2009 September | HIT Systems

Archive for September, 2009

Windows 2008 R2 DNS issues

Recently we spun up a bunch of shiny new Windows 2008 R2 servers for testing in our lab. Everything appeared to be fine, R2 is awesome and includes a bunch of new features that make remote desktop delivery even better.

I did however find a strange problem with our new demo environment; I had no issues browsing Google, Yahoo, and any other websites. However, Microsoft related websites were not loading properly; I would try to go to microsoft.com, msdn.com, or bing.com and would be greeted with this error page.

dns

I went through the standard troubleshooting; checked DNS, checked my network configuration, checked and double-checked everything. I was getting frustrated and called my datacenter. They saw no problems. I eventually noticed that some of my servers who had their DNS set to a non-R2 2008 server did not have these issues. This lead me to believe the issue lied with R2 somehow.

After doing a bit of googling I came across a blog posting from Scott Forsyth. He noticed the same issue and got to the bottom of it. You can read his full analysis here.

The fix is simple; Disable Microsoft EDns services via the command line.

dnscmd /config /EnableEDNSProbes 0

No restart is necessary and you should be able to browse Microsoft sites with no issues.

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Posted in: General by James Hart on September 29, 2009

New HIPAA Requirements: Individuals Must Be Notified of Breaches of Their Health Information

This week the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new regulations requiring entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to notify individuals when a breach of their health information occurs. As part of the 2009 economic stimulus legislation, Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, requiring HHS to issue breach notification rules. These new regulations are effective September 23, 2009. HHS, however, has stated in response to concerned commenters that the government will not enforce the penalties for any failure to provide proper notification for any breaches that occur prior to February 22, 2010.

The new rules require health care providers and any entities covered under HIPAA to notify affected individuals after a breach of unsecured protected health information (PHI). In addition, a business associate of a covered entity must notify the covered entity when it discovers a breach of such information so that the covered entity may take appropriate steps to notify affected individuals. According to the rules, a “breach” includes any unauthorized “acquisition, access, use or disclosure” of PHI which compromises the security or privacy of that information. However, the rules provide several types of disclosure as exceptions to this definition. For example, it is not considered a breach if the recipient of the information would not have had enough time to retain the information.

After a breach is discovered, the covered entity must notify the affected individuals within a reasonable time, but in no case later than 60 calendar days. If the breach affects fewer than 500 individuals, the covered entity must maintain a log of the breach and subsequent notification for submission to the Secretary of HHS on an annual basis. If the breach affects more than 500 individuals, however, the covered entity must notify the Secretary of HHS immediately and inform prominent regional media of the breach.

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Posted in: HIPAA by Steve Sequenzia on September 22, 2009

U.S. lags the world’s top adopters of electronic health records

The United States is far behind countries that lead the world in using electronic health records, and the nation should borrow some of their policies to increase the adoption rate of e-health records here, according to a report a technology advocacy group released on Wednesday.

In its report, the nonpartisan think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the United States lags Denmark, Sweden and Finland in adopting electronic health records. For example, all primary care physicians in Sweden use electronic health records, while the rate is 99 percent in Finland and 95 percent in Denmark. Only 28 percent of primary care physicians in the United States use electronic health records, the foundation reported.

The rates in Denmark and Finland are high because the countries started pushing the use of the records in 1994 and 1996, respectively, years before the United States began using the systems.

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Posted in: Electronic Health Records by Steve Sequenzia on September 22, 2009

The “Cloud” is coming; Windows 7 Embedded Enterprise released to manufacturing

Microsoft announced today the release of their latest “Embedded” operating system. The biggest announcement to us in the cloud infrastructure field was Windows 7 Embedded Enterprise. This brings us one step closer to having a rich remote desktop experience including graphics, video, and sound delivered across the internet to a “Thin Client” device.

