Author: Editor

A Control Panel of “Everything”

Get the most out of your computer by unleashing the power of Windows with belldeX Mode.  Are you amazed how techies always seem know how to configure specific things in your computer?  You too can have the same power by using the powerful belledXMode.  This is very easy to do and has only one step.  On your desktop create a  folder and call it “belldeXMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}”.  Do not use the quotation marks.  Double-click the newly created folder and every conceivable configuration option on your computer is now at your fingertips.  A word of caution: if you don’t know what something is for, don’t mess with it.  Always document the changes you make.

 

When to decide to implement a proxy server?

Depending on the industry, smaller companies often lack adequate IT staff to implement this resource.  For larger company’s IT administrators, the need is fundamental.

Inner workings of Proxy Server

The job of the proxy server is to intercept traffic destined for the Internet from within the company and an run a few diagnostics on them to ensure company security and policies are not compromised.

Another job of the proxy server is to cache frequently accessed pages and then serves them to the user.  Since proxy servers do a good job of keeping up with changes to the cached pages, the data will always be fresh.

As employers cannot really monitor staff’s communication since it might violate privacy laws, proxy server will take the job of a human in in ascertaining company policies are followed.

There are also a number of very beneficial reasons to using a proxy.  For example, many ISP’s swear they do not throttle certain bandwith intensive sites like Youtube, but unbeknownst to the level 1 support, they actually do.  Here, is when a proxy becomes very useful.  Getting access to other parts of Netflix online titles is another reason for instance.

 

 

You are traveling to some city like Tucson for example, and you are near the University of Arizona and you see a free Wi-Fi.  First reaction is: awesome, I can get some work done and perhaps check your emails.  As with most temptations, this one should be avoided as well for a number of online activities.  If you must use a public Wif-Fi, a few considerations you must follow are:

1. Hotspots are made for convenience and the tradeoff is the security.  Virtually all activities can be intercepted very easily.   Therefore using hotspots to check the weather, the news and Wikipedia articles should be harmless enough.  SSL connections are relatively secure as well.
2. Never “remember” or “save” a public Wi-Fi on your device.  “Remember”ed connections tend to automatically connect when you are in range and you may not be aware that you are using an unsecured connection.
3. If your device is configured to use a VPN when you are out of the office, then you are relatively safe.  If not, a VPN is a must for unsecured connections.  There are a number of built-in and third party VPN’s such as the Norton Hotspot Privacy and they are easy to use.
4. Make sure you computer or device has “Sharing” disabled and your computer’s firewall is turned on.

As always, make sure your operating system and your applications have the latest updates.

Happy hotspoting.

 

If you receive “Invalid Product Key” in new install of Exchange 2013 CU3:

We were recently faced with one of these error messages in a new install (not an upgrade) for one of our clients, and we wanted to share the solution with your.

This happens when you setup a Hybrid deployment and you get the said error message after you enter the Product Key. The problem we found out has to do with a regression in within CU3, which recognizes the new install as invalid.

You can easily ignore this error and not waste any time troubleshooting. Your server is still licensed despite the error message. A fix will be forthcoming no doubt.

Library fields are not sortable

Here is another issue we came across recently and wanted to share with you our findings in hope that you will benefit from it while saving you time and money.

We received a trouble ticket from a client that their users were not able to neither sort nor filter a library field. The problem was specific to this newly created field. It turns out one of the columns was set as key filter. However, this caused the sort and filter in the list view to be disabled.

What does Soccer World Cup have to do with technology you ask?  Well, not much, but technology can enhance the experience of enjoying the World Cup in our hectic lives.  Why keep going to the Internet to see when the next match is or between which teams?  You don’t want to manually enter them into your calendar either because it just takes too much time.  Someone has already entered all the games into a calendar, so why reinvent the wheels?  Here are a few quick ways to import all the matches into your own calendar and you are done:

1. You can download the official FIFA app to your phone.  This should have the latest info and changes.
2. If you like ESPN, download their app.  You will probably need your cable subscription details to access.
3. Add it to your calendar (my proffered option).  Here is how you do it: a) in your phone, go to your Calendar option and “add account”. b) select “Add Subscribed Calendar”. c) Enter “http://www.worldcupbrazilcalendar.com/all.ics” and tap Continue.  Accept if you receive SSL warning. d) Save and you are done.

Enjoy the Word Cup starting tomorrow.

 

 

Network security tips

Some fundamental steps you can take starts right in your browser.  Choosing the right browser is key.  There are many many browsers out there but the most common are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Opera.  The most exploited among the them is the Internet Explorer.  For some reason hackers like to target Microsoft products more.  Both Firefox and Chrome are decent:

• Both have a nice bookmark feature that syncs with your other devices.
• Regardless of how many tabs you have open, Firefox runs in a single process while each open tab in Chrome runs as a separate process.
• Two must have plugins for both browsers are NoScript and Ad Block Plus.  Having these two plugins, will increase browsing security by 90%.
• Firefox has become a bit bloated unfortunately, although in their version 29, there are some improvements.

Another security hole is a computer without the latest updates.  Apply updates as soon as they are released as many of them address exploited areas.

Having a good antivirus is essential.  What is more essential is running updates at the minimum once per day.  There are a few free antivirus’ for home use only, our favorite is AntiVir.

Having a firewall between the router and network is a good practice and will further fortify your network.

Don’t stay logged in your computer when you step away from it for extended period of time.  A good practice is 10 to 15 minutes before your screen locks automatically.

If you must use wireless network, take these precautions:

• Choose the strongest encryption your wireless access point offers.
• Choose a very long password with combination of both upper and lower characters, special characters and numbers and make it long, more than twenty.  Most password cracking software give up if they cannot crack it in a few minutes.
• Change your default SSID name.  Select a name that does not identify you or your business.

Thank you for reading our blog, and have a safe Internet experience.

 

Should I go with Microsoft SQL 2014 or stick with 2012?

The difference may not seem significant right now.  But you will be better served with ditching SQL 2012 in favor of SQL 2014.

• Longer support period.   2012 will most likely be phased out quicker than 2014, therefore all End-of-Life support and updates will last longer.
• 2014 supports 8 replicas instead of the 4 in its previous version.  This fortifies disaster recovery a bit more.
• Memory support in 2014 is 128 GB instead of the 64 GB in two previous versions.
• 2014 has a new feature called Resource Governor which allows  instance level I/O throttle  as far as MAX_OUTSTANDING_IO_PER_VOLUME is concerned.
• Backup encryption is also enhanced.
• OS support: 2014 version is likely to be supported on later releases of the Windows Servers.

In conclusion, given all the advantages and the lack of any disadvantage, it makes sense to save yourself headaches of going through upgrades later by installing the SQL 2014 now.