I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Wireless networks use high frequency radio signals to connect computers to each other and to shared-resources for the transmission of data such as files, images or connection to the internet. This type of network is known as a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Wireless networks offer most of the same ability as a traditional wired LAN. If your wired network has the ability to access the Internet today, then your wireless LAN will be able to as well. A wireless LAN typically consists of two components; a wireless network card and an access point. The access point serves as an aggregate point for all…
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Using OpenSSL to Test Connectivity
When you’re testing connectivity to servers and you’re using SSL on those servers then your traditional ways of testing connectivity may been a little augmentation. For starters, you’re going to use the openssl to test connections. For example, if you have a web server you might traditionally attempt to telnet into port 80 and check you banners; however, if you have an SSL certificate on it then you might be better served connecting to port 443 using the openssl command. In the following example we’ll tell openssl to be a generic client (s_client) and connect (-connect) to https://krypted.com/ over port 443: openssl s_client -connect krypted.com:443 The output would then look…
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Allow ARD Access into an ARD Server
When a computer has ARD open, by default you cannot log into it using Remote Desktop from another host. To fix this, use the following command: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteDesktop AdminConsoleAllowsRemoteControl -bool false And then run the kickstart -restart -agent command from /System/Library/CoreServices/ARD Agent.app/Contents/Resources /System/Library/CoreServices/ARD Agent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart’ -restart -agent
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Disable Reverse IP Address Lookups in Apple Remote Desktop
The following command can be used to disable reverse IP address lookups from within Remote Desktop: defaults write com.apple.RemoteDesktop DisableReverseIPLookup -bool yes
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Script to Clear the SideBar Prefs
Here’s a quick little script you can push out to a system having SideBar issues, to clear the prefs. Alternately you can throw the rm command itself into ARD as a support mechanism… #!/bin/bash rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist exit 0
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Cage Match: Retrospect vs. BRU
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Retrospect is the most historically respected backup package for Macs. After a lot of issues with the switch to OS X, Version 6 is a stable rendition of what Version 4.3 was for OS 9. The tried and true Retrospect interface is still used (just a little more soft around the edges). Retrospect 6 Server edition is capable of backing up server and client computers over the network and has increased backup performance dramatically. Tape loaders and libraries support has increased and barcode labeling of tapes is now supported. Retrospect 6 has also improved in the area of removable disc support, namely with CD…
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Unix Users Association of Southern California Talk
Here is the preso I gave at the UUASC meeting for LA on Heterogenous Networking on September 7th: Mac OS X: Playing Nice in a Heterogenous World
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Changing Volume Silently
When you turn the volume on a Mac up or down you end up hearing a tone indicating the volume level. If you hold down the Shift key while you’re changing the volume then you won’t hear that tone. Kinda’ fun. Also, if you hold down the Option key when you change the volume level you will bring up the Output tab of the Sound System Preference pane.
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WinShortcutter
Apparently the link here was bad so reposting with a good link and changing the text… From their site: Do you work in a windows dominant environment? Are your network drives packed with Windows Shortcuts that point to directories and documents? Are you tired of starting a windows machine just to change your windows domain password? Do you want to copy path names to an email? Here is the answer: WinShortcutter! WinShortcutter is a collection of small and useful utilities that are primarily focused at people working in a windows dominant office environment with a weak Mac support. http://www.lobotomo.com/products/WinShortcutter/index.html
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Basic Installation of TripWire
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal To install Tripwire, run in the folder that you have extracted the tripwire files into sudo ./install.sh Then enter passphrases/passwords when asked Then enter the shortname of the primary user of tripwire Allow the system to define the baseline state of the Server. To update your tripwire database after making system changes run this command: ./tripwire -m u -r ../report/day-month-year-initials.twr To update your tripwire config, change the /usr/local/etc/twcfg.txt file and run this command ./twadmin -m F -S ../key/site.key ../../etc/twcfg.txt To enforce a new policy, edit the /usr/local/tripwire/policy/twpol.txt file and run this command: ./twadmin -m p > ../policy/twpol.txt To view Tripwire reports run this command…