HAK5 Gives Bauer-Power a Shout Out

So Wednesday I take a look at the old stats and I see some hits coming from Revision3.com. So I thought to myself, "Self, that's weird. You didn't leave any comments on Revision3." So I decided to follow the link, and BAM! There it is, HAK5 released Episode 413 and there in the show notes was a quick little shout out and a hyperlink back to Bauer-Power.

It didn't stop there, oh no it didn't. Not only did Darren Kitchen give me a link in the show notes, he also went on to give me and www.Bauer-Power.net a pretty cool shout out on the video itself! That is friggin' awesome because those guys get some serious traffic! Check out these stats I pulled from Alexa comparing my site with theirs:

Now don't get me wrong, Bauer-Power does pretty good, but as you can see, my pitiful blue line doesn't even compare with the traffic these guys get. That is what makes this shout out so awesome! Honestly, I didn't expect Darren to give such a great shout out, and was only really hoping for an honorable mention, but he went above and beyond.

Here is a clip from episode 413 were he mentions Bauer-Power:



The full episode can be watched here: (Hak5 Episode 413)

So what do you guys think? Pretty cool right?

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Top 10 Tech Tools to Bring to Thanksgiving Dinner

I was reading a post on Lifehacker about how if you are in the tech field, or are just the "computer geek" of the family that you will most likely be sucked into fixing your family members computer. It happens to me not just at Thanksgiving, but pretty much any time I go to one of my relatives' houses.

Honestly, it doesn't really bother me too badly. I actually love this stuff. When I come across a computer infected with some nasty viruses I sort of feel like Keanu Reeves in the movie Constantine.

With that in mind, here is my list of essential cleanup and optimization tools you can use to fix the in-laws computers this Thanksgiving.

Spybot Search & Destroy - I have written about this one before. It is great, and the latest version has many added security features to help "immunize" your in-laws computers and keep them safe.

Avast! Antivirus - My all time personal favorite. If there is a virus, this sucker will catch it and eliminate it.

Comodo Internet Security - I have been using this for quite a while now, and I love it. It just works. Simple as that.

Firefox - Lets face it, Internet Exploder just isn't that secure. Firefox is simply a better internet browser for security.

CCleaner - CCleaner is sort of like the built in Windows disk clean up utility...On steroids. Besides cleaning up the junk on your computer, it also has a really great registry cleaner too among other things.

Spyware Blaster - This one is good because it pro actively works to keep spyware from being installed in the first place.

JKDefrag - I particularly like this one, because it comes with a screen saver feature which is great because your in laws never have to think about defragging. Whenever they step away from the computer and the screen saver comes on the defrag process will begin.

Here are some alternatives to some of the above, if you don't like those ones:

AVG Free Antivirus - Often rated as the number one free antivirus available

Zone Alarm Firewall - Another good free firewall solution with proven protection.

Windows Defender - Some have mixed feeling on this one, but for the most part it is pretty good. I do like that it has automatic update features, so you can set it and forget it.

Once your in-laws computers are cleaned up, defragged, and virus free, don't forget to install all of the latest patches and service packs, and turn on their automatic updates.

If everything goes well, their computers should stay running smoothly. That is until the next time you visit.

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Annotate the world!

I came across some new web based software that was recommended by one of our readers, Ryan. He's actually the co-founder and CEO of a company called WebNotes. This is a nice web based application where you can add highlights and sticky notes to web pages directly. You can also Share your notes with others and organize your list of notes within different folders for better organization that are stored on your account and can be accessed from any web browser. WebNotes currently works with Firefox(Mac, PC, Linux), IE, Google Chrome and Safari. It's not one of those lame apps that only works with one browser or another.

So I see you there asking yourself, who would actually use that? or why would I want to use something like that? Well here are a few things and reasons I've come up with for who could use this:

• Anyone that likes to look up information online or likes to highlight little facts here and there.

• Marketing folk that want to take a current page and show exactly where and what they want changed. (Trust me this would sure beat an emailed pdf of a webpage with notes you can hardly understand.)

