This sure isn't DSL!

Tired of waiting for that ISO to download? I know the feeling, even with the 30megabit download speeds we currently have…

As if they were reading our minds regarding speed limitations, our Charter Business rep let us know the other day that they have turned it up a notch here in Greenville and are offering two new speed packages.

The “Pro40″ package is 40 megabit down and 4 megabit up… YIKES!  40m x 4m is incredible! 4 megabit up is nearly twice what we have now and an extra 10 megabit down will make those big ISOs arrive a bit quicker. Oh but that’s nothing at all. Seriously.

There’s a “Pro75″ package, yeah, and you already guessed it: 75 megabit down and 5 megabit up. Holy #&!% this is amazing!!!!!!!   All I want for Christmas is 75×5.

While it is not Google Fiber, it is available right now, without a huge outlay of cash. In fact, the 75×5 is less than the cost of a 1.5m up/down T1.

This type of bandwidth is necessary if you are contemplating a move towards cloud computing, and the uplink speeds will allow you to better serve remote users!

If you would like more information about Charter Business services and how it can help your business, please give us or your Charter Business rep a call. Our free network support evaluation will tell you if your current firewall, router, switch, etc may be a bottleneck in your new high-speed network infrastructure.  We are also your Upstate experts on cutovers from one internet service provider to another. Call us today – 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

As 2010 draws to a close, I have been looking back over the service that Homeland Secure IT has performed and talking with other computer service techs about the work that has come through our doors and not at all surprising is the fact that malware / virus removal & cleanup was one of the most common types of issues tackled.

Not at all an exhaustive study in this, but here’s what the typical notebook and laptop (end user) PC repair and maintenance looks like:

A full 20% of our end user (business and home computer and notebook) service has comprised of something related to malware, viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, rootkits, etc… Whether it was cleaning a machine which was infected, or installing anti-virus to help protect it, a lot of time (and client money!) was invested into this area.

The only other area of computer service that came close was the setup and deployment of new desktop workstations, notebooks, laptops, etc.

What does that tell us? It tells us too many people are running inadequate anti-virus and anti-malware, on unpatched computers.

We can’t remember any of these infections occuring on Microsoft Windows 7 machines, and not a single client with Windows 7 running Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security or Titanium! The majority of them were running Windows XP.

I guess that means if everyone with XP would switch over to a Windows 7 based machine with Trend Micro Anti-Virus, we would lose some revenue, but I think we can live with that! One thing is for sure: Mac and Linux owners better start keeping their systems up to date and get some anti-virus loaded, as they have already overtaken the latest versions of Windows as far as the rate of infections are going!

If you feel your computer may be compromised (signs are strange behaviors, unexpected windows opening, getting a strange website instead of a familiar one, machine running slower than normal, blue screens, lockups, reboots, etc), please give us a call at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We provide complete computer repair, service and support in the Greenville / Upstate SC area.

It sure has been an event filled weekend regarding security! Several high profile sites have been hacked…  The largest is the Gawker controlled sites, Gawker, Gizmodo, Lifehacker and a slew of others where it is estimated that as many as 1.5 million usernames and passwords may have been compromised.

Supposedly, the Gawker passwords also allowed Facebook to be used for spamming acai berry ads from compromised accounts.

Two other major sites, McDonalds and Walgreens, fell victim to hackers over the weekend too.

It should be plain to see that anyone using the same login and password on multiple sites is the most vulnerable. Therefore, it is recommended that you use a different password on every site you use, so in the event of one site becoming the target of hackers, at least your password will not be used to log into other sites, such as banking, or even medical.

Some of you are already complaining, I can hear you all the way over here at my office and I feel your pain! When you are subscribed to a dozen blogs, do your banking online, use services like eBay, or social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc, you would have to have, and more importantly REMEMBER dozens of accounts and passwords.

Fortunately, there are password management tools that can help you. There are free apps that accomplish this for your Android, Blackberry or iPhone, and many more for your Windows or Mac based computer. These apps will even create random passwords for you so you don’ t have to come up with a password each time you create a new account.

Just what IS a secure password? I’m glad you asked! A secure, or “strong” password should be at least 8 characters long, contain Upper/lower case characters, a number or more, and special characters such as “%”, “@” or “&”. It should not include any part of your login name, or any information such as your name, or birthdate. The best password would contain no actual words, but appear something like this:  xTgRaQ3@l1)

Think your password is secure? Check it out HERE

If you feel your computer or password may have been compromised, please seek assistance from your computer security support specialist who can help assess the extent of the damage. We provide a full line of computer repair, service, support and security, as well as free consultation in Greenville and Upstate SC…  Call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for additional information…

December 31st is the last day to take advantage of the Trend Micro “3 | 4 | 2″ deal, where you buy two years of Trend Micro anti-virus protection and get the third year for free for new purchases!

The products that this offer applies to is Trend Worry-Free Business Security (Both Standard and Advanced), Worry-Free Business Security Services, Hosted Email Security, and Enterprise Security for Endpoints & Mail Servers.

