TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Want to have your own device manager in Ubuntu?

Here’s the solution!

So how fast does your data travel from drive to drive across your network?   If you have a typical 100 mbps in your home  (remember this is megabits per second) network and you’re backing up 42 Gigabytes of data; it would take approximately 1 hour.

3,600 (seconds in an hour)  x 0.011920928955078125 (Gigabytes per second) =
42.9153442 Gigabytes in an hour or roughly 1 TB in 23.86 hours

Today’s modern enterprise networks will typically contain 1 Gbps switches and network cards thus providing a 1 TB backup in a little over 2 hours.

Home users with more modern computers can add a 5 port Gigabit Switch for around $55.

If you have two computers ‘wired’ to a router, unplug the computers and plug in the switch.  Next plug the computers into the new switch and run a CAT 5 cable to your router (only one cable is needed) from the switch.  Transfers between your computers (if they have 1 Gbps NIC cards) will be 1 Gbps.  If one computer has a 100 Mbps card, you will only transfer at this slower speed.

Also remember there is a difference between a 100/1000 switch and a 1000 switch.   The 1000 switch will only operate a 1 Gbps and all computers connecting to the switch must have a Gigabit NIC card.  The 100/1000 switch adjusts for the NICs rated speed.

Remember, wireless cards are rated at 11 mbps (B), 54 mbps (G) and 150-300 mbps (N).  These 802.11 wireless technologies are limited because of wireless technology.

These rates assume that the network is not used and the bandwidth is committed to the backup (no internet or moving files).   Also you must take into consideration the speed of your hard drives, processes (programs running on the computers) and other factors.  This is just an estimate.

For more information, see the Bandwidth Calculator

Jared Ledlow a blogger was a student at TTC Shelbyville – he recently posted an excellent article and video on HDGraph.

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You can actually improve your systems performance by clearing the pagefile on your system.  This also purges any plain-text passwords that are stored in your pagefile.

How can this improve your performance?

Your pagefile begins to grow and shrink as Windows needs virtual memory.  By deleting the file at shutdown, the file is recreated on the next startup.

Here’s the easy way by using Microsoft’s Fix-it.

 

This is not a means to be substituted for regular clean up or defragging of the hard drive.
 

Active Directory is one of the mostly widely used models to push policies and to secure your enterprise.

Many IT personnel complain of degrading performance after a period of time.   Although Windows tries to keep Active Directory defragged, the Active Directory database can begin to grow even when you delete users and adjust it.  More on this later….

• Memory (Always use 64bit Windows – Migrate to Server 2008 R2)  - use 8gb or more when possible
• Memory Speed – Look for HyperX and other high quality memory
• Motherboard Choice – FSB, Chipset,  ports, controllers  (Motherboard selection should come after CPU)
• Processor – select multi-core/multi-CPU
• Power –  We live in a ‘Green’ world but don’t rob your system of power
• Hard Disks – Use SATA 6.0 for small / medium enterprises and SCSI for large enterprises
  -Put your OS on one drive, active directory on a second drive
• Defrag Active Directory (2008)

Here’s an excellent article and breakdown of Linksys (now Cisco) routers.

In the case of Anonymous and their spin off groups, I have observed a shift in personalities that could be termed an evolution in motivations and thought. Generally though, the game plan seems to be just a general way for the groups to sow anarchy while feeding their narcissistic needs through media attention….read more

 

Disclaimer. The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone and not of TTC Shelbyville.

Help Net Security has one of the best magazines available for anyone wanting to learn about the latest trends, information, tutorials and other info on technology security.  Help Net Security has over 30 sponsors that help with their [IN]Secure Magazine and with these big name organizations sponsoring this excellent resource, this is definitely one of the best resources on the web.

June Issue (No. 30)

A simple mistake on the part of cyber attackers has revealed another mass malicious iFrames injection attack that is currently under way, according to Armorize’s researchers.

Initially, they forgot to include a tag before the actual malicious code, so it was indexed by Google and, therefore, searchable. The initial number of compromised domains was around 22,400, with a total of 536,000+ infected pages.
Mass injection attack compromised 20,000+ domains, delivers fake AV.

Cyber Warfare: Securing Facebook.

