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Trump, Republicans, and The Rest of America. With violent apathy and passive aggression cranking up, the US has taken a whole new system of convoluted values since President Trump’s 2016 election and “new America”. Democrats and Republicans split as if there are 2 countries. Republicans stuck on self-righteousness push backs, unwillingness to admit extremely alarming issues about the President, and behaviors that almost seem like a spell has been casted over them- and the results at our expense. To the Republican cult: “We understand that if you alienate 65 percent of the population with an extreme position, you can be on the moral high ground and not get anything done.” There are several good things about this presidency. Achievements are a given, but the most prominent “good thing” is that we see a large some of the population’s true colors. #WomenInAmerica For the first time since the Great Recession, women outnumber men in the American workforce, with women holding 50.04% of all jobs.#WomenInTheWorkforce #AbortionLaws Donald Trump becomes the first sitting president to personally attend the annual March for Life anti-abortion protest in Washington, D.C. *Although #PresidentTrump is pro-life/anti-abortion and advocate ‘making more children’ if it comes down to it or having an abortion, in Public as President AND example to kids. Especially being all over the news. With Trump being such influential figure to American families, his behavior is a pause for concern and highly questionable. As adults and the most influential figures in our childrens’ lives, what dangerous hidden or obvious permutations of setting the example are we transferring to them? Former #national #security #advisor #JohnBolton announces his willingness to testify in the Senate #impeachment trial of President Trump. Politics and Current State of America Persian Gulf crisis: #President #DonaldTrump approves the targeted killing of notorious Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad, Iraq, without the consultation of #Congress. Sources: (Alliance of the Free Press) (Wikipedia) (Fox) (Wall Street Journal) #impeachmenttrial #donaldtrumpamerica #maga #republicans #democratsfortrump #womenfortrump #christiansfortrump #trumpelection #elections2020 #usa2020 #OurCartoonPresident @SenateDems #@SocDems @DemocratsAtIU

XBOX 360 Hard Drive Upgrade for 4GB , SLIM – The Bottomline (High Level)

Here’s the nitty-gritty- we are not getting super technical here, haha, no ‘pun’ intended.

Now, the BOTTOMLINE is that you cannot upgrade the hard drive for a 4GB box 360 (what is also referred to sometimes as the Elite model, just the 4GB) using just ANY Hard Drive.

I repeat, you CANNOT with just ANY HDD, such as a laptop hard drive (2.5).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, EXACTLY!!! JUST SPEAK PLAIN INTERNET ENGLISH< PLEASE >!!

FIRST- You can only do this with Western Digitals.

After multiple searches on google and getting back JUNK garbage information from the “cool kids”, nobody seems to just fucking have it all in one spot- there’s many exceptions to this shit.

SECOND– You can obviously go to the local Gamestop (or online such as Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/250GB-Internal-Drive-Xbox360-Games/dp/B008TP1OKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441234198&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox+360+4gb+hard+drive)- if you’re looking for the “Official XBOX 360 HD;…

If you want to see how to install the hard drive from XBOX you see below, here’s a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lk0PNhBp4k

So sorry, I really was too lazy for this and was NOT going to go through the hassle of making my own video, and this is the shortest one I could hijack.  Believe it or not.  EVERYONE seems to think they are doing some GRAND MAGICAL PHENOMENON when it’s just 3 moves.  We’re not David Blaine, guys!  Come on! Open the shit! Insert the shit! Close the shit!

THIS IS THE OFFICIAL HARD DRIVE

THIS IS WHAT THE ONE YOU ARE GOING TO NEED LOOK LIKE –

With Western Digital 2.5 (“laptop hard drives) you can do it using certain models (list below), and I’m not going to pretend like I knew that naturally and go into here, so I’ll post a little link here to where you can find the models out yourself:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1236237/which-hdds-will-work-in-a-xbox-360-slim
Fuck it, hjere’s the list, but go to that link to UNDERSTAND all the complex steps….
– WD Scorpio Series BEVS/BEAS
– WD Scorpio Blue Series BEVS/BEVT
– WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
– WD VelociRaptor Series

THIRD, and LASTLY–

There is only a certain way you can make a 2.5 hard drive you bought at Best Buy into an Xbox friendly storage device Flash the hard drive and the file system must be FAT32.

Those same directions are on that link up there with the models, and you will see that you will need a combination of a program (software) and a way to connect to it (such as a SATA to USB adapter with power supply).

