News letter broadcast 12-02-2003

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Server Automation Tools News

http://www.serverautomationtools.com

12-02-2003
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Who is this newsletter for?
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This newsletter is for anyone interested in automating
and/or maximizing up-time in Microsoft's Internet Information Server

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Who writes and publishes this newsletter?
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John Cesta. John (me) is a contract programmer specializing in automation software, particularly in the area of IIS automation. John has written several articles on automation and his last contract job was as lead designer/developer for the Web Control Panel Automation software at cybersmarts.net a ColdFusion Hosting company.

I am currently building a few ColdFusion MX servers to be used in a shared hosting environment. Look for this soon under the site name mxmanagers.com
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

1) Updated Tools from Server Automation Tools
2) John Cesta's newest articles
3) My Top Favorite Shareware Tool
4) Purchase ALL our tools fro a small fee


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Updated Tools from Server Automation Tools

http://www.serverautomationtools.com/

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1. WebPageChecker is a small exe that will help maintain and increase your server's uptime. Simply add the Web pages you want to check to WebPageChecker's ini file and run the program at user defined intervals.

Updated to version 3.0

- MOD 32 - 10/16/2003 - Switched the serviceToRestart to memLowBatToRun. This allows user to run a bat, com or exe file
in the event the memory is low instead of stopping and starting a service. It's more flexible this way. This way is better because you now have the option of what to kill, stop, restart in depending on your particular server situation. If one week, for example, your SQL server is sucking up memory for reasons unknown (SQL servers will do that you know) you can elect to have WebPageChecker run a bat file which stops the SQL service and all dependencies and then restart. Or, maybe your have a custom program you which to run in the event this occurs. You have the total flexibility to do it. WebPageChecker will still email you to let you know what happened before and after the situation took place.
- MOD 33 11/18/2003 - fixed a bug. Computer name was hard coded in the exe to \\www Added the computer name directive to the ini file
If the computer name directive is blank then the default of \\www will be used. If the computername is incorrect then the service
start and stop functions will not work.
- MOD34 - 11/18/2003 - added ability to run a bat, com or exe in the event the program finds IIS hung. Before the only option was to kill inetinfo.exe. This way it's more flexible in letting the administrator define anything to do in the event IIS is hung, stopped, crashed.

Read more about WebPageChecker here:

http://www.serverautomationtools.com/tools/1.1.html
This program will save your life!!

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The CPU Checker
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2. The CPU Checker has been updated. The CPU Checker runs via the scheduler and checks CPU percent on your server. If the checked CPU usage matches the user defined cutoff value a bat,com or exe file is run. Two new features of The CPU Checker is that it can be configured to run iisstate.exe IISState is a program that will dump out a logfile containing valueable troubleshooting logfiles for inetinfo.exe and dllhost.exe Also, The CPU Checker will let you define the process with which to check CPU usage. You can check usage on inetinfo.exe, your sql server process, ColdFusion (cfserver.exe) virutally ANY process that may be giving yoiu trouble.

The CPU Checker will even find the process IDs of inetinfo.exe and dllhost.exe for you. This is an automatic process. Imagine being able to sleep at night knowing your IIS server is being checked and diagnosed in the background. Read more about IISSTATE at http://www.iisfaq.com

The CPU Checker does not FIX your problem but it allows you to operate peacefully while you are experiencing a problem.


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Is your server freezing, hanging, or spontaneously rebooting?

Article
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1. I wrote this article after finally figuring out how to rebuild a server by inserting a hard disk into a computer with a different motherboard than what was on the hard disk. It's a good thing to know. Saves a lot of time, effort and frustration than reinstalling OS on a new hard disk and rebuilding it to match the new motherboard.


http://www.serverautomationtools.com/pubs/sattools/john_on_automation/ServerFreezing.html

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A Hack Attack and IPC$. Watch your backdoor(s)!

Article
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I wrote this after getting attacked one night - late! Not fun. If I knew this BEFORE I got attacked I could have slept that night....and the next week.

Here's the article:

http://www.serverautomationtools.com/pubs/sattools/john_on_automation/ahackattack.html

Here are some additional tips and informational links:

Two VERY important changes to make on your server that are not in the article:

1. In your NIC card check Disable NETBIOS over TCP/IP
2. Disallow anonymous access. This setting works in tandem with the Disable NetBios over TCPIP setting below.

How?

2a. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Security settings > Local Policies > Security options >additional restrictions for anonymous connections Set to: No access without explicit anonymous connections

2b. Or, edit the registry key: system\controlset001\control\LSA\restrictanonymous = set to "2"

Before you make the above changes on your server, if they are not already made, do this:

1. Go to : http://www.foundstone.com
2. Download their FREE program: SuperScan 4
3. Run it against your server choosing the: Windows Enumeration tab
4. See what your results are. If you have not made the changes above then you should see a list of everything your server has to offer except passwords. Very scary.

Port Scanner Links

1. http://www.grc.com/ ?redirect_url=yes - THE BEST From your server you want tested go to this URL and run Sheilds UP!

2. http://www.blackcode.com/scan/- GOOD

3. http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~rakerman/trojan-port-table.html ?redirect_url=yes - GREAT READING AND VERY HELPFUL TO DEFEAT HACKERS

And, last, this is the BEST link to hacker and security information I've found:

http://www.jmu.edu/computing/info-security/engineering/issues/howthe.shtml

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My Top Favorite Shareware Tool This Month

rADMIN verison 2.1 - A Remote Control Program
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What's so great about it:

1. $35.00
2. Allows easy clipboard transfers from host to remote and remote to host
3. Extensive file transfer. Shows two panes, one for the remote one for the host. Drag and drop file transfers
4. Great security.
5. Stable
6. Define the port to connect to.
7. Define what IPs can connect
8. Very small footprint
9. $35.00
10. $35.00

Try it at: http://www.radmin.com/


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Purchase ALL Tools from Server Automation Tools

http://www.serverautomationtools.com/
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That's right. Purchase all our tools for just $99.00

Read about it here:

http://www.serverautomationtools.com/



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