Ethical Hacking - Proactive Services

Corporations are faced with the unenviable task of trying to defend their networks against various types of intrusive attacks.  While its true that many companies are vulnerable, weekly news of the next breach occurs, yet the decision makers think...

 
Technology environments have gotten increasingly complex and it is harder than ever to watch over your entire infrastructure. Having an independent team of experts audit your security is a valuable tool that is guaranteed to uncover vulnerabilities and greatly increase your level of security.

Why Ethical Hacking?

Based upon our Incident Response and Litigation Response and Readiness experience, We provide "Ethical hacking", as we define it as a service where we attack your network and computer systems using real-world tools and techniques in order to find security weaknesses. We identify specific risks to your business systems, critical data, and help customize proven mitigation strategies. 

We find that companies generally hire us to perform "ethical hacking" for three reasons:

• They are reasonably confident in their network’s security posture and they want to validate they are as secure as they believe.
• They are concerned that their network is not as secure as it should be and believe that an ethical hack will tell them where they should prioritize their security efforts.
• They use ethical hacking as a mechanism to demonstrate to key stakeholders that their network is secure.

You are essentially hiring hackers that you can trust with real-world experience in reacting and resolving an incident response of a data breach to break into your network and show you how an attack would be perpetrated before a malicious attacker can perpetrate the same attack.  In addition, expose the various information which should be protected and help enforce better compliance and information governance policies.

The goal of an ethical hack security exercise is not to reveal deficiencies in the performance of your IT team, but rather to support them. We often find that IT teams are pressured to make things easy-to-use and functional, maintain software updates and patches, and keep the users up and running.  Our ethical hacking assessment aids the IT team, giving them a road-map for making their networks much more secure, identify the sensitive information which the organization maintains, and improve the best reasonable security measures for that organization.

Much like a CFO who needs a CPA firm to audit their financials, an independent ethical hacking assessment from a firm like Digital4nx Group, Ltd. can provides valuable insight and guidance on maintaining a better security posture.

We believe that cyber security is NOT an IT issue, but a business risk issue!
Source : digital4nxgroup

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Brew-IT Social Media Business Networking Session Planned

In today’s online world, where seemingly everyone posts, Tweets and Snapchats, it’s easy to feel lost or left behind … especially if you are a small business owner. If you would like to know more about how social media could benefit your business, join the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce at an informal gathering on Thursday, July 16. From 5:30 to 7 p.m. at The Pub on the Cedar, the Chamber is offering the first “Brew-IT” session to offer a little insight into the world of social media, answer questions and explore the need for future informative sessions. 

This gathering is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served and beverages will be available for purchase through The Pub. Brew-IT is a collaborative effort between the Chamber and the Small Business Development Center at North Iowa Area Community College to address the subjects of social media and technology as they relate to business. Guest speaker Deb Brown specializes in communications, branding and working with small groups to create social media plans that work for them. More of a presenter than a speaker, Brown shares stories and advice about social media, working and living in a small town and creating the kind of community you want to live in.

Brown is also the Webster City Iowa Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director and loves to tell the stories of how they’re changing their town into the kind of place the community wants to live, work and play in. Brown says the goal is to present information that you can then take home and put to work. Wicks explained that the direction the Brew-IT gathering will take moving forward will be dictated by its participants, including how often the group meets, when and what topics they would like addressed.

Pre-registration is not required but would be appreciated by calling the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce at (641) 228-4234 or e-mailinginfo@charlescitychamber.com. Again, this event is free and open to all interested parties.


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Google Employs AI To Fight Spam

 Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been successful in lowering the number spam emails users receive, but in the process, every now and then bulk emailed messages like statements and ticket receipts get mis-classified. This is an immense problem for large emailers. So to deal with it, Google has come up with new tools to help users in identifying what’s happening to their emails.

Using artificial intelligence

Google has added an artificial neural network to Gmail’s spam filter to detect and block “the especially sneaky spam,” Google informs users. Artificial intelligence is in addition to the machine leaning the internet firm is already using for Gmail’s filters.

To fight spam, Google said it is using the same artificial intelligence it developed for search. The artificial neural network uses self-training algorithms that can identify tricky spam which looks similar to normal messages. It can also catch spoofed messages which seem to come from a genuine sender but actually are not.

Google informs users that the amount of required mail moving to the spam folder is lower at less than 0.05%, while less than 0.1% of email in the average Gmail inbox is spam. Still, Google wants to do better, and its Gmail team aims to give users “the mail you want, not the spam you don’t.” So instead of blocking emails from the companies, Google is working with senders of wanted email such as ticket receipts from airlines, account statements, etc., and helping them to analyze their emails.

Sri Harsha Somanchi, a Google product manager, wrote in a blog post that their postmaster tool is designed to give emailers details on delivery errors and spam reports.

Google making it more customizable

In addition, the internet firm is working to make its spam filter more customizable for consumer accounts. While users can already categorize messages by labeling them as spam, what is spam for one may be a relevant email for another.

“So while your neighbor may love weekly email newsletters, you may loathe them,” Somanchi said, adding that now with “with advances in machine learning,” the spam filter can now be customized for these individual choices.

Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) uses neural networking to offer lucrative ads, while Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) uses it to guess what a user likes on their News Feed. Google is also an avid user of neural networking technology. In recent times, the internet firm has used the technology in many of its services, including recognizing commands given to an Android phone, recognizing photos posted on Google Photos, and more.
Source : valuewalk


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Now Fiber Data Runs At 12000 KM

Boffins set networking record with marathon 12,000 km fiber data run

Look, ma, no repeaters – but we can still decipher the info. Huzzah!

A group of university researchers claim to have developed a method to increase the data bandwidth of fiber optic cables by eliminating a barrier that has limited the maximum power at which optical signals can be sent.
The team from University of California, San Diego said its method of adjusting the frequency of light signals would allow fiber lines to carry data over long distances without the need for electronic repeaters.
"Today's fiber optic systems are a little like quicksand. With quicksand, the more you struggle, the faster you sink," said researcher Nikola Alic in a statement.

"With fiber optics, after a certain point, the more power you add to the signal, the more distortion you get, in effect preventing a longer reach. Our approach removes this power limit, which in turn extends how far signals can travel in optical fiber without needing a repeater."

Such repeaters, also known as optical regenerators, convert optical signals into electronic ones, process the electronic signals, and then retransmit them as optical signals once again. Because they must process as many as 200 channels of signals at massively high data rates, they are essentially supercomputers, making them costly and difficult to construct.

The UCSD group's paper, published in the June 26 issue of the journal Science, found that by running light pulses through a frequency comb, data could be sent and received over long distances without significant signal distortion.

