network Archives - Page 6 of 9

6 Quick Ways You Can Improve Your Network Performance

Feb 2017

The speed of your business PC network can make a huge difference to your productivity, but not all businesses use their network as effectively as possible.

By not getting the most out of your network, you’re missing out on crucial improvements in performance which can help you remain competitive in the marketplace. Now, there’s not a business on the planet which wants to lag behind its competitors, so let’s go through 6 quick ways you can improve your network performance.

Protect Your Network

The simplest way to improve network performance is to ensure it’s protected from malware and viruses. Making sure that you have reliable antivirus software and sophisticated email filtering is key to keeping your network online. Remember: if your network goes down then – even if it’s just for an hour – it can hit your productivity hard.

Embrace Compression

Even in this modern age, bandwidth is still a valuable commodity and increasing your available bandwidth can be a costly affair. However, you don’t have to break the bank to get the most out of your bandwidth. By working with compression software you can significantly reduce the size of the data being transmitted over your network and free up valuable bandwidth to be used by other applications.

Keep Your Network Up to Date

Once you launch a new network it will be as well tailored to your needs as it could possibly be. However, over time, things change such as individual staff requirements, software upgrades which require specialist attention and numerous other factors which alter your digital needs. And this is why you need to regularly review your network to assess and identify the changes required to keep your network in touch with your current needs.

Consider Linux

Linux is a lot more secure than Windows as it’s less commonly used and, therefore, there’s less incentive for hackers to concentrate on breaching it. Now, I’m not suggesting you should migrate all your users to Linux, as it only supports certain applications. However, if you can migrate users who don’t require access to Windows-only applications then you’ve eliminated a number of potential security risks.

Identify Junk Traffic

It’s important that you understand what’s taking up your valuable bandwidth as this can often be caused by junk traffic. Say, for example, your employees are running online games through their lunch period, depending on the software involved this could be consuming large amounts of your bandwidth. Likewise, blocking large attachments which are forwarded round from employee to employee can also drain your bandwidth, so preventing this will also improve your network performance.

Educate Your Staff

It’s vital that your staff understand the best practices to optimize your network’s performance. This can be simple advice that makes up part of your company’s IT induction process and informs staff how to not only practice good network security, but also understand how to use applications correctly and not affect the network’s performance.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

6 Tips for Browsing Online Safely and Securely

Internet, Network, Uncategorizedbrowser, internet, network, securityOphtek, LLC

Oct 2016

Almost every business has a daily need to go online and interact with the internet, but to do this safely you need a little bit of browsing know-how.

Whilst most websites are relatively secure, it’s difficult to guarantee just how secure they are. And seeing as even government websites can be hacked, how do you know that, for example, that customer maintenance portal you have to log on to daily hasn’t been hacked for dubious means?

Avoiding this sort of scenario is crucial for your business to run smoothly, so I’ve prepared 6 tips to help you browse online safely and securely.

1. Use HTTPS Security

If a website is truly secure then its web URL should start “HTTPS:” and the “S” at the end stands for secure – provided by secure sockets layer (SSL) security. Conversely, if the web URL only starts “HTTP:” then the security behind it will be much less and can’t be taken for granted.

2. Avoid Public WiFi

Public WiFi may provide a fantastic service and serve many happy consumers, but unfortunately these networks have a less than amazing level of security protecting them. And hackers are able to easily infiltrate these networks with basic software to hijack the personal data of those accessing the public network.

3. Don’t Click on Phishing Websites

Phishing is a contemporary threat to your data and appears to be showing no signs of going away soon. This is why you need to be on your guard about phishing websites as they can be deceptive beasts at the best of times.

Links to these websites are usually emailed, but whilst the link may appear to seem innocent, it’s possible to engineer a link which reads www.amazon.com but redirects you to a different (and more dangerous) website.

This puts you at risk of infection and having your networks breached, so double check any suspicious links by hovering your mouse cursor over them to get a preview of the true web address.

4. Update Your Browser

Keeping your software up to date is vital to ensure that you’re well protected against hackers who have discovered vulnerabilities in that piece of software. And web browsers are no different, in fact, once support for out-dated web browsers is discontinued, hackers will discover vulnerabilities very quickly.

Therefore, it’s essential that you install all patches and updates as soon as possible to keep your browsing activity protected.

5. Disable Stored Passwords

Although activating the ‘store your passwords’ option may feel as though it’s going to make forgotten passwords a thing of the past, it can actually cause more trouble than it’s worth. You see, if your system becomes compromised by hackers, they can then access all your store passwords.

And the best way to avoid this is to work on a little bit of memory training to remember your passwords!

6. Have a Strong Arsenal

Perhaps the best way to browse online safely and securely is to arm yourself with the best defenses possible. And the more defenses the better.

So, instead of just securing your network with a state of the art firewall, why not try adding in state of the art email filtering? And, you know what, if you also install web filtering software on top of that, you’re going to find your data becomes safer than ever before.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

How does OpenDNS Work?

Office Network, Securitynetwork, openDNS, securityOphtek, LLC

Oct 2016

OpenDNS not only blocks malware, botnets and phishing but also detects and contains advanced attacks before they can cause damage. But how does it work?

How does OpenDNS Umbrella work?

