Geeky Bob

In part three of my series on setting up SSL on IIS 6, I'll describe the steps that are necessary to install an SSL certificate. Simply out of convenience I broke this process into two sections:

• Installing Your Certificate (Required)
• Verifying Your Certificate (Optional)

Installing Your Certificate

1. Bring up the properties for a website:

   

2. Switch to the "Directory Security" tab and click "Server Certificate:"

   

3. Click "Next" to bypass the first page:

   

4. Choose to process the request and click "Next":

   

5. Click "Browse" to the locate your certificate request:

   

6. Browse to the location of your certificate, highlight it, and click "Open":

   

7. Verify the location of your certificate and click "Next":

   

8. Choose your SSL port and click "Next":

   

9. Review the information to make sure it is correct and click "Next":

   

10. Click "Finish" to close the wizard:

    

11. Notice that you now have all the buttons available for SSL.

    

Verifying Your Certificate

1. Click the "View Certificate" button:

   

2. On the "General" tab, if the certificate is good you will see a normal certificate icon. (If no, you will see a warning or error icon.)

   

3. On the "Certification Path" tab you will see your certificate hierarchy:

   

That wraps it up for creating, submitting, obtaining, and installing a certificate. In subsequent blogs I'll post some appendices with instructions about setting up Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

In part two of my series on setting up SSL on IIS 6, I'll describe the steps that are necessary to obtain an SSL certificate. Typically you would submit your certificate request to any one of several Certificate Authorities (CA); and there are several that are available. Here are just a few:

• Thawte Digital Certificates
  http://www.thawte.com/
• VeriSign Digital Certificates
  http://www.verisign.com/

The steps to obtain a certificate differ for each CA, and it would be way outside the scope of my limited blogspace to include the steps for every CA on the Internet. So for my blog series I'm going to show how to use Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003 to obtain a certificate. This part of the process is broken into three steps:

• Submit the Certificate Request
• Certificate Processing
• Obtain the Certificate

Submit the Certificate Request

1. Browse to the "Certificate Services" website, and then click the link to "Request a Certificate":

   

2. Click the link to submit an "advanced certificate request":

   

3. Click the link to "Submit a certificate request by using a base-64 encoded file":

   

4. Copy the text from your certificate request file and paste it into the "Base-64 Encoded Certificate Request" text box, then click "Submit":

   

5. By default, Certificate Services will return a message stating that your certificate is pending. You will need to notify your Certificate Services administrator that your certificate needs to be approved.

   

Note: As an alternative to copying the text from your certificate request file, when you are using Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003, you can use the application to read the file for you. To do so, you would need to change the step where you copy and paste the text to the following steps:

1. Click the link to "Browse for a file to insert":

   

2. You may be prompted whether to allow an ActiveX control to run; this warning may appear because the web application uses an ActiveX control to read the certificate request file. In order to continue, you need to click "Yes":

   

3. When the subform appears, click the Browse button:

   

4. Locate your certificate request file, and then click "Open":

   

5. Click the "Read" button to load the text from your certificate request file, this will insert it into the form:

   

6. Once the text from your certificate request file has been inserted, you can submit the form as you would have done if you had copied and pasted the text manually.

Certificate Processing

At this point the Certificate Authority (CA) will consider your request. I'll post a blog later with details about processing a request using Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003.

Obtain the Certificate

When your certificate request has been processed, you need to use the following steps to save your certificate to your system before you can process it.

1. Browse to the "Certificate Services" website, and then click the link to "View the status of a pending certificate request":

   

2. Click the link for your approved request.

   

3. Click the link to "Download CA certificate":

   

4. When prompted, click "Save":

   

5. Save the file to somewhere convenient, like your desktop:

   

In the next post of this blog series, I'll show you how to install your certificate on IIS 6.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

In part one of my series on setting up SSL on IIS 6, I'll describe all of the steps that are necessary to request an SSL certificate for a website. Once you have completed your certificate request, you would send that to a Certificate Authority (CA) for approval. In subsequent blog posts I'll discuss submitting a certificate to a CA - specifically Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003 - and then I'll discuss obtaining a certificate and installing it on your IIS server. But for now, let's get started with a creating certificate request. To do so, use the following steps.

