Hi I am Joe Hackman the founder of Managed Solutions. I’d like to welcome you to the website of the enterprise that has supported me for the past 13+ years, and the most recent four years my growing family as well. I started the company in January of 1997. We help people improve their business by leveraging technology. Managed Solutions is a systems, Internet, and networking managed services provider that specializes in helping businesses deploy, improve and maintain stable and secure out sourced technology solutions. On this site we strive to provide relevant information on issues that affect our client base and technology users around the globe. You will also find some information specific to Managed Solutions and the services we perform for our customers on this site. Our home office is in Danville, California with representatives working throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area and beyond. Please accept my invitation to you to share content on this site that you like and would love to hear your feedback.

To run the utility navigate to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058 and click on the Microsoft Fix It icon or link:

You will have one option that can be selected, only use this option if the first attempt without it checked was not successful:

After running the utility in either mode an additional screen will pop up with other options:

If after a restart you still experience issues, you can run the utility again to access the help links in the utility. Microsoft does provide free support for windows update issues.

]]> http://managedsolutions.com/2010/07/quick-tip-mrfixit-for-windows-update-issues/feed/ 0 http://managedsolutions.com/2010/07/quick-tip-mrfixit-for-windows-update-issues/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ManagedSolutions/~3/c6OzWAmVJtk/ http://managedsolutions.com/2010/06/update-your-itunes-3-or-face-potential-exploitation/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:01:03 +0000 Joe Hackman http://managedsolutions.com/?p=713 While reviewing this weeks CERT summary I noticed three vulnerabilities with a risk rating of 10 which is the highest. With the wide distribution of the iTunes software, these vulnerabilities have potentially serious ramifications. Since they involve remote code execution it is prudent that any and all users of iTunes upgrade to version 9.2 or newer. You can check the version you are running via help/about in the program menu. Here is a partial screen-shot of this portion of the Cert advisory followed by a link to the advisories:

iTunes Vulnerable - Cert Advisories

Resources:

• Link to the CERT advisory
• Link to iTunes Download Page

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.” – Wikipedia

What I noticed was an Email purportedly from Bank of America telling me that there was an “Account Resolution Required”:

Message in Outlook Allegedly from Bank of America

I scanned over to the preview pane and noticed that it had a link that appeared to be correct, so I hovered over the link to see if the link was spoofed and to no big surprise, it was. Here is how the message looked in my preview pane, I did not download pictures because that is a popular way for spammers/crooks to confirm Email addresses of their targets/victims:

Full Phishing Email Screenshot

Let me further clarify in lay terms, the link that reads:

https://www.bankofamerica.com/home/1244618/ddjdfdkfi126.aspx?screenid=Update_Acct

is actually:

http://prostyle-esports.nl/index.php

and this is evident when I hover over, or place my mouse cursor on the “alleged” link. This is a tactic you can use to check links you are unsure of. However I should clarify that it doesn’t always work. There have been occasions where this has been spoofed effectively typically it has to do with the Email client or Browser and security patches on your computer.

Testing the Link

Using a test environment I pasted the link to see what the target site looked like:

Blocked - Forgery

I was pleased to see it had been blocked, this saved me the time of researching and Emailing the Internet Provider involved. After confirming this I used “properties” on Outlook to get the header information, there is a lot of information but plenty of clues to let me know that this message was not authentic (had everything else appeared right, which most certainly the SSL certificate warning would have popped up unless it was an unprecedented forgery!). Here are a few of the more obvious lines I parsed from the headers:

Output of Arin.net Whois - RIPE

There are a lot of ways to spot fraudulent/Phishing Emails. Our advice to our clients is if they are not 100% certain we recommend they forward the messages to us for analysis. Most of these kinds of messages are blocked and we don’t see them, but if something doesn’t look quite right it probably isn’t.

We received information today that Speakeasy is seeking to merge with Covad. As we are a Speakeasy partner we wanted to share this information with our customers immediately. Here is the Email from the Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley:

I want to personally contact you regarding an important announcement that Speakeasy is making today and explain how this announcement benefits our partners.

Speakeasy has decided to join with Covad Communications Company, a leading national provider of IP broadband services in North America and MegaPath Inc., a leading voice, data, security, managed service and VPN service provider.   This new entity combines Speakeasy’s expertise in smaller business communications, MegaPath’s wide selection of products and value-added services and, Covad’s robust network infrastructure. This combined entity creates a new class of CLEC; a Managed Service Local Exchange Carrier (MSLEC). As a result, Covad’s nationwide broadband footprint will support Speakeasy and MegaPath’s voice and data application services. By combining companies, these voice, data, and value added services will be available anywhere you do business and to virtually every small, medium and large business you serve.

This merger is subject to the approval of the Federal Communications Commission and state public utility commissions in many of the states where Covad and MegaPath do business. Until the close of this merger, Speakeasy will continue to operate business-as-usual. This transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2010.

Speakeasy is dedicated to providing our partners with the highest-quality portfolio of voice, data services on the market, and this merger helps us strengthen that commitment. The resources of the new combined company will enable us to expand our service offerings and provide more choices and value for you and your customers

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. Partners are an important part of both companies and will become even more critical to our combined company. With this merger, you will continue to receive all of the benefits of our existing partnership, plus enjoy the benefits of our expanded network and service offerings. We have some exciting plans for the future, and we look forward to working with you to bring them to market.

Should you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact your Speakeasy Sales Consultant.

For more information, please read the press release posted on www.speakeasy.net/press.

CIMCO DNC-Max and CIMCO Edit (communications) work with all industry standard serial communication hardware devices including but not limited to multiport serial adapters (PCI) and single/multi-port Ethernet (wired and wireless) serial device servers (converters) from MOXA (www.moxa.ccom), DIGI International (www.digi.com), and Quatech (www.quatech.com). 

Because of the consistently high quality and reliability of device servers (wired and wireless) from MOXA we recommend the following devices for Ethernet based communications: NPort 5610-8, NPort 5610-16, NPort 5210, NPort 5110, NPort 2250 Plus US and NPort 2150 Plus.

For multi-port PCI serial adapters CIMCO recommends DIGI Neo Adapters and related concentrator boxes.

We are pleased to announce starting May 5th customers will have the ability to make the following changes to their Business Voice account:

o Edit a user’s

- Phone number
- Extension
- Directory name
- User name

o Reset

- User’s voice mail pass code
- User’s voice web portal password
- Administrator’s voice web portal password

o Swap phones between users

Customers can manage their account by going to MySpeakeasy, logging in, and clicking on the Manage Your Voice Services link.  If a customer forgets their password, they should click “Forgot Password” under the Login button and follow the prompts.

“Joe that is it dude. You are the man!!!!!!!!!!!”

You really can’t make this stuff up, it’s honest and real. I wanted to share it with anyone who happens to follow us or is curious about the types of work we do.