INFO-VAX Mon, 26 Nov 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 648 Contents: Re: A Look Ahead to 2008 Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Re: HP loses another large customer Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Re: LDAP tools for VMS Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: Putting a throttle on Apache (CSWS), or all of TCP RFC: Cluster status on a mobile handset Re: Rsync on VMS SET SECURITY /SECRECY Re: SET SECURITY /SECRECY Re: SET SECURITY /SECRECY Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:22:41 -0800 (PST) From: ultradwc@gmail.com Subject: Re: A Look Ahead to 2008 Message-ID: <345b25fb-374e-44f1-8e28-c8dfe6460db1@s12g2000prg.googlegroups.com> On Nov 18, 10:26 pm, David J Dachtera wrote: > As I mentioned to Sue in another post, 2008 marks the year that my current > (healthcare) site begins to phase out VMS completely. We're moving to IBM+AIX on > p5-Series. > > On a more personal note, I'll be focusing on non-EDP related pursuits with the > dawn of the new year. I need to find creative ways fund our retirement and > arrange for my wife to open her bead shop. When I do surf the EDP-related > newsgroups, it will likely be on comp.unix.aix. > > I expect to continue my current hosting arrangements which support djesys.com as > well as my personal pages on Earthlink. So, those will continue to go further > stale but will remain available for at least the years thru 31-Dec-2010. > > I want to thank the many who have helped me with all my technical issues over > the years, express my continued support to those who have benefitted from my > experience, and also apologize for having "gotten into it" those many times when > ego and emotion won out over common sense. > > A bit early perhaps, wishing all a Wonderful Holiday Season as well as a > prosperous and health-filled New Year. > > -- > David J Dachtera > dba DJE Systemshttp://www.djesys.com/ > > Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page:http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ if you value your health, you would reconsider this decision ... going to IBM will help funds your wifes business alright ... she can use your life insurance money ... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:28:21 -0800 (PST) From: Rob Subject: Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Message-ID: <3e030920-a9c9-4751-9f45-b5112a1287aa@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> On Nov 24, 1:33 pm, JF Mezei wrote: > Same results on VAX 7.3 and Alpha 8.3 > > $ tot = f$getdvi("$11$dqa0","MAXBLOCK") > $ show symbol tot > TOT = 58633344 Hex = 037EAC80 Octal = 00337526200 > > $ used = tot - f$getdvi("$11$dqa0","FREEBLOCKS") > $ show symbol used > USED = 21928928 Hex = 014E9BE0 Octal = 00123515740 > > $ percent = used * 100 / tot > $ show symbol percent > PERCENT = -35 Hex = FFFFFFDD Octal = 37777777735 > > After some testing, I have found that the largest number DCL can handle is > > A = 2147483647 Hex = 7FFFFFFF Octal = 17777777777 > (2^31 - 1) > > How do folks deal with this issue ? I am dealing with 18 gig drives > here, and I suspect that those with bigger drives would encounter such > issues much more. > > What happens when disks contain a MAXBLOCK value that is greater than > 2^31 - 1 ? Does it return a negative value ? > > In my case, I am thinking about testing the value of "used" against > 0x7FFFFFFF / 100, and if greater, then I know I can't multiply it by 100 > and would then need to divide both "used" and "tot" by 100 before > executing the ration on them I would suggest NOT trying to do calculations using the DCL inbuilt. Instead, use this command line utility :- http://vms.process.com/scripts/fileserv/fileserv.com?ICALC ALPHA_ROB$ TOT = 58633344 ALPHA_ROB$ USED = 21928928 ALPHA_ROB$ ws used * 100 / tot -35 ALPHA_ROB$ icalc 'used' * 100 / 'tot' 37.4000978 ALPHA_ROB$ sh sym icalc_out ICALC_OUT = "37.4000978" ALPHA_ROB$ ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:25:05 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Message-ID: In article , JF Mezei writes: > Same results on VAX 7.3 and Alpha 8.3 > > > After some testing, I have found that the largest number DCL can handle is > > A = 2147483647 Hex = 7FFFFFFF Octal = 17777777777 > (2^31 - 1) > Yep, DCL has 32 bit integers. Always has. Probably always will. The rest of us get around it by programming in one of the many 3GL than can handle floating point or 64 bit integers. On VAXen, we long ago learned how to use things like EMULx to work very long integers on a 32 bit machine. You can call LIB$ routines to access these instructions on VAXen and their mathematically equivalent routines on Alpha and IA-64 so you don't have to work in Macro-32. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:36:37 -0600 From: lederman@encompasserve.org (B. Z. Lederman) Subject: Re: Handling large numbers in DCL Message-ID: If you're willing to use a Freeware solution, the latest version of the OpenVMS Freeware collection has ICALCV on it. I fixed a number of compilation problems, and wrote a replacement for the one module that was written in FORTRAN, so it's all in C now. I use it regularly, but like all Freeware there is no official support. I use it to calculate the percentage of free space remaining on very large disk drives, because it can do floating point as well as very large integers, trig, logs, dates, etc. There are also older versions of it floating around. -- B. Z. Lederman. My personal opinions. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 13:36:01 GMT From: billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <5r00e1F126q9jU1@mid.individual.net> In article <13k6vjv81t4nb7b@corp.supernews.com>, "Michael D. Ober" writes: > "Bill Gunshannon" wrote in message > news:5qg5q4FvmjuaU2@mid.individual.net... >> In article <13k4pj1fjm74j7d@corp.supernews.com>, >> "Michael D. Ober" writes: >>> "Main, Kerry" wrote in message >>> news:C72D63EB292C9E49AED23F705C61957BDEBA430780@G1W0487.americas.hpqcorp.net... >>> >>> That's why virtualization is all the rage now. Neither Linux nor Windows >>> was architected to easily configure and support multiple applications on >>> the >>> server side. >> >> What? As regards Linux, what part of multi-tasking do you not understand? >> > > It's not a lack of multitasking. Both Windows and Linux multitask > reasonably well. The issue is the configuration of a large application and > what happens when two or more of these large apps both try to reconfigure > the OS for themselves. Name an application that tries to or even could "reconfigure the OS" under Unix. > Both MS and Linux are abject failures when it comes > to configuring multiple, large, line of business apps on a single OS > instance. That is utterly absurd. Businesses have been running their operations on Unix for decades. Until the advent of cheap PC's capable of running Unix it was frequently done with the entire business on one machine. Heck, Dennis Ritchie shared the machine he was developing Unix on with people doing real business applications!!! bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:38:06 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: In article <474a3981$0$90270$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= writes: > > Some of the most popular OO languages (C++, Java and C#) are 3GL > languages. Some of the best OO code I've ever seen was written in Macro-32 decades before the term was coined. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:38:50 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: In article <5r00e1F126q9jU1@mid.individual.net>, billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: > > Name an application that tries to or even could "reconfigure the OS" under > Unix. Oracle. Don't even try to install it without the root password handy. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 16:05:56 GMT From: billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <5r0973F11m0o1U1@mid.individual.net> In article , koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes: > In article <5r00e1F126q9jU1@mid.individual.net>, billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: >> >> Name an application that tries to or even could "reconfigure the OS" under >> Unix. > > Oracle. Don't even try to install it without the root password > handy. Just becuase it needs the roor password to write things like startup info in tot /etc (or other directories) does not mean it is "reconfiguring the OS". I would bet that most applications (like Oracle) require system access on VMS as well. I know installing any compiler does. Are they also "reconfiguring the OS"? bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:46:56 -0800 (PST) From: Hein RMS van den Heuvel Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <53ec18d4-083d-44a5-866b-7ab000d4af2e@b40g2000prf.googlegroups.com> On Nov 26, 10:38 am, koeh...@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) wrote: > In article <5r00e1F126q9...@mid.individual.net>, billg...@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: > > > Name an application that tries to or even could "reconfigure the OS" under > > Unix. > > Oracle. Don't even try to install it without the root password > handy. Nonsense. Ditto for Michael comments which triggered this. All IMHO of course. Oracle is very consiencious and careful about NOT needed 'root' privs. During instal they specifically create a root.sh which is plain to see for all and which has to be run with root privs once. No need for a password or constant access. You do need a system admin who plays along, and will run the script and set up an account or two, but that's exactly the same on OpenVMS. And any half-decent Oracle install is likely to prompt system configuration tweaks, but that's no different for OpenVMS either. I've installed SAP and Oracle on the same (unix, and windows) boxes. Both are major apps. Both require/encourage system config tweaks but those mostly do not fight, but complement. My gutfeel is that at this point in time OpenVMS is more nasty to set up for distinct applications than your average Unix is, specifically when you toss in things like reserved memory, tcp tweaks, lack of a generally available LVM (yes I know and like LD, yes Logical Volume Managers are more often misused than taken advantage of). fwiw, Hein van den Heuvel ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:57:17 -0500 From: "Richard B. Gilbert" Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: <474AFAED.5040108@comcast.net> Bob Koehler wrote: > In article <474a3981$0$90270$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= writes: > >>Some of the most popular OO languages (C++, Java and C#) are 3GL >>languages. > > > Some of the best OO code I've ever seen was written in Macro-32 > decades before the term was coined. > You can write OO code in just about any language. OO is not about languages, it's a way to look at/analyze the problem to be solved. Some languages encourage/require OO analysis and design. The idea behind OO is that you represent an "object" as a package consisting of a data structure and all the allowed operations, called methods, on that data structure. If the language in use requires OO, you can't easily do stupid things like trying to add two windows or multiply a window by a file! It's a tool, not a panacea! ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 12:15:57 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: In article <5r0973F11m0o1U1@mid.individual.net>, billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: > > Just becuase it needs the roor password to write things like > startup info in tot /etc (or other directories) does not mean > it is "reconfiguring the OS". I would bet that most applications > (like Oracle) require system access on VMS as well. I know > installing any compiler does. Are they also "reconfiguring the OS"? > Installing anything on VMS that is completely integrated requires write access to sys$library:dcltables.exe. And write access to the directories where files get put. Requiring write access to /bin or /usr/bin for a compiler installation on UNIX would be the same type of privilege requirement and I would not consider that "reconfiguring the OS". As far as Oracle on UNIX, every installation of Oracle I've worked with on any UNIX has modified the kernel, at least by changing kernel parameters, to suit its needs. That's what I consider "reconfiguring the OS". I would feel the same way if a product installed on VMS contained new kernel modules or required me to update SYSGEN parameters. For compilers there are no kernel modules and typically the SYSGEN parameters are optional. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 12:23:37 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: In article <474AFAED.5040108@comcast.net>, "Richard B. Gilbert" writes: > The idea behind OO is that you represent an "object" as a package > consisting of a data structure and all the allowed operations, called > methods, on that data structure. If the language in use requires OO, > you can't easily do stupid things like trying to add two windows or > multiply a window by a file! I'm quite sure I could do both of those in C++. 8( But inheritance is easier in Java than it is in Macro-32. 8) ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 12:21:51 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: HP loses another large customer Message-ID: In article <53ec18d4-083d-44a5-866b-7ab000d4af2e@b40g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, Hein RMS van den Heuvel writes: > > Oracle is very consiencious and careful about NOT needed 'root' privs. > During instal they specifically create a root.sh which is plain to see > for all and which has to be run with root privs once. No need for a > password or constant access. You do need a system admin who plays > along, and will run the script and set up an account or two, but > that's exactly the same on OpenVMS. I never said Oracle on VMS was different. And the mods I refered to are the ones you'll find in root.sh, they don't need to be run repeatedly to be OS mods, they only need to be done at install. > My gutfeel is that at this point in time OpenVMS is more nasty to set > up for distinct applications than your average Unix is, specifically > when you toss in things like reserved memory, tcp tweaks, lack of a > generally available LVM (yes I know and like LD, yes Logical Volume > Managers are more often misused than taken advantage of). Everything you need to tweak on VMS is fully documented. I had an LVM on a couple of UNIX and all it did for me was work around a couple features missing from ufs. Try finding documentation for some of the kernel parameters Oracle tweaks on an installation to Ultrix (my first exposure). You need a source license (about $40K at the time). My gut feel is that you speak from a lack of experience. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:46:25 -0500 From: JF Mezei Subject: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: <2da2d$474adc43$cef8887a$20438@TEKSAVVY.COM> Just stumbled on this. apparently, specifying ;-0 gives you the file spec with the lowest version number. > $ dir $disk1:[www_server]netserver.log > > Directory $DISK1:[WWW_SERVER] > > NETSERVER.LOG;221 NETSERVER.LOG;220 NETSERVER.LOG;219 NETSERVER.LOG;218 > > Total of 4 files. > $ dir $disk1:[www_server]netserver.log;-0 > > Directory $DISK1:[WWW_SERVER] > > NETSERVER.LOG;218 Is this documented and reliable ? Or was I just lucky ? The funny part is when you do a SET WATCH for a ;-0 access: XQP, Thread #0, Read only directory access (6796,17,0) %XQP, Thread #0, Directory scan for: NETSERVER.LOG;4294934528, Status: 00000001 %XQP, Thread #0, Lookup (4734,216,0) Status: 00000001 Now, that is the highest file version I have ever seen on VMS :-) :-) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:00:30 GMT From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= Subject: Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: JF Mezei wrote: > Just stumbled on this. > > apparently, specifying ;-0 gives you the file spec with the lowest > version number. I've used that for years in a production server to process files in FIFO order. Just searched my "COM" directory and got a lot ";-0" and ".;0" hits... :-) From chapter 3.5.1 from "OpenVMS User Guide" : > You can refer to versions of a file in a relative > manner by specifying a zero or a negative version number. > Specifying zero locates the latest (highest numbered) > version of the file. Specifying ;-1 locates the > next-most-recent version, ;-2 the version before that, > and so on. To locate the earliest (lowest numbered) > version of a file, specify ;-0 as the version number... > Or was I just lucky ? Probably... Best Regards, Jan-Erik. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:39:42 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: In article <2da2d$474adc43$cef8887a$20438@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei writes: > Just stumbled on this. > > apparently, specifying ;-0 gives you the file spec with the lowest > version number. > You should read the fine manual someday. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 12:17:17 -0600 From: briggs@encompasserve.org Subject: Re: Is ;-0 documented for file version ? Message-ID: In article <2da2d$474adc43$cef8887a$20438@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei writes: > The funny part is when you do a SET WATCH for a ;-0 access: > > XQP, Thread #0, Read only directory access (6796,17,0) > %XQP, Thread #0, Directory scan for: NETSERVER.LOG;4294934528, Status: > 00000001 > %XQP, Thread #0, Lookup (4734,216,0) Status: 00000001 > > Now, that is the highest file version I have ever seen on VMS :-) :-) Or one of the lowest. I have next to no knowledge of XQP internals but 4294934528 = 2^32 - 2^15 or 0xFFFF8000 It's the two's complement encoding of -32768 in 32 bits. The obvious mapping of ASCII version numbers to 16 bit two's complement would be: ;-32767 = -32767 = 0x8001 ... ;-1 = -1 = 0xFFFF ; = ;0 = 0 = 0x0000 ;1 = 1 = 0x0001 ... ;32767 = 32767 = 0x7FFF That leaves exactly one code point unused. So... ;-0 = -32768 = 0x8000 Or, in 32 bits ;-0 = -32768 = 0xffff8000 = 4294934528 (unsigned) But that's just guesswork. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:36:44 +0000 (UTC) From: david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk Subject: Re: LDAP tools for VMS Message-ID: In article <474a41cb$0$90270$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= writes: >Malcolm Smeaton wrote: >> We have an OpenLDAP Directory Server but a significant part of our user >> account management for staff and students is processed on VMS and >> distributed to other platforms - including the OpenLDAP server. It would >> be very handy if we could use the above tools to access the directory >> server directly from VMS, especially for things like testing. >> >> We have already written some modules using the C language application >> programming interface (API) for LDAP, but if the above tools are already >> available from VMS DCL why bother trying to write these ourselves. > I've no idea why they haven't provided all the LDAP tools however it looks like you can build your own ldapsearch. At least on Alpha VMS 8.3 if you look in sys$examples you'll find LDAP_EXAMPLE.C which looks like it is an ldapsearch. " * To build this program use: * $ cc ldap_example * $ link ldap_example * * The program expects to run as a foreign command. To define the foreign * command use the following syntax: * * $ ldap_example := $disk1:[mydir]ldap_example.exe ! define foreign command * * The program expects the following arguments: * * server The node which is providing LDAP access to a directory * * base The base object in the directory for the search operation * * filter The search filter to be used * * attributes An optional list of one or more attributes to be returned * for each matching record. If no attributes are specified, * then all user attributes will be returned. * * An example of a search command would be: * * $ ldap_example server "o=acme, c=us" "(sn=s*)" cn sn * * Given the parameters above, the program will attempt to make contact * with an LDAP server on node "server", and request a search for all * records below the object "o=acme, c=us" that match the filter "sn=s*". * For each matching