In their experiments, the researchers were able to send an optical signal along 12,000 km (7,456 miles) of optical cable and successfully decipher the information at the other end, setting a new record.
They did it by using the frequency comb to synchronize the frequencies of the various channels of optical information traveling across a given fiber. Ordinarily, such signals are subject to crosstalk caused by a physical phenomenon known as the Kerr effect. The longer the fiber and the higher the power level, the greater the crosstalk.

But by manipulating the signals to take into account the known physical properties of the Kerr effect before the data was even transmitted, the researchers were able to render the crosstalk reversible at the receiving end.

"We are pre-empting the distortion effects that will happen in the optical fiber," said research boffin Bill Kuo, who was responsible for developing the wide-band frequency comb used in the experiments.
The group's method could provide telcos with a way to boost their optical signals – and thus their data transmission rates – without the labor and expense of installing repeaters along their lines.

The seven-person team behind the study included five researchers from the UCSD Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and two researchers from the Qualcomm Institute, a division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology that's named after the San Diego-based chipmaker (thanks to hefty donations) but operated jointly by UCSD and the University of California, Irvine.
Source : theregister


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How safe are wireless networks? 

A Fortinet survey finding has revealed that wireless network is the weakest security link in enterprise IT infrastructure. 

The online survey conducted amongst 1490 Information Technology Decision Makers (ITDMs) from around the globe (including India) shows that insufficient wireless security is a concern for all. Respondents positioned wireless as significantly more vulnerable than core networking infrastructure. 

The confidence levels in wireless security however varied with China topping the board with 71 per cent “very concerned” followed by India at 61 per cent compared to 13 per cent in Japan. 

Survey researchers said that this was hardly surprising given that more than a-third of the enterprise wireless networks put in place for internal employees did not have the basic security function of authentication in place. 

Nearly half of the ITDMs considered loss of sensitive corporate/customer data the biggest risk in operating in an unsecured wireless environment. Industrial espionage was cited as the next highest risk followed by non compliance to industry regulations and service interruptions. 

Wireless infrastructure governed by a premise-based controller was found to be a thing of the past with cloud management becoming the norm. While this trend for cloud-based management is set to grow, the ITDMs refused to trust the cloud for critical management. 

Commenting on the findings, Rajesh Maurya, Country Manager (India and SAARC), Fortinet said, “despite the growth in mobility strategies, wireless security has simply not been a priority for enterprises till date. As advanced persistent attacks increasingly target multiple entry points and the cloud becomes more prevalent, it is not an oversight organisations should risk any longer.” 

“IT leaders are beginning to recognise the role wireless security plays in protecting the critical business assets, yet there is more to be done. As IT strives to balance the need for strong network security, wireless must be considered as part of a holistic security strategy to ensure broad and consistent protection over wired and wireless access,” he said. 

Source : thehindubusinessline

 

12 Things I Learned At London Technology Week

The second iteration of London Technology Week – a program of over 200 bespoke events, is said to have attracted +40,000 attendees from across all areas of the tech spectrum. Aimed to cement the city of London’s leadership position as Europe’s digital hub, industry heavyweights like Google, Amazon and IBM made some major announcements, sharing the limelight with a handful of fintech superstars and success stories like Second Home. Others also notably present included Bloomberg and Accenture, sponsoring debates that covered everything from how to build sustainable ‘smart’ cities, to using big data and machine learning to herald technological change.

As Tech Week begins to unwind, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the fantastic content, debate, insights and people who made this a bumper week of events, workshops and networking. Here’s what I learned:

1. Over the last decade more international tech investment projects have come to London than Paris, Dublin, Madrid, Amsterdam and Munich combined
2. London is the capital of Europe’s tech scene, with 1,009 startups emerging between 2005-2014. Paris comes in second with 281
3. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says London is better for tech than Silicon Valley, but is handicapped by a lack of tech communities
4. The number of UK ‘unicorn’ tech companies (hoopla, Just Eat, ASOS to name a few) that are valued over $1B = 17
5. The current total valuation of these 17 unicorn companies = $40B
6. Approximately 1.46 million people in the UK are employed in companies operating in the digital space
7. London’s tech industry alone employs over 200,000 people, and is forecasted to generate £18B for the economy this year
8. London-based tech firms will provide an extra 46,000 jobs by 2024, cementing the capital’s status as a ‘digital powerhouse’
9. A survey of over 1,600 experts, leaders and investors in the industry found that 23% of tech firms have no women in senior positions
10. And only 17% of people working in the technology industry in the UK are women
11. There are huge skill gaps in London for tech hires, and only a small percentage of students are choosing technology-specific degree programs
12. The top 5 most searched-for tech skills by employers on online job boards are: Java, SAP, PHP, .Net and Salesforce

So while it’s been a great week to be a technophile, as a marketer, it was also an opportunity to get to know the emerging players driving the tech innovation bus. It’s often the unknown start-ups who have the most impressive stories that need telling, and I found the most interesting events this week, were the ones more niche in flavor. They went beyond just being a showcase for London to flex her digital credentials, instead sharing tangible examples and insights into the challenges they’ve had to overcome as a nascent business. I couldn’t think of a better setting to get acquainted with the promising tech giants of the future, and walked away with a keen sense of how applying the right marketing skills can be critical to achieving transformational outcomes.

The UK now has the fastest growing digital economy in the G20 measured by percentage of GDP – greater than China, Germany and even the U.S. It’s clear from the stats above that there’s no shortage of opportunities in tech, so what does this all translate to for Marketers? If anything, it emphasizes the need to focus on sharpening our technology skills, not least because it makes us a much more attractive bunch to those seeking talent for the burgeoning start-up sector. The very nature of their business – bootstrapped companies, often with a niche proposition that’s predominantly sold online, who have little budget, presence or resources, means that it will take a certain type of resilient personality to thrive under these circumstances. Companies in this space almost certainly want to hire digital-native marketers; those who can apply creative thinking to how they navigate marketing challenges, and who are comfortable wearing multiple hats in an operating environment that is highly technology-driven.

As Google demonstrated, the start-up scene isn’t just the domain for the young and carefree, but it will absolutely require someone who’s not afraid to be hands-on, hungry for it, and who has a genuine aptitude to live and breath tech in order to make a difference. Of course there’s never a guarantee of success, or that billion dollar IPO, but the potential of what could be is surely enough to bring out the more adventurous among you. Go forth and prosper.
Source > business2community

why Boston is America’s unlikely tech hub

6 reasons why Boston is America’s unlikely tech hub

When it comes to tech hubs, many entrepreneurs think they need to be based in Silicon Valley in order to thrive. Others look to tech centers like Silicon Alley or fast-growing Austin to establish their startup. Despite its rich history in technology and innovation, Boston is often a city that gets overlooked by those in the startup scene—until now.

There is a renewed energy present throughout Boston and the entire region that is making Beantown a tech mecca in its own right. This renaissance is being driven by local successes at companies ranging from early-stage startups to established technology giants, who are all taking an interest in talent and companies in the region. It’s not Silicon Valley or Alley – Boston has a unique tech DNA and culture; one that is collaborative in nature.

Not convinced? Here are six reasons why you may want to reconsider Boston as the city to launch your startup or, at minimum, build a presence for your tech company:

1. VCs are taking an interest in local startups—and it’s paying off

The energy of local startups is contagious, and Boston VCs have taken note. In the last five years, area firms like Battery Ventures, Atlas Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Matrix Venture Partners have relocated to the city to be closer to the upsurge of startups. And in 2014 alone, Boston’s innovation economy raised $4 billion in funding—up $1 billion from the previous year.

Adding to the impressive funding, a number of young Massachusetts companies have made their Wall Street debut from 2010-2014. HubSpot, Care.com, Demandware, TripAdvisor and Wayfair were among the nine IPOs, in addition to 196 smart acquisitions, by Massachusetts companies. This year about 588 tech companies across the nation are in the IPO pipeline—with Massachusetts home to nearly four dozen of those technology firms.

2. There is a city-wide support network for young startups and established tech companies alike

With over 40 university and industry incubators/accelerators state-wide, entrepreneurs will have no trouble finding the resources to grow their ideas into businesses. Boston is home to Blade, Bolt, Cambridge Innovation Center, Greentown Labs, Healthbox, LearnLaunch, MassChallenge and Venture Development Center. City Hall has built programs that support startups to help Boston evolve into a world-class tech ecosystem, including the hiring of the first “Startup Czar,” an advocate for the city’s entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses.

For young companies and established ones alike, Boston also has an incredibly strong professional services infrastructure. It offers top-notch legal services, tech-focused public relations agencies, financial firms like Deloitte and KPMG, and other service companies to support every need of a tech company.

3. The city nurtures its tech talent – and in turn, is attracting high-tech giants

Boston is home to some of the top STEM schools in the country: MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, BU and Wentworth Institute of Technology. In Cambridge alone, there is more tech academic research and development spending (about $4 billion) than in any other part of the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area ($1.3 billion).

Tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have taken notice, establishing East Coast headquarters or opening engineering and R&D offices in the city. Other major players have held offices in Boston for years, including Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

4. Women are major players in Boston’s tech ecosystem

Women in tech is a national dialogue, and Boston recognizes its importance. Women entrepreneurs have quite the presence here: CEOs Gail Goodman (Constant Contact), Sheila Marcelo (Care.com) and Brenna Haysom (Blowfish), Co-Patient co-founders Katie Vahle and Rebecca Palm and venture investor and mentor Katie Rae.

There has also been a 21.4 percent growth rate among women in tech state-wide from 2009-2013—the second-highest among competing tech states. Women even make up 10 percent of Mass-based tech company board seats. While this is only a start, there are efforts to grow this number.

5. Boston is more than just biotech and pharma

It’s no secret that Massachusetts is a supercluster for pharmaceutical and biotech companies—there are over 500 in the area. The benefit of these industries is that there are hundreds of companies that have gone from labs to market and are spinning off startups, helping to spur the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Orig3n, a pioneer in regenerative medicine, is just one example, with founders that worked in R&D at PerkinElmer before launching their own startup.

And while there continues to be amazing innovation coming out of the biopharma industries, there are also big things happening in other industries, such a travel (Kayak and TripAdvisor), business services (Vistaprint and Constant Contact), gaming (Giant Spacekat, Disruptor Beam and Turbine), ecommerce (Shoebuy.com, RueLaLa and Karmaloop) and more.

6. This city celebrates its tech scene like its sports teams

In the last decade, Boston sports teams have won three World Series, three Super Bowls, one NBA Championship, and one Stanley Cup. For every win, the city celebrated with parades, meet and greets, happy hours—you name it. Bostonians enjoy a good celebration, whether it is in honor of its sports teams or its tech scene.

Groups like MassTLC, Boston New Tech, Boston Tweetup, Greenhorn Connect, MITX, The Capital Network and VentureFizz all host networking events on a regular basis. Annual events such as Inbound, MassTLC Unconference and Boston TechJam showcase the best in the area’s tech and startup scene.
It’s clear that the state of technology in Massachusetts is strong, and Boston’s long-term momentum as a home to startups and innovation is the direct result of collaboration and innovation starting from the bottom up, a passionate and talented workforce and an abundance of investors and government support—all the things that position this city as a high-tech force to be reckoned with.

Source : thenextweb

Massive Data Center Network

Google Gives Glimpse Inside Its Massive Data Center Network

Google's data center network delivers 1-petabit-per-second bandwidth capacity, enough to read scanned contents of Library of Congress in one-tenth of a second.

Anyone wondering just how much network capacity it takes for Google to deliver all of its myriad services might want to consider this: The company's current-generation data center networks deliver enough bandwidth to read the entire scanned contents of the Library of Congress in less than one-tenth of one second.

Amin Vahdat, a Google Fellow and technical lead for networking, provided a rare glimpse inside the company's data center networks in a blog post coinciding with the Open Network Summit earlier this week.

According to Vahdat, Google's current data center network fabric, dubbed Jupiter, can deliver more than 1 petabit per second of total bisection bandwidth, or enough capacity for 100,000 servers to exchange information at 10 gigabits per second per server.

Jupiter is the result of about 10 years' worth of effort building in-house network hardware and software for linking Google's data centers and powering the company's distributed computing and storage systems, Vahdat said. "When Google was getting started, no one made a data center network that could meet our distributed computing requirements," he explained. From the beginning, the company has realized that computing infrastructures such as Google File System, MapReduce, Bigtable and Borg require a networking capability not available from others, he said.

Source : - eweek

F5 Networks and Cisco Partnerships

F5 Networks and Cisco: Partnerships crucial to success

 

Today organisations are expected to drive increased workload with reduced lead times, and achieving this requires a massive change in how organisations conduct their business and approach partnerships, according to Nathan Pearce, F5 Networks principal technologist for SDN.

“We have entered a time that is demanding of the networking innovators that we connect the unconnected, deliver of the agile and unpredictable, secure the ever-changing, and that all this be done quicker than ever before,” says Pearce.

“Remaining competitive in today’s era of accelerated change can’t be achieved with the right tools, alone. Success comes from choosing partners with aligned vision,” he says.​

Pearce says for a long time technology innovations have focused primarily on specific devices, working to provide improved performance, management or consolidations.

As a result, innovations have created faster firewalls, improved virtual-server density and more granular access technology.

Today, instead of advancing particular areas, innovation is about creating faster, more agile business.

