I-BLOG

Got a question on this one in my comments page and hence thought of putting it together. Say there is a PPTP server residing on the trust side of your NS firewall (applicable to all/most of the NS firewalls running Screen OS). For simplicity, assuming that the device is in NAT mode and you want to allow connections coming from internet for PPTP VPN, follow the steps here;

First create a custom service to address the PPTP requirement (This is Microsoft windows specific);

set service CustomPPTP group "other" 47 src 2048-2048 dst 2048-2048

set service CustomPPTP + tcp src 0-65535 dst 1723-1723

The first line above creates a custom service named “CustomPPTP” with protocol number 47 (GRE) with source/destination port as 2048.

The second line adds to the same service for PPTP (port 1723 TCP).

Then the next step would be to NAT the internal PPTP server to publically accessible server using a public ip address. Here we’d use the same address assigned on the untrust interface (single public ip available scenario);

set vip multi-port

set interface ethernet0/0 vip 2048 CustomPPTP 10.1.1.10

The first line above states that it is a multi-port VIP. Normally a VIP listens only on a single port, if a single ip address is used and you want to have multiple ports forwarded, multi-port VIP is needed.

The second line above sets a VIP for port 2048 for the internal server (PPTP Server) 10.1.1.10 (assuming the ip of the internal PPTP server to be this).

almost done; the only thing pending is a policy to allow traffic to pass through this condition;

set policy from untrust to trust "any" "VIP::1" "CustomPPTP" permit

The above policy allows any machine from untrust zone (internet) to connect to VIP address (trust zone) for the service “CustomPPTP”.

Just save the configuration and you should have it working just fine…

Juniper KB Link

Been quite busy with the project almost over and swamped with the exit process! Life seems hell…

During the course, I screwed up my laptop and had to have IT reimage it, one of the worst things that happened was, the image they loaded on my lappy had Windows Desktop Search installed – Oh man, it was taking up memory/CPU and slogging my machine. So thought it’d be easy to uninstall it, but hell no – it just wouldn’t go.

So decided to Google on it, but guess what – there are different threads speaking about the same thing and they differ based on the version installed. Mine in question was Windows Desktop Search 4.0

Ideally, it should show up in Add/Remove programs and should be just one click to get it uninstalled but then it would be too easy, wouldn’t it be LOL.

So finally uninstalled it by looking into a lot of other blogs and stuff, so here is what worked.

You need the uninstaller like any other program but which gets installed like a service pack/KB format – pretty much you’re done if you don’t have those folders under the %systemroot% and I didn’t have it.

%systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB917013$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

The above is what we’re looking at which is not present in my machine; Worse still, even if you install it again, it doesn’t create this uninstall path.

So opened the registry using regedit and deleted 2 of the keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Windows XP\SP3\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

and delete the key folder KB940157 from there.

Then install Windows Desktop Search 4.0 again from downloading it from Microsoft site. Voila, the uninstall folder is created…

Then just run this “C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB940157$\spuninst”

It’ll uninstall it completely and you are back with your laptop without performance hog.

As much as I like Microsoft products, these folks tend to bring some of these annoyances once it a while – Well, I’m perfectly fine with it considering the useful stuff they make.

It sure did take some of my time.

Yesterday, IETips.net folks have released IE Tweaker version 1.0 of the software. A lot of changes/fixes can be performed by the tool as advertised at their site; Over 90+ fixes are available for the software. I haven’t tested it and am downloading as I write this

Menu options:

Browsing Options - This menu option helps you to quickly turn off/on the following:

Smooth Scrolling, Clear type font, Animation, Sounds, Picture Display, Automatic Image resizing

Clear Junk Files – This option will help you to quickly remove all the temporary IE files, cookies, history, passwords, and AutoComplete data.

Tweak IE – Tweak IE menu has the following tabs:

Basic Tweaks - Offers you the basic tweaks such as Turn off/on Menu bar, Favorite bar, Tabbed browsing, Full screen mode, Caret Browsing support etc.,

Browser Menus - Helps you to disable/enable the Browser Menus

Toolbars – Helps you to hide/unhide the various options on the bars and also the bars itself such as Status bar, command bar etc

Control Panel - Helps you to hide/unhide the various tabs in Tools -> Internet Options.

Advanced – Helps you to Turn off/on various options such as Compatibity view etc., and also allows you to change the IE Title, and Default download directory options.

Restrictions - This menu option has the following tabs:

- Restrictions – Provides you various restriction optionss such as Changing default search provider, Add-ons management, Autocomplete features etc.,

- Settings - Restricts the users to change various settings.

- Security - Allows you to enable/disable options such as InPrivate Browsing, Filtering etc.,

Repair - Repair menu option provides you various options to repair/fix various issues that you have with Internet Explorer.

In addition to it we have also provided desktop Shortcuts for various modes of Internet Explorer in Shortcuts Folder.

