Flexible and scalable solutions for professional video surveillance and remote monitoring

Axis provides a full range of network video solutions for a broad spectrum of industry segments and applications, as well as specific solutions for specific situations.
For example, for CCTV users faced with the technology shift from their existing analog systems to network video, Axis offers solutions for migrating and for expanding seamlessly. We make deployment easy in all types of environments: indoor, outdoor, wired, wireless, and in rough, tough conditions.

Open standards only - for full integration and video management capabilities
Axis network video solutions are based on Axis' VAPIX®, our own open, standard-setting API (application programming interface). This makes Axis network video solutions cost-efficient, flexible, scalable, future-proof and easy to integrate with other systems, such as access control and building management systems.

Fully qualified domain name

A fully qualified domain name (FQDN), sometimes referred to as an absolute domain name, is a domain name that specifies its exact location in the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS). It specifies all domain levels, including the top-level domain, relative to the root domain. A fully qualified domain name is distinguished by its unambiguity; it can only be interpreted one way.

For example, given a device with a local hostname myhost and a parent domain name example.com, the fully qualified domain name is myhost.example.com. The FQDN therefore uniquely identifies the device — while there may be many hosts in the world called myhost, there can only be one myhost.example.com.

In the DNS, and most notably, in DNS zone files, a FQDN is specified with a trailing dot, for example, "somehost.example.com.". The trailing dot denotes the root domain. Most DNS resolvers will process a domain name that contains a dot as being an FQDN[1] or add the final dot needed for the root of the DNS tree. Resolvers will process a domain name without a dot as unqualified and automatically append the system's default domain name and the final dot.
Some applications, such as web browsers will try to qualify the domain name part of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) if the resolver cannot find the specified domain. Some applications, however, never use trailing dots to indicate absoluteness, because the underlying protocols require the use of FQDNs, such as e-mail

Domain name

A domain name is an identification label to define realms of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).

Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. A prominent example are the top-level Internet domains com, net and org.

Below these top-level domains (TLDs) in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are open for reservation and registration by end-users that wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, run web sites, or create other publicly accessible Internet resources. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

Individual Internet host computers use domain names as host identifiers, or hostnames. Hostnames are the leaf labels in the domain name system usually without further subordinate domain name space. Hostnames appear as a component in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as web sites (e.g., en.wikipedia.org).

Domain names are also used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of a resource. Such examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the DomainKeys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

An important purpose of domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorizable names to numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g., website) to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet. Such a move usually requires changing the IP address of a resource and the corresponding translation of this IP address to and from its domain name.

This article primarily discusses the registered domain names, the domain names registered by domain name registrars to the public. The Domain Name System article discusses the technical facilities and infrastructure of the domain name space and the hostname article deals with specific information about the use of domain names as identifiers of network hosts.

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software mainly prevent and remove computer viruses, including worms and trojan horses. Such programs may also detect and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware.

A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signatures involve searching for known malicious patterns in executable code. However, signatures can only be updated as viruses are created; users can be infected in the time it takes to create and distribute a signature. To counter such zero-day viruses, heuristics may be used to essentially guess if the file is truly malicious. Generic signatures look for known malicious code and use wild cards to identify variants of a single virus. An antivirus may also emulate a program in a sandbox, monitoring for malicious behavior. Success depends on striking a balance between false positive and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives. In one case a faulty virus signature issued by Symantec mistakenly removed essential operating system files, leaving thousands of PCs unable to boot.

Antivirus software can have drawbacks. If it is of the type that scans continuously, antivirus software may cause a significant decline in computer performance, it may present computer users with a decision the user may not understand. Antivirus software generally works at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack
The effectiveness of antivirus software is a contentious issue.

One study found that the detection success of major antivirus software dropped over a one-year period

Server Monitoring Software

Scalable, Efficient Monitoring
Large sites monitor more than 1000 servers/devices from a single PA Server Monitor server.

Flexible Monitoring
Monitor dependencies, maintenance schedules, time of day rules

Powerful Alerts
Per monitor event escalation rules, alert suppresion, SMS, email and more

Ease of Use
Simple Startup Wizard - be monitoring 5 minutes from now. Bulk Config to quickly make huge changes.

Reports
Automatic server and server-group reports, ad-hoc reports, detailed scheduled reports

You can easily monitor...

