When Your Server Goes Down

   Although this may be difficult, the first thing to do is to remember not to panic. Staying calm will go a long way in making sure you can resolve the issue quickly and calmly. When operating a server remotely, your only assurance that a server is running is through its websites and through Internet connections.

1. The first thing to check is whether or not your own network connection is experiencing problems. Although you may be able to connect to some other sites, you may find that you cannot connect to certain sites.
2. If your connection is fine, check your web monitoring software or services, which should have notified you when there was a web connection problem.
3. If those indicate your server is down, check your data center or web host’s website for current network status. They may have already been aware of the problem and have posted some information about it.
4. Next, try connecting to your server via SSH. If you can get in through SSH, it means that a service, such as Apache or MySQL, may just need restarting.
5. If SSH is not accessible, your server may need a reboot. Follow the normal procedure to either automatically reboot or contact a support person to manually reboot your server.
6. In the rare case that even rebooting will not resolve the issue, some data centers will setup KVM remote console control so that you can fix whatever network issues your server is having. If you find it to be some type of problem with your operating system you cannot fix, they may have to re-image the machine and/or restore backups.
7. There are cases when something like KVM may turn up no visible issues. In such a case, the data center may need to fix a hardware or network problem. Be sure to have them investigate for any such issues.
   

     Staying calm and running through a set lists of protocols should help you resolve your server downtime quickly and safely.

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Good network security practices

     Since the rise in popularity of the Internet, we have started to use our computers for a much wider range of tasks than ever before. At home, we buy our groceries, do our banking, buy birthday presents, send communications via email, write our life story on social networking sites; at work, our businesses provide e-commerce via websites, staff send and recieve emails, phonecalls and video conferencing are done through the network using IP based servcices; all of this is done online and it would present a serious security threat if it wasn't for the fact we have various security measures at our disposal. I would like to cover some basic examples of how network security helps to keep us safe online, both at home and in the workplace.

     Any computer network used for business should employ good network security practices in order to keep free from attacks by hackers. There are a number of ways a hacker can hurt your business:

Denial Of Service

     A denial of service attack is used to make your network, or more precisely your website, unavailable to potential users; they do this by flooding the web server with so many requests for information that it uses up all the resources of the web server, which either makes the web server crash, or slow down so much that it can't handle requests from the websites' intended users, your customers.

BlackHat Hacking
     There are people called hackers with enough technical knowledge to be able to penetrate insecure networks with the intent of doing damage to the devices attached on the network and costing the company as much money as possible. Typical damage would involve changing the configuration of network devices such as servers and routers so that earnings where productivity is drastically reduced. Even worse, a hacker can gain access to sensitive information such as credit card details or client/patient records, they can even take control of your network based phone system and make expensive long distance calls at your expense. The damage done can cost your company thousands of pounds, if not more, over the space of a weekend alone.
At home, a hacker has less scope to do damage, but if you keep sensitive information on your PC, like credit card details or scanned images of important documents such as passports and driving licenses, it's clear to see that a hacker can cause you all sorts of grief.

There are a number of technologies and devices that can help keep your network safe:

Firewall
     A firewall uses a set of rules to allow or deny access to a network; typically a firewall lives inside of a router. This router is likely to be the peiece of hardware that sits on the edge of your network and provides access to the Internet. The set of rules are based on opening and closing ports relating to protocols; if the network users don't use a certain protocol, then the router will keep that port closed. 

Access Control Lists
     An access control list is very much like a firewall; it filters traffic based on a number of metrics contained within an IP packet. The Access Control List (ACL) will be configured to check each packets' source and destination IP address, also the source and destination port number. The network administrator will write the ACL, specifying which range of IP addresses can talk to which other range of IP addresses and which protocols they can use when communicating. This makes it very hard for a hacker to gain access around a network, where each router is doing its best to block unauthorised access.

Encryption
     Encryption is simple; an algorithm is used to turn meaningful information into a format that makes no sense and can only be decrypted by someone with access to the specific algorithm. Whenever sending sensitive information across the internet, it's advisable to send it using high levels of encryption.

