Wireless Security

The ability to share an Internet connection is great and the ability to do this wirelessly is even better. Wireless networks are easy to install, you don't have to run cables, and you can roam around a location within the WLAN (wireless local area network), or physical range of wireless connectivity . These features are what makes wireless networks so popular with both end users, and hackers.

The one problem with wireless networks is the vulnerability of your network. A typical hardwired network has physical security due to limited access to the actual network and one opening to the internet (Gateway) has a firewall or two in place (or it had better). This can stop most unauthorized access to your network. The difficulty in setting up wired networks has discouraged a lot of people from installing networks in the first place.

Then a long came the wireless which, as I stated earlier in the article, made the home networking game more appealing and not as intimidating. Having a wireless network means that the physical security that is inevitable in a wired network is simply not there. Anyone in the range of your wireless network can see your network, and if not secured properly, can gain access. If your wireless access point isn't the router on your network then outsiders can slip in behind your firewall. This used to happen at my college, there was an apartment complex behind a portion of the school, and the other techs would piggyback on some guy's network. He had an unsecured wireless network, no one did anything bad to him, they just used him for Internet access but he never knew.

There are some practices you can perform to insure that no one is using your connection or trying to get on your personal network. First and foremost you need to get WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection) in place, which is an encryption that stops unauthorized users from accessing your network. There are at least two encryption types in 802.11b (128bit, and 64bit) and should probably be changed every other week or so. WEP encryption used to be completely the user's responsibility, but now I'm seeing hardware out of the box with at least one encryption key configured, forcing the user to configure his PCs in order to connect.

Using WEP is essential to wireless security, but don't rely on it alone, there are other security measures you can put in place as well. With some wireless units you can set a MAC address filters, witch can really beef up your security. A MAC address is an identification number the manufacturer stamps on a network device, and is (or should be) completely unique. If this security is in place then even if someone knows the WEP Key they still cannot get into the network because your wireless access device will deny it.

There are two other things you might want to do to tighten up your network: The first thing you should do is go through and change all of the default security settings, and passwords. The reason I said this is most Routers and access points usually have a lot of these configuration fields (i.e. username and password or the SSID ) filled out with generic values for ease of setup. The bad thing about this is that people can use these settings against you to gain access into your network. Secondly, with a lot of routers your SSID is set to broadcast by default, this means that it's broadcasting your network's name to the physical reaches of your network. Not good, even if your neighbors don't have the security rights to access your network they will constantly see it every time they boot up one of their wireless PC's.

What kind of attachments can contain viruses

Basically, anything that is executable (able to run). You're generally safe with picture files, text files, and the like. However, it still pays to scan first.

Here is a very short list of the most common to watch out for:

exe
zip
scr
vbs
bat
com
pif
asp
doc
xls

Those are the most common; don't misinterpret this to mean that if you get one of these files it's automatically a virus. A ".zip" file may be nothing more than a set of compressed files your friend sent you to look at. A "doc" or "xls" file may simply be an MS Office file. It's just that these type of files could also be viruses.

A couple other virus tricks you need to be aware of. First, MS Office files can contain what are called "Macro Viruses". Without getting into too much detail, these files can run a "macro" (a macro is a mini-program run from within another program) that can be as destructive as any "regular" virus. So, my advice on MS Office attachments is not to open them unless you are expecting them. If they just show up, verify with the sender first.

The other trick you need to look out for is an extra extension added to an attached file. For example, you may have something like "mypicture.jpg.vbs". In fact, if you don't have your computer set to view file extensions, it may just look like "mypicture.jpg" and omit that last "vbs" part.

This may appear to be a jpg picture file, but it's actually a Visual Basic Script file. If executed, it will happily infect your computer with a virus.

So, be careful out there.

Web Bugs

Have you ever heard the term Web Bug? How about Web Beacon or Clear GIF? Well, don't feel left out if you haven't, it's not everyday terminology. The terms I mentioned are different names for the same thing. For the sake of remaining simple I'll stick with one name Web Bug. So what are Web Bugs and what to they do? They are small (1 by 1 pixel), usually transparent gifs hidden on websites or e-mails within other images like banner adds. Web bugs come from a different site than the one you are viewing but are most often affiliated with the site being viewed.

They are a lot like cookies in that they allow sites to recognize you and track where you've been. Web Bugs have a couple of major differences however. Web bugs share your information with any site that you may visit with the same type of web bug imbedded on it. The personal information bugs are sharing can be harmless information or very personal information, it depends on what information you have put on one of these sites. If you have given one of these sites information like your email address, then every other site you visit with the same bug will have your email address and can now send you spam. By sharing this personal information between sites these entities using bugs can get your email address and send out more spam and web bugs right to your front door. If you visit a site that recognizes you from a Web Bug then that server can not only track you but also send images and blocks of text to you. Web Bugs are also harder to detect than cookies because they are hidden, extremely small, and invisible.

