Thursday, October 25, 2012

192.168.1.1 - What Is It Exactly?


The IP address 192.168.1.1 is a private IP usually used as a default IP by major router manufacturers, like Netgear, Linksys, and some minor ones. In some rare cases, other devices besides routers can use this IP.
The IP 192.168.1.1 has more uses. It can function as:
- a private IP address
- a default IP address
A default IP is an IP which allows the user to easily access its router configuration settings. In order to do this, the user has to type 192.168.1.1 in the browser's address bar and enter the default username and password. Please note that the default IP, username and password may be different depending on the router brand and model. The good thing about this way to access the configuration settings panel is that it can't be accessed from the outside of the network.
After you gain access to your router's settings page, you will notice that there are several options in the menu on the left. Search for the Setup Wizard. It will help you configure your router to connect to the Internet and at the same time it will identify all the other computers in the network.
However, in some cases, after you type in the IP nothing will happen and the login box won't appear. There are several reasons why this can happen and some of them are:
• Wrong IP - In this case you have to check your router's default IP by either looking at the user's guide or by visiting the producer's website. There are also other ways to check your default IP, but we won't discuss them here.
• Faulty or unresponsive router - Contact your manufacturer
192.168.1.1 - Private IP Addresses
The so called "Private IP" are generally utilized in smaller networks, like the ones you have at work or at home. The use of private IPs drastically increases the security of the network, because they are not connected to the Internet directly. Since the private IP can't be accessed from the Internet nor it may go to the Internet, all the devices in the network that need internet access use NAT gateway. The NAT device has a unique IP assigned, and it can be described as the main point which enables direct Internet access. When a certain computer in the network requests internet access, the information from that computer is sent over to the NAT device and it passes that information on to the Internet. By doing this, the network security is improved and more computers in the network can access the Internet at


File Integrity Monitoring and SIEM


Combat the Zero Day Threats and Modern Malware that Anti-Virus Systems miss
Introduction
It is well known that Anti-Virus technology is fallible and will continue to be so by design. The landscape (Threatscape?) is always changing and AV systems will typically update their malware signature repositories at least once per day in an attempt to keep up with the new threats that have been isolated since the previous update.
So how secure does your organization need to be? 80%? 90%? Because if you rely on traditional anti-virus defenses this is the best you can hope to achieve unless you implement additional defense layers such as FIM (file integrity monitoring) and SIEM (event log analysis).
Anti-Virus Technology - Complete With Malware Blind spots
Any Anti Virus software has an inherent weakness in that it relies on a library of malware 'signatures' to identify the viruses, Trojans and worms it is seeking to remove.
This repository of malware signatures is regularly updated, sometimes several times a day depending on the developer of the software being used. The problem is that the AV developer usually needs to have direct experience of any new strains of malware in order to counteract them. The concept of a 'zero day' threat is one that uses a new variant of malware yet to be identified by the AV system.
By definition, AV systems are blind to 'zero day' threats, even to the point whereby new versions of an existing malware strain may be able to evade detection. Modern malware often incorporates the means to mutate, allowing it to change its makeup every time it is propagated and so improve its effectiveness at evading the AV system.
Similarly other automated security technologies, such as the sandbox or quarantine approach, that aim to block or remove malware all suffer from the same blind spots. If the malware is new though - a zero day threat - then by definition there is no signature because it has not been identified before. The unfortunate reality is that the unseen cyber-enemy also knows that new is best if they want their malware to evade detection. This is evident by the fact that in excess of 10 million new malware samples will be identified in any 6 month period.
In other words most organizations typically have very effective defenses against known enemies - any malware that has been previously identified will be stopped dead in its tracks by the IPS, anti-virus system, or any other web/mail filtering with sandbox technology. However, it is also true that the majority of these same organizations have little or no protection against the zero day threat.
File Integrity Monitoring - The 2nd Line Anti-Virus Defense System for When Your Anti-Virus System Fails
File Integrity Monitoring serves to record any changes to the file system i.e. core operating system files or program components. In this way, any malware entering your key server platforms will be detected, no matter how subtle or stealthy the attack.
In addition FIM Technology will also ensure other vulnerabilities are screened out from your systems by ensuring best practices in securely configuring your Operating Systems have been applied.
For example, any configuration settings such as user accounts, password policy, running services and processes, installed software, management and monitoring functions are all potential vectors for security breaches. In the Windows environment, the Windows Local Security Policy has been gradually extended over time to include greater restrictions to numerous functions that have been exploited in the past but this in itself is a highly complex area to configure correctly. To then maintain systems in this secure configured state is impossible without automated file integrity monitoring technology.
Likewise SIEM or Security Information and Event Management systems are designed to gather and analyze all system audit trails/event logs and correlate these with other security information to present a true picture of whether anything unusual and potentially security threatening is happening.
It is telling that widely adopted and practiced security standards such as the PCI DSS place these elements at their core as a means of maintaining system security and verifying that key processes like Change Management are being observed.
Summary
Anti-virus technology is an essential and highly valuable line of defense for any organization. However, it is vital that the limitations and therefore vulnerabilities of this technology are understood and additional layers of security implemented to compensate. File Integrity Monitoring and Event Log Analysis are the ideal counterparts to an Anti-Virus system in order to provide complete security against the modern malware threat.
NNT is a leading provider of PCI DSS and general Security and Compliance solutions. As both a File Integrity Monitoring Software Manufacturer and Security Services Provider, we are firmly focused on helping organisations protect their sensitive data against security threats and network breaches in the most efficient and cost effective manner.
NNT solutions are straightforward to use and offer exceptional value for money, making it easy and affordable for organisations of any size to achieve and retain compliance at all times. Each product has the guidelines of the PCI DSS at its core, which can then be tailored to suit any internal best practice or external compliance initiative.