WEP / WPA
     Nowadays, everyone has got a wireless network at home, allowing them to access the Internet using their laptop in any room. Protecting your wireless network is a must, otherwise anyone geographically close to you can connect to your network; this is a hackers paradise. Research has shown that WPA and the new version, WPA2, are far more secure than WEP. So when you're next setting up your wireless home router, make sure your security is set to WPA2.
     Simply following the aforementioned advice will stand you in good stead, your computer networks and information will be more secure. 

By: Miragetek

the network becomes unavailable; this can take a long time to fix, which translates to a loss of

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netsh firewall show portopening

     A firewall is a software application, which is a gateway server on the network. It offers a unique level of protection against viruses and nasty infected with the virus that are based on unwanted incoming traffic to attack target computers. It does so by blocking communications to access your system without your permission. Some Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 offers a free firewall for users to protect their computers.

     They are known as Windows Firewall and enables home networking and efforts to restrict access to your PC. Windows Firewall has as main purpose the maintenance of traffic between computer networks of different levels. It works most efficiently if it provides the proper configuration. Since no cost to use Windows Firewall which comes bundled with the operating system, you must activate it. If you opt for firewalls such as Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm or Comodo, must be chosen according to their work and personal needs. After selecting the firewall is setup.

     Installing a firewall requires careful consideration and planning, because this security system is most often placed on a critical path within a network topology. The next step required to configure the firewall. If you have any confusion during installation of the firewall, you may contact the computer center for assistance. They are certainly better options than doing all the wrong procedure. With a high proliferation of online services computer support, we need not look anywhere except the Internet. The list of good computer support centers to come after you type keywords, such as computer support, computer technical help or online help.computer centers will help not only help with installing the firewall, but also get your own done at any time. They are also available 24x7. Some online computer centers will help provide a complete package of computer support services that include everything you want for your computer and safety. All these characteristics make them superior and preferable to call an expensive technician to your premises or take your system to any showroom computer repair. 

     Here's a sample script that you can run from a command line (cmd.exe):
the following Netsh command will create a local firewall rule to allow certain addresses to FTP into a Windows Firewall-protected computer:
netsh firewall add portopening
protocol = TCP port = 21
name = FTP mode = ENABLE
scope = CUSTOM addresses =
192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0,
10.0.0.0/255.255.240.0

     Want to know which ports are open on your firewall? Just type this from a CMD line:
netsh firewall show portopening

 By: Seno Gendeng & IT administrators

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Backup service on Windows 7

     Setting up the backup service on Windows 7 is a easy task, while very important in case of system crashes and data loss. In this tutorial I will show you how to backup your Windows 7 documents and other personal files to a network hard drive. In this tutorial I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit edition and a Western Digital My Book network hard drive.

      To begin setting up your Windows 7 backup you will first need to go to the control panel. You can access the control panel by clicking on the start button. Once inside the Control Panel , go to the System and Security section and click on the Back up your computer link.You will now need to click on the Set up Backup link. Once inside the Set up backup window, you can now choose where to save your back up files. Inside this window you could choose to save your backup files to a external hard drive, but since we are saving to a network hard drive we will choose the Save on a network button. You will now need to select the location of you network hard drive. Click on the browse button which will allow you to search for your backup folder. Now enter the username and password that is set on your network hard drive and click the ok button to proceed.

      You will now notice that your network hard drive is in the list for places that you can store your backup files. Click on the next button to begin selecting the files that you want to back up. For this tutorial I will use the default option, which is to allow Windows to select the files that need to be backed up. 

     This back up will recover your videos, documents, music and pictures. It will also create a system image in case of system failure.     Finally click on the Save setting and run backup button to start the backup. The backup may take a while to perform. I also recommend running the backup service on a weekly basis, so you will never be that far behind if your computer system happens to crash. If you want a even more choices in Windows 7 backup, I also recommend using Acronis True Image Home 2011. 

By: Sumusca P.

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