1. January 2009 by admin.

I am running MS Windows Vista Ultimate on my laptop and I have downloaded the latest version of iTunes v.8.x. Since this update has been installed I am having issues to sync my iPOD with the iTunes and usually it will take few seconds before the sync process stops and I will receive this message on my screen:

Once I click the “Close program” all is closed and I am out of luck. This has been happening for last few weeks since I have installed the version 8. Previous versions have no issues and I never received this error message. So, this being said, I am begun my investigation .. obviously the APPLE forum sucks. Google did not bring anything up. So I had to start  step by step.

1. I have looked at my iPOD .. I have been syncing everything including the Outlook address book and calendar in my Outlook 2007

2.  I have the latest version of everything and all patches, fixes

So, I started the iTunes and start paying around the options what to sync and that was it .. once the iPod picked up and tried to sync w/Outlook 2007, Outlook tried to open and there was the error. I tried to delete relationship between the iPOD and MS Outlook .. no luck .. always crashed before I had a chance to click APPLY to accept the change. I have modified my Outlook little a bit so there was a delay. Here we go .. problem found .. as long as I did not open the Outlook . .syncing was fine and iTunes runs. Once Outlook has opened .. all stopped and crashed and produced the error.

Here is the small price to pay and correct or removed this issue .. simple you have to removed/cancel the sync with MS Outlook. Only way I have found is to restore to factory settings and re-sync and setup your iPOD from beginning.

• Reconnect your iPOD
• Wait till the iPOD appears in iTUNES
• Click on your iPOD in the menu and you have two options (Check for updates or Restore)
• Click restore, you will be asked if you really want it .. select YES .. it takes few seconds and your iPOD is in factory settings
• DO NOT DISCONNECT the iPOD, wait .. the iPOD will restart and you will see APPLE logo on screen .. wait .. it will reappear in the iTUNES again
• Once is back and reconnected .. you will have a chance to rename your iPOD and select what you want to sync
• Once completed .. iPOD will re-sync and reload all your music and what is more important  == it will work again

-

It seems that the issue was between the MS Outlook 2007 and the iTunes 8 .. once the relationship is gone .. the error message is gone

Posted in Troubleshooting | Print | No Comments »

29. December 2008 by admin.

Sometimes you need to rebuild a pc or you are helping friend to fix his pc and you know that the last part of the process - patching will be the worst time killer in entire process.  You have installed fresh OS with SP2/SP3 and you still need to run updates and latest patches. This process can take a long time. If you have just stand alone pc and not running network with some sort of WSUS so you can get the patches faster .. good tool in this situation comes handy. One of my favorite tools for this job is  the ctupdate now version 5.0 released September 2008 by Heise Security. They maintain this project and releasing new versions with new features every few months. I know this company for some time and I have used the tool few times. It is very easy to use. Simply download the zip package, unzip on your desktop.

Once you unzipped the file, you will find a folder ctpupdate on your desktop, inside are few folders and one fancy icon = UpdateGenerator. Once you click on it, you will be served with menu and options so you can really make your selection what product patches you need and in which language.

Current version is now supporting: Windows XP x32/x64,  Server 2003, Server 2008 and MS Office suites 2000-2007. Also you can make selection if you would like to create ISO image per product and language. Basically once the process is completed the software will create ISO images. You will burn the image on DVD/CD and you’ve your WSUS in pocket. Patching will take significantly shorter time than downloading the patches from MS Update site.

Offline Update project can be found here Happy patching.

Posted in Tools | Print | No Comments »

19. December 2008 by admin.

As yo use the system on daily basis you also build a repository of junk on system that is left behind from any software installation. The system is like a  good collector and keeps some fragments for “worse time” and this unnecessary junk is just accumulating on your system and taking space.

Good news here, there is a free cleaner script released under GPL for your use that you can run on your Ubuntu or any Debian based system and clean the system up and remove these fragments left behind.

