Get Rid of Norton!
Jack himself doesn't care for Norton products. In his opinion, they are bloated programs that interfere with normal system operation and don't do a very good job. In fact, it's been my experience that Norton Anti-Virus misses a lot of Viruses out there. Of course, YMMV, and Norton might work just fine for you. If so, stop here and don't read any further.
Jack makes good money fixing computers simply by uninstalling Norton Internet Security 200x, and installing Command AntiVirus or AVG and Tiny Firewall or Zone Alarm. NIS 2004 causes many problems, and is a 198MB installation! I have NO idea why it needs to be so large.
Jack's client supplied PowerBook G4 came with Norton AntiVirus on it. As it is now officially mine (It's not 'borrrowed' anymore), I wanted to uninstall NAV.
You need the original disk.
Don't have it, and the client couldn't find it.
As a public services announcement, I give you Mac OS X users the link to the Symantec Uninstaller, which removes any Symantec product from OS X, and is compatible with 10.3 Panther.
You can find it with Google, but it wasn't on the first few pages if you searched for 'Uninstall Norton AntiVirus OS X'.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Copy Protection Grrrrr...
Jack's kids are huge Harry Potter fans. The youngest's birthday is coming up very soon, and as she just spent the week at Grandma's and Grandpa's, they gave her some money to buy her own birthday present.
I loved getting money as a kid, meant I was able to get what I wanted, instead of 'something close'.
Jack takes the kids to a local computer store to pickup a RAID controller for a client installation, and while we're there, they see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for both the PC and the Gamecube. We have 10 PCs and 1 Gamecube - yes, I know, I'm hopeless.
The Gamecube version is $40, and the PC is $30. The youngest just happens to have exactly $30, and decides she wants the game. So we buy the PC version.
I put the game CD into my computer and start the installation, which goes just fine. After the game installs, it tries to start and stops with the error, "CD ROM not found. CD/DVD emulationb detected, please disable CD/DVD emulation and try again."
OK - The CD is in the tray, don't know why it can't find it. However, I do use an old version of CloneCD that supports 'Virtual Clonedrives'. Why? Because I have kids. Kids are very rough on CD media. This way I can image the disk to the hard disk, and the kids know how to mount the images.
No problem, I disable CloneCD and try again.
Same error.
Over at Foxnews, they have the Strakalogue, which chronicles things that make you go Grrr... They also have some interesting definitions of people like 'Oblivions', 'Obliviots', and 'ImporTants'.
I know its the CD protection on the disk that is causing this error, and that makes me go Grrr. I'm using their disk in my computer, I didn't download it from some warez website. I bought it with cold hard cash. Actually, my little one did.
Back to the computer store for another copy in-case this one is bad. With the advanced copy protections using things like digital signatures, bad sectors, and the like, it would be easy to get bad copies. I exchange it and head back home.
Same error after uninstall-reinstall. I even uninstalled and cleaned CloneCD from the computer just in case. No help.
I head down to my workshop, haul out one of my test computers, do a complete install of Windows XP only with all the patches. Install the game, and yes, it works, after a lot of thrashing about.
Hmmmm. So I head over to some of the areas on the web that help you make backup copies of software. I know that most of these sites are so you can get games for free, but I'm just looking to get my $30 out of what I bought. I use a program that analyses the disc, and tells me that it is using Safedisc v3.20.20 - Which uses a bunch of different methods to protect the disc.
I have no problem with that at all, until it comes to the point that I can't play a game I paid for on a computer that has nothing wrong with it.
I did find a solution to the problem at one of those sites. I'm not going to tell you where I found it or what it was, because I don't want to help people steal the games, but its safe to say its not hard to find on your own.
I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for taking the same steps I did to get something I paid for working. It is sad that I had to go that route at all.
UPDATE: Apparently my blog is high on the Google search list results for this same problem. I have received many e-mails from people with the same problem. Here's a Google Search you can try to get you what you need.
Jack's kids are huge Harry Potter fans. The youngest's birthday is coming up very soon, and as she just spent the week at Grandma's and Grandpa's, they gave her some money to buy her own birthday present.
I loved getting money as a kid, meant I was able to get what I wanted, instead of 'something close'.
Jack takes the kids to a local computer store to pickup a RAID controller for a client installation, and while we're there, they see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for both the PC and the Gamecube. We have 10 PCs and 1 Gamecube - yes, I know, I'm hopeless.
The Gamecube version is $40, and the PC is $30. The youngest just happens to have exactly $30, and decides she wants the game. So we buy the PC version.
I put the game CD into my computer and start the installation, which goes just fine. After the game installs, it tries to start and stops with the error, "CD ROM not found. CD/DVD emulationb detected, please disable CD/DVD emulation and try again."
OK - The CD is in the tray, don't know why it can't find it. However, I do use an old version of CloneCD that supports 'Virtual Clonedrives'. Why? Because I have kids. Kids are very rough on CD media. This way I can image the disk to the hard disk, and the kids know how to mount the images.
No problem, I disable CloneCD and try again.
Same error.
Over at Foxnews, they have the Strakalogue, which chronicles things that make you go Grrr... They also have some interesting definitions of people like 'Oblivions', 'Obliviots', and 'ImporTants'.
I know its the CD protection on the disk that is causing this error, and that makes me go Grrr. I'm using their disk in my computer, I didn't download it from some warez website. I bought it with cold hard cash. Actually, my little one did.
Back to the computer store for another copy in-case this one is bad. With the advanced copy protections using things like digital signatures, bad sectors, and the like, it would be easy to get bad copies. I exchange it and head back home.
Same error after uninstall-reinstall. I even uninstalled and cleaned CloneCD from the computer just in case. No help.
I head down to my workshop, haul out one of my test computers, do a complete install of Windows XP only with all the patches. Install the game, and yes, it works, after a lot of thrashing about.
Hmmmm. So I head over to some of the areas on the web that help you make backup copies of software. I know that most of these sites are so you can get games for free, but I'm just looking to get my $30 out of what I bought. I use a program that analyses the disc, and tells me that it is using Safedisc v3.20.20 - Which uses a bunch of different methods to protect the disc.
I have no problem with that at all, until it comes to the point that I can't play a game I paid for on a computer that has nothing wrong with it.
I did find a solution to the problem at one of those sites. I'm not going to tell you where I found it or what it was, because I don't want to help people steal the games, but its safe to say its not hard to find on your own.
I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for taking the same steps I did to get something I paid for working. It is sad that I had to go that route at all.
UPDATE: Apparently my blog is high on the Google search list results for this same problem. I have received many e-mails from people with the same problem. Here's a Google Search you can try to get you what you need.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Get 1 GB of E-mail NOW
Jack likes options. OK - As an active Blogger, I could get a Gmail account. But it hasn't intrigued me. In fact, it has seemed like a lemmings-over-the-cliff fad that you just have to get to be 'in' on-line.
As if that's something to aspire to.
Anyway, I was checking around, and got send over to Spymac - 1 GB of E-mail, along with 100MB for storage space (like uploading graphics). Though I've just noticed that the free blogger now allows uploading of graphics. Hmmm....
Anyway it looks neat, and yes while the name is a little scary, I think its a good alternative. OK - It's Mac-centric, but does it really matter? It's a new service, so there are a few bugs. To activate your storage, you have to first go create your blog. I did that and pointed my blog to here.
Give it a try.
Jack likes options. OK - As an active Blogger, I could get a Gmail account. But it hasn't intrigued me. In fact, it has seemed like a lemmings-over-the-cliff fad that you just have to get to be 'in' on-line.
As if that's something to aspire to.
Anyway, I was checking around, and got send over to Spymac - 1 GB of E-mail, along with 100MB for storage space (like uploading graphics). Though I've just noticed that the free blogger now allows uploading of graphics. Hmmm....
Anyway it looks neat, and yes while the name is a little scary, I think its a good alternative. OK - It's Mac-centric, but does it really matter? It's a new service, so there are a few bugs. To activate your storage, you have to first go create your blog. I did that and pointed my blog to here.