If you have a Microsoft Exchange Server, WFBS Advanced will not only protect your email from malicious content, but it will also reduce your spam dramatically! Remember, if you have Mac OS-X computers on your network, Trend WFBS 7 will protect them too!

Trend has been rated #1 for Small Business Security by Independent Testers as based on AV-test.org May/June 2010 results! Why trust your company security to anything less than the best?!?!?

Call us today at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information. We offer national sales and complete computer network service, support, sales and consultation in the Greenville & Upstate SC area!

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Secure IT Alert for Thursday, December 09, 2010

Apple has released a security update that addresses 15 media handling vulnerabilities in Apple QuickTime player on both the Mac and Windows operating systems. These vulnerabilities are similar in nature…

If attacker can coax a user to open a malicious media file, such as an image or a video, the holes can be exploited to allow execution of code on the user’s computer. What damage could be done? If you are a Windows owner, especially if you are using the now outdated Windows XP as an administrator, the attacker can gain full control over your machine. Mac owners are a little more protected as your user account is isolated from the superuser account, however, significant damage can still be done.

The fix? Update to Apple QuickTime 7.6.9 to address these security issues.

If you are using Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security 7, a WatchGuard firewall device or similar, your administrator or computer / network service or support professional can block media files such as AVI, MOV, JP2, FPX, GIF, PCIT, PCT, PIC or QTVR in FTP, HTTP, Email and more. This solution may have a negative impact on your workflow, so the upgrade path to QT 7.6.9 is likely preferable to total blockage of media files.

Should you require assistance with this or any other computer or network security issue, computer repair or computer service in the Greenville or Upstate, SC area, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We also offer the full line of Trend Micro Security Products, as well as WatchGuard, Cisco, SonicWALL and other firewall appliance.

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Windows Small Business Server 2011

The “preview” of Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 7 has been available for months, and it looks like we are approaching an RTM (Release To Manufacturing) soon.

Windows Small Business Server 7 is a total refresh of the Small Business Server 2008 which was built around Microsoft Server 2008 and Microsoft Exchange 2007.

SBS 7 is built around Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange 2010, and is destined to be named “Microsoft Small Business Server 2011″. Microsoft has stated it will come in two popular flavors:

Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

• Ideal first server for small businesses with 25 users or less.
• Allows you to backup every computer and server on the network, and to restore individual files, folders or an entire PC or server with provided disaster recovery tools.
• Provides remote access to important information from virtually anywhere. Access computers and documents via the web.
• It is a gateway to cloud services as well, paving the way for the future of Software as a Service (SaaS).

Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

• Complete On-Premise Solution for businesses with up to 75 users.
• Enterprise-class technology in an affordable, all-in-one suite.
• Automatic backup of data
• Centralized patch / update management.
• Provides fast and secure remote access to files, email and more via a web browser.

Windows Small Business Server 2011 will likely be the product that we sell the most of as it fits the needs of our average client, but the Essentials version will be attractive to the small business moving from a peer-to-peer network to a server-centric solution that can provide the security they require without breaking the bank.

SBS 2011 will be secure, efficient and flexible just like the current SBS 2008, but with all the latest bells and whistles!

For those interested in seeing the software first-hand, the preview versions are still available HERE…

Considering a server deployment in the coming year? Windows Small Business Server 2011 may fit the bill. Please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for a free consultation in the Greenville / Upstate SC area. We provide full computer, server & network support, service, repair, sales & consultation!

While most people whine and complain about the cold weather, I look forward to it for many reasons. I don’t dig the heat, or the humidity at all, which is really funny because have opted to live in the South!

What’s to look forward to? Snow, ice, seeing your breath, doing donuts in your car in the snow (uhmmm or so I’ve heard), etc. Of course there are the negative sides, such as scraping ice if you don’t have a garage, and worrying about your teenage children driving in the slick stuff.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the ability to use the cold in the car to instantly turn a liquid into a solid. In this case, a bottle of water I leave in my car for entertainment purposes. Every cold morning when I get in the car, I perform the following, all in the name of science:

I know, your 5th grader does this too, but hey, at least I am never bored!

Have fun with this, and I will get back to doing that thing we do – computer, server and network service, support and sales here in chilly Greenville, SC…

Today you can hardly have a conversation with IT professionals without the buzz words, “cloud computing”, “in the cloud”, “cloud solutions”, etc popping up.

What do these terms mean? To over-simplify the definition, it means that something is not stored at your location. It is stored “in the cloud”, or on a remote server, and accessed via the internet. The “it” could be data, as in your databases, email, files, or it could be programs / applications, such as web based suites of software like Microsoft Office suite, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word or custom applications.

All this talk about moving to “the cloud”, a term which is generically used for the internet, has people thinking about how it can be used for their business. Let’s take our own small business and use it as an example.

