Tech Grab Bag

IPv6 Resource

2012-01-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

Here is a resource from Cisco for IPV6 research. It is full of videos, blog entries, and other related documents.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/netpro/network-infrastructure/ipv6-transition

Wireshare Capture Filter - subnet

2011-12-15T16:37:00.000-06:00

If you want to capture all data from a specific subnet there is an easy way to do this in Wireshark. Go into the capture filter screen, create a new filter, name it, and in the filter string space enter the network info using the following format.

net 192.168.1.0/24

Visio Stencils - Cisco

2011-12-08T09:05:00.001-06:00

Here is a link to Cisco's Visio stencils.

Visio Stencils

Ping scan with nmap

2011-11-28T13:21:00.001-06:00

At times you may just need to be able to find out what IP addresses are currently in use on your network. One quick way to do this is with nmap.

With Zenmap it's just a matter of selecting the "Ping scan" profile and entering a range in the target field, such as 192.168.1.1-254

If you are using nmap from the command line simply type the following, nmap -sP 192.168.1.1-254

View PAE setting on Windows Server 2008

2011-10-20T08:07:00.000-05:00

If you are running the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 and have more than 4GB of RAM in your server you may want to know if you are actually running PAE. To do so you can run the following from the Administrator Command Prompt.

"bcdedit /enum | find /I "pae"

It should return something like this if you have PAE enabled.

pae ForceEnable

Fedora 16

2011-10-18T10:11:00.002-05:00

Display running services on Windows

2011-07-27T21:17:00.000-05:00

You may already know that you can start and stop windows services using the
net start -service name-
net stop -service name-
commands, but what you might not know is how to simply display what services are currently running.

This is rather simple and straight forward, simply type the following.
net start

This should display all of the services currently running on your system. If you have a lot of services running and know the service name you are looking for you can use the following to see if it is running.
net start | find "-service name-"

Windows Server 2008 core - default login

2011-07-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

If you are new to installing Windows Server 2008 core you will notice there is a logon screen after the first reboot even though you hadn't previously setup a default password.

To get past this screen, enter administrator as the user name with no password. After that you will be prompted to change your password. Once you have set your new administrator password you are good to go.

Find Processes Running On A Remote System

2011-06-09T08:21:00.002-05:00

If you're working in a Windows environment and you have the rights to do so, you can find the process running on a remote machine by running the following command.

tasklist /s -machine name-

This will give you important info like the process name, PID, and memory usage.

Wireshark - DHCP filter

2011-05-31T13:21:00.001-05:00

If you ever need to capture just DHCP traffic while using Wireshark simply use the following capture filter string.

port 67 or port 68

Fedora 15 Countdown

2011-05-04T09:13:00.001-05:00

Scientific Linux - scp missing

2011-04-07T10:46:00.000-05:00

I ran across something interesting while working with Scientific Linux 6. I had done a minimal install and attempted to scp some files over to it from another box. This fails because the minimal install apparently does not install scp. If you ran into this as well, the fix is rather simple.

yum install openssh-clients

Windows 7 - MacBook Pro - right click

2011-03-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

If you've setup your MacBook Pro to dual boot with Windows 7 you might find it handy to be able to right click without attaching an external mouse. It feels a little un-natural at first but it's pretty straight forward.

Rest two fingers on the trackpad and click the mouse button.

That's all there is to it.

Disable IPv6 in Debian

2011-01-18T09:37:00.001-06:00

As I've posted before that there may be reasons you want to disable IPv6. A simple way to do this in Debian is to edit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases with the following lines

alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off

Restart and verify you are no longer running IPv6 by using the netstat command.

netstat -tunlp

Restarting interfaces in Solaris

2011-01-12T17:48:00.004-06:00

On occasion you may just want to bring an interface down and then backup up again without actually restarting the network services. To restart interfaces in Solaris simply do the following.

For the example we'll say and ifconfig -a showed you ce0, ce1, ce2, ce3

To bring an interface down: ifconfig ce0 down
To bring an interface up: ifconfig cd0 up

Fedora - public mirrors

2010-12-12T12:18:00.001-06:00

Looking for the Fedora public mirrors? I do really like the current Fedora project website. However, it isn't always easy to get to the list of public mirrors from the site since they redesigned it.

Fedora Public Mirrors

Sci Fi Science

2010-11-30T21:35:00.000-06:00

For those of you that haven't seen it, Sci Fi Science is a show on the Science Channel that looks at technology used in Sci Fi movies and tries to create them using current technology or technology currently in development. It is fascinating to learn about some of the technology being developed and how it might be combined with other tech to make the things we only dream of become reality.

Love this show, check it out.

Sci Fi Science

Data Encapsulation Terminology

2010-11-29T20:41:00.000-06:00

It is important to use the correct terminology when referring to the different levels of data encapsulation.

Segment - is the term used for the transport layer
Packet - is the term used for the network layer
Frame - is the term used for the network access layer

The reason I point this out is because I myself am guilty of sometimes just referring to everything as a packet. While most people are able to track with what you are saying, even though you may be using the wrong term, it isn't a good habit to get into. This is especially true if you find yourself troubleshooting complex network problems with vendors who need precise information when trying to work through a problem with you.

Always make a conscious effort to use the correct terms.

