Internet

Diagnosing And Resolving Strange Network Issues

June 22, 2012

By Tech Experts Staff
Everyone’s had them, you know those weird issues where one of your computers can get online or to your server but your workstation can’t. Or, when one building can get to the Internet or other network resources and your other building can’t.

Networking issues can be a real headache as they can be very difficult to track down. Without the proper equipment and knowledge, they can plague you forever. Fortunately we have solutions to those network gremlins that we see all too often.

This month we are going to touch on the common network issues we see and how we go about getting them corrected for you so that your network runs as it should.

Starting from your workstation and heading out to your Internet Service Providers (ISP) modem, we’ll work our way through some of the commonly seen issues.

Can’t reach the Internet.
This one we see frequently. When your workstation can’t get to the Internet (and other workstations on your network can), there are actually numerous issues that can cause this problem.

Some of the items your tech would (or should) be checking are:

Does the computer have a virus?
Viruses can cause all kinds of havoc when it comes to how your computer functions. Viruses can change the way that Windows networking acts and what it does.

If some of the aspects of your computer’s operating system (OS) are changed by a virus, it’s possible you may not be able to get online.

Is the connection from the computer to the router in good working order?
Sometimes people think that the answer to this question is as simple as “is the Ethernet cable plugged in tight,” and in most cases it is.

Sometimes the cables you may have been using for years might begin to cause connectivity problems. Cables that are constantly moved can have the wires within the cable ends worked loose. Ethernet cables used with notebooks and laptops are especially prone to this.

Once the right cables work themselves loose you are likely to either see sporadic connection problems or you may not have any connection at all.

These types of issues while not as common as virus or operating system issues tend to be more difficult to track down.

While a tech could go through all of the cables on your network when you have a connection problem, doing so can take a lot of time.

This isn’t normally the first course of action unless they specifically see symptoms that indicate this type of issue.

Some of the other issues that can cause a workstation to lose connectivity are faulty routers, switches or modems.

In the case of any of these pieces of network equipment, if the ports on them begin to fail users may have a lot of issues, from dropped packets resulting in slow Internet performance, to no Internet connection at all and everywhere in between.

The last possible place for connection issues is your ISP’s modem. Generally a tech can roughly troubleshoot this piece of equipment, but because your ISP manages it, there is only so much a tech can do to correct problems on this type of equipment. We can usually isolate the trouble to the modem, but after that, the ISP takes over.

If a tech finds an issue with your modem you would need to have your ISP’s techs come out and look into the issues with their modem.

No matter what issues your workstation is having we can trace them back to the root of their cause.

Give us a call and we’ll get you back up and running ASAP.

Will Your Internet Stop Working In July?

May 16, 2012

tlfheadshot_web — Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

You’ve probably read in the paper or saw on the news that hundreds of thousands of computers might lose Internet access after July 9. I’ve had several clients ask, “Is this true? How serious is it?”

The short answer is, you’re probably fine. If you use Tech Experts for your anti-spyware, anti-virus, and anti-malware services, we have you covered.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a serious threat. If you happen to be one of the people with an infected computer, then yes – there’s a good chance you could wake up on July 9 to no Internet.

What’s This All About?
In a word, malware.

Last year, malware infected over half a million computers worldwide. This nasty virus modified the process your computer uses to translate domain names – like “MyTechExperts.com” – into IP addresses – like 209.151.164.50. It’s the IP address that locates the actual physical server that houses the website.

To perform that translation, computers are programmed with translators – DNS servers – that answer questions like, “What’s the IP address for www.google.com?” DNS servers are automatically provided by your Internet provider when you connect to the Internet.

When this “DNS Changer” malware infected a computer, it altered the translation server that the computer would use. Rather than a legitimate DNS server, PCs were silently reconfigured to use a bogus one.

The problem is, this new bogus server sometimes lies.

False DNS Responses
Rather than answering the question, “What’s the IP address for google.com?” with the correct answer, the fake DNS server would return a different IP address: the address of a malicious server that was configured to look like Google, but that is really a server run by identity theives.

As long as the malicious server looked enough like Google, the computer user wouldn’t know until it was too late that something was wrong. They’d be tricked into thinking it was Google.

The bogus site (which could be any site the hackers chose, not just Google) could itself install more malware, display additional advertising, or do just about anything that a malicious website could do. All without warning.

What Happens In July
In November, the hackers were caught. But hundreds of thousands of infected machines were left with their DNS settings pointing to the fake DNS servers.

So, rather than removing the fake DNS servers from the Internet, the agencies that caught the hackers changed them to be legitimate ones. The government is spending about $10,000 per month to maintain these servers.

