Topics

1

N.A.N.Y. 2023 / NANY 2023: Pingmon (monitor ping status of an address)

« on: December 29, 2022, 09:21 PM »

NANY 2023 Entry Information

Application Name	Pingmon
Version	3.9
Short Description	Ping an address and send email or save log when state changes
Supported OSes	Any modern Windows
Web Page	None, just lives here
Download Link	Zip file should be attached here
System Requirements	This utility requires the following files IN WINDIR (%windir%): date.exe   - see http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ blat.exe   - see http://www.blat.net (must be configured too:        blat -install mailserver.name.or.ip from@address 35)
Version History	Hasn't been updated in 5 years, don't expect to in the next 5.

Description
I had a need to monitor a specific server that was having sporadic connection issues, and came up with this to watch what was happening. This version can email one or more users on state change, and save a log in text or CSV format. As stated, it uses blat.exe to provide email function, and date.exe from (unxutils) to provide time tracking. You will need to configure blat for your email server, but note it does not support encryption or Oauth2 so you might need to configure a mail relay - we use hMailserver for this purpose (simple but it's beyond the scope of this article).

Features
Monitors an IP address to find if it starts or stops responding to a ping. When the state changes, the bat file will send an email, save to a text log file, and/or save to a csv log file so you can keep track in realtime or afterward.

Planned Features
No enhancements expected, it does what I occasionally need.

Screenshots
It's a batch file doing pings, boring to look at. 

Usage
Installation
Copy the three zipped files into %windir% (generally c:\windows).
Configure blat.exe (sample config command is "blat -install mailserver.name.or.ip from@address 35" from an elevated prompt).
The two required exes are included in this zip for convenience but are available on the interwebz:
date.exe   - see http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
blat.exe   - see http://www.blat.net


Using the Application
Just type "pingmon" in a command prompt, the usage prompt tells you how to use it...

pingmon: ping an address every x seconds, log/email on state change (3.9)
usage:   pingmon computer frequency emailaddress logfile csvfile [mailserver]
usage:     computer     = computer name or IP address
usage:     frequency    = seconds between ping attempts
usage:     emailaddress = valid email address, or period for no email
usage:     logfile      = complete log file name, or period for no log file
usage:     csvfile      = complete csv file name, or period for no csv log
usage:     mailserver   = optional mail server to override blat setting
usage:   note, use valid email address and file names, no checking is done


Uninstallation
Just delete the three files to "uninstall".

Tips
Really, just try it and see. Since it's a dumb batch file, make your life easier and do not use any spaces in filenames. Filenames should use the complete path and name unless you want the log files in your current directory. Use a valid email address as a recipient, and following blat syntax you can have multiple recipient addresses separated by commas (no spaces). Note that since it is just a batch file, you'll of course need to leave the window running (minimized is fine). And it does no error checking, so use reasonable and valid values.

Known Issues
The whole script is based on looking for the "bytes=" response for a successful ping, so if a non-English installation uses a different word then it won't work right (but you should be able to edit the batch file for that easily).

2

General Software Discussion / email sender rewrite proxy

« on: August 17, 2021, 01:50 PM »

Hi folks! I am in need of collective wisdom. I need a band-aid to go between ancient LOB software and M365 email.

The company finally killed off the on premise Exchange and Notes servers. However, with all of the systems running on local servers and sending out emails to both company and external recipients, I had to put in place some proxy servers to gather the messages and relay through 365. This is done using hMailserver with a simple authenticated relay configuration, and sender addresses are all set up with mailbox delegation to the account the proxy server is sending as. Works fine, except...

We have one old system that sends email reports using a very specific sender address. The authors of this software hard coded the sender address using a domain that is currently owned by IBM. And because the relays can only accept sender addresses that are known in the organization, and we cannot define this domain in 365, the emails are rejected.

I have done my due diligence and have changed the offending sender address to an acceptable value, with the same number of characters, everywhere that I could find on this server. Still the bad address gets used. I have spent way too much time looking for where it is coming from, our DBA has dug through the database, still can't find it.

So all that is to explain why I am looking for an email proxy that will allow you to rewrite a sender address. Mail comes in, if it's from address xyz then it gets changed to be from abc, then gets sent on to the "normal" proxy. If the sender is not xyz, then it just gets sent on.

It needs to be something that can run on Windows server, ideally something as simple as hMailserver. I tried to write a rule for hMailserver to do this but was not successful. Volume of messages is low so does not need to be super efficient, just needs to be reliable.

Anyone have any ideas? I have not yet stumbled upon the magical query to make the google give me a good answer...

