Rimmon's Essentials

Windows Vista Keyboard Shortcuts

2010-05-01T03:08:00.000-07:00

Function Keys

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
F1	Start Help (supported in most applications).
F2	Rename selected icon or file in Windows Explorer or on the Desktop.
F3	Open Search (in Windows Explorer or on the Desktop only).
F4	Open a drop-down list (supported in many dialog boxes). For example, press F4 in a File Open dialog to drop down the Look In list.
F5	Refresh the view in Windows Explorer, on the Desktop, in the Registry Editor, and some other applications.
F6	Move focus between panes in Windows Explorer.
F10	Send focus to the current application’s menu.

Miscellaneous Keys

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
Arrow Keys	Basic navigation - move through menus, reposition the text cursor (insertion point), change the file selection, and so on.
Backspace	Move up one level in the folder hierarchy (Windows Explorer only).
Delete	Delete selected item(s) or selected text.
Down Arrow	Open a drop-down listbox.
End	Go to end of line when editing text, or to the end of file list.
Enter	Activate highlighted choice in menu or dialog box, or insert a carriage return when editing text.
Esc	Close dialog box, message window, or menu without activating any choice (usually the same as clicking Cancel).
Home	Go to beginning of line (when editing text), or to the beginning of file list.
Page Down	Scroll down one screen.
Page Up	Scroll up one screen.
PrintScreen	Copy entire screen as a bitmap to the Clipboard.
Space Bar	Toggle a checkbox that is selected in a dialog box, activate the command button with the focus, or toggle the selection of files when selecting multiple files with Ctrl.
Tab	Move focus to next control in a dialog box or window (hold Shift to go backward).

Alt Key Combinations

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
Alt	Send focus to the menu (same as F10). Also turns on the menu in applications where it is no longer used by default, such as Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
Alt-x	Activate menu or dialog control, where letter x is underlined (if the underlines are not visible, pressing Alt will display them).
Alt-double-click (on icon)	Display Properties sheet.
Alt-Enter	Display Properties sheet for selected icon in Windows Explorer or on the Desktop. Also switches command prompt between windowed and full-screen display.
Alt-Esc	Drop active window to bottom of pile, which, in effect, activates next open window.
Alt-F4	Close current window; if Taskbar or Desktop has the focus, exit Windows.
Alt-hyphen	Open the current document’s system menu in a multiple document interface (MDI) application.
Alt-numbers	When used with the numbers on the numeric keypad only, inserts special characters corresponding to their ASCII codes into many applications. For example, press the Alt key and type 0169 for the copyright symbol. Check characters map for full list of codes.
Alt-PrintScreen	Copy active window as a bitmap to the Clipboard.
Alt-Shift-Tab	Same as Alt-Tab, but in the opposite direction.
Alt-Space Bar	Open the current window’s system menu.
Alt-Tab	Switch to the next running applicationhold Alt while pressing Tab to cycle through running applications.
Alt-M	When the Taskbar has the focus, minimize all windows and move focus to the Desktop.
Alt-S	When the Taskbar has the focus, open the Start menu.

Ctrl Key Combinations

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
Ctrl-A	Select all; in Windows Explorer, selects all files in the current folder. In word processors, selects all text in the current document.
Ctrl-Alt-x	User-defined accelerator for a shortcut, in which x is any key.
Ctrl-Alt-Delete	Show the logon dialog when no user is currently logged on; otherwise, switch to the Windows Security dialog, which provides access to Task Manager and Log Off, as well as switching to another user, allowing you to change your password or lock the computer. Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to access the Task Manager when Explorer crashes or your computer becomes unresponsive.
Ctrl-arrow key	Scroll without moving selection.
Ctrl-click	Use to select multiple, noncontiguous items in a list or in Windows Explorer.
Ctrl-drag	Copy a file.
Ctrl-End	Move to the end of a document (in many applications).
Ctrl-Esc	Open the Start menu; press Esc and then Tab to move focus to the Taskbar, or press Tab again to move focus to the Taskbar, and then cycle through the toolbars on the Taskbar every time you press Tab.
Ctrl-F4	Close a document window in an MDI application.
Ctrl-F6	Switch between multiple documents in an MDI application. Similar to Ctrl-Tab; hold Shift to go in reverse.
Ctrl-Home	Move to the beginning of a document (in many applications).
Ctrl-Space Bar	Select or deselect multiple, noncontiguous items in a listbox or in Windows Explorer.
Ctrl-Tab	Switch among tabs in a tabbed dialog or Internet Explorer; hold Shift to go in reverse.
Ctrl-C	Copy the selected item or selected text to the Clipboard. Also interrupts some command prompt applications.
Ctrl-F	Open Search (in Windows Explorer or on the Desktop only).
Ctrl-V	Paste the contents of the Clipboard.
Ctrl-X	Cut the selected item or selected text to the Clipboard.
Ctrl-Z	Undo; for example, erases text just entered, and repeals the last file operation in Windows Explorer.

