This one is heights! Cloud computing explained by a former IRS commissioner;

http://lifehacker.com/5813861/dropbox-accidentally-unlocked-all-accounts-for-4-hours

Everyone of us would have used some online storage mechanism for sure, there are hundreds of free storage providers starting obviously from Google, Dropbox etc… Even Ubuntu have one, Ubuntu One! Pretty much the logic & business work on the same principle. Some storage is given for free and if you want more than that then it is paid as you need service. So yes, this is ‘Cloud Storage Service’, why? The end user is free to use these wherever they’re regardless of location, Devices used. The advantage is very simple; you get the access where ever you go and do not need to carry it with you and some businesses do run in this model itself.

The below snippet is taken from HowStuffWorks page;

• Google Docs allows users to upload documents, spreadsheets and presentations to Google’s data servers. Users can edit files using a Google application. Users can also publish documents so that other people can read them or even make edits, which means Google Docs is also an example of cloud computing.
• Web e-mail providers like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail store e-mail messages on their own servers. Users can access their e-mail from computers and other devices connected to the Internet.
• Sites like Flickr and Picasa host millions of digital photographs. Their users create online photo albums by uploading pictures directly to the services’ servers.
• YouTube hosts millions of user-uploaded video files.
• Web site hosting companies like StartLogic, Hostmonster and GoDaddy store the files and data for client Web sites.
• Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow members to post pictures and other content. All of that content is stored on the respective site’s servers.
• Services like Xdrive, MediaMax and Strongspace offer storage space for any kind of digital data.

So now we know that we do use cloud services, of course may not be calling it in that fancy way. The one which is familiar is as described before is ‘Cloud Storage Services’. How about extending them and making business around that?

Cloud Computing at its current form goes as;

Iaas => Infrastructure as a Service.

Paas => Platform as a Service.

Saas => Software as a Service.

To run an company, what all do you need? Let’s list it down;

1. Office Space

2. Lab Racks to host your servers/workstations (well then air coolers, redundant power supplies, cabling experts and so on…)

3. People to Manage space, we call them facilities. People to Manage the Network/Helpdesk Infrastructure, we call them the IT people.

4. Costly software * (Number of Users)

5. Think about departments – You’ll typically have Finance/HR/IT/Facilities/Security and so on…

Now, in cloud computing – you obviously can’t eliminate every bit of it however how about shedding some OPEX on whatever you do.

If you have 1000 Employees, you need 1000 licenses of Operating Systems/Generic softwares like email/chat client/Specialized softwares that gets your job done/ & people to manage that and keep it up.

In cloud computing, you do not buy anything (well don’t have to), but only pay a subscription to use and that too only on how much you need. You subscribe to software/applications including the systems/servers that run these applications.

Watch the Video, it is very simple and nicely done. So are you new to cloud computing???

It was one of the best of its kind before the acquisition, I still have mine working!

Not sure what happened to those folks there, used to be a great company – I built my career based on their technology and now all I hear is that everyone *is lost in there*, well, literally yes!

More at http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/news/cisco-plans-to-shut-its-flip-camcorder-business/6215663/

Comparison charts with IE 9 vs Others, IE9 vs IE (old version)

Above is a chart released by NSS Labs some time back where-in they found IE9 to be blocking 99% of socially-engineered malware [Read Full Report]

Some salient features;-

• First of all, it is fast!
• Support for HTML5 (Hardware accelerated support).
• Native download manager integration.
• Tracking protection (the user is in control to share information with the web sites while browsing).
• Smartscreen (intelligently follows the action taken on similar items).

