Monthly Archives: June 2009

Security comes at a price… free?

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This weekend I spent some time fixing family and friends’ computers. This of course is a pretty typical event. For those of you who are handy with computers I’m sure your weekends are filled with much of the same and for those of you who are not– I’m sure yours is filled with the pains my acquaintances know all too well: downtime.

In a world where we rely on our computers at home and work to give us access to the Internet for vital tasks (i.e. bill payment, finance management, communication, and data storage) downtime is truly a costly item to deal with. Whether your personal or business computer, security is much more accessible than one may think. Better yet– aside from the time invested installing and maintaining these little gems of software (say an hour a week at the most if you’re obsessive about it like me) we’re talking no money here. When you’re humming along though and not wasting time trying to fix it– then you’ll see how much time a hour of prevention is worth compared to a few days of data recovery.

Software

Security software comes in two segments– prevention and recovery. In general, prevention applications run 24/7 in the background of your computer. A big issue is resource intensive security programs, but bloat does not equal protection. Therefore a true preventive security program will use minimal amounts of resources to provide maximum protection. A recovery program is one that let’s you recover or fix problem after an infection occurs. In general, no protective software is going to 100% cover every possible threat so you have to be prepared for the exception and ready to react in removal when it happens. Recovery programs need to be able to avoid being blocked by infections and work to secure holes while evading traps left by the malicious program. Let’s tackle common areas of security:

  • Malware – Malware is any program that intentionally causes harm or attempts to exploit your machines for benefit. Commonly referred to as “spyware”, malware programs usually turn your machine into a spam, ad, or virus factory benefiting their maker in the process.
    • Proactive – Spybot Search & Destroy: Developed as a final college research project by its creator, Spybot has grown into a full security suite for the prevention and detection of spyware. Spybot runs actively in the background and can be programmed to perform scans on your system during off hours. The active shield is not resource intensive, but the scans are and that is why it is better to automate the scan for an overnight run while you sleep.
    • Reactive – Malware Bytes: Malware Bytes works well to remove 99.9% of malware infections. Even the worst infections are easily remove with one sweep and a reboot. We use this one routinely in our Tech Support Call Center to root out problems and get PCs back in working order ASAP.
  • Virus – A virus is a computer program intentionally programmed to install without permission and cause harm to the underlying system it runs on. It also tends to try to spread itself and proactively replicate it’s infection using known exploits in specific operating systems or programs. Malware is annoying– viruses are disastrous.
    • Proactive – AVG Free: AVG Free is the same anti-virus program found in the AVG Internet and Security Suites, but because it doesn’t have all the extra programs in it the application is leaner and runs quicker. AVG Free is noticeably less resource intensive than other competing products and provides an excellent level of protection that is in general superior to what other pay products offer as a whole. The one downside is the product is known to have nag screens trying to get you to buy the pay version of the software, but those are far between during major upgrades and not overall intrusive in nature.
    • Reactive – SyncBack Free: SyncBack is an easy to use back up utility that allows you to sync your data between either a spare hard drive or to a remote site (via FTP over the Net). The trick here is to back up your data to a spare hard drive in your computer and if disaster happens you can simply either copy the data back over the primary hard drive from the swap or just wholesale yank out the “bad” primary and change over to the “good” spare. You can then safely format that “bad” hard drive in another PC and put it back in as a the spare at a later time. I have a good friend who has more than once averted virus disaster through back up and restore. Even if it’s not for virus protection, backing up your data is a good idea in case the primary drive did fail due to normal hardware deterioration.
  • Registry Repair – CCleaner: CCleaner comes in handy after the post malware or virus removal to make sure your Windows Registry is back in proper working order. Malicious programs aren’t particularly neat when it comes to installation and obviously less particular about being removed. The result is that simply removing the virus can leave gaps in your registry and malformed links that will lead to system crashes. CCleaner addresses that cleaning out both temporary files and fixing registry errors.
  • Prevention – There are several steps you should routinely take to prevent problems:
  1. Install operating system updates weekly and make sure your system update notification feature is on to let you know when they come out.
  2. Make sure you update your anti-virus program daily and malware prevention programs weekly.
  3. Run daily off hour antivirus and malware removal scans during off hours.
  4. Make sure to run CCleaner once a month after rebooting first to install all “hanging updates” that may be out there.

You should also consider switching to an alternative web browser like Firefox to insure you take advantage of AVG Free’s active toolbar and search protection. We’ll be doing a run down at a later date on Firefox add on’s you can install to further bolster protection. Also, backing up your data weekly is a good idea and a great “escape plan” if disaster does happen.

I hope you see that security does not have to be complex in nature or hard to pull off. Using the above applications will help do some primary hardening of your system and help to keep your PC running in good order long term.

