This is unfortunate news but I don’t think we can really blame Netgate on this one. Obviously the Squid Devs are responsible for patching their software but the whole Squid project seems pretty stagnate.
Surprisingly, it looks like Squid posted on their blog back in March of this year (2024) but no official response from them (that we’re aware of) regarding their deprecation from pfSense. We have reached out to Squid about this and we’ll keep you posted if we hear back.
This is a bummer as we are fans of Squid. Fingers crossed they get Squid patched and fixed up but to be honest, if Netgate has already pulled the trigger on deprecating them, it’s probably for good reason.
I would imagine they’ve already reached out to Squid and made remediation attempts to no avail and I doubt Netgate would just wake up one random day, discover vulnerabilities and immediately deprecate Squid.
If you’re like us and used Squid Proxy as a web-content filter with pfSense, we did a video on some alternative web-content filtering techniques you can explore that may suffice for your use case.
#pfSense no longer supporting Squid Proxy
#netgate pfsense drops support for Squid proxy
#Deprecation of Squid Add-On Package For pfSense Software
If you have anymore than 20 computers you want to install Wazuh Agents on, you’re really going to need a deployment package. Who wants to touch every computer one by one to install an agent? Not me. It’s time to exercise some of those Sys Admin skillz you stored away in the attic and dust off those cob webs.
PDQ Deploy to the rescue. PDQ deploy is an invaluable IT tool, one of the Sys Admins best friends in fact. Today we are going to leverage some of the power of PDQ Deploy to do all the leg work for us with installing Wazuh agents to large amounts of networked windows computers.
Let’s Get The Pre-Reqs Out Of The Way
All your Windows endpoints will need a bit of prep in order for a successful PDQ Deployment ->
– Enable file and printer sharing
– Enable Local Token Filter (Run cmd as admin and copy paste the following cmd) ->
reg add “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System” /v “LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy” /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
What is this local token filter thinga ma jig all about?
When you enable LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy, you’re essentially allowing full administrative rights to administrators when they access the computer remotely via network connections such as Remote Desktop or network shares. Without this enabled, UAC strips administrative privileges from the administrator’s credentials when they are used remotely, which can lead to authentication problems, especially in scenarios where administrative access is required.
As a best security practice, we do recommend disablingLocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy once you’re done with your deployments.
To disable, simply rerun nearly the same command but just change the 1 to a 0 ->
While we’re on the topic of best security practices, you may as well plan to revoke admin rights of your deployment user too when you’re done with your deployment job.
Now Back To The Remaining Pre-reqs ->
– Create a local deployment user account that can be used for authentication with PDQ (this user account must have local admin privileges)
– Create a share on your deployment server that will host the Wazuh agent .msi file
Yes I know this is quite a bit of prep-work to do across all your Windows endpoints which will basically require more bulk changes in order to make ready for a PDQ Deployment. To accomplish the above Pre-reqs systematically, a walk through on that falls outside the scope of this blog but I recommend you either leverage group policy or PDQ (or both).
Now that you have all your Pre-reqs out of the way, you’re ready to create your Wazuh Agent deployment package. Please skip to the video walk through at this point.
Lastly, here are the relevant commands for your reference…
Note: Make sure to replace the IP with your own Wazuh server’s ip and your Wazuh-agent version may be different then mine, so update accordingly.
Restart Wazuh service ->
Restart-Service -Name wazuh
The wazuh-agent folder + agent .msi file that were copied down to your endpoints, is no longer needed after successful deployment. Let’s clean that up with this command ->
Remove-Item -Path “C:\wazuh-agent” -Recurse -Force
Adding more RAM to a computer system is not always a silver bullet that will just automatically make it faster and or increase performance.
‘For the most part, increasing RAM capacity alone does not actually speed up your computer, rather, it prevents it from slowing down’ – Reasonable IT
Don’t believe us? Check out this recent, real world scenario testing on a system between 8GB and 16GB. We covered some simple real world scenarios most people would quantify as computer performance, such as, app start up time, system boot time, video rendering time and gaming fps. The entire point of this video was to prove by demonstration that simply increasing ram capacity from 8GB to 16GB on a system that was not previously experiencing RAM over-utilization, leads to no discernible difference in system performance.
Increasing RAM capacity in a computer is often hailed as a solution to boost performance. We’re here today to help you make an informed decision and not waste time or money on increasing your systems memory when it may very well not be the best upgrade path for you. But then why does adding more RAM not always lead to a faster system? Let’s explore this idea further ->
Understanding RAM Bottlenecks
Before rushing to upgrade RAM, it’s crucial to evaluate whether your system actually requires additional memory. RAM, or Random Access Memory, serves as a temporary storage for active programs and processes. When your system runs out of available RAM, it resorts to slower storage devices, causing performance slowdowns. This scenario is known as a RAM bottleneck and in most cases, if your computer isn’t experiencing a RAM bottleneck, increasing RAM capacity may not yield significant improvements.
So How Will I Know If I Have A RAM Bottleneck On My System?
Identifying bottlenecks in your system falls outside the scope of this blog but in short, you’ll want to monitor the memory usage of your system with performance monitoring tools such as Task Manager or Performance Monitor (which are built into Windows OS). These tools display metrics such as total RAM usage, available RAM, and memory usage by individual processes.
If you consistently observe high levels of RAM usage close to or at maximum capacity, accompanied by performance degradation such as slow application responsiveness or frequent disk swapping, it may indicate that your system is experiencing RAM bottlenecks. In such cases, increasing your system’s RAM capacity can significantly improve performance. However, it’s important to note that the increase in speed will only bring your PC back up to its expected performance level, rather than exceeding it.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
Remember, once your system has enough RAM to handle its workload efficiently, further increases in capacity may offer diminishing returns (if any at all) in terms of performance enhancement. If you are not experiencing a RAM bottle neck but still desire increased system performance, consider investing in other hardware upgrades (such as an SSD/faster SSD) or optimizing software configurations for better value.
Conclusion
While increasing RAM capacity can enhance system performance under genuine memory shortages, it’s important to recognize that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Before investing in a RAM upgrade, carefully evaluate your system’s requirements and identify potential bottlenecks. Adopting a holistic approach to system optimization, considering factors beyond just RAM capacity, is crucial for achieving optimal performance and efficiency.
#will adding more ram to my computer really make it faster?
#should i add more ram to my computer?
#does increasing ram really make my computer faster?
