Rexiology... : Information Technology

Blog moved to MSDN Blogs site...

Rex Tang — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:33:00 GMT

This post announces the depreciation of Rexiology MSMVP blog (this site).

for new post updates please update your RSS reader to http://blogs.msdn.com/rextang ,

or you can also point to my main personal work blog site at http://rextang.net/blogs/work/ .

Thanks for reading...

Rex

Where is SentTo folder in Vista...

Rex Tang — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:18:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net

Well, this bothered me many times to find the new locations of personal SentTo folder in Vista. so just memo it here.

I used to put shortcuts like favorite editors or others to SentTo folder in order to quickly access it while browsing file explorer.

the old SentTo folder that usually located at "c:\documents and settings\[user]\SentTo\" changed the location while using in Vista environment. the new location is

C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\

thanks for Greg's post that point out the location.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , vista

Vista IE7 Protect Mode?

Rex Tang — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:14:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net

So as those 2 weeks I was primarily working on my new assigned projects (on-site at customer site, everyday till mignight! orz), also try to find time to set up 2 note-pc assigned from company to me (one is HP NC6400 and the other is the compact Thinkpad X60, with docking base). it took me too much time to install those 2 notepcs since I've kept reinstalling my OS. originally I like to install Windows 2003 Server R2 since the nc6400 is my primary work station on work. but it seems to be heavy of running a win2k3 in it, also, got not enough driver support for all the devices (I can not find drivers for SD reader for win2k3 in HP site, for example), so, finally I got those 2 notpcs back to Windows Vista. nc6400 to install Vista Ultimate, and x60 to install Vista Enterprise. finally configured them all in this weekend and finally can start dealing with hundards of my work emails... orz

I am new to Vista, to be honest. so as I am trying to do some usual works, like print out a webpage to image writer virtual printer to save the page as a img file, suddenly IE7 told me that I am not able to save the image file to the place I assigned ( somewhere at my D drive that hold my personal data) and recommand me to save to the documents folder under picutres folder. well, ok, I think. so I save the file to that place, and then open my windows explorer trying to get the file. but it's NOT There!!!

later found that my file was saved to a place at "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Virtualized\C\Users\userd\Pictures" and I have to then copy them back to the folder I want. what's going on here!?!?

later found via Goggle, it's something called Protected Mode Internet Explorer, which lower process privilidge of IE to prevent malicious code running. well, not bad, just little bit troublesome for power users who use computers everyday, IMHO.

anyway, I found my image file and can keep on my work, wish you do find yours while using IE7 and Vista (this only happened on Vista by using the new security model). will explore more on Vista since now my primary working machines are all Vista!!!

by the way, also found that one can not "upgrade" a Vista Enterprise to Vista Ultimate, can only do clean install. Vista Enterprise got no Windows Media Center... orz

Technorati Tags: microsoft , ie , security, vista

Tips: Installing Gentoo on VMWare Workstation - step by step...

Rex Tang — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:40:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

just browsing on the web and found this very nice and detailed step by step how-to on installing Gentoo Linux on a VMWare Workstation guest box.

I'm little bit surprised that Gentoo got so much support docs on its GentooWiki site, which really help people on the use of its distribution (also don't forget to read Gentoo Handbook...).

Nice work, and it really saved my time and learning curve on using it...

Technorati Tags: linux , gentoo , vmware

Clock in a VMWare FreeBSD Guest Runs More Slowly or Quickly Than Real Time...

Rex Tang — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 12:28:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

umm, seems that I am little bit enthusiastic about knowing all those unix-like system recently, since I didn't pay much time to know them before. right now I've set up 3 VMs with CentOS4.4 , Gentoo Linux 2006 (since it is able to run in Sun SPARC machine), FreeBSD 6.1 , and going to setup one more VM with Sun Solaris 10 x86 (11/2006 version) arch to get familiar with all those main stream unix-like OSes.

while toying around with Gentoo and FreeBSD, I did found that Gentoo seems had no problems on the clock issue happened in my CentOS as well as FC6 as described in my previous post. but FreeBSD did encounter this problem again. the clock is much slower than real one on the host OS.

by searching to Google, I found this post saying about FreeBSD clock is slowing when acting in VMWare as guest OS, and it was also the same reason in Linux that the OS is using APIC to get the clock for the time. the solution is to disable APIC on the boot time by editing /boot/loader.conf and put a line:

hint.apic.0.disabled=1

in the file and reboot FreeBSD, or to 'to comment out the “device apic” line in the kernel config file and rebuild the kernel'. also by doing so will loose the ability for the guest OS to run in SMP mode. pretty same as what happened in Linux.

