Jump to content

Shotgun

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    457

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

  • Country

    Puerto Rico

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Shotgun

    Remote access under windows 2000 pro

    in Windows 2000/2003/NT4

    Posted

    VNC = Virtual Networking Client. A client/server combination that makes it possible to view and fully-interact with one computer from any other computer or mobile device anywhere on the Internet. VNC software is cross-platform, allowing remote control between different types of computers. For ultimate simplicity, there is even a Java viewer, so that any desktop can be controlled remotely from within a browser without having to install software. Originally developed by the UK ATT Labs (now an archive no longer mantained by ATT Labs), is still being developed at the RealVNC website. Many "flavors" are still in development in the open source community, some have significant improvements on speed and bandwidth utilization built upon the original VNC protocol. The VNC protocol (and clients) found a "niche" in the IT world that at the time it was developed was in an extreme need of an efficient, fast, easy to deploy solution to remote viewing/administration. The best thing about VNC is that it is cross platform. You can even view/control a server from a PocketPC or Palm PDA!

    I think he meant [by Zillah(sp?)] is that he wrote your nick and did not know if the spelling was correct.

    By console, Getwired means the currently logged session on the remote PC.

    RD = Remote Desktop or Remote Desktop Connection.

    RDP = Remote Desktop Protocol

    hope that helps.

    0

    How helpful are you?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Nice to see you back un4given1! Loooong time no see!

    As mentioned, there are members who seems to have some type of attitude problem. This forum exists for people with [some] knowledge to help and be helped. Not to start holy flame wars about which [software/hardware/technique] is better than other.

    Not to judge a book by its cover, but some members leave a lot to be desired by the weight (and use) of their words. My 2 cents.

    Btw, Incroyable. From what I know (FWIK if you see it later) The "Couldn't find NTLDR" message is from one of the boot files loaded by the OS (NT/2000/XP), not a message from BIOS. The message "Cannot load OS" is a BIOS message. Examining the contents of various BIOSes with a text finder utility, no BIOS I've seen has an "Couldn't find NTLDR" message, so my guess is that the message comes from one of the OS boot files. It should indicate that the OS can't find one the critical boot files, or even when the file IS included, that the file is NOT on the sectors the OS looks for it. This could be fixed with a boot disk creation util, or any software that takes care of placing the boot files in the appropriate disk sectors. Notice that my answer is very general, since the boot medium could easily be a floppy, dvd, cdr, or even an USB drive.

    Edit: the string "Couldn't find NTLDR" is in the boot sector for NT/2000/2003/XP disks. The boot sector code is in fact, a program. And from the OS standpoint, it IS a critical file that's needed to boot the OS up. Without it, you need to boot up with something else to make the rest of the OS medium usable.

    0

    Ask-Reply Game

    in Funny Farm

    Posted

    Northwood (Prescott performs just the same. No real progress there)

    Christmas / Valentine's / Mother's / Father's / Summer / Halloween / Thanksgiving

    (for favorite holiday or season of the year) Mine's summer

    0

    [Tools] Unattended Programs

    in Unattended Windows 2000/XP/2003

    Posted

    I believe these should be added to the list as well: ;):D

    • WorkStation Renaming Tool - wsname is an utility for renaming workstations. It can be driven from the command line, or from a GUI. Has extensive logging and a lot of options. Download here
    • Compname - dynamically generate and set the computer name. Download here
    • RegVars - utility for scanning registry files (.reg) and replacing any instances of environment variables with their expanded versions. Download here
    • GetCD - get the letter of the first CD-ROM drive in the system. Download GetCD here. For example you can use: 
      for /f "Tokens=*" %%a in ('getcd.exe') do set cdrom=%%a


    0

    Avoid Unsafe USB Removal Dialog

    in Software Hangout

    Posted

    Of cource it would not come if I spent some additional clicks via the taskbar but its too "difficult" for daily usage.

    ??? :wacko:

    One click over the Remove Hardware icon. One click to turn the device you want to remove off. That's the EASY way.

    The hard way is by double clicking the Remove Hardware icon, then it could take from 3-4 clicks to turn a device off.

    If you don't turn it off (USB drives come to mind) you could end up with corrupted files or even worse, a dead device. I've seen too many go awry with repeated unplugging without turning them off first. Better safe than sorry!

    0

    HandyRecovery

    in Software Hangout

    Posted

    Today I registered Handy Recovery 2.0. Why?

