2013-12-24
Peterborough Web Design
Businesses and residents of Peterborough can now save 15% off any Portage Design Web Design or related service from now until the the end of the year. Just be sure to have us provide a quote to you before Jan 1st, 2014. What a great way to establish or enhance your on-line presence, for local and global marketing appeal.
http://portagedesign.com/web-design/peterborough-web-design/
http://portagedesign.com/web-design/peterborough-web-design/
2013-12-01
Netflix for Linux
Followed these instructions (http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=281492, thank Die Hard) and was able to get NetFlix working on Crunchbang, Waldorf 32-bit Debian derivative.
# 64-bit OS: Must also do these steps: sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 sudo geany /etc/apt/sources.list # change line as follows, then save and exit ORIG: deb http://packages.crunchbang.org/waldorf waldorf main NEW: deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://packages.crunchbang.org/waldorf waldorf main sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libwine # END 64-bit only pre-amble sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio sudo geany /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ehoover-compholio-wheezy.list # change the two lines in the file to the following & save. deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ehoover/compholio/ubuntu quantal main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ehoover/compholio/ubuntu quantal main sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer sudo echo ttf-mscorefonts-installer msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula select true | sudo debconf-set-selections netflix-desktop
2013-11-28
Puppy Linux (Slacko 5.6) Default Root Password
Followed a set of on-line instructions to make Puppy Linux require a password upon boot-up. This article claimed that the root password, unless otherwise set, was blank. To my surprise this was not correct for my recent Slacko Puppy version 5.6. With some further digging I did find that the Puppy Linux (Slacko 5.6) default root password is "woofwoof".
2013-11-22
Reporting on Active Directory User Account Lockouts Event 644
Active Directory Security - Even with complex password and lockout policies in place, in theory a very slow brute force attack could compromise a privileged user password. i.e. 5 attempts before lockout, lockout for 5 mins, means someone could attempt about 60 passwords an hour, 1440 in a 24-hour period. If a user doesn't notices that they account is locked out and notified IT for an unlock, i.e. while away on vacation, someone with a few password hints might have enough time to slowly brute force their way in.
As such, it's a good idea to get reports of when a lockout occurs of User AD accounts. Even if only so that an Administrator can see that the same account is repeatedly locked out, and thus potentially the target of a repeated password guess attack.
There are Active Directory Tools and Log Reporting Suites that can do great job of this task and a whole lot more, but for smaller shops this might be too expensive or complex to install and maintain.
A simple control, would a small Windows Power Shell script that reports via email, all Active Directory User Lockout Events in the last 24 hours. If the same account is repeatedly locked out, you either have a very distressed user or a potential password compromise attack.
The following is designed for Windows Server 2003 Domains.
Windows Power Shell (2.0) Script: LOCKOUT-ALERT.PS1
# get start date
As such, it's a good idea to get reports of when a lockout occurs of User AD accounts. Even if only so that an Administrator can see that the same account is repeatedly locked out, and thus potentially the target of a repeated password guess attack.
There are Active Directory Tools and Log Reporting Suites that can do great job of this task and a whole lot more, but for smaller shops this might be too expensive or complex to install and maintain.
A simple control, would a small Windows Power Shell script that reports via email, all Active Directory User Lockout Events in the last 24 hours. If the same account is repeatedly locked out, you either have a very distressed user or a potential password compromise attack.
The following is designed for Windows Server 2003 Domains.
