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Setting up a wireless network

For home and small offices, getting specialist engineers to do a site survey is both expensive and excessive. If you want to follow a similar process as the professionals, follow the four-step process below to assess, test and adjust your wireless network for optimum performance:

Investigate

In this step determine the type of connection you have, if can you use third party routers, and if you can move the location of the router. Also, note if it’s possible to run a cable from the router to any other equipment, if not wireless extenders are the only option. Make a note of the requirements, such as the number of people who will use the network and from where in the building.

Plan

Use a rough floor plan along with the data from step one to map out where you need to install additional access points. When looking at the radius of the coverage from each router/access point, look at the specifications of the device and assume half that number. That number will account for obstruction and walls on the strength of the signal.

Test

For this step, you will need at least a single access point in addition to the router. Place the access point according to the plan in step two. Test the speed from each location against a baseline from the router or close to it.

Adjust

Based on the results from Step three, move the access point and router around for the best coverage. Be prepared for some compromises or the need for more access points for certain areas.

How to deal with the KRACK Wifi vulnerability

There is a severe flaw in the encryption security protocols in use by wireless networks that could let attackers hijack traffic, inject malware, and even steal passwords. The flaw, known as KRACK, for Key Reinstallation Attack affects every computing platform publicly available today: Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.

The attack works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks,” Vanhoef wrote on the “official” Krack attack site. “To prevent the attack, users must update affected products as soon as security updates become available. Note that if your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected.”

The good news is that the attack does not work over the internet. The attacker or malicious actor needs to be within the range of the wireless network. This means airports, hotels, and other public wireless networks become extremely high-risk areas for dealing with important or sensitive data.

What do you do?

The first step is to ensure that your home wireless equipment, phones, and computers are running up-to-date software to minimise the risk of an attack. Once you have updates in place, then you’re free to use wireless anywhere. Unfortunately, you will need to avoid using most free and public wireless networks to remain secure until you do patch your client devices.

Android uses encryption to transfer data there is not much danger in using an Android device, even on unpatched networks. So for example, even if someone hijacks the session of your Android device on the wireless network, the traffic from your phone to Google’s servers will be encrypted.

 

The Value of Answering Services

Article Written and Submitted By Herb Kimble.

For any business to grow and stay competitive, it needs to have competent answering services to take customer and affiliate calls. There’s nothing more irritating to a customer than not being able to call a company in relation to issues they’re having with products or services. If you want your customers to trust you, your company has to be accountable, and a big part of that is being able to answer all your customers’ calls at any time of the day, and on any day of the week.

You don’t have to shed blood, sweat and tears into putting up telephone answering services in your company. All you have to do is to hire some other company to do it. Answering service companies will do it all for you. They will allow you to have the ability to take customer calls in no time. If there’s anything that will please customers more, it’s having the opportunity to talk to a sensible, well mannered and knowledgeable customer support agent over the line to discuss any and all issues they’re having with your product or service.

A small business answering service is the quick solution for young businesses that wish to earn the trust of their customers. To be able to drive customers to your business, they have to be able to reach you offline, meaning they’ll have to be able to call you over a hotline. Not only that—your hotline has to be able to accommodate as many calls each hour as possible. The last thing you want is to lose the business of potential customers who wish to place their orders over the telephone.

About The Author:

Herb Kimble was perhaps the most famous outbound call center CEO and the best sales trainer in the Philippines. Herb Kimble is co-founder of CineFocus Productions, a movie production and soundstage rental company.

Smart home basics

The basic definition of a smart home is a set of appliances which connect to the internet that you can control or automate remotely. The primary reason for the slow growth of the smart home market is because the requirements for each home differs. Two people will not use the same automation. It is that individuality that makes implementing a smart home a step-by-step process. Here are the various components you will need for a smart home:

Lights

Smart lights can reduce your electricity bill. All smart lights are LED, and you can use your phone to set schedules to ensure that lights are only on when you want them. Also, you can remotely switch off any light. You can get connected-bulbs like the Hue or replace the light switch with a smart-switch.

Smart speakers

Use smart speakers like the Echo or Google Home to control other smart devices, stream music, and for everyday tasks like shopping lists. You can also call for cabs, check the weather, and any of the other thousand skills that exist on the platform.

Plugs

You can make any appliance or device in your house smart with a smart plug. Just like the lights, you can control them remotely. Some smart plugs provide and track power use so you can keep track of what uses the most power in your home.

Cameras

Security cameras are also part of the smart home ecosystem. You can trigger certain automation under certain conditions. For example, you can trigger an alert and switch a light on when a camera detects motion. New cameras like those from Nest can even distinguish the sound of breaking glass and generate an alert.

Three common web design mistakes designers still make

Even in 2019, a lot of web designers still make the same mistakes, driving visitors away and losing revenue in the process. Web design is an art, but it is something where a technical decision can have unintended consequences. Here are some tips from Rack Alley on some common mistakes:

Mobile text size

Some sites disable zoom and then present tiny text on mobile devices. If you are going to disable zoom on text, then ensure that you set your font sizes correctly to match the screen size you need. In a world where a lot of web traffic is from mobile devices, you cannot afford to make this mistake.

Popups

Many designers forget that popups and popovers are now synonymous with the shady and sketchy sites that want to sell you some snake oil. The problem with popups is that a lot of visitors get a big popup even before they spent time going through the site. If the visitor is still on your site minutes after the initial visit, then this is a good time to show them an offer.

Auto Play

Sites that have video auto play (with sound) are so annoying that users are installing browser addons just to avoid them. Do not be like one of the many news sites that just want to increase video impressions because it looks better.

We have three examples here, of many, so take the time to think about your actions as a designer and how it might or might not affect your visitors. Don’t let your investment in Los Angeles colocation go to waste.

