When TBNG Consulting established our business idea back in 2002, our team needed some strategic guidance and oversight from a business professional. Specifically, we sought someone to provide both fiscal and organizational analysis to validate our business models and lead our road-map discussions. Irrespective of your industry, it is crucial to obtain such third party input to help keep the management team focused and business models refined. Enter Gary Mullin at FTG Financial, LLC.
Gary works with private, public & non-profit organizations to accelerate financial change. FTG acts as consultants, advisors and coaches to business owners and executives in building business value, improving cash flow, increasing operational efficiency, and breaking through barriers to success. Gary is a specialist in helping profit & not for profit companies understand and maximize value.
FTG has been instrumental in helping the TBNG Consulting management team increase its strategic value and bolster its financial operations in areas such as cash flow analysis, sales management and resource planning. FTG uses a comprehensive assessment method to identify where value can be improved in every aspect of the business. These types of engagement tools have really helped to improve our value over an extended period of time while understanding current market conditions.
Whether you are preparing to sell your company, take on an investor, or want to improve your business value over an extended period of time, FTG Financial help. Contact Gary Mullin for more information and a complimentary consultation.
FTG Financial, LLC
150 Northrop Road • Woodbridge, CT 06525
(203)980-8477
info@ftgfinancial.com
www.ftgfinancial.com
An inbox crammed with emails is incredibly stressful. Each email is like a monkey on your back, albeit a small one. After a while, it can build up, and before you know it, you're overloaded but some of these emails are very important and you don’t want to just delete them.
One of the ways to save your emails is to manually Archive them into a PST (offline mail store) file.
To create this file you will need to
1. Click on the file tab in your outlook.
2. Click on Account Settings and from the drop down box click on Account settings again
From the Account settings pop up window
3. Click on the Data Files Tab then hit the add button
Choose where the file goes, and then hit “OK”.
On your Outlook home page you will now have a new option or folder called “My Outlook Data File” this is your new offline email PST file where you are now able to organize your mail. You can also create sub-folders within this new Data file by right clicking over “My Outlook Data file” choosing new folder from drop down box same as any other folder in your inbox.
This may not a perfect solution to clear and organize your mail but it does give you a good option to help save space on your email account by creating this offline file. Some warnings you have to be aware of is that the file is usually stored on your hard drive and if your device crashes you could lose the PST file also there are space limits to the PST and going over that limit could cause data corruptions and again loss of data. You can read more on that here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/seanearp/archive/2010/01/24/creating-a-pst-in-outlook-2010.aspx
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817
Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) means an massive influx of mobile devices, such as Droids, iPhones, Kindles, iPads, iTouch, Nexus, Surface and just about any other Internet Protocol apparatus at student can put in his or her book bag. BYOT adds several capacity concerns to network but also contributes to some lesser known issues regarding DNS and DHCP.
In this case, some Android devices do not recognize internal DNS nomenclature – specifically, fully qualified domain names (e.g. device.schoolname.local). This presents a problem because some web based filtering and wireless network controllers usually like to keep track of DNS entries generated after the device successfully obtains an IP address via DHCP. Most importantly, web based authentication mechanisms require that the device prompt the user for active network credentials in order to proceed to network services such as Internet access.
During a recent run-in with a droid device, once successfully connected to the BYOT portion of the wireless network, web based authentication failed. From what our engineering team has ascertained, the droid device does not seem to populate the local DNS suffix field from the DHCP option field. This means that any DNS specific entries for web authorization redirection may fail.
To correct this situation, our team (which utilizes a local Cisco 4404 WLAN controller) configured the Wireless LAN controller name to the fully qualified domain name:
WLAN name current listed as just c4404.
We changed to c4404.schoolname.local, rebooted the controller and then joy!
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.
photo credit:
mendhak via
photopin cc
If you have the business-oriented edition of Windows 8, Windows 8 Professional, you have the right to downgrade to Windows 7 Professional, but you will need to have your own Windows 7 CD and product key to do this. Doing the downgrade consists of installing the older operating system on the computer and then calling Microsoft for permission to activate Windows 7 in the event that the product key had already been used. There is no charge to do this, but completing the process can be time consuming.
Simulating Windows 7
If you don't want to deal with the hassle or potential expense of downgrading, you can re-create much of the Windows 7 user interface on Windows 8. One option is to add third-party software programs like Start8, Classic Shell or StartIsBack to access the Start menu. You can also tweak your system's settings to automatically boot to your desktop instead of the Windows 8 Start screen while also replacing some of the built-in applications that interface with the Start screen with other ones that are desktop friendly.
Why Not Downgrade?
If you need to use a piece of unsupported hardware , you might not have the option of using Windows 8 at all. As Windows 8 matures, however, more hardware drivers are becoming available. Given that Windows 8 offers a powerful search tool as well as fast bootup times, it has some real advantages over Windows 7. If you can either learn how to use the interface or are willing to modify it to better suit your preferences, staying with Windows 8 may be a better option for you.
For additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817. TBNG Consulting delivers value to your organization by engineering IT solutions to fit your needs with a philosophy driven by experience, product expertise and customer commitment.
Bring Your Own Technology [“BYOT”] means an massive influx of mobile devices, such as Droids, iPhones, Kindles, iPads, iTouch, Nexus, Surface and just about any other Internet Protocol apparatus at student can put in his or her book bag.
photo credit: nooccar via photopin cc
BYOT can put a reasonable high stress on an existing network’s infrastructure and appliances, particularly when underlying software gets a bit chatty. Consider the more technical details about how today’s smart devices can automatically trigger updates and access to cloud based applications upon network access. Is your network prepared for this next stage of end-user access?
If you’re an educational IT Manager reading this blog, most likely, the mere mention of the acronym BYOT may make you cringe a bit. TBNG Consulting has been engaged with BYOT in the Connecticut and Rhode Island K-12 markets for several years now. In our experience, many educational institutions either postponed deployment or lacked either the network resource to accommodate the underlying crush of data traffic. Specifically, adequate wireless coverage, security perimeters and small WAN links contributed to BYOT deployment difficulties. Additionally, bandwidth limitations regarding inter-site wide area networking further complicates matters. Alas, with the advent of more economical and easier to implement wide area Ethernet networking products, such concerns are now alleviated. In our local market, TBNG’s engineering teams are actively involved with Wide Area Network Ethernetdeployments, specifically with municipal and K-12 focus:
A wide array of local service providers such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and MetroCast can provide wide area layer-2 Ethernet connectivity at very competitive pricing. Not only does this technology deliver carrier-class dependability and speed, but a varying array of wide area topologies can be built to deliver bandwidth to outlying schools, facilities and campuses.
The solution for successful BYOT implementation begins with your wide area network connectivity. Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.
What is a Service Desk and why is it important is what you might be thinking of when you are thinking of your company and what expenses that you will be occurring to run it. Is your Service Desk or Helpdesk as important as say the phone system your company uses?
A Service Desk understands that information offers companies strategic advantages and it ensures proper mechanisms are in place for the data to be analyzed, produced and distributed seamlessly. The Service Desk is the first contact in an organization for any and all IT questions.Another definition of Service Desk is a center that provides a Single Point of Contact between a company’s customers, employees and business partners. The Service Desk is designed to optimize services on behalf of the business and oversee IT functions. Thus, a Service Desk does more than making sure IT services are being delivered at that moment, it manages the various lifecycles of software packages used to provide critical information.
The Service Desk allows companies to be less dependent on specific technology and enables them to easily connect with business partners by focusing on processes. By switching the IT focus on processes the infrastructure delivers value add to the corporate users and customers. Once the services and processes are defined, the Service Desk monitors them and the company focuses on its strategic and tactical business plan.
A good Service Desk improves a company’s customer satisfaction by allowing the company to implement their business plan. A good Service Desk improves a company’s satisfaction by managing IT costs. A good Service Desk communicates effectively and efficiently with each end user. There are many more things a good Service Desk does well; it is the next step in allowing your company to focus specifically on your business plan.
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.
The advent of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) functionality on Fortinet Fortigate’s UTM appliance is becoming the de facto method of providing secure remote access for end users. In the latest version of Fortinet’s Fortigate OS MR 5.0.1, a new SSL/SSH inspection option has been added to include all SSL protocols. By default, this protocol status in SSL/SSH inspection will be disabled for the SSL protocols. Therefore, you will need to enable SSL/SSH inspection when this feature set is required.
Prior to the 5.0.1 software update the following parameters were either configured or optional:
1) The antivirus, web filter, and anti-spam profiles had separate protocol settings for the SSL and non-SSL protocols.
2) For HTTPS deep-scanning to be done, deep-scan needed to be enabled for HTTPS in the UTM proxy options.
With the new 5.0.1 firmware upgrade the following features are configurable:
1) The settings for the SSL protocols in the antivirus, web filter, and antis-pam profiles have been removed. Instead, the non-SSL options will apply to both the SSL and non-SSL versions of each protocol.
2) The SSL/SSH inspection options now includes an enable/disable option for each protocol. This is used to control which protocols are scanned and which SSL enabled protocols are decrypted.
To use HTTPS non-deep (SSL handshake) inspection, HTTPS needs to be enabled in the SSL/SSH inspection options. A web filter profile with https-url-scan enabled needs to be applied in the firewall policy with the SSL/SSH inspection options. The web filter profile option changes the inspection mode to non-deep scan. AV will not be performed if this option is enabled. The web filter profile option does not apply if SSL inspect-all is enabled in the SSL/SSH inspection options.
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.
Computers have become a main part of all our lives. They faithfully memorialize our life events such as weddings, births and interesting vacation pictures. It stores our company's books, and the ceaseless emails we get and send. But, unless you back it up, all that data can be gone in a flash of lightning!
