Be strong with your passwords

It's tempting to make your passwords as easy as possible - after all, we have so many of them to remember. But this can be very dangerous; some forms of malware try to log in to systems by guessing passwords, and if your password is just something out of the dictionary it may be possible for someone to gain unauthorized access and impersonate you.

The best solution is to use what's called a STRONG password. This is one where your password has the following characteristics:
At least 8 characters long
lowercase letters (passwords are case sensitive)
uppercase letters
a symbol, such as $ (different systems may vary in what characters they allow)

so, for example, this would be bad:
mypass

better:
myPass

even better:
myPas$

still better:
myPas$200

Using strong passwords makes for safer computing. It's good computer practice that everyone should implement.

Legal stuff: This information is for general educational purposes only. Use at your own risk, and I can't be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you have questions consult a computer technician.

blogvertise

I just joined blogvertise http://www.blogsvertise.com/, a website that allows bloggers to make a little extra income by reviewing products and websites. From time to time I'll be writing reviews from blogvertise. If you have a blog you might want to consider joining them.

http://www.blogsvertise.com/

Remember me always....

Often when registering for the first time on a website you are asked whether you want the website you're on to remember who you are so you don't have to log in with a password next time you visit. While this is convenient (after all, who has time to spend 7.9 seconds typing in a password? Or, even better, using the online keyboard described in a previous post? We're all busy, right? Things to do. Let's move on....fast.) there are some major drawbacks to this:

1. If your computer gets stolen, the new "owner" will be able to get on the website and impersonate you (if you've got a desktop at home this isn't that big a problem, of course, but if you take your laptop around with you this might be a consideration).

2. Some forms of malware can capture stored passwords.

3. It's possible that you will forget your password if you don't use it very often. It's possible you will forget even if you use it every day, of course, but that's only a problem if your memory is really, um, that is, if you tend to forget....ah....sorry, what was I saying?

Just something to consider.

Legal stuff: This information is for general educational purposes only. Use at your own risk, and I can't be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you have questions consult a computer technician.

Standards for Wireless Networking

In order to ensure wireless devices from different manufacturers can communicate with one another, it was necessary to develop standards (it was also important to develop a cool acronym for the organization which developed the standards - the IEEE, or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

The name of the standard for wireless networks is 802.11

When we talk about wireless networks for home or small business use, we use 3 standards:

802.11b - the b standard is the oldest. It transfers data at 11 Megabytes per second or Mbps (remember, Mega is million so that's 11 million bytes of data per second) and uses a frequency of 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz).

802.11g - the g standard is replacing the b standard. It still uses the 2.4 GHz frequency but can transfer data at 54 Mbps.

802.11n - the n standard is newest (that's not what the n stands for though). It can transmit at up to 600 Mbps. It still uses the 2.4 GHz frequency. If you buy a computer with wireless today you will likely be getting 802.11n.

All of these are downward compatible.

Curiously, the 2.4 GHz frequency is also used by mobile phones and microwaves. If you are having trouble with your mobile phone and you have a wireless network, you might consider checking the frequency of your mobile phone. Also you may notice performance problems with your network while your microwave is running, if the microwave and computer are running at the same time and they are close together (you'll definetely have problems if you put the computer IN the microwave....). Perhaps this is a prelude to when they combine microwave and wireless technologies, which would allow us to transmit food from one place to another wirelessly....

Legal stuff: This information is for general educational purposes only. Use at your own risk, and I can't be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you have questions consult a computer technician.

Improve your computers performance by defragging

One of the things that can slow down your hard drive is when your files become fragmented. This happens when your files are not stored as contiguous blocks on your hard drive.

Let's say, for example, that you have a 5 page Word document. To you, it looks like one file, and it would make sense for it to be stored on your hard drive (the main drive of your computer) as one block. Sometimes this doesn't happen, and your file can be stored all around your hard drive (there is a part of your hard drive that keeps track of where the different parts of the file are stored). You can imagine how this can slow things down; the first page of your file is on one part of your hard drive, the next 2 pages on another part, and the last 2 pages somewhere else. Your computer is fast, but it's going to be a lot slower when it has to go looking around different places on your hard drive to put the file together.

Solving this problem is easy. To defragment your disk, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter, then click Defragment. NOTE: this process could take a while, maybe even a few hours.

Legal stuff: This information is for general educational purposes only. Use at your own risk, and I can't be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you have questions consult a computer technician.

On-screen keyboard

You're surfing along, minding your own business, when suddenly you see it: the must-have item of the day ("oh wow! a camouflage printer! gotta have it!"). You enter in your credit card number and eagerly await your new purchase.

What you may not know is that some forms of malware (Trojan horses, viruses, etc) can capture your keystrokes and send them to an unfriendly 3rd party. That means passwords and credit card numbers.

Here's a feature that can help keep you safer: the on-screen keyboard. You can use it to enter in sensitive information, like passwords and credit card numbers.

To get to the on-screen keyboard:
Start, All Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, On-screen keyboard

Legal stuff: This information is for general educational purposes only. Use at your own risk, and I can't be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you have questions consult a computer technician.

Searching for good

Want to help people while you search the Internet? Try using Goodsearch - http://www.goodsearch.com/ - for your search engine. They donate a small amount of the money raised from advertising when people use their site (you can view their FAQ for details). I have it set as my home page.

I'm donating to Heifer International http://www.heifer.org/ but there are thousands of organizations to choose from and you can add your own.