———-

Ubucleaner is a simple bash script that help you to keep your computer clean.
Features:
- Clean apt cache
- Remove config files left from uninstalled .deb packages(it happens if you don’t use the –purge switch with apt-get)
- Remove every kernel except the one you are using
- Empty the trashes of every user(including root)

It uses apt and the kernel removing thing searches for ubuntu-only packages, so it can’t work on non-debian system and the result is undetermined for other debian-based system, but you can still use the other features of the script(you’ll just have to comment the parts you don’t want).
———–

Script is available for download here

The installation is very easy:

1. Download the script

2. type sudo chmod +x ubucleaner.sh

3. and execute the script by typing ./ubucleaner.sh

Posted in Linux | Print | No Comments »

19. December 2008 by admin.

After goofing around and testing and end up with recovery of my HP Media Home server I would like to note on this subject which antivirus solution is good and available for your Home Server. I assumed that if the Home server is actually almost same as Server 2003 that Grisoft AVG File server antivirus should work on the server — big mistake Thankfully it was only test drive so now I can say that AVG File Server antivirus solution is not good for for Home Server and it does not work. You will be able to install the product but once you finish last NEXT in the wizard you will be locked out from your Home server and you will have no connection to the server. There is only one fiz .. get the Recovery Set CD, press the Reset button on front side of the server and follow up the steps to recover to factory state. It takes around 1.5 hour to recover to the default factory state.

So which antivirus solution is available for the HP Media Smart Home Server? So far I have found that only 3 products are certified and available for the server:

1. McAfee Total Security Solution (manual) 7 months free trial then you will need to pay .. however this slows down the HP dramatically
2. Avast Home Server Edition($65.87 CAD) with 1/2/3 years subscription -works perfectly more can be found here
3. F-Secure Home Server Security 2009 ($65.25USD) available no long time ago and more info can be found here
4. BitDefender and Avira they just started work on their line of product for Home server … some betas available

The installation of Avast Home Server edition was very straight forward. You will receive link to download the product as a MSI package, once downloaded, place it into Home Server - Software/Add-ins folder and the software becomes available immediately in your add-ins. Log on to your server with the console, click on Settings/Add-Ins and Available Add-Ins and install. It will take few clicks,pointing to the folder as you must point to the folder or place where you have save the License.Dat file with your license. It is very short process and you are up and protected almost at no time.

Home Server recovery process:

• Put the Recovery CD into the CD-ROM on your computer
• Power down the Home Server by pressing power button, once pressed and you see the from lights coming up, you have to press RESET button .. it is next to lights on front panel (small hole) - use a paper clip .. press once and once you see the lights flashing  go back to your PC
• Now run the Recovery software from CD .. you follow up the the steps and trying to find and connect to your Home Server - what I have found out .. I had to remove the additional drives and keep only the original drive in the server in order to successfully connect. With all 4 drives it failed  many times, once only the original drive was in .. I located and connected to the server immediately
• You will have 2 options — restore OS or entire server to factory state …I selected factory restore and it has taken time, probably 1.5 hour
• Once restored .. you follow up same steps to setup the server like first time — clean setup
• Good thing, you can use again same server name with the .homesever.com service

So far I can say that I love this product. It has its special place on my network and it is really worth the money. Only one thing I cannot understand is why HP has chosen to start the server line with only 512MB of RAM. In my opinion this server should be available from the shelf right away with 4 GB of RAM. This would help this great product really boost the performance.

Posted in Home Server, How-To | Print | No Comments »

18. December 2008 by admin.

Today December 17, 2008 Microsoft has released a critical security patch for Internet Explorer 5,6,7, and 8 Beta 2.  This affects all Microsoft Windows operating systems that are running any one of the previously stated Internet Explorers.  The patch is recommended to be installed immediately.  If not installed remote codes can be executed on user’s machines just by a user visiting a website.  Microsoft has said that there have already been thousands of reports of WebPages that have the malicious code.

.From the New Microsoft Security Advisory MS08-078

This alert is to provide you with an overview of the new security bulletin being released (out-of-band) on December 17, 2008. Microsoft has released security bulletin MS08-078, Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714), to address a vulnerability in all currently supported versions of Internet Explorer . This security update was released outside of the usual monthly security bulletin release cycle in an effort to protect customers.

.Executive Summary

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding parameters and handles the error resulting in the exploitable condition.

This security update also addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 961051

Posted in Security | Print | No Comments »

18. December 2008 by admin.

PsExec – just quickly — is a free tool/utility that let you execute some processes on remote machine. It is very powerful tool and there are many uses for network admin to make his life easy.

