Squid Not Starting On Boot Up

Problem
Squid fails to load on boot up but works when restarted or shutdown and reloaded via the console.


Solution
You need to add a dns_nameservers entry to squid.conf from data found in /etc/resolvconf

Thunderbird Plugins - View Headers Toggle Button

View Headers Toggle Button

This extension adds a toolbar button that allows the easy toggling of viewing all message headers.

Requires the additional addon of
Header Scroll Extension
which adds a scrollbar to the extended all header view so that it doesn't take all the space when viewing all headers.

Web Filtering / Censorship - Multi Users - Ubuntu Linux

Situation

To achieve filtering for a users web browsing to protect minors from undesirable content while allowing adult users to entertain themselves as they see fit in the home environment.


Solution

Install Squid and DansGuardian from the Synaptic Package Manager

Squid Configuration

Edit the squid configuration file with
sudo nano /etc/squid/squid.conf

setup who is allowed access to the proxy. Find the http_access section. Uncomment these 2 lines and add your network allocations.

acl our_networks src 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
http_access allow our_networks

Open /etc/resolvconf and make a note of the IP address.

You need to add a dns_nameservers entry to squid.conf from IP address /data found in /etc/resolvconf

Save & Exit

DansGuardian Configuration



Edit the dansguardian configuration file with
sudo nano /etc/dansguardian/dansguardian.conf

Comment out the UNCONFIGURED line
#UNCONFIGURED


Check that the following are set:
filterport = 8080
proxyip = 127.0.0.1
proxyport = 3128


Find the Auth plugins section and uncomment
authplugin = '/etc/dansguardian/authplugins/ident.conf'



Filter Groups
We now are going to set up 2 groups the first group will be for children using the default filter settings and the second group will be for adults.

Copy /etc/dansguardian/dansguardianf1.conf
rename the copy dansguardianf2.conf

We now need to edit dansguardianf2.conf
Find
# Defaults to 0 if unspecified.
# Unauthenticated users are treated as being in the first filter group.
groupmode = 1

The default group is filtered. Change the value in the group mode to the corresponding groupmode value to 2 for unfiltered for adult users.

Save & Exit


Now we need to identify users for the two user groups. If a users is not defined Dansguardian will implement the default filters in dansguardianf1.conf thus will we only add adult usernames.

Edit the file filtergroupslist located in /etc/dansguardian or /etc/dansguardian/lists

add the users to use the adult filter dansguardianf2.conf
example
dad=filter2
mom=filter2


Save & Exit



Authentication of Users In Order That Group Filters Can Be Applied
Via the Synaptic Package Manager install
Ident2

Open a console and enter sudo ident2


Firewall Configuration
In this case we are going to use Firestarter, which is available from the Synaptic Package Manager.

Go to the tab Policy > Select Inbound traffic policy
Add the service port 113

You may need to add service ports for squid 3128 and dansguardian 8080






Final Setting Up


Set your web browser to use 127.0.0.1 and port 8080 to use the proxy.

Alternatively use Preferences > Network Proxy > Manual Proxy Configuration


Instalation complete.

Open-AudIT - Computer And Network Audit

Open-AudIT

Great way of keeping an eye on software, hardware, licenses, etc across a network. Simple to install and use. Best of all its free.

From The Site:

"OpenAudIT is an application to tell you exactly what is on your network, how it is configured and when it changes. Open-AudIT will run on Windows and Linux systems. Essentially, Open-AudIT is a database of information, that can be queried via a web interface. Data about the network is inserted via a Bash Script (Linux) or VBScript (Windows). The entire application is written in php, bash and vbscript. These are all 'scripting' languages - no compiling with viewable source. Making changes and customisations is both quick and easy.

Windows PCs can be queried for hardware, software, operating system settings, security settings, IIS settings, services, users & groups and much more. Linux systems can be queried for a similar amount of information. Network devices (printers, switches, routers, etc) can have data recorded such as IP-Address, MAC Address, open ports, serial number, etc, etc. Output is available in PDF, CSV and webpages. There are export options for Dia and Inkscape.

Open-AudIT can be configured to scan your network and devices automatically. A daily scan is recommended for systems, with network scans every couple of hours. That way, you can be assured of being notified if something changes (day to day) on a PC, or even sooner, if something "new" appears on your network."

