A network operators’ mailing list I am on has just gone through yet another multi-day discussion of how to comply with Microsoft licensing. No-one understands it. I don’t think Microsoft itself understands it. What finally compelled me to write this rant was this quote from some Microsoft document or other: Continue reading
Trojans and ransoms and backups, oh my!
Data loss can be a business killer. There’s a simple test for how badly you need good backups: Imagine all your computers are irrecoverably gone. Just – gone. Did you shrug? Gulp? Or clutch your chest? If the last, you need good backups 🙂 Now let me tell you about ransomware, trojans and backups… Continue reading
Simpson vs Dawkins
I was reading a review by Blake Simpson of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and felt a need to comment. Ideally, you should read the review before reading on, but my points will be understandable even without doing so.
Adding a default route to a TP-Link TD-8817 ADSL router/modem
Once upon a time l was trying to talk to my TP-Link TD-8817 ADSL router/modem. I couldn’t, but I worked out that the reason I couldn’t was because the poor thing lacked a default route. The full story is here, but this blog entry is about how I added the necessary default route. You wouldn’t think that would be a big deaI, but it turns out that adding specifically a default route to one of these units is surprisingly tricky. Continue reading
A warning word about telnet
Someone just asked (on a network operators list!) whether telnet
had a vulnerability, because he knew of a switch that was on the Internet and accessible via telnet
… This was my response.
Nifty program – cpulimit
This is probably very old news for many, but I just found a nifty little program for the first time: cpulimit
.
An avalanche of lies
A few days ago, someone posted a link to a story in The Atlantic, referring to a leaked NSA document that showed that the agency had lied. The particular article is weak and irrelevant – one of a stream of similar articles that follow on the heels of each new Snowdon revelation.
Why spammers send “from” your email address
Someone asked me recently why spammers often use other people’s addresses in the “From:” field of their spams. They asked “what’s the payoff for the spammer in doing that?” Here’s the answer.
Mikrotik troubleshooting case study
Just for the fun of it, here’s a a case study in troubleshooting. Actually it’s a case study in stupidity too, since I should have figured this out without all the troubleshooting. Anyway, just as an exercise…
Mikrotik plus phone dongle = instant hotspot
I attended the Sapphire Coast StartUp Camp this weekend. At one point in the leadup to it, it seemed the venue would have no Internet access, so I suggested setting up a MikroTik router with a GSM phone dongle to provide wifii/LAN and Internet connectivity. In the end an alternative was found, but just for the exercise, our team at the camp used my new hotspot, and it worked really well.