Google Launches Network to Promote Small Business

Google announced the launch of a new initiative called the Small Business Network in an effort to contribute what it can to the success of small businesses, which are Google's bread and butter.

"It's no secret that small businesses play a key role in Google's success as a company and drive the economy as a whole," says David Fischer, Google's VP of Global Online Sales and Operations. "AdWords, AdSense, Apps – you name it – have all grown because small businesses use them. Because of that, increasing their bottom line is very important to us."

The Small Business Network is designed to promote business-friendly policies at the federal and state levels. Fischer says the company asked itself, "What can we do to help broaden the collective voice of small business both on Capitol Hill and in the states? We want to know about the issues that are important to our small business partners so that we can better invest in their goals and objectives and ultimately, their success."

While Google's intention is to take on a variety of issues, the company is getting started right off the bat with increasing broadband access and preserving an open Internet.

The network takes full advantage of Google's Moderator tool, which allows interested parties to share their thoughts and others to vote them up and down, creating a sense of priority among them. Google is hoping that they will be able to use the Network to help encourage lawmakers to grant funds to ISPs to create broadband access for small businesses around the U.S.

Source: webpronews.com

Wireless Internet Security: Secure Your WIFI Communications?

Your wifi communications are not as secure as you may think. Others can listen to your data, sometimes as easily as to a radio broadcast!

How do I know this?

In a school where I used to work as the IT/Network administrator, I had to set up a wireless network that would be shared between teachers and students. Knowing how clever the teenagers are, the administration was adamant to know just how secure their data would be, so I have been asked to do extensive research on this.
In a short time I was able to:

* Identify the computers and their owners that are logged on the network.
* See who is logging onto which email accounts.
* Log people's email login information.
* Log people's email messages.
* Target a specific computer and gather data about the pages they visit, including the content of the pages themselves.
* Log any FTP login and password.
* Display any of the data/passwords in an accessible time table, revealing in-depth information about who visited what and when.

A little disturbing, no? Fortunately, this was a project done purely for research, and none of the data was ever used for any purposes other than identifying ways how to improve our network security.

Source: examiner.com

AppGate Security Server based on Open Solaris

With Open Solaris a free edition of the AppGate Security Server and support for virtual environments is offered.

With this version of the Security Server, AppGate enables all users to access files regardless of platform and without installing any client software. Users only have to point their web browser to the AppGate Security Server and log in to the system in order to access remote files. The AppGate Security Server performs authentication and authorization, and depending on the user's role, authentication method, client configuration, etc., the server can make different files available to its users.

Version 9 is based on Open Solaris which makes it easy to have the AppGate server run in virtual server environments. The AppGate Server can run in a virtual server, be remotely managed and can in turn control access to other physical and virtual servers. This enables new architectures to be built in a secure way. In addition version 9 fully server support Windows 7.

AppGate security servers build on existing functionality such as:

* Application Layer Firewall
* Mobile & Fixed VPN
* Granular & Role based Access Control
* End-point Security with device check.

Source: net-security.org/secworld.php?id=7278

Configure TS Session Broker using Route Robin

Terminal services session broker is responsible to route incoming TS connections between two or more servers, to the right terminal server. When the TS Session Broker receives an incoming connection, it checks first to see if that user has an existing session on a terminal server in the farm. If they do, then the connection goes to that terminal server. If they don’t, then the Session Broker will redirect to the terminal server with the lowest number of sessions.

If you are going to use Route Robin for load balancing you need to create two or more A records with same host name

Example:

A record terminal 10.0.0.1
A record terminal 10.0.0.2
A record terminal 10.0.0.3
A record terminal 10.0.0.4

So now if you try to connect to “terminal” you will be randomly redirected to one of the servers in the list.

To configure TS session broker:

• Open Server Manager
• Navigate to roles.
• Press on “Add Roles”
• Select Terminal Services from the list of roles and then Next to continue.
• On the resulting information screen click Next to proceed to the Role Services screen where the TS Session Broker option needs to be selected

Add Terminal Servers to the TS Session Broker :Settings need to be applied on TS Session Broker server only

When TS broker roles is installed , you will notice new security group in “local Users and Groups” named “Session Directory Computers”

You need to add your Terminal Servers computer account to that group.



Joining Terminal Servers to a TS Session Broker: Settings need to be configured on Terminal Servers only

* Open Terminal Services Configuration tool :tsconfig.msc
* Under TS Session Broker click on Member of farm in TS Session Broker



Source

Steps For Exchange Server 2007 Support And Troubleshooting

Microsoft along with the release of the operating system ensures that it provides tools for troubleshooting purpose also. Microsoft in addition to Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins in exchange server 2007 has also provided the Exchange Management Console, the Exchange Management Shell, Active Directory Users and Computers. Exchange Server support for a small to large organizations is available through Exchange server support website or through calling in Microsoft. Some of these tools are installed with Microsoft Windows, some with Exchange and some are optional for specific usage. Information about the utilities is mentioned below for the reference.

Application Deployment Wizard (exapppacker.exe) is one such tool which is used to package and deploy Exchange store applications on the Exchange store. We can access this tool for Exchange server support by Clicking Start > All Programs > Exchange SDK > Exchange SDK Development Tools > Application Deployment Wizard. This can be downloaded from Microsoft Exchange Server Support package disc or Exchange SDK Development Tools.

Exchange Server Database Utilities (eseutil.exe) is used to perform offline database procedures, such as defragmentation and integrity checking. For the issues related to database errors in Exchange Server, we can access this utility through command prompt > :Program FilesExchsrvrbin. This utility does not require any Microsoft Exchange Server Support CD since it gets installed while the Server Setup.

Exchange Store Tree View Control (Extreeview.ocx) is used to display a hierarchical list of node objects that corresponds to folders in the Exchange store. For the issues related to directory listing in Exchange Server, we can use this tool by clicking Start> All Programs> Exchange SDK> Exchange SDK Development Tools> Exchange Explorer. We have to install this utility from Exchange server 2007 support disc provided by Microsoft.

RPC Ping utility (rpings.exe and rpingc.exe) is used to confirm the remote procedure call (RPC) connectivity between the computer that is running Exchange and any of the client workstations on the network. This can be used from Command Prompt and has to be downloaded and installed from Exchange Server 2003 Support Resource Kit Tools.

Telnet (telnet.exe), WinRoute (winroute.exe) are used to troubleshoot Exchange mail flow and extract the link state information for an organization. These can be used from Command Prompt and has to be downloaded and installed from Exchange Server 2003 Support or Exchange Server 2007 Support Resource kit.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/tools-for-exchange-server-2007-support-and-troubleshooting-790954.html