Here’s where it gets fun.  I logged into the server after hours and rebooted the server.  I was, at this point, assuming that it was a hung Exchange process or something so I didn’t bother to check if it was still exhibiting the behavior when I first logged in.  After the reboot however, the Exchange server started acting normally again.  One or two transaction logs per minute or so.  Chalk it up to something being freaked out.  Out of curiosity, I logged back in this morning and it was doing it again… and after a brief discussion with one of my coworkers who had checked it earlier this morning as well, we determined that it must have started again around 8:30. HAS to be a user related event.

   I did some digging and found a few tools that can help us out in this situation; one stood out from the rest.  Our old friend exmon.  Turns out the Exchange Team has kept this tool up-to-date and it works just fine with Exchange 2010.  Simply install the msi, browse to the install directory and run the .reg file to create the appropriate registry settings, and we’re off to the races.  Here is what you get:

A listing of all your current Exchange users and exactly what they’re doing from a resource perspective.  Note that my top talker is currently chewing on 68% of the CPU and asking the server to process about 19Mb of data… compared to the 716k of its next closest competitor, and around 4k from everyone else.  Now, I will say that it isn’t necessarily unusual for a user to show up on the top of this list for one reporting period as using a nice chunk of CPU.  This will happen if the user has just opened Outlook or has just performed a Send / Receive and there was a decent amount of email that needed to be downloaded.  However, this user was sitting around 60-90% of the CPU for over 20 minutes. THAT is not normal.

    So what was the culprit?  This is a recent Exchange migration (we moved them from a hosted solution to their own Exchange server), and the PSTs had been imported.  For whatever reason this users PST import had gotten stuck.  The only sign that something was wrong was that the user’s Outlook constantly said “Folder is waiting to update”.  Oddly enough, you could reboot the machine and as soon as the user logged in again and launched Outlook, the loop would start all over again.  Deleting the user’s Outlook profile and recreating it solved the issue.

Fun times!

    Another tool you’ll want in your toolbox is the Troubleshoot-DatabaseSpace.ps1 script provided with Exchange 2010 SP1.  This can be an extremely useful tool in an emergency situation (i.e. you’re in very real danger of running out of disk space in the near future), however for my situation it would have been overkill as we had a couple days worth of disk space available to us easily.  The big takeaway from the linked article is #4. If it finds an offending mailbox it will lock it out for 6 hours; meaning the user will no longer have access to their email.  Again, since we had some time / disk space, and the customer hadn’t noticed any thing from a performance standpoint… this would have caused more disruption then we were currently experiencing.

–Dan Thompson

    The review of this device, along with a Roku XD and Boxee Box, is all for a giveaway my company is doing (full details here) and as I mentioned last time, this box was the one I was most excited about.  The Revue is especially hyped because it is supposed to fully integrate with your current media equipment in an attempt to be a “media hub”, if you will, for all your entertainment / information needs.  A tall order no doubt.  As many other bloggers have mentioned, Google doesn’t necessarily want to REPLACE your cable TV with their Google TV; they just want to add to it.  I don’t know that I totally buy that just yet, but at this point in the game, that’s where we’re at. So what does this thing do? Let’s check it out.

Chrome… So shiny

    To compare the Revue, or any Google TV device, to the Boxee Box or the Roku devices is almost to compare apples to oranges.  Almost.  All the devices fit neatly into the “internet TV” appliance category, but the three go about it in fairly different ways.  The Boxee Box and Roku are heavily focused on the apps, while the Revue seems to hang it’s hat on the fact that it has a full blown, fully functional, Chrome browser built on the box.  There are a handful of apps that run on the device today, don’t get me wrong; and with this device being built on what is basically the Android OS, new apps are sure to come in the near future (Google is apparently saying early 2011 you’ll be able to install apps yourself)… but when you’re done fiddling around with Netflix, YouTube, and Twitter… you start reaching for Chrome. And then you stay there; or at least I did.

    Several people had previously asked if ESPN3 was available on any of these devices, so I checked on the Revue.  It doesn’t have an app built in, but never fear, you can just browse on over to the website and start watching whatever sporting event you were looking for (I was checking out part of the DePaul vs. Stanford basketball game).  While you’re on the website, you can make it easy on yourself to return here later by just clicking the bookmark button right on the keyboard.  From there I bounced all over the internet; checking out Facebook and seeing what my personal website looked like on the big screen.  Pretty cool stuff. 

