Eugene Computer Repair

In an environment without a Windows Domain and/or Group Policy, you may find that you want to lock down Windows in order to prevent employees from changing Windows settings.  On computers that do not store data on the primary partition, Toolwiz Time Freeze is an excellent solution.  You may also want to experiment with the use of Limited User Account permisisons.  On computers that store data on the local hard drive, Winability Folder Guard is the most effective solution. In this example, I want to password protect the "Network Connections" and the "Network and Sharing Center" Control Panels within Windows.  WinAbility Folder Guard can password protect by File Name or Folder Name not by CLSID/GUID or Process ID.  Therefore, we have to identify the file related to the process we wish to password protect.  In the past, this would have been as easy as selecting a Control Panel file such as NCPA.CPL .  Since Windows Vista, we need to find the CLSID/GUID of...

For security reasons, you may find that you want to configure a Cisco Linksys Wirelesss Router as a router without wireless.  Following are the steps to disable the wireless on a Cisco Linksys wireless router: If the router is using the default IP Address, browse to: http://192.168.1.1 Login is admin.  If the admin password is unknown, you may have to reset the router to default values by holding down the reset button for 5 to 10 seconds.  If there are custom settings within the router, these values will be lost if the router is reset. If the router is reset, you would then typically login using the default username of no username and a password of admin. Click Wireless. Click Basic Wireless Settings. Select Manual. Change Network Mode to Disabled. Click Save Settings.  I would then recommend setting the admin password to a custom password.

While browsing the internet, you may encounter the message: "Access Denied (policy_denied).  Your system policy has denied access to the requested URL.  For assistance, contact your network support team."   This message indicates the internet traffic is being filtered.  The most common source of an internet traffic filter is in corporate environments that use a proxy server or a firewall appliance designed to filter web traffic.  Some businesses are configured as satellite locations using a VPN tunnel.  In these configurations, the VPN may be configured to filter internet traffic.  In rare instances, the Internet Service Provider is filtering internet traffic.  Typically though, your IT Department or a Network Management Team has configured your internet traffic to be filtered.  Isolating Source of Web Filtering In an environment that is unmanaged and the source of the filtering is unknown, following are some steps you may wish to peform: Th...

Periodically, I encounter documents on the internet that indicate you can port forward from an internet modem in order to establish a VPN.  Typically, internet modems can port forward Ports like TCP and UDP Ports but they cannot normally forward IP Protocol IDs .  A Virtual Private Network consists of TCP Ports, UDP Ports and IP Protocol IDs.   L2TP over IPSec uses ESP (IP Protocols ID 50), AH (IP Protocol ID 51), IKE (UDP Port 500), L2F/L2TP (UDP 1701) and NAT-T (UDP Port 4500) .   IPSec uses ESP (IP Protocol ID 50) and AH (IP Protocol ID 51).  For IKE Phase 1 and 2 negotiations, IKE (UDP Port 500).  For NAT-T IKE Phase 1 and 2 negotiations, IKE (UDP Port 500) and NAT-T (UDP Port 4500). PPTP uses (TCP Port 1723) and GRE (IP Protocol ID 47). IPSec Passthrough Some internet modems are capable of enabling IPSec Passthrough which is also called IPSec NAT Traversal which allows an IPSec VPN to be established. IP Passthrough & Bridge Mode Another optio...