What do you mean I can’t access my own database when trying to attach it?

When you detach a database from Microsoft SQL (I'm talking SQL Server 2005 and up here) the SQL Server automatically changes the NTFS permissions on the file so that only the user who told the SQL Server to detach the file has access to them.  SQL Server does this to ...

Not everything needs a public IP address.

For those of you in bigger shops you can probably ignore this.  If you work in a smaller shop where everything in the datacenter has a public IP, this post is for you. I find it truly amazing what some people will put a public IP address on, and allow access ...

Clearing your DNS Cache

If when you log into your Web Watcher or Sonar portal and you see a message asking you to clear your DNS cache we ask that you do so on any computers which you use to access our websites, as well as any computers which you are monitoring.

There are a few ways to clear the cache on your computer.  The first and easiest is to simply reboot your computer.

If this isn’t an option for some reason there another way.  Click on the Start button, then click on Programs (or All Programs depending on how your computers is configured).  Then click on Accessories, and find the Command Prompt (it should look something like the picture below).

If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 and you have the User Access Controls (UAC) enabled right click on Command Prompt and select the “Run as Administrator” option from the menu (see the image below).  After you do this the screen will go gay, and ask you to confirm that you want to do this. Click Yes or Confirm depending on which one you are presented with.

Now if you have Windows XP, or you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 without UAC enabled you won’t see the “Run as administrator” option.  In this case simply click on the Command Prompt item.

In either case at this point you should have a black box with a blinking cursor in it.  In the box type “ipconfig /flushdns” and press the enter or return key on your keyboard.  The window should look similar to the one shown below.

One you get to this point you can click on the Red X in the upper right hand corner of the Command Prompt window and the window will close.

At this point you can navigate back to the site that directed you here (you should be able to just close the window or tab) and click the refresh button in the web browser.  If the message has gone away and you are greeted with the normal login prompt then you are all done (don’t forget that if you are monitoring a different computer than the one you view the data on you’ll want to follow these instructions on that computer as well).  If that message is still there then you fall into one of a few categories.

1. You are a corporate customer and your company’s internal DNS Servers have our old IP Addresses cached.

2. You are at work, but a personal customer and your companies internal DNS Servers have our old IP Addresses cached.

3. Your Internet Service Provider has our old IP Addresses cached and they aren’t following the guidelines that we published for how long to keep our addresses in the cache.

If you fall into group #1 or #2 then talk with your systems administrator at your work and ask them to clear the DNS cache on your internal DNS Servers.

If you fall into group #3 then your Internet Service Provider will eventually clear the cache of our IP Addresses automatically.  We ll monitor which ISPs aren’t clearing the cache and contact them to ask that they do so.

If you’ve gotten to this point and you are still getting the warning about connecting to the old IP Address please feel free to click the link on that page to take you to the login screen.  These things will sort themselves out in the long run, we just want to give you the best experience on our websites possible.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact our Customer Support department through your normal support options and they will be happy to assist you as quickly as possible.

Open RFP for CoLo space in the Los Angeles Area

We have run into a situation where we have the need to move to another CoLo in the Los Angeles area.  As such we are putting out an open RFP to any CoLo facilities in the Los Angeles area who would wish to submit.

If any additional information about the RFP is needed the contact information is contained within the PDF linked to above.

The project is very time sensitive, and has a short date for proposals to be submitted.

Denny

Data Deduplication RFP

We at Awareness Technologies are announcing that we have produced an RFP titled “Data Dedupliation RFP” for a data deduplication project which we are kicking off.  All vendors are welcome to submit a proposal following the guidelines within the RFP.

We are releasing the RFP here so that vendors with solutions which we may not be familiar with can submit proposals.

Denny

Update 4/1/2010 8:10pm (Pacific Time) – The document has been updated.

Be careful what you say and post on the Internet

When moving around the Internet always be careful with what you say and post online.  You never know when it will come back to bite you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another round of SQL Injection attacks are happening RIGHT NOW…

That’s right you’ve heard it here first (ok, probably second or third, but at least in the top 10).  A hacking group is using SQL Injection attacks to break into websites in-mass and download malicious content from 318x.com.

As of December 10, 2009 over 132,000 websites have been compromised and are serving up the malicious content.  The attack loads up an Iframe onto the websites via the data returned from the database which eventually leads the user (without there knowledge) to download data from 318x.com which then installats a rootkit-enabled variant of the Buzus backdoor trojan.  The full path of what happens can be found on the link above.

We’ve talked about the securing your website from SQL Injection attacks here, here and here, apparently there are tons of sites out there which haven’t been listening.

Denny

T-Mobile UK Employees have been seeing your information

OK, so the title is a little more scary than needed, but it did the job, and got you to look at the article.

Customers at T-Mobile UK have been found to have been selling customer information to data brokers who work on behalf of other cellular phone companies in the UK. Read the rest of this entry »

Hackers have actually broken into the Brazilian Power Grid

About a week ago 60 Minutes covered a story about hackers breaking into the Brazilian power grid and causing power outages through out the country.  The common believe is that this story wasn’t actually correct.  However hackers appear to have liked the idea, and have done what was originally claimed in the story. Read the rest of this entry »

Up to 9% of your companies computers may be part of a bot net

In a recent article on DarkReading researchers have found that up to 9% of a large companies computers may be part of a bot net. Read the rest of this entry »