TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

via Flaw could allow attacker to decrypt protected USB drives – SC Magazine US.

Dawn Babian, GSAE

If you want to keep up with a blog or website, you can use this application to monitor the website or blog.

This does require Adobe Air in order to function.

Link

Dawn Babian, GSAE

Mickey and Randy give this tip-

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can get a Copy As Path option if you hold down the shift key.  This will copy the entire path of a file or folder so you can use this later in documents or while programming.

Forwarded from Randy and Mickey-

Are you a graphic artist or do you work with print media or another color-sensitive documents? You want to make sure you have the exact color you need on the screen, and since every monitor is a little different it’s always a good idea to calibrate!

Do this:

Click Start and in the search box, type “dccw.exe” without quotes. This will bring up the Color Calibration wizard. You’ll need to be prepared to use the buttons on your monitor to properly adjust stuff like brightness and contrast, but the end result in consistency in colors and shade which will benefit anyone who works with photos or other graphics.

ESET is an excellent antivirus and has excellent removal tools.   When using these tools, you should boot into Safe Mode by turning on your computer and hitting F8 and selecting Safe Mode.

Link

This tool combined with ComboFix can remove your malware.   A personal preference of mine is to download ComboFix and to rename the tool before copying to the infected computer’s desktop.

If you want to see what changes on your hard drive, DiskPulse is a great little program to do just that.

Windows 7 although tweaked by Microsoft can be further tweaked to perform even better.

7Tweak is the only tuning software for Windows 7 with the right suite of tools:

- Intelligent Disk Cleaner and Safe Defragmentation tool.
- Smart hard hrives monitoring capability.
- Regitry Backup/Restore, Intelligent RegCleaner and Registry Safe Defragmenter.
- Security Tweaks: Firewall, IE, Windows Update and many other.
- Optimization tools: Autorun Manager, StartUp Manager, Cache and Visual Effects tweaks

- Outlook Mail Tweaks
- Start Menu Tweaks
- Media Player Tweaks
- Control Panel Tweaks
- Internet Explorer
and many other tweaks

7 Tweak

Dawn Babian, GSAE

Can’t get a website to load that has Javascript or other code?  Open IE, Tools, Internet Options – Security Tab, uncheck Enable Protected Mode and then Reset to defaults.

Ever wonder about that process that is running (service).  This simple program allows you to see this information.

Link

Here’s a search for Network management software that allows you to sort and find the information you are looking for.

Link

Dawn Babian, GSAE

Here’s an online link validator – Link

Why Virtualization?

Virtualization is gaining momentum with information technology professionals because of the ability to install more than one operating system on an individual host computer.  With hardware becoming less expensive, this type of computing is gaining momentum because of the economy, space and consolidation of resources.  With tighter budgets, this is an ideal way to consolidate servers, save on cost with both hardware and making green computing become a reality.

The global economy is making companies leaner.   Information technology professionals need to be both versatile and have a well rounded accelerated education.  With technology growing faster than any individual can learn,  individual IT personnel will need to learn ‘on-the-fly’ and network with other professionals in order to grow in this industry.

Students and professionals in information technology classes will find that virtualization allows them to learn at an unprecedented pace.  It allows multiple operating systems to be used.  With diverse industry, these students and professionals could be exposed to any many different operating systems.

Advantages

Virtualization allows both programmers and system administrators to test and design networks without the need of having  extra computers available for testing.  Virtualization used in production computers with remote desktop allows administrators to control and configure servers or operating systems without changing computers.

What Programs are Available?

There are a multitude of programs that are available to virtualize operating systems.  Generally I have focused on VirtualBox and Virtual PC.  These programs are free and readily available on the internet.

Who should use Virtualization?

Students, Business Professionals, Home Users and Businesses.  Students can learn different operating systems and learn how to network and test networking and programs, Businesses can use this in production to save cost with hardware and energy.  Home Users can  use virtualization to learn new operating systems or install a new operating system before upgrading.

Monitoring Resources

It is critical to monitor and use resources carefully in the design and implementation of virtual computers.  Hard drive space, memory and CPUs are critical in the operation of virtual computers.  These primary resources determine the performance and availability of virtual computers.

Resources

What is a Virtual Machine?

VMWare

VirtualBox

Microsoft Virtual PC

Microsoft’s Virtualization Website

Windows 7 Beta – Installing and Testing on VirtualBox

Installing Windows 7 on Virtual PC vs. VirtualBox

How to Network Virtual Operating Systems in Sun’s VirtualBox

Answers to Licensing Questions for Sun Micro’s VirtualBox

How to Optimize VirtualBox on Your Windows PC

Learn How to Set Up USB and Networking Options in VirtualBox

How To Connect to VirtualBox using Remote Desktop Connection

VirtualBox Configurations for running Three Operating Systems on a PC

VirtualBox: How to Expand Your Servers with Virtualization

VirtualBox on this Blog.

