Ravaged by Viruses

Today I put on my Computer Repair hat. My wife has complaining how slow her computer has become. When I looked at it, Norton was regularly reporting that it was blocking attacks. One of the attacks was trying to write to dvdupgrade.exe, which I found odd because she doesn't have a DVD player in her laptop.

I am very disappointed because (A) Microsoft says that Windows 8Defender eliminates   the need for a third party protector; and (B) I paid extra to have Norton. And it still got infected!

The system restores wouldn't go back far enough. So the next thing to do?

Factory reset. Once infected there is no way to fight the viruses. There is no way to know that very thing has been cleaned. The best course of action is to Nuke and Pave. Game Over. Start up fresh and new.

Luckily, I have her save all her data to The cloud, and all her apps (all two of them) can be easily reinstalled.

Laptop Repair

There is always something to do around the house, and my list of back logged work seems to grow everyday. I save a lot of money by doing things myself. And in this modern age, maintaining a house means maintaining the technology within the house too. That's when I play Computer Fixer Guy. Luckily, I have a background in computer repair.

6 or 7 years ago my wife and I each bought a laptop. She uses her laptop to track our finances and to do the taxes. I use my laptop as part of our business.

One of our kids dropped my wife's laptop over the summer. Laptops really don't like to be dropped and her laptop simply died. She was due for a replacement, and we got a great deal on Black Friday. However, she needed all the information from her laptop.

Luckily, because we both bought our laptops at the same time, I was able to remove her laptop's hard drive and put it into my laptop.

This worked perfectly and allowed me to save all of her data. The data is now encrypted and on drop box to avoid this situation from happening again!

X10 Airsight

Recently I was looking for an IP Camera and came across the X10 Airsight  xx34A and xx41A. It looked very interesting. But I read the reviews by customers online and became concerned that this camera might be a rip off. It isn’t. I went ahead and bought the camera and I love it. My goal with this blog posting is to debunk some of the reviews I had read, help you decide whether you are capable of setting up this camera, and providing some instructions how to do so.

 

I am not an X10 employee. Far from it. I am, however, a network computer engineer. I am very proficient with what I do. And I was able to get the X10 Airsight fully functional in 20 minutes.

 

DEBUNKING THE REVIEWS

Some of the reviews complained the X10 arrived broken. I don’t care what you buy – sometimes product will arrive broken. Send it back. Get a replacement.

 

Some reviews complained the X10 Technical support is poor. I never used the X10 Technical Support. But honestly – if you can’t get this camera working on your own? Or by reading the various forums? Technical support is probably only going to frustrate you further.

 

Several reviews complained that the X10 has to be positioned next to your router/wireless access point. Mine is around sixty feet away and I haven’t had a problem.

 

Others have complained that the camera reboots several times per day, causing the camera to return to its default position. I haven’t seen it reboot. But just in case, I mounted my camera so the default position is what I mostly want to see.

 

Others complained about difficulty using it with an iphone. Difficulties using the software. Difficulties using it on the internet. Etc. I have had none of those difficulties. And I’m left wondering if those people who complained (sorry if I offend anyone) knows what they are doing. Many people think they know more about technology than they really do and quickly get in over their head.

 

IS THIS THE RIGHT CAMERA FOR YOU?

Before you purchase the camera I have some work for you to do. If you are successful with these tasks, then you can probably handle setting up this camera. If you already bought the camera – don’t unbox it until you demonstrate you can do this!

 

I believe most of the issues are because individuals are unfamiliar with their internet router. In an ideal state, your internet router is your Wireless Access Point (WAP) too. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides you a cable and you plug it into your router/WAP and that is how you use the internet. If that isn’t your set up? You are going to be challenged to get this camera working.

 

Log into your router and try to collect the following information. As you collect it, write it down:

Router Public IP Address: ____._____._____.___

Router Internal IP Address (this will serve as our gateway address): ____._____._____.___

DHCP Lease Range: From ____._____._____.___  to ____._____._____.___

DHCP Subnet Mask:  ____._____._____.___

Wireless Encryption Level: __________________

Wireless Access Key: _______________

Are you able to locate the area where you can do port forwarding?

Can you find the DHCP table that shows all of your network devices and what IP address they have been given?

 

If you are successful at all these things, then you can probably set up the camera. If you miss any of these? I suggest to you that you shouldn’t try setting up this camera.

 

SET UP INSTRUCTIONS

You will notice that my instructions recommend you DO NOT use the software that came with the camera to set the camera up. In fact, I don’t use the software at all. After the camera is working, you can decide if you need the extra features the software provides.

 

(1)   Plug the camera into the router and into the electricity

 

(2)   Log into the router, look at the DHCP table and get the current IP address of your camera.

