CoopersHome

Cycle From Sea To Sea

2010-05-29T21:05:00.002+01:00

OK, not exactly a blog, more of an advert:

http://sites.google.com/site/c2c2010club/home

Knew I forgot something....

2010-04-01T22:38:00.000+01:00

Note to self: Update blog!

Were has the year gone?

2009-04-15T16:34:00.002+01:00

Well so much to do so little time to do it, it should be my motto for life LoL!

Well Windows7 just how Vista should of been, far better memory managment, simple (as you want to make it and runs just as well on the same tin as my XP box runs.

If your moning about memory requirements, the go by a MAC then you will have somthing to moan about, spend a poxy £20 for a Gb of memory and get a life.

Thats my moan over, I'll post some info soon of the Windows 7 trial that I'm running on 2 laptops (nc4400 and 2510p) and 2 desktops (Scrap bin special 1.8Ghz 1Gb Ram and another with 2.2Ghz and 2Gb Ram)

Top Tip #1

2008-11-26T22:44:00.004Z

Save The Enviroment - simple Idea but how about running a scheduled task to run every day to simply switch your computer off at night?

Shutdown -f -s

Its that simple, just give it a try!

Ref: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Windows_Networking/Q_21588213.html

April to Novermber Update

2008-11-26T21:49:00.003Z

Hmm? Long time no see, I know your supposed to update blogs regularly but hay I'm human and life has sure been busy.

Microsoft's One Care goes free the middle of next year, and its my suspicion that its time'd to be launched just before Windows 7's release, which I expect to be in October \ November time, although Microsoft will have you believe its not going to be released till 2011, I think it more of a case of managing of expectations than reality.

The timing of Windows 7 might mirror that of Windows XP and unlike the total mess-up of release \ marketing of Vista was done in late February opposed to XP when it was released in time to coincide with Xmas.

VSS - Volume Shadow Service (Thoughts behind using an external hard drive as a Volume Shadow Copy repository)

2008-04-20T12:02:00.003+01:00

With cost of server storage although relatively low, its surrounding hardware and its support is still at a premium.

The problem becomes more of an issue when you start to think of an expanding data storage surface, and having a similar storage space for VSS to maintain a large enough volume for the amount of time you need before your full backup has taken place to tape or other removable media.

If like me you take full backups once a week to tape then you only need to take snapshots three times a day of all the relevant changes to store on the VSS drive, a rough guide to the amount of space you would need are as follows.

(Total data) * (days * number of times in a day) /3 = lots of slack!

So you ether by another fibre attached storage NAS costing $$$ or just stick a usb external hard drive on it for the sole purpose of the VSS service, granted its not pretty but if it gets the job done for a few hunderd bucks.

Better the devil you know.

2008-04-12T10:42:00.002+01:00

After a month working out and learning about Linux (Ubuntu) installing, configuring, customising and networking. I'm now finally at the point that I can thankfully state that I've fairly evaluated the relay funky OS and although it does have its very, very good points.

1. Free
2. Passionate support groups.
3. Image (g33ky and cool)
4. Constantly evolving and maturing.

It does have its bad points....

1. Its free (ain't nothing in life that's free)
2. Too many variations of Linux.
3. If you want the paid for versions, no better that M$ price wise.
4. Enterprise manageability***

*** Enterprise manageability?
1. Push out 10 pc's in 1 hour, with Office, their apps (customised) and corporate branding.
2. Prevent users from installing rubbish \ non supported \ licenced software.
3. Teaching Power users how to modify email or security groups.

But hay! that's not to say I would not use it for home, it just is not ready for the Enterprise right now (my view!)

I know Red Hat would say x, y and z to answer all of these points, but is all just catch up, users need GUI's its that simple and admins need basic gui's for simple tasks for managing users and command line stuff for the more techie stuff.

I could replace the word "Red Hat"or "Ubuntu" with M$ but it just don't wash.

No doubt I'll have tons of emails and \ or flames, as I have said before its My View.

Installing software on Linux (Ubuntu) #2

2008-03-26T22:41:00.003Z

I'll start this with AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now thats out of the way, let me explain: Long story.... Short....

Just been trying for four hours to install an app on Linux, jumping through every read me in existance. Thankfully determination and effort paid off and I'd like to share with you the what and why's so again you dont have to jump through hte same hoops.

1. Added a few things with Add\Remove cool.
2. Found some software to download (LikeWise) a basic bin file.
3. Did apt-get install LikeWise*
4. Then did LikeWise*
5. Got the following error: E: Couldn't find package Likewise
6. Four hours later found article that said that I needed to re-load the apt-get database with the following command: apt-get update
7. Whole reload done....
8. root@testbox # LikeWise* - All now installes ok.
9. Such a simple thing!!!!!

In one sense its good that these things are not simply doubble clickable, as with a windows .exe file as you need to know what your doing, and I accept that I have now learnt something new, but and here is the rub, I want Linux to do good, but unless there is one standard for installing the may types of packages, granted the Add\Remove GUI in Ubuntu is fantastic for the Lunix Nube like me all of the packages should be standardised regardless of which vendor.

