Tor and Tortilla

I was finally able to get around and test Tortilla. Tortilla allows you to send all traffic through TOR when using a virtual machine.No need for additional software or VPN's

Download the Tortilla software HERE

You will need TOR Expert Bundle. Download that HERE

When installing the TOR expert bundle i had to install it as an administrator. Right click the EXE and choose Run As Administrator.

Once you have TOR and Tortilla installed, run TOR and once it loads up, run Tortilla. The first time Tortilla runs it will take a couple minutes to install the adapter.

Once both pieces of software are running you will need to add or adjust your VMNET on your virtual machines. Those of you who have VMWare Player will need to somehow extract the vmnetcfg.exe and library file from VMWare workstation. Below are some helpful links:

Link 1
Link 2

Once you have the ability to edit the network configuration you can modify and exisitng VMNET or create a new VMNET and bridge the Tortilla adapter to it. Please note, I was only able to modify the VMNET0 since I did not have the option to select the Tortilla adapter when i created a new VMNET to bridge to. I am not sure why.

Once all of this is setup (Installing Tor expert bundle, Tortilla and modifying a VMNET to bridge to the Tortilla adapter) you should be able to select Custom in your VM network settings and select the VMNET that is bridged to the Tortilla Adapter. In my case this is VMNET0:

At this point in time power on your VM and all traffic will be sent to Tor using the Tortilla adapter.

Lexis Nexis Bridger Insight XG SmartClient MSI

We use a program from Lexis Nexis called Bridger Insight. Normally this software is a simple "ClickOnce" type of program that will update itself. However, since we are in a Terminal Services environment with roaming profiles we have to use the MSI version.

When using the MSI version Lexis Nexis pretty much wipes their hands of any technical support saying you assume any risks when using this product. That's all good and dandy as I understand everybody's environment is different and trying to troubleshoot something can take a long time.

Over the weekend they had an update. Normally all that needs to be done is to run the new MSI. The MSI will usually uninstall the old version and then install the new version. This time it was throwing out "ERROR 1714. Call Tech support." when trying to remove the old version. I even tried uninstalling it using Add//Remove Programs.

Tech support wasn't much help, suggestion something I already did and then of course reiterating that I assume all responsibility when I went into the agreement for the MSI version...blah blah blah.

After some digging and using a 3rd party uninstaller I found 2 registry entries that are not removed when uninstalling the program:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Features\ODBA2711A9D468F4A9E21433FF2120B0

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\ODBA2711A9D468F4A9E21433FF2120B0

HKEY_CURRENT_USER will be whatever user you used to install the program. In my case, Administator.

Once you delete that folder under Features and Products you can install the new MSI.

This now brings me to another subject (I'll be quick, I promise): Why don't software vendors support their products or at least try and make the install/uninstall smooth? It seems to me that no one wants to troubleshoot anything anymore. I competently understand that its getting harder to troubleshoot with so many different pieces nowadays but that's part of the job.