So if you’re on Windows 7, head over and download to see it for yourselves. This one seems to be good

Might be interested in these as well;

Download O&O Defrag Free Edition

As per Sans, the 20 coolest Jobs in Information Security is the list below;

• #1 Information Security Crime Investigator/Forensics Expert
• #2 System, Network, and/or Web Penetration Tester
• #3 Forensic Analyst
• #4 Incident Responder
• #5 Security Architect
• #6 Malware Analyst
• #7 Network Security Engineer
• #8 Security Analyst
• #9 Computer Crime Investigator
• #10 CISO/ISO or Director of Security
• #11 Application Penetration Tester
• #12 Security Operations Center Analyst
• #13 Prosecutor Specializing in Information Security Crime
• #14 Technical Director and Deputy CISO
• #15 Intrusion Analyst
• #16 Vulnerability Researcher/ Exploit Developer
• #17 Security Auditor
• #18 Security-savvy Software Developer
• #19 Security Maven in an Application Developer Organization
• #20 Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Analyst/Manager

What do you think? If you want to know what is the Job Description in detail for each of the job’s above, head over to SANS

Source:http://i.imgur.com/UOBLL.jpg

Guess, Nokia decided to wake up and do something, couple of years back – there was nothing to beat Nokia and the cozy comfort got them into their present state of no-where? I guess, there is more to it which can’t be speculated. Competitors eat each other given an opportunity, now if it is from ‘inside-out’ or ‘outside-in’ doesn’t really matter!

Got this CEO’s memo, apparently many believe it is *real*, source : Engadget It is long but an interesting read!

Hello there,
There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.
We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.
Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what I have come to believe.
I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.
And, we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.
For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.
In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.
And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.
Let’s not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally – taking share from us in emerging markets.
While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.
The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.
We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.
At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.
At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, "the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation." They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.
And the truly perplexing aspect is that we’re not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.
The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.
This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we’ve lost market share, we’ve lost mind share and we’ve lost time.
On Tuesday, Standard & Poor’s informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody’s took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.
Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It’s also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.
How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?
This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally.
Nokia, our platform is burning.
We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.
The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.
Stephen.

CNN reports that Egypt’s main internet Service Provider’s links are down and it means on the Internet, Egypt is disconnected. I think this is first of this kind!

Read the full story by heading over to CNN

Learn it from the Tweaking with Vishal’s blog that, now there is a free version of O&O defragmentation. Grab this one folks, it is one of the best of the kind.

Allows you to defragment/schedule options and an optimize option as well.

This is the best blog entry I read this week, I’d say!

Download Link

Download Link (64-bit)

Homepage

Now this title is quite misleading and couldn’t make it any general. I’m not talking about the normal Facebook/Twitter/IM Clients for the droid, the utilities mentioned below help me get the maximum out from an android phone, for the investment I’ve made buying the phone itself.

Home++   FREE

Almost all the android phones now come with UI customization and the looks differ from phone to phone. There are couple of things I like about it; 1. It does have a slick interface and can support multiple screens (can be configured and supports circular scrolling). 2. It does have a power strip and the option I use the most is to see which applications are running. Right from there, you can choose to ignore some of the applications and kill all others if you want – saves some battery power I’d say; if not optimize the device!

Lookout Mobile Security   FREE

It provides more than what it suggests. The free account gives you 1.5GB of space in their sync server. 1. Antivirus for new files/applications. 2. Backup of your important stuff, I’m more interested in the contacts backup. The backup happens to the server at lookout (http://mylookout.com), you can sign up for a free account and you can get the data backup up/restored back even based on dates. Now I know that Google announced this support just yesterday but I’m happy with how it works with lookout and am going to continue. So a good program since it syncs your Smartphone and desktop machines 3. Missing Device – find your missing device based on the location.

EverNote   FREE

Notes application that provides free account option as well. 1. To explain simple, it is a note taking application, works for desktop/android handsets as well. 2. Sync Feature which sync’s the notes between the desktop/android via EverNote servers, if the data is not confidential, then sounds pretty good feature at no cost. 3. You can have multiple notes, email them, print them – very extensive in features (export as html/mht files).