Mixing work with pleasure

2008-03-25T20:39:00.003Z

From what I have read from the many heated Linux debates:

1. M$ have tied its networking protocols to its own systems (sod everyone else in the open community)

2. You should always upgrade \ downgrade \ move across to Linux (what ever verity) from the top down, i.e. servers first, then the PC's.

3. Only SysAdmins that know their heads from their a**es should only attempt to do so when they have done some proper researching (from the many, many sources) and testing should they do this. (if you simply don't know and have not done this in a test environment then dont even think of asking the wider community as you will get shot down in huge balls of fire) ..... You been warned.

But if like me, and you need to prove the concept and add a Linux PC to a M$ network before anyone will take you seriously then, please save some time and read the links below on adding Linux PC to an M$ network and authenticating a user on AD from a Linux PC.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AlternativeActiveDirectory

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ActiveDirectoryHowto?highlight=%28directory%29%7C%28active%29

And possibly the best so far:

http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_&_Active_Directory

note... I have not asked any questions.....yet

Installing software on Linux (Ubuntu)

2008-03-25T20:24:00.005Z

I've seen so may different ways of doing different types of installing on linux \ Ubuntu. (rpm, deb, tar.gz, tar.bz, tgz, etc etc.)

Well after reading and testing so many different ways I though it a good idea to simply present the best link to the many readers of this blog (me and my cat)

http://monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/

And thats it!

Feeling your way around......

2008-03-23T22:16:00.003Z

OK, to evaluate any thing you need a bench mark to work off and the only bench mark I have is good old M$.

What I wanted to know were the following:

How to set-up the firewall settings and how to view the firewall logs.
How to install an A-V package.
How to see all of the services and what was running and CPU load \ memory usage.
How to install stuff, and uninstall it.
How to customize the user interface.
How to remote to other desktops.
How to view other computer on a network
How to access shares.
Sync my email with an Exchange 2003 server.

In essence be able to do everything that I can do on my work PC with Ubuntu, then I can equaly measure one against the other.

As you can see in my previous post I managed to do all the above, and I'm typing this blog on my new OS.

So whats next?

Manage a group of Ubuntu pc's like I do with other Windows pc using GPO's on OU's.
Manage Users and groups from a central repository like Active Directory.

Its starting to sound like I'm now looking at a Domain level replacement of the whole or part "shooting match", but in essence I would not be much of a level headed g33k if I did not.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on and what works and what does not.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:

1. VirtualBox OSE - Using it on Ubuntu to host Xp and Vista.
2. Firebox - configure the firewall
3. AVG - Anti-Virus.
4. Firefox - Internet access
5. Evolution - Exchange Email, and Calender.
6. Terminal Server Client - RDC and VNC! connectivity
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You must know both sides of the force young Jedi.

2008-03-23T21:15:00.004Z

The saying computer geek, should mean someone that likes all forms of computing including all of the different kinds of OS, sadly thats not the case and most of us fall in to one camp or another, that being Microsoft of Linux.

One of the main things that has always stopped my looking in to the other camp (Linux) has simply been impatience at knowing what I want without having to re-learn all of the relevant commands and what a particular OS quirks \ limitations are.

Now with old age firmly at my door (38 > 39 too soon) impatience has now turned in to stealth and good old life experience (lol) and with that now in hand, again I turn to the other side of the force.... Linux.

Options (or what Distribution):

I chose one that had been in the newspapers and used my Dell as an alternative to Vista that being Ubuntu 7.10 granted not the totally up to date version, but experience has now taught me that unless I want all of the hasle of that a new OS brings steer clear and let some other poor sole figure out the problems.

This "distro" is proving to be a nice middle ground between the pure linux based platforms like Red Hat and the happy clicking ground OS of Microsoft, as the hours go on I'm starting to understand the OS better, thankfully its very forgiving and as soon as you as a little more than you know it cuts you down to size and forces you to do a little more learning, of which I have throughly enjoyed, Its like starting to program again on my old Spectrum 48k (48K!!) below are a few of the notes that I have made along my first few days while learned to crawl like a baby over this OS.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To do something in term as the admin type: sudo su
it will then ask you for the root password.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To open and install an rpm package you need to firstly install the "alien" install package as you will need it to install anything elso without it.
http://www.debianadmin.com/install-rpm-files-in-debian-and-ubuntu.html

Install alien in Ubuntu
$sudo apt-get install alien

Example
Suppose we have a avg antivirus avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm file

To convert .rpm to debian
$sudo alien -k avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.rpm

Now you should be having avg71lms-r30-a0782.i386.deb file

To install .deb file
$sudo dpkg -i avg75fld-r51-a1243.i386.deb
avg75fld-r51-a1243.i386
If you don’t use -k option you should see avg71lms_r30-1_i386.deb file the difference is it will add 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
clear = cls (in term)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To run an application as root so that avg can do updates:

alt & F2

The RUN box will open tick the term box select the app and enter the word sudo before the app name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To see the process tree like in a windows enviroment > "System" > "Administration" > "System Monitor"

If you perfer the good old way of doing things the Linux way = "sudo apt-get install htop" this will install the "htop" app. not as pritty but it does the job.
or to see a good old unix view type "ps aux"

to kill one:
kill -9

to kill all by name
killall
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More to follow....

Another year and another service pack.

2008-03-23T20:19:00.003Z

Was it so long back when a service pack was just a roll up of of all of the most recent updates rolled up in to one easily digestible package, with perhaps one or two minor additions.

Well after Microsoft messed things about with services packs as they did with XP Sp2 and we're back to to normal service packs are are we?

Vista Sp1 - This according to m$ we will see Vista and Server 2008 have the same code base so that the development of the core product should be streamlined and life cycles more predictable. On the other side of reality things have yet to be fully appreciated, so I can only report on what I have experienced and seen, that being said lets get down to it. 485Mb if you decide to download the whole shooting match with 5 languages or 100Mb for the english WUS down loadable version, of which I did not bother with as I was too impatient and had far too much bandwidth to be bothered about the size of the whole serbang of 485Mb. Installing this service pack took a short while, em? well em? lets not be to harsh on poor old M$ it took......... 2 flippin hours!!!

And what exactly did it fix, so I'm lead to belive it was just a good old service pack rolling up all of the old fixes, and there again I don't believe everything I'm told as you can see from the above statement they said that they have now standardized both OS's core software, so you cannot say its just a good old roll up of fixes can yer M$?

After the updated what was different thankfully nothing notceable appaft from OS now useing 989Mb of memory while doing nothing oppsed to the previous 400Mb? Hm.

An old friend of mine reminded me that this was an old M$ trick and that by loading the best part of its OS in to memory it could perform quicker, well if this were the case, sorry M$ it did not work.

As most of my collages know I love Microsoft, if it were not for them I don't believe personal computers would have progressed to the position they have today enabling everyone that can click "next" "next" "next" to get connected. Lets face it if it were left to the likes of apple only the most privalaged amongst us would have been able to afford a computer.

But a least its a move in the right direction, providing me and M$ want the same goal.

Blood, Sweat and Tears

2007-11-17T18:09:00.000Z

Well after another hard month in the world of IT, the amount of time spent on the testing of the HP Compaq t5720 And the WYSE WY-V30LE was all but limited to a few hours spread over the month, with all that said if you cannot get your citrix environment running on a thin client in a short period then the chances are you don't have the correct kit or or your environment is not ready for it.

HP Compaq t5720

Although from a very repble brand, that's were it ends, complex and costly, spring to to mind after testing this hardware, you need to jump through hoops and buy two separate additional bits of hardware to make this box truly wireless and after all of the various bits have been added to the unit its about as expensive as a normal desktop, along with amount of software that's needed to be configured before its relay usable its just too much, it works out far cheaper and quicker to get a PC installed with RIS, stick it in a software GPO and then a working GPO and that's it!

WYSE WY-V30LE

This little thing is everything that the HP is not, you can have it ready for a user within 10 mins! even with the wireless on board its only a quarter the size of the HP. The initial setup is very strait forward providing you know your head from your ar** with citrix and know all of the relevent settings of your prime ICA server.

Conclusion.

Its realy a no brainer, although I had to compare the two in order for me to evaluate the two side by side against a number of criteria, after all of the hours on this little project the WYSE is the clear winner.

Thin Clients.. Getting Serious

2007-10-09T21:18:00.000+01:00

Today I've been looking at thin clients, with my first glance towards HP and their HP Compaq t5700 series models:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF04a/35123-342039-342039-342039-637507.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN

And looked at all of the various features, that being said I did'nt have any other thi clients to mesure them agains, so one or teo searches later via google and a whole raft of thin clients in various price ranges.

There are many other very good thin clients out their, one of the main players and one that I like the look of is the Wyse V class LE Thin Client as it supports built in WiFi!

http://www.wyse.co.uk/

Tune in later this month to see a more fuller test between:

HP Compaq t5720 And the WYSE WY-V30LE...... time and budget permitting.

Search Engines.

2007-10-04T21:37:00.001+01:00

Its all too common now that big brother snaps your picture 300 times a day, and not only is it limted to CCTV but the web also.

Next time you think about your searches on the web remeber that:

http://ixquick.com./ - Your Info kept for only 48 Hrs

http://www.google.co.uk/ - Your Info kept for only 18 - 24 or MORE months.

http://www.yahoo.co.uk/ - Your Info kept for only 16 months.

Your ISP also keeps info of your RADIUS authorisation connections and can easly do a reverse lookup and see the IP to user account lookup.

Even on your PC, the history can geve you away, not even deleting your history from your deleted items can guarntee total privicy as you can, without too much hasle retreve all manner of documents from your drive even when they have been securly deleted.

Never ever pass your PC on with its hard drive, remove it and buy a new one to give to the new owner.

You've been warned.

Server Names

2007-10-03T23:53:00.000+01:00

New Server Names:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Round_Table

So....

