mansoor

September 2019 Update

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Uncategorized

It has been ages since I last posted here.

Looking back at previous posts, turns out I never really took any additional guitar lessons past that first one. (I probably shouldn’t post on public forums about such goals until they actually start happening in the future).

I am currently working as a Domains team manager at Tucows. I really like this position as it allows me to work with and meet some really cool and awesome people.

Next week, I get to attend the cPanel conference in Atlanta.

Moving forward I would like to post more regularly here, and curate knowledge and experiences in an easy location to find.

In the next little while, I would like to spend some time working with (in no particular order) :

  1. BGP
  2. OpenVPN
  3. IPv6
  4. Asterisk
  5. Weechat
  6. Linux in General
  7. OpenBSD

Photography has been an interest of mine in the past. I would like to revive this as well.

New Active Directory Home Lab

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Uncategorized 
 
C:\>dig _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com @10.10.1.1 srv

; <<>> DiG 9.9.2 <<>> _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com @10.10.1.1 srv
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35108
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 5

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com. IN SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com. 600 IN SRV 0 100 389 dc03.ppp.winvive.com.
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com. 600 IN SRV 0 100 389 dc02.ppp.winvive.com.
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com. 600 IN SRV 0 100 389 dc01.ppp.winvive.com.
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.ppp.winvive.com. 600 IN SRV 0 100 389 dc04.ppp.winvive.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
dc03.ppp.winvive.com.   3600    IN      A       10.10.1.3
dc02.ppp.winvive.com.   3600    IN      A       10.10.1.2
dc01.ppp.winvive.com.   3600    IN      A       10.10.1.1
dc04.ppp.winvive.com.   3600    IN      A       10.10.1.4

;; Query time: 7 msec
;; SERVER: 10.10.1.1#53(10.10.1.1)
;; WHEN: Sat Jan 09 22:30:02 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 289

Zoho Invoice

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Uncategorized

ZohoInvoiceI have been using Zoho Invoice for a few years now, and I really like it.

It takes away the tedious work of manually creating invoices, calculating tax, and keeping track of invoice numbers.

It also has really great views to display which invoices are overdue, paid, etc.

At the end of the year, you can pull up really nice reports detailing your income, revenue, expenses etc.

Creating invoices is a breeze once you have the program configured. It allows you to spend more time working and less time creating invoices.

You can email copies of the invoice as a PDF attachment and also send out reminders directly from its web interface.

Zoho Invoice comes in 4 price tiers:

1. Free

2. Basic

3. Standard

4. Professional

https://www.zoho.com/invoice/pricing/comparison.html

Guitar Lessons

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Uncategorized

guitarFinally as of June 2015, I have started taking guitar lessons. Well, really just had one – but its the beginning of a new and musical future for me.

The first lesson came with a bunch of disclaimers – notably, I will only get out of the lessons and guitar practice what I put into it. Which was expected.

Also learning guitar is apparently quite difficult, more so the older you get.

Anyway, just wanted to post for today, Saturday June 13, 2015 as the day to look back on as to when I started my guitar lessons.

 

HSRP

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Uncategorized

Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) is a first-hop redundancy protocol that provides router redundancy. Specifically, HSRP can have two or more routers capable of servicing a single IP address, and that IP address can be used as the default gateway IP address for devices residing on a subnet connected to the HSRP routers.

 

IRC

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Uncategorized

IRC or Internet Relay Chat is really great when you are in a fix and need answers quick. There are several useful channels on the Freenode network, filled with folks ready to answer questions and provide helpful advice.

 

On the flip side, IRC can take up a LOT of time. Constantly checking all the channels one is active in to see if someone responded, or if a response can be given to another persons query.

 

As of recently, I had 3 avenues of access to IRC, on my Windows machine using MIRC, via ssh to a Linux server in a TMUX session running weechat, and also via weechat relay on my phone. I was truly connected.

 

So here is to no longer idling aimlessly on IRC. Lets see if I can be more productive.

Updated GNS3 1.2.3 from source on Ubuntu 14.10 with QEMU

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Uncategorized

GNS3 Version 1.2.3 Installed from source on Ubuntu 14.10 Desktop with Qemu package using Ubuntu repository.

There is an easier way to install GNS3 on Ubuntu, for instance using apt-get install gns3.

However the version you get from that install is quite old. 0.8.7 something

Here I describe a method to get a working version GNS 1.2.3 on Ubuntu 14.10

Get a whole bunch of installation dependencies out of the way:

apt-get install git vim tmux pastebinit libelf-dev uuid-dev libpcap0.8-dev python3-setuptools python3-zmq python3-netifaces python3-pyqt4 bison flex cmake gcc wireshark qemu

cd /usr/local/src

/usr/local/src> mkdir gns3

/usr/local/src> cd gns3

/usr/local/src/gns3> git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-gui.git

/usr/local/src/gns3> cd gns3-gui

/usr/local/src/gns3/gns3-gui> python3 setup.py install

/usr/local/src/gns3/gns3-gui> cd ..

/usr/local/src/gns3> git clone https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-server.git

/usr/local/src/gns3> cd gns3-server

/usr/local/src/gns3/gns3-server> python3 setup.py install

/usr/local/src/gns3/gns3-server> cd ..

/usr/local/src/gns3> git clone https://github.com/GNS3/dynamips.git

/usr/local/src/gns3> cd dynamips
/usr/local/src/gns3/dynamips> mkdir build

/usr/local/src/gns3/dynamips> cd build

/usr/local/src/gns3/dynamips/build> cmake ..

/usr/local/src/gns3/dynamips/build> make install

Th reason for the next step is to allow GNS3 to locate the dynamips binary.
ln -s /usr/local/bin/dynamips /usr/bin/dynamips

Tmux as an awesome productivity tool

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Linux

Tmux is one of things I don’t think I can do without.

It allows you to run programs, have windows or tabs as well as several panes running different applications simultaneously.

Further more, it is trivial to be able to reattach to a tmux session and resume working on exactly the same window and pane layout.

For instance, I connect to a linux host on my local network from my Windows box. From there I ssh into several servers and maintain active connections.

Now say I need to restart my Windows box, I do not need to worry about losing my place with the tmux session or any of the windows / tabs and panes.

All I need to do after the restart is connect to the linux host and reattach / resume my sessions.

If you do any work with Linux systems, I highly recommend this productivity tool.

 http://tmux.sourceforge.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux

 

Tmux

Search Everything – an Awesome Search Utility for Windows

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Windows

search-everythingIt is no secret that the built-in search for Windows is pretty terrible.

 

Enter Search  Everything,

 

From their website: http://www.voidtools.com/faq/

 

For the few search queries I have run against multiple 3Tb Hard drives, response time has been amazingly fast.

 

I believe it indexes things in a smart fashion behind the scenes to speed up searches.

 

Go try it out! You will not be disappointed.

 

What is “Everything”?

“Everything” is search engine that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.
Unlike Windows search “Everything” initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name “Everything”).
You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed.