Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Remarkable Stats on the State of the Internet Video

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

I thought this video shows a good view of what the state of communication in the world is like these days.  It is kind of overwhelming to think how things have grown to the state they are at now or I should say last year.  Just think where we are now in 2010.   

Here are a couple of thoughts to ponder. 
How do you set yourself apart from all the content that is created online?
What do you do to filter thought the information that is available to us now?
Is there anything that you can NOT learn from watching a video online?

How do you keep from being overwhelmed with the content that is online?

Posted in Content, Network, Web | No Comments »

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

An 18-year-old, accused of stealing a laptop in Melbourne and surfing porn on it, thought he was home free after evading police for two months, but he came undone when he logged on to Facebook.

The laptop was reportedly stolen from a staff member of ladder manufacturer Branach in the vicinity of Narre Warren, in Melbourne’s south-east, on June 8.

Fortunately for Branach, the company is a client of Sydney-based managed IT support firm Navigatum, which can connect to and control any of Branach’s laptops and diagnose technical problems from anywhere.

Using remote access software called Kaseya, Navigatum senior network technician David Stevenson set up an alert so that, whenever the stolen laptop was used to log in to the internet, the software would send him an email.

“I can tell when he’s online and from there I can jump on to my laptop and start watching what he’s doing,” Stevenson said in a phone interview.

“We were watching him for a little while but, because he was logging on at really random times like really late at night, we set up some scripts to capture [screenshots of] what he was doing on the screen every 30 seconds, and that was then uploaded to our server.”

On top of that, Stevenson installed a keylogger on the laptop “so we were able to log all of his keystrokes and passwords and websites that he visited”.

Stevenson said it was a few weeks before the user first began browsing the web with the laptop on June 24.

The screenshots, seen by this reporter, allegedly showed the thief browsing for porn videos for the first few weeks. He allegedly sourced the racy clips by conducting Google searches for terms such as “porn” and “porn videos”.

But Stevenson knew that, if he bided his time, the user would slip up eventually. It wasn’t possible to identify him immediately because the stolen laptop did not have a webcam.

Towards the end of July, the teen logged in to his Facebook account and, within an hour, he was arrested and charged with the theft, Stevenson said.

“From his Facebook account we managed to get his date of birth and school that he went to, and from there we were able to track him down,” Stevenson said.

This reporter saw the screenshots of the Facebook account but these, along with the alleged thief’s name, cannot be revealed for legal reasons.

Victoria Police confirmed the incident and said the teen was charged with theft but had yet to face court.

Stevenson said the police told him that, thanks in large part to his detective work, they were able to get the alleged thief to admit to a string of car thefts in the area. He also dobbed in two of his accomplices, Stevenson said.

“They [police] weren’t impressed with the amount of paper work they had to fill out so I’d say they managed to retrieve quite a lot,” he said.

Stevenson’s high-tech vigilante detective work is one of the first cases of geek justice found in Australia but it follows a string of similar cases overseas.

See the full post.

Pathway Solutions is now using Kaseya for our network managment for clients.  We have been able to speed up response time and keep up with backups, updates, and trouble tickets much faster since we initiated this.

Find out more by visiting us at http://www.itpws.com

Scott Kintz

Posted in Network, Web | No Comments »

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Twitter was brought down for several hours today by what is called a DoS attack  (Denial of Service).  This is done with several computers that are taken over by viruses and used to launch attacks against your own network or on other networks or services.  These computers that are overtaken are called Zombies.   If your computer isn’t equipped with up-to-date anti-malware software and the latest version of your operating system, you could  be part of the problem.

Twitter has confirmed that its outage Thursday morning and subsequent intermittent problems were due to an ongoing denial-of-service attack.

Typically a DoS attack, which is often called a distributed denial-of-service attack, results when multiple computers simultaneously try to access the site in question. Usually the reason that happens is because the attacking PCs are infected with malware that does the dirty work for whoever is behind the attack.

* Using a good anti-malware suite from a reputable vendors. Pathway Solutions can help you do an analysis to see if you are infected.

* Making sure your operating system has the latest patches. Visit Microsoft and Apple security pages for information.  Using a provider to make sure that you are up to date is a worry free way of taking care of this.

