Fedora - public mirrors

Looking for the Fedora public mirrors?  I do really like the current Fedora project website.  However, it isn't always easy to get to the list of public mirrors from the site since they redesigned it.

Fedora Public Mirrors

Sci Fi Science

For those of you that haven't seen it, Sci Fi Science is a show on the Science Channel that looks at technology used in Sci Fi movies and tries to create them using current technology or technology currently in development.  It is fascinating to learn about some of the technology being developed and how it might be combined with other tech to make the things we only dream of become reality.

Love this show, check it out.

Sci Fi Science

Data Encapsulation Terminology

It is important to use the correct terminology when referring to the different levels of data encapsulation.

Segment - is the term used for the transport layer
Packet - is the term used for the network layer
Frame - is the term used for the network access layer

The reason I point this out is because I myself am guilty of sometimes just referring to everything as a packet.  While most people are able to track with what you are saying, even though you may be using the wrong term, it isn't a good habit to get into.  This is especially true if you find yourself troubleshooting complex network problems with vendors who need precise information when trying to work through a problem with you.

Always make a conscious effort to use the correct terms.

Fedora 14 - initial thoughts

I finally got around to installing Fedora 14.  On the surface it is really not much different than Fedora 13.  Though I have to admit, the default wallpaper is really cool looking.

The install went the same as always, nothing new to speak of from the Fedora 13 installer.

Performance seems pretty good, I am running it on an old 1.60GHz Pentium4 that I dug out of the pile.  It also only has 512MB of RAM, but as I said seems to be performing just fine with the default Gnome install.

With my initial look at Fedora 14 I would say it is pretty nice, haven't run into anything weird so far like I have with some previous versions of Fedora.

Spaces icon missing from dock

If you have accidentally deleted or simply don't see the Spaces icon on the dock of your Mac don't worry, it's an easy fix.

Simply open the Applications folder, then open the Utilities folder, then drag the Spaces icon to your dock.

That is all there is to it.

Macs and anti-virus

I know that Mac users like to run around commenting about how they don't have to worry about getting a virus, I have one too for the record, but that is not entirely true.  SC Magazine reported today about the Koobface exploit and how a Mac variant is now in the wild and I would suspect as the Mac continues to gain popularity we may see more worms making their way over to the Mac side from the Windows world.

I coincidentally installed the Mac version of our corporate A/V solution onto the management server allowing me to now run the same managed A/V solution on my Mac as on my Windows computer.  In my case, this didn't cost any extra for us to add Mac support, just a little of my time.

I would recommend checking to see if your anti-virus vendor offers a Mac client as part of the suite and if it's at no additional charge, as was my case, even better.

Zenoss - locations

I've tried setting up and running Zenoss a couple times and the newest version 3.0.1 is pretty nice. Like previous versions it's easy to download, install and get up and running. Some of the options are in new places so it took me a little time to figure out where they were, but again the same ease of use was there.

One thing that was not so straight forward was how to get devices to show up in their locations. This isn't, as I thought, information that is pulled out of SNMP, but rather information that you define. As it turns out though, it is as simple as clicking just to the left of the device name and dragging it into the location you have defined. Once you have done that you will be able to manage your device both by device type that you defined at discovery as well as by location that you can customize as you like.

Cisco: connecting the old with the new

I spend as much time working with older network gear as I do the new stuff. On a recent project I found myself needing to connect an old Cisco 2950G with a new Cisco 3750E and was running into issues getting the duplex settings configured correctly.

To keep a long story short I headed out with my crossover cable as I often do, connected the two switches together and could not get the two switches to run the same duplex without CRC errors.

Turns out a standard patch cable and the assistance of auto mdix on the 3750e is all you need.

On the 2950G I did the following
int fa0/1
speed auto
duplex auto

On the 3750E I did the following
int gig 1/0/1
speed auto
duplex auto
mdix auto

Suddenly I have two error free interfaces running 100/Full.

If you have run into this issue, you might want to give this a shot, it has worked for me every time I have tried it since stumbling onto this.

