29 June 2007

VPN PPTP Sudden problem in Vista in microsoft.public.isa.vpn

VPN PPTP Sudden problem in Vista in microsoft.public.isa.vpn: "I have used vista business since its launch and I am using PPTP VPN, to a MS
VPN Server at work to connect to the business network. I've done so
succesfully for a couple of months and since a week or two it stoped working."

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.isa.vpn&tid=731aeddd-1a73-45d5-afe8-ae206367fb43&p=1

http://projectdream.org/wordpress/2007/02/10/pptp-from-windows-xpvista-to-linux-fails/


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NdisWan\Parameters\Protocols\0]
"ProtocolType"=dword:00000800
"PPPProtocolType"=dword:00000021
"TunnelMTU"=dword:00000514

With this simple .reg file, you can lower the windows MTU, and get successful connections. This is especially useful if you can’t upgrade the kernel for one reason or another.

VPN connections fail after upgrade from XP to Vista - TechNet Forums

VPN connections fail after upgrade from XP to Vista - TechNet Forums: "After Upgrade from XP to Vista RAS Connections are Failing"

This URL

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1316133&SiteID=17

covers a possible fix for windows vista pptp problems.

another mention of pptp problems.

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.isa.vpn&tid=731aeddd-1a73-45d5-afe8-ae206367fb43&p=1

After Upgrade from XP to Vista RAS Connections are Failing
I have seen a number of posts on news groups and other forums where customers are not able to setup a RAS connection
after upgrading from XP to Vista. The purpose of this post is to explain the cause of this problem in majority of the
cases

1. Authentication Protocol
Vista does not support the MSCHAPv1 protocol for authentication. The protocols supported on Vista are
PAP, CHAP, MSCHAPv2, PEAP and EAP. The default is MSCHAPv2. Hence, if the server is not configured for
or does not support any protocol other than MSCHAPv1 then connection setup will fail.

2. Encyption Type Setting
Vista supports only strong encryption by default which is 128-bit RC4 for PPTP and AES 128 bit, AES 256 bit, 3DES for
L2TP. So, if the server doesnt support these encryption types connections will fail. The solution is to either upgrade
the server to support these encryption types or to configure the client to support weaker encryptions types. The
latter can be accomplished as follows

Change the following registry keys to 1:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Rasman\Parameters\AllowPPTPWeakCrypto FOR PPTP
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Rasman\Parameters\AllowL2TPWeakCrypto FOR L2TP

Restart your machine after changing the value of a key

THe following links provide more info

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929857/en-us


http://blogs.technet.com/rrasblog/archive/2006/11/01/vista-lh-security-changes-for-remote-access-scenarios.aspx


My original Google search.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=vista+pptp+fails&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

09 June 2007

How to setup a Xen VPS Server using LVM, RAID1 and dtc-xen [Archive] - WebHostingTalk Forums

How to setup a Xen VPS Server using LVM, RAID1 and dtc-xen [Archive] - WebHostingTalk Forums: "If not done before, you can install grub on both disks:

This will install grub on both drives of a raid 1 array.
You need to do this if you hope to boot after disk 0 fails.
This is really rediculous. Why grub is still so brain dead that it doesn't have some option during installation that can do this is beyond my understanding.
Who in their right, or even incorrect mind, would setup a raid 1 system and not want both disks to be made bootable is still beyond my understanding.

Use LILO if it makes things easier for you. There may even be other reasons that GRUB is inferior to LILO, but I prefer grub for kernel updates to be made in an inteligent manner.

grub --no-floppy
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd1)

This is a shameless copy of data on a linux mailing list.
the URL is
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/2003-07/1270.html

All thanks and due credit to the original poster Michael Martucci.

