Disclaimer   These references and links are provided for your information and convenience their selection is based upon the experience of the staff at ASC.  It is that experience which has developed a level of trust and confidence.  However, these sites are maintained by their owners without any influence from ASC.  Thus, care should be exercised when visiting any site that you are not familiar with and ASC cannot accept any responsibility for your experience.   Some of the links result in revenue to ASC.  All of these links were initiated by ASC and not by the vendor.  ASC does not support paid advertising.  Rather it does seek arrangements with firms that ASC has direct experience and is confident in the experiences they deliver.  Such links are clearly identified as the supporting text is red.

Anti-Spam Solutions

SpamArrest is the anti-spam product used by the staff at ASC.  It has proven to be a consistent and dependable product.

Internet Status

A full page pictorial presentation of the status of the Internet.  Java must be operational on your PC for all aspects of the presentation to be functional.  The full screen version is particularly great.  To make it full screen, scroll to the bottom of the screen where the "Full Screen Display" button appears.

A simple image display of the Internet's operational status.  Full information on the above can be found at http://isc.sans.org/infocon.php including information on a simplified Systray version which will keep you informed at all times while online.

LocatePC is a free tool that can provide you the information needed to locate a lost or stolen PC or simply to keep track of the IP address assigned to each PC in your network.  A recent article in The Hartford Courant provides more information in this regard in an Op-Ed piece titled "How to Protect Computer Data".  As the implementation of such tools can be challenging we have written our own guidelines, "Implementation of LocatePC".

Security Awareness

We maintain our own security awareness site at thinksecurityfirst.org.  Furthermore, a great security awareness site is available from the FTC and some great DVDs are available at no cost from the U.S. Postal Service.  Details are provided on our blog in the security awareness section.

VOIP - Home/Small Business

SunRocket has bitten the dust.  Literally, you no longer can signup for this service.  They have offered two other services that are willing to take over their SunRocket accounts.  The SunRocket client must select one and initiate the service lest their SunRocket phone service fails.  ASC has chosen to go with TeleBlend because it was seemless and immediate...no hardware changes, etcetera at a lower cost.  Unfortunately, their initial implementation does not include voice mail or any of the many other SunRocket features.

TeleBlend has implemented all services under the name SunRocketkt.  As of September 18, 2007, all services are available.  ASC plans to continue with TeleBlend but wonders whether eventually the services labeled SunRocket will be relabled or will TeleBlend adopt the SunRocket name.

Vonage has a good reputation and is popular.  Compare benefits before making a selection.

VOIP is often also available from your cable company and may be competitive.  In addition, some provide battery backup in the event of power failure although you may have to ask for the battery backup.  If you are concerned about loss of phone service with VOIP, whether you use your cable company or one of the many commercial offerings be sure that you have the battery backup.  It is also advisable to have an alternative service; perhaps your cellphone. 

Popular Security Tools

The following tools are somewhat popular within the information security and to some extent within the cracker (nefarious hackers) community.  Some are quite simple to use and others will require more in depth knowledge of information security to be able to understand and use them effectively.

The johnny.ihackstuff.com web site is educational in that it provides the details necessary to understand the vast capabilities of Google.  Although the explanations of the features tend to lean towards security, understanding the capabilities will allow you to use them for more conventional search activities as well.

Knoppix-STD is a "live-Linux-distro" which means it runs from a bootable CD in memory without changing the base operating system of the host computer; or the files stored thereon unless you choose to do so.  This version of Knoppix is designed to provide as many security tools as possible on the CD along with the essential elements of Knoppix.  Those unfamiliar with Linux or less adventuresome might want to try the Knoppix distribution below to first gain some familiarity and understanding.

"Original" Knoppix, a live-Linux-distro,  is a great way to learn an alternative operating system including "experimenting" with Linux before going deeper.  In addition having a Knoppix bootable CD on hand just might enable you to save an otherwise dead Windows computer.  Even if the hard drive is dead, you can access the Internet and your eMail with Knoppix running from a CD.  Do note that you will need to have web access to your eMail to access it with Knoppix on CD.

Remote Exploit Auditor is another live-Linux-distro which in this instance provides one the capability of auditing a system without altering the system's content.  If unfamiliar with Knoppix/Linux it might be best to use the "Original" Knoppix first.

Each of the above Knoppix tools requires that you know how to cut an ISO image CD.  In our experience at ASC we have found that many have great difficulty with ISO images including ourselves, the result of the various CD writers developed for Windows provide a low priority in this regard.  The following download links are the actual executable.  Therefore, be sure that you save the file rather than run it.

This download will make ISO CDs and DVDs.  As a result it is a bit complex but effective.

This download is for ISO CDs exclusively and is very simple to use.