Fedora 14 - initial thoughts

2010-11-16T21:40:00.000-06:00

I finally got around to installing Fedora 14. On the surface it is really not much different than Fedora 13. Though I have to admit, the default wallpaper is really cool looking.

The install went the same as always, nothing new to speak of from the Fedora 13 installer.

Performance seems pretty good, I am running it on an old 1.60GHz Pentium4 that I dug out of the pile. It also only has 512MB of RAM, but as I said seems to be performing just fine with the default Gnome install.

With my initial look at Fedora 14 I would say it is pretty nice, haven't run into anything weird so far like I have with some previous versions of Fedora.

Spaces icon missing from dock

2010-10-29T11:07:00.000-05:00

If you have accidentally deleted or simply don't see the Spaces icon on the dock of your Mac don't worry, it's an easy fix.

Simply open the Applications folder, then open the Utilities folder, then drag the Spaces icon to your dock.

That is all there is to it.

Macs and anti-virus

2010-10-27T18:57:00.001-05:00

I know that Mac users like to run around commenting about how they don't have to worry about getting a virus, I have one too for the record, but that is not entirely true. SC Magazine reported today about the Koobface exploit and how a Mac variant is now in the wild and I would suspect as the Mac continues to gain popularity we may see more worms making their way over to the Mac side from the Windows world.

I coincidentally installed the Mac version of our corporate A/V solution onto the management server allowing me to now run the same managed A/V solution on my Mac as on my Windows computer. In my case, this didn't cost any extra for us to add Mac support, just a little of my time.

I would recommend checking to see if your anti-virus vendor offers a Mac client as part of the suite and if it's at no additional charge, as was my case, even better.

Zenoss - locations

2010-08-30T07:44:00.003-05:00

I've tried setting up and running Zenoss a couple times and the newest version 3.0.1 is pretty nice. Like previous versions it's easy to download, install and get up and running. Some of the options are in new places so it took me a little time to figure out where they were, but again the same ease of use was there.

One thing that was not so straight forward was how to get devices to show up in their locations. This isn't, as I thought, information that is pulled out of SNMP, but rather information that you define. As it turns out though, it is as simple as clicking just to the left of the device name and dragging it into the location you have defined. Once you have done that you will be able to manage your device both by device type that you defined at discovery as well as by location that you can customize as you like.

Cisco: connecting the old with the new

2010-08-24T19:25:00.003-05:00

I spend as much time working with older network gear as I do the new stuff. On a recent project I found myself needing to connect an old Cisco 2950G with a new Cisco 3750E and was running into issues getting the duplex settings configured correctly.

To keep a long story short I headed out with my crossover cable as I often do, connected the two switches together and could not get the two switches to run the same duplex without CRC errors.

Turns out a standard patch cable and the assistance of auto mdix on the 3750e is all you need.

On the 2950G I did the following
int fa0/1
speed auto
duplex auto

On the 3750E I did the following
int gig 1/0/1
speed auto
duplex auto
mdix auto

Suddenly I have two error free interfaces running 100/Full.

If you have run into this issue, you might want to give this a shot, it has worked for me every time I have tried it since stumbling onto this.

Windows 7 Compatibility

2010-08-13T17:49:00.002-05:00

If you have been dragging your feet and are now planning on making the move to Windows 7 here is a website you should check out to check to see if your existing hardware and software is compatible with Windows 7.

Windows 7 Compatibility

Need old versions of Java?

2010-08-12T18:02:00.003-05:00

If you're like me you have run into apps from time to time that will only work with a specific version of java. If you're like me and you are in the habit of cleaning up old files, you probably no longer have those previous versions available. I'll save you some digging, not that it is overly hard to come by in the first place, below is a link the the java archives page. There you should be able to find the java version you need to get up and running.

Java Archive Page

Traceback errors

2010-07-09T13:03:00.000-05:00

When using CentOS, RedHat, Fedora, etc… you may experience traceback errors when attempting to run updates using yum. One simple you thing you can try to get yourself back up and running is the following command.

yum clean all

This is used to clean up various things from your yum cache.

For more information about using the clean option do the following:

man yum

Then type “/CLEAN OPTIONS”

Mount and ISO on Linux

2010-05-21T17:59:00.002-05:00

There are multiple reasons why you might want to mount an ISO to access the files contained in it. Here some simple steps to make this happen.

login as root or utilize the sudo command to create a directory to use as a mount point. I typically make /mnt/iso_image

Use the following command to mount the file called image1.iso:
mount -o loop image1.iso /mnt/iso_image

Fuel Efficiency

2010-05-13T18:00:00.002-05:00

I got the spring issue of MyFord in the mail and as usual went through it cover to cover. There are of course a lot of interesting things in there if your a Ford person and possibly even if your not.

However the one thing that caught my eye that I wanted to share was about fuel efficiency. It had the usual suspects about the way you accelerate and break, engine speed, and excessive idling. However the one thing I hadn't really thought of, but makes perfect sense, was driving with your windows down on the highway. Yes we all love to do it from time to time, but according to this article, if you are traveling faster than 50 mph, close your windows. Even if you have to turn the air on you'll get better fuel efficiency do to the amount of increased aerodynamic drag having the windows down causes.

Think about this next time it's one of those days where you could go either way with regards to turning on that air conditioner, I know I will.

