March 31, 2005
Last chance for 1 month Free support
Remember today is the last day of our subscription special. Buy either our Silver or Gold Subscription and get one extra month (3 help sessions) of tech support free. ( A $35 or $50 value depending on the plan.)
Posted by Peter at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
The cult of the Pod moves forever forward
The New York Times reports in today's edition that Apple has finally released an accessory allowing you to port photos directly to the IPOD PHOTO from a digital camera (compatible camera list here).
ZDNET reports HP (which sells its own licensed version of the pod) is adding a piece to their latest media center PC to accommodate the dock for the IPOD.
It seems to go on despite Samsung's best efforts
Posted by Peter at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
Wireless Humble Pie
I came across an article by George Ou on ZDNET called The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN and was taken by surprise by some of the statements listed.
I use WEP myself at home but I don't do anything like this so I figured it wasn't a big deal, however it did raise several questions in my head so I dropped him a quick e-mail that night around 12:10 A.M. and hit the sack. To my surprise (and to Mr. Ou's credit) at 7 a.m. a detailed response was in my mailbox which was a wake up call to me. The questions from my e-mail and the responses from his, slightly updated, are posted at George's blog here. The bottom line is: I was all wet! I'll be changing my home wireless settings before the week is out.
Here is the actual e-mail I sent:
Hi:
A few questions concerning your articles about security.1. If you are a home user in a residential rather than a apartment or college complex do you believe you can get away with any form of WEP considering the short range of the actual network. Or to put it another way; It’s one thing for somebody in an apt building to crack all the WEP keys around them without moving from the spot, its quite another for somebody wandering in a neighborhood with equipment looking for a network to crack. The least of nosey neighbors will spot such a person pretty quick. Or am I just doing wishful thinking?
2. It is my personal opinion that any code made can eventually be cracked if somebody puts their mind to it. Would you say that even the current advanced systems that you now recommend would have to be swapped out or upgraded every few year to assure their security?
3. Is it possible to purchase a device designed with a very limited range on purpose (say 10 yards) so that a person in a residential home could basically operate without fear of anybody not directly outside the door?4. Is it fair to say that the professional hacker is like the professional car thief, if he wants into your wireless system he is going to get in so the best you can do is to put up some security (even WEP) to keep out the casual lazy browser.
5. Say I have a 4 port linksys wireless router. If I configure it for only 4 IP’s say 100-105 (with 100 being the router itself) when I have only 4 machines will that cancel out the issue since the person grabbing the code will not have the free IP to connect or is there software that will mask that too.
6. What is the hacker profile? To what degree should the regular non business joe be afraid that he will be the target, or is that unlikely unless he lives next to a college where this stuff is done and the best software for it available?
7. If systems using wireless are not using file sharing between system would the breaking in of the network just be a question of stealing an internet connection?
Here is George's actual reply reply:
Peter,
Here are the answers to your questions.
1. It's wishful thinking. You can't spot a Wi-Fi cracker since it can usually be done passively. Sometimes it's done actively but it takes vigilance, software, and location tracking capability to be able to track an active attack. A hacker can passively spend an hour collecting all WEP traffic from near by neighborhoods from a single laptop. After 20 minutes, he can crack all of the busy networks. Then the hacker can crack the non-busy networks by targeted active attacks. Remember, hackers love a challenge especially if they can pull it off in less than 10 minutes which all WEP networks will succumb to.
2. Wrong. Check my blog out about good cryptography. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=35. Good encryption and authentication algorithms are usually good for decades. Just look at DES and SSL for example. If you implement my recommendations on using WPA-PSK with TKIP encryption for the home, and a minimum of PEAP authentication with WPA TKIP encryption for businesses, you will probably be good for at least one more year. Once you swap TKIP out with AES, it will last many times longer since AES has a much nicer pedigree. It's true that there will be some maintenance on any computer system you implement and wireless LANs are no different. It's dangerous to categorize all wireless LANs as breakable which might lead people to just throw up their hands and say "why bother with it". There is a massive difference between being secure and doing a little maintenance once every few years to being wide open by default when using WEP or any of these myths on wireless LAN security.
3. See my myths blog under "antenna placement" and power reduction. A good rule of thumb is that if you can see it from 10 feet using your off the shelf omni-directional antenna, the hacker can see it from 1000 feet using his directional antenna.
4. Read this blog on simple recommendations for the home. If you follow the advice, a determined hacker cannot break in wirelessly. It would be infinitely easier for them to break in to your home and plug in to your network. In this case, wireless security is better than wired security which makes fear of a wireless hacker moot.
