Recover WPA Key from Keychain

Today I had the need to discover what the WPA key was that I had entered into my OSX keychain. Here were the steps:

1. Applications
2. Utilities
3. Keychain Access
4. System (top left; defaults to login)
5. Found the SSID of key that I was trying to recover and double-click
6. Select the Show Password checkbox
7. Enter your admin password.

Enjoy.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Installing SBS 2003 SP2

Last week I came across the first instance where I had to install SBS 2003 that had no Service Packs integrated, and had to get up to the latest Service Pack (SP2). All previous installs I've done, either SP1 is integrated in the SBS 2003 media, or SP1 had already been installed and I was just installing to the latest SP2. The question I had was, "Can I go straight to SP2, or do I have to first install SP1 and all the associated SBS specific SPs?"

Well, after some googling, I cam across the the SBS SP1 article here, but this doesn't address jumping from no SP to SP2.

So, since I couldn't find any articles that specifically answered my questions, I decided to give it a try in this order (after installing SBS 2003 and getting all the drivers installed):

1. Server 2003 SP1
2. Exchange SP2
3. Sharepoint Services SP3
4. XP SP2 Client Deployment
5. SBS 2003 SP1
6. Server 2003 SP2

Then, I followed the article here to address known issues with SBS 2003 and SP2, and I was up and running (basically just ran Microsoft Update to install post SP2 updates for SBS 2003).

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Scheduling Defrag in XP

The Windows XP Disk Defragmenter tool is located in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), thus making it impossible to schedule a regular defragmenting session using the Windows XP Task Scheduler. However, there is a command line version of this utility (Defrag.exe), that you can schedule. To do so, you must create a batch file that runs Defrag.exe along with the appropriate parameters, and then create a schedule to run this batch file.

To run Defrag from the batch file, use the following command line:

Defrag x: [/parameter]

In this command, x is the drive letter of the hard disk you want to defragment, and parameter is one of three optional settings that you can use to configure Defrag:
# /a: Analyzes the volume and displays a summary of the analysis report.
# /v: Displays the complete analysis and defragmentation reports. Can be used in combination with /a to display only the analysis report.
# /f: Forces defragmentation of the volume regardless of whether it needs to be defragmented.

Here's how to schedule the Disk Defragmenter:

1. Launch Notepad.
2. Type the appropriate Defrag command line.
3. Save the file as Defragger.bat.
4. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks.
5. Launch the Scheduled Task Wizard by double-clicking Add Scheduled Task.
6. Click Next and select Defragger.bat.
7. In the following three screens, select the Weekly or Monthly option, the time that you want to defragment your hard disk, and then type a username and password with Administrative privileges.
8. Click Finish.

Your computer will regularly run the defrag batch operation to help keep your Windows XP system running smoothly.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

svchost.exe problem still lingering

By now you may have already heard of this issue. It's been a long standing problem with Windows XP, and has recently been complicated by the new Windows Live Messenger update. If you've noticed that your computer is very slow, and further that the processor seems to be pegged at 100% utilization, you may be a victim.

Scott Dunn at WindowsSecrets.com has a very informative article explains how you can troubleshoot your own system to determine if you have fallen prey to this issue. Click here for the article.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Vista not any more secure than XP

Well, CRN has done a test. Here is the bottom line:

-----START SNIP-----
Based on the Test Center's findings, businesses that migrate their Windows PCs from XP to Vista will get a slightly more secure OS. But as the Finjan reports showed, Vista's security remains wafer thin.

In the end, both the Vista and the XP test notebooks were almost equally damaged by viruses, trojans and other malware. And because most of the Web sites in the test were able to exploit Vista's weaknesses, Internet users are just about equally vulnerable with both OSes.
-----END SNIP-----

Click here for the full article.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Imaging Lenovo Desktops

We were setting up some Lenovo 3000 J Series desktops for a customer, and had quite a time imaging them. Got the first one setup, then attempted to image to the others. Began getting the following error when we would boot the newly imaged disk:

-----START SNIP-----
verifying DMI pool data

There as been a signature failure
-----END SNIP-----

Turns out that the IBM Rescue and Recovery stuff (Client Security) didn't like the way we imaged, and/or the fact that we ran sysprep before imaging. After messing around with a lot of different stuff, finally found that if we started up Ghost with the "Image Boot" switch (ghost.exe -ib) and then did a disk-to-disk image, everything worked correctly.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

More SIP Stuff

Today we had an issue with getting a remote extension to connect correctly to our Asterisk (PBXtra) box. It would connect remotely, but certain functions wouldn't work (like call transfer). It turned out that the Embarq/Sprint DLS modem was blocking or redirecting certain SIP ports (10000-20000 UDP). We reconfigured the modem as a bridge (was previously NAT'ing the internal network) and connected a Linksys WRT54GL with DD-WRT installed. Then, after connecting the phone, the remote extension began working. Now, this business's secretary can work from home and transfer calls, etc. just as if she was in the office!


