Today’s post is a guest post from Kevin Weatherby. Kevin is a cowboy by trade and a pastor by calling and has some fantastic stories and insights and a wonderful ability to link stories from ‘the ranch‘ to real life spiritual applications.

Here’s one that caught my eye recently and Kevin kindly agreed to re-write it to better suit my tech blog. Thanks Kevin.

My friend Stuart asked me to pass along a few high tech cowboy tips and pointers post. I am always willing to help people out where and when I can. Today’s lesson will be on computer repair. There is a right way and a wrong way to get things done….I’ll leave you to decide which one this might be.

When you live 30 miles from the nearest anywhere, you learn to use a variety of things in a variety of situations. Cowboys can figure out how to fix items, or at least patch them, with the simplest things he has laying around.

I had lightning strike the house about 5 years ago and ruined my computer. I know I should have had a surge protector, but it was outside running the air compressor, the drill, two heat lamps, a fountain pump, a weedeater, a radio, a kick-butt chair massager, a battery charger, two ceiling fans, a burned up coffee maker, a curlin’ iron, and a cell phone charger.

Well, this computer wasn’t working, so I didn’t figure I would break it by trying to fix it. It was already fried. I opened it up to see if anything was wrong. The whole durn thing looked like a rainbow bright rat’s nest with all the colorful wires and green boards. I didn’t know the first thing about what any of that stuff did or where to begin. The whole thing looked broken to me. I couldn’t even find the cards from the Solitaire Game that I played so much. But I did find one of the mines from minesweeper. It looked remarkably like a mouse turd.

I figured I would just start where the cord went in the back. I had to take out about fourteen screws the size of a pencil lead just to get into the little box where the cord goes. I didn’t have a screwdriver that small so I just took a hacksaw and opened it like everyone else does. That is how ya’ll would do it, right?

Anyway, the first thing I saw in this little box was a fuse. It was not a big fuse, but it didn’t take an electrical jeanius to see that the durned thing was blown. I had never seen a fuse like this in my whole life. I didn’t know where I was going to find a “little weird computer fuse” store. So I did the next best thing. I made one out of baling wire.

All a fuse does is make electricity go from one side of it to another. Wire will do that. I went out to the horse pens and got some wire that was tied up there. I didn’t use the good stuff, I used the real rusty batch. It didn’t have to be pretty. It just had to run a little electricity. I taped that little piece of baling wire on the outside of that fuse and secured it with a little piece of duct tape. It’s very hard to get a piece of duct tape that small. I was afraid at one point I was going to have to get some bubble gum to make the wire stay put.

In the end though, the toughest part was getting the blasted thing back together, not fixing it. I had hacksawed all the little screws off and I couldn’t figure out how to get the cover back on. If I hadn’t seen that cover come off there with my own two eyes, I would have bet you a good dog that the cover was off something else.

I plugged the computer in and hit the magic button. The thing fired right up and I used it for about three more years.

Now that baling wire was not ever intended to be used to fix a computer. It might have worked out alright, but that definitely was not the tool for the job. I learned two things from that close encounter with the computer kind.

The first is to not be afraid to dive into something you don’t know anything about. You might surprise yourself with what you can do.

The second is that if you have to use a hacksaw to get into something, you should probably stay out of it. Let someone that knows what they are doing get the job done right the first time–without duct tape and rusted wire from a horse pen.

Computer Repair, Cowboy Style is a post from: Church Techy

If you work with networks in any serious way then you will almost certainly have come across WireShark by now  (or Ethereal as it was formerly known).

Anyway, Laura Chappell who writes a well known blog “Inside Laura’s Lab” has now come out with a book to help us network techy types make the most of WireShark.

In her words:

Laura Chappell’s Wireshark Network Analysis book is filled with tips, tricks and techniques for new and experienced analysts, this will be a must-have book.

Get your book from the usual places or direct from WireSharkU or ChappellU and use this code: 998nws35 to get a 35% discount. The discount is valid until March 29th 2010 and only works on the two listed sites.

WireShark Book Discount is a post from: Church Techy

This looks awesome and I want one.

However it isn’t available until Q4 2010 according to the makers (22moo) website and although I’m not a huge gamer I can see where and how this could be of benefit even to me.

Some of its features are (will be):

• Styling to compliment iPod/iPhone with optimized design for ergonomics and comfort
• 2000mAh Lithium-ion Battery for additional power for your iPod touch / iPhone
• LED showing charging state and capacity
• 8-way D-Pad with 6 buttons
• Built-in Stereo speakers
• Highly sensitive omni directional Mic
• 3.5mm audio headphone jack

No idea on price yet but I guess it’ll be in the £15 to £35 range and I’ve submitted my name for a review of one – will see what happens there.

