Systemagic Technical Blog

How does an iPod Touch or iPhone know where i am?

We have been getting lots of calls recently from people wanting help setting up mail on their iphone or ipod touch or syncing their iphone to their car bluetooth, so we decided it was about time we got in on the action and saw what all the fuss was about.... So, we're now have a shiny new iPod touch in the office (we use Orange for our phones, so can't get an iPhone just yet). Anyway, after upgrading the software to version 1.1.4 through iTunes and upgrading to the January software release we started playing around with the applications. For those of you who use the web alot you'll probably have come across Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk) which is pretty amazing. The latest release of the Touch and iPhone have a version installed. Right at the bottom there is a button which when you press it, assuming you're connected to wireless, it zooms the map in to where you are. Now, i could understand how this works if you're connected with an iPhone due to triangulation with phone masts etc, but as i'm connected through my office wireless, how does it know where i am? As with all problems that can't be answered straight away, I googled and found a useful explanation on someone elses blog. The link is below, so if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and you have wondered how it knows where you are, then take a look!

Also, if you have one of these gadgets and you're trying to work out how to get your email from Exchange at the office onto your device, just give us a call and we'll tell you all about IMAP.

Here's that link: http://www.nsdesign.co.uk/blog/2008/01/the-apple-ipod-touch-just-get-even-better/

Added By: Alex on 15/04/2008

Windows Home Server? In an office?

Windows Home Server was released at the end of last year with the aim of finding its way into peoples homes. We at Systemagic are also keen to test new software so once we had it up and running on one of our Fujitsu Siemens Primergy servers, we discovered (with a little help from Google) that infact the software can backup server operating systems as well as your usual XP and Vista home PC. So, for a small business with a combined network of 10 PCs and Servers or less, this is an ideal solution to your backup worries. Essentially Windows Home Server (or Windows Backup Server as we think it should have been named) performs a complete backup of each of your networked PC or servers each night and then holds an archive copy for up to 3 months. You're limited really only by the amount of disk space you have in your machine and with SATA drives being so cheap these days you can buy enough storage to do 10 PCs without breaking the bank.

We've already installed this solution into a number of clients and we ourselves have already benefited from having it running on our own network by completely recovering one of our laptops which died in under 30 minutes.

To allow our customers to take advantage of Windows Home Server in the best way we've packaged it up with a new Fujitsu Siemens Primergy Server and are selling it as a pre-installed bundle for under £300. You can read more here.

Added By: Alex on 11/02/2008

Wireless Pharming becomes reality.


Last year security firm Symantec theorised a practice known as 'wireless pharming'. This involves an attacker gaining access to a users wireless router and changing the DNS (domain name system) settings to direct them to any web page they wish.

The first real life instances of this style of attack have occured on a particular brand of router in Mexico as they have no built in security.

Routers will typically be password-protected, however many users rarely change the settings from that of the default factory settings. It is recommended that you change this password since default passwords are simple to find out by searching your router on the internet.

Added By: Scott on 24/01/2008

Mac Malware discovered

A piece of malware has been discovered in circulation. The program known as MacSweeper passes itself off as a legitimate application known as Mac Sweeper.

The program doesn't harm the Operating system but is difficult to remove. Once installed the appplication supposedly scans your system and reports back privacy violations. To remove these reports the software tries to force the purchase of an application.

Unlike PC's, Macs are not often targetted by malware authors, for this reason many users do not protect their machines. We advise that for any system a recognised Anti Virus soultion is present.

Added By: Scott on 22/01/2008

Valentines Virus Warning

A widespread email posing as a message of love which has been widely spammed across the internet in an attempt to install malicious code known as the Storm Worm. Luring users with messages of love to dangerous websites.


The Storm or Dorf Worm has been the most active attack seen in a couple years on the net. It is difficult to identify and trace due to the polymorphic nature of the code with similarities to a mixture of worms, trojans, bots and spam agents. It is believed to have infected literally hundreds of thousands of computers since its introduction.


Subject lines used in the email are many and varied, but all pose as a romantic message. Some of them include "Falling In Love with You", "Special Romance", "You're In My Thoughts", "Sent with Love", "Our Love Will Last", "Our Love is Strong", "Your Love Has Opened", "You're the One", "A Toast My Love", and "Heavenly Love".

The body of the email contains a link to an IP-address based website, which is actually one of the many compromised PCs in the Storm botnet. The website displays a large red heart, while installing malware onto the vistor's PC. It is believed that the worm, sends itself to other email addresses found on the now infected computer. Security experts believe that the worm code is designed to attempt to download further malicious code from the internet designed to take over the PC, convert it into part of a zombie network, and use it to send spam on behalf of hacking gangs.


Please ensure that your operating system and Anti-Virus software are fully updated with latest patches and delete any unsolicited email.

Added By: Scott on 16/01/2008

Harmful Windows 'Stealth' virus

A stealth Windows virus or rootkit dubbed as 'Mebroot' is circulating that steals confidential information such as login details for online bank accounts. It is estimted that over 5,000 people throughout europe have already been affected.

The malicious program overwrites a prt of your computers hard drive called the Master Boot Record (MBR). The area where your computer looks when it boots into its operating system. By controlling the MBR the rootkit can control the Opearting system and thus the computer it resides on.

Once installed 'Mebroot' will download other malicious programs such as keyloggers, that are used to steal confidential data.Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its position on the MBR as a platform so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.

An Independent security firm has produced a utility that will scan and remove the stealthy program. Click here

Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.

Please ensure that your operating system and Anti-Virus software are fully updated with latest patches.

Added By: Scott on 14/01/2008