[nfbcs] USB drive on two machines at the same time?
Mike Freeman
k7uij at panix.com
Sat Apr 9 17:53:15 UTC 2011
Yes. In addition, I would observe that entities aren't only worried about
security of information; they're worried about the integrity and security of
their systems. As I said earlier, my employer won't even allow a person's
private computer to be connected in any way, shape or form to its networks.
I suspect you'd run into the same thing and you could talk about efficiency
and accessibility till you're blue in the face and get nowhere.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of David Andrews
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 10:41 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] USB drive on two machines at the same time?
Doug:
You have fallen victim to a relatively common occurrence on lists. Someone
asks a question and people don't have an answer but feel compelled to say
something so they try to redefine your question, answer a question you
didn't ask, convince you that you don't need what you say you need etc.
People's intentions are good, they are trying to help -- but if you don't
have an answer, don't say anything.
Having said all that (smile,) I understand your need, but have never heard
of a device that would do what you want. It doesn't mean that it doesn't
exist, perhaps Google, or a vendor that sells many different devices like
EnPointe, DCW, Now Micro -- I think it is, etc., can help.
Dave
At 11:28 AM 4/9/2011, you wrote:
>Apologies for the length of this message, but I am writing to address
>the question of why I keep trying to make this unusual connection among
>machines instead of using the various alternatives suggested in this
>discussion, because I keep seeing answers like "Why not do this
>instead."
>
>As I suppose may seem typical with questions I post on lists, there are
>a lot of issues surrounding why I have to raise the question in the
>first place. In this case, since I develop scripts for a lot of
>organizations and share code among projects that is filtered for any
>content relevant specifically to an organization unrelated to the
>current deployment destination, it is often necessary for me to make
>code transfers and adaptations on my laptop which can not reasonably be
>made on the target machine, simply because I shouldn't put all past
>projects' code up there. The obvious solution to that issue is to
>develop on the laptop, but since development necessarily centers around
>tests and experiments on the target machine, this is complicated unless
>it is quick to deploy such work to that machine.
>This is the simplest explanation I can think of for the cause of the
>problem I'm trying to solve. I am very actively trying to reduce the
>number of occasions when I must do this sort of adaptation, in effect
>by creating code snippets that are prescreened for lack of content
>specific to any job. But at present, access to past projects remains
>useful in many jobs I do, and I actually tell clients that I do this
>sort of adaptation to save both them and everyone else time and money.
>
>A number of alternatives have been suggested in this thread, and from
>memory, I'll address them here, at the risk of missing one or two.
>
>Trevor suggested I make my own subnet by detaching the target machine
>from the client's LAN. This is usually impractical because most client
>software actively requires that LAN to run. Example: A call center
>application can't run without access to the call center's database
>servers, and sometimes even the user's telephone via an IP connection.
>
>Steve suggested that I move everything to the client system, do my
>work, then move it all back. I addressed a lot of that one above.
>
>Keeping things on the thumb drive and moving it between machines is an
>obvious solution, and it does work, but it slows things down, sometimes
>considerably, by requiring so many connects and disconnects.
>
>My most frequent solution is an ssh connection to our central office,
>which solves the whole problem nicely. But of course, these
>connections are also getting more and more often shut off as well.
>
>To address the general security concern of my being able to read/write
>data to/from the target machine at all, all I can think to say quickly
>is that we already have to sign various agreements concerning behavior,
>data handling, etc., that legally bind me to do the right thing with
>any sensitive information I bump into. My work does go across security
>lines in an unusual way for clients' business models, inasmuch as my
>work is totally unrelated to clients' business models but interrelates
>across most any business model I encounter; that is to say,
>accessibility work and data share equally across call centers,
>government agencies, banks, etc. but incorporate zero sensitive
>information relative to any of those. So the fact that I try to do odd
>things within a security domain is easy to explain for anyone who
>understands what I do. I'm just preparing for the inevitability that
>this will not always grant me passage to do it anyway. My goal is not
>to circumvent security policies but to have at hand as many
>alternatives as possible that fit within them while still maximizing
>the efficiency of what I can do.
>
>Maybe I go too far, in the minds of some, to try to increase the
>efficiency of the things I do. :) I knew I was running up hill a bit
>by asking this question in the first place, or the solution, and
>corresponding hardware, would surely be more prominently available out
>there.
>
>So I think the overall answer from this thread is that nobody knows of
>the type of device I'm looking for. If so, it's ok with me for the
>thread to close, even if with an unfortunate end. :)
>
>On Wed, Apr 06, 2011 at 01:13:33PM -0500, Steve Jacobson wrote:
>Doug,
>
>I wonder if bluetooth would be a solution. Plugging in a bluetooth
>receiver if the machine doesn't have that capability is usually pretty
>painless. The trouble is that any continuous connection between your
>laptop and the computer connected to a network will be viewed with
>suspicion. Even if you can't read from the network, writing offers the
>possibility of transmitting a virus or worm into the network, and
>people worry about that almost as much as the information you might
>pull out. Some won't like any connection with your laptop whether it
>is wired, wi-fi, or bluetooth, because unless they watch you, they
>can't know if you are opening up a path to the network. Perhaps the
>best approach is to figure out the most efficient way to get what you
>need for developing transferred to the target maching and pulling back
>anything that has changed at the end of your session.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Steve Jacobson
>
>On Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:19:00 -0400, Doug Lee wrote:
>
> >The problem I'm trying to solve is this: I frequently script at
> >company and government locations that will not allow me to connect my
> >laptop to the local network. Some sites don't allow write access to
> >USB drives either. I develop scripts on my laptop much of the time
> >because I have tools there for managing the process, but of course
> >the scripts must be installed on the machine at the location where
> >I'm working.