Give it a try.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Knoppix, the Computer User's Friend
Jack's here, bored, waiting for some HUGE mailboxes on some Microsoft Exchange servers to move from one location in Kansas to here in Ohio. It's all coming across a T1 line. I need to have multiple Remote Desktop windows open to make sure things are going smoothly, and unfortunately, Remote Desktop Connection for the Mac only allows one RDC window to be open at a time. No matter, I have my trusty Netlux Notebook Computer I've mentioned before.
That was until the dreaded hard drive failure I've been talking about happened to me.
So earlier today I was wondering how I'd get the job done without going crazy logging in and out. Standing in front of a 19" rack in the server room for hours wasn't my idea of fun.
So what to do? Easy. Hard Drive failure won't stop Jack. I just whip out my trusty Knoppix 3.4 CD-ROM, boot it up on the Netlux, and instant Linux operating system complete with X-Windows, sound, network, and all the goodies you need. In fact I am listening to a Shoutcast stream on Port 80 (Firewalls are annoying, don'tcha know), typing this post, and have 3 RDC screens open (one to home for MSN Messenger, see previous content between parenthesis).
Jack uses Knoppix for many of his Computer Forensics' applications. You can boot into console mode, skipping the pretty X-Windows, which sometimes just gets in the way, and use dd, dd_rescue, md5sum, and other tools that are already compressed and waiting on the Knoppix disk. Amazing that you can get 2 GB of data onto a little 700MB disk, and have it all work.
Cheers to Knoppix!
UPDATE: You can also get Knoppix info at www.knoppix.net.
Jack's here, bored, waiting for some HUGE mailboxes on some Microsoft Exchange servers to move from one location in Kansas to here in Ohio. It's all coming across a T1 line. I need to have multiple Remote Desktop windows open to make sure things are going smoothly, and unfortunately, Remote Desktop Connection for the Mac only allows one RDC window to be open at a time. No matter, I have my trusty Netlux Notebook Computer I've mentioned before.
That was until the dreaded hard drive failure I've been talking about happened to me.
So earlier today I was wondering how I'd get the job done without going crazy logging in and out. Standing in front of a 19" rack in the server room for hours wasn't my idea of fun.
So what to do? Easy. Hard Drive failure won't stop Jack. I just whip out my trusty Knoppix 3.4 CD-ROM, boot it up on the Netlux, and instant Linux operating system complete with X-Windows, sound, network, and all the goodies you need. In fact I am listening to a Shoutcast stream on Port 80 (Firewalls are annoying, don'tcha know), typing this post, and have 3 RDC screens open (one to home for MSN Messenger, see previous content between parenthesis).
Jack uses Knoppix for many of his Computer Forensics' applications. You can boot into console mode, skipping the pretty X-Windows, which sometimes just gets in the way, and use dd, dd_rescue, md5sum, and other tools that are already compressed and waiting on the Knoppix disk. Amazing that you can get 2 GB of data onto a little 700MB disk, and have it all work.
Cheers to Knoppix!
UPDATE: You can also get Knoppix info at www.knoppix.net.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
CTCon5 - Wars, Tournaments, and Fun!
What's this? CTCon, a outgrowth of my time over at Chaos Theory, a great bunch of people, who happen to be LAN gamers.
What's a LAN game? It is where a bunch of people bring their computers to a central location, usually a convention center, hotel, university, sometimes a warehouse, and play different networkable computer games. Quake III Arena, Battlefield 1942, Half-Life's Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, and others.
NMP Consulting, the company I own, is running CTCon for its 5th year. Head over to the NMP CTCon Website and check it out!
What's this? CTCon, a outgrowth of my time over at Chaos Theory, a great bunch of people, who happen to be LAN gamers.
What's a LAN game? It is where a bunch of people bring their computers to a central location, usually a convention center, hotel, university, sometimes a warehouse, and play different networkable computer games. Quake III Arena, Battlefield 1942, Half-Life's Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, and others.
NMP Consulting, the company I own, is running CTCon for its 5th year. Head over to the NMP CTCon Website and check it out!
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Hacking from Mac OS X Panther (Installing nmap, Nessus, and others)
In continuation of my previous post about installing Ethereal on OS X using Darwin Ports, I present to you an article on installing some basic tools to perform initial security audits from the Mac using OS X Panther (10.3.x).
