Are you a touch-typist?

Fancy yourself a touch-typist? want to show off your keyboarding skills…. head on over here

My cough record cough is 59wpm…kinda slow really….

Dang, should really improve on that…..

Upgraded to WordPress 3

It’s this time that an upgrade of the back-end was needed, so backed up the site and database, the upgrade completed successfully and pain-less. Couldn’t say much about it as to what is new….or features as the time to investigate was limited due to work load at the moment…. but am happy now that I aint been bugged with a ‘WordPress 3 is available. Please update’!!!

Remove your account from popular websites

There has been a lot of debate recently about deleting your account from Facebook, in fact this blog explains such measures THAT prevents you from doing so, despite the furore over its privacy policy (was a former Facebook but decided to give Mark Zuckerberg the finger after the changes in the privacy back in January 2010, and get lost by deleting my former account and was pleased! – Hooray for no spam coming from Farmville – yuck!)

Now something has popped up that caught my attention, it’s not just confined to Facebook, but on other websites that indicates the difficulty rating in removing your account from sites such as Twitter, EBay, Amazon, to name but a few. Mosey on over to the ‘Smashing Magazine‘ to find out and remove your identity from sites. Hopefully the backups of the data would have been wiped cleanly (I wonder)

Win XP Drivers

Let me explain, ever get the situation where you are not 100% sure on what drivers within the Device Manager need updating, and even worse, they are de-facto installed as default, i.e. out of date, going back to when XP first came out. It can be a frustrating experience trying to find the right ones, worst case scenario is, installing the wrong drivers resulting in a non-functioning Windows XP… Read more »

Using USB Mobile Broadband

Are you using 3G Mobile Broadband on a USB stick, having connection problems? Connection goes up and down like a yo-yo more times than you can say it, it could be the Access Point Name on the 3G’s ISP that is having technical problems, check out this interesting article and post here to let us all know if it works or not…by the way, I have not got that router on the linked site…but curious to know…

Multi-Tail

I stumbled on this darn useful utility for monitoring logs on screen…ever use tail -f /var/log/messages and getting frustrated at not being able to see the other logs also, implying that another session has to be started, and issue another command tail -f /var/log/syslog for instance.

This utility is a much more powerful tail tool, called MultiTail, is uses the curses library to create panes where you can view different logs on the one tail session. As an example:

• multitail -s 2 /var/log/messages /var/log/syslog
  • A neat window appears with the screen split into two, messages on one pane, and syslog on the other, in real-time…

How cool is that..there are a plethora of options such as custom colours for certain keywords to highlight when scrolling by or going backwards in the window’s pane.

Some astute readers may point out, “Hey I can use screen for that… “, but you would be missing the point, this is really a dedicated screen for monitoring logs… Enjoy

Secure Shell + securing your box

Earlier I was watching with interest in what was going on with my Linux box, and was surprised to see a hacker attempting to secure shell into it using a brute force dictionary attack based on user id’s in order to find a weakness.