record, the attributes "cn" and "sn" will be displayed. */ " David Webb Security team leader CCSS Middlesex University >Probably too late, but: > >http://www.mozilla.org/directory/javasdk.html has ldapsearch, ldapmodify >and ldapdelete in Java ! > >Arne ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:17:37 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer Message-ID: In article , Cydrome Leader writes: > > What possible use for a computer (of any sort) does NASA even have at this > point? Sort of like what the white house spokesperson said bout jimmy > carter, they're becoming increasingly less relevant. Get real, or go away. You think NASA does everything by flipping switches on analog circuits? You think monitoring the earth's atmosphere doesn't include some CPU hungry algorithms to determine what it all means? Just because you get your news from an outlet that doesn't cover everything NASA is doing doesn't mean it isn't happening. This reminds me of Fox News' O'Reilly commenting on something NASA was doing and ending with "I guess they don't make a big fuss about that anymore." It's O'Reilly who refused to take interest in it, despite NASA providing plenty of information to the press before, during, and after. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:36:14 -0800 (PST) From: Neil Rieck Subject: Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer Message-ID: <49f32980-721c-49bf-aada-1295efbce55d@w40g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> On Nov 25, 1:00 pm, Neil Rieck wrote: > On Nov 21, 8:36 pm, Cydrome Leader wrote: > > > > > > > Neil Rieck wrote: > > > NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer [...snip...] > > I can't argue with anything you just said (typed). Previously NASA was > primarily an organization of technicians, engineers, and scientists. > Today it's an organization of bureaucrats and politicians. > > Question: "If we can land on the moon then why can't we land on the > moon?" > I hope people don't take my previous comments the wrong way. Being a child of the 1950s made me a part of the sputnik craze along with the subsequent American manned landings on the moon. But NASA has changed and it seems to me that if it weren't for JPL, that there wouldn't be much science at all in the American space program. Also, I recently heard a story on NPR (thank god for Sirius satelite radio)... http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200711166 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16343713&ft=1&f=5 ...in which I heard the horrifying tale about Nixon getting rid of the position of "Presidential Science Advisor" and how it took an act of congress to get it restored. Even still, the president is not required to take advice from the science advisor as we all learned in 2004 when we learned that whitehouse staff were editing documents from NASA, NOAA, etc. Neil Rieck Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/ ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:28:50 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: In article <47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net>, David J Dachtera writes: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). I don't know which one, but when we had a similar problem we used one of the comercial data recovery vendors. They recovered 100% of the data (drive electronics failed but the platters were still good). I often see them at shows with PCs or laptops that were left in burning buildings from which they carried out 100% data recovery. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:19:11 GMT From: =?windows-1252?Q?Jan-Erik_S=F6derholm?= Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: Peter Weaver wrote: >> ... >> operator.log doesn say much at all, but ana/audit gives >> entries like : > > FTP does a good job of sending information to the Audit Journal, but POP > does not. > > Peter Weaver > www.weaverconsulting.ca > CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial > Hardware OK, right. That's a major problem of course. And I seems to remeber JF's report on that issue earlier also... Jan-Erik. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:51:14 -0800 From: "Tom Linden" Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:15:04 -0800, Peter Weaver = wrote: >> ... >> No. I reported this some time ago. There is also no breakin evasion = >> triggered. > > Yes, I remember seeing your posting the first time this happened to me= , = > it would have be really nice if someone from HP would have seen it too= . > >> ... >> No. But you can reduce the impact by setting a service limit >> ( SET SERVICE POP /LIMIT=3D2 for instance). So if the hacker make = >> multiple simultaneous connection attempts, only the first 2 get throu= gh = >> and this limits the damage to your system and also slows down their = >> dictionary attacks. Won't this also effect legitimate users? > > Thanks, I'll try that. > > Peter Weaver > www.weaverconsulting.ca > CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial= = > Hardware -- = PL/I for OpenVMS www.kednos.com ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:36:05 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <69IhREJgmArs@eisner.encompasserve.org> In article <44117$4749ef0f$cef8887a$28352@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei writes: > > Do you have a setup where your SSH is configured to only accept > connection from hosts having certain keys ? ( I ask because I have never > really configured/looked into SSH seriously, I just used it to connect > to my mac). > You can set up a lot of services so that they are only available as SSH tunnels. Which means you have to be able to log in to the VMS system before you can attack them. No vanilla POP port, no direct POP attack. That doesn't prevent anyone from attacking via SSH itself, and on at least some stacks you need to limit the number of connections that can be attacked that way. Now all the end user has to do is break into a properly configured VMS system! I think they'd rather be sniffing crack. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:07:27 -0800 (PST) From: Rich Jordan Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: On Nov 25, 9:14 pm, "Peter Weaver" wrote: > >... > > Do you have some reason for not running a firewall of some sort? My > > Of course I have a firewall, I only have the ports I need opened. > > Peter Weaverwww.weaverconsulting.ca > CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial > Hardware Peter is the only allowed access to POP via your cellphone, or from readily identifiable sources? If so, then does your firewall allow restricting the IP ranges that are allowed to initiate inbound POP (or other port) connections? We have two customers, one with crackberry phones, the other something else. In both cases the phone companies provided the range of IP addresses that their servers (which would perform the POP3 connections routed for the phones) existed at. We have about 256 and 1024 addresses listed as allowed on the firewalls at those sites; any other address attempting to come in over port 110 is simply dropped. Its certainly not absolute but it sure cuts down on the offnet scripters and crackers, and keeps the logfiles much smaller. Rich ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:33:35 -0800 (PST) From: Rich Jordan Subject: Re: Putting a throttle on Apache (CSWS), or all of TCP Message-ID: <456c4f8a-85ae-49af-8fae-61f5d47419b7@f3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com> On Nov 23, 3:22 pm, JF Mezei wrote: > John Wallace wrote: > > switch (unless decent managed switches with mirror ports are now dirt > > cheap). > > Ebay is your friend here. Not as reliable as buying new, but if the > switch you get works well once installed, it should work well for a long > time. > > I have a Cisco 2924 XL-EN and it has lots of bells and whistles, except > QoS. (Notes that QoS is mostly used for VoIP applications to give some > traffic higher priority (not sure you can give it lower priority). > > But even with the 2924, you can limit a port to a certain throughput. I bought a cheap "Gigaswitch" 16 port a few years ago for not a lot of money (sorry I don't have the model handy). It had the ability to set up multiple VLANs, or set up a single mirror port for monitoring all the others, via dip switches; there was no interactive access involved. Don't recall what I paid for it but it would have been under $50 and this was a few years ago. While that wouldn't help with your uplink issues it would allow monitoring right off the switch. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:53:46 -0500 From: JF Mezei Subject: RFC: Cluster status on a mobile handset Message-ID: For a while now, I have had a WAP/WML script that gave a status of my cluster over a mobile phone. This was the real WML, with cards. A single transactions brought all the info over and you could then easily nagivate from page to page with the navigation keys and quickly go through to system's status. Newphangled phones have abandonned the compact/efficient WML for the WAP 2.0 which is essentially XHTML with a mobile profile. I have therefore begun to convert the dcl procedure to generate that format, complete with neat colours (CSS styles are now supported). However, XHTML lacks the navigation capabilities of WML so it isn't as obvious how to structure that page. anyone with a modern handset can look at it: http: // wap.vaxination.ca / clu pressing key 0 gets you to the top, 1 gets you to general cluster status 2 gets you to list of nodes 3 gets you list of disks 4 gets you the list of queues. Would appreciate any comments you might have on the format, structure, how to make it easier to get to the data, and what data should be added (or removed) from it. Also, if you cannot view it, let me know your phone model. I've compared the developer documents for both Nokia and Ericsson and they seem quite similar. (they are both based on Symbian so I assume they may share a similar engine under the hood). (I'll be doing additional work for authentication later on since obviously, you don't want the world to look under the hood of your cluster). Am thinking about adding colours to the disk usage. Above what percentage of usage should a disk become yellow and above what percentage should it become red ? If there is interest, I would release it to the community. The DCL is generic enough to run an any machine. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 09:19:23 -0600 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: Rsync on VMS Message-ID: In article , "Andrew Black (delete obvious bit)" writes: > Is Rsync or anything equivalent available on VMS and what are peoples > exeperience. > I am trying to synchronise files between different disks (same and > different machines) The very best way to synchronise files between different disks on the same or different machine is to put the machines in a VMScluster and set the disks to shadow each other. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:27:46 -0500 From: JF Mezei Subject: SET SECURITY /SECRECY Message-ID: <89655$474ac9d3$cef8887a$32349@TEKSAVVY.COM> HELP on 8.3 says "Reserved for us by HP". What happens if I type that command ? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:33:42 -0500 From: "Richard B. Gilbert" Subject: Re: SET SECURITY /SECRECY Message-ID: <474ACB36.9020202@comcast.net> JF Mezei wrote: > HELP on 8.3 says "Reserved for us by HP". > > What happens if I type that command ? You want US to do the experiment for you? No thanks! ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 2007 14:08:39 GMT From: billg999@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) Subject: Re: SET SECURITY /SECRECY Message-ID: <5r02b7F126q9jU3@mid.individual.net> In article <89655$474ac9d3$cef8887a$32349@teksavvy.com>, JF Mezei writes: > HELP on 8.3 says "Reserved for us by HP". > > What happens if I type that command ? Your hardware is automatically reconfigured to a PDP-11/02. bill -- Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. University of Scranton | Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:16:47 -0000 From: "John Wallace" Subject: Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <13klvs2oautgfa8@corp.supernews.com> "David J Dachtera" wrote in message news:47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net... > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). > > David J Dachtera > DJE Systems Good luck. All is by no means lost yet, but more detail will be helpful. 0) How much is the data worth? It seems the data wasn't backed up. Does this indicate the data is largely worthless? If so, you won't be interested in a low hassle, high cost solution such as a commercial data recovery outfit, correct? Sometimes these folks can do remote data recovery so you don't even need to take (or post) anything to them. If your data is largely worthless, working on the original can simplify the recovery process somewhat but is obviously higher risk. Otherwise you will need a block for block copy to work on, which can be done using something like the unix/Linux dd utility (now would be a good time to learn some Linux, if you didn't already). 1) What are the symptoms? 1a)What error messages are reported? 1b) Is the disk visible from the BIOS, and does the config look sensible? If it's not, you may wish to try it from another PC. 1c) What partitions/filesystems were you expecting on the disk? Next steps may depend on that. Eg if no NTFS, a W98 boot disk *might* be an interesting next step. Let's assume there is NTFS, so a W98 boot disk isn't really helpful. 1d) Can you get hold of something like a GHOST boot floppy/CD and use GDISK to see if the partitions and filesystems are as you would expect? What happens next depends on whether the partitions and filesystems are as you would expect. If they are, you're most of the way there. Get something bootable that will read the filesystem and allow you to save all the readable bits somewhere else. If the bits you know you need are all readable, the job is mostly done (apart from replacing the old system). A Linux "Live CD" may be readily available, if not, now would be a good time to get one. Boot it, and if the files you need are readable, store them somewhere safe (a USB stick, a SAMBA share, etc - probably not relevant to you, but maplin.co.uk are currently selling LAN-ready disk enclosures for GBP30, part number a61fy, just add your own IDE drive and off you go) If the partitions and filesystems are not as you would expect, life is more complicated, especially if you want a DIY solution. I have found Active@ Partition Recovery (DOS version, US$30) to be helpful. Other prettier-looking ones are available, some from vendors with bigger names. Some of the big names have failed me where the folks at www.partition-recovery.com have succeeded. Your choice. I'm not going into more detail here as we don't know if it would be relevant to your circumstances. Assuming you can find your PST files and whatnot, what were you planning to do next? Build a new system, take a backup, import the saved data, take another backup, and continue from there would be one option. Or maybe you could just connect the broken drive to a VMS box and write a TECO macro or two to