Shift Key Combinations

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
Shift	While inserting a CD, hold to disable AutoPlay.
Shift-arrow keys	Select text or select multiple items in a listbox or in Windows Explorer.
Shift-click	Select all items between currently selected item and item on which you’re clicking; also works when selecting text.
Shift-click Close button	Close current folder and all parent folders (Windows Explorer in single-folder view only).
Shift-Alt-Tab	Same as Alt-Tab, but in reverse.
Shift-Ctrl-Tab	Same as Ctrl-Tab, but in reverse.
Shift-Ctrl-Esc	Open the Task Manager.
Shift-Delete	Delete a file without putting it in the Recycle Bin.
Shift-double-click	Open folder in two-pane Explorer view.
Shift-Tab	Same as Tab, but in reverse.

Windows Logo Key (WIN) Combinations

Shortcut Key	Function(s)
WIN	Open the Start menu.
WIN-Tab	If the Aero interface is active, this activates Windows Flip 3D.
WIN-Pause/Break	Display System Control Panel applet.
WIN-Space bar	Display the Sidebar.
WIN-D	Minimize all windows and move focus to Desktop.
WIN-E	Start Windows Explorer.
WIN-F	Launch Search.
Ctrl-WIN-F	Search for a computer on your network (requires Active Directory).
WIN-L	Lock computer, requiring password to regain access.
WIN-M	Minimize current window.
Shift-WIN-M	Undo minimize current window.
WIN-R	Display Run dialog.
WIN-U	Open the Ease of Access Center.

MSN chat protocol (port 1863)

2008-10-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

If you have tried to sniff the packet traffic of an ongoing MSN chat (with a Wireshark client), you will notice that the protocol used between the sender and the recipient is msnp (1863).

Enter "msnms" in the Wireshark display Filter text box to narrow down the display packets if you did not use any capture filter during the Wireshark capture.

In the screen capture below, ip address 192.168.1.106 is my desktop.

To figure out the "owner" of ip address 64.4.37.20, I use the Whois feature from the website www.samspade.org. If you would like to resolve the ip_address-to-dns_name, use nslookup.

From the information gathered from this snoop capture, we find out that my desktop establishes a connection to the MSN Hotmail server instead of a direct connection to the ip address of the remote MSN friend whom I was having a text conversation with.

Convert PDF to Excel, Word & More

2008-10-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

As I was working on a pile of paperwork, I realized that I need to convert a pdf document into a MS-word document format for some extensive editing. Previously, I was able to retrieve the documents in pdf and MS-word format. However, recently the document creator decided to stick with publishing the documents in pdf and sdif format. (What in the world is sdif format anyway? Who uses it?)

At about the same time as I was pulling my hair over the issue above, my colleague had a requirement to convert a pdf document to Excel format and he asked me for some help. Great!

I googled around and found a pretty cool software which could handle the document conversions from PDF to Excel/Word and more! Able2Extract 5.0

It is relatively simple to get the hang of using the software, and you can select portions of the document for conversion into the desired format.

If you are not convinced, download the 7-Day Trial copy and try it out for yourself. And in case you are wondering about the difference between the Able2Extract 5.0 and the Able2Extract 5.0 Professional, you can check out the product comparison here.

Hope you find this recommendation beneficial!

Protocol Data Unit and Service Data Unit

2008-10-29T00:17:00.000-07:00

Protocol Data Unit (PDU)
- comprises of the Layer's Header + Upper Layer's Data
- The figure below shows an example of a PDU:

Service Data Unit (SDU)
- a subset of PDU
- comprises of the Upper Layer's PDU
- In the OSI Layer encapsulation, where the OSI Layer goes from N to N-1, the Upper Layer's PDU becomes the SDU in Layer N-1. The figure below shows the example:

Translate IP address in decimal to real IP address

2008-10-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

To translate an IP address from a string of decimals (in little endian* order) into a real IP address, follow this procedure:

Using the decimal number 26999818 as an example.

