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Windows XP has a vast number of configuration dialogs, but some adjustments can be performed only by directly editing the Registry. Frequently, tips involving Registry tweaks include stern warnings to back up the Registry before making any change. The Windows XP Backup applet can back up the Registry along with other elements of the System State, but the resulting data file can occupy hundreds of megabytes. You’re better off saving a system restore point each time you’re about to edit the Registry. Better still, you can use Regedit to back up only the Registry keys that will be changed.

Click on Start | Run and enter Regedit to launch the Registry editor. To back up an individual key you plan to edit, navigate to the key and right-click on it. Choose Export from the menu, and save the key to a REG file. Open the REG file in Notepad and insert a few comment lines that describe the source and purpose of the tweak. (To create a comment line, simply put a semicolon at the start of the line.)

Now go ahead and make all the changes to Registry keys and values specified by the tip you’re applying. Any time you add a new key or value, make a note of it with another comment line in the REG file. When you’re done, save the REG file and close Notepad.

If later you want to undo this Registry tweak, just double-click on the REG file and confirm that you want to add it to the Registry. This will restore any deleted keys or values and will restore the original data for any values whose data was changed. Note that this will not remove new keys or values that were added; that’s why you need to make comments about such changes.

Right-click on the REG file and choose Edit, which will open it in Notepad. Check for comments about keys or values that were added, and if you find any, use Regedit to delete them. You can delete the REG file itself once you’ve completed this process

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Actions are automatically saved to the Actions Palette folder in the Adobe Photoshop or Adobe ImageReady CS Settings folder. If this file is lost or removed, the actions you created are lost. You can save your actions to a separate actions file so that you can recover them if necessary. You can also load a variety of action sets that are shipped with Photoshop.

Note: The default location of the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder varies by operating system. Use your operating system’s Find command to locate this folder.

To save a set of actions:

1. Select a set.
2. Choose Save Actions from the Actions palette menu.
3. Type a name for the set, choose a location, and click Save.

You can save the set anywhere. However, if you place the file in the Presets/Photoshop Actions folder inside the Photoshop program folder, the set will appear at the bottom of the Actions palette menu after you restart the application.

Press Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Command+Option (Mac OS) when you choose the Save Actions command to save the actions in a text file. You can use this file to review or print the contents of an action. However, you can’t reload the text file back into Photoshop.

To load a set of actions:

Do one of the following:
* Choose Load Actions from the Actions palette menu. Locate and select the action set file, and then click Load. (In Windows, Photoshop action set files have the extension .atn.)
* Select an action set from the bottom of the Actions palette menu.

To restore actions to the default set:

1. Choose Reset Actions from the Actions palette menu.
2. Click OK to replace the current actions in the Actions palette with the default set, or click Append to add the set of default actions to the current actions in the Actions palette.

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Is it disturbing to you when every other Web page you visit has a different font size?. One web page’s font is too small, and another web page’s fonts are too big… Well here’s a way to fix that and set each web page’s fonts to just the size you want.

In Internet Explorer, select: Tools-Internet Options, choose the General tab, click the Accessibility button, and check Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages (the wording varies depending on your IE version).

In Netscape 6 and 7, choose Edit-Preferences, select Fonts (double-click Appearance if you don’t see ‘Fonts’ listed), and then either check Use my default fonts or uncheck Allow documents to use other fonts, depending on your version (the wording of these choices also varies).

Now all Web page fonts should be of uniform size on all pages.

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Installing Apache on Windows, why? Because let’s face it Windows is easy, and well Apache sure beats using IIS. This tutorial is meant for the person who would like to set up there own little web server. It’s not meant for the IT Person running a fortune 500 company. But hey if you want go ahead.

Instalation:

First thing you need is to download the webserver. Now for windows
users your gonna want to go download the .exe . The apache website is www.apache.org Your gonna wanna head to the apache
binaries sections for Win32 I believe it is at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/
There you will be able to download a version of apache.

Now before you download it you gonna want to make a folder. This folder is
where your gonna server your root directory. Now if you don’t want to do
this it’s ok. You can use the default path if you want. Put usually this helps
in setting up other things like php, and MySQL. Most people do is they create
a folder in the C:\ directory called WWW or somthin. You can name it whatever you want.

