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

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.

Recovering files in Unix

Recovering files in Unix: "Recovering files in Unix"

how to look for deleted files on a unix file system.

http://www.wikihow.com/Force-Windows-Explorer-to-Start-in-the-Folder-You-Want

This page contains info on how to make windows explorer do what you want it to do, rather than what it does by default. Which is to open up in "My Documents" which is useless to me .. since that isn't what I want to see when I open explorer.
My requirement is to see all the possible drives and their free/used space.
You may want to go direct to your "pictures directory" or a mapped network drive. All this is possible through reading this page.

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Rename a Local Area Connection?: "How Can I Rename a Local Area Connection?"

Device Manager does not display devices that are not connected to the Windows XP-based computer: "Device Manager does not display devices that are not connected to the Windows XP-based computer"

How to remove phantom devices from Windows.

Microsoft kb 315539.

Protocol Testing - Theory, Test Suites, Tools, Formal Methods: "Nemesis "

Here's a great site for grouping a number oof useful tools together.
Some are GPL some are other licences.
Some are both Nix and windows, others are

Howtos - Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam Filtering with MailScanner - ClarkConnect Wiki: "
Howtos - Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam Filtering with MailScanner"

Slyck News - LimeWire Counter Sues the RIAA: "LimeWire Counter Sues the RIAA"

Seems like Limewire isn't bending over and taking it up the a*se like so many of the other napster clones have chosen to do.

Watch out for negative side effects of the /3GB boot.ini switch

This link will take you to the MS article on Exchange Server configuration for Exchange SP1.

Mentions the /3GB switch and /userva=3030 /userva=2970



Also why are you using the Copy or Xcopy commands? To move the DB files. You should use eseutil /y option as this uses a more efficient methord by creating its own large buffer thus avaiding the pagepool problem and speeds up the process by about 1/3rd.

loose translation from sp1 readme and post to techrepublic comments on article on /3GB switch.

The information was in the SP1 Readme

"Event 9665: Update to recommended memory settings for running Exchange Server 2003 SP1 on Windows Server 2003.
When you are running Exchange 2003 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 with more than 1 GB of RAM, it is recommended that you set the SystemPages registry key to zero. This recommendation contrasts with the recommendation for Windows 2000 Server, which is to set SystemPages to a value between 24000 and 31000.

The recommended memory settings for Exchange 2003 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 with more than 1 GB of RAM are as follows:

If you host mailboxes or public folders on a server with more than 1 GB of RAM, make sure that the boot.ini file contains the /3GB switch.
When you use the /3GB switch, add the /userva switch to the boot.ini file and set the switch to a value between 2970 and 3030.
When you use the /3GB switch, set the hexadecimal value of the following registry key to 0x00040000:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold
Set the decimal value of the following registry key to zero:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\SystemPages
If you set SystemPages to the Windows 2000 Server recommended value of between 24000 and 31000, an Event 9665 will appear in the event log.


See url below for full text

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/default.mspx

Installing SNMP via RPMs on CentOS 4: "Installing SNMP via RPMs on CentOS 4"
The next step in the process, installing snmp-devel

SNMP v3

Here's a great page on snmp and centos 4. There's info on snmp v3 referenced as well. I'll include the link to the v3 info as soon as I find the most relevant link/page.

Here is a simple explanation of the centos & redhat alternatives system. This is for having multiple versions of java or whatever installed.
This specificaly targets java, and works with either jre or jdk.

www.centos.org - Forums - Application & Software Support - Adding Java 1.5.0_06 to alternatives system?

An interesting project that I will definately build on centos4.
I need to read a bit more about it at present, only skimmed through dependencies, gotchas and such so far.

This link is to the installation guide. Other links to the rest of the project are on the same page.