Ops1 - Arthur
Ops2- Constantine (his son)

Cirtix1 - Bors (King of Gaul)
Cirtix2 - Lancelot
Cirtix3 - Percival
Cirtix4 - Daniel
Cirtix5 - Galahad

Something for the weekend sir?

2007-10-02T22:03:00.000+01:00

I'm talking about the 6th October..

Have you every wished that you could just get all of your server racks and servers and start again, well my birthday has come a week or two early this year and I've almost got what I want, as I'm going to be taking various large chunks of the server room down in stages and then shifing it all around, to the desired slots, of course observing some key points:

Server Rack

1) Per rack UPS

2) Power cables right

3) Data cables left

4) KVM Left (along with the other data)

5) Keyboard 4" above my waist hight.

6) Monitor mid pont at 5'7" sod you tall gits.

7) Each rack to hold one FSMO & DFS server

8) UPS obviously at the bottom and connected to the DC

9) 1U between UPS and next server.

10) Velcro ties for all cables.

11) Each rack on seperate fuse.

This leaves each rack indipendent on all fronts Data, power and services.

Data Rack

1) Switches at the top (none of you 3Com trash nither, Cisco house only)

2) Power fed from above from racks on either side.

3) Different rack per switch.

Make notes on what to different next time.

Apple Hacked, lol!

2007-09-27T21:06:00.000+01:00

All too often Apple users look down thier noses at us poor PC users who cannot afford an Apple, or more commonly know as the hav's and have not's of this world.

Well Apple have been spouting about thier OS X and all of the other OS's being totaly unHackable, this has now backfired as its effectively shown a red flag to a bull, the bull being thousands of hackers.

The first and although a small gouge in the eye of Apple, was the iPhone and in paticular its and Apples Safari browser, hacked in to sumission so that anyone can open it up for any network. And if thats possible then its not withing the realms of possiblity for others to remotely track anyone using the iPhone?

So, could Apples Safari browser be a happy hacking ground for all hackers seeking kudos?

Project planning.... My hamfisted way.

2007-09-22T23:40:00.001+01:00

We have all seen them..... Projects gone wrong and no doubt we have many a tale to tell.

Lets face it the reason why projects go wrong is because humans get involved or rather don't get involved at the right level, let me explain....... (deep breath)

Now what do I need for a Project?

1) Project Manager (someone to blame, and outsourced)

2) Gnat charts. (that only the Project manager looks at)

3) Progress meetings (group counseling sessions, to make all of the managers feel loved)

4) Progress meeting notes (that only get sent just before the next meeting and no one understands)

5) Due date (twice the time it should take as stuff always happens, and backs must be covered)

Does all this look familiar?

I can here you all thinking...... Come on then smarty pants, lets see you do any better!

Well for one, all of those in the meetings should be able to communicate and be very good at it, simply emailing people asking for updates and asking questions does not work, granted after a chat, by all means a follow up email cannot go wrong, but communication is key.

If its all sounding a bit complicated then it probably is. That's possibley because the person heading it up does not have any idea of what is involved. Its often said that managers manage and don't need to know detail, well that's what I call a bad managers excuse.

Vista networking issue, like music then?

2007-09-22T23:19:00.000+01:00

I was just reading on "The Register" about a little problem that Vista has with playing music, MP3, WMF or even the windows system sounds (beep!)

Well M$ in their wisdom decided that if music is playing then priority should be give to the player so that it does not stall or have any stutters, now the way that its done is through a process called "MMCSS" it effectively controls which programs have priority over the CPU's time, and it this little thing.... that then tells the NIC to turn down what it receives in the form of network traffic, and by doing so, get a bit extra time to give from looking at those individual packets to the music.

One little problem with this.... it multiplies it up for every interface you have like, WiFi and Bluetooth! This results in your 1Gb connection felling more like 100Mb! And your 100Mb connection like your dialing up to "Freeserve" again (god that was a long time ago).

Anyway below is the fix for this silly but well intentioned foo par.

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Audiosrv\Dep" to remove MMCS and set MMCS to disabled in services. Reboot

Needless to say the M$ network team and the M$ MMCSS team are now talking to one another using the verbal medium instead of ESP.

Virtual Server, Terminal & Cirtix Services - pt2.

2007-09-19T14:59:00.000+01:00

Here's the scenario, you have been storing your companys old PC's, by way of getting them all removed, by a proper disposal company.

You then out find out that you are required to have 15 worksations ready for the following week for a short term project (only 3 months long)

Now the chances are, them management have not even thought about the time to build the PCs let alone the costs involved, both man-hours and M$ cost.

Well as the title suggests, you can always us a thin client and not necessarily a "WinTerm" as these cost money and time to set-up especially if you have never used them before.

I've been doing some research recently on alternatives, like WinPE and various forms of LiveCD. But only one solution presented me with my requirements, simple, quick and manageable by a small IT team.

The solution \ software that I went for was found at this this web site: http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ThIndex and the config file \ build of the customised iso image could not be simpler, all 11Mb of it!

Then as you know you just shove the bootable CD in to an old PC and viola! your away.

Long time, no see!

2007-09-14T23:46:00.000+01:00

I have never have been one of those people, to keep a diary as such and so keepig up with my blog and what I'm thinking about is a major thing for me, not only that, it's the busy life of a geek dad. LOL!

More soon..... Life permitting.

Virtual Server, Terminal & Cirtix Services - pt1.

2007-06-07T21:01:00.000+01:00

Such a big subject and and even bigger consiquences if you get it wrong.

Now although there are other virsions of Virtual server on the market, most noteably VMWare I'll stick to talking about the MS version for this blog.

Firstly lets look at the Microsoft encarnation of the virtual enviroment. Its been a while now since MS brought out VS 2005 and they hevent looked back since, heres a few bits of information that will help you understand the MS licencing issues around this for servers.

If your server host is Server 2003 Std, then every virtual server installed on that box will cost you another copy of the licence.

If your server host is Server 2003 Enterprise, then you get up to four virtual servers for free!!

Hardware wise, I have used a HP DL360 DL380, Xeon 3Ghz \ Duel, 4\8 Gb Ram server, esentialy thats 1Gb for the host server and a Gb for each of the the other servers. All if this works very well on the none intensive CPU services or specific applications, we use them for print servers, helpdesk software, network monitoring, systems monitoring, company intranet and many other similar applications.

End of part 1

The Wild, Wild West!

2007-05-23T19:47:00.000+01:00

I was training some of our users on how to use the computer last week, like how to use the mouse correctly, accessing the Internet and the using outlook.

As part of the normal introductions, something alarmed me, not that it should of shocked me, more that their understanding of the Internet and the scope of it........ let me explain more what most of them said; we have a computer at home and I don't touch the thing, the kids know more than me and only occasionally let me use it, I don't know what they do with it?

OK, so far as I see it there are two big f****ng problems with they said:

1) They don't know what their kids (7-15) do on the Internet.

2) No idea about the good points and ugly parts of the Internet.

Lets just say they are not alone, as most parents do much the same and I'm not in any way saying there bad parents, I just believe there should be some type of goverment sponsored public training for parents on how to protect our children and themselves on the internet.

Here's what I told them, you might think it harsh, but I just wanted to realy push my point across:

A) Before you access the Internet you MUST have the following software installed on your PC, 1) Anti-Virus 2) Spyware checker and 3) Software Firewall.

Like the following (All are free, so there is no excuse!)

Anti-Virus
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
http://www.clamwin.com/

Spyware checker
Ad-Aware http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Software Firewall
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
http://www.ashampoo.com/frontend/products/php/product.php?session_langid=2&idstring=0050
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpostfree/index.php

B) Like life you don't nothing for free on the Internet, the above software is simply cut down versions of the feature full paying version, with the idea that if you like it you'll possibly buy the full version.

Now a little story just to highlight this point..... One of my friends, like most of us stored all of his family photos on his PC, nothing bad with that, only that one day he decided he would like to do the following things, use this software called eDonkey to get some MP3's and other stuff for free. Yes I know we all do it and most of us (g33k5) understand the risk and what to look out for etc. He downloaded some MP3's, software and other things, yep you know what happened next, firstly his PC slowed down, secondly his ADSL router was constantly active even when he was not logged in and thirdly he was unable to do certain things, like go into the control panel or use regedit..... He gave me a call because ebay was getting impossible to upload pictures and the thing was getting a bit sluggish. I was due to go around at the weekend, but he rang me in the middle of the week and asked me, why would all of certain pictures would disappear out of various folders? He sounded worried, very worried as I asked him a few questions about the software he had installed and what had been happening. I went strait to his house (10.30pm)

Besides the obvious problems with his PC the missing pictures were all of his young children! The thought of a pedophile being on his PC and taking all of his children's photos, made both him and his wife shake with alarm.

Some of the software was pure and simply Trojan software, i.e. software making out to be something free and useful, whilst doing something else..... opening various ports and doing other things. After firstly starting with Spyware Internet House Call (could no longer install any software) it became obvious what the problem was, over 300 bits of bad dlls ad exe's and in the end I just backed up what I could on to a USB stick and had to re-install it all.

C) You must treat the Internet as the "Wild West" there ain't no sheriff, you are the only person who look after yourself. (my Friend did contact the police, and they pointed out that there was nothing that they could do!)

No single authority exists that acts as the police on the Internet. You are on your own!

D) So you don't know what and were your children are doing on the Internet or who they are talking to....

YOU MUST KNOW WHAT, WHERE AND WHO YOUR CHILDREN ARE TALKING TO.

It's like letting your kids in to a room full of strangers, while most of them are fine, some of them are not! Its not spying on your kids, its being a responsible parent.

E) Know the types of threat:

1) Email - don't open it if you don't know who it comes from, and is one of the most popular ways to gain access to your PC, and no one from Nigeria is going to give you a million bucks, for nothing! and banks never NEVER ask you to confirm your Internet baking details from an email.

2) Software like screen savers or MP3's in .exe format, are installed and therefore allows other malicious software to also be installed.

3) Internet sites that pose as legitimate web sites - Like bank sites, always check the URL does it look correct, is the grammer correct, did you spell the web site correctly, there are a number for sites use the incorrect spelling to lul you in to a false sense of security and to thinking its the correct site.

This is not a definitive list of what you need to know, but its certainly a start. (more on this subject later)

Tin Tents and Screeming kids

2007-05-16T21:15:00.000+01:00

What is it about holidays in caravans that some how makes us loose all sense of logic and decide that for a week of rest and relaxation that a tiny little space will help our normally stressed out lives all the better because we are closer together, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

And yet again, after I swore never again to do one of these lunatic holidays I sign up to yet another, I suppose theirs no helping some people including me!

Rhyl, I suppose in its day (1950's) it was a top holiday resort and boasted things like Butlins and spiffing good George Formby in concert, alas those days still remain!

God I hate those bloody things.

"The Bridges" - Charity Cycling Event

2007-05-13T18:17:00.000+01:00

Rain, Rain and more Rain! its the one thing I shall remember from this event.

32Miles crossing all of the main London bridges, starting the GLA building or city hall next to the tower bridge and finishing at Hampton court.

One of the god things about cycling is just getting out and doing something totally different, and the change tomeet people from every walk of life.

One funny moment, a guy with all the gear, £3000 mountain bike, sun glasses, looking realy cool, having to push his bike up a hill, due to the fact he has no idea, and zero stamina, made all the sweeter watching 7 year olds passing him on thier Barbie bikes.

I would post some pic's and will do as and when I stop my firewall / s, from fighting with each other and get the configs sorted out (remember to remove tin-foil hat).

To Vista or not to Vista is that the "ubuntu"?

2007-04-26T22:09:00.000+01:00

Its true many of us so called "Techs" aren't really proper techs in the sense of choosing the best of IT to the most boring time consuming tasks, by that we always look towards Mecca aka Microsoft for the "easy" way out and not necessarily the best option, unfortunately we have a craving for two really bad things 1) we expect things to work strait off the bat and are not prepared to fiddle with drivers or looking in some obscure IRC channel for help and advice, and 2) we are gimmick junkies, even though a phone is just a phone we still want more and more gimmick's adding to it when it was not broke in the first place!

Done get me wrong we need to as humans and "G33k5" to move forward technologically, but it needs to be for the right reasons and so to the title of this blog... "To Vista or not to Vista is that the "ubuntu"?" I have been evaluating Vista for the last couple of months and to be fair it good.... bloody good!, let me elaborate a little to you the more in the know. When we look at the big three OS's Linux, Microsoft and MAC, we always compare their functionality and demand that x has the same functionality of y and low and behold us the consumer have now got just that all be it from different vendors. You may recall in years gone by Apple sueing M$ for copying its GUI, this is way back in the days of Windows v2! and M$ got away with it. Well if memory serves me right not so long ago Apple's OS, turned from its own propriotory programming to Linux (ok, ok stop throwing your teddy's about, I know the truth hurts) and low and behold Microsoft have yet again copy's not only the Apple\Linux GUI but at last its security principals! and before you all start saying its no good, just done bother, I know cos I've tested them all side by side and its all apples and oranges. M$ have at last sorted their sh1t out.

OK why if they are all now much the same dont we just goes for the cheep option Linux? and not M$ or Apple. Firstly Apple is not a true OS in that sense, you cannot get a CD and install it on a good old PC you need to buy the proprietary hardware that goes with the OS, so £1200 later you have a very nice looking OS and absolutely bullet proof providing you just want to do work and nothing but... word, pie charts ect. And then there is Windows constant bugs, viruses and problems with people fiddling with things that that should never be allowed to do and at a fair price of £300 ish , its not too costly. Linux on the other hand is cheep really cheep as its FREE!, but their is a big BUT, the administration until recently was bloody hard at the best of times and had no right on a "Nupe" users PC, as I said until recently.

Why has M$ won the desktop \ user market, because its cheep and bloody easy to get to grips with. And more importantly the Enterprise Environment, try and manage 300 Apple or Linux PC's and users all on the fly and do some of the funky things you can with Windows....... you can't! as much as I would like to tell "Bill" to shove his Volume licence Agreement up his backside and save the company oodles of money, their simply is not anything else out their to come any were near as good as Windows Server 2003 nothing... end of!

Lets face it until the others can get in to the Enterprise, they don't have a real chance as the same users that use it in the work place, also like to use the knowledge that they have learnt at work at home.

However........ ubuntu desktop Linux client? and Windows Server 2003 RC2. If you know these two products well and the RC2 bit is important you can see Microsoft is not so M$ as really, really smart cookies, and Longhorn proves this as the two might be my dream come true, needless to say, things are gonna get very interesting in the next two years.

I'm not going to say any more on the last paragraph, I want you to make up your own mind and think a little, read a little and look at the future.

Apps when you need them

2007-04-19T21:56:00.000+01:00

Applications when you need em!

I dont know about you, but as a system admin I'm often using hardware that cannot or does not have any useable applications to read intructions from a word document or even view a pdf document. Well help is to hand with this little aplication, just click and use it!

