You Tube Download

I created a tutorial using the new windows Problem Solving Recorder. This video shows you how to use the YouTubeVideo Downloader program to download video from youtube.com to your computer. Check it out, Download the zip from here http://www.mediafire.com/?j1mtzgw2nym

Novell problems and why you should probably stick with Active Directory

Working for an institution that amazingly loves Novell, that is the old guys love Novell while us young guys would love to see it go away, I have learned a thing or two. Novell is buggy, unreliable, horrible, and hates change. Some companies should go the way of the dinosaurs and just go extinct. Novell was founded in 1979 as Novell Data Systems Inc. they started as a computer manufacturer and DOS maker. Novell has acquired many consulting firms and software firms over the years and even made a few deals with Microsoft. This is great and for a company to stick around this long is also amazing, there are only a few software companies that can maintain for so many years. Novell’s background isn’t the problem, Novell is Novell’s problem.
Let’s get a few things straight first, I in no way and a complete fan of any OS or software company, nor have I ever worked for one. My personal experiences and troubleshooting is what gives me these perspectives. I have only dealt with Novell since Windows 2k but have worked with it through XP, 2000 and now Windows 7.

Some of our main problems have stemmed from Novell authentication and hindered our use of other devices like the Fortinet. Novell Zen Works Imaging engine, worked for maybe a full 24 hours before one of the admins had to rebuild it. After rebuilding it every day for about two weeks we’ve decided to use Closezilla (http://Clonezilla.org). Novell’s authentication errors have caused many of our PCs to take close to 30 mins to log in. Our software/hardware inventory program was at its greatest time 2 weeks behind in reporting. Novell’s Windows 7 client is a joke and hardly works, if it works at all. Imaging Windows 7 computers has been fun but when I install the Novell client it becomes a headache.

I will give in and say our Novell Tree structure isn’t the greatest, but a lot of the problems with it could have been prevented if Novell wasn’t so horrible. Changing our tree or fixing the current issues are such a hassle that no one wants to take the challenge of correcting them.

Personally my feelings are that AD is a much better utility and much easier to manage. Active directory is just so much better when it comes to creating and deleting anything. Novell is all over the place when it comes to file placement. Active Directory is a little smarter more intelligent, itll put files together instead of all over the disk or shares.

I would love to see Novell go the way of the dinosaur or the way of the Ford Pinto rather.

Malware! What is it? How can I Fix it?

Malware, you may have heard the term but not know exactly what it is. Malware is exactly what its name suggests, malicious software. Malware creeps into your computer usually without your consent or disguised as something completely harmless. Malware tries to hinder the use of your computer by stopping the use of legitimate programs like antivirus and firewalls. Malware can enter your computer through many means, one of the most popular ways is through file sharing P2P programs that connect to the guentilla network (ie: Limewire, BearShare, Etc). When you download your favorite song, (like no one really does, right?), a small bit of code can be attached to that sound file and ultimately install itself onto your computer. The type of malware that slows your computer down and hinders your use is only one kind of malware. Another type is Scare-ware, this is my favorite type. Scare-ware does just that, it scares you into buying a false program with false warnings. Scare-ware tells you that you have infections on almost every file you try to run. It scares you into thinking you’re at risk. Anti-Virus Pro and Antivirus 2008/2009/2010 are prime examples of scare-ware. As a computer tech, I can tell you that it’s costly to get rid of and downright annoying.

One of my favorite programs to use is Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. This program works wonders and the free version is amazing if you know you’re already infected. Malware Bytes offers quick and full scan capabilities. “Quick scanning” scans all of the processes and files called currently into memory and determines if they are infected. “Full scanning” scans all of your files and registry keys to seek out the bad malware. When an infection is found, Malware Bytes gives you the option of deleting or leaving the file (as a tech tip…just delete the file). Personally, I’ve even seen Malware Bytes take out the nasty polymorphic virus VIRUT. I suggest trying the free version and, after falling in love with it, go ahead and buy the full version. Buying the full version unlocks real-time protection, scheduled scanning and scheduled updating.

