IT Technology: BitKinex FTP, SFTP and WebDAV Client

BitKinex integrates the fuctionality of an innovative FTP, SFTP and WebDAV client for Windows. In addition to features found in other popular FTP programs (like support for the SSL/SSH, multipart and multithreaded transfers, remote edit or FXP) our FTP client introduces several unique approaches and solutions like:

• Site Navigation Without Freezing Windows

Our unique technology of user request handling makes the browsing of remote sites more effective and easy than ever before. While the FTP programs available today simply hang while retrieving the contents of remote directories, BitKinex processes such requests simultaneously on multiple connections.
In addition, a cached version of the directory content is displayed immediately. From now on you don't need to wait when you make a mistake and accidentally click on a wrong folder. BitKinex allows you to click on the right one immediately and also immediately starts to retrieve the content of the directory you want to see. Experienced users will appreciate the ability to retrieve the directory contents in parallel - saving them a lot of time and bringing much more fun into their work.

• Robust Request Handling Saves Your Time and Your Data

Nothing is more frustrating than wasting time trying to tackle ordinary tasks with unreliable tools. BitKinex's built-in request manager watches all your tasks in detail, regardless if you're uploading web pages, moving complex directory structures, editing remote files, or creating new directories. Unlike other programs, Bitkinex does not differentiate between file trasnfers and other requests. BitKinex assigns high priority status to all your requests, handles them the same way and automatically uses all available connections to process them in the shortest time possible.
In addition, completed requests are automatically archived in a separate History tab so you will never lose the overview of all your previous activities. Another great way to speed-up and simplify your work is the ability to restart existing requests. If you have to periodically update your web pages or backup your data, just click on the traffic light symbol in the request list and BitKinex restarts the transfer automatically!

• Indirect FTP, SFTP and WebDAV Transfers Simplify Your Work

Are you wondering why your FTP client isn't able to handle simple tasks like copying files from one remote directory to another? It's because the selected transfer protocol either does not support such transfers at all or because they are disabled by the involved servers or firewalls. In such cases, the more sophisticated clients will inform you that you have to download the files to a temporary directory on your local machine and then upload them back to the destination folder - but most of the programs will silently disallow such operations in general.
The innovative solution for this problem provided by BitKinex is called "indirect transfers." You can use clipboard or drag-and-drop exactly the same way you would in Windows Explorer for any transfer you start. Simplify your work and don't worry about copying files on a remote server, or between two servers, or even between two servers running different transfer protocols!

For example, power users and administrators can mirror files from a WebDAV server to an FTP server or copy complex directory structures from an SFTP server to WebDAV. Any combination of supported protocols is allowed and every request of that kind can be managed in detail (as described in the previous chapter) or resumed upon application restart.

Direct server-to-server transfers (FXP) are supported as well and you can use them whenever they can be handled by the involved servers.

• User Interface Doesn't Clutter Your Desktop

The vast majority of computer users don't place a high priority on understanding all of the details pertaining to data transfers and management.
Therefore, BitKinex communicates with you via a highly scalable user interface which doesn't disturb you from your primary tasks. BitKinex increases your productivity by allowing you to solve other tasks while processing your requests in the background. With just one click you can minimize the space occupied by BitKinex to one small window showing the status of running requests, and with just a few clicks you can see all the details again. Sound alerts and a blinking icon on the system taskbar will let you know as soon as the status of any of your requests changes.

• Inherited Properties Enable Easy and Powerful Configuration

For your convenience, all remote servers (as well as your local computer) within Bitkinex are simply called "data sources." This is due to the unified handling of all user requests (regardless which transfer protocol has to be used). It is also a result of the supported indirect transfers which let you transfer your files between two remote servers running different protocols, between a remote server and your local machine or just copying from one directory to another directory on your machine - all unattended.
The strictly supported properties inheritance is a mechanism which makes the configuration of your data sources easy and flexible. You can use folders to create data source groups exactly the same way you create folders in Windows Explorer. Each data source can inherit all or selected properties from the parent folder, or define them by itself. You can decide which options should be used globally, which should be valid for a specific group and which data sources need their own special settings.

• Expanded Number of Supported Protocols and Security Standards

In contrast to ordinary FTP clients, the robust request handling engine and smart user interface found within BitKinex allows simple usage of multiple transfer protocols in a way never seen before. The set of protocols supported today includes FTP, FTPS, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS and WebDAV and will continue to grow in the near future.
The built-in certificate manager together with support for the SSH2 password and public key authentication and HTTP basic and digest authorization gurantees a high level of security for all your activities in the dangerous world of Internet.

The complete list of implemented features and security standards can be found here.
If you are new in the world of FTP you might want to read our brief introduction to FTP file transfer first.

BitKinex is distributed under the FREEWARE license.


Reference:
All-in-one FTP/SFTP/HTTP/WebDAV Client
http://www.bitkinex.com/

Apple: Activation Lock on iOS devices

With the release of iOS 7, Apple added a security mechanism called Activation Lock. This new feature comes in response to the growing number of mobile device thefts that are documented yearly by police crime statistics in major cities.

