Support for corporate deployment of DisplayLink software
——————————————————–
It is now possible to obtain a DisplayLink software installation solution that supports automated and remote installation scenarios. This kind of installation requires specific installation steps, detailed in the User Guide that is part of the Corporate Installer.

Yup, it’s true: we’re releasing an MSI installer very soon.

I’m excited about this news on two fronts. Firstly, this is the first time that I’ve contributed directly to a software release; I wrote the Deployment User Guide, gave advice on what IT Administrators want from a corporate installer, and helped steer testing scenarios. Secondly, this feature will allow IT Administrators to deploy DisplayLink’s software onto thousands of PCs simply and easily, further strengthening our ease-of-use message. And I don’t need to tell you how awesome GPSI+MSI is for us IT admins!

The “Corporate Install” package is different to the standard software release and will require you to register with DisplayLink in order to obtain the MSI files and sign the EULA. Once obtained, you can then deploy DisplayLink software to all the computers in your network via Group Policy Software Installation. Of course, you can perform silent/unattended installs manually via msiexec if you wish as well.

It’s worth mentioning again that the MSI installer has not been released yet, but it is coming. 

Stay tuned for more info!

It seems that no more than a day after Microsoft released a Critical Security update, someone’s released a Trojan into the wild that exploits the vulnerability.

Given the “exploit potential”, this one sounds relatively tame. I suspect it’ll only be a matter of time before the exploit code is perfected and turned into a much more potent animal.

Putting a few hours in on Thursday night, has potentially saved us exponentially more hours in data and service recovery, as well as general IT support. It definitely pays to be proactive!

I thought I’d document what actions I took, in case it helps out anyone in the future. I’d also be interested to hear how you handled the situation, particularly if you did something I missed, or if you think I could have done things better!

History repeating…

Although I remember the impact of Sasser and MyDoom, I’ve never been in the trenches when such a critical update has been launched for Windows.

No-one likes working late at night, but I didn’t fancy the chances that a 0-day exploit may be released and in the wild before we can patch our mission critical servers; so as soon as I found out, I started working on a plan.

The Plan

The plan was relatively simple: Get the update to as many PCs as possible, as soon as possible; with an emphasis on any Servers that provide business-critical services.

Simple enough, but what next?

WSUS

About a month back we setup an internal WSUS server to centralise Windows Updates – quite handy for this type of scenario! The main thing here is to ensure that WSUS has the updates downloaded and approved, ready for deployment. Fortunately it had, as it performs a sync every evening, and automatically approves Critical Updates.

Group Policy

To ensure PCs get the update as fast as possible, we needed to open up GPMC and re-configure all existing Group Policy Objects (GPOs) that address Windows Update configuration.

The Windows Updates settings are under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

Note that, if you don’t have WSUS, you can still make the changes outlined below in order to minimise Time-to-Patch. If you haven’t set “Specify intranet Microsoft update service location”, PCs will automatically ask Microsoft’s update servers on the internet.

What we’re looking to do is:

- Set all PCs to download and schedule updates. This is abnormal for us as we allow our Engineers to dictate when to install updates as it can interfere with Software development and testing.

- Make sure each PC checks for updates with our WSUS server every hour, as opposed to every 22 hours.

- Set PCs to install the updates at 11am. This gives time for people to turn on their PCs, for the PCs to update their Group Policy settings and pick up the new settings, and then to check in with the WSUS server for the new update.

- If the PC missed the 11am deadline (e.g. it wasn’t on) it’ll check whether or not it has updates, and then install the updates after 30 minutes.

Informing End-users

A notification email was crafted to all employees, informing them of the severity of the update, what was being done, and what actions they should take. I’ll include a copy of the email I sent out at the end of the post

Protecting the business

Last night, we couldn’t wait for WSUS to “offer” the update to our servers so I grabbed the Update and manually installed it on each business-critical server, rebooting them promptly.

This morning

That was last night out of the way. This morning and this afternoon I’ve been checking WSUS’s reports to see which PCs have the update installed. As of 1pm, at least 90% of PCs had installed and rebooted. I’ll be chasing the rest later

The notification

As promised, here’s the Email notification sent out to employees:

 
Hi all,

Microsoft has just released a very serious critical security update for Windows operating systems.

To see how this affects you, please see below.

Cambridge Employees

Tomorrow we will be rolling out an essential security update to all Domain-connected Windows PCs. This update is mandatory. If you press Control+Alt+Delete to log in, you are on the domain. If you do not press Ctrl+Alt+Del to log in you should follow the advice for Non-Cambridge employees below.

