Archive for July 30, 2014

Linksys Introduces High Performance Managed Network Switches

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

Linksys announced its first managed switches in the Linksys Business product line-up to complement its portfolio of business networking products. With these switches, the Linksys Business product lineup now includes a full range of cost-effective routing, switching, VPN, wireless and IP surveillance solutions. The new managed switches are available in a 28- and 52-port rack-mountable chassis, with and without Power over Ethernet Plus. Managed switches offer more advanced security and bandwidth control, compared to smart and unmanaged switches, for IT administrators to ensure stability of the business network.

Features of the new Linksys Managed Switches

  • Layer 3 static routing
  • 24  or 48  Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • Two combo mini-GBIC (SFP) ports
  • Two 10-Gigabit uplink Ethernet SFP+ ports (LGS552P and LGS552)
  • Integrated Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) (LGS528P and  LGS552P)
  • Energy Efficient Ethernet Technology (802.3az)
  • Port and Tag based VLAN support for up to 1024 VLANs (802.1Q)
  • Automatic Voice VLAN, Guest VLAN and Dynamic VLAN assignment
  • Tagged or Port based QoS support (802.1P)
  • Storm Control – Broadcast, Multicast, and Unknown Unicast
  • IGMP Snooping, Rapid Spanning Tree- RSTP,  BPDU flooding/filtering
  • Advanced Quality of Service (QoS) support with layer 2/3/4 Traffic Prioritization – Voice, Video, and Data
  • Advanced Network Security support 802.1X Port Security and  DHCP Snooping
  • Web-based and SNMP Management Interface

Pricing

Linksys 28-Port Managed Gigabit Switch (LGS528): $549.99

Linksys 52-Port Managed Gigabit Switch (LGS552): $949.99

Linksys 28-Port Managed PoE+ Gigabit Switch (LGS528P): $849.99

Linksys 52-Port Managed PoE+ Gigabit Switch (LGS552P): $1299.99

 

The Linksys Managed Gigabit Switches are available now through major Distributors and Resellers.

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Apple Under Pressure In China And Russia Over Security Issues

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

I’m betting that this isn’t going over very well at 1 Infinite Loop at the moment.

Russian officials are calling out Apple over their security issues. A Reuters report says that the Russian Government wants Apple along with SAP to hand over source code so that they can prove that they have no security issues:

The Russian proposal was voiced last week when Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met Apple’s general manager in Russia, Peter Engrob Nielsen, and SAP’s Russian managing director, Vyacheslav Orekhov, the Communications Ministry said in a statement.

It said the proposal was designed to ensure the rights of consumers and corporate users to the privacy of their personal data, as well as for state security interests.

While couched in the language of protecting privacy, any Russian move to force these companies to divulge the inner workings of their software could pose a major threat to their viability if they were to lose control of the source code.

Given the current climate of relations between Russia and the west, this has got to be a ploy. At least one would hope so. And you can bet that there’s zero chance that this would ever happen. Though they did invoke the name of Edward Snowden to further force the issue:

“Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013 and U.S. intelligence services’ public statements about the strengthening of surveillance of Russia in 2014 have raised a serious question of trust in foreign software and hardware,” Nikiforov said in the statement released late on Tuesday.

That’s not good. Neither is increasing pressure from China. Fang Xingdong who is the founder of Blogchina and web research consultancy Chinalabs as well as being the director of the Center for Internet and Society at Zhejiang University of Media and Communications is saying that Chinese officials should be banned from using the iPhone. Here’s a Google translated document (original version can be found here) that spells out his concerns:

Internet Lab founder Fang Xingdong told reporters that for the Apple exposed “reserved port” for a long time, consumers did not know, so there is a certain risk. He stressed that as a technical support side, Apple could get some of the data used for the sale, but this exposes data acquisition significantly exceeded the limits of technical support.

What he’s referring to is the infamous iOS backdoor gong show that blew up last week. I’m pretty sure that this is the last thing that Apple needs in a market it wants to make inroads into.

Clearly, Tim Cook and company have some work to do to put these fires out.

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BlackBerry Isn’t Sweating Loss Of Ford…. At Least Not Publicly

Posted in Commentary with tags , on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

Yesterday, Ford Motor Company announced that they were ditching BlackBerry for iOS devices. That’s not a minor switch as it covers thousands of devices. The one thing that I didn’t have was BlackBerry’s side of the story. The Wall Street Journal got an answer of sorts:

BlackBerry played down the significance of Ford’s decision.

“While we can’t comment on this customer, we understand that there is diversity and choice in the market. Whether customers choose iOS, Android, Windows or BlackBerry devices, BlackBerry has the mobility management software to securely manage any device,” a BlackBerry spokeswoman said in an email.

Okay. We really didn’t learn much there. But it’s a pretty safe bet that a defection that is this large isn’t going over well in Waterloo. It’s also a safe bet that efforts are being made to make sure that there are no further defections like this.

 

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Zagg Customer Service Blows Me Away!

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

Okay, I’ll admit that the title is kind of cheezy. But it is how I feel given my experience with the Zagg kiosk in in Toronto’s Fairview Mall. Now frequent readers will recall that I reviewed their InvisibleShield Glass screen protector for the iPhone 5S. Well, just this week I put my phone in my pocket in a server room so that I could have my hands free. When I took it out about 90 minutes later, the screen protector was cracked. What appears to have happened was that I put the phone in my pocket without closing the cover of the case it lives in (as that covers the screen) and my keys which were in the same pocket pressed against the screen protector cracking it. The good news was that the actual screen was fine.

