The practical range of wireless routers is first based on the protocol selected.  There are four protocols for Wi-Fi routers; A, B, G and N.  To minimize confusion there are only two suitable protocols to consider, G and N.  N is the newest standard, if all your wireless devices support N then you will choose this band, otherwise you are restricted to the G band.  The other protocols are old or have other limitations. Within these two protocols we have two different frequency ranges, the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band.

Routers running in the 5 GHz band have less interference, as there are far fewer devices that use this frequency. However the higher frequency has more difficulty penetrating thick walls or concrete and brick materials and reduces the range of the device.

Routers running in the 2.4 GHz band (both G and N) have a smaller bandwidth to work with and a frequency that is used by many more devices. The reduced bandwidth means that there are only 3 primary channels to work with compared to 11 or more at the 5 GHz frequency.  The number of channels is important when you have multiple Wi-Fi devices that may contend with each other.

The final factor we are considering is MIMO technology (Multiple Input Multiple Output).  MIMO is effectively a radio antenna technology that uses multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver to enable a variety of signal paths to carry the data. It offers significant increases in data throughput and link range without additional bandwidth or transmit power. Therefore we must use this technology to improve our Wi-Fi range.

Using an N band device in the 2.4 GHz frequency with MIMO we can get a useful range of about 300 feet in a radius.  With the G protocol we will not be able to maintain the 10 MB /sec for more that about 150 feet. In the 5.0 GHz frequency we can expect only about 40-60 percent of the range we get in the 2.4HGz frequency.

Wireless A
Another name for wireless standard 802.11a. Wireless A devices operate in the 5 GHz range and have maximum data transfer rates of 54 Mb/sec.

Wireless B
Another name for wireless standard 802.11b. Wireless B devices operate in the 2.4 GHz range and have maximum data transfer rates of 11 Mb/sec.

Wireless G
Another name for wireless standard 802.11g. Wireless G devices operate in the 2.4 GHz range and have maximum data transfer rates of 54 Mb/sec.

Wireless N
Another name for future wireless standard 802.11n. Wireless N devices will operate in the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz range and have maximum data transfer rates of 540 Mb/sec.

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.What makes this process even easier is that both Windows 7 and Windows 2008 provide simple (free) software that will allow you to schedule and create image backups. If you can simply image each machine once per month, you will have great protection for your network infrastructure.  Even though this is really quite easy I doubt that many small and mid-sized network have more the 10 percent of there machines imaged!

Image Backups: The real payoff for making a backup image is when catastrophe strikes. If your main hard drive dies and you have a backup image on another hard drive, then you could be up and running again in a hour or so, which is all it might take to remove the defective hard drive and insert the backup drive in its place and restore the image. Since the image backup has a copy of everything, you don’t have to do any reinstalling of applications.

File Backups: Backing up selected files instead of an entire disk means the resulting backup can be much smaller. That makes file backups more appropriate when backing up across a network. On-line backup services invariably use file backup rather than image backup, both to reduce their storage costs and to reduce the length of time required to transmit the backup data across the wire.

Which is Best: File Backups or Image Backups?  It’s best to use both file and image backups rather than just one or the other. If only one can be used, start with file based backups.

File backup software can often produce much faster and smaller backups than image backup software, but they have drawbacks as well. With a file backups, there’s always the chance that you failed to tell the software to backup an important file.

Image backups used to have more drawbacks, they used to take a lot of time,  so you might have backed up less frequently, or could not work while the backup was in progress. These issues have been resolved, mostly by the introduction of Volume Shadow Copy Service technology (VSS).  VSS produces an on-line snapshot (point-in-time consistent copy) of your data. A VSS Backup means the server is not in “backup mode” for an extended period of time because the length of time to perform the snapshot is usually measured in seconds and not hours. In addition, a VSS Backup allows a snapshot of large amounts of data at one time since the snapshot works at the volume level.

