Month: February 2006

XAMPP

apache friends – xampp
XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

I installed the windows version on my laptop. My laptop still runs XP Home and I was thinking of running a local WordPress blog as a private journal. If it doesn’t work I can always remove it. The basic version also includes FileZilla Server. It took me awhile to work figure things out. I had to add a Firewall exception to get FileZilla to work. I restricted access to FileZilla to the local subnet. I am looking at using FTP to transfer(i.e. backup) files locally to the notebook without changing my workgroup.

I found some WordPress/DNS funkiness. The blog displays correctly when I access it via the VPN because the DNS and Blog URI match up. When I tried to connect to the blog with the VPN disconnected, I had to use the IP address.  WordPress builds the html based on the blog URI so there are a variety of problems.

Variety of failures consuming my time

Last week I got nailed on my regular workstation. It could not authenticate. I noticed it as as a POP3 problem I thought was related to Scanmail. Then my Firewall client started showing the infamous red X. I switched gears and accelerated the provisioning of my laptop so I could run payroll.

I cannot say that I have fixed the problem but I have fixed a couple of problems along the way and restored network access. I ran netdiag and dcdiag. Finding netdiag was the hardest part. It is located in the Cabinet file but is not installed by default. You need to manually extract it. The diagnostics did not tell me anything so far. DNS and DHCP seem to be okay.
My certificate autoenrollment failed on February 11 so I requested and installed a new certificate.
I do not know how it happened yet by I have network access to the server back. Http is working, too. POP3 still has problems. Oh, well!;)

RE: Stolen Laptop = No Liability. Just saw, via Bruce…

Just saw, via Bruce Schneier’s great security blog, a very interesting case discussing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley obligations of a financial institution to provide security regarding customer financial information. If you don’t know, GLB is in many ways the financial institution analog to HIPAA. In any event, an employee of a Student Loan company had a bunch of applicant financial information on his home laptop computer (the employee telecommuted). The house was burgled, the laptop stolen and never recovered. There was never any evidence that any of the information on the laptop was used for untoward purposes, and because of the way the employee worked at home, there was no way to know whose information was on the computer at the time it was stolen anyway. But the company notified all applicants that their information might’ve been compromised. Even though he had suffered no damages, one applicant sued. The court threw out the suit.

This obviously has implications for the Providence case.

[Via HIPAA Blog]

New Inspiron 9400 Laptop

My new laptop arrived yesterday. It is an Inspiron 9400 from Dell. The pricing was very attractive for this Centrino Duo. If you want a light, compact notebook this notebook is not for you. However, if you thirst for power and a big screen is greater than the inconvience of a heavier, larger notebook, this machine is right up your alley. I bought this as a box to demo server software and occasionally punch out DVDs for our farm. As a note to myself I deleted:

  1. Acrobat
  2. AOL
  3. Earthlink
  4. McAfee
  5. Java

I installed my virus checking software from TrendMicro and new versions of:

  1. Acrobat 7.07
  2. Java 1.5
  3. Flash and Shockwave

Then I installed my applications, Office 2003, Pinnacle Studio, QuickBooks, and Vmware. Someday soon I will upgrade to XP Pro but for the time being I will run with the Home version. There are trial versions of WordPerfect and QuickBooks Simple Start I will leave on for the time being.

You May Lose Data or Program Settings After Reinstalling, Repairing, or Upgrading Windows XP

You May Lose Data or Program Settings After Reinstalling, Repairing, or Upgrading Windows XP

You upgrade the Windows XP Home Edition installation that was preinstalled by your computer manufacturer to the retail version of Windows XP Professional.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, restore the missing data and program shortcuts from a backup.

To prevent this problem from occurring, use any of the following methods before you perform any of the actions that are listed in the “Symptoms” section of this article:

Method 1

Install the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/EN-US/) How to Obtain the Latest Windows XP Service Pack

Method 2

When you are prompted by Setup to get updated Setup files, click Yes, download the updated Setup files (Recommended), and then click Next. This option is not available if you are repairing Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, pressing ENTER to set up Windows XP, and then pressing R to repair the selected installation.

Method 3

Install the Windows XP Update Package, November 19, 2001, by using the Automatic Updates feature or the Windows Update Web site.

