What You Should Know About Unified Threat Management (UTM)

Posted on November 6, 2009 by admin

Unified Threat Management eliminates the need for machine to machine protection. It is the combination of multiple security features integrated into one single hardware platform. Therefore offering layers of security features within a corporations network.

The Machines UTM Machine, is what provides multiple solutions to an entire network of machines. It works off the assumption that blended threats cannot be abated under one solution alone. Even with the use of multiple solutions there seems left a hole within the security of the network. When there is the use of multiple different solutions there seems a confusion as well as the need for updates and monitoring of several different brands of security measures which lead to problems within an organization.

With the introduction of Unified Threat Management in 2004, this idea was taken and turned into one system solution for businesses on the small to medium level. The idea of this solution was to take the need for multiple brands of solutions and combine it into a multilayer solution for the security needs of an organization.

In order for this to work, the Unified Threat Management system, must consist of its own operating system, therefore decreasing the need for human intervention. This means the system, therefore should possess the capacity to perform gateway anti virus, network fire walling, and network intrusion detection and prevention.

Although the system would have such capabilities, the company would not have to utilize each of the functions, however the Machines UTM Machine should contain the ability to function at those capacities when needed. Some of the other functions that it should possess are such features such as policy management and security management according to each user or group. Today, many of them have such features such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN), anti-spam, and in some cases Load Balancing, and Multi-Link Module.

Through the integration of a Unified Threat Management system, it helps to manage security of a network, with only having to worry about one device and not several individual solutions. Additionally, there is only the need to set up one source for security, which ends up as an easier and more cost effective way to manage all aspects of a businesses security. The Machines UTM Machine functions as a single console, with the ability to provide all relevant information on network traffic patterns as well as the user patterns within the network.

Many of them that you will find, focus only on IP address reporting and controls, while allowing the user to stay invisible. In some cases this may allow for security threats especially from inside the organization. This can be overcome by releasing the traditional approach of TCP/IP protocol stacks, which only allows recognition of the IP of a machine on a network. Further security is obtained through an identity based UTM, which allows the system to identify each of the users within the network according to access policies and not only according to the IP address of a machine.

This furthers security within the network internally as well as externally as well. Each users or groups are given access rights and are in accordance to the business needs of that group or user. The UTM can allow access based on privileges that are set rather than IP alone. UTM has the ability to provide excellent security as long as configurations are followed and extra measures are taken in order to protect the network internally as well as externally.

Ali Bitazar is computer network engineer

What Traffic Should You Monitor on Your Network

Posted on August 5, 2009 by admin

With the increased use of technology and more companies including Internet connectivity in their overall LAN structure, network monitoring software and tools have become a viable and important part of any network strategy. Monitoring network traffic can help network administrators properly decide on bandwidth usage and need, software or hardware down time, and suspicious activity from outside intruders as well as within the local network.

The importance of business networks has increased with the steady flow of better technology and Internet usability. For network administrators, this leaves an increasing need to safely monitor the corporate network twenty four hours a day, every day of the week. A good network monitoring software needs to be reliable and consistently checking network outages throughout the day to alert key personnel if issues arise.

Monitoring network traffic is a vague term, so network administrators should be clear on what type of activity should be watched. Overall, a network monitoring software should determine who and what type of traffic is being used on the corporate LAN. It is also important to know if any of the trusted users of a network are misusing their intended rights, or if they are attempting to gain rights to a restricted area.

Increased users on a network take a toll on bandwidth. With a large growing company, network monitoring systems can watch the usable bandwidth and help an administrator decide when increased bandwidth will be needed. If your users start receiving constant time outs and slow responses, productivity will drop. Although a slow network is not down, the degradation of productivity ultimately affects a corporation’s revenue.

Server up time or database efficiency is a primary importance in network monitoring. A good network monitoring tool can help you watch critical components of business infrastructure such as database operability. Poor database speed and resources can slow down your user’s performance and possibly affect data reliability. Network monitoring can watch key services to detect when problems occur or if there is a need to upgrade hardware.

Servers Alive by Woodstone can help you monitor all the mentioned traffic and issues and much more. Servers Alive promptly alerts network administrator when any down time occurs for quick recovery. The network monitoring tool can be configured to your specifications, and it includes a graphical output to analyze key network components. With an efficient tool such as Servers Alive, you can effectively increase network monitoring and efficiency.

For more information, visit http://www.woodstone.nu.

Should You Promote Business Through Social Networking Sites

Posted on August 1, 2009 by admin

Networking whether for socializing or for business is what makes the world go around. Not Love. Well love keeps it positive and interesting, but without socializing, love doesn’t have a chance. Don’t think so? Then how do you explain sites like MySpace has literally millions of users and all of the on line dating sites combined have less.

