ProFox February 2017

profox@leafe.com

43 participants
47 discussions

RE: [NF] Drop-Dead Simple USB Drive Encryption
by Ken Dibble 07 Feb '17

07 Feb '17

Dave, Do you know if a removable drive encrypted with BitLocker on Win 7 can be accessed on Win 10 and vice-versa? Thanks. Ken >Just a bit more Bitlocker info: > >Bitlocker allows you to set up an automatic decrypt on whatever >machine(s) you want but the default value is to ask for the decrypt >key. For instance, I have my USB drive set up to automatically >decrypt but plugging it into any other machine will ask for an unlock key. > >My only gripe with USB drives is that when you have a number of them >they don't always set themselves up as a permanent drive letter. For >instance I have 3 x USB drives that are rotated on a daily basis and >I use Syncback to put mirror images onto the disks. Syncback >requires a fixed drive mapping (example z:) but windows in its >infinite wisdom gives random drive mappings which have to be changed >using disk Manager at which stage the auto decrypt of bitlocker >takes over and opens the drive. I have tried man, many pieces of >software which state that they will force a drive to be mapped to a >specific letter but none of them work 100%. > >However this is another gripe taking the thread off topic somewhat. > >Dave > > >-----Original Message----- >From: ProFox [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Ken Dibble >Sent: 06 February 2017 20:13 >To: profox(a)leafe.com >Subject: [NF] Drop-Dead Simple USB Drive Encryption > >Hi Folks, > >This is probably one of those issues where my requirements seem >obvious and common-sensical to me but not to the people who make >hardware or software. However, in the interest of developing a >complete understanding of my options: > >I am looking for recommendations for the simplest possible way to >encrypt USB thumb drives. "Simplest possible" means in reference to >the end user. > >The sole purpose of the thumb drive is to provide offsite backup for >important files. > >The sole purpose of encrypting the thumb drive is to prevent access >by unauthorized people to the contents of the drive if the user loses it. > >Here are my requirements: > >1. Must be usable by a "standard user" account: No administrative >access required. > >2. Must not require software to be installed on the computer >(installed on the removable drive is okay). > >3. Access should be available, ideally, simply by right-clicking the >drive in Windows Explorer and entering the password for the drive >(like with BitLocker). Less desirable would be for the user to have >to manually execute software residing on the drive before being >given an interface in which to enter the password. Anything more >complicated than that, such as requiring users to copy files to/from >the drive, or carry out multiple steps to get to the point where the >password can be entered, is not acceptable. > >3. The drive should work on any Windows computer of recent vintage, >no matter where it was initially set up. > >4. Users cannot permanently turn the encryption off. > >5. Ideally, the entire drive should be encrypted. > >I am prepared to accept that my staff will have to set up these >drives initially for the users. That's okay as long as, once that >work's been done, the drive functions as described above. And, of >course, I can only set up computers under my control, which is why I >can't use a system that requires software to be installed on every >machine where the drive will be used. > >Here is what I've looked at: > >BitLocker > >Problems: only available on Windows 7 Ultimate, or later. Most of >our workstations are Windows 7 Ultimate, but some are Pro. Also, >there are a couple of points I'm not sure about with BitLocker: > >A. When an internal drive is encrypted on a computer, the user can >check a box to essentially turn off the encryption (that is, the >drive will be automatically decrypted when the computer is booted). >I do not want the user to be able to turn off the encryption on a >thumb drive such that, if the drive is inserted into another >computer it is automatically decrypted. Does BitLocker allow that? > >B. I am not sure that a drive encrypted with BitLocker on a Win 7 >machine will be accessible on a Win 10 machine, or vice versa. Does >anyone have a definitive answer on that point? > >LaCie Private - Public > >Problems: Does not work for "standard users", period. Also, requires >the drive to be formatted NTFS in order to encrypt more than 4 GB of space. > >Rohos > >Problems: Requires multiple steps for standard users to access; >cannot encrypt more than 4 GB under any circumstances. > >VeraCrypt > >Problems: Requires software to be installed on the machine. > >Hardware Encryption > >I took a visual look at the Corsair Flash Padlock drive. It's got >dinky little flashing lights and tiny little buttons. I can just >imagine what will happen when a user has to get into the drive by >poking and punching tiny little buttons with their fingernails while >the drive is inserted into the typical fragile USB slot. Not a >winner... But are there other hardware encryption options that don't >suffer from this or other flaws? > >Of course, I am also looking for solutions that are free as in beer. >But I am willing to pay a reasonable one-time cost. No way would I >pay a recurring cost for a license to access a thumb drive. > >Any thoughts are welcome. > >Thanks! > >Ken Dibble >www.stic-cil.org > > [excessive quoting removed by server]

