ETC Blog, The Tech Resource
FBI Granted Motion to Vacate Tomorrow’s Hearing Against Apple. What is Going on?
The FBI has asked and been granted a motion to postpone their hearing tomorrow claiming somebody from outside the government has shown them a possible way to unlock the Iphone of the San Bernardino shooter. Now comes the real question. Have they truly found a way or...
Update Your Kindle or Loose Internet Access
Amazon has pushed out a critical update for its Kindle readers. If you fail to install this update before midnight tonight your kindle will not have Internet access any longer. As noted on the relevant Amazon webpage this affects mainly older Kindles and not...
Microsoft Partially Backs Down on its Hardware Support Policy
Microsoft has just announced they are adding a year to their windows 7 Skylake and above support times. Excerpted from The Tech Report article: Microsoft has now updated its Skylake support policy, and saw it fit to extend the support period for Windows 7 and...
IOT and BYOD Must be Kept off Your Internal Network
I have talked about keeping IOT(Internet of Things) and BYOD(Bring your Own Devices) out of your internal network privately for a while. I have often told my clients in private that allowing employee(or guest) devices on your internal network is a bad idea and have...
Malvertising: Why Blocking Ads at the Edge is Good Security
I have posted about this multiple times. I do not block ads to harm websites. I actually allow ads for sites that I frequent AND run their own internal ad servers. When it comes to my clients I put up the stoutest edge defenses I can. One of those defenses is a...
ETC Maryland Moves Forward in Webhosting
ETC Maryland would like to announce 4 significant enhancements to its web hosting product. ETC Maryland is moving to become the premier WordPress hosting company in Frederick County, Maryland. From competitive pricing, servers with low loads for fast performance,...
ETC “Rescue Operation” Successful
Remember my webhosting post about a new client with a messed WordPress transfer? I finally got rid of the Godaddy code injection but several of the plugin images inside the administrative interface would not display. It turns out there was another security plugin...
The Truth Finally Comes Out..The FBI Screwed Up.
Apple vs. the FBI continues. Now the FBI admits what i suspected all the time..the FBI screwed up and were asking for Apple to bail them out. Unfortunatly most of the data is toasty now. We will see what actually comes of this now. The head of the FBI...
Another Nail in Norton’s Coffin
I have long taken joy in removing Norton products from client machines simply because of the performance drain and the aggressive invasive nature of the software. i now have a new reason. Norton is now bundling the Ask.com toolbar with their security product....
When Web Hosting Goes Bad ETC Maryland Comes to the Rescue
I had a site I like to read get taken down....so I offered to host them. I was ready for a challenge but I had no idea how big of a challenge I was in for. It started off as a problematic endeavor. The client had been locked out of his account via his web host....
Latest major security problem in Windows affects ALL supported versions.
There's no real way to know how much legacy code is still in Windows but i get it is more than anyone wants to admit. I see articles that claim windows has been rewritten but i have known for a long time that is not the case. The latest major security problem in...
Get Your Phone Repaired by the Wrong Tech And Your Iphone is a Brick
Apple has implemented a system that if you get your screen replaced by a non apple tech your phone is most likely going to be bricked with an error 53. Apple has confirmed this is expected behavior when a screen replacement results in damage to or the replacement of...
The Forcible “Upgrades” for Windows Users Begins
If you are running 7 or 8.x your machine is most likely going to surprise you and go right to windows 10 irregardless of if your hardware can actually handle it. For some folks this will be painless and for others it is not going to be a fun time. You can go to my...
Microsoft Requires Windows 10 For New Hardware
I was simply stunned by this. If you buy the newest processors from Intel and AMD or anyone...Microsoft is now saying you have 18 months to upgrade your desktops/laptop/workstations to Windows 10 or you loose updates. The best line is the one bout we will give you...
Blackberry was NOT hacked
When i saw this I figured I needed to wait to talk about it until the REAL story came out. Almost all media outlets(new and old) now use sensational headlines based on either old data or not data at all for clickbaiting. This "story" is no different. The...
Microsoft is DESPARATE to get Windows 10 everywhere
To the point of saying that windows 7 is as dangerous as running windows xp. Windows 7 is still supported for security updates and is no more dangerous to run than before. To quote a MS marketing person: Microsoft chief marketing officer Chris Capossela told a...
ETC Webhosting is Growing!
Thanks to my clients who have chosen ETC Maryland for webhosting I have had to order a larger, more powerful server to make sure your website does not slow down. I was using my own Virtual Private Server Product to launch my webhosting business. Due to growth I am...
Dell does its own superfish.
Dell's stupidity is on display as Dell has inserted a base root certificate that can sign code. The really bad part is dell leaves the keys to this cert exposed in the clear so it is easy to extract the keys from the machine and use them as a man in the middle...
My IOS Experiment is Over
I tried it for 60 days but in the end I had to go back to android. I actually went full bore into it stayed totally inside the Apple ecosystem. It wasn't pleasant. My belief that IOS is a media consumption system was fully confirmed. Android is the better choice...
Why I refrain From Service Contracts
I have seen this too many times. IT firms come in and fix everything and then want to charge monthly for "maintenance". Most of the time when I am called in it's because the IT firm who was charging for said maintenance isn't fixing anything and in some cases are...
Getting Rid of the Windows 10 Upgrade Nag and Recover 4-6 gigs of Space
If you want to get rid of the windows 10 upgrade nag I found this program called Windows 10 When I Want it. I have run it against every a/v engine i can think of and it has not tripped my own defenses so it is as good as i can test it to be. It DOES remove the wind...
Why Self-Signed Certs Are the Way to go.
I have said many times that our current model of trusting a third party to assert your identity is stupid and prone to abuse. Well the owner of Verisign( Symantec) has been making master certs for powerful domains like google.com and others. This allows them to...
Do not link your Office 365 to your internal AD.
I have been suspicious of Microsoft's security for a while. This is why when it comes to in-house e-mail(which I do not recommend any longer especial if it is a Microsoft e-mail platform). I never really took a close look at OWA's design but it really hasn't changed...
Giving Jesus the Glory
I usually do not post things of a personal nature here but since my beliefs are part of my businesses foundation I feel this is appropriate. Since my wife died over memorial day I have been having to adjust to such a huge loss and trying to keep not only myself...
Why I am moving to an Iphone 6+
Hold onto your seats folks I am dropping a bombshell...I have purchased and am awaiting arrival of...my new Iphone6+. Not the S but the first 6. Why? There isn't an android manufacturer i either want to deal with or trust. Case in point: Samsung has crappy hardware...