• Files stored in SharePoint shouldn’t be emailed between staff, only the URL to the document. This just leads to duplicates of the same document and potentially it being accessed by someone who shouldn’t have permission.
  In most cases if you right click on the document there is a ‘share’ button which will automatically send the link to the file to a nominated person.

• Use the ‘Principle of least privilege’ and assign the least privileges to users or groups (ie Read Only) as opposed to ‘Full Control’ of the document or SharePoint site. Multiple user groups can be assigned to the resource and the permissions are cumulative meaning that if a individual user has additional higher permissions they will be used.

• Individual Sites should be created for each department to store files related to them.
  This helps simplify permissions, relevant communications and compartmentalise information.

• Consider creating new file libraries for each type of file instead of a new folder, this will simplify what tags will be available for the files within the library.

• Documents within a SharePoint Library shouldn’t be any more than 2 folders deep. Nested folders are slow both to use and search through in SharePoint, and often lead to multiple of the same file being created.

• Subsites shouldn’t be created anymore than ~5 deep off the root site. If your likely to be creating a substantial number of sites you should consider alternative topology’s such as ‘Hub Sites’ which is flat, as opposed to hierarchical.

• Where possible, keep file names short. Sharepoint generates a URL consisting of the main sites URL, subsite levels and file names.
  Sharepoint has a URL limit of 260 character’s for on premise and 400 characters for SharePoint online.

• Use tags instead of tacking on extensions or putting them in folders, ie ‘phonebook_2019CURRENT’
  This makes its less likely for files to be lost in nested folders, ability to filter documents based on metadata (tags) and easier to find.

• Document libraries shouldn’t have any more than ~5 column tags and be closely tied to the files stored within a library. If unlike files are being stored with different tags, consider storing them in a new document library with a different set of tags.

• Outdated irrelevant content should either be updated to remain relevant or archived.

• SharePoint sites are hierarchical and can have nested subsites off the Main Root site.
  You can take it a step future if you want to have additional team sites for each department (ie special project) however it should be regulated.

• SharePoint should not be treated as a ‘database’ when using large lists or excel spreadsheets. It has serious limitations when displaying or accessing over 5000 items and lacks the ability to efficiently query or join lists together are limited.

• If your going to be storing thousands of rows, have multiple applications using the list at the same time or requiring any level of performance you should strongly consider using a database instead. A MYSQL/ MS SQL database can easily be bolted onto SharePoint if necessary.

• Documents shouldn’t be embedded within lists, it’s a common workaround but is often responsible for slow performance and the inability to search for files.

• Don’t be afraid to integrate other Microsoft 365 Apps into SharePoint.
  Apps such as Microsoft Forms make it extremely easy to add common functionality such as creating a quick survey to post on a intranet or collect information from a end user.

• Don’t be intimated by complex SharePoint Workflows. Consider using Microsoft Flows which can perform a wide range of common workflows and easily integrate with other Microsoft products like Outlook. In many cases they already have a workflow template pre-made!

The post SharePoint Best Practices first appeared on Air-Gap.

Using Excel formula’s you can easily create the raw SQL statements which can be executed on the database without the need for third-party plugins or special tools.

Creating Insert Statement’s

In this example we are wanting to insert 5 rows containing a staff members idNo and Name.

1) The first step is to arrange the data in the layout you want it to be inserted.

2) Double click into the next blank column beside you’re first row and insert the following formula.
= “insert into table_name (first_column,second_column) values ( ‘” & A2& “‘, ‘” & B2& “‘);”

3) You will need to start changing the 3 default formula values: table_name, first_column, second_column and cell no’s if they are different from this example. In this example we are using staff as the table name, idNo as the first column and Name as the second column.
If you are inserting more fields you will need to expand the formula by adding the extra column information.
For example: = “insert into staff (idNo,Name, Age) values ( ‘” & A2& “‘, ‘” & B2& “‘, ‘” & D2& “‘);”

4) Click enter when you have finished modifying the required fields, you should see your SQL insert Statement for the first column.

5) Click on the right hand corner of the SQL statement and drag it down to the last column.

6)When you let go, excel should automatically generate the remaining SQL statements. These can be copied out and executed on your database.

Creating Update Statements

A similar technique can be used to create ‘Update’ statements. In this example we are updating the ‘rrp’ field of the ‘stock’ table for a particular ‘partNo’. The ‘partName’ column is unused in this example and is typical of what you may find in the real world, you should always update rows using the tables unique ‘Primary Key’.

1) Like the first example, layout your data into columns

2) Double click into the next blank column beside you’re first row and insert the following formula.
= “update table_name set column_value_to_update = ‘” & C2 & “‘ where column_primaryKey = ‘” & A2 & “‘;”

3) Change the 3 default formula values: table_name, column_value_to_update, column_primaryKey and the cell no’s if they are different from this example.