Windows 7 Compatibility

If you have been dragging your feet and are now planning on making the move to Windows 7 here is a website you should check out to check to see if your existing hardware and software is compatible with Windows 7.

Windows 7 Compatibility

Need old versions of Java?

If you're like me you have run into apps from time to time that will only work with a specific version of java. If you're like me and you are in the habit of cleaning up old files, you probably no longer have those previous versions available. I'll save you some digging, not that it is overly hard to come by in the first place, below is a link the the java archives page. There you should be able to find the java version you need to get up and running.

Java Archive Page

Traceback errors

When using CentOS, RedHat, Fedora, etc… you may experience traceback errors when attempting to run updates using yum. One simple you thing you can try to get yourself back up and running is the following command.

yum clean all

This is used to clean up various things from your yum cache.

For more information about using the clean option do the following:

man yum

Then type “/CLEAN OPTIONS”

Mount and ISO on Linux

There are multiple reasons why you might want to mount an ISO to access the files contained in it. Here some simple steps to make this happen.

login as root or utilize the sudo command to create a directory to use as a mount point. I typically make /mnt/iso_image

Use the following command to mount the file called image1.iso:
mount -o loop image1.iso /mnt/iso_image

Fuel Efficiency

I got the spring issue of MyFord in the mail and as usual went through it cover to cover. There are of course a lot of interesting things in there if your a Ford person and possibly even if your not.

However the one thing that caught my eye that I wanted to share was about fuel efficiency. It had the usual suspects about the way you accelerate and break, engine speed, and excessive idling. However the one thing I hadn't really thought of, but makes perfect sense, was driving with your windows down on the highway. Yes we all love to do it from time to time, but according to this article, if you are traveling faster than 50 mph, close your windows. Even if you have to turn the air on you'll get better fuel efficiency do to the amount of increased aerodynamic drag having the windows down causes.

Think about this next time it's one of those days where you could go either way with regards to turning on that air conditioner, I know I will.

Phishing to be aware of

I have seen a couple variants on this phishing attack this week.

An email is crafted warning the user that they are about to reach their allowed capacity for email storage and to send their username and password to fix the problem. There were two variants of this that I saw with different wording but the same basic concept.

Luckily none of my users, that I know of, responded to this.

Another free Online Virus Scanner

I ran across another free online virus scanner. This one is from ESET, makers of NOD32 Antivirus software.

If you use Firefox there is an exe you'll need to download and install and if you use IE there is an add-on to install.

ESET Online Scanner

Ubuntu 10.04LTS Desktop - first look

I got around to installing Ubuntu 10.04LTS Desktop on my machine. I don't have any spare hardware right now so I installed it as a VM on my laptop.

As with server, there were no real surprises with the install, it was your basic Ubuntu install using the alternative install media.

Since this install was as a VM on my XP box I haven't spent a lot of time working with it and not being a big fan of running desktop VMs, I can't wait to free up a piece of hardware and perform a native install.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server - My first look

I installed Ubuntu 10.04LTS last night and except for an issue with my CDROM drive the install went off without a hitch. Nothing too surprising with the install, it was pretty straight forward, as Ubuntu installs go, with the minor exception of the section where it asks you if you want to enable auto updates, manually update or use Landscape for updates.

The one thing that I have to say that I love about 10.04 so far is the boot time. Reboots take very little time now with the changes that have been made, removal of the hal package.

So far I am liking it. Next, a desktop install.

Labels

Please note the addition of labels to the bottom right pane.

Network Security Tools

Foundstone has a section on their website full of network security tools. The site contains scanning tools, forensic tools, etc... Even if you don't know who Foundstone is, you probably know who McAfee is, so unlike pulling these tools from unknown sources you can feel safe when getting your tools from here.

Foundstone: Free Tools

Making learning fun

Cisco has a site that makes learning about technology fun. The site is called The Games Arcade and is full of games covering topics such as subnets, wireless, unified communications, etc...

Check it out, your bound to find something fun and interesting there.

Scripting in the Microsoft world

Have you have ever wanted to automate a process in your Windows environment, but didn't know where to start? I've been there myself and the Script Center is a great place to start. They have tutorials, tips, and a script repository available covering several different categories.

