Technology Ideas

  Networks are networks. Despite best efforts to keep things smooth all the time every day, things happen. Here’s a look at some common network issues, some tips for quickly resolving them, and even better, how to prevent them from occurring again. 1. Duplicate IP Addresses When two devices attempt to share a single IP, you see the dreaded “Address Already in Use” error — with no ability to access the network. The Quick Fix: The blame for this often rests with your router’s default DHCP configuration. DHCP is probably trying to assign your new device an address at the beginning of your subnet, and another device may already occupy these low-numbered addresses with static IPs. If you’ve just introduced a new device or server to your network, it may have its own DHCP server. Simply disable the DHCP server on that device to restore sanity to your network. The Preventive Measure: You can take one simple step to avoid IP conflicts by modifying your router’s configuration to begin assign...

  Windows 10 Creators Update introduced a number of changes to the user interface, so disabling Smart Screen can be a bit confusing. In this article, we'll see how to properly disable SmartScreen in it. The SmartScreen filter is a technology which was initially designed for Internet Explorer to protect users from malicious websites and web applications. It was integrated with IE8 and IE9 (as the successor to IE7's Phishing filter). Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft implemented Internet Explorer's SmartScreen feature directly into the operating system so files are screened for being potentially harmful. SmartScreen is also integrated for Windows Store apps. If enabled, the Windows SmartScreen filter sends information about every application you download and run to Microsoft’s servers, where that information will be analyzed and compared with their malicious apps database. If Windows gets a negative feedback about the app from the server, it will prevent you from running the...

  NTLM, a Windows network authentication protocol, is a challenge/response system that allows a client to prove its identity without sending a password to the server. The Windows domain controller challenges the client to perform a complex mathematical calculation on the user's domain password and send this encrypted password to the domain controller.  The domain controller then uses the same calculation to decrypt the password. If the decoded password matches the password obtained from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database, then the client is authenticated and may log into the network and access network resources. NTLM is an abbreviation for Windows NT LAN Manager; it offers improved security over the now-obsolete LAN Manager protocol. The Indiana University network is configured to use only the latest version of this protocol: NTLMv2. This version provides increased security over NTLMv1. A Real Time Communication (RTC) application may specify RTCAU_NTLM in the tag to i...

  A LAN (local area network) interconnects several computers using Ethernet technology. As technology advances, networking capabilities have begun shipping as a standard feature on most motherboards. Onboard LAN is a specialized chipset on the motherboard designed to handle networking responsibilities for the computer, such as home networking and Internet connectivity Local Area Networking Local area networks connect several computers within a limited physical proximity via Ethernet cables or wireless Ethernet, such as in homes, schools or businesses. In early computers, this capability was not a standard feature and required the installation of a network interface card (NIC). NIC installation was necessary until LANs became more common, requiring more efficient and less expensive networking capabilities. Onboard LAN controllers support numerous built-in hardware and software enhancements for networking, such as power management and input/output (I/O) scalability. Onboard LAN As tr...

    Internet security has a pretty high priority in our technology filled world. The safety of your private information and the safety of your computer should always be a primary concern. Browser-based email providers, such as Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail, have spam and junk mail filters to keep your privacy and computer safe. By viewing the spam or junk mail settings and filters your email provider has in place, you can find out your level of security and make adjustments as needed. Step 1 Open your Web browser and go to the webpage of your email provider. Step 2 Log into your email account. Step 3 Find "Settings" or "Options" on the main screen of your email page. Typically, this is located on the right-hand side towards the top. Some email services have it located on the left. Step 4 Select "Spam" or "Junk" mail settings from the Settings or Options menu. Step 5 View the filter settings if they are available from your email provider. The filters ar...

    Windows 8.1 displays pop-up help tips by default to educate users on where to access functions such as the Charms and Start button. Although useful, the help tips can be annoying to experienced users who have performed a clean install of the operating system. To disable these tips, either change the registry settings associated with the help tips or edit the associated settings from the group policy editor. After altering the settings, you need to reboot your system for the changes to take effect. Regedit Step 1 Type "Regedit" (without the quotation marks) from the Windows 8.1 Start screen, and press "Enter." Step 2 Select "Yes" if prompted to confirm that you want to allow the program to make changes to your computer. Step 3 Click the small triangle next to "HKEY_Current_User" to open this root key, and then open the "Software" key. Step 4 Open the "Policies" key, and then open "Microsoft." Step 5 Open the ...