Phishing to be aware of

2010-05-06T18:06:00.002-05:00

I have seen a couple variants on this phishing attack this week.

An email is crafted warning the user that they are about to reach their allowed capacity for email storage and to send their username and password to fix the problem. There were two variants of this that I saw with different wording but the same basic concept.

Luckily none of my users, that I know of, responded to this.

Another free Online Virus Scanner

2010-05-04T20:05:00.004-05:00

I ran across another free online virus scanner. This one is from ESET, makers of NOD32 Antivirus software.

If you use Firefox there is an exe you'll need to download and install and if you use IE there is an add-on to install.

ESET Online Scanner

Ubuntu 10.04LTS Desktop - first look

2010-05-02T18:13:00.004-05:00

I got around to installing Ubuntu 10.04LTS Desktop on my machine. I don't have any spare hardware right now so I installed it as a VM on my laptop.

As with server, there were no real surprises with the install, it was your basic Ubuntu install using the alternative install media.

Since this install was as a VM on my XP box I haven't spent a lot of time working with it and not being a big fan of running desktop VMs, I can't wait to free up a piece of hardware and perform a native install.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server - My first look

2010-05-01T18:25:00.002-05:00

I installed Ubuntu 10.04LTS last night and except for an issue with my CDROM drive the install went off without a hitch. Nothing too surprising with the install, it was pretty straight forward, as Ubuntu installs go, with the minor exception of the section where it asks you if you want to enable auto updates, manually update or use Landscape for updates.

The one thing that I have to say that I love about 10.04 so far is the boot time. Reboots take very little time now with the changes that have been made, removal of the hal package.

So far I am liking it. Next, a desktop install.

Labels

2010-04-20T22:01:00.002-05:00

Please note the addition of labels to the bottom right pane.

Network Security Tools

2010-04-10T08:21:00.003-05:00

Foundstone has a section on their website full of network security tools. The site contains scanning tools, forensic tools, etc... Even if you don't know who Foundstone is, you probably know who McAfee is, so unlike pulling these tools from unknown sources you can feel safe when getting your tools from here.

Foundstone: Free Tools

Making learning fun

2010-04-06T21:06:00.002-05:00

Cisco has a site that makes learning about technology fun. The site is called The Games Arcade and is full of games covering topics such as subnets, wireless, unified communications, etc...

Check it out, your bound to find something fun and interesting there.

Scripting in the Microsoft world

2010-04-04T07:50:00.002-05:00

Have you have ever wanted to automate a process in your Windows environment, but didn't know where to start? I've been there myself and the Script Center is a great place to start. They have tutorials, tips, and a script repository available covering several different categories.

I suggest checking out the Script Center next time your looking to automate a task and seem to be stuck.

Setting persistent static route in Windows

2010-03-28T16:17:00.002-05:00

This can come in handy from time to time. When working with servers you sometimes need to set static routes and even keep them persistent across reboots. Here is how you set a persistent static route in Windows.

route add -p [target] mask [netmask] [gateway] metric [cost] if [interface]

Disable IPv6 in Red Hat

2010-03-25T21:52:00.002-05:00

There are several reasons to disable IPv6 even though there is a constant stream of articles warning you to come up with a plan to migrate to IPv6. Here are just a couple of reasons why you might want to disable IPv6. IPv6 enabled devices put unnecessary traffic on your network if your not utilizing it. If you don't have IPv6 enabled tools, running it could pose a security threat to your network since you'll have no visibility into what the traffic is doing.

To disable IPv6 on Red Hat 4 and 5 servers click here.

Need MIBs?

2010-03-23T19:37:00.002-05:00

If you have been in a position where you network management software doesn't include the MIBs you need, you might try checking the following site.

SNMP MIB Search

It doesn't have every MIB you might need, but it does contain quite a few.

Change Debian default editor

2010-03-20T23:29:00.003-05:00

Debian 5.0 uses nano as it's default editor. If your like me and you prefer working in vi/vim, there is an easy fix. Simply enter the following command and select vim, it's that simple.

update-alternatives --config editor

FedoraProject RoadMap

2010-03-18T10:25:00.003-05:00

If you were looking for the Fedora RoadMap, but were having trouble locating it just click here.

The page has links to the schedules for old versions as well as the upcoming version Fedora 13.

Free Online Scanner

2010-03-08T21:35:00.003-06:00

I ran across another free online scanner, this one is from F-Secure. It took a little longer than other online scanners to download and run the components, but it did a good job finding some tracking cookies that other scanners did not mark as malicious. Again, if you don't run anti-virus software for whatever reason, using free online scanners on occasion helps to ensure your being a good citizen of the Internet.

F-Secure Online Scanner

ICMP types

2010-03-01T19:28:00.004-06:00

Here are some of the common ICMP types used to discover a host on a network. You can get complete descriptions of ICMP types from RFC 792.

Message Type: 0 - Echo Reply
Message Type: 3 - Destination Unreachable
Message Type: 4 - Source Quench
Message Type: 5 - Redirect
Message Type: 8 - Echo
Message Type: 11 - Time Exceeded
Message Type: 12 - Parameter Problem
Message Type: 13 - Timestamp
Message Type: 14 - Timestamp Reply
Message Type: 15 - Information Request
Message Type: 16 - Information Reply

While ICMP might be useful for a network administrator to know what is going on it is also useful for a hacker to know what is going on. Denying ICMP requests from outside your network is one way to help deter hackers.

