Research » Woodruff Research

Cisco PIX Configuration

Posted at September 21, 2008 2:32 pm | In Networking | By: Ben Woodruff

I have a Cisco PIX 501 that I’m trying to setup. I have a fairly basic network configuration (relatively) and I have everything working except remote access VPN. I want to be able to VPN home on my iPod Touch from work and school. I’m trying to do everything from the CLI rather than the PDM GUI. PAT, SSH, etc are all working so if I get the VPN going I might buy it, even though it’s an end of life device. It’s still a really nice firewall. I’ll post the config if I get it working. Otherwise, expect to see it on eBay ($200 ballpark).

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Tags: Networking, Research

Road Runner: Dial Access in OS X - How to

Posted at June 27, 2008 8:58 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

I’ve blogged twice before about my frustrations with Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner Dial Access (here and here).

Reading those posts I’ve found it’s not very clear on how exactly how to accomplish connecting to the Road Runner network via dial-up using an OS X system (namely 10.5 Leopard).

I decided that the best way to explain how to do this is with a video.

Video: Dial Access in OS X ZIP (25.6MB) [Compressed - Recommended] Video: Dial Access in OS X MP4 (30.2MB)

(more…)

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Tags: Research, Software, Technology

Lock the 1Password Keychain with a QuickSilver Trigger

Posted at June 4, 2008 12:58 pm | In Software | By: Ben Woodruff

Earlier today I was looking for a way to lock the 1Password keychain using a keyboard shortcut. The easiest way I could think of doing this is with QuickSilver (namely, a QuickSilver trigger). I found this forum post that describes a terminal command that can be used to lock keychains. I put together the attached script so that this can easily be setup as a QuickSilver trigger. It’s a really simple script, only one line of code:
security lock-keychain 1Password.keychain (more…)

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Tags: Apple/Mac, Research, Software, Technology

My Experience With Time Machine

Posted at May 28, 2008 3:56 pm | In Software | By: Ben Woodruff

Last night I ended up having to do a full restore of my MacBook Pro using Time Machine. I was trying to uninstall libusb, SANE, and some other utilities that do not have proper uninstallers. I wrote a shell script that got a list of all the files added by the installer (using the lsbom command line utility) and deleted them. Unfortunately it somehow also deleted my entire /Applications folder, and who knows what else. My bad.

Luckily for me, Time Machine had just finished a backup before I started. I didn’t have much confidence / hope that it would do a good job of doing the restore, but it did much better than I expected.

I booted from the OS X Leopard install DVD and chose Restore System from Time Machine Backup from the Utilities menu. It found my My Book hard drive that is attached to my AirPort Extreme (and has my Time Machine backup on it). Logging into the drive and starting the restore was very easy and straight forward.

The restore took about 3 - 4 hours (over 100Mb ethernet). Everything looked good when I started the laptop. I logged in as usual and everything seemed to be OK. I only ran into a couple of issues. (more…)

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Tags: Apple/Mac, Research, Software, Technology

Research Papers: Topic Summaries

Posted at March 17, 2008 2:35 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

I’ve attached some of the research that I’ve done for my Advanced Networking Security class. Included are topic summaries on NAT, OSPF, and RIP.

Topic Summary: Network Address Translation
Topic Summary: Open Shortest Path First Routing
Topic Summary: Routing Information Protocol

If you notice any errors (especially in citations - I want to give credit where credit is due) send me a message or leave a comment.

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Tags: NAT, Networking, OSPF, Research, RIP, Security, Technology

Use DenyHosts to Allow More Secure SSH Access

Posted at February 7, 2008 4:40 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

The FLOSS project DenyHosts is designed to make it safer to allow SSH access to hosts. The basic idea behind it is that when there are X number of unsuccessful login attempts from an IP/host it will block that host from connecting via SSH.
(more…)

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Tags: Networking, Research, Security

Western Digital My Book = Corrupt?

Posted at February 4, 2008 10:28 am | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

Last Saturday I wanted to take my My Book external hard drive (400GB) to work, to share some files with a co-worker. It was plugged into my AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn non-gig version) via the USB port. I normally have that and a printer plugged into a hub which then plugs into the base station.

So Saturday I did what I thought I was supposed to do in order to unplug the drive: hit eject on my machine, and then just to make sure, logged in using the AirPort Utility and clicked “Disconnect All Users” on the drive. So I unplugged it and drove it to Avon.

When I get there my co-worker plugs it in: it doesn’t mount. I didn’t think anything of it. He is running OS X on non-Mac hardware (hackintosh). I figured it was just his machine. So I plug it into my MacBook Pro: still doesn’t mount.
(more…)

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Tags: Annoyances, Apple/Mac, Backup, Data Recovery, Hard Drive, Research, Technology

Dear Time Warner

Posted at January 12, 2008 5:15 pm | In Networking | By: Ben Woodruff

Hello,

You dial access dialer does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). I’ve confirmed this with tech support. It hasn’t been updated in a very long time anyway, so it’s probably time for an update.
Or, better yet, release the PPP script so that we don’t have to use your horribly outdated proprietary dialer and you don’t have to support it. That way it’ll work with OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Note: This may need to be forwarded to someone in the company who actually understand what PPP is.

Ben

(more…)

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Tags: Annoyances, Apple/Mac, Outdated, Research, RoadRunner, Software, Time Warner

Adobe CS3: ExtendScript Toolkit 2 Error on OS X

Posted at January 7, 2008 8:24 pm | In Software | By: Ben Woodruff

I was reinstalling part of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 (Web Premium) last night, and after it had reinstalled the shared components it asked me to “Please Insert Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit 2 to Continue Installation.” There isn’t any CD labeled anything like that with CS3.

I found the fix here: elaine montoya » Blog Archive » Workaround: Please Insert Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit 2 to Continue Installation.
(more…)

Comments (9)
Tags: Annoyances, Apple/Mac, Media, Research, Software

Re: Bugzilla

Posted at August 29, 2007 10:03 pm | In Research | By: Ben Woodruff

Update: Had a meeting today with the powers that be and it was decided that I could use our “VM Box” (an XP machine that is running VMWare Server) to setup a Linux virtual machine and install Bugzilla. They seemed unconvinced that it would work for us.
Well… they’re right.

(more…)

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Tags: Annoyances, Research, Technology, Work

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