Tag:

Internet

Using PowerShell to compare a registry key before and after a change

by Philip Sellers April 27, 2015

written by Philip Sellers

So, while deploying IE 11, it became evident that something was happening in the IE settings that affected the display of certain webpages. If we ran an IE Reset in the browser and set all the default settings, the sites would work fine, but after a while a policy or some change was occurring to break websites. It isn’t easy to find the exact setting that is changing, so I thought, PowerShell’s Compare-Object would be great.

In PowerShell, its easy to get a data object that contains all the properties in a particular registry key. To return the IE settings, it is under HKEY_CURRENT_USER in Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer. The PowerShell to get this data is:

[code]

Get-Item ‘HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main’

[/code]

From prior work, I knew I should be able to store this in a variable before and after a change and then compare the two objects. But every time I ran the Compare-Object on the two variables, there were no differences. I even manually changed data in one of the registry properties and got no differences.

What I found is that even though the registry key is stored in a variable, it actually pulls the live data – not a point in time snapshot of the data, as expected.

Instead, I came across an article from Guy Thomas that talked about Compare-Object and the registry and it suggests exporting the registry values to a .reg file before and after the change and then using Compare-Object. This works like a champ. Its a simple comparison of two text documents and makes quick work of what I was trying to accomplish.

The first step is to go into registry editor and use the File > Export command to create the before.reg file. Make sure you export only the select branch of the registry.

[code]

Compare-Object $(Get-Content before.reg) $(Get-Content after.reg)

[/code]

For screenshots and more details, see the post from Guy Thomas.

April 27, 2015 0 comments

Datacenter Software Storage

Force IE 11 Enterprise Mode to update a HTTP-hosted site list

by Philip Sellers April 15, 2015

written by Philip Sellers

I have been spending a good bit of time implementing and learning about Internet Explorer 11’s Enterprise Mode. This feature is great of the enterprise because it allows administrators to tell IE exactly which version, or document mode, of IE to mimic for specific websites. Previous versions of IE had Compatibility Mode, but this feature was only granular to a domain level, meaning your internal sites were all in or all out of Compatibility Mode. Enterprise Mode improves allowing admins to configure settings for individual web sites within your internal domain or specific application on external domains.

The settings for each site are controlled by a site list. This list can be published to a client through group policy (or set manually in the registry) and the list can reside on a File Share, web server or the local filesystem. Microsoft has a free tool to edit the list called the Enterprise Mode Site List Manager. This tool lets you import or add sites to the list, validate that they are online and responding and then save a correctly formated XML file for distribution. The file format includes a version number and this is how IE keeps up with when to download an updated list to use.

I recently ran into an issue with the versioning where the site list won’t update often. If you are trying to add a site to the list for a particular user to solve a problem, there isn’t an easy way to force IE to get a newer copy of the site list when the list is hosted on HTTP. Using HTTP is part of the problem and I suspect the issue likely doesn’t occur on local or file share paths for the site list. The problem seems to be that IE caches the site list when hosted on HTTP and won’t update until the cache expires. Even if IE is relaunched, the cached copy is checked and the version number will match and so no update will occur. To solve this problem and force an update, you need to:

Clear the IE temporary internet file cache.
Remove the CurrentVersion value under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\EnterpriseMode key
Restart IE

To help with this, I wrote a quick PowerShell script to delete the key and call the InetCpl control panel and clear the cache, leveraging part of a PowerShell script contributed by Chan V on TechNet.

[code language=”PowerShell”]

<# Force Refresh IE Enterprise Mode #>

<# Clear IE Cache for User #>
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl, ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

<# Remove Version Registry Key #>
Remove-ItemProperty -Path ‘hkcu:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\EnterpriseMode’ -Name CurrentVersion

<# Send Instructions #>
Write-Host "Close and restart Internet Explorer to refresh the Enterise Mode site list."

[/code]

April 15, 2015 4 comments

Home Tech Networking

Solarwinds converts DNSstuff from subscription to free service

by Philip Sellers July 10, 2013

written by Philip Sellers

SolarWinds announced today that its subscription-based DNSstuff will now be offered as a free service to customers. The DNSstuff site offers customers with many tools to quickly troubleshoot and solve DNS issues on the internet. Some of the tools are fairly straight forward – like webified versions of Whois and Dig, but others provide more insight to the user about potential problems with their configuration.

