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LangaList 2006-05-11 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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1) WiFi Security Question
WEP is the older WiFi communications security standard; "wired-equivalent privacy" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy ), which allows for up to 128-bit encryption. It's actually a bit of a misnomer because it's far easier to grab broadcast signals out of the air than to intercept data flowing through a point-to-point wire; everything else being equal, wires are inherently more secure. Plus, 128-bit WEP encryption isn't what it used to be. PCs today are like the supercomputers of yesteryear, so that even crude brute-force hack attacks may succeed in workably short timeframes; and the WEP ciphers themselves turned out to have mathematic flaws that make them more easy to crack than they were supposed to be ( http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html ). That's not to say that WEP is junk--- it's still OK for routine use. That's because it's not likely that a random hacker or wardriver will bother trying to hack a WEP-protected access point when there are plenty of easier pickings--- unprotected access points--- out there. It just wouldn't be worth their time and trouble to go after an encrypted one, unless there was some special motivation to do so. (And in that case, then yes, with sufficient time, skill, and motivation, WEP encryption can be broken.) As for online purchases, consider: When you're on a secure site via WEP WiFi, you have double encryption going on: the local WiFi link itself is encrypted by the WiFi software; and the data going to the secure site is also *separately* encrypted by the browser--- encryption within encryption. Again, while it would be technically possible to crack all that, a cracker would need some pretty strong motivation to do so. So, there are two take-away points here. First, WiFi, or *any* form of radio communication that broadcasts your data through the air, will always carry some risks because it's inherently easier to detect than signals in a point-to-point wire. But even so, and this is the second point, even plain-vanilla WEP can be made reasonably secure for routine purposes. It takes four steps: In brief: Change and protect the access point's "SSID;" set the access point only to accept connections from known and preapproved MAC numbers (the "media access code" built into all network devices); use 128-bit WEP with a long, complex passphrase; and use good LAN security (firewalls, good passwords, etc.). If any of those terms or procedures isn't clear, the article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021031S0004 spells it all out, and explains the jargon. With those four steps, you'll block just about all the easy routes to hijack a standard WiFi connection or to eavesdrop on the communication thereon. Lots more info here, too: Beyond that, there are newer encryption/security standards that are intrinsically harder to crack; it's "WiFi Protected Access," which unfortunately goes by the same acronym as "Windows Product Activation:" WPA. Higher-end WiFi gear that's come out in the last 18 months or so may support WPA or WPA2, and thus offer more security than WEP. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Accesss ) Getting back to Bruce's specific case: I'm not sure why Quest would care one way or the other what WiFi link you're using, unless it's their hardware. Many DSL and cable providers offer the option of buying and using your own hardware on their connection; this might be an option that would let you upgrade the WiFi hardware to something newer. But no matter what, it's worth remembering that most problems with WiFi come from unprotected access points that are wide open and running without even basic security. This is the kind of thing you see in public hotspots in hotels, airports, coffee shops, etc; and in home and office setups where someone just takes the access point out of the box and plugs it in, without changing the defaults. Even though WEP isn't state-of-the-art any more, in real life it still can be acceptably safe as long as everything's set up properly. Again, see http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021031S0004 for more info. Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- Make your Internet Faster! --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 2) $999 Virtual Server Product Now Free!
The Microsoft Virtual Server is a more-refined successor to the "Virtual PC" product I've written about in the past--- and that I still use regularly for software testing. It lets me try out potentially dangerous tweaks and changes without risking my main PC or having to set up a second, stand-alone system. In fact, VPC technology is so good that I've been able to steadily reduce the number of PCs here in my office. Where before I used to have a large number of multi-boot machines for different versions of Windows and Linux, I'm more and more able to run everything I need on virtualized PCs inside my main system. It's wonderfully convenient--- and saves energy and space, as well. The VPC software used to cost $50; the Virtual Server cost as much as $999. Now it's free: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.mspx VPC info, much of which still applies to the now-free Virtual Server product: Why is Microsoft doing this? It's not charity, of course. <g> They're under intense pressure from "VMware," whose product has some advantages; and whose free "virtual appliances" are revolutionizing the distribution of software and entire OSes. If you thought a plug-and-play "Live CD" version of Linux was cool, wait until you try a Linux appliance--- a complete virtualized Linux PC, already set up and ready to use--- that runs entirely within your current operating system, and free! http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/ The virtualization battle is heating up, and we'll all benefit from the competition! Click to email this item to a