Applications of Panoramic Photography in Law Enforcement


As with all photography techniques, the application of panoramic equipment and software is only limited by the skill and imagination of the user. Law enforcement officers have always relied on the abilities of forensic photographers to document victims, evidence and locations in a highly detailed manner for official reference. The use of multiple-image composites for creating wider views of scenes is essential to accurately portraying locations in true detail. That is why many forensic photographers and law enforcement officers use a wide variety of pano heads and virtual tour construction software.
The ability to preserve a perfect 360-degree view of any scene or location is tremendously valuable for law enforcement officers. Due to its one-button simplicity, the Girocam 360 enables first responders to capture complete views of a scene. This technology benefits law enforcement officers by ensuring that the photos remain admissible in court due to the camera's internal stitching function, which helps to create panoramic views without the liability of requiring a technician to manipulate or alter the original photos as was previously the case.
Creating simple one-button 360-degree panoramic photographs of crime scenes is not the only thing the world of panoramic photography has to offer law enforcement officials. With virtual tour construction software, interactive views and models of locations can be created for tactical strategizing and group briefings. Virtual tour software, such as Autopano Pro, enables in-house photographers to construct easy to use visual models that can be navigated and annotated for higher mission clarity through clearer demonstrations. This kind of real-world referencing ensures that everyone involved is in complete alignment for logistics and safety purposes.
Panoramic products, such as motorized pano heads, are also being used in surveillance operations to increase the amount of area that is being systematically documented. By utilizing a motorized pano head, law enforcement officials are able to precisely repeat panoramic photos over and over for accurate time-lapsed comparisons. The precision control of a motorized pano head makes it easy to spot subtle changes in the details of uniformly repeated photos captured over the entirety of a surveillance operation.
As with all panoramic photography and virtual tour construction, the finished projects are only limited by imagination and tools. For law enforcement offices that have just been introduced to the idea of expanded views, it may be better to sample these product's potential by using a static pano head, like the Pano Maxx, and a basic pano stitching program, like Autopano. Turning those panoramics into virtual 360-degree tours is a snap with the help of software like Panotour.
There are even bundled packages available on the net that include the products any police or forensic photographer needs to get started in panoramic photography and virtual tour construction. Once a has seen a sampling of what a huge difference these techniques can make in crime scene documentation and logistics briefings, it will be easy to progress to an advanced level of construction and capture by investing in professional options like Girocam 360 or the Professional Virtual Tour Kit.
Panoramic Essentials is a leading supplier of top-of-the-line panoramic equipment and software specifically for panoramic and virtual tour photographers. As a licensed distributor of professional photography products like Pano-Maxx and the Kolor Panotour, Panoramic Essentials is a one-stop shop for all the latest panoramic digital cameras, accessories and software.