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The Free Software Round Up

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We’ve talked about free office applications, free web based applications, and to round up our tour of free software I’d like to broaden the scope a bit. The following are some recommendations from other sites I trust when looking for applications to get the job done. From technical support, utilities, productivity software to beyond– there is no shortage of variety here. You’re sure to find a program that you would have otherwise paid for to help constrain costs and get the job done right the first time. Best of all– it’s all free.

  • MaximumPC 32 Essential Apps – Thirty two of the best applications out there are brought to you by my favorite computer magazine. Check out “DropBox” on the list. I know several professionals who rely on it today to sync files on the cheap across multiple computers.
  • ZDNet Reader’s Choice – Twenty five of the best lightweight free applications. Check out “7-Zip” if you’re looking for across the board support of compressed file formats (including Linux tar).
  • Open Source Web Design – Need a web layout, but don’t want to plunk down big bucks for the design? Check out OSWD for some basic lay outs that can be spruced up to meet your needs.
  • Aviary – Online graphic and layout design software that can be accessed using a standard web browser. Pull off neat effects and some top end layout tricks without spending hours reading about how to pull it off in Photoshop. Aviary is truly revolutionary and will change the way you make graphics.

As you can see from the last few blogs, there is a ton of free quality software out there to be had on the Net. I welcome your feedback. If there is an application that I missed that you feel deserves kudos please drop me a comment.

I hope you enjoyed our round up of free software and that I’ve got the creative juices flowing. Maybe you’ve even found an application or two that will help you constrain costs; which increasing productivity. Tune in for future blogs where we continue to keep you up to date on the latest free top rate software.

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Check out WVT SoHo

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A quick plug for my friends in our Marketing Department at WVT Communications— we just partnered a month or so back with Red Lake Media to offer Maniacal Marketing’s series of blogs on our SoHo site. WVT has sponsored a recent live event on social media and leveraging the Internet for marketing purposes at the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. These live events will continue along with online white papers on how you can use next generation technology to get your business message out to the world. You can check out some exclusive articles on our WVT SoHo portal from Maniacal Marketing’s marketing tips blogs. Be sure to check it out. Also be sure to look for upcoming events on our site. Registration is usually free for the first 50 or so attendees. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to get your message on the Net and how you can reach a whole new audience in an interactive manner.

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Organize, revolutionize, and excel

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We last left off with a brand spanking new LAMP server setup and configured, but without a purpose. The nice thing about the LAMP server is that it enables you to share information in so many ways. The concept of sharing knowledge has been fashionably labeled “knowledge management”. This sounds rather impressive, but the concept is rooted in the one lesson every child is supposed to take away from in Preschool: Sharing is caring. Why? Simply put, if you invest all your knowledge in one person you risk stranding that knowledge if, for whatever reason, that person is not available when it is most needed. The best example I can give is that you single home training to one tech on a specific router. There is no doubt (by the very laws of IT/IS) that the first day they are out sick that router will crash and you will have to have another tech work on it. If you had all that info and configuration work the first tech had on hand in notes you will at least have a fighting chance. If you have detailed documentation you’re even better off. The trick is consolidating and organizing that info into a place where anybody can get to it. This is what the following applications do the best. They take your knowledge and help you to virtualize it so it’s available 24/7 to the rest of the team. The results are instantaneous, never strand your knowledge again.

Do not limit knowledge virtualization to just your technical knowledge though. Consider it for project management as well. Again, you will be able to share your progress in real time, but even more important you will have all the info used for a specific project for back up reference and compliance auditing. Online project management will also foster better team collaboration and realtime progress tracking, as well as, ease of reporting. Once you try virtual project management I can gaurantee you will never want to go back to Microsoft Project or loose leaf paper.

Here are some of my favorite LAMP knowledge management applications (all of which are 100% free might I add):