These Web Bugs can also be placed in e-mails, a favorite trick of spammers is to hide a Web Bug in a random email. Opening or even previewing this e-mail can initiate the Web Bug process, which tells spammers that this is a valid e-mail address when someone views it. This validates your address, essentially making you part of their list of e-mails to spam. Most of the more recognized e-mail clients are affected by this such as Outlook Express, Gecko for Linux, Netscape, AOL, and more.

So, how do you stop or prevent these web Bugs from tracking you? As far as e-mail, make sure you don't open or even preview e-mails from unknown sources. Another thing you can do to prevent the Web bugs from biting is to block images in your e-mail all together, this will stop the GIFs from getting through your defenses. Win XP Service Pack 2 turns this setting ON by default in Outlook Express, and other e-mail clients have similar options (i.e. MSN/Hotmail and AOL).

You can also configure tougher cookie settings in your browser, but keep in mind all of these settings will affect the way you surf the web and view your e-mail. You can get advertising blocking software, but these programs have a hard time distinguishing between images that show information and images that are crawling' with Bugs. You can also go through the HTML code and look for the img tag that relates to a cookie (sounds like fun).

So are these bugs really something to get all worked up about? Well if you really don't like the thought of constantly being tracked and evaluated. If you don't like spam or pop-ups then this could be something you might want to at least regulate. You can figure out exactly what a web bug is doing by viewing the privacy policy which should be located on the website of the owner of the bug. If you don't find the privacy policy, you can always send the company e-mail and ask for what purposes do they have web bugs on their site.

How Firewalls Work

There are mean people out there that want very badly to get into your system or network. Maybe they want to steal information, to simply cause as much destruction as possible, or to use your system for their own uses. If you're online a lot or have a broadband connection, the attempts to enter your system may be relentless.

I feel that there are three main areas of defense against these threats: Anti-virus (of course), Firewall, and Spyware removal. With some programs being more important than others, but none being without importance. What I would like to do is give all of our readers at least a good concept of what these Firewalls and Anti-virus programs do to protect your system. I'm going to attempt to highlight the functions of these utilities and even some good practices that you can implement.

This week I'll be discussing the first line of defense between you and the Internet firewall. A firewall isn't going to stop you from getting a lot of viruses out there, unless it's the kind of viruses that proactively scans systems for open ports like the 32.Sasser that has recently stepped onto the virus scene. Where firewalls really come into play is in the area of Internet or Network access.

There are two basic types of firewalls: hardware and software.

A common hardware firewall is a routers. In a small network it sits in-between your PC and modem. These firewalls feature the ability to hide your PC from others on the Internet by assigning you private IP addresses through a process called NAT (Network Address Translation) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).

I may have lost some people there who are not familiar with IP addressing. This can get confusing rather quickly. To put it simpler: a router will take the Internet address that your ISP has doled out to you and give the PCs the are connected to the router a generic private IP address (not valid for the internet). The other primary job is to close ports (these are numbers that are associated with certain jobs, for example most email clients and servers use SMTP port 25 and POP3 port#110) ports can be a vulnerability as seen in the past and a hacker can have an easy time getting into your PC with ports wide open to the world. When hackers try to scan your network for known vulnerable ports the Firewall simply drops the packets because they contain data that no PC on the network requested.

Software firewalls are a little bit different and they have good points and bad points. First let me start by saying that it is always better to have a firewall then not to. The main difference between the two styles of firewalls is that one is an external device that runs on it's own hardware. The software firewall is an application that runs on your PC. This is the one down side I believe because it's one more application running on your PC while you're trying to surf the web and can cause resource overhead and slow things down in older PCs. In concept the firewalls really are the same, except that one of the biggest differences is a software firewall doesn't have any address translation services (i.e. NAT or DCHP).

Software firewalls do have some really great features however. For instance, a software firewall is great for someone who is new to this area of PCs and wants to learn more. I say this because most of these firewalls have a reasonably easy to understand interface different from the more "Techie" looking router interfaces.

Software firewalls also have a feature for Internet access that I think is very informative, for example in most of the software firewalls I have come across when a program tries to access the internet the firewall will pop up and ask you if you want this action to be allowed every time, prompt every time, or deny Internet access to the program. Most software firewalls will also notify you when someone from outside is hitting your firewall and a lot of times you get the IP address of the party on the other end of the actions. Both of these features can be used to further protect your PC, in some cases you might even be able catch a hacker trying to get into your PC by getting their IP address and then asking there ISP what this IP address is doing pinging your IP address.

