Password Managers

It's been a long time between drinks (posts) - sorry!

Working in the world of Internet security, the one thing I recommend to individuals every day (if they ask me what they can personally do to be safer online) is to use a password manager. The company I work for doesn't make one, but the one I prefer is 1Password* and I highly recommend you check it out. 

"But Shane it's all too hard, I'm too awesome or I already have my password in notes on my phone (or some other lame excuse)" ;)

In response to your "awesome" excuse; a password manager:

1. Secures (encrypts) your app, banking and website passwords so only you can access them.
2. Ensures you have a randomised, unique password for everything (if you use the same password everywhere it is just a matter of time until you are hacked and your identity stolen).
3. Makes it easier as you no longer have to remember your passwords yourself - you just remember your "master password" and the password manager auto fills your passwords for you.
4. Most will also synchronise across your devices so you what you enter on your computer is already on your phone, and Vice Versa.

So treat yourself and your loved ones and ensure you don't become another identity theft statistic.

* There are of course other options than just 1Password - I've linked to a few below so feel free to check them out. 

Links

1Password

Lastpass

F-Secure Key

USB Storage Eject in Windows 8

I’m playing with a Surface Pro at the moment (very nice), and one thing that was not immediately obvious to me was how to easily eject USB external storage (drives, thumbdrives etc) without having to resort to right clicking the tiny icon in the task bar of Desktop mode.

Well I Googled it, and was unable to find anything that helped (except video guides which I hate), so after discovering it myself thought I would post this.

With the USB device attached, swipe in from the right to bring up the charms menu, then select settings (IMHO it should be directly here under devices, but no), and choose “Change PC Settings”. From this list select Devices and select the USB device you want to disconnect here. See the image below for a visual.

I hope this helps others… guess it depends where Google puts it in the search rankings.

Shane.

ReadyNAS OS 6 and VMware / NFS

Quick tech note for those lucky to be using NETGEAR’s new ReadyNAS OS 6, and working to connect to an NFS share as a datastore for VMware ESXi.

In RAIDiator 4.x or 5.x (previous ReadyNAS OS), you only needed to add the NFS share name in VMware’s settings. As ReadyNAS OS 6 has a brand new OS and structure, you now need to add the volume name as well. Note: VMware is case-sensitive, so ensure you use your upper/lowercase appropriately.

To find the volume name, go to the System Tab, then Volume sub-tab in the ReadyNAS UI. You can see it below the pie-chart of usage. The default volume name for a system (unless you’ve made changes) is “data”

Now let’s say our NFS share on our ReadyNAS is “Backup”. In RAIDiator 4.x & 5.x you’d enter “/Backup” in the Folder field of ESXi.

For ReadyNAS OS 6.x you need to enter it like this: “/data/Backup” 

Everything else remains the same.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Shane.