Security GuRu

This video is amazing

Check here for what’s new in XNA 3.1

i ‘ve been discussing game programming and XNA game studio recently with Sam Stokes.

He has a nice blog. Just have a look.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 is available for download here .

If you feel collecting the 33 Co-Tags difficult, watch the video here.

I really enjoyed this game soooooooooo much that it made me think seriously of trying XNA Game studio. Just have a look on this review..

I usually use Dual boot on my machine, for testing, trials, learning purpose …etc

I had some headache  recently..

I had windows vista ultimate 32 bit installed on my C drive. After wards, I installed Windows server 2008 64Bit on my D drive. On boot, i have a list to choose the boot options. All worked fine.

After a few weeks, i had to reinstall vista on my C drive,
Now, I can't reach the operating system list on my boot to use the server edition.
I tried something like EasyBCD tool but no way .
Then , i tried to use the Windows Server DVD to repair the installation . BUT , the DVD ONLY detects the Vista on C partition for the repair.
The other Windows server 2008 on D partition is not detected at all. Although i checked the D  partition and the files are still there.

The only solution, was to boot again from the Vista DVD, choose the repair option. Afterwards all the stuff is repaired.

Have a look again on how the boot configuration looks like now

Sometimes you need to expand the allocated hard disk space or add a new HDD drive for one of your virtual machines.

I ‘ll show a little explanation for that.

I ‘m using Windows XP virtual machine on a Vista machine.

This snapshot shows the only available HDDs on the XP machine:

You need to shutdown the virtual machine before adding the new Hard Disk.

Edit Virtual Machine Settings

Click Add

Now the new disk has been added

Restart your virtual machine

Nothing new added yet. But, note the new HDD icon on the bottom right icons on the vmware bar.

On the virtual machine, Start > Run > mmc.exe

File > Add / Remove snap-in

Add > Computer Management

Click on Disk Management

(This gives you an option to use a dynamic disc too if you need one)

Right click on the new disk and choose > Create New Partition

Now the new HDD partition added successfully

Synchronizing your Mp3s with Windows Mobile and Windows Media Player is something pretty simple.

Media Player 11 detects the Mobile Device you are using and the the storage card as two separate devices. Just drag and drop the files to the sync list and it is synchronized automatically once you connect your Mobile to the computer

Making your firewall access policy is so simple. You should only have a plan.

What you want to do ( Allow / Deny ) for what type of traffic, the source and destination ( either computers or networks) , users or computers.

If you need to have exceptions, this is easily allowed.

Make sure you use a nice description name for the policy you make. Also take care that the policy order makes a difference.

For exmaple:

If we have  two access rules:

. Allow All Traffic

. Deny All Traffic

This order will allow all the traffic.

But, if they are rearranged as

. Deny All Traffic

. Allow All Traffic

This order will deny all the traffic.

Making your first access policy:

When I tried to access my blog website from the machine hosting the  Forefront Threat Management Gateway I couldn’t.

Have a look on the technical information part that shows that Forefront TMG denied the access

Actually, Forefront Threat Management Gateway, considers the hosting machine ( local host ) as a separate network. So, we will make an access rule to allow the web traffic from the hosting machine.

To have a more detailed look on the  protocols, click (Edit)

Select whether you want your HTTP traffic to be inspected for malware or no

Forefront TMG detects the local host machine as a separate network

You can add multiple source networks or users to the same rule if you want so

Click Add. You can choose “External” form the networks part for the whole internet. You can also make a new URL set. Click new

You can make URL sets specifically to access. In this example, I made my blog url in the list. The /* is necessary to access all the webpages in that domain.

The users pane will be of great use if you are on a domain. You will then be able to make access rules to users by selecting their Active Directory accounts

Again my blog is not accessible.

Forefront TMG is very specific. We made an outbound policy that allows the outbound web request. But the reply packets are still rejected.

So, I made the reverse access policy too

My blog is available now, but doesn’t look cool :( . That’s because the background theme, the pics .. etc are stored on Microsoft servers and not on my blog site. So, I made a more flexible to allow inbound web traffic from the whole internet.

Now, all looks fine.

 

ISA server and Forefront were two separate products. But now, they have become one.

Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) adds the malware protection functionality to the ISA server.

This is a little presentation showing the installation step by step on the windows server 2008 64bit that is NOT a part of a domain ( Just to make stuff simpler at first )

First: Unpack the installation application:

Then, Just follow the wizard:

Choose the installation path

Second: Install the software:

Choose “Install Forefront TMG”

. If you have other machines having the Forefront TMG installed and you want to manage them remotely from the computer, choose the “Install Forfront Threat Management Gateway Management Only ”. But, this option doesn’t install the TMG engine.

. In our case, we will install the first option, this installs the engine and the management interface too.

We need all the stuff to be available on the machine.

choose the network adapter connected to your internal network

You can also add different ip address ranges to your internal network

Check the ranges for confirmation before clicking next

Installation Done

Third: Begin configuring you Forefront Threat Management Gateway:

You have three templates. For the sake of this demonstration, we will select the Edge Template. ( NB. The three templates preview is only to understand what is going on. It doesn’t affect your network configuration at all)

If your network settings were not detected automatically, make sure you enter them

Check the settings if you need to change any before clicking finish

Make sure that the machine name and the domain settings ( if you are connected to a domain ) are detected well, otherwise, enter them manually.