* Avoid clicking on e-mail links that take you to Web sites you’re not familiar with (malware is often distributed through “drive-by downloads” from unrepeatable or infected sites). Recently I have seen where you will get an email from yourself with an attachment that is infected.  This is a common way that the attack is introduced to your network.

For more help with securing your network and making sure all your systems are up to date and virus free visit http://itpws.com

Pathway Solutions. Inc.
scott@itpws.com

425.374.0888

Posted in Network, Web | No Comments »

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Remodeling an existing house poses very different challenges than building a new one from scratch. Remodeling a business without closing down is even more challenging, and that’s a lot like upgrading and updating your servers without down time.

Let’s push the analogy a little further by pointing out that the challenge is a little bigger because unlike a traditional business, you can’t just hang a sign out that says “We’re Open During Remodeling!” You need to upgrade your servers without anyone noticing that things have changed, often dramatically, on the back end.

This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, or that it has to be painful. Some businesses close down for the weekend, and those two days of unavailability may work out fine, but some companies work 365 days a year.

During 2007, we were asked to make a number of significant improvements to the servers at Northshore Christian Church and Academy. It’s a fast-paced environment with hundreds of workstations, any one of which may be needed on any day of the week. In addition to upgrading software and replacing hardware, we had to remain at the ready for equipment failure, which grows more common as devices age.

Qualified IT managers are always going to be able to update and improve network environments without down time. It will require addition caution, time and skill, but it can be done, and for many businesses, it’s really the only option.

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Thursday, March 20th, 2008

It’s human nature and smart business to look for the lowest bidder, but be careful about the questions you ask your bidders, the people you’re going to put in control of your most valuable business tool. Too often, the lowest bidder will rack up extra charges for a number of reasons, even if they are trustworthy. Here are a few questions and thoughts to bear in mind when looking for a network provider.

Hourly vs. Contract

A lot of low cost providers like to quote prices based on hourly service. The inherent problem with this approach is that it gets rid of the incentive to work quickly and entirely eliminates their benefit of doing the job right the first time.

Especially if your IT staff can troubleshoot remotely, which all of the good ones do with services like GoToAssist, you can’t really know how many hours they work compared to how many they bill, and low cost providers have to get the income up one way or another.

Companies willing to charge contract prices do so knowing they can get the job done more quickly and efficiently, so the need to charge by the hour may be reserved for training or meetings, when time will be fixed.

What’s Included, What Isn’t?

Many times a network manager will offer an affordable maintenance contract, but not mention which critical elements cost extra. Some companies will not include things like scheduled data backups, technical support, on-site service or even a local staff. Talk with them and ask what is included, but also be very sure to ask what is not included.

Got Certification?

There is no licensing requirement for network managers, so technically, your nephew can do the job if he knows enough to be dangerous. If you have a small network, you will require MCSE or MCSA certifications (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, respectively.)

If you have a bigger network, or hold your IT staff to higher standards, you should look for more comprehensive certifications like Cisco. The Microsoft certifications are perfectly valid, but children as young as 9 years old have earned them, so take them with a grain of salt. The same can not be said of Cisco certifications, which require intense training and testing.

Check References

Since you’re going to be putting the entire company in the hands of these people, you need to know what their reputation is. It’s not enough that they seem like nice enough people; you need to look at other clients they have to make sure you’re not going to be their first customer, or their next victim. Have they managed a network as big as yours? Have they been thrown off of jobs before? Your business is too important to leave to chance, even if you do save $10 per hour.

Best Advice

Before hiring a network provider, make a list of every question you can think of and make sure you get the answers you need to make the best decision. If something is important, get it in writing. If you have any doubts, do more research. Look at their other clients, check out their certifications, and don’t be afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings. This could be the beginning of a long and successful relationship, or the most dangerous mistake you’ll ever make.

Posted in Network | No Comments »

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

If your company has a big server room, you may have opted to put your web site on one of those servers. It may have been a matter of convenience, a perceived cost savings, or pressure applied by your network management staff, but there are many reasons you should get them out of the building and over to a professional management company as soon as possible.

1 – Power Outages. Your servers have a power backup, but those only run a short time before they run low and shut the system down. There are many places, even in big cities, where the power will fail at some point almost every year. If the power is out for hours or days, your site is gone too, and it may not come back online until someone physically reboots the system. You could be offline for days due to power outage, and in business, that can be a critical difference.

