This article shows how to install Northwind and Pubs databases on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express.

Step-by-step

1. Browse to SQL Server 2000 Sample Databases and click on SQL2000.Sample.Databases.(Northwind,pubs).zip to download the Northwind and Pubs databases. Once you clicked the file, there will be a pop-up displays license of this file. Click I Agree to download the file.
   Note: This file contains sample databases that can be used on SQL Server 2000/2005/2008.
   
2. Extract the zipped file, you will see files as the figure below. There are two methods to install these sample databases on SQL Server. The first method, run query on the SQL Server using instnwnd.sql and instpubs.sql for Northwind and Pubs databases respectively. The second method, attach database on SQL Server using NORTHWND.LDF and NORTHWND.MDF for Northwind database and PUBS.MDF and PUBS_LOG.MDF for Pubs database. On this article, I will show how to install Northwind and Pubs databases using the second method.
   
3. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your SQL Server.
   
4. Once the connection has been established, right-click on Databases and select Attach.
   
5. On Attach Databases, click Add in Databases to attach section.
   
6. On Locate Database File, browse to the folder where you extracted the downloaded file in step 2. Select a database file that you want to attach. I select NORTHWND.MDF which refers to Northwind database and click OK.
   
7. You will see detail of Northwind database. The NORTHWND.LDF is automatically added in the details on section below (“Northwind” database details).
   
8. Repeat step 5 and 6 for Pubs database by attach PUBS.MDF file if you want to attach more than one database at the time. After you finish selecting databases that you want to attach, click OK.
   
9. If there is no error, you will see the sample databases (Northwind and Pubs) list on the SQL Server as the figure below. Now you can use these sample databases as you want.
   

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When you are installing Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express on Windows Vista or Windows 7, you may receive this error message:

The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 29506.

This error message relates with permission issue (UAC) on Windows Vista and Windows 7. To solve this problem, you have to re-run the installer again using elevated command prompt by run the command prompt as administrator and execute the installer in there. If you are using 64-bit Windows, you should use the command prompt at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe instead. Otherwise, you can use the command prompt at C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe. You will see the step-by-step guide to use elevated command prompt to execute the installer file on the section below.

The other solution, you can disable UAC on Windows but I don’t recommend it since it will lower your security system.

Step-by-step

1. Run elevated command prompt by right-click on Command Prompt in Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
   Note: This step is for 32-bit Windows. If you are using 64-bit Windows, see the next step.
   
2. If you are using 64-bit Windows, you have to run the command prompt in C:\Windows\SysWOW64. Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator.
   
3. On User Account Control, click Yes.
   
4. On Command Prompt (both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows), change path to directory where the installer file is and execute the file. By default, the file name for 32-bit version is SQLServer2005_SSMSEE.msi and 64-bit version is SQLServer2005_SSMSEE_x64.msi.
   
5. On Setup Wizard, follow the instruction as usual. There won’t be the error message this time.
   

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This article shows you how to enable cURL on XAMPP on Windows 7.

Step-by-step

1. Locate php.ini in xampp directory. By default, it locates in “xampp/php/php.ini”. Then, open the file with any text editor.
   
2. Uncomment the line below by remove the semi-colon at beginning of the line and save the file.

   ;extension=php_curl.dll

   to

   extension=php_curl.dll

   

3. Next, restart apache service. You can do this through Windows services or using XAMPP Control Panel. Open XAMPP Control Panel, click on Stop button of the Apache service. Once it stops, click Start button.
   
4. Now cURL is enabled on XAMPP, you can test by create a PHP file with the code below and save to htdocs folder.

    <?php
     phpinfo();
   ?>
   

   

5. Open the browser and navigate to http://localhost/phpinfo.php. Scroll down to find curl section, you will see that it is already enabled. If you can’t find curl section, it means that cURL isn’t enable on the server.
   

