Linksys Media Hub NMH305

Storage is a crucial part of the digital lifestyle: We all need a place to put our stuff, and we need a way to access those files easily. Linksys has tried a few storage products in the past, but the Media Hub is its most ambitious effort. While it's not exactly a small business server that lets you set up user accounts – like the HP MediaSmart EX487 – and can't compete with the robust RAID and back-up options on Netgear ReadyNAS devices or those by Buffalo Technology, it has one glowing attribute: it's easy to use. Like most Apple products including the still viable Time Capsule, the Media Hub assumes you are not a certified Microsoft engineer or someone who carries USB key drives in your pocket 24x7. It's a smart product that eases you into the deeper features, with only a few caveats.

Setting up the Media Hub takes all of about three minutes. Connect one Ethernet cord to your router, turn it on, and you're done. Because the drive supports UPnP and works well with Windows, Apple iTunes, the Mac (thanks to Bonjour), and even Linux, you can expect to see the drive on your network without installing a driver or fussing with an IP address. Only when you do want to dive into the advanced features will you need the included setup CD or to access the drive's IP.

This NAS matches the styling of the new Linksys Multi-Room Home Audio gear – which is to say, it's gray and black and nothing too special compared to more elegantly designed network-attached storage devices. The difference between a media player you'd stick next to an HDTV, and this product, is that it will likely sit in a back closet somewhere. The Media Hub has two USB ports, one on the front and one on the back. There are very few buttons and lights. The NMH305 base model ships with one 500GB SATA drive and has one open bay. There's a power light and drive activity light – Linksys plans to release two additional models with higher capacities and an LCD screen that reports on drive status.

Performance on the Linksys Media Hub is just ho-hum – it's not going to set any speed records. About 6GB of MPEG-4 movie files took six minutes to transfer to the Media Hub, whereas the same transfer took 3 minutes to send to a home-built Windows Home Server and only 1 min 40 seconds to copy to the HP MediaSmart EX487 server. A 700MB collection of photos and documents took 50 seconds to write to the drive and 50 seconds to read, about 15 seconds longer than it took on the HP MediaSmart. The drive really showed some pokey behavior when we performed a full back-up of a desktop, which took about ten hours for about 200GB of data. The Media Hub has a gigabit Ethernet port, so it should be no slouch, but a real server adds some extra features to speed up disk copies.

source : reviews.digitaltrends.com

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Windows 7 Security

By : Sonny Discini
Right now, Windows 7 looks very much like Windows Vista because enhancements to the appearance and feel aspects of the operating system typically come late in the development process. Lucky for us, much of the awaited security functionality has already made its way into the beta build and we're going to look at some of the new changes for Windows 7.

Old friends, new twists

Returning from Windows Vista are Kernel Patch Protection, Service Hardening, Data Execution Prevention, Address Space Layout Randomization, and Mandatory Integrity Levels

Windows XP SP2 gave us the Security Center. Windows 7 discards this and in its place is an Action Center that incorporates alerts from 10 existing Windows features: Security Center; Problem, Reports, and Solutions, Windows Defender; Windows Update; Diagnostics; Network Access Protection; Backup and Restore; Recovery; and User Account Control.

In Windows 7, users can adjust consent prompt behavior using a slider control, if they have administrative privileges. Microsoft says they'll still be protected against malicious software, even if they never see another alert. While this may or may not be true, users have been conditioned to see alerts whenever something is happening. Without them, perhaps a false sense of security will develop on the part of the end user.

Windows Filtering Platform

Windows 7 introduces something called the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP). The idea is that third parties can take advantage of aspects of the Microsoft Windows Firewall in their own products. Microsoft says "third-party products also can selectively turn parts of the Windows Firewall on or off, enabling you to choose which software firewall you want to use and have it coexist with Windows Firewall."

While this sounds nice on paper, I can't see a vendor teaming their product with the Windows firewall. Smart money says they'll just use their own and ignore the Microsoft solution.

