Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid – rdesktop ERROR: recv: Connection reset by peer

Using rdesktop to connect from Ubuntu Lucid to Windows Vista I found myself encountering the following error:

ERROR: recv: Connection reset by peer

Upon further investigation I found that I had Network Level Authentication enabled in Vista.

Click Control Panel, System, Remote Settings and then select the Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure) radio button to allow rdesktop to connect.

 

Ubuntu – How to Remove Viruses From a Windows PC With an Ubuntu Live CD

It’s bad enough getting a virus on your PC these days especially if the virus disables your current Anti-virus software of choice. Fortunately it is easy enough to boot into an Ubuntu Live CD session and start to remove the infection from there.

First you will want to download the current 32 bit Ubuntu release and burn it to a CD. If you boot from your Ubuntu CD and get a black / blank screen then see this blog post.

• In the Ubuntu Live CD session run Firefox and browse to the avast! Linux Home Edition web page.
• Download the avast! Linux Edition (DEB package).
• Complete the registration page to be emailed a license key (if you do not already have one).
• To install avast! click Applications, Accessories and then Terminal and type the following commands:

cd Downloads
sudo dpkg -i avast*

• Type the following command in the Terminal to allow avast! to download updates:

sudo sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000

• To run avast! click Application, Accessories and then avast! Antivirus.
• Copy and paste your license key from your email into the Registration window and then click OK.
• In the avast! Antivirus window click the Update database button to update your virus definitions.
• Mount your Windows hard drive by clicking Places at the top left of the Ubuntu desktop and then select your Windows drive from the list.
• Open your Windows drive from the shortcut on the desktop and make a note of the drive label which will be displayed in the menu bar of the file browser window.
• In the avast! Antivirus window click the Selected folders radio button under Select folders to scan.
• To find your windows drive expand the folder tree next to the computer icon.
• Scroll down and expand the media folder and select the folder that corresponds to the Windows drive label and click OK.
• Click on the Start scan button and avast! will scan your windows hard drive for viruses.

Hopefully this will be enough to get Windows operational again and allow you to reinstall and update any broken antivirus software and install other malware scanners and tools to clean your PC.

Source: howtogeek.com

 

Windows XP SP3 – Enabling Remote Desktop With Network Level Authentication

In a previous post I set up Windows Vista SP1 to enable concurrent Remote Desktop sessions. This means that mutiple users can be logged in to my Vista machine via remote desktop at the same time.

What I did not mention was that had also I enabled Network Level Authentication (NLA) for extra security.

The problem is that Windows XP SP3 does not support NLA out-of-the-box. Some tweaking in the registry is required to enable it (from the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article):

• Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press Enter.
• In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
• In the details pane, right-click Security Packages, and then click Modify.
• In the Value data box, type tspkg. Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK.
• In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders
• In the details pane, right-click SecurityProviders, and then click Modify.
• In the Value data box, type credssp.dll. Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK.
• Exit Registry Editor.
• Restart the computer.

So all-in-all a pretty quick fix that helps maintain the security of my Vista computer!

 

Vista SP1 – Enable Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions

Typically only one user can be logged on to Windows Vista via Remote Desktop – and when another user logs on the current user is logged off.

Fortunately there is a hack that enables concurrent Remote Desktop sessions in Vista – enabling multiple users to be logged in remotely at the same time.

The hack should work on Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate editions with Service Pack 1. I can only confirm that it works on Vista Business. It will not work if you do not have SP1 installed.

Installing the hack is very straight-forward – simply download the hack, extract it and then run install.cmd as an administrator.

Add user accounts and enable them for remote desktop as follows:

Click Start, Control Panel, User Accounts and Manage another account. Click Create a new account and then Create a password for the account.

To enable remote desktop click Control Panel, System and Remote Settings. Click the Select Users button and then the Add button – then type in the name of your user accounts and click OK.

The hack was scripted by untermensch on the Greenbutton forums.

Update: I wanted to see if installing Service Pack 2 for Vista broke this hack and I can confirm that it did!

Source: Digiex

Related posts:

Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions In Windows XP Professional

Windows XP SP3 – Enabling Remote Desktop With Network Level Authentication

 

How to Mount .iso Files in Windows 7 Media Center

Windows Media Center is gradually evolving but there are still things that it can’t do – such as mounting and un-mounting movies that are .iso files.

To achieve this we need to install two applications that will allow both Windows, and Media Center, to respectively mount and unmount .iso files.

To mount .iso files I downloaded and installed Virtual CloneDrive on my Media Center. Installation was very simple – I just clicked Next through-out the installation to accept the defaults. This enables me to mount and unmount .iso files from the Windows 7 desktop.

To achieve the same functionality in Window 7 Media Center I installed Mount Image (which is available in 32 and 64 bit versions for Windows 7 and Vista Media Centers):

• Windows  7 – 64 bit
• Windows 7 – 32 bit
• Vista – 64 bit
• Vista – 32 bit

Again, I just accepted the defaults for installation.

Now when I select an .iso in Media Center it is automatically mounted and ready to play.

If you ‘eject’ an .iso file in Media Center it just un-mounts the file for you which should make mounting the next .iso a little quicker.

All in all a quick, painless and free solution!

Related posts: Windows 7 Media Center – Creating Artwork & Metadata for .iso Images With Yammm