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Few years ago, I wrote an article about how to setup Apache web server using AppServ. Now there are many software similar to AppServ so I decide to write a new fresh one. But instead of using the same software as the previous article, I will use XAMPP this time. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. At the moment there are four XAMPP distributions: Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Solaris. See XAMPP for more information.

XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for developers in a development environment. XAMPP is configured is to be as open as possible and to allow the web developer anything he/she wants. For development environments this is great but in a production environment it could be fatal.
Reference: XAMPP security console

This article will show you how to setup Apache web server with PHP/MySQL using XAMPP on Windows 7 (x64). The current version of XAMPP is 1.7.4. It comes with PHP 5.3.5 so if you don’t plan to use this PHP version, you should download the older version of XAMPP instead.

Step-by-step

1. Download XAMPP for Windows. Browse to www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html and click XAMPP for Windows.
   
2. Scroll down to Download section, there are 3 formats which you can choose to download. In this example, I select ZIP format.
   
3. Unzip the file into the folder of your choice. If you extract XAMPP in a top level folder like “C:\” or “D:\”, you can skip to step 5. Otherwise, you have to run “setup_xampp.bat” in \xampp folder. In this example, I extract to C:\ so I can skip to step 5.
   
4. Here is the screenshot of the execution of file setup_xampp.bat.
   
5. Open XAMPP Control Panel by right-click on xampp-control.exe and select Run as administrator.
   Note: If you’re using Windows XP, you just double-click on the file.
   
6. On XAMPP Control Panel Application, select Svc checkbox of Apache and click OK. This will install Apache as a service on this computer.
   
7. Click Start to start Apache web server.
   
8. Repeat step 6-7 on MySQL. Now Apache and MySQL are installed as Windows services and already started.
   
9. You can check if the services are really installed on the computer by click SCM.
   
10. On Services, you will see Apache and MySQL services are started and startup type are set to Automatic which means that services will be started automatically when the computer starts.
    
11. Now it’s time to test, browse to “http://localhost” or “http://127.0.0.1″. You will see the screen as below. This is XAMPP’s splash screen, select English language.
    
12. Here is the XAMPP’s main page. You can view other pages using navigation menu on the left side. For example, XAMPP’s status to see which components are running, security page to view current security configuration of the XAMPP installation, etc.
    
13. The main directory for all WWW documents is \xampp\htdocs. If you put a file “test.html” in this directory, you can access it with the URI “http://localhost/test.html”.
    
14. You can manage MySQL using phpMyAdmin by browse to “http://localhost/phpmyadmin” or you can select phpMyAdmin link on the XAMPP’s main page (in Tools section).
    Note: By default, the root’s password is empty (blank password).
    

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1. Faster than using DVD. It takes less time to install Windows 7.
2. An USB Flash Drive is smaller than DVD. Hence, easier to carry and maintain.
3. Can be installed on computer or laptop that doesn’t has DVD-ROM but has an USB port.

To install Windows 7 from an USB Flash Drive, you need a Windows 7 installation DVD or image file (.iso). Next, make a bootable USB Flash Drive by using the Windows 7 image file and UNetbootin, which is a free software that allows you to create bootable Live USB drives. Then, you will get a bootable USB Flash Drive which you can use to install Windows 7.

Requirement

• Microsoft Windows 7 installation DVD disc or image file (.iso)
• UNetbootin
• An USB Flash Drive.
• The computer or laptop which will be installed Windows 7 must support boot from USB storage device. Most computer and laptop in these days support this feature already.

Note: This article demonstrates only for Windows 7 but you can apply to other operating system, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, etc.

Step-by-step

1. Prepare an image file. You can use free software, such as ImgBurn, to create an ISO image file from Windows 7 installation DVD. You can skip this step if you already have Windows as an image file (.iso).
   • Insert Windows 7 installation DVD in your DVD-ROM Drive.
   • Run ImgBurn and click Create image file from disc.
   • Select destination for image file by click on File -> Browse for a destination file and click Save.
   • Start create image file by click File -> Read or click on the Read’s icon.

