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Do you have the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft installed on your notebook or other computer with wireless integrated? Then you might want to check out Connectify ( http://www.connectify.me/ ).

The software uses the wireless connectivity of your Windows 7 computer to enable it as a WiFi Hotspot for other devices in the area.

I haven't had the chance to try it as yet but I will try it out and see how it goes. From what I can see it creates a basic hotspot that can route connectivity through another existing Internet connection (wireless or not). Thinking about it further I can't help but think of ease of setting up a man-in-the-middle type attach situation using this tool.

For example, Windows 7 WiFi Hostpot using WPA2 -> routed through virtual Linux box where logging can occur -> pass onto Internet as normal.

And from this you now have to think extra carefully about the WiFi Hotspots you are connecting to. There is no guarantee that the data beyond the initial data connection is encrypted at all. In fact it would be quite easy with the tool above to create an 'encrypted' hotspot that then relays the data via unencrypted link for anyone to see.

In my line of work I spend a lot of time working with the Microsoft Small Business Server platform. Along with this work I need to keep my skills up to date and becoming qualified with the latest Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 product is something I am working on right now.

To work with SBS 2008 I needed a test platform that was capable of the task. In particular I needed a system that had at least 4GB of RAM and needed to be a 64 bit CPU. The only two computers I had at the time that met these requirements were my two notebooks. One was a Pentium Dual Core 1.6 GHz CPU with 4GB RAM, the other a Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz with 4GB RAM.

I decided to try setting up the first of those machines with SBS 2008 and while it did run OK it still left a lot to be desired. It met the minimum system requirements but I spent a large amount of time just waiting for things to happen.

So last night I decided to try the other machine and the performance is far better with the better CPU. The Core 2 Duo CPU obviously has enough grunt to make the installation reasonably responsive and it also provides a practical minimum level of specifications that others could use when trying to put together a suitable test environment.

Looking at the Passmark CPU Benchmark website these two processors have the following benchmark scores:

Intel Pentium Dual T2330 @ 1.60GHz – 833
Intel Core2 Duo T8300 @ 2.40GHz – 1470

Using these figures we get an indication of what is going to be capable of running SBS 2008 for testing/learning purposes and my recommendation is to shoot for a CPU that scores around 1300 or greater on the Passmark CPU Benchmark website. Looking at the current High End CPU list on that website so could pretty much aim for anything on that list and be fairly confident it would run SBS 2008 good enough for learning purposes.

So here is what I would consider an OK system for Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 testing/learning.

•At least 4GB of RAM, preferably 6GB or more.
•A CPU that scores more than 1300 on the Passmark CPU Benchmark list.
•Preferably a 7200 RPM hard disk drive