Clearly, that was not the best thing that I have done lately.

Thus, I took a trip to Zagg to buy another one and get it professionally installed. When I explained what happened to the person who was working at the kiosk and I pulled out my credit card to buy a new one, he told me to put the credit card away and hand over my phone. He then did the following:

  1. He removed the damaged screen protector and placed it into a book that seemed to have other damaged screen protectors in it.
  2. He then had me fill out some details on the page that he put the damaged screen protector on and sign it.
  3. He cleaned my phone and installed a new screen protector.

I tried to pay for it again (after all, I had damaged it so I felt that I should pay for it) and he refused politely. I have to admit that I am blown away by this. The reason being that this person who’s name I never got just did what needed to be done to resolve the issue with no fuss. That is outstanding customer service and something that should not only be praised, but publicized. Now I am sure that Zagg is looking at the damaged screen protectors so that they can improve their product. Thus this is likely a cost of doing business for them. Having said that, the fact that they replace these for free creates a great impression that you simply can’t buy.

Kudos to them!

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Ford & GM Sued Over Cars Ability To Rip CDs

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies is suing Ford and General Motors for millions of dollars over alleged copyrights infringement violations. This organization argues that Ford and GM infotainment systems have the capability to rip (or in non-nerd speak copy one or more tracks) from a CD and that violates the law. Specifically the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992. Thus these companies need to cut this organization a cheque. Here’s some more details from the ComputerWorld article on this:

The lawsuit calls out a feature in Ford vehicles called Jukebox, which records songs from CDs to the infotainment system’s hard drive. The Jukebox function has been available on Ford vehicles since at least the 2011 model year.

For example, the owner’s manual explains, “Your mobile media navigation system has a Jukebox which allows you to save desired tracks or CDs to the hard drive for later access. The hard drive can store up to 10GB (164 hours; approximately 2,472 tracks) of music.”

The lawsuit also cites GM’s Hard Drive Device, made by Denso, which can rip music and has been available on numerous models since at least 2011.

The suit seeks millions of dollars to be paid by each of the companies for violating the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992. The Act protects against distributing digital audio recording devices whose primary purpose is to rip copyrighted material.

I have to admit that I’m a bit puzzled by this lawsuit. The reason being that this is known as space shifting which is defined this way in Wikipedia:

Space shifting (or spaceshifting), also known as place shifting (or placeshifting), allows media, such as music or films, which is stored on one device to be accessed from another place through another device.

Now this was upheld by the Ninth Circuit in the landmark case RIAA v Diamond Multimedia 15 years ago. That case affirmed that space shifting to the Diamond MP3 player for personal use was considered fair use. Thus one wonders how long this will last in front of a judge. But I am a computer geek not a lawyer. Perhaps a real lawyer could comment on this.

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Hey IT Nerd! Do You Regret Moving To Rogers? [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2014 by itnerd

I have to admit that I was expecting a question like this to appear in my inbox given how much traffic, comments, and e-mails that my posts on Rogers tend to generate. This morning it did appear in my inbox:

IT Nerd. I’ve been following your move from Teksavvy to Rogers and I’m sorry, but not surprised that you’ve had an issue as that’s typical for Rogers. What I’d like you to comment on is if you regret moving to Rogers? Also, seeing as a Rogers rep told you and your spouse something that wasn’t true, why aren’t you pushing that to the highest levels as that’s kind of dishonest on the part of Rogers is it not? 

Thank you.

Thanks for the question.

If I have to look at the experience critically, this is what I see:

  • The install of my services went perfectly. Not only that, the person who came to our condo was outstanding.
  • As I type this everything still works perfectly.
  • Though I hope this never happens, if I have a technical problem, I suspect it will get fixed expediently as Rogers is responsible for their infrastructure from end-to-end.

Plus, the billing issue that we had wasn’t really a billing issue as such. Though I am keeping an eye on it. There was a combination of a lack of clarity in terms of how Rogers describes its discounts on paper, and a agent who either accidentally or deliberately told us that we were getting a free modem for our Internet. Now the fact that we aren’t getting a free modem doesn’t change how much we pay, so that’s why I’m not pursuing that issue. Though I know what I heard and my wife knows what she heard, so it’s unlikely that both of us are to quote Roger Clemens “mis-remembering” our interaction with the Rogers agent we spoke to. If we are, we’d love to know about it as we have no problem being told that we’re wrong about this. But if there was anything out of this whole experience that could be considered to be negative, it’s that and I hope that Rogers investigates that and addresses it if required.

The flipside to that is that I have seen areas where Rogers have improved things. When this billing issue blew up they recognized the need to escalate and the “manager” that I spoke to promised to follow up to make sure everything was okay in September so that we didn’t have to chase him (though I’ll be doing my own follow up at that time as well). Two or three years ago, that wouldn’t have happened, and that’s good on their part. They still have some work to do, such as better follow up from @RogersHelps, and from a perception standpoint as your e-mail illustrates. But I think they are trending in the right direction.

So to answer your question, I don’t regret moving to Rogers as it was the right decision for my wife and I all things considered.

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, @RogersHelps reached out to me and investigated this. The long and short of it is that Rogers will be applying “a lump sum credit of the $8/month over 2 years” to our account. That’s a very good gesture and I thank @RogersHelps for their assistance in sorting this out.

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