So you have been cruising along at your business for years and all has been great, but now, out of the blue, people on your network are having trouble viewing websites.
You found that if you reboot that firewall (pull the plug on the thing since there is no power supply) that YOU get back online right away, but then later that day, someone else on the network is now having trouble accessing websites so you reboot the firewall and all is well, for a while.
What could it be? It MUST be the firewall going bad since that fixes it.
Before jumping to that conclusion and just replacing the device, think back. Has your company grown? Maybe you have added a few new employees, or, maybe you have added tablets or other connected devices.
What could be happening here is that you have added one too many devices to your network and exceeded the number of seats that your firewall appliance supports. When you originally purchased that device, a technician counted the number of computers, servers and connected devices and said “You need a 25 user firewall and it will cost $xxx.xx”, to which you agreed and promptly forgot about.
Now, flash forward to today and your 12 users and a server have grown to 15 users, two servers and many people have iPads or Android tablets or phones, taking you past the 25 user limit. The last person to connect once you go over the limit will generally be denied access to websites by the firewall, as a warning that you have exceeded the license terms, and it probably won’t “reset” just by turning that computer off, you will have to reboot the firewall to free unused seats up.
So what are you going to do about it? I guess you could tell the employees to stop connecting their personal phones to your network, or you could replace the firewall with a cheap router that has no limitations.
Both will work, but are bad ideas.
The real solution is to correct the licensing issue. Determine how many connected devices you have within your network, and estimate how many you will need for the next year, then talk to a vendor who can provide the proper licenses and apply those for you. Don’t forget to include VoIP and security systems, even copiers and connected printers, as they may require a seat too.
If you are experiencing rapid growth, consider upgrading to an unlimited license.
Just a note – If you have an old device, say 4-5 years old, now may be the time to consider upgrading the entire device to the latest technology at the same time you correct the user limitation!
Should you require help with this, Homeland Secure IT offers sales and support of most major brands of firewalls. We partner with Cisco, WatchGuard, SonicWALL, TrendNet, D-Link, NetGear and more! Call us for more information in the Greenville / Upstate SC area – 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
We have been informed by our Charter rep that starting today (January 10, 2012), Charter is starting an initiative focused on removing older generation docsis 1 and 1.1 modems from the customer user base that currently subscribes to MAX, PLUS and ULTRA.
The email included the following information:
- This is a company-wide project focused on technically positioning our customer base for advanced HSI products and increased speeds.
- The communication is handled via a browser message that will alert only those customers with older docsis 1 or 1.1 modems and asking them swap.
- Replaced at no cost to the customer, including customer owned modems. See sample screenshot image below…
- The customer will communicate with us via phone at 877.739.0427 or use the browser link to expedite the delivery.
- All modems will be sent via mail to the mailing address on the account. (again, at no cost to the customer)
- The modems will be mailed as a self install kit from a central distribution center.
Here’s the link: https://connect.charter.com/replacemodem/
If you have any questions about Charter internet, phone or television, either home or business, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
Satellite internet connections have been around for a while, and if you have used that technology, you have likely been disappointed.
Hughes probably has the highest market penetration, and those using it have been quick to complain about caps and upload speed.
This is where ViaSat comes in. They revealed their home satellite system at CES and Engadget has a pretty good write-up with a video that tells more about the 12 Mbps down/3 Mbps up service that runs $50.oo per month.
What is left out is what types of data caps they may have.
This came in email from our Charter rep and may be of interest to you if you have not already seen this:
Charter Ups Broadband Speeds Again, Bumps Top Tier to 100 Mbps –
DiGeronimo says DSL is Basically Archaic
Original Publication Date: 12/1/2011
Original News Source: Multichannel News
By Todd Spangler — Multichannel News, 12/1/2011 3:00:00 PM
Looking to kick more sand in the face of DSL, Charter Communications is increasing connection speeds of its three top broadband tiers — Express, Plus and Ultra, which will now provide downloads of up to 100 Megabits per second — at no additional cost for subscribers.
The speed boosts are the MSO’s fourth in the last three years. The faster speeds will take effect in markets with DOCSIS 3.0 technology deployed, which represents approximately 95% of Charter’s service area.