   

2. Download UNetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net. You can run it after download, no installation need.
   
3. Insert your USB Flash Drive and run UNetbootin.
   
4. Select Diskimage (ISO) and browse to your Windows 7 image file. On the bottom, select drive of the USB Flash Drive as destination. On this example, the target drive is “H:\“. Click OK to start create a bootable USB Flash Drive.
   
5. The process could takes times a little while.
   
6. When the process finishes, you have an option to reboot your system or exit the program. Now you can use this USB Flash Drive to boot on any computer or laptop.
   Note: You may need to change boot order in BIOS on a computer or laptop, which you want to boot using the USB Flash Drive, to boot from USB storage device first.
   

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• Connection: Provides a connection used to communicate with the data source.
• DataAdapter: A bridge used to transfer data between a Data source and a DataSet object.
• DataSet: Stores query result from DataAdapter.

On this post, you will see how to develop an ASP.NET web application that query data from SQL Server 2005 and display the result on a GridView object. I have provided both VB.NET and C# programming languages.

Step-by-step

1. Create a connection string in web.config. I decide to put the connection string in web.config so that I can re-use the connection string in other web form.

   <connectionstrings>
   		<add name="Northwind"
          connectionString="Data Source=BKKSQL001\INSTANCE01;
          Initial Catalog=Northwind;
          Integrated Security=True"
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
   </connectionstrings>

   Attributes explanation:

   • name: A connection string name.
   • connectionString: A connection string which is used to connect to a database. On this example, it connects to Northwind database on BKKSQL001\INSTANCE01.
   • providerName: A provider name that is used.

   

2. On a Web Form, imports some namespaces which are required for working with SQL Server. System.Web.Configuration is use to read values from web.config.

   'Visual Basic
   Imports System.Data
   Imports System.Data.SqlClient
   Imports System.Web.Configuration

   //C#
   using System.Data;
   using System.Data.SqlClient;
   using System.Web.Configuration;

3. Use a GridView object to display the query result. Set the name of GridView to “gridView1“. Copy and paste the code below to Page_Load method.

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

   'Visual Basic Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load   Dim connStr As String = WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Northwind").ConnectionString Dim conn As New SqlConnection(connStr) conn.Open()   Dim sqlProducts As String = "SELECT ProductID, ProductName, UnitPrice FROM Products"   Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter(sqlProducts, conn) Dim ds As New DataSet() da.Fill(ds, "Products")   gridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables("Products") gridView1.Databind() End Sub

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

   //C# protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { string connStr = WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["Northwind"].ConnectionString; SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connStr); conn.Open();   string sqlProducts = "SELECT ProductID, ProductName, UnitPrice FROM Products";   SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(sqlProducts, conn); DataSet ds = new DataSet(); da.Fill(ds, "Products");   gridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables["Products"]; gridView1.DataBind(); }

   Code Explanation:

   • Line 4-6: Get a connection string value from web.config. Then, open a connection using the connection string to a SQL Server.
   • Line 8: Create a variable “sqlProducts” which stores SQL query from Products table.
   • Line 10-12: Create a SqlDataAdapter object “da” to execute the query. Then, create a DataSet object “ds” to hold the result from object “da” and set name to “Products“.
   • Line 14-15: Display data from object “ds” on a GridView object “gridView1“.
4. Run the project. You will see the result as figure below.
   

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From part 1: SELECT Data, you see how to query data from SQL Server 2005 to display on a GridView object using SqlDataSource web control. But the data is read-only, you cannot modify any data on a GridView. So now you will see how to modify data on the GridView which will update back on the database.

Step-by-step

Note: This example is continue from part 1: SELECT Data.

1. On SqlDataSource1, click on Configure Data Source.
   
2. On Choose Your Data Connection, click Next.
   
3. On Configure Select Statement, change the option from Specify columns from a table or view to Specify a custom SQL statement or stored procedure. Click Next.
   