Here is simple integration of the tool into VB script (simple copy/paste and save as VBS file):

Initiate the WSUS client on remote computer

StrComputer = “.”
Set wshShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
wshShell.Run “C:\Tools\psexec.exe \\” & strComputer & ” wuauclt /detectnow ”

Register DLL file on remote computer

StrComputer = “.”
Set wshShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
wshShell.Run “C:\Tools\psexec.exe \\” & strComputer & ” regsrv32 /s MyDLL.dll ”

You can easily use the tool/utility in command line if you wish and run the same above from command line.

Some other uses:

• Get IPconfig on remote machine psexec \\remotepc ipconfig/all
• Copy and execute interactively   psexec \\remotepc -c Myfile.exe
• Get Command Prompt                  psexec \\remotepc cmd
  

Download the tool from Microsoft Technet site

Posted in Command Line, Tools | Print | No Comments »

16. December 2008 by admin.

It did not take so long and we have another issue with Facebook here. It is not enough that a worm is crawling the Facebook network and lurking unsuspected users to infect their computers. Today was just posted result of few researchers  on XSSED.com website where they have published and announced very critical and serious issues with XSS - cross-site scripting vulnerability that can lead in phishing attacks and ID theft.

So lets hope that the Facebook will act promptly and fix this issue very quickly. More info on this security issue can be found here

Posted in Security | Print | No Comments »

13. December 2008 by admin.

I was just goofing around the net and found very handy add-in for users of Facebook. I believe this is better that the toolbar for your browser. This add-in is very light and it works very smooth with MS Outlook 2007. It does not slowing down the productivity or freezing up as Facebook toolbar for Firefox.

This add in or tool if you wish is available at best price - FREE and can be downloaded from developer website here.

Features

• Update your Facebook status directly from Outlook.
• Set your status to the name of the song you’re playing in iTunes or WMP.
• See your friend statuses.
• See notifications of new Friend Requests, Messages, Invites, Pokes, etc..

Screen shots and more info is available at developer website here It really does what suppose to “FBLook seamlessly integrates Facebook into Outlook.”

Posted in Tools | Print | No Comments »

11. December 2008 by admin.

However I am using the paid version of VoIP Xten client-BRIA on my Windows machines, I was wondering if this will work on Linux box as well. Xten or CounterPath as the company is called now based in Vancouver, BC has also developed and provided a free VoIP client so called Xten-lite that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. This is really lite version of the paid software but it does what I need (place and receive calls).

I have installed and configured the xten client on the Ubuntu box:

1. download the Xten client for Linux from here

2.  tar -xzvf X-lite_Install.tar.gz  it will untar and create a directory xten-xlite

3. there is only the executable so now type  chmod +x xtensoftphone and then run ./xtensoftphone

4. You may receive an error that you are missing libstdc++5 .. this is easy fix

5. sudo apt-get install libstdc++5   — it will download and install the missing library

6. now try again ./xtensoftphone — you should be good to go and see the GUI for Xten

7. now just configure your client with settings you have received from your VoIP provider

NOTE: Known issues per CounterPath = Using GSM codec might crash on some platform combination

Posted in Linux, How-To | Print | No Comments »

11. December 2008 by admin.

I have just checked one of my system and it seems that Microsoft made December patches available. I see 7 critical updates for Windows XP  available in Windows Update.

• KB890830 - update for Malicious Software Removal Tool
• KB952069 - security update for WinXp Sp3
• KB954600 - security update for WinXP
• KB956802 - security update for WinXP
• KB958215  - cumulative update for IE7
• KB955839 - update for WinXP

From the Microsoft Security Response Center:

The new bulletins for this month are:

·        MS08-070: Vulnerabilities in Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files (ActiveX Controls) Could Allow Remote Code Execution (932349) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-071: Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956802) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-072: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957173) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-073: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (958215) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-074: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959070) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-075: Vulnerabilities in Windows Search Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959349) which is rated “Critical”

·        MS08-076: Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959807) which is rated “Important”

·        MS08-077: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Could Cause Elevation of Privilege (957175) which is rated “Important”

 More info can be found here

Posted in Security | Print | No Comments »