• Product Requirements

• How to configure iPhone secure access via:
  • Access Gateway Strandard Edtion
  • Access Gateway Enterprise Edtion
  • Citrix Secure Gateway

• How to provide access information to end users

• Basic troubleshooting steps

• Known Issues

Download the Citrix Receiver for iPhone Admin Guide

Posted on May 19, 2009 1:28 pm by John C. Welch, Macworld.com

For almost any system administrator, the idea of “off-time” is fictional. Even when I’m on vacation, there’s an unwritten expectation that if need be, I’m going to be summoned to solve a problem. (Even on my honeymoon, for example, I found myself spending a half-hour or so dealing with a work issue.)

WiFiFoFum can help tell you a lot about the status of your Wi-Fi network beyond the basics.

As a result, having just a plain cell phone isn’t an option for a sysadmin like me—smartphones become mandatory. Since its release, I’ve been on an iPhone, and since the introduction of the App Store, my iPhone has gone from merely handy to a really useful tool. So, in no particular order, here are the things I use to make my sysadmin life easier:

EDGE: When you host Web sites and other Internet-based services, the ability to check them from an outside network is critical. So, when we need to test “from the outside”, I just turn off Wi-Fi, sit at my desk and do external testing.The same rule applies for 3G iPhones, obviously. (I haven’t upgraded yet because I’m cheap.)

Safari: Fortunately, I never need Flash for my work, but I cannot function without a Web browser. With the iPhone, I never have to.

Mail: Like having a decent Web browser, I can’t live without e-mail. In addition to just being able to get email, the Exchange Active Sync (EAS) support in the iPhone lets me test different servers’ implementations of this with ease. This was important to us when we changed e-mail servers recently. Being able to fully test iPhone support was a major benefit, and helped us not have to rely on vendor promises.

LDAPeople: I’ve written about this application before, but LDAPeople from Boneware bears mentioning here as well. Since our network is based around Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), being able to get information from our LDAP setup is invaluable and very convenient when we see indications that our LDAP servers may be getting wonky. Since LDAPeople is just an LDAP client, nothing more, it’s a more direct way to test our LDAP servers without having to fire up Mac OS X’s Address Book, or Entourage, or some other application that uses LDAP.

WinAdmin: The world isn’t single-platform, and neither is my network. I have a number of Windows Servers that I have to take care of, and because Windows command-line access is sub-optimal, the best way to remotely administer a Windows box is via Windows Terminal Services. I use WinAdmin from Carter Harrison to manage such systems. WinAdmin is a simple client for Windows Terminal Services, and makes it easy to remotely log in to and administer my Windows Servers. We also have AquaConnect Terminal Server running—Mac terminal server software. With WinAdmin installed, I can connect remotely main network monitoring server—an Intel-based Xserve running Mac OS X Server 10.5.6.

TouchTerm Pro SSH: Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are pretty and nice, but for low bandwidth secure remote access, nothing beats a good Secure Shell (SSH) client. That’s what TouchTermPro SSH from Aji fits the bill. For Unix administrators especially, SSH is the tool of choice for many tasks, and out of all the SSH clients I’ve played with on the iPhone, TouchTerm Pro SSH impressed me the most and is the most useful to me.

What’s Goin Down: While some people may like to see their computer running, to me, the best server is one in a room that I never go into and never have to physically see. However, I still need to know if the server is running okay, and for that, I’ve found Random Ideas’ application, What’s Goin Down, to be darned useful. It lets me check different services on servers, even multiple services on the same server. So if I have a Web server that’s hosting multiple sites, I can check each site individually. I can separately check IMAP, SMTP or POP e-mail services. What’s Goin Down allows me to verify server operational status quickly and efficiently from almost anywhere.

WiFiFoFum: Most people never have to pay too much attention to Wi-Fi other than to know it’s working. But there’s a bit more to it for IT admins. Understanding signal to noise ratio, the presence of unknown base stations, and the operational status of base stations that are part of our network are examples of factors IT needs to know. With WiFiFoFum (reviewed here), I can get a lot of information about my wireless network in seconds, which is a huge help in figuring out which base station has suddenly dropped off the map. The radar view is not only neat, but kind of handy. From Aspecto Software. [Editor's note: In another life John worked on B-1B bombers, so of course he finds the radar view neat.]

These seven apps (and one service) are great examples of how useful the iPhone can be to the IT manager. I use all of them regularly to make my professional life run a lot smoother. What are your choices? Chime in with your own comments.

Smart Surfing is powered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network using advanced “in the cloud” Web Reputation technology to protect you from Web pages with malicious intent. If you attempt to access a bad or malicious URL, Smart Surfing is designed to block access to the URL and a notification will appear in the browser.

Its features including:

• Blocks access to Web pages with malicious content.
• Helps protect against phishing and pharming attacks.
• Provides color-coded search results.
• Easy-to-modify protection strength level and notifications.
• Supports browsing multiple Web pages at the same time.