I've actually helped one of customers do this they called me up and said that there firewall kept making noises and popping up with windows saying that there was some activity on here firewall. She said that this had been going on for a couple of days. Well we opened up the interface and looked at the log describing what the activity was and from whom it originated. There were a bunch of pings hitting her firewall, but the software gave us the IP address, and from there we opened up a command line and pinged the IP address back and it came up with their ISP's domain name. She called that ISP and talked to them about this address and what has been going on. I wouldn't be surprised if he was kicked from his Internet service.

How to secure your password from hackers attacks?

Today tip will help you to secure your computer from the access of professional hackers. There are some hacker’s breaks into your computer without using any impressive programming skills but trying to find words to guess as your password. Normally people use their name, house number, mobile number and word “password” as a password. If you have very simple password then a hacker can hack your computer very easily. To safe your computer from hackers there is a best way to create a tricky password. Here I will tell you some different type of tricks to make your password that can’t guess easily by any body.

Use the maximum characters in your password.
Always set the password using maximum characters length, because it is simple method, if your password is longer then it is very difficult to guess.

Use the combination of lower-case and upper case letters in your password.
Normally computer users use the lower case in password selection but it is best practice to use the combination of both (lower-case and upper case). So using different cases in your password makes it much more difficult to crack.

Use the combination of letters and numbers in your password.
When you mix both letters and numbers just like one letter and one number then your password is more incomprehensible.

Avoid using the name of your family members as password.
Always try to avoid the name of your child, spouse, city and country name as password, because if any body knows about your personal life’s details then they try to use these detail to guess your password.

Use any tools to create random password.
There are many third party tools are available to create the random password. You can create passwords containing a very difficult –to-guess collection of random characters with these tools.

How You Can Maintain Your Personal Computer

It has been said that computers are the new revolution. Once thought only to be essential for business offices, computers are now in over 60% of all homes in the US and other countries are quickly getting there as well. Computers used to be for the scientist or the geek but now people from all walks of life use the computers to get onto the Internet to communicate via email, read the news, share pictures and videos and even work from home. With the number of home computers now almost as common as homes with television sets, the issue of PC maintenance comes into the picture. Should you buy the limited or lifetime warranty on your PC or MAC, or should you scout your local classified section of your newspaper to get a technician to call in case something goes wrong? Or should you just do maintenance yourself? We're going to concentrate on how you can maintain your PC to avoid making that call to a technician.

1. Power surge protection

While electricity is what powers your home PC, it can also be its worst enemy. Power surges are now the number one cause of computer data and critical parts malfunction in the United States and elsewhere. A power surge is a sudden increase in the power coming into your home through the electrical outlets. This sometimes can come about as a result of a storm that causes lightning to surge through the power grid causing a temporary interruption and then resumption of power. This slight electrical hiccup can cause a massive power surge to be sent into your PC and practically fry critical components. To guard against this, you need to purchase a Power Surge Protector. The best ones come from a company called APC.

2. Do not turn off PC

Many people have this impression that computers, like television sets or radios, need to be turned off when they go to bed. This is not the case. Windows operated computers need not be turned off and on all the time. Turning computers off and then on may result in data damage and even a system crash. Most PCs have a sleep or hibernate button which should be pressed to enable to computer to "snooze"

3. Do not download from unknown websites

A computer's worst enemy is a computer virus. Viruses travel across the Internet and gain entry into one's computer via emails, email attachments and downloading software and other programs from third party sites which have a dubious origin. Viruses can also get into your computer via streaming media (watching streaming video or listening to audio from unverified sites). If you are given to visiting third party sites and downloading media and programs, make sure you have a recent version of a good anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee. Also do anti-virus scans on your PC and do not open email attachments from people you do not know.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theodor_Cartman

8 methods prevented Laptop Overheat

The incident laptop exploded because overheat (hot excessive) in recent times often happened. Be on the alert quite important, but did not become paranoid. Take note the method avoided overheat in laptop along with this…

1. Clean the ventilation system in laptop with the compressor.

2. Always placed laptop in the hard surface. Avoided placed laptop in the blanket, cloth wool or the other soft surface that could obstruct the wind and the exchange of air.

3. Turn off laptop before putting him into the box/the bag. If you did not want to kill him, arranged laptop in the condition hibernate. This was important to prevent the occurrence of the process of the hot increase. Don't very much-time placed laptop that was operating in the crowded place, this could increase hot.

4. Instal software monitoring, like SpeedFan, that enabled you to supervise and monitor the temperature of the processor, hard drive and the other component.

5. Arranged setting power to prevent hot was abundant to the component like the screen and hard drive. Lowered power as soon as possible if indeed was not needed.

6. And you too could use the cooler laptop that could prevent hot excessive.

7. If laptop you potential experienced overheat and still in the guarantee period, don't hesitate to report your complaint.