Although we will be trying our best to force this update out. It’s advisable that if you see the “Yellow shield” in your Task Bar, you should click it and install all updates reboot as soon as possible.

Not doing so poses a serious risk to DisplayLink’s networks.

Non-Cambridge Employees 

If you are not based in Cambridge, you should visit Windows Update as soon as possible and install all updates, specifically this one.

DisplayLink Servers

Servers in the UK will have the update installed and be rebooted as soon as possible to ensure we’re protected.

Further information

Further information on this Critical update can be found on Microsoft’s KB article.

Thanks go to Dave Hill for spotting this one on The Register!

Cheers,
Phil Wiffen
IT Engineer

 

How did you handle it?

As I said earlier, I’d also be interested to hear how you handled the situation, particularly if you did something I missed, or if you think I could have done things better! Let me know in the comments

OpenProj is a free, open source desktop alternative to Microsoft Project. The OpenProj solution is ideal for desktop project management and is available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. OpenProj is a complete desktop replacement of Microsoft Project and even opens existing native Project files. OpenProj shares the most advanced scheduling engine in the industry with Project-ON-Demand. The OpenProj solution has Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more. You can get more detailed information on OpenProj or download now!

Sounds promising. If it really is a viable alternative, it’ll save us a good £350ish per volume licence! Now, to find a few willing Project Managers to try it out…

My initial thoughts on seeing the specs: It’s disappointing that the E4200 has no “normal” HDD option, unlike its older 12.1″ sibling, the D430. It is however, incredibly light – only 1kg with a 4-cell battery.

You can get the latest OS for your BB from the crackberry forums. Just click on your BlackBerry model range and within that forum, stickied at the top will be downloads for the various models. The forums include upgrade instructions – very handy for newbs like me! As an example, here’s a link for the latest BB OS for the Curve 8310.

As an aside, when testing the procedure, I set myself up on a BB. Bad move, and now I know why people call them CrackBerries – they’ve insanely addictive! I promptly deleted myself once testing was over to preserve my sanity

I liked this quote on joeware.net:

“[Computers] will just get more and more important and if you intend to simply coast on whatever talent you get for some poor pay, you deserve everything that happens. I have no problem hearing that tech specialists make more than their managers. IMO, in many cases they should make considerably more. It is the tech specialists who keep your company’s tech running efficiently.”

Joeware.net has some great free IT Pro tools btw

Lately, I’ve gone for Dells, as they make it nice and easy. I can call or email my account manager, give him a base unit reference from their website, ask for a number of changes (“I want a spare power adapter, an x res screen and a y size HD instead”) and they do it all for me, and, more often than not, get me a quote within an hour.

So far, I’ve found it hard to find that flexibility and convenience. Unless I’m missing something/someone…

So the question is…

Everyone: What brand machines does your current company use?

IT Pros: Which brand(s) do you buy for your company PCs, and more importantly, why?

Why did I embolden Full Disk Encryption? Because UK companies and Government organisations are losing laptops left, right and centre – without encrypting their sensitive contents. As an IT Professional, you’d be crazy to not be investigating the various options for keeping your company’s data safe, in the event of loss or theft.

Check out what’s new in TrueCrypt 5.0.

Here’s some things that stand out for me (and that a lot of companies can learn from):

• Their site is insanely easy to navigate – and crucially, it’s easy to identify where you are in the site infrastructure.
• The fact that Red Gate’s career pages give a completely transparent view inside the company.
• Red Gate has ethics, and gives back to the community – and helps employees to do so
• The principles behind the Feel Good Fund, not to mention things like Massages, yoga, and the feel good fridge!
• Red Gate has quiet areas. Open Plan offices are fantastic, but sometimes you just need to lock down and concentrate without any chance of interruption.

What do you think makes a good company?

Instead of wasting money on greetings cards which will, ultimately, end up in the bin, Matrix Communications sent out Merry Christmas e-mails and donated the money they would have spent on cards to MacMillan Cancer Support.

Brilliant, and also quite ‘Green’

To get OpenOffice to Save in Microsoft Word .doc format by default, follow these steps:

• Tools > Options
• Load/Save > General
• In the bottom right of the window, look for “Always save as” and pick your poison

I know that saving in a proprietary format over an open standard is bad practice, but sometimes in Business you need to maintain interoperability with the de facto standard; in this case: Microsoft Word.

