Date: 10/07/05     Keywords: web, spam

Hi,

I'm in singapore, I'm wondering whether anyone has recommendations..


I've already seen smoothwall and is currently evaluating the gpl version, but I may go for a more mission critical commerical version, but there are tons of features not available yet..


I've seen devices at www.firebrick.co.uk, www.fat-pipe.com etc

the linksys routers (RV042 etc) seem to have snat, upnp , and bonding but not the web proxy... but a dual option may be cheaper ..

if you have one with a reseller in singapore without a massive price tag, let me know..

features i'm looking for

-must have-
SNAT (ie: multiple wan ip support).
UPNP (eg: msn voice/video call)
web proxy with active directory user integration
anything absolutely essential.. (ids?)


--optionals--
mail proxy/antispam (keyword, autowhitelist, rbls, etc)
packet compression
adsl/dsl/t1 etc BONDING..
maybe vpn, but we're using remote desktop now.
anything else good to have..

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/24821.html

Date: 10/05/05     Keywords: sql

Intellisense® style word completion for MS Query Analyzer, VS.NET 2003, SQL Server Management Studio and VS 2005.

http://www.promptsql.com/

--

This looks like a real slick tool, which would easily pay for itself after a day's use!

(x-posted to various places)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/24537.html

Date: 10/01/05     Keywords: asp, java, web

Presently I work as the webadmin for the college that I attend. Presently my college is in the process of an IT overhaul and recently my boss came to me and asked me to create a webpage which may be set as everyone's background and run solely inhouse. This page needs to display the current date & time and the users NAT'd IP address. I noticed that Auditmypc using java would display your internal IP address. The reason for this page is so that when we go to VNC a persons computer we know what their IP address is and this will eliminate our need to sit there and guess which computer they are on. They could simply just read off their IP address. I searched all of my ASP books and ASP data access books and could find nothing about this. I also checked the MSDN developer network and still nothing. I also checked hotscripts.com and several other script locations and could find nothing on how to do this and if it would even be possible. If it cannot be set as the background we would just make a shortcut to the page. Presently we do not host our webpage internally so the script would need to be executed on a remote server however it is in an aera of the site that would be locked down unless you were on our LAN.
Is this kind of script legal? I could find nothing that would imply that it was or was not.
In addition how would I do this?
Any and all advice in regards to this would be greatly appreciated.
Forgive my ignorance, this is a unique resquest and something that I have never encoutered before and I would like to honor it.

Please advise.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/24080.html

Date: 09/29/05     Keywords: no keywords

What RBL's is everyone using on their mail servers these days?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/23914.html

Date: 09/22/05     Keywords: virus, spyware, linux, apache

I am looking for a Free or Cost Effective Network Monitoring package. It can run on either Windows 2000 Server or FreeBSD/Linux preferred. Right now I love the fact that if there is a virus outbreak or my firewall is compromised, or we have a “spyware/greyware” problem I get an email stating this right to my Treo. I would love for something to monitor services on various servers or even if the servers are up and running. Internally we have apache, samba and DNS. Externally I need to monitor FTP, Apache, DNS, Sendmail. These neverreally fail but would like to keep an eye on them, and actually if the server itself has a problem and goes down. We also have a 2K server running various applications here my concern is if the server is really up more or less.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/23728.html

Date: 09/18/05     Keywords: html

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sol/systems/views/laptop_reported_to_work.page1.html

has a handly HCL on notebooks that have been reported to play nice with Solaris X86 10

Might come in handy for some of you..

but.. anyone have any personal experience with this? While I am out of the Biz, I am serving as de facto IT guy for my fellow grad students in my Ph.D program. Our Uni, uses Solaris for all their UNIX servers (including the ever important app server that has SPSS,SAS,SATA, etc). I have been asked a few times for recommendations for systems (desktops and laptops) for a dual boot environment. I am recommending solaris to everyone, since it is what the servers out there use, and i don't want to be inundated with questions on the occasional odd syntax differences in solaris and other *nix flavors. (hell getting Political Science Students to learn the basics of one *nix variant is enough for me)

So anyone have personal experience with out of the box, unmodded desktops and laptops that play nice with Solaris 10 x86?

any help would be much appreciated

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/23102.html

Date: 09/15/05     Keywords: no keywords

I am at the Professional Developer's conference this week and saw Bill Gates speak yesterday. They had a SUPER funny film that had me laughing out loud the whole time. It stars Bill Gates and Napoleon Dynamite. My favorite line?

Bill: Where do you want to go to day?
Napoleon: Whereever I feel like going, GAH.

hee. I hope I can find it online somewhere. It's pure awesomeness.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/22884.html

Date: 09/14/05     Keywords: no keywords

on a brand new (just built it this morning) 2003 terminal server I have ONE app, MAS90. When I launch it I get a "no digital signature" warning and have to hit "run" to actually run the app. In Windows 2000 there was a Group Policy setting that made this go away "Non-driver digital signature" default behavior, but I can't find that in 2003. There was also a registry hack that worked in 2000 but not apparently in 2003 to set the default behaviour to "run silently"....
anybody know how to make this go away?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/22568.html

Date: 09/12/05     Keywords: asp, microsoft

interesting tool for you power geeks out there:

Power User: Licensed to Drive Windows?