Cutting Edge Solutions Using CFD Analysis


Nothing has completely caused more changes in the world than science and technology. In fact, the advent of internet and computer technology has brought certain artlessness to the way things are done. But when science is seamlessly combined with computer technology, the revolution is better imagined, which is what CFD analysis has been able to offer to industrial engineering and the world of science as a whole.
Computation fluid analysis (CFD) is a subdivision of fluid dynamics that makes use of numerical methods and algorithms to provide cutting edge solutions, and also analyse issues that involves fluid flow. The use of computers is important because it helps to perform the calculations that are required in order to simulate the interface between liquid and gases with surfaces defined by boundary conditions.
Since the introduction of the first CFD analysis as governed by the early theories of Navier strokes equation, there has been dramatic growth in the last decades of the industry. CFD technology has been widely used in engineering applications such as automobile, aircraft design, oil drilling, HVAC, telecommunications, civil engineering and oceanography, amongst others.
More interestingly, with the modern structural organisation of today's engineering firms, where off shore engineers are now more challenged than ever about precision in the midst of cost reduction, CFD has been able to help them provide affordable solutions to fluid dynamic problems.
One of the many benefits of CFD is the fact that it provides an accurate prediction of the type of design changes that are most important for enhanced performance; this it does without the lengthy process of installations of actual systems or prototypes.
Similarly, organisations that use computational fluid dynamics have been able to save more money for other research and development projects, as CFD saves them from costly experimentations.
Even with the increased availability of bespoke CFD software, many more organisations have been able to reap the benefits of Computational Fluid Dynamics. This software has been able to improve the accuracy and speed of complex simulation scenarios such as turbulent flows.
Apart from the bespoke system which gives users the advantage of more flexibility and specialisation, there are other types of CFD software which includes the commercial off-the shelf packages that are publicly available for a fee. Also, there is free CFD software which will require installation and validation before being made fit for the purpose for which it is intended.
It is without doubt that CFD has increasingly become a rapidly developing tool with an even greater potential of significantly impacting and adding value to the complex processes within many organisations. But exploring the full advantage of this technology will often require specialist scientific and IT skills, and there are numerous CFD outsourcing service provider firms that can add value to the whole process.
This has become even more important as many users now have their own special requirements, over and above the functions provided by a particular CFD tool. For instance, the race industry now demand specialised CFD analysis that can accurately predict the down force and drag that would be experienced by race cars at high velocities.
CFD analysis has been a total revolution since its introduction, it has indeed brought a measured simplicity and efficiency to many off shore engineers and technologists. With this technology, engineers can now get a more precise analysis of their models and technological products, without the usual lengthy process of fixing and re-fixing of parts.


The Role of CFD Analysis in the Modern Technological Environment


The role of CFD analysis in the engineering field has been so vital that it has been considered one of the most important subjects to ever emerge in recent times. Although fluid dynamics has been one of the main engineering sciences that have been used in designing a wide variety of auto mobiles, machines and other devices, however, with the advent of computer technology and the rapid advancement it brought with it, fluid dynamic analysis has shifted to a more precise, more computational process.
As industries across the world are seeking more innovative approaches, the understanding of fluid and thermal dynamics and the need for the seamless resolution of its inherent problems is becoming more and more imperative.
With computational fluid dynamics, engineers across all industries can now analyse the flow of various fluid over any solid object. More complex industries like the aerospace and automotive services can now make more affordable and more precise aerodynamic calculations by making analysis of any aerospace craft or ground vehicle.
These predictive procedures has supported and contributed to more innovative product development, which is characterised by the fact that the strongest forces that is driving the development of new technological products in today's world is the increasing demand for speed and accuracy.
One of the main benefits of CFD analysis is that it is a very compelling and much more affordable virtual process that ensures that engineers can evaluate the performance of a wide range of HVAC/IAQ system configurations on the computer without the lengthy time and expense that is required to make unnecessary modifications and installations of actual systems or prototypes onsite.
Also, CFD has provided virtual access to areas that would have been physically impossible to reach in a real laboratory, allowing the examination of stationary and rotating coordinate systems, with practically unrestricted perspectives to the observer.
As more industry participants now have their own requirements over the usual functionality that is offered by a particular CFD tool, especially as it concerns analysis and visualisation, players in places like the small hydro industry now use bespoke CFD software to get results that are more easily transferable over to structural analysis, as it works with similar or compatible computer models as used in structural analysis (FEA) software, which ensures that all designs are fully verified for safety and durability.
The development in the market has even guaranteed that there is now a wide range

availability of CFD software, which now includes off-the-shelve commercial packages that allows users to pay only a license fee before usage. More so, there is now an increased availability of free CFD analysis software that can be used by non-professionals or for undergraduate projects and other purposes, which include learning.
It is unquestionable the massive contributions of CFD analysis to science and technological development, as many organisations have been able to reap massively from these smart solutions to deliver impressive results throughout the length and breadth of the engineering industry