Why Technology Designers Play a Pivotal Role in Successful Command Centers

Summary: Working with technology designers can save you money, time, and effort on your command center project.

Technology designers plays a key role in the overall success of a command center. Just like architects and engineers have an indispensable place within the overall design, the technology designer is now a critical component to a successful output.

Leaving the Past Behind

This is more of a non-traditional approach to design – essentially moving away from the 20th century way of thinking. This may require some adjustment in the thinking of clients, architects, and the rest of the team, but it’s also an absolute necessity when it comes to successful command center projects – which ironically relies on technology to thrive.

The Technology Designer Must be Involved from the Get-Go

The time to utilize a technology designer is at the beginning stages of the project, never in the middle or towards the end. The reason behind this is that the technology designer can assist the owner in making strategic decisions which will have a significant impact on the overall success of the project. For instance, say you bring in a technology designer to take a look at the blueprints that the architect has drawn out and sees major flaws. It’d obviously require a redesign and because you haven’t started the construction phase yet, it shouldn’t pose much of a threat to additional costs.

Remember, a technology designer can discover things like insufficient data centers, flawed video display placement, and inappropriate space, which all correlate to productivity and functionality. By catching problems like these and changing the design early on, thousands and thousands of dollars, along with months of wasted time and effort, could be saved.

 

How a Command Center Can Strengthen a Company

Summary: A command center, when implemented well, has the potential to strengthen how your company operates.

In an open market companies are usually forced to compete with one another, in order to stay afloat and increase profits. Competition is important because it drives organizations to push towards making better products, offering better support for customers, and attracting customers. The need for improvement is beneficial for everyone, because companies develop practices that make them better and customers are given the freedom to choose to do business with the companies that deserve their money.

Operations centers have high upfront costs but do not let the steep barrier to entry scare you away. A command center can improve the flow of information coming from outside of or within the organization, and it can also speed up how quickly you and your teams are able to produce.

Multiple Operations at Once

One way a command center can help your company grow is by allowing you to closely monitor multiple operations at once. For instance, if your company has a lot of moving parts that can be tough to keep track of, then network operations center consoles can make it easier to take in important statistics and project details. A video wall can give you real-time updates on how each project is coming along.

Organizational Restructuring

A system from a company can force a company to restructure and find a method that works efficiently. Theses systems are designed to help information and relevant data flow more easily. When determining how to integrate the system you may realize some areas can be fixed and some departments can be enhanced.

Devices that you didn’t know could be hacked

The marketing hype is all about the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem that will revolutionize how we live. There are conveniences to modern connected devices and home appliances. However, these devices are also vulnerable to attacks by hackers and criminals. The problems being with lax security on the part of the vendor and insufficient safeguards built into the protocols the devices use to communicate. Here are some devices that are vulnerable to hackers:

Router

The most vulnerable item in your household is your router. Unless you have taken measures to secure the device, most routers come with a common administration username and password, a default wireless network name and password. Even your neighbor could hack your router with a little bit of knowledge.

Cameras

Another potentially vulnerable device in your home is the security camera. Most new cameras connect to the internet and use a service to enable remote viewing of the video feed. Unfortunately, some cameras pass the username and password along with the link making it easy for the intrusion.

Door locks

More and more vendors are introducing smart and connected locks that will open or close with a key, combination, or an app. A recent presentation at the security conference DEFCON shows that more than half of all connected locks are easily hackable.

iOS flaws that hijack iPhones patched by Apple

People believe that iPhones are secure, however new reports out today have Apple scrambling to fix vulnerabilities that are actively being exploited.

There are three flaws that have come out, and all are known as 0-day (zero day). These flaws were previously unknown and based on what some users are saying has been in use for years. At least from 2014.

The flaws allow the attacker (or government in this case) to take over a victim’s phone when they click on a link in a text message. This description of the flaw is according to Lookout a cybersecurity firm that looks for security holes in mobile products, and Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

“This is the most sophisticated bad actor we have ever seen targeting mobile phones out in the wild,” said Mike Murray, vice president of security research at Lookout.

The Spyware was discovered when pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor received two text messages promising “secrets” about prisoners tortured in United Arab Emirates jails. He was immediately suspicious as he has been the target of Malware before and has been jailed for activism before. The past incidents of Malware have been traced back to the UAE government by security researchers.

Apple has since released a new version of iOS that fixes the flaw and is encouraging all users to update to the latest version as soon as possible. Fortunately this should protect users from this immediate threat as Apple’s devices are update more regularly than Android.

The ideal home networking environment

The typical home will have a router provided by the ISP with its own wireless network. That was fine a few years ago, however, going forward it is unlikely that will suffice for the typical family. Now a family of four could have as many as 20 devices on the network, requiring coverage all over the house. This is why it is important to get a network set up correctly with future growth in mind. Here are the components of an ideal home network:

Router

The first point to upgrade would be the router. Internet connection speeds get faster every year, some exceed 100Mbps, which means you will need a router that is capable of gigabit speeds. Also, new routers provide additional features like segmentation, parental controls, etc.

Wireless access

There is no point in buying range extenders and wireless bridge devices. The best devices to get now are mesh-capable wireless devices like Google Wi-Fi or EERO. These units talk to each other and provide best in class performance for homes.

Ethernet

Network attached storage devices, and streaming players work best when connected to a wired network. The best way to do this is to get a router with multiple ports and connect these devices directly. If it is possible, run a cable from the router to a gigabit network switch and connect all devices with physical network ports directly.

Cameras

There are affordable home security cameras that connect and use the wireless network. The problem is that several of these cameras can use up most of the available wireless network bandwidth. Get around this by setting up a separate network only for cameras. This will also provide additional security.