TCP EchoServer: main Function.

Create socket , bind server’s well known port.

A TCP socket is created. An Internet socket structure is filled with the wildcard address (INADDR_ANY) and the server’s well known port (SERV_PORT) , whichis defined 9877 in our unp.h header. Binding the wildcard address tells the system is multihomed. Our choice of the TCP port number is based on Figure 2. It should be greater than 1023 ( we don not need a reserved port) , greater than 5000 (to avoid conflict with the ephermal ports allocated by many Berkeley-derived implementations) , less than 49152 ( to avoid conflict with the “correct” range of ephermal ports) , and it should not conflict with any registered port. The socket is converted into a listening socket by listen.

TCP Echo Server:-

#include “unp.h”

int

main (int argc , char **argv)

{

int listenfd , connfd;

pid_t    childpid;

socklen_t clilen;

struct sockaddr_in cliaddr , servaddr;

listenfd = Socket (AF_INET , SOCK_STREAM, 0);

bzero(&servaddr , sizeof(servadr));

servaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;

servaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY);

servaddr.sin_port = htos(SERV_PORT);

Bind(listenfd , (SA *) &servaddr , sizeof(servaddr));

Listen(listenfd , LISTENQ);

for ( ; ; ) {

clilen = sizeof (cliaddr);

connfd = Accept(listenfd , (SA *) &cliaddr , &clilen) ;

if (  (childpid = Fork () ) == 0 )  {    /*child process*/

Close(listenfd);                                 /*close listening socket*/

str_echo(connfd);                           /* process the request */

exit(0) ;

}

Close(connfd);                                    /*parent closes connected socket */

}

}

Our simple example above is an echo server that performs the following steps:-

1. The client reads a line of text from its standard input and writes the line to the server.

2. The server reads the line from its network input and echoes the line back to the client.

3. The client reads the echoed line and prints it on standard output.

Wait for client connection to complete.

The Server blocks in the call to accept , waiting for a client connection to complete.

Concurrent server.

For each client , fork spawns a child , and the child handles the new client . The child closes the listening socket and the parent closes the connected socket. The child then calls str_echo to handle the client.

p/s:- Well ,this week I’m busy with scheduled for interview as a Java Programmer. CES2012 had just finished this month , heard that it had a great feedback from people all around the world.  This week I’m busy studying Middleware and how to implement it in Operating System such as Windows and Linux – example – Oracle , WebSphere , WebLogic , …and much more..

Well folks , that’s all for this week .. Have a nice great weekend ahead…and for the Chinese people , Happy Chinese New Year – Gong Xi Fa Chai…

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g is the latest middleware that can be implemented and used as a middleware in any operating system especially in Windows , MacOSx and Linux. Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g is the #1 application infrastructure foundation available today. It enables enterprises to create and run agile, intelligent business applications while maximizing IT efficiency through full utilization of modern hardware and software architectures. Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g is the only middleware available from any vendor that offers the following innovative design principles:-

1. Complete , Integrated , Hot Pluggable and Best of Breed.

Oracle Fusion Middleware consist of Oracle JDeveloper 11g Release 1 , Oracle WebLogic Server 12c and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Rel 1. It can be obtain by downloading it’s software at Oracle Website.

Oracle Fusion Middleware can be used and implemented in RIM ( Remote Method Invocation). Remote Method Invocation (RIM) usually used in JavaSE6 and can be download in Oracle Website , that include it’s API . RMI usually include RMI Application Server , RMI server and RMI Client Program. The purpose of middleware is to invoke the method from the computer server.

* Picture of Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation above.

p/s:- This week I’m having a great time spending my 2011 end of the year holiday at home. Doing some pentesting and some windows shopping at K.L. I’m trying to finishing a book entitled Windows Server 2008 Administration – borrow from the National Library (PNM) this week. Till then , have a nice holiday week ahead , and a happy new year 2012…

Fedora is the premiere showcase for GNOME 3, the new and somewhat controversial version of one of the top desktops used in the Linux community. This is a review of Fedora 16, in its 32-bit version, which uses Gnome 3.2. I installed it from the primary Live disc image that you are encouraged to download from the main site.

