Archive for January 2010
Cost of Living Comparison Calculator
Many of our students live in Middle Tennessee and later graduate only to move to larger cities or other states. Here is a cost of living comparison Calculator. Link
Missing Games from Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise
Missing Games in your Windows 7 installation?
Type “features” in the search box of the start menu and choose the option “Turn Windows features on or off”…
(When a new window opens)
Check “Games” and OK.
~ M. Chilton
Protect Your Network With DHCP and NAP
You can use Windows Server 2008 and install DHCP and NAP (network access protection) to force a check of all computers that join your network. As the computer boots up and request an IP address, the computer will be analyzed and if the computer does not meet security specs of your network, it will be redirected to an internal webpage. The users will be required to update their computer before their computer can join your network.
- Requirements – Server 2008
- At server roles click add DHCP and Network Policies
- Walk thru DHCP insuring your computer has a static ip address prior to starting. Plan your ip addresses according to your network.
- Walk thru NAP (Make sure you make a group for Authorized NAP users as shown in the last pic).
Configuration of DHCP server and Configuration of NAP Services
(Oracle picture below – Oracle (Sun’s VirtualBox) VirtualBox was used for this setup – this is NOT required)
3GP Converter and Converter Suite
DVDVideosoft offers an entire suite of converters that let you convert to your favorite format.
-Dawn Babian GSAE
Control Two Computers with One Mouse and Keyboard
Dawn sent this link over to a cool little program called – InputDirector. This software allows you to control two computers without a KVM switch. Great for anyone who has one monitor, keyboard and mouse. InputDirector allows you to go through you network and switch between computers.
Delete Your Facebook, Twitter and Blog
Here’s a way to delete your Facebook, Twitter and Blog with one online website. There may come that time in your life where you want everything gone. Web 2.0 Suicide deletes many of the Web 2.0 sites when you need it gone. ~ MChilton
Excellent Article on Cyber Cold War
Brian Krebs presents a good article on what many security analysts are calling a Cyber War or Cyber Cold War. Analyzing information becomes very important for all IT personnel. Hacking occurs at all levels from all countries. Today many experts are looking at possible foreign country involvement in addition to regular hackers.
Here’s a list of known hacked companies over the past several years.
Optimize Your Services in Windows 7
Over time we have posted software links and promised a full review. Back in November of 2008 we blogged (very short reference and link) aboutVista Services Optimizer. Often times we want to get back and do an in-depth review but time gets away. For the second time this week Bill Mullins comes through with an excellent post on software that can truly benefit users. With automatic or manual optimization, this software can improve your system resources and speed. Excellent review Bill!
Backup Your Computer with Comodo’s Time Machine
It is rare that I would recommend a software that you can restore your computer with, however with today’s viruses and malware, users who are familiar with the internet can backup their computer’s registry and operating system by simply installing Comodo’s Time Machine. Unlike Windows’s restore feature, Comodo’s software allows you to complete a restore without having to go into the Window’s GUI. By pressing the ‘Home’ key a sub console will appear allow you to complete a restoration of Windows.
By taking snapshots, Comodo’s Time Machine can backup your documents and critical OS files on a schedule.
A rule you should always follow to avoid a restoration of your computer is to limit users, backup files and protect your computer by using safe internet habits along with malware and virus protection applications.
The software is free.
Recover Your Lost Laptop with Prey
We gave a link to Prey (a stolen laptop solution) several post ago and now Bill Mullins gives an excellent in-depth look at this free software. Go check out his article and see how Prey works. Great job Bill!
Bank sues victim of $800,000 cybertheft
Bank sues victim of $800,000 cybertheft
Posted using ShareThis
Shortened URLs and the Dangers of Web 2.0
Using Facebook, MySpace and other social sites are a great opportunity to network with friends, co-workers and family. However for the past year, shortened URLs (paths to internet sites that have been shortened) can lead an unsuspecting user to a virus or malicious website. If you don’t know the true path of where it is taking you, don’t click it. Delete the message. The same rule applies to email. Email or call the person to ask if they sent you a shortened URL. Generally the average user will copy and paste the complete url to a website or email. Companies, news agencies and bloggers are more likely to post a shortened url to a website. Here’s a good article on the Dangers of shortened URLs.
iTunes Installation Error
Got the dreaded iTunes Installation error?
- Download iTunes and Quicktime to your desktop
- Download Winrar and install
- Extract the files (iTunes file)
- Move the extracted files to the C: drive (root)
- Open the folder on the C drive and install each program
Done!
Study shows IT employees need help with handling stress
The Stress of Information Technology
Today in class we had timed exercises on creating VPNs, shared folders and users. Although many of our students felt “artificial” stress, it is actually good for them. The comments after the excercise were positive.