  NTLM, a Windows network authentication protocol, is a challenge/response system that allows a client to prove its identity without sending a password to the server. The Windows domain controller challenges the client to perform a complex mathematical calculation on the user's domain password and send this encrypted password to the domain controller.  The domain controller then uses the same calculation to decrypt the password. If the decoded password matches the password obtained from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database, then the client is authenticated and may log into the network and access network resources. NTLM is an abbreviation for Windows NT LAN Manager; it offers improved security over the now-obsolete LAN Manager protocol. The Indiana University network is configured to use only the latest version of this protocol: NTLMv2. This version provides increased security over NTLMv1. A Real Time Communication (RTC) application may specify RTCAU_NTLM in the tag to i...

    In many cases, once a Wireless router has been installed, we find a place in our home for it and forget about it. As long as all our devices are set up and connected via the Wi-fi network, that’s all that matters, right? Wrong! Probably many of you don’t realize, but the Internet router is one of the most important devices in our home. It’s the gateway to our Internet access and also prone to exploits by cybercriminals who can sneak into our devices and get access to our system. Let’s not forget that we live in the age of data breaches, ransomware attacks, and many other online threats. Thus, you should be worried about the security of your home network and take all the needed security measures to increase Wifi security. The only measure most people use to protect their home network is to set up a password and prevent neighbors and other people from taking control of your data. But we have to be more serious about security and do more than just setting a simple password. A...

To design and build a two-tier campus network architecture is everything like a three-tier hierarchical design and maximizes performance, network availability, and the ability to scale the network design. It is common to campus networks where the aggregation or distribution layer is merged with the core layer to create a unique and fully functional network for a good sized campus. However, many small enterprise networks do not grow significantly larger over time. Therefore, a two-tier hierarchical design where the core and distribution layers are collapsed into one layer is often more practical. A “collapsed core” is when the distribution layer and core layer functions are implemented by a single device. The primary motivation for the collapsed core design is reducing network cost, while maintaining most of the benefits of the three-tier hierarchical model.. To design and build a two-tier campus network architecture, a number of considerations must be taken into account. A key head-sta...

 You might want to acquaint yourself with The Most Misunderstood Windows Setting of All Time. It’s the best written document on the relevant background for LMCompatibilityLevel. Review the NTLMv1 Known Problems and Workarounds for the most comprehensive resource available for the various problems associated with NTLMv1 being turned off. Note that NTLMv1 use can result from misconfigurations in a great number of places. And those misconfigurations can happen anywhere in the “authentication chain”. Misconfigurations can happen on the client endpoint, on a member server that provides the service the endpoint connects to, or any domain controller leveraged by the two. Most misconfiguration comes down to one of two things: the Windows LMCompatibilityLevel or browser configuration. If you are looking for the quickest way forward, we’d suggest using group policy to set a LMCompatibilityLevel=5 (“Send NTLMv2 response only. Refuse LM & NTLM.”) across all your computers. Doing this will ...

 Networks are networks. Despite best efforts to keep things smooth all the time every day, things happen. Here’s a look at some common network issues, some tips for quickly resolving them, and even better, how to prevent them from occurring again. 1. Duplicate IP Addresses When two devices attempt to share a single IP, you see the dreaded “Address Already in Use” error — with no ability to access the network. The Quick Fix: The blame for this often rests with your router’s default DHCP configuration. DHCP is probably trying to assign your new device an address at the beginning of your subnet, and another device may already occupy these low-numbered addresses with static IPs. If you’ve just introduced a new device or server to your network, it may have its own DHCP server. Simply disable the DHCP server on that device to restore sanity to your network. The Preventive Measure: You can take one simple step to avoid IP conflicts by modifying your router’s configuration to begin assigni...

 Windows 10 Creators Update introduced a number of changes to the user interface, so disabling Smart Screen can be a bit confusing. In this article, we'll see how to properly disable SmartScreen in it. The SmartScreen filter is a technology which was initially designed for Internet Explorer to protect users from malicious websites and web applications. It was integrated with IE8 and IE9 (as the successor to IE7's Phishing filter). Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft implemented Internet Explorer's SmartScreen feature directly into the operating system so files are screened for being potentially harmful. SmartScreen is also integrated for Windows Store apps. If enabled, the Windows SmartScreen filter sends information about every application you download and run to Microsoft’s servers, where that information will be analyzed and compared with their malicious apps database. If Windows gets a negative feedback about the app from the server, it will prevent you from running the ...