WordPress articles on VirtualBox and Virtualization

I have written several articles on virtualization.  These articles discuss the how-tos on installation of different operating systems and applications.  Because virtualization is gaining momentum and becoming an important part of computing, students should take Microsoft’s DreamSpark and Linux resources and use them to gain a working knowledge of this important change in information technology.  Technology will not wait on you.

Convert anything to binary by visiting this website – Link

Here’s a cool little application that monitors your computer and alerts you if someone or a remote process tries to connect.  This allows you to monitor this type information and ‘see’ what is going on with your computer.

Remote Access Monitor (Microsoft)

Dawn Babian, GSAE

If you need to take VirtualBox with you, you can use a portable drive to operate the OS of your choice.   This is an excellent way to demonstrate virtualization or to use in a programming situation where a program is being designed for a a specific operating system.

Download Portable VirtualBox

In order to run VirtualBox on a portable drive, you will need Portable VirtualBox (Not Sun Supported).

Download this program and extract it to your empty portable drive. (Make sure you have a 2+ GB drive.  Your operating system will have to fit on the drive also)

Download or create an ISO for the operating system of your choice.  You will need to download VirtualBox or you can use Portable VirtualBox to download VirtualBox.

Once you extract the program, navigate to the portable drive and start the program. Navigate to the full version of VirtualBox you downloaded or use Portable VirtualBox to download the VirtualBox (the program is large and could take several minutes to download)

Once the program is downloaded to your portable drive, you can start the program using Portal-VirtualBox.exe

Files Needed (Below Picture) – In this picture, I elected to download VirtualBox and VirtualBox Portable.

After double clicking on the Portable VirtualBox installation, navigate to your portable drive.

Extracted Program Files (Below)

Main Menu (Below) – Portable-VirtualBox.exe started

(Make your selections and navigate to your downloaded VirtualBox program.  Remember you can use the Download button.  I downloaded VirtualBox first as seen in the first picture.

The VirtualBox files will begin to expand to your portable drive.

Extracted VirtualBox (Below) – Use Portable-VirtualBox.exe to start the program which is found outside of the folder below.

Click here for more information on the installation of VirtualBox including tweaks, troubleshooting, exporting and teleportation of VirtualBox from one computer to another.  Don’t forget to check out AMD vs Intel Quad Core Shootout.

If you can’t right click on My Computer and use the manage feature in Windows, look for third part software such as A-Squared or other software that provides a right click function.  Uninstall the software and reinstall after a restart.

So how do you start a command prompt as an administrator?  Type CMD in the search box and hold down the Shift, Ctrl and hit the enter key.

Dawn Babian, GSAE

(holding down Shift and Ctrl while hitting enter will start any command you type in as administrator).

If your Windows 2003 Server is slow on your LAN, you can make the following changes to your registry.  When you make these changes, you MUST be sure that your data is backed up.

On the your server, you can edit the TcpDelAckTicks registry value to adjust the TCP delayed ACK timer.   By lowering this value, the TCP delayed ACK now will send an ACK packet quicker.    This lowered TCP delay ACK can cause some network strain.  You should test any value you change thoroughly.

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Find the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\Adapter GUID

You may see several of these GUIDs.  Add to all of these.  You may have multiple if you have had several network cards. (Add this value to these GUIDs

1. Right click and Add Value in the right windows, now add the following registry value creating a DWORD:

Value name: TcpDelAckTicks
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: You can enter 0 to 6. The default setting is 2 (200 milliseconds).

1. Quit Registry Editor.
2. Restart Windows

About the value -

This registry value specifies the number of 100-millisecond intervals to use for the delayed ACK timer on a per-interface basis. By default, your ACK timer value is 200 milliseconds. If you set the TcpDelAckTicks value to 0, this will disabled delayed acknowledgments. A 0 immediately sends an ACK packet for every packet it receives.

Note Adapter-specific values are listed under subkeys for each adapter. Make sure that you add the TcpDelAckTicks value to the following registry key:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\Adapter GUID

Do not add this value to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

By using QCheck you can check your network card‘s speed between servers or workstations.

I have to agree.  Infoworld hit this on the head. Link to article

1. Be able to fix basic PC issues.

2. Work the help desk.

3. Do public speaking.

4. Train someone.

5. Listen more than you speak.

6. Know basic networking.

7. Know basic system administration..

8. Know how to take a network trace.

9. Know the difference between latency and bandwidth.

10. Script.