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Hangout for experimental confirmation and demonstration of software, computing, and networking. The exercises don't always work out. The professor is a bumbler and the laboratory assistant is a skanky dufus.
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2004-06-26Linking the Atom FeedsMissing Atom Links. The template that we began with, Rounders 3, does not display any Atom Links. The Atom syndication feed is activated, but there is no way to find it. The feed button and a text link are now operating. This was accomplished as follows:
2004-06-25Button, Button, Where's the Update?Summary added 2004-05-26-15:35Z. The concerns I have at this point are:Waiting for ZoneAlarm Repair. I am still operating with ZoneAlarm Pro version 5.0.590.015, a defective update, because roll-back to earlier versions also has a defect. I have a work-around that allows me to use FrontPage and my localhost IIS configuration for web development even though I can't reach the local HTTP service from desktop applications. Last night, when preparing to research the firewall situation a little farther, I learned there was a more-recent update than 5.0.590.015. Oh, Oh, What Happened to the Update? Today, refreshed and prepared for the next stage, I checked again. Oops, no need for update. My software is now identified as current. Well, that suggests to me that my latenight display of caution about a quickly-issued update was provident indeed. Sorry, wrong number! This is a bit of a concern, because I see I have a new problem: Symantec LiveUpdate isn't working. Basically, the LiveUpdate software is unable to see the Internet. It is authorized, and it just can't get to the internet with the firewall there. I wait and wait, then my MSN Logon panel comes up so I can provide dial-out, since the software is failing to access the broadband connection. I remember seeing this last Saturday, now that I think about it, but it wasn't a concern then; I had recent virus updates already. Now what? I know the broadband connection is working. I am not inclined to drop the firewall in order to access Live Update, since I am administrator when I do that. I will go to the ZoneLabs site and see what is going on. What's the story, guys? Not so fast, wise guy! Oh, that's right, the Internet is running at a condition-orange threat level right now, thanks to a combined exploit involving a lot of unpatched IIS servers and a newly-detected Internet Explorer vulnerability. I have even the IE6 trusted-site zone set to not run scripts and anything else without checking with me. It seems there is something on the ZoneAlarm support page that my IE6+Firewall settings is preventing me from getting past! Now, you'd think that the a firewall security site would warrant enough trust to drop my guard a little, yes? Well, based on my experience over the past week, why would I think that? Let's see if I can at least get to where IE6 walks me through some permissions. Anybody home? I am now at the technical support page for ZoneAlarm Pro. I am not sure what the drill is here. I did expand firewall permissions (but kept IE6 protections, I think), and the pages would go into this unending waiting to load state. But if I click the "stop" button, and then the "refresh" button, the pages come up at once. Who knew? Checking the releases. The release history says that the version which I downloaded last Saturday (June 19) was released to the world (sounds like a virus scare) on May 24. Wow, it's been broken that long. And version 5.0.590.043 (I'm on .015) was released on Monday, June 21. But right this moment, ZoneAlarm Pro tells me my system is current. I choose to download the later version manually. While I wait for the download to complete, I wonder what the description of changes for that version will tell me. Why Should I Care About .043? Hmm, there are some issues with Norton Antivirus e-mail scanning that I don't think I've run into, and other issues that don't apply to me. I am curious about an SSH time-out problem and also whatever is swept under "system stability" and "routine maintenance" issues. I am grumbling about a certain lack of transparency here. I still don't understand why my ZAP Pro Automatic Check for Updates now says that I have the latest update when I don't. I am not installing anything yet. Tidbits. The General FAQ says version 5.0 of ZAPro supports Norton AV 2004 Pro, with no mention of plain Norton AV 2004, which I am running. I have observed no problems in NAV 2004 operation, and ZAPro 5.0 does warn me when NAV 2004 virus definitions are considered out of date or I haven't scanned recently enough. After I scanned with week-old definitions (on Monday night, I think), ZAPro 5.0 stopped nagging me. But it won't let me get new LiveUpdates. I could go get them from the Symantec site myself, perhaps, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Oh, thrilling. According to the ZAPro 5.0 FAQ, my version conflicts with NAV 2004 in a way where NAV is no longer checking my e-mail. Yup, I just checked and the little system-tray envelope-under-the-magnifier icon does not show up while e-mail is downloading. Bummer. I need to upgrade to .043 for the repair to that, it would seem. Meanwhile, in the user-to-user groups, I am reading about people who have lost internet