Innovative Solutions

Technology Training, Consulting and Migration Specialists

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Do you have staff in remote locations, and find it difficult to get them the training they need? There comes a time when your resource is too valuable to send off site for a class. This is where ISInc’s e-Learning can come into play. Now your students can access the same classes via their desktop computer. ISInc’s e-Learning training is live, interactive online training for those who would like to attend one of our face-to-face instructor-led training courses without leaving their offices, homes or classrooms. Learners can listen to the presentation, ask questions, hear others’ questions and get live answers, all from wherever they choose. They can engage in discussions with others in the physical classroom and throughout the country who are involved in the same class session. ISInc’s e-Learning training blends the best from traditional face-to-face instructor-led training with the latest in conferencing technology, allowing us to deliver live training to multiple locations at one time using Microsoft Lync. This model is based on our over 27 years experience as trainers and the general premise that the classroom is the foundation of a great training experience. In order to take advantage of our e-Learning program, all a student needs is Microsoft Lync and a headset if he/she would like to communicate with the instructor. Every course that we offer here at our training facility can be taken live online and can be viewed in our course catalog. We will work with you to ensure that you have everything you need to have the very best online training experience possible. So, if you have employees in remote offices that you are trying to schedule for IT training, consider ISInc e-Learning Training. Please contact us for more information.

Below is a video that demonstrates how our e-Learning works with a look-in on a VMware vSphere with ESX 5 and vCenter 5 course.

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[zclevenger-blog]

While working remotely I noticed my bandwidth would drop when I connected to our VPN. It appeared that all internet packets were being routed through our VPN connection. While this normally wouldn’t be a problem, I often found myself downloading large files and my connection performance was limited to the available bandwidth to the VPN connection. That’s when I learned about what a “split tunnel” vpn connection is. I wrote this article to walk you through the process of setting up your VPN to take advantage of this option in Windows Networking. With a “split tunnel vpn” connection, the internet traffic is routed through the local gateway connection. All other network traffic works through the vpn connection as you would expect. This is a feature that is available with Windows Vista and XP PPTP VPN connections, but it isn’t the default setting. Here is how you configure your VPN connection to use the local gateway:

Step 1

Right click on your VPN connection and choose “properties”

Step 2

Click on the “Networking” tab. This is where we will need to make changes to the TCP/IP settings for your VPN connection. If you are using V6 IP addresses or V4, you’ll need to make the change in both locations just to be sure.

Step 3

Click on the “Advanced” button to get to the Advanced TCP/IP options

Step 4

The VPN connection by default configures all packets to route to the remote server’s gateway. We want to turn this option off by clicking on the “Use default gateway on remote network” option. That’s it! Once you have made those changes you will notice your internet packets are no longer automatically routing through the VPN server. Feel free to visit our site to view this original article and other helpful articles. Configuring a split tunnel PPTP VPN in Windows 7 www.ISInc.com

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[zclevenger-blog]

I recently came across a problem where I needed to schedule the daily FTP upload of a set of files to one of my client’s FTP servers. I was a bit out of my element and found that locating a solution to this task was surprisingly challenging. I thought I would post the steps here so that someone in a similar situation might benefit from the time I spent in trial and error. 1. My first goal was to make sure I could upload via ftp using the command prompt in Windows XP. I created the following script, ftp_script.txt, which I placed in a scripts folder on the C drive: open www.yourhostname.com username password put c:\test.txt test.txt quit Plug in your corresponding hostname, username, password, and file locations. This script will upload the local copy of test.txt to the server. The above script can be passed into your command line ftp client. Open up your command prompt and type: ftp -s:path_to_script\scriptfile Which, in my case, was: ftp -s:c:\scripts\ftp_script.txt The “-s” allows you to specify a file name in order to pass your username, password, and put commands to the command line ftp client. 2. If you get Step 1 working, the next step is to create a command file to run the ftp script. The command file is just a text file with a .cmd extension that calls up the command line ftp. In my case, I created ftp.cmd with the contents: ftp -s:c:\scripts\ftp_script.txt Test your command file by double clicking it to make sure that it executes the FTP successfully. 3. Finally, create a daily task using the Windows Task Scheduler. Go to Start > Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks (in Classic view). Click Add Scheduled Task and when it prompts you for the application, browse to your command file that you created in Step 2. As you finish out the task scheduler, you’ll get to choose how often you want the task to run and at what time. After you complete these steps, your ftp job should be ready and waiting for its next scheduled execution time. I hope you find this trick as useful as I did! Feel free to visit our site to view this original article and other helpful articles. Using Windows XP Task Scheduler to Automate an FTP Upload

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[zclevenger-blog]

One of the interesting issues I have found when building reports in Crystal is the nature of their record selection on blank data.

