Monthly Archives: October 2005

Computer Assoc EZ Firewall drives me batty

Just Rambling

I have CA EZ Antivirus on my computer. It decided to install the firewall. I don’t want it and am happy with WinXP’s firewall. It’s on my demo machine so I don’t have to deal with it often but it’s stupid. It says “do you want IIS to run” and I select “remember this setting” and click “Allow” which is dim, but still active (doh) and next time I turn on my computer it asks me all of those questions again for a series of apps. SQL Server, svchost and more. The big problem with this is I get sick of it and say “yes yes yes” without looking. I turn it off and turn on Windows Firewall, but when I restart the computer it’s there again. Next step is to just uninstall it. My recommendation is to avoid this program. (Sorry CA) 

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Tim Ewald at Vermont.NET tonight

dotNET

All I can say is “lucky us”!!

Tim is driving up (or is that over) from New Hampshire to give a fantastic talk I saw/heard him do at TechEd to the Vermont.NET user group tonight.

We are also lucky to have a new convenient venue for our meetings at Vermont Technical College and a sponsor for pizza & soda tonight: Technical Connections.

And just for icing on the cake, I recieved a big box filled with phenomenal O’Reilly press books today!

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

PAG releases CTP of WSE3 Security patterns

WSE

From the PAG Service Orientation workspace:

Just Released: October CTP featuring WSE 3.0! (10/15/2005 •  News)
We invite you to check out the latest release of the Web service security patterns. This release is a substantial improvement over the past releases. We’ve added even more patterns and updated the implementation patterns to take advantage of the latest advancements in WSE 3.0. Please note that the WSE 2.0 implementation patterns have been removed from this release. We will add them back for the final release, but if you would like to review the WSE 2.0 implementation patterns in the meantime, check out the August CTP.

Developers can build secure Web services easier with WSE 3.0 by using its simplified and enhanced policy framework and by taking advantage of features in the .NET Framework 2.0. When you combine that with solid architectural, design, and implementation guidance, you have a much better chance of choosing an appropriate solution and saving some time in the process. While the WSE team just released the WSE 3.0 October CTP, these implementation patterns were tested against the WSE 3.0 Beta build.

The following patterns have been added since the August CTP release. These patterns have all been through the workshop process, but haven’t all been through an initial editorial pass … that’s why it’s a CTP 😉

  • Message Replay Detection
  • Perimeter Service Router
  • Message Validation
  • Exception Shielding
  • Trusted Subsystem
  • Protocol Adapter
  • Delegation

As we are ramping up to release the final version of this content, we’re really depending on you, the community, to provide the feedback needed to make this the definitive resource for Web service security guidance. We would also love to hear from you if you’ve used this content as the basis for decisions you’ve made regarding your production Web services.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Silly mistake when using Multiple Endpoints in Indigo

Indigo

I have a self-hosted service which I am calling through it’s proxy in a client app.

When the service has multiple endpoints, svcutil adds “ConfigurationName” properties to the endpoints in the config file. With a single endpoint, that parameter is not necessary.

When instantiating the service via the proxy, I was following a single endpoint example and forgot to indicate *which* endpoint or configuration I wanted. Thus my code:

ServiceProxy myproxy=new ServiceProxy();

gave me an error when it hit the proxy’s constructor and I was given the following exception:

could not find endpoint element that references contractType [whatever my contract name is]

Oddly, if I found that if I removed ConfigurationNames from the config, the app will actually run and somehow randomly selected from the multiple endpoints.

The exception message led me on a very wild goosechase. But luckily, Softwaremaker, who is quite the Indigo guru already, asked me a key question: “how are you instatiating the proxy?”

Since all of this stuff is so new, I am placing this mistake out on Google for the next person who makes this mistake.


Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

It’s Raining It’s Pouring

Vermont

It has been raining for about a week with intermittent major downpours (like right now). We are in northwestern Vermont and not experiencing the dreadful flooding that surrounds us in New Hampshire, Southern Vermont and other parts of the NorthEast. Rich and I have discussed what would happen if there was indeed flooding around here. Though living on a mountainside and far from the mountain streams prevents us from worrying about our house being flooded, we have to cross bridges in two directions to get off of our road so we could be screwed if the bridges were ever washed out. All of the disasters of late have made us think about the what-ifs and what we need to do to be prepared. Not only do we have to think about food and water for ourselves but also our pets. And of course we would stay here with them. Funny the things you take for granted. Hopefully it will turn us all into little boy  & girlscouts.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org