access completely with .043. Nothing on VSUBAPI.dll either. I called this file VSUBRUN.dll yesterday, and I wonder which I searched my local system for. I'll do that search again. Meanwhile, there is one user-user-forum message about VSUBAPI.dll, but it seems to have been a different problem. Monsters in the Closet. In searching for VSUBAPI.dll again, in my low-privilege user account, the Windows installer keeps coming up wanting to install Microsoft Office Extensions, and I keep killing it. Tired of that, I abort the search and log in to my administrator account. The same thing happens as administrator. I don't know what that is about but it is time that I removed Office Extensions from my machine anyhow. So I do. In the midst of that my DSL line starts running hot and my disk is going like crazy, until I use the stop-all-internet-activity on ZoneAlarmPro. Then the uninstall finishes quite nicely and so much for that. It took MSDE with it, I see. Now I'm really clueless. Exposing Norton Antivirus. After the obligatory reboot, my one concern is that I not have messed up my FrontPage Server Extensions and IIS on the local machine. Everything seems to be fine. So I do the dance with LiveUpdate. Still no joy. I need another reboot and this time, as administrator, I shut down ZoneAlarmPro and it goes away. This time, when I fire up LiveUpdate it connects to Symantec, downloads an update created fresh today, and we're all set. I quickly restart ZAPro and lean back to collect my thoughts. OK, so this is not a sweet deal. How could ZoneLabs have missed all of this? And they've got "issues" with McAfee too. Catching Our Breath. Here's the bottom line: Basically, I am limping along, twisting in the wind. I am going to take my time and not do anything for a while. The workarounds are good for another week, and I don't want to be hasty, disrupt everything, or do something unrecoverable while fatigued from this nonsense. There'll be more when I know more. 2004-06-24Do We Have a Firewall or a Development Web?In the previous installment, we left von Clueless in the stew:I simply didn't want to do anything so laborious, failure-prone and just bloody risky. Could I Have a Little of Each, Please? Then I remembered that I might not have to perform anything so laborious. From earlier experiences when I didn't have a proper network configuration for some reason, I'd learned that FrontPage could work directly with the file directories of IIS instead of via the TCP stack. It even recognized what folders were configured as webs, continued to use FrontPage extensions, and coordinate with my version-control system (Visual Source Safe: VSS). That would allow me to do everything I needed to do without taking the firewall down at all. If it works in this particular situation, I can operate this way for a long time until the firewall problem is repaired. Using FrontPage Directly With IIS FilesClean the Slate First. To change from web-access by FrontPage to disk-file access by FrontPage,Check It Twice. Next, bring up FrontPage to confirm that file-system access to your development web is working: When the happy day arrives that you again have web access to your local web site, you can revert back to using the URL locations. Just remember to check in all checked-out versions and run Tools | Recalculate Hyperlinks... once back in the URL view. What's Up With the Firewall?Before Monday noon, I received an e-mail response to my technical-support request:
2004-06-20Attack of the Naughty BeesWell, I knew I was clueless, but I didn't realize that it extended so nicely beyond my cyber-life. While mowing the tallest backyard grass and weeds first, I start pulling wysteria vines out of a tree they keep strangling. Suddenly, after pulling on a dead but resistant vine, I feel these burning stings and there are critters flying around my face. I am busy waving my hands around instead of backing out, so I keep getting more bites. I back away and I see these mostly-black bees flying back up into the branches. OK, I've been stung. Multiple times. I'm not seriously worried about that, and it hurts. I come right to the computer, get a search site (Kartoo, programmed into my middle mouse button), and look up ["wasp-sting" first aid]. The first site is for Apinal. The second is actually about first aid, and it mentions calling 911 a lot. It also mentions baking soda paste, ibuprofin, and then an antihistamine for itching. For kids, the shock time is from 20 minutes to 2 hours after the sting, and the idea is to stay inactive and be observed. I'm home alone, so I call Vicki to see if we have baking soda. She tells me where it is and I take care of that and the ibuprofin part. I'm thinking that tonight I might take Benadryl if itching becomes a problem. I start the chronometer on my watch and I go outside and finish mowing the back lawn. So much for inactivity, but I figure I'll have time if there are symptoms to be concerned about. I never had a problem with childhood bee stings, and while that was a long time ago, I am not expecting trouble, just discomfort. I'm done mowing and I take a picture of the nest, once I figure out where it is, with my new tele-macro lens before coming back inside, about 45 minutes into this adventure. As I walk in Vicki calls, distraught because she has been calling and not reaching me. She's