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SQL Server malware.
by Alan Bourke 06 Feb '17

06 Feb '17

Someone was asking recently if database servers like MSSQL were inherently more safe from malware than DB files. Well, there was SQL Slammer .... https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/05/sql_slammer_back/ -- Alan Bourke alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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"Cannot locate the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Support Library"
by Ted Roche 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

Hey, kids: I know I've gotten this working before, but it's Friday, and my IQ decreases exponentially as the weekend approaches. Ancient client install that mostly runs VFP7 SP1. They have a little utility app they run monthly to archive data. It's been "moved" to a new machine by one of their IT techs. Both the main app, running in VFP7SP1, and vFoxRun run fine on this machine, but clicking on this .EXE throws the error in the subject line. If I run the .EXE from the vFoxRun command window, it also runs okay. Hunh, what? I tried running regsvr32 on all the files in the c:\Program FIles\Common Files\Microsoft\VFP folder. I downloaded the VFP7SP1 and VFP9SP2 runtime installers from CodePlex. All ran with no errors. I don't recall the pedigree of the file. Is there any way we can get it to tell us what it is looking for? Up-to-date Windows 7 SP1 32-bit Dell Optiplex 9020, 4 Gb of RAM, black. What am I missing, besides the weekend? -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com

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SQL Backend Question
by Paul H. Tarver 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

Ok, I've lurked here long enough. I've been subscribed to this list for several months and I have thoroughly enjoyed the questions and answers that have come through during that time. I'm even a little star-struck when I see the names of Foxpro experts that I have depended upon for years to help educate me to be a better Foxpro programmer. Thank you all for all you do in this list group. Now it is time for me to ask what is probably going to sound like a dumb question coming from someone who has been using Foxpro since Foxlan but I figure I have nothing to lose here and everything to gain. For the past few years I have been honing my skills as a developer of data interfaces and until recently, the few full-fledged data entry projects I've build relied upon native Foxpro dbf files. However, my interface work has been depending more and more upon using SQL pass-through language to issue queries against various SQL backend systems and I have been pretty successful at retrieving data from various systems and then re-formatting that data for other uses. For a while now, I've been contemplating building a data-entry and maintenance system from the ground up that depends completely upon using a SQL database (Firebird, MySQL, MS SQL, Postgres or something similar). My problem is that I have all these data handling classes built into a couple of simple toolbars that I can drop on form and provide the standard Add, Delete, Undo, Save and Exit functionality as well as a vcr toolbar to skip between records. These tools include all of the code necessary to detect changes enable various buttons based on conditions, etc. stuff we are all familiar with. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around the whole concept of changing the way I depend upon Foxpro to handle much of the behind the scenes table activity and create a new user interface that conforms to the how SQL works while maintaining as much of the familiar functionality I'm so happy with in Foxpro. Does anyone have any recommendations for where I should go to learn more about the best practices for developing user interfaces that work efficiently with SQL backends, and what do I need to know about how to collect data and insert it into the sql tables, detect user changes to flag for saving data. In some software they seemed to have ditched the Add, Delete, Undo, Save, Exit concept to just save everytime there is keystroke. And in other systems, they keep parts of that old style of user interaction. Are there any libraries that can be purchased or downloaded to handle some of the behind the scenes data manipulation for SQL that I can use to learn how this stuff should work. For something that seems to be easy, I'm having a hard time letting go of my 20+ years of doing things the Foxpro way to make the transition. Any thoughts? Paul H. Tarver Tarver Program Consultants, Inc. --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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DBF why you suck so bad.
by Alan Bourke 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

