Shandy's Blog

Where Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy rants and rambles on as the fancy takes him
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My name is Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy.

I am currently living and working in the UK as a software developer. This blog contains mainly IT related issues.

I was a Microsoft VB MVP for a couple of years (Apr 2004-Mar 2006) and was a vbCityLeader between April 2003 and June 2007.

If you are looking for my Sri Lanka or Morocco experiences check out Shandy's Sri Lanka Blog or Shandy's Morocco Blog. My personal (Non IT) blog is now at Shandy's Place

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Tuesday, December 21, 2004 #

Christmas Holidays

Today was my last day in work until Monday January 3rd. In the early hours of Wednesday morning we fly out to Thailand for 10 days holiday. We have booked one night at the Bangkok Palace, six nights at the Orchidacea Resort and another two nights back at the Bangkok Palace. It's our second trip to Thailand this year having visited Bangkok in June. We were so taken with it we thought another, longer visit was in order. We stayed at the Bangkok Palace in June and can heartily recommend it. Phuket is new territory for us though. We were recommended it by some friends Pete & Carol and for possibly the first time in my life I am looking for a relaxing holiday. Not that I am the white water rafting/parachuting holiday type ;-) However, holidays are usually a tightly scheduled cultural experience for me. Not this time. I have a few (non computer related) books packed in my suitcase and am looking forward to some sun, sand & cocktails. Well at least for the first few days ;-) Thailand here we come :-D

posted @ 8:13 PM

Malware

What a nightmare of a 2 weeks! At work we got hit big time by Malware. Got a little too cosy thinking our Anti-Virus protection software would keep us safe. If I have two pieces of advice after spending 2 weeks getting out Sri Lanka network back to normal they would be.

  1. Ensure all your windows Operating Systems have the latest service pack and have all the critical patches installed.
  2. Ensure all your windows Operating Systems have the latest service pack and have all the critical patches installed.
Without them you are a sitting duck.

I had a couple of 24 sessions trying to sort things out and learnt more about network security in the last 2 weeks than I had in the previous 5 years.

For the record we use Trend as our anti-virus software and I have to say it falls well short of what I expect of an anti-virus solution. Matters weren't helped when Keytech, the company responsible for managing our firewall somehow managed to leave port 80 open after an IP address range change.

posted @ 8:01 PM