Build your own iSCSI SAN appliances, save money

Not every IT organization has enough money to buy a storage area network (SAN) appliance. Yet most companies need a SAN, because – in my opinion – it's probably the best way to avoid losing critical data when server storage crashes occur. You don't need to pay for a proprietary SAN appliance, because you can build your own SAN using open source software. In this four-part tip you'll learn how to set up such an appliance setup.

Before starting to build your own SAN appliances, you should determine what exactly you need. Typically, a SAN consists of different components of which highly available storage is the core. If your SAN consists of just one box, you are playing with fire. If this box fails, your data will be unavailable, and that will cost you.

With proprietary systems, it takes two boxes to build a SAN, and it is the same when building an open source SAN . That is where the Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD), a distributed storage system for Linux distributions, comes in. Using DRBD, you can build your own RAID 1 across the network, so that if one of the servers providing storage goes down, the other will take over this role immediately. We will talk about DRBD more in part two of this tip.

In a highly redundant SAN , you'll need one, unique point of access. Some SAN setups work with Fibre Channel. Because this involves an expensive fiber optics-based infrastructure, this option is not the best imaginable for an affordable open source SAN. Instead of using Fibre Channel, we'll use iSCSI. An iSCSI target will be used to provide access to the storage device.

One of the challenges of building such a flexible SAN setup is to make it as versatile as possible. That means that a failing component has to switch over automatically. So if the SAN box that currently hosts DRBD as well as iSCSI access goes down, the other box in the SAN needs to take over automatically. To do this, we'll use Heartbeat -- a portable, high-availability cluster management program -- to monitor and ensure availability of all critical resources in the SAN.

We will discuss Heartbeat in part three of this tip, and iSCSI in the fourth. Also, check out my Heartbeat how-to on this site.

Image 1: Schematical overview of the open source SAN

Required Software
To build such SAN appliances, you need the appropriate software. Typically, any Linux distribution will do, but in this article we'll use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2, which is available as a free download. One of the advantages of using SUSE is its position as the distribution used by the Heartbeat Software developers; Heartbeat plays a critical role in this setup. You'll therefore always be ensured from optimal integration between the operating system and the cluster software when working with SUSE. You could use the open source version of SUSE Linux as well, but to build a stable and reliable setup, I would always recommend working with the enterprise version.

When making your choice of softwares to install, keep it to a minimum. After all, you are building SAN appliances here and typically on a SAN you wouldn't run any services. From the list of installable software patterns, select the following:

• Server Base System
• High Availability
• Documentation
• GNOME Desktop Environment for Server
• X Window System

Apart from that, select the iSCSI target components as well. Then you don't need anything else. In fact, you can even do it with less and choose not to select the GNOME environment and X Window System, but since SUSE heavily relies on YaST to configure the box, I'd recommend - at least for as long you are still working on the installation - that you keep the graphical environment at hand. Once finished with the installation, you can still disable it. Of course, you're also free to start all graphical components from a desktop in case you would prefer that.

In addition to the software requirement, you should also think about the hard disk layout you want to use when building SAN appliances like this. No matter if you are setting up server hardware or two laptops to create a test environment, you should take into consideration that a storage device is needed as the SAN storage. In figure 1, I have used /dev/sdb as an example storage device, but this assumes that you have two (or even more) hard drives available. In case you do not have that, it may be a good option to create an LVM setup, and to make a large dedicated volume available for the SAN storage.

The LVM setup also allows you to work with a snapshot appliance - more about that later in this tip. On my test setup, where I use two laptops with a 160 GB hard disk , I've used the following disk layout:

• /dev/sda1: a 100 MB Ext2 formatted partition that is mounted on /boot.
• /dev/sda2: the rest of all available disk space, marked as type 8e for use in an LVM environment.
• /dev/system: the LVM volume group that uses the disk space available from /dev/sda2.
• /dev/system/root: a 10 GB Ext3 formatted logical volume for use as the root of the server file system.
• /dev/system/swap: a 2 GB logical volume used as swap space.
• /dev/system/DRBD: a 100 GB logical volume which is just allocated and not formatted.

To create such a disk layout, use the YaST integrated module while performing the installation.

Image 2: To configure the disk layout of your SAN, YaST can be of great help.

The last consideration to take when setting up your server is networking. I recommend putting your SAN on a network that is separated from normal user traffic. You don't want synchronization between the storage devices in the DRBD setup to be interrupted by a large file transfer initiated by an end-user, so if possible, create a dedicated storage network.

Normally, you would also want to configure a separated network for Heartbeat traffic, in order that a node won't get cast off the network when traffic is temporarily elevated. In this situation, however, I prefer not to do that. If Heartbeat packets don't come through over the normal network connection, it is likely that your DRBD device has also ceased communicating . You wouldn't want Heartbeat to ignore a failure in the communications link while your SAN is in a disconnected stage because a redundant link is still replying, would you?

You now have the basis of your SAN solution available: the two servers that are going to offer the iSCSI storage services. In the next part of this article, you'll learn how to set up a DRBD shared storage device on top of this configuration.

About the author:Sander van Vugt is an author and independent technical trainer, specializing in Linux since 1994. Vugt is also a technical consultant for high-availability (HA) clustering and performance optimization, as well as an expert on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10) administration.

VMware upgrades Mac virtual machine software

 VMware Inc. today shipped Fusion 2.0, a major update for its virtualization software that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows, Linux and other operating systems. The upgrade is free to current Fusion users.