3

Living Room / Thoughts on cryptocurrencies

« on: July 30, 2020, 05:30 PM »

Anyone have any random thoughts on cryptocurrencies, specifically which variants will tend to be long-lived, and which will actually give you a chance to realistically mine a little? Bitcoin is of course the old master but a "real person" (without hard core hardware) will never mine one unless you're in a pool and get a fraction of credit. Is Litecoin defunct? Looked to be $50-ish per when I last checked, but I don't know how the cost/benefit works for it. Ethereum seems to be the current sweetheart, but we've seen those come and go. While you can't guarantee the worth over time, you'd like to choose a coin that would be difficult to hijack.

I had mined about a bit-dime's worth of bitcoin but stopped for a year or two when I changed hardware. When I picked it back up there were like two levels of update for the bitchain client software, and while my wallet showed that it was not corrupted, and showed the amount properly, the password that I had noted (and literally a hundred variations on it) weren't accepted for a transfer. I found that to be less than optimal.

Anyway I have some hardware sitting around, including a middlin' GPU that I used for some john and hashcat for work, but that's finished. Seems I ought to do something with it but since I'd start fresh, I thought I'd ask folks more knowledgeable than me. Some of the coin algorithms don't benefit from a GPU I understand.


PS- Anyone suggestions on cracking that bitcoin wallet? Try hashcat (passphrase was 22 characters)? Is there a way to use out of date software to pull the data from it in a form I can use? Whenever I tried to install old versions it insisted in updating due to blockchain changes.

4

General Software Discussion / Altap Salamander now freeware

« on: August 09, 2019, 06:14 PM »

I haven't noticed anyone post that the Altap Salamander file manager is now freeware - did I just miss the post?

Altap Salamander download page

Download Altap Salamander 4.0 - Freeware
Altap Salamander (including all plugins) from version 4.0 becomes freeware for both commercial and non-commercial use. Users of older Salamander versions can upgrade to version 4.0 free of charge. Version 4.0 requires Windows 7 or newer. There are not other limitations compared to commercial version 3.08.

5

Found Deals and Discounts / Humble book bundle

« on: December 11, 2017, 05:40 AM »

Humble book bundle has a pretty good list of insanely cheap DRM free digital books. Granted the Windows ones are 2012 R2 and not 2016, but you can't beat the price. Good for reference, review, and entertainment.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/network-security-certification-books

6

T-Clock / Time shift...

« on: December 23, 2015, 08:57 AM »

I fear there may be a time vortex manifesting itself in my tray...





I've been running version 2.3.2 build 151 for awhile now. In the off chance that Professor Brown's flux capacitor hasn't really bollixed things up, I'll just try out the latest download and see if that helps.

7

Found Deals and Discounts / Forte Notation free until Sep 14

« on: August 22, 2015, 10:23 PM »

Thanks Gizmo for this tip! (from this link)


I've written before about Forte Notation. It's a program which turns your PC into an electronic sheet of music paper (that stuff with rows of 5 lines on it). You can compose music, and listen to it, just by dragging and dropping notes into the correct place with your mouse. Keep dragging, and moving any note that doesn't sound right, until you end up with a tune you like.

Forte Notation has always been available as a limited-feature freeware edition. But until September 14th 2015, in order to celebrate half a million downloads, the company is now giving away full licences to the Basic edition. This normally costs $24, and has a number of features that the free version does not. You can export your composition as a wave file, for example, to play on any PC. And you can have more notes, verses, staves and so on.

To grab this $24 program for free, head to http://www.fortenota....com/en/lp/giveaway/ and enter your email address. You'll then receive a download link to the program, and a licence key (which you'll need immediately in order to install the program).

8

General Software Discussion / Beware: A Dangerous Windows 10 Ransomware Scam Is Spreading Online

« on: August 03, 2015, 05:27 AM »

Just in time for the new week, we have this from fosshub.

We have bets in at work on which client will report this to us first after honkling their file server... (honkling = a whole letter worse than just honking a box...)

According to the Cisco’s security team, they have found a new scamming campaign that spreads CTB-Locker ransomware. This trouble comes in the form of a fake Microsoft email, telling Windows users that their Windows 10 download is ready.

These messages in Windows 10 ransomware scam mimic the emails sent by Microsoft, along with some text mistakes and changes. However, scammers have managed to spoof the address of origin as [email protected]. To make the messages look more authentic, attackers are using the same color scheme used by Microsoft to fool the users. Thus, these emails look more legitimate.