1) Convert the number to hex

    26999818 (in dec) = 19BFC0A (in hex)

2) If the hex number is 7 digits long, add a leading 0. If the hex number is 8 digits, skip to step 3.

    => 019BFC0A (in hex)

3) Split this value into 4 bytes

     01 9B FC 0A

4) Reverse the order of the bytes, as this value is little endian*

    0A FC 9B 01

5) Convert each byte (in hex) back to decimal

    10 252 155 1

This is the real IP address in dot-decimal notation: 10.252.155.1

*The least significant byte (LSB) value, 0x01, is stored in memory at the lowest address. And the most significant byte (MSB) value, 0x0A, is stored in memory at the highest address.

Note: For a better understanding on "Endian", check out the explanation here.

Packet Sniffers: snoop & tcpdump

2008-10-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

snoop & tcpdump belongs to the class of tools known as packet sniffers. If you had worked on troubleshooting IT systems, and you can't quite figure out if the issue lies at the application or network, you can use these packet sniffers to help narrow down on where the problem lies.

Solaris includes the packet sniffer: snoop.
To setup, you need to know on which interface (device) you want to run the snoop command. Use ifconfig -a to find out.

# snoop -d device -o filename

Example:
# snoop -d bge0 -o /var/tmp/snoop_activity_name.cap

If there are no interfaces specified, snoop collects packets from the first interface it finds. This is determined from netstat -i (excluding the loopback)

More specific captures can be set up using expressions such as host, port, tcp, udp, ip. These expressions can be combined with primitives such as and, or, and not.

Here are some examples
# snoop host sarah and host connor and tcp port 25
# snoop -d bge0 port 9048

To filter out traffic from your telnet session:

# snoop not host sarah

Linux and FreeBSD platform includes the packet sniffer: tcpdump

To setup, you need to know on which interface (device) you want to run the tcpdump command. Use ifconfig -a to find out.

# tcpdump -i interface -s snaplen -w file


Example:
# tcpdump -i wm0 -s 0 -w /data/SMTP.cap

-i wm0                specifies that interface wm0 should be traced
-s 0                  store the complete packet regardless of length
-w /data/SMTP.cap     store the output in file SMTP.cap in directory /data

Like the snoop command, similar expressions such as host, port, tcp, udp, ip can be combined with primitives such as and, or, and not.

Here are some examples
# tcpdump host john and host connor and tcp port 25
# tcpdump -i wm0 -s 0 -w /data/radius.cap port 1812

To filter out traffic from your telnet session:

# tcpdump not host john

When you have stored the .cap file(s), use Wireshark to view the file contents.

Basic Checks on Cisco Switch Interfaces

2008-10-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we need to know if there are some connectivity problems between the connected host and the switch interface.

The show logging command for Cisco IOS can be used to check if an interface was unavailable for a certain duration

Switch#show logging
Oct 10 01:53:43: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1, changed state to down
Oct 10 01:56:14: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1, changed state to up

In addition you will need to be familiar with the following show interfaces command. The following information is provided when you enter the command:

Interface type
Status
Speed and duplex
Encapsulation
Errors on the interface
The last time the interface was bounced
The last time the error counters were reset
Port utilization
IP address, subnet mask, and MAC address


Switch#show interface GigabitEthernet 1/0/1
GigabitEthernet1/0/1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 001c.5723.e901
Description: Connection to BP_CS-FW-1
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Full-duplex, 1000Mb/s, media type is 10/100/1000BaseTX
input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input never, output 00:00:00, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 187000 bits/sec, 81 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 207000 bits/sec, 124 packets/sec
3290283950 packets input, 2160027042 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 10 broadcasts (0 multicast)
24 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
24 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input
0 input packets with dribble condition detected
4053517837 packets output, 3285226057 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 1 interface resets
0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

The main uses for the show interface command are to:

Determine if the interface is up and if the protocol is up
Ascertain if the interface has errors on it, especially CRC errors
Find out the speed and duplex of the interface (for Ethernet interfaces)
Learn the current utilization and utilization over the last 5 minutes
Determine the last time an interface was bounced

To find out the transmit/receive rate of an interface, the packets in the hold queue, or the packets dropped from the queue, use the show interface summary command.

