Archive for July, 2008
Happy SysAdmin Day, System Administrators!
July 25th, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
w00t! Happy SysAdmin Day to us! http://www.sysadminday.com/
How to configure Exchange ActiveSync on the iPhone
July 24th, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
I’ve been waiting a long time for Exchange ActiveSync support for the iPhone. I don’t own one (I have a Motorola Q9C), but I support a number of people who have iPhones. I’ve configured a few of them and its a really slick setup. There is a nice guide at Kerio.com with screenshots on configuring ActiveSync on the iPhone, but it is missing dealing with installing a self-signed certificate if necessary, which I employ.
All you have to do is get the Root Certificate onto the phone before configuring ActiveSync. Previously, I made the certificate available for download from our Outlook Web Access site, so all I had to do was browse to our OWA site on the iPhone and download the cert. The iPhone knew it was a root certificate and installed it properly. SSL is activated by default (turn it off under Account Info in the mail account’s settings), so nothing else had to be done beyond this and the normal ActiveSync setup.
You can find more docs on the Apple site at http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/integration.html.
Script telnet commands using the Telnet Scripting Tool
July 9th, 2008. Published under Software Tools. No Comments.
Recently I had need to script some telnet commands for a switch. Googling for this led me to TST10, or the Telnet Scripting Tool v1.0 by Albert Yale. This thing comes way back from 1997, but it works great for my needs. I was able to script the commands I needed, so launching a batch file will make the desired changes in my switch.
It is simple to use. Here is the configuration info copied from the executable:
Usage Syntax:
tst10.exe /r:script.txt [options]
/r:script.txt run script.txt
[options] any of these:/o:output.txt send session output to output.txt
/m run script in minimized windowUsage Example:
tst10.exe /r:script.txt /o:output.txt /m
Scripting Syntax:
HOSTNAME PORT port number optional, default: 23
WAIT “string” string to wait for
SEND “string” string to send
\” represents the a quote character
\m represents a <CR/LF>
\\ represents the backslash characterScripting Example:
hostname.com 23
WAIT “login”
SEND “root\m”
WAIT “password”
SEND “mypassword\m”
WAIT “>”
SEND “dip internet.dip\m”
WAIT “>”Scripting Note:
You can start with either WAIT or SEND commands,
but you *must* alternate them. ie: you can’t use two
or more WAIT or SEND in a row.Note:
TST will disconnect and close as soon
as its done with the last entry of the script.If you need to, you can type in the terminal
window while the script is running.
Very easy to use and highly recommended. Albert’s site has been down for almost a decade according to the Wayback Machine, but you can still download it from the Wayback Machine’s archived copy. Alternatively, you can Google for it yourself or download it from Free Downloads Center.
Google Desktop broken in Ubuntu Hardy Heron
July 7th, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Here is a thread that helped me solve the issue I was having with Google Desktop not working in Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron).
The solution is to edit the erroneous path to the Firefox executable in Preferred Applications. See the third post by BlackSir in this thread.
Bad USB cable knocks out other USB devices
July 3rd, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Here’s a lesson learned that took a few hours. Just last week, someone asked me to help them with their iPhone suddenly not synching their Outlook info. I confirmed this was actually working previously. When plugging in the iPhone, Windows XP gives the standard “USB Device not recognized” error message balloon. Hmm, ok, let’s begin troubleshooting.
I install iTunes and restart. No go. I uninstall iTunes, restart, reinstall iTunes, restart. No go.
Someone else has an iPhone in the office, so let’s see if the first iPhone works with the other computer. Yes, it does, so the iPhone is OK. Let’s try this other person’s iPhone USB cable on the computer giving the error. No, it doesn’t work either, so the USB cable is OK.
Its starting to look like a USB issue, so I pull out my Cruzer Titanium USB thumb drive. Ah ha! The thumb drive fails, so there is definitely a USB issue here. I try the thumb drive and the iPhone in different USB ports. No go. I download the latest Intel chipset drivers, pull out all USB connections (there was also an HP LaserJet 3050 All-in-one plugged in), and restart. After logging in, I plug in the iPhone. It’s recognized – bingo! I plug in my thumb drive and it is also recognized. OK, at this point I’m thinking there was a corrupted USB driver and the issue is gone. I plug in the USB cable for the HP LaserJet 3050 again and send a test print. Test print works.
OK, let’s restart one more time to make sure everything is going to work after I walk away. Unplug the iPhone and put my thumb drive back in my pocket. Restart. Plug in iPhone. USB device not recognized. What? But it all just worked fine?!??!
Try my thumb drive again. No go. Send a test print. Test print comes out fine, so the printer is still working. What the heck is going on here? I’m two hours into this by now (iTunes installs were slow and restart and logging in isn’t the fastest thing either), and I’m still scratching my head. I unplug the printer again, and the iPhone and thumb drive work! I plug in the printer again and the test print works, but the iPhone and thumb drive do not.
Then I notice the USB cable for the LaserJet was rather stretched, since the printer was somewhat far from the comptuer. The cable didn’t touch the floor anywhere, so coming out of the computer the cable was bent about 90 degrees. Could it be a bad cable? I grab another USB cable and swap. Test page prints fine AND the iPhone and thumb drive work as well! Bingo. This is the first time I have ever seen a bad USB cable actually work for the perhiperal it is plugged into but make all other USB devices on the computer fail.
I just hope this post saves someone else from 2.5 hours of frustration.
Trojan accesses routers to alter DNS data
July 1st, 2008. Published under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Hackaday.com posted this a few weeks ago, but it is still worth mentioning. A variant of the trojan ZLOB attempts to access your router by trying default admin accounts and passwords of commonly used routers. If successful, the trojan will alter the DNS info to route traffic through the malicious servers, which would happen seamlessly to you, of course.
Juan makes a good point in his post, specifying that if the computer is cleaned of any malware, the already-compromised router would still be compromised, unbeknowest of you.