Installation, as usual these days, went quite smoothly. I set up my wireless connection with the Live disc and it carried through to post-install. Not all distributions do this, but it’s a nice convenience. There were 7 steps to the installation, with a few further afterwards. It asks about what language you need to use, then you must choose the type of storage device – basic or specialized. Next, you provide a hostname for the computer, and confirm your timezone. The routine then asks you to create a root password (but doesn’t indicate relative strength). There are 5 possible types of installation and I chose “replace existing” (the choices are use all, replace existing, shrink the current one, use free space, or create a custom partition).

After you confirm your partitioning choice, the installation proceeds. This edition of Fedora still uses ext4 as the default file system, although I understand that brtfs will be chosen as the default in Fedora 17.

The post installation is quick, simply letting you see brief license information, setting the date, creating at least one user (and here Fedora shows you a password strength indicator) and letting you assign the first user to the administration group. Finally you have the option of sending a hardware profile back to Fedora.

Features:

Fedora, unlike most distributions I prefer, does not install media codecs during the installation. This means that you won’t be watching Youtube or listening to DVDs right away. Even so, there are quite a few applications that are installed by default, and many more available in the repository.

In addition to the roughly 40 applications that the CD installs, you also get release notes, an automatic bug reporting tool, the add/remove software program (GUI for “yum” I assume), and the updater.

I have to say that so far, I do like GNOME 3. It has the date & time (and a calendar) in the middle of the top bar, while on the right hand side you’ll find an accessibility tool, the volume control, the network manager, the battery/power settings, and finally your user area where you can access system settings, your online accounts, switch users, log out, or suspend/turn off the computer.

Most notifiers appear at the lower right corner, as you can see above. When you first insert a DVD, USB drive, or CD of music, you get a larger notifier in the center at the bottom, offering the option to open files – and the file manager does show the volume for you to browse:

Fedora opening a CD of mp3 files

Accessibility is a topic that I plan to discuss in more depth in an upcoming post, but Fedora does install Orca by default (a free screen reader program for visually impaired people). The gdm login screen now shares the same simple yet elegant theme as the rest of GNOME.The name area includes online accounts, system settings, lock screen, switch user, log out, suspend/power off. Currently, the online accounts tool only lets you add Google.

The default for GNOME 3 is to lock the screen after several minutes of inactivity.

Fedora easily detected my HP Printer – one of the easiest configurations I’ve done, actually. The “hplip” tool seems to have been installed by default and it all just worked.

Software:

Although most people will want to add the 2 RPMFusion repositories as soon as possible, there is plenty in the vanilla Fedora repositories to make you happy – lots of games, lots of applications, and the main programming languages (Ruby, D, OCaml, Haskell, and of course Python 2.7 & Python 3, C, and C++). Many IDEs can be installed – Codeblocks, Glade, KDevelop, Qt Creator, and Anjuta among others. Subversion, CVS, and tools to use them are there as well.

[later 11/12 edit: Removed a section about CDs not being seen, because the issue is not exclusive to Fedora.]

[later edit, 11/13: Discovered on Mint 12 that I can detect and play CDs with the Banshee music player, but not when I'm in the GNOME 3 desktop - it works with LXDE. So if you are having issues playing CDs, try an alternative to GNOME 3. I'll check Xfce and KDE later to see if they work too.]

Fedora does see DVDs, even though it can’t read them without installing the codecs. After codecs are installed, DVDs play easily, on either the Totem movie player that is installed by default, or on VLC, or some other video player.

p/s:- An excerpt from Duskfire blog. This week I’m searching for a permanent job in the IT field. For your guys information , PIKOM PC Fair had just finished it’s fair. The venue is taken place at KL Convention Centre from 2 to 4 December , 2011. This year unfortunately I can’t attend the fair , but I promise to myself  that I will attend it next year. Well , that’s all for this week guys …till then , have a nice day ahead….

Windows Server 2008 offers two general types of installation : a typical Full server installation and Server Core. Server Core is a stripped down version of Windows Server 2008 that doesn’t include a GUI or any unneeded services. Instead , the server installs only key features that are related  to the role that it supports – for example , Active Directory  ,or Domain Name System (DNS).

One of server’s engineers biggest gripes about the manual Windows Server installation process in the past was that they had to babysit the server as it went through the installation , because they had to key in bits of information at different times throughout the process – license information , componenets to install , and network configuration , for example. Of course , the easy solution to all this is to perform an unattended installation , but for the one offs that require a manual installation , the process was far from being  “set and forget”.

