Building The Net

So, you are going to donate your PC, well you need to clean it all off don’t you? Here is how to use the built in reset features of Windows 10 to clean your PC and reinstall the OS to factory settings.

Signs of a failing Hard Drive.

Do you know what piece of computer hardware is the most likely component to fail? If you answered the hard drive, you’re absolutely correct! Why? It’s one of the few moving parts left in a computer. With a hard drive, it’s not if it will fail, it’s when!

So, we know it’s going to fail. What can we do to:

• Protect our data from loss.
• Predict when a hard drive will fail.
• Recover from a failure.

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We have received reports that the CryptoLocker ransom-ware is becoming more prolific every day.

CryptoLocker ransom-ware is a malware program that when ran, will search all connected drives on your Windows PC, and then using strong public/private key encryption, proceeds to encrypt all of your data files it can find.

What it does:

Once it is done encrypting all the data files it can find, it will delete the private portion of the encryption key, and present the user with a popup. This popup informs the user that they have been infected and must pay $300 dollars via Bitcoin to receive the key to regain access to the data.

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Samba 4 as an Active Directory Server – Can it dance the dance?

Two weeks ago I thought to myself ‘Gee, now that Samba 4 has a real release out, wouldn’t it be fun to test it out and see how it holds up?‘ And so my adventure began. Now mind you, I’m not a novice to Samba, or to Active Directory, so I figured this would be a simple setup and test. How hard could it be?

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Open Source Groupware – The Clear Leader is SOGo:

Some of the early groups of articles I penned on this blog, were comparisons of Open Source Groupware projects. At that time, the only one I could really recommend was eGroupware. Although I still believe eGroupware is a valid contender for your Groupware server, I have discovered a project, that in my opinion is leaps and bounds ahead of the pack. The project is called SOGo.

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Exploit Against Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader.

I thought I got this posted the beginning of the week, but I guess it slipped through the cracks… June 4, 2010, Adobe confirmed that a zero day exploit exists in it’s Flash Player,  Acrobat and Adobe Reader software. This bug effects all of it’s supported platforms, and has been found in the wild.

So, you all know the drill, if your computer has the software listed in the Adobe Security Bulletin, then follow the instructions and get yourself safe!

— Stu

Ubuntu 10.04 – A quick review.

The latest Ubuntu release has brought both praise and controversy to the boards and email lists. The debate regarding some of the visual changes, as well as the new services tied to Canonical, has caused a minor tremor through the open source community. But even with all the controversy, it’s still worthwhile to load up 10.04 and see what all the buzz is about!

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A Microsoft Free Workplace in Six Months. Part 3

Well, I’ve been putting off updates on this for a few months, hoping that this project would begin moving forward again. It hasn’t, and for the life of me, I can not figure out why. The client has postponed the project due to a sudden surge in business. Their reasoning is that it would require too much retraining at a time where they don’t have time to retrain.

The confusing thing to me is that when asked what their findings were up to this point, they listed the following:

• Ubuntu systems operate faster then Windows systems.
• Ubuntu systems have better stability then Windows systems.
• Ubuntu is able to do all tasks we currently require to perform company related computing tasks.
• Ubuntu desktop can be tailored to incorporate shortcuts that end users can easily use.

The only negatives were:

• Ubuntu requires a rethinking regarding finding and installing software.
• Most end users will not be able to modify their own desktop without training

The second thing I would think would be a plus, but that’s the system administrator in me coming out.

So, for now, the project is stalled. So for now, so is this series of articles… 🙁

— Stu

Adventures in IPv6… Or how I spent my Xmas Vacation!

Whether you are a network administrator, an end user, or someone that falls in between, you are going to be hearing a lot about IPv6 in the coming years. If you’re in the business of delivering network services, then you need to get up to speed on this… Because before you know it, you will have a client or end user come up to you with a problem that IPv6 is involved in.

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