    Here is my "horror" story:

    I was copying some drivers to my USB drive, to reinstall the PC I was working with. After copying all the drivers, I inserted the Windows XP cd, the floppy with the unattended settings and rebooted the computer. I completely forgot to unplug the USB drive.

    What happened? During the install, XP deleted all partitions found on the computer... INCLUDING THE ONE ON THE USB DRIVE!!!!! :wacko::realmad:

    When I was ready to copy the drivers files that I assumed where still on the USB drive, the drive was EMPTY and XP reported its format as RAW. Searching the web I found Handy Recovery, and thank God, it was a saver. It identified the drive's lost partition, and even when it was still "analyzing" the USB data I FINALLY saw my files again! The only drawback the demo has is that it only allows 1 file to be recovered daily (demo works for 30 days), so you better register it if you want to recover more than that.

    Well, I registered and got all my files back! Now... the 2nd part of the "nightmare"

    Ok, Handy Recovery rescued my files to the C:\Recovered Files folder, now it was only a matter of copying the files back to the usb drive.... WRONG!!!

    Since XP recognized the drive as RAW format, it did not allow to write to it. All attempts to re-format the thing were futile, since XP (and DOS FORMAT) reported something like: "Cannot obtain sector size... aborting". Now what!!!!

    I figured that since XP textmode install identified and erased the partition info on the USB, maybe I needed to re-establish the partition information on the USB drive with a partition utility. Luckily, Handy Recovery already identified the lost partition as being FAT16 type. So I ventured to FDISK, but found it did not detect the USB drive from the MSDOS prompt. So, I went to Disk Administrator (Right click on My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management). There I simply reformatted the "Removable" drive and activated its partition as FAT (e.g. FAT16).

    Now the drive acted "alive" again and I could copy my files. I thought that posting this here could help a lot of people that could encounter a similar situation.

    Lessons learned:

    • Never leave a USB drive plugged in if you are going to reboot and NOT going to boot from the USB drive
    • Always make a backup of your files (even for USB drives). CDRs are really cheap these days.
    • Never assume that your storage medium is infalible!

    0

    DiskInternals Flash Recovery 1.0

    in Unattended Windows 2000/XP/2003

    Posted

    You can also use HandyRecovery. It helped me recover my files from a flashdrive when during an XP Install, XP deleted all partitions found (including the flashdrive since it was still plugged in). After booting up, Windows XP reported the flash drive as RAW and with NO FILES!

    HandyRecovery saved my day *BTW: I registered so that I could recover all my files. The demo is limited to recovering 1 file daily. :realmad:

    0

    possible to add ie 6 and directx9

    in Windows 9x Member Projects

    Posted

    Nice.

    There are lot's of software like those (to update Windows) popping up everywhere. Not unusual considering that MS has acted somewhat irresponsible regarding security "updates" that break previous security patches or even worse, create new security vulnerabilities and/or break well known apps (even MS own apps). User communites have begun to take a hands-on approach to observe and insure that MS is really testing their patches before releasing them to the general public. Considering the HUGE corporation MS is, and all the technical, business, analytical and financial resources they have available its surprising so many "snafus" they have made.

    One of the most common ones I have personally seen is this: Many laptop users get bundled MS software when they buy from OEM and resellers. A big percentage of those get some kind of "office" software included, be it MS Office or the infamous MS Works. This last one (being from MS) is a suite that has its own propietary format that differs from the "Office 95/97/2000" format. This creates a problem in that other MS software have trouble reading/writing to it. You never get 100% conversion/translation from Office<--->Works. Why remake the wheel when it already works the way its intended? Strange. That's why I think many people have begun to learn/use other apps, specially free ones (like OpenOffice) to make sure that whenever they take their important documents, they at least are able to work with them!.

    0

    possible to add ie 6 and directx9

    in Windows 9x Member Projects

    Posted

    NOW it is possible to slipstream IE6SP1, at least to Windows 2000. Read the thread:

    http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=32125&hl=

    thanks to tommyp and Billou_Gateux!

    If what MeDieViL means is to integrate IE6SP1 into an unattended CD, just search the forums here at MSFN. There's plenty of info on how to do that and more!

