I was doing my daily round of sifting through opensource newsbits when I came across Adeona. According to its creators, it can be described as:

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there’s no need to rely on a single third party. What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner’s laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data, but also ensure that the ciphertexts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.

Adeona has builds for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows ready for download and follow the installation steps should anyone wanna try it out.

Though I currently do not own a laptop or a UMPC (planning to), but this sure is a nice must-have for anybody that does have one or several. I gotta see this for myself.

Technorati Adeona, laptop, tracking, theft, opensource,
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My CEO just arrived from the U.S. and bought himself this snazzy new sub-notebook from MSI. Yep, its MSI’s latest Wind Notebook. And I’m excited to be able to work with this baby. The boss told me that he’s been having a problem making the Wind connect to his LinkSys WiFi router at home and asked me to take a look.

Upon seeing the Wind, I was amazed at how light it is. Yet under the hood it seems pretty much capable. Check out the specs:

• Intel® Atom™ N270 Processor 1.33 GHz
• Intel® 945GSE+ICH7M Chipset
• 2GB RAM DDR2-667
• Genuine Windows XP Home OEM
• 10� Wide Screen Display
• Convenient Magnifying Capability
• Ergonomic Big-Size Keyboard and Touch Pad
• 120 GB Hard Drive
• Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
• Built-in 2 Channel Stereo Speakers, and Microphone
• 802.11b / g Wireless Lan with Bluetooth
• Li/Ion 3/6 Battery
• 4 in 1 Card Reader
• ~1.0 Kg weight

The Problem

The MSI Wind is using Realtek 8187SE wireless adapter built-in. When I started tinkering with it, I’m surprised that even though the device was detected, and the driver installed (from the bundled support CD), I can’t seem to make this notebook connect to our wireless router. I’ve decided to download an updated driver for the 8187SE from Realtek’s site and reinstalled the driver. After a reboot, same thing - it can’t find our wireless network.

Ok, I might have overlooked something. Sure thing, the (almost) idiot that I am, forgot to turn the wireless adapter on. The Wind has this (not so obvious) access button to activate your wireless adapter. To activate wireless, press Fn + F11 (Function key plus F11 which has this satellite looking icon). The access button icon was not common compared to other laptops which uses “radio” icons. It looked like a satellite dish thus was overlooked. Upon pressing Fn+F11, I was presented with graphical dialogs on which devices will be enabled. You can cycle from activating WiFi only, WiFi and Bluetooth, or Bluetooth only.

After activating the wireless adapter, our wireless network was identified. I tried connecting but it just cycles and stops. So I reviewed the settings again looking for something that I might have missed. What could have been a shoot-or-miss endeavor turned into a feel-good learning experience. I was reminded again by this activity to always review default settings and change them as much as I can (I know I do when I’m on Linux ).

I opened the properties page for the wireless adapter in order to check some of its settings.

• Open Network Connections
• Right click on the wireless adapter icon and click properties
• In the General tab, click on the Configure button right next to the wireless adapter card list
• In the wireless adapter card properties dialog, I made sure that the following is set:

• 802.11d - Disable
• CCX Max Off-Line Measurement - 0 (Zero)
• CCX Radio Measurement - Enable
• IBSS Default 11b Mode - Enable
• Network Type - Infrastructure
• Wireless Mode - IEEE 802.11b

After changing the settings, I applied all the changes, and let the wireless adapter reinitialize and voila! I’m connected to the wireless network.

A short word of caution though. Your wireless router might not be the same as mine and may use a different encoding and keys. Double check what your wireless router will actually support.

Overall, the MSI Wind seems like a very capable UMPC in my opinion and its screen doesn’t make me squint at all. The keyboard fits quite well. I’m beginning to think of getting one myself (if I have the dough! Save save!)

Enjoy!

Technorati MSI, Wind, mobile, subnotebooks, UMPC, wireless, Realtek, 8187SE
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We have our Samba domain with OpenLDAP running full speed now, with users on Windows XP Pro authenticating wonderfully to Samba, accessing shares here and there. However, one laptop was all it takes to make things a little bit challenging.

The Laptop

The laptop I just mentioned is an HP Pavilion dv2000 (dv2050us) running Windows XP Home. The unit was loaned by our CEO to our Operations Manager. Yep, I’m dealing with some “big” users here. We have just almost finished migrating every Windows user except for a select few who are handling huge amount of very critical emails and files and one of those was our Operations Manager.

The Problem

With her shiny new HP Pavilion laptop, our OpsMan (pardon the shortcut) has been successfully printing to a network share using her normal desktop (an XP Pro). But when she transferred to the HP Pavilion running XP Home, whenever she adds a printer and restarts the PC, the permissions to use the network printer is gone. It kept on happening a couple of times and she got tired of it so she decided to have her laptop checked. My IT Manager and I explained that XP Home is just not quite “designed” to work on corporate domains so we decided, with OpsMan’s approval, to have the laptop reformatted and installed with XP Pro. So I went ahead and downloaded HP’s “tons” of support files (drivers,utilities) from the official product site ready for the incoming “battle” with the Pavilion.