Opera Mini Browser  FREE

Well, doesn’t need much of an explanation. The advantage is; 1. Pretty slick and fast. 2. Will support Flash. 3. Data compression is appreciable and can save on your data costs.

Barcode Scanner  FREE

One of the advantages of being on android platform is, you can install/purchase/download applications from a hell lot of different websites (like appbrain.com etc…) Duly acknowledge that it increases the threat potential as well, but I still prefer to have choices. 1. So the sites having applications or sites which review an application provides a barcode embedded for download URL which may directly lead to Google Android Market or the Developer’s site. This application can be used to scan the barcode and retrieve the URL and go download it. No rocket science here!

DropBox  FREE

Don’t think much of an explanation needed. It is one of the famous online file storage mechanism for access from anywhere with an internet enabled device. 1. DropBox do have a free account where you can save and maintain upto 2 GB of files. I use it for some of my documents/contact backup’s etc.

Astro File Manager  FREE

Always wondered why is that the stock android doesn’t have a file manager included in it! So this is one of the best apps I found to get this done. 1. Browse all your files on the SD Card. 2. View thumbnails, images etc. 3. You can view/create Zip files and open files.

Finance App From Google  FREE

Well, I’m not an avid investor, however I still need to look at the stock news, wouldn’t tell you why of course 1. Pretty normal stuff, lets you look at the indices. 2. Lets you create your own portfolio of stocks that you want to keep an eye on. 3. More importantly, lets you see the afterhours stock price (living in India, I want to be able to see it during US times).

HandyCalc  FREE

Now it depends on your personal taste. 1. I feel, it is a much better calculator with keys spaced aptly. 2. Like the sounds on key press. Else, it is a simple calculator replacement

gReader  FREE

It is not an app from Google, but an Android mobile client for Google Reader. 1. Obviously syncs up with your blog feeds stored in Google Reader account. 2. Provisions for looking up Starred Items, folder-wise, unread only, and sync all facilities. 3. Well on desktop I use FeedDaemon for my feeds which in turn syncs with Google Reader, so where ever I read a subscribed feed, I’m covered.

SwiFTP  FREE

An FTP Server application for Android. 1. Lets me to connect and transfer files to/fro from the device without the hassles of having it connected to my machine.

MyPhoneExplorer  FREE

How does it sound to have a client on your Android handset and have a Windows Application? 1. Well, it connects either through WiFi or through the USB cable and you have access to a lot of features that otherwise you’ll be performing manually on the phone itself. 2. I use it to remove duplicates/updating contacts with additional details etc (for example if you want to add email id, additional phone book entry etc, this works good. How about cleaning your Android by removing some applications – can be done using this application.

Voice Recorder  FREE

The name says it all. 1. How about recording some funny sounds, better still – how about recording your first words of your little ones. I use this one. Never fails on me. 2. My elder one like to sing songs and I get it recorded with this one little application

MixZing  FREE

Now for music/videos – there are hundreds of applications out there, but I prefer this one. 1. Lists me by Artists and Albums (which are basically folder based selection). 2. Builds playlist for me. 3. The UI is pretty neat and offers shuffle option.

NewsHunt  FREE

This one is exclusively for Indians. How about a nifty application that lets you read Daily News in different languages? 1. Different English Dailies. 2. Different Hindi Dailies. 3. Different Malayalam Dailies. 4. Different Tamil Dailies.

3G Watchdog  FREE

3G in India started just couple of months ago and there are different players in the market right now. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to keep up with the data usage on your connection? Makes sense especially since it is newly implemented technology in India and costs dearer on Prepaid/Postpaid. So keep a watch on how much you’re using. As of now I’m using a BSNL 3G Prepaid connection, it gives me 1GB download limit for 352 Rupees (30 days validity).

DroidWall FREE

Basically a front end for IPTABLES of Linux. Let’s you control what is going out and coming in. ATTN# – Rooting is required for this to work. Rooting is not a developer mode stuff anymore, it is as simple as download an application and click on ‘Root’. Try Z4Root (Google it).