In Windows Server 2008 , this problem has been addressed by reducing the number of interactive steps required to get your server up and running. All the necessary questions for the installation are asked up front , before you begin the actual installation process of copying the files and performing the initial server configuration. By doing this , the installation process no longer has to stop for additional information before it can proceed. Once the server software installation is complete , installation of components and the configuration of the server can proceed under the new integrated management tool called Server Manager.

Minimum System Requirement:-

Processor: Minimum: 1GH

Memory: Minimum: 512MB RAM

Disk Space: Minimum: 8GB

Windows Server 2008 Core: Read-Only DC

Because the administration of a Server Core is done from the command line only (at least initially), dcpromo must be run with a host of options to promote the Server Core installation to a domain controller (read-only or standard). From the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library, here are the command line options for dcpromo. The options can optionally be specified in an answer file.

So, to create a RODC on a Server Core installation without also installing DNS, the command line would be:

dcpromo /unattend /ReplicaDomainDNSName:<FQDN_of_Domain> /ReplicaOrNewDomain:ReadOnlyReplica /SiteName:<site_name> /InstallDNS:No /DatabasePath:”C:\NTDS” /LogPath:”C:\NTDS” /SysVolPath:”C:\SYSVOL”

Obviously, the paths for the database, logs, and sysvol would need to be changed to the appropriate location for your environment. The bulk of the parameters are pretty self-explanatory, but two need attention called out. First, the /ReplicaOrNewDomain:ReadOnlyReplica parameter is what defines the DC as a RODC. Using /ReplicaOrNewDomain:Replica creates a standard DC in an existing domain. Using /ReplicaOrNewDomain:NewDomain should be pretty obvious, but it does introduce a slew of different required parameters and options. Also, when creating a RODC you must specify the site name using the /SiteName parameter. I’m not sure, but I would assume this is for the enabling of universal group membership caching. So, if you haven’t figured it out, you’ll need to create the site for the RODC in AD DS before you promote the server to a RODC.

Other handy parameters:

• /ConfirmGC:No – Do not configure the server as a GC (Default is Yes).
• /CriticalReplicationOnly:Yes – This forces dcpromo to only replicate the critical directory information before rebooting, postpoting the full replication of the remaining AD DS information until after a reboot; can be useful for large directories to speed up the dcpromo process (Default is No).
• /ReplicationSourceDC:<FQDN_of_DC> – This forces the replication operation to use a specific domain controller.

I don’t think Mandriva particularly needs an introduction. Suffice it to say that it was among the original premiere easy-to-use Linux distributions, along with MEPIS, even before Ubuntu existed. It came up with the all-in-one Mandrake Control Center (now, of course, the Mandriva Control Center) and made graphical installations easier to do. It has continued with a dedicated following, but in recent months it almost collapsed, even prompting the introduction of Mageia, a fork dedicated to advancing Mandriva while staying true to its core values (more on that shortly). Its financial woes have continued, but while the last few releases made a few changes to the implementation of KDE 4 but overall nothing too drastic, this release aims to bring back some of the old luster by completely rethinking the way KDE 4 is supposed to work. Let’s see how true that is in a bit.

I tested Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen” on a live USB, first made with MultiSystem and then made with UnetBootin. I was surprised that Mandriva booted after having the live USB made with UnetBootin, because for the last few years Mandriva ISO files have failed to work right with UnetBootin. I guess that application has gotten better at properly writing these ISO files to USB sticks. I tested the installation procedure in a VirtualBox VM in a Pinguy OS 11.04 Mini UnetBootin-created live USB host with 1024 MB of RAM allocated to the guest OS; I initially tried to do the VM thing within the Mandriva live USB system, but that failed (more on that later), and anyway, using Pinguy OS ensured better consistency.

I don’t think I’ve ever written about testing a system with both MultiSystem and UnetBootin. So why have I done so this time? Well, this was originally supposed to be a comparison test with Mageia 1 included. However, Mageia was not recognized by MultiSystem, and the UnetBootin-created Mageia live USB failed to boot properly. That was odd, considering that there were reports of older alpha and beta releases of Mageia that booted fine when the live USB was created with UnetBootin. I think I’ll hold off trying out Mageia until it is supported by MultiSystem, at which point I’ll review it separately but through the lens of a comparison test, sort of like how I approached Scientific Linux 6 and CentOS 6. In any case, I’m too impatient to hold off testing Mandriva for the sake of Mageia. Also note that while I made all the following observations about Mandriva in MultiSystem, I was able to replicate all of them in UnetBootin, as I have seen with other distributions as well.
With all this in mind, follow the jump to see what Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen” is like.