TechSpot’s Low-end PC Buying Guide @ TechSpot

TechSpot’s Low-end PC Buying Guide @ TechSpot

Basic Configuration – Under $600
Plus Windows XP Shipping and Taxes (if applicable):

  • AMD Sempron 3000 – $87
  • ASRock K8NF4GSATA2 Micro ATX – $65
  • Onboard video – $0
  • 512MB (256×2) PC3200 DDR – $50
  • Onboard sound – $0
  • Stereo speakers – $7
  • 80GB 7200RPM SATA – $55
  • BenQ 17” (FP71G ) – $215
  • DVD-ROM 16x – $20
  • Basic keyboard, mouse – $20
  • Inwin/Powmax budget case – $35

Recommended Configuration – About $1000
Plus Windows XP Shipping and Taxes (if applicable):

  • AMD Athlon 64 3200 Socket 939 – $170
  • MSI K8NGM2-FID Motherboard – $90
  • NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT – $120
  • 1GB PC3200 DDR – $85
  • Creative SB Audigy – $30
  • Logitech X-220 2.1 – $40
  • 200GB 7200RPM SATA – $90
  • Hyundai 19” (B90A) – $300
  • 16x Dual-Layer DVD±RW – $40
  • Basic keyboard, mouse – $20
  • CoolerMaster Centurion 5 (380w PSU) – $60

***************************************************

I have to admit that I have been looking at the MSI combination for as an inexpensive motherboard upgrade. My old AMD900 motherboard is toast. It had a problem about a month ago and the problem returned this month with a vengeance. I originally thought it was a disk drive or drive controller issue. Everything in it is old. Now I believe the problem is a motherboard or video card problem since it will no longer boot Ubuntu and it fails on the video card probe. I am not in a big rush since this is my dogfood server/workstation. Just the same I would like to get it back running and with the least cost. This happens to be the philosophy of a lot of non-profits IT planning, too. They run Win98 because of the computers that they bought or had donated to them. Our Habitat affiliate recently bought some 3-4 year old refurbished computers for about $45 a piece. They run W2K which is a nice step forward. The problem is that buying a new $400 Dell makes more business sense from a support standpoint. Those old components are going to fail and the interruption to the “business” is much more expensive than the components.

Live Meeting on Microsoft Small Business Accounting

This week I sat in on a Small Business Accounting webcast using Live Meeting. Participating in the using Live Meeting was pretty cool! The combination of sound, slides, and chat facilities to ask questions worked for me. I cannot say I paid 100% attention but I did get enough out of the presentation to get a much better idea of why some QuickBooks users will want to wait. I am a QuickBooks Payroll DIY’er. I am not sure Microsoft’s spreadsheet solution is where I want to go.

The MSDE solution used by SBA is probably a more elegant solution than QuickBooks 2006 solution. Sometime this quarter I will check SBA out but I am a little busy right now.

Trend Micro CSM 3

Today I changing out my old virus checking software with CSM 3. I had two retail versions of PC-cillin Internet Security 2005 and a copy of AVG for Exchange. They all worked and one license had expired and the other two were due to expire this month. The folks on the mailing lists have voiced serveral complaints about CSM 3 but I went ahead with it. Both PC-cillin Internet Security 2005 and CSM 2 are very solid products so I expect Trend Micro will quickly resolve the CSM 3 problems. I installed the server software and most of the clients quickly and without problems. I did have a problem when I tried to deploy the client software via Active Directory. The client turned red and had a problem updating. So I removed it and manually installed the client. I turned on the workstation firewall at the medium setting. So far so good!

I like the firewall dashboard. I have it running in an IE tab in FireFox.

Sageset Unlocks CleanMgr’s Power

LangaList Std Edition202002-04-04

I got to this page in following up on an investigation into low disk space thread on the SBS2K mailing list. Someone mentioned they like a SourceForge utility called WindDirStat for investigating disk space usage. I have always liked JDiskReport but I was game to try someone else’s favorite. It is interesting or at least the treemap is an interesting to display disk usage. Well, the thing that caught my eye was the .qbb files in the Temporary Internet Files for LocalService. Evidently when I restore a QuickBooks backup file from my sharepoint site it creates a temporary internet file. Interesting… but I do not need to keep those files around! I had about 300 MB of backups and some of the backups were from last year. So I set up about deleting these files in this almost completely hidden directory.

I found several recommendations but I opted to try the Fred Langa recommendation which I linked to above. Cleanmgr is a disk-cleanup manager included in all Windows from Win98 onward and was improved in W2K. Cleanmgr says it cleans up Temporary Internet files so I decided to let it have the first shot at cleaning up the files. So I followed his directions and ran Cleanmgr with the option, “/sageset:99”, to set some of the advanced options. I told it delete Temporary Internet files, temporary files, some setup files, but I did not empty the Recycle bin. I ran Cleanmgr again with the option set to “/sagerun:99” and the files disappeared. Now I can run Cleanmgr in a batch file to clean up these files on a routine basis.

RE: ISA 2004 sp2 (do not do this remotely and read the release notes)

ISA server 2004 sp2 just released on the download site and since we are READING the release notes before installing…they say…

If ISA Server services are installed, ISA Server will enter lockdown mode during installation. Following installation, the ISA Server computers or array members will have to be restarted

That means… you either have that SBSPodcast recommended setting where your IP address is a trusted network…. or better yet, you don’t do this SP remotely at all and you do any firewall service packs on site.

[Via E-Bitz – SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS “Diva”]

I updated my ISA server yesterday and yes… I was in front of my server. It was uneventful 🙂