XP Internet Security 2010

2010-02-28T23:04:00.002-06:00

I worked on a machine tonight with the virus XP Internet Security 2010. This thing is a pain just like it's predecessors.

Most instructions out there to manually clean the virus ask you to look for and kill the av.exe process and files and then go out and delete a handful of registry entries. The machine I was working on had those same registry entries, but instead of av.exe it was using MSASCui.exe.

So when trying to fix a machine that has been infected with XP Internet Security 2010 you should now be aware of at least two exe files it's using.

av.exe
MSASCui.exe

More variants are sure to follow.

From My Bookmarks

2010-02-25T21:19:00.004-06:00

McAfee Free Services

This is a nice site with a handful of useful tools to scan, test, and keep you up to date with what is going on with Internet security.

A New Look

2010-02-25T17:40:00.002-06:00

I have always believed in keeping this blog simple and clutter free. However, I've been running this blog for a while now and frankly got tired of looking at it. Lets face it, it's dull.

I chose this new template because it is still minimalistic, but not boring.

Enjoy

Edit Gnome menu

2010-02-05T19:02:00.003-06:00

After installing Fedora 12, I noticed that I did not have the ability to edit my Gnome menu by simply right clicking on the panel. As a side note Fedora 12 installs with Gnome version 2.28.

The way to fix this problem is actually very easy, you just need to install alacarte.

Open a terminal window
type yum install alacarte

At this point you can logout, log back in and you can right click to edit the menus.

From My Bookmarks

2010-02-05T08:18:00.006-06:00

Here is a site that I bookmarked this week after getting an email from RedHat about it being up and running. I haven't had a lot of time to spend poking around on it, but it looks like it is full of information.

opensource.com

Microsoft Security Essentials

2010-01-31T16:10:00.004-06:00

About three years ago I change my anti-virus on my home Windows machines from TrendMirco's PC-cillin to avast! Free Antivirus. With the exception of a couple of false positives, I have been extremely happy with the free version of avast! It didn't drag my machines down performance wise and provided me with the level of protection that I am looking for in my home computers.

However, that being said, I have chosen to test out Microsoft Security Essentials on one of my home computers to see how it stacks up against the same model pc running avast. So far the verdict is positive for the Microsoft product. I can schedule scans, run automatic or manual updates, and can customize some features such as real-time scan settings and exclusion lists. I have also not noticed any hit to performance on the box running Microsoft Security Essentials, as a matter of fact it is using about half the RAM avast appears to be using.

I'll continue to run Microsoft Security Essentials for a while and report back on anything negative, but so far it looks like another acceptable free security tool for you home computer.

Caching DNS

2010-01-26T22:35:00.003-06:00

A few days ago I walked you through doing a network install of Scientific Linux. With the install I did as part of that post I decided that I wanted to run a caching DNS server. Fortunately, this is very easy with a RedHat based distro such as Scientific Linux.

Rather than me type this out I decided to provide a link to a great page on the RedHat knowledgebase on how to do this. If you take the time to read through it and follow the directions you should have no trouble setting up a caching DNS server.

Caching-only Name Server

Scientific Linux - network install

2010-01-23T15:06:00.003-06:00

Unlike other Linux distros, Scientific Linux does not come with a network install cd. However, not to worry, you can still do a network based installation following a couple of easy steps.

-> Boot off of disc 1
-> On the boot screen type "linux askmethod"
-> Select your language
-> Select your keyboard type
-> Select your install method, for this I'll use HTTP
-> Select your network configuration, I unselect IPV6, no reason to run protocols your not using
-> The next screen is where you will enter the server and location of the install files
----> I like to use the Argonne National Laboratory mirror, it's fast, mirror.mcs.anl.gov
----> I am using 5.4 i386, so my path looks like this /pub/scientific-linux/54/i386
-> Next screen lets you know it found your CD, I usually select skip on the scan
-> Now it will load the splash screen, select next
-> You now need to partition your hard drive, you can allow it to auto partition or select custom from the drop down
-> Next is the GRUB screen, I usually leave the default location
-> Next you get the option to customize your network settings and hostname
-> Select your timezone
-> Set your root password
-> Next is the software screen, depending on what you will use your install for will determine how much you customize this
-> The next screen will kick off your install, no need to worry about swapping discs
----> the amount of time it takes to finish the install will depend on your Internet connection
-> At some point you'll be ready to reboot
-> At initial boot you will be prompted with for some post install info
----> Firewall Config
----> SELinux
----> Initial user account, I didn't get this since I didn't install a GUI
-> You should now have a usable Scientific Linux install, enjoy

FreeBSD on Sparc

2010-01-14T13:11:00.005-06:00

I have some old Sun v240 Sparc servers that I want to re-use now that they are no longer in production, but I didn't necessarily want to use Solaris on them. I decided I wanted to use Linux for a project and having always had good luck with Debian on non-x86 platforms I started there.

Using the netinst CD of Debian 5 I couldn't even get the kernel to load, so I figured I was probably missing something important and downloaded disc 1. Disc 1 got me much further, except for a minor problem of shutting down and not allowing me to bring the NICs back online.