PHP - Email from Non-Local Host

Situation

Drupal was installed on an intranet (windows system) however no email server software was installed on the server making it impossible for Drupal to email users. This was reported by drupal.

Durpal Reported

warning: mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at "localhost" port 25, verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in php.ini or use ini_set() in C:\xampp\htdocs\includes\mail.inc on line 193. Unable to send e-mail. Please contact the site admin, if the problem persists.


Solution
PHP.ini was edited to

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = 192.168.1.3
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.sendmail_from = [user a local domain]


Then Apache was restarted to reload the PHP modules and attributes to enable the change.



Note:
If the external email server is on a domain the SMTP line would read:
smtp.somedomain.com

XAMPP - Easy Installer

XAMPP

Provides a free package to easily install the following open source programs on Windows, Linux. Mac OS X, and Solaris

• Apache HTTPD 2.2.11 + Openssl 0.9.8i
• MySQL 5.1.33
• PHP 5.2.9
• phpMyAdmin 3.1.3.1
• XAMPP CLI Bundle 1.3
• FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.31
• Mercury Mail Transport System 4.62

Packages updated as necessary.

Hijack This

HijackThis™ is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.

IMPORTANT: HijackThis does not determine what is good or bad. Do not make any changes to your computer settings unless you are an expert computer user.
Advanced users can use HijackThis to remove unwanted settings or files.

Not an expert? Just save the HijackThis report and let a friend with more troubleshooting experience take a look. A large community of users participates in online forums, where experts help interpret HijackThis scan results to clean up infected computers.

Cannot Open Bayes Database - SME Server

Situation
Error Message logged in the spamd/current error log

Error Message
"2009-04-27 11:55:43.098059500 [7011] warn: bayes: cannot open bayes databases /var/spool/spamd/.spamassassin/bayes_* R/W: tie failed: Permission denied"

Solution
chmod 0644 /var/spool/spamd/.spamassassin/bayes_*


Summary
Chmodding will allow spambayes database to be accessed and updated via auto learning.

CD Rom Icon Missing - Windows XP

Situation


CD Rom drive does not have a icon on the desktop.The drive is working and Windows System Restore fails to restore access to the drive as well as reinstalling the device drivers.




Solution


The Windows Registry needs to be edited to restore access. Here's what you need to do:


1. Click Start, then Run, then enter REGEDIT to open the Registry Editor



2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class entry



3. Under the Class entry, double click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}



4. In the right-hand pane, click ONCE to select the UpperFilters entry



5. Make sure the UpperFilters entry is highlighted, press Delete, then Yes.



6. In the right-hand pane, click ONCE to select the LowerFilters entry



7. Make sure the LowerFilters entry is highlighted, press Delete, then Yes.



8. Close the Registry Editor by clicking File, Exit.


Restart your computer, and the CDROM drive should now show up on the My Computer screen. You may need to re-install your CDROM software if it's not working properly.

Conficker Eye Chart

Conficker Eye Chart

Conficker (aka Downadup, Kido) is known to block access to over 100 anti-virus and security websites. The above link provides a quick "Eye Test" using logos to determine whether you are infected with Conficker or a variant.

Website - String Functions

String Functions Online

Provides a means to easily:-
Reverse A String
Calculate String Length
Count The Occurrences Of A Substring Within A String
Convert A String To Uppercase Or Lowercase
HTML-Encode A String
HTML-Decode A String
Convert A String To Hex
Convert Hex To String
URL-Encode A String
URL-Decode A String
Convert Hex Values To RGB
Convert RGB Values To Hex

Thunderbird Extensions - Attachment Sizes

Attachment Sizes
Ability to see attachment sizes

• in the attachment box on messages
• in the attachment box on composes.

Prevents you from sending a huge emails without realising.

Thunderbird Extensions - Mail Redirect

Mail Redirect
Very useful for postmasters. Allows you to quickly and easily redirect email messages to another user(s) whilst not adding messy headers like forwarding does.

Thunderbird Extensions - Filter Button

Filter Button For Thunderbird
You guessed it... Provides a filter button to enable quick access to run all filters rather than navigating through menus.

Thunderbird Extensions - Lightning

Lightning
Manage your daily schedule directly within Thunderbird.