Activation Lock works in conjunction with your Apple ID and the iCloud setting Find My iPhone to effectively tie iOS devices to your iCloud account. This allows users to map the location of the device by using the built-in GPS and Wi-Fi radios, and it also prevents the device from being activated by any account -- other than the Apple ID used to initially setup the service -- even if the device is restored to factory settings.

Here are the requirements for setting up Activation Lock:

• Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (iOS 7+)
• Wi-Fi or cellular Internet access
• Apple ID *
• iCloud account *

* Note: Both the Apple ID and iCloud account can be created directly from any iOS device. It can also be created during the initial setup process for new devices.


Reference:
How to set up Activation Lock on iOS devices
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-set-up-activation-lock-on-ios-devices/#.

Apple: Make Safari Pretend to Be Firefox, Opera, or Even Internet Explorer

It doesn’t happen often anymore, but once in a while I’ll surf to a page that won’t open in Safari, and I get a message saying something like, “Sorry, you are using a browser that isn’t supported. Please use a supported browser.” I’m using Safari, if that matters. Should I just stick with Chrome or Firefox all the time?

If you like Safari, you can still use it and just trick the uncooperative websites into thinking you’re using a supported browser. First you need to enable the Develop menu in Safari. This used to require a Terminal command, but now it’s right in Safari > Preferences > Advanced; just check the box for “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Boom, there it is--magical. Stunning. Phenomenal. (Okay, not really.)

You can ignore the Develop menu for now. But the next time you get an error message like that, pull down the Develop menu to User Agent, and select a different browser from the list that pops out. You can try Firefox, an older version of Safari, Opera, even Internet Explorer 10, 9, or 8. Once you make your selection, the page automatically reloads, but it’ll think you’re using that other browser, even though you never left Safari. The User Agent submenu even lets you pretend to be surfing on a Windows machine, in case you run into any Mac-hating sites out there.


Reference:
How To Make Safari Pretend to Be Firefox, Opera, or Even Internet Explorer
http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_make_safari_pretend_be_firefox_opera_or_even_internet_explorer

IT Technology: Microducts

Microducts are small ducts for the installation of small microduct fibre optic cables. They have a size ranging from typically 3 to 16 mm and are installed as bundles in larger ducts.

Microducts are typically small-diameter, flexible, or semi-flexible ducts designed to provide clean, continuous, low-friction paths for placing optical cables that have relatively low pulling tension limits. As stated in industry requirements document Telcordia GR-3155, Generic Requirements for Microducts for Fiber Optic Cables, microduct products are expected to:

• Be compatible with existing construction designs and building configurations for both riser- and plenum-rated applications, including cable blowing apparatus.
• Allow cables to be safely deployed through pull lines or strings using less than 50 lbs of force, and through cable blowing techniques at typical deployment speeds of 100-200 feet per minute.

Advantages over traditional cabling are as follows:

1. A branch can be made simply, any place, at any time
2. Low initial costs
3. The network can grow on demand
4. Easy to install microduct routes in occupied ducts
5. Easy to replace old cables through the network
6. Possibility to migrate from copper balanced cables to fibre optic cables

Reference:
Microducts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microducts

IT Technology: Horizontal Directional Drilling ( HDD )

The horizontal directional drilling technique (HDD) is on the way up at the moment. Directional drilling operations unheard of in the past, now belong to the everyday scene on a job site. Application of HDD units make longitudinal installations up to 500 m possible. Crossings beneath rivers and other waters are frequently performed. The directional method even makes drillings beneath industry complexes possible. The range of application includes all pipe construction measures within the bounds of gas, district heating and drinking water supply, the installation of pressure lines for sewers as well as cable protection pipes for television or telephone cables, traffic routing systems, emergency call boxes or low, medium, high voltage and optical fibre cables.

The installation technique is extremely protective towards the environment, causing no ecological damage at all. Minimal damage to the area is only caused within the vicinity of the unit. Several reasons also speak for the application of the directional technique in central town areas. These mainly concern the construction costs, construction periods, permission procedures, soil movement, surface restoration and the traffic, compared to open trenching methods. The normal course taken by the drilling operation is described in the following:
1.  Planning, preliminary survey
2.  Selecting the drilling units and drilling tools
3.  Pilot bore and detection
4.  Reaming(s) or upsizing bore(s)
5.  Pulling in the pipe

Basically, the drilling unit consists of three main system components:
1.  Drill rig / drilling tools
2.  Bentonite mixing system with a two-chamber system and in some cases a recycling system
3.  Hydraulic power unit for driving the Bentonite mixing unit

Advantages of this method are as follows:

• surfaces worth conserving are neither broken up nor damaged, road surface, front gardens etc.), restoration and repair are not required, which leads to high economical advantages
• low social costs, because detours, setting up of signal systems, road blockings, are avoided
• approved technology
• short equipping times - short drilling and construction times
• very economic for river crossings
• supported by the dynamic impact of the percussive hammer 
• thrust and steerability are improved in soil qualities up to class 5, sometimes even class 6
• simple technique
• pulling force measurement and position determination possible 
• broad application range

Reference:
The Horizontal Directional Drilling method with percussive impact
http://pipelaying.tracto-technik.com/Horizontal-Directional-Drilling

Apple: Apple’s New Program Lets Anyone to Test OS X Beta Builds

Apple is making it easy for anyone, not just those part of its paid developer program, to access beta builds of OS X and in the process submit feedback to Apple. Apple is kicking off a new OS X Beta Seed Program today for all customers that will allow anyone with an Apple ID to install beta builds of OS X starting with the latest OS X 10.9.3 build released yesterday.