Let me know if you guys find these useful or using it already

It is no news about Gawker Hack and today I learn from NetworkWorld that, one of the security researchers (HD Moore) who (well, *the GUY who created metasploit framework), have a way to find out if your email address/information has been compromised;

2 Step Process actually:-

Step 1: Go to http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/md5/ , enter an e-mail address in the ‘Input’ field, click the ‘MD5′ button, then copy the hash from the ‘Result’ field.

Step 2: Go to http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=350662 , click ‘Show Options,’ then paste the already-obtained hash in the field to the right of the ‘=’ symbol. Change the left-most field to ‘MD5.’ Click ‘Apply.’

If the e-mail address is among those compromised, the search will show a result.

Read it directly from NetworkWorld if you want more information on it.

WordPress 3.0.2 maintenance refresh is available now with a moderate secure flaw fixed. Highly recommended to upgrade and stay up to date especially when it is coming with a security vulnerability fix.

Find what is WordPress 3.0.2 is about here => http://wordpress.org/news/2010/11/wordpress-3-0-2/

I highly suggest using the plugin ‘WordPress Automatic Upgrade’, does an awesome job of upgrading to the latest one whenever it is available. If you’re not using it already considering using it, you’ll save some time.

Check it out here => http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/

WordPress 3.0.2 Direct Download Link => http://wordpress.org/latest.zip

For almost everyone of us Adobe Reader is a package that is needed without any question, although other PDF readers are available. In fact, whenever the word PDF comes to mind, the first thingy that flashes is the read Adobe Icon for 9 out 10 people, I’m sure.

Last few months, Adobe Reader had gone through some serious exploits and I believe the new ‘Adobe Reader X’, is here to provide some guard from the unknown.

So how does it work?

A sandbox inbuilt for secure PDF reading especially when you don’t know the authenticity of the PDF that you’re reading. It prevents the malicious content, if present; not to do any harm since in the sandboxed environment, a secure area is created and it doesn’t interact with the core functionalities of the Adobe Reader. Now realize this, the sandbox is only as good as the provider of the sandbox – which is normally the operating system.

As per Adobe: Adobe explains, "Adobe Reader Protected Mode represents an exciting new advancement in mitigating the impact of attempted attacks. While sandboxing is not a security silver bullet, it provides a strong additional level of defense against attacks. Even if exploitable security vulnerabilities are found by an attacker, Adobe Reader Protected Mode will help prevent the attacker from writing files or installing malware on potential victims’ computers."

You’re getting it updated right? Get it Here [ 35 MB Download ]

We’re at the top for all wrong reasons…. Still the top SPAM position to be acquired

According to a recent study of Internet threats by Network Box, India surpasses the US as the top most virus producer.

Globally, India alone is accountable for 13.74% of viruses, which was 9.5% in July, 2010. It is followed by Russia, which is at second place in August, 2010. Russia’s average rate of viruses on a daily basis increased from 4.01% in July, 2010, to a little bit above 11% in August, 2010.

As a virus producer, the US calculated for a rate over 8% of the entire detected by Network Box, which is considerably lesser than 14.65% in July, 2010. The UK virus levels also came down to 2.5% from 5% in July, 2010. Globally, the UK is now the seventh-largest producer of viruses, which was fourth in July, 2010.

The US retained its position as the world’s leader in generating spam, with a daily average of 12.2%. The other two positions were acquired by India ( second) with 7.69% and Brazil ( third) with 5.4%.

Network Box’s Internet Security Analyst, Simon Heron stated that, continuous change in such kind of data reflected the adaptability of cybercriminals, as reported by InfoSecurity on 31st Aug, 2010.

He also added that, the country sources of such kind of Internet threats moves every month, which reflected how fast the cybercriminals could shift their operations throughout the world and initiate attacks. Organizations are required to be alert and make sure that they are not attacked by hackers while using new applications and techniques.