get the required data out... Good luck John Wallace ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:27:51 -0800 (PST) From: Rich Jordan Subject: Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <65da421d-11c2-4d13-95b3-eb8eaca2b0f3@e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com> On Nov 26, 11:16 am, "John Wallace" wrote: > "David J Dachtera" wrote in messagenews:47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net... > > > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > > such). > > > David J Dachtera > > DJE Systems > > Good luck. All is by no means lost yet, but more detail will be helpful. > > 0) How much is the data worth? > > It seems the data wasn't backed up. Does this indicate the data is largely > worthless? If so, you won't be interested in a low hassle, high cost > solution such as a commercial data recovery outfit, correct? Sometimes these > folks can do remote data recovery so you don't even need to take (or post) > anything to them. If your data is largely worthless, working on the original > can simplify the recovery process somewhat but is obviously higher risk. > Otherwise you will need a block for block copy to work on, which can be done > using something like the unix/Linux dd utility (now would be a good time to > learn some Linux, if you didn't already). > > 1) What are the symptoms? > 1a)What error messages are reported? > 1b) Is the disk visible from the BIOS, and does the config look sensible? If > it's not, you may wish to try it from another PC. > 1c) What partitions/filesystems were you expecting on the disk? Next steps > may depend on that. Eg if no NTFS, a W98 boot disk *might* be an interesting > next step. Let's assume there is NTFS, so a W98 boot disk isn't really > helpful. > 1d) Can you get hold of something like a GHOST boot floppy/CD and use GDISK > to see if the partitions and filesystems are as you would expect? > > What happens next depends on whether the partitions and filesystems are as > you would expect. If they are, you're most of the way there. Get something > bootable that will read the filesystem and allow you to save all the > readable bits somewhere else. If the bits you know you need are all > readable, the job is mostly done (apart from replacing the old system). A > Linux "Live CD" may be readily available, if not, now would be a good time > to get one. Boot it, and if the files you need are readable, store them > somewhere safe (a USB stick, a SAMBA share, etc - probably not relevant to > you, but maplin.co.uk are currently selling LAN-ready disk enclosures for > GBP30, part number a61fy, just add your own IDE drive and off you go) > > If the partitions and filesystems are not as you would expect, life is more > complicated, especially if you want a DIY solution. I have found Active@ > Partition Recovery (DOS version, US$30) to be helpful. Other > prettier-looking ones are available, some from vendors with bigger names. > Some of the big names have failed me where the folks atwww.partition-recovery.comhave succeeded. Your choice. I'm not going into > more detail here as we don't know if it would be relevant to your > circumstances. > > Assuming you can find your PST files and whatnot, what were you planning to > do next? Build a new system, take a backup, import the saved data, take > another backup, and continue from there would be one option. > > Or maybe you could just connect the broken drive to a VMS box and write a > TECO macro or two to get the required data out... > > Good luck > John Wallace I'll second the products from http://www.partition-recovery.com. A couple folks in our office were able to use the partition and data recovery software to retrieve all (in one case) and nearly all the data on two failed drives. Recently we had two systems with SATA drives start going intermittent (bootup says no hard drive) because of crappy SATA cables (straight from HP, imagine that); they vibrated loose apparently. Reseating the data and power cables fixed both systems. The last time we had a real crisis (customer boss PC, hadn't done backups despite ability and instructions on it) we actually bought a brand new drive of the exact same model and swapped the drive circuit board. The old drive worked fine for as long as it took to copy the data but we didn't risk leaving it that way. Finally, an important developer peecee at one of our customers failed, also not backed up due to failure of the automatic software (the user was under a severe time crunch and let fixing it slide, so the drive naturally failed when he was almost done with the project). That drive we could not get an identical model of, but it turned out that if we froze the drive for about 40 minutes, then stuck it in an open USB box with an icepack on top (later switched to a folder paper towel damp with alcohol and a fan blowing at it... swamp cooling for a hard drive) it would run long enough for the partition recovery software (above) to pull all essential data off it. Might be worth a try as a last resort. ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.648 ************************