Don't take my word for it check out the links below:

http://portableapps.com/

http://www.portablefreeware.com/

Windows Home Server - aka funky box of tricks.

2007-04-19T18:18:00.000+01:00

Windows Home Server or WHS to its more regular users is intended as a home repository for documents, photos, music and anything else you might want to store in a Central location.

You may ask whats the difference between it and a simple NAS box purchased from PC word?

Well for a start its Windows Small Business Server for all intense and purpose with a relay funky GUI that's so simple to use, even my mother-in-law would be able to get to grips with it!

Here's just a few of the features:
1) access your files remotely (ISA server built in)
2) access your PC's remotely (RDP)
3) Backup your PC's automatically.
4) Restore of you PC (uses the server restore CD to copy your old PC image automatically from the server back to your PC!!! funky (like RIS))
5) Need more storage, just stick it in and let the server sort it all out, regardless of IDE, SATA or USB.
6) All of the storage is RAID'ed (1/5) in a funky way to give resilience if one of your drives fails.
7) Administration is all done remotely.

Other things you can also do (not part of WHS)
1) Home automation.
2) View web cameras remotely - who's outside?
3) Support PC's remotely - Ho yes! I'm gonna set one up at each of my relatives houses, as they will not be able to get physically on the box they cannot bugger it up, so I can check their backups also.
4) use your imagination!

Hardware Requirements:

1Ghz CPU
80Gb Hard Drive
512Mb Memory

Sounds like that old PC you don't use any more, as it's too slow for the kids games and not quick enough for your other computing needs.

Simple - Build it, stick it under the stairs out of the way and that's it! the best product for the home Microsoft has every developed!

I'm even thinking about using it a part of an extended Enterprise solution. Remote users who work regularly from home don't backup as regularly, would be able to synchronise their H:\ drive locally on the server and the server would in turn synchronise with the company server.

I'm going to do some further testing at work on the solution above, with the support guys first (Thanks Robin) I'll keep you posted on how we get on.

CompTIA Security+ Revision web sites

2007-04-18T23:05:00.000+01:00

Well the course is almost over and now the really hard work beginns....... getting ready for the exam! And lets face it at £180 I dont intend failing this one.

As we all know, knowing the subject and like myself using it every day, does not mean that you will be able to pass the exam, so below are a few web sites with some of the typical questions.

I've got the 11th May as my date for the exam, and hopefully with it, the compleation of my MCSE 2003 in Security.

Security+ Revision web sites:

http://www.techexams.net/co_securityplus.shtml
http://www.cramsession.com/certifications/exams/security.asp

Cryptology anyone?

2007-04-18T21:17:00.000+01:00

Some times I find it had to get my head around this lot but here's may take on it:

Symmetric - Public (Single Key and Very Fast)

1) Both parties agree on the encryption algorithm (DES, AES RC5 or IDEA)
2) Have the decryption / encryption password previously known to both parties (telephone, letter)
3) Off yer go!

Asymmetric - Private (Public and Private Key - Slow)

1) Mr A. obtains the public key for Mr B. and encrypts the data and sends it. (RSA, DH or DSA/DSS)
2) Mr B decrypts it with his Private key.
3) A lot slower, but that's life!

Good websites:

http://mathforum.org/library/topics/cryptography/

http://www.garykessler.net/library/crypto.html#skc

And my favorite web page: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6.805/articles/money/cryptnum.htm

When I'm proxying yooooooooou! ho ho ho

2007-04-18T20:36:00.000+01:00

OK, done most of the coures, now for some real stuff and how to do it.

We will cover how to stop it and trace it later.

So before we start, this stuff is intended to show and enlighten us poor "sys admins" what the hacker might do i order to hack our company.

Unless a hacker is stupid (90% are... school kids) they would use a proxy, and not just one proxy but many and prefrably via a country that does not like the authorities, like china, russia ect.. So that when the company eventualy realise (very rare) that someone is hacking them and try to trace them, they would need to jump through hoops in order to find the next hop, ether by hacking the proxy server (hahaha) or by getting a writ from the police of the relative counrty to get the logs from the owner of the ISP! to find out who you actualy are.

Now there are a couple of ways to proxy:

1) Software based.
2) IE address daisy chaing.

Some of the common software proxys:
1) http://www.proxys4all.com/software.shtml
2) http://www.proxyway.com/www/downloads/
3) http://www.my-proxy.com/com/download.php

How to address proxy in your chosen browser:
1) http://proxy1:8080/proxy2:9090/proxy3:1010/http://www.hackme.com
2) http://proxy1.com/- -http://www.hackme.com

nice and simple

Top website --> http://www.hackerthreads.org/

Fire! Fire! walls........

