Susan Bradley Patches Our Machines with Windows Server Update Services!

About Show #135

Richard and Greg talk to Susan Bradley, the SBS Diva, about her other life - patching servers. Susan digs into Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), including what it updates and what it doesn't (check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894199 for more info), as well as some third party tools for patching. WSUS lets administrators centralize patching of servers and workstations, so that your machines don't all go fetching the same patches. It also provides means to control what patches get installed and what don't. Susan also points us to http://www.patchmanagement.org/ for access to listservs about WSUS and patch management in general.

Susan Bradley has been patching since before the Code Red/Nimda days and remembers exactly where she was when SQL slammer hit (i.e. trying to buy something on ebay and wondering why the Internet was so slow). She writes the Patch Watch column for Brian Livingston's Windows Secrets, and was one of the authors of Windows Server 2008 Security Resource kit, and Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed. In real life she's the IT wrangler at her firm, Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, where she manages a fleet of Windows Servers, an Exchange Server, desktops, a few Macs, several iPhones and tries to keep patches up to date on all of them. In addition, she provides forensic computer investigations for the litigation consulting arm of the firm. She blogs at www.sbsdiva.com on whatever she stumbled over that day. She blogs at askwoody.com on tracking patching and security issues.

About Show #135

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