“As customers share multiple devices on a single connection, we want to send a very strong message: DSL is basically archaic,” said Rich DiGeronimo, Charter’s senior vice president of product and strategy.
Charter is increasing Internet Express downstream speeds from 12 Mbps to up to 15 Mbps, and increasing upstream speeds from 1 Mbps to up to 3 Mbps. Internet Plus downstream speeds are being increased from 18 Mbps to up to 30 Mbps, and upstream speeds are being increased from 2 Mbps to up to 4 Mbps.
In addition, Charter’s fastest residential offering is increasing from 60 Mbps to 100 Mbps — with Ultra100 providing 100 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream. Charter’s Internet Lite tier will remain 3 Mbps down.
The midlevel Plus tier, at 30/4, is now faster than the fastest AT&T U-verse Internet service available. Charter’s footprint overlap with AT&T is 60%, although U-verse is not available in all of those areas.
“We believe we have an advantage in this space,” DiGeronimo said. “The thirst for speed is only growing.”
Charter is offering Express for $19.99 per month for 12 months to new customers, Plus for $29.99 per month. Ultra100 is $40 more per month than the Express tier.
“We’re not asking for more money. It’s really about differentiation,” DiGeronimo said. About 90% of Charter’s broadband customers take either Express and Plus service.
Charter’s broadband services are subject to different usage thresholds. Customers with Lite and Express tiers are allotted at 100 Gigabytes of bandwidth usage per month, while those on the Plus and Max services have a threshold of 250 GB per month. The Ultra100 tier will be capped at 500 GB per month; previously, the Ultra60 tier did not have a maximum usage limit. Charter currently does not charge overage fees for those who exceed the thresholds; however, users’ accounts may be suspended for repeated violations.
Charter also is increasing speeds for business customers, bumping up commercial Internet speeds at no cost for two of its most popular services, Charter Business Internet Essentials16 and 25. The speed increase will take place in approximately 95% of Charter’s service areas nationwide.
Specifically, the speed increases are: Internet Essetials16, with download speeds of 16 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 Mbps, will increase to up to 20 Mbps download and up to 3 Mbps upload; and Internet Essentials25, with download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps, will increase to up to 30 Mbps download and up to 4 Mbps upload — which the MSO notes is at least 6 times faster than 5 Mbps DSL service and 20 times faster than T1 lines. Charter’s fastest commercial offerings, Pro50 and Pro100, remain the same, providing up to 50 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload and up to 100 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload, respectively.
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Homeland Secure IT loves Charter! We help Greenville & Upstate South Carolina individuals & businesses get connected with high speed internet all the time and Charter, especially Charter Business, has the highest customer satisfaction of any of the ISPs we work with. If you are feeling the need for speed, email us at info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 and we can assist you in the search for the best service and the best price!
Seven must-have technologies for your small business
One conversation new or potential business owners may want to have with their IT professionals is about what technologies exist that can improve their life. Below you will find some that are must haves…
Apple iPhone
Smartphones: Whether it is an Android, iPhone or even a Windows based phone, you cannot survive without one. These devices provide instant communication with your clients through email, text message and phone, along with the ability to browse the web and select from tens of thousands of applications to assist in your business. Your clients will not wait for you to get to your office to respond to an email. Even a quick, “I’m driving, will respond as soon as it is safe” auto-response is better than no response. The cost of a typical phone can range from 100 to 300 dollars per phone depending on features and term of contract from the carrier of your choice.
Square Credit Card Reader
Credit Card Processing: If you expect to get paid, then you need to accept every form of payment possible, including plastic. Yes, you will lose a little bit on the sale, but you will gain an instant payment. If you are just getting started, without purchasing a machine or paying a monthly charge, you can accept credit cards anywhere you have a cell signal using the Square credit card application with your smart phone and the free reader device that they provide to you. No per-swipe fee, and less than 3.0% charge. Fast, secure, and in your account the next business day. Find it in your phones’s marketplace.
Reliable & Fast Internet: There are a lot of choices these days for fast internet, from DSL to cable to fiber, and the old tried and true T1 standard, but some businesses may find that a wireless broadband internet plan may be enough for them. We recommend Charter Business in most situations, but that varies depending upon what is available at the business location. One advantage to using a cellular based broadband internet connection is that you can take it with you, which is great for businesses that are not tied to one specific location. Typical 4G plans will provide over 5 meg down and up to 2 meg up. Verizon Wireless offers the MiFi devices for around 50 dollars with 5GB plans for 50 dollars per month.