Game Bone is a post from: Church Techy

Anyway, in part 1 I put forth my case for ‘spying’ and in part 2 I expounded the benefits that employers, support staff and employees for that matter will gain. In this edition I want to suggest some ways you could actually go about monitoring and my prime criteria is that it has to be cheap or preferably free.Broadly speaking there are two approaches to monitoring once you’ve decided what it is you want to monitor. You can either implement a software or hardware solution or some combination of the two.

1. Software
2. Hardware

Whilst on the surface it would appear that you would have to pay for this there are ways of doing all you need for free. So taking into account that most churches will use Windows or Mac based computers here are some suggestions.

Windows based Computers.

• Configure and use OpenDNS
• On each PC run an install of K9 – a free for personal and non-profit (I checked with them) use.
• Utilise local”Security Policies” or centralise with Active Directory controls if running a Windows server.

Mac based Computers.

• Configure and use OpenDNS
• On each Mac run K9 – yes it works with Macs
• Utilise Active Directory integration if running a Windows server.
• And I’m sure Apple must have their own product.

Whatever.

• Utilise IPcop.
• or use Untangle.
• Ensure you use a router with basic NAT capabilities.

OK, so strictly speaking using IPcop or UnTangle requires you to have an old PC with two network cards in it. But then how many of us have access to an older PC that we no longer use? Right. And what about the purchase of a second network card? Right again – dirt cheap aren’t they. So whilst not strictly speaking free you are able to re-deploy older kit in a way not previously considered.

It also means you could effectively build a couple of spares should the  one in use die of old age.

Equally I haven’t addressed the nity gritty of creating policies or a how to on installing and setting up UnTangle – but then that was never the point here.

So what tools – be they software or hadware do you use to control, monitor, audit, lock down your infrastucture?

Spying On Staff 3 – How is a post from: Church Techy

I just wish I could afford to play with some of their paid for tools as they look ultra cool and ultra geeky. That suits me just fine.

The latest free tool to their stable is the “Network Config Generator“.

It looks like it could be a really useful tool to anyone who has a dislike of configuring network devices. There appears to be little restriction on what type of network devices that can be configured by it from firewalls to routers to switches so long as they have a CLI style access.

You can create your own configurations or you can utilise a template. The tool comes with a few templates already built in and more accessible via Thwack (solarwinds forum / resource site) and they are likely wanting to rely on the massed ranks of network engineers to supply more – and I’m certain that will happen.

I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet myself as it requires a live connection to a device and I don’t have any to hand.

Anyway, check it out if you need it and let me know how you get on.

Network Config Tool is a post from: Church Techy

Over the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about Wi-Fi being provided free (secure and filtered) by churches and Christians. The idea came to me when I noticed a guy outside of my house in the cold, winter weather accessing my wireless with some kind of hand held device. I was thinking that it would be cool if people were able to access a connection for free BUT there would always be one pop-up at the beginning of the access…sort of a “provided by” message along with some other message. like info about a church or group or the gospel message for that matter, or maybe a link with info on donating to specific charities or disaster relief. I would think that would be only a minor inconvenience if one was able to access the internet for free. What are you’re thoughts on that?

I confess my first thought would not have been a charitable one if I’d seen someone outside my house trying to access my wifi. First I’d think best of luck and then I’d instantly change my pre-shared key . Me, paranoid?

But to answer the question the answer I gave was “I love the idea” … Those of you that are regulars here will know that my pastor is a techno luddite. Sure he uses computers and email but that is where it stops. He doesn’t ‘get’ Facebook or Twitter and has more than once stated from the front on a Sunday that “you won’t find me on there”.

Every time I hear this refrain I throw my arms up in despair and wonder if I’m forever doomed to be in a church that wont use my God breathed talents and skills in a fuller way than just as ‘tech support’. But I digress. The idea of wifi in the church is a fabulous idea and for us then to provide a value added service to our local community would be a great outreach tool.

Once wifi is setup one could do things like:

• advertise free Wi-Fi in your coffee mornings / shop
• provide after school clubs offering free wi-fi
• allow church members to access the net via their smartphones, etc for free
• allow visiting speakers or business people access to the web without touching your own network
• and so on …

The one service I know quite well and have looked at is ZoneCD – or at least that was their name. I see they are now called ‘PUBLICip‘ (link) – they provide a Free and Pro service with the free easily covering most needs. In short they provide an individual build of a *nix with added functionality. You as the user have to provide a PC (doesn’t have to be state of the art either) with two network cards and a wifi access point either as a standalone AP or as part of a router.

It includes filtering by utilising DansGuardian, an open source web filter, as well as many other features. the idea works by the PC becoming a firewall and filter with one NIC linking to your new wifi AP and the other to your established router / internet connection. The only thing one needs to be clear on is making sure the wifi AP uses a different IP range – beyond that the process is relatively straight forward.

I’m sure there are other services out there that do a similar offering and I’d love to hear about them? I did find the Wifi Free Spot site but they are more informational than actual practical build your own set up.

