Sync.com seemed like a good alternative for sharing files AND backup AND version control. With any new system, someone tries to breaking (inadvertantly usually) and one needs to recover. Someone moved (copied actually) a sync SHARED folder to the desktop. There also was the same directory stuck in time on the proper spot – so it looked like the sync broke. However, the one on the desktop kept syncing and that was being kept up to date.

There is hiden .syncinfo (not sure exactly what it is called) in each folder being synced. Even if you turn on hidden files – it cannot be seen. Continue reading →

Well, it seems after these last ransomware attacks (which I have been a part of the reconstruction crew) I have learnend about other methods of connecting to remote systems. But RDP is a pretty lightweight protocol for remote connection – it works and it works well except for its vulnerability last quarter. So … if we limit HOW we get to the point that RDP is available (VPN w. certs, username, SSL, limiting firewall scope) then we can still use RDP.

But how to we secure RDP down even further? Ideally I would like it where if the certificates match – boom your in only from certain machines. SSH works like this on Unix. Here are some links to peruse that might answer this question. I will augment this article once I have cracked what I wish to accomplish (this sentence will be removed).  Oh – and please do not email certificates or passwords. HUGE pet peave of mine when websites or people do this.

Continue reading →

I previously blogged about exporting files and metadata from Sharepoint. It worked!!!! Well, now that all the files are extracted – I have ended up with a csv.

1. seems some double quotes are included – but a proper csv parser (eg. Excel) will turn those into 1 single quote
2. The Xml column contains an xml node
3. Add an xml header and a root node
   1. <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ standalone=”no” ?>
   2. <root>
   3. <z:row …..
      />
   4. </root>
4. Then using Notepad++ with “XML Tools plugin installed” – you can surf the node path with ctrl-alt-shift-P
   1. turns out to be /root/z:row
   2. a c# app – try this article
5. Also – use the Plugins->xml tools->Pretty Print Attributes
6. An XPath /root/z:row[@ows_MetaInfo] would get what we require
   1. Parse this crazy thing with CRLF or
   2. The first number 1234;# is the id number – remove it
   3. field:TY|val
      1. field name
      2. TY = type
      3. val = value
   4. Use a regex like this to parse
7. Now .. undoing the whole thing by hand
   1. undo the HTML Entities – now this will likely be done with the XML API
      1. use the Notpad++ plugin HTML Tag (Plugin->Html Tag->Decode Enitites)
   2. &lt; -> < etc.
   3. unencode entities like #x0020 to a space etc.
8. To extract thumbnails – they are stored in Base64 – here is a c# app to decode into jpegs

When you create a website with basic auth there is an unfortunate consequence in that there is no built-in method for logging out the user. Since basic auth username and password are stored on the client side, the server actually has no power to remove what is stored in the user browser’s cache. The solution? Create a log out screen where the user is prompted to put in the wrong password. This is usually counter-intuitive to most log out systems but is unfortunately the only way to get the client’s own browser to replace what is in the basic auth cache. A good example for how to set up the code in order to make this happen can be found at the following website: http://php.net/manual/en/features.http-auth.php.

In order to set this up for customers to use automatic file transfer via webDAV I found a really good website that seems to provide the perfect method except you skip the last step where you link it to the particular website. Here is the link.  This allows the user to automatically update files on the server.

Then I had to enable some sort of authentication (I used Basic Auth as it was one user). This website filled this in (this guy at Microsoft is stellar – he is a teaching kind of guy) Continue reading →

Sometimes when you are writing a program in visual studios you suddenly come to the realization that one of the folders you are using in your program really doesnt make sense anymore. Maybe you changed what it does or it has evolved in purpose or maybe the original creator simply gave it a bad name. Well there is a way to change the project folder name at any time. How this is done is one finds the location of the project in explorer. Simply change the specific project folder name with the rename tool and then launch microsoft visual studio. Visual studio, upon launching, will inform you that the particular project you are loading can not be loaded properly. This is because the file path that it was using now leads nowhere. The solution is to click on the particular project, not the solution, and click properties. find the path. Since this VS detects that there is an issue with the path it will now allow you to manipulate it. Change the part of the path that has the old name and replace it with the new one. Now the project folder name is fixed and all you have to do is reload the particular project and it will be ready to use!

What I have learned about SMTP. I have created a SMTP credentials on aws and I have assigned the main company email to that source. It however only has three locations, west US, east US, and EU. Since we live in Canada I figured US west would be the best one. This means that the host is email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com. The aws system requires a few things to run properly. Firstly it needs to use port 587 as Amazon cuts off all communication through email on port 25. Second, it requires the use of Transport Layer Security. Now there is also the filemaker side. in filemaker server admin one can go to general settings and under email notifications one can find the SMTP information. Here One can fill in all of the information that Amazon requires. I used the Amazon host as the SMTP server address, filled in 587 in the port, tried both forms of SMTP Authentication, checked the use transport layer security and filled in both the credentials for reaching the host, or endpoint then I hit the test SMTP settings… button. This unfortunately always said the same thing: SMTP test failed, check your settings or email. IN the activity log this recorded as email notification to administrators failed:1506. When I looked this up on the internet the best answer i could find indicated that this meant that something was going wrong externally from file maker and this represented a generic error that the email did not go through. So far the emails do not work despite seemingly having all the proper information.