-
How to deactivate Adobe Digital Editions
As found on an Adobe Forum… To deactivate a PC with Adobe Digital Editions 1.x: Launch Digital Editions 1.x Enter the key-combination of <CTRL><SHIFT>D (<CMD><SHIFT>D on Mac OS) At the dialog, confirm that you wish to de-activate the machine Quit Digital Editions To reactivate and authorize the machine using the same or a new Adobe…
-
Useful browser check…
Apparently a lot of compromised browsers purposefully send a modified “UserAgent“, for instance: UserAgent Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; AntivirXP08; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022) that “AnitvirXP08” isn’t supposed to be there and best guess is it helps web sites that work…
-
Fixing that stupid Cisco IOS telnet thing…
One of the things that most drives me crazy about Ciscos is the default setting that makes when you’re at a Cisco IOS “exec” prompt that if you type something that isn’t a command, it interprets it as an attempt to “telnet” to a host. This is a real pain in the backside as all…
-
Unlocking a Cisco IP phone
One of those things I can never remember! It’s: **# Lets you change the network configs among other things. Also can factory reset with: Settings> Phone settings> Press **2 Works on older 7921 at least.
-
Favorite free Windows toys…
Though I’m a Linux bigot, I work generally on a Windows laptop. Below is a list of my favorite free toys/tools that I use regularly. I’ve had good luck with all of them: Unlocker Assistant – for unlocking pesky locked Windows files or drives. I8kFanGUI – for controlling your laptop fans TrueCrypt – for creating…
-
Defaulting a Cisco interface…
One pain with Cisco IOS is trying to get a configured interface back to defaults. Half the time you don’t even remember what those were. If it’s a sub-interface you can “no” it, but you will still have configuration left behind: cisco(config)#no interface ATM1/0.1 Not all config may be removed and may reappear after reactivating…
-
How to remove a VLAN from a port in CatOS…
I can never seem to remember how to “remove” a VLAN on a switch (eg: Cisco 6500) running the older CatOS. The new IOS based switches are much easier. Anyway, it’s actually quite simple, just force the port to VLAN 1 (assuming that is your default/native VLAN). For example if port 6/5 was set to…
-
How much Solaris memory?
It’s a dumb but simple thing, but I can never bloody remember how to do it: How do you find out how much physical memory is on Solaris? Simple answer: prtconf Which also tells you gobs of other useful stuff as well. I usually use “top” because where I’m at we install it everywhere, but…
-
A moment of mourning…
Time to hold a moment of mourning. It appears that WPA (fortunately not WPA 2 yet) has been cracked: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9119258&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1 http://www.itworld.com/security/57285/once-thought-safe-wpa-wi-fi-encryption-cracked I realize Erik Tews is probably a good person and all and probably believes he’s helping the world by finding this vulnerability before the “real” hackers do, but ultimately I’m unimpressed. The fact is,…
-
The unfortunate truth about Exchange
Up until the last year my workplace used IMAP servers running on Linux and Solaris to manage and deliver mail. Then we decided because of the collaborative benefits, particularly with mobile devices like Blackberrys, to move to Exchange. The results have been dramatic, and this chart made by Google to espouse their GMail product reflects…
-
How to convert to/from DOS format in VIM…
It’s very easy, but also easy to forget how to convert to or from a DOS format file in Unix using “vim” (Vi iMproved), the Open Source “vi”. If the file is in DOS format and you want to convert to Unix, use the command: :set ff=unix note that “ff” is an abreviation for “fileformat”…
-
Where to find the Windows XP “hosts” file
Just like Unix you can add a static host to the Windows system. On Windows XP the file is usually found in the “intuitive” location here (may change depending on where you loaded Windows): C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc This is also where the “lmhosts” file is found. The format is in standard ARPANET format. For more information see…
-
Just when you thought it was safe in the Universe again…
Dang, now that’s a hack allright: http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3996&tag=nl.e539 Fortunately they missed the “Create Black Hole” setting…
-
RedHat gets hit this time…
It just goes to show, if you think you’re safe, you’re not. This time RedHat was hit: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1784&tag=nl.e550 This is pretty ugly since it involves the signing of certificates used to validate the RPM repositories and RPMs themselves. RedHat claims that the “passphrase“s for the certificates weren’t compromised, so no harm no foul. However it’s…
-
Brilliant article with x-Hannaford CIO
StorefrontBacktalk has a short but brilliant article with the former CIO, Bill Homa, of Hannaford grocery chain who suffered a major breach of credit card data: http://storefrontbacktalk.com/story/071108homa There are three particular points that stand out: That Microsoft is still so hole ridden as to put your company at additional risk. That PCI is still not…
-
How to disable “dumprep.exe”
If you’ve ever had a program spontaneously self destruct in Windows XP and/or you did a forced kill from the task manager for a “Not responding” application, you may have found it takes forever for things to come back to normal and meanwhile your drive is being banged on like crazy. Worse things usually drag…
-
WPA versus WPA2?
So what’s the difference? Not much or a lot depending on your opinion. WPA uses TKIP for key management, whereas WPA2 uses AES-CCMP. Usually depending on how the AP has been set up, you can use either (TKIP or AES-CCMP) interchangeably, thus using WPA or WPA2 as needed. Many older devices like those running Windows…
-
WPA resources
When researching using WPA on Ciscos I ran into a lot of useful URLs as resources. If you’re in the same bind, you may find them helpful too: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps4570/products_configuration_example09186a00801bd035.shtml http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035-6148543.html http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035-6148581.html http://i.t.com.com/i/tr/downloads/home/gou_secure-wireless-guide.pdf http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2086/products_configuration_example09186a00801df0e4.shtml http://www.ccitraining.net/courses/cwls.shtml http://projectdream.org/publications/windows/eap-peap-cisco-windows-2003.html http://www.networkcomputing.com/1409/1409ws13.html http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps430/products_tech_note09186a008024aa4f.shtml http://cio.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo1100/accsspts/ap11icg/ivicgaut.htm http://www.networkworld.com/research/2002/0506whatisit.html http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/8021X-HOWTO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.1Q http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/12.2_15_JA/configuration/guide/s15vlan.html http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive80-2005-8-223677.html http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/access/mar_3200/wlsnotes/cfwlsmod.htm http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/solution/mblacrdg.pdf http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk621/technologies_tech_note09186a00800a7af6.shtml http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/witc/ao1200ap/prodlit/wrsec_an.htm Not a pretty list, but still good to…
-
What is 802.1x?
If you’re investigating things like enterprise WPA and/or NAC based network control you’ll probably run into the fact that it uses 802.1x protocol. So what is 802.1x? Basically the long and short of it is IEEE 802.1x is just a protocol to pass EAP over wired/wireless LANs. EAP on the other hand is just a…
-
If using WPA-PSK, use a long key!
If you must use WPA-PSK (meaning WPA with a pre-shared key, rather than WPA using 802.1x authentication via Radius), make sure your key is sufficiently long. Ideally 20 characters or more. To quote: Robert Moskowitz’s article, “Weakness in Passphrase Choice in WPA Interface,” describes a theoretical attack on WPA passwords. The tools WPA-psk-bf, CoWPAtty and…