According to Pearce, delivering on the business expectation of creating an exponential increase in agility is something no single vendor can solve, and this is why those leading the pack are embracing the era of the partnership.

“Successful partnerships run much deeper than a press release. F5 and Cisco are working together across many different avenues including regular product development sync ups, sales and marketing strategy, consulting services, and training.

“Is this necessary, you might ask? According to our customers it is integral,” Pearce says.

The F5 and Cisco partnership is very focused on better serving customers, according to Pearce.

Together, the companies are working to provide a faster time to value for the deployment of new applications and services, faster time to react towards situation affecting existing applications and services, and reduced complexity and operational risk in the management of Cisco’s Layer 2/3 networking services and F5’s Layer 4 – 7 application services.

Source :channellife

Cisco Embeds Security Everywhere Across the Extended Network

Security Watch: Cisco Embeds Security Everywhere Across the Extended Network

 

Cisco has announced new offerings to embed security from the data centre out to endpoints, branch offices, and the cloud for pervasive threat visibility and control. By integrating security everywhere, enterprises and service providers can deliver threat-centric security to today’s threat landscape and capture emerging business opportunities created by the rise of the digital economy and the Internet of Everything (IoE).

The IoE market is expected to generate $19-trillion in value to organisations over the next decade, and represents a $1.7-trillion opportunity to service providers. Additionally, according to the 2015 Cisco Visual Networking IndexTM (VNI) Forecast, the number of IP- connected personal devices and M2M connections online will grow from 14 billion in 2014 to more than 24 billion by 2019. However, cybercrime is simultaneously becoming increasingly sophisticated and industrialised with the financial opportunity for cybercriminals rising to an estimated $450-billion to $1-trillion.

Cisco is adding more sensors to increase visibility with more control points to strengthen enforcement and pervasive, advanced threat protection to reduce time-to-detection and time-to-response.

Source : cso

China to turn TV networks into home information centre

China will promote internet integration of television networks, turning them into in-home streaming information centers to allow viewers send real-time feedback to TV stations and get immersed in shows, a top official said.

China’s radio and TV industry should actively implement  “TV+”, similar to the Internet plus initiative currently very popular in China, deputy chief of State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), Tian Jin said.

Besides traditional broadcasting, internet integrated TV can also provide online interactive media, extra content, game consoles, on-demand customised streaming media as well as home networking access.

The networks will offer users a means to track and receive subscribed content and send real-time feedback to TV stations, thus allowing viewers to immerse themselves in their shows.

“This idea will take shape based on the upgraded digital TV networks, and be fused with technology including mobile internet, smart operating system and man-machine interaction system,” Tian was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

China has 180 million clients using digital television networks currently with only 34 million of them set up with interactive TV, said Tian.

He said the SARFT is considering a large-scale TV network overhaul, an increase of bandwidth and speed of information transmission, and will extend to intelligent terminals such as mobile phones, pads and digital TV.

Source : financialexpress

RiT Intros Beamcaster 2.0 for Secure High-Speed Connectivity

RiT Launches Beamcaster 2.0 for secure high speed wireless enterprise connectivity -- Wireless optical solution significantly reduces hardware requirements and installation time

RiT Technologies, a leading provider of IIM and structured cabling solutions and a developer of an innovative indoor optical wireless technology solution, announced today the launch of Beamcaster 2.0, a wireless optical network with a new system design significantly lowering the total solution cost per user. By increasing the number of users that are supported by each smart outlet (SO) from one to six, enabling each system to support 48 users, high density open space environments can experience secure, high bandwidth communications networks with significantly lower costs and faster deployments. One large telecommunications provider in Asia estimates that this new design results in an installation time of 1-2 days compared with several weeks to install a comparable secure and high bandwidth wireline network.

Beamcaster 2.0 is designed for environments that require secure communications, high bandwidth with low latency, and scalability to support rapid growth. The solution provides point-to-multipoint wireless optical communications with speeds of up to 1Gbps for each SO. Beamcaster 2.0’s optical transmissions are highly secure and difficult to hack or intercept. In addition, Beamcaster 2.0 is easy to install and can adjust easily to physical layout changes and employee moves.

The previous version, Beamcaster 1.0 is currently deployed at several sites in North America and Asia, with the latest successful deployment in China for a leading IT company. A telecom operator in APAC has expressed interest in using Beamcaster 2.0 to provide connectivity as a service where the savings from this new technology can be passed down to their customers. Several consumer product manufacturers showed interest in using this technology to avoid leakage of confidential product information and intellectual property that can occur using standard wireless networks.

“Asia has unique working conditions that can benefit from solutions that support high density environments”, said Ron Kamini, Head of Products Management at RiT. “More and more companies in this region need to share large files securely at high speeds and this technology provides them with more economical and flexible connectivity that grows with them.”

RiT’s wireless optical solution Beamcaster 2.0 will be demonstrated next week at CommunicAsia, June 2 -- June 5, at Marina Bay Sands Singapore, at Booth BA3-12. Beamcaster 2.0 will be commercially available in Q4 2015. RiT will also have on display a robot that can share high volumes of production data securely while in motion, using RiT's innovative wireless optical technology.

About RiT Technologies 
 
RiT Technologies (NASDAQ: RITT), is a leading provider of IIM and structured cabling solutions and a developer of an innovative indoor optical wireless technology solution. The RiT IIM products provide network utilization for data centers, communication rooms and work space environments. They help companies plan and provision, monitor and troubleshoot their communications networks, maximizing utilization, reliability and physical security of the network while minimizing unplanned downtime. The RiT solutions are deployed around the world in a broad range of organizations, including data centers in corporate organizations, government agencies, financial institutions, airport authorities, healthcare and education institutions and more. Our BeamCaster™ product is an innovative indoor optical wireless networking technology solution designed to help customers streamline deployment, reduce infrastructure design, installation and maintenance complexity and enhance security in a cost effective way. RiT’s shares are traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol RITT. For more information, please visit: www.rittech.com

Source : - newsfactor

Breakthrough Technology Group Launches Private Cloud Partner Program

Breakthrough Technology Group Launches Private Cloud Partner Program -- Systems Integrators, VARs and Agents Now Able to Deliver Secure Cloud Solutions, Offer Tier-1 Data Center, Applications and Services Without Capital Investment

Breakthrough Technology Group (BTG), a leading IT and telecommunications solutions provider, today launched a new Private Cloud Partner Program that will allow consultants, systems integrators, solutions providers, resellers and agents to offer cloud solutions and services to Enterprise and Mid Market and Below clientele.

Through its expansive Private Cloud portfolio, which starts with a Private Cloud Foundation layer for each customer and optional dedicated SaaS-based managed capabilities, BTG can provide a private, secure customized environment to meet customers’ business and audit requirements.

