Here are some photos of the event:

After a lot of googling and trying different things, I found a post mentioning that the minimum key requirements on NTLM on Windows 2008R2 are 128-bits and this key length is not supported in Windows XP (only on Windows 7).

With this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd566199%28WS.10%29.aspx I was able to remove the 128-bit requirement and things were all dandy again.

# Export VM lists in a nice Excel List

$rows = @()
Foreach ($VM in get-vm) {
 $View = $VM | get-view
 $Config = $View.config
 if ($Config.Template) { continue } # Skip templates

 $row = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
 $res = Get-ResourcePool -VM $View.Name

 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ResourcePool -Value $res.Name
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name VM -Value  $Config.Name
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Hostname -Value $View.Guest.HostName
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name PoweredOn -Value $VM.PowerState
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Cpu -Value  $Config.Hardware.NumCPU
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Ram -Value  $Config.Hardware.MemoryMB
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name FullOS -Value $Config.GuestFullName
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name IP -Value $View.Guest.IPAddress
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Tools -Value $View.Guest.ToolsStatus
 $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name HWVersion -Value $Config.Version

 Write-Host "VM: $VM" -ForegroundColor blue
 $i = 1
 foreach ($Disk in Get-HardDisk -VM $View.Name)
 {
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskPath$i" -Value $Disk.Filename
     $CapacityGB =  [math]::Round(([int]$Disk.CapacityKB) / 1024 / 1024)
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskCapacityGB$i" -Value $CapacityGB
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Persistent$i" -Value $Disk.Persistence
   Write-Host "$i"
   $i += 1
 }
 foreach ($j in $i..7)
 {
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskPath$j" -Value ""
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskCapacityGB$j" -Value ""
   $row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Persistent$j" -Value ""
 }
 $rows += $row
}

$rows | Export-Csv "vms.csv" -NoTypeInformation

I definitely need to dig powershell more. I’ll be able to ditch vbscript once and for all for repetitive Windows admin tasks

00:11.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5413 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

Most of the guides out there are outdated and mention the old non-free madwifi drivers. Nowadays, with recent kernels, things are so much easier: no downloading and no recompiling. Simply edit your /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

interface=wlan0
bridge=br0
driver=nl80211
ssid=pupazzo
channel=1
wpa=3
wpa_passphrase=blabla
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=2
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=1
debug=0
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=0
auth_algs=1

One day, when I’m bored enough, I’ll set everything up without any encryption and tunnel everything through openvpn. Guests will still be able to surf the net but with a very limited speed and without outgoing smtp

Update: you need kernel 2.6.33.2 otherwise errors about tx phy will come up

Here are our faces in full glory:

I kind of liked going back on the snow. Maybe next year I’ll ask Santa for a new board. My 18-year old Mistral X-59 has served well, but it’s time for a change