Archive for category blog
Ubuntu for 30 Days – Day 3 thru 10
Posted by clamasters in Linux, Ubuntu, blog on July 13th, 2009
I was a little busy with work and baby prep so I really wasn’t on the computer all that much however, I am really liking the shear number of applications that are at my finger tips. I started using workspaces a bit more. At home I only have a single 17″ monitor, I know I know. Hopefully it’s only temporary. I’m used to having duals at work so it’s a bit of a change.
I will say that I am liking Rhythmbox as my music player and started using Miro for my video podcasts or videocasts…whatever you want to call them. I really only watch Hak5 so far but I’m sure I’ll be adding more in the future.
I had been having some problems staying connected to my VPN at work via the Cisco VPN app so I really haven’t been interfacing to my work from home a lot except from my eeePC. I want to do a site to site from home to work but I’m sure my employeer wouldn’t want that. 
Sorry for the boring update, hopefully some good stuff coming up.
Ubuntu for 30 Days – Day 1
Posted by clamasters in Linux, Ubuntu, blog on July 1st, 2009
Tonight was a little rocky for Mr. Ubuntu. I was trying to help my father out with an Outlook Express issue obviously on a Windows machine. My typical remote access solution would not work as it requires Windows as the support PC. However, I went ahead and tried to do a terminal server connection to a server on his network and then launch the application. In this case ShowMyPC. The connection was SLOW!!! I then started searching around for something that was cross compatible. I found YuuGuu but apparently am too dumb to figure it out.
Does anyone have a recommendation for remote support TO Windows and OS X workstations and servers FROM linux? Preferably Ubuntu. I prefer free solutions but would be willing to pay a small fee if needed as long as it also supported support from Windows as I could use it from my job.
On a softer note, I do like RhythmBox. I want to get Pandora playable inside there but that can come later.
Setting up VPNC and the Network Manager VPN piece was pretty easy. All through apt-get… I needed this to connect into my work place and do time entries and remote support stuff.
So far so good. With the exception to remote support to Windows based clients, I’m pretty rock solid on Ubuntu.
Ubuntu for 30 Days
Posted by clamasters in blog on June 30th, 2009
Alrighty, I know it’s been a while and you are all bored or have already deleted my RSS from your reader but hopefully I’ll peak your interestes a bit. My goal for the next 30 days is to use Ubuntu 9.04 at home (sorry Windows required at work). I know this has already been done but as everyone is different, hopefully my experience will differ. If you have any feedback please let me know. Just for info, I’ll be using my new home hardware here.
Cisco – tcp-small-servers and udp-small-servers
Posted by clamasters in Cisco, blog on February 19th, 2009
For some truly unknown reason, Cisco’s devices still have support for “small servers” or “simple services”. Examples of these include echo, chargen, daytime and discard. An attacker could possibly start a denial of service attack (DoS) against one or more network devices with those configured. In this case; echo and chargen are to blame by allowing an attacker to cause the chargen service to hit the echo services causing an endless loop of character generation and echo between the two hosts. To disable this, simply enter the following commands:
configure terminal
no service tcp-small-servers
no service udp-small-servers
These commands can be run on nearly all IOS based Cisco equipment.
Cisco Switching – switchport nonegotiate
Posted by clamasters in Cisco, blog on February 19th, 2009
Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP) is a standard feature of Cisco switches and allows two switches to dynamically configure interfaces interconnecting each other to be trunked ports. DTP has 5 modes; Auto (default), On, Off, desirable and nonegotiate. These 5 modes all have a purpose. I have layed out the groundwork below:
- auto – The default setting allows the port to willingly convert to trunking, however, the port will not trunk unless the neighbor is set to on or desirable. When two switches are connected together and set for auto, they will NOT trunk.
- on – This setting forces the port to be a trunk regardless of the neighbor’s settings.
- off – This setting forces the port to not trunk, even if the neighbor is set to on.
- desirable – This causes the port to attempt to become a trunk, however, the neighbor would have to be set to on, desirable or auto.
- nonegotiate – This setting, forces the port to be a trunk but disables DTP frames between the two switches. This is useful when you are working with non-Cisco equipment and just want to ensure that the ports won’t do anything you do not want them to….this is my preference.
To configure this on your switches, issue the following:
configure terminal
interface g1/0/49
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport mode trunk
switchport nonegotiate
Hopefully this was somewhat worthwhile. It is very basic so I apologize but this is the easiest way to give you the needed information without boring you to death