The Mike Files

I’m here in Kuching Malaysia

themikefiles — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:07:14 +0000

Due to my work, Marlon and I were sent to one of our clients in Kuching, Malaysia. We boarded from Manila Philippines around 4PM (Nov. 29, 2009) going to Kuala Lumpur, MY. And from KL, we stayed around 2 hours and flied by plane going to Kuching, so its almost past 1PM (Nov. 30, 2009) we arrived in the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton.

I’ll post some pictures here later. ^_^

First date in the “Luneta Park”

themikefiles — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:40:31 +0000

Well, yesterday, my honey (Lhen) and I went to Luneta Park. Actually it is not a date but to jog of course. Yeah! Sort of health regime. Fortunately amidst of my hesitation because of weather forecast that it would rain that day. But eventually, its fine – it is a sunny day morning! We did some stretching, jogged around, took a picture (I was not able to bring my digicam, so I used my Samsung E250 which does not have enough storage) and went home around 7am. Just to say a bit, I am quite nervous to make my honey jog because I worried about her left knee when she was injured when she’s in college. So, I tried to be more cautious of course. Going home, we stopped in Monumento LRT where we bought some siomai from Siomai House. Hehe! One of my favorites. There in my honey’s house, we spent hours of rest and while resting we watched the GI JOE movie.

Later afternoon, she accompanied me in The Medical City to get my SGPT results. Which unfortunately, the rain poured in. We arrived home quarter to 8 due to heavy traffic, starting from Cubao, passing thru SM North Edsa (due to MRT extension) and in McArthur highway. After that, we ate a plateful “palabok” which her mom prepared. Then I bid good night to her since I need to get home as well. Still traffic seems everywhere, though the rain is pouring in slowly, vehicles jammed as well. Got home almost at 10PM

In all, everything is a very great experience that I surely cherished. Yes, this is our first “date” in Luneta. A date that is truly self-enriching. And thanks to my honey for being there for me, during my ups and downs. ^_^

A 30-Day Guide For New Believers

themikefiles — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:12:42 +0000

I just got this link from Global Media Outreach weekly prayer letter. Hope who anyone drops on my blog will check this out. Its truly amazing and life-enriching guide that will surely helps everybody’s christian walk.

The 30 Day Next Steps – http://www.30daynextsteps.com/

Tasting Metasploit’s Power

themikefiles — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:01:46 +0000

Just got Nessus (Tenable Network Security) version 4 and planning to use it to conduct some vulnerability assessment in our test lab. And interestingly, I found lot of machines vulnerable to MS08-067, which after the said scanning; I tried using Metasploit v3 to abuse the said flaw.

1.	Here I am showing that my client machine is vulnerable to MS08-067


2.	Now I loaded up my Metasploit console


3.	I just expand the Exploits and choose windows and ms08_067_netapi; right-click and select execute


4.	So Selecting Target, I just set it to Automatic; here I am showing the current Users list on my machine



5.	After hitting next, I have now here the Payload which is obviously to add user (with administrative privilege of course); selecting the options includes the remote IP and its remote post, username and password for that machine I will try to add. I am leaving it to you guys to look for these options/parameters using Metasploit’s user guide



6.	Hit Apply; and now you’ll see the Metasploit user has been added and a member of Administrators and Users



7.	Hope this is straight-forward enough and I’m able to share the power of Metasploit. Kudos to Metasploit Team!

“yum” installation on RHEL

themikefiles — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Wondering if there’s any way to update the component of your RHEL systems if up2date isn’t working? (or you do haven’t registered to RHN), you might find this very interesting. Well I needed to setup this way since I need it for product simulations.

1. Download the yum from any repo. Here I got mine using wget, saved in /tmp (http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/yum/2.0/yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm)

2. Install using rpm -ivh command yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm

3. Configure /etc/yum.conf to use compatible repository. I just put some comment here, just in case I need to recover. Or you may create a copy of this yum.conf, like yum.conf.yyyymmdd

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1
[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever – Base
# baseurl=http://mirror.dulug.duke.edu/pub/yum-repository/redhat/$releasever/$basearch/
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/
gpgcheck=1
[updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever – Updates
# baseurl=http://mirror.dulug.duke.edu/pub/yum-repository/redhat/updates/$releasever/
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1

4. Download and import the CentOS GPG Key

# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4
# rpm –import RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4

5. Run and see it yourself. Unless otherwise, you’ll wait a lot.

# yum update

SQL Server – Change ‘sa’ password

themikefiles — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Many of us forget things, especially if we do things very lightly and not doing it as usual. Remembering passwords is one of these. Now if so happens if you forget your ’sa’ password for the MS SQL then we can do the following:

Note: You should be a member of Administrators Group/Administrator for Windows to change this. I usually make these changes on the SQL Server itself. You can check it further in Microsoft SQL Server’s documentation for details. My example here is using the “sqlcmd.exe” though this will work with osql.exe too.