It is also being reported by Network Box that the largest amount of firewall blocks stems from the US with 18.3% and Korea with 13%. While commenting on these findings, Simon Heron stated that it was amusing to see that UDP: 137 (NetBIOS’ name service) was the second most attacked port. It was absolutely necessary for the organizations to examine their firewall rules, as these data showed that there had to be some system available with this port open to the Internet, as reported by Malware Research Group on 31st August, 2010.

He also added that, web proxies were seemed to be worth checking as TCP: 8080 was third on the list, which showed that cybercriminals perceived this as another backdoor entry.

Source :: SPAMFighter

How often do you update the drivers for the computer/notebook? I did a Google search of this and found out 2 interesting things about it;

1. Users prefer not to update their drivers and the main reason is they are vary of issues that might happen once the new drivers are installed.

2. Users think of driver update the same way as Windows Update, in fact; I saw couple of forum comments mentioning about windows update can break system since M$ releases unstable stuff, so you have to wait.

Pretty much this seems to be the mindset for a lot of folks. Well, I’m a strong believer of update everything when an update is available. So I use for most purpose an aggregate updater service for my software/hardware.

I use Windows Update regularly.

I use 3rd party software upgrade aggregator like the one ‘filehippo.com’ provides. Also use the ‘Secunia PSI’ software – the use of this helps me in 2 ways. If there are instability in the programs, that is why the update is appearing in the first place (for example, take the adobe reader update to patch the vulnerability which was hot couple of weeks back. Secunia PSI helps identify outdated/old program files and helps us derive a score of the machine and helps finding out a download link for the updated software as well.

Now, when it comes to hardware drivers, I do the same thing. Had evaluated a lot of auto updaters/aggregators but seems most of them are paid versions (this is one area where there is not much choice), else it’d be requiring a lot of registration and uploading of your current drivers to that the database can be build (which I guess is good).

Recently I found out something good in this front too and from 2 days of evaluation, it looks like I’m going to keep it.

It is called SlimDrivers, tried it on both my home PC and laptop, it detected most of the drivers and above all, without any mistakes! My laptop is a standard Thinkpad T series and I have the nVidia Quadro NVS 140M. It is a pain to find an updated drivers for this from nVidia’s site itself, and filehippo.com updater makes mistake when it detects this too, after download – you may not be able to install it. However this time, with SlimDrivers; it was a breeze. It is still in beta and I hope they keep it free for ever. Try this out, it is cool.

They do have computer cleaner as well (pretty similar to CCleaner, looks almost the same).

News Highlights:

• Purchase of all of McAfee’s common stock for $48 per share in cash, valuing the deal at approximately $7.68 billion. McAfee will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, reporting into Intel’s Software and Services Group.
• Acquisition enables a combination of security software and hardware from one company to ultimately better protect consumers, corporations and governments as billions of devices – and the server and cloud networks that manage them – go online.
• Intel elevates focus on security on par with energy-efficient performance and connectivity. The acquisition augments Intel’s mobile wireless strategy, helping to better assure customer and consumer security concerns as these billions of devices connect.
• Intel has made a number of software-related acquisitions of leaders in their respective industries that also rely on great silicon, including Wind River, Havok and now McAfee.

Press Release:- [ Here ]

Prior to that, I thrived to avoid adwords/analytics etc, just ‘coz it was of no interest to me; remember, this was a blog to self and was never intended to do business. So I decided to check how much traffic do I get;

The Google Analytics says that for about a month, I got a total of 1254 visits with an average of 1.44 pages/visit. A rough average over a period is 41 visits per day, looks like a small number? Well, it may be a very small number but for someone who never thought someone would even visit this page, this is a big number. Again, I’m not after ‘reaching 1000 visits a day’ target kind of mission here.

