VMware UEM Console Login from Mobile

Simple way to access VMware Airwatch WorkspaceOne UEM Console from your Mobile web browser.

As an Airwatch Admin, sometimes you would be looking for a way to access your Airwatch workspaceone UEM console from mobile but when you enter the console address in mobile web-browser like Chrome,


Firefox , the console redirects the page and takes you to the (https://<YourConsoleAddress>/DeviceManagement/Enrollment/ ). The screen would look like the one shown here.

Note that, this is not strage behaviour . As a MDM , Vmware Airwatch must be having a way to enroll the device via web-browser. So this redirection to enrollment page is obvious. Once you enter appropriate Group ID i.e Organisation Group ID , the next page would be to download , Install and Run Workspace One Intelligent Hub from Google Play Store.
But this is what we dont want.
To get an access to the console login page,
you need to append /Airwatch to the console address.



So the address would be  https://<YourConsoleAddress>/Airwatch
This would take you to the admin login page.
Please note that Loging in from mobile web-brower might not render the pages correctly and you might see some glithes. My recommendation would be to Login the page from Desktop Browsers only.

What exactly SFTP is? And how to Setup SFTP Server

SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a secure file transfer protocol and it runs over the SSH and comes with all auth and security that ssh supports. Now-a-days FTP or FTPS is getting replaced by SSH as FTP is considered as not so secure.

The SFTP protocol runs over the SSH protocol as a scheme and it was designed by Tatou Ylonen.
Special thing about SFTP is , there are no ports exposed.

SFTP VS. FTPS

People usually wish to check SFTP vs. FTPS. FTPS is essentially the previous ftp protocol run over SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security).

Benefits of FTP over SFTP includes,
FTPS is essentially FTP, which implies it's code mode, which might corrupt files if the mode isn't properly set and SFTP runs over SSH within the normal SSH port. Thus, no extra ports have to be compelled to be opened on the server and no extra authentication must be maintained. This simplifies configuration and reduces the probability of config errors.
FTPS wants sophisticated firewall configuration and might not work NAT. Ports 989 and 990 have to be compelled to be open. 
FTPS needs an additional server software system package to be put in and patched, whereas SFTP comes with SSH.
What's more, FTPS supports each active and passive modes , that additional complicates firewall configurations and is susceptible to issues.
FTPS can't be used as a File system. 


Here are easy steps to setup Free SFTP server

To setup the Free SFTP server you can download the Rebex Tiny SFTP server
from https://labs.rebex.net/tiny-sftp-server
And surprisingly, it is free for Commericial and Non-commercial purpose.
Once download is finished, unzip the zipped file and run the "RebexTinySftpServer.exe" file.
There would be another file named "RebexTinySftpServer.exe.config" file which is a server configuration file with below config settings available by default.
The configuration is straight-forward , key-value pair and easy to understand.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<!-- user and root dir -->
<add key="userName" value="sftpuser"/>    
<add key="userPassword" value="sftpuser"/>
<add key="userRootDir" value="data"/>

<!-- user public keys for public key authentication (optional) -->
<add key="userPublicKeyDir" value=""/>

<!-- misc config -->
<add key="showUserDetailsOnStartup" value="true"/>

<!-- security -->
<add key="rsaPrivateKeyFile" value="server-private-key-rsa.ppk"/>
<add key="rsaPrivateKeyPassword" value="my-super-secure-password"/>

<add key="dssPrivateKeyFile" value="server-private-key-dss.ppk"/>
<add key="dssPrivateKeyPassword" value="my-super-secure-password"/>

<!-- port -->
<add key="sshPort" value="22"/>

<!-- start server when application is started? -->
<add key="autoStart" value="false"/>
</appSettings>

</configuration>

As SSH works on port 22 so config also has the same.
For further security , you can create RSA and DSA keys (.ppk) and provide the password in config which was used while creating the keys.
If you are not comfortable in creating the SSH keys, you can you this awesome free tool that runs on Windows called "PuttyGen" (a utility for RSA and DSA key generation )

Link to download : https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

If you are working with any SFTP client and you are just looking for test connection with SFTP Server, you dont need to host one. Rebex has already provided a dummy sftp running server at
test.rebex.net  Use demo as username and password as password



Please Note: REBEX SFTP server store the password in clear text as you can see from the config file.
Do let me know if you have any other SFTP server that can be easily setup.

Incoming search: Rebex sftp firewall issues

Speed-up your Chrome Browser to load page faster

As you may know, Chrome is one of the popular browser available to us and it is also among the fastest browser. You also might have used it or maybe you are using it now as well and can feel the difference of speed compared to other Web Browsers.
The fact which you might not know is, Google Chrome uses DNS prefetching and speedy (SPDY) protocols instead of HTTP. DNS prefetching and SPDY protocols helps to load the webpage in advance which reduces the time to load the page.
If you are reading this page means something went wrong with your Chrome browser. After using it for many days it tends to slow down. Lately, it has been observed that Chrom has been consuming high amount of RAM even if there is only one tab opened. Offcourse, it does lot in background so consuming high memory is not a surprise.