friend 3) For Non-Nudist Laptop Users <g>Fred: Just a note of thanks on the recommendation of Speed Fan. [See "Feverish Laptop" http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-05-04.htm#3 ] Since installing it I figured out, per their instructions, which was my CPU temperature. Watching this I noticed that relative to the settings they had on their site, my CPU (Pentium D, 3GHz) appeared to be running hot, averaging around 130F. So I got out the air compressor hose and blasted out the cooling vanes and fan from dust, even though this computer is only about 6 months old. She's now averaging 109F, a change that I found very impressive. I didn't realize how fast dust could accumulate and impact the ability for the cooling system to do it's job. Best Regards, Bruce McCormick One of the problems with laptops is that they're often used on, well, laps! All clothing continually sheds fibers and dust, and a laptop or notebook can act as a mini-vacuum cleaner, actively sucking the fibers and dust from the user's trousers or skirt deep within itself. A lapdesk ( http://tinyurl.com/rsgzy ) can help; or, you can become a nudist. <g> Or, you can regularly clean your laptop's ventilation system. It's easy! http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=60300177 Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- "Fred: Your Plus! newsletter is still the best value on the
net! Thanks, Donald! --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 4) Powerful, Free Tool
Nice find, Steve, thanks. You did a lot of work looking into this, and I bet *many* readers will appreciate it, as do I! Click to email this item to a
friend 5) Optimizing DSL/Cable Connections
If it's just a standalone cable modem/router/whatever, it's probably not a major issue; and you can use whatever tweaks the site recommends directly, on your own PC. All the modem/router/whatever is doing is translating addresses, so the packet sizes and other variables the tuning sites deal with are most likely unaffected. In cases where there's a whole separate PC between you and the tweaking site (ie where you connect through another PC's shared internet connection), then your best bet is to run the tweaks on the PC that's doing the sharing first, optimizing its connection to the net. Then, as a second step, do the same tweaks on your PC. With all the PCs on the LAN using the same tweaks and settings, there should be no bottlenecks slowing you down. Click to email this item to a
friend 6) Don't Make Me Beg! :-)If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would
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friend 7) Drive Upgrade Follow-On Question
It sounds like you used "cloning" software that came with the new drive to copy the entire contents of the old drive to the new. In that case, no; you would not want to use that same software in reverse, as it might replace the original data on the old drive with a fresh, cloned copy of the new. But you can use the old drive for backups, no problem. I'd suggest you set the new drive as Master and the old drive as Slave, if you haven't already done so. Reconnect the old drive to the system, using the secondary drive connector if possible (usually, it's the connector closer to the middle of the drive cable; the connector at the end is for the main or primary drive). See the photos and text at http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502411 for a fuller explanation. When you reboot, your system should see the old drive and assign it a new drive letter. You'll have instant access to all your original files; and can open new folders there to store backups from the new drive. But please also note that while this is better than no backup at all, it's not ideal because any software or hardware problem that eats the new drive may well also eat the old; taking your original data and backups with it. It's up to you, but if your data and setup are worth preserving, you might want to take the extra steps to make your backups truly bulletproof: http://langa.com/backups/backups.htm Click to email this item to a
friend 8) More Reader Sites!Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please
click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the
hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!"
(If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will
appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see
http://langa.com/link.txt ) Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At effectivelyspeak.com emmett and webb horse sales and training Creston (BC) valley fest aim therapy sea eagle's blog Saumur Signal Depot El Blog de Mordisquito David Aaron Sercel Art computer kids Click to email this item to a
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 9) RAR vs ZIP
WinRAR is indeed a well-respected tool, Steve; and good. The RAR format has been around forever. Just as the "Zip" compression format traces back to one person--- Phil Katz, who created the original PKZip--- RAR was created by Eugene Roshal (RAR= Roshal ARchive). Like PKZip, RAR was originally a DOS tool, but RAR then made serious headway in Unix and Linux; and only later in Windows as well. The encoder is still proprietary, but the decoder is supported by many free tools. Although WinRAR is a good tool, I have to wonder about the future of any of the commercial compression packages (especially those using a proprietary technology) now that full-featured and easy to use free and open-source tools are becoming so common. (See http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-05-04.htm ) But again, it's good to have choices! Click to email this item to a
friend 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) Plus! Edition Only:Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains about 40% more content including:
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--------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 15) Just For GrinsIn the last JFG ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-05-04.htm#15 ) we ran an item on a stolen laptop. I put the item here, as a "grin," in part because the professor whose laptop was stolen was such a good performer: He was using hyperbole and exaggeration to great effect in order to try to scare the thief into returning the goods. Some of the things he said were preposterous. One small example: "I am the only person who can tell if the material has been copied" or some such. Um, no: There's no real way to tell if something's been copied from a hard drive or not. But it was a great extemporaneous performance; probably terrifying to the kids in the class, and a hoot to watch from afar. The "performance" had other elements too. Check this out:
There's more here, too: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22762 . But let's not take this too seriously. If nothing else, the stolen laptop rant was great ad-lib theater, and surely worth a grin. <g> Click to email this item to a
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