One nice thing to note about Windows 7 is that it makes it easier to configure that all-important home network. When users hit network problems, they curse the firewall and they're often right to. Windows 7 addresses the problem by taking over home network setup and making sure the firewall doesn't interfere.

We also see that scrollbars were removed in the configuration settings screen, as has the Software Explorer feature, and real-time protection in Windows 7 has been improved to reduce the impact on overall system performance. A welcome change from the bloat of Vista.

An inclusive BitLocker

Vista sailed in along with a fleet of new security features, among them BitLocker, a whole-disk encryption tool designed to protect your data even after an attacker makes off with your laptop. BitLocker utilizes a chip called a Trusted Protection Module (TPM). The Vista TPM transparently decrypts the drive once you've authenticated yourself with a password or smart card. A laptop thief can't break into the locked drive, even after booting to a different OS or moving the drive to another computer.

BitLocker drive encryption also supports removable storage devices, such as flash memory drives and portable hard drives has been added in Windows 7. This means that users can keep sensitive data on all of their USB storage devices as well as the physical drives on the host mentioned above.

As a side note to Bitlocker, using groups, you can ban writing to any removable drive that isn't BitLocker-protected. It's a very useful tool against the very real problem known as podslurping. With this policy in place, employees can still bring in the virus-of-the-month on an unprotected drive, but they can't take away an unprotected copy of the personnel database. It's also helpful to know that BitLocker to Go also allows users to securely share data with other users who have not yet deployed Windows 7.

That said, the testing I performed proved otherwise. I could not get this to work so I went to Microsoft and they confirmed that this is an issue in the beta build but will be fixed before final GA release.

Biometrics, System Restore and AppLocker

Biometrics enhancements include easier reader configurations, allowing users to manage the fingerprint data stored on the computer and control how they log on to Windows 7. And System Restore includes a list of programs that will be removed or added, providing users with more useful information before they choose which restore point to use. Restore points are also available in backups, providing a larger list to choose from, over a longer period of time.

I've seen more problems caused by System Restore than solved by it; I'm not a big fan. Still, users often resort to it when trying to clean up a real or imagined malware problem. In Windows 7, you'll at least have a clear idea of what collateral damage may result, as it lists all programs and drivers that would be removed or brought back by invoking a particular System Restore point. It's way better than guessing at the right restore point and hoping for the best, which is what you have to do now.

Another enhancement is AppLocker, accessed through Local Security Policy. It's a way to control which programs users can and can't use, and it's a lot more flexible than Vista's Software Restriction Policies. Still, it's not for the average user. Most IT shops should be pleased with this enhancement. I can see it being tailored to just about any corporate need.

Virtually all the changes in the security area are simply tweaking and improving on existing Vista features. But then, that's what Windows 7 is all about, right? While the enhancements seen thus far in the beta are nice, they aren't stunning.

I hope to see even more improvements before Windows 7 hits the streets.

source : www.enterpriseitplanet.com

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WINDOWS 7

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) is the next release of Microsoft Windows, an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.

Microsoft stated in 2007 that it is planning Windows 7 development for a three-year time frame starting after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista, but that the final release date will be determined by product quality.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7 is intended to be an incremental upgrade with the goal of being fully compatible with existing device drivers, applications and hardware.Presentations given by the company in 2008 have focused on multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup,and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, most notably Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery, are no longer included with the operating system; they are instead offered separately as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite.

In 2000, Microsoft started the planning to follow up Windows XP and its server counterpart Windows Server 2003 (both codenamed Whistler) with a major new release of Windows that was codenamed Blackcomb (both codenames refer to the Whistler-Blackcomb resort). This new version was at that time scheduled for a 2005 release.[6][7]

Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. In this context, a feature mentioned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for Blackcomb was "a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in."[8]

Later, Blackcomb was delayed and an interim, minor release, codenamed "Longhorn", was announced for a 2003 release.[9] By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb, including WinFS, the Desktop Window Manager, and new versions of system components built on the .NET Framework. After the 2003 "Summer of Worms", where three major viruses − Blaster, Sobig, and Welchia − exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Development of Longhorn was also "reset" in September 2004.

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