Here are other instructions from a different forum pasted here.  Hope this helps you find what took me going to 5 different places, and could still be expanding- because I really would have liked for this to be done on any hard drive, not just units from the WD brand.  Feel free to share how you can do this if there is away up there, the floor is open. I will not update this post, I was just pissed I had to go to different places to find the answers.

This link has great visual helpers and the step by step instructions on different ways to flash a 2.5 hard drive and use it in your Xbox 360 http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/console-guides/xbox-360-guides/3152-hack-250gb-320gb-500gb-sata-harddrive-work-xbox-360-xbox-360-slim.html

PAY REALLY CLOSE attention to the part about Security Sector, because depending on the size of hard drive you want to upgrade to will determine which files you need to use in order to flash the HDD.

—————DISCLAIMERS FOR HIS POST

You’re Welcome, for the vendor up there that is most likely getting the business up in that Amazon link we posted 🙂

Neat Gifs

Cannot Connect to a Certain Webpage or Website, but Have Internet Connection

For the sake of explanation, we will format this article in as “elementary” as possible.  Although we know “techies” will think it’s very primitively written, those that will actually need the information contained within, will thank us for its prose.

There are times when you cannot connect to a certain website, yet your Internet connection is fine.  The problem could be numerous things.  When all else fails and you’ve gone through the usual troubleshooting, and you still can’t figure it out, the result may be surprising.

First, let’s check and assure that you have taken the following steps, to rule out the common culprits.

Domains and Home:

– Check with your ISP that you indeed have service and the lines test out OK.

– If you are using a server, make sure IP and DNS server addresses are OK.

– Router and switch users, make sure you don’t have unusual traffic or blinking lights on these devices.  If so, look into that.

– Make sure you can at least access other websites.

– Make sure that the block is on all computers in the same network, and not just one computer.  If you are using multiple browsers, this fix only applies if you are not able to access the one website from any of the browsers on any of the computers in the network.  If this is not the case for you, then try using other browsers, and if using IE, try adding the site to your Trusted Sites in Internet Options.

– Do a ping test to google.com, yahoo.com, and also ping your Gateway and make sure it is communicating with these points.  A ping test can tell you whether packets are reaching the destination within your network and beyond.  Then PING the website you are trying to reach, and if there is no communication or you are receiving Request Timeouts, then you are ready to check the following things.

– Run a TRACERT CMD from the command prompt to the website in question.  See where the packets are dropping.  Usually it will send fine, and then suddenly start timing out.  At the last point it times out, is where you can begin your investigation.  An example would be:

tracert thewebsite.com AND THEN PRESS ENTER –  You should see something like this:

With this command, you will be able to see at what “HOP” does the problem begin.  By doing so, you can see if it’s within your network, in your ISP’s network, or beyond.  Usually after the first 3-6 hops, it’s usually already passed your ISP’s CO network.

Now, the following only applies to businesses, small home offices, and basically anybody who has their own IP address.  All users, home and business, have an assigned IP address either from an ISP or a domain hosting service like GoDaddy.  The only difference is that this FIX may not apply to HOME users, as they have an IP that has passed verification by their Internet Service Provider.  In other words, your ISP would not compromise your IP address, unless you have been engaging in suspicious activities as a home user.  Also, sometimes your passwords or accounts get hacked, and others can be doing malicious things using your profile, emails, home computer, you name it.

So, moving forward with the assumption you have checked all of the above, we can now get to the root of the problem.  For this discussion only, we will be examining the phenomenon of a blacklist.

Blacklisting it when your IP address is being blocked of access and service to a certain site, server,or service.  Sometimes, a compromised email is all it takes for major internet companies to put you on their blacklists.

If you are a company, or use business accounts and emails, and cannot access a website with any of the units in the network, chances are that you are being Blacklisted.  The only way to get access back, is to be removed and authorized to enter again.

There are many helpful tools that can determine if you are on a blacklist, such as Barracuda, SpamCop, McAfee, etc.  We would need to write an article just about Blacklist Check services, so we’ll leave that part up to you and Google.

Once you have confirmed you have made it on a blacklist somewhere, your next step will be to “whitelist” yourself.  This basically means, GET OFF THE LIST!

