WSUS Offline Update

A great open source project / solution that allows you to update all your Microsoft products without a network connection.

Save your bandwidth.
Speed up your patching.
Automate your multiple required reboots.

I don't see a downside.. Check it out here.

Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" has been released

Today Ubuntu 10.10 was released.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 10.10 in the following press releases:

Desktop and Netbook editions

    http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-edition

Server edition    

    http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.10-server-edition

To download Ubuntu 10.10, or obtain CDs, visit:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Release notes are available here:
   http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010

Patching Windows Is Now Easier

I came across Secunia's Personal Software Inspector(PSI) the other day. This is free software for home users that will detect vulnerable and out-dated programs as well as plug-ins. It will run in the background, periodically scan your windows computer, download the needed upgrades, and even install the updates for you.

The supported operating systems are (32 & 64bit): 

• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP - Service Pack 3 or later
• Microsoft Windows 2000 - Service Pack 4

The PSI program will need administrative privileges to be installed and run.

I highly recommend it. The price is right and it does great job of keeping those software vulnerabilities patched.

The latest BETA version 2.0 was release the other week. You can download it from Secunia's site here.

Welcome

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Welcome to the official blog of Network Toaster. Through this medium we will provide insights into the things that we know and feel passionately about like our products, technology, business solutions, security, compliance, end user experiences, and social networking. The mission of our blog is to share information that will make you more productive, efficient, and point you to solutions that have a high return on investment.

Let me tell you a bit about how we got started. In late 2008 Chip Andrews, Cody Benson, and myself got together and began discussing Open Source Software solutions. We noticed that many open source projects were providing great solutions and alternatives to commercial products but wondered why more businesses were not implementing them. We discussed some of the barriers and difficulties that might be keeping these solutions out of businesses:

• Hardware Compatibility - Many solutions have very specific hardware support requirements.
• Informal Support - Some businesses are only comfortable with formal support with clearly defined service level agreements.
• IT Culture - Fear of the unknown or unfamiliar can hold people back from making change, even though they know an alternative exists.
• Perceived Quality - Many out there may believe that proprietary solutions are of a higher quality than open solutions.

Together we agreed that if we could help overcome these difficulties and provide inexpensive and quality solutions it would make for a good business. So Network Toaster was born.

How we aim to help overcome these difficulties and barriers:

• Hardware Compatibility - Our appliances are thoroughly tested with each solution. Non-proprietary hardware is use so if customer's needs do change they can easily re-purpose the hardware with an entirely new operating system etc.
• Informal Support - Many of our solutions have commercial support options through separate vendors to which we can direct our customers.
• IT Culture - Provide our customers with lower barriers of entry and ways to break out of their entrenched, commercial software offerings.
• Perceived Quality - Help change the perception of open source solutions by showing customers the ease of implementation, a high return on investment, and low risk to entry.

In the very near future we will be making some changes here at Network Toaster. We will be broadening our product offering in the following ways:

• Expand our current hardware appliance offerings. We will be providing many more solutions to common business needs.
• Provide many solutions on a single appliance through virtualization technologies. Customers pick and choose many solutions and we provide the appliance running those virtualized environments.
• Move into the cloud. Provide appliances running cloud computing frameworks so businesses can quickly and afford-ably implement public or private clouds.

Along with expanding our product offering we will also begin focusing on providing solutions targeted specifically for business compliance initiatives such as HIPAA, PCI, and GLBA. The cost of compliance through technology implementation does not have to be exorbitant.


We hope to get your thoughts on what is important to you, what you like about our blog, products, and where we need to improve. Through those discussions we hope to deliver products that meet your needs.