Cloud Engineer - Everton Collins

Work by Everton Collins

Consulting

IP address gets Blocked by all of Microsoft’s domains.

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Why does my site IP address get Blocked?

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An important first step to make sure email sent from your IP isn’t blocked is to review its status on known ‘blacklists’.

Review instructions, in our  article: Determining if a server is blacklisted: https://kb.iweb.com/hc/en-us/articles/230267148-Determining-if-a-server-is-blacklisted.

You should also verify your server’s mail queue content or outbox (current size and outbound email traffic statistics) to identify unusual activity levels. 

Follow these instructions to unblock your IP from Hotmail / Outlook:

1. Ensure Compliance: https://mail.live.com/mail/policies.aspx

2. Follow best practices and FAQs: http://postmaster.live.com/Troubleshooting.aspx

3. Configure your reverse DNS on your IP addresses: https://kb.iweb.com/hc/en-us/articles/230242968-Configuring-Reverse-DNS-Control-Center-or-Customer-Hub-

This issue might be happening because the Microsoft system is not recognizing the IP or your domain and is treating it as spam.

This feature prevents unwanted spam from reaching customer’s mailbox.

To request for white listing from Microsoft please use this link https://sender.office.com/Delist/

Why are the emails sent to Microsoft Account rejected for policy reasons?





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How to Create an AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive to Clean your PC

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The Problem With Cleaning Up Malware From Within Windows

When a computer is running normally and your internet security software runs within Windows everything is fine and you wouldn’t think about having a AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive near by.  The problem then becomes how do you fix your infected PC after its been infected with Malware and Viruses and you can no longer boot up and run in normal mode?  While very nasty Malware will try to defend itself and try shutting down your Antivirus/internet security software.

Then you have Rootkits, a type of Malware that can hide itself and often times can be trickier to remove.  Many Rootkits will load at boot time in the processes and making it hard to track down in the Task Manager, or manually remove the culprits.

There are several Steps we will need to take to build our boot-able USB drive with the ability to scan an infected PC with Malware and or Viruses.

Items we’ll need to Build The AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive

  • Rufus – We’ll use Rufus a Utility allowing us to Create Bootable USB Drives the easy way.
  • AVG Rescue CD Utility  – AVG Rescue CD Utility Rescue.  Get your business back up and running rapidly in case of system crashes.
  • A Blank USB – You can pickup a blank USB drive from any Electronic store.
  • A Computer that isn’t infected to Build the AVG Rescue Boor USB Drive.

Download Software for our AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive

  1. Lets go to Rufus.akeo.ie and download the software for burning the USB Drive.  A Rufus FAQ is available.Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives,
  2. We need to download AVG Rescue CD Utility  – AVG Rescue CD Utility Rescue.Rescue CD (for CD creation)
  3. Now you have the main components we will need our Blank USB Stick to start the process of creating the AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive.

Steps in Creating our AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive.

  1. Once we have the *.iso image downloaded on our PC we’ll burn this to the USB Drive using Rufus.
  2. Open Rufus and select the Device, File System.rufus
  3.  Be sure to select iso as we have already downloaded the .iso file and now need to burn this to the USB Drive.rufus-burning-iso
  4. Now you should have a completely Bootable USB AVG Rescue disk to boot your infected computer and run a scan to clean up the system.  Check back for our Part 2. How to Create an AVG Rescue Boot USB Drive to Clean your PC.

Slack for group communications, what is it?

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What is Slack? A messaging app for teams.

All your communication in one place, integrating with the tools and services you use every day.

A messaging app for teams.

Some of the great uses for Slack

Slack for Group conversations

Talk, share, and make decisions in open channels across your team, in private groups for sensitive matters, or use direct messages one-to-one.

Slack for File sharing

Drag and drop files, documents, PDFs, images, and videos to share with anyone and get immediate feedback and discussion through comments.

Slack for Deep, contextual search

Search across your entire team archives, within documents, files, or images, and filter your results by recency, relevancy, person, and more.

Always in sync

Everything you do on our desktop app is reflected on our fully native iOS and Android apps, and vice versa. Everything is in sync—pick up right where you left off.

Slack uses Over 80 integrations

It’s not ‘yet another app’ you have to use. Slack works with all the tools you already use; set them up to post notifications directly to Slack in a single work space.

Security

All data transfer is encrypted (256-bit AES and TLS 1.2) on the desktop or the phone. We perform security testing regularly to identify and resolve any vulnerabilities.

Slack Channels

Organize your team conversations in open channels. Make a channel for a project, a topic, a team, or anything—everyone has a transparent view of all that’s going on.

Direct Messages

To reach a colleague directly, send them a Direct Message. It’s completely private and secure.

Slack Private Groups

For sensitive information, create Private Groups and invite a few team members. No one else can see or join your Private Groups.

Slack Logo

With fully native apps for iOS and Android, whatever you do on one device is reflected everywhere. Everything is in sync. Slack will keep your place so you can always pick up wherever you left off.

Learn what slack can do for you!  Take the Tour

Slack is free to use for as long as you want and with an unlimited number of people.  Sign-Up Today!

Basic Laptop Purchasing Advice

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New Laptop Purchasing Advice

From time to time I’ll get requests for laptop purchasing advice, many people are always on the lookout for new laptop technology as the Windows OS landscape changes almost every 5-10 years it can be confusing what to purchase.  Microsoft the developers of Windows OS are a recognized brand name and the most commonly installed OS based on it’s price point when compared to the MAC OSX, which is what I use daily along with Windows Servers and Linux Servers.

So what should one look for when getting a new laptop?  My basic Laptop Purchasing Advice:

Basic things to look for when purchasing a Windows Laptop.

1.  Reviews:

Whenever I purchase Technology (Laptops, TV’s, Phone’s, anything really etc.) I like to read the reviews so I can be informed of what works and what doesn’t. Reviews from consumers like you or me provide a healthy view of a users experience with a particular product/service.

When reading reviews you get a general idea of what consumers experiences has been with a product or service, ie: good or bad.

I like to see anywhere from 10 – 25 reviews so this gives me a healthy idea of what the consumer like and really like or disliked about a product or service.  With this being said to be an intelligent buyer you have to be informed so one should read the product description and features so you know what the product or service is supposed to do.  “What does is say on the tin”  does it do what is says on the tin?

Places like Newegg.com, Amazon Laptopsblank, and others give great consumer reviews. Check them out.

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Go to all Departments – > Computers -> Laptops

2. Check the warranty.

What’s the Warranty on the laptop and return policy from store or manufacturer? Understand this so there are fewer problems when you purchase your new laptop and need to return it.

3. Ram/Hard drive

Be sure you have plenty of Ram for the application your purchasing the laptop for.  I would say if money is no problem then I would go with as much ram as your laptop can support; else 4 GB should be plenty enough for what your probably want to do with the laptop, write papers, basic email, chat, etc.

The faster the hard drives the more it costs and also better performance over the life of the drive usually the higher the spin the faster the drive.

Check out some Performance charts over at Toms Hardware (SSD – Solid State Hard Drives over the older IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics Drives).

4. Faster CPU is better (Cost more).

For more intensive applications ie: Gaming, Video Production you will have to look at faster CPU, fast video cards, fast hard drives etc.  Get the fasted CPU you can afford as when you have more memory intensive programs and many programs open your system can and will slow down.

Feel free Check out some in-expensive laptops here at Walmart:

Go to all Departments – > Computers -> Laptops

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Go to all Departments – > Computers -> Laptops

Review several Laptop offers on Amazon

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