Coupled with a deep knowledge of telecommunications, BTG provides a true end-to-end offer set.
BTG (www.BTGroupinc.com) leverages unparalleled industry expertise and advanced technology to empower organizations with the resources to implement the infrastructure best suited to their respective needs. BTG’s Private Cloud solutions represent a first-of its-kind cloud service that marries portability and efficiency in a dynamic, scalable, private and secure architecture.

BTG Private Cloud Solutions are delivered from its AT&T SSAE 16 certified data centers, and benefit from state-of-the-art security and networking infrastructure. Participants in its Private Cloud Partner Program will be able to offer a portfolio of services built to meet the needs of a growing enterprise, which includes a single monitoring platform, single Help Desk, single Portal for all services, and a secure, flexible and redundant infrastructure built in multiple AT&T SSAE16 Certified Data Centers.

“Analysts and industry experts worldwide agree that private cloud offers a tremendous opportunity for solutions providers to mitigate risk and deliver a secure, efficient computing experience,” said Jeff Kaplan, CEO and founder, Breakthrough Technology Group. “Our Private Cloud Partner Program will open new doors for businesses of all sizes and markets by creating supplemental revenue streams, taking their companies to unprecedented heights.”

The company begins each deployment by creating a Virtual Domain, or VDOM for each customer, ensuring complete isolation from the very moment they stand up each customer's Private Cloud, and extends through any of the services delivered. BTG can deliver Managed Virtual Machines, Managed Applications, Dedicated Messaging Services, and Hosted Virtual Desktops, which represents just a few of the services within its expansive Portfolio.

Triumphus Managing Partner, Dave Hopson, concurs with Jeff Kaplan’s assessment. “We have worked with BTG for over one year, and as a private cloud partner, we are able to operate as a tier-1 data center and sell services-based software and applications without having to break the bank with a capital investment in infrastructure.”

For systems integrators and technology consultants, BTG’s Private Cloud Partner Program represents an easy path to launching a proven Managed Services solution. Strategic consultants are able to augment their capabilities set with cloud-based services.

For software providers without the means to deliver a hosted or cloud solution,
BTG becomes their infrastructure provider. The partner delivers their respective software as a service to customers, while BTG operates in the background as the single point of contact helping to build a standards-based, repeatable solution.

BTG Private Cloud Partner Program Levels: 

Adviser: In this model, the Partner qualifies a customer and initiates a qualified discussion with BTG and the Customer. BTG contracts with and supports the customer directly and the partner earns a percentage of recurring revenues every month. This is perfect for the firm or individual who wants to earn commissions from cloud based revenue but does not want to assume the billing.

Reseller “Billing Only”: In this model, the partner becomes BTG’s client on behalf of the customer with respect to billing. BTG still performs all work including support responsibilities as BTG, but provides a wholesale price to the partner who then marks up and bills their customer directly.

Reseller “White Label”: BTG provides a fully white label solution to the partner. This means that everything, from the support portal to answering of phones will be branded as the partner. The partner receives a wholesale rate and bills their customers direct. This model requires the partner to commit to a minimum monthly spend and up front fees for the white label effort.

BTG is one of the foremost Private Cloud providers, and has been AT&T’s top solutions partner for several years.

Unlike other solutions providers, BTG stands alone as a proven industry leader; the company was honored as AT&T’s top revenue-producing solutions provider for three of the past five years, and has achieved Green-IT Certification through the MSPAlliance (www.MSPAlliance.com), the International Association of Managed Service Providers.

For additional information on the Private Cloud Partner Program, please contact BTG at partners@btgroupinc.com.

About Breakthrough Technology Group, LLC. 
 
Breakthrough Technology Group is a leading Private Cloud and telecommunications solutions provider, and the highest revenue producing AT&T Channel Solutions Partner. Founded in in 2007, BTG maintains a singular focus on supporting its enterprise customers through use of cutting-edge technology and telecommunications. The inherent knowledge base of the Company's veteran team spans across entire IT landscape, from cloud-based desktops and storage solutions, remote monitoring and end-user IT support. With a hyper-focus on specific IT practice areas and a deep understanding of carrier networks, BTG has proven itself to be an unquestioned leader and industry pioneer.

Source : - newsfactor

Capita snaps up HP VAR

HP and Aruba partner Pervasive Networks has been acquired by Capita, which the latter claims will bolster its services offering.

Pervasive says it is a leading Aruba partner in the EMEA region and is also an HP partner with Advanced status for networking. Brocade, Fortinet and Check Point also form part of the Newbury reseller's vendor line-up.

The 76-strong Pervasive team will now sit in the Technology Solutions division of Capita IT Enterprise Services.

Capita claims Pervasive will be its fifth specialist business unit focused on mobility and says its storage and security capabilities will also be great additions.

Peter Hands, executive director of Capita IT Enterprise Services, said: "We are continuing to see a shift in working habits with the increased use of mobile devices, requiring flexible technology that enables employees to enhance productivity.

"Pervasive has a strong record of providing wireless networks to clients across multiple sectors, offering the agility to respond to changing customer requirements. The addition of Pervasive further enhances the range of services offered by our Technology Solutions division, which already offers clients expertise in information security, networking, unified communications, cabling and data management."

Source : - channelweb

Bots Outpace Humans Online: Study

Humans were responsible for only 41% of network traffic monitored by Distil Networks; bots made up the rest. What does this mean for your applications?

We're outnumbered. The rise of the bots has begun, and humans fall farther behind with each passing day. And that's the good news
.
The 2015 Bad Bot Landscape Report, released by Distil Networks, said that the amount of traffic generated by "bad" bots" on the networks they monitor went down slightly between 2013 and 2014. The thing is, the amount of traffic with a human origin declined dramatically in the same period.
In 2013, human beings were responsible for roughly 55% of all network traffic monitored by Distil. By 2014, that had fallen to 41%. In the same time period, traffic from "bad" bots (those that are involved in espionage, fraud, theft, or cyber-vandalism) declined slightly, from 24% to 23%. What makes up the rest? Good bots.

According to Eli May, a spokesman for Distil Networks, "good" bots are those that perform benign or essential network tasks. "Think about the web crawlers that Google uses to index pages for its search engines," he said.

In an email exchange with InformationWeek, Distil Networks' CEO Rami Essaid further explained, "A good bot provides value back to the site. For example, Googlebot and Bingbot index your site so your prospects and customers can find you on the web. Clear value for your site. Also, if a bot doesn't respect robot.txt then we consider it a bad bot. Robot.txt tells bots which areas of your site they are allowed to access, crawl or scan." Good bot traffic has increased in volume, but bad bot behavior has dramatically increased in sophistication — and in some networks the increase in volume has been in the hundreds of percentage points.

