TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

When IT is asked to spy.  (ComputerWorld Shared)

One of the best ways to check the security of your computer is to use the Event Log and Event Viewers inside of windows.

IPSwitch WhatsUpGold offers several free tools that help you with handling your event logs.  With dozens of features and patented technology, IPSwitch WhatsUp Event Rover is an excellent utility that can be downloaded for free.  WhatsUpGold also offers several other enterprise  level programs.

This utility is the most powerful tool I have seen to monitor these events.  Several events were happening on my computer I didn’t know about and let me resolve a problem I was unaware of and had overlooked.  By clicking on the event and double clicking until I reached the item’s details, I was able to see very detailed information and clues to problems.  Also the easy to use interface and tree type navigation of the software makes it easy to use.   Excellent Software.

GroupMe is free and in Beta at this time.  GroupMe allows you to create a group and to send text to the group or conference call them.

Meraki WiFi Stumbler.

XBMC is free and open source (GPL) software media player and an entertainment software package for digital media.  Available for Mac OS X, Linux and Microsoft along with Xbox, XBMC is a hub for all of your multimedia needs.  Designed for network playback, this is one of the most powerful media solutions.

Online Manual

I need help organizing files.  Often because of the nature of my work, everything is fast and furious on my desktop and when at home.  Granted I slow down in the server room and help owners of files sort them so that they work more productively.

With Digital Janitor, you can simple start the program and type in output folders.  Digital Janitor moves the files to the appropriate folders.  You can schedule sorts or sort music automatically.

How to Completely Erase a Hard Drive. (ShareThis)

• Don’t sell your computer with the hard drive if you have had critical files on it
• Don’t sell your camera or cell phone with the memory card
• Don’t give away or sell your flashdrive

12 Reasons to Try Ubuntu 10.10 Now – PCWorld Business Center. (Via ShareThis)

Why Windows Is Good for Business – PCWorld Business Center.

• Read it and stay open minded
• Linux is a viable option
  (but still needs tweaking)
• Viruses are not common in Enterprise networks that remain active in security
• Yes Linux and Apple have vulnerabilities
• Enterprise management is available with Windows and more options are available with Microsoft (at this time)

Autoruns at Microsoft’s sysinternals site is an excellent program to see how programs are loading on your computer.  An absolutely excellent program to determine what is starting up.  This tool can be helpful in shutting down malware or viruses or unwanted programs.

I’m surprised more countries have not done this.  Here’s China’s version of Google Maps.

Google has an excellent Family Safety Center that  offers safety tools, tips  for teachers and parents, and information on videos.

Locking Safe Search

StaySafeOnline has several great articles and links along with tips to keep you safe online.  Want to check your computer’s security?  Go over and use the links listed by the NCSA.

We like other fellow bloggers have decided to promote Cyber Security Awareness Month.  I follow several dozen bloggers but here are a few of the best bloggers out there talking about Cyber Security every month.

Bill Mullins

Paul’s Home Computing

Tech Paul

WhatsOnMyPC

TTC Shelbyville Security

Macrium Reflect allows you to replicate your old hard drive.  With Christmas coming up, this software can replicate your drive when you get the new one for Christmas.  Macrium Reflect.

From Macrium Relect’s website:

• Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
• Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
• Built in scheduler.
• 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
• Industry leading compression levels and speed.
• Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
• Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista.
• HTML log files.

Cyber Security Awareness is everyone’s responsibility.  Visit StaySafeOnline.org TTC Shelbyville with other universities, colleges, and organizations recognize the need to be safe online and recently endorsed the campaign to be safe online. See Full list on endorsing organizations at the above link.  Also read the tips and the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘how-to’ information.

Also STOP-THINK-CONNECT launched  in Seattle marking the start of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.  This safety awareness kicked off with the Special Assistant to the President and Cyber security Coordinator White House, Howard Schmidt, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute and many leaders of private and non-profit organizations.

Do your part and take this information to your place of business, to your children’s educators, to community leaders and anyone you know.

Comodo Certificates for Email are free.   If you have an email client such as Microsoft Outlook that you use, you can use certificates to ensure authenticity.

Thanks Mr. Ray!

How Many Cores Is Too Many?.

Bill Mullins is an excellent blogger and IT expert who has a good review of PC Decrapifier.   Bill shows how not only how this application can be used on new computers but how it can be used to uninstall applications (bulk). Go take a look.

In a gigabit network, you should enable jumbo frames and tweak the jumbo frame settings on your nic so that large files can transfer at greater speeds.  In a packet of data, the header will remain the same but the payload size will increase.  You should do this if you have gigabit switches and gigabit cards in place.  Normally network cards will allow for tweaks of the Jumbo frame by several MTUs.   With gigabit switches in place, the receiving switches may be 10/100 and the computer on the other end will not see a great benefit from this.  However if you have cards in computers that are connected to a switch (1000 mbps/1 Gbps)  and a NAS that supports Jumbo frames, the data transfer from these computers (normally a Server) will benefit from this tweak.

Ideally you would want your entire network on gigabit.   In today’s economy,  many if not most networks are a  hybrid (a mixture of 1000 or 100 mbps) nodes (printers, computers, switches).  There’s only one way to find out about performance.  Transfer a large file (ISO or several megabytes) and time it slowly tweaking the MTU settings under the network card’s property.