TIPS & TRICKS: Enterprise-Level Networking

I deal, mostly, with consumer level equipment for helping home and small-office users get connected. Most situations don't call for spending more money than consumer-level hardware costs to get together a suitable networking situation.

However, even home and small-office users, sometimes have very specific situations that require some higher quality equipment that provide specific functionality. Case in point, I once tried to help someone setup a wireless network in a 2500+ square foot home. I had recommended using Apple equipment, since they were mostly a Mac household and the Airport-branded equipment provided most of what they need. My lesson learned from this project was that the Airport Extreme can only accept one additional Airport Express as an extender to the wireless network. Most of the house had coverage after I put in the Airport Extreme and couple of Airport Express Base Stations. The one place that lacked good coverage was the pool house. Without getting into the specifics, I finally figured out a second Airport Express setup as an extender off another Airport Express that was already acting as an extender (i.e. Airport Extreme > Airport Express > Airport Express), really degrades the bandwidth down to even below optimum dial-up speeds.

Moral of the story, the right tools always gets the job done better. To that end, I recently got a recommendation from the This Week in Enterprise Tech podcast about this company that does some good work with equipment that might have helped in my project I just mentioned. It's called MikroTik (http://mikrotik.com/). Next time I need something more than consumer-level gear, I'll take a look at these guys.

TIPS & TRICKS: Browser and Other Security Tests

With all the recent 0-day exploits and other vulnerabilities making news, I thought it would be helpful to have some resources to test out your environment.

First, browser security checks:

• http://www.isjavaexploitable.com
• https://browsercheck.qualys.com

Next, router and computer security checks:

•  Use ShieldsUP! and the Instant UPnP Exposure Test at this site: https://www.grc.com/

As always, security is like an onion. A well secured computing environment will have lots of layers. These tools are another layer of protection.

RANTS / TIPS: Vulnerable Home Routers

Home routers have been vulnerable in the past and will likely be vulnerable in the future, especially when most people don't know how to secure them right out of the box. This article:

http://www.notebooks.com/2010/07/15/how-to-secure-your-router-against-a-hack-compromising-many-popular-routers/

talks about how a vulnerability in many home routers makes them susceptible to a potential attack. The interesting thing about this particular method is that it can affect so many different routers, rather than target a particular make or model.

The gist:
1. Make sure your router has a very strong password. Remember this password is the one used to access the controls of the router and not necessarily your wifi password.
2. Make sure firmware on the router is the latest from the manufacturer.

Happy Computing.