upset imagining me collapsed somewhere in the house. Friends are on the way over to check me out, and the doorbell rings as I am speaking with Vicki. The friends leave -- I have them look me over to see if I have missed anywhere that I've been stung and didn't apply baking soda. By now I know my right ear lobe hurts, but most of the sting(s) are pretty painless, including the one right in the center of my chin. I call Vicki and let her know I really am all right and I will now just cool down and take it easy. I don't know exactly what stung me, and I am going to have to do something about it, just to protect the kids next door. Because I live in a genuine urban neighborhood, the hardware/garden store is three blocks down the street. When they see me walk in later they'll know what advice I'm there for! Oh, I just found another sting at the rear of my jaw on the left. Ok, easy to treat. I'm about 1 hour and 20 minutes into this little adventure. I'm appreciative that I was wearing glasses and wondering what other little chores are needed around the house.What Do You Do When Security Software Cocks-It-Up?Note to Spanner Wingnut: We must remember to document the silly consequences of installing Norton Antivirus 2004 under Norton SystemWorks 2003. Well, it sort-of worked. Note to Orcmid: Yes, there's enough more material for a why-I-hate-Blogger post, but how do you move it from whining to some sort of positive action? Wingnut? Wingnut, do you hear me?? When can I have an atom feed button and a change from "Previous" to "Recent" posts? I'm waiting, young man. Oh, and there's the double-title business. ...What Do You Do When Security Software Cocks-It-Up?I like Zone Alarm Pro (ZAPro). I installed it just before I was taking the Compagno laptop to a geek-schmooz that was going to use an open-to-the-internet LAN. The LAN, rigged at UCSD, was for interoperability testing of WebDAV clients and servers. I had been warned that the mean-time-to-compromise was about 30 seconds, so I knew I wasn't traveling without a decent firewall. In the year since, I have purchased a wireless card and I want strong firewall protection when running wireless too (for darn sure). The firewall is also indispensable in curbing mobile code, adware, and malware while surfing to sites that exceed my trust tolerance. The software firewall provides another layer of Swiss cheese before Internet Explorer's permissions can expose too much. I also prohibit automatic updates on my system. I check for updates manually when I am ready and poised to work through whatever the consequences might be. (So why does the Symantec LiveUpdate COM Server want to access the internet every time I start my machine when I have said don't do anything automatically? Good question.) Weekly Update Time: Saturday, June 19An Update Is Available. Yesterday, I am signed-on to my computer as administrator to do some periodic cleaning, along with my weekly antivirus updates. I use the ZAPro check-for updates feature while there, and by golly, they have a version 5.0 update waiting for my eager installation. Uneventful update. I download ZAPro 5.0.590.015, saving it to disk with my collection of updates. I install the update over the previous 4.5.594.000 version. The update preserves my settings, password, and everything else but the color scheme, which I always need to reset. I think of that as a little reminder that I am running with a newly-updated version. Routine Operation. I continue through my day, mostly fretting way too long over a blog post about the API War that Microsoft is supposed to have lost. It is time to do real work and create some web-site material. Uh Oh, no service at that address. On bringing up FrontPage 2000, I learn that it can't find my local machine's web server. The suggestion is that FrontPage extensions might not be installed. When I get more details, I find that FrontPage can't find a web server on the local machine. That's scary, so I use my browser to access my local site. 404 Error. Hmm, IE can't see the web server either. But why 404? I login to the administrator account and see if that makes any difference. Nope. But the Management Console IIS plug-in says that the web server is running. It's the Firewall!. Still in the administrator account, I shut down ZAPro. By golly, now everything works. So I log out of administrator and start up as my lowly super-user least-privilege self. Oh, I can't shutdown ZAPro fully from my non-administrator account. Crap. The Update Must Go. The web server is already on a trusted LAN, but I did everything else I could figure out to have ZAPro not block web access to http://compagno, my local machine's web port. Nothing works. It has always worked without any fuss before. Seeking Technical Support. I use the support link in ZAPro to go to the vendor's site. I read that there are some issues with the new feature set of 5.0, but my particular problem is not mentioned. There is 900-number fee-for-call West-Coast business-hours service, but this is the weekend and why should I pay to handle this kind of problem? There is also an Instant Support function which looks like it might be on-line chat with a technical support person. That page doesn't come up (it looks like the firewall is blocking some sort of mobile code there) so I close the web pages and ponder. Backing Out