Not ready to be outdone and outwitted by the “crippled” MS product, I decided to take a look again and see if there’s something that I can do to simplify things and ultimately not do any formatting whatsoever.

Then *DING*! an idea.

The Fuss

XP Home only supports workgroups. Every MS-loving person knows it, every MS-hating person pukes thinking about it. However, there it is - XP Home in our local network with a Primary Domain Controller running Samba on top of SLES10 and an XP Home user needs to access network shares _seamlessly_ . Just great.

The Idea

The “idea” is not really new. It’s been around for years and years and MCSEs know of this, regular Windows admins know of this, perhaps average Joes know of this. Yes, you can make XP Home a “part” of your domain, somehow. How I did it? Well, the list of steps will explain itself. Read on.

The Steps

• 1. Create a user in your Windows XP Home that has the same username and password as a domain user. (This is actually a local profile).
• 2. Add the user to the Administrators group. (Don’t worry, this is just a local profile. But if you’re paranoid, then don’t )
• 3. Add a WINS server in the XP Home’s network card settings. (Make sure that you put the IP address of your Samba server.)
• 4. Add the computer to the “workgroup” which has the same name as your domain name. (Well, you actually are joining the PC _to_the domain since the “workgroup” doesn’t exist anyway.)
• 5. Restart.
• 6. Log in as the new user. (The one similar to the domain user account you’ve just created.)
• 7. Install the network printer. (I added a printer shared from an XP Pro machine.)
• 8. Do a test print.
• 9. Reboot and log in again and try if you can still access the printer.
• 10. Do another test print. (Not really needed.)

If you need to access or copy some files from the other profile, login to the old profile, and remove the check mark from “Make this folder private” setting and Apply. Log back in to the new account (domain account), and copy your files.

Hit me back if you hit some snags.

Enjoy!

Technorati : windows, xp, home, domain, printing, samba
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It’s not always that I post an entry that is somewhat too far away from what this blog is all about. However, I just had to put this on in here. I just finished watching the final night of ABS-CBN’s Pinoy Big Brother along with the family and guess what? For me, it is the best season of Pinoy Big Brother ever. Yes, despite being a geek and a nerd, I too have a life, and I do watch PBB from time to time when taking breaks from the geek stuff.

What sets this season apart is that one participant came from Mindanao, most importantly from Davao. Although I grew up, lived, got married and had a kid in Cagayan de Oro, I was born a Davaoeño, and still have the heart of a Davaoeño. (Both my parents are University of Mindanao alumnis.) I was rooting for a fellow Davaoeño Ruben Gonzaga to become PBB’s big winner. And win he did! Nope, we do not know him personally. However, there’s just the feeling that somehow, the whole of Mindanao won along with him.

During the start of the season, it seemed as though the odds are against him. Typical “promdi” - colloquialism for “from the province”. His personality was way different from those of the other participants who either were big actors and actresses or ready-made, established, half-bred models.

Ruben’s biggest “bomb” that he showed to televiewers I think came during the Christmas season when each housemate was asked for the gifts that they would like to have for Christmas. Almost everyone asked for something material and mundane like that cool LCD TV, a laptop, an organ, and other thingamajig. Ruben asked that he be able to see his mom, his aunt, and his grandma. PBB reunited them all on the show. Yeah, it added viewership and drama to the show however for Ruben, reuniting his family is all that mattered. Added drama also was when he proposed to his fiancee, and when the show organized his wedding on public television.

I’m pretty sure the forums at the PBB site will be swarmed with tonight’s results. I’m also pretty sure that Davao will be preparing for a big welcome for their triumphant son. I on the otherhand will be looking from afar, clapping my hands and nodding my head for a job well done for Ruben who showed them that being a “promdi” is not such a bad thing and that the heart of a Mindanaoan transcends boundaries regardless of where you are, who you’re with, or where you’ve been.

Congratulations Ruben for a job well done! Enjoy your newfound leash on life!

And now back to your regular geeky programming…

Technorati : PBB, Pinoy+Big+Brother,
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I’ve recently read CNN’s article on security related to identity theft at Experts: Simple security cuts identity theft risks. It’s just illogical for companies to be storing sensitive information on singular, mobile devices. One thing that mobile devices are very much susceptible to is theft and to store sensitive data onto these devices will be inviting disaster.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Do not store sensitive data to mobile devices.

2. Store sensitive and company-related information on a central location, network-accessible, and independent from servers. In case the servers go down, the storage units will remain intact and operational. Network-attached storage and Storage-area networks are perfect for this.

3. Allow access to data only to a select few. Clear-cut definition of access policies will do the trick. Map out which users and groups will have access to the data.

4. External access must be facilitated via a secure connection probably via VPN or SSH tunnels.

5. Data accessed externally must not be allowed to be stored off-site. Access must be provided via web interface or remote front-end but the data will be stored in the same repository negating storing on the accessing machine.

6. All users must have single sign-on to the general sections of the network, both internal and external access. A second login must be provided for extremely sensitive data.