Microsoft has provided a management tool known as the Driver Verifier Manager. Unfortunately, they didn’t really tell anyone about it.

To see what I’m talking about, you should first save all open files and close all open programs because the Verifier can, by design, trigger the infamous Blue Screen of Death.

Now select Start, Run [or use the Windows Key-R shortcut], then type Verifier and press Enter. You should see a dialog box offering you the chance to either view current driver settings or create your own.
(more in article)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/21960.html

Date: 09/09/05     Keywords: security, spyware

Hello! I'm trying to fix a spyware on my friend's computer, and I stuck into this problem: there are some processes I cannot terminate (though I'm logged on as an administrator). It says "Access denied" or something like this. I tried several ways: usual Task Manager, the ProcessExplorer, command-line ntsd tool, and some others. I see problem is not with these tools, but with my privileges.

This very useful page, where I read about ntsd ( http://sastools.com/b2/post/79394226 ), says:

Note that this only works if your user group has debug privileges, check Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Local Security Policy->Local Policies->User Rights Assignment->"Debug Programs". I've run across some nasty spyware that turns off the debug privilege for Administrators and runs itself as a system process.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/21533.html

Date: 09/06/05     Keywords: no keywords

Linspire.com is offering a free download of Linspire Five-0. This offer ends on 9/6/05. The coupon for the discount is "freespire". You must be patient due to the increased activity of there servers. If you have BitTorrent you can download almost immediately.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/21368.html

Date: 09/02/05     Keywords: no keywords

I have a new server I want to move everything on my current server over onto. However, I also want to replace the new server's hard disk with my current server's hard disk (it's bigger and faster).

I have two server licenses. After the new server is up I want to load the old server as a member server using the hard disk taken from the new server.

I have a few questions about the way to go about this because I have backed up servers but never done a live disaster recover procedure.

-What happens if I restore the backup onto a server with almost completely different hardware?

I ask because I don't want the registry being restored over a working copy for the new server using a completely different hardware profile. IE I don't want Windows booting with the old hardware configuration. Will the new and correct hardware info be wiped out when I restore the system state from the old machine? I don't want to install a fresh 2003 server on the new hardware, have the old hardware setting installed in the registry and then find it boots only halfway up because it finds the hard disk is now installed on an ATA adaptor it doesn't have drivers for.

-Won't the old server's hardware hash (for activation) become null if the system state is restored on a machine w/o that hardware? Does this transfer over with the backup restore (I install with the new key/get new hash- gets wiped out by restoring and it uses the old key now)?

-Would it be easier just to get Server 2003 up fresh and rebuild all the server config from scratch?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/21033.html

Date: 09/01/05     Keywords: google

This is my first post to this community :)  I tried a quick google search but didn't come up with a lot of information, so I figured I would post here.  Perhaps some of you know or can search more effectively than me:

There is an NT4 domain that has some password expiration policies set on accounts used for services, not people.  Is there a non-AD way of notifying via email when the user passwords are about to expire, or collect a list of accounts with # of days until their passwords expire?  I found a number of Active Directory examples / scripts, but that's not going to work for NT4.

Please let me know if you need additional info, and thanks!

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/20984.html

Date: 08/27/05     Keywords: software

Does anyone here have experience of ClearCase, IBMs version control software? The company I work for is looking to switch from PVCS to ClearCase. I've found out just about everything I want to know about it except if it supports what PVCS calls triggers. Basically these are events that are fired when certain tasks are performed, for example booking in a code change. I'm expecting the answer to be yes, but does anyone know for definite if ClearCase supports this functionality.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/20620.html

Date: 08/26/05     Keywords: software, web, hosting

Hi all, I am having an issue with a network that I have been hired to set up. I'm in WAY over my head, my specialty is Cisco, and I'm doing Windows Server 2003 setup and administration.

Current Situation:

The Company is running their systems in a workgroup, with a central computer acting as the "server" for their shared software program. They currently have about ten employees on-site. The propreitor wants to make sure the new network is secure, and wants to be able to track his employees' internet usage. He also wants his two off-site employees to be able to VPN in to their internal network.

Proposed Solution:

Transferring the duties of the central computer to a server, which will also provide AD, DHCP, DNS, WINS, ISA, and Exchange(!).

Problems:
1. When I attach the computers to the new domain, a new profile is created for each domain user that logs into the network from a particular machine. However, the old local machine profiles have all the necessary user data for their old way of working (Desktop, Start Menu, and the like). This would not normally be an issue, except that their Outlook (and in one case, ActiveSync) data does not transfer to their domain account (note: we are using local profiles, not roaming). Is their any way to merge the old profile and the new profile, so all is as it was before I installed the server (except for the authentication)?

