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Wireless Internet Security

Security is a concern for a lot of people that use wireless networks. But the fact is that it doesn't have to be something that you should be concerned about if you put the correct procedures and security settings in place to ensure that you have no unauthorized access.

There are many different types of wireless routers available in the marketplace. But, essentially the settings in the configuration should be very similar in order to get this up and running properly. We'll presume that you have a laptop and this is why you are looking to go wireless so in order to make sure that your security on your router is set up correctly you need to connect directly to the router from your laptop using any patch cable or also called a Cat-5 cable.

Most routers nowadays allow you to connect using your browser, simply open up your browser and type in the IP address of your router you may need to check the manual for this. Hopefully you are able to establish a connection and you should be presented with a menu system where you are looking to find security settings. Of course this is is going to be different depending on what model and make of wlan router you actually have.

Essentially in this area you are looking to configure the wireless options. In this area and you can set the network IP also called SSID and you will also be looking to set up the encryption type. A standard encryption type is WEP, which will allow you to set up a WEP key pass phrase, which is essentially your password for accessing the network once this has been saved.

The WEP key must be and characters comprising of numeric numbers 0-9 and from A-F it's always good to have a mix of these within your 10-character password. Once you have this to make sure that you submit and safety settings on the router generally you will be asked to restart so these settings are saved.

Now it's time to test and from your laptop you need and you available networks you should be able to see the Network ID (or SSID) that you previously settled during the configuration if you have found this simply double-click on this and it will then ask you to enter the passphrase. This is the 10 characters that you previously typed in hopefully you have written these down or remembered them easily would you have entered these click on okay and you should then be able to connect to your wireless network. Hopefully you have no issues and everything has worked out perfectly.

There is of course extra-added security by limiting wireless access by MAC address. Under the control panel on your computer you can find the MAC address of your wireless card once you have found this you can go back into your router configuration and find the area where you can enter the MAC address off the card which would then add further security and keep unwanted users off your WiFi network.

This post comes to us courtesy of Martin Smith who is a writer providing advice on Wireless Internet Security - if you have time drop by his site for some tips and information.

File sharing and online file storage

A previous post discussed remote access and remote control services. These are great solutions for accessing your home computers from anywhere, whether you're at work, on the road or even on vacation!  Yuck, who wants to think about work when we're on vacation - but, alas, we all do.

In this post we'll talk about file sharing and online file storage or backup. Now when we say file sharing here, we aren't talking about Gnutella or Limewire or Kazaa - those are services focused mainly on sharing music and video files with other people.

What we're talking about is using file sharing services to help you access files you have at home from work, or from anywhere.

File Sharing or File Synching Services:
-BeInSync: a very popular file synching service. Have a free version that limits the number of shared folders and synchs per day. $59.95 for an annual subscription with no limits.
-FolderShare: Free. Recently acquired by Microsoft, who is rolling this into their new Windows Live services.

Online File Storage or Backup:
-iBackup: Highly rated by PC Magazine and PC World.
-HyperOffice: More of an online collaboration service than strictly a file sharing and file backup service.
-FilesAnywhere: Highly rated by PC Magazine. Not free but is very well put together.
-MyNetStorage: Basic online storage. May get the job done for you.
-Yahoo Briefcase: If you have a Yahoo! account (or want to sign up for one free), this is a great option.  You get 30MB of free storage. The user interface is very, very basic - but, you can't argue with free.

Happy Sharing!

Wireless Networking in Europe

This is a good article about the state of wireless networking and wireless gadgets in Europe.  We don't agree with all of the author's points - in particular we think hiding the SSID or network name of your wireless network is an important security measure, and we don't think consumers should move to "n" routers yet (stick with "g" routers for now until the industry sets a standard for "n") - see this great article about wireless n routers.

But, regardless, this is a good read about wireless networking in Europe:

From:
http://www.connectedhomemag.com/HomeOffice/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=93194

Home Networking: A Worldly Perspective
By Paul Thurrott

I'm in the middle of a three-week European vacation, and I’ve had home networking on my mind. That’s strange, considering I'm thousands of miles from home, right? But I've been staying at a lot of bed-and-breakfasts, which are typically in people's homes, and many of these homes actually have broadband-connected computers and even wireless networks. As you might expect, few of them are configured properly. But in this ever-connected age, I marvel at the fact that people in towns such as Amstelveen, Netherlands (just outside of Amsterdam), are as connected as I am back in Boston. Maybe I'm just naïve.

Networking Across the Pond
I've seen a lot of mixed 802.11b/g networks in Europe—most of them unsecure— and of course a selection of expensive pay-as-you-go Wi-Fi networks at hotels in cities. Curiously, one of the home-based 802.11g networks that I encountered was secured with the older WEP security standard instead of the more modern and secure WPA. In one case, I was even able to connect to a shared printer and print some driving directions, which was most useful. I'd previously been writing them down on a pad of paper after accessing the ViaMichelin Web site (Europe's answer to Yahoo Maps and MapQuest).