See CNBC’s video of Facebook Chief Security Officer – Joe Sullivan on cyber warfare

ManageEngine has excellent software used to manage workstations, servers and other enterprise computing needs.   They also have some of the best software tools you can download and use for free. Their free  Windows Health Monitor Tool can be used :

•  Windows Monitoring including -Windows 2003 & Windows 2008 servers and Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
•  Works in Active Directory or in workgroup
•  Allows you to monitor server resources like CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization
•  Disk Utilization & Disc Read ⁄ Write details
•  Bandwidth monitoring – Network Rx ⁄ Tx
•  Dashboard – Top resource utilization details
• Monitor up to 10 devices

Want to encrypt your email contents?

Go to Encipher.it and enter the text in the textbox.  Next, encipher it and enter a key.   Send your email and share the key with the recipient.

~D. Babian

Mobile PCMonitor offers an excellent software to monitor your computer’s resources.  PCMonitor monitors your logs, processes, services, network, receive notifications and monitors other resources remotely.  PCMonitor  also allows you to remotely restart, run a command line utility along with dozens of other options.

PCMonitor allows you to view your computer on another computer by using my.mobilepcmonitor.com.

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It is rare that I find a truly useful app that is beneficial and productive to enterprise IT.  This is an excellent application to monitor critical computers.

Credit to Bill Mullins for stumbling on this software.

iTraffic is a freeware tool to measure your internet traffic statistics.  You’ll be surprised at how much internet data that you download during a session.  iTraffic Monitor also supplies detailed reports for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly time slots.

NetTools is free and comprehensive program that has a set of host monitoring, network scanning, administration tools,  and security tools.  The easy to use interface allows you to check servers, workstations or network.

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The world\’s largest technology company has earned another accolade: it was responsible for the largest number of security flaws in the first half of 2010, knocking Oracle off the top spot. Microsoft is in third place.

via Apple the new world leader in software insecurity.

Need a powerful access point to cover your entire house or business?  The Ubiquiti picostation2 is an excellent choice for wide coverage at a very affordable price.   With three models that cover between 700,000 square feet to 8,000,000 square feet (under $100 for each model), the picostations also offer open source software that accept OpenWRT or DD-WRT.  Each of the picostations can be configured as an access point, repeater or bridge to connect buildings.    What makes these access points so powerful?   100mw to 1000mw output.

Specs-

Processor Specs Atheros MIPS 4KC
180MHzMemory Information 32MB SDRAM, 8MB Flash
Networking Interface 1 x 10/100 BASE-TX (Cat. 5, RJ-45) Ethernet Interface
Antenna RP-SMA omni antenna
Power Supply12V, 1A DC, Supply and injector
Passive Power over Ethernet (pairs 4,5+; 7,8 return)
Operating Temperature -4F to +158F   Weight 3.5 oz

We recently purchased a blu-ray dvd player on our last anniversary.   As DVDs changed, we began to have playback problems with the DVD locking up or skipping.  Most people don’t know that devices today allow you to upgrade the firmware on the players (or TVs) and assume the player is beginning to fail when these symptoms happen.

How do you upgrade your device?

• Go to the manufacturer’s website
• Enter the model number under the support area
• Find the latest firmware for your player
• Download the zipped bin file to your computer
• Unzip the file
• Burn the iso or bin to a DVD or CD (follow the instructions) or copy to a FAT formatted flashdrive
• Power on the DVD with the flashdrive or DVD in the player
• Follow the instructions

If you have ever thought about becoming an LPN or CNA, you’ll find that you have to take an exam prior to starting class.  In today’s busy world prospective students may not have time to attend classes to prepare for this entrance exam.

Because this is a technology blog, and the buzz words of today are asynchronous training and cloud computing; here’s how we overcame the technical challenges of delivering class online while saving money.

The Tennessee Technology Center at Shelbyville will be offering the Allied Health (LPN, CNA, PCT/Medical Assistant) Test preparation as an online course through the TTC Shelbyville Learning Management System this fall.  Using technology to deliver the course online, the course will include sections on Numerical Skills/Pre-Algebra Placement Test and Reading.

Several US ISPs Hijacking And Redirecting Their Customers’ Search Queries.

What do you expect to come up when you search for a term in Google or Bing? Page after page of relevant results, right? Wrong, buster – at least if you’re a customer of an ISP that engages in search query redirection. Late last night, a report surfaced that reveals that several ISPs, with the help of a company called PaxFire, have secretly been hijacking your traffic