Hackers attack U.S. railways | Homeland Security News Wire
Last month hackers took control of passenger rail lines in the Northwest, disrupting signals twice and creating delays Hackers attack U.S. railways | Homeland Security News Wire. (Shared with share button on author’s site)
First responders could be zipping through skies within two years | Homeland Security News Wire
Glenn Martin, the inventor of the Martin Jetpack, the world’s first commercially available jetpack, recently spoke with Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene K. Chow; in their interview Martin discusses the technical challenges of developing a viable jetpack, its uses in emergency response, and when we can expect to see civilians zipping through the skies First responders could be zipping through skies within two years | Homeland Security News Wire. (shared with share button on author’s website)
IP Address Locator
If you monitor your firewall or have a computer connected to your computer (you can use netstat -a at a command prompt and see IP addresses that may be connected to your computer), you can find out who owns the IP address by using IP Address Locator. IP Address Locator is much more. It not only gives you information about your external IP, internal IP, ISP, country code and more but has many amazing tools to look up and validate email addresses, WhoIS, subnet mask calculator, ping, DNS, Decimal, IP ranges and more. Excellent tool for techies. ~Dawn
One in four wireless networks are still unsecure
Annually our class studies wireless technology and its implementation into homes and industry. Surveys are conducted to analyze security used, transmit power and geographic location of wireless technology. According to Wigle.net, Security has improved over the last nine years. Home users are still setting up their wireless wrong by not providing a WPA2 (AES) form of encryption. Approximately 23% of home users still have open internet that neighbors or anyone passing by can use. (22 million are …
NTLM Settings in Windows Vista or 7
You may have devices on your network that you can no longer connect (Vista/Windows 7) to or you may not be able to network to Windows XP (for whatever reason, this works). Actually this changes settings to accept NTLMv1 and NTLMv2 so that you can connect to Samba Servers, Snap Servers, Older Windows Computers or whatever…. 1. Go to Run, Type Regedit and open this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa 2. If it doesn’t exist, create a DWORD value named LmCompatibilityLevel 3. Set the value to 1 4. Reboot
Manage your router with Router Commander
Note: When logging into router command you must enabled telnet on the router and although you login in as administrator or admin in the webgui, you may need to log in as root as the user. (This is the case with DD-WRT). Also remember it will take up to two minutes to gather data and the program will hesitate when going to things such as the connection wizard or other options. This does NOT mean the program is not working. Be Patient. This data took a few minutes to update. Once it started, it …
Link aggregation – Use Multiple NIC Cards
There is truly an advantage to adding multiple NIC cards to a computer. It won’t speed up a single internet connection but it can help with loss of signal, detecting access points, transferring information to and from computers. When adding a second NIC card to a computer, you can highlight both by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on them and then right clicking to bridge the connections so they act as one…this can allow you to bridge a wireless network to a wired network. Two nic cards on …
Spiceworks – Free Network Management
-Steve Mallard From Spiceworks.com You want network management software that works for you, not software that makes you work. You wish you could have it… without spending a fortune. Your wish is granted. Introducing the free Spiceworks IT Desktop. Designed, tested and used by 160,000 IT pros in 185 countries. Spiceworks has the everyday IT features you need: Automatic PC and software inventory and IT asset reporting to simplify your job. Network monitoring and troubleshooting to keep things running …
Net Tools 5 – Network Security
-Steve Mallard Mohammad Ahmadi Bidakhvidi (http://www.mabsoft.com/) came up with a program that is one immense tool with a wide selection of network tools and what can be considered “hacking” tools included in it. The scary thing is there is a lot of sniffing and scanning network tools included with the program. While I will agree that the program could be used by system administrators, I can only hope the the program will not be misused in a malicious way. As I network with other IT …
Network Scanner
Great Freeware scanner that is free. Link From Radmin: Advanced IP Scanner is a fast, robust and easy-to-use IP scanner for Windows. It easily lets you have various types of information about local network computers in a few seconds! Advanced IP Scanner gives you one-click access to many useful functions – remote shutdown and wake up…
USB Look@LAN Application Scans Your Network
How to make Look@LAN portable for your flashdrive. Download the Look@LAN Installer Program Run the installer file you downloaded. If you accidently install it to the C: drive, copy the Look@LAN directory from your program files directory to your USB flashdrive (this will make it portable). To start the program, double click on the LookAtLan.exe file. This program works great in XP…Run as administrator in Vista…
Videos of Untangle
Videos This application may certainly make security and technology come together – appropriately named, Untangle is certainly worth looking at. Shared via AddThis
Improve Vista and Windows 7 networking
A lot of discussion is always heard when ‘we’ talking about our tweaks for networking. We have found with several networks and not just our own that disabling LLMNR (Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution) improves network speed. Information on LLMNR – Link-local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR) is a new protocol that provides an additional method to resolve the names of neighboring computers. LLMNR is especially useful for networks that do not have a Domain Name System (DNS) server. LLMNR uses a simple …
Adjusting Network Card Properties for Slow Network Response Problems
If you have slow or non responsive program properties; such as a database or other network program…Right Click on My Computer, go to Properties, select Hardware, Device Manager, click the + sign on Network, Right Click on your network card, select properties, select the Advanced Tab, Look for Speed – adjust the value to 100 Full Duplex, 100 Half or even select the 10 settings. Try it on each of the settings to see which one is optimal for your network. When computers handshake (exchange data) …
I didn’t change them, they changed me
Often I have students come back and tell me how I helped change their life. Maybe it is modesty but I don’t truly take credit for their changes. It truly was the student who decided that they would change themselves. Meeting these people truly changed my life. It has made me stronger in delivering curriculum and has changed me by allowing me to honestly meet people that are unique and genuine. Here’s just a few examples of hundreds of students who have went through our course. I wish I could feature each and every one.