Switch#show interface summary

 *: interface is up
 IHQ: pkts in input hold queue     IQD: pkts dropped from input queue
 OHQ: pkts in output hold queue    OQD: pkts dropped from output queue
 RXBS: rx rate (bits/sec)          RXPS: rx rate (pkts/sec)
 TXBS: tx rate (bits/sec)          TXPS: tx rate (pkts/sec)
 TRTL: throttle count

  Interface              IHQ   IQD  OHQ   OQD  RXBS RXPS  TXBS TXPS TRTL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Vlan1                    0     0    0     0     0    0     0    0    0
* Vlan27                   0     0    0     0     0    1     0    0    0
* Vlan45                   0     0    0     0     0    0     0    0    0
* GigabitEthernet1/0/1     0     0    0     0 23000   13 44000   18    0
* GigabitEthernet1/0/2     0     0    0     0 74000   14 32000   21    0

For a quick idea on whether there are any CRC errrors on any of the interfaces, filter the show interfaces command using the pipe [|] and include option.

Switch#show interfaces | inc CRC
    0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
    0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
    0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored

Setting up a Wireshark Capture

2008-10-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a guide on how to setup a Wireshark capture.

In this scenario, we want to leave it running for a certain duration, and coming back to retrieve the snoop traces when an special data traffic event happens.

A. Increase the memory buffer size, this is to avoid packet drops during capture.

B. Choose the directory and file name for the snoop traces.

C. Enable 'use multiple files". You want the capture files to be in manageable file sizes. The file name chosen in B. will be appended with an incremental counter and the timestamp of the start time of the capture for each respective file.

D. Here is where you can limit the file size of each capture file. Alternatively, you can choose to start a new capture file using a specific time duration, example: every 15 minutes.

E. Unless you have unlimited storage space to store all the collected snoop traces, I suggest that you enable the "Ring buffer with" option. In this example, we limit it to 100 files. For the 101st and subsequent file, it will override the capture file with the oldest timestamp.

F. This is optional. If you really want to watch the captured packets scrolling by on your display, then leave the options enabled. Otherwise, you can disable "Update list of packets in real-time". To avoid packet drops during capture, disable it.

G. With all of the above done, you are now ready to click the "Start" button. Go on and click it.

After the capture is started, you will notice a status bar near the bottom of the Wireshark screen. To know if packets are being captured, the "Packets" counter will be incrementing.

In addition, you can go to the directory where you have chosen to store the capture files, and check if capture files are being created. Refresh the directory to see if the file size of the current capture file is increasing.

SCTP failure detection time

2008-10-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

SCTP's multihoming failure detection time depends on three tunable parameters:

RTO.min (minimum retransmission timeout)
RTO.max (maximum retransmission timeout), and
Path.Max.Retrans (threshold number of consecutive timeouts that must be exceeded to detect failure).

RFC2960 recommends these values:

RTO.min - 1 second
RTO.max - 60 seconds
Path.Max.Retrans - 5 attempts per destination address

If the timer expires for the destination address, set RTO = RTO * 2 ("back off the timer").
The maximum value discussed (RTO.max) may be used to provide an upper bound to this doubling operation.

Since Path.Max.Retrans = 5 attempts, this translates to a failure detection time of at least 63 seconds (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32).
In the worse case scenario, taking the maximum of 60 seconds, the failure detection time is 360 seconds (6 * 60).

In another example, where the following parameters are used,

RTO.min - 100ms
RTO.max - 400ms
Path.Max.Retrans - 4 attempts

Then,
Max. failure detection time = (1 + PMR)* RTO.max = 5*400 = 2000ms
Min. failure detection time = 100 + 200 + 400 + 400 + 400 = 1500ms

Signalling Transport over TDM vs ATM vs IP

2008-09-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Mapping Signalling Transport, over TDM vs ATM vs IP