The OS X Beta Seed Program gives users the opportunity to run pre-release software. Test-drive beta software and provide quality and usability feedback that will help make OS X even better.The OS X Beta Seed Program gives users the opportunity to run pre-release software. Test-drive beta software and provide quality and usability feedback that will help make OS X even better.

You can sign up for the program here and Apple says it will provide a Beta Access Utility for Mac that will give pre-release access to the OS X betas via the Mac App Store Updates panel (as pictured below).

Those in the new program get access to a lighter version of the Feedback Assistant but they don’t get all of the benefits of Apple’s other seed programs like detailed bug forms, full release notes, and a discussion board.


Reference:
Apple’s new program lets anyone, not just developers, test OS X beta builds
http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/22/apples-new-program-lets-anyone-not-just-developers-test-os-x-beta-builds/?utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

IT Technology: Nutanix

The Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform is a converged infrastructure solution that consolidates the compute (server) tier and the storage tier into a single, integrated appliance.

Nutanix uses the same design principles and technologies that power IT innovators such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon. It tailors these for mainstream enterprises and government agencies.

The Nutanix solution is radically simple compared to traditional datacenter infrastructures.

• Rapid time to value: deployment in under 30 minutes
• No disruption to ongoing operations
• Easily scales
• Powerful off-the-shelf, non-proprietary hardware
• Reduces the cost and complexity of storage
• Works with legacy components, protecting investments you’ve already made
• Delivers advanced, enterprise-class storage capabilities

The modular building-block design allows your organization to start with small deployments and grow incrementally into very large cluster installations. With one appliance, you can move from a small operation to handling large-scale server virtualization deployments, virtual desktop initiatives, test and development applications, big data (e.g. Splunk, Hadoop) projects, and more.

The Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform integrates high-performance server resources with enterprise-class storage in a cost-effective 2U appliance. It eliminates the need for network-based storage architecture, such as a storage area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS). The scalability and performance that the world’s largest, most efficient datacenters enjoy are now available to all enterprises and government agencies.


Reference:
The Nutanix Solution
http://www.nutanix.com/the-nutanix-solution/product-overview/

Microsoft: Run Systeminfo Remotely

Systeminfo displays detailed configuration information about a computer and its operating system, including operating system configuration, security information, product ID, and hardware properties, such as RAM, disk space, and network cards.

Syntax
systeminfo[.exe] [/s Computer [/u Domain\User [/p Password]]] [/fo {TABLE|LIST|CSV}] [/nh]

Parameters
/s   Computer: Specifies the name or IP address of a remote computer (do not use backslashes). The default is the local computer.
/u   Domain \ User: Runs the command with the account permissions of the user specified by User or Domain\User. The default is the permissions of the current logged on user on the computer issuing the command.
/p   Password: Specifies the password of the user account that is specified in the /u parameter.
/fo { TABLE | LIST | CSV }: Specifies the format to use for the output. Valid values are TABLE, LIST, and CSV. The default format for output is LIST.
/nh: Suppresses column headers in the output. Valid when the /fo parameter is set to TABLE or CSV.
/?: Displays help at the command prompt.

Examples
The following examples show how you can use the systeminfo command:
systeminfo.exe /s srvmain 
systeminfo.exe /s srvmain /u maindom\hiropln 
systeminfo /s srvmain /u maindom\hiropln /p p@ssW23 /fo table


Reference:
Systeminfo
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491007.aspx

Cisco: Tag An Interface to A Mac Address

The following commands allow you to tag a Cisco switch interface to a device's Mac address:

switchport port-security mac-address XXXX.XXXX.XXXX
switchport port-security

To change another device's Mac address, type in the following commands:

no switchport port-security mac-address XXXX.XXXX.XXXX
no switchport port-security
switchport port-security mac-address YYYY.YYYY.YYYY
switchport port-security

Google: Google AdWords

Google AdWords is Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results. The following infographic will help you understand how AdWords works, detailing the AdWords auction, bidding process and explaining important factors like Quality Score and cost-per-click.

Reference:
What Is Google AdWords? How the AdWords Auction Works
http://www.wordstream.com/articles/what-is-google-adwords

Microsoft: WebDAV File Size Limit and Timeout Limit

Based on my troubleshooting, the file size limit of WebDAV is 50 MB and the timeout limit is 30 minutes. To change the limits, you are required to modify the parameters of the registry in your WebDAV server. The changes are as follows:

1. Modify the file size limit
    a.  Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\WebClient\Parameters
    b.  Change the value of FileSizeLimitInBytes to ffffffff

2.  Modify the timeout limit
     a.  Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MRxDAV\Parameters
     b.  Change the value of FsCtlRequestTimeoutInSec to ffffffff

After the modification, your new file size limit will be 4 GB and the timeout limit will be 119 hours. Please note that there is no way that you can set it to be unlimited.


