MS ISA Server 2006 and FTP

Technorati tags: computers

Technorati tags: computers

After upgrading ISA server to 2006 version, I was surprised to find that my FTP behind it stopped working in passive mode. Having quite smart FTP server installed I blamed MS ISA for this and did not have time to look at this deeper… until I found a need for this - had to move my Blogger blog from 1and1 hosting (expired free one) to my own server. And Blogger refused to publish the blog unless I have passive FTP working.

FTP client was getting 500 response – that FTP server sent bad response. Quick capture on ISA server showed that my FTP server was too smart – it actually was configured to return correct IP address in PORT command (the external IP, not default internal one). This, turns out, is “bad” thing from ISA server FTP filter prospective. Turning advanced NAT support on FTP server, making him return internal IP, fixed this – now ISA server could replace that IP with the external one it knows about.

But that got me thinking – software gets smarter, you try make it better and as end result – there is some stupid “simplification” (or “assumption”) made by other developer broke functionality.

Granted, if I’d read the docs for ISA server, I might have caught this, but sorry, RTFM is the last thing I’d do.

Already history

Started _programming_ – 1981

Started Mainframe – 1983

Started PC – 1988

I find this article Very nostalgic – ‘80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!’ and other ad favorites through the years (via /.)

Skype hidden emoticons

While I’m at it, I’ll repost a list of hidden Skype emoticons I found long time ago here:
New emoticons in Skype 2.5

There are 8 hidden emoticons in Skype 2.5 4 old ones:
(mooning)
(finger)
(bandit)
(toivo)

And 4 new ones:
(drunk)
(smoking) (smoke) (ci)
(rock)
(headbang) (banghead)

Since that post, many new were discovered. Some examples:

(headbang)
(poolparty)
(swear)
(bug)
(fubar)
(tmi)

And flags like:
(flag:RU)
(flag:US)

Tip: To see them in Skype without sending to your party, copy/paste them instead of just typing.

Pirate quiz

After reading this comment on /.
Nerdy Photo in Vista DVDs Thwarts Disk Pirates

REAL pirates primarily care about:
a) Can I sell it and get away with it?
b) Can I sail it and get away?
c) Both

Special symbols in file path

I like to organize my files to my liking and sometimes use special symbols in folder names, like:

• #Working
• !Soft
• etc.

All good most of the time, but there are couple of problems I found:

1. Microsoft help files in CHM format do not work if path contains “pound” (or “hash”) sign – “#”
   If you try to open CHM file from such folder, you’ll get “The page cannot be displayed” error from the IE browser which is hosted inside help control.
   There is some lengthly discussion about this and how people mix this issue with another problem:
   CHM help files error: The page cannot be displayed
   That other problem is described here: KB896054
2. Java have issues running from folders with “!” in side folder names. You may see different errors depending on the application.
   As an example, Sun’s tzupdater.jar throws java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError if executed from such folder.
   Note 1: The problem appears to happen while trying to access resources in java.util.ResourceBundle.getBundle.
   Note 2: Appears to be fixed in JDK 1.6
3. Microsoft batch files hate “!” signs everywhere if delayed variable expansion is enabled via “SetLocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION” command. Not only it will ignore single “!” in commands like “echo hi!”, but magically, folders with “!” disappear – statement like If exist C:\!Apps\myfile.txt will return false even if file is there. (and no, quotes will not help here).

When next time you decide to create a folder or file with special character in it – think twice first if it may create problem for you going forward…