After a four-month stretch in beta, Fusion 2.0 is ready for prime time, said Pat Lee, a VMware group manager. "We want our customers to see that Windows really is better on a Mac," Lee said in a statement.

Version 2.0 adds multimonitor support and mirrored folders, as well as support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2, which is crucial for 3-D game-playing under Windows XP. Users can now also take and manage multiple "snapshots," VMware's term for saved versions of a virtual machine (VM) -- originally, only a single snapshot could exist at any one time -- and back up existing VMs automatically with a new auto-snapshot tool.

Other changes to the virtualization software include improvements to Unity, the Mac-Windows integration that puts Windows applications in Mac-style windows. Fusion 2.0 also comes with a free 12-month subscription to McAfee Inc.'s VirusScan Plus antivirus software in any VM running Windows.

The upgrade can be downloaded and installed free of charge by owners of Fusion 1.x; the price for first-time buyers is $79.99 for a single license, $349.99 for five seats and $699.99 for 10. Currently, Fusion 2.0 is available only by electronic distribution from the company's site and several third-party online stores, including those operated by Apple Inc., Amazon.com and Best Buy.

Fusion is one of the several virtualization programs available for the Macintosh. In the commercial arena, it goes head to head with Parallels Inc.'s flagshipParallels Desktop for Mac. Another option is Sun Microsystems Inc.'s open-source VirtualBox, which can be downloaded at no charge.

source: Gregg Keizer

Google's Chrome: Don't bet your enterprise on it

Think that Google's much-ballyhooed new Web browser, Chrome, is aimed at helping people surf the Web? Think again.

The browser instead takes dead aim at Microsoft Office and MicrosoftExchange. If Google has its way, your enterprise will use Chrome as a platform for Web-based applications from Google. You'll abandon Office, Outlook and others, and you'll bid Microsoft goodbye.

Any surfing you do with it, from Google's point of view, is pure gravy.

Even though the world has greeted Chrome as a consumer-level browser, Google didn't conceive of it that way. In a blog post on the company's Web site, Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, made no bones about what Google wanted to do when it designed Chrome:

"We realized that the Web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for Web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build."

To that end, Chrome is the first browser built from the ground up for a world in which the browser is an enterprise front end for Web-based applications and services such as Google Docs andGmail.

Chrome is designed to work mostly with AJAX and Web 2.0 applications. Google built its own JavaScript virtual machine, called V8, for running JavsScript. In addition, each tab in Chrome runs as a separate browser, so that if one tab gets busy, bogs down or crashes, it won't affect the other tabs. And Chrome comes equipped with Google Gears, a kind of glue for binding Web-based applications to your hard disk.

Chrome even includes features that make it appear as if Web-based applications are really software running on your own PC. You can create desktop shortcuts to Web applications that, when double-clicked on, run in a special window that has no browser controls -- no tabs, buttons or address bar. All you see is the application itself, as if it were a desktop application.

Google hopes that once enterprises use Chrome as a platform, they will abandon desktop-based applications for Web-based ones and desert Microsoft Office and Exchange for Google Docs and Gmail.

So it's clear that with Chrome, Google is selling a proposition: Give up Microsoft for Google. But should you buy?

The answer is not yet, not by a long shot.

Chrome itself is still an early beta product. Given Google's tendency to keep its software and services in beta for years -- Gmail is still in beta, and it was launched in 2004 -- don't expect it to come out of beta for a while.

In addition, Google Docs simply isn't up to the standards of Office. It's rudimentary and lacks too many features. And the Web itself still isn't fast or reliable enough for corporations to give up Office. Beyond that, there are training, deployment, stability and management issues. And many enterprises have standardized on Internet Explorer and use ActiveX controls, which Chrome doesn't support. Abandoning all that would take an enormous amount of time and resources.

Microsoft also has a long, proven track record with enterprises. Google, as of yet, doesn't.

Robert Fort, CIO at Virgin Entertainment Group, summed up the problem: "I give Google all the credit in the world for innovative solutions, but to Microsoft's credit, they've got a lot more of an enterprise attitude."

Fort is right. So it's a good idea to give Chrome a test-drive. But as new and shiny as the browser may be, it's not yet time to bet the enterprise on it.

Source: Preston Gralla

Microsoft issues wrong update for Exchange 2007

 Microsoft Corp. last week confirmed that it inadvertently released a pre-release version of anExchange Server 2007 update that could push servers into an endless series of crashes.

The Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 released to users via Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Microsoft's two most popular update mechanisms, was a preliminary version, the company acknowledged.

"For a brief period of time on 9/9, a pre-release version of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 was inadvertently made available to Microsoft Update, the Microsoft Update Catalog and WSUS servers for download," an unidentified Microsoft employee said in a post to theofficial Exchange blog.

Once Microsoft discovered its error, it pulled Update Rollup 4 -- a collection of previously disclosed bug fixes -- from the update services but warned those who had already installed it that it could cause problems. "An issue exists with this pre-release version of the Rollup 4 with regard to the Exchange Web Service (EWS) that creates the potential for a continuous crashing cycle," the blog post continued.

Some users reported that they were unable to back up their Exchange servers after installing the rollup during its window of availability, while others had more dire stories to tell. "It bricked one of my 'just about to go live' servers (services wouldn't start, can't uninstall). Spent today building another one," saidAlex Britton, in a message posted to the Exchange support forum. "Serves me right for not disabling the recommended auto-update auto install."