IP Surveillance Cameras
IP surveillance: Sure it sounds like the CIA, but IP security cameras at your business will decrease loss of inventory, increase productivity, and may provide an insurance savings. You can even keep tabs on your employees using a smartphone or any web browser to view these camera. Recordings can be reviewed after events occur, and most systems can email you when there is movement in a particular location. Prices range from $150 for a single entry level camera into the $2000 range to cover an entire business. You can install yourself, or get an IT provider to handle this for you for the most professional results.
Email: This is a no-brainer, but many small businesses will cut corners here. A Hotmail account will work for sure, but who wants AcmeWidgetCo@hotmail.com on their business cards. At the very least, your business should use a service that allows for linking a domain to your mail, such as Google Apps (Gmail) or Microsoft Office 365. This gives you a professional appearance, and provides for important features such as linking of your smartphones, sharing of calendars between users and so much more. Microsoft Office 365 costs about 5 dollars per person per month and gives you up to 20GB of storage.
Anti-Virus & Security: Far too often this is overlooked, or taken for granted. A business that is vulnerable to viruses or malware is a business that could experience costly downtime and repairs, not to mention, open yourself up for compliance violations and potential fines or legal issues depending upon the field you are in. The components of a secure network are as simple as a quality firewall like those offered from Cisco, Watchguard or SonicWall, an anti-virus software package from Trend Micro or Symantec, and taking the time to apply updates to the Operating System (Windows, Mac, etc) and support software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, JAVA).
Backup: When disaster strikes, you need to be prepared for it. Having backups of your important files will insure you are not out of business when a computer or server fails. Backups technology can be as simple as an external USB drive or remote backup solution, or on the other end of the spectrum, as complicated as auto-loader tape drives. One thing is for sure, ANY attempt to backup your data is better than none. For automated cloud backup solutions, consider Servosity or Mozy Pro.
Here at Homeland Secure IT, we utilize a vast array of technology and we also help many small and medium businesses and even home offices stay up to date. If we can help you with decisions regarding your Greenville or Upstate technology infrastructure, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer sales, service, repair and consultation of everything from computers to VoIP.
What is your “must have” business technology? I would love to hear about it. VoIP phone systems? iPad, Android or Windows based tablet computers? A favorite app (We love TiKL & Waze)?
FCC Test My ISP Study
I have been participating in the SamKnows / Test My ISP program that the FCC has undertaken in an effort to better understand what internet providers are offering, and what consumers are ultimately getting.
The first report has been released and it sure doesn’t look good for DSL technology! If you have DSL based internet (AT&T U-Verse included), then you may want to consider cable because you are very likely NOT getting what you are paying for.
The report can be found here http://www.fcc.gov/measuring-broadband-america
The cable providers did well, in many cases providing better service than you are paying for, and Charter Cable held its own. Verizon fiber was the clear winner, give MORE than 100%!
Again, DSL fell flat in throughput, both up and down and latency was so high that it would make using VoIP (Voice over IP), and other packet intensive two-way communication means almost unusable.
If you would like to participate in this study, you can sign up at http://www.SamKnows.com.
How does it work? You will be sent a “whitebox”, which is a little router you replace your current router with, and it does tests throughout the day, measuring upload and download speed, latency, etc. You won’t even know it is there. For the paranoid types, yes, it COULD be sending some of your private data out to some centralized monitoring facility, but, that is highly unlikely. I did some packet captures on mine and didn’t see much data being sent at all.
If you are in the Greenville or Upstate SC area and would like to discuss how your business or even your home can use Charter home or Charter Business to save money and get faster internet speeds, phone and cable TV, then please email us at info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748
The following blog post is from the WatchGuard Security Center, posted by Chris McKie….
The “Privacy Bill of Rights” – A WatchGuard PerspectiveChris McKie | April 12, 2011 at 12:50 pm | Tags: Compliance, Privacy Bill of Rights, Regulation, Security Law | Categories: Editorial Articles | URL: http://wp.me/pVP8E-8K |
“Whenever industry fails to self-regulate, government will fill the void with legislation.” You can quote me on that.