According to a press release, one of those tools is the DNS Report, which is an “all-in-one troubleshooting tool that performs 55 diagnostic tests to show the health of DNS records and help pinpoint issues reaching the site.” I ran this tool on my site and it reported back 4 warnings, including notes about changes to SPF, only having a single mail server and other things that could be potential problems (screenshot linked to the right).

Although the name might show that the tools are all DNS related, that’s far from reality. Inside of the professional tools, DNSstuff has tools for HTTP examination, basic traceroute and IP lookup, CIDR calculators, SSL examination, speed tests, and email tools to look at SPF, DKIM, open relays and RBL look-up tools.

In basic testing, it seems the service is available for a limited number of uses per visit without registration. Users are able to register for a free account with DNSstuff and once logged in, the user can continue to the tools for free. As part of offering the free toolset, SolarWinds also unobtrusively suggests other tools from their offerings that may help you with monitoring or troubleshooting problems.

In addition to the professional toolset, DNSstuff also offers a Mail Server Test center which will lookup the mail exchangers for a particular domain, report back the records and then run a set of tests against each server listed in MX – tests like trying to connect on port 25, DNS records, Open Relay, SPF and the number of RBL’s the server may be listed on. There are additional tools for testing antivirus filtering and email path.

DNSstuff has been around for a while and was previously a subscription service. The new, free-service site was redesigned to a degree and includes links to Thwack, the SolarWinds community site, and links to other free trials and free tools offered by SolarWinds.

July 10, 2013 0 comments

Apple Devices Home Tech Personal

Spending FaceTime with clients and family

by Philip Sellers October 21, 2011

written by Philip Sellers

One of the more brilliant features included with the iPhone 4, and now the iPhone 4S, is something Apple calls FaceTime. It’s a video chat service that is dead simple to setup and use. For other iPhone users, it uses your phone number to identify you (no additional account needed) and for other Macs and iOS devices, it uses your ubiquitous Apple ID or email address to identify you. It works like a phone, so there are no screen names (a la Skype or AIM) to remember or setup.

This past week, I received a call from my next-door neighbor and friend, Kendall, who is a food rep. He was traveling to Charleston to present a new line of meats to a restaurant but the other food rep who would be working with him would need to drive over 8 hours from Florida in order to join the meeting. Instead, he asked what would be involved in having him video chat for the meeting. Kendall is not a Mac or iPhone owner, but I told him about Skype and that we’d need to buy a web cam for his laptop. Then it dawned on me, tell him about FaceTime.

Our family has had a lot of experience, this year, with FaceTime. Either my wife or I both have been traveling for work almost every month this year. Many times, due to my wife’s job change in February, we have not been able to afford the time off to travel together, and so one of us would be home with our daughter while the other traveled. FaceTime has enabled us to talk while we’re in hotels and traveling and see each other. It has performed as well as all the Apple ads have portrayed it and really, it is a feature I would really, really miss if I lost it today. It has let me and my wife talk with our girl about her day, let her tell us her stories and let us tuck her in at night before bed. My wife was able to read the nightly bedtime story, just like she were at home (especially since my daughter has a few favorite books and my wife has memorized those).

As I relayed this story to Kendall, I could hear his enthusiasm grow. “Philip, you might be on to something there,” he said. And surely, we were. So, I offered to lend him our family iPad and work with him to get everything setup. We added a set of external speakers to make the audio louder, because were concerned that the restaurant might be noisy during the meeting. The only other step was to add a contact for his associate, and we were all set. (As a failback, we also setup Skype, just in case, but it was not needed).

Kendall’s business associate had an iPad and one quick phone conversation had him we were testing FaceTime from home. Kendall traveled to Charleston as planned and tested everything from the restaurant the night before and it performed great.

On the day of the meeting, the restaurant staff gathered around for the presentation. Kendall setup the iPad and started the FaceTime call with his his iOS enabled business associate. And the presentation began. There were few thoughts about the underlying technology that enabled it because it just worked. The only issue of the day was that some of the staff could not see the remote associate well on the iPad screen depending on their angle, but they could hear him and he could see everything going on there. And the ability to see what was going on in the room made the presentation go off fantastic. Kendall was the arms and legs for the presentation, able to talk to and cater to the staff while his associate spoke and watched remotely. All of this enabled by two 1lb. gadgets that are easily transportable and WiFi in the hotel and restaurant.

