Apple launches Intel Macs (and new iPod accessories)

Posted on By Mark Wilson

So, Apple finally launched the new Intel-based iMacs yesterday. These use Intel Core Duo processors (formerly codenamed Yonah), which I think means they are still 32-bit, at a time when the rest of the PC world is finally starting to wake up to 64-bit technologies. Still, at least it’s a step in the right direction (and dual core should whip up performance nicely, although I do doubt Apple’s claims of a doubling in performance simply by going dual core, unless each core is also much faster than the old PowerPC processor).

Of more interest to me are new iPod accessories – like the iPod Radio Remote. Shame it needs an iPod Nano or Video and I’ve only got a Mini.

Telnet issues on Windows Server 2003

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I’ve spent a good chunk of this morning trying to get the Telnet service working on Windows Server 2003. By default, this service is disabled and configuring the Telnet service to start automatically and then starting the service is straightforward enough, but when I tried to connect, after supplying username and password details, my clients received the following message:

Failure in initializing the telnet session. Shell process may not have been launched.

Telnet Server has closed the connection

Although the troubleshooting advice for Telnet at the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 TechCenter appears reasonably comprehensive, it didn’t detail this message at all; however Microsoft knowledge base article 309523 does – but only for 64-bit versions of Windows. My telnet server is also a domain controller, and as the advice involves demoting and promoting the server, I chose not to try it on a 32-bit version of Windows (a Google search revealed plenty of anecdotal evidence that it doesn’t work).

I had been trying to establish the connection from a Unix client, so thinking that was the issue, I tried telnet locahost from the server itself but received the same result and checking the application event log revealed various entries similar to the following:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: TlntSvr
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4049
Date: 11/01/2006
Time: 10:00:40
User: N/A
Computer: servername
Description: Error in creating CMD process. System Error: A required privilege is not held by the client.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Following the link in this event led me to check for the presence of %windir%\system32\login.cmd

One post on the microsoft.public.windows.server.general newsgroup looked hopeful, suggesting that the Secondary Logon service also needs to be started; however, when I checked, the Secondary Logon service was already running on my server. I restarted the Secondary Logon and Telnet services just in case (that made no difference) but the newsgroup post had got me thinking about the credentials used by the Telnet service (by default, this was NT AUTHORITY\LocalService). I changed the service to start using the Local System account, restarted the Telnet service and it started accepting connections. Just to be sure, I changed the credentials back to NT AUTHORITY\LocalService (which does not need a password) and restarted the service, breaking Telnet again. That confirmed that it was related to the service’s logon credentials and I went back to using the Local System account.

I’m not sure what the security implications of this hack are. Pretty severe I imagine, as membership of the TelnetClients security group doesn’t seem to make any difference to whether my users can logon to the server using Telnet or not, but at least I can get a console connection to my server from a Unix client now (my Windows clients can use RDP).

Unknown hostname for Solaris 10 DHCP client

Posted on By Mark Wilson

When I installed Solaris 10 x86, my computer thought its hostname was unknown. Aside from being annoying, this seemed to be causing a few issues, so I set about trying to set it to a name of my choice.

Using the uname -S hostname command set the hostname for me but this information didn’t persist on reboot. A bit of googling turned up various references to editing /etc/init.d/network so that it read /etc/nodename and set the hostname accordingly (as well as a script to set the hostname), but my system didn’t have an /etc/nodename file.

I understood that /etc/nodename should contain my computer’s name, but didn’t know if any other settings were required (I later found Jeff Hunter’s TCP/IP quick configuration guide, which confirmed that the file just contains the computer’s name – in my case laptop3).

It turns out that these hacks are for Solaris 8/9 – Solaris 10 is quite happy to set the hostname based on the contents of /etc/nodename. Once I had created /etc/nodename and rebooted, /etc/hosts read:

#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.7.106 laptop3 # Added by DHCP

and the computer was no longer anonymous!

Understanding ‘net lingo

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Some time ago, I linked to the parent’s primer to computer slang and the netiquette 101 for new netizens. Well, as I dive ever deeper into the world of the ‘net, I’m constantly coming up against acronyms that I don’t understand and variations on smileys/emoticons that I haven’t seen before. That’s where the Net Lingo dictionary of Internet terms has helped me a few times recently, providing acronyms, text messaging shorthand, the most extensive list of emoticons I’ve ever seen (as well as assicons and boobicons – I’m sure you can work out what they are!) and a substantial dictionary of Internet terms.

