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Open a Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 7, Vista and Windows 2008

Often, even if you are logged on as a user which belongs to the local Administrators group, you may have to open a command prompt (or other program) as "administrator."  Simply right-click the shortcut (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt) and select Run As Administrator.

Applies to:

• Windows 7
• Windows 2008
• Windows Vista

Installing BackTrack 4 Final

Installing BackTrack 4 Final couldn't be easier.  I've expanded just a little on the simple installation instructions from BackTrack.  Follow these simple instructions and you'll be using BackTrack 4 Final in no time.  NOTE: These instructions assume you are going to use the entire disk on your computer for BackTrack.

First, boot the the BackTrack 4 Final DVD.  Either allow it to start on its own or select your preferred screen size.

At the command line enter startx.

Double-click install.sh on the desktop.

Select your region/city for the correct timezone, click Forward.  Select your keyboard layout, then Forward.  Use the default disk partitioning option of Guided.  Click Forward.

Click Install and watch it go.

The installation should only take a few minutes.

When it's done it will prompt you to remove your DVD and reboot.  That's it.  Now you're BackTracking.

NOTE: when your system starts your default username will be root, with the password of toor.

See How to Start Networking in BackTrack 4

Keyboard Shortcut to open Windows Task Manager in Windows 7 and Vista

Microsoft changed things up again. Back in the day (Windows 2000, 2003, XP, etc.) you could easily open Windows Task Manager using Ctrl + Alt + Del, then pressing T.  Now in Windows 7 and Windows Vista you can still use Ctrl + Alt + Del which displays a screen whith options like Lock this Computer, Switch User, Log Off, Change Password, and Start Task Manager.  However, pressing T does nothing, and in fact, no keyboard shortcuts work on this screen to choose one of the items from the list - even tab and arrow keys don't let you pick from the list.  You have to use your mouse pointer.  Stupid, stupid, STUPID!  Way to go Microsoft!

So to launch Task Manager in Windows 7 and Vista you would have to go through this double step process of pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del, then reaching over to your mouse and clicking on Start Task Manager.  I can understand Microsoft trying to make things easier for new users and for the masses.  But for heaven's sake please leave old keyboard shortcuts in place for those of us who have been using Windows for a while.

Enough ranting and raving.  Although this has probably been the case all along (this old dog had to learn a new trick), you can use Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager directly and bypass the hassle and frustration introduced by MS with Vista.

Restarting IIS using the command-line

You can restart IIS and disable Reliable Restart using the command prompt and Iisreset.exe. See the following command-line usage and parameters.

iisreset [computername]
 
/RESTART Stop and then restart all Internet services.
/START  Start all Internet services.
/STOP Stop all Internet services.
/REBOOT  Reboot the computer.
/REBOOTONERROR   Reboot the computer if an error occurs when starting, stopping, or restarting Internet services.
/NOFORCE Do not forcefully terminate Internet services if attempting to stop them gracefully fails.
/TIMEOUT:val Specify the timeout value (in seconds) to wait for a successful stop of Internet services. On expiration of this timeout the computer can be rebooted if the /REBOOTONERROR parameter is specified. The default value is 20s for restart, 60s for stop, and 0s for reboot.
/STATUS Display the status of all Internet services.
/ENABLE  Enable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.
/DISABLE Disable restarting of Internet Services on the local system.

Example (restart IIS on local computer):

iisreset /restart

Connecting to the Internet Through a Proxy?

Want to know if you're connecting to the Internet through a proxy?  Go to whatismyproxy.com and find out.

In addition to detecting if you are connected through a proxy whatismyproxy.com will show your browser, OS, external IP and more. . .

SonicWALL Memory Leak?

My SonicWALL NSA security appliance seems to have a memory leak.  I noticed this a few days ago when I was reviewing long-term usage in my RRDTool (compliments of Cacti) graphs.

The daily and weekly graphs looked normal. . .

I restarted the SonicWALL a couple weeks ago at which time the memory utilization reset and looks like it's climbing a little since then.

But when I looked at the memory usage for the past nine months or so it was pretty obvious the usage has climbed steadily over that time, resetting twice when it was restarted.