Smart Surfing app App is free and you can download it from iTunes App Store.

Xtenscape was developed by Scott Hather which allows you to take control of this X10 technology using a free custom built app. X10 is an international and open industry standard for communication among electronic devices used for home automation, also known as domotics. This process uses power line wiring for signaling and control, where the signals involve brief radio frequency bursts representing digital information. A wireless radio based protocol transport is also defined.

As for the software, there is a a Windows and Mac version available. The idea of the software, which is free to download for iPhones (note the X-10 hardware [modules] are not), manages control signals by creating a ‘piggy-backed’ system whereby the electrical current running through your house is used to tell a specific receiver to switch on or off. So simple your Granny could do it and all available through your iPhone.

System requirements:

• Intel-based Apple Mac or Windows PC (98 and above)
• Java 1.5 (included on a mac, download for PC)
• Windows only: Microsoft Dot Net 2.0 framework
• CM11A or CM12 X-10 Control module (any type, UK, USA, Euro etc)
• At least one Appliance module or Lamp module
• Spare COM port or USB port (COM to USB convertor)

This is a follow up to my earlier blog.

Do you wish to use your iPhone to access Flash based applications? So far you are out of luck. According to the recent news article from CNET, “Flash 10 coming to most smartphones in 2010″. And iPhone is not on the list.

But why wait? With the upcoming Citrix receiver for iPhone, you will be able to run Flash based applications not only from iPhone but also from many other popular mobile devices. Initially the focus will be to support business applications.

The Citrix technology also adds another additional layer of security by only transmitting the display to the mobile devices. A typical flash based business intelligence report may contain sensitive data. If downloaded directly to a mobile device, the data may be vulnerable to leaks. For business users,the added security may be important.

Here is a quick preview of what is to come.

Here is the iPhone friendly version

A business intelligence application is demonstrated above. You can find the demo application at this Adobe web site.

If you know any Flash enabled web application/sites that may be useful when accessed from iPhone, could you let me know by posting comments?

Please check out our iPhone project community site for more details.

The new version’s features offer:

• Faster performance (in opening an email, navigating, or searching).
• Ability to open recently read messages.
• Compose emails over a weak or non-existent, network connection.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s Business Division, hinted that the company may be planning to bring a version of its Office productivity suite to the iPhone. When asked whether Microsoft was committed to getting its major productivity applications onto the Web and on mobile devices, Elop said the company recognizes the growing demand from smartphone users, pointing out how many people now access their Facebook accounts with their iPhones because the device, and others like it, had made it practical to access on the go. After interviewer Tim O’Reilly asked Elop directly whether this meant the iPhone would get access to a mobile edition of Office, he said, “not yet, keep watching.” Elop also announced that Microsoft plans to launch an ad-supported online version of Office sometime after 2009; it is unclear whether an iPhone version of the software would be created as a web application or as a standalone app.

Looks like all that pent-up demand for SlingPlayer for iPhone has caused the suits at Sling to go mad with greed — the company just posted up a page saying that owners of every older SlingBox save the Slingbox PRO will have to upgrade to a Slingbox SOLO or Slingbox PRO-HD in order to stream to iPhones. Yes, this is totally ridiculous: we’ve been told that the limitation is purely money-driven and that previous builds of the iPhone client worked just fine with older Sling hardware — hell, if a Palm Centro can stream off the original Slingbox, there’s no reason at all the vastly more powerful iPhone can’t hack it. Sling’s offering a $50 credit to owners of older hardware, but honestly, we can’t say some token coupon is going to take away from the bitter taste of a forced upgrade here — unless Sling comes up with legitimate technical reason for crippling such highly-anticipated software like this, we’d say it’s about to piss off a lot of formerly-happy Sling customers.

Posted by Engadget by Nilay Patel,  [Via SlingCommunity; thanks David]

It seems oddly appropriate to talk about security today. Between malware and identity theft, everyone has more to think about these days. Many services are adopting multi-factor authentication in order to better protect their users. This generally involves a little dongle attached to your keychain that reads out a new, random number after a short period of time.

In a multi-factor authentication system, you input your password and the number off this device. The first factor of authentication is your password (which can be compromised, often through social engineering—that is, tricking you into revealing it) and the second is your possession of this device (otherwise you can’t know the number).

While this works marvelously, your key ring starts to look like a janitor’s after you collect more than a couple of these devices. If only there were a way to get that functionality out of something you already own and carry with you everywhere—like, say, your iPhone. It’s with that in mind that VeriSign released an iPhone app for this very purpose.

For now, the VeriSign app is primarily for use with eBay, AOL, and Paypal. In the future, your bank could support it. If you’re like me and you play World of Warcraft, there’s another app available for keeping your account safe from gold farmers: Blizzard’s recently released Battle.net Mobile Authenticator. I’ve been using it for a few days now with no problems.

Take today as a reminder that it’s never too early to start securing both your computer and your online transactions. Besides, you know you get a little satisfaction out of having yet another little icon waiting there for your use.