After doing the loader.conf modification and reboot the FreeBSD VM, the clock is back to normal without problem. by installing VMWare-Tools into FreeBSD vm, verifying that vmware-guestd is running and also in the FreeBSD guest OS's .vmx file, set toos.syncTime to TRUE, the time in my FreeBSD vm is back to normal and won't need NTP to sync the real time, just like what I did in my CentOS in previous post.

It's pretty cool that I can run all those 3 VMs with different unix-like OSes simutaniously in my Windows 2003 R2 Server with 2GB RAM. I gave each guest OS 384mb RAM to run and thanks to VMWare Workstation's dynamic memory allocation technology, while my testing of those 3 VMs I can still have more than 1 gb RAM for my host OS. I think it should be no problem for me to boot up one more Solaris 10 VM in the same time.

The goal is to understanding all those system and networking administration tasks on those different main-stream unix-like OSes and further more to host web applications and database systems on them. maybe than trying to develop some Mono projects to run ASP.NET websites upon them. I've already found that it's pretty different on the admin of Linux and BSD systems since it's pretty different on the directory structures as well as those admin commands and locations of various config files. wondering if it's also different in a Solaris OS...

anyway, it's always nice to learn new things, and I am enjoying it on my weekend... ;)

Technorati Tags: linux , freebsd, solaris, CentOS, ntp, clock, kernel , vmware, APIC

Running Hamachi VPN P2P as a Service on Windows and Linux box...

Rex Tang — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:59:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

So after I've solved the clock and time problem on my Linux box, it's now time to think about others. I found Hamachi and wrote a post about it couple weeks ago. I found that it's really simple to install and easy to use when I am not able to have a VPN environment outside the world. Now I got Windows Servers accessing with Terminal Service, and also got Linux boxes accessing using SSH or VNC over XDMCP, it would be more secure if I can access those boxes via those procotols on a VPN based tunnel.

Hamachi is built as a windows client app. it also got linux client. Windows client needs to become paid user to have the "Run as Service" function, and linux will need some more steps to let it run when system boot on. so my next homework is to build my own VPN P2P server communication private network using hamachi and let hamachi running as service on each OS box.

After doing a search to Google, found this post (also listing on Digg) talking about making hamachi windows client running as a service in any windows platform (including XP), and also contained links pointing to let hamachi running as a service on linux, Mac, and other platforms, that's the answer of this homework.

On windows side, running client windows app as a service is an old tricks of using instsrv.exe and srvany.exe, and it's the same way on that post to make hamachi run as a system service inside windows.

On linux side, the main study is to understand the system boot up sequences and know where to put hamachi client also solve the access premission problems.

Read the post about detail explaination and installation steps. I'll just memo the instructions here for my backup note.

Windows Clients / Servers: (original post)

Download Windows 2003 resource kit tools (or search google for it)
install the resource kit to get instsrv.exe and srvany.exe on "c:\program files\Windows Resource Kits\" and copy those 2 files to hamachi directory.
go to hamachi installed dir, run "instsrv.exe AutoHamachi "c:\program files\hamachi\srvany.exe" " to create the system service record. "AutoHamachi" is just service name and can name it yourself.
open regedit, locate "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AutoHamachi\", create a key named "Parameters"
inside "Parameters" key, new a string value with name "Application" and value "c:\\program files\\hamachi\\hamachi.exe -srvany -config "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Hamachi" ", config path is your user account path if you are not running as administrator account.
go to control panel under services pannel , locate AutoHamachi service, see the properties, on "Log On" tab remember to check "Local System Account" and "Allow service to interact with desktop" , then just start the service and everything is done. (remember to make the startup type to Automatic).

