The Hardware

For a long time hardware has outpaced software, and we now have powerful enough consumer machines  to run one or more VM’s on something as portable as a laptop. I used a Dell Precision M4400 with an Intel CORE 2 duo @ 2.54GHZ, 320GB HD and 4GbB of ram. This should work on any other machine with similar specs.

The Software

Microsoft has made software easily available for people interested in learning Microsoft products through programs like DreamSpark and Technet. DreamSpark is program aimed at students that allows them to download fully licensed copies of software, they would otherwise not be able to afford, all completely free. Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2003 are all part of the DreamSpark program. Technet is aimed at professionals who are looking to extend their skills and get knee deep in Microsoft technologies. With subscriptions starting as low as $199.,00 for a one year subscription, subscribers have access to a vast array of fully functional licensed Microsoft Products including Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. For this lab I used Windows Server 2008 R2.

Installing Server 2008 R2 on a VHD

With Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 you have the option to boot of a VHD. This allows you to keep your current configuration intact and dual boot  Server 2008 and your current Windows 7 installation without having to partition your disk.

We will first create a virtual disk using diskpart, mount it and install Windows Server 2008 on the virtual disk.

1. Create a folder in your c: drive and name it VHDS
2. Open a command prompt and type DISKPART and hit enter.
3. Once in diskpart type SEL DISK 0 and hit enter.
4. Once the disk has been selected type CREATE VDISK FILE=C:\VHDS\WINDOWS2008R2.VHD MAXIMUM=100000 TYPE=EXPANDABLE and hit enter. This will create a 100GB expandable virtual disk.
5. Once the disk has successfully been created. Boot  your machine from the Windows 2008 R2 DVD.
6. Click next on the language selection screen and hit SHIFT+F10 on the next screen.
7. This will bring up Windows PE command prompt. Type DISKPART and hit enter.
8. Type SELECT VDISK FILE=c:\VHDS\WINDOWS2008R2.VHD and hit enter.
9. After the disk has been successfully selected Type: ATTACH VDISK and hit enter.
10. After the disk has been successfully attached Type: CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY and hit enter.
11. After the partition has been successfully created Type: FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK and hit enter.
12. Once the formatting has completed successfully Type: EXIT and hit enter, to get out of diskpart.
13. At the command prompt Type SETUP.EXE and hit enter. This will launch the setup window.
14. Click on Install at the setup windows and agree to the license.
15. Select custom installation and you should see the 100 GB drive available, select it and click next
16. At this point Server 2008 R2 should install on the VHD we created.

Once the installation has completed, the boot loader will display both the current Windows 7 installation  and the new Windows Server 2008 installation.

In part 2 I will go over virtual networking, installing Active Directory, DNS and DHCP.

FYI – All networks are /24 networks – they all have 255.255.255.0 netmask.

We do router Internal1. I will not go over assigning ip addresses to interfaces. I will only concentrate on the OSPF set up and the PBR. The same configuration applies to all the routers, except that the path of the default route will change depending on where you are on the network.

Setting up OSPF
INTERNAL1(config)#router OSPF 1 – To enter in to router OSPF configuration mode.
INTERNAL1(config-router)#network 10.10.10.0 0.0.0.255 area 0 - To advertise the 10 network.
INTERNAL1(config-router)#network 4.4.4.0 0.0.0.0.255 area 0 - To advertise the 4 network.
INTERNAL1(config-router)#exit - To go back to configuration mode.

Setting up PBR
INTERNAL1(config)#ip sla monitor 10 - To create an SLA monitor, 10 is just an arbitrary # to identify the monitor.
INTERNAL1(config-sla-monitor)# type echo protocol ipIcmpEcho 4.4.4.4 – The router will monitor pings to the next hop router.
INTERNAL1(config-sla-monitor-echo)# frequency 3 – The SLA repeats every 3 seconds.
INTERNAL1(config-sla-monitor-echo)# exit – To return to configuration mode.
INTERNAL1(config)# ip sla monitor schedule 10 start-time now life forever – We schedule the SLA monitor to start now and run forever.
INTERNAL1(config-router)#exit - To go back to configuration mode.
INTERNAL1(config)#track 10 rtr 10 reachability – This will create tracking object 10 using SLA 10.
INTERNAL1(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 4.4.4.4 track 1 – To create a default route using the tracking object we just created.
INTERNAL1(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.10.10.2 10 – This is the backup default route with a metric of 10.