Ok so have downloaded the Apache Web Server. Your ready to go with the setup.
No the version I have downloaded was apache_2.0.36-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi This
was a newer version and supposedly supposed to be more secure. The first screen you get when your in the setup is The welcome screen we don’t care much about that
but owell so hit next. The next screen is the terms and service. And yes
your going to agree to the terms duh. The next screen is some documentation.
I never really read it but if you want go ahead and do it. Once your done
hit next again. Know we see a screen that says enter a network domain. Erase what is ever in there and type localhost. Now the next box says
Servername, erace what is ever in the box and put in localhost.
The next is Administrators e-mail address. Go ahead and fill that in.
But make sure to change it. Now there are 2 little radio buttons.
Pick the one that best suites your needs. Now that we got that all
filled out. Hit Next and you’ll go to a screen that asks you which
type of install you want to do. Then hit next.

If you wanted to server out of your one special folder. Change the
file location of were your gonna install apache. Or just leave it at the default path. Click install and it should be on
it’s way. Once it’s done installing hit the finish button.

The test:
First were gonna check to see if Apache installed correctly.
This is how we do it. Open up Internet Explorer and type in ” http://localhost” . If everything went smooth then you should
be seeing a message that looks like this” Seeing this instead of the website you expected?” Yippee!!!
Apache is working. See now wasnt’ that really simple. Ok now were gonna
do some fun stuff.

Alright now that we got or test done lets move on to changing some of this
stuff that apache did on default. In Internet Explorer if you installed
on the deafult path. Make your way to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2
This is your Main Apache Directory were you can find everything. If you want
take a short break and run around. There are some cool things there. Don’t
worry if you don’t understand what’s in these files just yet.

Break Time:
Go take a leak, get some pepsi and somthin to eat. If you got smokes light
them up in your new found glory.

Alright so now you’ve got apache installed and your about to start dishing out
your web pages that you took so much time on to build. Head to the folder called
htdocs, this is your main folder. There should be a whole bunch of pages What i do
is i select them all and move them to another folder. The htdocs folder is the best
folder in the world. It’s gonna be one of the places you spend most of your time
dishing out content for the world. Ok so get rid of all that stuff that is in your
htdocs folder. And move all your great content inside replacing it. Alright so now
once we moved all are content inside the htdocs folder and we tested it to make
sure it was there. http://localhost remember. Now let’s get out of there. Go to
Apache’s main directory. Now just to be aware of what is going on and get a good
example of how Apache Functions head off to a folder called “conf” This is the
configuration files Apache Uses. If you ever wanted to install php and other
server side scripting languages this is where you would do it. Now you get 2 copys
Use 1 as a backup and never edit it at all. Go ahead and open the folder and open
“httpd.conf” Read it very carefully cause in this tutorial were not gonna read
about it. I just want you to know it’s there. Anytime you edit the httpd.conf file
you must re-start apache in order for it to work. Another good tip for you new people
to apache is you may notice the log files. Yes there great and make sure to make backups
of the logs they will come in handy. As security precautions. I also recommend getting
a firewall set up. There are lots of great security features that apache has but this
is a tutorial to installing apache.

Alright so now you’ve got your webpages up. But the only way people will be able to view
your pages is my typing in your ip address. This is a bumper. Lets look at some free
re-directories. www.n2v.net, This is a cool one. You sign up put your ip adress of your
new webserver in and whalla your done. Type in www. .n2v.net and it goes to your server
and brings up your super nice webpages. Now if you go to google and search for free
domain names or re-directors you should come up with alot. Many People already know
about the www.dot.tk one of the coolest things in the world. Free .tk very simple
That’s all you need. It works perfect for my webserver and I’ve got around 3,000 hits
so it’s working good. If you don’t wanna do it you don’t have to. But it just
makes it simple.

