May 8, 2008
Downloaded and installed SP3 to see how it goes and I’m happy to report no fires. it’s just a roll-up of all the other patches so I wasn’t expecting much but at least it didn’t go service pack 2 on me and crash the computers. The only trouble I had was the computer went into hibernate mode before the update was finished and the install failed so I had to do it all over again. One more funny note: after SP3 was installed, I had to install another 3 patches. Never ending loop these updates are.
Update: SP3 doesn’t have any major software changes except you won’t be able to downgrade to IE6 from IE7 unless you uninstall the service pack. Source: InfoWorld
Service Pack 3 download page
Posted in System Support 
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May 2, 2008
Problem: Using Astaro content filter, we were having issues with people using anonymous proxies to bypass the filter using HTTPS (port 443) instead of standard port 80. Turns out that the Astaro content filter only processes port 80 traffic, thus leaving a pretty big hole for us to fill. I could use packet filter rules to block these sites but that would be a never ending ordeal of individually adding site after site. Since these types of sites come up everyday, there would be such a long list, it would, most likely, affect the performance if the firewall.
Solution: Listen to a Security Now podcast that was on TWIT.TV and heard about OpenDNS. This free service filters your email by DNS
request instead of port. Therefore HTTPS traffic and any other traffic requests for that site will be blocked. All you have to do is register with OpenDNS, configure your network and setup what you want blocked. This took me about 20 minutes to accomplish.
OpenDNS is a perfect tool for a business, school or home environment where you need a bit of added security and comfort. Would, I recommend using OpenDNS by itself? Probably not. The reason being that it’s based on DNS so all someone needs to do is have the IP address of a site or change the DNS settings on the workstation and they can bypass the filter. But a tow pronged approach of Astaro and OpenDNS is very useful indeed. I’m sure there will be ways to circumvent this solution coming soon but in the mean time, I’ll take solace in knowing there are some frustrated students that can’t get to MySpace today. : )
Links of Interest:
Astaro
OpenDNS
Security Now!
Posted in Astaro, Internet, Software 2 Comments »
May 1, 2008
About two months ago, I ran across a cool little program called BitMeter. It allows you to monitor your internet connection on your workstation in real time. I first started to use it to see if there were any programs accessing the Internet without my knowledge and I ended up keeping it because it’s kind of a cool too. The only problem with this program is that it keep a log and now there is proof that I’m on the Internet way too much. Just looked at Aprils stats and I see that I downloaded over 17GB of data that month. Must be all those video podcasts that I subscribe too. Anyway, give BitMeter a look and leave a comment to share your stats, if you dare. I’m sure that my 17gigs is nothing compared to some.
BTW it works just fine in Vista. Wish there was a gadget to put in my sidebar.
BitMeter II Bandwidth Meter
Posted in Internet, Software, Tools No Comments »
April 24, 2008
Problem: When accessing certain sites on the Internet, I get a timeout error and the page never comes up. I have noticed this on sites like Gaggle.net and some forum sites. What they both had in common were scripts and redirects. I can access the site outside the firewall so I know that it isn’t down so I knew that it was Astaro. BTW, we are using Astaro Security Gateway 7.104.
Solution: It turns out my intrusion protection settings were too strict. I checked the IPS live log and saw that it was registering false positives for my session and dropping the packets. What worked for me was to do the following:
- Login to Astaro
- Go to the “Network Security” section and click on “Intrusion Protection.”
- Click on the “Attack Patterns” and either uncheck the “Other HTTP Servers” box or set it to “alert.”
After that, I was able to access the sites that were timing out. Please be aware that this also turns off some protection for your network. If you want to do something like this, it would be a good idea to set it to “Alert” so you can see if there are any real attacks happening so you can react accordingly.
Posted in Astaro, Internet No Comments »
April 23, 2008
Problem: Last week we were given a challenge to publish podcast’s and to do it quickly without any new hardware or purchasing software. Thanks to Podcastingnews.com, I found something that worked for us.
Solution: Decided to use LoudBlog which is a free PHP based software that is similar to blog software. However, they emphasize that this is not intended for blogging but if all you need to do is get your podcast out to the masses, this is your software. Installation was as easy as the famous WordPress 5 minute install and all you need is a web server with PHP and MYSQL. Our particular installation was on an IIS 6 box on Windows 2003.
The administration piece of LoudBlog is easy to use in uploading files and customizing the look of your site. You have choices to upload your podcast via the web, FTP the files to an upload directory or reference it by a web address. Once file is uploaded, fill in the description, tags and categories and you are ready to go live. RSS feeds are automatically created when you add posts and are compatible with iTunes. LoudBlog has 4 templates to choose which are simple to modify to match the look of your existing web or a design you already have in mind.
All-in-all, LoudBlog has worked extremely well for our situation, which is a intranet podcast. Can I recommend it for a high traffic podcast site? I couldn’t tell you since I haven’t tested it in that type of atmosphere but for someone that is just starting a podcast or looking for something different, you should give this a look. If anyone else is using LoudBlog, please leave a comment on how it performs for you. I’m interested to hear how it works in higher traffic sites. We are looking to implement this to publish podcast’s to the public as well.
Posted in Internet, Software No Comments »
