M.A.S. Electronics' Blog

Let’s face it, one of the primary jobs a Windows admin does is keep machines free of infection. It’s inevitable – end users will open files, install cutesy apps, and go to sites they shouldn’t. When they do these things, their machines get infected. When their machines get infected, you could wind up fighting a losing battle – unless you have the right tools. Sometimes the antivirus tools installed on the machine just aren’t enough. When that time comes, you’ll…

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Wi-Fi is relatively easy to configure, but optimizing, securing, and diagnosing problems with a wireless network can be a challenge. Here are five free tools that can help. 1: CommView for WiFi CommView for WiFi is a packet sniffer that is specifically designed for Wi-Fi networks. As you would expect, the program allows you to capture packets and then search them for specific strings, packet types, etc. One of the most useful features provided by this utility is an alarm…

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Security is tops on most every administrator’s list. And with good reason. Incomplete or poor security can bring down a company’s network and/or computer resources. That equates to lost work, which affects bottom line. Administrators must do all they can to ensure the security of their networks. But for some (especially those without the financial resources), just knowing where to start and what to use is the biggest challenge. With that in mind, here are 10 tools and methods to…

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You know you have to stay on top of those insidious malware threats, but what’s the most effective (and affordable) solution? Here are some solid options. It’s a constant battle, the protection of a PC against malicious software. The second you think you have your machine clean, something else appears — no matter what piece of software you use to combat this plague. Even so, you still need to have some protection installed. So I thought I’d list the five…

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Among the wide array of network and system monitors, you’ll find several that do what the pricier tools do — for free. If you’re a system or network administrator, you need monitoring tools. You have to know, at all times, the status of your systems so you can optimize performance and head off potential problems. Thankfully, plenty of tools are available to help you stay in the know about your systems. Some of these products are costly and do quite…

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It’s inevitable: At some point you’re going to need to recover from a disaster. When this happens, if you happen to have a cloned image, the task will be far easier. But many budgets don’t include the cost of some of the pricier cloning tools, like Acronis Backup and Restore. When you don’t have the budget, what do you do? If you’re lucky, you have access to one of the following free applications, all of which do an admirable job…

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Don’t get caught out in the field without the tools you need. A USB stick equipped with a few essential apps might just save the day. Ah, the USB stick — one of the IT admin’s best friends. It travels with you and helps you rescue machines, work magic, and make end users sigh with relief. Some of these apps you copy to the hard drive and install; others can be run from the stick itself. A few of them…

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Takeaway: Keep your Windows machines optimized and healthy with the help of these five tools. The PC is the single greatest tool for getting your work done. And out of the box, that PC works great. But over time, it can become bogged down and buggy. Fragmentation, hard-disk issues, bad memory, viruses, filled caches, and registry errors can cause computers to act flaky or even stop working all together. This doesn’t have to be the case. With a bit of…

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Takeaway: You don’t have to turn to proprietary software to get your work done. Here are five feature-rich open source alternatives. What do we need to produce our work? Although it has changed over the years — with the browser becoming probably the most important productivity tool we now have — certain constants remain. We must produce documents, we must be able to create/manipulate images, we must manage money, and we must be able to communicate and schedule. These constants…

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