Linux Servers: (original post)

download the hamachi package.
making "/usr/src/hamachi" dir., unpack download tar.gz file with "tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz" and put the unzip stuffs in that dir.
go to "/usr/src/hamachi/package-version/" dir, run "make install" to install hamachi on linux.
do a "hamachi-init -c /etc/hamachi " to make a public hamachi profile under dir "/etc/hamachi"
issue and run "tuncfg" to enable root priviledge on tunnelling network for hamachi process
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi start" to start hamachi client
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi set-nick server-nick-name" to set server nickname
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi login" to login to hamachi server
if no exist network, create self-own one by issuing "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi create network-name"
if joining existing network, issuing "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi join network-name"
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi go-online network-name" to make this client online on the network to be seen by peers
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi list" to list peer machines and IP addresses
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi go-offline" to get current machine offline from the network
issue "hamachi -c /etc/hamachi stop" to stop hamachi
issue "hamachi --help" for all the parameters valid.
making a hamachi startup script named "/etc/hamachi-start" :

#!/bin/sh

hamachi_start() {
echo "Starting hamachi..."
/sbin/tuncfg
/usr/bin/hamachi -c /etc/hamachi start
}

hamachi_stop() {
echo "Stopping hamachi..."
killall tuncfg
/usr/bin/hamachi -c /etc/hamachi stop
}

hamachi_restart() {
hamachi_stop
sleep 1
hamachi_start
}

case "$1" in
'start')
hamachi_start
;;
'stop')
hamachi_stop
;;
'restart')
hamachi_restart
;;
*)
hamachi_start
esac

issue "chmod 711 /etc/hamachi-start" to change script file to runable mode
under different distribution find out the boot up files and locate "rc.local" file (usually at /etc/rc.d/rc.local) to add the scripts by adding the following code in the last:

if [ -x /usr/bin/hamachi-start ]; then
. /usr/bin/hamachi-start
fi

OR just create symbolic link of "hamachi-start" into runlevel 3 startup dir "/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/" by issuing "ln -s /etc/hamachi-start /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S50hamachi-start"
test if can start and stop hamachi service by using the symbolic link. start by "/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S50hamachi-start" , stop by "/etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S50hamachi-start stop".
if everything went well, running hamachi as a startup loading program is done.

but actually there should be the iptables firewall that needs to be set to allow the connection, or else the peers would only see the linux box but may not be able to login. by default the SSH port 22 should be opened thus it should be no problem to connect to the linux hamachi ip with SSH, but if there are other services you want to use, just like what I've setup xdmcp and vnc, it should be convenient to just add those peers hamachi ip-address to iptables to allow full access of the network.

by default linux hamachi client would also create a network interface called "ham0", when setting up iptable rules, it needs to be target to this interface instead of eth0.
setup pass-through rule for peer hamachi IPs by editing iptables conf file at "/etc/sysconfig/iptables" and adding like "-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i ham0 -s 5.1.2.3 -j ACCEPT" to allow each peer.
save "/etc/sysconfig/iptables" file and restart iptables service by issuing "service iptables restart".
test each connection way to make sure you can really connect via hamachi ip address.

one can have max 16 machines inside a self-created network if using hamachi free service. pretty enough for testing env.

that's it. now I have some Windows Server boxes, some Linux server boxes, and a secure network to connect them over internet.

Technorati Tags: linux , hamachi, fedora, CentOS, VPN, P2P, windows , service

Clock in a Linux Guest Runs More Slowly or Quickly Than Real Time...

Rex Tang — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:11:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

The title came from VMWare KB and just said exactly the problems I've faced those 2 days!

As I've written in the Windows X Server Client post, I used VMWare 5.5 to setup a Fedora Core 6 Linux VM to be the linux test server. the linux kernel version is 2.6.18 and after I finished that post soon I found that my server's system time is little bit strange. it's not sync with the host time.

Since correct time is very important for a server, I think it should be more important in a linux server since there were lots of logs and crontabs that's based by time. The very first thoughts to fix this problem is to use NTP protocol to sync with world time servers. in linux kernel 2.6 there is ntpd for ntp server, in 2.4 it should be xntpd. so I quickly modified "/etc/ntp.conf" file and started the ntpd.

the time is still not sync with real time after I started ntpd. also I found that the ntpd installed is not able to sync to outside server, it will only sync to LOCAL server, even if I turned on udp port 123 in iptables (both in and out), just like what it was written in this maillist I found. also, the system time is slow, it takes more than one second to pass a second (inside this linux guest system). there seems also having problems related to VM hardware's clock settings.

This tooks me one day and didn't find any solution on the internet. finally I decided that maybe it's only happened on linux kernel 2.6.18 and decide to build up another distribution with different kernel version to test again.

I choosed CentOS 4.4 with linux kernel 2.6.9 to build up another linux vm. and after the installation, the system time is still slow like the one inside Fedora vm. this concluded that it will almost happened with 2.6 kernel in VMWare and won't happened in 2.4 kernel (since my colleague had a RedHat 7.2 with kernel 2.4.18 running without the time slow problem). some posts I read indicated that this should have something related to system clock. so I started dig into that direction.