Certainly, this isn’t an Apple only ability. Skype and other video chat applications could do the same and pre-date FaceTime, but with so many iOS devices and Macs in the world, the ability to have a platform like FaceTime that just works is a huge advantage for customers. Skype will run on PC’s and other tablets and lots of devices, so it has its advantages, too, certainly. But, one of the biggest for FaceTime is that it is dead simple to use and that goes a long way with less technically inclined folks.

Up next for FaceTime – a birthday party… I just sent off an email to my in-laws who will not be able to make it to my daughter’s birthday party this year, but I hope that they will attend using FaceTime. They have recently made the Apple transition with iPhones and Macs, so we will try to let them join us virtually, wish their grand-daughter a happy birthday, and even watch live as she opens her present from them… Those miles between us just shrank to nothing, and that is a huge accomplishment.

October 21, 2011 2 comments

Cloud Datacenter Storage Virtualization

The future is all about (cloud) apps

by Philip Sellers September 29, 2011

written by Philip Sellers

After having a month to reflect on the organized chaos that was VMworld 2011, one message still stands out to me most of anything we heard during that week. VMware conveyed loud and clear that apps, and more specifically the frameworks and middleware to enable cloud apps, are the big area of innovation for the next era of computing. In the VMware world, they are calling it all vFabric. Cloud applications are going to take rethinking, rewriting and re-architecting to really make use of cloud.

VMware is positioning itself as the developers’ friend, much in the same way Microsoft did when the desktop era dawned. The 2009 acquisition of SpringSource that left many, including myself, wondering what VMware was thinking, but the technology is now emerging as a critical part of the VMware ecosystem and vision for the future. The middleware for developers is a critical third piece of the VMware vision of cloud which will bridge the two other primary foci of the company.

VMware has long been the king of the virtual infrastructure game. Their vSphere suite and the type 1 ESX hypervisor are a mainstay in nearly all datacenters around the world. VMware also got its beginnings with its type 2 Workstation and now VMware Fusion hypervisors. But as enabling the cloud, a true run-anywhere architecture and bring your own hardware initiatives have emerged, the two disparate product areas left a gap the company has been working to fill.

Based around the virtual infrastructure VMware has developed, the cloud posed a new set of problems that could only be solved by rewriting traditional client/server applications into cloud apps with distributed data models, distributed processing and distributed display logic across multiple datacenters. And when thinking of cloud, the first thing to come to mind are applications that Google and Facebook have written and how they are architected to be highly available and redundant.

What is vFabric?

The vFabric line up is a multi-product library of solutions to provide developers with the frameworks and middleware needed to build out products on cloud architecture. The focus is clearly on web applications using customized or VMware-branded versions of the Apache Web Server and Apache Tomcat, known as vFabric Web Server and vFabric tc Server, to develop Java web applications which use the Spring framework. In addition to the presentation and processing layers, there are also products to handle messaging, monitoring and data storage. In particular, this year VMware announced innovation to add to the GemFire data models, including a new in-memory SQL solution called SQLFire. GemFire and SQLFire both seek to upend competitors like Oracle and Microsoft’s traditional relational database products, which VMware is calling out as bottlenecks. Even while the bottleneck may be true, the real idea is a distributed data model where the data does not exist in a single instance database but rather in a mesh of systems on a cloud architecture. To me, that is the real difference and news with GemFire.

Looking back & moving forward

While I don’t claim to be a Java developer, I can certainly see a clearer picture of the vision VMware has for cloud. I was not fortunate enough to attend VMware 2010, so perhaps things would have began to be clearer had I attended, but 2011 certainly provided the clarity I needed.

The unfortunate side to all of this is that VMware is now attempting to engage a new audience of developers, which are catered to in a very different way than the systems administrators and infrastructure staff they have traditionally engaged with. Saying it in a different way – they have moved past me a bit, as one of the systems guys, and are working on things that excite me less. I realize we must have applications, but I’m not the guy who writes them, so the thrill of announcements at VMworld 2011 was less for me, than at past conferences.

VMware certainly has a learning curve of how to engage developers, too, but the SpringSource acquisition provided them with a solid foundation and a good set of roots in the open-source community. For now, I hear that the user communities will remain separate with VMUG’s and Spring User Groups existing beside one other, which is smart. Hopefully, the same will hold true for the future with VMworld and other events as well. What I most hope is that their message does not become muddled and muddy because they now have two different audiences to cater to.

