Bart is a life saver...

BartPE Is something I have been using for a couple of years now, and it is one of the best and most useful tools that I have in my collection.

Basically it's a Live CD for Windows. It is similar to WindowsPE but is very hackable/customizable. I use it to boot up computers that are having problems booting into Windows off the hard drive, and recover data or get a backup image of the drive. I also have many different Network tools and other tools loaded onto the "Live" version of windows so I can pop it into a computer and have a whole list of tools at my disposal. Now, I know that there are other "security tool" Live CDs out there already, Knoppix is a really good one, but this is Windows so it's easier (for non Linux geeks) and gives you more flexibility in a Windows world.

Barts out of the box is pretty basic (it has a simple custom shell), but there are several add-ons that will make it look and act just like windows. There are several sites that are dedicated to plugins for Barts. There are also several spin offs that use Barts as a base, but have there own system of plugins and setup. You can also create your own plugings from normal windows programs.

All in all Barts is VERY powerful and VERY useful. I might add some more posts going into some detail about how I have my CD setup, but to get started check out the links below.

Main BartsPE site:
http://www.nu2.nu/

Plugin Sites:
http://oss.netfarm.it/winpe/ (Check out XPE!)
http://www.drowaelder.de/winpe/PEIndex.htm

http://www.911cd.net/forums/ (Take a look at the plugin section)

Spin Offs:
http://reatogo.de/REATOGO.htm

Help:
http://www.911cd.net/forums/
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/help/english/

Dial-a-fix easy push button fixes for Windows

I stumbled upon a really great utility called Dial-a-fix the other day. I was having problems with windows update not running and I started to do a little searching. There are several things that Microsoft suggests to fix problems with windows update, but Dial-a-fix does all of them with a click of a button! It also fixes problems with SSL, and HTTPS. There are also some real gems buried underneath in the tools section of the program. In the tools section you will find an options to reinstall Internet Explorer, and several other great tools! That feature has already saved me once... Here is the official description of the program:

Dial-a-fix is an advanced utility for 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows written by DjLizard in Borland Delphi 7 that repairs various Windows problems, such as:

* Windows Update errors and problems with Automatic Updates
* SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues
* COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries
* and more.

http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix

Dvd Ripping

Life Hacker has posted the Five Best DVD Ripping tools and I thought it was worth pointing out. They have some really good ones on the list, easy to use and powerful.

http://lifehacker.com/380702/five-best-dvd-ripping-tools

PC Repair System on a USB thumb drive

Here is another great collection of utilities... It was created to be a PC Repair toolkit that would fit on a 32MB usb drive so it doesn't take much space... It has TONS of really great apps and they all are portable so they can run off the network or off a usb thumb drive. Here is the list of utilities in the collection.

* DCoT Menu
* Active@ ISO Burner
* AutoCompress
* Brute Benchmark
* CCleaner
* CDmage
* DriveImage XML
* Double Killer
* DTaskManager
* encopy
* Eraser
* ERUNT
* explore2fs
* File Assassin
* Filemon
* Hash
* HDDScan
* ICE ECC
* LC ISO Creator
* LSASecretsView
* NTREGOPT
* Patcher
* PMMon
* ProcessExplorer
* ProduKey
* Regmon
* Restoration
* Roadkil’s CommTest
* Roadkil’s Disk Image
* Rootkit Revealer
* SequoiaView
* System Information for Windows
* TweakUI
* Universal Extract
* Virtual CD Control Panel
* What Changed?
* Why Reboot?
* WirelessKeyView

Get it here:
http://dailycupoftech.com/usb-drive-systems/3/

Log Me In FREE!

Have you ever wanted a free web based computer remote control product? Well here it is...
https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

Whats the catch? Well the only thing I can find is that it's an upsell... They give you a trial of the PRO version and then assume that when it's over that you will be so use to the PRO features that you will pay for them... The free one however has plenty of features for me...

Update:
I wanted to circle back around to this post and add some new findings. First off thanks to dwproctor for the info on Team Viewer. I really love it, and I have started to use it for remote support of friends/family (Free version is For personal use only). Also you can install the free version and use it for a more permanent connection to a PC like logmein. You must use their client app however, so it lacks logmein's easy web interface.

I have also come across (thanks Trista) another great remote support web product. Join.me is a really quick web based conferencing software. It works great as a quick remote control app. You can have the user run (No install needed) the very light weight application and gain full remote control of the users PC. The client is web based so no install needed on either end. http://join.me

All items above have iOS (and possibly other) apps (Logmein, Team Viewer, and Join.me)

ANT the network utility

I came across a really nice network utility the other day. Well it's more of a collection of network utilities. Most everything in ANT can be done via regular command line but it's just nice having access to them via a click of a button. ANT includes these tools:

# Network Port Scanner
# Share Scanner
# TraceRoute
# Ping Utility
# NetStats
# Advanced DNS Utility
# ARP
# Route Configuration
# Adapter Configuration
# IP Configuration
# IP Availability
# Command Test
# Whois Client

And best of all it's FREE! After you install it on a computer you can run ANT from the .exe file alone, so you could keep it on a USB stick or out on your network for quick access.

http://www.dreamsyssoft.com/advanced-net-tools/

It's about TIME

Linux/Debian:
To view the current Date/Time type "Date". If you time is wrong and you want it to set automatically use NTP. NTP is the time protocol that computers use to synchronize their clocks with others on the network/internet.

The main package is ntpdate, and the server that ntpdate looks at for syncing is "/etc/default/ntpdate".

After making changes to "/etc/default/ntpdate" don't forget to restart the service by typing "/etc/init.d/ntpdate restart".

If you want to change the current time right away using a time server type "ntpdate [time server]", make sure to turn off ntpdate service first "/etc/init.d/ntpdate stop".

If your timezone is wrong use tzconfig to change the timezone.

LINKS
NTP:
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/25

More Advanced info on NTP:
http://www.crazysquirrel.com/computing/debian/ntp.jspx