Vat of Knowledge

I’ve been a long time fan of BulletProof FTP server.  I recently ran into some issues with my passive mode configuration, and wanted to share what I had to do in order to get it working both on the internal network, as well as the external.

I left the default port, 21, open on my firewall to my FTP server.  Probably not a recommended practice, as you see all kinds of IP scans, and people trying to get into your FTP server.  Probably best to choose a different port to host your home FTP server with, but 21 makes it easier in a business environment, since it’s the default port.  I personally have a static IP address, so under the general settings/passive mode in BPFTP settings, I chose static.  If you have dynamic, just use dynamic and type in your dyndns.com name you’ve got set up (I hope).  When using passive mode, you also need to define a range of ports to listen on.  Set this range with the maximum number of connections you anticipate.  I chose range 50000 – 50100.  I opened this range on my firewall, but from the outside world, I still had trouble getting a list of the directories.  I had no problem logging in, I just couldn’t get a listing, getting error:

(000001) 12/21/2009 4:27:27 AM – ew (24.251.156.85) > LIST -aL
(000001) 12/21/2009 4:27:33 AM – ew (24.251.156.85) > 426 Cannot retrieve. Failed. Aborting

With port 21 already open, and port range 50000 – 50100 open to my FTP server, I had to do one final thing.  Open port 20.  It’s a control port, so whatever port you choose for FTP, also open one port down on your firewall, and you’re in business.

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I want to start by saying that I’ve had the pleasure of working with ATT for the last 5 years. While they’ve had “decent” service, I still drop calls in the middle of downtown Seattle, downtown Bellevue, etc, just unacceptable.

We ordered a new Motorola Backflip, the first Android O/S phone that ATT has released. It released April 7th, and we ordered that afternoon online. The ads are everywhere, front page of ATT’s site, TV ads… $99 after mail in rebate with a new 2 year contract. So we ordered, and here’s the kicker. On the invoice we saw “not eligible for mail in rebate”. ??? The orders get placed through the Premier site, so I had to contact Premier to find out why. The answer was that we upgraded the phone only, not the phone and a voice plan. What? Ok, we already have the unlimited voice @ $69/mo, what more do we need here? Come to find out, it is invalid, because it just requires a $39 voice plan, but Premier would not budge on it!

Be careful how you order!!! Going into a store may be the best way to do it, or ordering by phone with a representative. Another thing that gets to me is how they bill for the phone. You can’t simply have it added to your bill if you are a residential (or whatever the term is) customer. I am also the telecom manager at work, and I can have handset purchases billed to my account all day long. I’ve been a “residential” customer longer than my company has had ATT service. My company only hosts 5 phones! What’s the difference here?

Ok, so I call in to order another Backflip, I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. Ordering for my workplace, so billing to the account is no problem. I called in, and was told that they would wave the activation fee and give me an additional $50 off. I had to get manager approval, so after that I call back in. The guy on the phone is trying to get $149 out of me right off the bat, even though I informed him of the huge TV ads, and front of their website. I was told “it might not be available in your area”. What? Its a national freakin ad! He looked into it a bit further and I only paid $49. So there you have it, call in or go in. And don’t let them try to weasel their way out of their promotion!

Edit: The Backflip is not only crippled, its seriously hardware impaired. I took them both back, moved to Verizon and got Moto Droids for $100 each!

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OK, so this blog is about why you don’t want to TOUCH an E-Machine!  I ended up doing some work for a client, reloading an E-Machine model C2881 that he handed me.  Installed was 512 MB of RAM, and after loading XP SP3 and all updates along with removing all the crap that E-Machines puts in their Ghost image (imagine software from 2004 staring you in the face), and loading a couple of simple, newer, open source programs, the thing is running like a 286 SX-25 loaded with Windows Vista.

More RAM, obvious, that and streamline startup.  OK, so startup is streamlined, and I used CPU-Z to look at the memory clock so I don’t have to open it up.  It uses DDR 2700, great, I know what kind of RAM, but how much will the system handle, so I can send a link to my client to purchase some memory?  Off to www.emachines.com (or whatever their site is).  I pull down the user manual, which has no tech specs.  I look on their page where they claim “specifications”, but it just tells you what the stupid thing shipped with, 512 MB DDR.  So I have to pull up a chat with their support, and get this, max memory is coveted!  Trade secret from what I was told, take a look at the chat session and see how long it took me to get through to this guy.  So here is the secret, in all it’s glory, available for all the world to see.

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When you have trouble reaching outside domains via email, the first place to look is your mail queue.  Regardless of mail server version, Exchange, sendmail, take a look at the queue and see if mail is building up.  If it is, find out why.  I wanted to share an experience I had with my Exchange 2003 server recently, that is important to know if you run into it.  We found that we were unable to send email to certain outside domains, such as company2.hk and institution.edu, but we were able to send email to our Gmail just fine.

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Had to throw this up there. This is a great wallpaper to put on someone’s laptop after you’ve reloaded Windows XP.  Click to preview in full size, right click save image as…  It’s 1024×768.  Awesome

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So I wanted to add a login script to some servers that runs bginfo.exe, so that we can see what server we are on when we remote desktop, along with other useful info.  Tricky, because “logon script” applies to user configuration, not computer configuration, and we’re applying this GPO against computer in AD, not users.  If we applied it to users, it would run on every machine the user logged into, and this is not desired.

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So I ran into an issue with Verizon Wireless the other day.  Since our Exchange server resides in Hong Kong now (after migration from the U.S.), Verizon Wireless apparently blocks entire countries from sending to their mail servers @verizonwireless.com.  I needed to get email to our account rep, as well as send forms to add authorized telecom users to the account, but my emails were timing out.  Upon further investigation, at a command prompt using telnet from my mail server in HK, I could see that we were being straight out rejected, though the error given from pluto.verizonwireless.com was less than helpful in that regard.  All I got was an error 554 when I tried to telnet to it, and it would disconnect me.  Had to assume that our IP block was just blacklisted, which it was.

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THIS is invaluable.  We are having to re-install our SharePoint server because of the way it’s installed on a server that is low on disk space.  Unfortunately, SP was installed to the second partition, so I can’t really use parititioning tools to make more space available to the system partition without hosing my SP installation.  So, the tools needed:

SPIEFolder
http://spiefolder.codeplex.com/

Download from VatOfKnow

I include a download from my site, because I know that notoriously, these software authors replace it with something new eventually, and latest isn’t always greatest.  So here it is, archived for your downloading pleasure.  However, for now you can download from the author’s site so that you know you are getting a valid copy.  I don’t tamper with any of the files I upload, but this site was originally intended for myself, so I can repeat procedures and have all the files and steps available in one place.

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This has been something of a challenge, but only slightly.  I had installed Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP), but have seen problems with Win7 crashing using this codec pack.  I have finally found a really good one at http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html.  Works well, and integrated directly with WMP, so no special players involved.

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A single pane of glass for your control panel in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.  This apparently works fine on 32 bit Vista, but can crash 64 bit Vista.  Simply create a new folder and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

That’s all you have to do!  Nice…

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