References:
1.  You cannot download more than 50 MB or upload large Files when the upload takes longer than 30 minutes using Web Client in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2668751

2.  netj / Fix-Windows7-WebDAV-Parameters.reg
https://gist.github.com/netj/1833784

Google: One of The Secrets of Google Maps

View an area of the map even when you aren't connected to the Internet. For example, before you go on a camping trip, download a map of the area so you can use the map offline during the trip.

1. Make sure your phone or tablet is connected to the Internet, then open the  Google Maps app.
2. Zoom in to an area on the map.
3. Search for "ok maps." To search by voice, touch the  microphone in the search box then say "ok maps."
4. After a few moments, you'll see a message confirming that the on-screen map area has been cached or downloaded.
5. Next time you aren't connected to the Internet, you can go to this area of the map to view it offline.

Troubleshooting
The on-screen map area is too large: If you see this error, zoom in to a smaller area on the map and repeat the steps.


Reference:
View maps offline
https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3273567?hl=en

IT Technology: Fin - A Ring that Will Change Human Life

Fin is a tiny hardware product that you can wear on your thumb as a ring and it will make your whole palm as a gesture interface. Fin can uniquely recognize each segments of the fingers and can convert your palm into a numeric keypad. Fin is a Bluetooth enabled device that we can connect to three different digital gadgets like Smartphones, Smart TVs, Automobiles, and Home automation devices providing multiple device compatibility. Fin reads different gestures from your palm and its corresponding values control connected devices.

It uses smart Low Energy Technology such as Bluetooth for Communication with connected devices.

Reference:
Fin : Wearable Ring Make your Palm as Numeric Keypad and Gesture Interface
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fin-wearable-ring-make-your-palm-as-numeric-keypad-and-gesture-interface

IT Technology: Heartbleed Bug

Heartbleed is a catastrophic bug that affects thousands of sites and services across the internet, but what is it, and what do you need to do about it to protect yourself from cybercriminals?

According to security researchers, around half a million sites worldwide are rendered insecure by the bug. "Catastrophic is the right word," commented Bruce Schneier, an independent security expert. "On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11."

Heartbleed has grabbed the attention of the world’s media, but there has been a lot of misinformation bandied around. Here’s a quick rundown of the important bits you should know about.


What exactly is Heartbleed?
Heartbleed is the nickname given to a bug in a piece of security software used by almost every secure website on the internet.

It is a flaw in a software package called OpenSSL, which is used by banks, shops, email providers and a plethora of other services across the web to secure a connection between the user and the service.

Web servers that use SSL securely send an encryption key to the visitor, which is then used to protect all other information coming to and from the server.

Most people will recognise this secure connection as the little padlock symbol in the top left-hand corner of the web browser.


What does the bug do?
SSL is crucial in protecting services like online shopping or banking from eavesdropping, as it protects users from so-called man in the middle attacks, where a third party intercepts data during transit and uses it to discover confidential information.

Heartbleed allows miscreants to read data assumed to be sent securely over the internet. That means that usernames and passwords as well as other confidential data could be read by cyber criminals. Heartbleed has also been implicated as one of the ways the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been able to read secure data as part of its Prism online surveillance programme.


How long has this been an issue?
The bug was introduced into the OpenSSL software in March 2012 and has been out in the wild for the past two years.

It has only now been revealed, but criminals and the NSA have been able to exploit the bug since its inception in 2012. It is unknown whether any criminals have actively been exploiting the bug to steal user data, however.


Am I affected?
Hundreds of thousands of sites and services across the internet use a secure connection between a user's computer and the website, and of those thousands, a large proportion of will be hit by Heartbleed.

There is a very high chance that at least one service that you use will be affected, but the degree to which it is affected will be different between sites and services. For instance, secure password manager LastPass was affected by the Heartbleed bug, but subsequent layers of encryption meant that user data was never exposed.

The end result is that user data could now be intercepted and stolen across a myriad services that people use every day, including internet shopping sites, email accounts, online banking and even news websites.


What’s happening now?
The Heartbleed bug is quite easy to fix, but requires all the sites and services affected by the vulnerability to update their software and their security certificates.

Some, like Google, Yahoo and most banks, have already done that, but others will take time to roll out the fix.


What should I do?
For the majority of users, their data is only at risk from Heartbleed when they use the sites and services. The advice currently being issued by security experts is to avoid using any site or service hit by Heartbleed until they have fixed the bug.

It is advisable, therefore, to avoid logging into internet banking, online shopping or anything that has a credit card or personal data attached until you can verify that they have fixed the issue.

A couple of tools are available on the internet to check whether sites are still vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug.


Do I need to immediately change all my passwords?
There have been a lot of knee-jerk warnings in the media stating that you should immediately change all your passwords. This advice is wrong.

It is advisable to change all your passwords, but only once the sites have fixed the Heartbleed bug, especially if you reuse the same password across multiple sites and services. Changing your password before will only put that new password at risk of being stolen through the Heartbleed bug.

