Well, it took over a year, but we now have definitive proof that the Lost USB Drive application works! When I launched the Lost USB Drive Experiment in early June of last year, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had all but forgotten about the experiment.

So, imagine my surprise when I had this in my inbox this morning:

Dale,

I recently took over Costa Coffee Eastleigh and have found your USB Memory stick, I’m not sure how long it has been here but if you would like to pop in and collect it I will put it to one side.

Thanks

Matthew
Store Manager

Costa Coffee
27-29 Market Street
Eastleigh
SO50 5RG

To be honest, I was a little shocked! But, at the same time, this totally made my day! Just goes to prove that there are some honest people out there and that a little ingenuity can go a long way!

If any of you are in the area of Matthew’s store, go in, congratulate him on his honesty and integrity, and buy the biggest, most expensive coffee on the menu! Way to go, Matthew!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/06/11/long-lost-drive-found/trackback/

U3 technology is a really awesome way to use your USB drive. It provides menus and the ability to install software quickly and easily on your USB drive.

But, (You knew there was one coming, didn’t you!) what if you want to use your USB drive as a simple file transport? Or you work in a locked down environment that will not allow the U3 software to complete its job? Now what?

I found myself in this situation last week when my boss asked me for a USB drive to take some work home with him. I was rather embarrassed when he came back to me thinking that I gave him a drive infected with a virus!

Fortunately, it is a relatively easy process to remove the U3 software. Simply download the U3 uninstaller and run it against your USB drive.

Caution! You will need to move all of your data off the USB drive before running the uninstaller because it will reformat your drive and all of your data will be lost! Also, you will not be able to reinstall the U3 software if you change your mind later!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/02/06/removing-u3-from-your-usb-drive/trackback/

It is always important to know what is going on in your network. And, from time to time, you should perform a simple audit of your network just to determine what is exactly happening.

This is something that I do on a regular basis using an inexpensive network auditor that I built.  (Actually, all I did was install a custom Linux distribution designed for security.)

What You Need

Here are all the tools that you need

• An old laptop (if you want it to be portable) or desktop
• BackTrack Linux Distribution

It’s pretty easy to find a computer that will work and BackTrack is available for free as an ISO.  This is something that probably everyone could do with what they have available.

Build The Analyzer

The steps involved to build the analyzer are pretty simple.

1. Download the ISO.
2. Burn the ISO to CD.
3. Boot the computer from the CD.
4. Log into the BackTrack system with username root and password toor.
5. Create partitions on the hard drive (Be aware that this will destroy the hard drive so make sure that the drive has no needed data.) using fdisk.
6. Write the file system using mke2fs.
7. Mount the devices using mount.
8. Run the GUI installer (K → System → Backtrack Installer).
9. Click Install.
10. Wait for the installation to complete (There is a long pause at about 80% so please be patient.).
11. Remove the CD and reboot to the new system.

If you are looking for a more complete step by step document, there is one available.

Explore

There is a lot to discover in BackTracks.  Dig through the system and see what you can find, both on the system and in your network.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/09/07/build-an-inexpensive-network-security-auditor/trackback/

I always dread the question each time I go to my parents’ place. “Can you do the updates on our computer?”. Being a good son, I say “Yes” and then immediately regret my promise.

You see, the problem is that my parents live in the country and all they have is dial-up for Internet connectivity. Pulling down 300 MB of updates over a noisy 56k line with people picking up the receiver every few minutes and asking, “Are you done on the Internet yet?” can get pretty frustrating.

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered AutoPatcher. Just what does AutoPatcher do for me? Well, here is what the website says:

AutoPatcher is based on the functionality of these special updates, automating their installation process. This way, with only a few mouse clicks and two minutes of your time, AutoPatcher is able to continue with the installation of the items you selected. In short, AutoPatcher combines the advantage of both Windows Update (presentation and description of updates and automated installation), and the special administrative updates (portability and installation without the need of an Internet connection).

That’s right! I can download AutoPatcher back home with my high speed Internet connection and then just run the disk on my parents, computer without taxing their Internet connection (and my patience).

AutoPatcher comes in the following versions:

• AutoPatcher 2000
• AutoPatcher XP
• AutoPatcher 2003
• AutoPatcher XP/2003 x64
• AutoPatcher Vista

There is also an Office version in the works but it still needs to be completed.

There are also three different package types, as well, which let’s you download just what you need. The package types are:

• The Full release, which comes with everything (updates, add-ons, tweaks).
• The Lite release, which lacks heavy add-ons (such as ’sunjava’).
• The Update release, which is installed over last month’s Full or Lite.

The only downside (which isn’t really a downside if you know your computer stuff) is that the disks are only distributed via bittorrent. You can download the files as a self-extracting executable or as a bittorrent. (Thanks for the update, Penguin Geek.) If you are not familiar with bittorrent, you can get up to speed. If you are looking for a bittorrent client, I would suggest μTorrent.

There are other users for AutoPatcher other than parents’ computers with slow Internet connections. It is really useful in a corporate environment where you need to update remote systems on a regular basis. You can create the disks and send them out to the remote systems for updating or you can extract the contents of the AutoPatcher files and share them on the network for remote updates, especially if you aren’t interested in installing Windows Server Update Services.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/05/10/windows-update-on-a-disk/trackback/