Windows Power Shell (2.0) Script: LOCKOUT-ALERT.PS1
# get start date
$start = get-date
# get 644 events from server ad1 for last 24 hours $msg_ad1 = get-eventlog -log security -computer ad1 | where-object {$_.EventID -match "^644" -AND $_.TimeGenerated -gt (get-date).AddHours(-24) } | Format-List | Out-String
$msg_ad2 = get-eventlog -log security -computer ad2 | where-object {$_.EventID -match "^644" -AND $_.TimeGenerated -gt (get-date).AddHours(-24) } | Format-List | Out-String
# ... repeat for each server in your domain ...
# get start date
$end = get-date
$msg = $msg_ad1 + $msg_ad2
if ($msg) { # if anything to report
$msg = "Script run on hostname. " + $start.ToString() + $msg + $end.ToString()
Send-MailMessage -To "itadmin@mydomain.com" -Subject "Lockout Alerts" -Body $msg -SmtpServer 10.10.10.10 -From "lockout@domain.com"
}
# get 644 events from server ad1 for last 24 hours $msg_ad1 = get-eventlog -log security -computer ad1 | where-object {$_.EventID -match "^644" -AND $_.TimeGenerated -gt (get-date).AddHours(-24) } | Format-List | Out-String
$msg_ad2 = get-eventlog -log security -computer ad2 | where-object {$_.EventID -match "^644" -AND $_.TimeGenerated -gt (get-date).AddHours(-24) } | Format-List | Out-String
# ... repeat for each server in your domain ...
# get start date
$end = get-date
$msg = $msg_ad1 + $msg_ad2
if ($msg) { # if anything to report
$msg = "Script run on hostname. " + $start.ToString() + $msg + $end.ToString()
Send-MailMessage -To "itadmin@mydomain.com" -Subject "Lockout Alerts" -Body $msg -SmtpServer 10.10.10.10 -From "lockout@domain.com"
}
Step to Install & Configure Event 644 Lockout Monitoring:
- Ensure that your Security Event log on each server is set large enough to hold well over 24 hours of logging.
- Install PowerShell (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929) if not already installed.
- Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Power Shell > Windows Power Shell
- In order to run PowerShell scripts you need to execute the following command within PowerShell :> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
- Create a batch script to run the PowerShell script, one-line: c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive c:\apps\ps\lockout-alert.ps1
- Schedule the script to run once a day.
2013-11-12
Polycom VSX7000 Behind Router/Firewall with Port Forwarding
The Polycom VSX 7000 can function perfectly well from behind a NAT firewall router with port forwarding enabled accordingly. I was able to get ours to work very quickly by configuring the video conference device as follows:
- Login to the Web interface for the device. The default login credentials for the Polycom VSX7000 is username "admin" and the password is the full serial number of the device.
- Go to the Network > IP Network portion of the menu, and see the Firewall section of the page.
- Settings should be:
- Fixed Port, yes apply check mark.
- For TCP & UDP Ports: enter 3230 as the starting values.
- Under NAT Configuration, specify manual.
- Specify NAT Public (WAN) Address, as the Internet IP of your firewall router device.
On your Router / Firewall, configure Port Forwarding for the following range of ports to the LAN IP of your Polycom.
- 3230 to 3235 TCP & UDP
- 1720 TCP & UDP
2013-11-06
Kawartha Lakes Web Design Promotion from Portage Design
Businesses and residents of Kawartha Lakes can now save 15% off any Portage Design Web Design or related service from now until the the end of the year. What a great way to establish or enhance your on-line presence, for local and global marketing appeal.
http://portagedesign.com/web-design/kawartha-lakes-web-design/
http://portagedesign.com/web-design/kawartha-lakes-web-design/
2013-11-05
Numerical Analysis with SQL instead of Excel
For all you analyst and number crunchers out there, now you can work directly with the SQL data within SQL, using a toolset that has more functions, will be easily persisted, and run with better performance than workstation Excel calculations, using XLeratorDB.
http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2013/11/05/sql-server-number-crunching-with-sql-server-exceed-the-functionality-of-excel/
http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2013/11/05/sql-server-number-crunching-with-sql-server-exceed-the-functionality-of-excel/
2013-10-29
Google+ Custom Vanity URLs
Get your own Google+ URL, but in familiar Google fashion, the "roll-out" is you have to be invited by Google, and you must meet specific criteria to get an invite.
http://portagedesign.com/google-plus-custom-vanity-urls/
http://portagedesign.com/google-plus-custom-vanity-urls/
Gmail: Default to Full Screen Compose for New Emails
With recent changes to the GMail interface, the default compose window is now a tiny little pop-up window. (I'm composing an email, not firing off a short text or Tweet, so a little more screen space will be needed).
