How many folks actually undertake any form of network maintenance? And by network I am meaning the bits of kit that allow your computer to talk to another for whatever reason. A quick google search would seem to imply that most folks think network maintenance to be checking on your PC’s, printers and servers.

I don’t, and here’s a list of some of the things I think you should do or have in place.

• Do you change default passwords on network kit?
• Do you change passwords when people leave?
• Do you actively seek out bug fixes and apply them?
• Do you store copies of your network configs?
• Do you have network drawings?
• Are they checked for accuracy periodically?
• Do you even monitor your network for problems?
• Do you have a baseline performance level that you periodically check against?
• Do you look for rogue Access Points or modems?
• What process do you have in place in case of hardware faults?
• Do you have a documented change process?

These are just some of the things one should do (and I’m certain you have more) – but I’m constantly amazed at how lax people are.

We know, from constant polls, blogs, etc that most attacks on a network occur from internal users. I forget the exact figure now (I’m sure Google can help) but the point is whilst we know this and try to mitigate against it, we tend to forget that internal people sometimes become ex-internal people. Yet they still have that knowledge.

Just the other day I was doing an audit of files on my PC at home and discovered a list of passwords I’d created for my benefit at a prior employer. I know I shouldn’t have, but …. anyway, being one of their network guys I know the way in and amazingly I can almost guarantee they haven’t changed any of the passwords.

Why? Well because in the time I was there we never bothered when others left … and I doubt very much that attitude has changed.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not about to use any of this info, I just find it interesting.

So what am I missing from my list?

Do you do any of these?

See it in full  over here:

Well two things strike me …

1. Let this be a salutory reminder to always change default passwords and
2. Do you know how to do this on all potentially affected networkable kit?

Short one today!

For my first tip I want to talk about the run box. It’s no longer the run box you love and used daily – well I did. One thing you can’t obviously do anymore is run a command in “administrator mode” – well, yes you can.

As an example type “cmd” (without the quotes) into your Win7 run box but instead of automatically hitting enter resist and instead use Ctrl+Shift+Enter. This will throw up the User Account Control (aka UAC) box – simply accept and you now have a cmd session with administrator privileges.

As Aleksandr, chief meerkat says: “Simples“.

Whilst we’re in the cmd session, how about a command line tool to convert any PNG you have to an icon? then look no further than png2ico.

More anon.

• @sophoslabs: RT @gcluley Gizmodo hit by malware adverts http://bit.ly/2Rb4By
• @ulb: RT @AngelWardriver: Time Warner Routers Still Hackable Despite Company Assurance http://bit.ly/1YRgEn #digg #security @wired
• @defvense_alert: #Security #Malware vulnerability detected – yasai.cn. Info http://ow.ly/o77K
• @Iran_Techie: How does text encryption work? Try it out at http://cryptfire.com #iranelection #tips #security
• @safesites: Check out our tutorials to keep safe online http://bit.ly/446imL

That’s it for this week – normal service now resumed so more next.

This time with Brendan Powell Smith the genius (if I may say so) behind “The Brick Testament“. If you don’t know what that is then where have you been? In their own words:

The Brick Testament is the largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible in the world with over 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 400 stories from The Bible.

In my words – it’s stories from the Bible re-told using lego and its characters. Absolutely fantastic stuff. Anyway my thanks to Brendan and on with the interview.

1. What’s on your current / recent reading list and why?
I just ordered the newly published book Jesus: Neither God Nor Man by Earl Doherty.  Since it remains a subject of fascination for me, I try to stay current on the scholarly study of the origins of Ancient Christianity, and I’d found Doherty’s previous book The Jesus Puzzle to present a theory on Christianity’s origins with more explanatory power than any other I’ve come across to date.  But just to provide his theory with some contrast, I also recently read Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman and reread Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity by my former thesis advisor at Boston University, Paula Fredriksen.

2. List one bit of advice you try to live by?
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.”

3. Half-full, half-empty or static and why?
Half-empty.  I find that having pessimistic expectations leads to more pleasant surprises and less disappointment.

4. What would you say to a child / young person wanting to do what you do?
Concentrate on being very, very lucky

5. Name one thing would you like to do that you haven’t already?
Illustrate the rest of the Bible in LEGO.

I have this question.

What is networking to you?

And when I talk about networking I mean the interaction amongst humans for pleasure or profit. The trouble with that one question is it forces me into lots more.

Do you see networking as a means to an end?

Is it there to support only your needs and what you can get out if it?

Is it something you use and abuse or do you try and gain by it?

Do you splurge tidbit after tidbit until your network rejects you? I’ve seen this on twitter far too often where some folks can’t have a life because they spend 12+ hours a day sharing links to the point where their network mentally rejects them.

Do you find your circle of networkers rarely if ever respond to you?

Do you ever wonder why that might be?

Why do you network?

As with most things you get a choice and here it’s to install or not. The list of 93 known bad extensions is something I plan to keep an eye on – for my part I only use 10 or so extensions with only 3 or 4 of those on a daily basis and thankfully none of mine are in the list!

The main point here is to be careful what you install.

Yesterday the family and I went geocaching.

Geocaching.com describes this as:

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.

It was one of those things that I’d known of but never really looked into. Then yesterday, when the wife threw me the usual Saturday “what should we do with the children” query I had no hesitation in saying lets try this.

In short order I set myself up an account at Geocaching.com – this is not entirely necessary but gives added usability. Next I grabbed their geocaching app for the iPhone and found that it mostly effectively replicates the sites capabilities and finally searched for a nearby cache that was rated as easy.

We ended up selecting “A Milestone Cache” which gave us a very gentle entry into this hobby.

Here’s a pic of my two at our first cache find – which I have to credit my daughter for.

As might be expected from the name of the cache it was hidden by a milestone. In the picture you can see the milestone,  my two youngest (Coel & Jenna) with Jenna holding the official geocache box. For what it’s worth we signed the logbook and left some lip shaped lip gloss.

Buoyed by this success we headed off on our next cache hunt which was only another 4 miles away but is somewhere we’d never heard of despite my wife being born and bred in the county and myself having lived here for 23yrs.

There were a few issues we had.

The geocaching app was all you could expect but with a one interface flaws for me and one shortcoming. The flaw being that without meaning too you could suddenly lose the details of the cache and have to search it out again. OK when connected to wireless or a decent 3G signal, but when in the wilds not the best. Though I do believe the cache details can be stored offline for ease of access.

The shortcoming is probably due to our lack of experience. Lots of the more involved caches work by giving you the GPS co-ordinates for what is called a Virtual Cache and then you have to answer clues based on the info at the VC. These answers then slot into a new set of GPS co-ordinates which may take you to the cache itself, or even to a secondary VC – and so on. Anyway, the geocaching app doesn’t allow for input of the secondary sets of GPS co-ordinates.

In frustration I paid my £0.59p and downloaded the “Traveller App” which unfortunately allowed me to enter Latitude and Longitude but only individually and only gave distance to the point not a direction indicator.

Due to this lack of preciseness we didn’t find the second cache but we did take a nice time climbing the cliff steps and this is part of the view from the top:

So next time we go I will ensure we have either purchased a full scale GPS unit or have found an app for my iPhone that will allow me to input Lat / Long and show me the direction to end. The only other caveat being that the geocaching app fairly ate into the battery life of my iPhone and next time I will ensure I have my backup battery.

Still, a very enjoyable day was had and even though we didn’t find the second cache this time my family remain enthused for doing more of these.