Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Who are Script Kiddies

A script kiddies is a term used to describe those who use scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks and deface websites. Script kiddies have a large number of effective, easily downloadable malicious programs capable of breaching computers and networks.
  For example, Martin Calce, a high school student from Montreal, Canada, was arrested in 2000 for using downloaded tools to launch a series of highly publicized Denial-of-Service attacks against high-profile Web sites such as Yahoo!, Dell, eBay, and CNN. The financial damages were estimated at roughly $1.2 billion in global economic damages.

Monday, February 14, 2011

New online backup service designed fasthosts

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a web hosting provider, recently launched a brand new online backup service designed to provide protection for valuable business data. The company explains that priced from only GBP 10/month+VAT, the service can automatically backup up to 1TB of data, transferring it via SSL and storing it encrypted within a secure state-of-the-art UK data center. Backups upload only incremental changes to files meaning that bandwidth usage is kept to a minimum. The service is ideal for small and medium sized businesses that require secure, external protection of valuable data in a highly flexible and cost effective format. 'Cloud-based' services, such as Fasthosts Online Backup, enable businesses to access their data from any internet enabled computer, whilst always ensuring that data is stored and transferred with superior protection against any electronic or physical risks.

It says that its Online Backup service fulfils an important requirement for all businesses in protecting valuable business data and files from loss or corruption. A common deterrent for businesses looking to protect their data can be the required investment in hardware. The company's solution resolves this by using a scalable 'cloud-based' model to deliver fast and highly secure backup on demand, which works alongside their existing on-premise infrastructure. Furthermore, a highly intuitive user interface helps small business users to integrate data protection measures easily into their workflows. source webhosting.infohttp://www.webhosting.info/news/1/fasthosts-launches-online-backup-service_0214114189.htm

Go Daddy Introduces new Premium DNS

Go Daddy, a domain name Registrar and hosting provider, today introduced Premium DNS service. The company mentions that there are more than 200 million registered domain names that comprise the Internet, all of them running through DNS - a critical process which matches meaningful domain names (i.e. 'GoDaddy.com') with the numerical IP identifiers to locate that website on a particular server (i.e. 97.74.104.201). Its Premium DNS service provides users with tools to enhance and protect that process.
It avers that through the company's global Anycast (DNS routing) network, Premium DNS service offers faster, more reliable and more secure DNS resolution. Traffic is balanced across its multiple data centers throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, to eliminate a single point of failure and to route DNS activities for maximized performance. source webhosting.info

How to enable Mail Relay in Mail Enable server

Mail relaying needs to be enabled in order to send mail. Otherwise MailEnable will only be able to receive email. There are four options available to limit who can send mail out through the server. It is possible to select any combination of the four, however, a client only has to match one of the items in order to relay through the mail server.
Allow relay for authenticated senders
Requires that people sending mail through the server enter a username and password (i.e. this option enables SMTP authentication). To set this is different for various mail clients, but in Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook for instance, this is done in account properties via the "My server requires authentication" checkbox under the "Servers" tab. It is advisable to have this option enabled if the server is not using privileged IP ranges. Also, ensure that Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is not enabled.
Authentication method
Select the authentication method for authenticated senders.
MailEnable/integrated authentication: uses the MailEnable username/password
Windows authentication: uses the Windows username/password valid for that machine
Authenticate against the following username/password: specify your own username and password.
Allow relay for privileged IP ranges
Allows people with certain IP addresses to send email through the server. If the IP addresses of persons who are able to send email out through the server is known, use this option. DO NOT select this option if the list of IP addresses is unknown, as this may inadvertently allow everyone access. This option is usually required to allow sending through the server from a web server or web page.
Allow relay for local sender addresses
Allows people to send mail if their ‘From’ address has a domain that is hosted on MailEnable. For instance, if you host example.com, and someone sends a message from your server that has their ‘From’ address as peter@example.com, the email will be sent. Unfortunately, spammers may still abuse this by spoofing ‘from’ addresses, so most servers will not use this option. Using this option may cause some anti-spam blacklists to consider the server as “open relay” and block email from the server.
POP before SMTP authentication
The IP address of users who authenticate via POP is remembered and permitted to relay. The time period to remember the IP address for can be set. Some client applications will try to send email before retrieving (e.g.: Microsoft Outlook), so they will generate an error message on the first send try. Subsequent send attempts will then work if they are before the specified time. This is required due to some ISPs and certain routers not allowing SMTP authentication. This feature will bypass this issue by authenticating a client using POP. If this authenticates then the SMTP service will allow this IP access for a designated period of time. To remember the IP address, a file is written to the Mail Enable\Config\Connections directory. The file name is the IP address and the file extension is .pbs.

what is smtp relay option in Mail Enable

Mail servers accept messages for recipients that have their mailboxes hosted on the mail server itself. Any attempt to send a message to a non-local recipient (i.e. a recipient on a different mail server) is called a ‘relay’. It is critical to regulate who can send messages to others (non-local recipients) or the server will be identified as an Open Relay. This means that people on the Internet can send email out through the server without authenticating. Secure the server by configuring strict rules as to who can relay messages to non-local recipients.
For a server on the Internet, the best relay setting to have is to only have Allow relay for authenticated senders checked, and leave Allow relay for local sender addresses unchecked. This will make everyone who wants to send email out via the server provide a username and password.
To access the SMTP Relay options, open the Administration program, expand the Servers >Localhost >Connectors branch, right click on the SMTP icon, select Properties from the popup menu, and click the Relay tab.
The following provides an explanation of the various relay settings.  Source www.mailenable.com

how to enable and disable IMAP On Mail enable server

In order to enable/disable IMAP service for a particular domain from MailEnable one need to perform below mentioned steps:

1) Login into MailEnable Professional.
2) Click on MailEnable -> MailEnable Management -> Messaging Center -> Post Offices.
3) Right Click on domain name -> Properties for which one need to perform the task.
4) Go to the Tab “Service Selection”.
5) Select the ‘Enable or Disable’ from drop down menu against IMAP Service.
6) Click on apply and Ok.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

how to choose a cloud hosting Provider

A good service provider is the key to good service. So, it is imperative to select the right service provider. One must make sure that the provider is reliable, well-reputed for their customer service and should have a proven track record in IT- related ventures. The Cloud Computing Incidents Database (CCID) records and monitors verifiable, noteworthy events that impact cloud computing providers. Visit the following Wikipedia link to obtain the list all such events. http://wiki.cloudcommunity.org/wiki/CCID           source