TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

TheNIST’s Computer Security Division – Computer Security Resource Center has a wealth of information on computer security and information for anyone.  With SP 800.x (Federal) and security from ISO 27000, security standards for companies and government are more important than ever.

The Computer Security Division Responds to the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002
The E-Government Act [Public Law 107-347] passed by the 107th Congress and signed into law by the President in December 2002 recognized the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. Title III of the E-Government Act, entitled the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), included duties and responsibilities for the Computer Security Division in Section 303 “National Institute of Standards and Technology.”

CERT (Carnegie Mellon University) is another excellent site to read details about software vulnerabilities and infrastructure security.

Cyber Alerts from US-CERT.

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 enables IT administrators that are running Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003; to manage roles and features that are installed on computers from a remote computer that is running Microsoft Windows 7.

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While this post is for advanced computer users, it shows the inner workings of how an internet connection works.

To Optimize your internet connection -

From a command prompt (administrator) type the following commands -

To return to your default settings, go to a command prompt as an administrator and type -

netsh int tcp set heuristics default
netsh int tcp set global rss=default
netsh int tcp set global chimney=default
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
netsh int tcp set global congestionprovider=default
netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=default
netsh int tcp set global timestamps=default

So what is heuristics?  Windows Vista/7 has the ability to automatically change its own TCP Window auto-tuning behavior.

What is RSS?  The receive-side scaling setting enables parallelized processing of received packets on multiple processor.

What is Chimney?  TCP chimney offloading enables Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 to offload all TCP processing for a connection to a network adapter.

What is autotuning?  Uses a fixed value for the tcp receive window. Limits it to 64KB (limited at 65535)

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If you have trouble navigating to sites and time out to Facebook or Microsoft for example, or you want to improve your download speeds -you may need to set your MTU settings -

So what do you set your MTU to?  Normally your MTU is set to 1500.   Every connection is different.  First log into your router if you have one and set it to 1492.  Retry the sites that are timing out.  If this did not work, you may need to set the MTU on your network card.

Use TCPOptimizer for Windows XP -

or you can go to a command prompt (as an administrator with elevated privileges) and type -

netsh interface ipv4 show subinterface

(to see the name of your network Interface – it is important to write down the MTU settings and network interface name at this time)

To set the MTU value to 1492, type the following command at a a command prompt (Note: You MUST substitute the name of your network connection  -

netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “The Name of Your Connection” mtu=1492 store=persistent

Many users have reported an increase in download and internet speeds after adjusting their MTU to 1492.  This setting may not be the optimal setting everyone.

Optimize your Nvidia video card by overclocking it… Link
How to optimize your computer our opinion…

See our review of Windows 8 and see how you can run 90% of your programs, virtualize other operating systems, use your network and more.

If your computer is on a network and you noticed slow file copying on a network; you can disable Remote Differential Compression.

• Open the Control Panel and click on Programs and Features.
• Click on Turn Windows features on and off.
• Uncheck the Remote Differential Compression box.

What is RDC? Client-server synchronization that allows the contents of two files to be synchronized by communicating only the differences between them.   By checking the files as they are copied, this can slow down the network copy process.

ImgBurn is free burning software that includes Blu-Ray support.  With several modes to choose from, ImgBurn is an excellent piece of software to add to your collection.  The modes include-

• Read – Read a disc to an image file.
• Build – Create an image file from files on your computer or network – or you can write the files directly to a disc.
• Write – Write an image file to a disc.
• Verify – Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct.
• Discovery – can check the quality of your burned software.

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Don’t let the name professional fool you.  It’s free.  Loaded with features this firewall is an option to the Windows Firewall found in operating systems.  Easy to use the features include-

• It can block the most attacks from worm viruses and trojans.
• It can block some main Adware and Spyware, the definition supports live update and you may also define it yourself.
• Double filter system provides double-layer protection.
• Digital signature verification can automatically trust the well-known program.
• Built-in 7 big modes can apply for all kinds of requirements.
• Advanced realtime monitor lets the network activities be clear.
• Interactive rules creator is very easy to create the rules.
• Password protection can protect the rules and configurations.
• It is very easy to backup and restore the rules.
• It can control the websites easily.
• It supports two logfile types, ascii and binary.
• It also supports live update for rule-definition, traffic graph, privacy protection, Windows Security Center, balloon message alert and more unique features.

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