Event logs , CPU usage, Memory usage, NIC usage , Free disk space , Running services
Log files , Server & room temperature , SNMP object values , Running process(es)
Directory quotas , Changed files and directories, Performance counter values
POP, IMAP and SMTP mail servers , Web page content and load times
Ping response times , TCP port response , Citrix Monitoring , Additional resources via user scripts

PA Server Monitor is the most powerful monitoring solution in its class.
Scalable, Efficient Monitoring
Large sites monitor more than 1000 servers/devices from a single PA Server Monitor server.
Flexible Monitoring
Monitor dependencies, maintenance schedules, time of day rules
Powerful Alerts
Per monitor event escalation rules, alert suppresion, SMS, email and more
Ease of Use
Simple Startup Wizard - be monitoring 5 minutes from now. Bulk Config to quickly make huge changes.
Reports
Automatic server and server-group reports, ad-hoc reports, detailed scheduled reports

Internet security face-off: Norton vs McAfee

The price, scores, system requirements and screenshot to the right are for Norton Internet Security 2007; for details of McAfee Internet Security Suite 9.0, kindly click here. Protecting your PC is a necessity for anyone connecting to the internet. And these two releases from Norton and McAfee provide essential one-stop solutions. Each offers the core requirements and neither will be a poor choice, but your own requirements could make either one slightly more desirable.
A big complaint about previous versions of Norton was that it could be overwhelming. The updated Protection Center offers a simplified interface, with main features accessible from the front page and configuration options tucked away. McAfee’s control panel is not quite as slick, but experienced users will find it easier to locate settings they wish to modify, with essentials such as scanning and updates accessible via convenient buttons. And log files are more advanced, too.

Virus extinguishing

The core features of any internet security package remain antivirus protection and a firewall. Both products' firewalls protect users against harmful traffic. The enhanced Smart Firewall in Norton deals with a common problem for inexperienced users: how to deal with information about applications. Often files have obscure names, some of which may be necessary for the operation of essential applications.

For those who wish to have more control over their firewall settings, there are plenty of options to set up active, trusted and restricted networks. And an important feature of both applications is that they will monitor wireless networks. You can customise a list of trusted programs that are allowed to access the net.

In our advance review copy of McAfee, the firewall has to be downloaded once the suite has installed. This makes the installation more complex than necessary, but it should be rectified by the final release. As with the Norton firewall, however, it does a very good job of hiding your PC from malicious attacks. And it offers customisable control over which applications can access the web.

There tend to be more alerts from McAfee, while Norton’s Smart Firewall makes more decisions on behalf of the user. That said, McAfee's ability to police networks is simpler. With regards to antivirus protection, maintaining up-to-date databases against potential threats is essential. McAfee and Symantec have long been major players in this field and updates are maintained extensively on a daily basis. The latest version of Norton includes an enhanced Auto-Protect component for viruses, spyware and adware, but offers IM (instant messaging) scanning and email protection too.

Enhancements have been made to such things as identifying rootkits and scan times. But despite running a system scan several times, Norton insisted that this action must be taken every time it is launched.

Norton's Bloodhound heuristics analyse executable files to find potential virus threats, even if these are not matched against any database. While the antivirus features are particularly good at locating known spyware and viruses, we didn't have the opportunity to test the effectiveness of Bloodhound itself.

McAfee VirusScan made effective work of scanning for viruses, spyware and other malicious activity on our test PC, although this was considerably slower than Norton and placed a greater burden on system resources. Like Norton, McAfee provides a heuristic engine (called SystemGuards) to monitor suspicious activity and prevent viruses that are not listed. And it uses a system called X-Ray to find and remove rootkits.

Baiting the line

While malware is the most significant component for online protection, there are plenty of other menaces – some of which can be even worse. If your privacy is infringed, or you fall prey to a phishing scam, it can be much more than just your hard drive that suffers. As such, protecting personal information is a key feature for both of these security programs. Norton has several features to protect users from fraudulent sites. The most obvious is the Toolbar, which is displayed by default in your browser. Usually this appears as a large green button at the top of the browser, indicating that fraud monitoring is on. But if you encounter a web page masquerading as another, Norton prevents the page from being displayed. This does involve a slight performance hit, but is extremely useful against links in scam emails. Norton can use advanced heuristics to check that sites are what they claim to be. By breaking down URLs and analysing the format and content of web pages, it can have a decent stab at telling whether a website is official or not.

McAfee’s protection features are, as far as the browser is concerned, less ostentatious. A SiteAdvisor button sits in the toolbar, informing you whether sites are safe or not. When confidential information is sent out, the privacy service can block the information and alert the user. This can easily double up as a parental control, an area where McAfee is particularly strong. The program can analyse web pages for inappropriate content and images and then block any offending material.

The improvements to Norton Internet Security have been made primarily in terms of firewall and antivirus protection. In this version, you won't find advanced parental controls, for example. Nonetheless, for the security-obsessed, there are very good logging features and a comprehensive virus encyclopedia.

By contrast, McAfee's suite provides several extras. As well as the parental controls already alluded to, Spamkiller will block unwanted email, while Data Backup allows you to protect your data in case files are lost or damaged. After the initial run, McAfee can back up files the second that they're updated. As well as ensuring maximum security of files, this cuts down on those annoying moments when the PC embarks on a 20-minute backup job, just as you're in the middle of an important assignment.

And if you fancy getting hold of even more features, there is a Total Protection suite that includes password protection for crucial data and file shredding. You will, however, have to pay more for it.