Microsoft recommended that users who had installed Update Rollup 4 uninstall it and then install the previous incarnation, Update Rollup 3.

That wasn't always easy, however, as a Microsoft Exchange engineer acknowledged in a comment added to the blog post. "I want to point out that there is an uninstall case that we just uncovered that people may hit," said Scott Roberts, a member of the Exchange team. After uninstalling Update Rollup 4, Roberts said, EWS is unable to read a configuration file; administrators must open the configuration file and manually edit it to replace instances of an incorrect path name.

Later in the comment thread, however, Roberts told a user to simply install Update Rollup 3 atop the faulty Version 4.

Microsoft did not provide a timetable for issuing a working edition of Update Rollup 4, although Roberts said that from this point forward, such updates would be released on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Next Tuesday, Sept. 23, is the fourth Tuesday of this month.

The whole episode left a bad taste in some users' mouths. "I am sorry but this is absolutely unacceptable," said a user identified as "Andy" in the first comment added to the Exchange blog post. "If a pre-release patch can get into Microsoft Update, you leave me no choice but to disable Automatic Updates."

"We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to make sure this does not happen again," Microsoft said in the Exchange blog.

This isn't the first snafu in Microsoft's update services. In June and July, the company had to fix two bugs in other patching mechanisms, including WSUS and the higher-end System Center Configuration Manager 2007, that had kept administrators from pushing patches to end users' PCs.

source: Gregg Keizer

Windows 7 in two months

 Microsoft won't likely miss the chance to showcase Windows 7 in the next two months at a pair of tech conferences, and it will give developers code for hands-on work, an analyst said today.

Windows 7, the follow-on to Vista, is already on the agendas of theProfessional Developers Conference (PDC), scheduled for Oct. 27-30, and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), slated for Nov. 5-7, but Microsoft will likely provide early code to developers at one or both of the shows, said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

"When that many developers [come] together, you want them to go home with something that they can play with," said Cherry. "Microsoft will want to do more than just tell developers about Windows 7."

Of the two conferences, Cherry put his money on WinHEC as the most likely target for Microsoft. "It's a small grouping by number," he reasoned, "so I think they are more likely to get something." That smaller number, he said, might be more attractive to Microsoft, which until recently has played Windows 7 closer to its vest than previous editions.

"Microsoft might have some concerns about the early code getting reviewed," said Cherry. "They won't want anyone to do any performance testing with a beta, but once it's out it's inevitable that those of us as analysts will start writing our impressions about the early code. Analysts abhor a vacuum."

The timing of a Windows 7 beta will be important in gauging the company's progress toward its stated goal of releasing the operating system three years after the debut of Vista. Analysts have typically interpreted that to mean that Windows 7 will ship either in the second half of 2009 or in early 2010.

While acknowledging that Microsoft "has a whole slew of decisions it has to make" about Windows 7 before issuing a beta, Cherry noted that historically, the company has delivered something at these conferences, even if at times it's been "some really rough code" that has been more alpha than beta.

"I fully expect that people will get bits," said Cherry, referring to the WinHEC event.

But he also played it safe by positing that those bits may not be what he thinks. "Those bits may not be for an operating system," Cherry speculated. "If you try to think why they would not give developers early code for Windows 7, one reason is that they intend to give them things to work on in the Live areas."

Microsoft's Live efforts involve meshing the company's Windows operating system on the desktop with software and services delivered from the cloud, and include both consumer- and enterprise-designed tools. Some reports have claimed that Microsoft will uncouple some of the applications integrated into Vista -- such as its Windows Mail client -- from the operating system itself and instead make them accessible as a Web service or after-purchase download.

Until last week, Microsoft had said almost nothing about a Windows 7 beta. Last Wednesday, however, a company manager said that Microsoft would collect beta testers through its usual process. "Our current plans call for signing up for the beta to happen in the standard Microsoft manner on http://connect.microsoft.com," said Christina Storm, a Microsoft program manager, in an entry on the Engineering Windows 7 blog last week.

On Sunday, Windows blogger Paul Thurrott said that Microsoft, reportedly testing Windows 7 internally, hopes to wrap up a beta in time to hand it out at next month's PDC.

source: Gregg Keizer

How do I flush DNS?

Most DNS clients cache the results of name resolution requests. This speeds up name resolution if multiple lookups are done to the same address, such as is common when browsing the web.

Sometimes a bad DNS entry will be cached and you will need to either flush the DNS cache to get rid of it, or wait up to 24 hours for it to be dropped from the cache automatically.

How to Flush DNS in Microsoft Windows

In Microsoft Windows, you can use the command ipconfig /flushdns to flush the DNS resolver cache:

C:\>ipconfig /flushdns  Windows IP Configuration  Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache. 

You can also use the command ipconfig /displaydns to view the DNS resolver cache.

Turning off DNS Caching under Microsoft Windows

If you experience frequent issues with DNS caching under Microsoft Windows, you can disable client-side DNS caching with either of these two commands:

• net stop dnscache
• sc servername stop dnscache

This will disable DNS caching until the next reboot. To make the change permanent, use the Service Controller tool or the Services tool to set the DNS Client service startup type to Disabled.

Tuning DNS Caching under Microsoft Windows

You can modify the behavior of the Microsoft Windows DNS caching algorithm by setting two registry entries in theHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters registry key.