the Update. For the other problems people are having with 5.0, it is recommended that the update be fully uninstalled and the previous version re-installed. This is a we-will-lose-all-your-settings course of action, and that is a terrible idea. I didn't save my settings in 4.5 before I updated, so now I save them in 5.0 and pray that 4.5 can reload them. The settings are saved in some sort of XML format, so there's a chance that this will all work. Then I attempt to run the version 4.5 install without removing 5.0 first, just in case. There's no joy there: 4.5 is too smart, refusing to install over a later version. So I initiate a full uninstall of 5.0. Backdoor to Support. The uninstall process invites me to complete a survey of people who are terminating their use of ZAPro. I hope I am not doing that, but I feel like an old fart who calls the 411 lady for companionship. I do the survey and tell them that I am about to downgrade and that I don't have anyone but "her" to give me any sympathy. I also mention that not finding technical support in an urgent-for-me moment would be a reason to leave forever, if I ultimately choose to do that. Then I click Continue on the uninstall. All Your DLL Are Mine? The uninstall appears to be uneventful. A successful-removal message pops-up on my display. Having saved every updated since I subscribed, I initiate the install program for ZAPro 4.5.594.000. Uh oh, what's this?I click OK and allow the install to complete. It says it has installed successfully. On startup of ZAPro to see what I have, I get the same message and ZAPro 4.5 never starts. Back to the Drawing Board. Well, fine. I uninstall the 4.5 version, since there is no use there. I get another invitation to explain why I am leaving forever, and I tell the nice form page that no, I am just looking at how to get back to a version that works. I hop over to the support page to check on the versions of the 5.0 and 4.5 they have for download there. The Instant Support page comes up (I am defenseless now, remember), and it is one of those gawdawful someone-thinks-this-is-AI page of radio buttons with multiple choices none of which fit my situation. At least this is easier than the telephone version where you have to listen to the list to realize that you're 3-levels down the wrong rat-hole and there's no escape but to recall the number and start over. I click none-of-the-above enough times that it offers me a link to an e-mail page. Hurrah! Oh, oh, now what?zlclient.exe entry point tvGetIntegrityUserName I said no. The mail form came up, so I filled it out, whining away about my difficulty with the update and would someone please help me? Thinking it over. I find the update information again and start downloads of the 5.0 versions and the 4.5 versions that they have available. Oh, those are exactly the ones I already have. So, then I am thinking that I will just work back through my previous versions until I find one that installs successfully. And it's late, so I will go to bed and work it out in the morning.Error - a runtime error just occurred Sunday, June 20Think Again. I have an auto-responder message that says they have my support request, with the official subject "Tech Support Ticket: More Information - AA ISSUE=295804 PROJ=4". They warn me not to even think of replying to this message, because it will only delay my support further. They then tell me that paying customers (which I am) can expect support in two business days. This reminds me of the Pyra labs messages when I was trying to tell them about a security breakdown on the Blogger site, so I figure that maybe these guys are about to be acquired by Google, you know? Who is the role model for this crap? The morning is not going well, and recording this narrative is taking too long. Then I have this thought. I wonder what happens if I reinstall 5.0. What will that show me about that mystery file, VSUBAPI.dll? I fear the worst. Some Time Later ... . I did the smart thing, I re-installed the version 5.0 update and restored my settings. I can even see that IIS is running and listening on the right TCP ports by looking in ZAPro. But I can't access it with Internet Explorer or FrontPage 2000. We seem to be back where we started except for one thing ... Where's that DLL? When Version 5.0 installed, there were no warnings or complaints. Afterwards, I did a search of my hard drive for VSUBAPI.dll and it is nowhere to be found. So, whatever it is, version 5.0 doesn't use it and version 4.5 doesn't install it, but needs it. So much for that roll-back strategy. Now What? Well, I have a functioning firewall and some funky business to go through for whenever I want to work on my web-development site. I can shop for firewall software too, but it is not such a panic now. Maybe it should be. I will deal with all of that after I have mowed the lawn. Just another day at Castle Clueless.[dh:2004-06-23-16:47Z I am reposting because the use of <pre> elements for computer text is forcing the division to be too wide and the right-column blurbs are forced to the bottom of the page. Also, there is an inbalanced <small> tag that is infecting all following material on the current page and on the archive page carrying this entry. Some interesting lessons. Wingnut, are you listening? Fix that!!
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