4. On Define Custom Statements or Stored Procedures, you see 4 tabs which are SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE. Here you can define custom SQL statements for each SQL operations. On SELECT tab, enter the SQL statement as below:

   SELECT [ProductID], [ProductName], [UnitPrice] FROM [Products]

   

5. Click on UPDATE tab, enter the SQL statement below and click Next.

   UPDATE Products SET ProductName = @ProductName, UnitPrice = @UnitPrice
   WHERE [ProductID] = @ProductID

   

6. On Test Query, Click Finish.
   
7. On GridView1, click Edit Columns.
   
8. On Fields, select Command Fields -> Edit, Update, Cancel on Available fields and click Add. Then, move the field Edit, Update, Cancel to the top by click on up arrow button. Next, click OK.
   
9. On GridView1, check Enable Editing to allow edit data on the Grid View.
   
10. Build and run the project. You see the Edit column in front of each row. Click Edit to edit the row.
    
11. You can modify the value of product name and unit price of the row which also update back on the database, too.
    

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On this post, you will see how to develop an ASP.NET web application that query data from SQL Server 2005 and display the result on a GridView object using SqlDataSource web control so you don’t have to write any code!

Step-by-step-

1. Drag a SqlDataSource object from Toolbox to a Web Form.
   
2. On SqlDataSource1 object, click Configure Data Source.
   
3. On Choose Your Data Connection, click New Connection.
   
4. On Add Connection, select Data Source as Microsoft SQL Server (SqlClient). Then, type the Server name of the SQL Server and select a database. On this example, the server is BKKSQL001\INSTANCE01 and Northwind is the database.
   
5. On Save the Connection String to the Application Configuration File, click Next to continue.
   
6. On Configure the Select Statement, select Specify columns from table or view and select Products table. Then, check ProductID, ProductName and UnitPrice columns. Click Next.
   
7. On Test Query, you can click on Test Query button to verify the query result. Then, click Finish.
   
8. Drag a GridView object from Toolbox to the Web Form. Then, choose the Data Source to the one that you have just created.
   
9. Build and run the project. You will see the result as the figure below.
   

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Block Windows Live Messenger

From Part 11: HTTP Filtering, you learn about HTTP filtering concept. Now let’s apply it with a real world example, Windows Live Messenger. On this post, I show you how to block Windows Live Messenger on ISA Server 2006.

Windows Live Messenger is a popular instant messaging application, many people using it regularly. But sometimes, people use it at work place and unintentionally receive a file containing virus. Then, they execute it, so the virus spread on the network. Therefore, it is a task of an IT staff to secure the system and prevent this issue. The best and effective solution is to enforce strictly firewall policy. But sometimes, you cannot do that. For example, users on research department want access to any websites (HTTP) because they do not know what websites they want to access until they need. Then, you have to create an access rule to allow HTTP to from Internal to External for these users. Now they can use Windows Live Messenger because Windows Live Messenger communicates with its servers through either of these ports:

• MSN Messenger protocol (TCP: 1863).
• HTTP protocol (TCP: 80).

If you block only MSN Messenger protocol, users still can use Windows Live Messenger through HTTP protocol. Now what should you do? Block HTTP protocol? Doing that will also block users to access websites so you cannot do that. Here it comes, HTTP filtering. You can block only Windows Live Messenger on ISA Server without blocking the HTTP protocol if you know the signature. HTTP header is also the signature.

So what is the signature of Windows Live Messenger? I have sniffed HTTP packets while I signing to Windows Live Messenger. Here are the signature and protocol port of Windows Live Messenger:

• The client communicates with the server of Windows Live Messenger using TCP outbound port 1863.
  
• While the client requesting information from the server (request header), one signature of it is User-Agent: Windows Live Messenger.
  

Now I show you how to configure to block Windows Live Messenger on ISA Server 2006.

