The odd-musings of Jared, the Director of Network Security for IAPS Security Services.

Folks, the new U.S. based dynamic VPN service is almost complete. I’m in testing stages right now and hope to rap it up in the next 24 hours before I release it to the general public. So please bear with me for the time. I know there is a great demand for it and I’m working on it as fast as possible.

I’m also in the process of developing new VPN instructions to come into compliance with the needs of the Mac Snow Leopard operating system. I’ll have those new instructions completed as well in the next 24 hours. Thank you all for your continued support of the IAPS Security Store. We all appreciate it tremendously.

Folks, I’ve tested the new Windows 7 Beta (version 7100) and can confirm full compatibility with all IAPS Security Store services. This includes full compatibility with SSH & VPN services. There’s not much of a real difference between Vista and the new Windows 7 except for graphical design and the placement of certain files. If you are a seasoned veteran of Windows Vista, you’ll notice these changes almost immediately.

For those of you that have decided to stick with Windows XP, you can decide for yourself if upgrading is the right thing for you. I have personally seen a stable operating system with Windows 7 on the computers we have here in the control center.

We performed a direct upgrade from existing installations of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition and the only draw backs we’ve seen are that several existing programs that were loaded on the Windows Vista boxes needed to be reinstalled once the upgrade was complete. With the reinstallations of those certain programs full functionality did return. Overall, a nice operating system but it still needs those finishing touches to make it a gold standard product.

For all of you out there looking for additional browser security and do not like the fact that your browser gives away your operating system, your browser name and version, and other critical information, I am posting instructions on how to hide all this information with a little bit of simple browser modification.

1. To change the User Agent string, just enter about:config as an address in the address bar of Fire Fox, the location where you normally enter a URL (link).

2. Now press the right mouse button to get the context menu and select “String” from the menu entry.

3. Enter the preference name “general.useragent.override”, without the quotes. Next, enter the new User Agent value you want Mozilla Firefox to use.

This simple method is recommended for all you out there that want to preserve the integrity and private details of your computer.