Architecture

Securing email in three part harmony

2010-10-08

This time around I have written a three part series for TheEmailAdmin on securing email. In part one I discuss the challenges that may lead you to investigating your options, in part two I go over the two dominant solutions for server to server encryption, and in part three I look at the two dominant [...]

would you like to know more?

How to Prevent Directory Harvest Attacks

2010-07-14

You’re diligent about protecting your online identity. You may use disposable email addresses,limit forum posting or mask your email address with special characters or spaces when you do. Yet, somehow, despite your considerable efforts, spam finds its way into your inbox. This common scenario is plaguing both casual and enterprise users. Latest estimates claim spam [...]

would you like to know more?

DFS-What it is

2010-06-16

  Finding myself needing to explain why having a single namespace server was a bad idea, I decided to devote today’s post to the Distributed File System: what it is, why you want it, and what you should consider when designing it. I have found that a lot of admins have heard of it, and [...]

would you like to know more?

Zen and the Art of Naming Conventions-aliases

2010-05-12

  As a follow up to our post on naming conventions, today let’s talk about the aliases that every company should populate in DNS and use internally. These aliases will be for well known and well used services, that might just move from server to server over time. By placing CNAMEs in DNS, and promoting [...]

would you like to know more?

…and then there’s complete paranoia

2010-03-24

  So I’d like to share a word or two about firewalls. More specifically, their configuration and the responses they provide (or don’t) when they encounter traffic that is, shall we say, less than desirable. My goal here is to bring some rationality to the way our maligned little friends act on the wire, simplify [...]

would you like to know more?

How to Find the Best Web Filtering Solution for Your Business

2010-03-17

  One of the necessary evils of business today is the availability of seemingly unlimited web access to employees and customers. Security threats from allowing users’ web access on company computers are numerous. These include data leaks, loss of employee productivity, malware, phishing and other scams, loss of network bandwidth, as well as liability issues [...]

would you like to know more?

NetBIOS Name Resolution is Full of WIN(S)

2010-03-10

  This post is not about how to install WINS, it’s about why you actually need it. Yes, that’s right folks, you need WINS, even today in 2010, with Windows 7 and 2008 R2 firmly deployed in your network.Windows has NetBIOS names encoded in its DNA, and we’re probably NEVER going to get away from [...]

would you like to know more?

Eleven programs that should be a part of every Windows server build

2010-03-05

  There have been hundreds of posts about the top tools for Windows. This one is about the server side of the house here. Each version of Windows comes with a great selection of accessories, utilities, and cmd-line tools. And every company has their particular chosen antivirus software, host intrusion detection agent, backup agent, patching [...]

would you like to know more?

A word or two about DNS Islanding

2010-03-03

  Ever had a domain controller just kind of stop replicating with everyone else? Ever had to move a domain controller to a new ip.addr and then spent hours trying to get AD happy again? Microsoft defines DNS Islanding in KB275278, which indicates that it is a problem with Windows 2000 based domain controllers using [...]

would you like to know more?

Designing your external DNS solution

2010-01-30

  One of my favourite subjects is DNS. I really love resolvers and queries, discussing the relative merits of recursion versus iteration, the different types of records that are out there, and how to tune DNS just so. Primaries and secondaries, AXFR or IXFR, tuning the TTL of your individual records so that you can [...]

would you like to know more?

TMG, or UAG: that is the question

2010-01-28

  Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrow of outrageous hackers, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? TMG, UAG, which do I want? With their new branding strategy, Microsoft has once again muddied up the waters of their security line to such [...]

would you like to know more?

Zen and the Art of Naming Conventions-hostnames

2010-01-25

    I spent all weekend with a 6 second long sound bite stuck in my head. It’s from a song I used to love, that I’d played thousands of times, and probably haven’t thought of this century. I knew that the name of the group had something to do with Bangkok, or Tokyo, or [...]

would you like to know more?

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →