Cyber Security – First line of Defence – Passwords

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Why do you need to use a strong password?

Think about the number of personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords, or passphrases you use every day: getting money from the ATM or using your debit card in a store, logging on to your computer or email, signing in to an online bank account or shopping cart.. the list keeps growing. Keeping track of all of the number, letter, and word combinations may be frustrating at times, and maybe you’ve wondered if all of the fuss is worth it. After all, what attacker cares about your personal email account, right? Or why would someone bother with your practically empty bank account when there are others with much more money?

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Pay for your parking by text with parkbytext

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There is nothing worse than arriving to a car park or venue and having no coins to pay for parking.

Thankfully, technology has brought us convenience by enabling us to pay and park via our mobile phones via parkbytext.

We’ve been using the parkbytext service for the last 6 months – it’s quick and efficient requiring only the use of our mobile phone.  Who doesn’t have a mobile phone these days?

In comparison to the alternative options on the market – parkingtag etc – parkbytext is the most convenient of the bunch from our experience.

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List of outgoing SMTP servers used in Ireland

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Having issues sending email in Ireland from your wifi / broadband connection?  Make sure you’ve got the right SMTP settings.

Below is a list of smtp settings for the majority of ISP’s in Ireland:

Smart Telecom Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.mysmart.ie

Irish Broadband Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.irishbroadband.ie.

Eircom Outgoing SMTP Server
mail1.eircom.net OR mail2.eircom.net

Magnet Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.magnet.ie

NTL and UPC Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.upcmail.ie

Ice Broadband Outgoing SMTP Server
mail.icecomms.net

Vodafone Outgoing SMTP Server
mail.vodafone.ie

O2 Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.o2.ie

Clearwire Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.clearwire.ie / mail.clearwire.ie

Digiweb Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.digiweb.ie

Imagine Broadband Outgoing SMTP Server
mail.imagine.ie OR mail.gaelic.ie

Perlico Outgoing SMTP Server
mail.perlico.ie

3 Outgoing SMTP Server: Mobile broadband with 3 mobile Ireland
mail-relay.3ireland.ie

Gmail Outgoing SMTP Server
smtp.gmail.com (use authentication)
Use Authentication: Yes
Port for TLS/STARTTLS: 587
Port for SSL: 465

If you’re still having problems sending email from your office, business or home – call us now on 014852222

Magnet blocking SMTP / Port 25 on Residential connections

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As per our earlier blog post about Magnet’s Simply Broadband – we forgot to mention that Magnet blocks TCP Port 25 outbound on it’s residential accounts.

Their solution is to change the SMTP server to theirs: smtp.magnet.ie

In some cases, this is not suitable.  You can try changing the outgoing port to 26 – some hosting companies, such as Spiralhosting, offer this facility.

The other solution is to use SSL SMTP – port 465.

Setting up the Netopia 2247 for Magnet Simply Broadband

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One of our clients ordered the Simply Broadband package that Magnet has on offer roughly three  weeks ago.

It’s a 24mb package provided by Magnet for €40 a month, including line rental but lacks the feature to make phone calls over the line.

For more information on this package and it’s availability, free phone Magnet on 1800819500

To set the Netopia 2247 Wireless router up with Magnet, please follow the steps below:

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Black Friday – Web Hosting Offer for €349

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We have a fantastic offer for all our Facebook friends:

A four page brochure style website including:

  • Free domain name
  • Free hosting
  • Unlimited email addresses
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Search Engine  Submission
  • Google Maps Submission
  • Visitor Contact Form
  • Design / Graphics Provided
  • Landing, Home, About and Contact Page

Total Cost: €349 + VAT

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Predictable WPA keys for Cisco EPC 2425 routers issued by UPC

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UPC Cisco EPC 2425 Wireless Router

UPC Cisco EPC 2425 Wireless Router

 

The Cisco EPC 2425 routers supplied by UPC are vulnerable to an offline dictionary attack if the handshake is obtained by an attacker.

 

The WPA pass phrase has the following features:

 

  • Random
  • A to Z Uppercase only
  • 8 characters long
  • 208,827,064,576 possible combinations ( AAAAAAAA – ZZZZZZZZ ) 26^8

 

Due to the recent optimizations in cracking WPA-PSK handshakes with GPU cards, the above range ( AAAAAAAA to ZZZZZZZZ – 26^8 ) can be brute forced within 6 days at a rate of 400,000 keys per second.

 

We advise UPC  customers who are using the Cisco EPC 2425 routers to increase their WiFi security by changing their default pass phrase to a longer, more complex pass phrase.

 

A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer.

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Recently, we had to do a repair installation of a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 for a client.

 

The repair install ran fine, prompting for the following tasks:

 

  • Microsoft Windows 2003 SBS License Key
  • Keyboard, Language and Regional Settings

 

Once the repair install was complete, the server booted up as normal displaying the logon screen ( ctrl alt del )

After inputting our credentials, a boxed opened with the following message:

 

A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the licenses for this computer.

 

Three options were available:

  1. Yes – resulted in the box closing and nothing happening.
  2. No – resulted in our session being logged off.
  3. Cancel – resulted in the server shutting down.

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Mozilla Firefox 4, 5 and 6 – Constant Freezing every couple of minutes

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Personally, we’ve experienced the issue with Mozilla Firefox freezing since our upgrade from version 5 to version 6.

Every couple of minutes, firefox would lock up completely and would return to normal after 30 seconds.

We run a rather plugin-less firefox as it is but decided to start the browser in it’s safe mode state, just incase.

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