Alright that comes to the conclusion of installing Apache Win32 for WINDOWS users.
Very easy. One last thing Please Read more of the Apache
Documentation either on there website or in your Apache2
directory. If you liked reading this tutorial on how to setup Apache check my
website for others at www.bonfire.tk . Yes there will be follow ups. I’ll be
writing another apache tutorail soon so you can set up PHP. The most awesome
scripting language ever built. And also another on how to secure Apache and yes
ALL FOR WINDOWS!! .

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First create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive, when you name it hold down “Alt” and press “0160″. This will create an invisible space so it will apper as if it has no name.

Then right click in and select “Properties”, select the tab “custimize” and select “change icon”. Scroll along and you should a few blank spaces. Click on any one and click ok when you hav saved the settings. The folder will be invisible to hide all your personal files.

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First thing to keep in mind: If your computer hasn’t crashed yet, it will in the future! So instead of waiting for fate to strike, take some precautions now:

1) BACK-UP! Buy some decent DVD-R discs and put everything useful in them. When you have more useful stuff, backup again. Do this often.

2) Keep your computer healthy. Use an antivirus, an anti-spy, and a firewall. Keep them updated. Check regularly for Windows critical fixes.

3) Don’t install software that would do dangerous things to your hard drive. A boot manager would fall in this category.

4) Use a registry cleaner before and after you install or uninstall any software. Many of the problems that will keep Windows from booting are caused by sloppy software that mess up your registry. A good registry cleaner is Tune-up Utilities.
Code:
http://www.tune-up.com/

5) Run chkdsk now and then. Go to Start> Run. Type chkdsk /F. Press enter.

In case your PC has already crashed, read the following:

Most important: Don’t panic! Panic is like a little demon that whispers in your ear to format your hard drive and reinstall everything. Don’t do it! You will lose all your data and the little demon will laugh at you.

To be exact you can still recover your data if you format your drive (by using special software), but only if you don’t write anything on the disc afterwards. In other words format + windows install = bad idea. If you reinstall windows without formating your drive, you will only lose the files on your desktop and “My Documents” folder.

In all occasions you should make sure to safeguard your files before attempting any kind of repair!

So let’s go about how to do that:

The fast way: Go to this site:
Code:
http://www.knoppix.org
. Knoppix is a Linux distribution than runs from a CD. Download the Knoppix ISO and burn it. Put it in your CD drive. On startup access BIOS and change the boot sequence so that your computer boots from the CD drive. Save settings and exit. Upon reboot, Knoppix will load.

Knoppix is much like windows and it comes with its own CD burner. Locate it, launch it and backup everything you want on CD. Now you don’t have to worry anymore!

The less fast way: This requires that you have access to a second PC. Open the case of your computer and remove the hard disk.

Install it as a slave on the second PC.

Depending on respective configurations, you may have to change some jumper settings on the drive. Read the manual for help with installing hard drives and setting jumpers.

After this is done, boot the second PC. If everything went out ok, you should be able to access your drive without problems. (Edit: Note that Win98 cannot recognize a local NTFS (Win2K/XP) disk.)

Copy everything you need from your own hard drive to the other one. Now you don’t have to worry anymore!

Replace your computer’s hard disk, fix all problems and reverse the process to copy the data back to your computer, or take CD backups on the other PC.

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Anyone who has been marketing online knows that the lifeblood of a business is the traffic of a site. More visitors equal more sales. However, here are some ways that you can tweak your sites with to improve sales without the need to get more visitors.

The first method is to weave in your personal touch in your sales message. Nobody wants to be sold to by a total stranger, but many people will buy what their close friends recommend to them. If you can convince your audience that you are a personal friend who has their best interest at heart, they will be convinced to buy your products. Remember to speak to an individual in your salesletter, not to your whole audience.

The second method is to publish testimonials and comments from your customers. A good idea would be to publish both good and bad comments; that way prospects will be really convinced that these testimonials are real. When prospects see testimonials on your website, they will have the confidence to buy from you because human beings follow the herd mentality; when others have bought and proven it authentic, they will jump on the bandwagon and buy too.

Use visual representations for the problems and solutions that your product offers. Not everyone will read your text copy from the head to the tail, but most people will pay attention to images on your website.

