HP Code Purple

Turns out HP computers with Vista can have the same “code purple” issue when recovering to the out of the box state. This comes from the manufacturer’s tattoo on the motherboard.  Fortunately the solution is about the same as when I ranted about HP computers with the code purple and XP issue.

Here are the steps to fix it:

• Download Ubuntu ISO from www.ubuntu.com
• Burn the ISO to a CD (use CD Burner XP if you don’t have burning software that will do ISO files).
• Set your BIOS to boot to CD if not already set
• Boot to Ubuntu Live..Navigate to Places…(HP hard drive)…hp\bin\CheckDMI
• Rename CheckDMI.cmd to CheckDMI.bak or simply delete it.
• Shut down Ubuntu, remove the CD, restart to Windows

Alternate solution:

• Remove the hard drive
• Slave it into a working Windows PC or use a USB enclosure to plug into a working Windows PC
• Follow the same steps as above for rename or delete

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For other computer brands, follow the instructions above but look for the following file:

c:\SYSPREP\oobe.bat

There is an excellent (but long) discussion thread going on here.

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Well this is interesting. I was considering becoming a reseller for Suddenlink Cable since I’ve been very pleased with their internet service. However, if you “rent” the SMC8014WN Wireless Modem/Router/AP from them – BEWARE!

Suddenlink has locked down the firmware in the SMC8014WN so that most of the typical features from any $60 router/access point from BestBuy or OfficeDepot or NewEgg – are simply not available. That’s insane.

WEP as a security measure is so broken that your (and everyone else’s) kid sister can easily circumvent it,” said computer security researcher Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, co-author of the aircrack-ptw tool that can crack WEP in minutes.

This unit is running a locked down firmware that doesn’t allow you to use anything but WEP encryption. As I’ve mentioned before, never use WEP encryption. This encryption algorithm was broken more than 10 years ago. The only exception would be legacy hardware that you simply cannot replace. In that case, you should put your legacy device on it’s own subnet separate from everything else.

You should ALWAYS USE WPA (or WPA2) encryption with a sufficiently strong passphrase. WPA + AES is currently unbroken and susceptible only to brute-force dictionary attacks, which all encryption schemes are. In other words, you can only break it by slamming a zillion password combinations at it and hoping for sheer luck.

You also can’t change the SSID. While changing or hiding the SSID does not increase security, it can make things more convenient.

Here is the best part. I called Suddenlink tech support just to make sure my findings were correct. A decent and knowledgeable tech support guy got on the phone and confirmed my findings.

Suddenlink Support: Suddenlink ships those modems with WEP to support the xBox which is WEP only. We lockdown the systems to make it easier for us to support users.

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So I asked him simply: “Just to be clear, Suddenlink has shipped locked down devices with a broken security algorithm just to support the old xBox?”

Suddenlink guy: “Yes, that is correct.”

Hmm – maybe they haven’t heard of the DLink DGL-3420 which allows you to run WPA on the old xBox? If one of the Principal Tech Specialists at Microsoft thinks WEP is trivially crackable, maybe Suddenlink should listen?

Hmm – maybe Suddenlink should rethink their corporate policy on their users’ security? Maybe they shouldn’t send installers out who are morons and know nothing about networks nor security?

By the way, Suddenlink rapes you for $10/month until the end of your service for this piece of junk.

Solution: Purchase a Motorola Surfboard Modem and a Linksys Wireless Router. Simple. Effective. Cheaper. Safer.

If your domain is using Google Apps for your Domain, which acts as the email server system, it receives all your mail (inbound and outbound) and processes it for spam, viruses, and phishing. This is done by pointing certain parts of your domain name (CNAME and MX records) to Google’s services. If you are an admin with Google’s services, you can also add/remove features as well as add/remove users and email addresses.

You can use either IMAP, POP3, or web-based access for your email – or a combination of all 3. If you use POP3, then inbound mail is delivered to Thunderbird, Outlook, or Outlook Express (or your email program) every-time it is requested – usually every 3 minutes. A copy of all inbound mail is also kept on the Google email servers. Outbound mail from your email program is first sent to Google’s email servers for processing. Then a copy is forwarded on to the recipient. A copy of all outbound mail is also kept on the Google email servers. This provides a backup source for your email and gives you web-based access to your mail from any location.

Web-Based Access (like going directly to the post office)

example: http://mail.yourwebsite.com

Most email is sent over the Internet in plain text and can potentially be easily sniffed right off a network. A good example is a hotel with Internet access. Someone with free network sniffing software can actually pull your information right off the “network” at the hotel – unless you use an encrypted SSL session, which Google does by default. Checking your email through this link allows you to securely communicate from your computer to Google’s servers. Of course, from that point out, security depends on the recipients email system.

*Note: Thunderbird and other email programs (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc) use an encrypted session with Google’s email servers – so you are protected when using them at least from your computer to Google’s email servers.

Checking other Email Accounts

Your email address can be configured to check other POP3 enabled email systems. This gives you one “central point” to check all of your email. For instance, if you have an email address of yourname@comcast.net, you can have yourname@yourwebsite.com automatically pull in your comcast email.