9

Found Deals and Discounts / O'Reilly ebooks & video training 50% off today

« on: May 07, 2015, 05:18 AM »

"In celebration of Day Against DRM"

For anyone interested, O'Reilly (the tech book people, not the Bill) is having a 50% off sale on all e-books and video training. Offer ends May 8, 2015 5 am PT.

http://shop.oreilly.com/

10

General Software Discussion / HTML table formatting

« on: January 18, 2015, 01:56 PM »

So I wrote a routine to pull in some basic "who's where" information from our remote desktop boxes, and I've managed to wrap the output in about the most basic table formatting you could find. For the nonce, the info is there and usable, but it's hardly appealing. Would anyone care to take a stab at making it easier on our helpdesk staff's eyes? The border on the cells is nice to differentiate the columns, but it's very busy. The last time I did any HTML, kernel 2.2 was just coming out... things have changed since then!

Here are a few rows from the table:

Code: Text [Select]

1. <head><b>RemoteApp Sessions for 2015/01/18 12:52</b><br><a href="desk.html">Remote Desktop Sessions page</a><br><br>click column header to sort by that column - updated every 2 minutes
2. <script src="sorttable.js"></script>
3. </head>
4. <body>
5. <table class="sortable" border="1">
6. <thead>
7. <tr><th>FirstSeen</th><th>Server</th><th>Session</th><th>PID</th><th>User</th><th>Application</th><th>Program</th><th>Parameters</th><th>IP Address</th><th>Computer</th><th>Session ID</th></tr>
8. </thead>
9. <tbody>
10. <tr><td>2015/01/18 11:53</td><td>cotsa4</td><td>RDP-Tcp#0</td><td>5668</td><td>aycockb</td><td>"BJS Client"</td><td>"BJSUSER.EXE"</td><td>''</td><td>111.222.222.195</td><td>CODESK3</td><td>3</td></tr>
11. <tr><td>2015/01/18 11:53</td><td>cotsa5</td><td>RDP-Tcp#0</td><td>5720</td><td>aycockb</td><td>"Paint"</td><td>"mspaint.exe"</td><td>''</td><td>(unknown)</td><td>CODESK7</td><td>2</td></tr>
12. <tr><td>2015/01/18 11:53</td><td>cotsa5</td><td>RDP-Tcp#0</td><td>5720</td><td>smithr</td><td>"IE"</td><td>"iexplore.exe"</td><td>''</td><td>111.222.111.222</td><td>CODESK7</td><td>2</td></tr>
13. </tbody>
14. </table>
15. </body>

11

General Software Discussion / Remote Desktop for Kindle

« on: October 26, 2014, 08:13 PM »

Can anyone recommend a standard RDP app that is available in the Kindle store?  I'm trying to find a good one for my wife to access her work PC from her new Kindle.

I say a standard app, meaning not one that uses an intermediary server like LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc.  I don't think the IT staff wants her installing anything on her PC so that precludes a whole class of remote access apps.  I've installed the Sonicwall app on her Kindle so she has access to the corporate network, and she gets in from home using RDP so she's used to that.

I installed the 2X app and the AccessToGo app to try out. Both work, but both seem a little more awkward than they should.  I have the Microsoft RD client on my Nexus 7, and I think it works pretty well, but that does not appear to be available from the Kindle store.

I also bought the Xtralogic client a few years ago, so I tried that from my Nexus and found it terribly unintuitive. The price is up to $15us now too, so I won't be putting that on.

Any thoughts? I'm not opposed to spending a little on a good app that works as it should, although one with a free trial would be nice. So far AccessToGo wins, but I hope that's because I haven't tried whatever you will recommend...


PS- I have a bluetooth keyboard on order for her too, I think the on screen keyboard would push her over the brink on a 7" tablet! 

12

Living Room / Freedom Summer

« on: June 24, 2014, 10:13 PM »

Just saw the Freedom Summer program on PBS.  How could you watch that and not get chills.  I was an 8-year-old in Alabama during that time and only caught the very slightest glimmer of anything.  What heroes these people were.

13

General Software Discussion / Technet After Technet

« on: June 02, 2014, 07:21 PM »

Has anyone determined yet what happens to Technet keys when the subscription ends?

Mine goes belly up on June 22, and I need to build more stuff than I have time for (several iterations of server O/S, Exchange, Sharepoint besides what I have running now).  There's no way I will have time enough to install even half of it, even if I do a half-assed job and go back to clean up later.

Presumably activated keys will continue to run, although even that isn't certain. As for unactivated keys - ???

14

Living Room / April 1, 2014

« on: March 31, 2014, 08:55 PM »

It's already April 1 in some places... anyone run into a great, well-done gag this year?

Docstoc ran this article on the best from the past.  They mentioned some good ones I hadn't seen before, including this one from 2008 and this one from 1957(!!), both from the BBC.

Wonder what Google has in store?

15

Developer's Corner / Windows directory not up to date?