The MaxCacheTtl represents the maximum time that the results of a DNS lookup will be cached. The default value is 86,400 seconds. If you set this value to 1, DNS entries will only be cashed for a single second.

MaxNegativeCacheTtl represents the maximim time that the results of a failed DNS lookup will be cached. The default value is 900 seconds. If you set this value to 0, failed DNS lookups will not be cached.

How to Flush DNS in Mac OSX

In Mac OSX Leopard, you can use the command dnscacheutil -flushcache to flush the DNS resolver cache:

bash-2.05a$ dnscacheutil -flushcache 

In Mac OSX versions 10.5.1 and before, the command lookupd -flushcache performed the same task:

bash-2.05a$ lookupd -flushcache 

How to Flush DNS in Linux

In Linux, the nscd daemon manages the DNS cache.

To flush the DNS cache, restart the nscd daemon.

To restart the nscd daemon, use the command `/etc/init.d/nscd restart`.

London Stock Exchange suffers .NET Crash

It should have been a great day on the London Stock Exchange. The U.S. government had announced on the Sunday before that it was coming to the rescue of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Trading would have been extremely brisk, but then, at 9:15 AM GMT, the Exchange's software failed due to "connectivity issues."Six-hours and 45-minutes later, the London Exchange, along with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which uses the LSE's trading platform TradElec, were finally back up.

That was no consolation to traders. As Reuters reported, "We have the biggest takeover in the history of the known world ... and then we can't trade. It's terrible," one trader said.

So what happened? Officially, the LSE first said that, "We will be investigating this and will do everything we can to make sure this doesn't reoccur." Laterthe LSE gave the vague explanation, that "It was software-related, a coincidence, due to two processes we couldn't have foreseen," and not caused by high-volume. The spokesperson added, "We've introduced a fix and we're confident it will not happen again."

Somehow "we couldn't have foreseen" and "we're confident it will not happen again" don't fit very well together.

So what really happened? I doubt we'll ever get a detailed, nitty-gritty explanation, but I have friends in London and... Well, let me just make the following points about TradElec. First, TradElec runs on more than a 100 HP ProLiant servers in several locations in London. These servers are running Windows Server 2003.

On top of this runs the TradElec software itself. This is a custom set of C# and .NET programs, which was created by Microsoft and Accenture, the global consulting firm. Its back-end databases, believe it or not, run on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The goal was to maintain sub-ten millisecond response times. In short, it's meant to be a real-time system.

The programmers and serious database administrators in the audience can already see where this is going. Sorry, Microsoft, .NET Framework is simply incapable of performing this kind of work, and SQL Server 2000, or any version of SQL Server really, can't possibly handle the world's number three stock exchange's transaction load on a consistent basis.

I'd been hearing from friends who trade on the LSE for ages about how slow the system could get. Now, I know why.

What I find really amazing is that the LSE's software stack hadn't blown its top earlier. Even setting aside my feelings for Linux, there's simply no way I'd recommend Server 2003, .NET and SQL Server for a job even a tenth this size. If a customer of mine insisted that they didn't want open source - more fool them - I'd recommended Sun Solaris, JEE (Java Enterprise Edition) and Oracle or IBM AIX or z/OS, WebSphere and DB2.

What I'd really prefer to see is RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), JBoss, and MySQL or Oracle or Novell's SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), JEE, and, again MySQL or Oracle for the DBMS engine. In any case, though, the real moral of this story is that if you really want HA (high availability) or HPC (high performance computing), Microsoft's products should be at the bottom of your list. Unix, mainframes, and, yes Linux, are far, far better for companies that need fast and reliable computing.

You don't have to believe me though. The New York Stock Exchange has already started to use Linux on its servers.

Hottest - How to buy a mini laptop

Minilaptops are among the hottest new products this year and with the back-to-school sales season upon us, I created a list of items to help you choose the right one.

The devices, which are becoming popularly known as netbooks, or my favorite term, "laptots," have caught on because they offer people a mobile, easy way to wirelessly access the Web.

They come with 7-in. to 10-in. LCD screens and are about half to two-thirds the size of a mainstream laptop. They weigh around 2.2 lbs each, carry batteries that last up to eight hours and generally cost between $199 and $699.

I've written several netbook reviews and after some consideration, offer these tips for your first netbook.

1. Know what you want to use it for and how much you're willing to spend.

This is a cliche in reviews and doesn't tell you much, but it's actually very important. What do you want this for? Do you want a lightweight device for easy Internet access? Or are you really looking for a full-featured laptop computer? Don't buy a netbook if you're really looking for a laptop, it would be a mistake.

To ensure longer battery life, some key components on a netbook, such as the microprocessor, are far less powerful than common laptops. That's why they're good for surfing the Internet, doing homework on a word processing program, and working on spreadsheets, presentations and other Office-like work.

Anyone looking for a gaming laptop or one for video editing or other multimedia work should shop for true laptops, not netbooks.

2. Buy a netbook with an 8.9-in. screen or larger.

I tried out an Eee PC with a 7-in. screen and the annoying part is not being able to see an entire Web page because the screen is too small.

That's less of a problem on the slightly larger-size screens and in the 8.9-in. screen size; the weight and size of the netbook is nearly the same as devices with 7-in. screens.

3. Make sure you get a 6-cell battery for your netbook, although you may have to pay $50 more and the device will weigh more.