Quick Tour:

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/apps_video.html

Comprehensive Overview:

https://services.google.com/apps/site/overview/index.html

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/online_seminars/apps_overview/premium_seminar.html

Product Overview – How to Use Your Email, Calendar, Start Page, and Docs

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/Mail/index.html

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/Calendar/index.html

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/StartPage/index.html

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/DocsSpreadsheets/index.html

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/talk.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA

Google Apps Help Center – Users

http://google.com/support/a/users/?hl=en

Google Apps for Administrators

http://www.google.com/support/a/

Gmail Getting Started Guide

https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=90877&topic=12925

POP Settings:

https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=12103

Outgoing Server tab

Advanced tab

Other Email Helpful Links:

Anything that references “Gmail” also applies to your email account.

Gmail Search

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6593&hl=en

Using advanced search

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190

Hack Attack: Become a Gmail master

http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/hack-attack-become-a-gmail-master-161399.php

http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/

Supercharge your Gmail filters

http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/supercharge-your-gmail-filters-204781.php

A Feed for Unread Gmail Messages

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/feed-for-unread-gmail-messages.html

Ok – I ran into an odd issue while migrating my entire smartergeek.com site over to MediaTemple hosting – running WordPress and Thesis.

Why did I move my site? I ran into a performance issue with GoDaddy’s hosting of WordPress and mySQL. My page times were taking between 3-49 seconds!.That’s crazy even for shared servers. There are lots of posts about it with no good resolution – so I decided to test MT hosting.

*If you want to see how many sites are running on your shared server – then enter your domain name here.

So far – so good. Page times under 1 second.

Disclaimer: I am a Super Reseller for Godaddy and continue to have all domains registered there along with several hundred customer websites.

Before anyone comments about it, yes I did all the usual such as disabling all plugins, new mySQL database, etc. Turns out that the static HTML pages and even MS Access databases run fine. It’s something to do with GoDaddy’s mySQL implementation.

One of the issues I ran into was with the popular wp-dbmanager plugin. I use this plugin to automatically backup my database and store it on my webserver and email a copy which is archived in my Google mail. Remember, Rule #1.

JungleDisk recently released their iPhone app. It allows you to directly access your cloud backup storage – which is really cool for several reasons.

First, I can access my backup files (sent to the cloud every 24 hours) and attach files to an email if necessary. There have been several times that I’ve needed to send a file to a client, but my laptop was packed up or I was not near a wifi connection. Now, I can send them from my iPhone.

Second, I can directly send photos to my backups from my iPhone. Granted, I can always copy/paste them (for full resolution) to an email; however, this provides another way of “backup” for the iPhone.

Third, I can store plenty of mp3 files in the cloud and stream them down. This “increases” my iPhone storage to limitless. Granted, I don’t think it will support playlists, etc, but it’s still cool.

I installed Windows 7 on a Dell Inspiron 1525 this weekend. It took less than 30 minutes with a brand new 640GB drive. Everything went nearly perfect – the only drivers that Win7 didn’t install was for a “Base System Device”, which was the Ricoh card reader. Here’s a direct link to the correct driver:

http://ftp.us.dell.com/chipset/Ricoh_R5C833_A00_R240788.exe

Update: Per Brandon – the Dell TouchPad/Pointing Stick driversshould be installed for full functionality. Here is a direct link from Dell’s FTP server.

Remember to always backup your data before installing a new operating system. Also, there is no direct upgrade path from XP to 7 so you will be starting out from scratch with software installations, etc.

Well I just got my Netflix Streaming Disc for the Wii. Let me just say – it works really really well.

The boys have watched it nearly non-stop. The movies stream in within a few seconds and just start playing. We have experienced only 1 instance of buffering for maybe a 1/4 second. You just put the disc in choose the Netflix icon from the menu.

One of the other benefits is that it doesn’t cost anything extra. We can stream in all we want, or even watch instantly on our laptops – all for the same price.

Now, if you are worried about streaming in the newest titles – then forget it. Netflix has a pretty good library, but the most recent titles are not out there. However, there is a lot of content available. Plenty of movies to enjoy including some independent content too.

If you are worried about HD, that isn’t available either. To be honest though, I don’t really mind watching standard definition though.

We are enjoying it so much, that I’m now thinking about getting a Roku HD next, which will give us even more content.

I’ve preached my security sermon over and over. Now, here is a bank (yes, a bank) telling people to use an Ubuntu Live CD for their banking.

Jay McLaughlin, CIO of CNL Bank: Accessing online banking from your everyday PC is just asking for trouble, he says.

Your everyday pc? Yes – that means chances are good that if you use your everyday computer for banking, then you are asking for trouble. Why? There is above a 50% chance that your Windows pc (XP, Vista, or 7) is infected with malware.

According ot McLaughlin, unless your bank uses “out of band” authentication for transactions, and to quote him: “I would not do online banking at all. Or if I had to I would use a sandboxed browser. I would boot up a mini Linux system from a USB stick.

What is an Ubuntu Live CD? It is a full Linux operating system that will run your computer without harming or changing the installed contents.

Why does it make you safer? Since the operating system runs strictly from the CD, once you restart your computer, anything you have done with it will “disappear” with your RAM.

You download an ISO file and convert it a CD using one many free CD burning applications. You set your computer to boot from CD first in the BIOS. Put the CD in your drive and boot up.

Or – you could just buy a Mac.