Computers themselves are becoming more a more reliable; however, system drives still fail without a decent warning. One minute you are working on a key project and the next minute it is toast! Other dreaded occurrences are viruses that can corrupt data and bog down your desktop. In case of a drive failure it could become expensive or impossible to retrieve your data and when you have a virus most technicians will advise you to wipe your hard drive clean and reinstall everything.
Being responsible and backing up your data can give you self-confidence as well improve customer satisfaction and confidence. Both employees and customers will be grateful for the peace of mind that comes with the protection of a backup. You could consider this an investment for your business. Think about amount of money and grief it can save the very first time it needs to be used and saves the day! Backing up your records is just one Information Technology benefit any business can enjoy. Another feature of some backup systems is the capability of sorting and organizing backup data. This allows you to easily refer to and restore original files and programs that have been deleted or misplaced as a result of human error.
Having a total system and data protection backup solution that combines ease-of-use with robust performance, allows you to perform fast backup and recovery jobs, protects your desktops, laptops, and protects your networked systems against various types of threats such as system failure, human error, and disasters.
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at
contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.
YouTube EDU provides a rich resource for education specific videos. For years, educators seeking access to YouTube.com were typically blocked by district web filters due to the bulk of non-educational and sometimes risky content. YouTube EDU overcomes this obstacle and is now a wonderful tool for instructors.
Fortinet Fortigate appliances provide excellent Unified Threat Management (UTM) for all types of network environments. Fortigate appliances provide network administrators a wide range of security technologies including intelligent filtering for YouTube EDU content. This YouTube EDU feature is currently available via the current MR 5.0 code release. Specifically, this feature is an option located within the protection profile, similar to forcing “safe search” for search engines. Technically, this device re-writes the header going out to include a special string of characters that is specific to your YouTube EDU account.
As with any new feature or option, our engineering team has determined that this type of advanced content filtering works very well when browsing on non-secured HTTP related traffic, e.g. http://youtube.com or http://www.youtube.com.
The challenge is that when end-users access a secure HTTP version of these websites, the filtering engine does not work as expected (for the moment at least). We learned that other dedicated web filters (i.e. Barracuda Web Filter) can overcome this hurdle. Thus, a simple yet effect work around was immediately needed to keep within the approved Internet usage policy dictated by various private and public school systems.
So, here are two (2) techniques that you can deploy on your Fortigate appliance (via the protection profile) that allows you to block https:// sites two different ways.
First, a couple of reference points:
1) URL inspection – this looks at the CN name in the certificate, but since Google owns YouTube, the certificate is the wildcard *google.com certificate.
2) Enable https deep scanning; works great but throws a certificate error on EVERY https site you visit – very annoying to say the least. Alas, you might in theory, export the certificate from the Fortigate and install it on all the machines, but I suspect this is a non-starter for most.
So, in order to overcome these shortcomings, you might consider the following configuration tips:
1) Allow all YouTube.com sites, wide open. If you block streaming media, add YouTube.com to a custom category. Then allow the custom category in the protection profile.
2) Configure YouTube EDU with header redirect (also in the protection profile, located in the web filtering section). Ideally, this should solve your YouTube EDU problem for http://youtube.com, but not for the secured https://youtube.com URL.
3) Next, create a firewall rule at the top of your rules set that DENIES https traffic to youtube.com. Since the underlying IP addresses change, you need to incorporate FQDN rule (instead of IP address) to block the following:
a) youtube.com
b) youtube-ui.l.google.com
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817
Out of the box, the Forti-AP solution Zero Configuration mode works if the FortiAP is directly connected to the FortiGate performing the Wireless [think flat networks only]. However, for larger more segmented networks with VLANs, the FortiAPs must be configured manually [effective through MR 4.3p11 level]:
Fortinet’s wireless solution seamlessly and securely extends your local area network across your enterprise. FortiAP® wireless access points are centrally managed through the FortiGate® platform, providing a sleek and consolidated WLAN solution. Each FortiAP access points tunnels all of its traffic to the wireless controller integrated into FortiGate platforms, providing a single console to manage both wired and wireless network traffic.
To manually configure the FortiAP follow the following steps to access the CLI of this device:
1) Connect the FortiAP unit to a separate private switch or hub or directly connect it to your management computer via a cross-over cable.
2) Change your management computer’s IP address to 192.168.1.3
3) Telnet to IP address 192.168.1.2
4) Login with username: admin and no password.
5) Configure a static IP address for the FortiAP unit and netmask & gateway information for your network, using the following commands:
- cfg -a ADDR_MODE=STATIC
- cfg –a AP_IPADDR=xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
- cfg –a AP_NETMASK=255.255.255.0
- cfg –a IPGW=yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy
- cfg –a AC_IPADDR_1=zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz
[Note: where xxx is the IP address of the FortiAP unit, yyy is the Gateway IP address and zzz is the IP address of the FortiGate Wireless Controller.]
6) Save the configuration by typing the following command: cfg –c
7) Unplug the FortiAP unit and plug it back in order for the configuration to take effect
Should you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact TBNG Consulting at contact@tbngconsulting.com or at 855-512-4817.