Wireless Captive Portals
Managing your wireless access is now easier with the addition of a captive portal system. As the admin, you create voucher dispensers via WebAdmin, and then can allow users to create and distribute access vouchers via the UserPortal. This favored system which is widely used in hotels, coffee shops, and managing guest access. The system can be used to create one-time passwords or generate a password-of-the-day and supports both time and bandwidth limits for issued vouchers as well. You can work with and configure this feature from Wireless Protection–>Captive Portals.

Endpoint Protection
UTM 9 offers a new Endpoint Protection system which is configured in a new, dedicated section inside WebAdmin. Clients are managed with the same ease that has made our Wireless Protection and RED products so popular, and our Endpoint Protection launches with Anti-Virus and USB port control. Endpoints are fully managed from within WebAdmin, and are licensed on a per-desktop basis using a licensing system that operates alongside normal UTM functionality on a new tab in the licensing area of WebAdmin. Much more information will be available as we approach GA until then, try it out!

HTML5 VPN Portal
A brand-new clientless portal has been added which allows you access to applications using only a browser windows. Using HTML5 technology, you are able to control your desktops and access servers with a level of responsiveness never before possible in such a feature. Unlike our competitors, when we say clientless, we mean it; there is no need to install any plugins, browser add-ons, or download and run an application. Even more attractive is the clean-up process, simply close the browser window and no trace is left behind, meaning you can confidently use your access at public terminals without having to wipe your tracks.
Configure this access from WebAdmin in Remote Access–>HTML5 VPN Portal and then use the UserPortal to access your application(s).

Sophos Anti-Virus (SAV)
UTM 9 adds Sophos Anti-Virus which replaces the Clam AV scanner that was used as one of two possible engine choices in previous versions. The Avira engine remains and complements SAV as a separate, parallel Anti-Virus scanner for use in Web, Mail, and Web Application Protection. Faster and much more capable than Clam, SAV brings with it the years of expertise and considerable capabilities of the Sophos core technology. You may now also select which engine to use when single scan is selected throughout WebAdmin. This can be configured from Management–>System Settings–>Scan Settings.

In the HTTP proxy of Astaro Security Linux, there is a feature that can be enabled which is titled “Block CONNECT method on HTTP port:”. This feature, if activated, will instruct the proxy to only service ‘Post’ and ‘Get’ requests, with other types of commands over the proxy being rejected. Some types of programs, such as Peer-to-Peer, Instant Messaging, and Spyware, attempt to connect to the Internet using the connection request over the HTTP proxy. With the proxy restricted to only ‘Post’ and ‘Get’ requests, these types of programs are largely restricted from connecting to the Internet, while normal web page traffic proceeds unimpeded.

While this option has none of the fine granularility of the Intrusion Protection System, it does offer the ability to globally disable many types of programs that admins seek to deny, or spend time blocking by destination IP address using the Packet Filter. If this option mistakenly blocks a program that is needed, it is best to disable it and perform a more specialized configuration using Astaro’s Intrusion Protection.

Cloud Solutions migrate the first law firm in Hong Kong to be 100% Cloud.

11th Feb 2012 — Hong Kong – Over the past three months Cloud Solutions has migrated Hong Kong based Law firm, Gall Solicitors, to the Cloud. Gall Solicitors are located in Central Hong Kong and employ 24 full time staff. Gall specialise in litigation, mediation and arbitration. The firm migrated all their key business applications to the Cloud. This included their Email Server, Document Management System, Time & Billing System, their file storage and Windows desktops.

Phase one saw Cloud Solutions implement a new Time & Billing Systems (TaBS). Client and Matter balances were imported and all time-keeping staff started to enter their time sheets into the new system. TaBS was hosted in Rackspace’s Hong Kong Private Cloud or Managed Hosting services. The TaBS systems was installed on a Linux server with Cloud Solutions providing all implementation and training services.

Phase two saw their Exchange Server migrated to Google Apps for Business. Cloud Solutions worked with each member of staff to ensure all their emails in Outlook had been safely migrated to Google Apps Cloud system before switching away from Microsoft Exchange. Users continued to use Outlook however the back end email server was now Google’s Cloud Gmail servers. Gmail was integrated to iPhones, iPads and Blackberrys for key staff. The migration was very smooth with no email down time during the switch. Cloud based auto archiving and backup services were additional add-ons to Google Apps adopted.

