server, Smoothwall). The culmination point of my admin career is my first commercial book, that has been published by ElexMedia. It talked about detail configuration and management of Mdaemon mail server. I created Indoadmin.Net, a small community portal and official support of my book.

But the destiny is coming. I’m not network guy anymore. I love to be a developer and database person. I do not have enough time to update Indoadmin.Net anymore. I should decide, with a broken heart, that Indoadmin.Net is dead.

I make it. So I move this site from separate domain to my personal site subdomain. It is http://netadmin.choirulamri.org now. Anybody who buy my book still able to access any tips and tutorial in this site. But I can not promise to update it in regular manner.

Every questions about networking stuff should be posted at ilmukomputer-networking@yahoogroups.com. See you there :). Please do not ask about detail technical question in my private email. I receive hundreds of email in a day, so If do not reply to a mail, it does not mean I ignore them. Please ask the question to mailing lists, that’s better.

Posted by mca | 3 Comments »

I receive many questions regarding how to publish mail server to internet. We can simply put public IP on mail server, but it is not secure and waste the IP. The most elegant way is publish it behind firewall and set up port mapping on firewall.
I have wrote this tutorial here.

Posted by mca | No Comments »

In order to served Indonesian networking & mail server community, I have established Indoadmin.Net Forum.
I receive so many feedbacks and questions about my book on Mdaemon Mail Server. Asking question with email one by one is a difficult task, because of repeat questions of another.
I hope this web forum can resolved the problem, and my audience can search the solution by itself. Visit the forum here.

Posted by mca | 2 Comments »

If you want to buy cheap dedicated server with reliable datacenter, choose low end servers from Hiyacorp.Com. This company is a Nocster reseller, so can offer cheaper price than Nocster itself. This because of its bulk deal with Nocster. You can buy from them start from $47/month

Posted by mca | No Comments »

You may familiar with tracert command to identify how many hops to the place where a host reside. There is more fun and easy way to do traceroute. it’s called VisualRoute. This tool come with map & city visualization of every hops.

Posted by mca | No Comments »

Category : Windows 2000
If you manage Windows network and still
have many non Windows 2000 machines, don’t forget to install a WINS server in
your network. I find this server is very usefull for browsing in Network
Neighboorhood.

Posted by mca | 1 Comment »

Category : MDaemon
Hmmmmm
My mail server that rely on MDaemon 6x is spammed by mydoom. Yes, it’s a heavy attack I’ve seen. Fortunately there is no client PC and server in my network infected by this worm so far. My server catch up to 250 e-mail a day regarding mydoom

Posted by mca | No Comments »

Category : Windows 2000
Sometimes you need tools and utility to do specific job that not available on administrative console. Maybe you need tool to make your life being easier
Windows 2000 Resource Kit from Microsoft has many bounch of tools to suit your need. But unfortunately that’s not come for free…. You must pay some money for the CD.

But some free tools are available for free. Check it on the following link and start being a smart administrator..

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/default.asp

Posted by mca | No Comments »