XP SP3 breaks ActiveX in IE 7

A client recently contacted me to report that he lost the ability to use the Remote Web Workplace feature of Small Business Server 2003 after having installed SP3 for Windows XP. It took a while of troubleshooting and some digging into Google Groups, but I soon found reports that SP3 will disable the Remote Desktop add-on of Internet Explorer 7 (perhaps also IE 6, but unsure at this time).

To fix this problem, go into IE's Tools > Internet Options > Programs > Manage Add-Ons and locate the Remote Desktop add-on. If it is set to Disabled, then enable it and your problem should be cured.

-TQG

Norton Internet Security 2008 - Time for Another Look?

I have never been a big fan of past versions of Norton (Symantec) Internet Security products, but I recently had a presentation from the product manager of the product, who discussed the newest version and how it's changed over its predecessors.

Any IT administrator can tell you that previous versions of this product had two HUGE drawbacks:

1. Resource Usage - The product would use up huge amounts of RAM and CPU.
2. Uninstallation failures - Chances are that uninstallation would cause even more problems for your system than you had prior to installing it.

It's my understanding that the core of the latest version (2008) has been totally rewritten, minimizing the resource usage, correcting the uninstaller bugs and adding many new and important features to properly protect a home/consumer system.

I certainly hope that this is the case. I plan to evaluate this version, and hopefully it will pass muster. If so, I would look forward to recommending it to my clients who want to deploy it.

-TQG

Raiders + Star Wars = Movie Heaven!

Being a purebred geek, I have always loved movies from both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. And this spring and summer two of my favorite series are out with new releases: "Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

I have never been able to get enough of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even now, I still think it's a fantastic movie. OK, Indy's not exactly the model archaeologist, but how can you not love the adventure and the humor in that movie? The second movie in the Jones series, The Temple of Doom, I can do without. I think it was a bit too silly, even for me. But the third movie, The Last Crusade, returns to the wonderful, wry humor that was so prevalent in Raiders. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery made a fantastic team, thanks especially to the script writing.

I have also always loved the Star Wars movies, though I will admit that even being The Quintessential Geek, I did not see the original 35 times when it first came to theaters. However, I now watch it regularly with my 7-year-old son, as he has developed a fascination with all things Star Wars. I look to the new movie with a bit of skepticism, as it will be computer-generated rather than using real-life actors, but it should be fun none the less.

So, come opening day for these movies, you'll know where to find me. And to corrupt a line from Field of Dreams (another of TQG's favorites): Is this heaven? No, it's the movie theater.

-TQG

Challenge-Response Spam Filters: Are They Worth The Inconvenience?

I manage a number of email lists through the NAISG security group. Users can subscribe to the TechTips list, as an example, simply by filling out a form on the Web site, providing their name and email address and then clicking the Submit button. Once they complete this relatively simple step, they will receive messages from the list and be able to send as well.

But an increasing number of end-users employ challenge-response spam filters, in which the sender must first verify to the recipient that he/she is legitimate. Here's how it works: The Quintessential Geek sends an email to Joe@shmo.com, who has a challenge-response spam filter. Before the spam filter will allow TQG's email to get to Joe, the filter sends a reply to TQG indicating that TQG must verify that he is a real person, perhaps by reproducing a series of characters or some other morsel of information. Having done that, the filter will finally allow TCQ's message (and all future ones) to get to Joe.

While TQG understands the importance of spam filtering (after all, he would receive nearly 400 spam messages per day through his various email accounts if not for Postini), he really winces at the fact that he needs to take this extra step just to send someone else an email. This is especially the case when the original sender (Joe Shmo) explicitly requested to be on a list such as TechTips.

Darn it, Joe... if you're smart enough to setup a challenge-response spam filter for yourself, can't you also add the TechTips list address to the filter's white list ahead of time so that TCQ doesn't need to jump through this extra hoop for you and every other subscriber that has this type of filter?

***END OF RANT***

Error Messages - Leave 'Em Guessing

In case you are wondering what the actual error is... so am I.

-TQG

Microsoft Firefox?

I recently had the opportunity to attend a two-day meeting at the Microsoft mothership in Redmond. We were told that we could access their wireless network during the meeting, and each attendee was given a unique ID/password to connect to the network.

The process was simple in theory: Enable your wireless network card, browse to any Web site and your browser would then display a logon page to enter credentials and proceed to the Internet. However, we soon discovered that many users in the meeting could not actually get to that initial logon page, and we were stuck without Internet access.

During the meeting, Microsoft's own IT support came to the room and jumped on some users' laptops to try to figure out what was wrong. But being The Quintessential Geek, I decided to troubleshoot this problem on my own, even during the presentation itself. (Ssshhhh... don't tell the presenter.)

Microsoft's IT people never did find the problem, but I am happy to report that yours truly did come across a solution: use Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer! With Firefox, the Microsoft WLAN access page immediately came up, and all problems were solved.

Needless to say, there were some red-faced Microsoft folks out there. But the humor of that situation certainly outweighed any embarrassment!

-TQG

The government is in my server!

A client of mine is concerned that the government has infiltrated his server. Here's the story:

Windows domain controllers look for an "outside" time source to synchronize their clocks. One commonly used external source is the atomic clock run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has a domain name of nist.gov. My company typically uses the NIST clock as a synchronization source. The setting is time-a.nist.gov.

My client is a company that has its roots in Russia and brokers the sale of farm animals between the US and Russia. They "deal in protein," as they humorously say.

One day one of our senior engineers was working on their server troubleshooting a time issue, and the client saw the nist.gov setting displayed in a command prompt window. He immediately panicked, thinking that the government had infiltrated his network and was observing his company's actions, and exclaimed worriedly to our engineer "The government is in my server!"

It was hard not to laugh at that comment, yet there are many out there that do wonder what levels of intelligence the government or other organizations may have on their systems. Is Big Brother alive and well?

-TQG