"Bad bots" look more like humans with each passing year.

(Image: geralt via Pixabay)

The report said that smaller companies are most at risk from the rise of bot traffic because they lack the ability to effectively block unwanted data flows. Even so, the company with the highest percentage of bot-generated traffic in its network was Amazon, with nearly 78% of all its traffic coming from machine-based sources.

Two facts from the report signal a more significant change in bot trends for coming years. The first is the rise in mobile-oriented (or originated) bad bots. According to Distil, mobile bots are now responsible for more than 8% of all web traffic. And while each of the 21 largest global wireless companies were a source of bad bot traffic, T-Mobile (USA) became one of the top 20 bad bot hosts for the first time in 2014.

The second important development is the increasing sophistication of bot behavior. Distil's report says that 41% of the bad bots they found are attempting to mimic human behavior in order to get into a web site's infrastructure. And 23% of the bad bots are so good at this mimicking that they are essentially unstoppable by technologies used by most web application firewalls in use today.

For companies running public networks the lessons are clear: They must do more to try to stop the proliferation of bad bots, or risk choking their networks with machine-generated traffic to the detriment of human users. Organizations that depend on web-facing applications to transact business or reach an audience should step up their game in application-level defense, especially as more of their traffic comes from users via mobile devices.

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Source : informationweek

3 Essential Questions to Ask for Your Networking Plan

As a time-strapped businessperson, how do you figure out which networking events to attend and which you should let go by the wayside? A networking strategy can help you decide which events are worth your time. Here are three easy—and essential—questions you need to answer in order to create a plan that will work for you.

Question #1: Who are my best prospects?

You’d be surprised at the number of business professionals who can’t clearly define their best prospects. Most of them either reply, “Everyone!” – or with some other vague description that sounds good on the surface but doesn’t offer specifics. This is why business professionals so often find themselves running all over town trying to attend every networking event that comes down the pike.

Since serial networkers don’t have time to follow up immediately with the people they meet, they often don’t see results in the way of increased sales. So they throw their hands in the air and wail, “Networking doesn’t work for me!” But as a smart, enterprising businessperson, you already know that networking works. It’s just a matter of developing a strategy that connects you with the right people and allows you the time to properly follow up with them.

Some people aren’t even sure what their “ideal prospects” look like. It’s easy to go back and take a look at your past client list. Who are your very best customers? What industries are they in? How long have they been in business? Are your customers businesses or consumers?

The owner of a vacuum center that I know provides a good example of how this works. You might be thinking that his customer is anyone who needs a vacuum cleaner, right? Not really. This entrepreneur would say that his ideal customer is a woman with children or pets (or both) who likely lives in a very nice neighborhood and drives a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Infiniti. She is most concerned with the health of her family and a quality product, not someone shopping for a bargain-basement deal. Why is it important to be this specific? Because if he tells you to send him anyone who needs a vacuum cleaner, does anyone come to your mind right now? Probably not. But if he says you should send him busy women with kids and pets who drive luxury cars or SUV’s, a particular person is more likely to pop into your head.

Once you’ve put together a profile of the people you’ve worked with in the past, pick up the phone and run it by a few trusted friends and colleagues. Those who are close to you often have insights into patterns that you tend to overlook because you’re busy with day-to-day operations. Once you get that nailed down, you can go on to the next question.

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Question #2: Where can I meet my best prospects, or people who can introduce me to my prospects?

Networking doesn’t mean just hopping into the car and attending the next Chamber of Commerce event. Yes, the Chamber and other business associations are excellent means of finding and meeting new prospects, and we recommend them as a great starting point. But as your business evolves and you begin targeting specific niche markets, there are other venues that fall outside typical networking events. And that’s the kind of out-of-the-box thinking we’re going to discuss here.

Generally speaking, if you’re trying to meet more small business owners, you’ll want to spend time at your local Chamber of Commerce, a local business association, or with a referral group. Not only do these groups have exactly the type of audience you want to meet, but also with referral groups, there’s typically a system in place that helps you – help others to get more referrals for you.

If your business is geared more towards consumers, then getting involved with your kids’ events—Little League, Girl Scouts, or your church’s youth group—is another good way to meet the right people.
If you’re that real estate agent who wants to meet first-time homebuyers and people interested in moving downtown, you’ll probably find more prospects by networking at downtown events. It doesn’t matter which event, as long as it’s being held in the center of the city. That should bring you into contact with people who might be thinking about moving out of their apartment and into a house. Look also for networking events likely to be attended by young professionals, since these are the people most likely to be living in an apartment while accumulating the disposable income to buy a downtown condo or home.

Question #3: Who, exactly, do I want to meet?

Most people are not well connected in any practical sense. However, even accomplished networkers sometimes fail to realize that they’re closer to a much-desired contact than they imagine. The principles behind making the right kind of connection can be summed up in the simple adage “You don’t know who they know.”

The idea is that the greater the number of networks you’re connected to, the greater the chance that there’s a short chain of contacts between you and anyone you’d care to meet. All you have to do is recognize that fact and ask a few people a specific question or two. The answers will either put you in direct contact with a prospect or lead you in the direction of the networking events you need to attend. Even if you can’t name the specific people you want to meet, the better you can describe them, the greater the chance that you’ll get to meet your ideal contact. The secret ingredient in this principle is specificity.

The way to meet the unknown contact is to be as detailed as possible without being too exclusive. You can do this by starting your question like this: “Who do you know who…” You complete the sentence with specifics: “Who do you know who is a new parent?” “Who do you know who belongs to an organization that builds houses for the homeless?” By asking for a particular kind of contact, you focus the other person’s attention on details that are more likely to remind him of a specific person than if you asked, “Do you know anyone who needs my services?”

Finally, remember that it’s important to surround yourself with quality business contacts, since the best way to your ideal contact very often is through someone you already know.

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Source : entrepreneur

Networking Rule #1: Be a Giver, Not a Taker

Networking Rule #1: Be a Giver, Not a Taker

It’s easy to get stuck in a selfish mindset when you’re trying to advance your career. And in this fast-paced world, the proliferation of social media could be feeding your greed.

According to Steve Tobak, who is a consultant and author, social media is at the root of selfish networking because it reinforces bad behavior. It makes sense. After all, the way we interact online is often one-sided: We log on to create an image of ourselves as influencers, and we log off without listening to others.
But when networking is done right — with mutually beneficial partnerships in mind — it’s truly incredible what acquaintances will do for each other. You just have to take selfishness out of the equation. Here are seven steps to get started:

1. Walk in the door with a generous mindset
It’s better to be a giver than a taker. Keith Ferrazzi, author of networking bestseller “Never Eat Alone,” lives by the mantra that “the currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.” 
When you step into a networking event or pick up the phone, you should be thinking about how you can help the other person, how you can add value and what great things you could do together that you couldn’t accomplish alone. Your attitude won’t go unnoticed, and as a result people will gravitate toward you.