IT@Intel and Cisco on Cisco are mini-sites designed to showcase how each company handles and deploys their IT internally, with emphasis on best practises and Return On Investment. Check them out:

• Cisco on Cisco
• IT@Intel

• Go to the Lightning download page
• Right click on the download link and Save As… (If you don’t, Firefox might try to install the add-on itself.)
• Open up Thunderbird and click on Tools > Add-ons
• Install the Lightning file you just downloaded
• Once you’re done, restart Thunderbird, and start using your new Calendar feature!
• If you need Holiday calendars, you can get them here

I’m not very schooled up on RegEx, and after spending ages searching for how to do it, I came across this:

<?php
echo implode(' ',str_split($credit_card_number,4));
?>

Hopefully it saves someone else some time!

Fixed WiMax Potential

Cisco already make point-to-point Wi-Fi bridges that, with a dish and some breaking of the 802.11 spec, can go very far. For 2.4Ghz, potential figures of up to 11mbps over 11.5 miles (18.5km). For 5Ghz, the figures are around 54mbps over 12 miles (19km).

WiMax should be able to beat that distance and speed, and more reliably, too. Because WiMax doesn’t have to operate in the unlicenced band, WiMax could help eliminate the current issue of saturated Wi-Fi frequencies in urban areas.

I am ignoring the glaring price issue; A point-to-point WiMax solutions would probably be prohibitively expensive in comparison to a Wi-Fi solution. Hopefully, as with Wi-Fi , the prices will rapidly fall as more people adopt the technology.

Mobile applications of WiMax

Recently, Nokia and Motorola announced they will ship WiMax support in some of their Mobile Equipment in 2008. With Intel firmly behind WiMax, this means that both Cellular Phones and Laptops will eventually ship with WiMax as standard; much the same as almost every Phone ships with Bluetooth and every laptop seems to ship with Wi-Fi nowadays.

Maybe Cisco will develop a Unified Communications client for the Symbian OS? Seems they already have, along with a bunch of other Mobile platforms. Mobile WiMax access to your company’s VPN at true broadband speeds would be amazing. Not to mention the cost benefits of redirecting voice over WiMax and Wi-Fi networks, particularly for international calls.

Wow.

I just watched the Mind Wide Open video from Cisco’s updated Networking Academy site. For something which only last 50 seconds, it offers a whole lot of inspiration for Academy students and graduates.

When I began the Cisco CCNA program in 2003, all I knew is that I wanted to learn more about Networks. By the end, coupled with my work experience, I had a fundamental understanding, not only of networks themselves, but that Networking affects every business. The skills I acquired are just as applicable to the Stock Exchange in NYC, as they are to the industrial sector in China. Nowadays, all businesses need to exchange and access data through networks of some form or another (after all, the internet is the world’s largest public network). I can work for almost any organisation, in any industry.

I really hope the video inspires students to think more broadly about the skills they’ve acquired and their career options; Last year, during a phone call with Jane Lewis (the CCNA program leader for the UK) she told me that most people who’d finished the CCNA program thought their only avenue was to work for Cisco. It’s not: there’s a whole world out there

Here’s their response:

We do not do recommendations for education only for positions. I
think it would be a great idea to have this feature added. I will pass
along the suggestion.

Wish me luck

Update: Well that was a false start. I was told Sage had a 45-day trial. It doesn’t, so I’ll have to wait for a licence code. D’oh!

Update (2007-05-01):  Seems Sage Instant Accounts Plus can’t use MySQL, so I’ll have to look into e-mailing the order details in CSV format as an attachment. One for the back-burner!

Finding files on our previous 300GB PowerVault was nothing short of a nightmare and, with such a vast amount of data on the new system, we have to ensure that information won’t get ‘lost’ as easily. Obviously proper structuring of directories through a bit of Information Architecture will help, but what we really need is a search facility.

As a small company with a limited budget, the search facility has to be affordable. In addition, it needs to be easily accessible to everyone in the network, preferably without installing extra applications onto client systems…

After a bit of digging around, and discounting the costly Google Appliance and Google Desktop Enterprise (Unfortunately, we don’t run an Active Directory network), I stumbled across IBM’s OmniFind Yahoo! Edition. It’s a free edition of their OmniFind software – which retails for thousands of dollars – and installs on both Linux (with a GUI) and Windows. Key features for us are that:

1. It’s free.
2. It’s simple to setup.
3. It provides a search interface to users through a browser. (http://hostname:8080/)

As my Ubuntu system is purely command line, OmniFind wouldn’t install, so I’ll be reusing the old 300GB PowerVault that this 2.7TB Linux system will replace. I’m playing with it right now and it’s incredibly easy to use. Setting up indexing is a doddle and there’s plenty of customisation options for the web interface that users will see when searching, including:

• Logo replacement, allowing you to re-inforce corporate branding.
• Featured links, drawing attention to essential information.
• Ranking modification

Once it’s indexed all of our data, I’ll play with it, see how it performs, and update the blog