Minimum visitors during the whole period was – 16

Maximum visitors during the whole period was – 75

Again, Analytics did a map overlay of regions people are using this;

This tells me that, I have over 19% of people who’re directly coming over to this site, while majority is referral of Google and other search engines. Geography wise North America and a bit from India/Europe etc…

At this time, the biggest technology industry seems to be Mobile Phone industry with Android breaking iPhone revenues (still can’t believe, a whopping 886% growth for Android from 2009, man – now that is some number!). So I decided to make this blog mobile friendly for those who might be interested in browsing/reading stuff here from their handhelds. One plugin did all those possible, MobilePress, and of course wordpress is just great!; tried using with my Xperia X10 (runs Android 1.6) and it worked just great. Seems this plugin actually offers more to the iPhone users…

Folks, try it out and lemme know. I would be glad to hear!

So putting aside the arguments, one of the issues with blocking outgoing connections based on IP has always failed (imagine the cloud of servers, if you were to block say yahoo mail). Now the Modular Policy Framework does support regex checking in the URL header to see which site it is going and block it, if you’d like to.

Here is the Cisco article describing the MPF in details {Here}

Now how do you block say access to facebook or myspace, from being utilized by your employees?? Pete has a good write-up on it and hence I’m not going to write it again here.

In short the configuration you need is; Thanks to Pete for providing such a detailed write-up.

On the Global Policy
————————————————-

regex domainlist1 "facebook.com"
class-map type regex match-any DomainBlockList 
  match regex domainlist1 
class-map type inspect http match-all BlockDomainsClass
  match request header host regex class DomainBlockList
policy-map type inspect http http_inspection_policy 
class BlockDomainsClass
  reset log
policy-map global_policy
  class inspection_default
  inspect http http_inspection_policy
service-policy global_policy global
———————————————-

With its own policy

———————————————–
regex BLOCKED_DOMAIN_1 "www.facebook.com"
access-list TRAFFIC_TO_INSPECT_FOR_BLOCKED_DOMAINS extended permit tcp any any eq http
class-map type regex match-any CLASS_MAP_BLOCKED_DOMAIN_LIST
  match regex BLOCKED_DOMAIN_1
class-map type inspect http match-all CLASS_MAP_DEFINE_TRAFFIC_TO_INSPECT
  match request header host regex class CLASS_MAP_BLOCKED_DOMAIN_LIST
class-map CLASS_MAP_HTTP_TRAFFIC
  match access-list TRAFFIC_TO_INSPECT_FOR_BLOCKED_DOMAINS
policy-map type inspect http POLICY_MAP_HTTP_INSPECTION
  parameters
  class CLASS_MAP_DEFINE_TRAFFIC_TO_INSPECT
  drop-connection log
policy-map POLICY_MAP_OUTSIDE_INTERFACE
class CLASS_MAP_HTTP_TRAFFIC
  inspect http POLICY_MAP_HTTP_INSPECTION
service-policy POLICY_MAP_OUTSIDE_INTERFACE interface outside

Still, the interview is used to measure how good/quick you think in a particular direction, there are other woes obviously like;

1. What is IPSEC?

I have seen questions like this, as I see it – this is just as absurd as it can get. The whole of interview is probably what ‘an hour thingy’?, I can go on answering for the above question for full one hour. That is to mean the question is not in quantifiable terms. I mean, do you think all the times, you’d be able to explain what exactly the interviewer has in his minds? that is a big Bull! If the question is posed at like “Explain the phases of an IPSEC VPN” – this is much easier to quantify answer-wise.

Coming back, couple of questions I have seen others keep asking and I myself have asked and haven’t gotten a satisfied answer many more times are like these;

1. Explain and differentiate Routed and Routing protocols?

2. Private IP addresses can’t be routed through internet, why?

3. What is ARP and how does it work?

4. Classful & Classless concepts?

5. TCP 4 way handshake – (this is best, as everyone seems to know the 3 way) ?

6. What is NAT-T ?

7. Different types of firewalls? (everyone knows ‘Stateful’ and ‘Stateless’, but nothing more – reason? they’ve studied it only once, not up to speed on the technology advances).