My suggestions are just common sense. These can be implemented using opensource negating exhorbitant cost to the enterprise. Companies like Novell can provide the same features at low cost to the enterprise along with top-notch technical support.

One thing I’ve observed in organizations is that some administrators seldom implement strict security guidelines throughout the enterprise. In the end it is always the user that bears the blame. Properly implemented security measures will definitely save the enterprise the trouble and headache in dealing with this type of security problem.

If I’d missed something, I’d love to hear about it.

Technorati Tags: security, enterprise, data+theft, CNN, simple+security, identity+theft
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I’m in Cebu now, due to Infonet’s request that I be the one to present to Lexmark Intl (Phils) Novell’s Zenworks 7 Suite and Novell’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Delayed Arrival
I was booked for my Cebu voyage with Trans Asia Shipping Line’s Trans Asia 1. I’ve been boarding its ships ever since. My favorites were the Asia China, and the Asia Thailand. All of them depart and arrive on time. I thought this particular ship, the Trans Asia 1, will be the same. I was wrong. I thought I’d arrive at sometime 6:30 or 7:30. However, I arrived 9:10AM!!! My appointment at Infonet Cebu was at 9:00 so that we will be on time for our appointment with Lexmark at 10AM. Lexmark’s compound is in Mandaue City’s MEZ 2 (Mandaue Eco Zone). With a good deal of traffic, we will be running really late. As soon as I arrived at Infonet’s office, I only got 15 minutes of email check time, and coffee. After that, off we go to Mandaue.

Finally, Lexmark
We arrived at Lexmark’s compound deep inside MEZ2 at about 10:05AM and it’s raining hard. Lexmark’s compound is a sprawling 3,600 sq. meters, with 400 workstations, with only 6 people to manage the insfrastructure. The building’s white all over with green tint on the glass panels. Technicians and Engineers come to and fro oblivious of our presence. I couldn’t imagine how deep their pockets might be, working at Lexmark.

Then walked up the winding stairs to the second floor receiving area, and we were greeted by a guy wearing collared shirt and jeans. At first, I thought he was just asked to accompany us to the boss. Turned out HE IS THE BOSS. The big IT man. Not actually big heightwise. Just normal 5′+ in height, a bit on the chubby side. I thought Ok, here goes.

I introduced myself, and my colleagues followed suit. At first it was kind of a cold reception, a cold non-firm handshake from him. As a result, I shot my first question coldly, and barely audible. I offered him the printed technical white papers on Zenworks and SLES. He began poring over them. Then I asked if I could fire up my laptop to give my presentation. When he gave the go ahead, I’m into my playing field.

A Big Gotcha!
Im not really a marketing guy. I just read more than I should. Im interested with the products that the company I work for is pushing to the market. During the course of the presentation, he interrupted me a couple of times to ask questions. Some were quite detailed, some were just simple. I tried to answer them as best I can. He is the big IT guy, Im a techie selling tech stuff, and no admin. Just an enthusiast. He has wide admin experiences, I meddle with low end hardware and software (until I got this job). However, I got his attention without much fanfair.

At first, he was not really listening much into my presentation. As I get farther and deeper, he put down the printouts, leaned on the sofa, crossed his arms, and listened. He would sometimes interrupt me and move the slides himself on my presentation, which I obliged him to do so. No harm done. He asked details, details, details. I answered with details, details, details. I wasn’t really sure about some, but I tried to sound as convincing. I relied on my experience on the product I’m presenting. And what do you know, he asked for a demo. My colleague popped up the CDs from within the folders she’s having, and informed him of the demo duration. And guess what? He’ll keep in touch when they’re done with the test.

Parting Questions
After I finished my presentation, we said our thanks and goodbyes, and we proceeded to the lobby. It was still raining so we asked the guard to call taxi for use. We waited and then suddenly the cellphone of one of my colleague rang. It was the Lexmark IT Head. He was asking if I’m still with them. She said yes. He asked to hold up. He ran back to the lobby and asked me some more questions. It turned out that after my presentation, he went to search on Zenworks. And most importantly, he was looking at product reviews. GOOD THING! It just shows that he is really interested. I went along with him back to his workspace and looked at the article. E-Week. He got confused because E-Week used Novell Client for Windows in order to manage via Zenworks. I told him, that Novell Client is a general client for Novell products. Supports any client-server product from Novell. He said Ok. Informed him further that Zenwork’s client agents today are all fixed. The article was dated September 2006. It’s 2006. Updates were already made. He gave a further ok. Satisfied, he accompanied me back to the receiving area. I told him to contact us if anything turns out. We’d be happy to help. We can patch up directly to Novell Asia (Malaysia and Singapore) should anything will be unresolved on our end. He affirmed and all is well. We exchanged hand-shakes. However this time, it was warm and accommodating. That showed he was pleased with the presentation (rather I hope he was).

I went back to the lobby, the taxi was waiting, and we’re on our way back to the office.

Trip Back
My trip back will be via Trans Asia 1 still. I don’t care if it will arrive late. My work here in Cebu is done. One owned, and I’m satisfied.