With the changes in technology, Imaging need to be part of all users backup strategy. It can be done at no cost for a simple image backup, or sophisticated centrally managed ( and expensive) software solutions can be implemented when numerous machines are involved.

One technology to ask for is Metro Ethernet, if it is available, you want it!  It is easily connected to any existing network and is superior to T1 circuits, especially when multiple T1 circuits are aggregated to provide higher bandwidth.  Metro Ethernet often can provide speeds of 10 Mb/s, 20 Mb/s and 50Mbi/s or higher.

The problem is logistics, it will not necessarily be easy to transition from your existing circuit, to the new one, but the dramatic increase in performance is worth the trouble.

Just as an example of the extent of attacks we see, on my home network I found someone from China who is constantly, day after day, scanning my home network attempting to find a way in. They will not get in but I decided to find out more information about this attacker. This individual is in Dingxi China, they have a forged host-name, so it certainly appears that their efforts are malicious. I cannot explain why they are so persistent in attacking my home network, but it is an indication of the overall problems we face in network security.

There is only a small amount of traffic on my home network, so it is easy to monitor these threats.  Imagine the difficulty of monitoring threats on a heavily used complex network!  However many small and mid-sized companies are not taking easy basic measures to protect their information and network security. So start with a new Security Appliance and the strategy to disable all external access to your network.

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.

Traditional CCTV Security camera’s are on the way out as are the Hybrid digital-analog systems that use black-box digital video recorders (DVR’s).  The cost of IP cameras have dropped to the point where IP-based technology is the best bang for your buck both monetarily and in terms of security.  With IP-based video surveillance using an NVR, you can connect your surveillance camera or cameras to any network or wireless adapter, and you are extremely flexible in your placement of the camera itself.  Set-up of an IP-based video system is easy — once you’ve set up an IP address, you’re up and running and it’s extremely stable and reliable. Because this is the technology of the future, it is also upgradeable.

Basics of IP surveillance

A digital camera “views” the scene in front of it, broadcasts the video images as a digitized signal over a LAN line (Local Area Network) where it’s then transmitted to a computer or server. The server in turn manages all of this information. Depending upon the software used to manage the digital images, it can record, display or retransmit the images to anywhere in the world.  Fully digital, networked IP-based surveillance is just another node on the IT network. Cameras have IP addresses, controlled centrally with any number of software applications on top of the raw visual data.

It is important to differentiate between DVRs and NVRs, as both are often termed ‘digital’.  A DVR digitally compresses analog video feeds and stores them on a hard-drive, the term ‘digital’ referring to the compression and storage technology, not the transmitted video images. The DVR therefore has to be located near the analog feeds. In contrast an NVR stores digital images directly from the IP network. The advantage of architecture based on NVRs is that they can be located anywhere on a network – at the monitoring center, adjacent to camera clusters, on the edge of a network, collected together in a hardened environment, indeed anywhere at all.

Cost-effectiveness

An IP-Surveillance system typically has a lower total cost of ownership than a traditional analog CCTV system. An IP network infrastructure is often already in place and used for other applications within an organization, so a network video application can piggyback off the existing infrastructure. IP-based networks and wireless options are also much less expensive alternatives than traditional coaxial and fiber cabling for an analog CCTV system.

Intelligent video

There is often too much video recorded and lack of time to properly analyze them. Advanced network cameras and video encoders with built-in intelligence or analytics take care of this problem by reducing the amount of uninteresting recordings and enabling users to find critical information quickly. This information can be viewed over the internet. Content can be delivered to PDAs, mobile phones and laptops, enabling mobile workers, to receive data in virtual real time.

Conclusion

A Video surveillance system is a great asset for businesses that want to increase productivity of their employees as well as cut down on security issues such as theft. An owner or manager can get online and view what is happening at work, in their absence.  Check to make sure that the employees are doing their jobs and see if anyone is doing what they should not be doing.  The same goes for in the home. With a digital solution, maintenance costs are low since it makes use of your existing network infrastructure.