• College students that need to do research and want to easily keep a list of where they get all their information from.

• People that want to share notes about websites with friends and family.

• Someone that thinks normal bookmarks are a thing of the past and want the features to not just bookmark a site but to bookmark specific information on a site.

They also have an online demo on there site and I've created a permanent link of our last article about Bauer-Power Episode II. The link to that can be Found Here.

So let us know what you think about it and I'm sure Ryan would like to know what you guys think also.

Speaking of Ryan, he has given us 25 invites to give out to our readers who want to try Web Notes Beta. We will be giving these out to the first 25 people who leave a comment and tell us how they can use this application. Just make sure your fill out the email line in the comment area so we know where to send you the invite info.

Of course, as always if you guys have anything you would like us to take a look at or share just let us know and if anyone wants an Invite to use WebNotes leave a comment.

By Sundance of Free TV Shows Online

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Re-Calibrating uTorrent For Maximum Download Speeds

For many, this is pretty basic stuff, –even common sense. For others, not so much. First of all, determine whether or not you’ll need to set up port forwarding for your connection to remain stable and useful. In essence, find out whether or not you’re on a router. Or just open uTorrent real quick; look at the bottom of the window.

There should be small chambers along the bottom: DHT: (nodes); a symbol indicating your connection status; D: downloading stats; U: uploading stats. Double click the symbol indicating your connection status, –if it’s a green check mark, you don’t need port forwarding.

Otherwise, double click, and then click the button on the pop up that says “Test if port is forwarded properly”. Your browser will open to a window or tab that states your IP and what the status of your port is. It will plainly tell you if your port is not correctly forwarded or if it is. If it isn’t, check out Portforward.com, –they give step by step tutorials for even the worst techno-tard.

Once your port is correctly forwarded, or if it already is, follow these steps to make uTorrent download at the best speeds:

• Open uTorrent -> Options -> Preferences -> Bandwidth
• Set Maximum Upload Rate to 20 kbp/s
• Set Maximum Download Rate to 0 (unlimited)
• Set Global Maximum Number of Connections to 800
• Set Global Maximum Number of Peers Connected Per Torrent to 125
• Set Maximum Number of Upload Slots Per Torrent to 25
• Click Apply -. OK

And you’re all set!

By Vernon Southward of Ask The Admin and DevicePedia

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Bauer-Power Episode 2

Go ahead.... Pinch yourself. You know you want to do it, because episode 2 of Bauer-Power has just been released! That's right Sundance and I got together this weekend to shoot another quick episode of Bauer-Power! No, you are not dreaming.

This time we decided to get out of my dark apartment and escape to the great outdoors to a local park close to my place that also happens to have a little amphitheater in it. That's where we shot it, sitting on the stage of the amphitheater.

Looking back on it, that may not have been the best place as Sundance and I didn't know what to do with our hands, and there were a lot of sounds and distractions going on. It could have been worse though...

Anyhoo, if you are watching it and I look a little nervous, or sound weird, that is because of the energy drinks we were drinking. Sundance recommended the one I was drinking (Spike Shooter), and I didn't expect it to be so damned strong. The caffeine hit me pretty hard during the shoot.

Enough about all that though. In this episode we keep it short this time and focus on one topic....

UBUNTU!

We hope you like it!



What did you think? Was the first one better? Was this one better? What would you like to have seen more of? We want to hear your feedback in the comments.

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The StumbleUpon WebToolbar

You ever wanted to stumble while you're at work but you don't have permissions to install toolbars or it's just against the rules and you don't want to get fired? Well now you can waist countless work hours on stumble and not have to worry about installing the toolbar!

This is also good for those of you that just hate having toolbars installed on your browser windows. I know I don't care for them much. Well now stumble has a StumbleUpon WebToolbar it functions pretty much the same as the installed toolbar. You can stumble, mark things you like, share what you found with friends even a link to see how many reviews a site has and view them. But that's about all it does.