In order to change to the window size you simply click the 'double-arrow' expand button on the top right corner of the small compose windows. This is tedious so you don't want to do this every time. And to shrink it back again you click the 'double-arrow' collapse button.
But to make the expanded full-screen view your default compose view you need to:
In order to change to the window size you simply click the 'double-arrow' expand button on the top right corner of the small compose windows. This is tedious so you don't want to do this every time. And to shrink it back again you click the 'double-arrow' collapse button.
But to make the expanded full-screen view your default compose view you need to:
- Click the down-arrow button in the bottom right-hand corner or either Gmail Compose window.
- Click the 'Default to full-screen' item to toggle the setting and place a check-mark next to it.
Next time you click compose, the full screen view will be your default.
2013-10-25
emoji in OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Whenever you are in a text field on OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you can press:
Control-Command-space bar
and an emoji picker will be displayed.
Control-Command-space bar
and an emoji picker will be displayed.
MediaWiki Error: “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NAMESPACE, expecting T_STRING in includes/Namespace.php on line 46″
Huge help, thank you very much. Saved me a tonne of time.
http://icesquare.com/wordpress/mediawiki-error-parse-error-syntax-error-unexpected-t_namespace-expecting-t_string-in-usrlocalwwwapache22datawikiincludesnamespace-php-on-line-46/
To get MediaWiki to provide you with any error information, instead of a blank page, you have to do this first:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Errors_and_symptoms#You_see_a_Blank_Page
http://icesquare.com/wordpress/mediawiki-error-parse-error-syntax-error-unexpected-t_namespace-expecting-t_string-in-usrlocalwwwapache22datawikiincludesnamespace-php-on-line-46/
To get MediaWiki to provide you with any error information, instead of a blank page, you have to do this first:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Errors_and_symptoms#You_see_a_Blank_Page
MySQL Backup & Restore mysqldump
My favourite reference for this command:
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/09/backup-and-restore-mysql-database-using-mysqldump/
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/09/backup-and-restore-mysql-database-using-mysqldump/
Top 10 Website & Social Presence Mistakes
How many of these mistakes is your small business website committing?
http://portagedesign.com/top-10-smb-website-mistakes/
Learn from these to ensure you business succeeds on-line.
http://portagedesign.com/top-10-smb-website-mistakes/
Learn from these to ensure you business succeeds on-line.
2013-10-23
Durham Real Estate: Durham Realtor Ian Gibson - Testimonial
Durham Real Estate: Durham Realtor Ian Gibson - Testimonial: Durham Realtor Ian Gibson - Testimonial for both buying and selling my home in Whitby Shores.
Email from Command Line using bmail
Windows batch scripts can be used to perform a bunch of handy administrative tasks, like nightly backups. Especially when you configure them to run via the OS Task Scheduler, 'Schedules Tasks' as it is called in most versions of Windows. But to count on such automated task regularly you need to be able to see the output and history of such tasks. The Task Scheduler isn't much help for this. Instead, I prefer to email the task log to myself so that I can view and archive the results accordingly.
My overall strategy for such batch scripts it is to redirect the output of every command within the batch script to a log file, use > for a new file, and >> to append to the existing file. Then I use bmail to email a copy of the log file to myself.