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Edit Firefox Custom Dictionary

Today I clicked to add a word to my Firefox dictionary by accident. After searching around everywhere in the Firefox menus, I couldn't find anywhere to edit the dictionary. Turns out you can't. So, browse to the following locations depending on your operating system:

Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\

Windows Vista

C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\

Mac OS X

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/

Linux

~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/

Once you are in the correct location for your operating system, look for persdict.dat, and open it with your favorite text editor. In this file, you will see line-by-line all of the words you have manually added to the dictionary. Simply delete the entries you don't want.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Broadvoice Registration Error on Asterisk Server

So I've messed around with asterisk@home, Trixbox, as well as the commercial side of all these products, Fonality's PBXtra. Here are a couple of things I've learned the hard way:

1. Broadvoice blocks your external IP address for an unknown amount of time (1 hour according to one tech that I talked to), when you have too many failed registration attempts. Ok...what's the deal here? I heard from someone else that they did this, so when I couldn't get my Broadvoice trunk to register, I changed the external IP address on my router to another IP in my pool, and it registered.

2. If you want to change which Broadvoice proxy an Asterisk server connects to, don't change the proxy name in the config file (just leave it at sip.broadvoice.com) and make an entry in /etc/hosts for whichever proxy you want to connect to.

Well, there is more, but that's all I have the energy for right now. I'll post more later.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Howto to speed up Windows XP

Often times, when a computer is acting slow, the first thing people do is defrag the hard drive. This has for some time done very little to speed up a slow computer. The following article spells out a bunch of ways that will actually help your slow computer regain some speed.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

-----START ARTICLE-----

23 Ways To Speed WinXP Without Defrag
Still defragmenting disks to speed customers' PCs? Try these techniques instead
(URL: http://www.crn.com/white-box/59201471?pgno=3)

By Carey Holzman, TechBuilder
TechBuilder.org


To defrag, or not to defrag? If you're looking for ways to speed WinXP machines used by your customers, then the answer is Not.

Defragmenting, of course, is the process of reorganizing all data on a hard-disk drive so that each file is arranged into a single uninterrupted, or contiguous, location on the disk. Many system builders and technicians have been taught, and still believe, that defragmenting hard disk drives on a regular basis keeps PCs operating at peak performance. But that idea is behind the times.

While it was true that defragmenting helped older PCs, it no longer applies. Today we have 7200-RPM (rotations per minute) hard-disk drives with improved seek and latency times; many also contain an 8-MB cache buffer. Let's not forget Windows XP's ultra-efficient NTFS (NT File System). For PCs, servers, and workstations equipped with these innovations, defragmenting no longer makes much improvement, if any, to system performance.

This is even more of an issue with the new Serial ATA hard disk drives, which are soon to become the new standards utilized in the market. Examples of SATA drives include the Seagate Barracuda line and new 10,000-RPM IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard-disk drives, such as the Western Digital Raptor.

Still, defragmenting remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer's operating system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the disk may be required. But a more important consideration is disk failure. Should a hard drive fail, the likelihood of successfully recovering data from the dead or damaged drive improves significantly if the data is contiguous rather than randomly scattered about the drive platters.

The software companies that create defragmentation software would like you to believe that their software does improve system performance. But my own in-house testing refutes that, as do recent findings from Steve Gibson and other system testers.

So What Works?

Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.

1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.

Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"), click the Ignore All button.

5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer %96 only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the system.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.

Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.

Do you have any performance tips not listed here? Do you believe you experience a performance increase on your PC after defragmenting it? I invite you to share your thoughts in the Recipe discussion forum.

CAREY HOLZMAN is president of Discount Computer Repair in Glendale, Ariz., and the author of The Healthy PC: Preventative Care And Home Remedies For Your Computer (McGraw-Hill Osborne, 2003).

-----END ARTICLE-----

ipconfig /flushdns on a Mac

In a windows environment, if you open a command prompt you can flush the dns cache by typing the following command:

C:> ipconfig /flushdns

So, what is the equivlent on a Mac OS X system? Here you go:

$ lookupd -flushcache

Gotta love having a shell on a Mac. = )

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Howto Burn an ISO with a Mac

Well, until today, I hadn't needed to do it. So, here are the steps:

1. Insert a blank disc.
2. Start Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility).
3. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned.
4. In the list of volumes, you will now see an item representing the ISO file. Select it.
5. Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.

A couple of minutes later I had my CD!

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com