ASE update

I have attended an ASE update now and from what I have heard these are the most exiting news.

ASE is an acronym for Accredited Systems Engineer. Back in the good old days with Comaq this was a certification we needed to proove that we knew Compaq servers. Today with HP I am not so sure. But I did attend.

1. Brocade is selling host bus adapters. They are cheaper than those offered today and easier in integrate into your existing Brocade SAN.

2. The future networks are more converged. Your SAN and regular network are one. This is years to date as many required standards are not complete yet.

3. ProCurve - the network division are dedicated to open standards, leaving good rock solid proprietary standards from Cisco out.

4. The high end ProCurve switches supports a server module. Nothing exiting yet but they have partnered with good nische vendors like F5 and Riverbed. Can we expect to see the Big-IP LTM running on a switch soon?

5. New architecture like virtual connect and 10g flex will make our days much better. Now we can move physical servers between chassises without reconfiguration. I did not attend this session so I don't know any details on this topic.

6. Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 works like a charm. IPv6 required for DirectAccess. To what extent is not known. (Like IPv6 support on the public Internet.) BranchCache(tm) caches files and web sites locally - at a site.

7. With Software Assurance on Windows 7 you get lots of extra for management; inventory, system center for desktops, extended group policy support.

8. Windows 7 is built on Windows Vista technology. Most Vista software works out of the box on 7, except for firewalls, antiviruses and other low-level applications.

In short: lots of new thing to learn!

A bad RocketPost review

I found this piece of software called RocketPost from Anconia. A software that makes all your blogging go much easier.

From their web page it seems to have almost all the features that I want from this sort of software.

So I downloaded it and gave it a try. It did not work. It failed to work with Blogger that is one of the most popular blogging software out there. It probably failed because I use Firefox as my default browser. I just could not log in.

So I uninstalled it.

How Windows came to be? - a Windows OS history

How Windows came to be? - a Windows OS history: "Everything started in 1980 when IBM approached Bill Gates and his new company, Microsoft, on a meeting about home computers and Microsoft products."

Read about the history of Windows. Fun reading for nostalgics.

How to add a root CA to a Java keystore

I had to add a new issuer of certificates to the list of trusted root certificates in Java. The issuer was CN=UTN-USERFirst-Hardware.

To do this you first have to identify what version of Java you are running. Under your Java installation you have to locate a file cacerts (%JAVA_HOME%/jre/lib/security)

You also need to get the root ca certificate, often downloadable somewhere from the Internet. A copy of the URN-USERFirst-Hardware root certificate is found here. Download the file and save it somwhere safe.

When ready do this:

keytool -keystore ..\cacerts -import -file ..\rootcert -alias utnfirsthardware

When asked for a password, the default password is changeit. Unless you or someone else has changed the password this should work.

System Center Online Desktop Manager Beta is Coming Soon

System Center Online : System Center Online Desktop Manager Beta is Coming Soon: "The System Center Online team has been working hard in preparation for its next beta release of System Center Online Desktop Manager, expected in the fall of this year."

Microsoft is moving more and more towards the service segment. What partners will be left? This blog is just an example of the direction Microsoft is moving towards.

What is an ISP looking glass

Many ISP's provide something they call a looking glass.

a mirror; usually a ladies' dressing mirror

Source: Google

This is not what an ISP got. This is something that makes you look into their internal network from the outside.

A Looking Glass is a piece of software running as a CGI on an ISP's webserver that allows external users to get a look at routing and network behavior within their network. The software is usually a Perl script that resides in the CGI bin of a web server. The script executes shell commands, accesses a remote router, performes either a ping, trace, or one of several show commands allowing a view of the IP and BGP route tables. The CGI then returns the information as a web page.

Looking Glasses are most commonly used for verifying routing between providers, and for verifying that routes are propagating correctly across the Internet.

Source: InetDaemon

Why intrusion detection?

IDS has been around for many years now. Intrusion Prevention came right after and tried to solve the fact that an IDS only detects an abnormality but does nothing with it. These detectors are commonly installed on the perimeter firewall or close to it.

IDS was an attempt to automate the process of identifying attacks in the network. It looked for incorrect use of various IP protocols, port scans and other things that could easily be detected using a signature. Improvents to the IDS was things like IPS or IDP - where they actually prevent things instead of just detecting threats.

Do we need an IDS?

For most cases I'd say no. The reason for this are;

1. Novadays most attacks are directed towards the client PC. This is a laptop that are on the Internet. We need to protect the client at all times, just not when on the company network.

2. Many viruses , hoaxes and trojaners are mutable and not detectable by an IDS. Security needs to be on the client.

3. With widespread use of encryption, like https leaves the IDS useless. It can not see the inside of the payload.

4. An IDS is just one of many tools you can use to protect your computer. (Get them all from one vendor - it will work together.)

Because of this the focus has been moved from the network and the perimeter on to the PC's on the network. Many vendors have all-in-one solutions for viruses, spam, threats and other potential dangerous attacks.

Be safe - buy yourself a good all-in-one protection package!

A Review of the Pirated Copy of Windows 7 I Bought On eBay | Cracked.com

Read this review and find out how Windows 7 is going to affect all our lives.

A Review of the Pirated Copy of Windows 7 I Bought On eBay | Cracked.com: "he official release of Windows 7 is only a few weeks away, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably asking yourself what effect this will have on your lives."

Enable SAN on Windows Certificate Services 2003

If you ever need to issue certificate with subject alternate names added to them from your favourite Microsoft Windows 2003 Certificate Services you have to enable it using this command.

CERTUTIL -setreg policy\EditFlags +EDITF_ATTRIBUTESUBJECTALTNAME2

UNLOCKER

In case you can not delete a file...

UNLOCKER 1.8.7 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB: "Cannot delete file: Access is denied There has been a sharing violation. The source or destination file may be in use. The file is in use by another program or user. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

Unlocker solves all your file delete related problems.

Do not reply

If you get an email like the one below do not reply. It is a hoax.
________________________________________
Fra: Chevron Texaco [office@chevrontexaco.com]
Sendt: 3. oktober 2009 17:25
Emne:

Your e-mail address just won you £950,500.00 GBP in our July 2009
Grant/Donation Award held by The Chevron Texaco.
To claim your donation, contact Mr. Gary Williams,
Executive Secretary,

Mr. Gary Williams
Email: chevrontex1@gmail.com
Dept. 1.

With:
1.Name :
2.Address:
3.Age/Sex:
4.Phone / fax Number:
5.Country Of Residence.

Regards,
Mr. Richard Philips

-----Unmodified Original Message-----

.NET micro framework

Microsoft is always looking to extend their .NET platform.

The .NET Micro Framework is ideal for hobbyists who are looking for a fast, reliable way to develop custom hardware controllers for a variety of applications.

But I did not expect Microsoft to look at embedded hardware development something that hobbyists do on their spare time.

But way cool! :)