2005 October

Wow, what a long, crazy weekend that was! I am still pounding away at Linspire here on my PC, and thus far, I have much to report. I am not however, ready to report it. Still have some notebook and Wi-Fi tests to complete. So until I am ready, I have to keep a […]

In a previous article, I outlined how to designate a user as a recovery agent. To recover a file, any recovery agent can simply remove the encryption attribute or open the file if they are in a domain. The process is a little different is you are using a stand-alone system. In such cases, the […]

A new AOL Instant Messenger worm called SDBot.add has been discovered which installs the Lockx.exe rootkit on your computer, and redirects your searches to eza1netsearch.com.
A rootkit (also known as “root kit”) is a usually undetectable piece of malicious software which, once installed, allows someone to have full root (master) access to your computer. Once […]

Just when you thought Chip and Elisa were no more, we sneak in one more article. Some of you wrote, “Nice story, but what’s the point?” The epilogue gives you the security tips for each episode. You can find the complete story here.
With all the natural and man-made disasters happening in recent years, planning for […]

The animated TECHTip is available here.
There are many kinds of FTTH [Fiber-To-The-Home] (curb or building or anything) systems. Some use PON [Passive Optical Network] systems (less electronics) by using different physical optical fibers for different services.
For example, one fiber is for video television distribution and another separate fiber for bi-directional (two-way) data and […]

It can happen to anyone. Come into work one day to discover that your life blood (Internet), has been down and there is nothing you can do about. For home users, this might be a dispute between your ISP and whomever they are using as an Internet backbone.
Take this recent situation (thanks Chris S.) with […]

A quick recap from the previous installment of this article, there are several steps that need to be completed when setting up ESF recovery agents. After you have created a group and added the appropriate user accounts, this group must be granted Enroll permission to the EFS Recovery template. The next step is to have […]

For better or worse, I’d estimate well over half of my customers are using Dell PCs. Some time ago, I found that I can track all my customers’ Dell equipment on the Dell support Web site. You create your account on the site, then you can add equipment under the “My Systems and Peripherals.”
If […]

Companies that lose control over customer information face enormous losses from: the cost of responding to the incident, from a loss of revenue after some customers stop doing business with them, and from lawsuits and government enforcement actions. Financial institutions, with Web applications like online banking face information security regulatory requirements under federal and state […]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
DCOM [Distributed COM] allows for referrals or reference COMponents to other programs on other servers or to provide load-balancing or secure transaction tracking.
DCOM even allows components to connect to custom protocols outside of the DCOM mechanism. The COMponent can use custom requests to send a proxy object into the […]

Well, it is day three on the Linspire 5.0 desktop. Short of me ‘getting creative’ and messing my audio up, this desktop is great! The improvements over 4.5 are mind blowing. First of all, I should get something off of my chest right away. Xandros and Linspire both are way off on their system requirements. […]

Recovery agents are an important part of EFS. A recovery agent is given the ability to forcibly recover files that have been encrypted by another user. Knowing this, you will want to be selective as to which users on the network are assigned this role as they will have the right to decrypt any file.
Designating […]

Kudos to my friends and colleagues at Microsoft Legal. They have successfully, and I believe are the first to have, cracked the zombie network infrastructure by reverse-engineering, if you will, a zombie attack. Or, more to the point, by inviting one.
By installing a bit of zombie code on an otherwise clean computer, and […]

This paper provides valuable insight into the concepts, operation and analysis of converged networks. Each network presents unique challenges, however ten factors should be considered in all cases.
This is the third of six technical briefing papers that examine the concepts, operation and analysis of converged networks. The converged network is intended to support both voice […]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Refraction is the bending of a RF signal as the signal passes through an object causing the signal to bend in different directions.
Some of the signal may be absorbed and some of the signal reflected. Diffraction though similar to refraction is the bending of the RF signal around […]

I’d like to take a moment and explain why I don’t ever reply to e-mail requests to engage in IM conversations. First off, I feel my time is entirely too precious to sit there carrying on IM chat. Don’t get me wrong, I love to socialize as much as the next guy. Unfortunately, my time […]

How’s that for a cryptic title? It’s got a bit of Halloween flair to it as well. The title really relates to a customer of mine who fired up the bat signal (or should I call it Matt signal) to tell me about another ugly PC situation with the family Dell. And the “cursed PC” […]

In the previous installment of this article, I outlined how to encrypt a file through My Computer. An alternative method for encrypting files is the use the Cipher.exe command line utility. It can be used to encrypt, decrypt, and view the status of folders and files. The various switches that can be used with […]

ECN - The leading source for product news & information for electronic designers.
Electronic Component News (ECN) is the product news magazine that covers discrete semiconductors, integrated circuits, components, computer subsystems, software, and test equipment for design engineers and engineering management in the electronics original equipment manufacturing (OEM) market. Each issue includes hundreds of new electronic […]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Clock Synchronization and Clock Drift can cause voice distortion.
If the clocks of the transmitter and receiver are too far out of synchronization, the transmitter may fill the receive buffer faster than the receiver can process the incoming packets. This is also called buffer overrun. Clock Drift can […]