2. Highlight the mutual benefit
I get a lot of calls from people pitching partnerships with my company, but, astonishingly, most of these callers never address how they can help me in return. A good partnership is mutually beneficial. Any time you reach out, make sure to emphasize what you can bring to the table.

3. Be transparent
If you’re looking for a job opportunity, be honest from the start. Recently an old acquaintance contacted me claiming he wanted to partner with my business. After 10 minutes, however, it became apparent that he had other intentions. I finally asked him if he was looking for a job. Reluctantly, he responded, “Yes.” I turned him down, but if he had been upfront from the beginning, I would’ve been more inclined to help.

4. Think quality over quantity
Your career isn’t your Facebook profile; nobody’s counting your friends, so don’t play a numbers game with networking. Rather, look for opportunities to add value. Don’t just collect stacks of business cards; carefully select the people you want to network with. It’s impossible to build meaningful connections with hundreds of people. Networking is like marketing — targeting is everything.

5. Set clear goals for each interaction
It’s easy to get caught up in the business of networking without really knowing what your goals are. I’m more interested in the prospect of new connections if they can clearly relate what they’re trying to achieve and what their ethos is. Spend some time understanding your own career goals before reaching out to others.

6. Make it easy for others to help you
You can be generous when you’re the one being given an opportunity, too. Make the introduction as easy as possible. Give the person making the introduction a packet with your résumé, a cover letter, a personal story and a sample introduction. When you do all the heavy lifting for your intermediary, he’ll be eager to make a warm introduction and root for you.

7. Show your appreciation
Don’t let your generosity slip once you get what you want or when things don’t go your way. No matter how it turns out, always follow up and thank the intermediary who made the introduction. You never know when you’ll need his help again, so keep the friendship going.
Above all, never complain if the introduction doesn’t pan out. That’s your problem, and it will undoubtedly rub the other person the wrong way.
In the world of business networking, it’s essential to adopt a philosophy of helping others without an expectation of getting something in return. Remember: It’s not a transactional relationship. If you enter every situation with a generous mindset, you can turn a room full of people into a room full of job opportunities.


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Source : simplyhired

Wireless Range Extender 101

Wireless networking is ubiquitous in homes and businesses alike. The rise of devices that rely on these wireless networks – smart phones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles, digital set top boxes and even thermostats – make wireless coverage throughout your home increasingly important. The quickest and easiest way to achieve this is through the use of a wireless range extender.

Wireless networks are often limited by the placement of the wireless router. Coverage in the far corners of the home, often bedrooms, can be weak or completely nonexistent.

Networks and the devices that connect to them have evolved greatly over the last decade. It used to be that stationary desktops were connected together through wires, while access points supported a handful of mobile devices. Now, HD video is being streamed to multiple wireless clients simultaneously in the far corners of the average home. These wireless network connections must deliver offer optimal performance in order to support the amount of bandwidth consumed by streaming content, as well as the range and reliability needed to reach tablets and set-top boxes.

Frequencies

By definition, the 802.11ac standard improves range and bandwidth by offering dual-band support, beamforming and improved performance over its predecessors. (You can get more information on the technical aspects of 802.11ac in our story on 802.11ac-capable routers.) Just remember that optimal performance on ac's 5GHz band requires a strong signal, which limits range compared to 2.4GHz. A potential solution to this conundrum is to implement an 802.11ac-capable wireless range extender, which will expand the reach of your network to the dark corners of your home.

802.11ac range extenders support 2.4 and 5GHz, both for connecting to existing wireless networks and ensuring client connectivity. In most cases, range extenders pass network traffic using the wireless client's band – 2.4GHz devices naturally go through the 2.4GHz connection and 5GHz clients through a 5GHz link to the router (though in some cases you can configure the range extender to use one band or clients and the other for connectivity back to the router). 802.11ac range extenders, like wireless routers and other Wi-Fi hardware, are marketed based on their advertised data rates. AC750 devices support 300Mb/s through 2.4GHz and 433Mb/s using the 5GHz signal, while AC1200 offers 300Mb/s for 2.4GHz and 867 Mb/s on 5GHz, though actual data rates are a fraction of those advertised rates.

802.11ac Speed Ratings

Type	2.4GHz Mb/s	5GHz Mb/s
AC600	150	433
AC750	300	450
AC1000	300	650
AC1200	300	867
AC1300	450	867
AC1450	450	975
AC1600	300	1300
AC1750	450	1300
AC1900	600	1300

Functionality And Placement

Range extenders are often physically similar to other wireless networking products you would typically find in a home or office, but they differ significantly in configuration and functionality. Wireless routers – perhaps the most common wireless networking product found in homes – connect directly to the broadband modem, sharing the Internet connection to wired and wireless devices, as well as providing basic network services like DHCP, NAT and a basic firewall. Access points also connect to existing wired networks, but simply provide access to an existing local network and its associated services. Wireless access points are often used in conjunction with an existing router – either wired or wireless – and wireless clients connect to the internet through this device.

Another type of wireless networking device is a media bridge, which allows a device without wireless connectivity to connect to a wireless network without having to run Ethernet cable. Media bridges connect to the wireless network as clients, and share the network connectivity through an RJ45 port. Range extenders share characteristics of both media bridges and wireless access points – connecting to an existing wireless network and then extending the wireless network as an access point and typically offering Ethernet connectivity as well. In most cases a router is needed on the network to provide DHCP and NAT, which allow network devices to reach the Internet.

A wireless range extender should be placed centrally, between the wireless router and potential wireless clients, in order to optimize the wireless signal throughout your home.

The physical placement of your wireless range extender will depend largely on the nature of your environment and the devices leveraging the expanded wireless footprint. A central location between the wireless router and wireless clients is ideal, however the location of wired computers could influence placement of the range extender as well. Other areas of potential interference like large metal objects should be avoided, as should large electronic devices. If your intent is to utilize 5GHz frequencies for optimal performance, you should remember that your range is more limited than 2.4GHz networks.

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Software And Firmware

Many modern hardware devices have embedded software, commonly known as firmware, which allows the manufacturer to patch bugs or add features. Some common examples of firmware you may be familiar with are cellular phone ROMs and your motherboard's BIOS. In most cases, firmware is read-only to the device, and specific steps must be followed in order to perform an upgrade. The read-only nature of firmware provides a layer of security by helping ensure malicious code doesn’t get applied to the device. Firmware updates should be handled with care, as misapplied firmware updates are a common reason for device failure (known as bricking).

