Sharepoint, the other pig of a M$ product

OK, you might as well know now.  I'm a Free and Open Source Software bigot.  There, I've said it, so nobody can label me in the future, I've taken care of that.

Well, earlier this week I had the pleasure of troubleshooting my first SharePoint issue.  This is a 2007 installation, so forgive me that it's not up the the most recent product.

My issue was this, I needed to upload about a dozen files to our internal Sharepoint site so others could access them.  They were some training videos I created (yes, with FOSS).  The version I created in Ogg video format uploaded without issue; however, I started to run into issues when I tired to upload the larger mpeg1 versions.  Oddly, I did not receive any specific error message pointing me in any direction.  Well, after some quick tests, I found that there was a file size issue around 30MB... anything larger was not permitted.

Hmmm... well, a quick google and bingo.  Hop into the central administration console, configure the virtual server, check the general settings, and bingo set the upload size limit.  Good ol' point and click M$ administration.  But, what's this?  It's set to 50 MB and I'm having an issue at 30.  Well, we'll take it to something more respectable like 200 and give it a shot anyway.  Nope, wrong answer.  Hmmm...

Google!?!?  Oh, Google!!!   Well, look at this:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925083

Yep, looks like I have to config it in two places... and WHAT'S THIS!?!?  A text editor?

Well, after following the KB and hitting the "recycle" button on each site things appear to be working.

OK, last step!  For those who want to use the smaller OGV files, I'll upload the codec install packs for 32 and 64-bit platforms.  Hmm... fail again!?!?!  They're small files; what's the deal?  Oh, they end in .EXE.  Yep, that's got to be it.  Zip them up and upload, golden.  Wow, great security there M$.

So, morals of the story time:

1:  Even though it's all M$, it's no necessarily well integrated.

2:  When you really want to get things done, go to the text editor.

3:  When in doubt, zip it.

4:  Google, you're the Man gender indeterminate site of knowledgeable goodness.