Of course they don't really, as evidenced by the fact they're still around after all these years. However if someone was unconvinced as to why SQL Server (or any other big-iron database like PostgreSQL, Maria, Oracle ) is better going forward, purely in terms of the data layer, what would you say in addition to the items below ? * Scalable * Secure in terms of authentication and authorisation * Not malware vector at a file level, as such * Can be backed up while in use * Logging * Speed especially with many connections * Modern reporting and analytics tools geared up to talk to it * Modern development stacks are designed to work with it * Cloud-deployable * Things that should happen server side can happen with sprocs * Multi-user locking and access won't be messed up inadvertently by future OS versions or patches * Supported Thanks -- Alan Bourke alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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RE: CleverFox Backup
by Rick Schummer 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Hi Mike, Sorry for the delay in responding, it is tax season and our software generates 1099s so my time for forums and this list is very limited. I'm glad I took a quick break and saw this today. Yes, I'm a partner at Forward Thinking Software along with Frank Perez. We started building it in late 2014, and went public at Southwest Fox 2015 by showing our beta version and getting feedback from other developers. It went into production in January 2016 and has been rolling for the last year. It has already saved several customers from multiple ransomware attacks, and many others from the normal common hardware failures and power problems, and of course protects from theft, fire and other natural disasters. SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested We built this product out of a need to protect our vertical market and custom software customers who do not have an IT person or do not do a good job at backups. It is something we have needed for several years, especially with the advent of the ransomware discussed. It turns out the process of doing the backups was not difficult (time consuming, yes), but the management of the backups, scheduling, monitoring, and reoccurring billing are not trivial. CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done multiple times a day, week, or month. All it requires is Windows XP and better, and an Internet connection. Management of the backups is done via the Web-based management console either by the customer, their IT people, or you as the developer if given permission by the customer. Naturally it keeps a history of backups in the cloud, and even the local computer depending on how you configure it. Mostly it is a management of the gigabytes allotted. On-the-fly backups can also be initiated via the Web site. Monitoring can be done via the Web site. Emails are configurable upon success, failure or missing (in the case when the user shuts down the computer over the scheduled time). If backup is missed, the backup is performed soon after reboot once the service gets loaded and connects to the Web server. Restores can be initiated from the Web to copy the ZIP file down to the computer. You can also use the System Tray applet to download backups. Someone has to decompress the file from there. Frank also built a REST API for developers who want to interact with the data on the backend of our system too. We have sample code for VFP developers to interact with the API. All the data returned from the API shows up in cursors. The API is documented on the CleverFoxBackup.com site. Plans start as low as US$9.95 a month per device (normally the computer where the data resides). The lowest level works for most customers just fine as VFP data compresses with high efficiency. One side benefit we did not consider when we first put this together is the ability to use the backups to restore to a test folder, or bring down for diagnostics when the software is having a problem and it is related to data. I'm using this feature this morning to set up a test environment for a customer. I'm not just a partner, I am a user. We have this on our own servers, we have it on numerous customer servers and workstations, and several other developers are using it for their customers. We handle all the billing automatically on a monthly basis, and share revenue with partners who are referring their customers to use the software. Give me a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530. SET MARKETING OFF Rick White Light Computing, Inc. www.whitelightcomputing.com -----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of mbsoftwaresolutions(a)mbsoftwaresolutions.com Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 10:23 To: profoxtech(a)leafe.com Subject: CleverFox Backup Rick's snippet from from my last thread: > Ransomware is probably the number one reason we get new subscriptions > to CleverFox Backup these days. People get hit, find giant hole in > their disaster recovery plan, and then get on with solid, scheduled > offsite backups. Rick -- This is the first I'm hearing about this software...sounds great! I'd love to recommend this to my few DBF clients. Is this your company? When did you start it? --Mike [excessive quoting removed by server]

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ProFox List Statistics for January 2017
by List Administrator Account 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

