AG’s Latest!

We are currently port monitoring a number of ports on one of our HP switches as we are evaluating a new content filtering software. We decided to use port monitoring as to not disrupt our current filtering software (thanks to ACCUCOM for your assistance setting this up). This was achieved by doing the following:

• Both the monitored port and monitoring port must be on the same switch.

1. Browse to the IP address of the switch containing the ports as explained above in your web browser.
2. Navigate to the Configuration tab and select Monitor Port.
   
3. Select the Monitor Selected Ports radio button and select the Monitoring Port from the drop-down list.
   
4. Select the ports to monitor from the listed ports (multiple ports can be selected) and click the Apply Changes button.
   
5. All traffic from the selected ports will now be mirrored to the monitoring port.

written by Andrew Greenlees

RocketDock.com (Download)

I am not much of a Mac person although I can see Macs greater performance when it comes to image and video editing, but this is another story. What I do like about Macs is the OS X dock. For me docks are a simple and easy way to store shortcuts to my mostly used programs and folders. In my opinion the best Windows dock out there is RocketDock as it is easy to use, simple to setup and looks good too. Below is a screen capture of my current dock which is set to auto hide at the top of my screen.

Here is a short video and feature list from RocketDock.com:

Download link

Features:

• Minimize windows to the dock
• Real-time window previews in Vista
• Running application indicators
• Simple drag-n-drop interface
• Multi-monitor support
• Supports alpha-blended PNG and ICO icons
• Icons zoom and transition smoothly
• Auto-hide and Popup on mouse over
• Positioning and layering options
• Fully customizable
• Completely Portable
• ObjectDock Docklet support
• Compatible with MobyDock, ObjectDock, RK Launcher, and Y’z Dock skins
• Runs great on slower computers
• Unicode compliant
• Supports many languages and can easily be translated
• A friendly user base
• And best of all… its FREE!!!

written by Andrew Greenlees

Because I can! 

written by Andrew Greenlees

FrontMotion have a community edition of Firefox that enables network admins to control Firefox settings via Group Policy. (FMFirefoxCE)

• Download the latest release of FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition MSI (Download).
• Download either the firefox.adm or the mozilla.adm templates (Download).
  • firefox.adm is used to control settings at a user level.
  • mozilla.adm is used to control settings at a computer level and is also more advanced.

Configuring Group Policy:

1. Copy the downloaded adm template/s into the %SystemRoot%\windows\inf of your Active Directory server (this is where Windows stores its adm templates).
2. Open Active Directory, right-click on the OU that you want to set the Firefox policy for and select Properties.
   
3. Select the Group Policy tab and either create a New policy or Edit an existing policy.
   
4. Here you have two options;
   - Computer Configuration, which will set the policies at a computer level. Both firefox.adm and mozilla.adm templates can be used at this level.
   - User Configuration, which will set the policies at a user level. Only firefox.adm can be used at this level.
   I would recommend using Computer Configuration as the level of configuration is far more granular.
5. Right-click the Administrative Templates folder under the desired levels tree and select Add/Remove Templates…
   
6. Select the Add… button from the window that pops up and select either the firefox.adm or the mozilla.adm template.
   
7. A new folder containing the settings for the ADM template will be displayed under the Administrative Templates tree. Firefox if the firefox.adm template was used or Mozilla Advanced Options if the mozilla.adm template was used (I have added both for the example).
   
8. You now need to configure the desired settings:
   - firefox.adm, only has a total of 7 configurable settings.
   - mozilla.adm, (see about:config for listing of settings) can be configured to use either Locked or Default settings. Locked Settings mean that the user cannot change any of the configured settings whereas Default Settings are set initially for the user but the user will have the ability to change these settings if they wish.
   

Note: mozilla.adm settings will override firefox.adm settings.

Deploying FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition via Group Policy:

If you have a small number of workstations then you can install manually the latest FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition on each of them and the settings that you set above will be configured. For larger organisations this is not an option, so software deployment is neccessary:

1. Software deployment can once again be done at a computer or user level.
   - Computer level installations will install the package on the computer in the selected OU.
   - User level installations will install the package on each computer that the users in the selected OU log on to.
2. Copy the downloaded FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition MSI pack to a shared directory on your file server. Depending on the level of installation you have chosen to use, you need to give either Domanin Computers or Domain Users read access to the folder that the MSI is stored in.
3. Open Active Directory, right-click the OU containing either the users or the computers that you want to deploy the package to and select Properties.
   
4. Select the Group Policy tab and either create a New policy or Edit an existing policy.
   
5. Expand the Software Settings folder under the desired levels tree, right-click Software installation, select New, select Package…
   
6. Select the FrontMotion Firefox Community Editions MSI file and click the Open button.
7. Select Advanced from the window that pops up as we want to set some options.
   
   - I generally leave most of the options as default, but occasionally change the name as this is what will be displayed for the user when the software is being installed.
8. Select the Security tab, give Domain Computers or Domain Users read access depending on the level of installation that you chose and click the OK button.
   
9. You should now see the newly created package in the Software installation list.
   
10. The software shoud now be installed after a restart of the workstation or next time the users logs on depending on the level of installation that you chose.

written by Andrew Greenlees

To make searching your favorite websites through Firefox easier and more efficient keyword searches can be added:

1. Browse to the site that you want to add a keyword search for. For this example I will user YouTube.
2. Right-click in the sites search box and select “Add a Keyword for this Search…”.
   
3. Add a name for the bookmark, the keyword you would like to use for the search and where you would like to save the bookmark and click OK.
   
4. To use the keyword search type the keyword followed by what you would like to search for in the Firefox address bar.
   • Example: yt wordpress (will search for wordpress on youtube.com)
     

written by Andrew Greenlees

Firefox 2.0.0.10 - Firefox 2.0.0.11 in just two days… (Download)

From mozilla.com (Release Notes):

“What’s New in Firefox 2.0.0.11

Release Date:

November 30, 2007

Stability Update:

This release corrects a problem that was found in the previous release, Firefox 2.0.0.10.”

written by Andrew Greenlees