Resources for Solaris newbies

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A few weeks back, I blogged that I was trying out Solaris 10 on a spare PC. I haven’t spent a lot of time with the product yet, but so far I’m impressed. I’m sure I’ll be writing more as I get to grips with Unix – an operating system family that I haven’t used in anger for many years.

I also began to gather a collection of Solaris hints and tips, ‘net resources and the like. This is my list so far (some of these are written for SPARC but most should apply to the x86 version too):

Some of these I found myself, others have been recommended by Unix sysadmins and architects, who by and large seem keen to help a Microsoftie learn about Unix (actually, I did a fair amount of Unix system programming at uni’, but that was a long time back). The other comments that I got back were that Linux is also “grown up” contender these days (and I’ve been suitably adminished for suggesting otherwise)!

Indeed, a couple of people have suggested that the best way to learn Solaris would be to start out with one of the main Linux distributions to get the hang of the start-up, configuration and shell. Ubuntu seems to be well recommended, as is Mandriva and SUSE. Apparently the Ubuntu route allows trade up to full Debian (“expert class” when you get there). Knoppix is an even easier way in – basically Debian on a live CD – impossible to mess up! Following that, Solaris is a case of working out what’s different. One sysadmin who had been through this journey commented that he now uses Gentoo at home “100% roll your own, compile everything from scratch”.

I did actually have a play with a couple of the Unix/Linux live CDs last week. One was eLux NG embedded Linux but far more impressive was the Sun Java Desktop live CD that Alex gave me – running Morphix 0.4 (based on Knoppix).

Getting back to Solaris, printed reference manuals (i.e. books) seem thin on the ground (although as can be seen from the list above, there is plenty on of material the ‘net). One which has been recommended to me is Solaris 10: The Complete Reference but I haven’t looked at it myself and the Amazon reviews for this are all very poor, commenting that this is really a Solaris 9 reference with very little new for Solaris 10 and suggesting that some other Solaris 10 books should be considered instead.

Mystery ADSL upgrade

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Having written earlier this evening about getting started with ADSL, one of the services that I use is the ADSL guide speed test. When we got our broadband connection at home back in 2003 (primarily for my wife’s business, but I also frequently work from home), 512Kbps was the fastest available ADSL connection. We haven’t knowingly upgraded since but recent tests suggested that the connection is delivering 1800-1900Kbps anyway. Being suspicious of the ISP’s own speed tests I tried the ADSL guide test instead and over the last week or so I have consistently recorded results similar to the following:

Results from broadband speed test recorded on Friday, 6 January 2006, 19:27
Downstream
– Actual speed: 1803 Kbps (225.4 KB/sec)
– True speed estimate: 1947 Kbps (including overheads)
Upstream
– Actual speed: 239 Kbps (29.9 KB/sec)
– True speed estimate: 258 Kbps (including overheads)

It’s interesting to note that the actual speed figure is the amount of useful data that the connection can transmit/receive per second, whilst the true speed figure includes an approximation of data overheads (estimated at around 8%). Whichever figure is used, it looks like the line has been upgraded to around 2Mbps and, as we’re not paying any more than we did for 512Kbps (although prices have dropped considerably over the same period, so what we pay is about the market price for 2Mbps), I haven’t checked with the ISP in case it’s all a mistake!

First impressions of the Windows Live Messenger Beta

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Windows Live Messenger

Since last week, I’ve been using the new Windows Live Messenger Beta (formerly MSN Messenger 8) and I’m really impressed.

The main new feature is the integration of Windows Live Call VOIP technology, courtesy of Microsoft’s link up with MCI, combined with increased customisation and improved document sharing capabilities.

I particularly like the new interface (shown below); however the main improvement for me (after just a few days) is the ability to send messages to my contacts when they are offline (although one of my colleagues did wryly comment that’s what e-mail is for).

Windows Live Messenger Beta - new interface

Windows Live Messenger Beta - new interface

Meanwhile, I’ve also heard reports of an MSN Messenger 8 virus (Virkel-F). Along with various news sources (although I can’t find anything on the Symantec or Sophos sites) F-Secure is reporting that there is a new virus posing as an invitation to join the MSN Messenger 8 Working Beta.

The problem compounded by the fact that, as the screenshot below shows, the Windows Live Messenger Beta does include references to itself as Messenger 8.0 BETA. Furthermore, I was given the opportunity (through a link within the product) to invite five friends to join the beta and even though the e-mail invitation links to a Microsoft site to download the product, it’s still confusing to end users.