Currently we are testing Windows 7 with Windows 2008 R2 Server providing remote desktops. We have been very impressed with the results. The experience of streaming a remote desktop over the internet is negligible when compared to running a local operating system. We have even been able to play a Youtube video across the internet and view it locally on our PCs through a remote desktop connection. This is something that in the past was unthinkable.

I am very excited to see how the next few months develop as more and more companies realize the cloud is not going away. The development of applications and services for the cloud is taking off.

For your average business it does not make sense to spend time and money replacing your outdated desktop computers with new ones. The cloud is coming and its time to jump on board.

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Posted in: Cloud Computing, General, Windows 7 by James Hart on September 22, 2009

Tether iPhone on Windows 7 without iTunes

No iTunes for me, I never use the software, I find it to be bloated and intrusive on my computers. I heard about Internet Tethering on the iPhone without needing to jailbreak nor install iTunes. Here is how you do it.

First off; download and install this driver set. This is all the iPhone drivers that normally come with iTunes just without the bloated software itself.

AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi

After you have that installed, Go ahead and reboot your computer and grab your iPhone.

Open Safari on your iPhone and browse over to http://help.benm.at/

iphone tether

Download and install Mobileconfigs onto your iphone.

Follow the onscreen options to pick your country and provider (USA and ATT in my case).

Once you have finished with that and the install on your phone has completed.

Go into your Phones Settings->General->Network. You should see Internet Tethering as an option, Click on it, Should look like this.

iphone tether

Click On!

You can either pair your computer with Bluetooth or choose USB. Either way once you connect your iPhone to your PC it will install a few drivers and install a new Network Connection called Apple Mobile Device Ethernet.

iphone tether

It may take a while to connect but that’s it, you’re done! Enjoy free tethering on your iphone, No itunes, No jailbreak, No problem!

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Posted in: Windows 7, iPhone by James Hart on September 11, 2009

Cloud Computing Transitions

Speaking with a client today the subject of cloud computing came up. For those who are not yet familiar with Cloud Computing, in simple terms your computing power is delivered to you as a service over the internet for a reoccurring charge, similar to electricity. You pay only for what you use. You probably already use some “cloud applications” and do not even realize it. Some good examples of cloud applications are Gmail, Salesforce.com, and file sharing sites like YouSendIt.

How can cloud computing benefit your office? Well first of all it gets rid of the recurring hardware lifecycle expenses. You know the deal, the IT staff purchase expensive new servers and desktops for your company. Things are great at first, then in a blink of an eye your equipment is outdated and you have to shell out exorbitant amounts of money to upgrade. Utilizing the cloud allows your company to take advantage of resources which are constantly being upgraded and maintained on the backend level. On the desktop side of things your standard PC Tower is replaced with a low-cost low-power ThinClient. ThinClients have life spans far beyond that of traditional PCs.

As your office hardware ages have a closer look towards the clouds. You may find a new and better way to handle your computing.

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Posted in: Cloud Computing by James Hart on September 8, 2009

HIT Systems goes vertical

Today marks a major milestone for HIT Systems. We have officially launched the new HIT Systems which is now a vertical healthcare IT solutions provider.

Although we have been servicing healthcare providers for many years it has not been our sole focus. That has changed and from now on we are committed solely to the healthcare industry.

This transition has taken place so that we are able to focus the entirety of our company’s resources on providing quality solutions aimed strictly at the healthcare industry and its needs. This new commitment allows us to better service our clients by offering solutions that cater specifically to the needs of the healthcare industry.

Needless to say we are very excited about this transition and are looking forward to helping healthcare providers better use technology and in turn provide better care for their patients.

We have also partnered with Aprima Medical Software to resell their PRM software package. Aprima (formally iMedica) PRM is an integrated electronic health records (EHR) and practice management solution that is intuitive, fast and easy to use.

My partners and I are very excited about the industry and the direction of HIT Systems.

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Posted in: HIT Systems by Steve Sequenzia on September 8, 2009