While this meant that people with infected PCs would be able to surf the net more safely, it didn’t change the fact that their computers were, fundamentally, still infected.

On July 9th, the government is shutting down the temporary DNS servers. Anyone whose computer is still infected, and is using those servers to get DNS answers, won’t get an answer at all.

Without a working translator – DNS server – your computer can’t answer the “What’s the IP address of xyz.com” for any site on the Internet. For those people with infected computers, the Internet will simply stop working.

Let me be clear: the Internet will stop working only if your machine is infected. It’s easy to find out if you’re infected. Visit the DNS Changer Working Group at http://www.dcwg.org/ and click the green button labeled “Detect.”

This will examine whether or not your computer is affected by the DNS Changer malware. If you’re not, you’re done. July 9 will be a non-event for you.

What To Do If You’re Infected
If DCWG indicates that you’re affected, the page should also include information on what to do to clean the infection from your system.

The good news is that there are many free tools that are listed as resolving the issue – free tools from most of the major anti-malware utility vendors.

Specifically, Windows Defender Offline (formerly Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper) is listed, and it would probably be the tool I’d reach for first.

After cleaning DNS Changer off of your machine, I would also seriously review the anti-malware tools that you’re currently using. Put simply, it should have been caught by now.

The Internet: Employees Are Wasting Your Money

May 16, 2012

By Tech Experts Staff
With today’s tight budgets every business is making cuts in some fashion. One interesting fact is that, in the United States, businesses waste some $760 billion every year on unproductive payroll.

If companies could find a way to cut back on this waste, then they would not need to cut as much elsewhere.

What do employees do to waste almost a trillion dollars a year? According to numerous studies, employees waste an average of just over two hours per day on unproductive or non-work related activities.

If you take that average and multiply it across your workforce, how much money could you be saving if you knew how? Fortunately we can help!

Internet Abuse Costly
While we don’t have a way to solve all of your company’s time wasting issues, we do have several solutions for the number one time waster by employees: Internet abuse.

Internet usage is the cause of nearly 50% of wasted time in the workplace! That adds up to 364 hours of wasted time per employee per year.

This is an incredibly easy fix, technically, and there are numerous prevention measures you can implement.

Acceptable Use Policy
The first prevention measure to help to prevent misuse of company time: Let your employees know what is – and is not – acceptable on your company network.

While most employees know that being online and goofing off is not right, if they haven’t been told they tend to not think twice. Implement a comprehensive acceptable use policy in your employee handbook.

Employees should be told what is acceptable and what consequences are in place should the acceptable use policy be breached.

Implement Filtering
The second way to keep employees from misusing the company network is to have proper measures in place to prevent unauthoroized use.

Most higher end routers have the ability to add websites to a filter and block them. This is a great way to prevent employees from having access to unauthorized or unnecessary websites.

If you don’t mind employees having access to websites such as Facebook during certain hours of the day, say lunch for example, then a policy can be put in place to allow access to these websites only during the specified hours.

While we don’t recommend access to websites such as Facebook on company networks, due to the possibility of easily accessing infected websites, ads, or popups, there are some companies that allow this.

Some companies have smaller networks where it is harder to justify the cost of a high end router, but still want to be able to control their employee’s network use.

For companies like this, there are other options. For example, there are some DNS providers that specialize in blocking non-work access. You simply point your router to the service to block the websites you don’t want employees to have access to.

One other option for those on a tight budget is to manually block websites by turning on the content advisor within each computers Internet settings and allowing only those specific sites an employee needs to complete their work.

Monitor Compliance
The final step is to have some sort of monitoring system in place and let your employees know it is being checked. Letting your employees know their usage is being tracked and monitored is generally an effective deterrent.

There are many different monitoring systems that can be installed on a user’s workstation and that run silently in the background. These systems can monitor everything on a user’s computers from keystrokes to taking screen shots of a user’s computer.

If you would like to speak with us on steps to improve your businesses productivity and cut down on wasted time give us a call. No matter what the size of your business, there are steps that can be put in place to help combat this rampant problem.

R.I.P. AOL Finally Kills Netscape Navigator

January 10, 2008

AOL LLC has finally pulled the plug on Netscape Navigator, the Web browser that once owned the lion’s share of the market and that was the focus of a landmark federal antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

In an announcement posted to AOL’s website, the company said it ending development and would cease issuing security updates as of Feb. 1, 2008.

AOL said all support would end in just over a month and urged current Netscape users to migrate to Mozilla’s Firefox.

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