I stepped away from this for a couple weeks and decided to try FreeBSD. I hadn't actually used FreeBSD for anything for a while, but decided to grab version 8 and give it a whirl.

Success, I am now running a fully functioning Sparc server running FreeBSD 8. Could I have gotten Linux running on this box, probably, but I was impressed that FreeBSD just installed like it has any other time I have used it. Will FreeBSD be my first choice for a solution going forward, probably not, but it is good to have as a standby.

sudo launcher

2010-01-09T18:39:00.005-06:00

Every so often you need to be able to launch and app in Linux with elevated rights. One way to do this is to execute it with the sudo command from the command line.

Example:
sudo command

If you work mainly in a GUI such as Gnome you may choose to run these programs through a shortcut or launcher. This is done using the gksu command.

Example:

Right click on the desktop
Select create launcher
In the command area enter gksu command

You should now have a working shortcut that launches an app with elevated rights.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T08:58:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year to all from Tech Grab Bag.

Here is hoping the new year is full of innovations.

Favorite Linux Distro

2009-12-20T09:48:00.004-06:00

So here are the results of the poll.

2 - Fedora
2 - Other
1 - RedHat
1 - Ubuntu

No one seemed to like either version of SUSE.

Obviously we don't get enough traffic here to properly assess the use of Linux distros, but there is a site that is a better representation of the popularity of the various distros available today.

DistroWatch

Check it out, not only does it give the current popularity, but it will give you updates, and basic information about each distro being tracked.

Favorite Distro

2009-12-14T19:49:00.002-06:00

Vote on your favorite Linux distro by scrolling down to the poll on the right hand side of the page. Results will be posted next week.

Anti-virus software

2009-12-03T19:39:00.005-06:00

By now you are hopefully aware that there are all kinds of different virus, worms, bots, etc... with the sole purpose of hijacking your computer. Hopefully, you are running some sort of virus protection on your computer since there are a few good ones out there available for free.

However, if you still haven't installed anti-virus software because you think it will slow down your computer, you don't believe you need it, or for whatever reason you can't install it, your still in luck. There are online scanners available that allow you to scan your computer through the use of a browser plugin. Two such companies that offer this service are:

Trend Micro
and
McAfee (follow the FreeScan link to run this one)

So if you are running Windows with no anti-virus check out one of the following sites to make sure that your machine is running virus free.

XP Performance

2009-12-02T20:01:00.005-06:00

Lately I have been seeing a lot of ads on t.v. to speed up your computer. For a fee these companies can run a scan of your computer and do some voodoo to make your computer faster.

Instead of paying a fee, try doing a few simple tasks already built into XP that can help extend the life and improve the performance of that XP install.

Here is a link to some steps you can take.

Microsoft XP Maintenance

Audacity

2009-12-01T18:11:00.004-06:00

I was going through some of my old things last night and ran across a bunch of old cassette tapes that I have. Poking around I realized that I had a lot of old music that I like and am limited to one tape deck, which was disconnected, to play it on.

Thinking I may have just found a new and interesting project, I decided to connect my tape deck to my PC and look for some software to record with. As usual, off to sourceforge I went and it was there that I found Audacity.

Audacity was easy to install, easy to configure, and easy to use. Without really having to know anything about editing audio I was able to record my music from the line in on the sound card, easily remove the dead air from the beginning and end of the songs, and easily export my recorded song to multiple formats.

I see no reason to try any other software package as Audacity does what I want to do. Let's just hope this project stays interesting long enough for me to get through all those old songs so I don't have to keep this tape deck on my desk to enjoy my music.

Phishing Attacks

2009-11-30T18:12:00.005-06:00

With the holiday season upon us all of those emails with special offers may sound like an appealing way to save some cash. However, be aware that many emails sent around are from hackers running phishing scams to gain access to your personal information.

One easy way to safeguard against this type of thing is to not follow the links provided in emails. Hackers have gotten sufficticated enough to make these emails have the look and feel of a legitimate email. Instead of clicking the links directly, you can instead go to the website and browse to the special offers that they have available this holiday season.

While not all email is malicious, it's better to be safe than sorry.

The New Efficiency

2009-11-24T21:34:00.004-06:00

I ran across this Microsoft site, not sure how new it is.

The New Efficiency

It's full of videos about the new Microsoft products and videos with some of the consumers of these products. There are also some partner videos from companies such as Cisco, HP, Intel, etc...

Poke around, some of the information is sales or fluff, some is informative, and some is just interesting.

Fedora 12 install

2009-11-17T20:02:00.004-06:00

I was excited to get Fedora 12 installed when I got home from work and thought I would share my experiences with Fedora 12 as I go.

I chose to use the netinst media, as I usually do, to perform my install. I booted up the CD and the installed appeared to be about the same as Fedora 11. The whole install only took about 45 minutes over my cable modem connection.

So far the interface feels the same as usual and my first install was on a desktop so I won't get to play with the new wireless features just yet, but I do have a laptop I plan to install Fedora 12 on.

Admittedly, I really don't have much of value to report at this time, but I was pretty excited to be up and running and posting.

Stayed tuned for more.

Syslog

2009-11-11T08:07:00.006-06:00

I have been looking around for an easy to setup and use syslog server and recently tried a couple in a production environment with a handful of switches, WAPs, and a firewall. The two I installed on a Windows 2003 server were Kiwi and Splunk.

