Skype Call Quality

If you're attempting to improve your Skype call quality one thing to consider is Quality of Service setting on the router. Especially in cases where you do a lot of multitasking or you're using a network that has other users adjusting the QoS settings can have a noticeable impact on the quality of your calls.

The attached article walks you through updating the router software, dd-wrt, to give priority to Skype information traveling over your network. It provided a noticeable change to my Skype calls. An easy way to test the changes is to use the Skype Test Call functionality and listen to your voice during the playback.

DD-WRT Tutorial 4: Defining Priorities with QoS

Alternative Way To Force Logoff In Terminal Client/Remote Desktop

Due to my working from a hotel and the way they set up their network I was only able to VPN into a client's network and connect to one of their servers. There were connectivity issues at the hotel and their network would keep dropping my connection. Last time I connected it said I had exceeded the maximum number of connects on the only server I could connect to remotely....uh oh.

After some search I found a few tools available in the Windows Server 2003 Administrator Pack I've got installed on an XP laptop. For the example below we're going to assume the IP address of the server is 192.168.1.100

C:\>qwinsta /SERVER:192.168.1.100
SESSIONNAME -- USERNAME -- ID -- STATE -- TYPE -- DEVICE
rdp-tcp#166 -- myuser -- 2 -- Active -- rdpwd
rdp-tcp#169 -- myuser -- 1 -- Active -- rdpwd

Using the ID of #1 above we disconnect that user.
C:\>rwinsta /SERVER:192.168.1.100 1

How To Fix A Bad DVD

If you've ever had a DVD that was having problems you might want to consider trying out ddrescue. I used it on a video that had one too many scratches on it and it created a reusable iso that worked well enought to watch.


user@machine-> aptitude show ddrescue
Package: ddrescue
State: installed
Automatically installed: yes
Version: 1.13-3
Priority: optional
Section: universe/utils
Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers
Uncompressed Size: 77.8k
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.5-0ubuntu1)
Description: copies data from one file or block device to another dd_rescue is a tool to help you to save data from crashed partition. It tries to read and if it fails, it will go on with the next sectors where tools like dd will fail. If the copying process is interrupted by the user it is possible to continue at any position later. It can copy backwards.


rdesktop Minimize From Full Screen

After spending the time to get a Xubuntu workstation to VPN into a Windows environment I realized that I've become accostomed to using Windows Remote Desktop in full screen however when running rdesktop in full screen the small bar at the top that allow you to minimize didn't appear. The solution is easy however, CTRL+ALT+ENTER and it reduced size so you can see your XFCE panel.

If you're not sure how to launch rdesktop in full screen here is an example of the command that is launched from an icon on my panel.

rdesktop -T "AD Main" -d ADDomain -u ADAdmin -f -a 15 -P 192.168.0.1


021 no connection named [OpenSWAN]

Since it had been over a year since I had last used OpenSWAN I couldn't remember why this error occurred. Searching Google for 021 no connection named "blah" was not producing a fix. Finally, and I admit this a little embarrassed I read the manual and found that I had forgot to do after configured the /etc/ipsec.conf file.

user@machine ~> sudo ipsec auto --add myconnection


So if you see the following in the future don't forget to add the connection.

user@machine ~> sudo ipsec whack --name myconnection --initiate
021 no connection named "myconnection"


Restarting Pluto [OpenSWAN]

If you've suffered the same fate as I have...the inability to locate solutions on restarting pluto aside from the infamous RTM this post if for you.

First we'll make sure pluto is running and get the PID

user@machine ~> sudo ipsec setup --status
IPsec running - pluto pid: 8794
pluto pid 8794
No tunnels up


Now we restart everything related to ipsec

user@machine ~> sudo /etc/init.d/ipsec restart
ipsec_setup: Stopping Openswan IPsec...
ipsec_setup: Starting Openswan IPsec 2.4.6...
ipsec_setup: insmod /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/net/key/af_key.ko
ipsec_setup: insmod /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/net/ipv4/xfrm4_tunnel.ko
ipsec_setup: insmod /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/net/xfrm/xfrm_user.ko


Last but not lease lets make sure pluto restarted and has a new PID

user@machine ~> ipsec setup --status
IPsec running - pluto pid: 9193
pluto pid 9193
No tunnels up

There are probably other ways of accomplishing this as well however so if you know please add a comment letting everyone know.

Remove Shut Down button on Windows Server 2003

We recently assisted a client that has slowly moved from having staff in an office setting to most of them being virtual. Since they are doing away with their large office and instead going to a small office without the availability of a small server room we needed to move them to a data center. Part of the move required that we allowed access to their accounting data and software which has always resided on a machine in their office. We installed all software successfully on a Windows Server 2003 Standard machine however we wanted to make sure they don't hit Shutdown when logging off through the Start Menu since all accounting work will now be performed through a Remote Desktop connection. It is a simple registry addition as indicated below.

Key Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Type: REG_DWORD
Name: NoClose
Value: 1