 To design and build a two-tier campus network architecture is everything like a three-tier hierarchical design and maximizes performance, network availability, and the ability to scale the network design. It is common to campus networks where the aggregation or distribution layer is merged with the core layer to create a unique and fully functional network for a good sized campus. However, many small enterprise networks do not grow significantly larger over time. Therefore, a two-tier hierarchical design where the core and distribution layers are collapsed into one layer is often more practical. A “collapsed core” is when the distribution layer and core layer functions are implemented by a single device. The primary motivation for the collapsed core design is reducing network cost, while maintaining most of the benefits of the three-tier hierarchical model.. To design and build a two-tier campus network architecture, a number of considerations must be taken into account. A key hea...

  A LAN (local area network) interconnects several computers using Ethernet technology. As technology advances, networking capabilities have begun shipping as a standard feature on most motherboards. Onboard LAN is a specialized chipset on the motherboard designed to handle networking responsibilities for the computer, such as home networking and Internet connectivity Local Area Networking Local area networks connect several computers within a limited physical proximity via Ethernet cables or wireless Ethernet, such as in homes, schools or businesses. In early computers, this capability was not a standard feature and required the installation of a network interface card (NIC). NIC installation was necessary until LANs became more common, requiring more efficient and less expensive networking capabilities. Onboard LAN controllers support numerous built-in hardware and software enhancements for networking, such as power management and input/output (I/O) scalability. Onboard LAN As tr...

  NTLM, a Windows network authentication protocol, is a challenge/response system that allows a client to prove its identity without sending a password to the server. The Windows domain controller challenges the client to perform a complex mathematical calculation on the user's domain password and send this encrypted password to the domain controller.  The domain controller then uses the same calculation to decrypt the password. If the decoded password matches the password obtained from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database, then the client is authenticated and may log into the network and access network resources. NTLM is an abbreviation for Windows NT LAN Manager; it offers improved security over the now-obsolete LAN Manager protocol. The Indiana University network is configured to use only the latest version of this protocol: NTLMv2. This version provides increased security over NTLMv1. A Real Time Communication (RTC) application may specify RTCAU_NTLM in the tag to i...

 Networks are networks. Despite best efforts to keep things smooth all the time every day, things happen. Here’s a look at some common network issues, some tips for quickly resolving them, and even better, how to prevent them from occurring again. 1. Duplicate IP Addresses When two devices attempt to share a single IP, you see the dreaded “Address Already in Use” error — with no ability to access the network. The Quick Fix: The blame for this often rests with your router’s default DHCP configuration. DHCP is probably trying to assign your new device an address at the beginning of your subnet, and another device may already occupy these low-numbered addresses with static IPs. If you’ve just introduced a new device or server to your network, it may have its own DHCP server. Simply disable the DHCP server on that device to restore sanity to your network. The Preventive Measure: You can take one simple step to avoid IP conflicts by modifying your router’s configuration to begin assigni...

 Networks are networks. Despite best efforts to keep things smooth all the time every day, things happen. Here’s a look at some common network issues, some tips for quickly resolving them, and even better, how to prevent them from occurring again. 1. Duplicate IP Addresses When two devices attempt to share a single IP, you see the dreaded “Address Already in Use” error — with no ability to access the network. The Quick Fix: The blame for this often rests with your router’s default DHCP configuration. DHCP is probably trying to assign your new device an address at the beginning of your subnet, and another device may already occupy these low-numbered addresses with static IPs. If you’ve just introduced a new device or server to your network, it may have its own DHCP server. Simply disable the DHCP server on that device to restore sanity to your network. The Preventive Measure: You can take one simple step to avoid IP conflicts by modifying your router’s configuration to begin assigni...

  The art of networking is no easy feat. And as networking jobs encompass more than just networking, it’s not going to get any easier. It’s going to be about embracing advancements in data gathering, automation, and programming languages. In fact, it’s going to look a lot like DevOps. Here are five skills you can develop to meet the changing tides of the networking industry. Learn a Language It never hurts to learn a new programming language. To keep up with automation, network engineers need methods and tools to programmatically control equipment. This is where languages can come into play. If your organization is using software-defined networking (SDN), keep in mind the networks offer interfaces to scan and monitor automatically. Fully understanding the language these programs are speaking gives you an upper hand. Automation tools like Chef can handle some of the grunt work, freeing up time for your networking pros. But admins should still understand the process of writing their ...