You do that numerous ways depending on the reason you were blacklisted.  For example, in some cases, IP addresses are blacklisted because an email account is being used to spam.  Big name hosts like AOL and Yahoo will block your IP completely to any and all their users, not just one email account, if you make it on their list.  If you do a search and find that you are not on any of the major blacklists, you still may be on private “internal” blacklists.

One solution is to sign up with an email forwarder, if you are planning on sending many emails from your company’s accounts, to random emails for marketing purposes.  One such service is NO-IP.com.  They can provide a service where they offer their server to forward your emails, thereby making your SMTP a different one than the one associated to your  IP and ports.

Another solution, if you are not able to reach the host or hosts that are blocking you, is changing your ip address.  This is only a good option is you indeed are not engaging in any malicious activities and are genuinely the victim of a mistake, and cannot find the assistance you need.

Finally, the best way to get off a blacklist, is to use the method mentioned above with the TRACERT command.  You can narrow it down to the host that first blocks you.  Then, you can usually look them up by WHOIS domain lookups, and contact them.  Sometimes, the website you are unable to reach does not house their own servers, and their website may actually be hosted by some other company completely unrelated to their business.  A domain parked on another company’s server may be harder to contact, but not impossible.  Many ISPs can help if you ask the right questions.

Contact the administrators of the host that is blocking you, explain to them the situation, and they will remove you from their internal blacklist.

Remember, many situations can land you on those lists out there.  The most common are emails or accounts being compromised, hacker attacks on your network, mass emailing,  and unusual activities on your DNS or Exchange server.

8 Things To Keep In Mind When Creating a Network

Planning a network requires 8 things to consider.  Otherwise, the alternative is to jump right in to it, and, before you know it, ip addresses are conflicting, people can’t login, and techs are playing Detective and working together burning hours to ‘figure out’ how to fix things.

Network Diagram

We at Techsuperforce always implement and follow these 8 principles when we first attack a new network design job.  Do the same  and you will breathe easier, suffer fewer headaches, and save money and time.

POLICY

A policy is a document that describes the overall goals and requirements for a network. A policy identifies what should be done, but may not necessarily define how the goal is to be reached. Depending on your network, you might define policies for different areas of implementation such as policies for:

• Administrative delegation
• Network documentation
• Security

REGULATION

A regulation is a requirement published by a government or other licensing body that must be followed. While you are not responsible for writing regulations, you are responsible for knowing which regulations apply to your organization, and making sure that those regulations are understood and adhered to. Policies are often written in response to regulations.  For smaller networks, such as a Home Server, you may still want to make sure you adhere to regulation politics to not cause conflict for yourself.

PROCEDURE

A procedure is a step-by-step process outlining how to implement a specific action. The design of a procedure is guided by goals defined in a policy, but go beyond the policy by identifying specific steps that are to be implemented. The use of consistent procedures ensures that the goals defined in a policy are met, and provides consistency of action by multiple administrators.  Examples are procedures for hardware demotion, user promotion, password retrieving procedures, etc. (the list goes on).

NETWORK DIAGRAM (Good Choice)

A robust diagram is always highly recommended.  This one is NOT one of the ones you should leave out, in fact, this key is one of the most important ones and should be in your top 3 priorities.

A network diagram shows the logical and/or physical layout of your network. The network diagram could be a collection of diagrams showing the following information:

• The location and IP addresses of hubs, switches, routers, and firewalls.
• The relationship of remote locations and the WAN links that connect remote locations.
• Subnets within your network, including the subnet addresses and routers connecting each subnet.

Really, this is important when down the road you no longer remember by heart your layout, and someone else needs to take a look at your network without running into pesky trouble situations that waste time hunting for cables, patch panel paths, which brings us to our next point….

WIRING SCHEMATICS

One of the top three most important principles, a wiring schematic is a type of network diagram that focuses on the physical connections between devices. The wiring diagram typically shows:

• The location of drop cables and ports within offices or cubicles.
• The path that wires take between wiring closets and offices.
• A labeling scheme that matches endpoints in offices and cubicles with specific switch ports or punchdown block locations.

CONFIGURATION (This is CRITICAL to troubleshoot, maintain, and expand your network.)

Configuration documentation identifies specific configuration information for a device. For example, a configuration document for a firewall might include information about the IP addresses assigned to each interface and opened firewall ports. Configuration documentation has two goals:

• Document the configuration so that the device can be restored to the original configuration.
• Document the configuration so that the current configuration can be compared to the desired configuration to identify any changes.