Offer quality bonuses to accompany the product. When you offer bonuses that complement your product, your prospects will feel it’s a very good deal and it would be stupid to miss it. Be sure to state the monetary value of your bonuses so that people will be even more compelled to grab your good bargain.

Lastly, ask for the sale! Many people entice their prospects with the benefits of their product, sell to them with stories of how it has solved many problems, even offered killer bonuses but forget to ask for the sale. Give a clear instruction on how to buy your product (e.g. “click the button to buy now!”).

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Compiling the kernel

Wanted to try out the 2.6 edition kernel? Never knew how to do it? Well heres how! Includes everything from compiling the kernel to configuring your bootloader.

Lets Begin!

cd /usr/src
wget -c http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.7.tar.bz2
tar xvfj linux-2.6.7.tar.bz2
cd linux-2.6.7
make clean && make mrproper
make oldconfig ( or make menuconfig )
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

( i prefer this method rather then just “make” )

If you get alot of errors about .ko modules when you run make modules_install you need to update your modutils package with module-init-tools, see below.

Now to copy the files over for the kernel itself.

cp .config /boot/config-2.6.7
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.7
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.7.img 2.6.7

You may experience an error such as this:

/dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such file or directory

if you receive that error run the following commands:

rm -rf /boot/initrd-2.6.7.img
mkinitrd –omit-lvm-modules /boot/initrd-2.6.7.img 2.6.7

Now to add it to the grub / lilo configuration.

[Grub]

Your config will look something like this. Please note you need to follow the format for your current config.

title Red Hat Linux (2.6.7)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.7 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.6.7.img

Add your new entry to the top of the kernel list. Set the default to your working kernel. NOTE: the first kernel in the list is “0″. (ex. default=1)

Now exit. Type “grub” at the bash prompt.

savedefault –default=0 –once

issue that at the grub prompt then use quit to exit. Once your reboot you need to go back in and set the default to the 2.6 kernel by setting default=0

[lilo]

Your config will look something like this. Please note you need to follow the format for your current config.

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7
label=2.6.7
append=”root=LABEL=/”
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.7.img

Leave the default as is.

/sbin/lilo -v -v
/sbin/lilo -R 2.6.7

Once it reboots and comes back online you can change the default to be 2.6.7 and /sbin/lilo -v -v

The above tells you how to enable failsafe in your kernels. SO that if the box panics the dc tech does not have to console in he just has to reboot the box.

How to install module-init-tools:

cd /usr/src
wget -c http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/module-init-tools-3.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf module-init-tools-3.0.tar.gz
cd module-init-tools-3.0
./configure –prefix=”"
make moveold
make install
./generate-modprobe.conf /etc/modprobe.conf

How to determine what boot loader you are using?

dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 2>&1 | grep GRUB
dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 2>&1 | grep LILO

one of them will kick back something like:

root@w00t [~]# dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 2>&1 | grep GRUB
Binary file (standard input) matches
root@w00t [~]#

which means its using grub.

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Rkhunter is a very useful tool that is used to check for trojans, rootkits, and other security problems. This tutorial will touch on installing and setting up a daily report for rkhunter.

Update Aug. 23, 2005

Installing:

wget http://downloads.rootkit.nl/rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz
tar -zxvf rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz
cd rkhunter-1.2.7
./installer.sh

Now you can run a test scan with the following command:

/usr/local/bin/rkhunter -c

How to setup a daily scan report?

pico /etc/cron.daily/rkhunter.sh

add the following replacing your email address:

#!/bin/bash
(/usr/local/bin/rkhunter -c –cronjob 2>&1 | mail -s “Daily Rkhunter Scan Report” email@domain.com)

chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/rkhunter.sh

Updating rkhunter
gets the latest database updates from their central server and matches your OS better to prevent false positives.

rkhunter –update

I just got a false positive!! What do i do?

False positives are warnings which indicates there is a problem, but aren’t really a problem. Example: some Linux distro updated a few common used binaries like `ls` and `ps`. You (as a good sysadmin) update the new packages and run (ofcourse) daily Rootkit Hunter. Rootkit Hunter isn’t yet aware of these new files and while scanning it resports some “bad” files. In this case we have a false positive. You could always have your datacenter or a system administrator check out the server to verify that it is not compromised.

