Pen Drives – Paul's Tech Talk

Protecting your personal information!

PaulJanuary 23, 2012

Image via Wikipedia

People will steal your information in a heartbeat!

If you have had your head in the ground lately, you would let people see your information without you even knowing it. If your one of those people who use your Ipad, kindle Fire (Affiliate link), or some really good Android device to check your emails or browsing the web, then your information is vulnerable to people reading or getting your information.

There are several ways to get your information, I’ve already talk about one way that someone hacked an account on one of my favorite science fiction site. I actually had to help solve the problem and get the site running without redirecting visitors to another site. This isn’t always about scaring people but to help them do what is needed.

Security starts with simple stuff!

To protect your personal information is a simple as one, two, and three. Nothing in this article is going to be very hard but I intent to help you make it even easier to for those who are untrained. Having to help a couple of my customers with this, I’ve pretty much come up with a way to safely browse the web without leaving footprints for those really hard to find viruses.

Portable Apps — This is a great little tool that you can customize and install Lastpass. I thoroughly recommended it in the past and still do, it is a great deterrent for key loggers and phishing attacks. Lastpass even has a portable(Mobile) application so you don’t have to install anything on the computer in questions.

Create a Live CD — Making a Pen Drive can go a long way to prevent from getting a virus or even someone getting your personal information, but that won’t help if your using a wireless hotspot.

Install Ubuntu — This the easiest way to have a Linux system on your computer. Now I am not going to say Linux is worry free from viruses, but that does make it less likely to get them. I really think Linux is OS is something that will stand the test of time because of it being an Open Source and not a closed projects like Apple and Windows.

Create a Virtual Machine — this is like creating a live CD but not having to reboot. You can create a virtual machine and run the live cd in the virtual machine. This is however not as secure as rebooting because some program could be watching the network and logging everything. I don’t recommend this as much but it is something useful if you are worried about getting a virus.

Don’t forget to use a VPN(Virtual Private Network)!

Now I already talked about some VPN’s for Ubuntu/Kubuntu but that doesn’t work with Windows or Macintosh, but I will talk about some alternatives for those who want to use Windows or Macintosh!

PublicVPN — This works with Macintosh and Windows but have not tried this so I am only showing alternatives and thus you will need to determine if this is right for your situation.

Hotspot Shield — This is one of the ones that I have used in the past and still recommend it and it now seems to work with Ipads and Apple products.

Android VPN — The Android Market Place has some great choices for several different VPN’s that may work well with your situation but I have yet to test them out and see which one is the best but yet this is something that may require some testing on your Android Device.

Do you use a VPN?

This is something that I thought I would ask and thought I would ask it as a poll. I would love to hear if you use a VPN and how much. I encourage everyone to use a VPN when ever you are at a open wireless hotspot.

Paul Sylvester

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Get Thunderbird to launch Firefox/Chrome browsers in Linux!

PaulJune 12, 2011

This isn’t like Windows!

If your like me you probably clicked a link in Thunderbird and thought you would be taken to your favorite browser but that isn’t the case with Linux. The pop up screen asking you which application to launch is quite similar to Windows but there is a problem. If you have had no experience with Linux then you might ask yourself “Where’s the program files?” It seems that Windows and Linux differs from each other in that aspect. I did have to do some things to get Thunderbird to get it to launch a browser. This quick tutorial will help those new to Linux to do what they have always done on Windows. I will warn people that clicking on links in your emails is the first way to get a virus or a credit card stolen but that is for another topic and discussion!

Some Preparations are in order!

For some of use this is something that should already be included, but it seems that Mozilla didn’t add some important config scripts into the Thunderbird application for Linux. Thanks to Google, I found the answers and I thought I would also share them with people so it would be much easier for others to enable launching the browser in Thunderbird.

You will need to add these strings in Thunderbird:

In Thunderbird: edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor

Right click anywhere in the list and click ADD > String. Then add these strings with values!

String: network.protocol-handler.app.http Value: x-www-browser

String: network.protocol-handler.app.https Value: x-www-browser

String: network.protocol-handler.app.ftps Value: x-www-browser

Once that is done, your ready for the next step of the process.

Where Do I find these files?

Most cases you will find these files in only one place and that is almost like a C: Drive. In order to find the right program, you first need to go:

/usr/bin/firefox.sh (shell script)

/usr/bin/chromium-browser.sh (shell script)

/usr/bin/rekonq.ex (Executable)

These are the two files you will need to tell Thunderbird to launch the right application when you click on a link. You should only need to do this once for each type of link from http, https, and the last one is the file transfer protocol but if you do this, I see no reason why you would be able to launch your favorite browser. Depending on which browser you have installed, it should be easily found in the the bin directory and you should be able to launch your browser even if it is not a well known browser. .

Let’s Rock Linux

Paul Sylvester

The Pen is mightier than the megabyte!

PaulApril 11, 20118 Replies

Image via Wikipedia

As technicians we have way to many pen drives!

If you are like me, you probably have several different USB Flash drives laying around like I do. I usually have special ones for special projects. You’d probably have one for Virus removal and another one for fixing Hard Drives like Spinrite. A few years ago, I would have 6 to 10 Pen drives for just those special occasions. I’d even have one for all my saved games and other important files that I might need.

One Pen Drive to rule them all, One Pen Drive to find them,
One Pen Drive to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!

So I have found some great programs to create one massive Pen Drive so I don’t have to have so many USB Flash Drives laying around on the desk! I figured I would go about talking about the best way to pack your USB drive with all that valuable information and have it at your finger tips in case of the some problems with the system.

YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator — This is what you will need to pack that USB with all your favorite ISO‘s. The only requirement is the size of the Pendrive. If you don’t have a big enough Pen drive then you will ultimately have to split them into small pen drives. I have several different useful programs on my pen drive. The only down side is that it is Windows only. I would love them to make it for Linux or even OS X but It is still darn useful.
WSUS Offline Upate — This is darn useful program. If you ever needed to update a Windows without being online this is for you. It will download the files and then make an ISO. Once you have the ISO you can Yumi to put it on the Pen Drive. Good news about this is you can keep using Yumi to replace the ISO every month and it doesn’t take much time. Just don’t delete the files that WSUS downloads or you will have to redownload them again. Just keep those files safe and all you will have to do is download the updates each month and then copy the new ISO to Yumi.
Puppy Linux — Is by far my Favorite little Linux Distro because it will allow me to save my personal settings in any computer I use and thus when I come back to the system with Puppy, I do not have to redo anything I did before.
Ultimate Boot CD — Is another great little ISO to install in the Pen Drive. If your having problems with the system. This will let you test the system in ways you probably never thought about doing. Very useful for any Technician who is doing some kind of problem solving.
System rescue CD — If you ever needed to rescue the system from a variety of problems like partition problems or hard drive crashes. This is goo for that resource. This Distro contains many different tools for Networks, file restoration and Many more.
Spinrite — The is obviously the best tool there is because it will already come as an ISO and all you will need to do is us YUMI to put it on the USB drive. Once on the drive you have a plug and hard drive repair program for any occasion.

I pretty much gave you a baseline of ISO and programs to use to make your Ultimate Pen drive for when you might need them. I won’t go on to much longer because I know your itching to try these programs and find even more programs to install onto your USB Flash Drive. I will say if you search long and hard you could find some really good treasures to make it even better and worth while. I like having only a few Pen drives than having a hand full of them. Don’t you??