Ideally needs a google calendar account and an additional extension
Provider for Google Calendar
which allows bidirectional access to Google Calendar

Firefox Plugins - StumbleUpon Toolbar

StumbleUpon Toolbar

Installs a toolbar to participate in the StumbleUpon community from Firefox

Firefox Plugins - Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus
Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.

Provides

• Ability to subscribe to an automatic filterset for updates
• Ability to add your own advert filtersets
• Ability to disable Subscribe to a free filter source for updates
• Ability to unblock / whitelist websites carrying adverts you want to support
  

Smart Defrag - A free Defragmenter

Smart Defrag is a free disk defragmenter which supports

• Scheduling
• Auto Defrag in the background
• Disk Map
• Ability to adjust idle time settings if needed (default setting is ok)
• Ability to adjust load settings if needed to prevent a system slowing (default setting is ok)
• Automatic checking for updates

PDF Exchange Viewer - Alternative to Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader is currently notoriously slow at loading along with it's patching program for vulnerabilities.

PDF Xchange Viewer is a free PDF viewer, which is quicker to load, is updated regularly and has browser plugins making it a free viable alternative to Acrobat Reader whilst keeping those essential features.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

If you do not have the lastest Microsoft Office 2007 the following File Format Converter from Microsoft enables you to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 from within a previous version of office.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

Free Multiple Antivirus Engines Online Scanner - Virus Total

VirusTotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by multiple antivirus engines.

Offers

• Virus Submission by uploading direct via the website
• Virus Submission via Email and automatic email response with result
• Virus Submission via Windows using VirusTotal Uploader
• Hash search

This is a list of the companies that participate in VirusTotal with their antivirus engines.

AhnLab (V3)
Antiy Labs (Antiy-AVL)
Aladdin (eSafe)
ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus)
Authentium (Command Antivirus)
AVG Technologies (AVG)
Avira (AntiVir)
Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal)
ClamAV (ClamAV)
Comodo (Comodo)
CA Inc. (Vet)
Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb)
Emsi Software GmbH (a-squared)
Eset Software (ESET NOD32)
Fortinet (Fortinet)
FRISK Software (F-Prot)
F-Secure (F-Secure)
G DATA Software (GData)
Hacksoft (The Hacker)
Hauri (ViRobot)
Ikarus Software (Ikarus)
INCA Internet (nProtect)
K7 Computing (K7AntiVirus)
Kaspersky Lab (AVP)
McAfee (VirusScan)
Microsoft (Malware Protection)
Norman (Norman Antivirus)
Panda Security (Panda Platinum)
PC Tools (PCTools)
Prevx (Prevx1)
Rising Antivirus (Rising)
Secure Computing (SecureWeb)
BitDefender GmbH (BitDefender)
Sophos (SAV)
Sunbelt Software (Antivirus)
Symantec (Norton Antivirus)
VirusBlokAda (VBA32)
Trend Micro (TrendMicro)
VirusBuster (VirusBuster)

RSS Security Feeds

The following feeds are worth subscribing to:-

Fescure AntiVirus Research Blog
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/weblog.rdf

Latests Alerts From Websense Security Labs
http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/alertsRSS.xml

McAfee Avert Labs
http://feeds.feedburner.com/McafeeAvertLabsBlog

Microsoft Security Bulletins
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/secrss.aspx

Sanesecurity phishing/scam signatures for ClamAV
http://sanesecurity.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

TrendLabs Malware Blog
http://feeds.trendmicro.com/Anti-MalwareBlog

Webroot Threat Blog
http://blog.webroot.com/feed/

ClamAV - ClamScan

Command
clamscan -r --infected /home/e-smith/files/users

Scans the directory location /home/e-smith/files/users and all subdirectories and only reports infected files to the console. Does not remove any infections found.



Command
clamscan -r --infected --remove /home/e-smith/files/user

Scans the directory /home/e-smith/files/users and all subdirectories, reports only infected files to the console and removes infections found automatically.

Editor - SME Server 7.4

A simple text editor comes with SME Server pre-installed, which will enable a file to be loaded into it and edited.

Command
Pico [filename]

Opens a text editor.


Pico Commands
Use CTRL + X to exit - This will also prompt the user to save any changes with a Y / n prompt