5. See my myths blog again under the DHCP section. It takes seconds to figure out your IP scheme and manually assign a static IP. It doesn't matter what your DHCP scope is. The subnet supports 250 plus hosts. Even if you used a micro-subnet like 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.7 using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.248 which only allows you to use host IPs 2 through 6, and you had 5 active machines on your network using all 5 IP addresses, I can easily use an existing IP address even if it conflicts with an existing IP. At the very least, I can passively listen in on all of your unencrypted traffic if I don't steal one of your IP addresses.
6. Wireless hacking is done for the same reasons other hacking is done. Some of the examples are, spam platform, hacking platform to attack other networks, information theft, bandwidth theft, and even just plain fun. Some of these can even bring you a visit from the FBI with accompanying handcuffs. I hope you have a good alibi when the feds come cracking down on you for cyber terrorism.
7. See answer #6 for other examples. Additionally, just because you're not running file shares doesn't mean I can't attack you once I break in to your wireless LAN. In fact, the vast majority of internal networks are open season for hackers. It's like the soft underbelly of the beast and is ripe for the picking.
Peter, many people who have implemented my recommendations are really happy they did it and they realized that a secure wireless LAN for the home was relatively simple after they downloaded some software and firmware updates. It's a little harder for the enterprise because of the additional PEAP (EAP-TLS or EAP-TTLS are good alternatives) requirements which require a RADIUS server and some level of PKI deployment, but even that can be conquered with the right knowledge.
Posted by Peter at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2005
A New Piece of the Machine
People may wonder where I get inspiration for writing computer articles. It's from a few places really, whether it's from customers I get on the phone, woes or triumphs from my friends and family, or my own woes and triumphs from 20 years of computing, starting from my Apple IIe in 1984.
But the years of history from the beginning of my computing years from 1984 to today can wait, for another situation has come out. Your kid finally manages the cash, through work, allowance, or gifts to get an upgrade card for a computer, probably a sound card or video card. He or she manages to get the machine open and finds out that the card that he or she spent over $100 for can't be installed on the machine.
There are many types of slots in the computer for a number of different upgrades, but today, we'll only be looking at three different types of slots that should be found on most boards nowadays, the third only being on the newest of computer mainboards.
PCI Bus (Peripheral Computer Interconnect) - This type of card bus and slot connection is found on most computers nowadays. It is usually a white connector of 112 pin connections. It's not the fastest of connections nowadays, but services a fair number of cards, such as sound cards, slot extension (USB, Firewire), and older Video Cards. This is a 64-bit bus, but usually only runs at 32-bit at a frequency 33MHz.
AGP Bus (Advanced Graphics Port) - This is a higher bandwitdth bus type than PCI, up to eight times as fast as PCI. This is a 64-bit bus which is the bus of a supermajority (two-thirds to three-quarters) of video cards offered nowadays. It's frequency is 66MHz and it runs once, twice, up to eight times per clock tick (thus the AGPx2, AGPx4, AGPx8). Computers manufactured before 2000 or 2001 may not have AGP ports installed.
PCI-E Bus (Express PCI) - This type of slot is only found on the newest high end mainboards and computer systems. It functions at a twice the rate of AGPx8 since it goes on a serial structure, sending streams of data from 2.5GHz clock down a pair of wires, where it splits into a second pair, doubling the rate, and video can go down 16 pairs of wires. No graphics card yet take full advantage of this, so at this time there is no current advantage to using AGPx8 cards over PCI-E cards.
Before you get that new sound card or video card, you need to make sure you have the slot needed and that enough are available. You may want to pull down the tech specs on your particular system to see how many PCI (typically several), AGP (typically one) and PCI-E slots (typically one) are available on it. This will help out before you shell $100 or more on a card that you will need to either replace or return, simply since there is no room, or that will simply not fit in the computer.
Posted by at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
Bad seeds pulled up
A happy ending to the bad seed issue.
Posted by Peter at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
The Curse of Spyware
As most people can attest, if they have been on the Internet they run the risk of being infected with spyware. Spyware runs the gamut of annoying popups to dangerous and malicious attacks that can disable your machine or turn it into a zombie clone that launches denial of service attacks on websites. At Lightfrog, we can offer tips and install software that allows people to safely surf the net and reduces or eliminates the problems caused by spyware. One form of spyware that has me stumped is the about:blank homepage hijack. Has anyone successfully recovered from this spyware without having to reformat? If so, please post how you got rid of it. I have tried most of the solutions posted in various forums but have not been successful in removing this spyware. Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks Peter for this blog!
Posted by John at 09:05 PM | Comments (2)
Farming with bad seed
In business one of the big goals is to increase exposure to let customers know that you are there. One of the purposes of the LightFrog Blog is to introduce more people to our service.
It is very common for people to be calling offering to get us more hits etc. Unfortunately this can lead to unexpected consequences
The term in question is link farming. If you are just setting up a blog, be aware of it since it can be a real pain to undo. For a business like ours it would be a death sentence.