CURRENT CAMERA ADDRESS: ____._____._____.___

 

(3)   Look at your DHCP Lease Range. Assuming your DHCP Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0, the available addresses are x.x.x.1 through x.x.x.254. Your router’s internal IP address consumes one of those addresses. Your DHCP Lease Range consumes many more of those addresses. But some of those addresses are not used. You need to pick an unused address for your camera. For example, if your router sits at 192.168.1.1, and your DHCP range is 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.100, then you can pick any number between 192.168.1.101 – 192.168.1.254.  Pick that number now:

ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA: ____._____._____.___

 

(4)   Open an internet browser. I recommend not using Internet Explorer, but, you can if you must. Go to:

http://CURRENT CAMERA ADDRESS

You will be asked for a username and password

Username = admin     Password, leave it blank

 

(5)   You will be asked to select your browser (example, Internet Explorer).

 

(6)   On the left side, select NETWORK, then Basic Settings

 

(7)   Uncheck “Obtain IP from DHCP Server”. Then, carefully enter the ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA. Enter your subnet mask (probably 255.255.255.0). The gateway is the internal IP address of your router.

To help you get the DNS entery, you can go to a computer that sits on your wifi. Start ->Run, type CMD, hit enter, enter: ipconfig /all

This will display the computer’s IP settings and show the DNS addresses.

 

When you are done entering all the information into the camera’s setup, hit submit

The camera will reboot. Wait 30 seconds

 

(8)   In your browser, go to http://ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA

Login with Username = admin   password is blank

 

(9)   Click SYSTEM on the left, select Date & Time. Select your time zone. Hit submit

 

(10)                       Click SYSTEM on the left, select user settings. Give admin a password and hit submit

You will be asked to log in with this new password. Then the camera will reboot.

 

(11)                       If you plan to hang the camera upside down? Go to AUDIO-VIDEO  and select REVERSAL

 

(12)                       Click on NETWORK on the left side. Select Wireless Lan Setting.

Select USING WIRELESS LAN

Click SCAN and select your wireless name

Select your encryption level. Enter your key

The camera will reboot. Wait 30 seconds.

Go unplug the network cable from the camera. If you were successful at entering the wireless information, you should be able to open a new browser window, go to http://ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA and log in. If you can’t? You botched the wireless info. Plug the network cable back into the router and try again. Hopefully you’ll still be able to access the camera.

 

(13)                       Return to your router. We are going to allow you to access your camera from anywhere on the internet. Go to the Port Forwarding section. Create a port forwarding rule. I suggest you pick a port number between 100 and 65000 from the outside. Use port 80 for the inside. And use ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA for the internal address. What port did you pick?

CAMERA PORT:_________

 

(14)                       Open a browser. Type http://ROUTER PUBLIC IP ADDRESS:CAMERA PORT

For example: http://555.555.555.555:123

                        You should be able to log into the camera. This should also work from your mobile devices too.

 

(15)                       From a browser, go to http://ADDRESS OF YOUR CAMERA and log in.

Click on OTHER on the left. Select MAIL SERVICE SETTINGS

            You’ll need to enter some information about your mail provider. If you aren’t sure, you can google it. Common ones are Yahoo Mail: smtp.mail.yahoo.com  and Google Mail (Gmail) smtp.gmail.com. Both use Port 465 and require TLS. Both require your email address as your login information. So, lets go through the fields:

Sender is your email address

Receiver 1 is your email address

Receiver 2, 3, and 4 are other emails who you would like to get a copy of camera email

SMTP Server is, for example, smtp.gmail.com

SMTP Port is, for example, 465

Transport Layer Security Protocol depends on your provider. Yahoo and Gmail are TLS

Need Authentication? Put a checkmark in that box

SMTP User, for most providers is your email address. It is the username you use to log into your email account.

SMTP Password is the password you use when you log into your email account

Report Internet IP by Mail, I recommend putting a check mark in that box. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can change your external router address at any time without notification. If that happens, your camera will email you the new ip address.

Click the TEST button. If you don’t get success? Make sure your DNS entry is correct (step 7). If you have two DNS addresses? Try the other one.

 

(16)                       The Motion Detection Alarm will send you an email with 6 pictures if the camera detects motion. If you want that, click OTHER on the left and then go to ALARM SERVICE SETTINGS. Select Motion Detect Armed. Then select SEND MAIL ON ALARM.

 

(17)                       The front of the camera has a blinking light to indicate it is in use. If you don’t want the blinking light, click on SYSTEM on the left, then go to INDICATOR SETTING. Set to ALWAYS OFF. And hit submit

 

 

Well, there you go. Your IP Camera is all set up and available for use. If you are happy, I am happy. If you want it to do more? You are on your own to explore the software that came with the camera. If you have problems? Search the forums and, worse case, call the Technical Support.

