Rants and Raves

I’ve been using a combination of bitvise WinSSHD and Tunnelier for remote access to my home network.  It basically allows me to tunnel a RDP (or simple command shell) via SSH to a Virtual machine running on my server (actually each “user” has a virtual machine all to their own, so there’s no contention).

I really like the simplicity of the SSH tunnel, and find that running it on port 22 and port 443 provides me with a very good likelihood of being able to connect through all but the most draconian firewalls.

You will want to make sure that you implement good security policies on your SSH server, and that you either use pre-shared keys or certificates OR that you make sure you have a strong password.  There are a number of bots out there that try to break into an SSH server using a list of well know user names and dictionary attack for the password.

WinSSHD will lock out IP addresses after a number of failed attempts; but I created a test account called “test” with the password “password” just to see what the bot would try to do (the account was jailed without any write priviledge in a safe sub-directory with no files).  The bot got frustrated and went away, but I was trying to upload files, and I would guess execute them (probably propagating itself).

You can black list IP addresses, and if you’re like me you run the DynDNS client (I use DynDNS.org for my dynamic ip naming service; it’s free, and it works well) on your notebooks so that you “know” their IP address via a fixed host name (though in WinSSHD the IP black list superceeds a DNS name white list).

http://www.bitvise.com/

http://www.dyndns.org/ or http://www.dyndns.com/

Tags: Communications, Computers, Internet, Software, Technology, Windows by roger
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Political commentary is a little out of place for my BLOG, and the most important message for this post is CHECK and DOUBLE-CHECK everything everyone says and make sure EVERYONE votes!

__________

I’m not sure how much of this is “true” and how much of it is spin — obviously Rolling Stone Magazine isn’t in the Fox Network camp of supporting McCain, and certainly Tim Dickinson has very different political ideas than Barbara West; but the story is very interesting reading — and hopefully we’re all aware you can take “factoids” and make them say anything you want…

Do you homework, check every fact in multiple places before you believe it… odds are no one is telling you more than they want you to hear, and there’s almost always more to the story.

Regardless of your political views, and regardless of who you support in this election the most important thing you can do is vote and insure that every one else (regardless of their ideas) vote and that no one prevent them from voting.  Voting is what makes America free and great, and in this election we need to insure that the winner is clear and uncontested by having everyone cast their ballot.

Make-Believe Maverick (Rolling Stone Magazine, Tim Dickinson)

Loving John McCain (The Nation, Eric Alterman & George Zornick)

http://www.votesmart.org/

http://www.factcheck.org/

 
I was considering some links to Veteran sites (there’s actually several that support each of the candidates) and news media (but most of those are very biased).  The problem is there that so much of information that is spun it’s hard to sort the truth out.  I would suggest sticking with sites that try to provide information that is as un-biased as possible.  Keep in mind, if a “fact” seems unbelievable, maybe you shouldn’t be too quick to believe it.

I’ve decided to close this post with one of the most positive and well done political advertisements of memorable time.

Tags: Politics by roger
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Today I pushed out the upgrade to WordPress 2.6.3.

As you can see it went well — exactly as expected.

For blogging I definitely recommend WordPress — whether you run it yourself on your web site; have your ISP configure and maintain it for your; or use the WordPress free blogging service.

Tags: Blogging, Communications, Computers, Software, Technology by roger
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Each and every time you encounter someone trying to defraud you make sure you report it.

Phishing scams, money scams, premium SMS message, suspicious phone calls, un-authorized phone charges, un-authorized credit card charges, etc — go ahead and visit the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center; a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], the National White Collar Crime Center [NW3C], and the Bureau of Justice Assistance [BJA]) and file a report.

Take action and let the law enforcement community decide what’s a threat and what’s not – but DO NOT remain silent or these problems will continue.

http://www.ic3.gov/

NOTE:  If you have an un-authorized charge on any of your bills you will also want to contact your billing company and dispute the charge with them; the IC3 will not do this for you.

Tags: ! ALERTS !, Cellular, Communications, Email, Finance, General, Legal, Shipping, Shopping, Technology by roger
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Microsoft has released an out of cycle patch (they only release patches on Tuesdays), this was released today (Thursday), which means it’s an important patch for you to install now.  Get details below and use the Microsoft Update facility to download and install — don’t be part of the problem, take pre-emptive action.

Remember, in general it’s a good idea to check for updates often and install them unless you have a good reason not to.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx

Tags: Computers, Software, Technology, Windows by roger
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For some time now I’ve wanted an efficient way to be able to send myself rich email without having to waste a lot of bandwidth; so I wrote what I call a “null” SMTP server.

It’s a dotNET application (written in C#) that sits in the System Tray and “talks” SMTP.

You point your mail client’s outbound SMTP to localhost (127.0.0.1), it say “OK” to just about everything, and throws away the message (well — internally I have a logging method, but right now I don’t expose that)… doesn’t sound really useful does it?