Once a site has fixed the Heartbleed bug, picking a secure new password for each service is crucial. A password should be complex, but memorable and should be unique for each different site or service.


If I just ignore it, will it all be all right in the end?
Heartbleed is certainly one of the most serious security bugs to hit the open internet, but panicked reactions have made it worse.

The Heartbleed bug will be fixed, if it hasn’t already been, by all the sites and services that most users use on a day-to-day basis. At that point changing your password should make your accounts secure once again, and users can then go on about their daily basis as they have done before.

Vigilance over the next weeks and months over important accounts, including banking and shopping sites is advisable, just in case someone has managed to steal your credit card details while the bug was wide open.


Reference:
Heartbleed bug: what do you actually need to do to stay secure?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/10/heartbleed-bug-everything-you-need-to-know-to-stay-secure

Google: Useful Third Party Tools for Google Apps

1. ChromeBook - Laptop that uses Chrome OS. You can just sign in to different ChromeBook with your account and you will be able to get your desktop.
2. Ericom - Remote Access with Google mechanism. You can access through the web.
3. PaperCut - Print management
4. Google Cloud Print - Print management in the cloud. The disadvantage only is when student goes home and sign in to Google, he/she will print at school rather at home.
5. www.youtube.com/education - Filtered Youtube ( safe contents ) 
6. Securly - Web filtering
7. Revel Digital & Rise Digital Signage - Digital Signage integrated with Google Apps and playable with any Android devices
8. Meraki - Cloud control network devices with MDM for free ( 98% of Casper ), integrated with Google Apps
9. Cloudlock - Security control for Google Drive, Sites, Apps, etc.
10. Synergyse - Interactive and embedded training ( free for students ), embedded in Chrome
11. Spanning Backup - Backup and restore Gmail, Drive, Sites, Calendars and Contacts. Spanning works on top of Google Apps with the full control of Google Apps ( unlimited storage ). However, Spanning cannot backup Google Apps configuration settings
12. Vault - Archive for Google Mail. It will affect Google Hangout. Besides, it is easily to enable but very hard to remove
13. Backupify - Backup and restore Google Apps with limited storage space
14. FlashPanel - Google Apps management tool used to manage the whole domain
15. KissFlow - Organize processes and workflows (eg. Apply a leave - what is the workflow? who request?, who approve?,...)
16. RunMyProcess - Organize processes and workflows and need a program to run
17. Hangout for Education On Air - Forum for education
18. Okta - Single Sign On
19. Hapara - Teacher dashboard - Manage and create Google Apps' user account for free
20. Learn Sprout - Dashboard and management for Google Apps account
21. Backupify Migrator - Move one domain to another domain

* Note: Google by default keeping a deleted account for 5 days

IT Technology: Magic Packet

The magic packet is a broadcast frame containing anywhere within its payload 6 bytes of all 255 (FF FF FF FF FF FF in hexadecimal), followed by sixteen repetitions of the target computer's 48-bit MAC address, for a total of 102 bytes.

Since the magic packet is only scanned for the string above, and not actually parsed by a full protocol stack, it may be sent as any network- and transport-layer protocol, although it is typically sent as a UDP datagram to port 7 or 9, or directly over Ethernet as EtherType 0x0842.[6]

A standard magic packet has the following basic limitations:

• Requires destination computer MAC address (also may require a SecureOn password)
• Does not provide a delivery confirmation
• May not work outside of the local network
• Requires hardware support of Wake-On-LAN on destination computer
• 802.11 wireless interfaces do not maintain a link in low power states and cannot receive a magic packet

The Wake-on-LAN implementation is designed to be very simple and to be quickly processed by the circuitry present on the network interface card with minimal power requirement. Because Wake-on-LAN operates below the IP protocol layer the MAC address is required and makes IP addresses and DNS names meaningless.


Reference:
Wake-on-LAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN

BlueCoat: Monitor Client Logs

The following commands allow you to enable the monitoring on a particular client:

inline policy local qqq
<access>
client.address=192.168.1.3 access_log[monitoring](yes)     ##<type in the IP address of the client>##
qqq

Go to the link below to access the monitoring logs:
https://172.18.110.1:8082/accesslog/tail-f/monitoring

BlueCoat: Bypass BlueCoat CacheFlow

The following commands will allow you to bypass the traffic from BlueCoat CacheFlow:

conf t
proxy-services
static-bypass
192.168.1.0/24 all      ##<type in the network IP that you would like to bypass>##

To undo the bypass, please type in the following commands:

conf t
proxy-services
static-bypass
view
remove 192.168.1.0/24 all

IT Technology: NetScout

NetScout Systems, Inc. is a provider of integrated computer network performance management products. NetScout products include packet Sniffer and nGenius packet flow recorder. It is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has approximately 800 employees. NetScout serves the enterprise community, government agencies and telecommunications service providers. At various times NetScout acquired the companies Network General and Fidelia Technology.


