Jun 22, 2008

OpenDNS – For Network Security and Speed!


As my efforts continue to focus more on our Company's strengths by moving our IT services externally, I have unearth another service that will help streamline system administration tasks – thanks to OpenDNS.

One, sometimes annoying, tasks a System Administrator handles on a daily basis is to monitor network and internet activity. Primary reason is to manage users from visiting sites that may cause network congestion, expose security risks and decrease worker productivity. Despite the existing policies that are in place, this activity takes a significant amount of time from the system administrator.

OpenDNS is a another reliable and free DNS service that will definitely takeaway unnecessary workload from your system administrator to focus more on another important tasks.

OpenDNS boasts the following features to help speedup and secure your internet connectivity:

  • Content Filtering,
  • Phishing Protection,
  • Domain Blocking,
  • Adult Site Blocking,
  • Web Proxy Blocking,
  • and Domain Whitelisting

Setup is very easy for fixed or dynamic IP users. All it takes is to sign-up and configure your PC or router to point to their DNS servers and voila! You're all setup and just forget about it. You may optionally customize your filter to additionally block unwanted sites say, mail.yahoo.com.

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Jun 10, 2008

Technology for the Masses

I am starting personal advocacy movement which I call "Practical and Affordable Technology for the Filipino Masses".

It's a free service (consultancy, training and setup) centered on schools, foundations, organizations and small to medium-sized enterprises. The main goal here is to deliver a more focused, practical technology solutions on a shoestring budget.


What specific services can I deliver?

Much of the services I can share were all founded on my experience as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of our company. Adopting and compiling all the best practices that will surely bring down IT spending while at the same, hitting your organization's bottom-lines. The service are as follows:


  • Migration, setup and training of your corporate email, calendar, online document management, instant messaging, and corporate intranet on a single-sign-on service.

  • Setup and manage your corporate servers for webhosting, database, file-sharing, and security.

  • Maximizing PC utilization by splitting to multiple PC workstations. No additional hardware 'splitters' or software licenses needed.

  • IT Service Management (ITSM) Implementation.

  • Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures for your IT Department.

  • Document and Record Control (for ISO preparedness)

  • a hassle-free and straight forward approach to IT Service Request Management.


Is it really free?

All my services are free but there may be other dependent services that aren't. An example of such is webhosting or DNS services which requires some reasonable fees to be paid. In most cases, all other dependent services that I include in my services are free or may require small fees to be paid to other third-party service providers.


Who can avail of my services?

Anyone who wants to cut back on IT spending or organizations that want to deliver more for less can apply. No hidden charges, no fees, no special favors – nada!


Schools, church groups, foundations and other civic organizations will be given high priority. For organizations or companies outside Cebu wishing to avail of my services, all incidental expenses will have to be covered by them since I have two kids I put in school and don't have that ready cash to donate.


Am I hiring people for help?

No. But I would definitely need people who share the same values I have and volunteer to help me. Any small amount of help will be of great value to me most specially to people who would need it the most.


Contact me

If you're interested, drop me a mail at my email address and leave your name and phone number. I will try to answer all your queries as much as possible so please be patient.


dan.dumaraos@kainoshealth.net


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Jun 9, 2008

The best FREE alternative to MS Office Suite



IBM's Lotus Symphony -

the best FREE alternative to MS Office Suite.


I found a really, really, really wonderful office application that really makes me feel comfortable working and very excited to tell everyone! It's IBM's variant of OpenOffice Suite called Lotus Symphony.


Lotus Symphony was based on OpenOffice infrastructure but has much more of a homey feel like MS Office. It's well designed interface makes it easy for beginners or long-time MS Office users to make the switch.


The wonderful key features of Lotus Symphony are as follows:


  • Well organized interface design. All document types open up in a single window as tabs. Much like how Firefox browser opens new pages in a tab. All documents have a single uniform tools bar and some properties of objects may be manipulated from its sidebar located on the right window.


  • Windows formats are supported. Just like its predecessor, Symphony can open any MS Office document formats may it be spreadsheet, document, or presentation. It's default format for saving document is ODT or open document format.


  • Lightweight. It has small installable file and open really fast. Also utilizes small amount of memory unlike its predecessor.


I would say that this app will surely be an MS Office killer! I made the switch and moving my entire company's office suite to this one.


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