Still a great web tool and very easy to access. So go ahead, give it a shot, and while your at it why not give us a Thumbs up and a quick review ;-)

By Sundance of Free TV Shows Online

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HAK5 Issue Resolved! Thanks Darren!

I was happy to have received an Intense Debate email notification telling me that the infamous...errr...notorious...errr...well known IPTV host Darren Kitchen stopped by to leave a comment clearing up the whole Sidejacking and Jasager mumbo jumbo.


That really means a lot to me. Seriously, now that Hak5 has been picked up by Revision3 Darren and his team are busy. Here was his comment:

El Di Pablo,

I'm really sorry for not throwing you a shout out. I just now saw the thread on the forums about your college project from the Hak5 comments. Congrats on the A btw. I posted more there but I just wanted to say it wasn't my intention to snub you or anything. I think you're a really great guy and I like the stuff on your blog so I'll make it right on the next show dude.

Cheers,
Darren

So I mosied on back to Hak5 to read his post there and it gets even better. Here is the post he left there:

@EDP, dude I totally remember you from Toorcon. I just found the thread about your college report. Way to go on the A dude. But more to the point I wish I had seen the thread before shooting cause I would have most definitely given you a shout out.

A similar thing happened last episode too with the Helmer cluster thing. I had credited Steve P. (Shadowfox) for emailing me about it but it seems Tom E. (Ghost) had also sent it to me in another form of communication (probably the forum, IRC or IM). Ghost emailed me about the mistake.

I’ll have to mention this in the next ep. Any chance to pimp http://www.bauer-power.net :)

Hope things are going well for you. You going to Shmoocon?

To answer your question Darren... No, I don't think my boss will be springing for Schmoocon this year. Maybe next year ;-)

As far as your response, thank you very much. It means a lot!

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Small Bone To Pick With Hak5

Back in September I mentioned that I went to Toorcon, which is a San Diego hacker convention. There I met Darren Kitchen and Shannon Morse from the fairly popular IPTV show Hak5. When I met these two guys I mentioned to them that I was going to be writing a final report for my Advanced Network Security class in college. It was going to be my final report and presentation before I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Network Security.

Anyhoo, Mr. Kitchen told me to keep them posted on how my paper and report turned out, so I decided to go ahead and sign up for the Hak5 forums so I could participate in the community a little, as well as post about my ideas for my paper... and I did on October 6th here: (Hak5 Forum Post)

Basically I did my paper on running Jasager in conjunction with Sidejacking, and told the community at Hak5 about my idea for my paper.

Okay, so no big deal right?

WRONG!

I just popped on my Tivo to watch a little Hak5 while working out on my total gym when Darren begins talking about Jasager and how people have been asking what it can be used for. Here is a clip from that episode where he proceeds to tell people about my idea:



The full episode can be seen here: (Hak5 Episode 412)

Did you notice anything missing from that segment? HOW ABOUT A FRIGGIN' SHOUT OUT? How about a nice little, "El Di Pablo From our forums gave us this idea..." or a nice little flash on the screen "Thanks EDP!"

Alas... Nothing, zip, zilch, nada.

Not a single mention in the credits, or even a blurb in the show notes.

What gives Hak5?

What do you guys think? Too harsh? Should I calm down a bit? Anyone from Hak5 want to comment? Anyone from Revision3? Hit me up in the comments please.

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Free OpenSource Javascript Wysiwyg - TinyMCE

I just found TinyMCE by Moxiecode Systems AB and I'm in love with it. It's cross browser capable and comes loaded with plugins to use. Some features it has are: Compressor for PHP, .NET, JSP and Cold Fusion, PHP Spellchecker, .NET development package, Embedding of Flash and other media, iFrame support, bbCode, Layers, Emoticons.

They also have some commercial plugins which include a File Manger and Image Manger. Their support includes a very well written Wiki Help Site and Community Forum. The editor can be imported into any CMS, Forum or well any online application you want. They do not have pluggins for Clasic ASP or JSP but can be configured using Ajax postback to get the job done.

Check it out and let me know what you guys think or if you know of any other good ones out there.

