I always have to work hard to remember which server is live, which is for production, which is for development, etc. It’s also difficult to tell at a glance which remote server I’m connected to over remote desktop. Typically I change the wallpaper color to red for production servers, green for development servers [...]

We find people placing Windows servers “naked” on the Internet with frightening regularity. Without any sort of firewall or packet filtering protection, these machines make very easy targets for hackers. Even if you have a firewall, adding host-based packet filtering adds an additional layer of protection, though in that case you’ll have to decide for yourself if the [...]