    I’ll pause here and say that at this point my wife became interested… which is something to note, as up until now she was annoyed by these new devices sitting around the living room taking up space and cluttering things up.  Suddenly this keyboard floating around the room seemed useful to her.  Marketing people take note; that’s the big sell right there.

    After messing around with the internet for a while, I fired up Pandora and found some Christmas music so we could decorate the Christmas tree while listening to some classics from Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and the like.  Shortly after finishing up the tree though is when disaster struck.

Party Foul

      While decorating the tree, my wife mentioned a video she’d seen on Hulu she wanted to show me.  I pull up the website from the Revue and am greeted by the message below:

Yep, that’s right… Hulu is taking note of what type of system you’re connecting with, and blocking you from accessing their content with the promise that they’ll let you pay for it soon enough.  So to be clear, I could hook my laptop up to my TV via a HDMI cable and watch the video… but I hook the Revue up via the same HDMI cable, and they won’t let me.  Make sense to you? Yep, me either.  Clearly Hulu wants you to pay for their service (which oh by the way, still has commercials) but the fact that they’re discriminating based on the system type really gets on my nerves… and unfortunately Hulu isn’t the only site doing it.  ABC, CBS, and NBC have apparently also joined in the party and are blocking Google TV as well.  Why would they do that? Great question.  I would assume they feel the same way about Google TV potentially replacing the cable / satellite providers as I do and are trying somehow thwart that, but I can only guess.  By the way, if someone from the big three are paying attention, what you’re doing actually encourages pirating. People want these devices, and they want to be able to connect to the same websites with them they can from their computers and other web-enabled devices.  You need a different strategy.

Conclusions

    The Logitech Revue and its Google TV-ness; I like.  The keyboard; I could get used to.  Subsequently Logitech also makes a smaller keyboard that I’d love to try out and think I’d like better, AND they’ve created an iPhone / Android app that allows you to control a surprising amount of stuff right from your phone… which was very impressive.  The user interface, which gets knocked around a bit from other reviewers, I actually found to be very satisfactory.  It was easy to navigate and modify, and while it isn’t as app focused as the other two internet TV devices I worked with, I found it to be just as useful and friendly to get around in.  With time as apps become more prevalent, your use of the browser may slow somewhat… but really I didn’t find this to be an issue at all. It is a slightly different approach, but as I mentioned, just as satisfying of an experience.  Oh… and speaking of apps, if I could play Angry Birds on my big screen, I’d be in love for sure.

–Dan Thompson

–Dan Thompson

    This week I’ve reviewed the Roku XD, the Boxee Box, and then Logitech Revue, and so I thought I’d give a quick little wrap-up here to go along with the video from this morning’s WBIR spot.  After looking at each unit it seems that each has a place in the market depending on what level of integration you are looking for.  If you want no frills and don’t have content on your home network you want to play, check out the Roku.  If you’re looking for more integration and functionality checkout the Boxee Box and the Logitech Revue.  Is there an absolutely perfect solution?  Well, the jury is still out.  I’m thinking that the Revue but with a Boxee Box style remote would be the ticket; but after I get to fully play with the Revue’s keyboard I may change my mind.

    Personally, I am going to join others in saying I believe we will see a battle for the operating systems running on TVs.  With Sony setting the tempo and putting Google TV on some of their higher-end models, it would not surprise me at all to see Boxee showing up on TVs as well.  I really believe this is the future.  If we look at DVD players today, a lot have Netflix built in and some TVs are starting to do this now as well.  Why would these manufacturers not continue to push the envelope as to what content they can get straight to the TV.  In reality it is just one more small system board to put in the device; much the way cable tuners are built into TVs.  Could you totally replace your cable TV today with one of these setups ? Well, maybe.  If you have a Netflix account, that would seem a little bit more plausible, however I’m not sure it’s quite ready for the mainstream. 

    While I’m on the subject of Netflix; these guys are making out like bandits.  Netflix is now the de facto for streaming television programs and movies from over the internet.  I was a little offended that the Boxee Box didn’t have Netflix yet (however it is coming soon) which really just goes to show how much people like the service.  Netflix is currently showing up on all sorts of devices like TVs, DVRs, and BluRay players and the influx of the “me too” companies (Vudu, Hulu Plus, the rumored RedBox streaming servivces, etc) further proves my point.

    Check out the video below for my interview this morning on the WBIR morning show, and make sure you get signed up for the great Claris Christmas giveaway (click here) for a chance to win one of these devices!

