There are too many variable to evaluate when trying to determine the range of a wireless router. Range is not the only important aspect of wireless as well. Throughput is also critical. None the less if we have a simple objective we can make some useful range estimates.  The objective we have is to create a wireless environment with acceptable internet speeds of 10 Mb/sec. (more…)

Image-Based Backup

A disk image backup is basically a backup of your whole hard drive. The basic idea is for backup software to use low-level disk I/O to just copy all the bits on your hard disk to another disk, without any particular regard for concepts like files. When you have a backup image, there’s no question of accidentally forgetting to backup a particular file,  if it was on the hard disk, then it got backed up. Due to the lost cost of both internal storage and Network attached storage (NAS) there is no reason not to image every server and workstation on your network. (more…)

Micro-Point, with a long history in IP technologies and Network Security, is implementing Digital IP Cameras systems.  These systems are revolutionizing video surveillance.

It is time for small and mid-sized business to consider installing an IP camera security system. It’s just not that expensive or complicated anymore.  The latest software is revolutionizing video surveillance.  We now have smart software: Motion triggers, which can tell cameras to track objects; software which can discriminate between a human form and other objects (thus reducing false alarms); applications which link video surveillance to safety systems, so that the surveillance system could call the fire department or help turn on sprinklers. (more…)

We are configuring 2 PC’s for use in a retail Tea store. One PC will have two PowerPoint presentations displaying the Menu on 42 inch LCD monitors. The other PC will Run three Flash presentations with features and benefits of their products. Sounds real easy doesn’t it? Well it is not! (more…)

We were configuring a pair of sophisticated layer 7 Firewalls for high availability (stateful fail over). Stateful failover allows the firewalls to maintain actual session states, providing an almost seamless transition from one unit to the other. Layer 7 refers to firewalls that provide application-layer filtering. In test mode everything worked fine and when first brought them on line, they worked perfectly. (more…)

At Micro-Point we are beginning to phase out back to tape and are moving to External drives for data protection. Disk based backup is faster and more reliable than tape. As a perfectionist, I noticed some minor issues (bugs) with our external storage devices and since I was aware that a new generation of software was available, I decided to investigate. The new package (both software and firmware) had been out for 6 months, so I thought it would be safe to upgrade out storage devices, thereby fixing some minor issue and using the new features. (more…)

Otherwise titled: “The Danger of Repairing Computer Systems Instead of Replacing Them”

We sent a one year old Sony Tape library out for repair. Was it worth it? It seems impossible that a three thousand five hundred dollar device should be scrapped that quickly. But in critical networks, it’s debatable if this equipment should be used again. (more…)

Duplex mismatch is a hidden problem on many networks. On an Ethernet network each device has a duplex setting, half or full; when two devices disagree about duplex, a duplex mismatch occurs. This degrades network performance. In business networks ISP’s usually manage routers and end users usually manage firewalls. Does either party check the duplex setting of the others device? Usually not! The result is collisions and performance issues. A typical cause of this problem is when one device (often the ISP’s router) is hard coded to full duplex and the end users device is set to auto-negotiate. One would expect the auto-negotiate setting to be capable of matching the setting of the ISP’s router, but it is not. This combination will result in a half duplex connection and less then optimum performance. Auto-negotiate works best when both devices are set in this mode. If your devices are connected to a managed switch, see how your devices are linking up to each other then correct the duplex setting if necessary. If you are NOT using a managed switch it will be more difficult to see or correct this issue.

Micro-Point has been using Super Micro Servers for the past five years. The New York Times has just published an article about this company. Super Micro is thriving because it offers state-of-the-art technology and superior performance. Companies such as eBay and Yahoo rely on these servers.