Now the router will ping Edge1 and if it is up it will route via Edge 1, otherwise all traffic will route via INTERNAL2.

The same principles can be applied to all the other routers. We do not run OSPF on the interfaces in the EDGE routers that connect to the isp’s.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you have any dedicated ip’s terminating at any device on your network, none of that stuff will work. For example, if you are using a public ip from ISP1 for your email server, once the route to from that network goes down and the back up route kicks in, your email server will no longer work. In order to create a completely redundant network, you must run eBGP on  both edge routers and advertise the same block of ip’s on both circuits, also you need to create a iBGP peering session between the two edge routers. That will be the next step on this process, and I will write about that once I have successfully completed the project.

Unfortunately I am not very good, and I’ve died at least four times. Must…continue…to..play.

The mobile war is heating up, and it looks like apple is beginning to lose some ground. We will see what apple unveils on June 7th, when they are expected to unveil the fourth generation iPhone . Android seems to be moving faster than apple at this point, and the Android OS is beginning to mature. This could only be good for costumers, who now have a viable alternative to the iPhone.

How cool would it be if the fourth generation iPhone ran on Verizon, and had the ability to tether and turn it into a wifi mobile hotspot?

Offline NT Password Recovery & Registry Editor is a linux based bootdisk that allows you to clear or reset your Windows password. It works with Windows NT 3.5 all the way through Windows 7. Heck it even works on Server 2008! Best of all you don’t need to do a repair if you are working on a Windows 7  computer.

Since this is a linux-based disk it does not have a GUI and a small number of users may find it hard to use. But it works!

1. Download your copy.
2. Burn it on to a CD.
3. Boot from the CD.
4. Follow the on screen instructions.

You will have access to your machine in no time.

Here is the scope of I what I needed to accomplish:
Inside network = 10.0.0.0/24
Outside network ip = 76.203.90.1/30
Default route via 76.203.90.2
Hostname = ASA
No DHCP
All traffic should be allowed
Exec password must be set to cisco.

Here is how we accomplish this very basic configuration – Please note that all commands are in italics.

After you get into Global configuration type the following:
ciscoasa(config)# host ASA – This will change the host name to ASA

Configure passwords:
ASA(config)#enable secret cisco – This will set our privilege mode password to cisco.

Configure the interfaces:
ASA(config)#int fa0/0 – to configure the interface Fastethernet0/0
ASA(config-int)#ip add 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 – This will assign 10.0.0.1/24 as the ip address of our interface.
ASA(config-int)#nameif inside – This will label that interface as our inside network.
ASA(config-int)#no shut
ASA(config-int)#int fa0/1 – this will take us to interface configuration mode for interface Fastethernet0/1
ASA(config-int)#ip add 76.203.90.1 255.255.255.252 – This will assign 76.203.90.1/30 to the interface.
ASA(config-int)#nameif outside – This will label the interface as the outisde interface.
ASA(config-int)#no shut – This will enable our interface FA0/1.
ASA(config-int)#exit – This will take us back to global configuration mode.

Configuring NAT/PAT
ASA(config)#nat (inside) 1 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 – This tells the ASA to translate all addresses on the inside interface.
ASA(config)#global (outside) 1 interface – This tells the ASA that all translated addresses should use the outside interface ip for PAT.

Configuring the default route:
ASA(config)#route outside 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 76.203.90.2 1 – This configures the default route the the specified ip using the outside interface.

Allowing traffic:
ASA(config)#access-list traffic extended permit ip any any – This will permit any traffic to and from any ip address.
ASA(config)#access-group traffic in interface inside – This will apply the access list we just created to all inbound traffic on the inside interface.

