We would like to update that the 23 domains that were seized by Microsoft has been returned to No-IP ! 

However, as time is needed for the DNS to fully propagate, please allow up to 24 hours for your sub-domains to be fully functional again.

For more information, please refer to No-IP’s blog at http://www.noip.com/blog/2014/07/03/update-microsoft-takedown/

We were surprised to receive a couple of calls from our customers this morning, all of which are using dynamic IP broadband or fibre plans from their respective ISPs. These customers have called and all of which are due to the same reason:

They are unable to access their remote devices, including their servers, printers, CCTVs and many others.

When we test with our office systems, we have no problem accessing them, and pinging the devices also yield positive results. And yet, when we remote access to our customers’ system, they are not as lucky as us.

Upon further investigations with our different systems, some of which are located geographically far apart and in different countries, it seems that those devices which has their DNS pointing to Google’s DNS server, namely google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8) and google-public-dns-b.google.com (8.8.4.4), are unable to ping nor locate the subdomains using the Dynamic Domain Name Service (DDNS) provided by No-IP.com

It seems that Google’s DNS server has refused or unable to reply when comes to these domains and subdomains. In total, about 23 domains were affected.

In the end, we managed to find out the reason and it is NOT because of any technical issue. For that would be rather easy and fast to resolve by No-IP or Google itself.

The reason is because Microsoft served a federal court order and seized 23 of No-IP most commonly used domains because they claimed that some of the subdomains have been abused by creators of malware.

To aggravate the matter, Microsoft did not bothered to contact nor ask No-IP to block these subdomains, and that’s despite the fact that No-IP and Microsoft have an open line of communications between their corporate executives!

As it is of now, Microsoft claim that their intent is to only filter out the known bad hostnames in each seized domain, while continuing to allow the good hostnames to resolve. However, this is not happening. Apparently, the Microsoft infrastructure is not able to handle the billions of queries from No-IP customers. Millions of innocent users are experiencing outages to their services because of Microsoft’s attempt to remediate hostnames associated with a few bad actors.

To summarise, this heavy-handed action by Microsoft benefits no one. Not at all !!

For the time being, we have managed to inform our customers to either purchase the DDNS from No-IP and use their other domains which are not affected, or to move some of our customers to use the services from DynDNS, which cost a little more. Those that prefers to use the free services from No-IP will have to content with accessing their remote devices via IP addresses instead of DDNS, and pray hard that their ISP do not change their IP addresses during these period of time.

To read more about the statement from No-IP, please visit their blog at http://www.noip.com/blog/2014/06/30/ips-formal-statement-microsoft-takedown/

This scheme does not affect your existing “.sg” domain names. However, from 2 May 2013 onwards, if you register a new “.sg” domain name or if you are appointed as an administrative contact for new “.sg” domain names, the scheme will affect you.

Under the VerifiedID@SG scheme, registrants will continue with the existing practice to appoint an “administrative contact” person to register “.sg” domain names through respective registrars of the registrant’s choice. After completing the registration of the domain name, the domain name will be activated by SGNIC and becomes “live” on the Internet. At this stage, the administrative contact person of the domain name will be requested by SGNIC via email to visit the VerifiedID@SG portal and to perform a two-step verification task:

1. To login to the portal using his SingPass; and
2. To verify the identity and contact information of the domain name registrant.

The administrative contact will be given a grace period of 21 calendar days from the date of registration to verify the registrant’s identity and contact information. During this period, if verification is not done, SGNIC will send daily reminders to the administrative contact’s email address to highlight that the domain name is pending his verification. The due date and time will also be highlighted in the email.

SGNIC’s policy is to suspend the domain name if the administrative contact does not perform the verification within 21 calendar days. Such suspension is considered necessary to minimise any possible abuse of domain names by owners who use fake or stolen identity, or whose identity have not been properly verified. To allow .sg registrants and administrative contacts to familiarise with the new scheme, SGNIC will work closely with our accredited registrars to remind and help the administrative contact concerned and the registrant. If the administrative contact still has not performed the verification after the grace period, SGNIC will suspend the domain name.

For more information on the VerifiedID@SG scheme, please refer to the FAQs at http://verifiedid.sgnic.sg/faq.html.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to contact us.