Most companies are offering netbooks with 3-cell batteries as the standard, but that doesn't offer a whole lot of run time, just two to three hours. A 6-cell battery doubles that, and in some devices designed around a 6-cell battery, such as Asustek Computer's Eee PC 1000 andEee PC 901, you can get up to eight hours.

In a mobile device, battery life is vital. You don't want to always be looking around for plugs, nor fighting over the last one.

Most vendors are now following Asustek's lead with 6-cell batteries. Micro-Star International recently announced a line of Wind netbooks with 6-cell batteries, and Acer recently put out a formal version of its Aspire One with a 6-cell battery and larger hard disk drives (HDDs) to boot.

Vendors generally offer 6-cell batteries for all models. But most devices come standard with a 3-cell or 4-cell battery, so if you want a 6-cell, then you have to ask for it and expect to pay a bit more.

Another benefit of the larger battery is that it props up the back of the device, putting it on a slight angle that makes typing easier. Keypads on netbooks are smaller than normal keypads, and comfortable typing was one area I was not willing to compromise on.

4. Try out the keypad and make sure it's right for you.

None of the devices I tested had a better typing pad on a cheaper netbook than Intel's ClassMate PC, which has a keypad far smaller than the Eee PC 1000. Keys on the ClassMate PC's keyboard are raised and there is a lot of space between them, making them easy to find by touch.

By contrast, the Eee PCs, Wind and Elitegroup Computer Systems'G10IL designed their keypads with flat keys and little or no space between the keys because, I was told by Elitegroup staff, it makes them look nice.

The trouble is, it also makes typing more difficult.

I really liked the keypads on Acer's Aspire One and Everex's CloudBook Max, but the best keypad was on Hewlett-Packard's Mini-Note.

5. Software: See what it comes with and consider trying the Linux OS.

There are two lessons on software.

First, some vendors have skimped on including software in their netbooks on the pretense that users can download a lot for free on the Internet. That's true, but it's a bogus excuse. Who wants to spend time downloading when many netbook makers have added lots of software so users can play with their new netbook right away?

Asustek included a lot of useful software on its Eee PCs 1000, 1000H and 901, as has Acer, which also added a nice opening screen that boots up in just 12 seconds.

Second, it may be time to the give the Linux operating system a try.

The Acer opening screen I just referred to is based on Linux, and Aspire One comes with the Linpus Linux Lite operating system, which is very user-friendly. I've used Windows for most of my life but switching to Linux to try out Aspire One was smooth and easy.

Most of the netbooks I tested with Linux operating systems booted up far faster than Windows XP or Windows Vista (I would not buy a netbook with Vista, it's just too slow).

There are also free Linux-based word processing programs, spreadsheets and so on available on the Internet such asOpen Office, Google Pack, which includes Sun's StarOffice or Web-based software such as Google Apps.

Of course, it would be nice to see a Web site devoted to netbooks, with software specifically designed for low-power devices and smaller screens. Netbookdownload.com, anyone?

6. Price: If it costs more than $500, start looking at a regular notebook computer.

Companies have started promoting a wide range of netbooks at higher prices, but once you pass $500, netbooks start to compete with laptops, and a laptop will almost always give you more value for your money in that case.

Laptop computers have far more powerful microprocessors and other components than netbooks, and sport DVD drives. There are no DVD drives on netbooks.

If size and weight are your main concerns, there are plenty of small, full-featured laptops, including the Sony Vaio VGN-TZ340, Lenovo IdeapadU110-23042BU, and, of course, Apple's lightweight MacBook Air.

7. Look around at what's available.

There were a lot of devices that impressed me and that are worth considering.

Giga-byte's M912, is the netbook that has by far the coolest technology on board with its touch screen. The screen can also swivel around so you can show someone else what you're working on or looking at on the Net.

But I was quoted a price of $632 for the device, and since I'm not really sure how much I'd use the touch screen, I figured it wasn't right for me.

I almost decided on one of the netbooks with the bigger, 10-in. screens. My top choices were Asustek's Eee PC 1000 with the Xandros Linux OS and a 40GB solid-state drive for storage and 6-cell battery, or Micro-Star's Wind with a 6-cell battery.

Both devices are very nice to use but were a little bigger and more expensive than what I was looking for. Size is important to consider in terms of weight. Ten-inch screens, HHD and 6-cell batteries add a lot of extra weight to a netbook.

All of the netbooks I tried out include wireless Internet access through Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, but only Asustek's Eee PCs 1000, 1000H and 901 offered speedier 802.11b/g/n as of this writing.

The CloudBook Max will be sold with subscriptions for WiMax wireless networking, and some netbooks will also be sold with built-in 3G modules so mobile phone service providers can offer them with third-generation telecommunications contracts, so people can access the Internet from anywhere on their mobile phone network.

People can also buy add-on 3G or WiMax cards for any netbook.

8. And finally, the best netbook available is. ...

I tested several different netbooks and published reviews on them all, and after trying out some pretty cool devices, I decided to buy the one that's right for me: Acer's Aspire One.

Based on the criteria above, here's why:

I already have a laptop PC, so I don't need a powerful netbook. I just wanted a smaller, lighter device easier to carry around that I can use to surf the Web and write outside my office.

Aspire One comes with an 8.9-in. screen and a 3-cell battery, standard, but I will pay a little more for a 6-cell battery. I get stranded in airports sometimes, often take trains and simply like to sip my coffee very slowly. I need a long-lasting battery.

The keypad on the device is quite comfortable, and the software it comes with is easy to use, especially the Linpus Linux Lite operating system.

The price sealed my decision.

Last Friday, Acer slashed prices on three Aspire One models in the U.S., to $399 for an Aspire One with Windows XP, a 160GB HDD and 6-cell battery. An Aspire One with Windows XP, a 120GB HDD and 3-cell battery costs just $349, and a similar device running on Linpus Linux Lite is just $329.

I plan to buy the $329 Linux-based Aspire One, which has an 8.9-in. screen, a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 512MB of DRAM and 8GB of flash memory storage and a 3-cell battery. I'll add more DRAM and buy an additional flash card, as well as trade up to a 6-cell battery, which will likely raise the price to around $420, in all.

source: Dan Nystedt

Exploring Microsoft's Network Access Protection policy options

Network Access Protection (NAP), a policy enforcement platform built into the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista operating systems, allows users to protect network assets by enforcing compliance with system health requirements. NAP customers can create customized health policies to validate a computer's security before allowing it access or communication with a network.

NAP provides several remediation options. It can optionally confine non-compliant computers to a restricted network, restore the client to an acceptable level of health, and automatically update compliant computers to ensure ongoing compliance. Based on the security status of a client computer, NAP can allow full network access, limit access to a restricted network or deny access to the network completely.

The method of enforcement selected for NAP determines how the health policies will be imposed; policies can be enforced for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), VPN withRouting and Remote Access, 802.1x port-based wired and wireless network access control, or IPsec-protected traffic. NAP can also enforce ongoing health compliance on compliant computers that are already connected to the network, which is useful when policies or the health of the clients change.

How NAP works
NAP functions with agents in Windows Server 2008 and the Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista client operating systems. The client environment includes system health agents (SHAs), a quarantine agent (QA) and an enforcement client (EC). When a client connects through DHCP, VPN, 802.1x or IPsec, the SHA determines the current state of the client and forwards a network access request on to a network policy server (NPS), which includes a system health validator (SHV) and a quarantine server (QS). If the client is non-compliant, it is directed to a restricted network where remediation servers can apply the appropriate security updates to bring the system into compliance. If a client is found to be compliant, it is given access to the corporate network.

DHCP
Enforcement through DHCP is achieved through the use of NAP enforcement server and enforcement client components interacting with a network policy server. Each time a computer attempts to lease or renew an IP address configuration on the network, the DHCP server can check and enforce health policy requirements. The NPS limits the client's network access to a restricted network by instructing the DHCP server to assign a limited IP address configuration.

The drawback to this method is that if client computers are configured with a static IP address or are otherwise configured to circumvent the limited IP address configuration, DHCP enforcement will be ineffective.

VPN
VPN enforcement utilizes VPN NAP enforcement servers and VPN NAP enforcement client components. When a client attempts a remote VPN connection, the VPN server will validate the health of the client. While this method functions in the same way as for DHCP, it provides strong limited network access only for computers connecting to the network through the VPN server.

802.1x
The 802.1x policy method uses an NPS and an EAPHost NAP enforcement client. EAPHost is a component of the Windows infrastructure and implements the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) state machine and EAP protocol framework, as per RFC 3748. When a non-compliant client attempts a connection through an access point, the network policy sender communicates with the access point (either a set of IP packet filters or a virtual LAN identifier), instructing it to place a restricted access profile on the 802.1x client until it is compliant.

IPsec
IPsec enhancement uses an NPS, a health registration authority (HRA) and an IPsec EC. The HRA issues an X.509 certificate to clients once they are in compliance with health policy requirements. The issued certificate is used to authenticate the clients when initiating or requesting IPsec communications. Of all the limited network access protection measures in NAP, the IPsec EC is considered to provide the strongest security. Because this method uses IPsec, the requirements for protected communications can be defined based on a specific IP address or TCP/UDP port number.

Each of these NAP enforcement methods has different advantages, and it is possible to combine these methods to obtain the benefits of each. However, this will add complexity to a NAP deployment.

Ultimately, NAP is intended to help an enterprise to increase business value, preserving user productivity and extending the existing investments an enterprise already has in its Microsoft-based or third-party infrastructure. By enforcing compliance with health requirements, Network Access Protection can help network administrators mitigate some of the common risks caused by improperly configured client computers that might be exposed to viruses and other malicious software.

About the author:
Beth Quinlan (MCT, MCSE-Security, CISSP) is the technical lead for HynesITe, where she is a trainer/consultant. She has specialized in Microsoft infrastructure technologies and security design for over 12 years. She has authored the ISA Server 2006 Reviewer's Guide. and techtarget.

No More Chrome

It doesn't take much to make me hate a browser. After using Chrome for an entire week, I found one seemingly innocuous bug that is so annoying and frustrating that I can't even use the product anymore.

Google normally releases relatively stable betas, but that has not always been the case with "real" software. I remember when Google Desktop Search was first released and it made my PC unusable - I had to reinstall Windows XP. As I said before, this beta is pretty sound - it has not crashed on me at all, and most features work. Chrome does not have any earth-shattering bugs. Or maybe it does?

The bug I found is not so heinous that it will be readily apparent. Yet, it is a killer for me.

