In terms of university I heard my option module has been cancelled, lack of a student interest apparently, I would not be surprised if I was the only one that signed up. I have now decided after not much thought as well a lot of modules did 1) Not appeal to me, 2) I am already doing and finally 3) I could not do as I did not do the required level 2 modules, chosen to do Information Systems Engineering in Industry. This however has just put a dent in my timetable and I no longer appear to get Fridays off in the first semester, shame I know but then I’ll be at university and be able to study during the gaps between lectures.. I say that but if it is anything like last year the Library staff seem to enjoy baking and working in the Library with the heating on not only in the winter but the summer to is really off putting, its not even warm, its just hot in there but anyway.

I’ve not had much final thoughts on my final year project but I think now that I have the forthcoming weeks off I’ll start to press on with that, I can imagine doing something with IPV6 but I’m getting put off by that idea if every other person is doing it to..

Placement has been fun although in the last month my role has been to step aside and be more of a supervisor to ensure my replacement is up to speed and knows what he is doing so I have not been as hands on as I like to be.
Lately I have been brushing up on my C# skills ready for September and have created a few applications, I may release one or two so stay tuned for that if your using XBMC…

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*

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!

I’ve nearly finished converting a website from a static html design in to a content management system called Kentico. I’ve never worked with Kentico, let alone aspx, but after about a week of scratching my head and wondering what the hell is going on I finally made progress. Its been a good learning curve and it takes me back to my web designing day. The site its self is nothing fancy the aim of this is to allow the site to be developed further so it is very much a conversion process than creating the site from scratch. Which brings me on to a little rant…
A web development company designed this site considering this I was quite shocked at how poorly this website had been built. Its seems like consistency has been thrown out the window. An example; Half way though a page the text font would change! How do people get a way from designing such rubbish quality work?

Any who it seems like a new project for me is to create a new Windows 7 domain set-up for a local company. I’ve got experience in 2003 domains so but a 2008 domain shouldn’t be too different or maybe even easier? I think not but that what research is for!

On that note I think I’ll end this rather short but slightly informing post. This weekend I’m off to Sheffield to see my sister are university

Anyway back to the point. Why the nice shiny server I hear you ask? Well its part of a plan I am putting in place in order to keep everything on the business computers backed up! There is a simple backup system in place but it doesn’t cover everything. Only the important bits. So its Windows Home Server to the rescue. Yep that’s right I’m going to put Windows Home Server on the new machine. Windows Home Server (WHS) is quite handy when it comes to small business’s and/or offices. In this case the backup of networked computers is the main reason WHS is being deployed and here is why…

- Backs up all the computers daily
- Pretty much restore a computer in 10 minutes.
- Restore a whole computer or that file you just deleted
- Doesn’t use up terabytes of data space

Its an all round win. You can aswell, with a bit of a nudge join it to a domain and run services on it like Virtual Machines, DNS, FTP etc etc..

I’m not the only one deploying WHS in a small business. Microsoft even recommends it and are starting to push the idea to small business’s…

More Info Here

I came across Remote Desktop Manager which is free for personal and commercial use. Its been great and is such a time safer. So great in fact I am writing a post about it and I also coughed up the £10 odd it cost to upgrade to the enterprise version as some passwords just need to be saved!

I would recommend this to anyone who has alot of Remote Desktoping to do as it really is the best thing since sliced bread! However it also has a few other tricks under its belt. It can manage FTP, SHH, Telnet and VNC sessions as well. I saw on the forums it may also support VMware console in the future but I’m not sure. Anyway check it out!

Birmingham its self has been awesome. Last Monday I went with my new flatmate and his friends to The Rainbow to see Kid British! What a great band and they played amazing live! I also saw The Anomalies which were also awesome and other band which were very good but I have no idea what they were called… Any who it got me in the mood for V festival which is only a month away!

My placement has been a real learning curve and I think its going to get steeper which is always fun. I’m currently looking at a Windows PBX called 3CX which may be implemented at the office.

This weekend I’ll hopefully get round to having a look at the new update for Windows Home Server. Power Pack 3 has been released under a BETA tag, which means its not quite ready for the public as it might still have bugs in the software. It brings support for Windows 7 enhancements to Windows Media Centre. Check it out here.

On that note I have been checking out a new media centre called Boxee! After leaving the Stafford house the original Xbox running XBMC has been retired as I no longer have a TV (Soon to change) so I started using Boxee as a Windows version had just been released. I was very impressed initially and continue to be bemused by its features. Boxee is based on XBMC but does a much better job at presenting its self. The applications feature is also a great edition allowing UK users to watch BBC iPlayer, although here in Birmingham I am on 2mb broadband so can’t stream the HD content. I was going to set up XBMC on my new TV though a PC rather than an the Xbox but I think now it’ll be running Boxee so watch this space!.. Going to have a to buy a TV first though.. and maybe a new small computer..??

Also a quick GOOD LUCK to Andrew, Michael and Dave who are in Germany finishing their first week on placement!

Really enjoyed my first day even with the high temperatures up in the office. On to the next!

And yes, I did drive though it..

I seemed to have been corner by my parents to do some IT work for them today so I think I’ll be packing much just the essentials much like friends Andy and Michael who will be traveling to Germany soon for their placement so good luck to them!