Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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| Questions and Answers, Part 21 Q: A customer asked me if their
new PC will run Opera. What is
Opera? A: Opera is a Web browser,
similar to Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
There are a few important differences between Opera and IE or Navigator:
to start with, Opera is quite a bit more stable (gasp!), small (3MB), and
available for several operating systems. Opera is a very easy-to-use browser
that doesn’t compromise much in the way of functionality. There are some Web
pages that require IE or Navigator and will not function properly under Opera,
but that’s because of the plug-ins required, not because of a problem with
opera. Opera does have Java
plug-ins, but lacks some of the more esoteric plug-ins that some Web sites have
started to use. However, they will
eventually show up because Opera is quickly becoming one of the most popular Web
browsers available, primarily because of an anti-Microsoft and anti-AOL (which
owns Navigator) movement. Opera is
free and available from www.opera.com. Q: What is Samba? A: Samba is designed to provide
Windows-like file and directory services for Unix and Linux machines.
When these non-Windows operating systems are running Samba, their shared
hard drives, files, and printers all appear as they do in Network Neighbourhood
as if the machines were running Windows. Essentially,
Samba is a translator for Windows to UNIX/Linux names and file layouts.
The latest version of Samba is 2.2, and is available from www.samba.org.
The latest release has a lot of new, neat features but it is a bit finicky for
installation on Linux. Q: I use Veritas’ Backup Exec
on my Windows NT server, and daily perform backups of all the Windows clients
and the server onto DLT tape. We
recently upgraded the server to Windows 2000 and had to reload all the
applications. I need to restore
some files from a tape, but Backup Exec doesn’t seem to know about the backups
or how to read the contents from a tape. Are
the backups all wasted? A: No.
When Backup Exec makes a backup it records some basic information in a
disk file. (The amount of information it records depends on one of the
configuration options you selected, and ranges from a simple date and target
machine ID to a complete list of files and dates.) When you reloaded your server, you erased these backup logs,
and Backup Exec doesn’t know what you are referring to when you want to
restore files or directories from a tape. The
only way to rebuild all those files is to catalog all the tapes again.
Put each tape that you suspect may have what you need in the drive,
highlight the drive, and tell Backup Exec to create a catalog.
This will read the contents of the tape and allow you to perform restores
from that tape. Only catalogued
tapes can be used for restores. If
you have lots of tapes, this is a time-consuming process.
Unfortunately, Backup Exec doesn’t have a blind restore capability. Q: A customer asked if I can get
a software package called JBuilder. I
gather it’s a developer or programmer tool, but I can’t find out more about
it. Who makes it and what is it
for? A: JBuilder is from Borland (www.borland.com)
and it’s a Java development package. It’s
similar to Microsoft’s J++ and several other Java Development kits.
JBuilder is a very nice package and can be ordered either directly from
Borland or through some of the warehouses that stock Borland products. Q: I’m worried about my Windows
2000 Server getting hacked or infected with a virus. I can’t afford to hire a
veteran system admin, even part time. Is
there anything I can do? A: You could try using one of the
free security check software packages on the market, such as the Windows 2000
Level 1 Benchmark and Scoring Tool (www.ciseecurity.org/bench_win2000.html).
This tool does a lot more than just check security, but one of the components
examines the server for known security problems. If it finds any problems, it
suggests ways to correct them. There are similar tools for other operating
systems, such as Solaris. The
primary problem with the Windows 2000 tool is it can’t find all the holes in
IIS (Internet Information Service). Q: Some of my office mates want
to run Yahoo Messenger all the time on their desktops, which connect through a
server to the Internet (through an ISP). Is
Messenger safe, or does it pose a security problem? A: Yahoo Messenger’s latest releases haven’t been hacked as far as I know. You can safely run them, but you really should make sure your network is going through a firewall or filtering network switch (whether you run Messenger or not). Messenger has no real effect on the network traffic, but it will slow the host machines down a little as the client is continually checking for friends logging on and sending messages. Really, though, it’s a fairly safe application. |
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tparker@tpci.com with
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