Flaming your firewall

Today after automatically downloading and installing a Windows networking update, KB951748, thousands of XP users found they no longer had access to the internet. Zone Alarm, a popular 3rd party firewall, interpreting the update as an attack declared internet access denied.

So what lesson have we learned? While IT consulting and, even now, I never allowed Windows to automatically update via the normal consumer windows process. Only if pushing out updates via SMS (Systems Management Server) or alike, would I allow any type of automation.

This exact situation has burned me so many times. You arrive at the office or get the 6AM call from your site admin who is screaming ‘the internet is down no one has access, I checked 5 different computers’. So now you can’t even access the systems remotely to troubleshoot. You call the ISP and they say ‘we can ping the router’ and now before you have even had your coffee, your incompetent.

Now, several hours later, you arrive at the office, sleep deprived and incompetent, surrounded by dirty looks. They have all missed a deadline, lost their bonus and, it’s now your fault because you are the one who is there to fix it.

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Roam the office with complete security
or surf from any couch in the house

The Netgear wpn824 Rangemax Wireless Router has made my life allot easier. I get lots of questions from SOHO and SMB techies about how to set up a secure wireless network and which router is *the best*. For years now, I’ve had to distribute a questionnaire to my clients asking them to rate the importance of various features and then try to best match a product to their needs. Now finally, I can give the same answer to every question.

The Security

Securing your wireless network is super easy with Netgear’s “Touchless WiFi Security” delivering the highest level of wireless network security with WEP, WPA/PSK, or WPA2/PSK. You can also monitor and manage access to websites for every system accessing the Internet from your network with one central security dashboard. Just incase you weren’t ware, that would cost you $1000 5 years ago.

Features Include

• 7 internal antennas scan for strongest signal path and adjusts to interference
• MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) technology boosts network performance with up to 10x the speed and coverage of Wireless-G
• High speed connections with virtually no dead spots
• Compatible with internal wireless and public hotspots
• Double Firewall protection from external hackers attacks

The double fire wall is great, add that to your own systems firewall and hey, thats three!

Other Features Include

• “Trusted user” controls
• Time-based usage controls
• Web site logging
• Remote management
• URL content filtering
• Gigabit Ethernet

All in all I’d say that this is product to beat and, for about $150, you really can’t go wrong.

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