Computer Tips -Tech Info

At this point I’ve exhausted all the topics on network and computer security that I was eager to cover. As things change/ ideas strike I may well add to this series. One direction I see it going is talking in detail about several network utilities and more advanced topics like looking into web site ownership, […]

One thing I’ve already mentioned in this serious is using alternative programs like Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, or Thunderbird, Eduora instead of Outlook Express. Even if you’re not using alternative software as your primary web browser, email program there are advantages to having networks with mixed software, operating systems and even mixed network […]

When you’re not at your home network is probably one of those times you should be more on your guard. Wireless access points are very common and a greatly useful thing, but there are some steps you should take to protect yourself, your pc and the data stored there. First it’s worth having a personal […]

After the Hamachi article I wanted to do a series on OpenVPN. I’ve used it before, but not since the 1.x days…. it’s now at version 2.0.5 and has quite a bit more flexibility. When I first used it, it was pretty much a point-to-point vpn solution. You could set up routing to see the […]

Along the lines of “knowing your network” with the network security guide. Here are some of the most commonly used network ports. There are 65535 ports that can listen for a connection, so this is not a thorough listing. (These are tcp unless noted otherwise.)    Send article as PDF   

So, most everything so far has been targetted to high speed internet users or business networks. That means if I use dialup I’m safe. Wrong. For starters, in many ways dialup internet is LESS of a risk than high speed broadband for two main reasons. First, high speed/broadband connections are typically on ALL the time. […]

A few days back I was at grc to run a “shields up” scan on a clients machine and found reference to their Security Now podcast (Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson.) The cast was about a VPN tool called Hamachi… so I revisited and gave a read to the Security Now! transcript. And then visited […]

This may be one of the most important entries in this series. An important defence against those that would try to access your network is to constantly have the “security mindset”. Ask yourself “do I need this, how could it be exploited, what are the implications of this”… When it comes to people asking you […]

The Hawking Technology Print Server (HPS1P) is a nice little parallel port to ethernet print server that can be configured to make a single printer available to multiple machines on a LAN (local area network). It supports a number of different protocols and can be configured through a web interface, or with a Windows based […]

I remember I had a geography teacher once that was a former Marine and he said when he was growing up it was the height of the cold war and geography was interesting to him from a “know your enemy” point of view. That’s a good concept to apply to computer security and network security. […]