By Sundance of Free TV Shows Online

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WTF is Up With Feedburner Lately?

I have noticed that for about a week or so now, my stats on Feedburner have seemed a bit lower than normal. I decided to check out my stats on Google Analytics, and my stats are staying consistent. Which leads me to ask the question.... WTF Feedburner?!?!?

It seems to me that this happens every so often, where Feedburner's stat engine takes a shit, and none of their numbers can't be trusted. Then after a few days, they snap back into place and act like nothing happened.

What I want to know is why can their parent company's analytics service continue to work moderately okay, while Feedburners stops working all the time? Why not just incorporate Google's anaytics into Feedburner's?

Anyone else having a problem with Feedburner stats AGAIN lately?

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The Technologies That Failed

Two words: Virtual Reality. At the start of the 90s, it was going to be the biggest leap forward in the industry. Now? Who even really remembers? VR suffered from three key problems. The technology wasn't good enough for proper 3D environments, with the majority of publicly available games coming from Virtuality. Powered by an Amiga, they were jerky, low-resolution, and untextured, with the simple weight of the helmet and blurriness of the vision quickly giving players a headache.

Home VR headsets fared little better, being both finicky, and low-resolution. We still occasionally see new offerings, but the industry's interest has moved on to Augmented Reality - overlaying games onto the real world. Imagine Pacman played first person in your local library. Another 3D technology that never got a chance was Voxels - 3D pixels. These served up some incredibly impressive games back in the day, most notably Novalogic's Commanche, and the stunningly beautiful RPG Outcast. The catch was that 3D graphics cards were designed to pump triangles - traditional 3D - and couldn't do anything to help these out. Reliant on software mode, voxels were blocky and very system intensive. After a while, it was more sensible to just use polygons, and the voxel concept was quietly retired - at least, from the mainstream.

Finally, a product nobody was sad to see go: the 3DO Blaster. Here's the pitch. By plugging it into your computer, your PC becomes... a 3DO. If your immediate reaction is 'what the hell's a 3DO?', don't worry you missed out on the hype, but nailed the reason it didn't work. Oddly, gamers weren't taken with one of the most over-hyped consoles of all time, especially since it demanded a specific CD drive. Most of its games were crap, and those that weren't were almost all already available on PC.

The 3DO blasted its way to the bargain bin, forgotten by history. Until now, of course. But you can safely forget about it again without the slightest guilty twinge.

By Sandra Prior

Subscribe to Sandra Prior's Online Newsletter and get up to date Computer Technology News delivered right to your email box for free. See website for details http://usacomputers.rr.nu and http://sacomputers.rr.nu. Article Source: Go Articles

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Tech Debate: Linux vs. Windows

There are many heated debates and arguments in the world of computers and technology these days. Some of these debates have been around since the computers first became popular amongst average, everyday people. Issues like choosing a Mac or a PC, or choosing an Apple operating system or a Windows operating system have been highly debated for years - and there have even been a recent line of commercials that brings this argument right into your own living room. However, one of the newest arguments involves a relatively little-know, but highly powerful operating system known as Linux. And the exact question is what one is better - Linux or Windows?

Well, the answer is not a simple and quick one, by any means. There are many things that you need to take into consideration when trying to make the decision between running Linux on your PC or running Windows - and this article attempts to help educate you on the topic, so that you can make a better decision for yourself regarding Linux vs. Windows.

The first thing to consider is your PC gaming life. If you are always playing the hottest new game, you probably want to stick with Windows. Because it is by far the most popular computer operating system available today, more games and applications are developed for Windows than any other platform. And while you may be able to run most Windows-based games on a computer that is running Linux, it's not a guarantee that every single game in your collection will work. That is why if you are a computer gamer by any means, you will definitely want to pick Windows over Linux.

However, being the most popular operating system has a down side too, as Windows users are well aware of. Because more people use Windows on their home computer than any other operating system, malicious computer users and computer hackers target Windows-based computers far more than any other computer. There are thousands upon thousands of different viruses that may affect your Windows machine - with Linux, however, this simply is not the case. Computer hackers are not going to spend the amount of time that it takes to try and develop a virus for Linux, when it is so easy to make one for Windows. So if security is your main concern for your home computer, without a doubt Linux is the way to go.

Because Linux is an open source operating system however, it has gained quite a bit of popularity lately. What this means is that all of the ordinary users of Linux are free to play around with the operating system and develop their own programs and applications. And as this becomes more and more commonplace, you never quite know what Linux might come out with next. Indeed, it might be even better than anything Windows has to offer. And if you are already running a Linux operating system on your home computer, you will be a step ahead of most users who are still using Microsoft Windows on their machines. Ultimately, the choice is yours - though each system does have its advantages and disadvantages.

By John Parks of http://www.managedserversolutions.com

Article Source:Go Articles

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Windows 7 - What exactly is it?

The codename Windows 7 is actually going to stick with it's codename Windows 7 for the final release name for the operating system also.

As Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows Product Management puts it:

"The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows."

So what is Windows 7 you may ask. According to Microsoft:

"It's the next version of Windows for PCs, and it's the result of working hand-in-hand with our partners and with people who use Windows in the real world every day. We're paying particular attention to the things they're telling us are important to them and will make their PCs work the way they want them to—things like enhanced reliability, responsiveness, and faster boot and shut-down. We're also trying to make their everyday tasks easier, like connecting and syncing devices, browsing the web, and managing a home network.

Of course, we're also working on new capabilities, so people will be able to do things with Windows 7 that were difficult (or perhaps impossible) to do with PCs before. Finally, we're working hard to ensure that Windows 7 will run on any PC and work with any program that works today with Windows Vista, so upgrading from Windows Vista will be easy."

From my research it does seem Windows 7 will have much of the look and feel of Windows Vista but they are making a lot of revisions and fixes to it. One being that you will not get popup messages all the time, instead they'll be stored in a queue for later review. Also they are revamping their kernel and using a kernel based from MinWin. This is also supposed to reduce the kernel size by 1000% taking it from approximately 2500 MB to 25 MB.

If you want to learn more, you can find a Quick FAQ WindowsVienna

By Sundance of Free TV Shows Online

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Scripting a Defrag

Anybody who is anybody knows that the built in Windows defrag utility stinks. It is very hard to schedule defrag and have it work correctly. The problem with that is that if you don't automate it, it will likely never get done, then you will start to see a lag in performance.

For those of you not "in the know", the reason defragging your hard drive is a good idea is because of the way Windows writes data to the hard drive. Windows doesn't write your word document in one continuous chunk on the hard drive. It breaks it up and puts the pieces where there is open space all over your drive. Over time, these fragments get out of control, and it takes the computer longer to find all of the pieces. It's kind of like your desk at work, with all sorts of papers strewn about. The defrag utility moves all of the pieces so they are back together again.

Now back to automation. There are lots of third part utilities out there for scheduling a defrag, and most of them cost money. The one I am going to talk about is a command line utility called DIRMS. Now, like some freeware products, DIRMS is no longer free, and comes only as trial ware. Once again, Bauer-Power to the rescue! I have the old free version available HERE. I have also included the script I wrote that will let you execute it without having to know much about running things from the command line. Just save it to the root of your C: drive (If you have a different letter, edit the batch file using notepad to use that letter).

The coolest part, is that since it is so easy to write a batch script for running it, it is even easier to automate. You can set the batch script to run as a scheduled task in windows. If you don't already know how to do that, click on Start> All Programs> Accessories> system Tools> Scheduled Tasks> Click on the Add Scheduled Task icon and follow the wizard. When it prompts you for which file to run, browse to the batch file, select it, and click OK.

I use it all the time, and it works great. I recommend setting it for a time when you aren't going to be using the computer, like sometime between midnight and when you wakeup (Yes, your computer has to be on to run it! I don't know how many times I have had users ask me if it okay to turn their computers off when they go home when I have set something to run after they leave. If you turn off your computer the scheduled task will not run. Simple as that!)