A search to Google finally found the answer. From VMWare KB. It's exactly the answer of this problem if you are running kernel 2.6 inside VMWare. the reason that caused the slowing time inside guest system is because of that the guest clock frequency is setting too high than the host OS can offer. in 2.4 kernel the clock rate is set to 100HZ and after 2.6 kernel the clock is set to 1000HZ on compiling time, thus cause the timer in guest OS slower than host OS. refer to this KB for more detail explaination.

Just follow what the KB said to tune bootup kernel options for both slow time and quick time problem, like the following (GRUB case):

image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux"
root=/dev/hda1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent clock=pit nosmp noapic nolapic"
read-only

"clock=pit" is to fix quick clock problem, "nosmp noapic nolapic" is to fix slow clock problem.

after a reboot of guest linux (both my Fedora one and CentOS one) , the clock is back to normal and strangely that the ntpd also back to normal work and can query outside time server without problems. cool!

As also provided in another VMWare KB talking about Timekeeping in VMWare Virtual Machine, it is also able to use VMWare Tools to sync guest OS time with host one. by installing VMWare Tools in Linux server, there will be a vmware-guestd running and by setting parameter "tools.syncTime = TRUE" inside VMWare .vmx setting file, time will be sync.ed with host OS using VMWare Tools and will be not necessary to run ntpd or ntpdate in crontab to sync your time inside guest system, it will auto sync with host OS and it will now be only the host OS that needs to sync with world time server thus save the bandwith also the loading of outside time servers.

finally solved the time problem, and got to learn one more linux distribution install, also get deeper understanding of ntpd during this problem solving, nice (tough) learning.

actually Fedora Core distribution is pretty different from CentOS installation, CentOS is pretty much like RedHat distribution and many daemon names are different from Fedora and CentOS (RedHat). another tough learning to remember those difference! (should be more differences if touching FreeBSD systems!)

anyway, now I can also setup my xdmcp and vnc server env on my CentOS guest system and now have 2 guest linux systems to start my learning of those network services installation. keep walking...

Technorati Tags: linux , redhat, fedora, CentOS, ntp, clock, kernel , vmware

Windows X client (server) to connect Linux server - XDMCP and VNC approaches...

Rex Tang — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:36:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Well, still been busy on procesing my working visa things so recently didn't update this blog often. everything is going well and now all I have to do is wait for the process result. during this month my current company just move to a new big office and also the company's System and Networking engineer resigned his work before the office move. so we as developers also have to plan the new office's network topology, buying necessary network equipments, setting up NTT VDSL and office network routing to make the new office network working like usual. We as developers also need to touch the system maintainance things to manage those linux servers, some real ip for staging server is changed and have to change firewall so that it can work like usual, things like that. it's a big headache for me counting as a Windows pro but rarely know things on linux system, but I still managed to overcome all this and make it to here. that's the reason I didn't write things in this month, tooooooo busy!!

just spend the whole weekend studying most of fundamental things of a linux system. I managed to setup a Fedora Core 6 system on VMWare 5.5 inside my LAN to have an experiment env. for testing those linux commands during my reading. The goal is to understand and know how to setup those network services like DNS / Firewall / Software Router / Mail Server / WWW server / Database Systems on a linux env. just like what I can easily do those on a Windows server system. but after I've get used to use SSH clients to operate the server on shell mode, and before I started to study those network services, I am still likely to have a Window system on my linux server so that I can have not only terminals but also those GUI dev. env.s like Eclipse. so I started digging those info about setting up windows X server (client) to connect remote linux server using X protocol and VNC. the goal is to do this remote connecting things just like I can easily terminal service to a Windows server. and here we go.

My primary info is mostly from http://linux.vbird.org , which is written in Chinese, actually the author also got those contents published in books selling at Taiwan area, get one of them if you feel needed. Thanks to VBird for organizing those info systematically...

First of all, some nice ssh clients people used in Japan area:

TeraTerm
Putty
Poderosa (recommanded! nice .net 1.1 application and nice friendly terminal!)

some nice ftp and scp clients people use in Japan area:

some famous Windows X Server:

I am using the latest version of Fedora Core 6 (2.6.18-1.2849.fc6) to set up my linux server on VMWare 5.5.3 build 34685. notice that when setup the VM the FC6 DVD iso installer seems not knowing VMWare's SCSI disk and will not find any patition during installation, thus I had changed the disk type to IDE to let the installation process finished without toubles.