Saving your configuration to memory:
ASA(config)#wr mem

That’s it! You have now configured an ASA.

I will expand on this tutorial to make the configuration to include DHCP, timed ACLs and ASDM.
Stay tuned.

eigenvalues+{{2,2,2,3},{0,i,2,6},{0,0,sqrt(2),1},{0,0,0,-sqrt(3)}}

Not only did I get the eigenvalues, but also the eigenvectors.

Input: derivative of sin x

Input: e=mc^2

Input: life expectancy US

Input: HAL stock

As you can see this can possibly a very useful tool whether you are settling a bet, or trying to do research.

It will be really interesting to see how apple will incorporate the feature into the iPhone. The iPhone is already a battery hog and managing resources will be a part of the success or failure of the feature. Apple has a reputation of making things intuitive and easy to use, I don’t expect multitasking to be exception.

1. A brand new computer running Windows 7 with all updates and patches installed – This is my new work laptop.
2. A new install Windows XP machine with all updates and patches installed – I loaded this machine with a fresh install of XP to test my theory
3. Windows Vista Machine with all updates and patches – this the machine I use everyday at work.
4. Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard – My everyday use personal machine.

Windows 7 machine

Much to my surprise the brand new out of the box Dell precision m4400 Windows 7 machine reported a whopping 1034 errors. It found the following errors:

• Registry errors – 956
• Missing shortcuts – 23
• Missing shared files – 24
• Missing application path – 0
• Missing help files – 0
• Invalid file extensions -31

Windows XP machine

The XP machine did a little bit better than the Windows 7 machine. It reported 51 errors.

• Registry errors – 43
• Missing shared files – 0
• Missing applications path – 0
• Missing help files – 0
• Invalid file extensions – 8
• Device driver error – 0

Windows Vista machine

I expected this machine to have the most errors. I used this machine everyday and install and uninstall programs in a regular basis. I was surprised to find out it only reported 419 errors.

• Registry errors – 17
• Missing shortcuts 286
• Missing shared files – 24
• Missing application path – 0
• Missing fonts – 0
• Missing help files – 0
• Unknown file extensions - 89

Macbook Pro

I was not expecting any significant finds on this machine. It is a mac after all. The software found 500 errors. While this is more of a joke than anything. While there are viruses for the mac, I’ve never been infected in the 8 years I’ve been a mac user.

• Internet cache – 149
• Logs – 348
• System cache – 3

Conclusion

The conclusion is that finallyfast.com is not worth spending a cent on. Your computer will not suddenly be blazing fast by fixing application paths, missing shortcuts or deleting temporary files. While there is a a certain performance to  be gained from doing those things, it could be very minimal at best. Most computers out there are running slow as a result from being infected with spyware, viruses and malware. While ascentive claims to remove viruses, spyware and malware, it does not scan for them in the product offered at finallyfast.com, they have a separate product for that.

The results are a clear example of how deceptive their practices are. All the machines are running fine. Two of them are brand new! And while they errors the software found may be legit, they will certainly not make those computers any faster.

The average computer user is not savvy enough to realize that the errors found on any of the test machines are not preventing the computer from running faster, and if there is any improvement on speed it will be minimal.

Don’t waste your money on this! There are plenty of alternatives out there, some that are very good and free.

Free Alternatives

Here is a list of all the tools I use when I am presented with an infected computer. I use a combination of tools, and while some work in some cases, while others don’t. I’ve had very good success using them. And best of all, they are FREE!

1. Ad-aware – Free spyware/malvare detection and removal tool.
2. Free AVG – Free antivirus.
3. HijackThis – Great little tool for removing malware that Hijack your browser.
4. Spybot Search & Destroy – If Ad-Aware did not find it, Spybot will.
5. Malwarebytes – Another great spyware/malware detection and removal tool.

So there you have it. The Free alternative to making your computer finally fast.