More information on rkhunter can be found here: http://www.rootkit.nl

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T0rn Rootkit

Tornkit is a rootkit, a set of programs that is used by an intruder to have unrestricted access to a compromised Linux system. Tornkit is also attempts to hide its presence.

The t0rn rootkit is designed for speed. By that I mean that it was designed to install quickly on Linux machines. T0rn can do this because it takes very little skill to install and run. All of the binaries that the attacker would need come pre-compiled and the installation process is as simple as ./t0rn. T0rn comes standard with a log cleaner called t0rnsb, a sniffer named t0rns and a log parser called t0rnp.
I am including this so that you all diag and clean up your hacked server.

First of all,
Login to WHM as root
Click Tweak Settings
and please remove the tick from
Allow cPanel users to reset their password via email
Step 1. run chkrootkit, and you will see some INFECTED lines. It will also report that some process are hidden from the ps

chkrootkit

Checking `ifconfig’… INFECTED
Checking `login’… INFECTED
Checking `pstree’… INFECTED
and also:
Checking `lkm’… You have X process hidden for ps command
Warning: Possible LKM Trojan installed
Step 2. /etc/init.d/syslog restart

Shutting down kernel logger: [ OK ]
Shutting down system logger: [ OK ]
Starting system logger: [FAILED]
Starting kernel logger: [ OK ]

Step 3. top

top: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Step 4. tail /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

# Xntps (NTPv3 daemon) startup..
/usr/sbin/xntps -q

——————————————————–
OK.. looks like someone got to your server as well. Since we know what rootkit it is, let us investigate further.

Configuration files
<please use cat /path/filename/ to read what the files contain>
/usr/include/file.h (for file hiding)
/usr/include/proc.h (for ps proc hiding)
/lib/lidps1.so (for pstree hiding)
/usr/include/hosts.h (for netstat and net-hiding)
/usr/include/log.h (for log hiding)
/lib/lblip.tk/ (backdoored ssh configuration files are in this directory)
/dev/sdr0 (systems md5 checksum)
/lib/ldd.so {placing tks(sniffer), tkp(parser) and tksb(log cleaner)}
Infected Binaries:

top, ps, pstree lsof, md5sum, dir, login, encrypt,ifconfig,find,ls,slocate,
tks,tksb,top,tkpnetstat,pg,syslogd,sz

Infected Librairies:
libproc.a,libproc.so.2.0.6,libproc.so

BackDoor: (located at /lib/lblip.tk)

shdc
shhk.pub
shk
shrs
——————————————————–

Now, Lets start the cleaning process:

Step 1.
pico /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

remove the lines that show

# Xntps (NTPv3 daemon) startup..
/usr/sbin/xntps -q
Step 2.
reboot the system

WARNING: 2 servers got their kernel removed after reboot.
If your’s is the case and that is what the DataCenter complains after reboot, please ask them to do the following:

reboot the system using the redhat CD into rescue mode
chroot to the /mnt/sysimage
reinstall kernel packages

that should fix it.

– since already in resuce mode, perhaps also ask them to –force install the following rpm’s

procps*.rpm
psmisc*.rpm
findutils*.rpm
fileutils*.rpm
util-linux*.rpm
net-tools*.rpm
textutils*.rpm
sysklogd*.rpm

Step 3.
After the system is up

cd /lib
rm -rf lblip.tk

Step 4.
remove the configuration files given above.

Step 5.
cat /etc/redhat-release
note down your version of redhat, then from
www.rpmfind.net
search for the following rpm’s

procps*.rpm
psmisc*.rpm
findutils*.rpm
fileutils*.rpm
util-linux*.rpm
net-tools*.rpm
textutils*.rpm
sysklogd*.rpm

– and rpm –force install them
Step 6.
if you see the hosts.h file, it says to hide all IP’s from

cat /usr/include/hosts.h
193.60

thus, if you want, you can block all the IP’s from 193.60 to your server via iptables.

Step 7.
If all goes OK,
please reboot the server, and run chkrootkit again…

You should be OK!

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