Once again, you can download it HERE.

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Contacts Not Syncing on Blackberry

Our Help Desk had a user yesterday whose 308 contacts would not sync from his Outlook to his Blackberry device. The Help Desk technician tried a number of things starting with doing a soft reset, to resending service books to no avail. After working at it for a long time, he finally threw it over the cubicles to me because I am the BES admin.

No problem. I ended up finding a solution using trusty ol' Google here.

Basically all we had to do was clear out some corrupted service book entries from the user's phone. To do that I had the user do the following:

• Click on Options > Advanced Options > Service Books
• Hi-light "Desktop [SYNC]" then press the menu key, and select "Delete"
• Hi-light "Desktop [CMIME]" then press the menu key, and select "Delete"

Once that is complete, resend the service book again from your Blackberry Enterprise Server. After that everything should be right as rain.

Know of any other tips like this? Did this work out for you? Did this not work, but something else did? Let us know in the comments.

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Bauer-Puntu Linux Available on Softpedia

I took it upon myself to submit Bauer-Puntu 8.10 to the major free software site Softpedia. I figured why not?

There are a few things I still need to iron out with their support team... Such as where the hell are my screen shots? But that is neither here nor there.

If you do a quick Google search for Bauer-Puntu Linux 8.10 Download, their link is numero uno!

If you go to the Linux page on Softpedia, and scroll down to the latest distros column, Bauer-Puntu is numero tres!

Here is a direct link to the download page on Softpedia for Bauer-Puntu 8.10 so you can check it out for yourself if you haven't already: (Bauer-Puntu on Softpedia)

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Changing The Bootup Splash In Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

At the time of this writing, as far as I can tell this cannot be done. What? you don't want to hear that? I didn't either! One of the first things I always do after a fresh install of Ubuntu is change the boot up usplash splash screen.

For some reason there is a bug in the new version (8.10 Intrepid Ibex) that will not let you do this. Sure you can go through the motions, but when you reboot you might see a quick flash of an error saying:

acpid:exiting

When you boot back up... No splash screen, just scrolling white letters!

I also have a laptop that I installed using the Alternate Install CD so I could encrypt the drive. That is even worse. If I try to change the boot up splash it won't boot at all. I have to boot to the recovery option.

For those of you keeping up with the blog, I just released my newest version of Bauer-Puntu Linux, which is a custom Ubuntu based distro without the shit brown, and with pentesting tools pre-installed. I needed a custom splash for that. So how did I do it?

I had to switch splash software, that's how. I uninstalled usplash:

sudo apt-get remove usplash --purge

Then I installed splashy. You can install it with apt-get, but there is a newer version available here:

libsplashy1_0.3.10-1_i386.deb
splashy_0.3.10-1_i386.deb

Download both, and install them both. If you don't know how to install deb packages from the command line, that is okay. You can just double click on them and follow the prompts ;-)

After installing splashy, you will want to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst by adding vga=791 to the end of your kernel boot option like so:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3dca6051-5877-438c-94c5-f5ff7803d851 ro quiet splash

and add vga=791 at the end of it so it reads:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3dca6051-5877-438c-94c5-f5ff7803d851 ro quiet splash vga=791

After you are done, from the terminal run:

sudo update-grub

Now reboot, and you should see a new splashy splash screen in place of the ugly Ubuntu usplash screen.


Here is my customized splashy screen from Bauer-Puntu 8.10:



This of course is just a workaround. If you know of a way to fix usplash in Ubuntu 8.10 I am all ears. Please let me know in the comments, or at least post a link to a how to.

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Bauer-Puntu 8.10 Released!

Okay, sorry this one was a little late getting out. This version was a little harder to create than the last version. For one, I don't know if you have noticed this, but it is nearly impossible to change the usplash theme in Ubuntu 8.10. Not sure what is up with that, but is a royal pain in my arse! I hate the default splash in Ubuntu!