After the boot menu, I was greeted by a fairly fast boot time, and I was able to see a nice spinning wheel on a baby-blue Mandriva-branded background for the boot splash. It all looked OK, which told me that unlike Mandriva 2010.X, Mandriva 2011 recognized my laptop’s graphics card and native resolution properly out-of-the-box. After that, I was taken to a series of dialog boxes asking for language, locale, and keyboard settings. That led into a customized KDE splash screen with the same color background as before with 5 icons appearing in succession, followed by the desktop.

It really is true. KDE in Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen” is unlike anything you have ever seen before. Wow! There’s a lot of stuff going on here, so I’ll try to get through all the changes, which have all been designed with the help of the Russian ROSA Labs.
There is one panel at the bottom, but it isn’t a standard KDE Plasma Panel; it’s a RocketBar by ROSA. From left to right, it contains a menu icon, a task switcher that works a lot more like the one in Microsoft Windows 7 than the Smooth Tasks Plasmoid does (and thus seems a lot more professionally-done), “Stacks” showing pop-up preview boxes of the Documents and Downloads folders, and the system tray.

URPMI + Dolphin

The main menu is not a standard Kickoff menu or a KDE 3-style accordion menu. It is the ROSA-designed almost-full-screen SimpleWelcome menu. It is divided into three tabs; the first shows recently used applications and documents. The second shows all applications, divided into categories (though an unusually large number of applications got dumped into the “Tools” category). The third shows TimeFrame, which is the ROSA-designed file searcher which uses Nepomuk to search for and show files solely by creation date; this is the first truly useful use (I know that wording sounds weird, but you know what I mean) of Nepomuk I have seen so far, but because Nepomuk is disabled to make the desktop faster and snappier (which it is), TimeFrame is also disabled by default. All three tabs can be searched via a search box at the top. Some may complain that it seems too inspired by Apple’s iOS, but I do like it a lot, and it does work better than the Kickoff menu.
The icon, KWin, and Plasma themes are all designed by ROSA uniquely for Mandriva, though the icon theme seems to be a combination of Elementary and something else, while the KWin theme reminds me a little too much of the Microsoft Windows Vista Basic Aero theme.
The one small problem I had was that I couldn’t add a second instance of RocketBar; it looks like there was only meant to be one such instance at a time. Otherwise, the desktop works really, really well, and is truly a feast for the eyes.

Mozilla Firefox 5 is the default browser, but no multimedia codecs are included, which is strange for a 1.6 GB Mandriva ISO file and is really just strange for Mandriva in general. I had to get them from URPMI, the Mandriva Control package installer, but first, I needed to enable repositories, which took a really long time. After that, I was able to install Adobe Flash and other codecs, and I was able to watch YouTube and Hulu fine; at the same time, both my laptop’s sound card and its volume keyboard shortcuts were recognized out-of-the-box.

Mozilla Firefox + LibreOffice Writer + SimpleWelcome + Desktop Cube

Other installed applications include LibreOffice, Clementine, K3B, some KDE games, Shotwell, PiTiVi, and others. I’m surprised Shotwell and PiTiVi were included instead of the KDE equivalents digiKam and Kdenlive, but I guess the developers really wanted to go for ease of use at the small expense of KDE integration (though they look identically-themed to the other KDE applications anyway) instead of the other way around, so bravo to them for that decision. Also included are specific tools to configure Lexmark and Epson printers alongside the generic printer configuration tools; I know firsthand that Lexmark printers don’t play well with Linux, but I was always under the impression that Epson printers play as well with Linux as do HP printers. Finally, though it is no surprise that Dolphin is the default file manager, it is configured to have a simpler interface, as many extraneous buttons have been hidden and the menubar has been compacted into a button. That last change has become the default in KDE 4.7, but as Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen” uses KDE 4.6, I guess that setting must have been the doing of ROSA Labs, which shows how much they go above and beyond normal configuration.
At some point around here, as I was playing around with the desktop, Mandriva crashed, necessitating a cold reboot. Uh-oh.
Skype worked by downloading and extracting the dynamic package and running the executable, while the Google Talk voice/video plugin worked by downloading and installing the RPM package as recommended by Mozilla Firefox. Both recognized my webcam and mic perfectly.