Step-by-step

1. Create an access rule to block TCP outbound port 1863. ISA Server 2006 already has pre-defined this port as MSN Messenger protocol. I am not going to show detail steps on creating an access rule. You can review them at Part 7: Create DNS Lookup Rule and Part 8: Create Web Access Rule.
   • Rule Name: Block Windows Live Messenger
   • Action: Deny
   • Protocol: MSN Messenger
   • From: Internal
   • To: External
   • Condition: All Users

   

2. Next, configure HTTP filtering to block the signature of Windows Live Messenger. Right click on “Allow HTTP, HTTPS for Linglom” and select Configure HTTP.
   Note: This menu option available on an access rule that contains HTTP protocol only.
   
3. On Configure HTTP policy for rule, click on Signatures tab and click Add.
   
4. On Signature, enter these information below to block Windows Live Messenger and then click OK.
   • Name: Blocks Windows Live Messenger or any name as you want.
   • Search in: Request headers
   • HTTP header: User-Agent:
   • Signature: Windows Live Messenger

   Note: Don’t forget semi-colon (:) after User-Agent text.
   

5. Back to Configure HTTP policy for rule, you see the signature has been created for this rule. You also can disable the signature by un-check it. On this example, leave it as checked to enable the signature. Click OK.
   
6. Don’t forget to click Apply to update the configuration.
   
7. Let’s try to sign in Windows Live Messenger on the client computer, you see that I cannot sign in any more.
   

Summary

Now You have reach the end of Getting started with Microsoft ISA Server 2006 series. This series contains 12 parts: it gives you an introduction of ISA Server 2006, how to install and configure ISA Server 2006 on simple environment, how to create an access rule, and how to use some useful features on ISA Server 2006. I hope you get what you want on this series. If you have any comment or suggestion, feel free to leave it below.

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HTTP Filtering

From Part 10: Logging, you learn how to configure and use logging on ISA Server 2006. Now, you will learn about HTTP filtering.

Have you ever want to block users using MSN or Yahoo messenger, or deny them to using free email services, or block them to post anything on web boards, or block them to use bit-torrent to download files? This post will answer these questions with Microsoft ISA Server 2006.

HTTP traffic is a data packet using HTTP protocol on the network which is used by most applications. On each packet of HTTP traffic, there is a header which contains information about server and client that are communicating each other at the time. These header information are such as:

• Request Methods. For example, GET, POST, CONNECT.
• User-Agent, such as Mozilla/4.0, Mozilla/5.0, Firefox
• Content-Type. The mime type of the body of the request, such as application/x-www-form-urlencoded, application/xml, image/jpeg, text/xml.
• Host. The domain name of the server, for example, www.bing.com, www.linglom.com.

For more information about HTTP, see these links from wiki.org:

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Lists of HTTP headers

So why learn about these HTTP headers? You can use these HTTP headers information to block or allow specific application on ISA Server 2006. Still not get it? Let’s see some examples of real HTTP traffic.

You can use some sniffer program to capture data packets that pass in/out through a network interface card on a computer. On this example, I use Ethereal. I install it on the same server as ISA Server 2006 but you can install and test on any computer as you want. Then, I start capturing packets on the network interface card that connects to the Internet and browse to http://www.bing.com using Internet Explorer.

After that, I see these HTTP traffics on ethereal. First, My computer sends a HTTP request to the web server (www.bing.com).
Detail: Request Method is GET. User-Agent is Mozilla/4.0 (compatible: MSIE 6.0). HOST is www.bing.com.

Second, the web server has send HTTP response back to the client. The response packet looks similar as the figure below.
Detail: Response Code is 200 (OK). Content-Type is text/html.

What’s Next?

Now you learn some concepts about HTTP and its header. Next, I will show how to use these information to block Windows Live Messenger on ISA Server 2006. See Part 12: Block Windows Live Messenger.

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