AAL5       ATM Adaptation Layer 5
ATM        Asynchronous Transfer Mode
CAP        CAMEL Application Part
INAP       Intelligent Network Application Part
IP         Internet Protocol
M2PA       MTP Level 2 Peer-to-Peer Adaptation Layer
M2UA       MTP Level 2 User Adaptation Layer
M3UA       Message Transfer Part 3 - User Adaptation Layer
MAP        Mobile Application Part
MTP        Messge Transfer Part (SS7)
MTP3b      MTP Level 3 with broadband enhancements
PDH        Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy
SCCP       Signaling Connection Control Part
SCTP       Stream Control Transmission Protocol
SDH        Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
SONET      Synchronous Optical Networking
SSCF-NNI   Service Specific Coordination Function - Network Node Interface
SSCOP      Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol
SUA        Signalling Connection Control Part User Adaptation Layer
TCAP       Transaction Capability Application Part

SS7 Protocol Stack, TCP/IP Model, and OSI Model

2008-09-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Mapping the SS7 Protocol Stack with the TCP/IP Model and OSI Model

SACK-ED

2008-09-16T15:00:00.001-07:00

Ok, now that I have your attention, what is SACK?

SACK stands for Selective Acknowledgment. It is a type of SCTP packet.

What is SCTP? SCTP is a reliable transport protocol which runs on top of an unreliable connectionless packet service, such as IP. SCTP/IP is used in the implementation of SS7 over IP (SIGTRAN)

SACK is an acknowledgment packet sent by a recipient node to sender node to acknowledge the receipt of DATA chunks. SACK is also used to inform the sender node of any missing chunks.

If there are IP network reliability issues, and the sender node does not receive the SACKs, the data window size will be reduced by the sender node. This data window size is refering to the Advertised Receiver Window Credit (a_rwnd) parameters.

So if you find that I have not replied to your email recently, that's because I'm learning to apply SACK :)

Basic Wireshark Display Filter Expressions

2008-09-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Wireshark display filter allows you to narrow your view on the amount of information contained in the snoop capture. Here are some basic display filter expressions to be aware of.

Source IP

ip.src==192.168.1.1
ip.src==192.168.1.0/24
!(ip.src==192.168.1.1)

Destination IP

ip.dst==192.168.2.1
ip.dst==192.168.2.0/24
!(ip.dst==192.168.2.1)

Ports

tcp.port==1812
sctp.port==2905
!(udp.port==53)

Protocols

ospf
sccp
stp

Combining expressions

ip.addr==192.168.1.1 or ip.addr==192.168.2.1
ip.addr==192.168.1.1 and udp.port==162

Others

frame contains "

text-string"

Configuring a Switch for Port Mirroring

2008-09-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

We want to set up a sniffer to monitor the data traffic between several ports. Here we are assuming that the switch you are using is a Cisco IOS switch (e.g. Cisco Catalyst 3750).

Cisco uses the term SPAN (Switched Port Analyzer) port, to refer to ports that are involved in port mirroring or port monitoring.

Source SPAN port refers to the switch port of the server or node which you are interested in monitoring the data traffic.

In this example, Server A is connected to GigabitEthernet1/0/16 and Server B is connected to GigabitEthernet1/0/17. We want to monitor the data packets flowing between Server A and Server B.

Destination SPAN port refers to the switch port where you will be connecting the sniffer or network analyzer.

In this example, the sniffer is connected to GigabitEthernet1/0/28.

With the above information, we are now ready to configure the switch.

The commands are as follows:
For source SPAN ports GigabitEthernet1/0/16 and GigabitEthernet1/0/17

c3750(config)# monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet1/0/16
c3750(config)# monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet1/0/17

For destination SPAN port GigabitEthernet1/0/28

c3750(config)# monitor session 1 destination interface GigabitEthernet1/0/28 encapsulation

Putting it all together:

c3750# configure terminal
c3750(config)# monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet1/0/16
c3750(config)# monitor session 1 source interface GigabitEthernet1/0/17
c3750(config)# monitor session 1 destination interface GigabitEthernet1/0/28 encapsulation
c3750(config)# end
c3750# show monitor session 1
c3750# write

Output of show monitor session 1:

c3750# show monitor session 1
Session 1
---------
Type : Local Session
Source Ports :
Both : Gi1/0/16,Gi1/0/17
Destination Ports : Gi1/0/28
Encapsulation : Native
Ingress : Disabled

To remove SPAN configuration:

c3750# configure terminal
c3750(config)# no monitor session 1
c3750(config)# end
c3750# write

Download Flash Videos and View Offline

2008-09-10T03:46:00.000-07:00

It does get a little annoying when this happens:

You sit down and psyche yourself up to concentrate on an online training video. You click on the video (created using Flash), it plays for a short couple of seconds, pauses to load more content, plays, pauses, plays, pauses ... (and this goes on forever).

