Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

Do you have more than one phone?

Would you like to give out one phone number where people call you, they are prompted to announce their name, then a system would call multiple numbers simultaneously to try to find you?

Then, when you answer, you can hear who is calling (and view the caller ID as it’s ringing), decide whether you want to take the call, send it to voice mail, or optionally listen in while the voice mail is being recorded?

When a message is left, you can have an email sent to you with a link taking you straight to the message to play it on your computer.

Have it send you a text message also.

Put a button on your website so that people can call you with their computer - but they won’t know your phone number!

GrandCentral.com is currently in beta, and you need an invite to join. I went to the website to ask for an invite and was successful in finding a number in my local area code that I liked and got started.

Currently the service is free, and I’m sure that will change.

But this service is ultra hot; for a person like me it’s absolutely perfect. I want one voice mail to check (not one for my office, one for my home and one for my cell). When I get a message I want an email so I can listen to it on my laptop wherever I’m at without calling in and navigating an answering system menu.

They even have visual voice mail for web enabled mobile phones.

This service has everything I want. Currently, they don’ t allow porting a phone number to the GrandCentral.com service - but I’m confident they are working on that too.

Check out GrandCentral.com and see if it fits for you.

Good news for privacy advocates and Skype users. In fact, this is likely applicable to most VoIP telephony solutions.

German Police report that they cannot decipher the encryption used by Skype to monitor calls. One of the problems is not just the encryption, but the way in which VoIP calls are conducted. Skype and other VoIP calls are broken into small data packets and routed over many internet paths and routers to get from one end to the other.

This means that Police really need to have access at the source, before the encryption preferably, in order to monitor the call.

I’m sure they’ll be working on that. They likely will be trying to install Trojan Horse programs on the originating PC of the suspect. In the U.S., I think that would fall under the category of a clandestine entry of the property.

Read the full story here.

Comodo’s BOClean is quite adept at fighting Trojan Horse programs, and it’s free.

I just setup a new Dell D630 laptop (see full config at my laptop buying guide) for a client with the built in Verizon Wireless Broadband service.

I must say I’m very impressed. The option only cost about $100, and is completely built in. If you get the card from Verizon (or any other provider), you have to stick the card in the PC slot with an antenna sticking up.

On the traditional cards, the antenna typically gets in the way of your wrist when typing. Not so with the Dell built in Verizon option.

Setup was a snap (so simple the client did it himself). When you want to go online, just click the connect button on the software from the system tray and you are online immediately.

Speed is pretty impressive as well. I was getting 1200 down and 200 up. I’d like to see a bit more on the upload side, but I had been told to expect more like 500 - 700 on the download, so I was pretty happy overall.

The key thing to remember with an wireless broadband service like Verizon’s is security. You are wide open on the internet without the protection of a hardware firewall! Therefore, a good quality - no, a great quality software firewall.

I have recently been installing ZoneAlarm’s highly touted Internet Security Suite and been very happy with it. ZoneAlarm was one of the first companies to release a software firewall in the early days of the web (shortly after Al Gore invented it…)

The ergonomics, convenience, price and performance of this Dell laptop built in option make me give the Verizon Wireless Broadband a big thumbs up.

Just don’t forget the firewall.

I had a discussion yesterday with a client about security and trusted third parties. The point I am always trying to make is that when you trust a company, you not only trust them, but every employee they have. Think about that before trusting.

Related in a different way is an article in Wired titled Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds. Hushmail provides secure web based email in that it normally is encrypted with a Java client on your PC and decrypted at reader’s PC. Hushmail servers only see encrypted data.

But that method is slightly inconvenient, so Hushmail offers another option. With the other option, the encryption key is known to the Hushmail server for a short time. You really need to read the article to understand the full details, but the bottom line is this: convenience will cost you security.

Is anyone surprised by this?

I was at a conference recently where I was discussing secure communications with a person who has ties in high places. He assured me that no level of encryption is more than a slight inconvenience to the Feds. This article, to me, indicates otherwise.

But just sending encrypted data is a red flag that says “look here”. So weigh those options before encrypting anything. Unless of course you have a high volume of junk you can encrypt to act as red herrings.