Aside from a few isolated instances, Mandriva generally felt quite snappy and fast. It used 400 MB of RAM at idle, which I think is about average for KDE 4.
KWin desktop effects worked well after I enabled them. The only issue I had was that there was no keyboard shortcut to directly change the virtual workspace; I had to zoom out to see the whole desktop cube to change workspaces, which is a little more cumbersome and time-consuming. What I mean is there’s no shortcut like CTRL+ALT+LEFT to switch to the workspace immediately to the left. For some reason I also couldn’t find any way to set such shortcuts to my liking.

At this point, I moved onto the installation. As this was originally supposed to be a comparison, I had meant to run VirtualBox VMs within each respective live USB system, so even as I wrote Mageia out of this article, I thought that I would still install and run VirtualBox in this Mandriva live USB. Unfortunately, trying to run the VM made the system crash and freeze yet again, necessitating another cold reboot; while I have seen other live USB systems crash when trying to run VirtualBox, this is still not confidence-inspiring.
At this point, I went into a Pinguy OS 11.04 Mini live USB system made with UnetBootin and did the same things with VirtualBox, and it worked! I was able to start the installation from the live system OK. One interesting thing is that the default resolution of the VM was higher than I’ve ever seen in a VM, which is a very good thing if you ask me.
(Please note that I really meant to include pictures of the installer, but it completely slipped my mind somehow. Sorry! Anyway, you can probably find tons of such pictures on other sites.)
Because Mandriva asks for language, localization, and keyboard layout prior to logging in, the installation skipped those steps and went straight into partitioning. This makes sense because it ensures better live and installed experiences. Based on some other reviews I have read, partitioning continues to be the weak point. It’s hampered by garish colors and the fact that users need to look at a legend of partition colors to figure out which partition is which; furthermore, the graphic doesn’t show OS labels like some other installer partitioning graphics do. For an installer that was the pioneer of easy partitioning, it’s a shame that it seems to have progressed so little in the last few years. One good thing now that apparently wasn’t there before is that there is a warning screen telling the user that the disk will be formatted and data will be lost, giving the option of aborting the installation before such changes are made permanent. After that comes the main installation, replete with a nice slideshow showing the great features of Mandriva in simplified blue artwork. The main installation took about 15 minutes, which is slightly worse than average but still not too long. After that came bootloader configuration; the nice thing here is that if GRUB is used (and it almost always is), the installer shows the boot menu before the installation of GRUB. This means that users will be notified beforehand if any preexisting OSs are not recognized, meaning the problem can be fixed before it is even encountered, which is great! This was followed by a prompt to reboot.

After rebooting, GRUB looked a lot nicer. After the boot menu came dialog boxes asking for the user’s country, the root password, and then the new user name and password. The only issue here was while the user can have an icon, the icon can only be selected by scrolling through a list in a certain order, instead of easily picking from a grid or something like that. After that came the login manager KDM, which is easily the most professional-looking login manager I have seen in any Linux distribution. It’s even better than the one in Microsoft Windows, and that’s one thing Microsoft gets right, if you ask me. After that came the installed session, which worked identically to the live session, so that’s where my time with Mandriva ended.

The issues I had with the RocketBar and VirtualBox crashes probably won’t affect most users, but they did annoy me a little. The other random crash I experienced slightly hampered an otherwise amazing experience, but other users’ experiences may vary depending on the hardware and whether a live DVD or live USB is used. And while newbies may need a little help with the installer, I can give this 95% of a full recommendation. Mandriva has truly reinvented itself, and the end result is beautiful in almost every way.
You can get it here, though be warned that the servers may be slow due to high demand, as it was just released 2 days ago.

P/s:- This article is taken from Prashanth Venkataram.

* For this week , I’m busy studying for my TBE – Takaful Basic Exam that will be held at Convent Bukit Nanas , Jln Ampang. I’m now working as an Agent AIA AFG Takaful Bhd , and as a Takaful Wealth Advisor. Islamic Financing and Banking is cool….everybody should try it…Just install back my Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition…this time with no flaws….Hope to see you guys next week…till then…bye…

We are very excited to announce the release of DPM 2012 Beta.