How to Understand (and Fix) HTML Errors


Why does every error seem to have some sort of obscure number rather than a true explanation of what just went wrong when you tried to pull up a website or load your email? But numbers are the norm, and figuring out what's wrong with your computer requires digging just a bit deeper than we might prefer. Interestingly enough, many errors have similar causes or - at the very least - similar solutions.
Error 400
When you see a message that looks like "400:Bad Request" or more specifically "HTTP Error 400 - Bad Request" you can trust what you see. The request you made was faulty in some way. Typing a URL in your browser is a sign to the computer that you're requesting a page from another computer, or server. When something is wrong in the URL you typed, it can't load and it gives you an error.
While a typo is certainly a strong possibility for Error 400, it may also be that the page you're trying to reach has been deleted, the URL was copied down wrong or is missing key elements. The website may have been updated as well.
Error 401
"401: Unauthorized" means you're not the person the website was hoping to see when you tried to log in. Error 401 is a simple error - the virtual door was just slammed in your face by the website security. If you didn't log into a website that requires users to enter their username and password, you'll see Error 401. If you did attempt to login, but the website server didn't recognize you, you mistyped something or some other odd twist of fate, you won't be allowed to proceed and you'll be staring down Error 401 as well.
Error 403
You naughty thing! When you get an Error 403 message, it means you've tried to access part of a website that is absolutely, positively forbidden. Who knows what the webmaster is trying to hide behind the virtual brick wall you just slammed into, but one thing is for sure - you're not going to go any farther with that particular URL. At least not right now.
You may hit Error 403 rather innocently, of course, but typing something wrong in the URL or perhaps just trying to access the website at the wrong time of the day. This error doesn't mean you did anything with a sinister motive... unless you were doing something with a sinister motive.
Error 404
You might see any number of unique messages for Error 404, but they will all have something along the lines of "Error 404: Page Not Found". You'll see the Error 404 message when you try to pull up a webpage that isn't actually located on the server.
In very general terms, Error 404 is supposedly your fault, but in reality not all Error 404 messages appear because of user error. Pages may be down on a website or you may have been trying to reach a page that the website owner took down or changed, and nobody can blame that on you.
Error 408
Error 408 is a particularly frustrating stumbling block on the internet. You type in the URL or click on a link. And you wait. And you wait. And then the website returns an error rather than the site you were trying to reach. This is Error 408 - you've "Timed Out."
When you send a request for a website and it doesn't load fast enough, the server gives up. Rather than loading the site in question, it coughs up an error. Sometimes a quick refresh helps, but other times more drastic interaction is required. To Refresh your browser, click on the circular arrow near the address bar.
RESOLVING THE ERRORS
While there are many numbers attributed to the various internet errors above, many will have the same or similar solutions. When you're not getting to the website you're attempting to reach, solving the problem involves something of a drill down technique.
Check the Internet Connection
Do a quick check that you're getting full internet access by pulling up a search page and searching for something random. If you get results and you're able to click through to those sites, you can cross faulty internet off your list of possible problems. If you aren't getting to any new websites, you would do well to reset your router and restart your computer to be sure you're fully connected to the internet.
Check for obvious mistakes
Look over the address you just typed and look for obvious mistakes - long URLs especially are hard to type correctly. If you miss one letter or dot, you won't be going far. Check also, especially on Error 403 where passwords would be encrypted, that you don't have Caps Lock turned on. Check also that Number Lock is set as you normally have it. If you do discover an honest mistake, simply correct it and try again. The solution may be that simple.
Restart your computer
While it's allegedly the internet giving you trouble, not your computer, it never hurts to restart the computer. When you restart your computer may update some critical software or reset the connection to the router so that your internet works correctly or at a higher speed. It's an easy possible fix, and worth the few minutes it takes.
Update your browser
If you notice that you're having a lot of internet problems and seeing quite a few issues spring up, check to be sure that your internet browser is fully up to date. Your browser is probably set to automatically update as new versions become available, but if you've put off updating or missed an update, you can get caught up by going to Windows Update for Internet Explorer, and by going to the Tools menu for Firefox and Chrome.
Update plug-ins
If your browser is totally up-to-date, check to be sure that plug-ins that are commonly used are up to date as well. Among common plug-in for websites are things like ActiveX and Flash. You may see a message on the website to update the plug-in or you might manually update these by visiting the websites and downloading the offending applications to update or install the plug-ins. Firefox offers a plug-in check page here as well to get ideas for what may be causing the problem.
Check back later
Finally, if nothing else seems to be working, you can always throw your hands up and walk away. But be sure to come back later. Often websites have their own issues that can cause these errors and simply waiting five minutes will be all you need to do in order to have things working correctly again.