Cloud based Document Manager, NetDocuments was next to be implemented. NetDocuments has been specifically designed for use in Law Firms. Gall Solicitors had a traditional Windows file server in their office with hundreds of folders with documents stored in by matter reference and name. The complete folder structure and all documents were imported to NetDocuments in the Cloud. The documents were indexed and categorised by Matter, Precedents and Administrative. NetDocuments offer integration with Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook. Files can be opened and edited as normal. Emails in Outlook can now be filed against a matter in NetDocuments. This feature was very well received as Email management is always an issue for any law firm.

The document manager was also integrated to the photocopier and Time & Billing system. Photocopies can now be emailed directly to the document manager for filing and once a new matter is opened in the Time & Billing system the client and matter code is created automatically in the document management system, allowing documents to be created and filed without delay. Folders and documents in NetDocuments can be linked directly with Clients and Matters in TaBS.

Accessing and sharing documents has become easier with the easy-to-use and intuitive interface, powerful security features and search engine offered by Netdocuments. The remote access to all documents has been another winner especially the new iPad client from NetDocuments.

The final phase saw the replacement of all aging Windows XP computers with the latest range of Linux Cloud computers from Wyse. Virtual Desktops (VDI) were implemented which provides for a standardised Windows 7.0 desktop hosted in the Rackspace Private Cloud environment. Local file storage is available from a 500GB Cloud based SAN. The desktop environment improved overall accessibility, security, standardisation, disaster recovery and requires less IT support. Each user’s desktop environment is located in the Cloud and the Cloud computer or terminal on the user’s desktop allows them to connect to their virtual desktop across a secure Internet connection.

Additional desktop tools for PDF manipulation and OCR were installed along with CompareDocs for redlining and Word and PDF document comparing and change control.

Lawyers now access their complete office environment from home, from Court or when they are out of Hong Kong for business or pleasure.

The firm has worked hard to adopt new internal processes to maximise the benefit offered by the Cloud. This includes administrative processes like New Client opening forms and HR related Leave Requests being all migrated to Cloud based electronic forms along with a comprehensive Intranet that offers professional and systems information, legal news, training videos and user guides. Currently Gall do not employ a single IT person to maintain their system as the Cloud offers such a stable and secure environment.

The firm is now able to expand both in Hong Kong and abroad without constraint. Their data and IT systems are far more secure, more accessible, amd more available with 100% up time guaranteed.

Gall Solicitors are a market leader in the adoption of Cloud computing in their profession. This has allowed the firm to provide the best services possible to their clients in the most productive way. There has been no doubt this has been a very successful project from both Cloud Solutions and Gall Solicitor’s point of view.

References Web Sites:

www.thelawfirm.com.hk
www.netdocuments.com
www.tabs.com.hk
www.cloudsolutions.com.hk

Cloud Solutions tel: +852 3973-3848

On Saturday 17th December 42 staff from the NETsolutions Asia Group of companies gathered at the Asia Hotel in Bangkok to formulate and discuss business plans for 2012.

The activity was conducted in a workshop form and went from 9 am until 6:30 pm when staff joined for a group dinner.

Through such planning as this NETsolutions expects to provide better support and services to our client and partner base as well as maintaining our focus on technical excellence and customer service.

At the Astaro Asia Pacific Partner Conference held in Langkawi, Malaysia between 1-3 June 2011 NETsolutions was awarded the Best Premier Security Partner for the Asia Pacific region.

In recognising the contribution made by NETsolutions in Thailand, Norbert Kiss, Astaro Vice President for Asia Pacific, praised NETsolutions commitment to Astaro and the professional, knowledgeable approach to deploying Astaro solutions.

During the Conference partners learnt from Jan Hichert, the CEO of Astaro, about the details of the purchase of Astaro by Sophos and the changes and benefits that the purchase would bring to Astaro.  Stuart Fisher, Vice President APAC and Clarence Chua, Director of Sales for Sophos both attended the conference and contributed sessions.  Management believes that the joining of Astaro with Sophos will bring two leading complementary security portfolios together to deliver coordinated protection and policy between endpoint and network.  By combining policy, security filtering and information known at the endpoint with the network, Sophos will be able to provide improved security and visibility along with integrated management and reporting.

With the imminent release of Astaro Security Gateway v8.2 technical training was provided at the Conference and NETsolutions had two engineers attend this training.