Posted by Peter at 02:14 PM | Comments (1)
The joys of credit cards
Today I made a final lump payment for a Dell Inspiron 1150 notebook that I use here at LightFrog and when I'm on the road. It seems like a good moment to say something about credit plans:
I picked up the notebook when LightFrog brought me on. Dell offered 0% financing until April 1st then all the back interest of a VERY high rate credit card kicks in. Since the statement didn't show up until an hour ago and the payment had to be in their hands by the 1st before I get zapped I ended up paying $3.85 to the USPS for Priority Mail as opposed to a $10 fee from Dell for phone payment.
The moral of the story is this: Credit card deals and offers (I get at least 2 a day) are given with the goal of making dough off of you. If you are the type who forgets easy you can get zapped very easy.
Of course it's not as bad at this (hat tip instapundit)
Posted by Peter at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2005
Don't forget the Chat
Twice tonight I've had a customer's cell phone die in the middle of the call. Once I was able to get the fellow back once not.
Remember that phone support isn't the only way to get help. Help is available via chat during the same hours (8 a.m.-11 p.m. EST) If your phone dies simply sign into the lightfrog service and do a help request in chat and we can not only pick up where we left off, but we can remotely control your machine and fix your problems while you sit back and watch.
You know my mother's old rotary phone never cut out like that....
Posted by Peter at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
Upgrading vs. Replacing your Computer
You have a neat new gift that your loved ones gave you this year, a nifty 20GB IPod and you're ready to put music on your computer to then place on the IPod to go. This is where you find out your old computer only has a 20GB Hard Drive. Even if you wanted to fill up your IPod, it would be just about impossible to do on your current system.
This is just one example of a computer unable to keep up with the current needs of the user. But there are a couple of options to consider:
1. Upgrading your computer - adding to or replacing portions of the computer itself (hard drive, RAM, DVD-Drive, faster CPU, etc.)
2. Replacing your computer - getting an entirely new computer capable of meeting your current needs.
There are advantages and disadvantes to both options, and I'll be going into a few key points of each.
In Upgrading your computer, the following advantages come into play:
1. You know what parts are being replaced.
2. Unless you are replacing your primary hard drive (the one with the Operating System on it), you'll be retaining your programs and data.
3. Single upgrades are usually cheaper than purchasing an entirely new computer.
4. Quality of single upgrades is of generally higher quality than the items you get from a new computer purchase.
These are three of the advantages. There are some downsides to upgrading, however.
1. You will need to know what your current computer is capable of, meaning how many expansion cards and of what type can be added to it, and what drives are compatible with your computer.
2. Multiple upgrades at once can be more expensive than purchasing a new computer.
3. You need to be comfortable or have access to someone comfortable to adding the new upgrades to your system, or are willing to pay additional for someone to install them.
A new computer has it's own advantages and disadvantages. First the positives of a new machine.
1. You get a consolidated system without the need of purchasing new parts right away.
2. Typically easier for a novice user to set up than most upgrades for a computer.
3. Newer, more powerful low-end computers are getting cheaper every day, and can usually be purchased, even on most strict budgets.
And now, there are possible negatives to consider with a new computer.
1. Brand name machines usually add TONS of added and useless programs which do nothing more than take space and slow down your computer. This was not the case in older brand name models (before the year 2000), but is the case today.
2. With custom made machines, you'll need to trust that the person building it knows what they're doing, and that custom machines are tpyically more expensive than brand names, unless the builder in question gets parts in bulk.
3. If you want to upgrade the computer later on, you will need to know, or to learn how it can be upgraded, which begins the debate all over again.
Even more importantly, before you even consider either option, you should answer the following questions:
1. What are my computer needs? What is it that I'm trying to do.
2. Is this something that will need an upgrade or a new computer?
3. If I want to get a new computer, what will I be using it for, or what will the main use of it be?
If you are having any problems with these questions, a technical advisor will be more than happy to steer you in the right direction, and make your confident in your course of action.
Posted by at 04:31 PM | Comments (1)
Whales? Save the cables!
Although saving the whales is a noble cause it will do nothing to help you debug your PC.
However when you retire a computer and DON'T give it to a friend for whatever reason (dead motherboard, too old etc...) It is a great idea to save the cables, particularly the IDE cables.
When debugging a hardware issue one of the first things you should do is check cable connections, but more than that, check the cables themselves to make sure they are good. Keeping that old IDE cable may save you the price of a new hard drive or at least a trip to the store to buy a new one.
If you always give away your PC's then I suggest picking up the following cables as spares:
IDE
Power
USB
Parallel (if you have an old non-usb printer)
This might save you a lot of grief, however if the cable isn't the issue, well that's where LightFrog comes in.
Posted by Peter at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
VMWare 5.0
Has anyone else been using the Beta version of VMware 5.0?