Open command prompt
Type the following on the command prompt: C:\> sqlcmd -E-Q “EXEC sp_password NULL, ‘newpassword’,’sa’” Note: The ‘newpassword’ is the password of your choice.
Hit Enter/Return Key

That’s it!

Where’s port 1433 in SQL Server 2005?

themikefiles — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:23:00 +0000

Ever wonder why after installing SQL Server 2005 you encounter this problem?

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 1326)

I also encountered the same problem using our products in Control Manager 5.0, InterScan Web Security Suite 3.1 and InterScan Messaging Security Suite 7.0 (using MSSQL 2005) that I’m unable to telnet port 1433 and unable to find this port listening using netstat.

Here’s what I did:

NOTE: In this example, I used my Vista Ultimate PC installed with VS 2005 SP1 and MS SQL Server 2005 Sp1 + SQL Management Studio. I also assume you double check already that there’s no firewall and/or any other program that could block the port 1433. Otherwise, you can visit the Microsoft site for further details – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914277

Go to Start > Programs > Microsoft SQL Server > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager

Click [+] SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration (32bit) and select Protocols for MSSQLSERVER
Right-click the TCP/IP and select Enabled. You will be notified that in order for the changes to take effect you need to restart the SQL Server related services

Right-click again the TCP/IP and select Properties; click the IP Addresses tab

You should select Yes for the Enabled parameter as shown in the image with red circle around it
Click Apply and OK to close

Once you’ve returned to SQL Server Configuration Manager, select SQL Server 2005 Services and restart both the services

Check if you’re able to logon now

Hope this helps! Any suggestions/comments are highly appreciated.

Truth about Purgatory

themikefiles — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:38:08 +0000

As I waited for our application to work again, I tried searching the net about purgatory. A very interesting and sound understanding of the author about purgatory.

I came across a passage in the New Testament that I found very surprising. While addressing the very issue of sin within the Christian community — those who were believers and had accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ into their lives — St. Paul writes:

For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

The passage is quite clear: Gold and silver, when placed into a furnace, would be purified; wood and hay would be burned away. As this is done, Scripture says we will suffer loss, but be saved “as through fire.” The image of purgatory was becoming more vivid as I read. What else could St. Paul be referring to? He can’t be referring to hell, because it’s clear that the people who undergo this “purifying fire” will be saved, while those who are in hell are lost forever. And yet he can’t be referring to heaven, because he mentions the suffering of loss, while in heaven every tear will be wiped away (cf. Rev. 21:4).

Scripture teaches that God is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The point St. Paul seems to make is that, as God draws us to Himself after death, there is a process of purification in the fire of God’s holy presence. God Himself purifies us of those imperfect deeds: the wood, hay, and stubble. And those works that are performed in faithfulness and obedience to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, those of gold and silver, are purified. This purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches of heaven — the new Jerusalem — and the temple within it, “Nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). The biblical images of the purifying fire, through which the believer is saved while suffering loss, were now beginning to sound more and more like purgatory.

It seems my doubt has been answered, which I still need to read through. Read more: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0041.html

Rescue your ‘root’ account password

themikefiles — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:29:00 +0000

In case of emergency, you can recover your root password by following these steps: (mostly for Fedora-based Linux systems)

Power on the machine/reboot if necessary
On the boot menu, select the OS you preferred and press `e` on you keyboard
Select the image you would like to boot, and press `e` again as soon as you get to the next screen
Insert a space and the number one `1`. After that press ENTER and `b` and ENTER again
You have now your system booted in a single user mode without entering a password
Type on the shell ‘passwd’ and enter your new password

Change Date/Time & Timezone in Linux

themikefiles — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:17:00 +0000

I normally used to change the date & time of my Linux box using the following commands:

Copy or create a symbolic link /etc/localtime to a file in the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory that corresponds with what timezone I am in

# cp /etc/localtime /etc/localtime.old (backup)
# cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Singapore /etc/localtime

Use the rdate command for me to sync with Time Servers (e.g. time.nist.gov)

# rdate -s time-a.nist.gov

And I set the date/time to the hardware clock

# /sbin/hwclock –systohc

Now it’s sync up properly.

Trend Micro IMSS + Qmail as MTA

themikefiles — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:39:00 +0000

[Steps & Procedures]

Follow the installation procedure in www.lifewithqmail.org up until you gone thru the inst_check

Now to once you configured it properly and you can send email back and forth, this is the time we can configure the second instance of Qmail.