CHANGE or HISTORY DOCUMENTATION

Change or history documentation keeps track of changes to the configuration of a device or the network. Change documentation is often included as a part of the configuration documentation. For example, you might record a change in a network interface card in a device, or a repair to a WAN link. Change documentation is useful for troubleshooting to identify what has been done to the device, and keeps track of changes in the configuration as well as the rationale behind those changes.

BASELINE

A baseline is a snapshot of the performance statistics of the network or devices. The baseline is used as a logical basis for future comparison. Baselines enable you to effectively monitor the performance of your system to determine when changes negatively impact performance or when systems need upgrading or replacing. It is important to measure network performance at subsequent intervals to see how your server is performing compared to the baseline.

There are many monitoring programs that can show you live statistics and help you document the performance of your systems, helping you create profiles that will help you determine the health and state of those systems.  We like using Nagios, but there are a few programs out there.  Even the Windows Performance monitor can be a useful utility that you can pull information from and chart the system’s progress.

Microsoft Visio is a great program to use to design networks.  As simple to use as Word, it can help you build, implement, and document all of these principles mentioned above, and keep a good record for technicians and engineers that may need a map to your network.

Snapshot of Microsoft Visio diagram

We hope you have enjoyed this article.  Don’t forget, for more information. please visit our main website, www.techsuperforce.com.  We are honored to provide services and information for those that welcome this art.

Thank you!

CAT5 Wiring Technique for Ethernet Cable

Tech Superforce

Connectors and Information

The cable exists in both stranded and solid conductor forms. The stranded form is more flexible and withstands more bending without breaking and is suited for reliable connections with insulation piercing connectors, but makes unreliable connections in insulation-displacement connectors. The solid form is less expensive and makes reliable connections into insulation displacement connectors, but makes unreliable connections in insulation piercing connectors. Taking these things into account, building wiring (for example, the wiring inside the wall that connects a wall socket to a central patch panel) is solid core, while patch cables (for example, the movable cable that plugs into the wall socket on one end and a computer on the other) are stranded. Outer insulation is typically PVC or LSOH.

STANDARD SEQUENCE

White Orange, Orange, White Green, Blue, White Blue, Green, White Brown, Brown.  This is Standard 568B Cat5 wiring.

CHARACTERISTICS of Category 5 Wire
Bending radius
Most Cat 5 cables can be bent at a radius approximately 4 times the diameter of the cable.

Maximum Cable Segment Length
According to the ANSI/TIA/EIA standard for category 5e cable, (TIA/EIA 568-5-A[5]) the maximum length for a cable segment is 100 meters (328 feet). If longer runs are required, the use of active hardware such as a repeater, or a switch, is necessary.[6] [7] The specifications for 10baseT networking specify a 100 metre length between active devices. This allows for 90 metres of fixed cabling, two connectors and two patch leads of 5 metres, one at each end. In practice longer lengths are possible. (See Ethernet over twisted pair which states that 150 m is often considered to be the maximum working length.) Experiments show that a full 305 metre drum of cable is well above the practical limit, but that reliable transmission with 200 m is often possible.

For information on technical support, if you need specific answer, please feel free to visit our main website at:  www.techsuperforce.com

Malicious Viruses and What To Do If Your System Becomes Infected

Malicious code (sometimes called malware) is a type of software designed to take over or  damage a computer, without the user’s knowledge or approval. Malware includes:

• Viruses that attach to legitimate files and spread when the files are opened.
• Worms that infect systems and spread automatically through the network.
• Trojan horse programs that appear to be useful programs but which perform secret or  malicious acts.
• Spyware that tracks your computer or browser activity.
• Adware that displays pop-up advertisements based on your browser activity.
• Spam that is unwanted, unsolicited e-mail, often carrying viruses or advertisements for    questionable or illegal products.

You should protect all systems with malware protection software to help prevent and control   malware on your system.

Here are two of my favorite programs to use, Malwarebytes and Avast.  Malwarebytes is reactive program that you install in a non-infected system and run and update to keep your computer safe.  You can also use it in a ‘cocktail’ of programs to run in Safe Mode if you ever have to clean up your system from infections.

Avast is a free anti-virus that has worked pretty good to keep our systems protected.  It is simple, very stealth, and low resource-consuming on any operatating systems we have tested it on.  It has picked up many viruses and removed them from infected systems.

