DO NOT fill in a mail surveys!

Someone in my house hold filled in a ruddy survey that came through the post. They entice you using some 'research' type company name and may promise that you be entered in some prize draw.

These companies are just data harvesters. You get them on the internet as well. They may guise themselves as a free competition on a webpage or even via a Facebook advertisement. Be wary what information or tick box you tick.

I now am getting about a dozen cold call telephone calls a week from Debt Solutions (IVA) and re-mortgage companies.

Grr! On this forum topic, I'll either name and shame or, advise how to get de-listed.

I have a pair of digital telephones in my house and I add the offending telephone numbers to the phone's inbuilt telephone book. I name the entry as something like, 'DO NOT ANSR2', etc. The family then know not to answer the call and this hopefully gets you removed from their list (database) after x number of failed attempts.

In this instance, Acxiom harvest my details, under the guise of 'Research Opinion Poll". I am now removed from their database but, they have already sold my details on and so the nuisance calls.  

How to fix "system missing or corrupt"

Problem:
You turn off your computer with M$ one day and then go to restart to find an error message that says:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\windows\system32\config\system

check out this very good article that offers several fix solutions, including using a Linux Live CD.

I successfully fixed my son's XP problem, using the bloke's (PartieHonteuse) option 4 but, using my Kubuntu 9.10 and USB IDE docking station!

http://www.help2go.com/content/tutorials/28-c-windows-system32-config-system-missing-corrupt.html

User account gets locked when trying to access mapped drive

We recently changed our security policies at work and set user passwords to expire every 60 days in GPO. Now time for people to change their passwords. A couple of users thus far have had no problems but, one user had problems. Having changed their password and then tried to access a mapped drive they get,

'The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to'.

Even if I removed the mapped drive, unlocked the account and then tried to map the drive again, the account would get locked.

I Googled and tried some suggestions with no result. What worked for me was, map the drive again and then click, 'Connect using a different user name' and type in users credentials, including the domain name.

i.e. '<domainname\username>' (mycompany\joebloggs) and their password.

This worked! Huh!???

Rollback to previous package version after upgrade

Say that you find that an app. no longer works due to a problem with an upgraded package. As long as the previous version of the package is still in the cache, you can roll back.

The following will show all the versions of the package in the cache
Code:   

apt-cache show [package name] | fgrep Version:

   
The following will install (roll back) an older version of the package
Code:   

apt-get install [package name]=[version]

  

Another way may be possible via Synaptic.

Open Synaptic and find your package then, right click on it and there should be some menu option like "force downgrade".

Spotify for Linux

Spotify is a proprietary peer-to-peer music streaming service and application software from a Swedish based company. It allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums, with virtually no buffering delay.

Finally, they are developing a linux desktop version, packaging the first release as Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 10.04 package.

http://www.spotify.com/int/blog/archives/2010/07/12/linux/

Sadly on Kubuntu KDE 9.10 I get a 'Segmentation fault' so, I must upgrade to 10.04 soon.

How to prevent Windows Server from storing weak LM hashes

How to prevent Windows Server from storing a LAN manager hash of your password.

Instead of storing your user account password in clear-text, Windows generates and stores user account passwords by using two different password representations, generally known as "hashes." When you set or change the password for a user account to a password that contains fewer than 15 characters, Windows generates both a LAN Manager hash (LM hash) and a Windows NT hash (NT hash) of the password. These hashes are stored in the local Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database or in Active Directory.

The LM hash is relatively weak compared to the NT hash, and it is therefore prone to fast brute force attack. Therefore, you may want to prevent Windows from storing an LM hash of your password. The Microsoft support article describes how to do this so that Windows only stores the stronger NT hash of your password.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299656


Categories: How-To, Microsoft, OS
Tags: Microsoft, Server, 2000, 2003, weak, password, authentication, NT hash, SAM

Server 2003 - Cannot delete file / folder

User had copied or created a file / folder on a mapped drive and that file / folder now cannot be renamed / deleted / accessed by anyone. Not even administrators, upon the server.

An overnight Backup Exec backup had failed to access this folder also. I therefore needed this fixed.

Microsoft's offered solutions ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320081 ) did not help.

Viewing 'Open Files' in Computer Management application showed a user still had the parent and this directory open. I checked with the user and they had not so, I simply forced a 'Close Open File' in Computer management and then I was able to successfully delete the folder.