Giant iPod touch

Just like the ex-president of Google China predicted in previous weeks. The iPad is nothing else than a glorified giant iPod touch. A beautiful, glorified giant iPod touch, that is. The fact of the matter is that while it is a beautiful device. The only two significant features – other than the larger screen and more horsepower – are the eBook features and the iWork integration. And while those two features may be enough to convince some people, those two features alone will not be enough to make the iPad a successful product.

Price

The iPhone became a very successful product for Apple, only after Apple slashed the price in half. The price drop gave Apple the ability to appeal to other consumers outside of Apple’s consumer base. The phone suddenly became and option for the average consumer looking for a new phone. The success of the iPhone allowed Apple to spin-off another profitable business, the app store. The app store is a very profitable business for Apple. Apple takes 30% of the price of any app sold through the app store. Apple made an estimated 1.4 billion dollars in revenue from the app store last year. All of this could not have been possible if the iPhone was still priced at its initial price of $599.

The same holds true for the iPad. In order for the iPad to be successful it must be affordable to the typical consumer, not just Apple fans, like myself. The main reason why Apple’s laptop and desktop sales have not seen a significant increase in sales with the success of the iPhone and iPod, still boggles me. With that many people walking into the Apple store to buy iPhone and iPods, there aren’t many snatching any of Apple’s laptops and desktops, which are equally as appealing as all other Apple products. The difference lies in the big price gap between comparable PC and Macs. The iPad will face the same fate if the price is not lowered. Apple does not seem to understand that the success of this device will not come from the profit they make from selling their hardware, but rather from the money they can make from the sale of books, movies, music and apps. Apple should follow the gaming industry and sell the iPad at a loss, or with a small margin of profit. That will put the iPad in more hands, thus increasing the pool of potential content comsumers. With the current iPad prices, the average consumer will shy away from forking over $500.00 for something he/she doesn’t really need.

Not another monthly charge

Another reason why consumer will shy away from the new iPad is the need to pay another $30 a month for internet access on another device. My wife and I currently own iPhones, which we pay $30 a month each for our unlimited data plans. If we were to each get an iPad, because we love apple so damn much, that would meanwe would have to fork another $30 each to get a data plan on each device. That’s on top of the $40 a month we currently pay AT&T for home internet. We would be paying AT&T a total of $160 a month. Just for internet access! Too much! Some may argue that the 3G plan is optional, but let’s face. At that point the iPhone becomes a better device, and there is no point to buy an iPad anymore. The bigger screen and eBook reading capability would be the only two valid arguments, and the validity will vary according to your needs.

Missing features

During the keynote Steve Jobs promised that the iPad would improve the experience of some key things. One of them being web browsing. I find that very hard to believe, when there is no flash support built-into the iPad. How is that making the web browsing experience better Mr. Jobs?
The lack of multi-tasking is also a big flaw of the device. The inability to run multiple applications is a big drawback for me. I want to be able to listen to my AOL radio application and surf the web at the same time. Is that too much to ask? What if you needed to work on a Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote presentation at the same time? With a netbook, you can do both things natively. They will be slow, but they can be done, and something is better than nothing.

What do I need this for?

One thing I just don’t get is what the average consumer needs this for? Most of the functionality that comes with iPad already exists in the iPhone and other smart phones, and the laptops most of us carry around daily. Steve tried to knock down the netbook, but Steve forgets what the purpose of the netbook is. The purpose of the netbook is not to make the browsing, email, photos, video, music, game and eBooks experience better. It was to make portable computing more, well, more portable. And to en extent they have succeeded. The only device that most consumers don’t have that the iPad could be a potential option for is the eBook reader. Most users have all the technology they need embedded in a phone and a laptop that they have become accustomed to carrying for quite sometime now.

Failure

The iPad will be a successful product with high-end costumers and Apple lovers like myself. The average consumer will not buy it, unless some of the flaws are addressed, the biggest one being the price. I am tempted to buy it simply for the eBook reader capability, and well, because I love this stuff. To steal a line from the presidential campaign. What about Joe the plummer? Joe the plummer will probably not even care to take a bite out of that Apple.