9. April 2010 by admin.

Windows 7 Pro OEM DVD - Image

(Low Prices on Windows 7 Operating System Software!)

Alan Spicer Visits Microsoft in Washington State

 Cowbell Sound

Your Yacht Internet needs “More Cowbell!”

Se Habla “Motor Yacht” - We work for Motor Yachts…

Here is my Business Card…

Many of you may know that we sell Ericsson Cellular Mobile Broadband Routers, Satellite Systems for Marine, and WiFi Hotspot Sharing Systems (www.wifiyacht.net) for Marine, but… You may not know that we also come onboard and do Site Surveys and can explain to you what you have as far as Internet and Voice Communications, as well as Computer Systems. We often get called on Captain or crew changes to come decypher the existing systems and make recommendations for upgrades or improvements. Methods to implement least-cost routing of Internet Data and Voice Calling are offerred.

We also do general Laptop and Computer Service, Upgrades, and Replacements. We build small-form-factor (about the size of a small laptop) PC Computers for Navigation and Communications machines. If you are running on older PC hardware  we can replace it with more power, memory, and a much smaller computer footprint (the space required for the computer.)

Please give a call…

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954 683 3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

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9. April 2010 by admin.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) Concept Image

(image from: Tomshardware.com, a very good site by the way!)

Marine / Yacht Internet - Security - Virtual Private Network (VPN)

I was contacted by a yacht customer the other day regarding the security of Internet Communications. The yacht, in the past few years, has used only Cellular 3G Internet for Internet Communications - because it was thought that to use WiFi Hotspots would be insecure for certain business-related communications.

That thinking would be correct. Cellular has some built-in, inherent, security features. But to put it simply - It’s not likely that a wiley hacker is going to sit on the dock and crack into your cellular Internet connection and steal your information. WiFi, on the other hand, from a public Hotspot is usually insecure. They don’t have WEP or WPA (WPA2) protection protocols turned on because they have to serve a larger audience and having clients, meaning you, easily being able to sign-on, means being insecure. Wiley Hacker ™ could trivially sniff (listen to) WiFi traffic and potentially get all sorts of information from your Internet business related traffic. Well, keep in mind, that when you go to your bank web site, you are using “https” not the regular “http” so that is *secured* - however when you do any kind of Internet Communications that doesn’t go over “https” then very likely that traffic is pretty much what they call “plain text”. Readable by anyone that can get “in the middle” of your Internet Connection. It probably doesn’t happen all that often to yachts … I’ve not heard of a case yet where a yacht had its WiFi Traffic “sniffed” and had information used against them or to their detriment. But it’s the *potential* of that happening that worries many yacht captains, crews, and owners.

Enter the VPN - Virtual Private Network: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network that is layered on top of an underlying computer network. The private nature of a VPN means that the data travelling over the VPN is not generally visible to, or is encapsulated from, the underlying network traffic. Similarly, the traffic within the VPN appears to the underlying network as just another traffic stream to be passed. A VPN connection can be envisioned as a “pipe within a pipe”, with the outer pipe being the underlying network connection.

The term VPN can be used to describe many different network configurations and protocols. As such, it can become complex when trying to generalise about the characteristics of a VPN. Some of the more common uses of VPNs are described below, along with more detail about the various classification schemes and VPN models.

* Back to Alan Spicer - Okay so how do you use a VPN? Well the most secure VPN is supposedly what is called “ipSEC” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipsec. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find router hardware that can implement ipSec these days. But when it comes to a corporate office they might want to look into this a little bit carefully. You could do iPEC between two computers, and I think that possibly Windows can do ipSEC … either that or you’ll have to get a software “client” that can do that.

A corporate office would probably want to run a VPN Server… that could be a Router or a Server Computer, providing the VPN login and connection services. Anyway the idea is to create a “private network” that “tunnels” through the Internet to protect your information. Even if the traffic was “sniffed” by a 3rd party from your connection (e.g. WiFi Hotspot) they would only get what would look like “garbage” and would not be able to reconstruct it to your actually information traffic.

I’ve seen Cisco VPN Client Softfware on yachts … and have dealt with some yachts corporate offices which run Cisco VPN Server services for that client software to log on to. But I’ll venture to say that Cisco is not the only game in town as far as hardware and software to implement VPN Server and Client services. I can implement, using Open Source Software, VPN Server and VPN Client setups should anyone want that.

… So there you have it…

—
Alan Spicer

DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)

* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426

Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!

Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

Livewire: Access Controller (Service Selector):
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Livewire_Service_Selector/

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