Tag: isa_server

Technology

Gis a job – seriously!

I wrote a post yesterday called “‘Gis a job” where I referred to an article in the Boston Globe that claimed that blogging was good for your employment prospects.

I mentioned that in all the time I have been blogging, I haven’t been offered a job. Thinking about this subsequently, I wondered if this was because a) my blog revealed too much about me (I’m not the most diplomatic of people, for example) or is it simply b) because people assume I am not in the market for a job?

If we assume it is b) – then, what if I now say “I am in the market for a job”? Will the offers come rolling in?

What are my skillsets?

  • Well, I’m not too bad at blogging and podcasting
  • I know shedloads about social software and how to use it to raise the online profile of a company, product or service as well as how it can be used to improve a company’s internal and external communications.
  • I know a considerable amount about search engine optimisation (hence the following, for example)
  • I have an impressive and growing network of contacts
  • I am a very good communicator – well used to speaking in front of large audiences
  • I have led teams of coders in the development of large web applications
  • I am a very experienced sysadmin – and I know my way around Win2k and Win2003 Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, and ISA Server

So what of it – does this blogging for employment thing work?

By the way – the “Gis a job” expression is a reference to the very excellent Boys from the Blackstuff drama which was shown on TV here some time in the 80s.

Technology

How to access a password protected isa server 2004 backup

A client of mine had a problem with their ISA Server recently – the HD failed.

Fortunately, it happened on a Sunday and there was a recent backup of the firewall config.

However, the config backup was password protected and no-one could remember the password!

The config backup though is a simple .xml file so one of the guys onsite (Przemek Kwiatkowski – Shrek, for short!) decided to open the file with a text editor and have a look at it. He created another config backup without any password protection, opened it with the text editor and compared the two.

On comparing them he noted that the file with the password protection had the following entry:
4

While the file without the password looked like:
7

Note the 7 in the file with no password compared to the 4 in the password protected file. Przemek changed the 4 to a 7 in the password protected file.

The password itself is encrypted and looked something like:
c1fd1b2977cb42b2a3aed6933508268c235d535f

When the password line was deleted and the 4 changed to a 7, the file was no longer password protected and the settings were available to import into the server once more!