Dave Lawlor
Dave Lawlor (MCTS, MCP, A+) has been working in the IT field since leaving the U.S. Army in 1996. Working his way up from printer hardware repair to running a corporate datacenter for a multinational corporation, Dave has seen many environments throughout the years. Focusing on web sites and search engine optimization the last few years, with the release of Server 2008 it has renewed his passion for the Wintel platform and server technologies. David also runs Windows-Server-Training.com where he posts free videos and walk-throughs for a variety of server technologies. David currently works as a freelance technical consultant and writer for a variety of companies in the Chicago area.
- Website: http://www.DaveLawlor.com
Dave Lawlor has written 56 posts for TrainSignal Training
How to Setup iSCSI Drive Using FreeNAS
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ January 19, 2009 ⋅ 34 comments
iSCSI allows client machines to send SCSI commands to remote storage servers like FreeNAS. Learn how iSCSI initiators and iSCSI targets work, how to setup iSCSI target drive on FreeNas server and how to setup iSCSI initiator on Vista.
Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS – Part 2
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ January 5, 2009 ⋅ 20 comments
As we learned last week, NAS provides hard disk space that attaches to a data network and works as a file server We took a closer look at FreeNAS — a free open source NAS software that supports CIFS/SB, FTP, NFS, RSYNC SSH, AFP, Unison, UPnP, ISCSI, local and Microsoft Active Directory authentication, SoftRAID, disk [...]
Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS – Part 1
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 29, 2008 ⋅ 16 comments
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, and is basically a box full of hard disk space that attaches to a data network. Its sole job is to be a file server to as many protocols as you want to configure. If you’re anything like me, you have multiple computers in your house of all types [...]
Disable UAC (User Account Control) on Vista and Server 2008
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 18, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments
Learn how to disable UAC in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista. We’ll cover UAC settings, managing User Account Control and the steps to disable UAC in Vista and Server 2008.
Configure DHCP on Windows Server 2008
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 11, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments
In my last article, Installing DHCP Role, I talked about what DHCP is and how it works then walked you through installing the role on your server. The problem of course being that since we skipped setting up scopes, the server is unable to service clients. We are going to fix that with this article [...]
Install DHCP Role on Windows Server 2008
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 10, 2008 ⋅ One comment
Chances are that if you have used a computer on a network you have used DHCP technology. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and its main purpose in life is to give your computer an IP address so it can send and receive data on the network. In the old days of computing your [...]
Windows Server 2008 as a LAN Router Running RIP
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 5, 2008 ⋅ 11 comments
If you’re designing a virtual test or evaluation network and want to get into complicated network scenarios you will eventually need to segment out your virtual network. To do that you need something functioning as a router, since this may be virtual machines, you can’t just plug-in a hardware solution. This will allow you to [...]
Why Should You Have a Microsoft TechNet Plus Subscription?
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ December 1, 2008 ⋅ 10 comments
The best way to learn and get experience with a product is to actually get your hands dirty with the technology. This includes setting up and running through the most common tasks with the product. Whether you’re building an evaluation or learning lab, getting your hands on the latest Microsoft products can be a pain [...]
Web Deployment Tool Beta 2
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ November 26, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment
At Microsoft PDC 2008 the IIS team once again showed their commitment to moving the IIS Web Server platform to a whole new level. It seems that we get almost monthly updates to the IIS platform from Microsoft — that continues to add features that make IIS a viable alternative to Apache. This latest release [...]
Moving Up in IT: System Administrator Role
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ November 20, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments
The system administrator role is a true workhorse in the IT department. I have spent a good chunk of my career in this role and I have found that even in different environments the system administrator’s role will remain the same, to provide a stable and secure network environment for the business. This doesn’t always [...]
Getting Started in IT: Desktop Support Role
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ November 13, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments
In a previous article I discussed some of the various roles that are common in what I consider the "technical" IT world. One of these roles is the Desktop Support Role, and as I mentioned in my last article it is the most forward facing role of the IT department. They are the ones that [...]
Configure BIND DNS on Windows Web Server 2008 – Part 2
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ November 10, 2008 ⋅ 19 comments
In the first part of this series on Installing BIND DNS I walked you through installing the software on Windows Web Server 2008. The main reason for this of course, is that Windows Web Server 2008 does not allow you to install the Microsoft DNS Role. In this part of the series I will walk [...]
Get Your Dream IT Job: Different Roles in the IT Field
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ November 4, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments
So you want a job in the IT field, but not sure how to go about it? Well you found TrainSignalTraining.com, so you are definitely on the right track, but there are a lot of questions out there and you might not be sure where to go next. Some might say the golden age of [...]
Install BIND DNS on Windows Web Server 2008 – Part 1
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 28, 2008 ⋅ 8 comments
Since Windows Server 2003 there has been a low cost entry in the server SKUs and that has been the Windows Web Server edition. The 2003 version of this edition was severely limited by licensing to what you could install and do on it, and was really only a solution for the most basic of [...]
Microsoft Web Application Installer
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 23, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment
The Microsoft Web Application Installer will allow you to quickly and easily deploy the most widely used web applications available for free to your Windows Server. If you have seen some of my other articles on installing the open source software out there on IIS, you will notice that while it can be done, it [...]
Microsoft Web Platform Installer Beta
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 21, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment
It isn’t often that a new piece of Windows technology takes me by surprise or really knocks my socks off, but I have to say the IIS team has really done it this time. If you have been around Apache Web servers for any amount of time you have probably seen or used a program [...]
How to Install and Use Windows Live Writer – Windows Live Tools Beta 3
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 15, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment
Microsoft has been building the Live brand and site for years in hopes of consolidating many services under one umbrella for consumers. They have been steadily releasing free tools that casual and even not so casual users would like to use, but from other vendors were not exactly free. These include tools for blogging, email, [...]
Installing WordPress on IIS7 – Part 2
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 9, 2008 ⋅ 9 comments
Now that we’ve installed and setup a WordPress blog on IIS 7 let’s get into the details and enhance it a bit. First we’ll set up search engine friendly URLs for our WordPress on IIS 7 to increase SEO. Then we’ll learn how to take advantage of the many WordPress plugins. And finally I’ll talk [...]
Installing WordPress on IIS 7 – Part 1
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ October 6, 2008 ⋅ 13 comments
In the past few weeks I have been writing a lot about using open source software such as PHP and MySQL on IIS7 to get you ready for today. This article will take the knowledge and experience of those articles and apply them to install one of the most popular open source blogging and CMS [...]
IIS7: URL Rewrite Extension on Windows Server 2008
By Dave Lawlor ⋅ September 25, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments
One of the greatest advantages that Apache server has had over the years, compared to prior versions of IIS, is the ability to use mod_rewrite to change URLs on the fly very easily. While there were options for this on earlier versions of IIS via the ISAPI rewrite modules, they were problematic and resource intensive [...]