Archive for the ‘Computer Integration’ Category

Vietnam to widely use open source software

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Vietnam’s government will require its ministries and state agencies to install and become proficient in open source software. There are various stages to the adoption of open source software products like OpenOffice, Mozilla ThunderBird, Mozilla FireFox web browser and the Vietnamese typing software Unikey. By June 30, 2009 all clients of the IT divisions of the agencies are mandated to be using open source software.

The ministries themselves must have and be using 70 percent of open source software by December 31, 2009. Finally by Dec 31, 2010, all staff in these agencies must be able to use open source software in their jobs. By then most information and documents will be exchanged using only open source software. The government is also encouraging computer traders to install open source software on computers rather then “cracked software”.  More information is available here

Posted in Computer Integration, Implementation, Open Source | No Comments »

Network drives randomly disconnect issue solved

Monday, December 15th, 2008

The network drives on one of our workstations would periodically disconnect and then for no reason reconnect. This would only occur on this particular workstation. If this workstation was rebooted, the map to the other network drives would sometimes disappear. Sometimes repairing the connection in the network connections window would get them back. Other times rebooting that workstation would fix the problem. We would get a “An error occurred while reconnecting N: to \\computer name\shared-drive. : The network path was not found. This connection has not been restored.” error.

Some back ground here. The workstation in question was running Windows XP Pro SP3 with all patches up to date. This issue also occurred with XP Pro SP2. We have a peer-to-peer network and do not use a domain. This had been going on for a long time; maybe months. It was more of an annoyance than a problem. Francis, one of our technical associates spent some time on this, but couldn’t resolve it.

Finally I did a Google search and came up with the solution at Microsft Knowledge Base 903267.  It basically suggests deleting 2 registry entries if they exist. They did. I deleted them and rebooted the workstation. The network drives automatically reconnected. Another one solved,

Posted in Computer Integration, Network Security, Tools & Utilities | No Comments »

VPN connection problem finally solved

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

We use Symantec Gateway Security 360R firewall appliances to protect the servers from malicious attacks, virus intrusions and to provide a way of establishing a secure connection for updates and investigating problems on the remote sites. Although the SGS 360R appliances are no longer sold by Symantec, they do have a limited amount of support.

For some reason, the Symantec Client VPN software stopped working on my main computer. I would attempt to launch the Client VPN and almost immediately would get an error.

“Error connecting tunnel . The server rejected the ISAKMP security association. Make sure that the Phase1 ID, shared key and IKE policy are correct. Terminating connect operation.”

ISAKMP (Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol) is a protocol for establishing Security Associations (SA) and cryptographic keys in an Internet environment. Internet Key Exchange (IKE or IKEv2) is the protocol used to set up a security association (SA) in the IPsec protocol suite. IKE uses a Diffie-Hellman key exchange to set up a shared session secret, from which cryptographic keys are derived. Public key techniques or, alternatively, a pre-shared key, are used to mutually authenticate the communicating parties.

I tried reentering the Phase1 ID and the shared key and checked to ensure the IKE policy was correct. I checked the Symantec site for the error at Error: “Error connecting tunnel [appliance IP address]. The server rejected the ISAKMP security association . . .”. I uninstalled any software that was potentially blocking port 500. Port 500 is used by the Client VPN to make a connection. Nothing seemed to work.

I uninstalled the Client VPN software. I deleted any entries in the registry that Symantec may have left behind. I reinstalled the Client VPN software. Still it didn’t work. I deleted all of the IP connection addresses. I added them back in. Still it didn’t work. The same error kept popping up.

Finally in desperation, I asked Saint Anthony if he could help. Saint Anthony is the saint who helps to find things we’ve lost and, in this case, finds a solution to the problem. So before you knew it, the thought of deleting the user and password for the Client VPN came to me. This deleted not only the user, but all of the connections. I recreated the user and one by one added the IP connections. Sure enough, one by one they connected as they should. Problem solved after hours of frustration. Thanks Saint Anthony!!

Posted in Computer Integration, Network Security, Spam | No Comments »

Keep Your USB Drive Close with a Clothes Pin

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

I saw this article on gizmodo.com. It’s at Keep Your USB Drive Close with a Clothes Pin

While this may be a novel way of keeping track of where your USB drive is, there are other alternatives. One of my USB drives is attached to my key chain. Another I got from a Microsoft event that contained highlights of the talks given that day. This was in lieu of a CD/DVD. It has a ribbon that is attached to the drive and  can be worn around your neck.

Interesting and fun ways to keep your USB drive safe.

Posted in Computer Integration, Fun stuff, Network Security | No Comments »

How to Secure Laptops from U.S. Government’s Prying Eyes

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

In a recent article, eweek.com reports that the U.S. government has recently been given full permission to check the contents of laptops and mobile devices belonging to travelers passing into the United States at border control checkpoints. According to my brother, John, they can do the same with your MP3 player if they suspect the music has been obtained illegally. This permission covers not only non-Americans but extends to American residents returning home from abroad.

The article states … On April 21, 2008, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals essentially gave the U.S. Government carte blanche permission to check any and every piece of data on laptops belonging to travelers passing into the United States at border control checkpoints.

There are three simple steps to take before crossing U.S. border points.

1. Make a full backup of the contents of your laptop. It’s also good practice to do regular backups of laptops just in case it’s stolen. Backup to a server or a portable hard drive that’s not taken on the trip.