Some of the big enhancements include:

1. Centralized Management of DPM Servers (built on top of System Center Operations Manager )
   • A Central Console from which you can monitor and manage all the backup servers in your datacenter.
   • Need it today for the DPM 2010 environment? We got it! – Use a single console to monitor both DPM 2012 and DPM 2010 servers! (Make sure you download the interoperability patch for DPM 2010)
   • Role Based Access enabled – Use one of the 8 default roles or create a new role from scratch in a minute. Default Roles include : Read-Only User; Recovery Operator ; Reporting Operator; Tier-1 Support (help desk); Tier-2 Support(escalation); TAPE Operator; TAPE Admins and DPM Admins
2. Certificate Based Protection Backup machines from domains not trusted by the DPM Server domain including workgroup machines using certificates
3. Best for Microsoft Apps
   • Enhanced Hyper-V  Support – Faster Hyper-V backups (Express Full) support for standalone Hyper-V hosts and ability to perform item level recovery even when DPM is running inside a VM.
   • Enhanced SharePoint Support– Recover files in seconds. Item level Recovery without moving content DBs. SharePoint RBS Support.
   • SQL FILESTREAM Support
4. Consolidate databases of multiple DPM Servers on same SQL Instance.
5. And as always, seamless upgrade experience from your existing DPM environment (DPM 2010).

• New in 2010 is the ability for roaming laptops to get centrally managed policies around desktop protection. Your laptop data will be protected whether you are connected to the corporate network or travelling.
• DPM 2010 also provides native site-to-site replication for Disaster Recovery to either another DPM 2010 server or an off-site cloud provider.
• Centrally managed System State and Bare Metal Recovery are also new in DPM 2010.

UI – Yes. Download it, see it, tell us how you feel Feature Enhancements – Improved reliability, space optimization and more flexible job management capabilities.

p/s: – This is the new version of Metasploit Pro. Here  is the download link:-

http://metasploit.com/download

Till then , have a nice weekend ahead….

Tools listed in Blackbuntu penetration testing distribution:-

• Information Gathering
• Network Mapping
• Vulnerability Identification
• Penetration
• Privilege Escalation
• Maintaining Access
• Radio Network Analysis
• VoIP Analysis
• Digital Forensic
• Reverse Engineering
• Miscellanious

http://sourceforge.net/projects/blackbuntu/files/Community%20Edition/Community%20Edition%200.3/bb03-amd64-final.iso/download

P/S:- Steve Jobs , founder of Apple Inc had passed away peacefully….He is one of the world’s creator and entrepreneur of computers , tablet pc , and smart phones. He’s creation of Iphone5 , Apple’s Ipad and Apple Mac-OSx Leopard operating system cannot challenge anyone in the world. He is like a computer genius and a guru. Without him , the world of smart phones and computers is silent….Founder of Apple Inc.

P/S:- Hack In the Box (HITB) Security Conference 2011 is held at Hotel Intercontinental KL starting from 10th October till 13th October 2011 this year. Lab session starts on 10th October while Conferences starts on 12th October till 13th October . This year many presenters all around the glob attend and they present many interesting topic. Check this out:-

https://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2011kul/?page_id=24

Well , that’s all for this week post..Hope to see you guys next week….Till then , have a nice weekend….

We also hear that they often lack necessary IT support. Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is designed to address these challenges so teachers and students can tap into a single computer that supports multiple users. This eliminates the need to buy more computers, cutting down on hardware purchasing costs as well as ongoing operational costs for things like support and energy usage.

More students and teachers need access to technology to get ready to compete for 21st century jobs, but many schools don’t have sufficient budget to buy the computers they need. Plus, finding money for ongoing maintenance and support can be a challenge. In addition, schools need innovative ways to get the most out of older technology investments that they have already made.

Windows MultiPoint Server is a great solution. With Windows MultiPoint Server, one host computer is shared by multiple users simultaneously, enabling schools to reduce overall costs 66% by saving on hardware, energy and maintenance. Schools can effectively triple the number of Windows computers without increasing budget.

MultiPoint Server 2011 has been recently released to manufacturing and includes several new features and upgrades to MultiPoint Server 2010. Desktop Orchestration is a new administration feature. It gives admins a thumbnail view over all MultiPoint desktops in a network. With it, administrators can instantly block a station, close or open a stations’s applications, project one station to another and limit website browsing. Software integrators have new capabilities as well with MultiPoint Manager extensibility. They can add new tabs or sub-tabs to the MultiPoint Manager interface and create new controls. MultiPoint Server has a common SDK with both Windows Small Business Server 2011 and Windows Home Server 2011 and is built on the Windows Sever 2008 RS SP1 platform.