I suggest checking out the Script Center next time your looking to automate a task and seem to be stuck.

Setting persistent static route in Windows

This can come in handy from time to time. When working with servers you sometimes need to set static routes and even keep them persistent across reboots. Here is how you set a persistent static route in Windows.

route add -p [target] mask [netmask] [gateway] metric [cost] if [interface]

Disable IPv6 in Red Hat

There are several reasons to disable IPv6 even though there is a constant stream of articles warning you to come up with a plan to migrate to IPv6. Here are just a couple of reasons why you might want to disable IPv6. IPv6 enabled devices put unnecessary traffic on your network if your not utilizing it. If you don't have IPv6 enabled tools, running it could pose a security threat to your network since you'll have no visibility into what the traffic is doing.

To disable IPv6 on Red Hat 4 and 5 servers click here.

Need MIBs?

If you have been in a position where you network management software doesn't include the MIBs you need, you might try checking the following site.

SNMP MIB Search

It doesn't have every MIB you might need, but it does contain quite a few.

Change Debian default editor

Debian 5.0 uses nano as it's default editor. If your like me and you prefer working in vi/vim, there is an easy fix. Simply enter the following command and select vim, it's that simple.

update-alternatives --config editor

FedoraProject RoadMap

If you were looking for the Fedora RoadMap, but were having trouble locating it just click here.

The page has links to the schedules for old versions as well as the upcoming version Fedora 13.

Free Online Scanner

I ran across another free online scanner, this one is from F-Secure. It took a little longer than other online scanners to download and run the components, but it did a good job finding some tracking cookies that other scanners did not mark as malicious. Again, if you don't run anti-virus software for whatever reason, using free online scanners on occasion helps to ensure your being a good citizen of the Internet.

F-Secure Online Scanner

ICMP types

Here are some of the common ICMP types used to discover a host on a network. You can get complete descriptions of ICMP types from RFC 792.

Message Type: 0 - Echo Reply
Message Type: 3 - Destination Unreachable
Message Type: 4 - Source Quench
Message Type: 5 - Redirect
Message Type: 8 - Echo
Message Type: 11 - Time Exceeded
Message Type: 12 - Parameter Problem
Message Type: 13 - Timestamp
Message Type: 14 - Timestamp Reply
Message Type: 15 - Information Request
Message Type: 16 - Information Reply

While ICMP might be useful for a network administrator to know what is going on it is also useful for a hacker to know what is going on. Denying ICMP requests from outside your network is one way to help deter hackers.

XP Internet Security 2010

I worked on a machine tonight with the virus XP Internet Security 2010. This thing is a pain just like it's predecessors.

Most instructions out there to manually clean the virus ask you to look for and kill the av.exe process and files and then go out and delete a handful of registry entries. The machine I was working on had those same registry entries, but instead of av.exe it was using MSASCui.exe.

So when trying to fix a machine that has been infected with XP Internet Security 2010 you should now be aware of at least two exe files it's using.

av.exe
MSASCui.exe

More variants are sure to follow.

From My Bookmarks

McAfee Free Services

This is a nice site with a handful of useful tools to scan, test, and keep you up to date with what is going on with Internet security.

A New Look

I have always believed in keeping this blog simple and clutter free. However, I've been running this blog for a while now and frankly got tired of looking at it. Lets face it, it's dull.

I chose this new template because it is still minimalistic, but not boring.

Enjoy

Edit Gnome menu

After installing Fedora 12, I noticed that I did not have the ability to edit my Gnome menu by simply right clicking on the panel. As a side note Fedora 12 installs with Gnome version 2.28.

The way to fix this problem is actually very easy, you just need to install alacarte.

Open a terminal window
type yum install alacarte

At this point you can logout, log back in and you can right click to edit the menus.

From My Bookmarks

Here is a site that I bookmarked this week after getting an email from RedHat about it being up and running. I haven't had a lot of time to spend poking around on it, but it looks like it is full of information.

opensource.com

Microsoft Security Essentials

About three years ago I change my anti-virus on my home Windows machines from TrendMirco's PC-cillin to avast! Free Antivirus. With the exception of a couple of false positives, I have been extremely happy with the free version of avast! It didn't drag my machines down performance wise and provided me with the level of protection that I am looking for in my home computers.