• Common symptoms of malware on your system include:

  • The browser home page or default search page has changed.
  • Excessive pop-ups or strange messages being displayed.
  • Firewall alerts about programs trying to access the Internet.
  • System errors about corrupt or missing files.
  • File extension associations have changed to open files with a different program.
  • Files that disappear, are renamed, or are corrupt.
  • New icons appear on the desktop or taskbar, or new toolbars show in the browser.
  • The firewall or antivirus software is turned off, or you can’t run antivirus scans.
  • The system won’t boot.
• Some malicious software can hide itself such that there might not be any obvious signs of its presence. Other symptoms of an infection include:
  • Slow Internet access.
  • Excessive network traffic, or traffic during times when no activity should be occurring.
  • Excessive CPU or disk activity.
  • Low system memory.
  • An unusually high volume of outgoing e-mail, or e-mail sent during off hours.
• Conducting regular system scans can detect and fix many problems.
  • Most software lets you schedule complete system scans, such as daily or weekly.
  • If you suspect a problem, initiate a full system scan immediately.
• Remediation is the process of correcting any problems that are found. Most antivirus software remediates problems automatically or semi-automatically (i.e. you are prompted to identify the action to take). Possible actions in response to problems are:
  • Repair the infection. Repair is possible for true viruses that have attached themselves to valid files. During the repair, the virus is removed and the file is placed back in its original state (if possible).
  • Quarantine the file. Quarantine moves the infected file to a secure folder where it cannot be opened or run normally. You might quarantine an infected file that cannot be repaired to see if another tool or utility might be able to recover the file at another time.
  • Delete the file. You should delete files that are malicious files such as worms, Trojan horse programs, or spyware or adware programs. In addition, you should periodically review the quarantine folder and delete any files you do not want to recover.

• If a scan reports a serious problem, disconnect your computer from the network. This prevents your computer from infecting other computers until the problem is corrected.
• Some malicious software warnings, such as those seen in pop-ups or received through e-mail, are hoax viruses. A hoax virus instructs you to take an action to protect your system, when in fact that action will cause harm. Two common hoaxes are:
  • Instructing you to delete a file that is reported as a virus. The file is actually an important system file that will lead to instability or the inability to boot your computer.
  • Instructing you to download and run a program to see if your system is compromised or to add protection to your system. The file you download is the malicious software.

  Before taking any actions based on notices or e-mails, search the Internet for a list of virus hoaxes and compare your notice to know hoaxes.

Recovery from malware could include the following actions:

• If scans detect malware, then repair, quarantine, or delete the malicious software.
• Some malware cannot be removed because it is running.
  • If possible, stop the program from running, then try to remove it.
  • If you are unable to stop the malware, try booting into Safe Mode, then run the scanning software to locate and remove the malware.
• If malware has caused damage to the system, it may be permanent and could require that you reinstall applications, features, restore files from a backup, or even restore the entire operating system from scratch.
• If malware has damaged or corrupted system files, you might be able to repair the infected files using Sfc.exe.
  • Before running Sfc, be sure to remove the program that caused the damage (or it might re-introduce the problem after the fix).
  • You might need to boot into the Recovery Console to check system file integrity and repair any problems found.
• Some malware can corrupt the boot block on the hard disk preventing the system from starting. To repair the problem, try using the Recovery Console in Windows XP, or perform an automatic repair in Windows Vista/7. Use fixmbr or fixboot in the Recovery Console to try to repair the damage.
• If the organization uses imaging solutions, you can quickly reimage a machine if it is infected with malware. Reimaging or installing from scratch is often faster and more effective than malware removal and cleanup.

To conclude, the best thing to do in case the virus is not removed is to boot up in Safe Mode (restart the computer and right when it turns on press F8 until you are prompted to start in Safe Mode).  Then run your virus removal utilities.  If you will need the Internet, boot in Safe Mode with Networking (this mean you can connect online with minimal resources loaded).

Sometimes virus removal can be like peeling an onion- you remove one and it reveals another one that was not detected before.  IF this happens a lot, then as you go removing the viruses, some parts of your operating system can become corrupt, like system files and applications .  In this case, and in the case of rootkits, sometimes it’s just best to salvage whatever information you can and then re-install the operating system.

If you need help with any of the things mentioned above, or guidance, please feel free to contact technical support by visiting www.techsuperforce.com.

We are always available through phone, chat, or email.

We hope you enjoyed this article, and feel free to leave comments or questions here.