• Their passwords are going to have to change at some point, due to security policy.
• When they change it on their desktop, it’s not automatically done on their laptop.
• After changing the desktop password, they need to connect the laptop to the network and then login with that new password for it to be cached.

Now, it’s easy to write out, and easy for a tech to understand the scenario – but it’s not that easy for a 45yr old Hispanic guy who hates his laptop anyway to grasp. But what if they didn’t have to grasp anything? What if no matter where you were, the login process and the features available were as seamless in Wisconsin as if you were sitting at your desk in Texas?

What I’m proposing is this:

• Internet is gained through the use of a mobile AirCard, that is set to automatically connect once plugged in. If no AirCard, some other form of high-speed internet would suffice, and possibly be preferred.
• Use OpenVPN as a system service that runs when Windows boots. It makes its connection to the Main Network with a PSK (pre-shared key), authenticates, and then routes all internet and network traffic through that connection.
• A Windows or Linux client that has been previously joined to the Active Directory Domain on campus.

Upon boot, the computer connects to the internet, and then sets up the VPN connection to the main campus. This is done as a Windows or Linux service. When the login prompt appears, the user enters their most recent credentials for the main campus, and logs in. These credentials are then passed through the secured VPN to the main campus, authenticated against LDAP or AD, and their group policies, logon scripts, and other drive mappings are passed back down to the client. After the personal settings have loaded, their laptop experience is just as it would be if they were on the main campus LAN – but all their traffic is secured, and over a WAN.

Can it be done? Has it been done? Is there a step I’m missing – or some important brick preventing it?

Blogged with Flock

Tags: openvpn, network, windows, linux, authentication, active directory, PSK, WAN, LAN, mobile, laptop, connection, internet, security, group policy

Technorati Tags: active directory, aircard, client, computer, desktop password, directory domain, Domain, drive mappings, group, group policies, high speed internet, laptop, ldap, Linux, network, network traffic, openvpn, passwords, personal settings, PSK, scripts, security, security policy, technology, University, user, vpn connection, WAN, Windows

I’ll start with [[Trinity]]. When [[Oracle]] crashed, in early October, I was left without any kind of service on a server that I ran. So, no email, web, ftp, vpn, and file search…among others. So, with haste, I put together a small linux box running Fedora Core 5 – for it was as good a time as any to learn linux – so that I could reinstate at least an email server and DNS server. As I use my network more and more, I am realizing that with a router as powerful as the hacked Linksys routers with the DD-WRT linux distro on them, there is really no need for a dns server, except internally…and even that is not needed.

At any rate, I built up [[Trinity]] to complete the set of three computers, with an appropriate name. [[Trinity]] runs Qmail and also a Wildfire jabber server. Once those were back up and running, I decided to return my attention to my next plan that required linux in the first place…Asterisk.

After doing some reading, and watching a podcast done by SYSTM with Kevin Rose, I put together another linux box with Fedora Core 6. Only to find that there were networking issues still with the software. Samba wouldn’t create a dns name associated with the ip address of the computer. Basically (incase those weren’t the right words), I couldn’t type the name of the computer to get to it, like I could my others. And this happened both at home and on the one I created at the office. So I moved my home computer to CentOS, and the office computer to Fedora Core 5…both of which were called [[Link]], to represent the communications link on the network.

But having recently been released from my job, I will focus on [[Link]] at my home. I have it set up and running successfully for several weeks now…and have purchased an ATA hardware device that I am still trying to get to work with the system. But the SIP softphones work for voip pc to pc phone calls with other people on my network. However, I only recently released the request for beta testers on this project.

I am using X-Lite as was suggested in the Asterisk Handbook. However, with my first beta tester, their Mac client does not work, crashed several times, and would not actually connect to the network – where as I have been able to connect to it from home, work, and starbucks without the use of a vpn. So I am looking for other clients that actually work with all the OS systems.

One of the things I’m also trying to figure out is the connection between Asterisk and Jabber. There is a plugin for Wildfire to use Asterisk-IM capabilities. I have the [[Trinity]], the jabber server, connected to [[Link]], the asterisk server, but I cannot get anywhere beyond that. And the documentation on such things is few and far between.

For those that are trying to get your Wildfire Asterisk-IM plugin to connect, you need to create an entry in your /etc/asterisk/manager.conf file for the jabber server’s computer. For example, something like mine:

[trinity]
secret=g00dp455w3rdz
permit=192.168.1.50/255.255.255.0

That puts an entry for “trinity” in there as a manager with a password, and the ip of the computer. Then you can fill out the form on the Wilidfire Webadmin page:

* Enabled: Yes
* Server: <insert your server ip/domain name, either local or remote>
* Port: 5038
* Username: <username in [ ], in my case, trinity>
* Password: <your password for [username], you put for “secret”>

You don’t really need to concern yourself with the rest of the settings, unless you’re trying to do something more advanced. And up to that point, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll post what to do in order to make things work, as a follow-up to this article.

