KCLUG November 2005

kclug@kclug.org

43 participants
67 discussions

RE: Somewhat OT: Spyware or Cancerous Software?
by Kelsay, Brian - Kansas City, MO 07 Nov '05

07 Nov '05

Are we now able to read AND write safely to NTFS? If so, is the same true for the NTFS that Windows 2000 and XP use, NTFS 5.0? This is what keeps me from having all my Winders installs in total NTFS format. I always leave at least one small partition as FAT32 for transfer. One BIG problem I have is that all my MP3s and movie files are in NTFS drives and too big to copy all at once over to a ext3 or other type of partition. I think I saw a ext FS plug-in for Windows. Anybody ever try that? ******************************************* If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. - Robert X. Cringely -----Original Message----- From:On Behalf Of Monty J. Harder Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 4:44 PM Subject: Re: Somewhat OT: Spyware or Cancerous Software? I'm with Hans Reiser on this. The Registry per se exists because MS filesystems do a horrible job of storing small snippets of information. For example, the command echo "hello" >test.txt under most Unices will generally take either 512, 1024 bytes of disk space for the inode, and a few more for the directory entry. But in MS FAT filesystems, that same file is going to use up as much as 32 (or in a particularly perverse situation, 64) Kb. It's not quite so horrible under NTFS, but FAT was the norm when the Registry was invented.

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RE: Content filtering applicance
by Kelsay, Brian - Kansas City, MO 07 Nov '05

07 Nov '05

By "content filtering", I'm assuming you mean web content. Easiest thing I've found is IPCop, www.ipcop.org, for firewall, Squid proxy (content filtering), basic server add-ons available for all kinds of stuff, but I'd recommend seperating that stuff to another server. If you use Squid, you will need a little more ram than a basic IPCop box. I'd say any where from 64 or 128 MB on up. This and the processor required is dependent on the number of clients. For the 20-30 clients you could try a Pentium I or II, say up to a 500MHz and start with 128 or 256 MB. Also you will need a hard drive from 2GB on up to 10GB. If you had several older boxes that are exactly alike, I'd recycle them into a IPCop box and a cold spare. You could probably have the spare up in 10-30 minutes if you had to do updates or duplicate some network changes. In reality, you could use ANY Linux distro and just add a second NIC, Squid proxy and NAT, but why make extra work for yourself? There are free appliance -like Linux distros, but this is one I'm familiar with and have used for over 2 years. Brian Kelsay ******************************************* If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. - Robert X. Cringely -----Original Message----- From: On Behalf Of Denise Owen Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 6:06 AM To: kclug(a)kclug.org Subject: Content filtering applicance I am looking for an application to filter the content for a small school I have been working with. It looks like the best solution would be the appliance/software combination. I thought maybe someone might have some recommendations. I know that the budget is very limited. The school only has 25 to 30 computers at the present time and probably won't ever have more than 40 to 50. Thanks Denise

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RE: Content filtering applicance
by Daniel Siemens 07 Nov '05

07 Nov '05

Check out astaro.com. If they are to expensive look at Ipcop.org and than athe addons section for a copplus. ________________________________ From: kclug-bounces(a)kclug.org [mailto:kclug-bounces@kclug.org] On Behalf Of Denise Owen Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 6:06 AM To: kclug(a)kclug.org Subject: Content filtering applicance I am looking for an application to filter the content for a small school I have been working with. It looks like the best solution would be the appliance/software combination. I thought maybe someone might have some recommendations. I know that the budget is very limited. The school only has 25 to 30 computers at the present time and probably won't ever have more than 40 to 50. Thanks Denise

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Somewhat OT: Spyware or Cancerous Software?
by Jack 06 Nov '05

06 Nov '05

Was just repairing a clients Windows machine yesterday. The spyware infection reminded me more of a cancer than anything else. If you don't get every last bit you'll get reinfected. The worst part is this malicious code puts itself in the registry, and with the ability to hide registry entries and to hide files from the file managers, cleaning may not be possible unless you know how to unhide this stuff. While the same can be done with Linux by replacing certain system tools, there is no registry to deal with. This is itself a great boost to cleaning an infected Linux system. There is no need to scour a registry looking for cryptic keys, that have no relationship to the infecting program(s). This is a great asset, since this particular system had been infected since July! Hence even were he to have kept backups of the registry, it is unlikely he'd still have a pre-infection copy of the registry. While it is a nice idea to have a central database where one can configure everything on the system, it was an extremely bad idea to make it so cryptic and accessible for abuse. Anyway that's my thought for the day. Avoid the cancer that Windows has become, use Linux. P.S. This one spyware program made over 200 entries in the registry, had over 1600 copies of bits of itself hidden in various locations (each of which were enough to spawn a new infection), and was running about 40 copies of itself in memory (thus maxing out the CPU whenever the infected user logged in). Brian JD