Bmail is a very handy command line email tool created by Craig Peacock. (http://retired.beyondlogic.org/solutions/cmdlinemail/cmdlinemail.htm)
So an oversimplified script I would craft would look something like this:
date /t > C:\taskx\backup.log
(task commands go here: e.g.)
copy c:\sqlbu\*.bak "x:\bu-archive\sql\" >> C:\taskx\backup.log
date /t >> C:\taskx\backup.log
bmail -s smtp.runbooks.info -t admin@runbooks.info -f server-x@runbooks.info -a Task X -m C:\taskx\backup.log -c
BMail option are:
-s smtp server
-t To address
-f From address
-a Subject of message
-m file name that contain the body of message, the task log file that was created
-c Prefix above file with CR/LF to separate body from header
I note the date and the beginning and end of the task so I have an idea how long it takes.
Put the bmail.exe somewhere within your %PATH% locations, most likely C:\Windows\System32\, so that it universally accessible to all script you write.
Also, when you are copying backup files for archive purposes, (as this trivial snippet might suggest) you might also want to use forfiles to ensure that your archive of backup data doesn't grow indefinitely.
My overall strategy for such batch scripts it is to redirect the output of every command within the batch script to a log file, use > for a new file, and >> to append to the existing file. Then I use bmail to email a copy of the log file to myself.
Bmail is a very handy command line email tool created by Craig Peacock. (http://retired.beyondlogic.org/solutions/cmdlinemail/cmdlinemail.htm)
So an oversimplified script I would craft would look something like this:
date /t > C:\taskx\backup.log
(task commands go here: e.g.)
copy c:\sqlbu\*.bak "x:\bu-archive\sql\" >> C:\taskx\backup.log
date /t >> C:\taskx\backup.log
bmail -s smtp.runbooks.info -t admin@runbooks.info -f server-x@runbooks.info -a Task X -m C:\taskx\backup.log -c
BMail option are:
-s smtp server
-t To address
-f From address
-a Subject of message
-m file name that contain the body of message, the task log file that was created
-c Prefix above file with CR/LF to separate body from header
I note the date and the beginning and end of the task so I have an idea how long it takes.
Put the bmail.exe somewhere within your %PATH% locations, most likely C:\Windows\System32\, so that it universally accessible to all script you write.
Also, when you are copying backup files for archive purposes, (as this trivial snippet might suggest) you might also want to use forfiles to ensure that your archive of backup data doesn't grow indefinitely.
2013-10-09
Omemee Web Design Promo from Portage Design
Attractive offer to all residents and business from Omemee, the Omemee Web Design Promotion by Portage Design. Inspired by the Shop the Village of Omemee post by the Youngtown Museum.
 |
| Omemee Web Design by Portage Design |
HP Printer - Unable to Ping/Print from Different Subnet
Encountered a strange issue where our HP M401dn was working fine on the local subnet, could ping and print to the device, no issue. But despite having the correct gateway and subnet, connectivity from across the WAN was intermittent. Was able to confirm by doing an continuous ping from across the WAN to the IP of the printer. Connection would flap, in and out, while local connection was rock solid.
Found this HP Support thread with others experiencing the same issue:
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Print-Servers-Network-Storage/Unable-to-ping-Printer-from-a-different-subnet/m-p/6219017/highlight/false#M28064
Firmware on the HP 401dn is Firmware Datecode: 20120221. Going to see if there is an update for this device of if the HP Support channel has any suggestions.
Found this HP Support thread with others experiencing the same issue:
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Print-Servers-Network-Storage/Unable-to-ping-Printer-from-a-different-subnet/m-p/6219017/highlight/false#M28064
Firmware on the HP 401dn is Firmware Datecode: 20120221. Going to see if there is an update for this device of if the HP Support channel has any suggestions.
2013-09-30
My Implementation is Failing Because I Use SugarCRM
Larry Augustine, CEO of SugarCRM, shared his thoughts with Forbes about Why Your CRM Implementation is Quietly Failing, (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2013/09/30/why-your-crm-implementation-is-quietly-failing/)
Larry's main message in this interview is that CRM needs to expand beyond Sales Dept's to every part of the organization that interfaces with the Customer. (Certainly good for bottom lines of SaaS companies like SugarCRM who license their software per user per month.) I agree this approach is a great way to have the entire organization be customer focused by enabling them with information they need to competently interact with each customer in a meaningful way.
