- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Disabling USB Ports for a user account Windows 7
by Barry Toner 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

Hi, The subject says it all really. I found the below article but it's not working, when I log in using the standard user account I've setup previously unused USB devices are still being installed. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823732 I'd like to crack this nut using the MS Permissions, but am open to suggestions for other ways of doing this. I've looked at how you can do it using the Registry. However, when I navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor The article calls to click on Start Value . There's no start value I can see with a Screen Reader. I see the Dword stuff and default value. None of this has a value of 3 which is on, 4 is to turn it off. Thoughts? Barry. HK Local machine Barry Toner ICT Assistant ICT Department Clanmil Housing Northern Whig House 3 Waring Street Belfast BT1 2DX Tel: 02890 876000 Fax: 02890 876001

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AVG2012, thumb drives and read only
by David Mehler 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

Hello, I don't know how this happened but I was given a thumb drive some while back that had been read read only and unformattable. The partition type as reported by windows was raw. It had been in a 7 box that had AVG standard 2012 on it and somehow AVG apparently made it in to a recovery drive, in doing so the user could not reformat it which is how I got it. What I did was loaded up a Linux virtual machine, ran fdisk on it, wiped the partition, recreated it, the partition showed up under Linux fdisk as HPFS/NTFS/Xfat the latter I had not heard of, I then disconnected and reconnected to the host box, and formatted. It works fine now. In case anyone else has seen this hope this helps. Dave.

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AVG2012, thumb drives and read only
by David Mehler 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

Hello, I don't know how this happened but I was given a thumb drive some while back that had been read read only and unformattable. The partition type as reported by windows was raw. It had been in a 7 box that had AVG standard 2012 on it and somehow AVG apparently made it in to a recovery drive, in doing so the user could not reformat it which is how I got it. What I did was loaded up a Linux virtual machine, ran fdisk on it, wiped the partition, recreated it, the partition showed up under Linux fdisk as HPFS/NTFS/Xfat the latter I had not heard of, I then disconnected and reconnected to the host box, and formatted. It works fine now. In case anyone else has seen this hope this helps. Dave.

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PRTG Enterprise
by Barry Toner 31 Oct '12

31 Oct '12

Hi folks, I'm not long started a new job. As part of my role my manager would like me to monitor network traffic. More in-terms of being pro-active than for any specific task at the moment. He has provided me a link to the monitoring software they are using. I know he is open to suggestions if there's a more accessible solution for someone with a screen reader. Do any of you have experience with using PRTG Enterprise? The Web UI isn't bad until you get to the monitoring stuff, then it's nice red/green ticks and so forth to say if things are running happy or not. So, er yeah, sorry can't access that information and there's no text I can find to get the same information. I'm just about to poke around it's settings and documentation to see if there's another way I can get a more text-based view of things. There's also a Desktop client I can download but I'd imagine that'll be pretty pictures as well. Hey ho I'll havea look at it just in case. What network monitoring software are you guys using? BTW I believe this has an IOS app so that's another avenue I can look at. Barry Toner ICT Assistant ICT Department Clanmil Housing Northern Whig House 3 Waring Street Belfast BT1 2DX Tel: 02890 876000 Fax: 02890 876001

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newegg's shuttle barebones systems?
by David Mehler 31 Oct '12

31 Oct '12

Hello, Has anyone bought any of these barebones systems from newegg? If so, what did you think pro conn of them? Thanks. Dave.

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PRTG Enterprise
by Barry Toner 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

Hi folks, I'm not long started a new job. As part of my role my manager would like me to monitor network traffic. More in-terms of being pro-active than for any specific task at the moment. He has provided me a link to the monitoring software they are using. I know he is open to suggestions if there's a more accessible solution for someone with a screen reader. Do any of you have experience with using PRTG Enterprise? The Web UI isn't bad until you get to the monitoring stuff, then it's nice red/green ticks and so forth to say if things are running happy or not. So, er yeah, sorry can't access that information and there's no text I can find to get the same information. I'm just about to poke around it's settings and documentation to see if there's another way I can get a more text-based view of things. There's also a Desktop client I can download but I'd imagine that'll be pretty pictures as well. Hey ho I'll havea look at it just in case. What network monitoring software are you guys using? BTW I believe this has an IOS app so that's another avenue I can look at. Barry Toner ICT Assistant ICT Department Clanmil Housing Northern Whig House 3 Waring Street Belfast BT1 2DX Tel: 02890 876000 Fax: 02890 876001

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linux admin question, ssh restricting a user
by David Mehler 14 Oct '12

14 Oct '12

Hello, I've got a Linux Admin question. I'm running a server and want to allow a user to manage a pair of web sites. Previously this was done with ftp, specifically pure-ftpd server. I want to get away from ftp finally. My standard users connect to the box via ssh. I have disabled password authentication for ssh in favor of public key authentication. My first chalenge is I don't want this user to be able to access the filesystem when connected. I was thinking a sftp chroot. He uses Dreamweaver MX2004 to do his web sites, I should mention there are two of them located in /srv/site1/public_html and /srv/site2/public_html for ilustrative purposes. He also doesn't have a public/private key and I wouldn't want him to have one. That issue was easy, I did a Match Group in sshd and in that block enabled password authentication. As that user I have connected and it does work, a public key is not needed to connect. The second issue sftp chroot is proving to be a problem. I've got the two site locations and neither sym links nor hard links will work. This is where I'm stuck. If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate them. Thanks. Dave.

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linux admin question, ssh restricting a user
by David Mehler 14 Oct '12

14 Oct '12

Hello, I've got a Linux Admin question. I'm running a server and want to allow a user to manage a pair of web sites. Previously this was done with ftp, specifically pure-ftpd server. I want to get away from ftp finally. My standard users connect to the box via ssh. I have disabled password authentication for ssh in favor of public key authentication. My first chalenge is I don't want this user to be able to access the filesystem when connected. I was thinking a sftp chroot. He uses Dreamweaver MX2004 to do his web sites, I should mention there are two of them located in /srv/site1/public_html and /srv/site2/public_html for ilustrative purposes. He also doesn't have a public/private key and I wouldn't want him to have one. That issue was easy, I did a Match Group in sshd and in that block enabled password authentication. As that user I have connected and it does work, a public key is not needed to connect. The second issue sftp chroot is proving to be a problem. I've got the two site locations and neither sym links nor hard links will work. This is where I'm stuck. If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate them. Thanks. Dave.

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connect remotely
by Ibraam Wahib 11 Oct '12

11 Oct '12

dears may u able to help me n performing this task.. i need to configure computer remotely I might need to copy file from my pc to the another machine and install utilities. so, which program is useful for this task? and any tutorials for it will be thankful. note: both computers running windows os. many thanks for your support. ibraam

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reactivating xp home
by David Mehler 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Hello, I've got a machine here that had it's copy of xp home reinstalled. Let me emphasize this is a legally purchased valid disk and with a key. Now it's screaming about activation. It's been activated before once. When I try to activate it now it's saying that xp home is no longer available. This is not going to be welcome to the system's owner, who does not want to go 7 at this time. Is there a painless way I can get this system activated so I can use windows update? I'm needing to get MSE on it. Thanks. Dave.

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