After installation, first SSH to the server, su to root, and then setting up the firewall rules. I'll allow the LAN area to access my linux server only. if using the default setup during the installation, iptables and TCP_Wrappers (hosts.allow / hosts.deny) were enabled by default. (I've disable SELinux first during the installation to prevent more permission trouble now). so first to touch the iptables things:

Edit "/etc/sysconfig/iptables" (in below follow the order to input line by line, firewall rules got orders)
add "-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp --dport 177 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT" to allow LAN to pass xdmcp udp 177 port
add "-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp --dport 177 -j REJECT" to block other subnet to using xdmcp.
add a row allow access to LAN IPs like "-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j ACCEPT"
"eth0" is the main network interface, "192.168.1.0/24" is the LAN subnet, "RH-Firewall-1-INPUT" is the default chain name set when installing the server
save the file and restart iptables by issuing "/etc/init.d/iptables restart"

after iptables were set, the next is to also set TCP_Wrappers:

Edit "/etc/hosts.allow"
add access grant to local LAN, like "ALL: 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 : ALLOW"
edit "/etc/hosts.deny"
add no access to others not set like "ALL : ALL : DENY"
in old linux like RedHat 7.x, it's needed to restart xinetd service to let new settings take effect.
in new linux like Fedora Core 6, change will take effect immidiately once saved those files.

after setting the firewall, it's time to start configuring xdmcp.

I am using KDE as my Window Manager, so I have to enable kdm to accept xmdcp at udp port 177:

edit kdmrc at "/etc/X11/xdm/kdmrc"
on [Xdmcp] block enabling the following:
Enable=true
Port=177 (uncomment it)
predefined in the file for Xaccess is "Xaccess=/usr/share/config/kdm/Xaccess" , change to "Xaccess=/etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess" for easy management
on [X-:*-Core] block do the following to enable X listening to tcp port:
comment "ServerArgsLocal=-nolisten tcp"
umcomment "ServerArgsRemote="
save the file and exit.

before start kdm , do a "killall kdm" to make sure no kdm is running . using "netstat -tunlp" to check the process and ports been listening. after running "kdm" on shell, check the port listenning again. there should be a kdm process listening udp 177 port, also couple X processes listening tcp port 6000. if you see things like this, the server side settings are done.

using X-Win32 or Exceed on your windows client, you can either using broadcast mode to let the client find the xdmcp listener for you or using query mode to specify the ip address of the linux server to connect. after connect it will look like this:

that's all about using windows and xdmcp to connect a linux server using X window interface.

As using xdmcp, the client and server are using X protocol to communicate, and may using a lot of bandwidth thus it should be pretty ok if using on a local LAN but should be not suitable on a internet environment, especially if only have a low bandwidth ADSL network.

VNC had always been our good friend long time ago. it use lower bandwidth and thus makes it suitable via internet, just like what we are always using Windows RDP terminal service in windows world.

It is also possible to using VNC as network protocol, instead communicate using X, to display X env. in a windows or other client like Mac, since VNC viewer now can be installed on many platforms (and it's free!) thus make this way more convenient for our work.

let's setup a VNC server on linux and still using xdmcp to let VNC client be able to connect to KDE just like using a X server on windows client. the way this is working is because of that now VNC server is acting as network server to send the desktop to VNC client and it's reside in linux server and communicate with xdmcp and X inside the machine "locally"!!

first of all, configuring vncserver on linux (make sure you install it or just RPM and install):

edit "/etc/sysconfig/vncservers"
comment everything and add the following:
add : VNCSERVERS="1:user"
add : VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1152x864 -query localhost" # 1152x864 is screen resolution, "-query localhost" is to instruct vnc server to query local X and thus will connect to kdm and KDE.
the setting above is to open only one vnc server for once user listen to port 5900+1 = 5901. for setting up more then 1 vnc server, using the following settings:
add : VNCSERVERS="1:user1 2:user2 3:user3"
add : VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1152x864 -query localhost"
add : VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1152x864 -query localhost"
add : VNCSERVERARGS[3]="-geometry 1152x864 -query localhost"
save the file and exit editor
before start vncserver, make sure you start kdm already (netstat -tunpl to check process running and ports been listening).
start vncserver by issuing "/etc/init.d/vncserver start"
the users specified above, will then all have a .vnc directory in their home dir.
su to each above users
edit the ~/.vnc/xstartup file and comment out everything (by default it's using twm as window manager so just comment out them).
save the file and exit the editor
issue "vncpasswd" to set the vnc viewer password for current user
exit this user and su to the other user
after edit all the xstartup file and setup vncpasswd for users specified in vncservers file, restart vncserver and kdm by issuing the following commands:
issue "/etc/init.d/vncserver stop "
issue "killall kdm"
the above is to clear vncserver and kdm, now start them again
issue "kdm"
issue "/etc/init.d/vncserver start"
depending on how many users you set on vncservers file, corresponding vncserver will be setup on port 5900+1 , +2 , +3 waiting for connection.
server setting is finished.