A little bitter sweet for me as I would as Larry Augustine what about if my CRM implementation is failing BECAUSE I use SugarCRM.
While every system has it quirks, bug and missing features, SugarCRM certainly has some VERY notable holes that have been around for quite some time and they have no plans when these 'Feature Requests' might be fixed.
http://www.sugarcrm.com/support/bugs.html#issue_47265
http://www.sugarcrm.com/support/bugs.html#issue_48521
I can't imaging how any modern day CRM system can be successful without these features. We continue to stammer along as a SugarCRM customer without them. I don't think we'll be buying licenses for the rest of the users in the company.
Larry's main message in this interview is that CRM needs to expand beyond Sales Dept's to every part of the organization that interfaces with the Customer. (Certainly good for bottom lines of SaaS companies like SugarCRM who license their software per user per month.) I agree this approach is a great way to have the entire organization be customer focused by enabling them with information they need to competently interact with each customer in a meaningful way.
A little bitter sweet for me as I would as Larry Augustine what about if my CRM implementation is failing BECAUSE I use SugarCRM.
While every system has it quirks, bug and missing features, SugarCRM certainly has some VERY notable holes that have been around for quite some time and they have no plans when these 'Feature Requests' might be fixed.
Duplicate Detection
A great way to look stupid in front of a customer is to be using a partial and incomplete duplicate record. Any company who uses any type of CRM fights the battle with duplicate records and must maintain system and processes to battle them. In SugarCRM the tool you use to search for duplicate is grossly under-powered. You can't even OR a bunch of potential identifying clauses together. The search tool ANDs every entry. Therefore, to run a decent search, because you can't OR a bunch of data overlapping clauses into one query, you MUST run ONE query for each data point you want to search on for potential conflict. Talk about inefficient. What decade are we in Larry? This is the question I get from the person who we assign to perform this ridiculously inefficient search, everyday, multiple times for every new lead.http://www.sugarcrm.com/support/bugs.html#issue_47265
Workflow can't make Entity Associations: Lead to Campaign
Anyone it Marketing knows you need to justify and define your spend base on the results of your campaigns. One main goal of any campaign is to generate leads. Associating a Lead with a Campaign is a must have operation. ERRRR, hard stop. SugarCRM won't let you write a Workflow rule or Mass Update rule to associate a Lead with a Campaign. So I can't write a Workflow Rule that say, Upon Save of New Lead, set Lead.Campaign = Campaign X, when during a specific 'Campaign' season. Workflow lets me write all sorts of great rules, but traversing the Lead to Campaign relationship is not in it list of doable actions. What!!! The Mass Update feature has the same issue. Therefore, Lead involvement in a Campaign can only be set manually. (Insert cost for unnecessary manual lead data management here.)http://www.sugarcrm.com/support/bugs.html#issue_48521
I can't imaging how any modern day CRM system can be successful without these features. We continue to stammer along as a SugarCRM customer without them. I don't think we'll be buying licenses for the rest of the users in the company.
Looking to Buy or Sell Durham Region
If you are looking to buy or sell your home in Durham Region, Ian Gibson, ReMax REALTOR is your guy.
I have used him twice, to both buy and sell my home in Whitby Shores. You can read my full testimonial about his services here: https://plus.google.com/110037488713756862005/about?hl=en His service was great and I would recommend him to anyone.
Ian's Real Estate Listings:
2013-09-24
2013-09-12
Crystal Reports - The database DLL crdb_baan.dll could not be loaded.
Error Message
Crystal Reports
Failed to load database information.
Details: The database DLL 'crdb_baan.dll' could not be loaded.
Fix
The Crystal Report you are using requires the Crystal Baan Connector to be installed and configured.2013-09-09
Portage Design - New Look
A new website look by and for the team over at Portage Design. This web design features a heavily customized WordPress theme, is a fully mobile ready design complete with image rotator, tonnes of new features. Have a look and let them know what you think.