8. How does a device know that the destination is *not on the local network* ?

9. Can 2 VLAN’s have the same IP Subnet? – Most of them answer ‘NO, a BIG NO’ ?

10. Why/When a network loop happens in an L2 network?

These are pretty basic questions for Network/Security Engineer with 3 to 5 years experience as I see fit. So it kinda got into habit of me to shoot off from these and if majority is ‘no’ then the candidate is a big ‘no no’ for me!

Actually it even gets funny some times. I had a friend (who’ll read this as well ), he actually asked a guy to give some basic test cases for a cell phone/Mobile phone. So he gave some ‘not-so-satisfying’ test scenarios. So my friend asked him to write down a stress test case for this phone and the candidate mentioned that he will “Make a long distance call” and that was a stress test case for him. See the thinking has to be aligned if not exactly correct. Once a CCIE guy was just goofing around, since he only had teaching experience and never touched a live network in his life, so I was frustrated with this answers (C’mon if a router doesn’t respond, he’d just reboot it seems!) and so was my other fellows listening to it. So I asked him to subnet a network and asked him to use the white-board since he’d be more comfortable that way since he was a network teacher/instructor. He did something and came down on something silly as 90/2 is approximately 40. I was literally “DONE” with the candidate, went to my manager and asked him to just get this guy off the premises.

This post is not to insult anyone, see they all are equally working in this industry but then for everything there is a bench-mark. Hiring a candidate doesn’t stop there, the responsibilities to shoulder only starts from there –> To make him to full-fledged and productive on the project.

Menu options:

Browsing Options - This menu option helps you to quickly turn off/on the following:

Smooth Scrolling, Clear type font, Animation, Sounds, Picture Display, Automatic Image resizing

Clear Junk Files – This option will help you to quickly remove all the temporary IE files, cookies, history, passwords, and AutoComplete data.

Tweak IE – Tweak IE menu has the following tabs:

Basic Tweaks - Offers you the basic tweaks such as Turn off/on Menu bar, Favorite bar, Tabbed browsing, Full screen mode, Caret Browsing support etc.,

Browser Menus - Helps you to disable/enable the Browser Menus

Toolbars – Helps you to hide/unhide the various options on the bars and also the bars itself such as Status bar, command bar etc

Control Panel - Helps you to hide/unhide the various tabs in Tools -> Internet Options.

Advanced – Helps you to Turn off/on various options such as Compatibity view etc., and also allows you to change the IE Title, and Default download directory options.

Restrictions - This menu option has the following tabs:

- Restrictions – Provides you various restriction optionss such as Changing default search provider, Add-ons management, Autocomplete features etc.,

- Settings - Restricts the users to change various settings.

- Security - Allows you to enable/disable options such as InPrivate Browsing, Filtering etc.,

Repair - Repair menu option provides you various options to repair/fix various issues that you have with Internet Explorer.

In addition to it we have also provided desktop Shortcuts for various modes of Internet Explorer in Shortcuts Folder.

To download visit {Here}

  Based off the Glassdoor.com surveys from the employee’s themselves of each company, Juniper Networks’ ranks the first!

Got this snippet from { Here }

  One difference about glassdoor compared to all other predictions is that these are derived by anonymous input’s from the respective organizations itself.

I started with our expert for everything, Mr. Google. Then I came across a lot of pages describing a lot of solutions and finally worked out with something where one can enable the password to be saved if you want, of course in the registry. So here it is;

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security]
"EnableRememberPwd"=dword:00000001

You set this key to 1 and then the password box was up and usable. Thought it’d help others. Now remember that this is one of the case where it is done like this and if you’re trying to do this on a AD managed network, then your Network Admin might have tweaked some settings for the Org. sake. Well, I did this on an AD managed laptop, and it worked for me. So there is no harm in giving it a try!