OpenDNS is a cloud-delivered network security service that proactively protects users from advanced malware, botnets and phishing attacks. Unlike reactive signature-based tools, OpenDNS leverages big data analytics and real-time algorithmic learning machines processing over one million events per second. This 2% cross section of the world’s Internet activity enables OpenDNS to predict and prevent attacks. It protects users on- and off-network, across any port, protocol, or app. And because Umbrella is delivered via the cloud, it is lightning-fast and easily scalable.

Predictive intelligence to proactively protect your employees: OpenDNS is powered bypredictive intelligence, which means that we identify malicious places on the Internetand prevent your employees from visiting them, so that they don’t get infected withmalware.
Maintain acceptable use & compliance: filter up to 60 content categories and domain-specific whitelists & blacklists, so you can manage where any corporate-owned assetgoes whether on- or off-network.

For more ways to secure your business networks, contact your local IT professionals.

4 Tips to Secure Your Business IT Network

Securitynetwork, securityOphtek, LLC

Sep 2016

The number of threats to your business IT network seem to increase on a daily basis, so it’s important that you know how to keep your network secure.

Although it’s difficult to maintain security – just ask Hilary Clinton – there are a wide range of preventative steps you can take to help put up the barricades against cyber attacks.

And, in order to help you stay as secure as possible, I’m going to share 4 tips to secure your business IT network.

1. Conceal Your SSID

Wireless networks are an essential for most businesses, but they also act as an attractive opportunity for hackers to gain access to all your data. And, if a hacker is targeting your business in particular, you don’t want to give them a head start.

That’s why you need to change your service set identified (SSID). An SSID is the name given to your router to identify it e.g. a company called Bob’s Paperhouse may rename their router to Bob’s Paperhouse to single it out from multiple wireless networks in the same location.

However, it also publicly advertises exactly whose network this is and presents a security risk. Instead, I would always recommend a less obvious SSID such as ‘wireless123’ and only disclose this information to individuals who need to access the network.

2. Control Install Privileges

The average employee knows very little about the intricacies of network security, so their judgment, in this respect, can present many potential security risks.

In particular, they may not be able to identify what represents an unsafe link and what doesn’t. And the end result of this can see employees installing what appears to be an essential software update, but is actually a piece of malware disguised as a legitimate update.

Although it may seem as though you don’t trust your employees, you need to employ a policy which restricts install privileges to a few individuals who can evaluate the risks safely. This helps to eliminate the risk of poor judgment from your employees.

3. Set up a Virtual Private Network

A virtual private network (VPN) should be a priority for any business which has external employees accessing the company network.

Sure, these employees can take advantage of free wifi hotspots when they’re out and about, but these networks are notoriously unsecure. With a VPN, however, you can start to take back control of your security.

A VPN helps to create an encrypted connection between external devices such as laptops using a public wifi connection and your business network. This protects not only your device, but also reduces any back door access into your business network.

4. Install a Firewall

It may seem simple, but a firewall remains a strong contender for being the best method of protecting your company network. After all, what’s a hacker going to be more interested in hacking – a network with no firewall or a network with a firewall? You don’t need me to tell you the answer to this!

Firewalls act as a keen set of eyes to identify all traffic accessing or trying to access your network, so they’re a crucial first line of defense against any rogue visitors. They can also identify suspicious files which are placed in quarantine where they can be reviewed, so this multi-targeted approach can really pay dividends for your network security.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

What to do when your Wifi won’t work

Network, Uncategorizednetwork, wirelessOphtek, LLC

Apr 2015

Is your Wifi not working? No problem, simply follow our quick checklist to get your Wifi back online so you can get on with business as usual.

It can be annoying to lose your Wifi connection at home or in the office. Besides, where would one be without Wifi these days?

Not having a Wifi connection can effect a multitude of business operations such as losing access to both the internet and your internal network, email, shared peripherals (such as printers and scanners), and any other wireless resources connected to your router.

For many, it’s no longer feasible to have ethernet cables swimming all over the place.
To help end this panic, we’ve compiled a three -step troubleshooting list to get your wireless working again.

Restart your device or computer. The idea is to restart whichever device has lost its Wifi connection. It is best to do this first, as it may be an isolated issue with only the your computer, laptop, printer or smartphone. It’s also good idea to confirm this by checking to see if other devices and computers are connected and working over the wifi.

Restart your wireless router. If all devices connected to your Wifi router appear to be offline, then the problem is likely to be the router. You may want to observe whether your router is flashing amber or red lights, which is a sign that it has lost connectivity. Green lights are usually an indicator of a Wifi router being online, operating as usual. A simple reboot of your Wifi router by unplugging it from the power for 1 minute and plugging it back in can help it come back online. If the router continues to play up after a few minutes following a reboot, contact your ISP to check if there are problems with the internet connection. If not, the Wifi router may need to be replaced.

Make sure you’ve selected the correct wireless access point. Check to see which access point you’ve connected to by checking your device’s wireless settings. If you’re unsure about the wireless access point name, you can double-check it by reading the label displayed on the Wifi router or, alternatively, you can or ask your network administrator what it is. Understandingly, it’s so easy to pick the wrong wireless access point as most households and businesses have Wfi routers emitting wifi everywhere.

For more ways to troubleshoot networking problems, contact your local IT professionals.

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Tag Archives: network

1. Use HTTPS Security

2. Avoid Public WiFi

3. Don’t Click on Phishing Websites

4. Update Your Browser

5. Disable Stored Passwords

6. Have a Strong Arsenal

How does OpenDNS Umbrella work?

1. Conceal Your SSID

2. Control Install Privileges

3. Set up a Virtual Private Network

4. Install a Firewall