Avoid Windows 10 Wifi Sense without adding '_optout' to your SSID
I recently found out that Windows 10 will come with Wi-fi Sense, which lets you share your wireless network password with groups of Outlook, Skype and/or Facebook contacts. While the idea isn't bad, I think the implementation is lacking. It appears that you can "opt out" rather than needing to "opt in".
To ensure that my wireless network password does not get shared via Wi fi Sense I've made a couple changes to my network:
- Configured a FreeRADIUS server on my pfSense home firewall
- Set my Wireless network to WPA2-Enterprise
While I could have just appended "_optout" to the end of my WiFi SSID, I think its poor form for a huge multinational corporation to require me to out of my way to opt-out of their latest gimmick of the week I mean really guys, what's up with that?
In this article I'll describe how I got FreeRADIUS and my wireless router working together.
AutoIT automation of Open Office
A friend of mine asked for some help automating Open Office. They wanted 2 scripts:
- One to open all ODT files in a directory
- A second one to iterate through all ODT files, save them then close out of Open Office
Since I'd never done anything in AutoIt before I had to spend time getting familiar with what the scripting engine could do. After that I had to find the appropriate scripting hooks into OpenOffice to be able to accomplish the tasks. Fortunately OpenOffice has the appropriate hooks to allow for scripting and I was able to finish the scripts.
Unable to SSH or Ping VMWare Workstation Virtual Machine
I tried to SSH into a linux VM running in VMWare Workstation on my Windows 8.1 laptop only to find that I was unable to access any of my virtual machines. The strange thing was that I could access host machine resources from within the VMs.
Changing from NAT to Bridged didn't solve the problem. Moving to 'Host Only' didn't work either. In all cases I had the same behavior: The VM could access the host in all instances, but the reverse would not work.
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I tried to SSH into a linux VM running in VMWare Workstation on my Windows 8.1 laptop only to find that I was unable to access any of my virtual machines. The strange thing was that I could access host machine resources from within the VMs.
Changing from NAT to Bridged didn't solve the problem. Moving to 'Host Only' didn't work either. In all cases I had the same behavior: The VM could access the host in all instances, but the reverse would not work.
Configure rsyslog to send email using a non-standard SMTP port
I run a couple of extremely lightweight servers at home. My provider blocks SMTP port 25 though, so it's difficult to get email notifications from them. Fortunately my email provider allows me to use port 26, so I just had to make a simple configuration change to the rsyslog.conf file to get ommail to work correctly
Applying NWebSec.SessionSecurity to a legacy ASP.NET Web Application
One aspect of my 'Day Job' involves remediating security issues that are found in a legacy web application that we maintain. A vulnerability scanner was used against the web application and we discovered that we should improve our session security to something beyond what is offered out of the box in ASP.NET.
I stumbled across NWebSec.SessionSecurity, which seemed to be the answer to my problems! Unfortunately for me the straight-forward implementation instructions provided on GitHub did not work for me, I had to dig a little deeper.
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One aspect of my 'Day Job' involves remediating security issues that are found in a legacy web application that we maintain. A vulnerability scanner was used against the web application and we discovered that we should improve our session security to something beyond what is offered out of the box in ASP.NET.
I stumbled across NWebSec.SessionSecurity, which seemed to be the answer to my problems! Unfortunately for me the straight-forward implementation instructions provided on GitHub did not work for me, I had to dig a little deeper.
Civilization 3 - Civ3Conquests.exe has stopped working
I know I'm late to the party, but I just installed Steam and downloaded Civilization III for use on my Windows 8.1 laptop. Interesting idea this whole 'steam' thing. :)
When I tried to run Civilization 3 I had to first get past an error message that kept popping up whenever I tried to run the game: Civ3Conquests Application has stopped working. The solution in this case is pretty simple. All I had to do was enable Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode on the exe. Read on for how to do that.
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I know I'm late to the party, but I just installed Steam and downloaded Civilization III for use on my Windows 8.1 laptop. Interesting idea this whole 'steam' thing. :)
When I tried to run Civilization 3 I had to first get past an error message that kept popping up whenever I tried to run the game: Civ3Conquests Application has stopped working. The solution in this case is pretty simple. All I had to do was enable Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode on the exe. Read on for how to do that.
Java DependencyDownloader : Resolve and download dependencies without Maven
Often times when I'm prototyping something in Java I find that I need a library that has dependencies on other libraries, which have dependencies on other libraries, etc... The generally accepted solution to this dependency nightmare is to use something like Maven, Ivy or Gradle to handle dependency management. These tools know how to talk to maven repositories which contain virtually any library you need.
While I'm sure those tools work fine for those who employ them, most of the time when I'm prototyping I want to do so in as lean a fashion as possible. I'd rather not have to spend the time to download, install and configure a tool when I will only be making use of a small portion of its functionality. I'm a fan of minimalism and reducing dependencies, which can be difficult when it seems like working in Java requires you to pick an IDE, Build tool and Dependency manager of which you can combine into many permutations. While this lends a lot of power and flexibility to the Java ecosystem, it also adds complexity which (in my opinion) many people are too willing to take at face value.
So, what I've done here is create a simple tool which does 80% of what I would use a build/dependency management tool to do: Resolve and download dependencies. I've published the source to GitHub [read on for details]
How to Change the Password Hint in Windows 8.1
I recently upgraded my primary workstation to Windows 8.1 (couldn't wait for 10 to do Windows Phone 8 development). A few weeks later I changed my password without updating my Password Hint. Somehow I didn't update my Password Hint during this process, so now when I mis-type my new password I see my old password hint which can get annoying.
Digging a bit deeper I found that I can change the password hint manually. Registry editing is required for this exercise, so it isn't for the faint of heart!
Shared Hosting Shakedown: iPage, FatCow, 1and1, BlueHost and DreamHost
I've used a mix of BlueHost and a private server over the last 5 years to handle my domain and webhosting needs. I figured it was time to see what other shared hosts can provide to see if I've been missing out on anything.
Here's what I consider to be critically important in a shared hosting provider:
- Email hosting
- Subdomains
- DNS management
- Ability to host more than one domain per account
Find out how these services compare after the jump!
Foray into Internet Telecom: VOIP, WebRTC, WebSockets, SIP, SDP, RTP, et al
I've been tinkering with VOIP technologies over the last few weeks in an attempt to find a stand-alone Java or C#
client that can speak SIP over WebSockets and negotiate media streams over WebRTC. In my wanderings I found out that nothing like that exists today so I tried my hand at putting one together.
As I got further and further down the rabbit hole I became acquainted with the host of technologies, protocols and specifications that all needed to interlock to some degree to make internet based telecom happen. By the time I had finished with my survey and had the beginnings of a working-prototype, I had found an alternate path for my project that was 'good enough'
It makes sense for me to do a brain dump here so I can come back and refresh my memory if I want to try this type of thing in the future.
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I've been tinkering with VOIP technologies over the last few weeks in an attempt to find a stand-alone Java or C#
client that can speak SIP over WebSockets and negotiate media streams over WebRTC. In my wanderings I found out that nothing like that exists today so I tried my hand at putting one together.
As I got further and further down the rabbit hole I became acquainted with the host of technologies, protocols and specifications that all needed to interlock to some degree to make internet based telecom happen. By the time I had finished with my survey and had the beginnings of a working-prototype, I had found an alternate path for my project that was 'good enough'
It makes sense for me to do a brain dump here so I can come back and refresh my memory if I want to try this type of thing in the future.