Another new tool that is out is Microsoft’s Security Essentials. I have played around with it, and I’ve seen it catch a few nasty worms and viruses that other software is not finding.

I once used Adaware, as I know most of you have heard of and use. I find Malware Bytes to be faster and more reliable.

Please leave comments if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Malware Bytes Anti-Malware can be downloaded at http://www.malwarebytes.org

Microsoft Security Essentials can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials

LCD TVs VS. Plasma TVs

Ive wanted to do a write up on plasma and LCD for some time now, I always get the question which one is better so I went and did a little research and this is what I have come up with. This will be a two part entry.


Plasma screens, as its name suggests, uses a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells charged by precise electrical voltages to create a picture. LCD screens (liquid crystal display) are in layman's terms sandwiches made up of liquid crystal pushed in the space between two glass plates. Images are created by varying the amount of electrical charge applied to the crystals.

Plasmas have more viewing angles, there are some differences when you sit too far to the side of an LCD. Plasmas also produce brighter colors when compared to LED. One thing plasma has over LCD is that the price is usually cheaper

Let’s talk a little about LCD tvs. LCDs have a higher resolution and use less power when compared to plasma sets. Some LCDS have “eco” or “green” mode where they use half the power of comparable plasmas.

For a while it has been said that LCDs last longer than plasmas, this is no longer true due to the advancements made in field. Newer plasmas have higher life spans the ones sold now can last for 7 seven years if left on for 24 hours a day.

Let’s talk about LED backlighting, no this isent those nice ambient colors on the back of the Sony’s that inspire mood. LED backlighting is a new technology to enable LCD tvs to produce the bright colors the that most plasmas can create. There are two types of back lighting direct and edge lighting. Direct offers higher contrast and is considered better than edge lighting. Edge lighting are banks of LEDs on the side of the LCD screen that is spread evenly by mirrors. These are referred to as “LED tvs”, so an LED tv is just an LCD with LED backlighting.

Plasmas downfall are the burn-in possibilities. Burn-in occurs when an image is displayed on a screen for too long and the image is “burnt-in” to the screen. This does not happen with LCDs.

When comparing which one is better it is said that plasmas own the market in sets over 50 inches but LCDs are the best bet for smaller sets.

Fortinet Utilization

For those of you who don’t know I work for a school district in Columbia, SC. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html) requires us to filter our internet connection. When I started about 8 months ago we decided to switch from Smart Filter monitoring to Fortinet. As a Security Admin of course this was my task. The Smart Filter, known to most of us as Bess, was not functioning properly and quite frankly a piece of junk. Smart Filter is run from a server, in our case it was a Windows Server 2003 machine. The device logs were inaccessible when I came in and it was even difficult just to log into the machine. We did away with the device and sprung for the Fortinet equipment two Fortiguard boxes and a nice new Fortianalyzer box. These are dedicated physical devices that do not have a Windows based operating system. The two Fortiguard devices operate in a failover mode so we have one as back-up if the other box has a problem.


I was a bit skeptical that a physical device could handle the traffic that we see daily. This device is a Firewall, Internet Filter, IPS/IDS, VPN router, proxy, packet shaper and an endpoint solution manager. It seemed a lot to have this one device handle all of these, I was of course proved wrong. Immediately during installation we were able to stop use of our Packeteer saving us the task of troubleshooting it. Installation was easy having our vendor come in and help us. Our connection was down for about 10 minutes total.

We started off slowly letting the Fortiguard handle the packet shaping and filtering. We had to enter about 30 custom entries. In the next months we turned on the proxy server which yielded a constant 20% traffic reduction on out WAN line. We are in the process of changing from Cisco ASA firewalls to the Fortiguard system. I am currently testing the Forticlient endpoint antivirus which seems to be pretty powerful.

Fortinet customer support is amazing they offer web-chat and toll free phone support. We have had minimal problems with this device(ill go over those and how to troubleshoot in a separate post). This is a great device I recommend it to anyone who is in the security field and is looking to save money and have a reliable piece of equipment. Currently we are utilizing only 40% of the CPU and 29% of the memory, that’s pretty good for 13000 computers and about 500 servers.