Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

In the past I have encouraged people to almost NEVER put up WiFi access with no security (airport, coffee shop can be an exception but COMPLETELY detached from YOUR network), and to at least use WEP encryption which is better than nothing (keeps the neighbors out).

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) was secure for quite some time, but has now been hacked (see details here). This is actually for WPA – TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol).

The hack apparently works every time and within 1 minute.

WPA – AES is still secure for now, the better WPA2 is now the minimum for security if your devices are new enough to support it.

Unfortunately you cannot just go out and buy a new WiFi router, each and every device using the WiFi access point must support the more secure standard.

Check your devices and see what security you can move up to. And do it soon, the hackers will be at this within a couple of weeks from now.

April 15th is creeping up on us again, only 3 weeks to get your tax return filed.

If you are using your computer to do your taxes, which I highly recommend, here are some helpful links.

Complete your taxes with software on your computer:

Use TurboTax Software for your 2008 taxes

Use H&R Block TaxCut Software for your 2008 taxes

File your 2008 tax return online (maybe even for free):

File Online With TurboTax

File Online With TaxCut from H&R Block

Don’t procrastinate, get your taxes done, out of the way and your REFUND ON ITS WAY TO YOU!

Special note to WiFi users:

If you use a laptop with a WiFi connection and public or non-encrypted WiFi, be sure and protect your internet connection from eavesdropping and potential identity theft. A secure VPN tunnel will not only provide anonymous internet surfing, but more importantly it will protect you from WiFi sniffers capturing your personal information.

Check out a Free Trial for GoTrusted Secure VPN. It’s Fast, unlike Tor, easy to use, unlike Tor and worthy of your trust.

When it rains it pours. I recently found my dream solution for Anonymous Web Surfing and then my friend Peter Grandich had this video on his blog. (The secure tunnel I’m using is a product of GoTrusted.)

Now I’m not ordinarily aligned with the ACLU on much; unfortunately that has changed since 9/11.

The video pretty much says it all. But if that wasn’t enough, Bruce Schneier had more privacy eroding news in his monthly newsletter this month too.

For instance, do you think pressing *67 before making a phone call will hide your caller ID? Not if it’s going to an 800 number (because they pay for the call they get to know). There are many services that easily allow you to forward your calls to an 800 number of yours and voila’ – there’s the caller ID. Now a service allows you to program that in automatically.

(The same company offers a fee service that will offer up a phony caller ID to protect you.)

Anonymous Web Surfing not only protects your information when surfing over open WiFi (airport, cafe, school, etc) but also hides your real IP address (which can tell approximately where you are located) and the content of your surfing.

My previous post covers more advantages of a service such as this and why I do NOT use Tor.

Past is prologue; start today protecting the amount of data you “litter” for others to capture, store forever, and maybe use against you.

Start your GoTrusted free trial now.

There are a number of reasons why a person (with nothing to hide) might want to surf the internet anonymously. Let’s take a look:

• You are using open WiFi either at home, airport, cafe, school. It is very easy to snoop on internet traffic going through open WiFi networks and is done all of the time.
• Your legitimate work or hobby may entail your surfing web pages with words or phrases, which, taken out of context, could result in attracting unwanted interest from TLA’s (three letter agencies) with a propensity to send black outfitted employees with jack boots kicking in doors at 3 am.
• Perhaps your surfing needs are blocked by corporate or family filters that prevent you from the information you need (think “breast cancer research” to name just one).
• You don’t want to trust your local ISP and everyone working there to not “accidentally” monitor your instant messaging, email or surfing.
• You desire to add one more layer of protection to your online banking and brokerage activities.

The list above is not all inclusive as to why you might be interested in a very low cost anonymous surfing solution, but it’s long enough to get the picture.

For quite some time users with a flare for adventure have at one time or another tried to download, install, configure and use the widely known “free” internet anonymizer called “Tor”. Tor is free, getting a bit easier to use than in the past, and does do a reasonable job of providing internet surfing anonymity.

Tor uses volunteers to offer their computers as Tor servers, sacrificing some of their own bandwidth, to allow Tor clients such as yourself to mask their online identity.

