Month: December 2005

Hamachi : Stay Connected

Hamachi was the subject of discussion on Leo Laporte's December 15th "Security Now!" podcast with Steve Gibson. Steve Gibson is the owner and maintainer of the popular "Shields up!" web site. The two have been discussing encrypted communications for in the last few podcasts and the difficulties of setting up a simple VPN for home or small business use. Steve reviewed a new, free, VPN solution called Hamachi - and he likes what he sees. I likes what I see as well. Check it out.

Hamachi : Stay Connected: "With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an Internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication."

Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private networking application with an open security architecture and NAT-to-NAT traversal capabilities.

I installed Himachi on two of my machines to test. Both machines are Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all the latest Microsoft updates. The installation was a breeze. When you launch Himachi for the first time you will be presented with a walk through system that help you configure the system. This took me less than 5 minutes. Whoa! One of the machines I used for testing is a Dell Inspiron 2600 with a LinkSys WUSB12 wireless NIC. I temporarily "borrowed" a wireless connection from a neighbor and was successfully able to create a VPN connection back to my home network and access files on the second machine. I plan to create a VPN between my in-laws machines. Supporting them will be that much easier.

Windows Live Safety Center: Free online scanner for PC health and safety

Live seems to be all the buzz from Microsoft. Not sure where all this is going. What is the strategy for making money on this? Or is this an attempt by Microsoft to garner some Google-like buzz?

The software is in beta, which Microsoft makes sure to explain and works with Internet Explorer only. The user can choose from Protected, Clean Up, Tune Up or a full service scan.

The protection scan checks your system for a virus or other potentially unwanted programs. Note the "Share information with Microsoft" checkbox. Unless you uncheck this, your scan results will be uploaded to Microsoft. For what purposes? Your guess is as good as mine.

Clean-Up works similarly to the Windows XP clean up system tool removing unnecessary files. These tools require the user to download an Active X control and report information to Microsoft.

Each scan type presents the user with the scan results and a recommended course of action if any.

The user can exit the app when the scan and changes have been made. There is a disclaimer on this page.

Windows Live Safety Center: Free online scanner for PC health and safety: "Windows Live Safety Center is a new, free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC. * Check for and remove viruses * Learn about threats * Improve your PC's performance * Get rid of junk on your hard disk Use the full-service scan to check everything, or turn to the scanners and information in the service centres to meet your specific needs. "

Microsoft Codename Max

Microsoft Codename Max: "Microsoft Codename Max is not like any other product. That's because it's not a product, it's your opportunity to try an exciting new user experience from Microsoft." That's the marketing message on Microsoft's Max web site. Max is built on the next generation of Microsoft's WinFX Runtime Components. WinFX is Windows Vista's managed-code programming model, something I am not at all familiar with. I was never into Windows programming although I do like C# a lot. Probably because it's a lot like Java. I checked the requirements and based on the check list on the site the only requirement I lacked was the WinFX Runtime Components September CTP. According to the , "Max installs the version of WinFX Runtime Components required to work properly" so I proceeded to download and install. However, when I ran the installer I received this message. I followed the link and found the Max blog site where I soon discovered that Max is only supported on the older versions of the .Net framework. The blog had numerous post by users who were disappointed over the lack of clearly posted requirements. Common Max development team. Get your act together.