This definitely shows the usefulness of gathering long-term stats.  But I am concerned that the firewall has a memory leak so I'll have to figure that out.

I took a look at a couple other, older SonicWALL's which aren't exhibiting this behavior.

Preview Your Website in Different Browsers and Operating Systems

From browsershots.org:

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

Just go to browsershots.org and specify which OS/browser combinations to use.

Supported OSes

• Linux
• Windows
• Mac OS
• BSD
• Gecko
• KHTML/WebKit

Supported Browsers

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Opera
• Netscape
• Konqueror
• SeaMonkey 
• Many more 

Misc. Options

• Screen size
• Color depth
• Javascript
• Java
• Flash

Examples from browsershots.org:

MSIE 8.0 / Windows XP

for http://www.powercram.com/

Firefox 3.5.7 / Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
for http://www.powercram.com/

Free Network Monitoring Tools from SolarWinds

• SolarWinds Free Network Config Generator - quickly and easily configure VLANs and other advanced network device features without ever opening the CLI!
• SolarWinds Free TFTP Server - upload and download executable images and configurations to network devices - our most popular free network monitoring tool!
• WMI Monitor - monitor your Windows® apps and servers in real time, using built-in, community-sourced, and customizable application templates!
• IP Address Tracker - scan, track, and consolidate your IP address information in one easy place, saving you time and eliminating errors (and headaches)!
• IP SLA Monitor - quickly troubleshoot network slowdowns between sites and easily understand device-to-device performance using sophisticated Cisco® IP SLA operations.
• Free Kiwi Syslog Server - receive, log, display, and forward syslog messages from network devices with this easy-to-use Syslog Server.
• Free Kiwi CatTools - simplify daily management tasks with the ability to manage and backup network configurations.
• VM Monitor - continuously monitor a VMware® ESX Server and its virtual machines with at-a-glance virtualization health statistics.
• SolarWinds Free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer – capture and analyze up to one hour of NetFlow data to see what types of traffic are on your network, where it’s coming from, & where it’s going.
• SolarWinds Free Exchange Monitor – continuously monitor Exchange and get real-time insight into services, mail queue sizes, and host server health with this clever desktop dashboard.
• SolarWinds Free NetFlow Configurator - configure NetFlow v5 via SNMP on supported Cisco® devices - a perfect complement to Orion NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and our free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer tool!
• SolarWinds Free Advanced Subnet Calculator - compute addresses for IP subnets - another perennial favorite in our suite of free network monitoring tools!
• SolarWinds Free Wake-On-LAN - remotely power up network PCs

Cacti Plugins

The advantages of the Cacti are having many plugins that is provided by a wide community of Cactiusers.org.

List of Cacti plugins:

• Boost: To increase Cacti performance
• Clogs: To add a view tab to view  Cacti log
• Discovery: auto discovery to detect the SNMP devices on the network with diferent subnet.
• Docs: To create a document in Cacti
• Flowviewer: Viewer to see the flow of data dicapture by netflow on cisco router.
• Host Info: Displays information about the server Cacti’s version
• Login Mod: To change the Cacti login page
• Mac Track: track a MAC Address and Port on the device to enable the SNMP
• Monitor: monitors the condition of up/down from the monitored device, is also accompanied by sound alerts.
• Ntop: shows ntop application on Cacti tab
• Realtime: Displaying graphs in realtime Cacti every 5 seconds.
• Router Configs: backup display configuration and router
• Settings: Settings and configure Cacti
• SSL: SSL access with Cacti
• Syslog: Displays syslog Cacti database
• Thold: Showing up down from the host
• Tools: Tool to check the service HTTP, FTP, POP3 and SMTP
• Update: Showing all the plugins installed and check for updates

CactiEZ is a self installing Linux Distribution based off CentOS that sets up and configures a customized Cacti install. Everything is designed to be completely automated and working directly out of the box. This compact distro is loaded with extra features such as Syslog and Netflow data collection, Weathermaps, Reports, Auto Discovery, Router Config backup, Nagios, and much more! Both 32 Bit and 64 Bit installations are possible from the same CD.  The CactiEZ ISO or torrent can be downloaded here.