  • NetOffice DWINS – I live in NetOffice DWINS. There are several reasons. First, for simple outright project management there is no simpler program. Second, it works especially well for traditional, Scrum, and Agile project mangement styles; but you can adapt it to just about any phased or milestone based style. The format is loose and fosters customization of styles. I prefer the built-in six phase (concept, planning, development, testing, roll out, and maintenance) style. I will then define each task, build predecessors, and finally mark milestones. Neat things happen on there own from there in including automatic task assignment notification, automatic reporting, and GANT charts. Projects export right to CSV for formating into an Excel spreadsheet (or Open Office for that matter). I’ve used it for IT, IS, MIS, and product roll out. We’ve even adapted it for Sales tracking and development.
  • SugarCRM – SugarCRM has been around for some time. Those familiar with SalesForce.com will instantly find an attraction to the application. It’s an excellent ACT! replacement. The application is tailored to Account Executive and Sales Lead/Funnel management. Business Managers will especially like the ability to segregate information between AEs insuring info doesn’t leak from one funnel to another. Reporting is strong including your standard who’s selling what type of reports. SugarCRM also has trouble ticket tracking and can be used for hand off to a technical assistance call center including bug tracking. This provides a cradle to grave type of account management that will lead to improvement in customer satisfaction, as well as, better collaboration on the Sales channel front.
  • YashOffice – If you like SugarCRM and you like NetOffice DWINS you’ll really like YashOffice. Basically YashOffice is a module for SugarCRM that creates a NetOffice instance in the CRM. This expands your Sales Funnel and Account Management beyond simple TAC tickets allowing project management to seamlessly flow through your organization.
  • Geeklog – Geeklog is one of the original blog/Wiki tools that has progressed throughout the years into complete portal . It’s a great way to collect information and documentation into one web site. The forums module introduces the ability to build sections that can house different areas of knowledge (i.e. one forum for MIS, one for IT, one for IS, etc…). Techs will especially like the simple post style and easy to configure setup. No other application does simple outright information publishing better. It works well for “hair ball” trouble tracking and system outage tracking. We’ve even used it for SOX compliance audit logs.
  • MediaWiki – MediaWiki is more feature rich than Geeklog, but it’s also a bit harder to configure and a bit harder to use. MediaWiki is less about information collection and more about organization, as well as, collaboration of large amounts of info. MediaWiki works well for long term documentation such as Methods & Operating Procedure manuals or configuration documentation.

Looking over those links you probably realize you’re going to need an IT guru to help you setup the application on the server, but the good news is they are all built through the browser and that will make your IT guru happy (if that’s possible). Once you’re up and running though you’ll quickly realize the possibilities are only limited by the amount of time you spend learning the applications. I can tell you I’ve been working two plus years on these CRM platforms and everyday I find something new I can either do with them or a new technique to use them better. While knowledge management will make your life easier to recall; it is not a replacement to the diligence of discipline of progress tracking or continued practice of data entry. Like most worthwhile applications, the learning curve is easy enough to get you in the door and expansive enough that you can continue finding new value a year on from inception of the system.

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This LAMP burns brightly

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We last left off discussing how you can begin loading your desktop computers with free business applications to streamline your costs and augment your capabilities. It’s time to take things to the next level, but first…

WARNING: While The digitalflood Blog attempts to cater to individuals of all computer and technology experience, this particular entry requires some technical “expertise” such as installing operating systems and setting up servers. For the general public it’s a nice summary of options to consider, but make sure to consult your local computer nerd before putting these ideas into production! Now onto the blog…

To truly harness the capabilities of your office network, you must be able to make use of all that information on your computer. Even more important, you must make sure the information on your computer is able to get to the people who need it your most– your co-workers and subject matter experts. The only way to make that happen is to liberate your data from the hard drive and move it into the “cloud”. The “cloud” is a popular buzz term and in general the idea is to put that any where it will be available any time by any one who should have the right to access it. Generally this means putting the data on a secure web site, but for the majority of us who are interacting with a limited number of less than 200 employees this is over kill (not to mention expensive to pull off when you tally up the server costs, enviromentals, data connection, experts T&M, etc…).

Let’s proceed at baby steps instead and focus on the SMB segment. In order to get your info shared you’re going to need a server for your network. A server is nothing more than a computer setup specifically for a few specific ways to share information. Most servers share their info via web, email, or sometimes chat. They do this by installing dameons, which are applications that interact with client hosted applications (i.e. the httpd daemon responds to a web browser like the one you’re in right now and serves that browse info from the server… like the blog your reading right now).

The easiest server to configure and maintain is Microsoft’s line of Windows Server operating systems (OS). The latest isServer 2008. Key components include IIS, which is an application suite (a group of applications with similar purpose) that includes a web server, a DNS server, a domain server, a directory/authentification server, an email server, and a DHCP server. It’s basically an all in one server package to not only host information (as well as deliver it), but to control all the computers on your network as well. Now, this sounds all fine and dandy (which it is); but here is the catch– it isnot cheap. Entry level (with basic functions and support for a few computers) is over $600 at the time of this writing and tiers up to well over $2,500 for a large enterprise (and completely featured) version of the OS. If you have less than five computers you can get in cheap at the $350 level with the Small Business Server 2008 package, but again– the rest of us (specifically the 5-50 employee small business and 50-200 medium business category) with limited resources and limited funding; we are going to have a hard time eating those costs.

