NWI Tech Support

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Remote technical support

Some number of years ago, we constructed a web-based remote support application utilizing the open source software UltraVNC. It’s a mini sever known as SC (Single Click) and it’s really easy to build. Take a look at the walk through for details. There are also lots of excellent 3rd party projects to consider as well, you can find them within the forum.

All you need is to get going is:

• access to your router configuration
• a bit of in-site on (port mapping and firewall ports)
• an MS Windows (Mac and Unix/Linux work as well)  box to serve as the the listener
• webspace to host your compiled application
• It is also a great relief to use a DDNS system to ease the locating of your machine on the Internet as well.

What is DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System)?
Dynamic DNS is a system designed to implement the mapping of FQDN’s (Fully Qualified Domain Name) to DHCP allocated IP addresses.

So… what does this do for me?
In layman’s terms, DDNS essentially allows you to give your computer a persistent name to be reached at over the Internet.

Can’t my machine be reach via IP address?
Absolutely, the problem is that most residential ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) utilize a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server to provide you an IP address. A DHCP server houses list(s) of IP addresses called Range(s) to allot to the numerous clients they serve on an as needed basis. Each allotted IP address is leased for a specific amount of time before it expires and your machine needs to either renew or request a new one depending on the ISP’s server configuration.

How does a DDNS server work?
A DDNS server works by allowing the user to create an A Record (Address Record) to be housed in a specific Zone File (which can be though of as a domain configuration file). This record stores the name of your choosing and maps to the IP address that the configuration detects from your WAN connection. This name is then pre-pended to the domain name you selected or was allotted to you and this is the FQDN in which your WAN IP is located. For this to work properly a client piece is required. The job of the client piece is to monitor your IP address changes and report them back to the server.

WAN address…, then how do I find my computer?
First things first, you will need to find your LAN (Local Area Network) IP address. The easiest way to go about this is to open a command prompt from the start menu or by using the key command WIN+R, typing cmd in the run box and pressing Enter. From the command prompt type ipconfig and press Enter. Your IP address will be listed in the output. To find your computer from the Internet, more than likely, you will need to gain entrance through a NAT (Network Address Translation) system first. A NAT is designed to provide all of your computers/devices behind the router a single WAN IP address provided by your ISP. This system was designed primarily to conserve the limited number of IP addresses on the Internet. To break it down, the router takes over and directs traffic between the Internet and your LAN. To locate a specific device behind a NAT a port mapping or pinhole is required. This port mapping is essentially a direct path via a specific port between the router and the specified computer or device. When a request from the Internet comes in for that specific port the router checks it’s list and recognizes, for example, port 5500 is mapped to IP address 192.168.0.104 (note that some routers require/prefer mappings based on a hostname rather than IP address), and sends it along happily.

The Listener (VNC server)
UltraVNC server, as well as most other VNC servers, provide a listening mode that can be flagged during execution to enable to the server to listen for and accept/deny incoming connection attempts. The beauty of listening mode is that most firewalls are bypassed from the connecting side due to the outgoing rather than incoming request. The default listening port is 5500.

Our latest project

Our latest project, currently in the works and partially completed, was designed to offer anyone with an Internet connection the ability to provide friends, family, clients, etc… interactive live support utilizing the recent  development of the UltraVNC wrapper, known as ChunkVNC.

We currently have the Windows client/viewer, as well as the Macintosh client available and we’re currently working on a Linux solution.

To use these services, all one would need to do is instruct their friend, family, client, etc… to the slighPC’s Live Support section located under the Main Menu on the right-hand side. Download and run the client application labeled:

OpenRemoteDesk – Windows.

OpenRemoteDesk_v2 – Windows

.

The support provider would then download and run the viewer, also under the “Live Support” section labeled:

OpenRemoteView – Windows.

Type in the code provided by your friend, family, client, etc… and lend your helping hand as the rest is self-explanatory.

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Requirements:

• Any secondary drive (internal, external, networked)  preferably of the same size as your primary or greater (I would recommend an external USB drive of any sort)
• Macrium Reflect Free Edition
• One blank CD-R (to build the Linux Rescue disk)

Drive failures, infections, buddies who think they’re IT technicians… these are the leading causes of data loss.

All, with the exception of drive failure (weighing on the severity), are typically recoverable, at least to some degree. But long before any of this occurs you should implement some safety measures by backing up your system. You can generally find excellent USB drive deals querying google with something like “external usb deals”. If you already have a secondary drive of some sort we’re ready to move on, if not, a purchase (plan on spending around $75.00 for 500GB) would be a worth while investment.

While ntbackup is a great application, I personally prefer imaging solutions over conventional backup methods for their all around superiority. An image, in essence, is a snapshot of your machine from the moment the backup was taken. This backup can then be restored at any point, typically in under an hour. Imaging software generally provides an option to view and restore single files, which makes for an excellent archive.