« on: January 18, 2014, 07:55 PM »

So I have a process (Sharepoint farm backup in several pieces) that is hanging up weekly some time in the wee hours.  Have not found any useful information on why this is happening yet, and what's worse is I can't even really determine the exact time that it halts (other than a 3- to 4-hour window more or less).  When I check in the morning the job is still running, it just isn't doing anything.

My thought was that maybe if I could pin down when this hangup happens, I'd have a chance figuring out what is doing it.  If I rdp into the server and watch the progress of the backups and refresh the target folder (with an F5), I can see the file growing as the backup gets written.  So I thought I'd install one of those file change monitors and that would answer my question (at least for the "when does it quit").  Unfortunately, that didn't work; all the monitors I found hook into the notification chain and see when the files are created and closed, but there's no info on the size change as the files grow.

So I thought to heck with it, I'll just write a script to pull a directory every so often, compare the results with the previous interval, and report on any changes.  I did so over the last few days, and the script works great, and all my testing shows that it reports creation, deletion, size change, time stamp change, and file rename properly.  Started it running last night before the site collection backups started.

Problem is, the script isn't reporting file size changes either.  I have the script window and the target folder window open, and the script is reporting the same three items for each backup - file creation, size and time stamp change when the backup finishes and the file is closed and starts copying off, and the delete when it's done.  No interim data on the file size changes as it grows.

Except -- if I hit F5 then I DO see the file size changes... in the Windows folder window and also my script sees those same changes.  Looking a little closer at what is actually happening, if I do successive "dir"s at a command prompt, I can see the free space dropping, but the reported size of the file doesn't change until I hit F5 to refresh the display again!

F5 updates the reported size for everything.  Closing the file does too.  Nothing else.

I did a little googling on what's happening, and I'm sure this is all the result of NTFS trying to be efficient.  But what I really want to know is, is there a simple way to make it optimize for accuracy instead of efficiency?  It seems such a waste of cycles to have to request a file size explicitly for each file...

16

Living Room / New PC double-take

« on: May 05, 2013, 09:21 AM »

This caught my eye in this week's Staples flyer:



What does this mean?  Did Staples find a cache of older boxes that were lost in the warehouse behind the paper?  A trailer that never got unloaded?

More importantly, how fast do you think people will snap them up?  

Of course, the market for all-in-one boxes might not be particularly operating system aware...

17

Screenshot Captor / arrows?

« on: April 25, 2012, 08:23 PM »

I've had some weird stuff happen recently... I usually want arrowheads at the end of arrows I add, so I always uncheck Start Arrow and check End Arrow.  But the last couple days the arrowheads have been showing up at the start anyway.   Most of the time... sometimes I can exit SSC and start it back and it's fine.

Also it seems like when the arrows go wonky, I can't copy the image to the clipboard - I click on the image and do a ctrl-c and the box says the object was copied to the clipboard, but there's nothing to paste when I'm in the other application.

I've just noticed it on my main work pc (win 7, 64 bit) and just now duplicated it at home.  I don't know that I've used many arrows since I upgraded to 3.04.01 but I know it was working fine at some point before now, I'm just not sure when.

Definitely odd...  maybe I can pull down the previous version to try?  Although I would hate to give up the sweet cursor capture options...

18

Living Room / the sad state of spam-generating programs today

« on: April 11, 2012, 08:58 AM »

I especially like the warm, personal greeting that they chose for me...

19

General Software Discussion / yet another file manager thread...

« on: April 08, 2012, 02:16 PM »

Anyone up for another alternate file manager thread?

I ended up buying a lifetime Xplorer2 Ultimate license recently, and it cost me only a wee bit more than my DOpus 2-pc license of a few years ago.  I couldn't stand Win 7 Explorer any longer (the reasons are legion) even though it has improved in some ways from the XP days, and even though I was hoping to find a satisfying free alternative, I couldn't do it.  I tried most of the other pay-fors as well, and almost chose XYplorer but ended up not going that route for several reasons.

I'm liking it more and more the more I use it and I'm very satisfied, but I'm curious about the main reasons folks choose one FM versus another.  Or even why people decide they don't want to use an alternative, even a free one!

20

Screenshot Captor / Capture cursor?

« on: March 16, 2012, 01:03 PM »

For some reason I can't seem to capture the cursor when capturing Selected Region.  Seems to be fine in other modes like Active Window or Current Screen, but I most often need to select a region.  The box for capturing the cursor is checked.

I understand you need to use the mouse to select the region, but can you grab the cursor when the PrintScreen is initiated so you can render it in the capture?

Thanks!


PS- just nitpicking here, I noticed that "Miscellaneous" is misspelled a couple places...

21

ProcessTamer / run as a service?

« on: April 12, 2007, 03:56 PM »

Can Process Tamer run as a service?