Kiwi had a simple install and you were off and running. Splunk had an easy install with some minor configuration then you were up and running.

Kiwi was nice because everything is color coded and easy to read, but I found when I attempted to apply filters it would time out or crash the service all together.

Splunk isn't as easy to read, but has all of the information there and seems more robust. I can search on multiple different items and the results are returned fairly quick.

I think for a light logging Kiwi is good because all of the data is right there on the main pane, but for heavy logging with a lot of querying I think I'd go with Splunk.

Fedora Docs

2009-11-07T09:10:00.002-06:00

Need to know how to do something in Fedora? The Fedora documentation page is a good place to start. They have documentation for multiple versions and it is organized in a way that makes it easy to find what you need and offers multiple languages and document types.

Fedora Docs

RedHat Features

2009-11-04T19:33:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure how old this video is, but it is a pretty good video on how features make it into RedHat.

Video

FeatureList Fedora 12

2009-11-02T19:35:00.001-06:00

Here is a link to the Fedora 12 feature list.

Solaris 10 Services

2009-10-26T20:17:00.005-05:00

Working with services is pretty straight forward and provides some useful information and control of services on your Solaris 10 install.

If you want to see all of the services running on your machine.

svcs

If you want to list the details of a service.

svcs -l SERVICE_NAME

If you want to enable a service use the svcadm command.

svcadm enable SERVICE_NAME

As you might imagine disabling a service is just the opposite.

svcadm disable SERVICE_NAME

So as you can see, working with services in Solaris 10 is pretty straight forward. There are additional features for these commands, I'd suggest taking a look at the man pages for more info.

IronMail

2009-10-18T10:11:00.004-05:00

I recently deployed McAfee Email Gateway, aka IronMail, and so far it's operated as advertised.

Out of the box, it does a better job than the solution it replaced. Now in defense of the old solution, it didn't have a database like TrustedSource to check reputation against, which by the way was one of the main reasons to move to IronMail.

IronMail has more than it's share of options, but I have to admit, they aren't always located under the tabs that I would typically expect to find them. However, once you figure out their logic it is really rather easy to navigate the GUI.

Troubleshooting issues via the CLI is very nice. If you are use to working at a *nix CLI, you will like this feature.

Finally, support. Like other SecureComputing, now McAfee, products I have used in IronMail tech support is very good. They have a special high level port that support can use to connect to your appliance to assist in troubleshooting.

It's not the least expensive solution nor the easiest to run, but I am impressed with the power and effectiveness of IronMail.

Fixup Protocol

2009-10-11T18:29:00.007-05:00

I hadn't setup a new PIX in a while and the couple ASA firewalls I have recently setup haven't needed SMTP service till now.

I moved an Exchange 2007 edge server from a DMZ in a PIX to a DMZ in an ASA. Had all of my ducks in a row with routing, firewall rules etc..., so imagine my suprise when the edge server couldn't properly pass SMTP data to the hub and vice-versa.

After examining logs on the ASA and Exchange servers and going through the firewall and server configs multiple times it dawned on me that maybe I was dealing with the fixup protocol again. I had thought that Cisco would have addressed this pesky little problem with the ASA, but alas, no. As soon as I disabled ESMTP from the inspection section, mail started flowing without incident.

If your using Exchange and Cisco ASAs for the first time, before you get to frustrated with mail not moving between the edge and hub servers, check the fixup protocol.

Windows 7 part 2

2009-09-29T17:49:00.003-05:00

Windows 7 has turned out to work pretty well for me so far. I was able to use the bulk of my applications that I need with little or no problems.

Wireshark, nmap, java, all installed without any problems. Java plugins in a few browser based systems I use worked without any problems. Oddly enough i had a problem with activex controls with one application that I use, SolarWinds Orion, where it kept wanting to install the toolset and no matter what I did with the browser, it simply didn't work right. Luckily they had a work around on Thwack, I suggest going out there if you run into similar problems.

The only other app I had problems with had a problem with the updater. The app launched and ran, but the auto updater couldn't pull down the files. I changed the install directory to reside outside "c:\Program Files" and it would download the updates, but not install them. I ended up installing the updates manually and now the app runs fine.

Plugins for our SSLVPN installed and ran without a hitch, so this was a major win as far as I am concerned since I use it nightly. Anti-virus software installed and runs, which is good, we use Trend Micro Officescan.

All in all, I have to say that my experience so far with Windows 7 has been positive and look forward to continuing to integrate it into my usage with the eventual goal of being able to upgrade from XP Pro.

Windows 7 part 1

2009-09-26T13:09:00.004-05:00

Now that I have an official release version of Windows 7 I decided to install it on one of my notebooks and give it a try.

The notebook I am using is an HP nc6320 with 2GB of RAM and an Intel T7200 2.0GHz CPU.

First the install. In typical fashion the installation of the Windows operating system is very straight forward and easy to perform. Activation of my code was straight forward and went off without a hitch. After applying the updates, everything I needed to have up and running was, including all of the buttons on the keyboard except the presentation key, which really isn't critical for me on this notebook.

Performance feels as good on this base install as it does on a base install of XP on this same box. The web browsing experience is about the same as with XP/IE8 and the basic plugins such as Silverlight, Flash, and Adobe reader installed without any problems.