In general, the biggest difference between a wireless range extender and a wireless router or access point is its firmware, as this determines the capabilities that are enabled on the device and ultimately drives the hardware. Unfortunately, firmware is rarely interchangeable between devices, so don’t plan on applying a router firmware to your range extender anytime soon.

For the adventurous types there is an open-source firmware alternative for Wi-Fi routers, which is beginning to offer support for range extender hardware. DD-WRT is a Linux distribution designed for use on wireless networking hardware. A list of supported devices is maintained on the project website, so check there in order to determine if your hardware is supported. If you’d prefer to re-purpose an old router to perform range extender duties, DD-WRT offers comparable functionality. Be aware that flashing a custom firmware to your device could potentially void your warranty.

Hardware

Range extenders commonly come in two form factors: devices designed to sit on a shelf or mount on a wall like a wireless access point or router, and those that mount directly on a power outlet. Both form factors offer some basic functionality that you can expect to find on any range extender. Antennas for the wireless network can be either internal or external, though external antennas can be expected to provide better signal. LED indicators are usually made available in order to be able to see the status of your network connectivity or provide other troubleshooting information.

Most range extenders designed to sit on a shelf offer connectivity for wired devices in the form of four or five gigabit Ethernet ports. Additionally, many of these devices provide a USB port to accommodate storage for file sharing or media server purposes, or even the option to share a USB printer on your network. Because of their size, these range extenders often provide increased performance over their outlet-mounted cousins through more robust processors or higher-powered amplifiers.

Outlet-mounted range extenders are often smaller in order to reduce weight and not place stress on the outlet. Because of size restrictions, these range extenders usually offer only one Ethernet port for wired devices and no USB port, and may not have the same performance capabilities as larger shelf-mounted units. What they give up in performance and capability they make up for in convenience. They're perfect for placing in a closet, hallway or behind furniture.

External And Internal Components

Most range extenders feature similar components – and often a similar form factor – as what you’d expect from a wireless router or access point. Many of the hardware features that make up a range extender are comparable across devices and vendors, but there are also features that only make an appearance occasionally.
In general, it’s safe to assume that a range extender will include core components like a processor and memory (both RAM and ROM) to store and run the device’s firmware, and to handle network traffic and other device functions. As with any piece of electronics, better performance from those components is always desirable, so some attention should be paid to their specifications.
Another component always found in a wireless range extender is the radio that handle wireless communication. Dual-band range extenders that offer support for both 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies will typically have a wireless chipset and one or more amplifiers for each frequency, as well as the antennas used to optimize the signal. The size and placement of the antennas often has an impact on signal strength, and can be a major selling point.

Interior shot of a Linksys RE6500 showing 1) antenna jacks, 2) heat sink for processor, 3) Ethernet switch ports, 4) power input and WPS button, 5) 3.5 mm audio port, 6) transformers, 7) memory, and 8) radio chipset. The router’s reset button and flash a

Externally, range extenders often provide at least one Ethernet port, but some models offer four to six ports for wired connectivity. USB ports are also common, though their usage can vary wildly between devices, facilitating media server functionality, file sharing or print serving. Other options available on some range extenders include audio outputs for streaming music or other I/O like eSATA.
Some range extenders have on/off buttons, though others automatically power on when you plug them in. A button to enable the WPS feature (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) is common, as is a button (typically recessed) to reset the device to factory defaults.

Configuration

Most range extenders offer one of two configuration methods. The first and by far the simplest uses WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), which involves pressing physical buttons on the wireless access point and range extender in order to securely pair the two devices. WPS provides easy setup but offers limited configuration options without further tweaking. Power users are better served walking through the manual configuration method, which typically involves a fairly straightforward setup process:

1. Connect your computer to the range extender using a wired or wireless interface.
2. Access the configuration website by name or IP address.
3. Configure the range extender to connect to your existing wireless network – preferably using both 2.4 and 5GHz connections.
4. Set up a new SSID for both frequencies.
5. Connect your wireless clients to the new range extender SSIDs.

The most difficult step in configuring your range extender is usually connecting to the configuration page, particularly after the device has been connected to your network and it pulls an IP address using DHCP. Most range extenders offer a method of connecting to your range extender without having to guess at the IP address. One of the most common methods used to provide access to your range extender configuration is using a DNS domain name (such as myrangeextender.com) that resolves only if your computer is connected to the range extender. Other devices use the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard, which allows your computer to recognize the range extender as a configurable wireless networking device. In some cases, you may have to look through your router’s DHCP client table, but you should consult your range extender’s documentation in order to determine the preferred method of accessing the configuration page.

Screenshot of the configuration page for a Netgear EX6200 WiFi Range Extender. Note that both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz networks are being extended.

It’s worth noting that a wireless range extender functions differently than an access point configured using Wireless Distribution System (WDS). WDS functions at a lower level – using the devices radios but not Wi-Fi – and is typically vendor-specific. Wireless range extenders use existing Wi-Fi networks, allowing them to support connection to any wireless access point that supports the proper bands.

The Future

It’s interesting to consider how extenders will fare in the future. Designed to make up for the range-related shortcomings of Wi-Fi, it doesn’t seem that extenders will be going anywhere in the short term thanks to WiGig. Considered an in-room technology, WiGig, also known 802.11ad, may have transfer speeds of up to 7 Gb/s, but throughput suffers dramatically as soon as you step out of a room. Because of this range limitation, 802.11ac will have a continuing role as a backbone for the home network, extending the need for Wi-Fi extenders, at least for a little while longer until 802.11ax comes along.
If anything, two current enterprise standards that are now in development for the consumer market, 802.11k and 802.11r, are being geared up to improve roaming between access points, routers and extenders. With current extenders, a second set of SSIDs is created so that the extender can service devices out of range of the main router, which works great for stationary wireless devices. However, roaming devices would need reassigned SSIDs to stay connected. Used together, 802.11k and r provide a service called Seamless Roaming; 802.11k lets the client device quickly identify and remember an available access point when a signal weakens, while 802.11k uses a feature called Fast Basic Service Set Transition (F-BSST) to streamline the authentication process between access points. Once established as a consumer feature, Seamless Roaming can eliminate the need of having more than one or two SSIDs.

Diagram showing how 802.11k and 802.11r can help wireless clients roam seamlessly.

 Another wireless networking technology that may have an impact on where extenders are used is mesh networking. Made up of small, individual networking nodes, mesh networks for the home are designed to produce reliable coverage. Each node in the network acts like a relay providing coverage for its particular zone and can back up a neighboring mesh node in case the latter stops working. The concept of mesh networking is not too new as it’s used in both enterprise and metropolitan environments. However, home usage is still in its infancy. If priced correctly and the performance is competitive enough, we can see mesh networking, in one form or another, affecting the Wi-Fi extender market.

Source : tomshardware

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