You have to have Darwin Ports installed on your system to follow these instructions. Just follow the instructions from the link above. I'll wait until you have it done. Promise.
Back already? Good. Besides, no 'Security Workstation' is any good without Ethereal.
First we're going to install nmap, a command-line based port scanner. This one is easy, from a terminal window:
sudo port install nmap (remember this will ask you for your USER password, not your root password. The 'su' command asks for the root password.)
Wait a little while, and you've got it.
Since you are using a Mac, it would be a shame not to have a graphics front end. Therefore, the next step is to install nmapFE (nmap Front End). Just download and install it from the link I just gave you. It installs like any other 'normal' Mac program
Oh, and as I mentioned in the Ethereal post, you can install MacStumbler as well.
Now for the grand-daddy of Auditing tools, Nessus, a vulnerability scanner that can be pointed at a single host or range of hosts and probe for missing patches, open ports, or other OS and Application weaknesses. It's a bit of a bear to install, but using my favorite, Darwin Ports, it can be done. Here are the step-by-step instructions...
- Nessus normally needs wget and/or lynx to allow it to install the script 'nessus-update-plugins', which downloads the latest lists of vulnerabilities that nessus uses to perform it's tests. So from a terminal session, issue the following commands:
1. sudo port install wget
2. sudo port install lynx
(or you can just 'su' to start, and leave off the sudo on these commands)
lynx is a cool text-based browser, which can come in handy from time to time to check out some not-so-trustable webpages. wget allows you to retrieve files, sort of like ftp, but different.
- Now we're going to install Nessus itself. First, the libraries, then the core, then the plugins. You can do it all by starting with step 3, because Ports will get all the dependent programs/files needed, but I like to be complete:
1. sudo port install nessus-libraries
2. sudo port install nessus-core
3. sudo port install nessus-plugins
- Now you need to add Nesses to your PATH variable:
1. export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin
This line should be added to .profile from the Terminal, and .bashrc in X11. In fact, I now is the time to switch from Terminal, and to X11's xterm. If you don't want to restart your sessions, issue the command on the xterm line. Be sure you are su'd to root.
- Now we have some other commands needed to finish setting nessus up. You must create a Certificate for nessus clients to run against, and add a user (different from your login), and update your plugins:
1. nessus-update-plugins
2. nessus-adduser
3. nessus-mkcert
You can do these in any order, and follow the instructions (except for nessus-update-plugins, it just loads).
- Now something different. If you don't follow this step, you will get the nasty GTK error similar to the one I saw with Ethereal.
1. With your normal user login issue the command 'xhost +' (without quotes) this will allow anyone to connect to the local display.
2. Change to root, by issuing the 'su' command (without quotes)
3. Now type the following command: export DISPLAY=:0.0
- As root, you can start the nessus server:
1. nessusd -D (This will take a little while to load)
- I would suggest placing these last 4 command into a script. First 'vi startnessus.sh' (without quotes) to start the VI editor. Then press 'i' on your keyboard to enter insert mode, and place the following 4 lines in the file:
xhost +
su
export DISPLAY=:0.0
nessusd -D
press [escape key]:wq to save the file and exit VI.
Now issue this command: chmod 777 startnessus.sh
Leave startnessus.sh in your Users/Username directory, or place it somewhere in your PATH. Now you can start nessus by typing startnessus.sh on a line by itself.
-If all goes well, you can now issue the 'nessus' command (without quotes) to start the GUI client interface. Enter your username and password you created in the nessus-adduser step, and click on 'login'. You will be asked to accept a certificate. Select option #2 for accepting the Cert (or like the instructions say, if you are paranoid, choose 1 or 3).
Now wait.
It took a long time for the login process to complete on my system. In fact, the GUI stopped responding, and I thought it was 'locked up'. It just takes a long time to load.
Congratulations, you now have all the basic tools to poke around your network or any network you are authorized to snoop. If you need help in running any of the programs above, check their websites and RTFM, and if you still have questions, stop by my IT Forum at www.nmpforum.com, and I'll help you out if you ask intelligent questions. :)
In continuation of my previous post about installing Ethereal on OS X using Darwin Ports, I present to you an article on installing some basic tools to perform initial security audits from the Mac using OS X Panther (10.3.x).
