Technology

Tools of the trade : Site24x7.com

Anyone working in IT Operations, knows that numbers are really important :). Esp, numbers showing availability, downtime, response time etc. I have used, several tools and services during my career to capture these numbers, but have never come across a service that is cost effective and reliable at the same time. I discovered site24x7.com, while was evaluating some products from their parent company AdventNet.

Site24x7.com offers external monitoring for your key network components, at the fraction of the price charged by others in area. I wouldn’t put them on the same scale as Gomez or Keynote, but for they are very reasonable for the features they offer. Also, while they are lacking in the customer service area per se, they are very quick to add features based on feedback. I provided them (and I am sure several others) some feedback on adding a feature to have setup scheduled maintenance (so that it doesn’t skew with the availability numbers) for the services monitored and they added the feature in less than a month.

If you are looking, for a reasonably priced monitoring service, look no further..

December 30, 2007 by Networking Technology Uncategorized 0

Operational Tips : Password parameter changes in Group Policy

I am planning on sharing some of the “Ahh.. we should have thought of that” moments on this site as I run into them. First is to remind of me of my past mistakes, so that I can avoid them in future, and two is help other folks out. Here’s my first one..

We decided to change the password parameters in our companies group policy recently. The password expiration was changed to 60 days from 120 days and password complexity was enabled.  We thought this was a pretty straight forward change and wouldn’t get the helpdesk swamped with calls, since the new policy will take affect as the current passwords expire..

Wrong!!! AD checks the last time your password was changed and compares it to the password expiration time frame in group policy. And you could just imagine, the look our helpdesk folks gave the engineers when they got swaped with people calling them that they are being forced to change passwords and all the ones they used before don’t work.

Morale : Decrease the password timeout in intervals. i..e in our case, we should have decreased the expiration date 10 days at a time. That way, you minimize the impact the change.

September 9, 2007 by Technology Uncategorized Windows 0

HOW TO : Configure wireless NIC on Fedora 7.0

I decided to play around with Fedora to brush up on my Redhat skills. I have been using Ubuntu for some time, but wanted to see what the newly released Fedora 7.0 offers. With each new release, Linux is coming closer to becoming an operating system that a normal user can install and start using right away. Gone are the days of plowing through config files to get everything working. Thats why, I was pretty surprised when the wireless card in my laptop didn’t work with the default install. Here’s how I got the card to work in Fedora, using ndiswrapper (An opensource project that enables the usage of Windows drivers in Linux).

  • Install kernel headers by running “yum –install kernel-devel”
  • Install gcc (compiler) by running “yum –install gcc”
  • Download ndiswrapper from http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net (make sure to download the latest version)
  • Unpack ndiswrapper and run the following commands
    • make uninstall
    • make
    • make install
  • Download the windows drivers (.inf and .sys files) for your wireless card and copy them to a location on your harddrive
  • Change the working directory to the folder where the windows drivers have been saved
  • Install the drivers by running the following commands
    • ndiswrapper -i driver_file_name.inf
    • ndiswrapper -l
      • This command should show that the device has been installed and enabled. My output looks like this
        net5416 : driver installed
        device (168C:0024) present
  • Configure an alias for the wireless card by editing the /etc/modprobe.conf file and adding the line
    • alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
  • Configure NetworkManager to startup automatically by running
    • chkconfig –level456 NetworkManager on
  • Restart your machine and you can start using the wireless card by using the “NetworkManager” applet that starts when you log into the GUI.
June 3, 2007 by Linux Technology Uncategorized 0

HOW TO : Delete exchange account on a Windows Mobile device

I use a T-Mobile Dash as my phone and mobile messaging platform. For those that are not aware, you pull e-mail from any Exchange 2003 server with SP2 from a Windows Mobile device over the air, using direct connect. The management features are not as robust as Blackberry for managing Windows Mobile devices, but it is a free feature :).

I have been trying to figure out for the last few weeks, how I can switch the exchange server that my DASH has been configured for. Finally, a lot of googling revealed the following steps.

On your mobile device,

  • Go to Start -> Active Sync
  • Click  Menu – >  Options
  • Choose Microsoft Exchange
  • Click on Menu-> Delete

NOTE : This will delete all your e-mail, contacts and calendar entries that were synchronized using the old exchange server.

May 13, 2007 by Networking Technology Uncategorized Windows 18

WordPress 2.1.x and FAlbum issues

I use the FAlbum plugin for WordPress to display pictures from my Flickr account on this site. When I upgraded WordPress (the publishing platform that powers this blog) to v.2.1.3 from v.2.0.9, I noticed that I couldn’t see pictures from my Flickr account on the site anymore. On further digging, I saw an error message in the admin page for FAlbum that the Flickr Key was not valid any longer. I tried to reauthorize FAlbum on Flickr, but that didn’t work either. Googling for the error message “( [stat] => fail [code] => 100 [message] => Invalid API Key (Key has expired)” didn’t turn up any useful pages. So, I tried something I haven’t done for a while :), I visited the support forums for FAlbum and found the issue right on the first page. It looks like Flickr had expired FAlbums Key for some reason without any explanation. The author suggested using a new key and I was up and running in a few minutes. Just a reminder, that Google is still not the omni persent God :).

Now, you can go back to enjoying “My Pictures” :).

April 15, 2007 by Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Project PresidentFeed

I came across a new project by one of my old colleagues, Tim O’Brien, called PresidentFeed.com when I saw another colleague mention it in his blog. Tim is one of the smartest people I have come across in my career. Not only is he a great technologist but he also takes an interest in politics (which more and more people seem to do less and less of 🙂 ). He built this new website, that aggregates information on all the 2008 presidential candidates and also lets you cast your vote for them. Obama has the largest number of votes and highest approval ratings.. Go Obama!!! . Get your mouse over to this site and take part in shaping the free world :).

April 8, 2007 by Fun Politics Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Mac : Enhance your Apple Remote

While I am on a Mac spree :), here’s an app that can really enhance the apple remote that comes with all the new macs. The default functionality you get with the Apple Remote is pretty basic. You can only control Front Row and put your Mac to sleep. I am trying “Remote Buddy” from IOSpirit and have been pretty impressed with all the apps you can control with your apple remote now. And you cannot argue with the 9.99 Euro cost either :).

April 6, 2007 by Mac Technology Uncategorized 0

HOW TO : View Chat logs in Adium

Adium is a multi protocol instant messaging application for the Mac OS X. I have been using it on my MacBook for a while now and think it is a fantastic example of how powerful open source can be. I was trying to figure out how to look at the chat logs on Adium. Some Googling helped me figure it out.. :). To view the chat logs on Adium, you can type “Apple Button + l” or click on “Contact -> View Chat Transcripts” in the menu.

April 4, 2007 by Mac Technology Uncategorized Web 0

Blackberry : Administrator tip

If you ever wanted to find out how to confirm that a message you have sent to a blackberry device has been delivered, you can send a message to the blackberry with just < confirm> in the subject. You will get a confirmation e-mail as soon as the message has been delivered to the blackberry device. We usually use it to check latency and other issues on our blackberry server.

March 13, 2007 by Networking Technology Uncategorized 0