now at windows or other client like Mac or other linux GUI env.s, using VNC viewer to connect to the linux server using the ports specified above (5901 ,5902, 5903), you should also see the KDE login window in those 3 VNC sessions just like what you do using X-Win32 and xdmcp. (make sure you've opened 590x ports on your iptables settings, I've already opened my LAN for free access to server so it's no problems on connections here.) pic like this:

that's it, now I can have X window on my windows client to work on those linux tasks, not bad...

Technorati Tags: linux , redhat, fedora, xwindow, vnc, xdmcp, x-win32 , exceed

Windows PowerShell (Monad) 1.0 released...

Rex Tang — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:09:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

[via PowerShell blog]

Microsoft just released PowerShell 1.0 today during the ITForum of TechEd 2006 at Barcelona. final 1.0 release available for Windows XP, 2003, and RC2 available for Vista and Longhorn Server.

download it from PowerShell download page.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , powershell, tools

LogMeIn Hamachi, Zero-Config Free VPN Application...

Rex Tang — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:16:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

[via Larkware]

just saw this application while browsing my blog lists and found it via Larkware site. LogMeIn Hamachi lets you build secure VPN network via internet to connect you own computers no matter where they are (NAT to NAT traversal is also ok!). provides simple chatting functions and abilities to create own networks as you want. the free version can create private VPN P2P network with up to 16 nodes in the network to let those computers work just like they are in a LAN environment. you can purchase subscription based services to have more functions.

Hamachi will setup a new NIC interface and create connection to its tunnel servers to making the connections to peers in self-created networks. it claims that after making the connections to peers the rest of the traffic will be pure UDP P2P and will be encrypted.

I just had a test of Hamachi via 3 pc configuration, one is my office pc, the other is my home server and home notebook (behind home ADSL router). the connections via Hamachi VPN network to my home notebook (NAT to NAT traversal) had no problems and the speed is quite cool. the status of connection shows that it is now in p2p mode.

one of the other good thing is that once the installed pc is getting a virtual Hamachi IP, the IP seems not changed while login everytime, thus it's good for setting firewall rules to certain Hamachi IPs to let traffics go through.

the most good thing is, just like what it said, really zero-configuration, just install it, and everything is done, you got a VPN over Internet networking environment!

Technorati Tags: networking , vpn, p2p, tunnel

Some nice tools...

Rex Tang — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 07:01:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

[via Kurbli]

free, translator from vb.net to c#.net (and back again)

Lutz Roeder's reflector

[via Sandi Hardmeier]

SysInternals's new tool ProcessMonitor. (TechNet intro).

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

by the way, just noticed that Microsoft had bought SysInternals at July 2006!!!

Technorati Tags: microsoft , sysinternals, tools

Windows Vista Released to Manufacturing

Rex Tang — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:07:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

[via Doug Holland]

Windows Vista is finally RTMed and should be available to MSDN subscription download at early next week.

The final RTM build number should be 6.0.6000

Technorati Tags: microsoft , windows, vista

Microsoft Project 2007 Beta2 bugs where running in Vista RC2...

Rex Tang — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 04:54:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Just ran into problems when trying to open new or edit existing project .mpp file in Project 2007 Beta 2 on Vista RC2. all the dialog boxes' input area will all gray out and not able to input. This will not happen if installed on Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server.

I did install Office 2007 Technical Refresh on my Vista RC2 and still this problem happened. didn't see this listed in the known issues of Office 2007 Beta2 document.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , office, project

SQL Server Everywhere gets a new name...

Rex Tang — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:44:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

[via Steve Lasker]

In the beginning it's SqlCe, then SQL Mobile, and then SQL Server Everywhere, and now again back to SQL Server Compact Edition (SqlCe...).

According to Steve's post , the reason for changing the name is about confusion with some MS Partners' products, and although this product is now in RTM phase, due to the name change it will cost some more time to push this product out.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , sqlserver, mobile

Installing Team Foundation Server (Single Server Deployment)...