This is a process most commonly used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Domain Name Service (DNS) operators and network administrators which involves entering the IP address of known (or suspected) spammers into a network database. If a certain IP address is on the blacklist of an Internet Service Provider, for example, then we will automatically block any e-mails coming from the blacklisted IP address.

But just because your IP address is blacklisted doesn’t mean that your computer has been compromised by a hacker, either. Sometimes, especially with Cable and ADSL Internet service providers that use a dynamic IP address, your connection will be most likely blacklisted. Due to this reason, you might be experiencing difficulties to send out email through your email client like Outlook, Thunderbird and etc because you are configured with the default SMTP port “25”.

In order to send email again, you’ll have to change to a different port number. We recommend our clients to use SMTP Port 587.

Here’s how to change the port number in your favorite email client. Instructions below are for Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and AppleMail.

In Outlook

1. Open Tools > Account Settings.
2. Select your email account from the list under the E-mail tab, then click Change.

3. Click More Settings.
4. Check the “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication” box.
5. Make sure that “Use same settings as my incoming mail server” is selected.

6. Click the Advanced tab.
7. Change the Outgoing Server field number from 25 to 587
8. Click OK.
9. Click Next until you reach the Finish button. Click Finish.

In Thunderbird

1. Go to Tools > Account Settings.
2. Select Outgoing Server (SMTP) on the left pane of the Account Settings window.
3. Select the SMTP server for your domain here. Click Edit.

4. Change the number in the Port field to 587
5. Click OK.
6. Click OK again to close the Account Settings window.

In Apple Mail

1. Open Preferences in the Mail menu.
2. Click the Accounts tab to locate your account. Open it.
3. Open the Outgoing Mail Server window.
4. Change the number in the Port field to 587.
5. Check the “Use Authentication” box.
6. Click Continue.
7. Click Continue again. Close any remaining windows.

In Windows Mail

1. Click Tools > Accounts
2. Select your account under Mail, then click Properties button.

3. Go to Advanced Tab, under Outgoing server (SMTP), change port 25 to 587.

4. Click the OK button.

In Outlook Express

1. Open Tools > Accounts.
2. Click the Mail tab.
3. Select your email account from the list. Click the Properties button.
4. Make sure the “Include this account when receiving mail or synchronizing” box is checked.
5. Click the Servers tab. Locate the Settings button below Outgoing Mail Server. Click it.
6. Locate the SMTP Port field (it should say 25). Change the 25 or 587.
7. Make sure the “My SMTP server requires authentication” box is checked.
8. Click OK. Click OK again until you’ve closed all windows.
9. Restart Outlook Express.

Pre-installed with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, her new system has almost all the games disabled by default, by Microsoft, of course. The reason is probably Microsoft’s way of telling users that this is a business system and not a gaming one!

Anyway, to turn on the default games back again, just follow the steps below and you can have fun while you work then (just wonder how to do both at the same time ??)

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click on <<Programs and Features>> and then click on Turn Windows Features On/Off on the left panel.
3. A dialog box will be shown, as seen below:
   

   Turn Windows Features On or Off

4. Tick the Games option to enable all games or select whichever you want by putting a tick next to the games.

Have fun!

This price increase is global and the increment will be 7% for .COM domains and 10% for .NET domains. This increase will be passed on to domain registrars and unfortunately, to consumers like you. The price increase is for new registration and renewal of current holding domains of yours.

We understand your need for these domains and we understand that the price increment might be too sudden for you to take action with it, so, in order to smoother the price increase, we will NOT make any changes to our prices for the .COM and .NET domains until August 1st, 2010, and during this time, you still get to enjoy the same price for your new registration or renewal for the .COM and .NET domains.

Yes, we are absorbing the price increment for ONE whole month and as many domains as you need!

Do act now before we increase our price too and you can even purchase or renew for multiple years to lock in long-term savings. Don’t wait to pay more.

Contact us here and tell us which domains you are eyeing on and we’ll give you a quotation for it.

