Quick and Dirty DHCP setup for Vyatta

I needed a quick and easy DHCP server on a Vyatta at work and it is very simple to do and thought I would share it. The first thing we need to do is to log in our Vyatta router and enter the configure mode.

Your LAN interface will need an IP address in it. In this example we will use 192.168.1.0/24 since that is very common. Our vyatta router is 192.168.1.254 by the way.


The commands typed will be in bold. The # is just signifying a line as in the console.


# set service dhcp-server shared-network-name JaredTest subnet 192.168.1.0/24 start 192.168.1.5 stop 192.168.1.10
#set service dhcp-server shared-network-name JaredTest description "Give it a Description"
#set service dhcp-server shared-network-name JaredTest subnet 192.168.1.0/24 dns-server 192.168.1.1
#set service dhcp-server shared-network-name JaredTest subnet 192.168.1.0/24 domain-name domain.local
#set service dhcp-server shared-network-name JaredTest subnet 192.168.1.0/24 default-router 192.168.1.254
#commit
#save


That is pretty much it.

Mikrotik USB Install

Mikrotik is a router platform that can run on x86 hardware and actually does a pretty good job. One of the main features that many people that use it like is the fact that you can have junior admins use it because easily because there is a GUI by using their Winbox. Long story short, we have it installed on our main router and love it so far. For $45 we turned a Core 2 duo machine into a complete router with around 2000 machine behind it. This isn't a sale on the product but it isn't too bad at all and works well for us. We will replace it when we get the funds to do so. ;)

To install it on a USB drive is so simple. I know you probably are thinking this will be a long step by step post but I really don't think that is necessary. Do the following and you will be fine. 

1. Download and install Virtual Box and install if you don't have it already.
2. Download the Mikrotik Iso (This is 5.8 at the writing of this)
3. Insert USB drive into your machine.
4. You will now need to create a virtual machine on your virtual box. Name it "Mikrotik Install" or something along those lines. If you don't know how to use virtual box you can google on how to create a new virtualbox machine. Under the storage options be sure to set the CD to the mikrotik ISO you downloaded. 
5. Start the VM up.
6. You will have to Click on Devices then USB Devices and choose your flash drive on the top menu when you start the machine. YOU MAY HAVE TO JUST RESET THE MACHINE AGAIN for it to see your USB drive. 
7. Follow through the install and choose the USB drive as the install target. 
8. Insert the USB into the new machine and boot from USB and tada!

This post was a quick how to I wrote for a friend that asked me to. So it may not be the most precise or clear and I apologize but the theory of it is very simple. 

The ActiveX Control for Flash Player Could Not Be Registered

We were getting the "The ActiveX Control for Flash Player Could Not Be Registered" error on some computers and could not figure out exactly what was going on. So after this I ran procmon on the computers having issues and discovered that this was due to a registry issue of the previous version. To alleviate this we have to open up regedit and find the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000}

Right click and take control of this and set permissions on all keys below this. Delete this whole entire key.

You will also do the same with:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D27CDB70-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000}.


Once these are removed go ahead and try the install again. Hopefully all will work well.


UPDATE TO THIS:
Unfortunately I do not know exactly which CLSID key it is. It all depends on the versioning of the FLASH PLAYER. Just run ProcMon on the computer to see which one is causing the issue. Set the filter within ProcMon to the name of the flash installer. Once you look at this you will see what is taking place. You may need to go into the CLSID key and reset the security permissions on that whole entire key. We recently saw a couple more of these buggers coming up where we had to replace security permissions on the child objects. Once I did that I was able to take Ownership and delete them out of there. This is a very frustrating process and I think maybe a virus or AV software did this a long time ago.


Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Jared

MAC address filtering with Vyatta

We have an issue with people bringing devices in and connecting them on the network. Of course there are lots of solutions to alleviate this but the easiest way to do so is to do the following and apply it to the internal interfaces where the MAC address live.

#SETUP THE MAC FILTERING ON THE ROUTER

configure

set firewall name NOMAC

set firewall name NOMAC default-action accept

#SET THE RULES

set firewall name NOMAC rule 20 source mac-address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

set firewall name NOMAC rule 20 action drop

#REPLACE THE ETH0 With your local interface

set interfaces ethernet eth0 firewall in name NOMAC

#OPTIONAL FOR LOGGING

set firewall name NOMAC rule 20 log enable

commit

That should pretty much do it and block traffic for the MAC addresses going through the router.

Now just set up an individual rule for every MAC address that is causing the issues. :)

Aligning Business and IT

Aligning business with IT sounds like something simple to do but so many individuals fail at this miserably. I was speaking with a friend of mine that owns a MSP business last week. He was describing this new mail/communication server that they bought and how it ties in with their ticketing system and it is going to increase the productivity of all his employees. He told me of the awesome features such as how it does complete unified messaging when they get new VOIP phones. It will only cost them a license for each station when they decide to do the Unified Messaging. He went on and on about all the awesome features.

I finally asked him, "why?".

He stated because the salesman told him all these features and this will push them in the right direction for the future.

I then asked him what was wrong with his old system.

Not to my surprise he stated "nothing".

Now I agree that having the latest and greatest technology is awesome but sometimes we get caught up in the potential of and what the technology can do instead of what the business needs the technology to do.

If we pulled up the productivity savings on what the new system they would be in the red compared to the cost of the actual system and all the integration features. We sat down and we wrote up everything line by line on estimated time savings by employee, customer wait time, increased billing, and automation savings and compared it to the system cost that he purchased.

Unfortunately, it is going to take him 7 years to break even without UM licenses and 11 with UM licenses. I believe you see the picture.

My friend purchased a system that did not align to the IT needs of his business. He bought something on the fact that it would save them money but did not do the math on the ROI and how long it would take.

I talk to so many business owners that buy IT related software, hardware, and services that are not a necessity and do not align to their business model. Technology is agreed that it can help you achieve some of the greatest goals but also can hinder your business to the point where it becomes more of a nuisance.

You want your IT and Business to be side by side going in an upward manner if you will. Each of them feeding off each other thus creating an increase in your business giving you more profitability and less IT breakdowns. This includes buying technology that is what your business needs (no more no less), technology that is easy to use for your organization, and technology that has less overhead (such as cloud based software and services).

Once you align your business and IT together you will begin to see better results and overall results.

Life of Backups

So many times I am asked, "Are backups really that important?". I think to myself and am astonished that someone would even ask me that. Do you really think that this is something to think about lightly, or even worse just take the risk of not having a solid back up. You may laugh or chuckle but you have no idea of how many people do not take backups of their data.

Today I witnessed a Doctors office that has not taken a backup in a year. Yes, a year. So you might ask but all their data is digital. Meaning es no papel. All digital. So if they had a fire, you guessed it, they would lose all their data.

Their are many solutions that you can go with CHEAPLY! There all out there and are actually fairly cheap compared to the loss that you would take. What is $2000 compared to all the damage you would take if you lost all your data? Just a drop in the bucket.

People please make a backup of your data. I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Seriously. If you need help with a backup strategy, just let me know. I would be glad to help you with this.

Exchange 2007 Certificate Builder

Many times creating a self signed certificate with Exchange 2007's Exchange Management Shell is a pain. I do it all the time but I am pretty lazy and don't want to have to sit there and scratch my head everytime I create a certificate. This pretty much does all the work for you with a GUI to create self-signed certificates. Try it out and hope you enjoy it.

http://www.virtualplug.com/images/CertMaker.exe

Thanks,
Jared