Here's how I found it today. I use the inline spell checker a lot. I'm a writer, what can I say? Sometimes, when I right-click to see the correct spelling for a word, Chrome selects all of the text in an e-mail. Fine, a simple SNAFU. It might not seem like a big deal, but if you happen to then click in the wrong place, the "select all" function misfires and clicks on the Undo function. So what does this mean in practical use?

Let's say you type three paragraphs of an e-mail or blog -- your most stunning prose, a technical description for your boss, or this very post. It doesn't have to be in Gmail, so let's say you use Yahoo Mail or Blogger or some other tool. Anyway, if you right-click on a word and the select all function misfires, your text will magically disappear because what you are undoing is actually all of that typing! And there is no way to bring the text back no matter how hard you try. (I have not found a redo function.) It's a killer bug, one that has already lost me about 30 minutes of e-mail typing just today.

(I'm using a Lenovo SL300 laptop with Vista Business, let me know if you can replicate this error in comments.)

so, I have to abandon Chrome for now and go back to Firefox, so we'll see if they fix this problem. In all these years of using Firefox and (gasp, dare I say it) IE I have never had a bug like this. And, I know -- I should be using Word or Outlook, right?

source: John Brandon

Google bends to Chrome privacy criticism

Reacting to criticism that its newChrome browser was essentially acting as a keylogger, potentially recording users' every keystroke, Google Inc. yesterday said it would render anonymous the data it collects from the browser within 24 hours.

A privacy expert said the change's impact couldn't be gauged without knowing exactly how Google will "anonymize" the data it records as users type in Chrome's "OmniBox," the name given to the browser's combination address bar-search bar.

Google has taken heat over the "Google Suggest" feature used within OmniBox since it launched Chrome last week. The Suggest feature automatically lists related search queries and popular Web destinations based on the text typed into the OmniBox. Suggest works by logging users' keystrokes -- not just in the OmniBox, but since late last month in Google's primary search field -- and offering the most likely sites or searches based on a blend of popularity and the search company's own algorithms.

Suggest transmits those keystrokes to Google's servers, as the feature's FAQacknowledges. "Just as E.T. needs to phone home in order to get a spaceship to pick him up, Google Suggest needs to talk to Google while you type in order to offer suggestions to you," the FAQ reads.

While all keystrokes typed into Chrome's OmniBox are sent to Google, the vast majority aren't permanently recorded, but instead are discarded as soon as suggestions are returned to the browser. About 2% of the time, however, the keystrokes are recorded, along with associated data such as the IP address of the user who entered those keystrokes.

Previously, Google said it needed that data to monitor and improve Suggest. On Monday, the company announced it would change how long it keeps the data logged from Suggest.

"Given the concerns that have been raised about Google storing this information, and its limited potential use, we decided that we will anonymize it within about 24 hours, basically, as soon as we practically can," said Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations, in an entry to the company's blog late Monday.

"All data retention is a balance between user privacy and trust on the one hand, and security and innovation on the other," argued Holzle. "In the case of Google Suggest, we decided it's possible to provide a great service while anonymizing data almost immediately."

Google Suggest, which had been in development since 2004, began rolling out to Google's search engine late last month. Before that, it was widely used by Google Toolbar, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox and Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

The logging, transmitting and recording of keystrokes, however, returned to the forefront when Google released Chrome a week ago. What sparked the criticism over Chrome was the everything-in-one-place nature of the browser's OmniBox, said Alissa Cooper, the chief computer scientist at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Unlike other browsers, which separate the address bar -- where users type URLs -- from the search bar, Chrome combines the two.

"It's the URLs that sparked the criticism, and the change by Google," said Cooper. "Users were faced with Google retaining all of their search logs and all of the URLs they were typing."

Nor was Cooper sure that Google's new promise to anonymize the recorded data within 24 hours is enough. "That's a good step, but that doesn't mean that all those logs are rendered anonymous," she said, pointing out that Google says it anonymizes its server logs, for instance, when it only partially deletes IP addresses and cookies.

"It will really depend on the mechanism Google uses to anonymize those logs," Cooper said. "The impact this has on privacy will only become clear when we know how they render the data anonymous."

Chrome users can disable Google Suggest by right-clicking the OmniBox, then selecting "Edit search engines" and clearing the check box beside "Use a suggestion service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar."

source: Gregg Keizer

Google Chrome Add-ons to come

Google Chrome is out and it has been well accepted as the latest challenger in the web browser war.

Mozilla Firefox remains the favorite mostly because of the add-on feature which enables the user to extend the capabilities of the browser by adding third party tools.

Google Chrome while being an open source offering lack any such feature at the moment.

But Google is definitely working on an extension API which should allow third party developers to code features that could work on top of Chrome.

Google representative Sundar Pichai has been quoted as saying: “We don’t have that in the beta today, but we definitely plan an extension API. It is one of the things we will get to next.”

It would be interesting to see how Google would react to potential future add-ons like AdBlock which enables the user to surf the websites with all advertising disabled.

Google’s primary source of income is online advertising and they might restrict any such possible add-ons for Chrome.

Improve Windows XP boot speed - tweak windows xp

Eliminate unwanted programs from boot up: You will find that many of the programs you install on your system set portions of themselves to run automatically when you start up your computer. Each program that runs on startup not only consume system resources but also extends the length of time it takes your PC to fully boot.Since it is generally unnecessary to have any programs running in the background (other than security software like virus-scanners or firewalls) disable your unwanted startup programs to increase your startup speed and conserve system resources.
The easiest way to go about this task is to use the MSCONFIG utility, which may be familiar to users of Windows 9x. This handy program contains a list of software which is set to start when you boot your PC. You can then easily disable and re-enable (if necessary) these items.