Here are a couple of reasons why I think Tor falls short and you should look at a pay service (although I consider $5.99 per month for a quality service that WORKS to be reasonable):

• Tor is not for the average everyday user to install and trouble shoot
• Tor, every time I have tried it, reduces my internet connection to a CRAWL
• Tor servers are volunteers, unknown to you – certainly many of them are provided by the aforementioned TLA’s (three letter agencies with bloated “war” budgets and propensity to dress employees in black – head to toe)

Here is the anonymous surfing solution I use

Whenever I buy something, if possible, I try it before I buy it. That’s why I love free trials. GoTrusted offers a 7 day free trial of their anonymous VPN service for safe WiFi use and internet anonymity and I signed up.

What I expected was a solution that was semi difficult to install and would slow down my internet connection.

NOT!

What I found is a phenomenal service that is:

• Simple to setup
• Easy to use
• FAST! – Not only did I see ZERO decrease in web pages loading, but I ran many tests with SpeakEasy’s internet speed test. My download speed was not decreased measurably at all; and my upload speed is actually FASTER!
• Bonus spam protected email address

I originally expected I would use the GoTrusted secure tunnel only when I specifically had a need for it. But since it is every bit as fast on the downloads and actually measures FASTER on the uploads, why not use it all of the time?

This is one of the few products in recent memory that actually EXCEEDED my expectations and I cannot give it a high enough recommendation.

Get your FREE Trial here and start Anonymous Web Surfing right now.

I have long stated that you do NOT want to run your wireless internet connection “open” or unsecured. Even WEP encryption is better than nothing. Do use WPA or WPA2 if you can.

Even if you think you have bandwidth to spare and don’t mind your neighbor mooching off of your internet for his/her surfing, that’s not the point.

Some people will use ALL of your WiFi bandwidth.

Some people will use YOUR bandwidth for illegal activities that they wouldn’t use their own for.

I have covered this before so I won’t go through it all again.

What puzzled me in the past was security expert Bruce Schneier claiming that he was running his WiFi open and unprotected. And he had reasons.

Now he’s changed his mind. (Probably NOT because he read my blog, though.)

Bruce has decided that he didn’t want the guys covered in black with machine guns to bash down his door at 3am when it was really someone else who was trafficking in kiddie porn or looking up b*mb making on his open WiFi connection.

So if you were using Bruce Schneier as an excuse not to lock down your WiFi, excuse no more. He’s locked his.

I just had a client ask me what wireless router he should buy for his home. Good question. How much do you want to spend and what kind of performance are you expecting?

Your wireless router, for most people, is also doubling as a hardware firewall – albeit not the most fantastic firewall, but certainly of value.

Cheap is ok, but don’t expect blazing speeds from PC to PC in your home and you may not get the range you are looking for.

The latest specification in wireless is 802.11n (which is still a “draft” spec, for about 4 years now?) but the products on the market are pretty stable nonetheless.

D-Link has gotten better and better over the years and delivers a good product for a good price. The “n” router I show below will deliver good performance and a lot of features. D-Link calls it the DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router, and as its name implies, all wired ports – 4 for your network and 1 for your ISP or “wan” connection will operate at gigabit speeds. Don’t expect your ISP to deliver gigabit bandwidth anytime soon, though.

This means that any wired computers with gigabit networking will operate quite a bit faster than any wireless ones, but if you have appropriate “n” mode wireless adapters they should be quite fast also.

If you are in the market for a good wireless router (slash firewall), take a look at the DIR-655. About the only thing I don’t like about it is the white color – kind a looks like a NetGear product, but it reviews well.

If you like it, you won’t go wrong buying from Newegg.com.

D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router D-Link DIR-655 IEEE 802.11n (draft) IEEE 802.11g IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3u Xtreme N Gigabit Router

About 2 weeks ago I had to clean a client’s home PC. AOL 9 would not run at all (no loss in my mind but…), Internet Explorer would lock up.

This machine was protected by Norton 360, however it appears that the malware was imitating Norton 360 pop up boxes to coerce the user to actually install more malware.