September 29, 2011 1 comment

Datacenter Home Tech Storage

Surprise, its a Chrome Notebook…

by Philip Sellers February 11, 2011

written by Philip Sellers

I came home Tuesday to find a surprise waiting next to my door. There was a generic UPS package delivered and I could not figure out what I had ordered. I certainly wasn’t waiting or expecting a package. I opened up the box to find another generic box inside, still wondering, “What is this?” in my mind. I turned over the interior box to find purple grafitti on the package and then I realized that I’d just received a CR-48 Chrome notebook from Google as part of Chrome OS pilot program.

I have since read that others have had this same surprise as their notebooks have arrived. There was no advanced notification to expect the notebook and no emails with tracking information, etc. So, the surprise factor just makes the entire experience all the more exciting.

February 11, 2011 0 comments

Cloud

Mozy nixes unlimited backups; disappoints with lack of tools to manage data

by Philip Sellers February 1, 2011

written by Philip Sellers

I have relied on Mozy backup for a few years now. I really like their online backup service. I’ve been a proponent of Mozy for a long time and I’ve written about their service several times on my blog. But this morning, I found out that they had changed the rules of the game and removed the unlimited backup offering. This is a big deal to me, but probably not to most users. This change probably only affects the top 10% of their users, but I could be wrong.

First, lets start with what they changed. Mozy moved from a backup plan of about $50 per year, per computer to a plan of $5.99 per month for 50 GB and one computer or $9.99 per month for 125 GB and up to three computers.

February 1, 2011 5 comments

Datacenter Personal Projects Storage

Preserving and protecting old (and new) photos

by Philip Sellers January 6, 2011

written by Philip Sellers

Quite a while ago, I began trying to scan old family photos and preserve them. Some were in pretty rough shape and took a while to restore and fill in blemishes to the prints. Most were in very good shape, though, so I was able to go through some of my family’s oldest photos and get those back into shape rather quickly.

That was last year. My photo preservation project has been pretty idle for the past year, but it hasn’t stopped me from thinking about it from time to time. I’m thankful to have those photos, to be able to show them with my daughter and future generations and to have digital files to make prints from.

After tackling some of our family’s historical photos, I looked at my file of snapshots from my younger years and even early in my marriage – a time before we had digital cameras. Two things are evident – we take lots more photos with the digital cameras than back in the film days and, secondly, prints are easy to get very disorganized.

What I am also struggling with is the best way to store and share these scans. As of today, the most sharing that has happened with the scans is loading them to Facebook or Geni.com. Unfortunately, neither site stores the photos in high-resolution (as far as I can tell) for sharing with others, so they aren’t print quality. I don’t have my solution yet for this, but I suspect I’ll use something similar to Gallery, which I have used before for personal photo galleries prior to moving everything to PicasaWeb.

My project so far has left me with a few lessons learned and a few tips to share for you if you’re looking to preserve your family’s historical photos as well as your current snapshots.

Tip One – Organize your photos
The first tip is to start with organized files of photos. This will greatly aid you once the photos are digitized and I’ll leave it at that. If you have photos grouped before scanning, you’ll have a much easier time with the digital files once they are scanned. One thing I’ve also been trying to do is get dates of events with groups of photos (if possible). This additional information (metadata) will help a lot once you move from scanning to cataloging your photos (in Picasa or iPhoto or whatever photo management software you prefer).

Tip Two – Choose the best scanner for the job…
Before you say “no duh”, there are a few interesting tid-bits. Scanners come in lots of shapes and sizes. I picked up a $100 CanoScan a few years ago which is a great portable scanner. For documents, I use the document feeder and scanner on my HP Officejet.

What I have been missing is a great portable scanner which you can use without a computer and I found a very good deal on one in December. Radio Shack has previous generation Pandigital Photolink 4″x6″ photo scanners on clearance for only $15 at its company stores (company stores and not franchise stores — I found out in my own experience that franchisees do not honor the clearance price). The Pandigital scanners are great because they scan directly to an SD card and do not require a computer and they only take a few second per print to scan them, as opposed to putting photos on a flat bed, previewing them, scanning in the images individually and naming them on a computer. These Pandigital scanners are ultra-portable and come in a variety of sizes from 4″x6″ up to 8.5″x11″ (larger scanners are capable of scanning smaller prints, by the way).

My coworker, Jamie, purchased one of the larger 8.5″x11″ earlier in the year and raved about how good it worked for his snapshots. On his advice, I began looking at these. The 8.5″x11″ model is available from Amazon for $99. I have found Kodak also makes a simliar scanner.