For this we’ll use Macrium Reflect Free Version found at the link above. This software lives up to it’s claim, “The fastest disk imaging software…”, and has proven itself one of the best backup solutions in my opinion. The Full Edition provides a list of additional features, including support for Windows Server 2003 (details are at the bottom of the page from the link above).  Download your copy, install, register (automatic on the first run), and follow the prompts to begin your image backup. Note – I recommend building a Linux rescue disk when prompted as you’ll need it just in case your system refuses to boot for you.

A restore can be performed through the application interface within Windows or via the Linux Rescue CD by following the prompts as the procedure is laid out very well.

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There are a vast number of infections out there and a catch-all virus/malware scanner most likely will never exist. With that in mind, there are however, numerous tools available, and if used in conjunction, will resolve most everything. In our research we have quite often referred to Bleeping Computer. I figured I’d mention it as it has to be one of the best informational resources we have run across to date.

Where to begin? The process of rectification is similar to that of an MD as it all depends on the symptoms. Although there are some best practices/general procedures we like to start with.

The first of which is a malware scan utilizing a program called Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. This is an excellent all around malware scanner, probably the best on the market. If your machine is able to access the Internet and your able to install applications properly. It may be as simple as downloading a copy or their Free version from the website, installing and running a full scan.

If you can’t access the Internet you may have a proxy set for all of your outbound connections. To fix this issue Open Internet Explorer, click on Tools -> Internet Options, then click on the Connections Tab, then the LAN Settings button at the bottom right. Under “Proxy server” remove the check mark in the box next to “Use a proxy server for your LAN”, click OK, click Apply, and click OK. Close Internet Explorer and reopen it. Hopefully you now have Internet access to perform the procedure above.

If your symptoms include the inability to install applications (e.g. The file “such-n-such” is infected and cannot be executed or The file “such-n-such” is corrupted…, etc.), you may have better luck in Safe Mode (Vista Safe Mode). To get into Safe Mode you will need to press and hold the F8 key at the top of your keyboard as the computer is booting to reveal an Advanced menu from which you would want to select “Safe Mode with Networking”. This will boot the machine with minimum overhead and a network connection to access, download, and install the application. Note – Not all applications can be installed in Safe Mode.

If for some reason Malwarebytes’ has trouble removing any of your issues, whether in normal or safe mode (Safe Mode w/Networking is preferred if available), the next move would be to run ComboFix. As I take it, this application was created by sUBs from Bleeping Computer and runs a multitude of custom scripts in conjunction with third party applications to provide a thorough malware scan complete with removal and reporting.

For any remaining issues another great tool to try is SmitFraudFix.

Take a look at their links for directions as these applications are well documented.

If Safe Mode is not an option (as I have seen in many cases) the easiest move might be to perform an external OS scan follow this article “Windows will not boot, regular nor safe mode, what to do?“

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I run into this issue quite often, and with all of the username/password combinations that people acquire, it’s bound to happen at one point or another. Depending on the OS (Operating System), there are a couple of ways to go about removing or changing a user’s password.

For example, on a Windows Home computer there is a hidden Administrator account. The secret to accessing it is a reboot into Safe Mode. Of course, there en lies the problem that this password was forgotten as well. Reason being that the Administrator password on a Windows Home PC is created during the OS installation. If your lucky, the password was left blank by the original installer. If this is the case, I would highly recommend changing this to something that is easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. This is to place your first line of defense for all of the hackers and bots that flood the Internet.

For both Windows XP and Vista Operating Systems you can use another account to change the password so long as the account used has administrative rights.

And then there’s the alternative method I like to use when none of the other options are available. For this you will need our custom Linux liveCD. Follow the post “How to burn an ISO file to CD from within Windows” to download and burn the CD.

Boot from your Linux liveCD

Insert the CD in your CD or DVD-ROM and reboot your computer. You may have the option to select your boot device without changing the BIOS (e.g. Dell machine boot device selection is typically tied to the F12 key). As the OS is booting you will be asked to select your keyboard and video settings (keyboard layout is self-explanatory and the video selection should work fine under Xorg… if you have issues choose Xvesa).

Resetting a Windows user password from the liveCD

We will first need to locate your Windows partition. Depending on the make and model of your machine you will most likely have multiple partitions. For example, newer Dell models typically house three separate partitions (a tiny utility partition, a Windows partition, and an image restore partition). The easiest way to locate the correct partition is by mounting each drive labeled sda1, sda2, sda3, etc. (for IDE drives your labels would be represented as hda1, hda2, hda3, etc.) from your desktop and searching for the ‘OS’, ‘Program Files’, and ‘User Profiles’ folders. For Windows XP and Windows Vista installs we would generally be searching for a ‘Windows’ OS (Operating System) folder. For Windows upgrades this may be labeled as Winnt. The ‘Program Files’ directory should be housed in the same location for both XP and Vista. The User Profiles directory should be labeled ‘Documents and Settings’ for XP and ‘Users’ under Vista. Once you have located these three folders you more than likely have the correct partition mounted and ready to go.