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OpenOffice.org Bloatware?
by Leo Mauler 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Saw this on /. http://slashdot.org/articles/05/10/27/1425232.shtml?tid=185 After spending an entire ITEC exposition extolling the virtues of OOo, this crops up to claim that OOo has memory usage issues and very slow startup times. I'll admit that I haven't used M$ Office all that much, but I don't seem to notice a significant time period between running OOo and starting to write a document or create a spreadsheet. Has anyone else who uses both noticed the kind of lag on OOo that the article author describes? The Slashdot replies also go into the point that most people have M$ Office already, legally or illegally, so we can't talk "free" without running up against all the illegal copies out there which were also, technically, "free". One Slashdot reply says that Longhorn will make the "free" case for OOo by preventing people from running illegal copies of M$ software. Does anyone know about this in more detail? __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

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Job Opportunity
by Sexton, Kyle 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

All, My company has a job opening that I thought might interest users on this list. Please go to http://www.gsihosting.com/careers/submit-resume-to-gsi.aspx to submit your resume. We are looking to have all resumes in by Monday of next week. Network Engineer Schedule: Saturday & Sunday Midnight -12:30, Monday & Tuesday 8:00am-4:30pm Job Description: Responsible for the configuration, operation, and administration of servers running Windows and Linux. Design and implement solutions to customer issues. Take incoming calls from valued customers to assist with a variety of issues. Help customers on both dedicated and shared server platforms. Install PC components in order to fit server requirements. Create cross connects from core routers to customer end-points. Perform daily maintenance and monitoring of core infrastructure (Power, Air Conditioning, and Security). Assist with workstation support and deployment. ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: - Install and configure Windows - Install and configure Linux - Monitor servers and respond to server issues - Develop accurate solutions to customer problems - Assist customers on the telephone - Configure ports on switches - Add/Remove/Change firewall rules - Document problem resolution procedures - Dependable regular attendance DUTIES: - Respond effectively and promptly to customer issues - Act on any server problems to restore functionality - Daily monitoring of environmental conditions - Communicates effectively with peers - Assist internally with workstation support and server support - Performing tasks related to backups and offsite storage of GSI and client data SUPPORTING JOB FUNCTIONS: - Assist with support of custom software application - Wire and cable of network infrastructure as demand arises REQURIED SKILLS: - Linux - Scripting and Automation(Perl or VBScript) - Windows Server (2000/2003) - IIS 5 and 6 - Active Directory (Design, Implement, Manage) - Routing - Firewalls - Microsoft SQL - Server Applications (FTP/E-Mail/Telnet/HTTP) - Network Documentation (Visio/Word/Excel) - Communications Skills - Strong or Excellent - MCP/MCSE - Highly Preferable Thanks, Kyle Sexton

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strange bind behavior
by crash3m 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

I'm running bind 9.2.4-2 on a CentOS 4.0 server. The last week or so I've noticed some oddities in the logs. Here are some examples Oct 30 04:32:52 ns1 named[16917]: dispatch 0xb56f3f70: shutting down due to TCP receive error: connection reset Oct 30 04:32:52 ns1 named[16917]: dispatch 0xb5b3ef18: shutting down due to TCP receive error: connection reset Oct 30 04:32:52 ns1 named[16917]: dispatch 0xb5b3ef18: shutting down due to TCP receive error: connection reset Oct 30 04:32:52 ns1 named[16917]: dispatch 0xb56f3f70: shutting down due to TCP receive error: connection reset The frequency of this fluctuates considerably, between 2 and 200 times a day. I'm concerned that someone may be utilizing an exploit that hasn't been released/announced to the public. Can anyone help explain what I'm seeing here? I've dug through the dispatch source, but I don't speak c/c++ so its greek to me. Matt -- Got gmail? I do hahaha

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KCLUG November 2005