I'll examine application compatibility, security settings, etc... in following posts, but for now it's doing the job.

Kindle

2009-09-23T21:25:00.004-05:00

I've had my Kindle for a while now, but haven't gotten around to write about it till now.

There are a lot of things I like about my Kindle, something I don't really care for, and only one thing that I could do without.

Let's start by examining the things I like about the Kindle. First, it has plenty of titles to choose from, I've had no problems finding things to read. Second, the size is perfect, it fits right in your hands like a paperback would. They did a great job with the display, it's easy to read and I don't get eye fatigue like I do when reading from other electronic devices. Finally, the battery life is really good. I stay connected to the network all of the time and I am able to read for several hours at a time without worrying about having to find an outlet.

Now when it comes to reading newspapers on the Kindle, I can't say I care for the format. You needlessly have to scroll through articles that you could easily pass over if you had the actual printed copy. (unless of course I am missing a navigation feature)

The one thing I could really do without is the DRM aspect. I have been burned by DRM servers going off line in the past and left with useless locked music files. I feel a little more confident that Amazon isn't going anywhere, but is something I always keep in mind.

So for me, books I would like to keep forever I still buy hard copies. Newspapers, it's print for me. However, for most titles I think the Kindle is a great format for which to read books.

Need IPv6 info?

2009-09-22T19:38:00.003-05:00

Here is a website full of information about IPv6. It contains news, information and links to other sources of information for IPv6.

IPv6 Act Now

ittv

2009-09-21T21:40:00.002-05:00

Here is a nice site full of some useful videos dealing with Windows and Windows based solutions.

ittv

What's installed?

2009-09-12T13:22:00.003-05:00

Every needed or wanted to know what versions of software are installed on your Linux box? If you have a Debian or Debian based distro such as Ubuntu you can use the following command to list out the packages, description, and version info.

dpkg-query -l

sudoers file

2009-09-10T07:55:00.003-05:00

If you ever run into an issue where the account your using doesn't have sudo rights you simply just need to edit the /etc/sudoers file.

Be sure and use the visudo command to do this.

NetStumbler alternative for Mac

2009-09-02T14:05:00.003-05:00

The other day I was looking for a NetStumbler alternative for the Mac. After trying a couple I finally settled on KisMAC.

KisMac is straight forward to setup and use. It gives important information such as SSID, Channel, Encryption type, signal strength, etc...

If you ever just need a quick and dirty way to detect the WAPs in an area, i'd recommend you check it out.

N00b Boyfriend

2009-08-29T12:22:00.003-05:00

This one was too funny not to share.

N00b Boyfriend

Missing that Show Desktop icon?

2009-08-26T19:33:00.001-05:00

Missing that Show Desktop icon? Whether you deleted it or it just came up missing, it is easy to replace the show desktop icon on your Windows 2003 or XP machine.

Simply open a text editor and enter the following text.

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Then perform a "save as" to the location of your choice.
file name: Show Desktop.scf

Copy or move the new file to the quick launch bar and your done.

SSH – Disable root logins

2009-08-16T21:04:00.001-05:00

By default machines running Fedora, RedHat, and their variants allow root to ssh directly into them. In order to disable this and force users to first ssh into these boxes as themselves you should edit the sshd_config file.

To do this simply open the sshd_config file with your favorite text editor, I use vi.

Next, locate the line “PermitRootLogin”.

Remove the comment and change the value to no.

Save, close, and restart sshd.

Social Networking Safe Guards

2009-08-16T21:03:00.002-05:00

Here are some simple things to keep in mind that will help protect you when using social networking sites.

Use caution when clicking links

* Many links have been shortened by sites such as TinyURL which means your flying blind when you click that link till you get there.

Don’t allow social networking sites to scan your address book.

* This will keep the email address of your friends safe.

Type the names of your social network site yourself.

* Following a link from another site or email may take you to a fake site.

Be selective when adding friends

* Hackers often setup fake accounts to try and gather personal information

What you post is there forever (be selective)

* Even though you may delete something from your site, you must assume that someone has copied it or it has been cached somewhere

Third party apps (be careful)

* Hackers sometimes write applications to gather personal information, so be aware before you allow an application

F5 BIG-IP resources

2009-08-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

The BIG-IP is a great appliance and extremely powerful. However, because it can do so much you may find yourself looking for a little help getting pointed in the right direction. If you don’t already know about this resource, you should.

F5 DevCentral

This should be your first stop when trying to figure out how to configure your BIG-IP or write iRules.

McAfee Firewall Enterprise (aka Sidewinder)

2009-08-16T20:58:00.001-05:00

I figured since I went to the trouble of pointing out how nice the new ASDM interface was I would point out an equally nice interface for firewall management. The McAfee Firewall Enterprise (aka Sidewinder), I still just call it the Sidewinder, has a very nice user interface for managing that appliance.

It is an explorer type interface with navigation on the left and tasks on the right. It is laid out logically and because it is a native Windows app, is very fast. I can honestly say I have never had this interface crash on me.

Besides having a nice management interface the Sidewinder is just a darn good firewall. Although, be warned, it is a proxy based firewall, so setting up rules isn’t always as straight forward as you might find with other firewalls, but don’t let that scare you away.