Let’s say, for example, I am building a report that displays my product names and sizes. I don’t want to see any of the extra small (xsm) products so I add record selection to check if the size is not equal to “xsm”. Formula: {Product.Size} <> "xsm" When I go back to my report, not only are all the extra small products missing, but so are all the products that didn’t have a size at all. This is normal database behavior that you might not be familiar with. Any time a database checks a null field (a blank field) against anything, it will always result in a value of false. Thus, the following comparison results in a false. “California” = Null But, so does “California” <> Null Crystal will omit any records where the record selection criteria returns false, thus we will not see the products that don’t have a size. So how do we get those blank values back? Let’s add to our selection criteria a condition that checks for null values. Your new formula will use the IsNull() function to check to see if the size field is blank. New Formula: {Product.Size} <> "xsm" or IsNull({Product.Size}) Unfortunately, when preview your report, you will find that this doesn’t work. That is not because of a mistake in our logic but rather, what I consider to be a bug in Crystal Reports. If I took this exact same condition and applied it to the database records using a query analyzer or querying tool, I would see the blank records. Unfortunately, Crystal is not allowing the null values to come through even though our formula says that they should. The trick to circumventing this bug is to put the IsNull() check FIRST in the formula. Thus, if we rearrange the condition to this: IsNull({Product.Size}) or {Product.Size} <> "xsm" We will get our all of our products that aren’t extra small, including the products that have no value filled in for size. As a rule of thumb, when using IsNull() in record selection criteria, make sure that it comes first in the formula. Feel free to visit our site to view this original article and other helpful articles. Record Selection and the Null Value Bug in Crystal Reports

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[zclevenger-blog]

With a "split tunnel vpn" connection, the internet traffic is routed through the local gateway connection. All other network traffic works through the vpn connection as you would expect. This is a feature that is available with Windows Vista and XP PPTP VPN connections, but it isn't the default setting. Here is how you configure your VPN connection to use the local gateway:

Step 1

Right click on your VPN connection and choose "properties"

Step 2

Click on the "Networking" tab. This is where we will need to make changes to the TCP/IP settings for your VPN connection. If you are using V6 IP addresses or V4, you'll need to make the change in both locations just to be sure.

Step 3

Click on the "Advanced" button to get to the Advanced TCP/IP options

Step 4

The VPN connection by default configures all packets to route to the remote server's gateway. We want to turn this option off by clicking on the "Use default gateway on remote network" option. That's it! Once you have made those changes you will notice your internet packets are no longer automatically routing through the VPN server. Feel free to visit our site to view this original article and other helpful articles. Configuring a split tunnel pptp vpn in Windows Vista

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[zclevenger-blog]

Technical and Desktop Training

Serving the business community since 1982, ISInc provides in depth, hands-on training on a wide variety of topics. Our instructors are seasoned professionals who provide high-quality education and training to help you build and support real-world business solutions and take full advantage of technology. We put your needs first by listening to you and adapting our services to meet your changing requirements as you adopt new technologies and meet new business challenges. Let us work with you to ensure that you get the training you need, when and where you want it. Take a look at our Course Catalog for an updated listing of available classes. If you need specialized classes, contact us and we can accommodate your organizations needs. ISInc also provides an online Learning Management Solution to enroll and track your student's training history. Please contact us for more information.

Networking and Software Consulting

Did you know ISInc has provided top tier Professional Services for over 20 years? Our team of experts can help your organization get the most from your software or hardware investments. ISInc. is also a leader in helping organizations migrate from older software releases to the latest and greatest technologies. Whether you are evaluating open source technologies, or moving from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2010, ISInc can provide the right technical solution to meet your company's time line and budget. Find out more about ISInc's Professional Services.

Partnerships

ISInc maintains the highest level of certification with our key partners. We are a Microsoft Gold Partner, Novell Platinum Training Center and Adobe Authorized Training Center.

DoD 8570

[zclevenger-blog]

DOD 8570 Requirements and Training - The Department of Defense has put together a requirements list for anyone who works in Information Architecture (IA). You have to obtain at least one of the "approved certifications" to meet the minimum requirements for each category. They have skills broken down into 6 certifications:

Technical Level 1

Technical Level 2

Technical Level 3

Management Level 1

Management Level 2

Management Level 3

Each of these levels requires you to have at a minimum one of the professional certifications listed below:

Technical Level 1

A+ - CompTIA A+

Network+ - CompTIA Network+

TICSA - TruSecure ICSA Certified Security Associate

SSCP - System Security Certified Practitioner

Technical Level 2

GSEC - GIAC Security Essentials Certification

Security+ - CompTIA Security+

SCNP - Security Certified Network Professional

SSCP - System Security Certified Practitioner

Technical Level 3

CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

SCNA - Security Certified Network Architect

GISO - GIAC Information Security Officer

GSE - GIAC Security Expert

Management Level 1

GSLC - GIAC Security Leadership Certificate

Security+ - CompTIA Security+

GISO - GIAC Information Security Officer

TISCP - TrueSecure ISCA Certified Security Professional

Management Level 2

CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

GSLC - GIAC Security Leadership Certificate

CISM - Certified Information Security Manager

Management Level 3

CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

GSLC - GIAC Security Leadership Certificate

CISM - Certified Information Security Manager

If you need to quickly get one of these certifications and you don't see the class on our public schedule, please contact us at [email protected]. We have worked with multiple military bases to provide them with DOD 8570 training and can provide multiple references. Also, we can provide on-site, customized training to help your group meet these requirements as well as online via our e-Learning training that utilizes Microsoft Lync to create a virtual classroom. Click here for additional information on our e-Learning training.

ISInc. Website

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