This simple arguement has been the main source for many SMBs to migrate to Linux application servers instead. I’ll flat out give you the down shot about Linux– it’s a bit harder to configure than Windows and is differently configured than Windows (less point and click, more editing of files with a text editor). This small issue turns many would be Linux lovers away fearing the worst. Now the up shot, it’s not impossible to configure and use. Once you get used to it you might even like it better (I know I do) than Windows. Linux has better up time (less crashes), more development resources (millions of open source projects now active and ready for you to install), and a better reputation of addressing flaws thanks to that aforementioned large pool of programming resources. And if that wasn’t enough– it’s free to use no matter how big or small your business is.

Here’s the deal: You’re not going to call Microsoft tech support if you get into trouble. Why? Because you don’t want to deal with the hassle on your own. You’re going to turn to your local computer nerd and ask them to fix it instead. Just like if your car broke you’d turn to an auto mechanic if you know nothing about cars. How does this differ from Linux in trouble resolution? It doesn’t. Sooner or later something is going to break whether it’s Windows or Linux running the system. When it does you’re going to need a computer nerd (end of story). So why waste (if not strand) financial resources on up front back office software costs like licensing and inter-operatbility issues between OS versions (a huge issue when it comes to Server 2008 and Server 2003– specifically with active directory and file sharing) when you can reserve those funds for the troubles later by going with a free OS alternative? The case is clear– Linux saves money in deployment, saves money in production, and is no more complex for an expert to fix than Microsoft’s offering.

To pull off the tricks we’re planning in my upcoming blog (and to liberate your data to the “cloud”) you’re going to need a special type of Linux server called a LAMP server. LAMP is an acronym that stands for “Linux Apache MySQL and PHP”. These applications are the core programs needed to run your common web server. Linux is the OS. Apache is the web server. MySQL is the data base and authentification system. PHP is the programming langauge that enables interaction between the other three. Together they create a unified Internet capable data delivery server. LAMP servers usually also do other things as well and can be customized to include other applications at will. This includes Sendmail for email, BIND for DNS, and Radius for improved authentification to either MySQL or it’s competitor (which is also free) called PostGres databases. A good LAMP server package will include a web control panel such as the popular CPanel interface (which does cost money– not all Linux applications are free unfortunately).

A web based control panel will help ease the Windows to Linux transition. It unifies your application setup and simplifies how you maintain your server. This in general will help you adapt to Linux quicker and allow you to get done what you need done just like you would in Windows– with a point and click.

I have over the course of my 15 year technology and communication career had some 300 plus web hosting clients actively use Linux via a web based control panel. After some basic tutorials and two-three weeks of time to “learn the way around” every single one of them reported back as feeling comfortable. To this day, I’m not even sure the bulk majority of them even knew they were using Linux. They just knew they were pointing and clicking. To them it could have been Windows for all they cared. This speaks signifigantly to the value of having such an application on your LAMP server. It turns office workers into office heroes who act as system administrators for daily tasks like adding email accounts and changing passwords. The majority of clients I have dealt with have had average user experience and again– these clients have reported easy transition to Linux without issue. When they’ve had a real issue they turned to me and I fixed the issue usually in a few minutes.

If you are considering moving ahead with trying out my recommedation in upcoming blogs on software you will need a web server (LAMP or Windows) and I’d strongly recomend you reach out to your IT resource to find out if you can get a test server setup in your lab (or non-production network if you don’t have a lab) to try it out.

I’ve found that most clients found the Sun Microsystem developed Cobalt control panel and CentOS Linux variant the easiest to use day to day.  300 plus subscribers cannot be wrong. The latest version of this OS is called Blue Onyx. Blue Onyx can be found at:

http://www.blueonyx.it/

It includes a web based control panel and a slick installation that most computer nerds will find easy to pull off. You will literally be up and running within 2 hours and ready to go. Any computer made in the last five years will work well (you don’t need a state of art machine to pull this off). Be aware that whatever computer you install Blue Onyx on will have all the existing data wiped from the hard drive. In other words– don’t install Blue Onyx on the Windows PC you’re using right now. Install it on that clunker in the basement you’ve had in storage for two years and were going to use for spare parts.

You just need to download the latest CD image (called an ISO) from the Blue Onyx site to your PC. Burn the ISO using a CD burner application to a CD. Dont’ have a CD burning application? If you have Windows check out IsoBurn athttp://isoburn.sourceforge.net/. It’s free and easy to use. Put the CD in the other computer you want to install Blue Onyx on and turn it on. Follow the menus through the install process.  Remember– you may need a Linux nerd to give you a hand, but once you’re up and running you’ll be ready to liberate your data.

Next time around we’ll be going through a run down of LAMP applications you can install and run for free that will change the way you do business. I can promise you that this willlead you towards managing your business better. For now though– let the Linux installation begin!

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