1. Bring up the properties for a website:

   

2. Switch to the "Directory Security" tab and click "Server Certificate:"

   

3. Click "Next" to bypass the first page:

   

4. Choose to "Create a new certificate" and click "Next":

   

5. Choose to "Prepare the request now, but send later" and click "Next":

   

6. Enter a friendly "Name" for the request, and your desired "Bit length". Click "Next":

   

7. Enter your "Organization" and "Organization unit", then click "Next":

   

8. Enter the "Common name" for your site then click "Next":
   
   Note: This must be the actual web address that users will browse to when they hit your site.

   

9. Enter your "Country", "State", and "City", then click "Next":

   

10. Enter the "File name" for your request, then click Next:

    

11. Review the information for your request, then click Next:

    

12. Click "Finish" to exit the wizard.

    

FYI: If you were to open your request file in Notepad, it will look something like the following:

In the next post of my blog series, I'll show you how to use Certificate Services on Windows Server 2003 to obtain a certificate.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/

This 11th entry from the annals of 511th MI Company history is a continuation of the jokes that I introduced in my last post. As a quick reminder, these entries were all collected from the voluminous number of utterly useless messages that we sent back and forth between the EW platoons over the ASAS datalink system in the TRQ-32s.

The Official EW2 List of Things "Not to Do with Coffee"

1. Don't make oatmeal with coffee
2. Don't drink mess hall coffee after eating red lifesavers
3. Don't drink mess hall coffee, period
4. Don't let Paski near a full cup of coffee while on pos, unless you want to wear it
5. Don't pour coffee on your Lt.
6. Don't share coffee with your T&A team, unless you plan to resupply them forever
7. Don't let Alex, Fred, or J.J. near a full pot of coffee and an ASAS Datalink
8. Don't wash your field socks in coffee
9. Don't use coffee as brake, hydraulic, or windshield wiper fluid (However, you can use it for rust removal)
10. Don't yodel with your mouth full of coffee
11. Don't puke, piss, or pop pimples in a pot of coffee
12. Don't deploy to the field without lots of it

(J.J. Simmons and Bob McMurray, "Caravan Guard" 1989)

A Story

[Note: As if we hadn't picked on 1LT Stahl enough, I wrote the following story about him. (Of course, D.A.T. means "Dumb Ass Tanker".)]

Once upon a time, all was well in E.W. land. The birds were singing and the jammers were jamming. Happiness just seemed to flow from everything about the EWites. Their lives were simple yet full of good cheer. They truly loved the work that they did and fancied to themselves that maybe it was important for some reason.

But then one day, "IT" came to town. The dreaded D.A.T.-Beast that they had all heard rumors of. There was no way to stop it. No way to prepare. No time to run or hide. It fell upon the helpless EWites and viscously attacked them. It tore at their very hearts as if it derived joy from seeing others suffer. It held no concept of the work that they tried so hard to do. It scarred their precious COMSEC habits. It had no life of its own, and thus it began to feed on the lives of others like some inhuman vampire of man's very essence.

It possessed no concept of right or wrong. It sought only self-importance and personal gain - the incredible irony to the role in which it chose to masquerade itself; an Army officer. By design the title should reflect an attitude of responsibility, accompanied by a genuine sense of caring for the well-being of its subordinates. But the Beast held not one endearing trait as a leader of men. A thoughtless, soulless specter shaped like a man. An empty, hollow shell that somehow tried to crush the will of others to bring itself some sadistic form of pleasure.

In its arrogance and pride, it has the audacity to raise its head in a flare of self-righteous temper and cry, "How dare you question my judgment?" when its imperfections are exposed. But therein lies its tragic flaw; for no puffed up ego that rests upon one's shoulders can lay low enough to duck through every door. Sooner or later it comes crashing to the ground at the wrong time yet in the right place, and if all luck prevails the Beast will die in some strange way. The hope remains that this mass of flesh that torments man will indeed fall prey to the traps that it laid for others, and some as yet unseen force will attack and purge this cancerous ego infection from the Beast, leaving enough to mold into a shape more closely resembling a man.