How do I use it?

Easy; I setup an IMAP account that uses this as the send path, and the IMAP server as the receive path — Windows Mail (or Live Mail) will send the message (which throws it away basically) and then upload a copy to my “sent” folder.  I cut down on my bandwidth (and time) and still get a copy of the email I wanted.  In case you’re wondering, I use email to “record” lots of information (contents of web pages; to do list items; etc — since my IMAP server stores the messages in a format that Windows Desktop Search can index it makes it a snap for me to manage large amounts of information — and it by it’s very nature is shared… yes I could use OneNote, but previous to 2007 it’s clunky and it doesn’t share the information without a SharePoint server — and I already have an IMAP server, and already archive some of my email).

Here’s a link to the installer for it; I haven’t heavily tested either the installer or the applet — but I’m using it.

Null SMTP Server Installer

Remember to set your outbound SMTP connection to localhost (127.0.0.1); you don’t want authentication or SSL / TLS (I don’t support them — and won’t).

Tags: Communications, Computers, Email, Software, Technology, Windows, ► Downloads by roger
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This is from one of my friends, send to Teresa Perdue ( tsd@asus.com.tw ) of ASUSTek Computer Inc ( http://www.asus.com.tw/ or http://usa.asus.com/ ).

I’d considered buying an Aus Eee PC… but I think I might be happier with a sub-notebook from one of their competitors.

I’ve removed the personally information (except for Teresa’s).

__________

Teresa,

Thank you for informing my that my motherboard is out of warranty and that you will not replace then fan.

In my opinion, this is not a warranty issue.  Warranties generally protect one from a product that happens to be bad.  Most reputable companies replace any item that is poorly designed or has an unusually high failure rate regardless of the warranty period.

I would like for you to know that I am very disappointed with Asus.  On your website you even say that the original fan did not work properly.
Also, there are numerous forums on the Internet that talk about the problem s with the AN8SLI chipset fan.

I have already had one Asus motherboard fail because of a chipset fan that failed.

I have probably built about 100 computers in the last ten years almost all of which used Asus motherboards.  It now seems that you are having quality control issues and that I will have to use a different brand of motherboard in the future.

I have just ordered two fans from your eStore.

Please understand that it is not the cost of the fans that is an issue.  My total charge, including shipping, is $22.00 which is insignificant.  What is significant is that I have learned that I cannot rely on Asus to replace faulty products.  I am unwilling to risk purchasing products from a company that doesn’t stand behind the quality of their workmanship.

This email is being copied to all of the other system builders with whom I work and will be copied to all system builder forums to which I belong.

Sincerely,

XXXX XXXXX

Tags: Computers, Hardware, Technology by roger
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Last week Microsoft released the FREE version of the Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008; this is a scaled down Server 2008 with Hyper-V install that allows you to run a light-weight virtualization host (much like many of the competitors in the virtualization world).

While there are some limits on this version — maxium 4 processors [don't confuse that with cores; I think Microsoft counts physical processors not cores] and 32GB of memory.

You can get details on Hyper-V Server 2008 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/default.mspx.

And you can download Hyper-V Server 2008 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6067CB24-06CC-483A-AF92-B919F699C3A0&displaylang=en.

Tags: Computers, Software, Technology by roger
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One of the toys I got when I stopped by the Microsoft Company Store was Streets and Trips 2008 with GPS and Connected Services.

Connected Services is what Microsoft calls the FM side band service that provides real time data.  Real time data like, traffic, construction, weather, gas prices, etc.  Other GPS vendors might call it something different, but essentially they are all the same.

I was really excited to be able to put it to the test — and driving around the Bay Area it worked great.

But, when I hit the open road I found a number of short comings.

• There aren’t that many areas that have the service.
• In areas that have the service construction data doesn’t seem to be updated.
• Traffic data also seems to be slow (especially in non-rush hour times; like a major accident in Houston in the middle of the day on the weekend).
• Plus it takes FOREVER for the receiver to obtain data (twenty minutes is what they say; and that’s any time you enter a new service area since it has nothing cached).

I still think the real time data is a great idea; but it’s not quite as useful to travelers as one might hope, and using it has certainly reduced my desire to go buy a new GPS receiver that includes the service.

Also, why don’t vendors allow you to use your phone to get data via the cellular network?  Many people like me (and iPhone users) have unlimited data plans… oh yeah — they couldn’t charge an arm and a leg for that service.

Tags: Global Positioning System (GPS), Technology by roger
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Tonight I pushed out the upgrade to WordPress 2.6.2 (it was released while I was out of town, and while I didn’t expect any problems, I preferred to wait…).

As you can see it went well — exactly as expected.

For blogging I definitely recommend WordPress — whether you run it yourself on your web site; have your ISP configure and maintain it for your; or use the WordPress free blogging service.

Tags: Blogging, Communications, Software, Technology by roger
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