Go to the source directory of qmail. In my setup, it is located here: /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.06
Do and execute the following commands

echo /var/qmail2 > ./conf-qmail
make setup check

A new installation of qmail will reside in /var/qmail2. To complete the setup, the appropriate configuration files from /var/qmail/control, such as me, should be copied to /var/qmail2/control. Also the new qmail-send process should be started, (if the new queue will be used) usually with a script nearly identical to that of the original installation.

Further reading, http://www.packtpub.com/article/qmail-quickstarter-virtualization

Once all done, you should have

qmail-smtpd is listening on port 25 or smtp
qmail-smtpd2 is listening on port 10026 or 20026 (in my setup)

Now this is the time you need to configure the Qmail to relay the mails to IMSS scanner which is port 10025.

/var/qmail/control/smtproutes
:127.0.0.1:10025

/var/qmail/control/rcpthosts
michaelmondragon.net

/var/qmail2/control/smtproutes
:172.31.31.250:25

/var/qmail2/control/rcpthosts
michaelmondragon.net

In my example this is my Exchange server (172.31.31.250:25)

Once done, do #qmailctl cdb and #qmailctl stop|start

On IMSS (assuming you finished installing IMSS), change the following on /opt/trend/imss/config/imss.ini

downstream_smtp_server_addr=127.0.0.1
downstream_smtp_server_port=20026
enable_postfix_ui=no

Save and restart the IMSS services by #/etc/init.d/S99IMSS restart

Restart the Qmail instances by #qmailctl stop|start

See what I’ve done

Notes & References:

Qmail and IMSS 5.5

MTA Logs

Practicum Assignments Mail Transfer Agents

Blessed by God… Indeed!

themikefiles — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:54:11 +0000

Well just to share how God blessed me and my fiancé, Lenny. Last March this year, I was awarded as one of the Employee of the Quarter Awardee for Q3 in my company and the rest of my colleagues. And here another blessing God showered to us. Lenny just shared with me that she was awarded today as “Most Outstanding Cash Application Specialist for the 1st Quarter of Fiscal Year 2009“. We are so happy about the news that we told our parents about it. I can’t explain the exuberant feeling and the excitement when I read her email and the good news. God did everything for us and blessed us so much for this.

Congratulations Honey! ^_^ You made it! See the fruit of your hardship. I hope you’ll continue showing your best! And I know God will continue to bless you. I love you Honey!

—

Lord, Our Father. Thank you for all the blessings that you’ve given to us. We owe everything to you Father because of your grace and goodness. We cannot find the right words Father how thankful we are for all these things. Continue to bless us Father as we share your blessings with other people. Use us Father for your Greater Glory and to make people know about your Name and worship you in Spirit and in Truth.

In Jesus name we pray. AMEN.

Disable System Restore

themikefiles — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Disabling system restore can be a great help especially if you’re experiencing some problems with malware. Here are they:

Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties
In the System Properties dialog box, click the System Restore tab
Click the select the Turn off System Restore check box. Or, click to select the Turn off System Restore on all drives check box
Click OK
When you receive a message, click Yes to confirm that you want to turn off System Restore

You can refer to these sites as well:

Jesus Christ is God’s Son

themikefiles — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:51:07 +0000

I received a letter from Global Media Outreach for the Weekly Prayer Focus. The Lenten season is near, though we should always do remember what God did for us, this is also a great time for us to re-think again, reflect and meditate how God’s Love revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ. In this season I know some of us are in vacation or with our families but hope to remind that we can share to everyone, how really God embraced our own weaknesses and failures.

Jesus Christ is God’s Son. As we look at preparing for Easter this year, let us realize how wonderful it is that God’s Son came to die for us.

How can one man take on the sins of the whole world? An ordinary man could not do this — but Jesus is not just a man. He came to earth 2,000 years ago and was born of a virgin whose name was Mary. Jesus’ father is God. Jesus Himself existed with God from the beginning of time. “He was in very nature God.”

What is wonderful and amazing is that Jesus, the sinless son of God, came to earth and took punishment that He did not deserve. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved.” Everyone on earth has sinned; God has laid on Christ the punishment for the sins of us all.

What we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our savior; agree with God that we have sinned; and thank God that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Without that, we are deserving of eternal death and punishment and separation from God. When we accept Jesus Christ, we are given the gift of eternal life — and forgiveness for all our sins! What a wonderful gift! How great is the love of God!

So this week, let us thank God

For sending His own Son Jesus to be our Savior

For allowing His Son to be crucified to pay the penalty for our sins

For His great love for us

God is so wonderful — He is willing to not hold our sins against us, but He wants us to be His sons and daughters. Let us live our lives in thankfulness to God.