You must have your TMG server up to date, to have your network more secure. New attacks and malware updates are available frequently

You can participate if you like ;)

As a first time installation, you may need to use the Web Access Wizard to make policies for your network users web access, but you can uncheck it and begin making the access rules manually the way you like.

Malware inspection for web  traffic is a new feature. It uses the malware engines in Forefront server

Make sure you read the options carefully (Although it is always recommended to make the access rule manually to make sure you are really allowing access to what you really need and nothing more )

You can selectively Deny Access to anywhere ( Will be discussed in more details in a later article)

It is recommended to use the Malware Inspection feature

If you want to allow web caching to minimize the internet traffic for commonly accessed websites. ( will be discussed later in a separate article for using a web caching server )

Now you have Forefront Threat Management Gateway successfully installed

To view the policies, click on the Firewall Policy on the Left side. You will find the access rule we just created using the wizard. Make sure you click the apply button to have the new settings applied

Also, note the default DENY ALL at the bottom of the list. Make sure this policy is always the last one as it will deny all connections that don’t match the policies above. If it is in a higher position, allowed access by other policies below it will be discarded.

Well..

I 'm using Windows Mobile 6.0 on HTC Touch. I 'm  paying a lot for weather updates !!!! and stuff like that, when I don't need to use the GPRS / EDGE so long as I have the wifi and my laptop available.

There is no clear function to disable that without disconnecting your mobile signals too. I had to make a new NULL !!!! connection for Internet access as the default one, then switch between the network connections when I need to have Internet access form my mobile.

Start > Settings > connections > connections > advanced > Select Networks

The first part showing " Programs that automatically connect to the Internet should connect using" :

Just make a new connection  with no settings and save it. Choose it as the default connection, when you need to have access, choose your mobile network connection back ...

Enjoy :) and save your money :D

Hyper V is a new Virtualization Era. Microsoft has done a big deal of improvements and enhancements on the Virtualization. Now Hyper V is a part of the system.You don't have to go through that headache of implementing Virtualization like that used to be in Virtual server.

When I first tried to try Hyper V, installed a 32Bit server edition. Then I discovered it is not supported. I don't know why Microsoft doesn't support the Hyper V role in a 32 bit server.

So, I had to install a 64 bit version. A strange thing happened ( was my first time to notice it actually) :

. My HDD has 3 partitions :

C : has vista ultimate

D : blank

E : some other files

When I began to install the win2008, I chose the D partition.

On opening the windows explorer from the server, it sees the windows files ..etc on the C partition and the vista on D !!!!!!

why did that happen ? Is it intentionally ?

Why doesn't it support the parallel installation with keeping the drive letters the same as they are ?

(The data is kept actually the same. When I check on vista, I find the vista on C partition and the server on D :( )

Now, lets go a head exploring the Hyper V step by step.

This is a Tutorial for Hyper-V Virtualization beginners. Please make sure you email me or post comments in case you need any clarification.

. I wanted to show first the I have only one NIC now. After installing the Hyper V role, I 'll install other NICs to have more connectivity options with the virtual machines.

. When you first start your server for the first time, it has no roles. Just go and add the hyper V role. ( System updates, securing your server...etc is beyond the scope of this topic. This is a testing machine)

. Just follow the wizard an all goes fine.

. Make sure you select Hyper-V

. An introduction to hyper-V, also the help documents from Microsoft on hyper v.

. Installing

. Restart your system now

. Right after system restart

The installation succeeded.

Now let's begin making our first virtual machine.

. First have a look on the Hyper-V server settings. Make sure you change the default directories for the virtual hard disks and the virtual machines. ( In a business environment, they should be on different physical drives other than your operating system for better performance). Also, change your escape Release Key according to what you prefer.

. . Then. go to the virtual network manager.. Well, now I 'll choose the network option to show a virtual NIC we will use.

. The Virtual NIC appears now. We can treat it as if it were a real one.

Now, we will start creating the first virtual machine.

. Right click your machine --> New --> Virtual Machine.

The hard disk and floppy disk can be used too to make expansion for your virtual machines as if you were adding some new hardware. ( amazing ;) )

. Just follow the wizard ...

Assign the Ram you like for your virtual machine

Now choose the network card we made before.

Choose the virtual hard disk configuration. (Here we will make a new one as shown)

Choose the installation source.

Make sure you have all the things right and click finish.

Now you have a new machine on your system :)

You can have as much virtual machines as you like so long as you have enough hardware support.

I 'll wait for your comments..

A friend of mine asked me a Question ..

“ I want to be  a web developer . I know nothing about programming. Where can I begin ??? “

Well .. There is a great web and windows developer track on the msdn at  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/default.aspx . I think they are very good to get you form the ground level till a respectable level. All the tutorials are available for both C#.net and VB.net developers.

MSDN has much more tutorials for beginners and experts too.

Good Luck for all new developers.

Change the future of computers ..