To download visit {Here}

The other day I was configuring Outlook 2007 for Gmail POP3 access and voila, the field where I can input the password and save it is grayed out. Typical annoyance, I know what I’m doing but there isn’t a way where I can enable it without the additional trouble;

I started with our expert for everything, Mr. Google. Then I came across a lot of pages describing a lot of solutions and finally worked out with something where one can enable the password to be saved if you want, of course in the registry. So here it is;

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security]
"EnableRememberPwd"=dword:00000001

You set this key to 1 and then the password box was up and usable. Thought it’d help others. Now remember that this is one of the case where it is done like this and if you’re trying to do this on a AD managed network, then your Network Admin might have tweaked some settings for the Org. sake. Well, I did this on an AD managed laptop, and it worked for me. So there is no harm in giving it a try!

Quite often when you’re infected with a Virus, the virus does diligently disable a lot of functions in Windows (Like disable the task manager, Disable registry editor etc).

So either you’re stuck at different Google searches in search for fixes to these individual problems or you really start thinking of re-loading the OS itself. Situations like that can be pretty annoying. This is one nice tool with about 25 quick fixes put together in an UI.

Some of fixes that can be done using this little tool are;

• Enable Command Prompt
• Enable Task Manager
• Enable Folder Options
• Enable Registry Editor
• Restore missing Run dialog box
• Stop My Documents open at startup
• Fix right-click error
• Fix slow network file/shared/remote
• Restore Network icon to system tray
• Fix slow hotkeys
• Fix CD/DVD drive is missing or not recognized
• Fix CD auto play
• Restore My Computer (Computer) properties
• Restore Device Manager
• Fix delay in opening Explorer
• Restore grayed Explorer and Taskbar toolbars
• Restore My Documents properties
• Remove OEM splash and wallpaper
• Restore My Network Places to Desktop
• Enable Recovery Console
• Restore grayed file associations
• Restore “Send To” context menu item
• Restore the native ZIP file integration
• Error when trying to access Add or Remove/ Program and Features program

You can read about & download this awesome little portable lifesaver from HERE

I just looked at the comments on one of the post on dual-boot on Windows 7 and XP/Vista, it is really funny to see the comments there;

Anybody wishing to try out the beta software should know how that level of things work, well my opinion.

Check it out [ Here ]

My experience, I got it from my work and have already turned my test machine into a dual boot machine. The install was a breeze and startup/shutdown times are pretty impressive. But I can sense high about the Vista on 7 (though 7 is an improvisation of Vista, expected something different). Haven’t yet put through all the tests that I normally like to do on a OS. But initial impression is full of ‘eye candy’ stuff and some usability enhancements which matter a lot!

Windows 7 Beta 1 will be made available for a limited time during the day on January 9, 2009.

Visit the Windows 7 page on Microsoft’s website for the link.

Source [ Wired.com ]

It will only be made available to the first 2.5 million people to download the code. Demand will be huge, so prepare to act quickly.

Microsoft has not announced a specific time on Friday for the release, but we can expect it will be later in the day so the west coast of North America isn’t left out.

Windows 7 Beta 1 will be offered as an ISO image. It’s around 2.5 or 3 gigabytes, so you will need a DVD burner if you want to install it.

You will be required to register before downloading so Microsoft can give you a product key.

It will be build 7000.

The beta will only support Windows Vista SP1 to Windows 7 upgrades. If you’re not running Vista SP1 right now, upgrade before you try to install the Windows 7 beta.

There is also a clean install option for the Win7 beta.

There is no upgrade path from XP.

There’s only one version of the beta, which Microsoft says "is roughly equivalent the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista."

The Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1. You will probably be forced to go back to using Vista SP1 on August 1 (or maybe upgrade to Win7 Beta 2?).

English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi versions will be available Friday.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions will be available (except for Hindi, which only gets a 32-bit version).

If you’re upgrading, remember to back up your PC. It’s a beta, stupid!

It is like another Armageddon Microsoft is doing a public release of Windows 7 beta on Friday (9th of January) and seems that it will be available only for a limited period of time.

While it looks like mostly targeted towards US market, if you’re lucky to download the 2.5 Gig of data, then it is worth a try. There are ground rules for this download and usage, read this for further;

I’m a great fan of visual themes, may it be for the computer of the PDA. I keep changing them and like a new look every now and then. One such that caught my eye during my browsing session is ‘Windows 7 theme for Windows XP’ by Vishal Gupta. Below is how my XP on a Thinkpad looks like;

The fonts, sounds, iconized big task bar buttons everything go hand in hand and looks great. Get a taste of it, visit Vishal’s site and try it for yourselves.

Update:- For full customization including boot screens, login/logout screens, follow this;

Some time back I had written on there is no load balancing concept in Windows XP. However with 2 internet connections which is kinda normal for guys like me (I have a broadband connection over WiMAX as well as an EVDO connection from BSNL).

So I can’t load balance theoretically, however I was looking for a way to kind of have Windows select both connections randomly or in a round robin fashion. This way I get both connections utilized. So again Google helped me, following is the DWORD that can be used to set Windows to choose internet connections randomly;

Open Registry Editor and go to;

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]

Create a DWORD entry named ‘RandomAdaptor’ and set the value to 1.

Keeping it to 1 enables random selection of adaptors and keep it to 0 disables it.

Try it out and see for yourselves.

As Microsoft says;

Account Lockout Status (LockoutStatus.exe) is a combination command-line and graphical tool that displays lockout information about a particular user account.

[Follow it to Microsoft]