2013-09-05
Ubuntu Apt Repository for Old Releases
For all you Ubuntu hard-core users looking for support for you old production installs that have fallen of the LTS support:
http://www.warpconduit.net/2011/07/31/apt-repository-for-old-ubuntu-releases/
http://www.warpconduit.net/2011/07/31/apt-repository-for-old-ubuntu-releases/
2013-09-03
HP ProtectTools - Load/Mount Personal Secure Drive (TPM Drive)
Initially after configuring the Personal Secure Drive (TPM Drive) as part of the Embedded Security features part of HP ProtectTools that came with my Win7 laptop, there was a handy icon on the desktop to load this new PSD/TPM drive. Shortly thereafter I deleted this icon.
I quickly realized that without this icon, I didn't know how to manually load the PSD and I had configured it not to load on start-up. (It has to be loaded of course before it appears under My Computer as a usable drive letter). Tracing my steps and opening the HP Protect Tool Security Manager, as well as the HP Protect Tools Administrative Console, I found no mention of any screens related to the PSD feature. (Seems once you have configured the drive via the Wizard, this interface all but forgets about this feature.) I had already place some files in the Personal Secure Drive so I was determined to get these back.
A little bit of search and I did eventually find my answer.
From the Taskbar Icon Tray, click on the HP ProtectTool Security Manager icon, and select Embedded Security > Personal Secure Drive > Load
2013-08-28
Netflix on XBox 360 - Paid Subscription Required!
In order to use Netflix on the XBox 360, you must have a Xbox Live Gold Membership, costing an additional $5/m, (on top of the $8/m for Netflix), for the privilege of using this (free on every other platform) application on your XBox. Thanks Microsoft for taxing me for investing in your platform.
http://support.xbox.com/en-CA/apps/netflix/netflix-setup
http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/30/t/15745.aspx
http://support.xbox.com/en-CA/apps/netflix/netflix-setup
http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/30/t/15745.aspx
2013-08-21
Joey Whitehead - Painter Peterborough & Toronto Area - Takes Full Pay for Half the Work
Well I learned a few lessons the hard way.
Hiring a local contractor by the name of Joey Whitehead, (who works in the Peterborough & Toronto areas), from a Kijiji add to paint some of the interior room of our new house, was a huge mistake.
Full detailed Ripoff Report can be found here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Joey-Whitehead/Peterborough-Ontario/Joey-Joseph-Whitehead-Painter-Scam-Half-the-Work-but-Takes-Full-Payment-Peterborough-1077762
But in short, lessons is never pay in full until work is completely done to your satisfaction. Joey Whitehead even told me this himself in his text message confessions of the ripoff.
Some pictures of his great work, the condition he left our house in and would not come back to finish the job, like he said he would, after being paid in full. Home owners beware of dishonest contractors like Joey Whitehead.
Hiring a local contractor by the name of Joey Whitehead, (who works in the Peterborough & Toronto areas), from a Kijiji add to paint some of the interior room of our new house, was a huge mistake.
Full detailed Ripoff Report can be found here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Joey-Whitehead/Peterborough-Ontario/Joey-Joseph-Whitehead-Painter-Scam-Half-the-Work-but-Takes-Full-Payment-Peterborough-1077762
But in short, lessons is never pay in full until work is completely done to your satisfaction. Joey Whitehead even told me this himself in his text message confessions of the ripoff.
Some pictures of his great work, the condition he left our house in and would not come back to finish the job, like he said he would, after being paid in full. Home owners beware of dishonest contractors like Joey Whitehead.