Literally, quite literally, the names were in order from A-Z …

May  8 21:26:41 inspiron8600 sshd[29250]: Invalid user andra from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:41 inspiron8600 sshd[29250]: Failed password for invalid user andra from 113.59.255.6 port 36041 ssh2
May  8 21:26:44 inspiron8600 sshd[29254]: Invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:44 inspiron8600 sshd[29254]: Failed password for invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6 port 36619 ssh2
May  8 21:26:47 inspiron8600 sshd[29258]: Invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:47 inspiron8600 sshd[29258]: Failed password for invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6 port 37245 ssh2
May  8 21:26:51 inspiron8600 sshd[29262]: Invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:51 inspiron8600 sshd[29262]: Failed password for invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6 port 45656 ssh2
May  8 21:26:54 inspiron8600 sshd[29266]: Invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:54 inspiron8600 sshd[29266]: Failed password for invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6 port 46232 ssh2
May  8 21:26:57 inspiron8600 sshd[29270]: Invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:26:57 inspiron8600 sshd[29270]: Failed password for invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6 port 46810 ssh2
May  8 21:27:01 inspiron8600 sshd[29274]: Invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:01 inspiron8600 sshd[29274]: Failed password for invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6 port 47404 ssh2
May  8 21:27:04 inspiron8600 sshd[29278]: Invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:04 inspiron8600 sshd[29278]: Failed password for invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6 port 48030 ssh2
May  8 21:27:07 inspiron8600 sshd[29282]: Invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:07 inspiron8600 sshd[29282]: Failed password for invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6 port 48659 ssh2
May  8 21:27:11 inspiron8600 sshd[29286]: Invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:11 inspiron8600 sshd[29286]: Failed password for invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6 port 49292 ssh2
May  8 21:27:14 inspiron8600 sshd[29290]: Invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:14 inspiron8600 sshd[29290]: Failed password for invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6 port 49821 ssh2
May  8 21:27:17 inspiron8600 sshd[29294]: Invalid user andrei from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:27:17 inspiron8600 sshd[29294]: Failed password for invalid user andrei from 113.59.255.6 port 50449 ssh2
May  8 21:27:21 inspiron8600 sshd[29298]: Invalid user andrei from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:41 inspiron8600 sshd[29250]: Invalid user andra from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:41 inspiron8600 sshd[29250]: Failed password for invalid user andra from 113.59.255.6 port 36041 ssh2May  8 21:26:44 inspiron8600 sshd[29254]: Invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:44 inspiron8600 sshd[29254]: Failed password for invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6 port 36619 ssh2May  8 21:26:47 inspiron8600 sshd[29258]: Invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:47 inspiron8600 sshd[29258]: Failed password for invalid user andrada from 113.59.255.6 port 37245 ssh2May  8 21:26:51 inspiron8600 sshd[29262]: Invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:51 inspiron8600 sshd[29262]: Failed password for invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6 port 45656 ssh2May  8 21:26:54 inspiron8600 sshd[29266]: Invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:54 inspiron8600 sshd[29266]: Failed password for invalid user andrea from 113.59.255.6 port 46232 ssh2May  8 21:26:57 inspiron8600 sshd[29270]: Invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:26:57 inspiron8600 sshd[29270]: Failed password for invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6 port 46810 ssh2May  8 21:27:01 inspiron8600 sshd[29274]: Invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:01 inspiron8600 sshd[29274]: Failed password for invalid user andre from 113.59.255.6 port 47404 ssh2May  8 21:27:04 inspiron8600 sshd[29278]: Invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:04 inspiron8600 sshd[29278]: Failed password for invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6 port 48030 ssh2May  8 21:27:07 inspiron8600 sshd[29282]: Invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:07 inspiron8600 sshd[29282]: Failed password for invalid user andreea from 113.59.255.6 port 48659 ssh2May  8 21:27:11 inspiron8600 sshd[29286]: Invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:11 inspiron8600 sshd[29286]: Failed password for invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6 port 49292 ssh2May  8 21:27:14 inspiron8600 sshd[29290]: Invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:14 inspiron8600 sshd[29290]: Failed password for invalid user andreiana from 113.59.255.6 port 49821 ssh2May  8 21:27:17 inspiron8600 sshd[29294]: Invalid user andrei from 113.59.255.6May  8 21:27:17 inspiron8600 sshd[29294]: Failed password for invalid user andrei from 113.59.255.6 port 50449 ssh2
<pre>May  8 21:31:19 inspiron8600 sshd[29582]: Failed password for invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6 port 38423 ssh2
May  8 21:31:22 inspiron8600 sshd[29586]: Invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:31:22 inspiron8600 sshd[29586]: Failed password for invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6 port 39029 ssh2
May  8 21:31:25 inspiron8600 sshd[29590]: Invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:31:25 inspiron8600 sshd[29590]: Failed password for invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 port 39636 ssh2
May  8 21:31:28 inspiron8600 sshd[29594]: Invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:31:28 inspiron8600 sshd[29594]: Failed password for invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 port 40256 ssh2
May  8 21:31:32 inspiron8600 sshd[29598]: Invalid user biologie from 113.59.255.6
May  8 21:31:32 inspiron8600 sshd[29598]: Failed password for invalid user biologie from 113.59.255.6 port 40809 ssh2</pre>
May  8 21:31:19 inspiron8600 sshd[29582]: Failed password for invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6 port 38423 ssh2 May  8 21:31:22 inspiron8600 sshd[29586]: Invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6 May  8 21:31:22 inspiron8600 sshd[29586]: Failed password for invalid user bianca from 113.59.255.6 port 39029 ssh2 May  8 21:31:25 inspiron8600 sshd[29590]: Invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 May  8 21:31:25 inspiron8600 sshd[29590]: Failed password for invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 port 39636 ssh2 May  8 21:31:28 inspiron8600 sshd[29594]: Invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 May  8 21:31:28 inspiron8600 sshd[29594]: Failed password for invalid user bibi from 113.59.255.6 port 40256 ssh2 May  8 21:31:32 inspiron8600 sshd[29598]: Invalid user biologie from 113.59.255.6 May  8 21:31:32 inspiron8600 sshd[29598]: Failed password for invalid user biologie from 113.59.255.6 port 40809 ssh2</pre>