Secondly, what other uses could the wifi be put to? Giving folks the ammo to take into battle with the leaders can only be a good thing – so come on, get creative folks and let me know your ideas?

Free WiFi At Church is a post from: Church Techy

I’ve been reading a lot recently and even had an email or two as well as an uncle requesting my personal services with regards to data recovery. So it has caused me to think, can I add my own recipe for data recovery?

The caveats that apply here are:

• This is all my opinion
• This is what has worked for me
• I am not a data recovery expert but have always been successful during the last 25yrs or so.
• Your mileage may vary.

That said, I have had a reasonable amount of experience including my own to work on.

The first rule of any data recovery is:

Don’t Panic

quickly followed by

Do nothing until you have properly and
impassionately assessed the situation.

And by nothing I mean nothing. Don’t create any new documents, don’t change anything, in fact it’s probably easiest to just power off the machine right now to save confusion.

The next step is to consider how the data has been lost. Did you erase the data, was it a hardware failure, a corruption of system files, what? If you know it was your fault, i.e. you deleted something then you can continue the trouble shooting in the knowledge that there isn’t a hardware issue at question. If your system blue screened and forced you to reboot then it’s possible you’ve only got corrupt system files stopping you from booting – in this case, booting from a ‘Live CD’ allows you to verify your data is not lost just inaccessible due to a non-booting system.

If this is the case I’d attach an external hard drive and copy the data off or burn it to a CD / DVD. One can then set about fixing the OS. Nine times out of 10 the data will still be there but just occasionally the OS will vape your My Docs folder structure when you ‘re-create’ the environment.

The other alternative here is that you may have lost data you were working on. If this is the case, consider the application you were using. For example MS Office products litter temporary files all over the place and you may find that 95% plus of your data is sat in an un-formatted temporary file and all you need to do is re-create the look and feel.

If you have a hardware issue (other than the drive on which the data you want resides) then I’d be tempted to power off and reseat all my cables, etc and then check again. Once we’ve eliminated hardware issues and we are down to just the hardrive that contains the data as being at fault or just empty then there are two basic approaches.

1. Boot from 3rd party tools like ERD Commander (unfortunately now subsumed by MicroSoft) or a Knoppix Live CD.
2. Attach the drive to a known working PC via an external caddy or even attach internally (watch your HDD jumper settings)

For my part I tend to favour putting it into a caddy but it doesn’t really matter what approach you take and you should always have somewhere else to drag your files off to.

So, we’ve settled on the fact that we have a hard drive issue and hopefully we are only dealing with soft errors such as data corruption, etc and not a problem with the hardware itself. If we’ve gone with option 2 then my tools of choice are “PC Inspector” and “TestDisk” – both are free but have different starting points. PC Inspector is primarily a file recovery tool and I would use this where somebody had accidentally deleted their data. On the other hand TestDisk is aimed more at those who have lost a partition though the newer version of PC Inspector claims to support this as well now. So pick your tool of choice and follow the instructions.

I’m not going to detail the usage of either of these tools as they are fairly obvious to use and also there are lots of others who have probably done this already.

Should any of the above not work or you have determined you have a hardware fault on the drive then you really have little option but to ask an expert and this is likely to cost you a few pennies. Fortunately the cost of data recovery has come down massively over the years. Even 9 years ago when I lost some pictures of my daughter’s birth (even though I had backed up … my mistake was I hadn’t tested that backup) the cost of an attempted recovery started in the 1,000’s of UK pounds. If they deemed they could be successful then the charges started to rack up according to how much data was on the drive and not just the data you wanted back.

Now you just have to go to the website and fill in a form. Another option is that they allow you to download an app for free that will tell you if your data is recoverable. It is only at recovery that you have to pay out – but last I looked Ontrack’s variant started at $50 but they do everything from send it in for remote diagnosis and recovery now including Lite to Pro options. They even have a page dedicated to how to pick the right data recovery company.

I don’t have any affiliations to Ontrack, but they’ve been around for years and years in the data recovery business. Professionally I’ve utilised their services a number of times and have no complaints. They are also an International company so will likely have a lab in your country if needed. Of course a google search will always reveal others including Norton, R-Studio, Hard Drive Mechanic, etc …

If you have any questions please do feel free to ask and I’ll answer as best I can.

Data Recovery 101 is a post from: Church Techy

Single or dual – standalone or rack mounted – removable SATA disc backup.

The, I guess, simple idea being that you purchase cheap and readily available SATA hard drives that you store in the usual manner. Only instead of storing tapes, DVDs or similar it is hard drives. The unit connects via means of an external SATA port but both this and the cables are supplied with the unit. The units are also supplied with the Idealstors own backup software named, iBac.

All you need are the drives.

Me like.

Backup Hardware is a post from: Church Techy