–Dan Thompson

    Of the three devices I tested for my company’s Black Friday giveaway (details here); the Roku XD, the Boxee Box, and now the Logitech Revue powered by Google TV, this last one was the one I was most interested in seeing first hand.  With Sony already picking Google TV up as a built-in feature on some of their new TVs, it pertains to be the clear front runner in the space with Boxee Box being the scrappy underdog.  Did it live up to everything I was hoping for out of the box?  Well… that’s a great question.  The unit we purchased is apparently bunk; yep, that’s right… it doesn’t work… totally.  Good times.  Needless to say we’ll be sending this one back at which time I’ll REALLY be able to tell you if you want one or not… until then though, I’ve got some immediate notes I’ll share and then I’ll fill in the blanks later.

What’s in the box?

    The largest and most expensive unit in the bunch (currently $299 on amazon.com), the Logitech Revue is a well appointed setup.  The device itself is obviously in the box along with a Logitech keyboard with a built in mouse pad, arrow navigation pad, and a slew of other nifty buttons.  It also came with it’s own HDMI cable, power cables, an IR extender in case you want to tuck your Revue away in an A/V rack somewhere, and various manuals. 

    The unit itself is about 10 x 7 and stands a little over an inch off the table, and one of the first things you notice about the back of the device is that it has an HDMI In and and HDMI Out… yep, it is meant to sit inline with whatever TV provider you have; more on that in a minute.  The device also is equipped with 2 USB ports, 2 remote IR ports, and an Ethernet port, although the device can also connect wirelessly.

    I’ll admit that the keyboard throws me for a bit of a loop.  I’ve always equated a keyboard on your lap while sitting on the couch as something for only the ubergeek crowd (not that I’m above that) and not something that would be adopted by the masses.  The jury is actually still out on that for me, but I will say that the keyboard is quite functional.

Setup and… crash

    The setup of the device is where it gets interesting.  Like the Roku and Boxee Box you’ll sign in with your Google account if you have one or create a new one if you don’t (unlike the Roku though, this can all be done without an additional computer) and properly adjust the screen size.  The setup then starts quizzing you about your cable or satellite TV provider, what zip code you live in, what type of cable / satellite set-top box  and DVR you have (if applicable), what type of TV you have and what port the Revue is plugged into on that TV, and finally what type of receiver you have (if any) and what port the Revue is plugged into that device. Whew!  I wasn’t expecting a collegiate level final!  After all this leg work though, I’m left with something brilliant; that Logitech keyboard can now turn on and off my TV, DVR, and receiver as well as raise and lower the volumes on all of the above and change between the inputs on all of the above.  Oh yeah, and it even labeled the port on my TV menu that it is plugged in to.  Pretty flip’n sweet!

    The idea with all this is that the Revue can interact with and control all your other media devices… making itself the “media hub”, if you will.  If you’ve got Dish Network as your satellite provider, it totally integrates itself with all the current set-top boxes and DVRs and apparently will allow you to search through content on the web and on your DVR / upcoming programming guides to help find what you’re looking for.  You can set up DVR recording right from the keyboard with the touch of a button and a plethora of other neat things.  Like the Boxee Box, you can also access file shares on your network and play / view certain file types off USB devices.  That’s a pretty stellar line-up.

    Does it actually do all that stuff?  Well, I trust the reviews I’ve read, but I haven’t seen it first-hand yet.  After you complete the setup there is this neat commercial about the device you just bought that you HAVE to watch before it turns you over to the awesomeness (Really guys? I mean, really? I bought it… I know what it does already, I don’t need to watch a 3 minute commercial about it), and a minute or so into the video the device crashes.  Pretty cool huh?  I’ve been through the same routine at least 10 times now and it hangs at the same place every time… and there is no way, at least that I can find, to get around it. Sweet!

    Soooo, that’s what I know so far.  I’ll be sure and pick back up where I left off with the Revue review once we get the replacement, but until then, you’re all stuck with the same cliff hanger as myself.

– Dan Thompson

Want to win a free Logitech Revue (that actually works… hopefully)? Click here for details

    The second of the internet streaming boxes that I’m reviewing for my company’s Christmas giveaway (full details here) is undoubtedly the most hyped of the trio; the Boxee Box by D-Link.  Boxee has a huge internet following and is quickly becoming the HTPC user interface of choice.  Boxee makes applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux that create a nice user experience while sitting on the couch and looks great from across the room.  This allows you to hook up a computer to your TV and not necessarily have the Windows or Mac desktop showing on your TV, but more of a simplified user friendly look and feel.  Enter the Boxee Box.  Now you don’t even need the computer, you simply hook this box up to your TV and you’re ready to go.

