Viewing posts categorised under: Technology
First and foremost, what is a DDoS attack? DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. Simply stated, this type of attack floods a given service with massive amounts of traffic from distributed sources making the service unavailable and the source difficult to pin down. As an example, if a hacker or hacker group wants to make a given web site unavailable, they can flood that site with so many requests that the site can't keep up. As a result, the site becomes unavailable to people who are legitimately trying to use it.
It all started with reports of problems at mobile phone network T-Mobile. Some reports indicated the difficulties extended to other mobile networks as well, but I can't be certain if that's accurate information. Like any rumor, especially those online, the rumor mill kicked in to high gear without a lot of fact to back it up.
There were reports that social media sites, online banking sites and others were all having problems yesterday. It was reported to be impacting users across the entire country, so not specific to any one area of the country. The group "Anonymous" jumped into the frey, claiming this to be a massive, coordinated attack of unknown origin.
As the dust settled and we moved from yesterday to today, some news outlets are reporting this event was nothing more than a mis-configuration attributed to the T-Mobile network and that reports of wider problems impacting other carriers and web sites were false. Some users have definitely reported problems with some sites yesterday, but as of now it is unclear if those issues were related, short lived or part of something broader.
So, was there a massive DDoS attack on the US Internet yesterday? It doesn't appear so, but there are still active investigations underway to confirm one way or another. Time will tell.
Ever want to show someone something on your computer as you were talking and you either end up moving the monitor, or they move to stand beside you?
Wouldn't it be easier to display the spreadsheet, photo, website, or video on a TV mounted to the wall.
Recently we wired up a TV at a clients site to do just that.
In this particular case the client has security cameras also hooked up to the TV, and can easily switch inputs to have his computer broadcast his Windows desktop. In full High Definition.
There are wireless solutions for this type of application such as AirTame, however we chose to used a wired HDMI connection. Ease of use, just like 2 monitors on your desk and very reliable.
If you'd like something like this at your office or conference room please contact us. 714-660-1811
If you have your wifi router stuck in the telephone closet far away from where you need coverage, or if you added a big box store wireless network extender, both are likely problematic. Upgrade your wifi with a business grade wifi access point. We install the units in the area you need them the most, they look like a ceiling mounted smoke detector. If you need additional coverage additional access points can be installed, however in most offices 1 unit covers around 3K sq. ft of open space.
These units are faster, provider long range coverage and are much more secure then consumer grade wifi access points.
Our favorite feature is the ability to create multiple wifi SSID's. Example being you can have 1 for internal "smart" devices, another for employee access and another for "guest" access. With guest access we remove the ability to reach other devices on your network for security reasons. For the employee access, the password can be updated/changed where there is staffing changes, while leaving the internal (smart or IoT) devices unchanged.
The performance is top notch, especially if you are consistently rebooting your D-Link wifi unit from Staples. Don't open your business network to the flaws of consumer grade wifi equipment.
07.20.2018
Protect Key Documents at a Fraction of the Cost – data backup solutions, orange county, ca
Many businesses only back up critical servers in order to keep costs low. But why risk the security of valuable data contained in documents saved on workstations and potentially compromise your client relationships? SolarWinds Backup Documents delivers the ability to manage backup and recovery for all business documents—designed to prevent downtime from natural disasters, hardware failures, accidental deletions, ransomware, and user error. Provide an extra layer of security for your customers by protecting their critical business documents simply and affordably. Contact our office for a cost savings quote 714-660-18111
The Department of Homeland Security is aware of Russian based threat actors targeting network infrastructure devices.
The campaign launched Monday is designed to encourage businesses and individuals to protect their systems including routers, switches and firewalls through changing passwords and configuring their devices to prevent them from being hijacked.
Routers have long been known to be vulnerable to hijacking. Multiple studies have found that companies often install routers with the default passwords, or weak passwords such as 1-2-3-4, making them childs play to break into.
Assistant secretary for cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security was quoted: “This is a global threat, once you own the router, you own the traffic that is traversing the router. It is fairly widespread and can cover everything from large enterprises to small home offices.”
Managed NSI clients should not worry as we have already updated routers to complex credentials. However if you are unsure of your firewall status please reach out to us.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/
We recently had a client have their cable provider drop connection for a few hours one day. It wasn't the first time. Depending on many circumstances, it can be common problem that internet goes down, which can be a major cost of downtime for any business, especially one that runs their VoIP phones and has cloud servers/services. Although most national cable providers offer a business-class internet service, most of them are on their residential network. Hence the affordable price tag, compared to a carrier class internet connection like a T1 which come with a (SLA) Service level agreement. This means guaranteed uptime, and we can talk about at another time. A simple approach to having uptime, especially when your main internet connection can go offline at the worst unexpected time, is to setup a 2nd internet connection. This does not mean if you have a cable connection through Spectrum to purchase a 2nd internet from Spectrum, because if there is an outage in the area I can certainly bet it will affect both connections. Instead look for a 2nd provider from the phone company for example, like a simple DSL internet connection for backup. This will be your backup connection and sometime to failover to. It would be a hassle to disconnect your main connection and plug in a 2nd internet connection. Instead their are main routers that accept 2 internet connections, specifically known as dual WAN. For this client a PepLink balance 20 fit the bill, and was simple to setup. The router has some smarts and uses both active connections called "load balancing". This is better than failover as sometimes your primary connection will be degraded, not completely offline and the router will NOT know to failover automatically. Whereas load balancing
Wireless internet coverage, wifi installation: We normally setup our clients networks with their server/equipment room centrally located in their office if at all possible. Sometimes it is at the far end of the office or building, in which case we can install ceiling mounted wifi access points. We recently setup a client that needed better wifi coverage with 2 long range wifi access points to cover their 6,000 square foot high rise office. These are ceiling mounted units that look like a sleek smoke detector. Only took 2 wireless access points to cover the entire office with strong coverage everywhere in their space. Their wireless internet coverage immediately improved. If your small/medium business needs wifi installation contact us for a free network audit. 714-660-1811
If you are looking for help with these services we can assist:
IT Support 
Virus Removal
Data Backup Services
WiFi Setup
Network cabling installation
VoIP for small businesses
12.15.2017
New office Data cabling, Costa Mesa, CA cabling installation, network cabling installation
We had a client move into a new space in Costa Mesa, CA. We were able to start working in the space as the drywall went up. Most of the space is open ceiling, which presented us with a challenge of still hiding the cabling. We were able hide the cabling behind the ceiling beams. Project took 5 days to complete, running 50 Cat6 data drops. Office looks nice and fresh, client was happy with their new data network.
No data cabling project is too small or too large, contact us for a quote in or around Orange County, CA.
cabling installation,
network cabling installation
If you are looking for help with these services we can assist:
IT Support
Virus Removal
Data Backup Services
WiFi Setup
Network cabling installation
VoIP for small businesses
Small business VoIP benefits. Could your office phone system be setup the next day after a devastating fire? One of our manufacturing clients survived a devastating fire this summer, and we had their phone system operating at their 2nd office the next day. Not only that but once the receptionist's phone went offline, all incoming calls were immediately routed to cell phones. The business owner was stunned when we assured him that with his hosted VoIP phone system, all the settings, voice mails, phone numbers, efax numbers were in the cloud. Meaning other than the phone hardware, there was nothing special like the phone brain (PBX) at the location that burned down. He was extremely happy to know we could have his employees using their phone system the next business day. Fortunately we had spare phones in our office, programmed them to their account and brought them to their secondary office the following day. If you would like a cost savings quote on a new phone system, please do not hesitate to contact us. 714-660-1811
Recent Comments