An Introduction to Security | ||
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INTRODUCTION TO SECURITY |
Now you can secure your network and Internet connectivity with a new range of products direct from Centreline 2000. You can now buy Axent and GFI products from us and build an industrial strength security system.
Your free report "Introduction to Security" is available at:
http://www.c2000.com/papers/security.htm
If you have an ADSL or leased-line connection at your company you need to read this report now.
See http://www.c2000.com/products for more information
FIREWALLS: YOUR INTERNET PROTECTION |
THE PROBLEM
You want to connect to the Internet, but the bad world out there wants to get in! How do you protect your own computers and network, get access to the Internet and make your systems secure?
THE SOLUTION
Raptor FireWall. A firewall that only lets in (or out) what you want.
Raptor Firewall lets you specify by user, or protocol, or application, what connections to the Internet will be allowed and which ones denied.
THIS MEANS...
You could let email go to your email server, but not let outsiders take mail from your web server.
You could let your users browse out to the web, but not download dangerous files
You could let remote staff dial in, but only to a specific machine, not the whole network.
You can prevent access to anything else on your network - or for that matter prevent your users accessing anything outside your network.
DETAILS
Organizations around the world depend on the Raptor Firewall's award-winning architecture and functionality to secure their private networks. The Raptor Firewall's intuitive management interface and high performance, multi-threaded services, make it the most secure, manageable, and flexible solution for your enterprise Internet security needs.
The Raptor Firewall for Windows NT, Solaris, and HP provides complete network protection by integrating application-level proxies, network circuits and packet filtering into a unique perimeter security architecture. This data inspection technology ensures that the data entering and leaving your corporate network is validated at all levels of the protocol stack.
The Raptor Firewall is designed to provide comprehensive security by:
See http://www.c2000.com/products/sec_rapt.htm for more information
WINDOWS SERVER: FINDING OPEN FILES ON YOUR WINDOWS SERVER |
You are trying to shut the server down, you know there are users still logged on, but are they doing anything useful or have they gone home for the day? At the command prompt run
net file
It will give you a display like:
ID Path User name # Locks --------------------------------------------------------------- 9 D:\users\letter01.doc samw 0 26 D:\users\letter_jmsw.doc samw 0 69 D:\users\packs\news.txt sqw 0 92 D:\users\packs\newslist.dat sqw 0 The command completed successfully.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
ACCESS: DATE(), TIME() AND NOW() |
In Access (or indeed other MS programs) you've got a choice of Date(), Time(), Now() to get the current date and time, but what exactly is the different between them.
Date() only gives the "days" part, 1st Jan 2000
Time() only gives the "hours" part, 10:24 am
Now() gives both.
So typically, for a date stamp you would just use Date(). Unless you needed a very specific timestamped figure, in which case use Now().
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
WINDOWS: CREATING UNIX-LIKE LINKS ON MICROSOFT NTFS |
Unix has always had a files feature called links, which are pointers to files which are identical to the original file creation. So you could have /user/simon/myfile and /user/gillian/hisfile both pointing to one and the same file.
Now this sounds like a Microsoft shortcut, but isn't. You can't open shortcut files in programs for example, they don't work that way. However, the W2K Server Resource Kit contains "ln.exe", (ln being the unix command for a link) in the POSIX sub folder. For some reason, ln.exe isn't listed in the utilities list.
So you can ln \user\simon\myfile \user\gillian\hisfile. Note the slashes are the Microsoft way, not the Unix way round.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
RECOVERING FILE SPACE FROM EXCHANGE |
Exchange has integral online maintenance, which defragments the Exchange file space but does not actually return the free space back to the system. For example, if you delete 2GB from a 6GB Exchange store, the Exchange database will still take 6GB of space.
In order to recover the file space, you must stop the Exchange server and run EDBUTIL or ESEUTIL depending on the version. Use the "/D" flag to defragment and compact the database.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
OFFICE: ASSIGNING YOUR OWN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS. |
Want a secret way of assigning your own personal shortcusts to particular menu or toolbar selections?
Press Control and Alt and "+" on the numerical keypad (ordinary "+" does not work). Now you mouse pointer shows a four-leafed clover when you move it over a menu or toolbar. Select the item you want and a dialog box appears to let you assign it to the keyboard.
In theory this is supposed to work in any Office 2000 product, in practice I've only been able to make it work in Word, but that's a start.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
UNIPLEX: WHEN THE SCREEN LOCKS |
The problem: The users screen is locked, not matter what keys are pressed the screen cannot be used until turned off/on.
The asnwer: 99 times out of 100 user has pressed CTRL-S, the handshaking command for pause. Press CTRL-Q and this will "unfreeze" the screen.
Unix administrators usually know this, but sadly never pass this useful information on to their users.
See http://www.c2000.com/uniplex for more information
NAMEBOY - DOMAIN NAME TESTER |
If you've had to think up a domain name recently you'll realise that basically all the common words (and many uncommon words) have long been taken. I read recently that all the words in Websters had been taken (that may be aprocryphal though).
Anyway, the NameBoy site is a great little web site for inventing and testing possible domain names. Put in a word like "UNIX" and it will tell you that unix.com etc have all gone, but you could have UNIXCLUB, CLUBUNIX, UNIX-MUNICHS (it has a rhyming feature) and around 50 others on one simple test. It will also tell you of related names up for auction as well.