Other key features include a Windows 7 desktop experience at each station, multiple language support, private USB and unique IP addresses for each station.

Example: Windows Multipoint Server 2011 in school.

What’s new in Linux 3.0

The transition to the Linux kernel’s ‘third decade’ sees numerous changes to the Btrfs filesystem. The kernel now includes all the major components needed to host guest systems under Xen and includes many new and revised drivers.

Linus Torvalds and his collaborators have taken just two months to complete the latest kernel. The most notable change, however, is cosmetic rather than technical – the transition from version 2.6.39 to 3.0. This not been taken as a cue to insert major changes, however, and the new kernel is in fact a perfectly normal version increment, following the pattern set for the 2.6 series.

New features in Linux 3.0 include the addition of a storage backend for Xen, which means that the kernel now contains all the major components required to run as Dom0 – the merger of Xen support appeared tantalisingly close six years ago, but it has taken until now for it to actually happen. There have also been a number of changes to the Btrfs filesystem and to graphics drivers. Kernel developers have as ever also added several new drivers and have improved many existing drivers.

This article will provide a brief description of the new Linux version’s most important improvements. Many of these improvements affect not only servers but also notebooks and desktop PCs. The distribution kernels will bring the improvements to the majority of Linux systems in the short or medium term, as these kernels are based on the kernels released by Linus Torvalds.

A great leap

Incrementing the main version number and the introduction of a completely new numbering system have both been discussed in the past, but the transition to 3.0, when it came, came somewhat out of the blue. Last year, it looked as if kernel developers wanted to hit at least version 2.6.42 before moving to 3.0. In the second half of May, one week after releasing Linux 2.6.39, Torvalds unexpectedly mooted the idea of moving to version 2.8, because “the numbers are getting too big”. The discussion which ensued on LKML quickly threw up the idea of moving to 3.0 – the ’3′ is a nod to Linux entering its third decade, with the OS due to celebrate its 20th birthday shortly.

The actual decision to make the transition and shorten the version number to two, rather than three, sets of digits was taken by Torvalds a few days later, on releasing the first pre-release version of the newly released kernel. He appears to have taken the decision alone, as his position as the alpha male of Linux development enables him to do. In the release email for Linux 3.0-rc1, Torvalds was at pains to make clear that it really was to be just a new numbering system, and would not contain any major changes. He had previously rejected calls to use the version number change as an opportunity to ditch legacy items such as MCA, EISA and ISA support.

The new numbering system does, however, have some significance for users, as it messes up a number of applications, including system-related programs such as cryptsetup, device-mapper, LVM2, mdadm, module-init-tools and procps. To avoid problems, these applications should be updated when upgrading to kernel 3.0 or later. Some of these programs only activate mechanisms for working with recent kernels when the version number starts with 2.6, others assume that the version number contains three sets of digits. Torvalds has not held back in criticising this approach. To get around at least some manifestations of this problem, Linux 3.0 will identify itself as 3.0.0, and indeed it is likely that the next version will also add an extra ‘.0′. Sooner or later, however, this might be dropped. The next kernel version after 3.0 will be version 3.1. The third digit will replace the fourth in designating stable and long term kernels.

OpenDNS is a great utility that protects your DNS server or computer from malware and other outsider attack. It provides you with filtering , malware protection , web content filtering , phishing and botnet protection , and it has a OpenDNS dashboard for use of administering the DNS and it’s features.

I strongly recommend for all of you to try out OpenDNS , if you guys really want to secure your Domain Name System (DNS) in your enterprise or local network. It’s actually free , all you have to do is just sign up , register your name and account , and set your DNS IP Address and from the dashboard , you will have all the authority to administer which feature you want to apply for your DNS , for example , web content filtering , or malware protection and much more.  I have tried it , and its just so easy to set it up. My DNS IP address now is pointing to my Streamyx Wireless Router , and from there , I can manage my router settings and my network. But I have to sign in first in the OpenDNS website.

Well , that’s all for this week post. I am quite busy for the past 3 month , and don’t have the time to update my blog. Fortunately , this week , I have the time to write something interesting in my blog post. If you guys want to share or comment on my blog , please feel free to do so…

See you guys next week….bye….

Khairul Azrin B. Azman.