    @soldier1st: Updating windows is possible without even using a browser. There is a program called Daisy that can update Windows without using/needing IE. That is just one of many software being released that can update Windows without ever needing IE or the Windows Update site. Some even allow deploying numerous hotfixes/updates automatically to a LAN without having to rely on the AutoUpdate feature. That's music in the ears for any network admin who has ever had to "fix" a PC that had the AutoUpdate feature installed, but since the admin never logged on that PC, the updates were NOT installed. I've seen too many environments where this happens almost all the time. NOT 100% of private LANs are using the latest server software! Yipes! :(

    I've been an IT professional (programmer/administrator/deployer/integrator) for 16+ years and used many alternative browsers. Right now I'm using both Opera and Firefox. So, don't just assume that people are noobs just because they don't go with the mainstream commercially-obliged-mass-pushed options. There are scenarios where having the latest Microsoft software does not help you a bit.

    For example (a case I had): an executive director was on a trip to a convention. He realized he needed to add some files for his presentation. A spyware had got on his laptop and he was unable to browse the internet for the files he needed. The spyware got thru an IE vulnerability which could be fixed with an update from WU, but since he could NOT browse with IE, how was he going to fix it on the road?

    He could still connect (ping) our company servers, but could not browse anything on the net, neither our company intranet site. He called and could easily type a 2 line batch file that downloaded a small standards-compliant browser from our main FTP server. In under 10 minutes he installed the small browser (~ 3 - 4 MB) and could browse the company intranet site (HTML 4/CSS 2) and got the files (and the hotfix) he needed. He liked the alternative browser so much in fact he still uses it when his main browser (IE) fails for some reason. The alternative browser he used was Opera.

    Another example to think about is for those of us who every-once-in-a-while we have to support older systems. How are you going to install hotfixes to a re-install of Windows 95 if it comes with IE2 and Windows Update does not work with it?

    Solution: use an alternative browser to download the latest IE for that system and THEN use IE to get to WU. Not the most secure option, but it works. Better yet, download the patches with the alternate browser, THEN use IE afterwards. That is, assuming you do not have any "resource" CD available. Just the 95 CD with you.

    0

    how unsafe is a wireless connection?

    in Networks and the Internet

    Posted

    There is a better security WLAN protocol than WEP, I don't know if it is WPA, but its suppose to change the encryption key on every packet. That way not even someone with linux and Airsnort can crack/decode your encrypted packets.

    When on the road, almost all "open" access points are left unencrypted and with default logins/ssids, so its almost a sure bet the WLAN is unprotected as well. The best security measure your boss can take is to have a firewall and an updated antivirus on his laptop before connecting to an unknown WLAN. WLANs that offer VPN connections, you must have some pre-defined user/login to access beforehand.

    0

    How can I identify what type a Licence Key is?

    in Windows XP

    Posted

    @lvlolvlo: As I mentioned, I'm going to change the setupp.ini in the i386 folder so that I can install the retail version with 1 cd, another for the OEM and another for the VLK.

    The funny thing I noticed today is that the previous admin got VLK for UPGRADE versions, NOT the full XP Pro install. That's really another headache to cope with!

    That's why I had to prepare an unattended CD for the VLK, since the VLK CDs I got (original from MS) are for upgrading to XP. I tried two (VLK) already with the UCDs I prepared and they chugged along without a hitch. I also used nLite to remove all traces of games, messenger and netmeeting. To fully restore everything with the keys they SHOULD have, I had to use some "unorthodox methods" <aheemmm.. > to identify/change some of the keys as one user recommended... :whistle:;)

    The sad thing is no matter how much I would like to close access to floppys and usbs, I can't since these PCs are for a library student center and they MUST have access to floppy, usb drives and CD writers there. Of course, BOOTING from floppy and CD is restricted by BIOS settings, but any clever student can download a BIOS pwd cracker and change it anytime. That's why these PCs do not have backups. :realmad:

    In the past (before I got here) there have been very few incidents where a "smartie" did something damaging, but since those computers are isolated from the rest of the network by a firewall, they only affect those specific PCs. Most of them are Pentium 333 and 900 Mhz, so they are somewhat expendable in the eyes of the administration. I consider them my honeypots, since the "kiddies" who think they're not going to get caugth, in fact, get caught very easily since they have to use personal logins and the area has 4 cameras recording 24 hours x 7 days a week. The guy who DID trash the PCs tried to let loose a worm on the network "for the fun of it" and completely forgot that his name was registered with the login account and the cameras were recording his every move. :thumbup It was just a matter of checking the recording to see what happened when the next day everyone protested about the PCs not working. <GOTCHA!>

    In the upcoming year I'm going to migrate to a 2003 Server, so that I can implement software control policies. That way, no matter what the students can get thru Internet, they will not be able to run it on the library computers.

    0
×
×
  • Create New...