2013-07-13
Python27 and Python3 on CentOS6
CentOS is my flavour de jour of Linux. Trying to install a Plone43 which required a more recent version of Python than CentOS6. The steps found here did the trick.
http://linuxsysconfig.com/2013/03/running-multiple-python-versions-on-centos6rhel6sl6/
http://linuxsysconfig.com/2013/03/running-multiple-python-versions-on-centos6rhel6sl6/
2013-07-11
Microsoft: the V is WebDAV is for Versioning
Sad really that over 10 years since RFC 3253 that describes the WebDAV support for versioning, that IIS, which likes to think of itself as a modern cutting edge web server platform, only offers WebDA, not WebDAV.
This feature support would extremely useful feature that would allow for anyone with a Windows Server to provide Internet based versioned file storage.
http://forums.iis.net/t/1182931.aspx/
This feature support would extremely useful feature that would allow for anyone with a Windows Server to provide Internet based versioned file storage.
http://forums.iis.net/t/1182931.aspx/
2013-06-27
Grep Email Addresses From a File
Putorius - Linux Questions, Answers, How-tos, and General Information.: Grep All Email Addresses from a Text File Using Re...: Took me a while to construct this regular expression, thought it might be useful to someone else. grep -E -o "\b[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+@[a-zA...
2013-06-06
Coffee & Snack Time!
Whew, things are crazy busy in my neck of the woods these days. Thank goodness for our new Durham Vending Snack, Pop & Coffee vending machines here at the office, keep me and my staff fueled up and running at 110% capacity. Keep up the good work guys!
2013-01-28
LinuxMint & Firefox: Remove DuckDuckGo
Since LinuxMint 12, DuckDuckGo has been the search engine of choice of the distro. Removing it as the search tools for the Firefox URL location bar can be a bit tricky since this option is not under the Firefox Edit > Preference.
Instead you have to:
Instead you have to:
- Type "about:config" in the Firefox URL bar.
- Click the button, [ I'll be careful, I promise! ]
- Search for "keyword.URL", should only return 1 result.
- Right-click the row and select modify.
- Change the value to "http://www.google.com/search?q=" to use Google as your URL search bar.
2013-01-11
SugarCRM Archiving Workflow Emails
SugarCRM does not have an automatic way of archiving any email that is generates as part of a workflow. If the email is being send to a Lead or Client/Contact, you probably want to have this email stored as part of the email history for that entity.
Once trick around this oversight is as follows:
Once trick around this oversight is as follows:
- Enable the SugarCRM archiving email service and address. i.e. your-instance-email@sugarondemand.com
- Configure one of your utility or role accounts (i.e. RoleX) to have a user email address of your-instance-email@sugarondemand.com.
- In the workflow, you can specific to always BCC email RoleX on the desired workflow lead/client/contact email.
VPN using two-tier authentication: Radius & Active Directory (AD)
Using two-tiers of user authentication to permit VPN access to your corporate network is a best practice. This ensures that even if a user's commonly used login (Active Directory) password is compromised, (can happen even with complex and aged passwords), that a different initial connection password is required to establish VPN connectivity.
I have used MS ISA Server along with FreeRadius.net to implement this design and best-practice security requirement.
However, one problem we had was the connecting PC when VPN'ed in, would get confused as to which set of credentials to use when accessing Windows Network resources, such as lettered drives. As such, the user would be incorrectly denied access to normally available Windows Network resources. The Windows Credential Manager needs to be informed NOT us use the RAS credentials for anything other that the RAS connection.
This can be set as follows: (Win7)
I have used MS ISA Server along with FreeRadius.net to implement this design and best-practice security requirement.
However, one problem we had was the connecting PC when VPN'ed in, would get confused as to which set of credentials to use when accessing Windows Network resources, such as lettered drives. As such, the user would be incorrectly denied access to normally available Windows Network resources. The Windows Credential Manager needs to be informed NOT us use the RAS credentials for anything other that the RAS connection.
This can be set as follows: (Win7)
- Open the following file with notepad: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\
Network\Connections\Pbk\rasphone.pbk - Set: UseRasCredentials=0 instead of 1
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