(Bob "Fred" McMurray, "Bold Lancer" 1989)

The World: Man's Future Foretold...

Life as we know it, has ended.
The nations of the world have all been devastated by a massive nuclear war.
Civilization is no more.
The peoples of the world are massing together in an effort to reclaim their lives.
The leader of the masses has been designated Emperor of the World.
The Emperor has maintained order in America the ten years since WWIII.
Very few oppose the emperor; those who do wish for a quick death.
Damnation of the rebels is personally levied by the hand of the emperor:
J.J. Slayer.
Are you damned in this Hell???????

(J.J. Simmons, Caravan Guard, 1989)

Bad DF-Ville (Sung to the tune of Margaritaville)

Wasting away again in Bad DF-Ville,
Searching for my lost OPFOR freq.
Some people say that there's an LT to blame,
But I know, that it's all TCAE's fault.

DF's and fixes, we all know what we're missin'.
We don't have a clue where the enemy stays.
"Gimme a grid square...I don't care where,"
That's all we hear from the TCAE goons.
But it don't matter, ignore the radio chatter.
Don't even bother, you'll be jumping real soon.

Wasting away again in Bad DF-Ville,
Searching for my lost OPFOR freq.
Some people say that the Blue LT is to blame,
But I know, that it's all TCAE's fault.

(Bill  McCollum, Hohenfels 1990)

That wraps it up for this post, but I have a few more jokes in my files to post in the future.

This post marks the 10th installment in my series on the 511th MI Company. So far I have posted all of the lists that I had collected, and I've included some stories along the way. Today's post is a little different - I also collected a bunch of jokes that the ESM squads from the two EW platoons sent back and forth over the TRQ-32's ASAS system. I thought that it might be amusing to let everyone see what we thought was funny at the time. ;-]

In the text file that I had used to collect these jokes I had added the following dedication:

These works best represent the attitudes and feelings shared by most who have sat rack upon the "Pos of Sorrow" at one time or another. They are not always intended to offend, though they sometimes do, but rather to show a rare moment of humor in what might otherwise be a dull and boring life.

To all who wear the Blackhorse, I say with the utmost of heartfelt sincerity and emotion, "Get out of the Army while you still can!"

For each of the jokes that were sent, I managed to write down who sent them and what field problem we were deployed on when I collected them.

Selected Titles from the J. Irwin Rumplemeyer Memorial Book Club

There are many titles to chose from when you join the J. Irwin Rumplemeyer Memorial Book Club. Famous authors, quality works.

• Trotting across Zaire
• I suck, you suck (Speak for yourself, Spanky)
• The Spankmeister of Fulda Gap
• Thermonuclear Racquetball: Applied theories
• Opussum Huntin' with Billy Bob Redneck
• The Chairborne Rangers: Tales from the Orderly Room
• How to make two small hats from a brassiere
• John Carter, Warlord of Mars versus Andy Griffith
• Roadkill: It's not just for breakfast anymore
• Tremble your way to fitness
• Eat right, stay fit, and die anyway
• Getting the point across with Plastique
• The Donner Party Cookbook: Frontier recipes with a twist
• It's not easy being a complete Putz: Biography of an XO
• The Black and Decker home facial reconstruction kit
• The Petroleum Jelly Diet
• What every 98G should know, but doesn't ask.  (Who cares!)
• Dude, get a clue.
• Coming of age, new NCO's speak out.
• Gandhi, story of an abused child.
• Does Fu Man Chu?
• Thatcher and Reagan: Portrait of a lust affair
• The life and times of 34 extremely short Saints
• True Confessions: I was a Democrat!!
• "Is safe sex in a car, intercourse with the seatbelts on?"
• How to net with a 32(V) and get a date at the same time
• Sex and the 98G, or Wahhh!!
• Spanking: An in-depth study of milk and ************
• Milk:  It's not just for drinking!
• Field Duty: It's not just a job, it's boring!!!!!
• Toxic Dumps: A guide to vacationing in America

(By Dave Paski, "Bold Lancer" 1989)

Note: I believe that Paski's "Biography of an XO" book was in reference to 1LT Stahl, who was thrust on the 511th for several months as Company XO until our CO managed to find a way to push him off on some other unsuspecting Company.