Reference:
NetScout
http://www.netscout.com/Pages/default.aspx

IT Technology: FireEye

Security-conscious organizations choose FireEye for industry-leading comprehensive protection against advanced threats. FireEye Platform delivers best-in-breed threat prevention products, coupled with 24x7 global support, and rich actionable threat intelligence. The FireEye Threat Prevention Platform supplements traditional and next-generation firewalls, IPS, AV, and gateways, whose signatures and heuristics cannot stop this new generation of threats.

Organizations are under assault by a new generation of cyber attacks that easily evade traditional defenses. These coordinated campaigns are targeted, stealthy, and persistent. And they are perpetrated by well-funded threat actors set on finding weaknesses in the organizational security posture. Traditional defenses – next-generation firewalls, IPS, AV, email and Web security gateways – were designed to detect known patterns of attacks using signature-based defenses. The new generation of attacks is dynamic, polymorphic, and coordinated to cut across multiple threat vectors and multiple stages – consequently there are significant security holes in the majority of corporate networks.

With security talent in short supply globally, organizations are also challenged to defend against the growing cyber threat landscape. And the ever-evolving threats and nation-state funded actors further push the limited security resources against the wall.

Combating these advanced threats and persistent adversaries necessitates a real time, proactive approach to security with an ability to respond immediately to any type of danger, and provide assistance to any type of company or entity anywhere in the world.

Through FireEye Platform, FireEye offers the industry's first global, real time, continuous threat protection platform to help secure brands, intellectual property, and data against today's advanced cyber attacks. FireEye Platform combines the power of products and people to assist organizations defend and respond to the evolving threat landscape.

Threat Prevention Platforms: By combining signature and signature-less detection, and providing visibility into the entire attack life cycle along with correlation across multiple threat vectors, FireEye stops today's advanced multi-vector, multi-stage attacks with near-zero false positives.

• NX Series – The Web threat prevention platforms stop Web-based attacks that traditional and next-generation firewalls, IPS, AV, and Web gateways miss. It protects against zero-day Web exploits and multi-protocol callbacks to keep sensitive data and systems safe.
• EX Series – The email threat prevention platforms secure against spear-phishing email attacks that bypass anti-spam and reputation-based technologies. The integrated EX and NX platforms offer the only solution to address blended, advanced targeted attacks that use spear phishing, zero-day exploits, and malicious URLs.
• FX Series – The content threat prevention platform analyzes network file shares to quarantine resident malware brought into the network through the Web, email, or other manual means, such as online file sharing.
• AX Series – The forensic analysis platforms give threat analysts hands-on control over a powerful auto-configured test environment where they can deeply inspect advanced malware, zero-day, and targeted advanced persistent threat attacks embedded in common file formats, email attachments, and Web objects.
• CM Series – The management platforms consolidate the management, reporting, and data sharing across a FireEye installation in an easy-to-deploy, network-based platform.

Dynamic Threat Intelligence: Complementing the FireEye platforms with rich and actionable threat intelligence allows FireEye to generate powerful insights, identify ever-evolving threat patterns, and isolate potential targets to continuously improve organizational defenses against advanced threats.

• Intelligence sharing: The real-time sharing of auto-generated threat intelligence from global deployments of FireEye Threat Prevention Platforms enables customers to be protected against potential threats targeting their industry.
• Big Data analysis: Analyzing large volumes of attack data from global deployments enables FireEye to recognize global attack patterns and pinpoint potential targets, and provide customers much needed foresight into advanced threats.
• APT Discovery Center: By analyzing hundreds of current and past advanced persistent threat campaigns, the APT Discovery Center helps security teams, law enforcement, and government agencies gain insight into the evolving threat landscape and continuously improve defenses against cyber threats.

Support and Subscriptions: Building on the FireEye Threat Prevention Platform and Dynamic Threat Intelligence cloud, FireEye support and subscriptions provide advance warning of APT activities and access to the FireEye global team of researchers and incident response experts to augment organizational security teams in assessing their current security posture and protecting against advanced threats.

• Continuous Monitoring: The Continuous Monitoring subscription enables FireEye to assist customers in monitoring for APT attacks, ensure appropriate product operations, assist with upgrades and health checks and, importantly, also provide advance warnings to security teams when advanced threats impact their industry or geography.

Reference:
Why FireEye
http://www.fireeye.com/platform/why-fireeye.html

Apple: Preserve a Mac’s Desired Configuration with Guest User Even After Reboot

The steps below allow you to preserve a Mac's desired configuration in Guest User account even after reboot:
1.  By accessing the Admin account, turn on the Guest User account.
2.  Log in to the Guest User account and do all the configuration.
3.  Without logging off the Guest User account, switch to the Admin account.
4.  Type in the following commands in the Terminal to unhide the hidden folders:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
killall Finder

5.  Go to Macintosh HD > Users > Guest and copy the Library folder in it
6.  Go to Macintosh HD > System > Library > User Template > English.lproj and replace the Library folder with the Library folder in Step 5.
7.  Delete the KeyChain folder in the Library folder.
8.  Done. Once you reboot the Mac and log in as Guest User, you will get all the configuration in Step 2.

Note:
You need to grant yourself the permission to access the folders above.