2007-04-18T11:24:00.000+01:00

Firewalls, NAT and Proxy

Overview
The risks from the internet, fall in to the follow catogories:
1) Stealing (Data)
2) Liability (using someones systems to send spam)
3) Vandalism (defacing a web site)

Firewall Topology and Terminology

1) Single Layer (one firewall, betwen you and the internet)
2) Single layer with a DMZ (one firewall and a less secure zone called a dmz for
an? intranet FE exchange server)
3) Multi Layer. (multiple firewalls from various vendors)

Firewall Design

1) Packet filtering (ip filtering only)
2) Dynamic Packet Filtering. (checks the payload also)
3) Application Proxy. (best firewall, but slowest)

Packet filtering - is the terminolgy used when we talk about the filtering if
packets based on a set of rules in Access Contol Enteries, pssibly within an
Access Control List.

Packet filering rules - normaly are divided in criteria i.e. Direction, Protocol
and Port Number.

Principal of least permission, when setting up firewall rules.

NAT - used to hide internal network address (none routable addess) to the
internet.

Application Proxy - cach web pages ect.

Other firewall features

1) Logging.
2) Alerts.

Firewall Testing.

1) Testing procedure
2) Testing products.

www.windowssecurity.com

Best PracticePrefaby just buy a box! pre-configured and harden'd

More to follow when I wake up!

Remember...BNC, floppies and Modems

2007-04-17T21:58:00.000+01:00

Now I'm not saying the course content that I'm on is old, but today we were talking about war dialing (modem access), thick net (and vampire taps!!!), thin net and coax!

Even though the above might seem a bit stupid the theory on what we actualy did today will always be correct and very relevent.

Todays notes:

Scanning and Intrusion Detection

Before you can attach any computer, you need to check out the following:
1) Type of system (Hardware)
2) Ports open.
3) Type of OS.

Types of scans:
1) Probe (checking specific ports)
2) Scan (check a whole range)

Scan Types:
1) TCP Connect Scan
2) TCP SYN Scan
3) TCP FIN Scan
4) FTP Bounce Scan
5) Spoofed Original Scans
6) Decoy Scans.
7) Fragmented Scans.
8) Architecture Mapping.

Scanning Methodologies

1) Coordinated Scans
2) Slow Scans.
3) Large Scale Scanning and Collaboration.

Some of the Scanning tools:

1) NMap (NMapWin has now been withdrawn)
2) Strobe.
3) NtCat.
4) NetScan 2000.
5) WUPS.

IDS

IDS commomly has three components:
1) The Agent.
2) The Manager.
3) The Reporting/Notification System.
And can be either passive or Active

Active - can be usefull for monitoring, failed logon attempts, port scanning on the active system and file / folder permission changes.

Network - the system running this should be running in promiscuous mode and pref on your back bone. Monitoring the raw packets it could be set with triggers to monitor and the carry out a set of actions on the event of seeing a trend, i.e. shut down a service or terminate a network connection.

IDS limitations:
1) Cannot scan encripted packets.
2) Cannot scan tunnels (vpn ect.)

IDS Software (loads)

1) PortSentry
2) Snort.
3) BlackICE.
and others....

Honeypots

Normaly located in a DMZ's with various open ports and agents running logging what is being scanned.

Networking enviorments

Know what and how the following work:
1) Hub
2) Switch
3) Router
4) Routing tables.

You need to know how the above work in detail before going any further.

Security + in the wild west.....end!

2007-04-16T19:07:00.000+01:00

Day 2 - Thankfully its cooled down since yesterday, well, just enough for me to concentrate on my course (Security +). A five day course on the basics of security, encompassing types of computer viruses, encryption, types of attacks and the best way to tackle them.

Notes:

Security Principles:
1) Confidentiality
2) Availability
3) Integrity

Risk Management:
1) Asset Identification (physical, data or knwledge)
2) Threat analysis (possible things that could go wrong)
3) Vunerability analysis (weakness identifed by threats and what to do about them)
4) Risk assesment ( how much the problem might cost if it happed)

Quantifying the cost:
How much would the problem cast to fix if it went wrong? (the fix, time taken and credibility)
Against the cost to put the fix in place now rather than when it happens?

OSI Layers:

- A socket connection is accomplished when IP & Ports have established.

- TCP is a reliable error connection data transmission. (Passing you glass cup to someone)

- UDP is like "here's the data......... catch!" no error correction etc. (YouTube)

TCP Network layer protocols:

ARP, Address Resolution Protocol.
DRARP, Dynamic RARP.
InARP, Inverse Address Resolution Protocol.
IP, Internet Protocol.
IPv6, Internet Protocol version 6.
MPLS, Multi-Protocol Label Switching.
RARP, Reverse Address Resolution Protocol.

Day 1 - It ain't arf hot mum!

2007-04-15T22:22:00.000+01:00

Well a hot Sunday eveining is a good a time as any to start my new blog. Well who am I? I'm a g33k with a wife and two kids living in the center of what I call hell, others may call it Islington London. Don't get me started about London, ignorant, selfish and nasty the place needs cutting off from the rest of the UK. its should be called EuropeLand as its the ONLY part of England that wants to be part of Europe!

Ahh! its the heat, I'm quite shure when it cools down, I'll turn, once again in to the typical English gent, and keep mum about our glorious Capital city of London, and claim that all is hoky kokey, the trains, busses and tubes are not packed, we just like to stand next to each other; sniffing armpits is just a typical excentric English thing to do.