It is our 2-prong promotion with special discounts of up to 15% off for Microsoft OLP Licences and on top of it, you get to enjoy our purchase-with-purchase promotions, offering tremendous discounts for other computer peripherals! See our promotion details as follows:-

i) Business Productivity Solution Stack Discount Structure

Redeem for Microsoft Office 2010 training voucher with every purchase of Microsoft Office 2010 (max claim of 5 seats per customer) and get up to 15% discount for every Microsoft Windows Server applications.

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

ii) Purchase-With-Purchase Promotion

Buy the following products with exceptional pricing and great discounts when purchased together with your Microsoft Open License purchases.

Terms & Conditions

• This product purchase-with-purchase promotion is valid till May 28th, 2010
• This offer is only applicable for Microsoft License purchased under Microsoft Open Business and Open Value programs
• Limited to 1 claim per customer per qualifying PO value Tier
• Minimum purchase of S$2,500 on Microsoft Open/ Open Value licenses
• Not applicable for Microsoft academic and charity license purchases
• Purchases under this promotion are not returnable and not exchangeable
• We reserve the right to terminate this pr0motion or amend the “Terms & Conditions” at any time without prior notice
• The “Free Microsoft Office 2010 Training Workshop” is limited to 5 seats claim per customer only.
  • customers to claim directly through the Training Centre with a copy of our invoice
  • Workshop session would commence from June 4th, 2010.

Our new office address is now at:-

10 Ubi Crescent, #06-72 (opp. #06-70)
Ubi TechPark (Lobby D)
Singapore 408564

Please update your contact records. Thank you.

The WORM component spreads through computer devices that are detected by infected systems and will automatically execute an autorun.inf file as soon as a user activates an infected device. In addition, the malware deploys a stealth technique by using a rootkit component to prevent itself from being discovered.

The main payload of this attack is an URL to establish a connection to a malicious website that may enable cyber-criminals to gather information and to further compromise an infected system.

If you have receive such an email, please delete the mail without opening the attachment. If you suspect your system is already infected or you have already open the attachment and not sure whether your system is infected, please contact us so that we can schedule our technician to check your system.

End of Life: As of January 4, 2010, Symantec Corporation will begin to End of Life (“EOL”) the product(s) identified in this notification, including any Maintenance Packs and/or patches for each version, in all released languages.

End of Availability: End of Availability will be January 4, 2011. At this time no additional product licenses will be available for purchase.

Standard Support: Provided the customer maintains a current maintenance contract for the products, Symantec will provide Standard Support for issues at all severity levels until July 4, 2012.

End of Support Life: As of July 4, 2012, Symantec will cease providing any and all levels of Standard Support for all versions of Symantec AntiVirus 10.X and Symantec Client Security 3.X.

* The End of Standard Support will also be the End of Support Life for the products identified in this notification. Partial Support will not be made available for Symantec AntiVirus 10.X or Symantec Client Security 3.X.

Additional resources

For more information regarding Content Updates or the services provided in Standard Support or Partial Support, please refer to the Symantec Enterprise Technical Support Policy at the link below or contact your Symantec Account Manager:

http://pacificlanworks.com/contact-us

To receive timely notification on updates and the support lifecycle for your Symantec product, please sign up at the following link to receive Symantec Technical Support News Bulletins:

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/support/news_bulletins/

We also recommend that you periodically check Symantec’s website for End of Life and End of Support Life information for your specific Licensed Software:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/all_products.jsp

How to get more information

We are committed to helping our customers achieve success with their Symantec solutions. If you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact us.

Thank you for using Symantec products and services.

“It signals the Government’s ongoing committment to help businesses create a pro-family environment for Singapore and reaffirms the Government’s goal in making Singapore the best place for families and children,” said Mrs Mildred Tan, Co-chair of Business For Families Council (BFC).

Businesses can apply for funding support to help defray costs incurred in infrastructure, traning and business consultancy to make their business more family-friendly. Since introduced in 2007, 30 buinesses have received funding support under the grant.

This scheme was actually enhanced in January 2010 to allow firms to claim up to 70% instead of 50%, of the costs incurred in adopting family-friendly measures for customers.

Car Times human resource manager Agnes Cheng said the local car dealership plans to use the grant to make showrooms safer for children and more comfortable for the elderly, who sometimes accompany their customers.

For more information regarding the grant, please visit Business for Families Grant website.