What’s in the box?

    The Boxee is a bit of a step up from the Roku XD and comes with more features, an easier user  interface, and of course… a higher price tag.  So what all comes in the box?  Well, obviously the  Boxee Box itself, the awesome remote (more later), a HDMI cable, the required power cable, and a various array of manuals.  In my personal opinion, all makers of devices that require or use HDMI cables should include them, because despite what all the electronics stores are trying to tell us, they are not expensive cables.  I’m glad to see that D-Link provided one here.  That actually made my day (ok, so not really).

    The Boxee Box itself is a rather interesting shape… think a cube that is sinking in quicksand and you’ll get the idea.  That is actually the first thing people notice about it when checking it out; it is interesting to look at.  At just under 5 inches tall and just over 6 inches wide on angle (the best way to position it so you can get to everything), the device is larger than the Roku XD, and will definitely be in a unique place in your A/V rack… most likely the top.  As far as connectivity is concerned, we’ve got some things to play with.  Of course it has an HDMI port, left and right stereo RCA jacks, optical out, two USB ports and… drum roll… a SD/MMC slot; which is super cool in my opinion.  If you’re having friends over and you want to show off those new birthday pictures or pictures from your last vacation, no problem.  Just pop the memory card out of your camera and straight into the Boxee Box and view your pictures right on your TV.  Beautifully simple.

    A second ago I commented on the fact that the remote is awesome… and I will say again, it is awesome.  One side of the remote (pictured above) has the navigation buttons on it, and the other side has a full keyboard.  If you’re used to using the keyboards found on most smart phones today, you’ll be right at home with this device.  I have heard a common complaint that the play / pause and menu buttons are easy to accidentally press while you’re using the keyboard on the other side; which I will agree with.  I went menu surfing a few times on accident while trying to type something in.  Once you understand what is going on though, it is easy enough to avoid this mishap… so while it can be a problem, you’ll work around it quickly.

Setup and Use

    Initial setup of the Boxee Box is a breeze.  When you first connect the device and power it on, it asked me to update the operating system… which is really cool in my opinion.  Mainstream devices need to do this automatically.  Once the update is complete you’ll need to use the onscreen tool to adjust the unit to your screen size and then login or create a new Boxee account. And unlike the Roku unit, not computer required.

    One thing that jumps out at your right off the bat is that Netflix is missing from the user interface.  Nope, you’re not seeing things… it’s not there.  Boxee promises it will be there by the end of the year, so a near future update should fix that (is it just me, or is Netflix quickly taking over the universe?).  If you were thinking maybe you’d satisfy those cravings with Vudu, you’ll also be disappointed to find that, while there is a link to a Vudu app, when you click it, it informs you that it is coming soon.  Again, Boxee promises this will be out by the end of the year (actually in a couple weeks from this writing) so never fear.

    So what all kinds of content can you get to?  All the usual suspects from the Roku box, like a (native) YouTube app, NHL, Revision3 TV, as well as Twitter, Facebook, and tons more apps / shows.  If you can’t find quite what you’re looking for by default, browse the internet for Boxee Repositories and find what the fans on the internet have come up with.  To do that, simply launch the apps from the main screen and then go to the menu button.  You’ll see Repositories there, which you can punch in a URL and it will download the Repositories from the website you’ve entered.  Pretty cool stuff.  From the digging I did, boxeehq.com is the ticket for finding a good listing of Repositories… but at the time of this writing it is unfortunately down, so I have no idea what all they offered.  Check out the forums at Boxee for some ideas though.

    The Boxee Box itself isn’t limited to just internet content.  In addition to the SD/MMC card reader on the side of the unit, you can plug USB hard drives or memory sticks into it as well and play all your downloaded content right on your TV.  If you have a large MP3 collection, you can play those as well… as a matter of fact, it plays just about any file type you can think of.  Heck, you can even attach a USB hard drive to the Boxee Box and use the device like a NAS if you want to.  Don’t worry about saving files back and forth… just save it straight on the Boxee across the network and carry on with your day! Pretty freaking sweet!

