Check the hash

Many download sites are now listing the file hash values so that users can verify that the file has not been altered by a 3rd party. There are a few programs out there to allow Windows users to verify the file hash but the easiest I’ve found is HashTab. HashTab is a shell extension that adds a tab to the Windows Explorer file properties window that allows you to see the hash values of a file.

By default, the only values it shows are CRC32, MD5 and SHA-1. Those three are the most commonly used hash types. You can also add the following values through the program settings:

According to the HashTab site, version 2.0.7 is compatible with all versions of Windows. The last version, 1.14, had separate Windows x32 and x64 installers. The older version is still available from the HashTab site.

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else. - James Thurber

21.Dec.07 Security, Software, Windows Comments (0)

Reload!

It was inevitable. I had to reload XP on my computer at work. It had to be done because I kept having little errors pop up that would crash the explorer.exe process. The “This won’t take too long” idea turned into “Do I really need all this crap?” after I realized how much software I use almost daily.

I used nLite and RyanVM Integrator to create an XP Pro install CD that had all of my drivers and most of the MS hotfixes. The drivers were the most important. The hard drives in my workstation, a Dell Precision 490, are set up on an Intel SATA RAID. The original Windows XP Pro CD doesn’t have the drivers. Integrating the drivers made it so that I didn’t have to hit F6 during the installation start. Plus, I had the latest drivers for all of the hardware installed on first boot.

It took a while to reinstall all of the applications. Once it was done, I made a Ghost backup. Everything is running much better and faster. I’m going to start utilizing the Windows XP virtual machine (VMware Server) more for testing software. I think the installing and uninstalling of software was one factor in causing the errors.

The first program I’m going to test is DriveImage XML. It’s free, backs up to an XML file and creates hot backups because it uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy service. It looks like a pretty nice application. If it runs well on the VM, I’ll install it on my workstation so that I always have a current backup.

If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought. - Dennis Roth

29.Nov.07 Windows Comments (2)

DRM limits learning

It’s been a little while since the last post. Work has been hectic so I’ve been drained when I finally got home at the end of the day. The work load has been lighted now that a NAC solution has been chosen. No more NAC testing! The Cisco NAC Appliance ended up being the winner. It wasn’t my first choice but I’m happy with it.

Remember the laptop I recently gave away that was loaded with PCLinuxOS? The one that was going to be used by a student for online courses? My friend asked me to look at it today because she had two questions.

First, she wanted to know if her daughter would be able to use a music program, she was using it on the family Windows PC, on the Linux laptop. The software, which I fail to remember the name of now, was designed for Windows only so I tried running it under Wine. The program installed and ran without error.

The second question concerned a CD that contained Geometry lesson videos. The videos are all in WMV format but wouldn’t run properly in Kaffeine, MPlayer or VLC even though the Win32 codecs were installed. Every time they were played, the video and audio were garbled. I tried playing some WMV files I had on another CD and they played fine.

The cause of the issue became clear when I played the CD on my Windows workstation. As soon as Windows Media Player started, a window opened with a message stating that the license for the video was being downloaded. DRM was in place so they couldn’t play on any of the Linux media players!

I told my friend why the videos wouldn’t play. She didn’t care because she could just play them on the Windows computer. I was bothered by the fact that nowhere on the CD or CD cover did it say “Windows only”. What would happen if the videos were sold to a family that didn’t have a Windows machine? I’ll tell you what would happen. They would be SOL because “Software cannot be returned if open” was printed in big bold letters on the CD cover.

DRM is often written as “Digital Rights Management”, but this is misleading, since it refers to systems that are designed to take away and limit your rights. So, we suggest you use the term “Digital Restrictions Management” instead. - Free Software Foundation

10.Oct.07 Linux Comments (2)

Windows: Easy MAC address spoofing

While testing out the different NAC solutions, I wanted to see how they would handle a connection where the MAC address that was previously associated with a printer was suddenly associated with a PC. The NIC in my laptop allows me to manually change the MAC address in the NIC properties. That works but I wanted an easier way to make the changes. The solution ended up being a freeware program called Technitium MAC Address Changer.

Some of the features of Technitium MAC Address Changer include:

I’m using it tomorrow to test a Cisco NAC we have on loan. The MAC address I’m going to try is currently associated with a Cisco IP phone. According to the Cisco reps, the NAC should detect that the MAC address is being used by a different system and drop me into the quarantine role. That’s just one of a few features they said works but weren’t able to demo during the initial setup.

Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all. - Voltaire

25.Sep.07 Networking, Software, Windows Comments (4)

Another Linux laptop given away

Today, I gave a friend one of the old Dell Inspiron 4100’s that I picked up from my employer a while back. It’s a pretty good system: 1 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 802.11b WiFi, 10/100 built-in NIC, 24x CD-ROM (can be replaced with 2nd battery). The laptop will help her a lot more than the recycler who usually gets our obsolete equipment.

She needed it for her daughter that is homeschooled and takes classes online. Our copy of Windows XP Professional was loaded so I had to wipe the hard drive before I gave it to her. Instead of giving her a blank system, I loaded PCLinuxOS 2007. I chose PCLinuxOS because it’s even easier than Kubuntu for someone that has never used Linux.

The system fit her needs perfectly. Firefox, Flash Player 9, OpenOffice.org and MP3 support is installed by default so I didn’t have to install them post-OS install. She couldn’t believe everything that was installed didn’t cost anything. I made sure to show her that OpenOffice.org will open and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. I also showed her how to use Synaptic to download updates, install software and how to use the Administration Center to configure the system.

I was impressed with how well PCLinuxOS ran. All of the hardware worked without any special configuration. The boot time was noticeablely shorter than Kubuntu on a similar system I had given to someone else. I noticed that it has an easy way to configure Active Directory login in the Administration Center. I’ll have to test that out in a VM at work to see how well it works.

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. - George Carlin

19.Sep.07 Hardware, Linux Comments (0)

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