I’m not sure that I could get to Demopolis, Alabama but Carleton Corley came to our school several years ago wanting to change his life from Alabama. I try to give kudos to people I have met over the years who have ‘wanted’ something and Carleton came with a hunger to do just that. Carleton has become a role model for younger students and will be one of my many examples over the years to come.
He was met with challenges and has grown to be an IT professional that I now consider to be a peer. To hear his commitment to providing his employer with a quality service, makes me truly proud. If you knew him, you would know he is this type of person. Life delivers challenges and it is up to you to overcome those challenges.
When I watch these challenges being overcome, it changes me each and every time. He is one of many slices of my life that provides me with the motivation to keep doing what I do.
Need more storage in the cloud? Use CX.com and get 10gb for free
Over the last several weeks we have talked about cloud computing, CloudU’s free certification and space in the cloud that consumers can get for free. Rick over at What’s On My PC has an excellent article on CX.com over at his site. You can sign up through Rick’s referral here or go to CX.com and get 10gb of space for free. Use their referral program to get even more space for free. Be sure to check out their android app and their desktop apps. CX.com works with Apple, Windows and other operating systems. As Rick said, you can also sign up for Microsoft’s skydrive and get 25gb for free. Don’t forget with Microsoft’s apps, you can easily sync your files with your iPad, iPhone, Android or Android tablet.
Below: Skydrive app shown on android phone. (iPhone, iPad apps available)
How dependable is your Cloud Provider?
Want to see how dependable your Cloud Provider is? Check the latency, up time and more at CloudSleuth.
Want to know more about Cloud Computing? Here’s a free online course and certification from RackSpace.
Ever wonder what cloud computing is? Rackspace has an excellent program that you can take for free. Cloud University offers ten detailed modules along with a exams for each module. A final exam reviews each of the modules and with a score of 80% you can earn a certificate in cloud computing from Rackspace’s CloudU. This detailed program is the work of Ben Kepes. Ben is the curator of CloudU. Through his arduous work, you can download a detailed curriculum, listen to webinars and take exams as many times as you need to in order to understand cloud computing. In today’s world of virtualization and cloud computing, Rackspace leads the pack by educating anyone who wants to learn about these exciting technologies.
After contacting Rackspace so that my students could benefit from the cloud university curriculum as a supplement. I was met with open arms and personally talked with Greg Alfaro, Michael Ferranti and Ben Kepes either by phone or email. Ben sent us this video as a statement. (Thank you Ben!)
Confused about the cloud? Have no fear, CloudU is here. Whether you are simply searching for more information about cloud computing, or are looking to boost your resume with a formal certificate, Rackspace Cloud University, known as CloudU, is for you. CloudU is a vendor-neutral cloud computing curriculum designed by industry analyst Ben Kepes. It’s also completely free.
The extensive CloudU library and certificate program contain all that you need to learn how to take advantage of the biggest technology innovation since the Internet. Boost Your Resume. Gain New Skills. Enroll in CloudU Today.
Create your own NAS for free
FreeNAS is an excellent software you can use as embedded, LiveCD or in VirtualBox or with VMWare’s VMPlayer. So that students can understand how NAS (Network Area Storage) works, we have several NAS devices that are local and can be used in labs and with research and development. Carl Marshal recently posted FreeNAS a software that can work independently or virtually.
Our LMS (Learning Management System) is the most advanced in the state and provides students with hands on where the student can not only receive resources such as whitepapers, PowerPoints, movies and have added Microsoft’s Virtual Labs, SCORM packages, Headless virtualbox (virtualization in the cloud) and now we have added FreeNAS as a learning resource.
Some of the Features -
- Web GUI interface
- Zettabyte File System
- Commandline Interface
- Snapshots
- 10GigE Drivers
- Backup and Restore
- File Sharing
- Thin Provisioning
FreeNAS is easy to install and offers two versions (Version 8 and Version 7) that are powerful and the software offers dozens of features. Our setup (yours can be setup on an extra computer or in VirtualBox or with VMPlayer on your own system).
In our scenario we installed VirtualBox and installed the VDMK. After creating and importing the software with VirtualBox, we set the Network settings to Bridged and gave the virtual network card a public ip address. This is so the NAS could be seen from the web through VirtualBox. You can do the same on a private network (internal address) by finding an open IP and using it on your network. This will prevent the NAS from obtaining a different IP address through DHCP.
Once we setup VirtualBox, we started the FreeNAS vm. The configuration is easy. Set the LAN IP address to your static IP address. Ping a host using the setup menu. Now navigate to your IP address using your favorite browser.
There are dozens of features in FreeNAS once it is installed and running.
How to use FreeNAS – Information and user manual for Version 8 and Version 7 (legacy).
‘Anonymous’ Back With A Vengeance: Downs DoJ, MPAA, RIAA, Universal Music Websites – Dark Reading
In apparent retaliation for the federal takedown of online storage and file transfer site Megaupload announced by the Department of Justice today, the Anonymous hacktivist collective went to work waging mass distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that knocked offline the websites of the DoJ, Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and Universal Music.
Anonymous’ Back With A Vengeance: Downs DoJ, MPAA, RIAA, Universal Music Websites – Dark Reading.
Factory Reset for many devices
Most of your gadgets are fairly easy to set back to factory defaults but sometimes the way to get there isn’t all that obvious. Some devices have a reset button, while others might use a combination of buttons or steps. Instead of searching for that user manual you put away in a safe place (*wink,wink*), just head to Factory-Reset.com, put in your device’s model number (or search by manufacturer) and you’ll have easy-to-follow instructions right there. ~Dawn
