There are three (3) main reasons why you might want to and these ignore all the arguments of why you should or shouldn’t partition.

• Organise your work
• Safe guard your data
• Boost your computer’s performance

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I want to setup a wi-fi hotspot within our Church.

The pastor is full of angst over the local population surfing for free for unwholesome content and then telling the local press that they got it courtesy of the local church. You can just see the headlines now ….

Local Church Provides Free Porn

or

Illegal Content Obtained Through Church

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So here’s a weird one. I get a call to say that the users web browsing is ultra slow and could I have a look. Being the distrusting soul that I am, I don’t take the problem description at face value – hey, 25yrs in IT has taught me one thing and that is to keep asking questions because eventually the truth will out. I guess this is the same game the police play.

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Just over a week ago I attended a different church – the first one in a long, long time. No, I’m not leaving mine but was simply paying a visit to the one where my teenager now attends whilst at University.

The building is very typical Anglican in that it has a central seating area surrounded by two rows of pillars and two side seating areas either side of the pillars. Whilst this is a traditional layout for the seating area it can leave a lot to be desired in terms of being able to see – unless of course you like this or want to sleep during the sermon!

However, this church had overcome this and on each pillar there was a large screen TV (old style analogue but why not if it works?) – I guess 21″ or more along with a large screen off centre and down the front. All of these were centrally linked to the media projector for song words, presentations, notices, etc and they were also all linked to a recording device / live media streamer. It didn’t take me long to spot that they were using a dome camera (similar to these) with a 360 degree field of vision.

I’d loved to have had a chat with the operator or the person9s) responsible for the vision behind it all but I was there for family time so couldn’t justify it. However, I was impressed with the alternative use of a product that it wasn’t specifically designed for.

This got me to thinking about how I could use stuff I know about in differing ways. Hopefully more on that anon.

What novel ways do you use equipment, software, etc?

There is a lot of good information out there on how to secure your PC’s and I don’t intend to repeat any of these. What I do want to do is document what I tell my friends and family in one place so that I can easily point them at it – rather than me waffling on each time. I also want to add in a “how to” remain safe when using your PC.

The order in which these steps are approached greatly depends on individual circumstances – is the machine brand new, has it already been used on the web … and so on. Anyway, without further ado:

• ensure all OS updates / patches have been applied
• install a software based firewall
• install a reputable AV application
• use malware scanners, etc on a regular basis

And that is the sum total of it.

Well, no, it isn’t but that is the basics. Of course questions will arise such as what firewall, what AV, what do I do with the alerts, etc., and it is these I will attempt to answer now.

1. Update your PC. Ensure your PC is running the latest service pack and has got all the latest patches. This one is a simple matter of going to the Windows Update site and following the prompts.
2. Install a firewall. There is a lot of debate as to whether you need this with some thought being that ‘if you’re behind a router and have up to date AV then no you don’t’ – however I strongly disagree. We all fall prey to installing software or clicking on something that perhaps we shouldn’t and this is where a software firewall comes into it’s own. Software firewalls primarily work by alerting the user to outbound connections and it is these we need to be most wary of – as once we allow an outbound connection the reverse is also true.My current choice of free firewall for home use is Tall Emu’s Online Armor <sic, but equally as good is Comodo’s. There are marginally better paid versions (including Tall Emu) but I’d suggest keeping an eye on Matousec’s site for the latest news.
3. Install anti-virus. This is an absolute must. These days, most AV software will also do basic malware scanning so please don’t fall into the trap of buying a suite (av/firewall/malware/etc all in one). The decent free versions out there are from Avast and AVG but for what it’s worth I use Nod32 for £30 a year.And whilst here, you must make sure you keep you AV signature base up to date.
4. The rest.

My other advice is:

- do all your surfing in a sandbox / virtual session – this will keep your surfing sessions separate from your day to day PC activities and you can more or less click on anything without affecting your PC. Once done, close the sandbox session and all you’ve just done disappears. This includes installing apps that you want to try. For this I recommend (and use) Sandboxie – which is also free.

- don’t click on anything you don’t recognise. This includes the latest attachment from your mates unless you are expecting it. If in doubt, question it.

- use online AV scans periodically to supplement your installed one. A second opinion is always worth it. Here’s Trend, Bitdefender and Panda Security versions.

- use anti-malware scanners from time to time, such as A-Squared or Window Security variants.

- don’t use IE it is a security nightmare. If you insist you like it better, or websites only work with it then install and use Firefox along with IE Tab.

- use some form of web filter to semi-automate you being shielded away from the bad sites. For a free one that works well but is currently a one size fits all approach, then try Bluecoats K9.

- don’t use Outlook or any of its variants. Or if you insist on doing so, then get a Google mail account and then collect your now mostly filtered mail from there. Locally also run spamfighter to grab anything that google misses – between the two you’ll have a mostly spam free inbox.

That, in a nutshell is it. Yes I could go on and on, but then a line needs to be drawn somewhere. What I will add is that if you suspect your PC of being infected already then a slightly different approach needs to be taken.

I was in the Church yesterday showing something to my son when the pastor asked if he could have 5 minutes of my time.

I don’t know about you and your pastors, but it’s never just 5 with mine! Anyway, he says to me “if we had the money, what is your wish list within IT?” Well wow, I wasn’t expecting that. So there then ensued a manic few minutes whilst I came up with suggestions – but because I’ve got used to not expecting anything it has also got me into the habit of not thinking, or wishing, for what I’d want.

All said and done, the first words out of my mouth were “it’s not just IT I’m concerned with, however…” and then I ran off my top 4 needs, which for your delectation are:

• sort out the network cabling / move central kit to secure room
• memory upgrades for all Church PC’s
• get a vendor supported hardware appliance firewall
• setup wi-fi for Church / Visitor / locals

The pastor then added that just because he’s added them to the budget it doesn’t mean they will happen, but if they are there it is more likely that they will. What this has (re)taught me is to always be prepared and to stop my negative thinking in terms of my Church’s UT / Media spending.

We have a no name dirt cheap switch at the centre of our Church network and I’m not a happy man with it. First and foremost it doesn’t allow me any control over well, anything. No vlans, no port security, no QoS, nothing.

Now some of these are probably a bit future tech for our place at the moment, but VLans and security aren’t ever future tech, they should be (in my opinion) minimum requirements for any switch. Unfortunately I had no say in the choice of hardware, or more accuraetly I wasn’t consulted until it came time to install and set it up! Hmmm. (more…)