Rex Tang — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 02:55:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Just had a VM setup for released version of Team Foundation Server (trial version). My last installation experience of TFS was at RC phase, and wasn't a very good one. the installation of dual server deployment required AD domain for user/service account sharing, and while the RC installation there were some errors came out also after the installation, the SQL Server in data-tier machine eats almost 800mb RAM at initial, and over 1gb while doing team project accesses.

The installation of final release TFS is a better experience. Since I was installing TFS for learning new MSF 4 Process, Active Directory is not that necessary for that. Referred to installation guide that now if using Single-Server Deployment, it is supported also on a non-domain environment (i.e. workgroup env.) therefore I decided to use a single VM for the whole TFS box, including SQL Server 2005.

Installation process was smooth. just follow the installation guide and do it step by step. Since it's a single TFS box, I used administrator account to behave as TFSSetup , and created TFSService and TFSReport accounts for the installation service account. Using VMWare Workstation 5 to create the VM, and set snapshots at each installation steps as follows (in case something went wrong):

Create an empty VM and Install Windows 2003 R2 Server
Install IIS6, related Windows Services (SMTP, ASP.NET, etc), as well as .NET framework 2.0
Do a Windows Update to patch the system to up-to-date status. (create a snapshot here)
Install SQL Server 2005 and SP1 (create a snapshot here)
Install Windows SharePoint Service 2.0 (create a snapshot here)
Install TFS Single-Server Deployment (create a snapshot here before start to use TFS)

Before installing TFS image, remember to start Reporting Service, SQL Browser, and Analysis Service system services or else the TFS installation healthy check will fail.

After installing TFS box, remember to install Team Explorer (at the same TFS iso image) at DevVM's VS2005 IDE in order to be able to access TFS inside the IDE.

the overall performance is better than RC stage, init status on the TFS box utilize about 800mb ram and still over 1gb while doing a single team project data access.

The next should be starting to put some projects into TFS to test the project management processes.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , vstudio, msf

RealVNC server is not working on Vista RC2 (build 5744)...

Rex Tang — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:42:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Just installed Windows Vista Ultimate RC2 (build 5744) on my office PC, and trying to install several software that I often used to see if they can run ok on this platform.

Windows RDP is working ok without problem, although it will always show up a dialog saying that it can not verify and identify the host that's connecting to.

trying to install RealVNC 4.1.1, the installation did success, the VNC server also started ok, I did open the port 5900 in Windows Firewall settings. but fail to connect using VNC viewer on other hosts, the connection just disconnect unexpectedly.

VNC should not working on Vista for now.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , windows , vista, realvnc, vnc

Internet Explorer 7.0 released...

Rex Tang — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 17:05:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Yesterday (10/19) Microsoft just released Internet Explorer 7.0 . right now only English version is available for download. Asian languages are not released yet for now.

download from here. It will check if the installing machine has valid Windows OS installed, also take some time to install and will require a reboot.

Technorati Tags: microsoft , browser , internet explorer

Japan OCN FTTH network, DNS server settings...

Rex Tang — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 09:23:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

I had my broadband connection at Tokyo about 2 months ago. it's a VDSL link with 100Mbps speed FTTH. it's really fast considering the dual 100M speed.

but actually the web browsing responses is not as perfect as imagine. most of the time most of the links will just be broken. I am started to wondering if there is anything wrong with my DNS settings.

looking into the manual and OCN website, there were nothing talking about DNS settings. by default setting, when one got OCN B-Flets router, just use router's local ip address as DNS server and gateway address. but I did find that the router's DNS server function is not so stable (or I might set something wrong!?). I did need to setup the router to open several filter ports also port mappings, and define my own DHCP segments, means I didn't use the default settings by the router. As the router DNS is functioning not so well until now, I decided to have a check about all the settings.

First of all, I need to know where the official OCN Network's primary and secondary DNS servers are. unfortunately there is no data on OCN website. so back to the root, using "nslookup" to find out:

C:\>nslookup
Default Server: 192.168.1.1
Address: 192.168.1.1

> set q=ns
> ocn.ad.jp
Server: pns.ocn.ad.jp
Address: 203.139.160.19

ocn.ad.jp       nameserver = pns.ocn.ad.jp
ocn.ad.jp       nameserver = ns-os001.ocn.ad.jp
pns.ocn.ad.jp   internet address = 203.139.160.19
ns-os001.ocn.ad.jp      internet address = 203.139.161.37
>

I supposed "pns.ocn.ad.jp (203.139.160.19)" is primary DNS server and "ns-os001.ocn.ad.jp (203.139.161.37)" is the secondary DNS server.