The 10 Top Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

1. Burl Ives - "Chainsaw Lust"
2. Slim Whitman - "Satan and a Six Pack"
3. Roger Whitaker - "Dance, Bitch, Dance"
4. Boxcar Willy - "Hobo Hell"
5. Mormon Tabernacle Choir - "Sacrifice Two out of Three Wives"
6. Boston Pops - "Belial's Orchestra"
7. Mitch Miller - "Backwards Singalongs"
8. Roy Clark - "Even **** Rot"
9. Engelbert Humperdink - "Vanity for my Soul"
10. Buck Owens - "I hope that Roy Clark rots"

(J.J. Simmons, "Bold Lancer" 1989)

The F.B.I.'s Latest Wanted Dead List

1. Lt. McNeil (Alias "Spanky") - Wanted for impersonating an Officer
2. Sgt. Smith - Wanted for impersonating a mature person
3. Sgt. Degrood - Wanted for impersonating Dumbo
4. Spc. Paski - Wanted for impersonating Sgt. Smith
5. Spc. Dodge - Wanted for impregnating sheep

(J.J. Simmons, "Bold Lancer" 1989)

Five Reasons Why Not to Yodel in the Woods

1. The Boars only like country
2. It causes diarrhea in rodents
3. It causes spontaneous itching in embarrassing places
4. Burl Ives would sue
5. It turns Bill Magan on

(J.J. Simmons, "Caravan Guard" 1989)

That's it for now - I'll post more in future notes.

The FrontPage Server Extensions from Ready-to-Run Software, Inc. (RTR), are available and supported only in the English language. But that being said, the localized language files for FPSE 2002 are available for download from Microsoft, and if you're willing to do a little work, you can configure the FPSE 2002 administration pages for your website to be displayed in sixteen different languages. (The specific list of languages is provided later in this blog.)

Please note that this information is being presented "as-is" and is not officially supported by Microsoft or RTR.

Downloading and Installing the Localized FPSE 2002 Files

Download the self-extracting MSGS.EXE page that contains the FPSE 2002 language files from the following URL:

Extract the FPSE 2002 files by double-clicking the MSGS.EXE file and specifying an output folder.

By default, the installation package will install all of the localized files to the FPSE 2002 parent folder that is located at:

If you run the installation package on your server and accept the default path, then all of the languages will be available on your server.

However, if you only want to have one or more specific languages available, you would need to specify an alternate output folder for the extraction process. Under the output folder that you specified, you will see three folders: admisapi, bin, and isapi. Each of these folders will contain several subfolders, each of which contains the files for each of the localized languages. Each language that you want to have available on your server will need to be copied to their corresponding folders under the FPSE 2002 parent folder at:

You may copy all of the localized files to your FPSE directories, or you can select a single language by locating just the appropriate localized subfolders. For example, if you extracted the FPSE 2002 files to your C:\Temp folder and you wanted just the German language files, you would need to select the following folders:

And you would copy those folders to the following paths:

Specifying the Language for an FPSE 2002 Website

Open the service.cnf file for one of your websites in Windows Notepad; this file will be kept in the _vti_pvt folder for a website. For example, for the Default Web Site this file would be at:

Choose the language abbreviation for your desired language from the list below. For example, if you were using German your abbreviation would be "de-de."

In the service.cnf file, locate the vti_defaultlanguage entry and change the value to the abbreviation for your desired language. If this value does not exist, you will need to add it. For example, if you were using the German language the syntax would be:

vti_defaultlanguage:SR|de-de

When you open the FPSE 2002 administration pages for your website, you should now see it in your localized language. (Note: You may need to refresh your browser's cache to see it correctly.)

That's all that there is to it. Once again, please note that the version of the FPSE 2002 from RTR is only supported in English; so if you are having any issues, you will need to change the value of the vti_defaultlanguage entry back to "en-us" before you contact RTR for support.

Note: This blog was originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/robert_mcmurray/