4) When you are happy with the formula, drag down the cell to generate the SQL statement

Did you find this guide useful?
Leave us a commend below

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The answer to that is usually NO. Most people just want a reliable affordable server, dedicated IP, snapshot backups and a easy to use firewall. My personal favourite which meets this criteria is Vultr which we use for testing, development and deployment of non critical workloads.

It’s quick and easy to spin up servers, management features are straightforward and you don’t have to be a detective to figure out the billing.

Pictures really sum up a thousand words here.

Main Dashboard

This is the main dashboard you are presented with when first signing on. In this demo environment we have 3 servers in 3 different data centres. Their location, status and billed amount for the month is clearly visible. Servers in the dashboard can be sorted by ‘location’, ‘alphabetically’ or grouped by ‘tag’.

Deploying a new Server

There isn’t a great deal to the process.
1) Click on the data-center you want it located in,
2) Choose an OS, template or Upload an ISO yourself
3) Choose what sized server you want then hit Deploy

Instance Management
By clicking on the instance you get more detailed information about the server such as its hardware specifications and usage statistics. Automatic Snapshot Backups of the server can be taken for an additional cost.

Firewall
Included for free is a basic rule based firewall which sits between the internet and the virtual machines WAN port. Its easy to use and powerful enough for most applications. Firewall rule groups once created an be linked to multiple instances. Currently DDoS protection is not available in the Sydney location.

What’s Hot
-Easiest to use interface on the market
-One of the cheapest cloud providers, and NO CONTRACTS
-Sensible sizes of servers (1 Core/1GB RAM, 2 Cores/4GB RAM etc)
-High performance servers, with SSD storage
-Very transparent upfront pricing which is billed hourly
-Licenced Windows Server instances available for an extra cost
-Ability to upload custom ISO’s for installation
-1 click App Templates: cPanel (extra cost), OwnCloud, Lamp Stack
-Straightforward firewall and private networks
-100% uptime SLA (Credit for downtime)
-Quick Response to Tickets and a comprehensive good documentation library

What’s not
-Instances are charged the full rate, regardless of if they are running or offline.
-Limited number of locations (16 as of January 2019)
-Storage charged in complete blocks (ie 10GB) not per KB like Amazon S3.
-Billed in US dollars
-No High-Availability or inbuilt network load balancers, however home-brew options exist
-No instance monitoring, ie server has gone down, or CPU threshold warnings
-No Paid Support Options

Summary

While we haven’t experienced any issues we wouldn’t recommend using Vultr in production unless you have your own internal safeguards to mitigate against downtime and data loss. Nor is Vultr a direct rival Amazon or Microsoft with its hundreds of different complementary technologies like network load balancers.

For general web hosting we’d recommend against setting up your own linux servers as quite often shared cPanel hosting is faster,cheaper, more stable, more secure and almost always easier to use.

If your just looking to spin up a few linux instances, run a game server or setup services like VPN’s it may be perfectly suited and a fraction of the cost of it’s larger competitors.

Interested in using Vultr? For a limited time, use the link below to get $50 free credit to trial the platform:  https://www.vultr.com/?ref=7774721-4F

What are your thoughts on Vultr, leave us a comment below

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Not normally do consulting companies give you away their secrets for free, but we’ll let you in on that there is a much easier way to install software which you’d wish you knew years ago. Ninite.
You quite literally
1) visit the site ninite.com and tick on the programs you want.

3) Download and run the installer.

Before your eyes it will download the latest versions and install the programs automatically in one click before your eyes. No catch’s, no ads, no viruses and its 100% free. Don’t worry I was sceptical at first but this is the real deal.

Where Ninite make their money is the Professional version of their software which is designed for IT administrators from small business to large enterprises. Keeping software up to date in even medium sized organisations is traditionally gruelling work involving writing complex GPO’s and scripts to deploy MSI’s packages which takes weeks of work. This is made more difficult with roaming mobile devices and machines that may be offline for many months.

Save yourself the pain and checkout Ninite Professional. You install the client on each endpoint which allows you to manage its installed software through the cloud interface no matter where in the world the machine is located, or what network it resides on.

From this interface you can see what version of software each endpoint is running, when it last checked as-well as install/update/uninstall software either individually or in groups. Its easy to use and doesn’t require you to be programmer to use.

This tool is almost a necessity for IT administrators to ensure their fleets of computer remain updated with audit-able records. Unlike the free online installer version the professional version does cost money, however the prices are very reasonable when you factor in the time savings.

This is quite literally software that sells itself and doesn’t need a 10 page sales pitch.
Ninite offer a 14 day free trial so you can test if right for you.
Link : Ninite Free (Web Installer)
Link: Ninite Pro

Do you need a little help running your network?
Give us a call on 1300 733 240 or shoot us a message to find out how we can help your organisation.

