Tips and Tricks for Monitoring System PerformanceToday at the IT Conference, I listened and asked questions about something very close to an IT support Helpdesk: Performance!
Windows VISTA uses Performance Monitor (PERFMON) and it's quite a tool. It shows the reliability and performance of a client's machine and let's us know if the error is something server-side or local. With Performance Monitor, user's or IT staff can tell when Registry changes occur, when installations occur, patches are downloaded, or spyware, malware, or other harmful software is executed. It's all in a graph-like area located within Vista under the Control Panel. It's very smooth and will be very useful for ANY Help Desk staff. You can even spit out reports from the PERFMON, but since Vista is an XML based framework, you're going to see XML through a IE browser window - not too bad if a client gets a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), they can then call or send an Email - After doing your own research, the IT Support staff can come up with strategic ways to have clients either view or print from PERFMON, then send it to the IT staff for assistance. This will also be easier if your company decides to implement Remote Access. Each IT representative could login and view the client's PERFMON and find out what happened.
Wireless (802.11 - This is the area specific to Over-The-Air wireless networks) & VISTA SecurityAn Ethernet connection (802.3) is not always available and therefore, clients and employees will use the LOCAL Wireless LAN. The SSID (Service Set IDentifier) will always be listed.
This lets the end-user know that they're connecting to the CORRECT Network. (Note: The latest security threat is something called, 'Evil Twin.' It looks like the same SSID and once connected the hacker collects usernames, passwords, credit cards, etc. There is more information on this located here: http://tech.yahoo.com/xb/null;_ylt=AsZUpDYbVVYSg3slZ_3w3I4sLpA5?blogpost=23163&comment_start=1&comment_count=20&sendurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.yahoo.com%2Fblogs%2Fnull%2F23163%2Fbeware-the-evil-twin-wi-fi-hotspot).
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is the encryption of Wireless LAN access. But "just because you're WiFi is encrypted does not equal integrity," according to Steve Riley from Microsoft. Riley spoke of wireless security and of VISTA security via wireless - I found this exciting, since the UI and the steps for adding a wireless network to your VISTA machine are different than with Windows XP. VISTA uses a wireless framework called (P)EAP (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol) on it's wireless networks. It's a partnership with Cisco to make wireless networks more secure and prevent rogue wireless networks from accessing our network. This was more server-side discussion, but later he talked about the overall security of VISTA.
When setting up your laptop or desktop to connect to a wireless network using the Microsoft VISTA O/S, there are some minor changes, but major security changes. The UI displayed when trying to gain access to WiFi has a few enhancements. The preferred network order is strictly enforced. That means YOUR SSID will appear at the top and be the network most likely to connect. You can setup the preferences within the GPO (Group Policy) for each machine as well. There are also new dialogue boxes that appear in VISTA when applying for access to WiFi Networks. As discussed earlier, with VISTA, Administrators can now allow/disallow access to various wifi networks. (Each machine can be setup to allow/deny certain SSIDS like (Starbucks) tmobile, (Hilton) hhonors, or the millions of others available throughout the world). Please see last Tuesday's blog for more.
Connecting to a Wireless Network is not hard, but the UI has a new look and feel, just like the rest of VISTA. It looks, "Beautiful." (That is the buzz word down here) - When setting up a WiFi network connection, the back button is no longer at the bottom right, but is now located on the top left of each WiFi UI screen. The Network Name field really means the same thing as SSID. Note: Group Policy for Windows Vista is now built-in to VISTA and available for Windows XP.
Lastly, Riley said that he was not selling anything and that he asked us to believe in Microsoft. He admitted they were slow to catch up to security, but he believes that VISTA is the most secure product ever and that no third party software is necessary for protection. He said to at least give it a try and see what you can do - He also believes that Microsoft got serious about security late, but after Windows XP SP 2 things have tightened up and it's their priority to provide safe and secure products.