In information technology backups, customer support, manufacturer, medical and other enterprise environments; IT personnel have to be on TOP of things. Like fireman, your IT personnel may sit and wait and research new technologies. It is important to note that most things in a work environment will ‘go’ down at the last minute. With communication of cell phones, regular phones, emails and other means; things happen at a pace that is sometimes maddening. You can’t fold under the pressure. There will be distractions of people talking (businesses can’t stop to wait on you). People will make small talk with you while you are trying to focus. You can’t stop it (customer service is top priority). There often isn’t a quite place you can go to. If you program (programming analysts) for your company it can be grueling to stop and try to multitask and stay on track.
- Learn to block ‘noise’ out
- Learn Teamwork (if you have weaknesses, find a strong teammate and learn from them)
- Ask Questions
- Relax
- Work with customers that are agitated (don’t take stuff personal)
- Find ways to get away after hours away from computers
Pictures of People who have seen and felt this stress but made it and continue to love IT.
A Canadian graduate school study suggests companies should start investing in IT-specific employee assistance programs and offer more peer support for technology professionals who are struggling to manage their stress levels. (Excellent Information)
Paper on IT Stress (pdfs) Another paper
Information Technology requires a special type of person. A survey by CIOs indicate that rising workloads, balance of work life, distractions, changing technologies and other factors are the stress IT personnel go through. The above paper gives excellent information on how to handle the stress.
Data Breaches Get Costlier – PCWorld Business Center
Weak Passwords Still Being Used
-Dawn Babian, GSAE
Imperva based their report on the 32 million passwords that were exposed during a recent database intrusion at RockYou Inc., developers of several popular facebook applications. An extensive analysis of the passwords which had been stored in clear text by the company showed that approximately 30% of the passwords in the list were six characters or smaller, 60% of the passwords were created from a limited set of alphanumeric characters. Almost 50% of the accounts had passwords that were easy to guess, such as consecutive numbers or adjacent keyboard keys, common words or phrases.The top five passwords used by RockYou users included, “123456,” “12345,” “123456789,” the word “password,” and “iloveyou.”
Most of the top 5000 words in the hacked database are the same as those found in password dictionaries which hackers use to brute-force their way into accounts. It was noted by Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer for Imperva, that on average an attacker using one of those password dictionaries would have been able to break into a RockYou account at the rate of approximately one every second using an automated password-guessing tool.
The troubling aspect of this practice is that users don’t realize how they may be compromising their workplace systems especially if they use the same passwords for all of their user accounts. Password insecurity could have serious consequences for the enterpise.
NASA provides recommendations for strong password selection:
1. Passwords should contain at least eight characters.
2. Passwords should contain a mix of four different types of characters – uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. The first and last characters should not be a special character if the password contains only one special character.
3. Passwords should not be a name, slang word, or any word in the dictionary. It should not contain any part of a user’s name or email address.
Recommendations for users include choosing a strong password for all sites where privacy of the information is important and use a different password for all sites, even for ones where privacy isn’t a concern and never trust a 3rd party with important passwords.
Recommendations for administrators include enforcing a strong password policy, make sure passwords are not transmitted in clear text, make sure passwords are not stored in clear text, actively put obstacles in the way of a brute-force attacker – such as CAPTCHAs or computational challenges. Create a password change policy. Encourage users to use passphrases instead of passwords.
Create a Send to Option to a Folder on the Right Click Menu
Want to have the convenience of being able to Right Click and seeing your favor folder in the Send To Menu?
- Navigate to your favorite folder
(in this example, we created a folder to send files to on the desktop – you can use any folder or a network folder) - go to the run line and type shell:sendto
- Right click on the folder and drag it to the send to and create a shortcut
Now you can select a file (or folder) and right click and send a copy to your folder.
Drag the folder by right click and dragging to the sendto folder.
You will now see the folder on your right click.
Phantom Network Cards
If you begin to see multiple network cards or see numbers such as Wireless Adapter #7 (or you may try to add a network card and Windows will tell you the IP address is being used by a network card you cannot see), Windows has stored these devices in the registry. If you go to the Device Manager and select View and Show hidden devices, you still may not see these. You can show these devices by adding these variables.
Open the System Properties (Right Click Computer and select properties). Click on Advanced System Settings and click on Environmental Variables. What you want is a New.. System Variable-
Set Variable name = DevMgr_Show_NonPresent_Devices
Set Variable value = 1
Add to the System variables. Do not add to the User variable section.
Go back to the device manager and click on view and Show Hidden Devices.
Note: You may see other ‘phantom’ devices. Make sure you right click and delete ONLY the ones you know you can get rid of.
Speed up Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 7
To speed up taskbar thumbnails in Windows7:
- Open Windows 7 registry (regedit).
- The UAC may prompt you.
- Navigate to the registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse
- Find MouseHoverTime key in right pane
- Double click on MouseHoverTime change value from 400 to 50
- Click ok and close the registry editor
- Restart Windows
Modifying the registry can corrupt Windows – be careful.
