Add a remote computer into my network neighborhood by ip address?

Hi All,

Some years ago, I was working with a contractor who needed me to access a few things on his computer. I dimly remember that he had me add his ip address into a file that was buried about 4 directories deep in the windows directory (I think this was windows 2000 on both ends), and magically his computer then showed up in my network neighborhood exactly as if it were in our local lan.

For the life of me, I don't remember what file that was, but I remember clearly that simply adding an ip to it was all that was necessary.

Anyone know what that was?

Thanks!

From serverfault Eli

• lmhosts, somewhere under the Windows system32\ directory.

  Eli : That's it - thanks!

  John Gardeniers : The hosts file would be a more likely and common candidate.

  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams : Except that `hosts` is not used for that.
  From Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Windows server 2008 r2: Backup notifications

Hi serverfault,

Is it possible to have Windows server 2008 r2 notify, preferably by e-mail, when a backup failed or had warnings?

We've had the issue of having backups that are incomplete (luckily detected before there was any need for the backups), but we don't want this to happen again. Knowing ourselves in that we probably will forget to log into the server every day to check this, I'd want a notification...

Thanks in advance.

From serverfault cpf

• You can use Task Scheduler to monitor events in Microsoft-Windows-Backup/Operational log, and email notification to you on errors and/or success.

  From Quidrick

Thomson TG585v7 causes random disconnects

Hello,

using Thomson's TG585v7 (latest firmware) as an internet gateway with the following setup:

• Windows XP @ Lenovo T61
• DHCP
• WPA2 crypted WLAN

brings unfrequent internet disconnects. The LAN is up anyway, it's just the internet over the WLAN. The internet connection on the gateway is up, too.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

1. Repair/Disable+Enable the WLAN in Windows
2. Switch off+on the WLAN on the notebook which implies the first.

What could that be?

From serverfault rqstr100906

• Try:

  • one of the different (hopefully unused) channels
  • antenna(s) placement
  • consider not using the default SSID (if doing so).
  From

• I've experienced the exact same problem on the exact same hardware across multiple firmware revisions with a different client system and OS to you. WLAN access through the 'net disappears, or performs unbelievably slow, or the WLAN drops out and reconnects intermittently. One other symptom was being almost unable to reach the admin interface for the device via the WLAN.

  I tried disabling the intrusion detection and firewall elements of the router (via telnet), and messing with the wireless channels, and QoS... nothing fixed it.

  In the end I swapped the unit out for a Linksys WAG200G and have had approximately zero problems since.

  I personally believe the model is junk, and there's little to do to remedy it's issues.

  If you're in NZ and on Telstra the only thing to beware of when setting up a replacement is that VPI/VCI settings need to be manually set at 0/100. Username and password can be anything you like, it all works.

  From Chris Thorpe

• user48838, I've tried everything with no outcome.

  Chris Thorpe, okay if nothing helped you, I probably will buy a new one as well. This model seems to be crap.

  BTW: It's my second of that model, so it looks like this is a permanent problem.

  No, it's AT here. Thank you for your answers.

  From rqstr100906

Managing reserved Amazon EC2 instances

I'm writing an app and had been paying an hourly rate for my EC2 instance, as I've needed to test. I decided I should just pay for a reserved instance to save money in the long run, but now that I have one, I'm confused about how I'm supposed to manage it. In the "Instances" section of the EC2 management console, I can see the instances that I've launched in the past, and I can stop/start them as I see fit. However, it seems the only way to view my reserved instance is to use the "Reserved Instances" drop-down, but this only seems to let me view them, but nothing else...

So, my question is, how can I do the same thing with my reserved instance(s) that I've been doing with my hourly instance(s)? I basically just want to associate my elastic IP with my reserved instance and install my server image on it.

From serverfault rrbrambley

• How do I purchase and start up a Reserved Instance?

  You purchase an EC2 Reserved Instance by calling the PurchaseReservedInstancesOffering API method. Launching a Reserved Instance is no different than launching an On-Demand Instance. You simply use the RunInstances command or launch an instance via the AWS Management Console. Amazon EC2 will optimally apply the cheapest rate that you are eligible for in the background.

  How do I control which instances are billed at the Reserved Instance rate?

  The RunInstances command does not distinguish between On-Demand and Reserved Instances. When computing your bill, our system will automatically optimize which instances are charged at the lower Reserved Instance rate to ensure you always pay the lowest amount.

  http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/index.html?FAQs_Reserved_Instances.html

  From Rob Olmos

• To elaborate on Rob Olmos's post, instances are instances. What a "reserved instance" buys you, is the right to pay less for any instances you are running over time.

  Let's go for a super-simplified example. You run two instances 24/7.

  April
  2 x Small Instance, 10c/hr ($72 ea): $144

  May (note: this May has 30 days, due to a decree by the Pope)
  2 x Small Instance, 10c/hr ($72 ea): $144

  June
  1 x Instance Reservation, ordered on the first of the month ($227.50): $227.50
  1 x Small Instance, 10c/hr ($72 ea): $72
  1 x Small Instance, 4c/hr ($28.80 ea): $28.80

  If you now turn off all your instances, you don't get any money back on your reserved instance (it isn't necessarily being very cost-effective for you at the moment); but if you later turn a matching instance on (in the correct Availability Zone) then you will be charged at the lesser rate.

  From crb

• You affectively ignore fact that you have a Reserved Instance, it just sits in the background and Amazon will automatically bill you at the lower rate where possible. If you run more instances than you have reserved, the additional will be charged at the higher (on demand) rate.

  From Seba Illingworth

Failover clusters of WPAR with HACMP in AIX 6.1?

