- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

security + scripts + SSH + screen
by Jad Wauthier 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Hi, everyone. I wrote a simple bash script to alert me when anyone logs into my CentOS Linux server. It simply sends me an email with the username for the account that logged in, the hostname of the server, the date and time, and the IP recorded in the SSH_CONNECTION environment variable. I realize that, as a security measure, it's very weak, but I plan on expanding it. yesterday, I logged in from a new location, resumed a screen session, and proceeded to create a new window. My script reported the new IP upon the initial login, but, when I created the new screen window, it sent the IP that was recorded when I first created the screen session. Do you know of a way to force screen to update the SSH_CONNECTION environment variable when a new window is created? Is there a better place/way to find the IP of the current SSH session? Do you know of a free tool that can report account logins as they happen and send emails and or text messages? Thank you! Jad Wauthier

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Domain laptop boot issue
by Troy Hergert 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

All of our computers are on a Windows 2012 domain. Most of the laptops reportedly work well out in the field. But a handful of them are reported to have very slow bootup and login processes when not able to find the domain controler. The boot up and login take more than 5 minutes on some ocasions. These are all windows seven professional machines set up on a 2012 domain. Have any of you encountered this issue, and do you have any tips or tricks that helped laptops boot up faster when they can't find the domain controller? My minimum specs are I5 with a minimum of 4 gigs ram.Thanks.

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Domain laptop boot issue
by Troy Hergert 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

All of our computers are on a Windows 2012 domain. Most of the laptops reportedly work well out in the field. But a handful of them are reported to have very slow bootup and login processes when not able to find the domain controler. The boot up and login take more than 5 minutes on some ocasions. These are all windows seven professional machines set up on a 2012 domain. Have any of you encountered this issue, and do you have any tips or tricks that helped laptops boot up faster when they can't find the domain controller? My minimum specs are I5 with a minimum of 4 gigs ram.Thanks.

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accessible Speedtest
by Troy Hergert 25 Jan '16

25 Jan '16

Hi, Has anyone found an accessible speedtest site to measure your Internet bandwidth and speed. I'm not having luck with speedtest.net. Tried JAWS and Window-eyes. Anyone know of something accessible? Thanks.

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accessible Speedtest
by Troy Hergert 25 Jan '16

25 Jan '16

Hi, Has anyone found an accessible speedtest site to measure your Internet bandwidth and speed. I'm not having luck with speedtest.net. Tried JAWS and Window-eyes. Anyone know of something accessible? Thanks.

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Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
by Jen Bottom 22 Jan '16

22 Jan '16

Hi all, Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :) I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort… I am installing one now. Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc. I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA. I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Jen.

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some good news around System Center Configuration Manager
by Ryan Shugart 22 Jan '16

22 Jan '16

Hi: For those of you who have access to the Configuration Manager tech previews, download the 1512 build and give it a go with a screen reader. Microsoft has fixed the issue where quite a few of the list views throughout the product are inaccessible in that a screen reader doesn’t announce anything when using the arrow keys. All the list views I have tried work properly although there may be some that are still broken, I obviously couldn’t test in production. However, I did look at the screens that were causing the most issues in production and know those are fixed. Microsoft says they’ll be working on the ribbon next, although I can’t say when this work will be completed, so keep watching the tech previews. Ryan

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Assessing staff technical skill level
by Troy Hergert 21 Jan '16

21 Jan '16

As IT Manager, I have been asked to conduct an assessment of our staffs technical skill level. I need to come up with a way to assess their core computer skill level, then make recommendations as to what training they would need. Have any of you found any tools that would help assess your staffs technical skill level?

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Wetting up Windows VMs with Vagrant boxes.
by Jen Bottom 21 Jan '16

21 Jan '16

Hi all, Now and then I need access to Windows VMs, for testing customer stuff, or sometimes for evaluating different solutions to an accessibility problem I am having at work, with our ever growing horrible tool set :) I just found that there are Windows boxes for Vagrant here: https://atlas.hashicorp.com/boxes/search?provider=virtualbox&q=windows&sort… I am installing one now. Just wondering if anyone else has used these boxes and has any tips for provisioning them with NVDA etc. I was planning to install something like LinuxTools or Chocolaty on them/it, then use 'wget' or similar to download NVDA. I am assuming that NVDA has an installer that can be run from the command line, but I have never investigated this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Jen.

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UK ISP Static IP tip
by Barry Toner 21 Jan '16

21 Jan '16

Hi, I signed up to www.plus.net<http://www.plus.net> the other week and we went live in the house on Monday. The staff so far seem to be quite techy and are all UK based. I thought this wasn't happening anymore with the shortage of IPv4 addresses , but for a one of off £5 charge I was able to get a static IP of them. Remember back in the day when you could get one for free? Still though, I was quite pleased with this. Useful to know, if any of you need a static IP for home or work stuff. Barry

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