IT Pro Tuesday #40

It’s Tuesday and time for another edition of IT Pro. We’ve got some great finds lined up for you. As normal, we’re not affiliated with any of the brands below unless we state otherwise.

The Case of the Unexplained

This week we’re featuring Mark Russinovich again. This time, it’s his webcast of his TechEd sessions. Bagaudin recommends checking these out when Windows is misbehaving. He also covers problems with advanced tools and Sysinternals. Every episode covers a different issue, and you’ll learn some clever troubleshooting techniques. What makes Russinovich’s sessions so helpful is that he uses real-world examples as well.

16 PowerShell Modules

This site presents tools that were created by System Architect Przemyslaw Klys in 2018. You’ll find modules such as:

• PSWinReporting: Use this to scan Domain Controller Security Events and get a full report about changes have been made in Active Directory.
• PSWriteWord: This allows you to create a Microsoft Word documents even if you don’t have Word on your system. 

 Jigsaw Google Phishing Quiz

How good are you at detecting a phishing attack? Find out by taking this quiz. You might be surprised – detecting phishing attacks is harder than you think. The site also provides training on what warning signs to look out for. 

Pro SQL Server Internals

The 2nd edition of this book is for you if you want to leverage SQL Server in the design, development and maintenance of systems. It should be required reading for database admins and developers because it teaches you how to determine what the root cause of a problem is, rather than just treating the symptoms.

It goes into some depth on how the different components operate, how they work together, and how the decisions you make will affect the way the system performs. Become_taintless recommends this as a great technical guide to understanding the operation of SQL Server.

Wi-Fi Analyzer

This useful Android app will check all the Wi-Fi channels near you. This is useful if you want to patch your router into a less-congested network. Thenewimprovedhankp says that it’s a tool he uses often to identify "dead spots, conflicting Wi-Fi networks and [because it] works for 2.4 and 5 Ghz signals."

Have a great week and let us know if you have anything that you’d like to add.