Tip Three – Catalog the scans
When I say catalog the scans, I don’t just mean to import them into iPhoto or Picasa and forget about them. Cataloging, as any librarian will tell you, is a lot more than just collecting things. It involves a process of categorizing, organizing and sorting through your items and assembling them in a way that you can search an easily find a particular subject.

Lifehacker recommends that you also spend the time to delete and purge any unwanted digital photos. As I mentioned earlier, this is a big issue because most of us snap far more photos now with our digital cameras than taking the time to get good photos from back in the film days. We don’t need ten out of focus photos of weird rock formations.

Tip Four – Archive your photos
Once you have assembled a good catalog of your photos, archiving becomes a big deal. You have a lot invested in your library now and so you want to protect both the images and their metadata. There are a lot of ways to go here, so what works for me may not work best for you.

Online backup is my first recommendation here. If its not your first time on my site, you’ve probably heard me talk about Mozy and other online backup solutions. These are my preferred backup method for anything you want to survive a fire. #1 – Online backup moves your data offsite, which is a hallmark of backup strategy. #2 – Online backup generally provides online download or offline download as part of its service. #3 – Most services are generally cheap – Mozy, for instance, is $59 per year per computer. I keep my library on one computer, so it costs me less than $5 per month — less than one Starbucks drink.

External hard drives would be my second recommendation. These provide quick and easy recovery from a hard drive crash or accidental deletion. Most external hard drives come with some sort of backup software — and if not — Windows has Windows Backup and the Mac has Time Machine. I would recommend making it something automatically schedule and not something you must remember to do — because we are all human and forget.

Archival disks would be my third recommendation. I don’t think that any one backup method is sufficient. For instance, I use Mozy and Time Machine to backup my Macs at home. The two protect differently and from different threats. Mozy is for the most important — cannot part with this if my house burns down — data. Time Machine is for the oh crap, my hard drive crashed situations (the external hard drive method). In the same way, I think investing in Archival CD or DVD media is smart. Once you create collections in your library, move these files onto archival media and then store them with your other valuables — offsite — in a safety deposit box or other form of offsite storage. Ritz Camera has a nice description of Archival disks and why they are better than regular CD or DVD media. (They also have a good set of tips for preserving photo prints). I recommend this because these have a greater chance of surviving for future generations. And of course, keeping your archival media current is crucial. Whatever replaces DVD’s as a format — you should move your data to that format in the future. Same with file formats (but that’s a bigger discussion). And most importantly – label these archival disks!

More Tips:

By no means am I an expert. These sites have some great advice on the subject and so I want to share these links and articles with you:

Lifehacker: Future-Proof Your Digital Photos with Better Archiving Techniques – Jan 5, 2011
Ritz Camera: Tips for Photo Archiving & Storage – April, 2010
Digital Photo Archive – Backup – Help and Tips

January 6, 2011 1 comment

Devices Home Tech

What are your mobile apps telling about you?

by Philip Sellers December 20, 2010

written by Philip Sellers

I found a very interesting article today linked from the Wall Street Journal. The Journal did a set of tests on popular iPhone and Android apps to find out what personal information is being collected and sent back to the developer or third party companies about you, sometimes without your consent. The info-graphic is pretty alarming. I found several apps I use frequently – like Angry Birds and Bejeweled on the list. I also found apps like Facebook, Google Maps and even LifeChurch’s Bible app that are reporting back and sharing some of your information. For its part, Facebook only reports back to its developer and the information is not shared. In some cases, it is as simple as your device’s ID that gets sent back, but marketers are surely using this information to track and build profiles on users. In many cases, your location is sent back. Luckily, I believe that Apple’s Location Services privacy settings saves many of us unknowingly sending our location to markets to track our movements and usage.

The information for WSJ is pretty details – and you should check it out yourself: http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/

December 20, 2010 0 comments

Apple Home Tech

Followup on IPTV; plus I bought a Mac Mini

by Philip Sellers September 10, 2010

written by Philip Sellers

Ok, strike another thing off of my wishlist. As a followup to my IPTV thoughts post, I have purchased one of the new Mac Mini’s with an HDMI port over the weekend. I even got the pleasure of buying it, atwhat I believe is the original Apple Store, in Tysons Corner,Virginia while visiting my in-laws.

September 10, 2010 0 comments