Windows Live Messenger Beta - still refers to MSN Messenger 8.0

One thing’s for sure. Microsoft’s Windows Live products need to be good. Google is launching new products almost by the day and as I’m writing this, Google’s plans for online dominance are even featuring on the BBC’s 10 O’Clock News, as the broadcaster refers to Google as “innovative and extremely focused” and commenting that “Google is challenging [Microsoft’s] dominance, and it shows”. Meanwhile, today’s Windows IT Pro magazine network WinInfo Daily Update quotes Bill Gates as seeing IBM as Microsoft’s most significant threat, stating that “IBM has always been our biggest competitor. The press just doesn’t like to write about IBM”. It’s true, Apple and Google are the media darlings of the moment, although as Google’s dominance continues to grow, one has to wonder if they too will fall foul of industry regulators as someone complains about their software bundling.

Getting started with ADSL

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Last year, I helped my neighbour to get a PC and a Mac working with AOL and an ADSL connection. It wasn’t straightforward, hence the reasons for writing about it on this blog, and I’ve had more than one request for help on the subject since.

My Macintosh knowledge is patchy, at best, and I certainly don’t have time to provide PC support for everyone (the rules for comments on this blog point out that I’ll help if I can but I have a day job too); however one lady was particularly stuck as she was trying to negotiate the technical minefield of understanding here options for moving from a dial-up AOL connection to broadband. Yes, it might be straightforward to a techie, but I’ve been playing with PCs for 18 years, have a Computer Studies degree and this is my 12th year as an IT professional, yet I still needed advice from my friends on how it all works when my wife campaigned to get BT to upgrade our local telephone exchange and remove the final hurdle to our broadband access (we were one of the first ADSL-connected households after the Olney exchange was finally upgraded in the Spring of 2003).

With all this in mind, I thought I’d post some information for anyone who is trying to “get broadband”. At the time of writing, in the UK, a broadband Internet connection generally means cable (e.g. NTL/Telewest), or ADSL (from a telecommunications company like BT, usually resold through an Internet service provider – I use PlusNet and I know people who are extremely happy with both Nildram and clara.net). I don’t know much about cable broadband, but for ADSL users there is an excellent ADSL guide, including a beginners guide/how it works, availability/demand tracking information and a speed test.

Blogger hacks

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Blogger logoIn common with many other bloggers, I use Google‘s Blogger service to generate the code for this blog. There are alternatives (like WordPress) but Blogger has been working well for me up to now (especially compared with the mixed experiences I had with Scott Watermasysk‘s .Text and Community Server engines whilst I was blogging at Conchango). There are some things I wish Blogger could offer – like a post calendar, post categories, the ability to control the number of recent posts shown on the sidebar (I can only set the number of posts on the front page) and a choice between RSS and Atom syndication – but on the whole it’s pretty good.

What’s especially good is that the guys who look after Blogger admit its shortcomings and even post Blogger hacks in the help system, publicising tweaks to make the system better meet users’ needs.

I’ve implemented a couple of these on the site recently, so I wanted to give the script authors some credit for helping me make this blog a better place (I hope).

  1. Firstly, there’s the archive list reversal (i.e. most recent first) and drop-down combo. For this I have to thank Roveberg, whose script worked a treat for me when I added it to my template today.
  2. Secondly, there is the on this day script from New Links, which I’ve added to provide links to the BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia pages for any given day in history (you can see these below the date for each new entry).

I’ve also implemented a few hacks from Blogger’s own help system, like the e-mail this post link at the bottom of each post (next to the comment count).

Combined with an assortment of applets in the sidebar, I hope these help to improve the user experience. If there’s anything missing that would really help you to use this blog more effectively, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

In something of a pre-emptive response to a comment that I might realistically expect to receive, I know that web site advertisements are a pain, but they are also a sad fact of life for many of us who are trying to cover our hosting costs on a site which is essentially a spare-time hobby (hence the reason for the wide variations in post frequency and quality around here). I finally sold out last summer and since then I’ve tried to keep the ads as unobtrusive as possible (whilst hopefully remaining effective). I hope never to have to resort to pop-ups or similar mechanisms and your support is gratefully received.

[Update: This site moved to WordPress in March 2007]

Want to improve your Google search results?

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Have you ever wanted to improved your Google search results? I don’t mean getting a page to appear higher on Google’s rankings, but have you ever wondered why Google returns several million results from a search? To narrow things down a bit, try some of the tips from the Thoughtful Solutions Google searching quick reference card.