8. If you were planned bought laptop just, don't be reckless! Thorough previously thoroughly. Look for information about laptop the model and the make what often overheat, so as you did not regret in afterwards the day.

How to Penetrated Proteksi PC Security TM

If you the lover software-software the protection for windows, you must know with software this one. PC Security was software the protection to file-file, the system, boot et cetera that was equipped with fiture-fiture the interesting protection.

To be able to enter and changed setting his protection, you must ident as the administrator PC security and for this will be asked for password

So that you could login without through password, his method searched file that his name sdeamon.exe and winwd.exe that was file the PC Security TM gift, file this dihidden from windows, so entered through DOS.

Usually this location in the directory c:\windows or c:\windows\system. Delete the two file this and you can enter PC Security TM easily and changed setting him without being asked for password.

Have Nice Try..

What is a Wireless Router and What Are Its Benefits?

With the onset of advanced technology and communications, more terms have come up to define and refer to the systems and processes. With interconnection changing the landscape of the world and Internet phenomenon, our lives are more connected with each other.

But there is the need to provide security against those elements that would seek to destroy our systems and processes. One of these is a wireless router and this refers to a device located in a wireless local area network that identifies what is the next network point to which a packet should be transferred towards its planned destination. A wireless router has the same function and work as that of a hard-wired home or business local area network but the difference is that a wireless router actually provides a greater movement or mobility for laptops, notebook and other portable computer. This is because the individual computers are installed with wireless trans-receivers that can be inserted to a USB port or a PC Card slot.

Another function of a wireless router is that wireless router actually provides for a hardware firewall for those computer with high speed Internet connections, either for a home or business use and even if the home or business only has one computer. It was also believed that the use of this wireless router guarantees a higher protection against the possibility of hacking because when one has individual computer, the IP addresses are not exposed to the Internet.

Another thing is that a wireless router does not eat up the resources of a computer unlike a firewall. The past years, the technology of a wireless router developed, allowing for more connection of different computers to a LAN. Specifically, the newer wireless router provides a specification of 802.11g and this allows for greater transmission over shorter distances up to 54 megabits compare with the earlier standard.

Further, wireless routers can allow greater connectivity inside various enterprises and the internet and inside what is called as Internet Service Providers and larger routers are used in very large enterprise networks and the small ones are for the connectivity for small and home offices. So the size of your wireless router would depend on how extensive the use would be.

The question arises on whether there is the need to have a wireless router and the answer is in the affirmative. This is because most home users would want to connect all their computers to the Internet without the need to pay broadband service for each of the computers. In several instances, an ISP will permit you to use a wireless router and connect various computers to an Internet connection and simply pay a small fee. The price of wireless router would depend on the brand but the price range is from $40 to $73.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Pan

How to Use the Zone Alarm Free Firewall

Zone Alarm's free firewall program is designed to help protect your computer from hackers and viruses. Basically, a firewall is like a castle wall surrounding your computer. Only those programs and users that you choose to lower the drawbridge for can enter. The rest, including harmful programs and hackers, will be unable to access your computer. There are a variety of firewall programs out there, but Zone Alarm is one of the most trusted and well-known.

The first step in installing Zone Alarm is, of course, to download it. Visit www.zonealarm.com to get the free version of the software. Unlike some "free" software, Zone Alarm won't expire after so many days or require any sort of code to access all of its features. Before you start the install, you should disable (or, preferably, uninstall) any other firewall programs you have on your computer.

After going through all the normal installation steps (agreeing to the user license, entering your email, etc.), you'll see the option to install Zone Alarm Pro instead of the Free version. This version costs money. Although you may eventually want to upgrade to this product, select the free option for now. You will also get the option of having Zone Alarm update itself automatically. That's not a bad idea if you don't want to have to deal with installing updates.

Now it's time to configure Zone Alarm. Once this is done, Zone Alarm more or less runs by itself, and you won't have to do much with it on a day to day basis. First, you'll see the overview screen. If you click on preferences, you should see that Zone Alarm loads at startup (check it if it's not). Then click on Firewall. Here, you can decide how tight your firewall settings should be. The higher the setting, the fewer online programs and web scripts your computer will be able to run. Generally, you want the internet zone to be set to high to keep out viruses and such.

Program Control is another section that you'll want to check. You always want to have it set at medium or high; otherwise, programs like adware or viruses on your computer will have free access to send information to other computers online.

Once all of this is configured, you'll get a pop-up box every time a program wants to access the internet. For the first week or so, you'll see these often, but once Zone Alarm learns which programs should have access, the pop-ups will stop and you can rest assured that the Zone Alarm firewall is protecting your computer and the personal information stored there.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Russell