You have to have Darwin Ports installed on your system to follow these instructions. Just follow the instructions from the link above. I'll wait until you have it done. Promise.
Back already? Good. Besides, no 'Security Workstation' is any good without Ethereal.
First we're going to install nmap, a command-line based port scanner. This one is easy, from a terminal window:
sudo port install nmap (remember this will ask you for your USER password, not your root password. The 'su' command asks for the root password.)
Wait a little while, and you've got it.
Since you are using a Mac, it would be a shame not to have a graphics front end. Therefore, the next step is to install nmapFE (nmap Front End). Just download and install it from the link I just gave you. It installs like any other 'normal' Mac program
Oh, and as I mentioned in the Ethereal post, you can install MacStumbler as well.
Now for the grand-daddy of Auditing tools, Nessus, a vulnerability scanner that can be pointed at a single host or range of hosts and probe for missing patches, open ports, or other OS and Application weaknesses. It's a bit of a bear to install, but using my favorite, Darwin Ports, it can be done. Here are the step-by-step instructions...
- Nessus normally needs wget and/or lynx to allow it to install the script 'nessus-update-plugins', which downloads the latest lists of vulnerabilities that nessus uses to perform it's tests. So from a terminal session, issue the following commands:
1. sudo port install wget
2. sudo port install lynx
(or you can just 'su' to start, and leave off the sudo on these commands)
lynx is a cool text-based browser, which can come in handy from time to time to check out some not-so-trustable webpages. wget allows you to retrieve files, sort of like ftp, but different.
- Now we're going to install Nessus itself. First, the libraries, then the core, then the plugins. You can do it all by starting with step 3, because Ports will get all the dependent programs/files needed, but I like to be complete:
1. sudo port install nessus-libraries
2. sudo port install nessus-core
3. sudo port install nessus-plugins
- Now you need to add Nesses to your PATH variable:
1. export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin
This line should be added to .profile from the Terminal, and .bashrc in X11. In fact, I now is the time to switch from Terminal, and to X11's xterm. If you don't want to restart your sessions, issue the command on the xterm line. Be sure you are su'd to root.
- Now we have some other commands needed to finish setting nessus up. You must create a Certificate for nessus clients to run against, and add a user (different from your login), and update your plugins:
1. nessus-update-plugins
2. nessus-adduser
3. nessus-mkcert
You can do these in any order, and follow the instructions (except for nessus-update-plugins, it just loads).
- Now something different. If you don't follow this step, you will get the nasty GTK error similar to the one I saw with Ethereal.
1. With your normal user login issue the command 'xhost +' (without quotes) this will allow anyone to connect to the local display.
2. Change to root, by issuing the 'su' command (without quotes)
3. Now type the following command: export DISPLAY=:0.0
- As root, you can start the nessus server:
1. nessusd -D (This will take a little while to load)
- I would suggest placing these last 4 command into a script. First 'vi startnessus.sh' (without quotes) to start the VI editor. Then press 'i' on your keyboard to enter insert mode, and place the following 4 lines in the file:
xhost +
su
export DISPLAY=:0.0
nessusd -D
press [escape key]:wq to save the file and exit VI.
Now issue this command: chmod 777 startnessus.sh
Leave startnessus.sh in your Users/Username directory, or place it somewhere in your PATH. Now you can start nessus by typing startnessus.sh on a line by itself.
-If all goes well, you can now issue the 'nessus' command (without quotes) to start the GUI client interface. Enter your username and password you created in the nessus-adduser step, and click on 'login'. You will be asked to accept a certificate. Select option #2 for accepting the Cert (or like the instructions say, if you are paranoid, choose 1 or 3).
Now wait.
It took a long time for the login process to complete on my system. In fact, the GUI stopped responding, and I thought it was 'locked up'. It just takes a long time to load.
Congratulations, you now have all the basic tools to poke around your network or any network you are authorized to snoop. If you need help in running any of the programs above, check their websites and RTFM, and if you still have questions, stop by my IT Forum at www.nmpforum.com, and I'll help you out if you ask intelligent questions. :)
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