Please watch the following video for more information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU-W2-_c5bA


Reference:
Permanently Modify Mac OS X Guest Account (Mac) Lion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU-W2-_c5bA

Microsoft: Microsoft Shows Off Cortana for Windows Phone 8.1

Microsoft has introduced its long-awaited answer to Siri and Google Now and it is indeed called Cortana, named after the artificial intelligence character from the company's flagship video game franchise Halo.

Microsoft's Joe Belfiore, head of Windows Phone product and design, unveiled the personal assistant software for Windows Phone onstage at the company's annual Build conference in San Francisco. It is being launched in beta for Windows Phone 8.1 -- rolling out over the next few months -- and will expand beyond the US to the UK and other countries over time.

"We think Cortana is the most personal digital assistant," Belfiore said.

Cortana is powered by Bing, and can perform many of the functions one has come to expect from artificial intelligence-style assistants, such as setting reminders and powering vocal updates to one's calendar.

The voice behind the software was reported back in January to be Jen Taylor, the voice actress of the character from the Halo series. Microsoft declined to comment back then on Taylor's involvement, but Cortana sounded awfully like Taylor in the version unveiled today.


Reference:
Microsoft shows off Cortana for Windows Phone 8.1
http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-unveils-cortana-personal-assistant-for-windows-phone/

Microsoft: Update GAL and OAB in Exchange with PowerShell

The PowerShell scripts below allow you to update your Exchange immediately.

To update the Global Address List (GAL):

Get-GlobalAddressList | Update-GlobalAddressList

To update the Offline Address Book (OAB):

Get-OfflineAddressBook | Update-OfflineAddressBook

When you update the OAB, you’ll also need to update the Client Access Server:

Get-ClientAccessServer | Update-FileDistributionService

Reference:
PowerShell – Howto Update the GAL and OAB in Exchange
http://jeffwouters.nl/index.php/2012/09/powershell-howto-update-the-gal-and-oab-in-exchange/

Microsoft: Configure Automatic Replies for An User in Exchange 2010

A user is out of office for some reason – on vacation, sick, on a sabbatical or extended leave of absence, or traveling to a remote location on business, and forgets to set an automatic reply, also known as an Out Of Office message or OOF in Exchange/Outlook lingo. As an Exchange administrator, you get an email from the user’s manager asking you to configure an OOF for the user.

In previous versions of Exchange, you would need to access the user’s mailbox to be able to do this. Out of Office messages are stored in the Non-IPM tree of a user’s mailbox along with other metadata. Without access to the mailbox, you can’t modify data in it. Two ways for an admin to access a mailbox:

1. Grant yourself Full Access mailbox permission to the user’s mailbox.
2. Change the user’s password and log in as user.

It is safe to say that either of these options is potentially dangerous. The first option grants the administrator access to all of the data in the user’s mailbox. The second option grants the administrator access to all of the data that the user account can access within your company and locks the user out of his own user account (as the user in question no longer knows the account password).

In Exchange 2010, you can configure auto-reply options for your users without using either of the above options. You must be a member of a role group that has either the Mail Recipients or User Options management roles.


Configure auto-reply options using the Exchange Control Panel
To configure an auto-reply using the ECP:
1.  From Mail > Options, select Another User (default My Organization).

2.  Select the user you want to configure the auto-reply for

3.  In the new window, ensure the user's name is displayed in the alert message, and then click Tell people you’re on vacation

4.  From the Automatic Replies tab, configure the auto-reply options for the user (see screenshot).

In Exchange 2007, we introduced the ability to create different Out of Office messages for external and internal recipients. You can also disable or enable Out of Office messages on a per-user basis and on a per-remote domain basis in Remote Domain settings. For details, see previous post Exchange Server 2007 Out of Office (OOF).

Configure auto-reply options using the Shell
This command schedules internal and external auto-replies from 9/8/2011 to 9/15/2011:

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration bsuneja@e14labs.com –AutoReplyState Scheduled –StartTime “9/8/2011” –EndTime “9/15/2011” –ExternalMessage “External OOF message here” –InternalMessage “Internal OOF message here”

To configure auto-replies to be sent until they're disabled (i.e. without a schedule), set the AutoReplyState parameter to Enabled and do not specify the StarTime and EndTime parameters. For detailed syntax and parameter descriptions, see Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration.

This command retrieves auto-reply settings for a mailbox.

Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration bsuneja@e14labs.com

This command disables auto-reply configured for a mailbox:

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration bsuneja@e14labs.com –AutoReplyState Disabled –ExternalMessage $null –InternalMessage $null

Reference:
Configure Automatic Replies for a user in Exchange 2010
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/09/08/configure-automatic-replies-for-a-user-in-exchange-2010.aspx

IT Technology: Kanbox 10TB Cloud Storage by Alibaba for FREE!

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has officially stepped into the cloud storage race in China, as it has acquired personal cloud storage service Kanbox for an undisclosed amount.

Alibaba is also directly competing with rivals Tencent and Baidu in terms of storage space, as it is offering up to 10TB worth of free cloud storage — just like what Tencent has done with its storage service. Comparatively, Baidu has given away a mere 2TB worth of free space.