Go to ’start\run’ and type ‘msconfig’ to access the utility.

The ’startup’ tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and directories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not.

Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names, such as the Win32.spybot.worm as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure.

The next place you should go is ’start\programs\startup’ which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up.

If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for various badness such as spyware and virus software, so if there are files here which are not shortcuts and you don’t recognize them, you may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place critical files in this directory.

Eliminate unwanted fonts to increase boot speed: The Windows XP control panel contains a ‘fonts’ directory which holds all the fonts currently installed on your system. These can come from Windows itself or from an application such as Word.Windows checks and loads these fonts during the startup process, therefore having a large amount of font files can cause performance to drag during startup. The simple solution for this (if you do not expect to use the majority of these fonts constantly) is to move the unnecessary fonts to a new directory elsewhere on the hard disk, preserving them in case they are needed, but preventing them from loading upon startup.To do this:
Create a new directory called ‘font backup’ or something similar on your C: drive.

Go to ’start\control panel\fonts’ and select all fonts. Drag and drop all the fonts into the backup folder you just created. Things will get garbled for a moment, never fear. Windows XP will automatically re-install the base fonts that it needs to display text into the fonts folder in a second or two.

Now you have the bare minimum of fonts installed. Go through the backup folder and cherry pick the fonts that you are sure to use (like Times New Roman or Arial).

If you removed a large volume of fonts, your system should now boot faster.

Turn off BIOS disk detection: Most modern motherboards will attempt to detect any IDE devices, such as hard drives and CD drives, during the POST sequence each time the computer boots. By configuring the BIOS with the correct drive information, you can shave a few seconds off your boot time by avoiding this detection process.To do this enter your system’s BIOS setup screen.Depending on your motherboard, you may have an IDE drive auto-detection menu. If you do, simply select it to automatically set your drives. If not, configure the drives through the ’standard CMOS settings’ menu.
Note that some motherboard chipsets (like Nvidia’s Nforce 2) do not allow this auto-detection to be disabled.

Use the Intel application accelerator: If your computer has an older Intel chipset (pre-865) you may benefit from downloading and installing the Intel Application Accelerator .This software replaces the Windows XP ATA (hard disk and IDE device) drivers with ones specially designed for Intel chipsets, improving disk performance and boot time.Please make sure that your computer conforms to the system requirements before installing the accelerator.
Disable unneeded devices in device manager: A quick fix that can make XP boot faster is to disable any unused devices in the Windows XP device manager. For example if you have a integrated sound card or video card that you have upgraded, or if you do not use a floppy drive on your system, it pays to disable these devices in device manager.The same goes for extra network cards. Of course, the standard rule of thumb applies here: If you do not know what it is, leave it alone.To disable unneeded devices in device manager:
Right click on ‘my computer’ and select ‘properties.’ From the ‘hardware’ tab, select ‘device manager.’ Expand the various categories to locate unused devices. Right click the devices and select ‘disable.’

Disable auto detection for empty IDE slots: Another quick trick for a faster boot up is to disable the auto detection that Windows XP uses to determine if there are IDE devices present in any of the IDE slots on the motherboard. More specifically, disable this feature on any empty slots to prevent the operating system wasting time and resources checking them.Right click on ‘my computer’ and select ‘properties.’ Go to the ‘hardware’ tab and select ‘device manager’ to open the device management window.Expand ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers’ and highlight the ‘primary IDE channel.’ Right click the highlighted entry and select ‘properties.’ Go to the ‘advanced settings’ tab.
If either IDE slot on the controller is empty, the ‘device type’ dropdown box will be not grayed out. Set it to ‘none’ to disable auto detection of IDE devices on that particular slot.

Repeat the above steps for the ’secondary IDE controller.’

Note that if you wish to add a new IDE device, you will have to reset the ‘device type’ setting to ‘autodetect’ in order for Windows to use the new drive.

Reduce wait time after XP boots: A common performance problem with Windows XP is ’start lag,’ in which the operating system boots up normally, the desktop is visible and usable, but programs will not start, and selecting icons and using the start menu are extremely slow. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes to clear up, and can make using the operating system extremely frustrating, especially if you are in a hurry after the reboot.This delay is generally caused by Windows XP’s networking services looking for other computers and advertising their functions over the computer’s network connections.
If this problem is driving you nuts, there is a way to reduce or eliminate the delay, though if you are attached to a home network, it will reduce your computer’s functionality on that network.

If your computer is not attached to a home network:

Right click on ‘my computer’ and select ‘manage.’
Expand ’services and applications’ and select ’services’ to open the services window.
Highlight the ‘workstation’ service, right click and select ‘properties.’ Set the ’startup type’ dropdown box to ‘disabled.’ Click ‘ok.’

Note that you will need to re-enable the workstation service should you wish to network your PC in the future.

If your computer is part of a home network:

Go to ’start\control panel\network and internet connections\network connections.’

Right click your current network connection (should be ‘local area connection’ unless you have more than one network adaptor) and select ‘properties.’

Uncheck the ‘File and Print Sharing’ box and press ‘ok.’

Note that this will disable your computer’s ability to share files and printers over the network, though it should not affect your ability to access such resources on another system.