If you needed another reminder to secure your wi-fi…
And if you needed another reminder of why you should secure your wi-fi: “There’s a very common belief that if someone pirates your Wi-Fi connection or uses your computer without your permission, you...
View ArticleTwo more questions about wireless security
I got two good questions last week, via Facebook, that I answered briefly in the comments, but are worth further exploration: Does it beef up wireless security to hide the SSID and only allow the MAC...
View ArticleThanks for the misinformation, Disney
In one of its throwaway kid’s sitcoms, Disney insinuates that open source software contains spyware and using it is a ‘rookie mistake’. Open source software rarely contains viruses or spyware. Since...
View ArticleWhat to do about a router dropping connections
A former classmate and coworker contacted me with a question. My router is about 5 years old. I have a cable modem and a router. The cable modem is fine. The router keeps connecting and disconnecting...
View ArticleA shortcut for wiring your house with Ethernet
As convenient as wireless is, wireless will never match the security, speed, and reliability of wired Ethernet. I ran some wired Ethernet jacks in mid-2009 and have no regrets, but on my last trip to...
View ArticleHow to be a hero next Christmas (or your next family get-together)
My mother in law didn’t have wifi set up, but she picked up a smart TV this year, so she asked me if I could help her with it. So I picked up a D-Link DIR-615 on sale, brought it with me and set up...
View ArticleA contrarian (but defendable) view of e-books
Tech author Nicholas Carr has some interesting statistics that led him to state that perhaps e-books will complement printed books, rather than replace them. It’s not hard to find history to support...
View ArticleThe lines between white hat/gray hat/black hat hacking and moral laws
Longtime reader/commenter Joseph asked two questions yesterday: What’s the boundary between gray and black-hat hacking, and is it moral to pick and choose between moral and immoral laws? The first...
View ArticleHow to ditch your landline and your phone bill but still have phones that work
Now here’s a potentially huge money-saver. I still have phone service through AT&T that rings through old-fashioned phones (you know, like the kind you see in a museum) because there’s nobody...
View ArticleHow to set up powerline networking securely
When you live in a neighborhood where everyone has a wireless network, you’ll struggle to get adequate coverage in every room of your home. That’s just the nature of wireless networking; we don’t have...
View ArticleNo, it doesn’t take a “serious hacker” to crack wi-fi through WPS
John C Dvorak is raving in PC Magazine about Netgear wireless routers and range extenders and how easy WPS makes it to set them up–and providing some very seriously flawed security advice along the...
View ArticlePC Magazine’s tips for buying your own cable modem
PC Magazine published a few tips for people looking to buy their own cable modems and ditch the monthly rental fee. It also contains a reminder: Make sure you know whether your modem is just a modem,...
View ArticleCyanogenmod 10.1 runs surprisingly well on a Nook Color
Cyanogenmod–the open-source distribution of Android for undersupported/abandoned devices–went to version 10.1 this week. Version 10.1 is based on Android 4.2.2, so it matches what’s in stores right...
View ArticleThe benefits of doing IT at home, too
Earlier this week, The Register touted the benefits of having a home lab. That lab doesn’t necessarily have to be elaborate. But there is definitely something to be said for having some equipment that...
View ArticleBitdefender 60-second virus scan: a review
I mentioned Bitdefender 60-second virus scan the other day, but didn’t give it a proper review. It’s time I remedy that. It’s a small 160K stub that downloads a few more megabytes worth of stuff after...
View ArticleThe trouble with routers
I see the advice going around, again, to disable the Windows firewall and rely on an external router, the justification being that it makes your computer “invisible.” It doesn’t. Only IPV6 can do...
View ArticleRead this if you have a D-Link router
Leave it to a security vulnerability to interrupt a perfectly good discussion, but it doesn’t get much worse than this. If you have an older D-Link router, it’s possible to completely bypass the...
View ArticleAnother day, another router backdoor
Ars Technica dropped this bombshell toward the end of the day yesterday: A backdoor in Linksys and Netgear (and possibly other) routers. The exploit works on a weird port, so it’s not remotely...
View ArticleHow I upgraded a TP-Link TL-WR841N to DD-WRT
I’ve been recommending DD-WRT as the remedy to router vulnerabilities. It’s probably not perfect either, but it’s a far sight better than what most routers ship with from the factory, and when a...
View ArticleKickin’ my wireless oldskool, WRT54G-style
I found a couple of old Linksys WRT54G routers and decided to load DD-WRT on them. The first one, an abandoned-by-Linksys WRT54GS model, gave me some trouble, which led me to buying a TP-Link unit to...
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