2. The company has an external web site hosted by a hosting service. The web address for this is companyname.com (no, that's not the ACTUAL URL). The AD is also named companyname.com. When an internal user goes to check his/her Outlook (their e-mail is currently hosted offsite as well, see #3), it cannot resolve the mail server (currently set to mail.companyname.com). Is there any way around this, besides taking a grenade to AD, and starting from scratch (which literally means I will have to start from scratch)?

3. Because my schedule and their company cannot permit a daytime install, the installation is to be done in phases:
1. Test (completed)
2. Domain Authentication/File Server (currently working on)
3. ISA configuration (as of right now, I am only using the internal NIC, and am using the DSL modem for DHCP and gateway services...when ISA is installed, the network config will go Internet---DSL Modem---Server---Inernal Network)
4. Exchange server (changing the MX record on their current public domain, to point to our static IP)
I have NEVER used Exchange...and it is already stumped me. How do I know everything is working as it should with Exchange, before any critical e-mails are lost?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/20267.html

Date: 08/26/05     Keywords: no keywords

How do you allow shared development of a Visual Studio.Net 2003 project, such that
everyone in a team can see a project and make modifications to it?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/20134.html

Date: 08/25/05     Keywords: software, virus, antivirus

Hey everyone,

I am doing a bit of research on centralized antivirus solutions for ~10 unit networks with active directory servers.

I am finding it real difficult to find any kind of reviews on the various products out there and was hoping my fellow LJ's could share their opinions and experiences.

I've been testing AVG's network based packages, but I am finding their licensing confusing as well as their install processess.

So I went to look into the granddaddy Symantec and started reading up on their small office AntiVirus 10 groupware packages.

According to the marketing material, it seems ideal for these kind of networks, central installation, licenses based on # of users, client software comes with main package, etc.

But thats all marketing info. Has anyone used this software before? Symantec doesn't provide trials of it.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/19791.html

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: no keywords

Can anyone give me a rundown on what is involved in getting OSX to connect to Active Directory or perhaps just connect a Mac to file server shares?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/19646.html

Date: 08/23/05     Keywords: software

Does anyone have any experience with deploying BES 4.0 with Domino? We're moving our Domino server from as/400 to windows this coming weekend and my boss came to me yesterday to get BES installed and running at the same time. The installation guide and documentation that comes with the software is pretty vague about hardware and system requirements for BES.

My main questions are:

Is it better to install BES on the production server or a separate server?

I did find a page at blackberry.com about BES requiring at least a p4 2Ghz with 1.5 gigs of RAM for 500 users. is this 500 blackberry users or 500 domino users with only a portion of those using blackberries? (I think by the end of the year, we may have a grand total of 50 blackberries)

If deploying on a separate server, I know that I am going to need another domino license for that server. As I understand it, when we've purchased domino licenses in the past, we have had to purchase a license for our entire user base. Is this the case for the BES box, or is there a scaled down domino license that I can purchase?

Any gotchas, tips, hints, tricks, or information that you guys can provide/suggest would be much appreciated.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/19333.html

Date: 08/22/05     Keywords: software, security, microsoft

French information security company that sells early exploit warning services has released a zero-day exploit that attacks all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

 » Releasing zero-day exploits to sell a product George Ou ZDNet.com

As companies are still picking up the pieces from the Zotob worm and its malicious siblings, a French information security company that sells early exploit warning services has released a zero-day exploit that attacks all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.  The same company also released exploit code for the Windows PNP (Plug and Play) vulnerability less than 24 hours after Microsoft released a fix which led to the birth of the Zotob worm 5 days later.  Many companies running Windows 2000 were not prepared to patch their systems on such short notice and they were hit the hardest.  The release of this new exploit is even more alarming since it affects all instances of Internet Explorer and Microsoft has not had a chance to release a patch for this exploit.

Microsoft responded by issuing an emergency security advisory which offers some temporary workarounds to the issue.  Since the instructions are a little confusing for the average user, I wrote this explanation and some scripts to automate the Microsoft workaround and SANS wrote their own set of utilities for automating this temporary fix the same day.  I would highly recommend that everyone apply the temporary workaround since the exploit code is out in the wild.

Last month when Cisco sued Michael Lynn for simply talking about a Cisco vulnerability that was supposedly already patched by Cisco, I defended Lynn because Cisco had plenty of fair warning and Lynn wasn't releasing any actual exploit code.  This case is the exact opposite because a company is releasing the actual exploit code without giving the software maker any time to issue a fix and they're doing it in a way to benefit their own business which borders on a "protection" racket.  Since the company is located in France, legal challenges are a bit tricky.  It's mind boggling that this sort of thing is even allowed in a civilized world governed by the rule of law.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/itprofessionals/19168.html