One problem I've had involves my PCs: Because of the amount and type of work I’m doing on this trip, I've brought two PCs and an Apple MacBook. The PCs, unfortunately, are both running the latest prerelease version of Windows Vista, which features an incomplete, buggy, and—in some cases—completely broken networking stack, making connecting to networks difficult. The MacBook and a co-traveler's Windows XP-based PC have had no such problems. But as industry pundit Jerry Pournelle likes to say, I make these mistakes so you don't have to. At least that's how I justify my own stupidity.

Anyway, it's impossible to spend any time in Europe and not think about the future. Europe, interestingly, is moving down a path that the United States would be wise to study, and the ongoing push to centralize around the European Union (EU) will have a far-reaching impact on all of Europe at a variety of levels. Technologically, Europe has much better cellular services than the United States does and, unexpectedly, has much faster Internet access in some areas. There will always be exceptions, of course—some rural areas of France have proven impervious to my desires to get online—but the situation is improving all the time. As I watch kids playing wireless PlayStation Portable (PSP) games with each other on buses, young adults tapping Short Message Service (SMS) and email messages on cellular phones, and people wirelessly computing on park benches in city centers, I have to wonder where it’s all heading.

Clearly, we're heading toward an age in which all telephone communications occur over the Internet instead of the switch-based networks that traditional telephone companies currently maintain. Wide-area wireless networks will cover urban areas first, and the rest of the world eventually, in the same way that cellular coverage has grown from niche to necessity. Until that happens, we're stuck with reliable but hard-wired traditional telephones, often unreliable cellular networks, and local Wi-Fi access only—often at alarmingly slow speeds. I can't help you with the first two concerns, but I do have a few bits of advice for that last one.

Remote access and remote control services

One type of service we don't think enough people take advantage of is remote access and remote control services.  There are all kinds of flavors of these, but in general they let you access files you have stored on your home PC while you are at the office, at a friend's house, travelling on vacation - really anywhere where there is an Internet connection.

They are called remote access or remote control services, and here are some of the leading providers:

GoToMyPC - Free 30 Day Trial - $19.95/mo for 1 PC or $179.40/yr
LogMeIn - Free
PCNow (from WebEx) -  1 Month Free Trial - $9.95/mo per PC - save 20% with annual plan
Positive Networks - For businesses not consumers - Free Trial for businesses
PC Anywhere (from Symantec) - $199.95 for current version (PC Anywhere 12.0)

All of these products let you access files on your home PC from any other PC, as long as that PC is connected to the Internet. And they let you remotely control that PC, which means you can start applications, pull up a file, send an email from that computer, etc.

For mobile workers like consultants or sales executives, these services typically pay for themselves really quickly.  And with gas prices what they are today, they probably pay for themselves even quicker!

In a later post we'll talk about file sharing services.  These also let you access your files from anywhere, but they don't let you control programs on your PC remotely, and they approach the problem of accessing your files from anywhere from a different angle.

TiVo announces big changes in pricing and glimpse of future direction

TiVo announced this week that they are doing away with their lifetime service plan option - which was very popular with die-hard TiVo users.  Basically if you expected to have TiVo for more than 2 years, it made total sense to get the lifetime option.

TiVo also announced their vision for the future - to be the " the central point of video distribution in the home to other devices." (CEO Tom Rogers) This is an interesting goal and I think a good one for TiVo. Personally I would love to have the option to download movies and other video content for viewing on my TiVo, and I would pay for these downloads over and above my TiVo subscription.  TiVo is so easy to use and convenient that I'd like to do more and more with it.

TiVo's next DVR is focused on supporting HDTV, which I think is a great move as more and more of their customer base makes the upgrade to HDTV.

Read more about these TiVo announcements here.

Home networks and antivirus software

The folks over at Practically Networked recently posted an article that deserves to be emphasized - when you have a home network, you need to have up-to-date anti-virus software running on all of the PCs in the home network, not just on some of them. Any PC that is connected to the Internet leaves you exposed to viruses coming in - and once they get it through one PC, they can easily infect the rest of the PCs on your network.

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the large ISPs now provide anti-virus software to their subscribers for free. One example is Comcast. They give McAfee VirusScan free to their users - if you're a Comcast subscriber get the free software here. Don't think the software is really free? Well, Comcast emphasizes that it is here - read more.

Here's some resources for other ISPs:

-Adelphia says they provide free antivirus software to their residential customers as well - if you are an Adelphia customer use this page to find out more (looks like you do have to log in).

-Charter provides free anti-virus as well - more info here.

-SBC Yahoo! DSL service also provides free anti-virus - info here.

-EarthLink's free antivirus software can be found here.