2. Encrypt all sensitive and confidential data on the laptop. There are suites available such as Sybase Afaria, Credant, Trust Digital, PGP, RSA and Utimaco. It they are being used currently, now is the time to implement them.

3. Finally, inform every business traveler of the new rules, and make sure they understand that the new security regimen is not optional.

Full article is at How to Secure Laptops from U.S. Government’s Prying Eyes

Posted in Computer Integration, Network Security | No Comments »

Recycling computers is good for the environment

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

This week I got down to sorting through computers and computer parts that were literally collecting dust in the office. There must have been 6 boxes of cables, motherboards, interface cards, obsolete hard drives and miscellaneous computer peripherals. As well there were a couple of old tube type monitors.

My friend told me about an e-waste amnesty week in the municipality this week. This is what got me focused on sorting through the computer equipment to reduce, reuse and recycle. I mentioned to my brother, John, that I was doing this. He said another brother, Ed, needed a computer for their firehall lounge. They were looking for a good computer for a reasonable price and free sounded really good. So I found a case, motherboard, hard drive and other parts to make a computer for the fire fighters. I’m more than happy to give this to the fire fighters because fire fighters are the true heroes in our society. They put their lives in danger every time they respond to any emergency call.

As I was going through the stuff, I found some hard drives a customer who upgraded their systems gave me and that my friend Bob could use in his computers. As well, I tested out 4 other computers and found 3 that were older models but basically operational. So Bob offered to take these 3 off my hands. He’ll install Linux on them, add old monitors from his office and he promised to find a good home for them. He also took a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch which he can use and that I no longer use. The fourth computer would not start up and after several attempts at trying various fixes, I gave up. This one will head to my friend’s for the e-waste amnesty week.

I also found obsolete network switches, broken speakers, my first cell phone, a broken modem, old hard drives that don’t work, an old calculator, an obsolete printer switch, a broken hand scanner and other miscellaneous parts that could be rendered for their scrap value. There are precious metals in some of these parts as well as toxic materials. One of the monitors will go to the e-waste site while the other will be used for the fire fighter’s computer.

So when Bob came over to pick up the 3 computers, we went out for dinner. My beautiful wife went with us and at the end of the meal, she paid for dinner. So for Bob’s effort to drive over, he not only got some free computers and peripherals, but he got a free dinner. She was more than happy to see the equipment go. We also helped to keep these items out of the landfill and worked towards a cleaner and better environment.

Posted in Computer Integration, General | No Comments »

Backups will save your business !!

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Today, I went to see a client about cleaning up some loose ends. I had spent about 45 minutes and had one more item to resolve. I was looking forward to finishing and leaving to meet a colleague for lunch. Then one of the ladies entering information into our system said there was an error on her screen “file access denied”. I was looking at trying to resolve the issue when another person said they had a similar error. Then came a third and a fourth.  Every workstation accessing our application had a similar “file access denied” error.

In the past two weeks, one of the workstations had a virus. It was checked and virii were eliminated. The fellow responsible for the overall updates on the network and anti virus software suggested that one of the virii could have migrated to the server. He gave me a link to the latest virus definitions. We updated the anti virus program, ran the virus scan and after 90 minutes, the server came back clean.

Eventually, Mike, our senior programmer, determined that the index files in our application had become corrupted. All files are re indexed by the first user into the system on a given day.  The person who normally starts up the system was delayed getting in. By coincidence a new hire started up the system. Whether they rebooted their workstation thinking this start up re indexing looked wrong or by some other fluke, the indexes didn’t get unlocked properly.

So, Mike went to the previous day’s back up and copied all the indexes to the server, re indexed the files and within minutes everyone was up and running again. Lesson learned – make sure you have a good backup when things go wrong.

Posted in Computer Integration, Network Security | 1 Comment »

Planning is important in deploying software applications.

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

I spent the last three days doing work that I thought was someone else’s responsibility. Normally we’re responsible for installing one of our software applications on a network that has already been set up with servers, workstations and servers functioning properly with remote access to the head office.

When I arrived at the branch office on Tuesday, all the equipment was sitting piled in a corner. The final network hook ups had not been terminated. The electrician, who left 30 minutes before I arrived, thought that I was going to terminate the network cables. Although I could have done the final hook up, I didn’t bring my tools to do the job. My understanding, based on the head office personnel instructions, was that all of the network infrastructure was already in place. While we waited for the electrician, I went about physically locating all the equipment I could. Again not our responsibility. The electrician arrived about an hour after I arrived. He stayed and waited to make sure that all equipment was functioning on the network. After about 2 hours, we were able get down to the application.

Part of our agreement with the client was that head office and we would have remote access to each branch. This would allow them to get reports and make changes to data without traveling to the branch. It would also give us access to branch servers for software upgrades and trouble shooting support without having to be on site. Another person from head office was responsible for setting up the remote access. We didn’t have remote access.The branch was closing so I agreed to return the next day.

On Wednesday, I worked on the remote connection. Still no remote connection. So after talking to the individual responsible, we tried a few things and in the process crashed the modem to the internet. Tried a few other fixes that didn’t work. So I called Bell Business Internet. See the blog entry on resolving the crash modem at http://www.softwarestrategies.ca/blog/?cat=5 .

After getting the modem working, I went to install Ultra VNC

Posted in Computer Integration, Implementation, Network Security, Software Development | No Comments »