 

Smart House

We have all heard about the smart house of the future. We will arrive home to a house that says "welcome home!" when we leave the house will remind us to take the garbage out and warn us that it might rain today. It will prepare our coffee, cook our dinner, and automatically notify a host of service professionals to perform maintenance and repairs.

I don't live in a smart house, but sometimes it feels like it. While most people are dropping their traditional land telephone lines and strictly using cell phones, we have taken a different approach. Each of us can be contacted directly via our cell phone number - a number provided only to close contacts. We have given our house a phone number too - the land line. That number is provided to everyone else. Most of those calls go directly to our answering machine.

The house's answer machine provides announcements loud enough to be heard throughout the house. "CVS Pharamacy is calling" followed by "This is CVS Pharmacy calling to tell you your prescription is ready for pick up." A few moments later the house announces "Doan Dodge is calling" followed by "This is Doan Dodge calling to remind you about your car appointment on Monday." Throughout the day the house tells us about doctor appointments, service status, reminders, and more.

I recently visited a Time Warner store and found a display for the Time Warner Security System. There is a door sensor that looks at the time of day to make different pre-recorded announcements. For example, when my son walks through the door after school the system could say "Welcome home Mark. Get started on your homework right away."

I don't live in the house of the future. But as I listen to my house throughout the day I believe the Smart House is within reach!

I am a Google Maps Star

I was working from home on Friday and decided to go for a run for lunch. On the run I was passed by the Google Maps car! That means that once the picture get updated, you'll be able to see me running down the road. As you go down the road you'll pass by me on the right-hand side of the road. I don't know when the new pictures will get uploaded, so, check back often!



https://maps.google.com/maps?q=508+Hamlin+Parma+Townline+Road,+Hilton,+NY&hl=en&ll=43.302311,-77.825869&spn=0.000004,0.001961&sll=43.323804,-77.822814&sspn=0.02329,0.031371&hnear=508+Clarkson+Parma+Town+Line+Rd,+Hilton,+New+York+14468&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=43.3024,-77.825829&panoid=X_D0T7HQjGAjplxIhJuxrA&cbp=12,191.3,,0,0

Abiquo

Abiquo: More than a cloud veneer 

It appears Abiquo has all the pre-requsit features one would expect from a cloud veneer. It sits infront of a virtual environment and provides self-provisioning cloud features to customers.  As you would expect from such a product, it supports many hypervisors: VMWARE, XEN, XenServer, KVM, Hyper-V, and Virtual Box. It has a service catalog with standard templates, shared/community templates, and customer owned templates. It has resource limits controlling how much any one customer is allowed to consume. It has LDAP integration for authentication. It includes the ability to create private networks and allows customer branding. It seems to have nailed the basics.  But what makes Abiquo stand out?

The ease of implementation provides an interesting argument for Abiquo.  During installation, Abiquo will scan an address range and look for hosts. It will add the hosts it finds to its console. It will then scan the hosts for virtual machines and allow the installer to easily add those virtual machines to the console too. This allows Abiquo to be installed quickly into an existing virtual environment.

Abiquo has detailed resource limits that can implement controls down to the number of CPU’s, amount of memory, number of public IP Addresses, and more.  In addition to providing storage from the virtual environment for cloud consumption, Abiquo can use Netapp API’s to provide Storage As A Service and tiered storage (with different pricing per tier). Abiquo uses rules and algorithms to determine virtual machine placement. And finally, Albiquo comes with built-in V2V so that virtual machines may be moved between competing hypervisors.

In the end, Abiquo is a step ahead of other products in its class (such as Cloudstack and Openstack), and can serve as a low cost replacement for vCloud Director.

Tintri VMStore Flash Based Storage Array

Flash storage, deployed in solid state drives (SSD) can be 400 times faster than disk. However, SSD is expensive. A cottage industry of companies like Tintri are trying different approaches to using SSD in new ways.

Traditional Storage Arrays implement SSD as read/write cache. Traditional Storage Arrays attempts to predict what will be needed based upon current activity and will move items onto SSD to improve performance. Tintri VMStore takes a different approach. They use SSD as primary storage for “hot” data, and then offloads “cold” data to sata. It determines what data is hot based upon performance information gathered at the VM’s disks. Tintri believes that gathering information at this level provides better efficiency than gathering the information at a LUN level because caching often guesses wrong leaving idle data sitting in the cache. Because Tintri looks at VM’s disks, it is easier to identify I/O bottleknecks.
Since Tintri is determining which data is on SSD versus SATA, they argue that administrators no longer need to be concerned about storage tiers. I argue that unless you have enough Tintri storage to meet your needs, you’ll still contend with storage tiers.