The user had decided not to install the WiFi router on his cable modem since he didn’t need the wireless currently and he apparently forgot that sending out a wireless signal is not the only use for the router!

I cleaned the PC up, installed Firefox, reinstalled AOL 9 and it appeared they were good to go.

Long story short, junior was home alone all day on Wednesday and by Thursday it was malfunctioning again – big time. Junior claims he spent the day only on Facebook. Hmm. (Like that’s a wise use of time.)

Maybe a solution is at hand.

Virtual Machine (VM) software has been around for quite a while. In a nutshell, Virtual Machine technology allows you to run a copy of Windows (like XP) inside another copy of Windows (XP, Vista). Anything that happens to the second copy is trashed as soon as you are done and exit.

So if junior surfs the web, I mean, spends all day on Facebook using a Windows XP Virtual Machine, and loads up all kinds of malware, all he needs to do is exit when he’s done and Dad’s PC is right back the way it started when he fired up the VM Copy of Windows.

Sounds cool, but what’s it cost and where do you get it? Well, Microsoft offers Virtual PC free to anyone. Then you download an appropriate “image” of the “guest” PC you want to run inside of your “host” PC and you’re ready to go.

You are safe while surfing because the Virtual Machine technology builds a barrier between the guest PC running inside of your host PC platform. Changes to the guest do not affect the host.

If you want more robust Virtual Machine technology, including some real cool server options, VMWare is the answer. VMWare, however, is not free. But they do have a free player.

VMWare can be considered superior to Microsoft’s Virtual PC due to its ability to run other operating systems. Want to try KUbuntu? Download here.

Virtual PC 2007 is now available from Microsoft. Get a VM Image of XP with SP2 and Internet Explorer here.

This is great technology and can save you time, money and headaches. Check it out.

These days most hotels offer internet access, and unless at the priciest of hotels, it’s free. (Or maybe the real close by hotel has free WiFi!).

If the hotel has WiFi, you’re probably set. But what about those that thought wiring each room was the way to go?

More importantly, what about computer security when on the hotel network? When I’m connected to the internet, I want my router between me and the world. And I don’t want my world to include a few hundred hotel guests from who knows where.

I have found that a Linksys WRT54GS wasn’t too much trouble to carry and really came in handy. Plug that baby into the wall in the hotel room or condo and I have WiFi out on the balcony; and some security to spare. It isn’t the same security I have with my Fortinet Firewall at home, but it’s better than just connecting up!

If space is an issue, transpose some letters and get the Linksys WTR54GS travel router. It plugs straight into the wall, so no cord is needed. It also has one ethernet port if you want to use a cable for either configuration (my recommendation) or to connect a wired device.

Being connected is everything. Doing it without wires is just all the better.

Linksys Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster – WTR54GSThe Wireless-G WTR54GS Travel Router with Speed-Booster has a built-in access point, which connects Speed-Booster enhanced and regular Wireless-G and Wireless-B devices to the network. There’s also an Ethernet port to connect wired PC. The Wireless-G WTR54GS Travel Router with Speed-Booster function ties it together and now PCs can share a wired or wireless Internet connection.

Over the summer I created a number of videos, primarily on the topic of routers, wireless routers and configuring security on wireless routers.

Setting up a router or configuring encryption on a wireless router is really not that hard to do. I uploaded the videos to make it easier for those not ordinarily comfortable doing something like that to have the confidence to give it a try.

You can see these videos on Associated Content. Use my own custom linkFreeComputerConsultant.

If you want to make a couple bucks submitting content to the internet on a topic you have knowledge, consider signing up on Associated Content.

It’s shortrange, around 10 yards; known as ultra-wideband or UWB for short.

New wireless technology offers around 480 megabits per second using the 10.3 Ghz spectrum, but new technology promises much faster rates at the 60 Ghz range. Both are unlicensed spectrum ranges, and the very short distance increases security.

What it’s good for is entertainment, what else. HD Video streaming from your broadband device to your display screen is one usage.

Read the full article here.