Like Ninite or know of any other ‘secret’ tricks? We’d love to hear, drop us a comment below

The post Ninite, the secret weapon for PC builders and IT administrators first appeared on Air-Gap.

1. Use a Modern Web-browser

There is a lot of debate on which is the best internet browser, however the overwhelming consensus is it’s not the default Internet Explorer that comes pre-installed on your computer.

For the majority of people, we recommend using ‘Google Chrome’ due to it automatically updating itself, contains inbuilt phishing and malware protection, ‘sandboxing’ to prevent malicious webpages infecting the operating system and it having great plugin support.
This is on top of it being regarded as the fastest most compatible browsers ever built

Get Google Chrome Here: https://www.google.com/chrome/

Google has come under fire by privacy advocates due to the interconnectedness of their services which can track your browsing habits and sync it back to your Google Profile. While this can be perceived as both a good thing for convenience and a privacy risk some users may prefer to use a more neutral browser.
Firefox is a fantastic alternative and may run faster on older computer with minimal amounts of RAM.

Get Mozzila FireFox Here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

2.Install the ‘Ad-Block Plus’ Plugin

Internet ads and popups are one of the most common ways to get malware on your computer, either by injecting bad code into the webpage or trying to trick the user into downloading an infected file often posing as a required ‘Software Updates, Video Codec or font-pack’.

The practice of blocking ads is often frowned due to it depriving content creators of potential ad revenue, but even Google who’s primary income is online advertising has admitted “intrusive” ads are a real problem who subsequently integrated a basic adblocker into Chrome.  As a compromise most ad-blockers have a ‘acceptable advertising’ option which allows validated advertisements through the filter which has been seen as a win-win for both security and content creators.

For additional privacy, Adblock Plus can also be set to block tracking scripts. This helps protect you from being tracked across the internet by advertisers and by social media companies.  

Link to Adblock Plus: https://adblockplus.org/

3.Install ‘HTTPS Everywhere’

You’ve probably been bombarded over the years to always look for the padlock icon when doing sensitive tasks like online banking to ensure the connection is encrypted. ‘HTTPS Encryption’ is now the de-facto standard and an expectation for all sites on the internet.

The ‘HTTPS Everywhere’ plugin forces websites you visit to use encryption if possible, even if the website doesn’t default to the securer version. This increases your privacy when browsing and ensures sensitive information isn’t exposed to anyone monitoring your connection.

Link to ‘HTTPS Everywhere Plugin: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

4.Use a password manager

Weak and reusing passwords on multiple sites are two of the leading causes of accounts been compromised. Remembering unique and strong password for each of online account is near impossible, which is the main reason so few actually do use secure passwords.

Password managers have come along way in recent years and take the stress out of remembering passwords. A good manager will automatically generate a complex password, securely save it, sync it on all your devices and even auto-fill it back into the website when required. You just only need to remember one strong password.

Many different brands exist, we use and recommend the following managers:

Lastpass: online password manager built into the browser and syncs to mobile devices.

Keepass: Opensource offline password manager

5.Setup 2 factor authentication

For important accounts like banking and social media, 2 factor authentication can be enabled to give another layer of protection if your password gets compromised.

This means if an attacker has your username and password or access to your emails to perform a password reset, they will also need access to your mobile phone to get a login code. While a seemingly simple extra step, it greatly increases the difficulty for the attacker as they need to compromise your phone which typically is much harder to do.

Guides to setup 2 Factor Authentication on popular services
AppleID: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204915
Google: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/9096865
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/help/security/enable-two-step-verification
Xero: https://central.xero.com/s/article/Set-up-or-disable-two-step-authentication

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823
Twitter: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/two-factor-authentication
Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/1582474155197965
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/7spq3s/protect_your_account_with_twofactor_authentication/

6.HaveIBeenPwned

An important step in keeping yourself secure online is knowing if your credentials have been compromised. ‘HaveIBeenPwned’ allows you to enter your email address to check if your account details have been publicly exposed by a databreach.

If your details have been leaked, the service will tell you what site was breached, and what details may have been exposed. For example Adobe’s breach in October 2013 which exposed the ‘Email addresses, Password hints, Passwords, Usernames’ for over 153 million users.

Should you unfortunately find yourself on the list you should immediately change your passwords, particularly if you use them in more than one place. For additional protection you can subscribe to ‘HaveIBeenPwned’ and they will send you an email if your account is ever exposed.  

Link to HaveIBeenPwned: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

What things do you do to stay safe online?
Let us know in the comments below

The post Top 6 easy ways to boost your internet security for free first appeared on Air-Gap.