>
> >So the two-USB-connector drive idea would work like this: I would
> >write code on my laptop and run an installer from the same drive to
> >install on the office machine. The same can of course be achieved
> >without the extra USB connector just by moving the drive back and
> >forth between machines, but in rapid-turnaround testing situations,
> >which are frequent, that becomes much slower than my idea would be.
>
> >On Wed, Apr 06, 2011 at 12:07:52PM -0500, Steve Jacobson wrote:
> >Doug,
>
> >I think you are right, that just using two connections is going to
> be unreliable. I would think that your best approach would be to
> share the drive on one
> >computer and make it available to the other through a wireless
> network connection. I assume that the problem with networks is that
>you don't want to be on
> >a larger network and you may not have ethernet connections. I
> know that Windows has a create wireless network wizzard that seems to
> be for sharing
> >resources and devices as opposed to just connecting to a network,
> but I have never tried this. Good luck.
>
> >Best regards,
>
> >Steve Jacobson
>
>
> >On Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:56:38 -0400, Doug Lee wrote:
>
> >>I think any drive or device allowing simultaneous connections would
> >>have to be designed especially for this usage, because something has
> >>to arbitrate the simultaneous access, deal with caching issues, etc.
> >>You do highlight a curiosity I've long had though, about what would
> >>happen if I try two connection types at once as you suggest. The
> >>same would apply to any drive with both a USB and a Firewire connector.
>
> >>On Wed, Apr 06, 2011 at 11:15:38AM -0500, Bryan Schulz wrote:
> >>hi,
>
> >>i suspect you would overload the drive with double the voltage but...
> >>if you have the drive to experiment with destroying, get a usb/esata
> >>external enclosure as newer laptops have the new esata port then one
> >>computer could connect by regular usb and the other computer could
> >>connect thru the esata cable.
>
> >>Bryan Schulz
>
> >>----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Lee" <dgl at dlee.org>
> >>To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> >>Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 10:02 AM
> >>Subject: [nfbcs] USB drive on two machines at the same time?
>
>
> >>>I'm not sure where best to ask this question, so besides actual
> >>>answers, I welcome pointers on where to send this one. My excuse
> >>>for posting this here in the first place is that I need the device
> >>>I'm about to describe for scripting projects. :)
> >>>
> >>>I am looking for a USB drive, or better yet, a USB device that
> >>>allows a drive to be connected to it, that then allows the drive to
> >>>be plugged into the USB ports of two computers at the same time.
> >>>To each computer, it would be a USB drive pretty much like any
> >>>other. I know this issue is normally solved with a Network
> >>>Appliance, but that is not possible in my situation for security
reasons.
> >>>
> >>>A specific example: I want to plug this device into, say, a
> >>>desktop computer's USB port and a laptop's USB port at the same
> >>>time, write files to the drive from the laptop, and read them off
> >>>the drive with the desktop. I'm even ok if the drive is mounted
> >>>read/write by the laptop but as read-only by the desktop. (This
> >>>would cover most security issues I've encountered in my work, since
> >>>most sites will let you bring data into a machine but not write it
> >>>back out of it.) The device must use USB connections, not Ethernet
> >>>(Cat 5) connections. As a last resort if the two-USB idea doesn't
> >>>exist, I could probably work with something that allowed one USB
> >>>connection and a simultaneous WiFi connection, as long as the WiFi
connection supports WPA2.
> >>>
> >>>I notice one technical detail that may present a problem: The OS
> >>>on the desktop, in my above example, would somehow need to know not
> >>>to cache the drive data aggressively, even if it mounts the drive
> >>>as a read-only device, because the laptop could change the data at
> >>>any moment.
> >>>
> >>>Does such a device exist anywhere?
> >>>
> >>>--
> >>>Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org
http://www.dlee.org
> >>>SSB BART Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com
> >>>http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> >>>"The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the
> >>>pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." --Benjamin
> >>>Franklin
> >>>
> >>>_______________________________________________
> >>>nfbcs mailing list
> >>>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> >>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >>>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
> >>>for nfbcs:
> >>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/b.schulz%4
> 0sbcglobal.net
>
>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>nfbcs mailing list
> >>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
> for nfbcs:
> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/dgl%40dlee.or
> >>g
>
> >>--
> >>Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org http://www.dlee.org
> >>SSB BART
> Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> >>"Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you
> >>to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life
> >>is not in vain." --Helen Keller
>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>nfbcs mailing list
> >>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
> for nfbcs:
> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/steve.jacob
> son%40visi.com
>
>
>
>
>
> >_______________________________________________
> >nfbcs mailing list
> >nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nfbcs:
> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/dgl%40dlee.org
>
> >--
> >Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org http://www.dlee.org
> >SSB BART
> Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> >"Innovation is hard to schedule." -- Dan Fylstra
>
> >_______________________________________________
> >nfbcs mailing list
> >nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nfbcs:
> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/steve.jacobs
> on%40visi.com
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>nfbcs mailing list
>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nfbcs:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/dgl%40dlee.org
>
>--
>Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org http://www.dlee.org
>SSB BART
>Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
>"I forgot, because I wanted to forget, except I don't remember
>forgetting." --Sarah Alawami
_______________________________________________
nfbcs mailing list
nfbcs at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
More information about the NFBCS
mailing list