Users get up to 10TB worth of free cloud storage on Kanbox once they link their Laiwang account to their Kanbox account. Laiwang is Alibaba’s chat app, which the company has been pushing hard to promote in the crowded field of social networking and messaging services.

Alibaba may have a cloud computing unit Aliyun, but that deals mainly with businesses and governments. It has long had a gap to fill by not offering storage services for typical consumers — unlike its rivals Tencent and Baidu.

Kanbox has more than 15 million users now and behaves in a similar way to Dropbox. Basically it offers an app that can be downloaded onto PCs or mobile devices, letting users upload, download and sync personal files such as photos and other media across different devices.

As Alibaba is known mainly for e-commerce, Kanbox also has its uses such as offering vendors on its Taobao Marketplace a way to store large numbers of product photos and other website images, the company says.

Besides offering storage services for its users though, Alibaba notes that one of its purposes in acquiring Kanbox is to boost its mobile efforts. About 3 million Kanbox users are accessing the service via mobile devices. An Alibaba spokeswoman says:

    Personal cloud storage will be a fundamental service for mobile users in the future and will serve as an important touch-point to reach a wider user population.

    We believe this type of service is synergistic with our existing suite of mobile applications and ecosystem.

In essence, Alibaba wants to develop something like Apple’s iCloud service, as it is planning for Kanbox to become a mobile cloud storage service that will let users back up their mobile data, such as contacts and text messages, on remote servers.

Please go to the link below to get your 10 TB cloud storage:
http://www.kanbox.com/TB


Reference:
China’s Alibaba offers 10TB worth of free personal cloud storage as it buys Dropbox-like Kanbox
http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/09/25/chinas-alibaba-offers-10tb-worth-of-free-personal-cloud-storage-as-it-buys-dropbox-like-kanbox/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+%28The+Next+Web+All+Stories%29

IT Management: What’s Your Customer’s Sourcing Model?

Let us for a minute envision the following situation. A typical enterprise customer like a Nike or Cisco has released a RFP (Request for Proposal) and sends it to multiple service providers. These service providers are typically major global sourcing and IT services companies who are part of the customer's strategic vendor list. More often than not, the bid team starts working in 10th gear, responding to the RFP. All the questions are answered as asked by the customer. A solution is put forward, appropriate pricing is laid out and proposal is then submitted. And eventually in most cases, the customer comes back delivering a major shock. They could not find any uniqueness in the value proposition put forward. The services selection criterion came down to a few handfuls of factors: price, brand name, references etc and the customer went with a familiar brand. The service provider keeps wondering what went wrong. The customer keeps wondering if there was any use to spend all the time and money in creating the RFP process.

Most of us sales executives have fallen victims of responding too tactically at some time or the other. One of the biggest mistakes a service provider makes on getting an RFP is start immediately answering the questions in it. We believe in a three-step sourcing-model analysis process for all Big Deals.

Read the RFP - As soon as the RFP comes in, all the core team members should read it in entirety. As trivial as this sounds, most of the time not all the core team members read the whole RFP. People tend to zone in on the bits and pieces relevant to themselves.

Analyze the provider wish list - It is extremely valuable to know what you want out of the deal. You may have to change your "want" position as you go further down the deal, but it is important to have this as a start. Many bid teams use a four-step due process in this segment. First, sourcing strategy is defined, followed by sourcing initiation and then enhancement; finally, sourcing governance is put in place. Once the bid team has gone through a series of questions (as defined in Figure 1.1), they will have a good understanding about what they want to achieve from this deal as a service provider. So the provider wish list analysis needs to be a group exercise among senior people from the business units and the deals group. This discussion should happen face-to-face if possible. Obviously, when you are discussing these answers, you need to bounce the ideas off the RFP to ensure that you are not completely off-track. For example, if the RFP asked for all work to be done onsite and you present an engagement model that is highly offshore-centric, then you are simply wasting time. But pushing the envelope is OK. If the customer asked for offshore quotes from Malaysia, don't hesitate to show China quotes as an alternative.

Figure 1.1: A Recommended Four-Step Process for Analyzing the Deal Wish List
 

Understand customer sourcing tolerance - Understanding a customer's sourcing tolerance stems from the amount of intelligence you have about the customer. Your account team members for this customer should give you information on the customer's psychology. Take the time to understand the preferred or tolerated sourcing model of the customer. Is your customer the type that believes they can do it all in a cost-effective way and do not need a provider? Or are they the type that believes the provider can do it all? Most large customers fall somewhere in the middle, where they want to share the work with the provider. Figure 1.2 simplifies global sourcing models from a customer's perspective. Once you have an idea of the global sourcing preference of the customer, it's time to verify again if that sourcing model can support what you want on the basis of the findings on the wish list of your organization. If the answer is yes, or if you can create a negotiated position that works for you, go forward with creating the engagement model for the customer.

Figure 1.2: Global Sourcing Model From a Customer Perspective

In summary, we can safely say that taking a step back in responding to a RFP will actually help you take a step forward in the right direction.


References:
Anirban Dutta and Hetzel W Folden, "Winning Strategies: Secrets to Clinching Multimillion Dollar Deals", pages 90-93, (Singapore: Wiley, 2010)