Hi,

Is it possible to create a failover cluster using Workload Partitions (wpar) in AIX 6.1?

I want to create a two node cluster such that each of the nodes is a wpar and in event of a software failure the application fails over from one wpar to another wpar in the cluster.

I know that we can do so in Solaris 10 with Zone cluster feature, but not sure about AIX.

TIA.

From serverfault UnixAdmin

• Hi,

  As it turns out, I found out that it is not possible to create a cluster of WPARs. This is possible for Logical Partitions (LPARS), but LPARs have their own overhead, unlike WPARs.

  HTH

  From UnixAdmin

Encrypted file system on Ubuntu cloud server

Hi

We have a cloud server (AWS) running Ubuntu 8.04. All the employees (around 15 people) in the company have system accounts in the server and all are sudoers. We want to provide a way for all the users to store private data which should be password protected and not viewable by others using their root privileges. And there should be an easy mechanism for Windows (Vista/XP) users to copy data to/from the server (click/drag/copy/paste etc). Any solution guys?

-Geos

From serverfault Geos

• You have two primary (and slightly conflicting) requirements:

  1. Encryption on a per-user, not per-system bais.
  2. Transparent operation from the user's point of view.

  Are your users reasonably Linux-capable? I'd hope so if they have root privs...

  You can't just create encrypted file systems with cryptoloop on the Ubuntu server, as as soon as one user mounts it, every other user with root would be able to see the mount in its decrypted form.

  One option is the commercial PGP product, and use PGP Net. Store the .pgd files on a samba share that is hosted on the Ubuntu server (I've done essentially the same but on areal Windows server share - works, but it's not multi-user). This is about as transparent as it gets - the user mounts the .pgd as a drive letter in Windows, then just uses it like any other network drive. I don't know that it will be terribly fast though, and you've still got the issue of how to securely allow Windows networking ports between your Windows machines and the server. You could VPN tunnel it (even with no encryption on the tunnel as I guess it's already encrypted), but that's going to be interesting unless you have a local box that can act as a VPN gateway - IPSec under Windows isn't pleasant to configure.

  There's probably a time-limited trial for PGP Net I'd have thought, so it might be something you can try for just some time input.

  One last (and not terribly pleasant) option I can think of might be to do something with a base Ubuntu server, and a lightweight virtualisation that will work on a server in AWS (Xen VMs I believe?), so that each user gets their own 'jailed' area and can mount their cryptoloop filesystem inside that, then either scp files in and out, or run Windows networking over IPSec or an ssh tunnel etc. I'm not entirely sure how well something like User Mode Linux would work in keeping each virtual session separate from others when users have root to the base machine - there's still some scope for tinkering via the base environment, but if your users don't trust each other to that degree, then they should be on their own VMs anyway!

  From $pageUsers[$post.author].name

• I think what you want is ecryptfs - an encrypted file system supported by the linux kernel, and which is well integrated into Ubuntu, although the main integration went into versions of Ubuntu after 8.04.

  For instructions for setting it up for Ubuntu 8.04, see this guide or this guide.

  So this should meet your requirements with one or two caveats. When a user's private directory is not mounted, nobody will be able to see the files without knowing that user's passphrase. However, when the private directory is mounted, other users could change to be that user using sudo su username and could then read their files.

  As to sharing with windows, the secret directory would have to be mounted by the user, and also be available as a network share over samba. I'm afraid I don't know how to set up samba so there are multiple shares and only one user can use each share, but if you ask on http://serverfault.com/ you should get some help for that. (And possibly this question belongs on serverfault).

  grawity : "other users could change to be that user using `sudo su username`" - or they could just patch ecryptfs or `sshd` to write passwords to some dark corner. Things like that are very much based on trust. (also, it's `sudo -u username -i`)
  From Hamish Downer

• hey guys,

  ive found a nice blog post on private data cloud. http://bigdatamatters.com/bigdatamatters/2009/09/private-cloud-eucalyptus.html

  hope, its helpful :)

  From $pageUsers[$post.author].name

LAN->LAN IP translation (for TortoiseSVN + Artifacts + Buffalo router)

Here's my scenario:

I've got a VisualSVN server on my main dev box @ home. I'm also using Visual Studio 2010, TortoiseSVN, VisualSVN client (for source control), and Versioned 'Artifacts' (for bug tracking).

(I had to modify the fake URL's below to use only one slash because as a new user, I can't post more than one real URL.)

I've got my Buffalo AirStation WHR-HP-G300N router properly configured so my business partner can connect to the SVN server. I have port forwarding enabled for the internet-side IP address (like http:/99.888.77.66:443) which gets forwarded to an internal IP (like 192.168.11.6). This part is working great.

The problem I'm having is with the integration piece between TortoiseSVN and my bug tracking system. I need to provide a bugtraq:url property, but I haven't been able to get relative paths to work. So I'm forced to use an absolute URL. On my end, I need to use the name of my server (for example: bugtraq:url = https:/my-server/svn/bla..), but this doesn't work for my partner. He needs to specify the IP address (for example: bugtraq:url = https:/999.888.77.66:443/svn/bla...)

Is there a way to configure my router such that the IP address for this parameter gets re-routed/re-mapped to "https://my-server" if the request originates from the LAN itself? My router's software supports LAN->Internet and Internet->LAN, but I don't see LAN->LAN.

From serverfault Armchair Bronco

• As suggested by someone on StackOverflow.com, the solution was to edit the HOSTS file. In my case, I needed to get my business partner to edit his HOSTS file after I changed the bugtraq:url on my end to:

  https://my-server/svn/Bla...

  Then he modified his HOSTS file as follows:

  999.888.77.66 my-server

  Works like a charm.

  From Armchair Bronco