June 2009 - J Wolfgang Goerlich

Archive for June, 2009

Installing ARCserve on Hyper-V Core

Posted June 28, 2009 by Wolf Goerlich

Hyper-V Core, or the Hyper-V role running on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008, provides only a command line interface. This makes installing management apps a bit tricky.

Take CA ARCserve Backup agent, for example. You cannot simply logon and run the installer. Rather, you need to use the management console that comes with ARCserve (r12.5). Use the management console to push out the agent to the Server Core.

The normal caveats apply to push installations. Both the management console and the Server Core computers should be on the same network. Both computers should be in the same Windows domain (or have a domain trust relationship setup.) Ensure the Windows firewall on the Hyper-V Core is accepting inbound file (CIFS) and procedure (RPC) requests. Once those are accomplished, pushing the agent is straightforward.

Similar procedures apply to Diskeeper and anti-virus software.

IP addressing by integer

Posted June 10, 2009 by Wolf Goerlich

Most people are familiar with the dot-decimal notation used in IPv4 addresses. For example, 70.38.56.57 is the address of www.simwitty.org. Note each of the four numbers in the address can range from 0-255. 255 is the maximum that can be stored in 8 bits. Four numbers, 8 bits, 32 bits in an IPv4 address.

Some network systems store these values as one number.(Technically, the address is stored as a 32-bit uint value.) For example, Snort’s database lists www.simwitty.org as 1176909881. The advantage here is that database joins are significantly faster on numbers than on strings, so representing all the bits as a number has advantages. Where does this number come from? Let’s break a part the bits.

DNS: www.simwitty.org
IPv4 dot-decimal notation: 70.38.56.57
IPv4 binary: 01000110 00100110 00111000 00111001
IPv4 decimal: 1176909881

An interesting bit of trivia. If you run across such a 32-bit number, the quickest way I know of to convert it back to dot-decimal notation is to use the ping command on Windows 7 and Windows 2008. Pinging the number does not work on Linux insofar as I can tell.

C:\>ping 1176909881

Pinging 70.38.56.57 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 70.38.56.57: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=112
Reply from 70.38.56.57: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=112
Reply from 70.38.56.57: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=112
Reply from 70.38.56.57: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=112

Egyptian Radio in the 1930s and Cybersecurity

Posted June 4, 2009 by Wolf Goerlich

Here is an interesting article that dovetails 1930s radio legislation with the Obama administration’s Cyberspace Policy Review:

“Seventy-five years ago today, on May 29th, 1934, Egyptian private radio stations fell silent, as the government shut them down in favor of a state monopoly on broadcast communication. Egyptian radio ‘hackers’ (as we would style them today) had, over the course of about fifteen years, developed a burgeoning network of unofficial radio stations. They offered listeners an unfiltered, continuous mix of news, gossip, and live entertainment from low-powered transmitters located in private houses and businesses throughout Cairo.”