SourceForge.net: OpenNMS Installation Guide

Index of /~paul/pptp

Redhat and CentOS pptp yum /up2date site. Uses dkms to build and install the required kernel module.

sweeteners: "Alternative
sweeteners"

http://www.diabetes-act.com.au/fact_sheets_pdfs/AltSweeteners.pdf

I don't believe that Australia doesn't listen to the individual experts. Aspartame is a poison that can cause birth defects and arthritic like joint disorders. Even America has investigated the blackouts (petit mal seizures) it has caused pilots while they are in control of aeroplanes. There is even an Aspartame toxicity centre. As a weight loss method it fails totally due to it's effect of causing carbohydrate cravings which in fact cause a gain in weight.
When will we learn that simple sugars are, at least, a natural substance, and is recognised by the immune, and other body systems, and as such are not an intruder in the human body.

Have a search on your favourite search engine for a few topics, such as - aspartame toxicity - aspartame neurotoxin - and see what you find.

InfoWorld ProdBlog | InfoWorld | Network Instruments bolsters Observer with NetFlow and sFlow integration | April 24, 2006 01:00 AM | By Ted Samson

Cut and pasted from the article.

Network Instruments today revealed a host of enhancements to Observer, the company's flagship network analysis solution.
Among them, Observer offers integration with Cisco NetFlow and HP sFlow data collection. NetFlow, available within most Cisco switches and routers, tracks routed IP traffic through every visible port, and it can deliver high-level application-usage statistics. sFlow, supported by a range of networking and application vendors, offers layer 2 to layer 7 visibilities and provides real-time congestion monitoring, audit trail analysis, and more.
According to Douglas Smith, president and CEO of Minneapolis-based Network Instruments, admins will be able to view the "5,000-foot level" NetFlow and sFlow data from the Observer interface. If a network abnormality is detected, an admin can use Observer to drill down on application performance, review response times, and identify latency.
Also new to Observer is application-analysis support for Citrix, and VoIP analysis support for Avaya and Mitel systems.
Support for NetFlow, sFlow, Citrix Application Analysis, and expanded Avaya and Mitel support is included at no additional cost with Expert Observer, which sells for $2,895.

An easy how to to get the jre going for firefox on most versions of linux.

Java plugin installation for Firefox under Linux

Even if you're not using Firefox 1.0.7, there should still be a directory something like /usr/lib/firefox-versionNo that has a plugins directory in it. Just use that and it'll likely work.

Another way of doing remote assistance with Windows XP SP2.

Have a read of the following webpage. It could save you some time fighting with remote desktop.

Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2 | Sig9

Here's another option using a ... ermm sub-version of Ultra VNC.

http://sc.uvnc.com/index.php?section=12

This is an "outgoing-request-from-a-uvnc-server" version.
Worth looking at if your Dad/Mum is behind a NAT adsl modem and needs help.

MS Exchange - possible replacements

After investigating MS Exchange replacements, I've settled into testing Scalix, it uses an outlook connector to create an impressive user experience. (great web interface too)
The following link is to an article in Scalix Forums detailing how to install Scalix on Centos4. (similar goes for Centos3 and is mentioned in another post in the Forum)

Scalix Community Forums :: View topic - Installing Scalix CE on CentOS4 successfully :-)

I decided to test on this platform after reading about the challenges with Fedora Core FC4. I also wanted to test on a known stable platform, so there was less reason to blame Scalix for any unexpected operational problems.

Strange problems with failed logins for sxadmin were experienced after using the Graphical installer, however, installation and subsequent login as sxadmin went without a hitch when using the command line installer. (sxadmin login worked first time)

If you experience problems with sxadmin logins after using the Graphical installer, I suggest that you try uninstalling, (use the graphical install script - it will now have an uninstall option) then open a console by pressing "control alt F2" and log in as a normal user, next su - to root. (that is "su -" you need the "space" and a - after su leave out the inverted commas "")

Navigate to the scalix directory and run "sh scalix-installer" if your environment is correct just take all the defaults taking particular note of the password and the _complete_ username for sxadmin login.

Now fire up the admin console from a browser. You can change many of the defaults you set during install from in here.
If you really need to. Uninstall again and reinstall to change some default that you don't seem able to change from the admin console.
Speed is still being tested, but seems more dependant on the speed of java code excution than network speed, when on a LAN. (more to add about speed whan testing is further advanced)

Scalix Community Forums :: View topic - Installing Scalix CE on CentOS4 successfully :-)