================================================== ProFox List Statistics January 2017 ================================================== Subscriber Count at End of Month: ProFox: 287 ProFoxTech: 187 ================================================== Total Posts: 169 (Down 24.89% from December 2016) Total [OT] Posts: 0 (Down 100.0% from December 2016) Total [NF] Posts: 48 (Down 58.26% from December 2016) Daily Message Counts for January 2017 ------------------------------------------------ DOW Date Count --- ---- ----- S 1 - 2 T 3 - 3 W 4 - 3 F 6 - 20 S 7 - 2 S 8 - 8 M 9 - 27 T 10 - 17 W 11 - 12 T 12 - 2 M 16 - 8 W 18 - 16 T 19 - 2 F 20 - 6 S 21 - 1 S 22 - 2 W 25 - 12 T 26 - 7 F 27 - 8 S 28 - 2 S 29 - 1 M 30 - 5 T 31 - 3 Message Counts By Day of Week for January 2017 ------------------------------------------------ DOW Count --- ----- Sun - 13 Mon - 40 Tue - 23 Wed - 43 Thu - 11 Fri - 34 Sat - 5 Distinct Posters to the List (changes relative to December 2016) ------------------------------------------------ Non-OT messages: 48 (Up 6.67%) OT messages: 0 (Down 100.0%) NF messages: 21 (Down 25.0%) Total number: 48 (Up 6.67%) Top 20 Contributors by Number of Non-OT Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 17 Dave Crozier 2. 15 mbsoftwaresolutions(a)mbsoftwaresolutions.com 3. 12 Ted Roche 4. 11 Alan Bourke 5. 10 Richard Kaye 6. 8 Stephen Russell 7. 7 Kurt Wendt 8. 6 Tracy Pearson 9. 6 Gene Wirchenko 10. 5 Mike Copeland 11. 5 Man-wai Chang 12. 5 Ed Leafe 13. 4 José Enrique Llopis 14. 4 Paul Hill 15. 4 Paul Newton 16. 3 AndyHC 17. 3 Fernando D. Bozzo 18. 3 Michael Madigan 19. 3 Peter Cushing 20. 2 List Administrator Account Top 0 Contributors by Number of OT Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts OT% Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ Top 20 Contributors by Number of NF Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 6 Alan Bourke 2. 5 Stephen Russell 3. 4 mbsoftwaresolutions(a)mbsoftwaresolutions.com 4. 3 Dave Crozier 5. 3 Ted Roche 6. 3 Mike Copeland 7. 3 Gene Wirchenko 8. 2 Ken Dibble 9. 2 Malcolm Greene 10. 2 Ed Leafe 11. 2 AndyHC 12. 2 Richard Kaye 13. 2 Michael Madigan 14. 2 Joe Yoder 15. 1 Fernando D. Bozzo 16. 1 Charles Hart Enzer, M.D. 17. 1 Ken McGinnis 18. 1 Wollenhaupt, Christof 19. 1 Kurt @ VR-FX 20. 1 Kurt Wendt Top 20 Contributors by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 17 Dave Crozier 2. 15 mbsoftwaresolutions(a)mbsoftwaresolutions.com 3. 12 Ted Roche 4. 11 Alan Bourke 5. 10 Richard Kaye 6. 8 Stephen Russell 7. 7 Kurt Wendt 8. 6 Tracy Pearson 9. 6 Gene Wirchenko 10. 5 Mike Copeland 11. 5 Man-wai Chang 12. 5 Ed Leafe 13. 4 José Enrique Llopis 14. 4 Paul Hill 15. 4 Paul Newton 16. 3 AndyHC 17. 3 Fernando D. Bozzo 18. 3 Michael Madigan 19. 3 Peter Cushing 20. 2 List Administrator Account Top 12 Contributors by Number of New Threads Started ------------------------------------------------ | Posts Contributor | ------------------------------------------------ 1. 4 Dave Crozier 2. 3 mbsoftwaresolutions(a)mbsoftwaresolutions.com 3. 2 List Administrator Account 4. 2 Joe Yoder 5. 2 Stephen Russell 6. 1 Ted Roche 7. 1 Tracy Pearson 8. 1 Kent Belan 9. 1 Charles Hart Enzer, M.D. 10. 1 Alan Bourke 11. 1 Andrew Stirling 12. 1 Gene Wirchenko Top 20 Non-OT Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 22 VFP tables likely victims for ransomware? 2. 20 3 days no posts.... 3. 17 [NF] It's PYthon not Py-THAWN. 4. 14 CleverFox Backup 5. 13 Has anyone implemented List & Label? 6. 12 New Year Brain Teaser... 7. 10 RIP Sytze 8. 9 Anybody there? 9. 6 [NF] LogMeIn security alerts 10. 6 [NF] Happy Holidays to All! 11. 6 [NF] Hardware vs Software Router/Firewall Recommendations 12. 6 Restrict access to multi clients 13. 6 Zooming fonts in FoxPro IDE code windows 14. 4 [NF] great disclaimer 15. 3 [NF] Related Comic 16. 2 RIP Sytze de Boer (was: Has anyone implemented List & Label?) 17. 2 [NF] Bowie interview on the Internet 1999 18. 2 Start the New Year with a brainteaser... 19. 2 [NF] Syslog server advice 20. 1 ProFox List Statistics for December 2016 Top 0 OT Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ Top 20 Threads by Total Number of Posts ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Posts Subject | ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 22 VFP tables likely victims for ransomware? 2. 20 3 days no posts.... 3. 17 [NF] It's PYthon not Py-THAWN. 4. 14 CleverFox Backup 5. 13 Has anyone implemented List & Label? 6. 12 New Year Brain Teaser... 7. 10 RIP Sytze 8. 9 Anybody there? 9. 6 [NF] LogMeIn security alerts 10. 6 [NF] Happy Holidays to All! 11. 6 [NF] Hardware vs Software Router/Firewall Recommendations 12. 6 Restrict access to multi clients 13. 6 Zooming fonts in FoxPro IDE code windows 14. 4 [NF] great disclaimer 15. 3 [NF] Related Comic 16. 2 RIP Sytze de Boer (was: Has anyone implemented List & Label?) 17. 2 [NF] Bowie interview on the Internet 1999 18. 2 Start the New Year with a brainteaser... 19. 2 [NF] Syslog server advice 20. 1 ProFox List Statistics for December 2016

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ProFox February 2017