2 – 24/7 Management. Whether it’s a power outage or something else, if your site is managed onsite, you need to have someone standing by in case of big or small hiccups. Having your site professionally hosted at another location means it will always be overseen, and that things like daily backups and security patches will be taken care of whether you’re paying attention or not. The peace of mind is invaluable, and exceptionally affordable.

3 – Cost. While we’re on the subject, the cost of moving your site to a professional, off-site host will often be less than keeping it in-house. For a fixed monthly cost you can stop worrying about needing to buy hardware and pay for bandwidth. Those two costs alone can eat you alive if you’re getting any traffic or using older machines. Server software alone often costs as much as the entire hosting package. When you get down to uncommon dollars and common sense, it usually saves companies money to move the servers off-site.

4 – Intranet security. If your web server is in the same place as your internal network, the possibility exists, however remote, that a savvy hacker will get through your site and into your wealth of “secure” internal documents. There is no business that can afford a breach of security on this order, however slim the possibility.

5 – Virus infections. Serious infections may come in through any number of directions. It can come in through your web site’s FTP, from your employees downloading attachments, web browsing from workstations or any number of other ways. If this happens, and it does all too often, your internal network and web site can be taken over and data can be destroyed or compromised.

6 – Speed. Bandwidth is expensive and keeping a fat pipe to send data to your customers can be difficult. If your site is hosted by a professional company you can make sure you never run out of bandwidth, the site never slows down, and that the inherent network speed is as high as possible by keeping it as close as possible to major backbone.

If you’re really committed to keeping your web server at your location, consider talking with your IT staff an your web designers. Look at the benefits and think about what’s really most important. It very rarely makes sense for any but the largest web companies to manage their own web servers, but asking the right questions will make the answers more evident based on your specific needs.

Posted in Network | No Comments »

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

It’s human nature and smart business to look for the lowest bidder, but be careful about the questions you ask your bidders, the people you’re going to put in control of your most valuable business tool. Too often, the lowest bidder will rack up extra charges for a number of reasons, even if they are trustworthy. Here are a few questions and thoughts to bear in mind when looking for a network provider.

Hourly vs. Contract
A lot of low cost providers like to quote prices based on hourly service. The inherent problem with this approach is that it gets rid of the incentive to work quickly and entirely eliminates their benefit of doing the job right the first time.

Especially if your IT staff can troubleshoot remotely, which all of the good ones do with services like GoToAssist, you can’t really know how many hours they work compared to how many they bill, and low cost providers have to get the income up one way or another.

Companies willing to charge contract prices do so knowing they can get the job done more quickly and efficiently, so the need to charge by the hour may be reserved for training or meetings, when time will be fixed.

What’s Included, What Isn’t?
Many times a network manager will offer an affordable maintenance contract, but not mention which critical elements cost extra. Some companies will not include things like scheduled data backups, technical support, on-site service or even a local staff. Talk with them and ask what is included, but also be very sure to ask what is not included.

Got Certification?
There is no licensing requirement for network managers, so technically, your nephew can do the job if he knows enough to be dangerous. If you have a small network, you will require MCSE or MCSA certifications (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, respectively.)

If you have a bigger network, or hold your IT staff to higher standards, you should look for more comprehensive certifications like Cisco. The Microsoft certifications are perfectly valid, but children as young as 9 years old have earned them, so take them with a grain of salt. The same can not be said of Cisco certifications, which require intense training and testing.

Check References
Since you’re going to be putting the entire company in the hands of these people, you need to know what their reputation is. It’s not enough that they seem like nice enough people; you need to look at other clients they have to make sure you’re not going to be their first customer, or their next victim. Have they managed a network as big as yours? Have they been thrown off of jobs before? Your business is too important to leave to chance, even if you do save $10 per hour.

Best Advice
Before hiring a network provider, make a list of every question you can think of and make sure you get the answers you need to make the best decision. If something is important, get it in writing. If you have any doubts, do more research. Look at their other clients, check out their certifications, and don’t be afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings. This could be the beginning of a long and successful relationship, or the most dangerous mistake you’ll ever make.

Posted in Network | No Comments »