In router's LAN settings there are places for input LAN DNS server addresses. it was left blank and I decide to fill in those 2 DNS servers.

For my own home server's DNS service (Windows 2003 Server R2), I decided to add those ISP's dns servers to forwarder settings in order to get more faster responses.

by setting those and reset my router, I do experienced a faster and stable responses on web browsing experiences. therefore, FYI if you are in Tokyo and also using OCN B-Flets FTTH broadband network.

Technorati Tags: japan , tokyo , broadband , ftth , vdsl , OCN , b-flets

Japan TechEd 2006 Yokohama Day 4 (The last day)...

Rex Tang — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:25:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

The last day of TechEd 2006 here at Yokohama, Japan, rainy day...

In the morning there were sessions about RFID, C++/CLI Programming that's releated to developers; also others mainly releated to IT System Management like SQL Server 2005 Disaster Recovery, SMS2003, etc.

In the afternoon, managed to attend session "T1-401 Software Factory Implementation". actually this topic was talked at last year's TechEd USA at Florida (my posts here and here), and this time is a nice chance to review the concept and tools that's ready to support the process. Some DSL Tools are ready, and some still under development or in beta progress. The integration of Software Factory process into Visual Studio Team System is a good point to combine all the tools / process in a united development platform. This should take some time to read and understand all the definitions of process and what are they really mean, but after mastered them, should be a very powerful process to make software engineering to another fun and productive level!

In the rest of afternoon I choosed to stay at MVP lounge trying to know more MVPs here at Japan. There is a very big and popular private community site called mixi.jp (invitation based) here at Japan, MSMVPs here also got their own private community on mixi , sharing information and keep in touch with each others.

As a conclusion of TechEd 2006 here at Yokohama, Japan, some of the topics that should be important at Microsoft world next year:

Although I do think that LINQ should be another important topic in this year's TechEd, didn't see any session here at Japan talking about it (Also PowerShell !! ).

One of the other good things to attend TechEd here is that it gave me a chance to know new friends here at Japan. I would like to thank MVP lead here at Microsoft Japan again to invite me to this event and also glad to know all the MVPs here at Japan, thanks and see you all in next local event! :)

Today's pic I took is here.

TechEd 2006 Yokohama, Japan: Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3

Technorati Tags: microsoft , teched , japan

Japan TechEd 2006 Yokohama Day 3...

Rex Tang — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:58:00 GMT

crosspost from http://rextang.net/blogs/work/

Day 3 of TechEd 2006 here at Yokohama, Japan. sunny day!

In the morning sessions Shanku Niyogi gave 2 sessions all about Atlas / Ajax / ASP.NET 2.0. Lunch time there was a "SQL Server 2005 Ready Lunch" event gathering attendees talking about SQL Server 2005.

I managed to attend David J. Anderson's session "T5-404 Implement MSF Agile and CMMI Process using Visual Studio Team System". it's a nice talk to review the project management stuffs as well as how tools can make project manager's work more efficiently. David spend some time explaining some of the 50 reports Visual Studio Team System generated and I found them very useful to view project progress in another aspects.

As I was trying to attend the next session that Frederick Chong talking about SaaS (Software as a Service), found that it changed the session time to this morning, pity.

So the rest of the afternoon I was stay at MVP lounge room and talking with Japan MVPs. also managed to meet Japan MVP Lead Mr. Koita, thanks him to invited me to Japan TechEd 2006.

After today's sessions, there was a "Community Party" held today. all the major Japan .NET community members were invited to this party, including MSMVPs at Japan.

The speaking of Microsoft Japan CEO Darren Huston.

The speaking of Microsoft Worldwide Director of MVP Program, Sean O'Driscoll.

In the middle of the party, managed to get a pic with Sean O'Driscoll and Miss. Mayumi Suzuki, MVP Program Manager of Microsoft Japan.

well, it's a nice party for me who just started my life and work here at Tokyo, Japan, to know new friends that are working in Microsoft technologies. nice event, nice weather. beautiful scene here at Yokohama harbor, although, there was an earthquake in the afternoon...

Today's pic I took is here.

TechEd 2006 Yokohama, Japan: Day 1 , Day 2

Technorati Tags: microsoft , teched , japan