For this version, I had to remove usplash and switch on over to the easier to use and configure splashy. Of course that caused some issues of its own which I finally ironed out, but still...

For instance, if you decide you want to install Bauer-Puntu, that is fine. It will work, you just have to remember to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst after the install to get the splashy splash screen to work. What you need to do is edit your kernel line to add vga=791. For example, find the line that says something like:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3dca6051-5877-438c-94c5-f5ff7803d851 ro quiet splash

and add vga=791 at the end of it so it reads:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3dca6051-5877-438c-94c5-f5ff7803d851 ro quiet splash vga=791

After you are done, from the terminal run:

sudo update-grub

After the reboot, splashy will be working again. No big woop ;-)

Anyway, enough about that, here is the download link:




This version is just under 650MB, so you can stick it on a CD! Now it really is a Live CD!

Hurray!

I removed all of the games, as well as Evolution and OpenOffice. You will just have to add those back later.

In their place though I added some cool pentesting tools for some hacking goodness. Install Bauer-Puntu to a USB stick, or just carry it around on CD (It is a Live CD after all) and you have some mobile hackability!

The tools I installed are:

• kismet
• aircrack-ng
• ettercap-ng
• nmap
• Wireshark
  
• Metasploit Framework 3.1

Here are some screen shots:

LiveCD Splash

Splashy Splash

GDM Login Screen

LiveCD Installer

LiveCD Desktop

Enjoy!

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Why Exchange is still better than Zimbra: A response from a Bauer-Power reader

A few months ago I re-posted an article that the Slothman over at AskTheAdmin wrote. It was on the relatively new open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange called Zimbra. Friday I brought that article to the top, and that sparked an interesting rebuttal from Bauer-Power reader William Lefkovics.

Instead of keeping his ideas secluded in the comments section of that post, I though I would re-post his rebuttal here. Without further ado, here is William's rebuttal to the Slothman:

Wow. There is so much misinformation there, I don't know where to start. First, I love Zimbra (at least up until their sale to Yahoo! which still has lingering merger issues with Microsoft and AOL). I started with ZCS 3.0 and support 5.0 today.

The free version of Zimbra does not have all the features of the commercial Network version, and is not even a competitor to Exchange. The Network version of Zimbra is $35/user per year. It is a subscription license. If you run it on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, also a subscription license, the costs compare to Exchange 2007 on Windows 2003 in about the 4th year.

Please explain how Microsoft Exchange is "notably vulnerable to attacks and viruses". I have never heard of an Exchange virus, but I have only been running Exchange for 10 years (and Zimbra for 2 1/2). It is a messaging system, so it will transport viruses through SMTP messages, just like Zimbra, Scalix, Cisco PostPath, OpenXChange, Axigen, Domino, Oracle Collaboration Suite, SendMail, etc without proper anti-virus mechanisms applied somewhere.

Exchange is not as scalable as other solutions? Ever try Zimbra with 1000 users with the Outlook connectors? Back in Exchange 2003, Korea.com has 6 million users with 150,000 users per Exchange Server (low concurrency and IMAP connected). Walmart, US Dept of Defense... hundreds of thousands of Exchange mailboxes. It is scalable.

1000 Zimbra users on an old box with 1 GB of RAM? Have you tried that? With the Network version with the Archiving module, Zimbra Mobile, Outlook connector, etc? Web administration is an option on many messaging solutions. They all tend to be limited. I actually use the Zimbra CLI over SSH rather than the slow, poorly designed Web admin UI.

Yes, Exchange is a beefy solution. It needs and uses resources. I am not sure why that is a bad thing. It doesn't take any more administrative effort than alternatives like Zimbra. They all require backups, reporting, user administration, etc.

Zimbra and Scalix are not, and never have been, "Exchange Killers". They are, however, Exchange competitors. They offer great alternatives to enterprises comfortable with administering messaging solutions on Linux. And they are solid products. And so is Exchange Server.

By William Lefkovics

Great feedback William! Does anyone have anything to add to William's ideas? Anyone disagree. I want to hear from you in the comments!

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