Inspiron8600 is the Linux box running Slackware 13. Within 5 minutes of being alerted I scrambled into action to lock down the ssh (ok, it was secure, but thought I should batten down the hatches even more).

• Edit /etc/hosts.allow file and only allow designated sshd access on certain IP addresses, i.e. sshd : 192.168.1.0/24
• Edit /etc/hosts.deny file and deny any other access to sshd from the outside, i.e. sshd : ALL
• Edit /etc/sshd/sshd_config and ensure that the following directives are used:
  • AllowUsers user_id – where user_id is the designated ssh user
  • PermitRootLogin no – this will disable root access on the outside. This will only work from the the internal IP address, as specified by /etc/hosts.allow.
• Download DenyHosts which is a simple python script that runs as a daemon and block external IP addresses which has spurious activity of logging ssh attempts and will block those IP addresses. Installation is quite simple:
  • extract the source tarball, latest version as of the time of blog entry is 2.6. Change into that directory where it is extracted.
  • As root, enter python setup.py install. This will install the necessary files to make DenyHosts work into /usr/share/denyhosts.
  • Edit the file /usr/share/denyhosts/denyhosts-cfg.dist and change the directory location where the lock-file will be depending on your installation. Now save that and rename it to /usr/share/denyhosts/denyhosts.cfg.
  • Edit /usr/share/denyhosts/daemon-control.dist and change the directory location where the lock-file will be, usually the same entry as in /usr/share/denyhosts/denyhosts.cfg. Now save that and rename it to /usr/share/denyhosts/daemon-control
  • Finally…
    • chown root daemon-control – to make it owned by root and
    • chmod 700 daemon-control - to make it executable only by root.
    • This can be put into a start-up script when Linux boots up, this will vary depending on the distro, in my case, I put this into /etc/rc.d/rc.local – /usr/share/denyhosts/daemon-control start
    • Run the DenyHosts script – daemon-control start
• Now, restart sshd daemon, via its script, again this will vary from Linux distro to another, in my case, it was /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd restart and hey presto…

No more connection attempts and you know what, DenyHosts is blocking any sshd attempts….and peace and quiet!!!!

CompTIA Network+ 2009

Right, I have undertaken an on-line course for CompTIA Network+ 2009, Exam N10-004, and am pleased to say that I passed with flying colours… and officially a qualified CompTIA Network guru…roll on the CCNA online course…

w00t, w00t….

Having fun with subnets

I am a proud owner of a spanking Linux box, running Slackware 13.0, with kernel 2.6.33.2. And boy, what fun I had in setting up my own super Linux router with NAT/Masquerading in place, FTP server, Web server (incorporating Apache/PHP/MySQL stack), DHCP server…to be done is an email server using Postfix and IDS (intrusion detection system) using Snort…

Now, as this topic is about subnets, here’s a useful bit of information that I have learnt about this subnetting….

Read more »

The joys of disk recovery

It is this time, when a spring clean is warranted. There was a lot of hitches on the way due to the way the hard drive was set up, and have discovered some interesting things…but seven excellent utilities saved my bacon on this.. Read more »

Tip on Backing up data

If you are one of these in the crowd that likes to download files and store ‘em somewhere, buried deep in the folder hierarchy that you have put some TLC into the creation and structure of the folders, and does not have a backup strategy?

Let me give you a 2cent tip, use your ISO creation tool (Nero, PowerISO, to name but a few), create your ISO file, along with your folder hierarchy/structure in place and save the ISO. Now simply, move it off the disk to another disk such as USB-Hard Disk, NAS device…

Aim to have the ISO under 4Gb!

When you do that, all your collection of ISO’s are sitting on a backup drive, you can if you wish, to burn them to DVD’s. You have killed two birds with one stone (to paraphrase the expression), you can easily mount the ISO as a virtual DVD drive and browse through your folders for a file in the ‘I know I left it in there somewhere’ moment.

Now, the backup is much easier and painless, agree?