Click on Menu -> Utility -> Terminal

Note – Keep in mind that Windows does not recognize case sensitivity while Linux does, to speed up matters you can utilize the auto complete feature within Linux by using the TAB key to display commands or directory/file names; an example is listed below to help you familiarize yourself with this feature.

Linux BASH (Terminal) auto complete TAB key example:

Type in the partial command: “chn” (without the quotes) and press the Tab key. You’ll notice that the command “chntpw” is automatically filled in for you. If there are multiple commands/file/directory names beginning with the syntax you have typed all relevant entries will be displayed. For example, typing in “lsp” and pressing the Tab key will add the letter “c” to the end of the command spelling out the next possibility in all the commands starting with “lspc. Now hit your TAB key again and you will see the two commands “lspci” as well as “lspcmcia”. Note that if you hit the TAB key and nothing shows up that there are at least two commands that start with that letter combination.

Type the following into the Terminal Window (replace “sda2″ with the partition you located from above and use the auto complete feature to help with directory names and the correct case, as well replace “tdurbin” with the username you wish to change. Also note that this method will NOT work for users in a Windows Domain environment.):

chntpw /mnt/sda2/WINDOWS/System32/config/SAM -u tdurbin

You will be presented with a wealth of information before the “User Edit Menu”. Note – You’ll have to use the scroll bar on the right to view the entire contents.

Here your given 5 options, of which you will want to select the 1^st “Clear (blank) user password”. So type “1” without the quotes and press Enter.

You should now see a message stating “Password cleared!” and underneath that the manipulated Windows Registry Hive path asking the question “Write hive files?” In which we will respond with a “y” for yes and press Enter.

If everything went well you will receive a message similar this:

0 </mnt/sda2/WINDOWS/System32/config/SAM> – OK

In which case you can reboot your machine back into Windows and should now be able to utilize your account without a password.

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There are a great number of reasons why a Windows PC won’t boot ranging from hardware malfunction to virus/malware infections. Generally Windows hardware and software issues are proceeded by a Blue Screen of Death or BSoD to provide technical information regarding the crash. This error code can then be used to formulate a possible resolution.

Here at slighPC’s, we deal primarily with Windows XP mainly due to the fact that we believe this OS to be the most sufficient and stable OS Microsoft has released to date. And this is our recommendation when asked. Microsoft has made numerous revisions to their latest OS’s Vista and Windows 7. One such revision was the removal of the Recovery Console. Not to worry as your media should provide access to the commands necessary to follow this guide. In a first attempt to rectify the situation, provided the BSoD doesn’t list a well laid out solution, we like to start with a file system and hard disk integrity check.

Windows XP File system and hard disk integrity check

Requirements:

Windows XP media CD/DVD, Recovery Console pre-installed, or you can use one of our Recovery Console ISOs to burn a CD (we recommend that you use a media relevant to your Operating System’s specific Service Pack level).

Performing the Windows XP integrity check

To perform this operation you will first need to either boot from the Windows XP or provided media CD or select the pre-installed Recovery Console from the boot menu just after your computer restarts (This menu is generally only displayed for a brief moment during boot, so be sure to catch it in time).

When booting from the media CD/DVD you will be prompted with the message “Press any key to boot from CD”. At this point press any key to begin the media boot process. The OS will attempt to boot from hard disk if no key is pressed within the allotted time frame. After the initial CD/DVD load you will be brought to a “Welcome to Setup” screen in which you will have three options, Continue, Repair, or Quit.

From here we want to press the “R” key to begin the repair process initiation. After the disk is searched for Microsoft Operating Systems you should be prompted with yet another screen listing all of your Windows partitions preceded by a number asking “Which Windows installation would you like to log onto”. *Note – Different manufacturers utilize differing partition schemes, so determining the correct partition can be tricky depending on the scenario. Typically you’ll be looking for the partition labeled “1: C:\WINDOWS”.

At this point you would key in the number “1″ and press the Enter key to proceed. Next you will be asked to “Type the Administrator password:”. The password is dependent on your setup (Note – Windows XP Home does not include a true Administrator account and is generally left blank by most manufacturers). If you have no Administrator password, you can press the Enter key to continue. If you have forgotten your Administrator password you may follow the article “I lost my windows password…” to either blank or change it.

If your still with me up to this point you should be looking at a DOS prompt waiting for a command to be initiated “C:\WINDOWS>”. Time to start the integrity check… Type in the command:

chkdsk /r

and press the Enter key. You will notice the output displayed informing of the current action as well as the percentage completed. Run time will vary depending on your hard disk size and the number of issues processed. After the process is completed a summary is displayed. You can verify that corrections have been applied if you receive a message stating “CHKDSK found and repaired one or more errors on the volume.”

Note – If you receive the message “The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.” Your generally looking at a unrecoverable disk with corrupt/bad sectors, although this is not always the case.

After the chkdsk command is successfully run type “exit” (without the quotes) on the command line and press Enter to reboot your computer and hopefully boot back into Windows.

More to come soon…