However, that being said, I have chosen to test out Microsoft Security Essentials on one of my home computers to see how it stacks up against the same model pc running avast. So far the verdict is positive for the Microsoft product. I can schedule scans, run automatic or manual updates, and can customize some features such as real-time scan settings and exclusion lists. I have also not noticed any hit to performance on the box running Microsoft Security Essentials, as a matter of fact it is using about half the RAM avast appears to be using.

I'll continue to run Microsoft Security Essentials for a while and report back on anything negative, but so far it looks like another acceptable free security tool for you home computer.

Caching DNS

A few days ago I walked you through doing a network install of Scientific Linux. With the install I did as part of that post I decided that I wanted to run a caching DNS server. Fortunately, this is very easy with a RedHat based distro such as Scientific Linux.

Rather than me type this out I decided to provide a link to a great page on the RedHat knowledgebase on how to do this. If you take the time to read through it and follow the directions you should have no trouble setting up a caching DNS server.

Caching-only Name Server

Scientific Linux - network install

Unlike other Linux distros, Scientific Linux does not come with a network install cd. However, not to worry, you can still do a network based installation following a couple of easy steps.

-> Boot off of disc 1
-> On the boot screen type "linux askmethod"
-> Select your language
-> Select your keyboard type
-> Select your install method, for this I'll use HTTP
-> Select your network configuration, I unselect IPV6, no reason to run protocols your not using
-> The next screen is where you will enter the server and location of the install files
----> I like to use the Argonne National Laboratory mirror, it's fast, mirror.mcs.anl.gov
----> I am using 5.4 i386, so my path looks like this /pub/scientific-linux/54/i386
-> Next screen lets you know it found your CD, I usually select skip on the scan
-> Now it will load the splash screen, select next
-> You now need to partition your hard drive, you can allow it to auto partition or select custom from the drop down
-> Next is the GRUB screen, I usually leave the default location
-> Next you get the option to customize your network settings and hostname
-> Select your timezone
-> Set your root password
-> Next is the software screen, depending on what you will use your install for will determine how much you customize this
-> The next screen will kick off your install, no need to worry about swapping discs
----> the amount of time it takes to finish the install will depend on your Internet connection
-> At some point you'll be ready to reboot
-> At initial boot you will be prompted with for some post install info
----> Firewall Config
----> SELinux
----> Initial user account, I didn't get this since I didn't install a GUI
-> You should now have a usable Scientific Linux install, enjoy

FreeBSD on Sparc

I have some old Sun v240 Sparc servers that I want to re-use now that they are no longer in production, but I didn't necessarily want to use Solaris on them. I decided I wanted to use Linux for a project and having always had good luck with Debian on non-x86 platforms I started there.

Using the netinst CD of Debian 5 I couldn't even get the kernel to load, so I figured I was probably missing something important and downloaded disc 1. Disc 1 got me much further, except for a minor problem of shutting down and not allowing me to bring the NICs back online.

I stepped away from this for a couple weeks and decided to try FreeBSD. I hadn't actually used FreeBSD for anything for a while, but decided to grab version 8 and give it a whirl.

Success, I am now running a fully functioning Sparc server running FreeBSD 8. Could I have gotten Linux running on this box, probably, but I was impressed that FreeBSD just installed like it has any other time I have used it. Will FreeBSD be my first choice for a solution going forward, probably not, but it is good to have as a standby.

sudo launcher

Every so often you need to be able to launch and app in Linux with elevated rights. One way to do this is to execute it with the sudo command from the command line.

Example:
sudo command

If you work mainly in a GUI such as Gnome you may choose to run these programs through a shortcut or launcher. This is done using the gksu command.

Example:

Right click on the desktop
Select create launcher
In the command area enter gksu command

You should now have a working shortcut that launches an app with elevated rights.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all from Tech Grab Bag.

Here is hoping the new year is full of innovations.