Once you've found your domain name(s) talk to us, we are now doing bulk domain registrations at £50 for ten, including email and web redirects, named mail redirects and an absolutely no strings transfer if you need it. Just supply the names we'll handle the rest.
THE BEST LIBRARIES ON THE WEB |
The public library networking consortium, EARL, has started an initiative that seeks to recognise library web sites that are informative, fun and interesting.
Anyone can nominate up to 3 sites for the "Best on Web 2000" awards. Winners to be announced in November 2000 at the EARL annual conference.
Nominations, which can be sent via an online form, must be received by 6 October.
See http://www.earl.org.uk/bestonweb/2000.html for more information
KEY "E-GOVERNMENT" POLICY DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED |
Several important policy documents from the UK government have been published in the last couple of weeks:
E-Government Strategy
www.iagchampions.gov.uk/Strategy.html
Benchmarking Electronic Service Delivery
www.iagchampions.gov.uk/BenchmarkingESD.pdf
Knowledge Economy Action Plan (Northern Ireland)
www.leapfrog.gov.uk).
See http://www.c2000.com/lgovt for more information
THE FIVE WORST SECURITY MISTAKES END USERS MAKE |
1) Open up an email attachment without knowing who its from and what its content is
2) Not installing security patches, especially for MS Office, Internet Explorer and Netscape
3) Installing games, screen savers (if I had a pound for every screen saver induced problem I'd fixed)
4) Not making or testing backups - especially laptop users
5) Connecting a modem while the same computer is connected to the corporate LAN.
Next issue: what mistakes senior managers make.
See http://www.c2000.com/papers for more information
PROGRAMMING: USEFUL ASCII/ANSI CODES IN CONSTANTS |
When you start processing text you realise that there are some odd characters of special significance in the ASCII character set, especially Tab, Linefeed and Carriage Return. You can set these values using the Chr(10) function, but VB and VBA now include constansts already present to use as follows:
ASCII/ANSI Usage VB Constant Character
8 Backspace vbBack
9 Tab vbTab
10 Linefeed vbLf
13 CR Return vbCr
13/10 End of line vbCrLf
SHORTCUTS: WORD SPELL CHECKING |
Want to check your document for spelling or grammar?
ALT + F7 finds the next error
Not only do you move the next error, the right mouse menu will show suggested fixes, where you can go for the autocorrect so you never have to fix it more than once.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
SHORTCUTS: WINDOWS FILE OPEN AND SAVE DIALOGS |
Here's some useful shortcuts for moving around those File Save or File Open dialog boxes:
Alt-1 Previous folder
Alt-2 Up one folder level
Alt-3 Search the web
Alt-4 Delete the selected item
Alt-5 Create a new folder
Alt-6 Toggle the file views
Alt-7 Display to tools menu
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
IN HONOUR OF THE OPENING OF THE 2000 OLYMPICS |
In honour of the opening of the 2000 Olympics, here are some of the classic questions that were asked of the Sydney Olympic Committee via their Web site, and answers supplied where appropriate.
Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A: Upwards, out of the ground, like the person who asked this question, who themselves will need watering if their IQ drops any lower...
Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends on how much beer you've consumed...
Q: Which direction should I drive - Perth to Darwin or Darwin to Perth - to avoid driving with the sun in my eyes? (Germany)
A: Excellent question, considering that the Olympics are being held in Sydney.
Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, so you'll need to have started about a year ago to get there in time for this October...
Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
A: And accomplish what?
Q: It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact for a stuffed porpoise. (Italy)
A: I'm not touching this one...
Q: My client wants to take a steel pooper-scooper into Australia. Will you let her in? (South Africa)
A: Why? We do have toilet paper here...
Q: Are there any ATMs in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
Q: Where can I learn underwater welding in Australia? (Portugal)
Q: Do the camels in Australia have one hump or two? (UK)
Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
A: Why bother? Use your fingers like the rest of us...
Q: Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)
A: No. Everybody stinks.
Q: Do tents exist in Australia? (Germany)
A: Yes, but only in sporting supply stores, peoples' garages, and most national parks...
Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK)
A: This HAS to have been asked by a blonde...
Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes. Gay nightclubs.
Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
A: Yes. At Christmas.
Q: Can I drive to the Great Barrier Reef? (Germany)
A: Sure, if your vehicle is amphibious.
Q: Are there killer bees in Australia? (Germany)
A: Not yet, but we'll see what we can do when you get here.
Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
A: What's this guy smoking, and where do I get some?
Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: Another blonde?
Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: I love this one...there are no rattlesnakes in Australia.
Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face North and you should be about right.
Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Americans have long had considerable trouble distinguishing between Austria and Australia.
Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: From Liz Taylor, perhaps?
Q: Are there places in Australia where you can make love outdoors? (Italy)
A: Yes. Outdoors.
Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help?
(USA)
Q: Will I be able to speek English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.
Editor's note: please don't get upset by this, I think every country, race and gender has shown themselves up here. Let's just celebrate the depth (and shallows) of our human gene pool.
See http://www.c2000.com/fun for more information
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Centreline 2000 - Uniplex, Unix, Windows and Internet Arle Court, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham, GL51 6PN Tel: (UK) 01242 255 000 |
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URL: www.c2000.com/papers/nw_000915.htm © 1995-2001 Centreline 2000 Last Updated: 15/09/2000 |
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