• Updated WebAdmin – New colors, fonts, and visuals make WebAdmin more easily readable with crisper overall presentation
• IPv6 – Support has been added for the next iteration of IP addressing throughout ASG
• New Kernel and Base System – Provides 64-bit support, massively increased hardware compatibility, and better performance
• Country Blocking – Deny communications to/from any combination of countries and/or regions
• Web Application Security – A new subscription has been added to our protection portfolio which protects your web servers from modern attacks, hackers, viruses and data theft
• Flash-Based Reporting – Reporting data can be displayed via animated charts which add strong visual representations to how the data is presented
• WebAdmin Rights & Roles – Let multiple administrators or auditors share duties by separating access permissions; for example giving someone the ability to work only with the Mail Quarantine
• Configuration Change Tracking – Aid compliance and accountability efforts by identifying what was changed by an administrator on a forensic level
• Printable Configuration – Save the contents of the entire system as an XML file to aid compliance efforts and record keeping
• New Online Help – Improved layout coupled with new feature set updates this reference to be faster and more useful in retrieving information on demand
• VPN Remote Access Reporting – Displays usage graphs for the various types of user connections, along with historical data for examining session information
• WebAdmin Menu Search – Instantly filter the menu to show sections of WebAdmin based on a search query box; great for locating an option or feature quickly
• Web Content Filter Override – Allow configured users and groups to bypass URL filtering block pages by providing credentials and entering a reason, all of which can be tracked using new override reports

Other Features and Changes

• New installer for software appliances with improved navigation and troubleshooting options
• Custom certificates support lets you remove browser warnings when accessing WebAdmin or the UserPortal
• Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller authentication support
• Reverse DNS for creating reverse mappings in static DNS
• Uninterrupted Intrusion Protection updates keep traffic flowing when new patterns are introduced
• Rule numbering is preserved during search queries, making it easier to locate the resulting rules and where they sit in the configuration order
• Exceptions improvements for HTTP/S and IPS now allow the use of granular “and/or” operators
• Site-to-Site VPN’s using PSK may now have different keys using PSK probing when configured as respond-only
• Multiple syslog servers are supported which allows logging data to be sent to multiple locations simultaneously for preservation
• Dozens of other usability improvements and minor feature additions

Novell alreay has very strong solutions for Data Center, End-User computing and Identity and Security management provided to Enterprise and SMB customer organization in Thailand for over 10 years. Industry well known products such as SUSE Linux Enterprise server, Novell Open Enterprise server (OES), PlateSpin, ZENwork management suite, Novell Identity management and GroupWise collaboration

Under Novell PartnerNET Alliance Partner program, NETsolutions Asia will distribute Novell software under Data Center and End-User computing Solutions. We commit to support reseller under Novell Partnet Program with Certified Novell sales and pre-sales resources.

As Novell Solutions grows in Thailand, NETsolutions Asia welcomes joining the Novell PartnerNET program to deliver appropriate solutions for your customers.

Authorize Products by NETsolutions Asia

Please contact sales@nsasia.co.th or call +66 2 401 9255 for more information

Cloud Solutions, a Hong Kong based IT consultancy firm and solutions provider, launches The Law Firm (www.thelawfirm.com.hk)

NETsolutions Asia releases the next generation Time and Billing system for Law and Accounting firms based in Hong Kong and around the Asian region. TaBS has been designed with Web 2.0 technology and can be hosted on-site or as an appliance and hosted off-site in a data centre. The modules available with TaBS includes Time Keeping, Office and Out of Pocket Expense Tracking (Disbursements), Matter / Job Management, Billing, Receipts, Client and Contact Management, Notes and Memos, Documents, Case and Trust Account Management. In addition TaBS supports multi-currency and can support all Asian languages including Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

The Billing module supports client centric billing, anticipation and cross department billing. As many professional firms consist of more than one legal entity, cross company billing is supported with the automated generation of all appropriate postings for the general ledger of each entity. A key feature of TaBS is the ability to deliver real time reports to partners and fee earners via the TaBS Dashboard. From here a fee earner or timekeeper can track their to-do-items, news items via the built-in blog and data analysis such as the aging of WIP and debtors as well as key staff KPI productivity reports.

Data analysis available on screen and in printable reports will differentiate TaBS in the market. Risk management is supported by providing the facility to perform conflict of interest searches, view on-screen the total exposure to a group or related client matters, percentage of WIP and receivables per partner. NETsolutions Asia promises to deliver increased profits and cash flow to firms adopting TaBS through more accurate time keeping of fee earners, less administration costs relating to bill generation and cash collection.

TaBS is available now and starts at US$2000 p.a. for the first two fee earners and US$500 per fee earner p.a. thereafter. Discounts available for firms with more than 50 fee earners. About NETsolutions Asia : NETsolutions Asia provides solutions to Law Firms and Accountancy firms in Hong Kong and around Asia. Details of solutions are available on our web site www.thelawfirm.com.hk and www.tabs.com.hk. TaBS joins solutions for Trademark management and Document Management for Law Firms from NetDocuments, email from Google Apps. TaBS Time and Billing System Released in Hong Kong