Currently, the security industry fights a war on many fronts. On one end of the spectrum, we have industry regulations, such as PCI DSS, which helps mandate how credit card/payment card information is secured. On the other end, we have government regulations, such as CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act), which regulate data protection for schools, libraries and health care providers.
Now, we face one of the largest government acts of its kind, the “KerryDraft – Privacy Bill of Rights.” Although it is not law now, should it become law, businesses and consumers will see broad and sweeping changes to how consumer data is managed and protected.
Here are the key tenets of the Privacy Bill of Rights:
• Right to Security and Accountability
• Right to Notice and Individual Participation
• Right to Purpose Specification; Data Minimization; Constraints on Distribution; Data Integrity
• Voluntary Enforceable Codes of Conduct Safe Harbor Programs
• Co-Regulatory Safe Harbor Programs
• Application with other Federal Laws
• Development of Commerce Data Privacy Policy in the Department of Commerce
Obviously, this is a lot to digest for businesses and consumers. Here, I will break these points out in greater detail and provide in-depth analysis and commentary so that you can better understand the impact of this Act.
A year ago, Senators Kerry and McCain would have faced an uphill battle in pushing this legislation forward, but given the latest high-profile security fumbles (need I say Epsilon?), it follows that this Act may very well become the next big regulatory change for the industry. Stay tuned!
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How do YOU feel about this? Go over to the WatchGuard blog and read this article and any follow-ups that may be made: http://watchguardsecuritycenter.com/2011/04/12/the-%E2%80%9Cprivacy-bill-of-rights%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-a-watchguard-perspective/#comment-333
I for one do not find this to be a step in the right direction.
So now that we are reaching the end of the IPv4 addresses, what’s next?
You don’t have to sit back and wait for your ISP to provide you with IPv6, you can play with IPv6 today using a “Tunnel Broker”.
How does that work? Hurricane Electric is one example of a tunnel broker who allows you to use IPv6 via tunneling through the traditional IPv4 network from an IPv6 configured host or router to one of the Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel routers.
What do you need? A IPv6 capable router/firewall or IPv6 capable host. That’s it.
What if your router doesn’t support IPv6? It may be flashable to run one of the Open Source offerings such as OpenWRT or DD-WRT , or you could invest less than 100 dollars and purchase a compatible device.
You’ve got the hardware, now what? Go to the Hurricane Electric site or another Tunnel Broker, create your tunnel and you should be able to get it going in a short period of time.
Next point some hosts from your domain to your new IPv6 IPs and give it a try! Now you’re ready for World IPv6 day!
While this is fun and gives you an opportunity to work with the “new” technology, I would not recommend this as your long term solution, nor would I recommend it for a corporate or even business network solution.
If you have a Greenville / Upstate business that you need to prepare for an IPv6 deployment, please contact us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com – We can help pave the way to a smooth transition.
IPv4 Exhaustion Prediction
We knew the day was coming, and today we learned that it was sooner than later.
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), the organization that manages IP addresses and domain allocations has assigned two IPv4 address blocks to APNIC (The Asian-Pacific Network Information Centre), which in turn has caused a provision in the IANA rules to go into affect, releasing the last five IPv4 address groups totaling 82.5 million addresses to the regional internet registries.
So that’s it for the total pool of 4.3 billion IP addresses!
Where do we go from here? IPv6 baby! It has been there waiting in the wings for this moment, and now it is time for it to shine. ISPs will be left with no choice but to begin deployment.
What is interesting is that the graph on the left, from the Wikipedia site about “IPv4 Address Exhaustion” was spot on in predicting the end…
It is time (actually past time) to be planning for your own future, meaning, getting your infrastructure ready for the IPv6 deployments that will be coming. You may need some new hardware, and certainly a few configuration changes, but either way, you should be working with your network support professional to ensure you are ready.
If you need assistance in the Greenville or Upstate, SC area, please call upon us. We offer computer, server and network support, service, repair, sales and consultation. 864.990.4748 or info@homelandsecureit.com
All of our partner companies (Cisco, WatchGuard, SonicWall, etc) offer IPv6 ready firewalls, security appliances, routers, and more!
