30
Jan
Placement – Going Great!
Well I am currently sat next to the rack at Bluesquare. I’ve finished my list of jobs in which I have had a couple of setbacks. Mainly that one of the server’s hard drives pretended to die while I was here. Just waiting to make sure the raid array sorts its self out and I don’t have to replace the drive, so I thought I’d do something constructive and write a post on my placement so far.
I’m at Bluesquare today installing a server that died over xmas. It was a weird one. The server’s motherboard had died, it lost its network ports a while back but it has finally given up. It took a memory stick and two hard drives with it. The memory stick was a new one for me, I had never seen a duff memory stick before but the hard drives where a common model to fail so they are no surprise. Also xmas a dual (supposedly redundant) power supply also failed in another server. That was a quick fix and I replaced it when I was here last. Although two other servers were complaining about losing power supplies, I’ve had to replace 3 PSU modules now.
Today has been a long day, I arrived at about 10am (Note to self: Destroy the satnav) it’s about 6.30pm now. I installed the server this morning which took about 2 hours as I had picked up the wrong rack rails. They are not compatible with the server case. The holes on the rail are too small for the screw holes on the case. I thought this was all standardised but obviously not.
We’ve had quite a lot of hardware failures lately including a cisco switch. I’m taking it back to HQ to investigate it more but it is sending scrambled text over the console connection.
Update: I didn’t post this on the day so it’s a little delayed. Also back at HQ the cisco switch weirdly fixed it’s self :/ *Scratches head*
27
Jan
A Sign Of Speeds To Come!
Just been reading a few interesting blog posts on BT Infinity and as a networking student quite excited of the speeds BT could be selling. Soon to be available but only in some areas of course BT are offering 40Mb download and 10Mb upload speeds (here). I’ve thought for a long time that ISP’s need to be increasing uploads speeds. It make sense. So many people are now uploading digital content to sites like YouTube and Facebook. Although they can download websites super fast uploading those pictures from the night before can take hours! Virgin Media have said to be testing a 200Mb package but seem to have run in to issues when finding a domestic router that can handle these speeds.
Although I would be very happy to have a 200Mb connection to the outside world I have to wonder if I’d actually use it. There are little or no services that would max out that connection or even use a substantial amount, it does open up a whole new doorway though as services and websites once bogged down by slow Internet speeds could benefit drastically. COD6 / Xbox live comes to mind as IW has dropped dedicated server support for the latest COD. I suppose I could quickly find a certain protocol to max out the connection.
I think a lot of business with lots of users would benefit from these speeds. As the connection is shared and they’d be able to host quite a lot of services internally. Instead of having to pay and arm and a leg for a leased line which sometimes isn’t all that fast or even data centre space which is quite expensive.
26
Jan
Xtreamer, No More Issues
I’ve noticed over the weekend that since I fitted the add-on cooler to the Xtreamer I have not been having any issues as I had described when I first purchased the little media streamer. This is quite awesome as I did start to wonder if I had just wasted £109 on a new heater.
The only issue I have come across is when I replaced the router with my D-Link Dir-655 as the old router had started to randomly drop the connection to the Internet. The dir-655 was setup as an access point for the Xtreamer on Wireless-N to get the best speed streaming downstairs to the TV. When I came to swap the routers I completely reset the d-link to factory settings. I suspect I didn’t setup the wireless on the same settings as before as now the Xtreamer fails to connect to the Wireless-N network and get an IP address. However the old router which is Wireless-G still has some life in it to act as a access-point for the Xtreamer. The laptops are on the Wireless-N network which keeps the airways clear enough for the Xtreamer to stream HD surprisingly!
One day I’ll end up fixing it as it was connected to the d-link but if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Right?
25
Jan
Passwords
A recent study has been published identifying the worst passwords used on computer systems. “123456″ claims the top stop with others such as “Password” and “123456789″.
1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123
(Source: PCWorld)
Although some may have, many seem to not be aware just how easy it would be for hackers to brute force attack someone’s account and again access.
“To quantify the issue, the combination of poor passwords and automated attacks means that in just 110 attempts, a hacker will typically gain access to one new account on every second or a mere 17 minutes to break into 1000 accounts,” Imperva said in its report.
Just looking at the SSH logs from my two Linux servers they are subject to thousands of login attempts everyday. Internet bots trying to gain access.
Its not just users that are the problem I find by not picking good, strong passwords. I have several passwords for various services/accounts etc. Some passwords make sense, some don’t, some I don’t even know by memory. Sometimes I forget these and go though the password recovery steps on websites. I find there is about 50% chance that the website will send me my password in an email. I have even come across one certain website that will send me a password reminder whenever it chooses to. Although that’s great and I have my password its not great in the fact I now have an email displaying my password sitting in my in-box. What happens if my email account gets compromised? You’d just be able to search my inbox for various passwords. Although I delete these emails I suspect a large sum of people don’t. This is one trick someone used in gain access to various things relating to twitter.
I think in some respects you can hardly blame users when companies are sending out passwords in plain text which is just as bad. This shows two potential problems which would have dangerous consequences if account details ever became leaked or compromised 1) They store your password in plain text or 2) They store your password in reversible encryption.
So.. Change your passwords, don’t have the same password, delete those password recovery emails would be my advice!
8
Jan
Exchange 2007
I’ve pretty much finished setting up Exchange on my newish server over at UKS. I say pretty much but I started this post in December last year so its been going for some time now! I’m pleased with it. I found it quite usful installing it as it helped me fix some issues with the Exchange server I manage at work! I’ve been using the webui to access my email which I have quickly got annoyed with. As most do, I prefer firefox and as some may know you don’t get the fully featured OWA anything other than Internet Explorer, one main thing you can’t do is create message rules (Unless I am totally blind). Good news though as Exchange 2010 which is currently at RC stage fully supports all features in Firefox and other browsers.
Just with my current setup I can not upgrade / install Exchange 2010 as I have run out of IP addresses / have no compatiable servers… yet… so I will have to stick with 2007 for a while.
On other note I’m appreciating how awesome WordPress is, its so easy to upgrade/add plugins unlike PHPBB which I have been working with lately, it reminds me why I did not follow a career in Wed Development / Design.
Although, when is anything easy?
7
Jan
Setting Up a New Network
I spent a little time over the holidays expanding my parent’s business network. They have expanded into a second unit and decided to relocate some office space. Unfortunately this involved knocking a hole in the wall to create space for a door… Just where the servers are located.
So not only did I have to move the servers I also had to incorporate into the network the new unit which was already wired up with Ethernet sockets. This was a slight challenge as I had to relocate a lot of cable. Considering the previous tenants dealt with electrical wiring they had not wired up the office space very well, not mentioning any names. I however succeed. I was going to take a picture of my neat job at cabling to the patch panel but I forgot.
Although quite pleased with my work I seem to go back every holiday and complete new requirements and think back to why on earth I did certain things, for example the old network setup. I suppose this is a sign university is paying off as I am learning how to complete tasks better.