Do you know what the main purpose of a social networking website is? If you are an avid internet user, it’s you likely do. Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other. If you are an internet user who enjoys using the internet to meet new people, there is a good chance that you already belong to a social networking website. What about an online blog? Do you have a blog? In a way, your blog is like having your own personal social networking site. If you have a blog, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog?

The goal of most business owners is to make a profit. There are of course a few that have business web sites only to support their products or provide information. But for the purposes of this article, I’ll only be talking about sites with the primary purpose of making money. Obviously the hope of the site/business owner is to generate income from the selling of a particular product or service. However, to sell that product or service business owners need to alert the general public and preferably a targeted portion of the public at large (Thier niche), to the availability of their products or services. Customers cannot buy a product or a service if they do not know that it exists. Obviously that’s why, as a business owner, you need to advertise your business.

When it comes to advertising there are many business owners who literally cringe at the thought of putting together an advertising or marketing plan or campaign. Have you planned your campaign and are you working your plan? Is it costing you more than your are making? There is a good chance it is because most traditional advertising methods cost money. Many cost a LOT of money.

As a business owner you want to make a profit and not spend any more than is absolutely necessary to make the profit you want/need to, right? Fortunately, if you believe that all forms of advertising take money, you’ll be glad to know you are mistaken. Although you may have to spend some money to make your business as profitable as you want it to be, there are ways to promote your business and the products or services that you sell without having to spend any money at all.

Promote your blog through your social networking site and vice versa? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, in this day and age, if your in business and have to ask yourself that question you probably need to look into the upside of owning operating your own blog and reciprocally linking with one or more of your own social networking site pages. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject to boost your credibility in the eyes of your reader as an authority on what you write about. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. Social networking sites are a way to get readers for your blog.

Is your curiosity peaked yet? There is a good chance that it is and rightfully so. One of the ways that you can promote your online business, without having to spend a dime, is by using something that is readily available online. That thing is an online social networking website. A large number of internet users, in fact literally millions of them, belong to at least one social networking website, if not several.

When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that read/scan the content on your website. That content is then used in part to link your blog website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools.

Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog. There are other ways to promote your blog besides social networking, such as “blog and ping” or “Tag and Ping” but I’ll leave those subjects for another article you can find at my blog.

When it comes to social networking, there are many individuals who think of building new online friendships or online relationships. While these types of relationships are the most common, did you know that social networking is also used for businesses? A lot of businesses? In fact, that was originally how social networking got started.

As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk with and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.

Although social networking websites are traditionally focused on those that would like to make online friends or develop online relationships, there are networking sites that are designed primarily for business owners. Ryze.com is a good example. These websites will not only allow you to share your business information with other business owners, but it will also allow you to develop close relationships with those that share an interest that is similar to yours. Essentially, this means that you could not only learn valuable business information, but you could also walk away with a new business partner, a new friend or a business prospect.

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page on your social networking site. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so.

The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through Private Messages (Or PM’s). Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page. As well, a PM is more personal. Naturally, you will want to offer the link to your blog in a kind of “Oh, by the way”, fashion or maybe asking their opinion of one of your recent or past blog posts. The last thing you want to do is make it appear you are soliciting your new friend.

As previously mentioned, social networking websites with a focus on businesses, are a great way to promote your business. However, this does not mean that you should completely forget about the other online social networking websites, the ones that are designed to make online friendships. Although you may not learn any valuable business tips by joining “Yahoo! 360″ or “MySpace”, if you are subtle in your approach, you may be able to end up with new customers and new customers is exactly what your business needs.

As you will see, there are like minded people that will join an online community to make friends and or to learn more about what they are interested in from the people they meet in a social networking community regardless whether it is business related or not. There are a number of different ways that you will to go about promoting your own profile or profile page so as to not appear as though you are actually advertising. If you are planning on joining a traditional online social networking website, to gain access to millions of potential new customers, you are urged to be careful when making your online Social Networking webpage or profile. One thing that internet users hate is being solicited for business using the guise of wanting to make friends.

This does not mean that you cannot use social networking to your advantage; it just means that you need to be careful with how you do it. Instead of creating a “MySpace” page or a “Yahoo! 360″ page for your business, you are advised to make one for and about yourself, but, of course, you will want to include information on your business as part of your ‘interests’. You never know, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way as well by linking to your social networking profile page from your blog.

By joining a social networking website, especially one that is popular and has a large number of members, you should be able to generate interest in your business, including the products or services that you sell. If your social networking friends are interested in the same things as you, and your blog and is compelling enough to drive your social networking friends to your business site, that interest generated traffic could turn into sales; thus making your social networking experience more than worth your time and effort.

After all, it’s FREE, it’s easy, there is the potential of making additional profits doing it, and it can be a lot of FUN! There is nothing quite like making more money and having fun doing it.

Mike Claggett is the Copy Writer, Content Manager and Editor for Publishers Cloning House a great place promote your website with articles.