You grumble about the speed of the broadband to anyone who is unlucky enough to be within hearing distance from you. Then you resigned yourself to the predicament you are in. Give up watching and never came back to finish up the training video again.

With this little tip that I'm going to share with you, you will be able to save that training video offline and watch it in your leisure time. No more frustrations!

First, you need to get the Orbit Downloader software. Download here and install it.

Second, run the program. In the Menu bar, choose Tools -> Grab++ . A "Grab++" dialog window will pop-up. We will refer to this window again in step four.

Third, go to your favorite internet browser and load the url of the training video. (e.g. http://www.becomeablogger.com/video-1.html). When you can see the "play" button on the video, click on it.

Fourth, at the Grab++ window, you will see that it has grabbed the filename of the video. Look for those with the flv extention (FLV are known as Flash Video Files). Click on the "Download.." button in the Grab++ window and you will be prompted to the location to save the downloaded video file. Choose the appropriate storage location, then click on the "OK" button.

Fifth, you will see the progress of the file being downloaded. When the download is complete, go to the directory and double-click on the newly downloaded file. If you have the right player program, the FLV file will play immediately from your local disk.

Examples of compatible player programs are:
- Media Player Classic
- VideoLAN VLC media player

Backup Your Precious Assets (Data)!

2008-09-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

Customer: "You want me to back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse gear?"
IT support: "... ..." (speechless)

Nope, this is not a post about driving, though if someone really asks me the question above, this person needs to stand 10 meters away from my computer!

Knowing how to back up your important data files, documents, and photographs, etc is essential. I would recommend to try out the SyncBack Freeware software for this purpose. It has 2 main features, Backup and Synchronisation. After installing the software, you will need to create a profile.

The fine tuning of the backup/synchronisation profile can be done in the Profile Setup dialog screen (as seen below). You can use the default settings for a start and customise it to your preference as you go along. When you are satisfied with your configuration, highlight on your newly created profile and click on the "Run" button. A log report will be generated at the end of the backup process. This software also allows you to perform the backup manually or configure the backup to run at a scheduled timing.

I have used this software to back up my data, as well as program and system settings from my computer to my portable hard disk. Works well for me. If you are not sure which directory to backup, you could choose to backup the entire local hard disk. For me, the Source directory is set to "C:\Users\<login-name>\".

I would also recommend that you remove temporary and cached files before performing the backup. You can read more about the software which I use to perform the cleanup here.

So, cleanup then backup, piece of cake...

To learn more about SyncBack Freeware, click here.
If you need a backup software with more advanced features, you can explore SyncBackSE and SyncBackPro.

PPC Networking - Unable to Obtain a Server Assigned IP Address

2008-09-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm been getting this annoying error after I switched back to my Pocket PC PDA. Before this I was using an Apple iPhone. I survived for 2 whole months and decided to give it up. I might blog about my painful experiences with iPhone next time, but for now, back to the error message.

This error only happens when I'm connecting to my laptop to perform an ActiveSync. Did a search and found the resolution here:

On the PDA, go to Settings -> Connections -> Network Cards

Tap on Remote-NDIS Host.

Instead of using the default "Use server-assigned IP address", choose "Use specific IP address".
Set the following:
IP Address: 169.254.2.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway:

Performed the ActiveSync again. The error is gone.

Speed Up Your PC!

2008-09-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

If you find that your computer is running out of disk space or crawling like a snail whenever it starts up or launches a program, then you can try the software Crap Cleaner.

This is what it can do:
1. Help you to remove temporary and cached files which are stored by browsers and some utilities application
2. Empty your waste basket (not the physical one, the computer recycle-bin ;) )
3. Help you clean up your pet's poop (ok, I was only kidding about this one).

For those of you who are a little more savvy and not paranoid about system crashes, Crap Cleaner does a good job in cleaning up the obsoletes in your computer registry.

Best thing about this software? It's free and hugely popular!

If you like the software and would like to support the developers, don't forget to donate!
Click on the icon below to go to the web site.