Written on December 27, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment  | 

Okay, so I’m on vacation and sitting at a resort when I decide to do a little network sniffing. I yanked out one of my tools called Look@Lan (http://www.lookatthelan.com/), and started scanning the open IP range of the wireless network that I’m connected to. I opened the scan wide across multiple subnets so it takes about five minutes.

Within that time, I capture about 19 connected IP’s, 13 of which are open Windows systems that appear with their NetBIOS (computer) name and IP address, and some basic information about the PC. Doing a port scan on a few of these machines, I can see the ports that they have open, and what kinds of services are listening. Finally, I walk up to the front door of an unprotected system: I type in a direct UNC (Universal Naming Convention) representation of one of the PC’s and I’m confronted with the system’s shared C: drive.

Wow, that was easy. I didn’t open the folder though – that would be trespassing; even my use of the Look@Lan tool is probably a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy I signed for access.

But here’s my point. Whenever you connect your system to a wireless network, your PC will likely advise you that you’re connecting to a public space. Hopefully, you’ve got a firewall enabled so that this kind of stuff can’t happen. To my tool, systems protected by a firewall appear as an IP address without subsequent information – I can’t read their O/S type, I can’t conduct a port scan, and I can’t determine their computer name.

Consequently, for these 9 systems without a firewall, I could start conducting some nasty casing and hacking – somebody who wanted to know more about these systems could pull out L0phtcrack or any other range of tools and begin monitoring it. Just the presence of a software firewall on the other systems renders my snooping null. I can see the IP’s, but I can’t really do much about it.

If you’re running Vista, you’re covered. If you’re running Windows XP, make sure that you’ve downloaded Service Pack 3. The native firewall is automatically installed. For extra free protection, download these three freebie applications:

1. Zonealarm (http://www.zonealarm.com/). A free firewall.

2. AVG (free.avg.com). A free antivirus and antispyware utility.

3. Malewarebytes (http://www.malewarebytes.com/). A free antispyware utility, more robust and thorough as a malware detector.

If Megan here (ahem – the PC whose front door I knocked on) was running Zonealarm or had a patched operating system, I couldn’t even get this far. Next time you’re connected to a public network, hopefully, you won’t be either…

R

Written on December 18, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment  | 

Act! 10 has been giving me a little grief recently when I hold an email open for a little while and attempt to send from Microsoft Outlook 2007. Maybe it’s been bugging you, too?

When I press send on an email to a party that is in my Act! contacts list, I get the following sets of two dialogs:

Written on December 4, 2008  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment  | 

Yet “Noo!” screams my buddies and friends who’re big Linux enthusiasts. “We’re trying to do a public service here. Don’t buy a Mac.”

Then I explain that new clients are asking for Mac skillsets and several of my own clients are running Apple solutions. “Listen,” I explain. “Ultimately it’s about supply and demand for me. I have to be able to answer the questions for my clients. I understand Linux, I understand Windows, I know PC’s… now it’s about time that I understand Mac’s. It’s just what’s expected of me.”

Well, today, I kind of reached two points of clarity on this issue and I’ve made a decision. The first point of clarity was yet another prospect asking me about Macs. The second point of clarity had to do with finally getting Vista to work correctly on my professional workstation.

You see, I’ve reinstalled Vista Ultimate x86 six times on my workstation, each time doing a clean install and wiping the existing partition. Every time I installed, I would go to update with Service Pack 1 and the entire system would get lost in a power-cycling loop. Updates would install and then the system would reboot; after the reboot, the updates were not installed property, so it’d uninstall them, and reboot. Then, updates would install and the system would reboot. Etc. Not particularly useful. I’d restore from backup and just keep working until I could try again.

Finally, I received a Vista Ultimate SP1 distro from one of my universities so I attempted it again. This time, after applying 39 updates, the system went into an “updates not applied” cycle but came out of it. So, essentially, for the last week, I’ve been applying updates one by one, creating a new restore point with every update, and, sequencing the updates by release date until, finally, half-an-hour ago, I have a full Vista Ultimate SP1 system. Only 15 months and countless wasted hours later, I have a functional Windows system.

Wow. Thanks Mr. Ballmer.

Now, I bet that doesn’t happen on a Mac (grin). And I’m a tech guy, a MCSE at that. When I consider the problems that I’ve had with the product, I refuse to believe that this is the right direction for the marketplace of savvy consumers who can make informed choices, and who’re not married to the Windows platform for applications any longer.  It took me this much effort to get it to work – I can’t imagine the plight of the average consumer; oh yeah, I guess they just order the “downgrade to XP” when purchasing their new PC.

I guess I’ve come to the conclusion that, competitively, I’d best “do Macs” and do it quickly. After all, just who knows how much Windows 7 will disappoint Microsoft’s user base?

R