GRUB + RAID howto

 In the Software RAID howto it is mentioned that it is not known how
to set up GRUB to boot off RAID. Here is how I did it:
**Follow at your own risk. If you break something it's your fault.**
==================================================================
Configuration:
- /dev/hda (Pri. Master) 60 GB Seagate HDD (blank)
- /dev/hdc (Sec. Master) 60 GB Seagate HDD (blank)
- /dev/hdd (Sec. Slave) CDROM Drive

Setup Goals:
- /boot as /dev/md0: RAID1 of /dev/hda1 & /dev/hdc1 for redundancy
- / as /dev/md1: RAID1 of /dev/hda2 & /dev/hdc2 for redundancy
- swap*2 with equal priority: /dev/hda3 & /dev/hdc3 for more speed
- GRUB installed in boot records of /dev/hda and /dev/hdc so either
drive can fail but system still boot.

Tools:
- mdadm (http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/source/mdadm/)
(I used 1.2.0, but notice that as of 20030729 1.3.0 is available)

1. Boot up off rescue/installation CD/disk/HDD/whatever with mdadm
tools installed.

2. Partitioning of hard drives:
(I won't show you how to do this. See: # man fdisk ; man sfdisk )
But here's how stuff was arranged:
------------------------------------------------------------------
# sfdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 7297 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting
from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 0+ 16 17- 136521 fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hda2 17 7219 7203 57858097+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/hda3 7220 7296 77 618502+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
------------------------------------------------------------------
To make /dev/hdc the same:
------------------------------------------------------------------
# sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk /dev/hdc
------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hd[ac]1 for /dev/md0 for /boot
/dev/hd[ac]2 for /dev/md1 for /
/dev/hd[ac]3 for 2*swap
It is important to make md-to-be partitions with ID 0xFD, not 0x83.

3. Set up md devices: (both are RAID1 [mirrors])
------------------------------------------------------------------
# mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 \
--raid-devices=2 /dev/hda1 /dev/hdc1
# mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 \
--raid-devices=2 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdc2
------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Make filesystems:
------------------------------------------------------------------
# mke2fs /dev/md0
# mkreiserfs /dev/md1
# mkswap /dev/hda3
# mkswap /dev/hdc3
------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Install Your distribution:
Simply treat /dev/md0 and /dev/md1 as the partitions to install on,
and install the way your normally do. Eg, for Gentoo:
------------------------------------------------------------------
# mkdir newinst
# mount -t reiserfs /dev/md1 ./newinst
# cd newinst
# mkdir boot
# mount -t ext2 /dev/md0 ./boot
# tar -xvjpf ../stage1-x86-1.4_rc2.tbz2
# mount -o bind /proc ./proc
# chroot ./
...
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here're the relevant entries /etc/fstab for the newly created
partitions:
------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/md0 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 1
/dev/md1 / reiserfs noatime 1 1
/dev/hda3 none swap sw,pri=1 0 0
/dev/hdc3 none swap sw,pri=1 0 0
------------------------------------------------------------------
The "pri=1" for each of the swap partitions makes them the same
priority so the kernel does striping and that speeds up vm. Of
course, this means that if a disk dies then the system may crash,
needing a reboot. Perhaps it would be wiser to make hd[ac]3 a RAID1
array too, and just use /dev/md2 as swap.

6. Setting up GRUB: (assuming you've already installed it)
------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0xfd

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are
embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p
(hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

grub> root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0xfd

grub> setup (hd1)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"... 16 sectors are
embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+16 p
(hd1,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is how /boot/grub/grub.conf is: (/dev/md0 mounted as /boot)
(Assuming kernel is installed as /boot/bzImage, and RAID1 support
compiled into the kernel).
------------------------------------------------------------------
# Boot automatically after 30 secs.
timeout 30

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Fallback to the second entry.
fallback 1

# For booting with disc 0 kernel
title GNU/Linux (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/bzImage root=/dev/md1

# For booting with disc 1 kernel, if (hd0,0)/bzImage is unreadable
title GNU/Linux (hd1,0)
kernel (hd1,0)/bzImage root=/dev/md1
------------------------------------------------------------------

Now you should be able to reboot your system and play!
==================================================================

Please let me know of any errors, feedback, etc.

Michael Martucci.