Posted on June 26th, 2011 by wilson
I just found out that the Windows Server Backup on R2 releases can now backup VMs without the need to shut them down. If you specify a AVD file to backup, Windows Server backup will create a vshadow copy first before making the actual backup. No more need for expensive 3rd party applications to do this for you.
Best of all, we can use the Windows Server Backup to schedule weekly / regular backups automatically!! Great time savings for admins like us!
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Posted on June 15th, 2011 by wilson
I googled and found this site: http://panasonic.net/pcc/support/fax/common/table/macdriver.html
Where i was able to download the installer file: http://cs.psn-web.net/support/fax/common/file/Mac_PrnDriver/MB3000/MBPRN30_1-0-1.dmg
However, installing a printer driver on a MAC is way more involved than installing the printer driver on the PC. Thankfully, there is a PDF manual to explain the step by step.
http://cs.psn-web.net/support/fax/common/file/Mac_PrnDriver/Install_Manual/Mac10.4_10.5_10.6_Install_LAN.pdf
Hope this helps you.
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Posted on June 15th, 2011 by wilson
Being a Windows MVP, i have been using wintel machines exclusively. That is, until my friend Martin suggested that I use xcode to develop apps for iPhones. Since Xcode only runs on Apple IOS and I also wanted to try out the cool video and photo image editing utilities like Lightroom 3, i finally decided to buy one.
The Mac Book Pro sports core i5 cpu and is sufficiently fast. I got the accessories that could possibly go with it. A hardshell cover to protect the casing. A thin layer of silicone that goes over the top of the keyboard to protect it from spills, and a wrist pad to protect the mousepad area.
The first thing I had to teach myself was how to do the ‘right click’. It seems you use two fingers to click on this. Wow. the joy of learning new stuff.
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Posted on January 1st, 2011 by wilson
This morning I read a warning email sent to me by my carrier. My account balance went over 80 USD. This was seemingly impossible as I did not make any international calls. However, when I did investigate, there were a lot of calls that was made out of my line. It went to countries like Somalia, Tunisia, and a host of middle eastern countries that I do not have any friends or acquaintances in.
It also seems that this wasn’t an isolated incident as others were victimized as well. This one came from: https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/voiceops/2010-November/001998.html
We had two customers get hit simultaneously last summer with almost the same thing. In both cases the customers entire DID ranges were hit by an auto dialer that basically iterated through and did password guessing attempts and then once it compromised a voicemail account it set a call forward to an international pay per minute informational line through the portal. The dialer would then call back in and initiate as many calls as allowed to the compromised DID, racking up as many charges as possible. We picked it up fairly quickly and so were able to minimize losses but the whole incident did lead to a gaggle of administrative and operational changes.
I would suggest that you do two things:
1. Route all outbound calls to countries you know you wouldn’t be making to a dead trunk
2. Capture all SIP authentication traffic to isolate the hackers
3. Put in Route Passwords to international callers.
On an asterisk box, login to the admin pages, select the outbound routes and create a ‘Blocked Routes’
Configure it with the route patterns for country codes that you wish to block. Put in a route password so that the system will prompt you for it when a call is made to those numbers.
Hope this helps.
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Posted on December 29th, 2010 by wilson
My brother in law called me up last night. His notebook couldnt get an IP address from his router. This was just after someone installed a free anti-virus checker into it.
I had him do a system restore from the windows xp to ‘turn back’ the clock. This did not work. My other brother in law (TH) asked to have the hardware system ruled out as a cause of the issue. It is unlikely for both the wired and the wifi circuits to konk out at the same time. So we had him connect his router to the wired port instead of the wifi. This didnt work either.
So i suspected a corrupted TCP/IP stack. In the old days, we used to just go into the network neighborhood and in the properties, just uninstall TCP/IP and then reinstall it back.
Windows XP apparently doesnt give you such an option. From this Microsoft website, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357 , there is a complete instruction on how to do this by using the netsh utility.
The reset command is available in the IP context of the NetShell utility. Follow these steps to use the reset command to reset TCP/IP manually:
To open a command prompt, click Start and then click Run. Copy and paste (or type) the following command in the Open box and then press ENTER:
cmd
At the command prompt, copy and paste (or type) the following command and then press ENTER:
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
Note If you do not want to specify a directory path for the log file, use the following command:
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
Hope this helps others out there as well.
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