The Howerter Blog

If you needed anymore proof to not click on URLs in emails read this story. This story talks about a  flaw in SSL (the secure protocol used be websites) that allows a hacker to fake a secure website and your browser will not warn you about it. Meaning, they can have a secure site that looks like PayPal and the security certificate will not come back as invalid. If you get an email from eBay, PayPal, etc don’t click on the link. Go to the site directly (for example, www.ebay.com) after you login you can find any messages that they want you to see. That way you know where you are logging into.

I am in Schaumburg, IL taking a Cisco class at Global Knowledge. It is the last class I need to take to prepare me for my certification tests. The instructor is knowledgeable, but I forgot how boring class was. It is from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm of lecture and labs. It is a little more tolerable because it is something that I want to learn. This is Wednesday so it is almost half over.

This morning I was able to get the setup on the Exchange server to complete. I have since restored everything. Wow, what a pain this all was. I am very glad it is over. I was dealing with Microsoft support on this one and I wasn’t impressed. I am very glad that I had backups of all the email.

Well I have been trying to successfully rebuild my Exchange server for 4 days now. I get to the configuring part and it errors out on one particular Exchange task. I am a little frustrated to say the least. I have a case opened with Microsoft so hopefully they can figure it out.

Maybe some of you have noticed that my mail server is down. This weekend, the hard drive died and I haven’t received the replacements yet. I have ordered two new hard drives and a RAID card. That way if it happens again the server will still run. I am a little lost without my email.

Katherine passed her LCSW exam today! She is now a licensed clinical social worker (that is what it stands for). Congrats to Katherine. Those many hours of study did pay off.

I know it is a day early, but I would like to thank all those who have given their lives protecting our freedom. I would also like to honor those currently serving in the US military. No matter what our president says, this is one American who supports you!

This is our first spring in our new house and I was not prepared for all the yardword that was going to be required. Almost every night I am out in the yard mowing or tending to the pool. Now that the pool and sprinklers are ready for the summer it should slow down a little. I am glad that our yard is big, I just wish it would grow a little slower.

After “deciding” to use Asterisk yesterday, I was talking to a friend and he pointed me to Trixbox. Trixbox is based on Asterisk but has a lot of cool things and installs in appliance mode. Basically, it looks like you install the product and it installs Linux, PHP, MySQL, etc. Can’t wait to try it.

I have started reading about Asterisk the open source PBX. I am installing it at my house. Since I have Vonage I can use Asterisk to connect directly via a SIP trunk. This way I will not have to use the Vonage adapter. Katherine doesn’t see the purpose of this project. I think I just feel ashamed to be a VOIP guy and not have a IP-PBX at my house.