To setup Google Voice and Gizmo5 is a daunting task to start with.  Google Voice gives you a free phone number and then allows you to forward it, or route it to other phones, based on who is calling you.  However if you are going to use Google Voice you will to have to make this your primary phone number, are you ready to do that?  Gizmo5 is a Skype competitor, for making and receiving calls, that uses an open standard for call management call SIP, it can inter-operate with regular phones or other SIP-based networks.  I am not going to discuss the setup of these applications, but it is a time consuming and complicated process, at least during this early stage in their development.

Google Voice and Gizmo5 have to work together to allow you to forward you cell phone calls to your PC.  Once I set up both applications, I programmed 2 speed dial keys on my cell phone, one to forward calls to Google Voice, and one to turn it off.  When call forwarding is on Google Voice receives the call and forwards it to Gizmo5.  The Gizmo5 application on my laptop lets me know an inbound call has arrived.  Gizmo5 recognizes Bluetooth, so I can use my Bluetooth headset for these calls.

In reality this doesn’t work well at all.  Gizmo5 randomly disconnects, and if it does, your call goes to Google Voice, voicemail without any notification.  Setting the Bluetooth volume is difficult, so hearing the calls can be problematic.  And finally the stability of Gizmo5 is poor even when you do connect on a call.

If you want to use your PC for phone calls Skype is the best option available, not Google Voice.

StoreGrid is a cross platform application that runs thru a browser-based interface. StoreGrid client and server can run on numerous operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac. It can backup to (and restore) from a StoreGrid server running on a different OS.  For example, a StoreGrid client running Windows Vista can backup to a StoreGrid server running in a Linux OS.

OpenDNS requires no downloading or installing software, you simply choose OpenDNS DNS servers instead of those assigned by your ISP.  OpenDNS categorizes content into more than 50 categories that can be blocked on an individual basis. In addition to the obvious categories, OpenDNS also can block video sharing, classifieds, games, p2p and so on.

However, in order to restrict a variety of adult website content you will need to create a free account with them, register your IP address and select the categories you want restricted (i.e. sexuality, nude, pornography, lingerie, grotesque, etc…).

How does OpenDNS make money? When OpenDNS users mistype a domain or enter a Web site name that doesn’t exist, the service will try to determine which site you meant to visit. So, if you accidentally type “microsoft.cmo,” it takes you to “microsoft.com.” But if it can’t figure out the domain you typed, it serves you targeted text ads.

Years ago I gave up on trying to memorize all of my online accounts,  that is once I learned how to use KeePass.  This is the best Password application I have found, and since it’s cross-platform, you can use it in Windows, Ubuntu, Linux, MacOS X, J2ME (Cell Phones), Blackberry, Windows Mobile etc…

It’s portable – can be used without installation, for example installed on a USB drive.  It will auto-type your username and password directly in to your web browser.

It is much more secure than saving passwords within your browser.  While KeePass is running, your passwords are encrypted using a ‘session key’ (randomly generated at startup). This means, that even if you would dump the whole KeePass processto disk, you couldn’t find the passwords.

There are plenty of other features, but it’s not over complicated to use. I have all my passwords organized into groups. There are 3rd party addons for example you can setup KeePass to synchronize your laptop and desktop password databases.

I chose BitDefender and used it for about a month. Like most people I wanted to believe that I was smart and made a good choice. When I finally admitted the truth and dumped BitDefender it had wasted a lot of my time. It caused subtle crashes and instability as well as rendering some of my important programs useless.

I take issue with the online software reviewers about this. They run all of these programs through banks of tests, certifications, performance checks and feature comparisons. But they do not have a dozen or more users run it for a month, so they never find out the practical results in the real world.

Now I am using VIPRE antivirus, it’s leaner and lighter then BitDefender and initially has caused none of the problems I had with BitDefender.

Look for the program with the LEAST features, just the ones you really need. For example many people do not need a software firewall, and many of these programs include that capability.

Check back in a month or so and I’ll let you know if VIPRE is a great choice.