I spent most of yesterday at a client site dealing with a Windows 2000 Server which had run out of disk space on the system (C:) volume. Apparently Active Directory won’t work if there isn’t enough disk space and without Active Directory you have, well, no user account database among other things. Cleaning up space wasn’t going to be a problem using Directory Services Restore Mode but quickly I learned the DS admin password didn’t match my documentation.

There are numerous ways to hack a Windows server but I wanted a clean method. After some Googling I discovered Bart’s Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) which supports read/write operations on NTFS volumes.

The creation of a Windows XP boot CD was (surprisingly) easy. Shortly I was looking at the BartPE wallpaper and opened the A43 File Manager. Within minutes I freed up disk space on C: and rebooted the server. Success.

Later, something dawned on me… I successfully deleted files within C:\WINNT using BartPE. No administrator login required. No ill side effects. Can it be this easy to gain access to other Windows servers?

This is reason enough to lock-down your file servers with physical security. Lock the server room door. Lock the server cabinet. Lock the server faceplate. Disable CD booting in the BIOS. Assign a BIOS password.

All of these precautions can be a hassle during routine maintenance but they’re extremely important if a boot CD or USB flash drive is all it takes to hack into a Windows server.

About a month ago Junior wanted to help me type at the computer. This activity was going quite happily until he hurled his sippy cup at the keyboard causing the W key to become dislodged.

I couldn’t snap the key back into place becuase it’s of the “scissor switch” variety and one of the tabs was broken. All was not lost since a little rubber plunger was still attached to the keyboard but do you realize how difficult life becomes without W? Why couldn’t it have been the Z?

Not having learned my lesson, he eventually swiped at the rubber plunger and the W was finally laid to rest.

Now I’ve got a shiny new Apple Wireless Keyboard and one less wire cluttering my desk.

Ben from WHU responded to questions I had about their screening process:

We check whois history on reviews to make sure they used the host and to match up names. And just general making sure their site looks like its not owned or run by someone with the host, we track IP and cookies too to see if they submitted a lot of reviews and a few other tricks.

Regarding the quality of user-submitted reviews:

We also make sure they give us something specific about the host and not just general bad or good comments. For reviews that do mark specific things we mark them as featured and soon you will be able to see featured reviews on the host pages marked as such. Right now they all just look the same.

He also shared with me a sneak peek at their upcoming comparison feature. It’s compact and tidy with what you need to know in one page.

When it comes to finding a web host the problem isn’t which are good, it’s which should be avoided. There are sites which claim to review web hosts but none of them are as slick (or helpful) as WebHostingUnleashed.com.

This is a Web 2.0 site and it’s pleasing on the eyes. The founders did their homework on how people research web hosts. The top tabs get right to it: (Shared) Web Hosting, Resellers, VPS, and Dedicated.

There are many hosting resources found here such as guides to questions like “What is Cpanel?” but the best feature of the site are user reviews. Click the User Reviews tab and instantly see user supplied comments about their experience with a particular web host, the name of the host, and whether they recommended it. Drill down into a review and see how long the user was/is using the web host and a ranking of 1 to 10 for Support, Value, and Overall experience.

Reviews are very honest and aren’t ashamed to name names. Often you’ll see “I was with host XYZ and left them because of ABC.” Reviews will comment on topics such as tech support, up-time, and the billing process. All the bits you want to know before you commit to a hosting platform.

You can search for a host based on feature set or browse the best and worst hosts based on the number of positive reviews (15+) and recommendation scores over 90%.

If your web host isn’t on their list, click Submit Host and put it there instantly. Click Submit Review and give your opinion, even listing one of your sites for others to experience the hosting platform. The reviews are sent to a moderator who approves it before publishing it.

I’m not sure how the screening process works but I hope they discard reviews that don’t say much. Reading through the negative reviews I can say they don’t edit the content. The tone of the negative reviews tends to be professional without much ranting or overuse of capital letters and exclamation points.

I submitted a review last night and within minutes a moderator sent me a note thanking me for the review. A real person, not an automated bot.

Nice work.

Check out this 22-minute short called Solicit Behavior. My friend Yuri plays “Fubar,” a stuttering OCD telemarketer always tormented by the firm’s top seller. Speaking of top seller, what happened to the Twister scene with Vicki?