Oh Lord
January 28th, 2004
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American Idol is so funny.
Archive
Archive for January, 2004
MS Hotfix Deployment
January 27th, 2004
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Reading up about various ways to manage MS hotfix deployment. So far, it looks like it always assumes intranet deployment, which doesn’t do me any good. Maybe there’s some client-server app out there than can help deploy MS hotfixes and SP’s securely across an untrusted network.
Managed System Links:
Shavlik – Offers some interesting tools, including HFNetChk, a command line scanning tool licensed by MS for MBSA. Has a kind-of-wack license agreement prohibiting it from use as a ‘child process’ of a batch file??? wtf?
MbsaFU -Anyway, here’s an interesting open source automated patching solution that relys on mssecure.xml and MBSA output. Seems like this process is still kind of immature though, as there are some possible bugs in mssecure.xml the author mentions.
More manual approach:
Microsoft Software Update Services – Looks free, will automatically grab hotfixes and service packs… and manages client/server through modifications to client GPO’s. However, i’m thinking that SUS could fulfill the patch download and organizational part of the process, with an integrated solution to deploy these across untrusted networks. Potentially a decent way to go.
QCHAIN.EXE, which MS made to allow multiple hotfixes to be chained together with a single reboot. Unfortunately, not usable for INF-based IE Updates.
From the horse’s mouth – Windows 2000 hotfix deployment.
Creating 3rd Party MSI Packages
Discussions:
Interesting article on ServerWatch, mentions several vendors.
Server Management Control
January 19th, 2004
In an operations department, it’s often necessary to test all planned changes thoroughly on test enviroments before deploying to production. I’m searching for a web based tool that would automate this process, because it’s difficult to manage by hand.
In an ideal world this would be a plugin/feature of double choco latte.
Leonard suggested I look at seapine or perforce.
Here are a couple of changelog management tools on freshmeat. Not a perfect fit though.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/changenav/?topic_id=847%2C822 – ChangeNav
http://freshmeat.net/projects/changeblogger/?topic_id=905%2C1017%2C846%2C847%2C865 – ChangeBLogger – more interesting.
Network Simulators
January 15th, 2004
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NS-2 Network Simulator - traffic & topology Bluetooth network simulator – bluetooth
NistNet – performance emulation
Ow
January 14th, 2004
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I dislocated my shoulder in a snowboarding accident over the weekend, so I won’t be posting much over the next few weeks.
oOoOooOoo
January 9th, 2004
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SarCheck for Linux is in Beta. I’ve been drooling over this for quite some time. I gotta get my hands on a propeller hat sometime…
More Wireless Madness and Training
January 9th, 2004
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The 802.11 Hidden Node Problem
January 8th, 2004
Apparently, the CSMA/CA method used by 802.11 networks has a problem when there are multiple nodes accessing a base station that can’t see or hear each other. When they transmit at the same time. The “popular” solution appears to be RTS/CTS, but apparently this doesn’t work all that well in crowded networks. Joy.
Russian explanation and analysis of the problem
http://www.securitymagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNPFeaturesItem/0,5411,77206,00.html – Better english explanation of the phenomenon, as well as Karlnet’s Turbocell. Wonder if Turbocell is licensed for use in Linksys or Netgear products… Hm….
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010628.html – Funny but relevant story about a guy and his mission for high speed internet. Also mentions hidden node problem and Doug Karl.
http://www.karlnet.com/products/software/wlTurboCellHiddenNode.html – From the horse’s mouth, Karlnet’s Turbocell solution.
http://www.airmagnet.com – Site survey tools and training. Nice.
802.11g Network Deployment
January 8th, 2004
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Interesting whitepapers about deploying 802.11g and 802.11a networks:
http://www.proxim.com/learn/library/whitepapers/maximizing80211ginvestment.pdf – Mostly marketing, and some very questionable math, but it does help with understanding why 802.11g isn’t really 54Mbps.
http://www.aws-consulting.com/ResonextV1.2.pdf – Good whitepaper about 802.11a’s applications and also problems with mixed-mode deployment and mitigation.
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg244466.pdf – Old IBM Redbook from 1996. Some marketing flack, but great, detailed content about environmental factors and real-world obstacles and problems with deploying wireless networks.