Conclusions

    The Boxee Box is admittedly more expensive than the Roku HD… about $120 more to be exact (as of this writing, Amazon.com has them on sale for $199), but you get everything on the Roku, plus a lot of cool stuff which in my mind makes it worth the extra cost.  I would personally use the extra features and the ability to use network content in addition to internet content, but I totally understand that some people just wouldn’t.  That said… I love this box.  The keyboard on the back of the remote was genius, and the user interface is clean and easy to use.  The one thing I would hope they improve on is that some of the apps don’t buffer very well, leaving you with a lot of starting and stopping of video… kind of annoying… BUT, if you have a fast internet connection (5MB or faster… I’m on 1.5MB DSL currently; don’t laugh) you may not notice it quite as much as I did.  Still though, not all the apps suffered from this and the video stream came in just fine.

– Dan Thompson

Want to win a free Boxee Box? Click here for details!

What’s in the box?

    The Roku XD is a no-frills solution to getting internet content to your TV.  There isn’t a lot of glitz, but it does just what it says it does.  So what’s in the box?  To be honest, the first thing I noticed was what wasn’t in the box… an HDMI cable.  Of the three units I tested it is the only one that didn’t come with all the necessary cables… unless of course you’re fine with the standard definition RCA cables provided; which would be odd because the selling point of the XD is that it does full 1080p HD output.  At any rate, as I mentioned it does come with standard def RCA cables and power cable, the Roku XD itself, a remote, and a couple of manuals.

    The unit itself is just a hair under 5 inches across and right at an inch tall… yes, it could easily get lost in your A/V rack.  The back of the XD has hook ups for the power, standard def RCA, HDMI, and ethernet, although the until will also do wireless networking if you’d prefer.

    Just like the device itself, the included remote is the smallest and simplest of the remote controls and could easily be mistaken for a VCR (what’s that?) or DVD player remote.  I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive about the remote when I saw it, but after getting acquainted with how you interact and setup the device, it makes sense.

Setup and Use

    After getting the Roku hooked up to my TV (and subsequently finding out that one of the HDMI cables I’ve got running through my wall is bad) and plugged into my home network, the first thing the device wants you to do is register it… Did I mention you’re going to need a computer near by to get this thing going?  The device generates a nifty code and then you’ll need to browse over to roku.com/link from your PC or web enabled device (I actually registered this one with my Android powered phone).  Once you’ve created an account and registered, you can begin browsing.

    Roku comes initially populated with premium type (read: pay for) channels like Netflix, Amazon video, and HuluPlus.  If you use one of those services it is easy enough to get your device connected up and ready to stream your media.  By the way, let me pause here and say, if all you’re wanting one of these devices for is for one of these premium services… say you’re in love with Netflix and you just really want to get involved with their streaming services as well as their DVD-by-mail service; I’d look long and hard at this device.  It delivers these services well, and the no-frills setup keeps it simple to use.  In addition to these premium channels, there are also tons of other channels available through the Channel Store.

    The Channel Store I like.  They’ve styled it after the app stores on all the popular phones today and it is extremely easy to use… on tip though, the apps scroll left and right as well as up and down; took me a second to catch that.  From the freebies, check out MediaFly, Revision3 Internet Television, and Vimeo… I found some pretty good content there. 

    Speaking of channels, one of the nice things about the Roku is that other people can create / provide channels as well.  If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the Channel Store, like the obviously missing YouTube channel, just hit up your internet browser and do some searching around for Roku “Private Channels”; or save yourself a little time and start with this resource I found which has a HUGE listing of channels.  Once you’ve found a private channel you’re interested in, jump back on your account in the Roku website and click the link for Add Private Channel and punch in the code.  The next time you refresh your home screen you’ll see the newly added channel (you can speed this up by opening the Channel Store and then going back to the home screen).  I personally found the Pod TV channel to be full of goodies, including some awesome nature stuff… just browse around and I’m sure you’ll find some things that interest you as well.

    Initial conversations about having to use an internet enabled device to set the channels were always a bit negative.  None of the other devices require this, and admittedly it does create a bit of extra work.  There is a plus side though, if you need to do a factory reset on the device or if you get an additional Roku device; once you add it to your account and let it sync, all your channels are right back where you left them.

Conclusions

    After playing around with the Roku for a little bit, I have to say I really like it.  It might not be as flashy as the other devices out there, but it does what it needs to very well and doesn’t at all have a cumbersome user experience.

– Dan Thompson