2012 – miqrogroove

UPS Replacement and APCUPSD for Windows

After replacing a UPS device, Windows may automatically delete the APCUPSD USB driver. When the computer boots up, the tray icon status will say “Network Error” and three errors will be logged in the Windows Event Viewer.

To restore APCUPSD to online status, simply re-install the USB driver by following the manual installation instructions. That information can be found in the program directory. For example, C:\Program Files\apcupsd\driver\install.txt In a nutshell, you need to look in the system’s Device Manager. If there is an item in the Human Interface Devices group named “American Power Conversion USB UPS” then the desired driver is missing. Right click that item, click “Update driver” and then pick the correct driver.

After restoring the driver, restart the APCUPSD service by using the “Start Apcupsd” shortcut in the Start menu, or by using the Services administrative tool.

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Merry Christmas

Screen shot showing Miqrogroove.com with the Christmas 2012 theme. In celebration of winter break, I decided to change my website’s blue marble theme to a deck-the-halls / red glow motif.

May the warm colors bring you a festive mood!

Credit for the background image goes to AreteStock at DeviantArt. She has generously licensed her work for free use.

Also new here is the upgraded WordPress 3.5, to which I made some small but very important contributions. Any WordPress author should be happy to know that I found and patched a bug that prior to version 3.5 caused WordPress to say your draft work had been saved automatically, when in fact WordPress was automatically discarding your work all along. I first noticed the bug in September when my website ate a fairly long article to which I had devoted some hours. I resolved the bug in the new version by removing the code that was causing the problem.

While tinkering with themes and WordPress, I also adjusted the printer styles so that it will be easier to print articles from this website.

Happy Holidays!

Galileo Offline Maps

It’s free on iOS devices.

Galileo is my favorite GPS moving map for driving unfamiliar roads. It’s installed on my iPad, which is much easier to carry and charge in the car than a laptop GPS system.

Here are a few pros and cons to this application, as well as a comparison to ForeFlight and Apple Maps. Why these three choices? Among the many mapping applications I’ve looked at and tried out, these are the only three I still have on my iPad.

Pros:

Quick start up.
Fast and smooth panning and zooming.
Intuitive map caching.
Try before you buy. All except a few features work in the free version.
Uses the best maps, and you can edit them if they need changes.

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Split Tunnel VPN, Part 2

Diagram of the split tunnel VPN configuration that does not require static routing — Updated Split Tunnel Design

Two years ago, I devised a Windows XP split tunneling solution that involved static routing. That solution had the advantage of being cheap, but also had the disadvantage of scaling poorly with any number of client computers.

Now I have a second solution that eliminates the static routing problems.

While researching new VPN security issues recently, I came across an obscure piece of information about the Windows VPN client. It is nestled cryptically in this one sentence from a Microsoft whitepaper:

When the Use default gateway on remote network check box is cleared, a default route is not created, however, a route corresponding to the Internet address class of the assigned IP address is created.

Absent any other explanation, that sentence requires some mental gymnastics to understand. Allow me to help with this.

Continue reading Split Tunnel VPN, Part 2

How to Secure a Windows VPN with PEAP

Authentication Methods page in the RRAS Remote Access Policy Wizard — Setting up PEAP

In light of last month’s announcement by Moxie Marlinspike and David Hulton that they developed a method for decrypting Windows VPN traffic in under 24 hours, it is now important to stop using MS-CHAPv2 as a means of authenticating VPN passwords.

There is a relatively simple fix for this. Microsoft VPN servers have the ability to authenticate passwords using another protocol called PEAP, also known as PEAP-EAP-MSCHAPv2. The only reason one might avoid using PEAP in the first place is that the Microsoft documentation is confusing and describes a requirement for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) deployment. The PKI as described in Deploying Remote Access VPNs requires anywhere from one to three servers just to issue certificates. However, it only specifies the PKI requirement for a slightly different protocol called EAP-TLS.

To be clear, PEAP does not require a full-blown PKI or even an internal Certificate Authority. You can, in fact, use the same certificate that has been, or would be, issued to a web server for SSL encryption. There is no reason to add a second certificate just for a VPN server. This also means there is no investment required in PKI if a free certificate issuer is used, such as startssl.com.

Below is a brief tutorial for configuring an existing RRAS installation with PEAP-MS-CHAPv2.

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White Templates for GoodNotes

Screen shot of the template import screen in GoodNotes. — Template Import

I’m playing with a note taking application for iPad called GoodNotes. It has a lot of potential to help replace notebooks for homework. It requires some customization because the default templates have a beige background. Beige is easier to look at on a bright computer screen, but it is impractical when printing. The built-in solution seems to be to export “notes only”. However, I have mixed feelings about printing handwritten notes from lined paper that has no lines.

Here are my customized templates, based on the built-in options, with the background color removed for better printing.

iPad-Size Templates

Portrait	Landscape
Ruled (lined paper)	Landscape Ruled
Squared (graph paper)	Landscape Squared
Music (staff paper)	Landscape Music
Blank	Landscape Blank
Wide Ruled	Manuscript Ruled
Double Ruled

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XMB Forum Offline

XMB

The open source community website for eXtreme Message Board forum software went down Friday afternoon. It is now going on two days of down time, and has been replaced by an “Apache 2 Test Page.”

I wanted to share the news and offer a place for comments. I am one of the more active members of the community and already received some inquiries about this.

My position as a volunteer developer actually does not include administration of the xmbforum.com server computer. I was informed yesterday that the server was no longer running and would be restored from a backup copy. However, there is no current estimate for when the restoration will be done.

Update: A new server has been established at www.xmbforum2.com

Server Monitoring Through DD-WRT

DD-WRT Commands screen with a server monitoring script. — Powerful Little Script

Happy New Year! I’m kicking off my 2012 blog entries with a fun little hack for Linksys routers.

There are plenty of articles on the web about using DD-WRT to enable router monitoring. I decided to turn this idea on its head and use my router for server monitoring! When I realized DD-WRT comes with a sendmail command, I knew this was going to be quick and easy to set up.

This is great for anyone who would like their celly to light up as soon as something goes wrong with an important computer or website. All of the needed software is already built in to compatible routers, so there is no need to purchase or install a dedicated monitoring system on a separate computer.

By following these easy steps, you can create your own reliable monitoring service.

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