—

Dear Father, we praise and give you thanks and honor for all the showered blessings and continuing love for humanity. To the point of sacrificing your Son, bearing the pain of seeing Him beaten and hang in the cross; mocked and insulted — until death. Abba Father, though it’s quite hard for us to comprehend all these things and Your mystery, what we all know that You love us, your sons and daughters. May you allow us Father to help us grow in love, peace and compassion. Help us to bear the pain and suffering, hurts, anxiety, misunderstandings in our midst. Father, please give us a heart like your Son. A heart that gives, forgives and forgets. A spirit that is obedient to you. Send us your Holy Spirit to be filled up with your power so that we may do your work and tell/share among our brethren about You and Your love.

All praises are yours Father together with the Holy Spirit and our Lord Jesus Christ, all glory are Yours now and Forever. AMEN

Jesus and His Cross

themikefiles — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:41:15 +0000

Today is Sunday, and I needed to go to the office in Eastwood City to brush up with my review materials (exam tomorrow) and the web application I am still coding up with and needed to be finished soon. I attended a mass this 5:00 PM in the chapel and the mass is all about the cross of Jesus Christ with a little bit of Israel’s history, its captors (Babylon and immediately the Persian Empire), the temple and about salvation brought by the Father through Jesus Christ. A few phrase of the introductory part of Sambuhay caught my attention.

Jesus is on the cross not only because of the work of evil men. Jesus is on the cross because the cross summarizes his life of giving, forgiving and loving. Jesus could have employed all possible means to crush his enemies and display his power as Son Of God. Instead he shows us that His power lies not in destruction and loving embrace of death so that its venom could be rendered powerless and Jesus’ love revealed to us.

Now I remembered all my sins and compared it to the Israel as a nation. They did all abomination to the Lord – how they crushed God’s heart in leading a life astray – but, God continue to love the chosen nation even to the point that they killed His Son. I was stunned and amazed how God is really full of mercy. When I looked my sins, I feel so lowly that I cannot gaze His face. That I keep asking for forgiveness and power to (re) gain my strength to continue what I started. God gave me the power to stand up against the evil and continue living a holy life and trying to live His standards. Yes, I am not a perfect human being, even that I surrendered by life to Him, I still commit sins and have more struggles after I become a Christian. But deep within my heart I know and I believe God is there always for me. Will accompany me in the race that I am willing to be finished. At the end of it, I can also say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) Towards the end of the mass, I realized that, love is still the number the one weapon and it challenges me of what I still need to be done. May God help me to enlighten and give me the courage to love my neighbor… even in the midst of danger, misunderstanding, and hatred.

—

Father, thank you for the life you gave. Thank you for your Son Jesus, our Lord. Thank you for your mercy and your love. I’m sorry for all my sins, and all my sins are against your Holy Will. Keep me standing amidst of hardships. Empower me to continue to endure the “race”. Help me to look up into the cross which Jesus carried in the way to Golgotha. Help me persevere till the end that I might attain the heavenly place you prepared for me. I pray for our families and our loved ones, our nation and the whole world. Let your light shine continually upon us and share that light among us. May the Church continue to be our family of “salt and light” that shows compassion, mercy and love towards our brethren.

Help us to be a part of it Father. For your greater glory, in Jesus name I pray. AMEN.

Names of Countries mentioned in the Bible

themikefiles — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:01:20 +0000

Early this morning, after reading this article http://www.davidbenariel.org/lost-tribes/twelve-tribes-israel-jewish.htm I started searching for the names of the countries mentioned in the Bible which luckily I got from WikiAnswers.com.

Put = Lybia
Babylon = Iraq
Persia = Iran
Togarmah = Germany
Tarshish = Spain
Rosh = Russia
Achaia = Southern Greece
Macedonia = Northern Greece
Asia Minor = Turkey
Galatia = Central Turkey
Philistia (Philistines) = Gaza Strip
Samaria = Golan Heights
Cyprus = Cyprus
Crete = Cret

Though I’ll try to verify those (and probably could add more) for the coming days.

A Life Rediscovered

themikefiles — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:08:07 +0000

We all know Jesus! Yes most of us Christians knows about Him. I myself too knows Him even in my early years… But, do we really know Him? This site is dedicated to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Though this would sounds to be a collection of my personal experiences, my own miseries and failures, an unquenchable thirst, technical stuff – I am offering all of these to Him… The Lord of my Life. A Life that has been Restarted because of Him!

“My Lord and My God” – John 20:28

I know something big will happen, I know Him and I trust Him… And I will love and follow Him for the rest of my life.

“If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.“ – Psalm 139:9-10

—

Lord Jesus thank you for everything you’ve done to me. Thank you for your love Father that you gave your Son to us despite of our unfaithfulness and putting aside your mercy and love for us. Forgive us of our sins and lead us a holy life, a life that you really want for us. Bless us, my loved one, our families, our country and the whole humanity.

In Jesus’ Name I pray. AMEN.