Since SSD is expensive it must be used as efficiently as possible. Tintri accomplishes this by first de-duping data, and then compressing it. Wouldn’t this take a performance hit? Remember, SSD can be 400 times faster when compared to traditional disk – the performance hit would be insignificant compared to the faster drive.

SSD use Multi-Level-Cells to hold data. These cells can be overwritten only 5000 to 10000 times before the wear out. If your cache wears out – who cares? Just replace it. But if your primary storage wears out? You have a big problem! Tintri combats this by trying to efficiently use SSD via dedup and compression; and to add error checking and RAID 6 for when the SSD wears out.
Since SSD can be 400 times faster than disk, you can do some creative inefficient things and still be faster. Such as de-dup, compression, and data integrity checking. With error checking and parity, the system will ‘heal itself’ from disk problems on the fly. It also uses a Non-Volatile NVRAM as a write buffer so that if the Tintri mid-stream, the last write can still be constructed: The hypervisor decides to write data; the data goes to the primary NVRAM; the data is copied to secondary NVRAM; then the hypervisor is told the data was written; Tintri confirms the NVRAM data is complete; finally the NVRAM is written to SDD. Again… you would think this might slow things down, but not when you are working 400 times faster than traditional disk.

Another nice item: Trintri does automatic disk alignment for virtual machines.

Much of the Trintri literature compares how much faster SSD is versus disk,  how more efficient their vmware-aware performance monitoring is compared to caching, and how Trintri takes advantage of the faster SSD to add efficiency and redundancy for high availability.

Cloud Partner Security

As a podcast junkie, I have to give the Virtualization Security Round Table #74 a lot of credit for a great topic and good arguments. They brought up an excellent point. Suppose you are working with a cloud provider who claims to be completely secured and has the industry certifications to prove it. And then you put a cloud management engine or interface in front of that provider: perhaps Rightscale, Ylastic, Cloudsmart, or any other tool that requires you to provide your cloud credentials. You might have just negated all that great cloud provider security! You have allowed an 'unknown' to have keys to the front door. If that provider gets hacked, the hacker can own everything in your cloud and could use that as an attack vector into your company. Leason: put third party tool providers under the same scrutiny that you place cloud providers.

The Nano Watch

Have you heard about the Apple Ipod Nano watch? Neither had I until it was mentioned on the vChat Podcast #22 so I decided to check it out. Sure enough, it is an MP3 player with a clock face that you wear like a watch! If you aren't familiar with the Nano, it is like a small iphone without the cell phone capabilities. You can watch video, listen to FM radio, use Nike+ and more. There are dozens of different watch faces you can choose from. The Nano starts at $129 and watch bands are $30-80.

The Micro Server

Everyone knows I am a podcast junkie. I listen to many podcasts and I make many podcasts. In the vChat podcast #22 they talked about creating home computer labs using the HP Proliant MicroServer, so, I thought I would check it out. The microserver costs around $250-350 and can support up to 8GB RAM. It uses the Turion Neo Dual-core processor from AMD, and allows RAID across its SATA drives. HP positions the server for small offices, but the price is ideal if you are an IT professional in need of a home lab.

Cloud Security

I am a podcast junkie. I like listening to and creating podcasts. I listen to many podcasts on many different topics.

The Virtual Security Round Table #74 provides great arguments around cloud security. They argue that cloud providers can claim they have all the industry security certifications in the world, but they won't divulge the details and scope of those certifications. There is no way to tell whether the scope of, say, the PCI certification matches your needs or plugs into your processes. The podcast producers would like to see providers settle on the Cloud Security Alliance certification, which provides transparency and visibility into those certifications.

Imagine that you have deployed company assets into the cloud and then get hacked. You have no way of knowing whether you did something wrong or whether the cloud provider left a vulnerability open. Customers can not see the audit logs. When signing up for service, customers sign-away all responsibility the cloud provider may have. You have been hacked, you have lost data, and you are responsible for that loss even if it isn't your fault and even if you have no way of performing root cause analysis. You might have no way of determining whether the exploit is fixed or if you'll get hacked again tomorrow.

Suppose the cloud provider makes a configuration mistake and allows another client onto your virtually secured private subnet. You would have almost no way of knowing, almost no way of proving the problem, and probably no way to seek damages from the cloud provider.

To make matters worse, you are responsible for securing your cloud deployment, but most cloud providers will not permit you to run a scan (such as a Nessus scan) in the cloud. Therefore, you have limited means by which to determine whether or not the cloud implementation is secure.

This has created a no-win security scenario for customers. Customers can't see the details of cloud certifications. They can't see into logs and configurations that would assure proper security. They can't perform root cause analysis against security problems. They can't perform security scans that make sure their implements are safe. Yet the customer is fully responsible for security.