Cisco ASA

2009-08-16T20:37:00.002-05:00

I have never been a fan of the PDM used to manage the PIX. It has always been slow, buggy, and not as intuitive as other firewall interfaces.

Today I had two ASA5550 firewalls to configure for an upcoming project. My opinion of the ASDM, well done Cisco. The ASDM makes managing the ASA a dream compared to using the PDM for the PIX.

The user interface is intuitive, it is straight forward to manage the objects and rules, it is much faster than the PDM, and after a full day of working in the interface, not one crash.

Network Monitoring Solution

2009-07-13T19:37:00.003-05:00

If your looking for a good network monitoring application that is low cost, easy to setup, easy to use, and still does a good job, take a look at Cacti. Cacti is an open source network monitoring system that uses apache, php, mysql, rrdtool, and net-snmp to monitor network attached devices.

Cacti gives you device status via SNMP or ICMP and various performance graphs via SNMP. SNMP versions 1, 2, and 3 are supported by Cacti. The one shortcoming is a limited number of device types supported out of the box, but don't let that scare you off. The generic counters should be adequate to get you up and going.

I used Ubuntu 8.04 LTS as my host system and installation was straight forward and fast. Just make sure that you look at the install doc and install the required packages before you install Cacti. With the version of Ubuntu I used, apt missed the install of mysql-server for some reason. However, i simply installed mysql-server and then ran dpkg-reconfigure cacti and I was back on track.

If you want to get up and running with the least amount of trouble I would stick with one of the distros that have a package available, i.e. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc...

Cacti Website

Have fun...

The Switching Kitchen

2009-07-13T13:01:00.001-05:00

The Switching Kitchen is a Cisco website that gives some nice little tips on configuring switches. It contains recipe cards on what is being discussed in the videos and the videos are technical instead of sales driven.

Double posting

2009-07-09T15:40:00.001-05:00

I have decided to double post for a while both here and on Wordpress till I decide where Tech Grab Bag is going to permanently land.

Warehouse 13

2009-07-08T18:41:00.001-05:00

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Warehouse 13 on Syfy (or SciFi if you prefer) for what I was hoping it could be.

While it did start out somewhat slow, I thought it picked up as the show went on and finished out fairly strong. I think the previews leading up to the airing did a good job of portraying how the show was going to go and would recommend anyone looking for a "what if" show to check it out.

Warehouse 13

It's handy and has a fun name.

2009-07-07T10:44:00.001-05:00

If your ever sitting behind a firewall and need to know the address your NATing to, here is a handy site that will tell you. Did I mention it had a fun name?

IP Chicken

Samsung Saga

2009-06-22T08:10:00.001-05:00

My experience with the Samsung Saga.

What is your favorite Linux distro?

2009-06-16T08:23:00.002-05:00

What is your favorite Linux distro?

Vista and telnet

2009-06-09T08:15:00.001-05:00

Vista and Telnet

Possible move

2009-06-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

I am starting to try out WordPress.

TechGrabBag on WordPress

Saving New Brain Cells

2009-05-03T19:22:00.000-05:00

I read an article in the March 2009 issue of Scientific American entitled "Saving New Brain Cells", by Tracey J. Shors. It was a good read full of interesting information about where brain cells are created, the type of things that can surpress the creation of new cells, such as alcohol, and things that can help extend the life of brain cells, such as working through complex problems.

Here is a link to the article on the Scientific American website.

How to Save New Brain Cells

Secure your computer

2009-05-01T13:59:00.002-05:00

One of the things you can do to help secure your computer is to lock the screen when you step away from it. This is quick, easy, and worth the effort.

Windows - -L
Mac - setup a hot corner
Gnome - -L

Coolest robots of 2009

2009-04-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to a Network World slide show of the "Coolest robots of 2009".

Robots

Three Way Handshake

2009-03-27T21:57:00.001-05:00

Here is an interesting way to look at the Three Way Handshake.

The Network Company

ReGenesis

2009-03-26T19:51:00.001-05:00

I've been addicted to this show on Hulu lately. It's called ReGenesis and is about a lab similar to the CDC that tries to solve unusual cases. It is a couple years old, but worth watching. Hulu still doesn't have season 4 available, but I have my fingers crossed.

ReGenesis

SNMP Monitoring

2009-03-23T16:19:00.003-05:00

Looking for a free, yet powerful way to do SNMP monitoring? Look at MRTG.

MRTG

MRTG is straight forward to setup and has excellent documentation. It displays graphs of the items you define through a webserver or your local machine if you just want to open the html files or images.

I suggest taking a look at it and judging for yourself.

HP TouchSmart

2009-03-15T14:34:00.001-05:00

I recently got my hands on an HP TouchSmart and decided to share my experiences with it.

Setup was easy and straight forward, just like any new pc you might get out of the box. You can do anything with your finger you can do with a left mouse click, which can be a little tricky with the resolution turned up.

The HP TouchSmart Center software gives you a better interface to work in. It has an area to work with photos, video, music, etc... Everything is very large and easy to click. You can also drag objects around to move through the menu items which makes for a plesent interactive experience.

I haven't fully tested use of applications through touch, but I suspect without a stylus you couldn't get the control you need to work with certain applications.

So far, it's pretty cool.