Currently, we use a large server which has Microsoft Server 2008 loaded on it and functions as our domain controller, DNS, DHCP, and other standard server tasks… It also serves as our file server, and it hosts Microsoft Exchange for our in-house email. Other tasks this one piece of hardware is responsible for are: TFTPd for management of our VoIP phone system’s configuration files, backup of data (Using multiple backup systems such as Servosity Online Backup Solution, an “in the cloud” product, and MozyPro) and Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Advanced for anti-virus and anti-spam.

We have a second server which hosts additional files, Blackberry Enterprise Server (not currently in use due to the switch to Android phones), and is a test bed for us. Then we have two other servers, a Voice over IP server based on Linux OS which is in control of our phone system & voice mail, and a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) for storage of video from our CCTV cameras.

In order to reduce some overhead, we could potentially maintain a smaller main server with only Windows 2008 R2 running on it as a domain controller, then utilize Microsoft Aurora, or even Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), allowing mail storage and transport to take place outside our building.

We could then switch from Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Advanced to the Trend Hosted solution, relieving our server from those duties.

Since we are already using a remote backup solution, we would not have to worry about that, and our backup requirements would actually drop since we would no longer need to backup the Microsoft Exchange Store (Microsoft would handle that for us with the BPOS solution).

As you can see, eliminating the main server entirely from the equation here is not going to be possible, however a considerable amount of storage, backup, and resources could be moved elsewhere.

One thing to take into consideration before moving to these hosted solutions is, what if our internet is down? That is a good question which still has many people concerned about these technologies. In the case of online file storage, if you do not have cached storage at your location, you simply have no access to it. In the case of mail, if you are caching the information locally, you CAN see your old/existing email, but you cannot send or receive new mail until the connection is reestablished. It is important to note that cloud based email will still RECEIVE email when your business is without an internet connection and you will get it as soon as the connection is reestablished, something that doesn’t happen now if you use an onsite Exchange Server, unless you are using a mail hold & forward (spool) system at your ISP or other provider.

Should you desire to discuss your needs and how products like Microsoft Aurora, BPOS, Google Apps, Servosity and other cloud services can fit into your infrastructure, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for a free consultation!  We are partners with Microsoft, Google, Servosity, MozyPro and other cloud providers. We also offer a full line of computer, server & network service, support, sales and consultation here in Greenville & Upstate SC!

Microsoft is offering a free 30 day trial of their Business Productivity Online Suite if you would like to see it in action.

Screwtape at Greenville's Warehouse Theatre

Paul Savas and the Warehouse Theatre have done it again… They provided an evening of entertainment for my family that did not break the bank! Just what I needed on a Friday evening!

This time we attended the opening performance of “Screwtape”, an adaptation of “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis, which I have never read or had any exposure to at all, nor had my daughter Megan. Of course, my wife Pamela read up on it as if there would be a test at the end.

I must admit, after seeing the incredible production of “The Rocky Horror Show” at The Warehouse Theatre, I was half expecting “Screwtape” to be about a 70s adult film or something similarly risque, but in my heart I knew the author wouldn’t go there as he was a Christian. In short, I really didn’t know what to expect at all… 

The play was indeed Christian themed, and one we can all relate to, even if you are not a believer. It is about good and evil, and how evil walks the earth and tempts you…

In this case “Wormwood” (played by Dayrl Ward Phillipy) is a fiend from Hell, charged with the task of tempting Mike (Jason Adkins) under the supervision of his uncle “Screwtape” (Kevin Treu) , a seasoned devil. Should Wormwood fail, he will be eaten below, as their slogan goes, “Bring us food, or be eaten…”. They enlist a female fiend to help with this job, “Slumtrimpet” (Roberta Barnes) and a running gag is the continued varied pronunciation of “Slumtrimpet”, whom they resort to calling “Slut”.

Interesting to me is that this comes from the point of view of the evil side, showing everything that Screwtape, Wormwood and Slumtrimpet embark upon to get Mike to give up his soul. They reverse all the lines we are used to hearing, so we don’t hear, “Father above”, instead we hear, “father below”, etc.

I won’t give away the plot or the ending here…   You could read up on that at the Wiki entry for The Screwtape Letters.

As in every event we have attended at the Warehouse Theatre, the set and props were perfect, the audio, video and lighting awesome, and the actors were incredible. The Upstate is apparently filled with so much talent that I didn’t even know existed and The Warehouse has found them! The only thing that could really be improved upon would be the audio track used in a couple of scenes in which the lyrics are hard to pull out. I write this one off as an opening night glitch and surely this will be cleared up quickly. 

Simple people are easily amused, but I really enjoyed the stereo effects, the use of video projectors and scrims.

This show is appropriate for your more liberal church groups, as long as they can handle the words, “slut”, “bitch”, and a topic from the perspective of hell, instead of heaven for the most part. I believe it would be rated “PG” if it were a movie.

Thank you again to the cast, crew & supporters of The Warehouse Theatre for another great production! I can’t wait for January to get here because, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” looks interesting too!  

You need to reserve your tickets now as I understand they are selling out fast, last night was totally sold out, tonight is probably sold out.