So, here are the things which you can do to fasten your Chrome Browser application for your desktop machine. This should work for other browsers too.

1. DISABLE THE  PLUGINS or ADD-ONS 

Having many plugins enabled in your browser can slow down it easily as it consumes time to load each and every plugin and moreover it consumes you RAM usage as well. So the best option would be to load the important plugin which you really need and disable the rest. I presonally prefer running zero plugins.
This is how you can disable it.


a. Open Chrome Browser and enter the following address into address bar

chrome://plugins/

b. Now you can Un-tick all the plugins which you think are not at all useful to you.
Please do remember that few plugins like Adobe Flash is required for many websites to display content so you should not disable it and there are some other plug-ins which can help your browser to increase performance.

2. DISABLE EXTENSIONS

a. Open Chrome Browser and enter the following address into address bar

 chrome://extensions/

OR

Click on Wrench icon on your toolbar > Tools > Extensions.

b. Un-tick the extensions which are not needed or can be deleted as well if not required.

3. CLEAR YOUR BROWSING DATA

Browsing data consumes good amount of space. Everytime you visit a webpage, some amount of data from the webpage will be saved on your system so that when you visit the same page again, the data can be loaded quickly. But if your not clearing your browser data, the data continues to increase thus slowing down your browser.

Although cache and cookies are really made to speed up chrome browser but sometimes it happens that they are responsible for decreasing your browsing speed and lagging while opening webpages.


This is how you can clear the data

a. Click on Wrench icon
b. Go to Tools > Clear browsing data.
c. Choose Time range in the dialog box and click on "Clear browsing data"

OR

a. Go to Settings
b. Search for "Clear browsing data"
c. And appropriately select the data that needs to be cleared.

4. Disable any ToolBar you have added to your Browser

Toolbars are your worst enemy. They stay on your browser and do nothing. Toolbars can really slow down the system and the browser. Moreover, I feel toolbars should not be installed at first place.

The Above tips works well for the other browser like FireFox and Internet Explorer as well. Only the path to change the settings will vary.

Hope you like the tips shared. Please do add any other tips if you have in comments.

You can set the Chrome to Dark mode . Check it out here

Make your Mobile phone camera a Webcam

During this Corona virus Pandemic (Covid19), people have been asked to work for home and you will feel the need of having a webcam some or the other day. Teleconferencing gets easier when you see the other person face to face rather than having the voice converstation.
Not everyone has a laptop and not everyone has a Desktop PC with a Webcam. Now a days, not having a camera/webcamera is a big deal. Attending Zoom Calls,Skype Calls, Facebook Live streams and many other applications and website demands you to have a webcam.
When I say a webcam , its just a camera which can stream you over internet, hence the name 'web camera' aka webcam.

So, here I am going to tell you about a simple application that I have tried and tested to make your mobile phone as webcam and save money.
As I am talking about Skype video call, I think I should call this post of mine as "How to use Mobile phone as a webcam"


IP WEBCAM
This one is simple yet elegant application which you can install on your android phone from the Play Store.
IP Webcam turns your phone into a network camera with multiple viewing options. View your camera on any platform with VLC player or web browser. Stream video inside WiFi network without internet access.


Features include:
• Video can be uploaded directly to Dropbox, SFTP, FTP and Email using Filoader plugin
• Several web renderers to choose from: Flash, Javascript or built-in
• Video recording in WebM, MOV, MKV or MPEG4 (on Android 4.1+)
• Audio streaming in wav, opus and AAC (AAC requires Android 4.1+)
• Motion detection with sound trigger, Tasker integration.
• Date, time and battery level video overlay.
• Sensor data acquisition with online web graphing.
• Videochat support (video stream only for Windows and Linux via an universal MJPEG video streaming driver)
• Cloud push notifications on motion and sound, cloud recording for motion-triggered records, online video broadcasting powered by Ivideon.
• Extensive baby and pet monitor features: night vision, motion detection, sound detection.

Here is the link for IP WEBCAM. Install the app on your smartphone and Launch it.
There are plenty of things which are there in the mobile app, which you don't need to worry about.

Next Step is to Download the configuration software.
Download from https://ip-webcam.appspot.com/

After installing the PC app and launching it, below screen will be shown
Click on Auto Detect.



If everything works fine, the camera will be available in Windows software. If something is wrong, please check your firewall rules and your network by visiting your network camera in a web browser.

Try restarting your PC if it does not work.
After restart, launch any application
say Skype and you can then configure your skype with the IP Cam.
In Skype, Go to Tools - Options - Video Settings .
Here You need to choose, MJPEG Camera
And Baam!!! all done.

You can see your pretty cat over your PC by using your phone.

In the similar way, you can config any Streaming application . You just need to use MJPEG camera as a webcam source.

Another App I remember which you can use is, 

DroidCam. It also has mobile app and a PC connectivity software.