I also started work on the MySpot page a while back. I finally had the revelation about how to code it efficiently to get the best working result for putting a page out there. I intend to run three iterations over it before it’s finished.

First: to get a working page that is modular for it’s features.
Second: to get AJAX features working on it, to do some auto refreshing, and modular loading, as well as same-page authentication for the login script.
Third: to go back and edit out the code that is not needed in the pages.

Motivation to finish it up has been lacking though. Every time I come close to getting started something crashes, or breaks, or comes up that I have to turn my attention to….like finding a job, or fixing my sink, or getting food for the next meal…or even reinstalling Java because a server is being a retard. But I intend to work on it some more tomorrow.

So that’s all for this update.

Technorati Tags: Asterisk, centos, dd wrt, dns name, email server, fedora core 5, fedora core 6, file search, home computer, jabber server, linksys routers, Linux, linux box, office computer, systm, vpn, web ftp, Wildfire

Neo: do you think that if msft released a open source vista that people would edit it to make it more stable? or just try to put hacks in it and release it as a error fix
wizard: both…i dont think the opensource community would trust msft to follow the GPL
Neo: hmm…well, I am refering to a genuine effort on msft’s part, for the speculation, to follow the gpl…it may not be the best os that they release as opensource
wizard: i still dont think the community would embrace it
Neo: rgr… I don’t think they would either…I think an effort like that would tank, except for the .NET fanbois
wizard: i think it would be too little too late, it’d take years for the OS to be developed into something worth using over ‘nix
Neo: yeah, unless they relased like Windows XP or something, and gave people the source to upgrade how they saw fit to fix instabilities and security flaws. I think it’d have to be something current, and useful for the people to thinker with
wizard: ..yes but also, i guarantee you that if XP went open source today, there’d be millions of hacks by this time tommorow because people just have not found them yet without getting a look at the code
Neo: I concur.

What if Microsoft actually released an open source project? What would that do for them? What would that do for Google and Linux? How would the open source community react to such a move? How would the view of the company change in the eyes of the consumer?

I put some thought into it, and talked with [wizard] to get his thoughts too, and while I lean more toward the positive side, he leans more toward the pessimistic/realistic side.

If Microsoft would release, say Windows XP, after Vista’s predecessor comes out (which I believe to be Windows Live) for the open source community to tackle and work on, we’d have an interesting situation on the internet.

Firstly, there would be the fact that the long-held proprietory code of Windows would now be visible to the world. It’d be like Microsoft comming out of the closet, so to speak. Not only would we see the bloated processes that define Windows, but we’d also see the lack of security that plagues it.

There’s the train of thought that the .NET fanbois would support Microsoft in helping make the system more secure; while at the same time, the “other” fanbois would start writing code to hack it, or exploit it. For speculation purposes, I tend to hope that the .NET people would be more willing to help secure it, than the other people would be to exploit the flaws.

How would that change Microsoft’s image? It would probably give the people something new to talk about for months on the web. It could probably be compared to the “school yard bully” turning into the “nice guy” that we all know he can be. Of course it would come with lots of speculation that Microsoft “wouldn’t stick to the GPL” as my friend [wizard] suggests. Or that they’d use the new software to build their next post-post-Vista version. As for the stock prices and corporate image, it’d just look like they’re trying to play catch up, as they did with the Search effort.

Well, what would that do for Google? Would it give them a platform to work with? Would they even want to work on a Windows Platform? Probably not. They’be more likely to use a Linux distro, or even an Apple OS rehash before they put their name to a Windows system. The “Don’t do evil” mantra they go by flies directly in the face of Microsoft (and other companies), but on a side note, is also falling apart.

And Linux? It would give the Lindows folks a way to finally create seamless applications that work for both systems without the emulators. It would give the people who have done all they can with Linux something else to work on…a new project to make secure, or new code to port to linux (not that there is much you have in Windows that you don’t have in Linux – except for the fact that everything runs on Windows).

No, I think what Microsoft needs to do is release something else first, to see how well the opensource community takes it. Maybe MSN Messenger? (Nah, too many people connected to it)….Maybe server software for things like SQL and ASP (Probably not…too many businesses use it)….Office? (Probably the safest bet, but also their biggest money maker.)

What could they put into open source to change their image and create the “nice guy” that they’re trying to with their 2006 ad campaign? Nothing. They started out proprietary, they’ll most likely die proprietary. They’d have to come out with new technology that they start from scratch as open source; stick with standards, instead of creating their own; and “not be evil” about it. All their proprietary software is buggy and has security holes, but is too widely distributed to be put to open source. Hacks and cracks would surface faster than you could spread a torrent.

For Microsoft to stay ahead, their business model needs to change but as [wizard] put it, “it’d be too little, too late.”

Technorati Tags: Apple OS, google, GPL, Linux, microsoft, open source community, open source project, opensource, software, Speculation, Windows, windows xp