I just got it installed, running Linux 9.0 and Win 98 SE on it sofar, Getting the VM tools in Linux means need to know some command prompt in linux it seems. Not simple double click, you have to enter in values I guess. Not up on it yet. Anyone else tried?
Posted by Eric at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
Hello to everyone and Happy Easter
Hey all Eric checking in and wanting to also wish everyone a Happy Easter. Hope everyone is doing good.
I am hoping to check out the PSP at local store soon and will let you all know what I found about it, they do have great website for information on using it.
also some video software conversion software for it. Will be seeing a lot on this.
Later all
Eric
MOUS Master
A+
Posted by Eric at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
Happy Easter from Lightfrog
We at Lightfrog wish all who celebrate Easter a happy and Holy Easter. To those of you who don't celebrate Easter we wish you a Happy March 27th. After all to paraphrase this lovely lady:
March 27th only comes once a year so we always celebrate.
We at Lightfrog will be celebrating by being open our usual hours 8 A.M- 11 P.M. 7 days a week we are here to help with your tech needs.
Posted by Peter at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2005
Cultural side effect alert.
An interesting side effect to having a single copy of ITUNES that ports to the IPOD shuffle is the exposure of my kids to music and or showtunes that they would otherwise not listen to.
Of course since the shuffle is taken to bed it also means that I hear an eleven year old Tevye at 11:30 PM.
Posted by Peter at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2005
The iPod sensation continues... here is Sony's counter revolution
Sony missed the holiday season that Apple was able to cash in on, but are the predictions reasonable? Will Sony surpass Apple; outsell the iPod and push the iPod to the back of the shelf?
UPDATE 1/6/06:
This post has been the favorite target of every trackback and spam comment service out there so we have killed both comments and trackbacks on this particular one. (Peter)
Posted by Lorie at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
Blowing your own horn dept.
This link on Roger Simon's blog suggests that we started this blog just in time to get ahead of the curve. The idea that this is a group blog including management and ownership as well may be the sign of the future.
Posted by Peter at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
A worm in the Apple
CNET's article Hacking away at Apple raises an issue worth commenting on:
There has been a trend to portray Microsoft as this evil empire while apple is as white as the driven snow. Apple's suit against a 19 year old blogger along with attempts to tighten up music sharing on their ipod, reminds us that Apple is a business.
As it's market share increases look for more stories like this one
Posted by Peter at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
Another sign besides the hairline that I'm getting old..
Pez MP3s players? Of course getting dad (Me) to shell out $129 bucks for one will be a task for my kids, but with IPOD Shuffles in the hands of many other kids I'm sure I'm the exception here. (of course my kid tends to borrow a company shuffle whenever possible.
It is of note that the first report of this device showed up on a blog.
Posted by Peter at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
My first blog entry.....ever!
There are many "firsts" in life, posting on a blog is one of them.
As part of the management team at LightFrog, I'm thrilled to post my first blog entry here and look forward to seeing the pages fill up quickly with intriguing content, inspirational ideas, challenging topics, and educational tips from our team for our customers.
LightFrog was founded with a Mission to make home technology easier to use and maintain. PCs and other home technologies are too complex, too hard to maintain, and too important to neglect. Our team takes this mission personally with each customer. The LightFrog team includes professionals that have a passion for technology and an extraordinary ability to share that on a one-on-one basis.
At LightFrog, that is partnered with a pride of ownership and true team spirit for a common goal...becoming the trusted partner for every consumer where the end result is getting the most out of your technology, learning a few helpful tips or tricks, and having a good time doing it.
If you're still reading this....I challenge you to visit often, read what the team has to say, post your opinions and become part of the LightFrog Family by signing up for your free membership on our site. You'll be amazed how your life changes once LightFrog is a part of it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Very few are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching; for he that was only taught by himself had a fool as his master." ---Ben Johnson
Posted by Lorie at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
WELCOME TO LIGHTFROG - LEARN MORE ABOUT US!
LightFrog is an innovative service to help you get the most out of your personal technology. We are the trusted partner for support, maintenance and management of the technologies that are a critical part of your everyday life.
-Need immediate help? Get support from our team of technical advisors
-Worried about security threats? Get protection with our Technology Wellness offering
-Want peace of mind? Try our Subscription offerings
-100% U.S.-based technical advisors support all brands and products
-Simple pricing options
-Remote, immediate, live service via the Internet or phone
Learn more by visiting www.LightFrog.com or by calling 1-866-585-FROG (3764)
Posted by Melissa at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
Browsers, Browsers Everywhere
Getting the blog started and publishing for the first time seemed to involved a million windows. You might find that same issue when surfing the net. An excellent solution for the is the use of tabbed browsers. With tabbed browsers the extra windows are kept on a tab much like the System properties tab on your XP system. Click on the tab and your window is there.
Firefox and Mozilla both do tabbing. If you install Maxthon you can have tabbing using your familar IE interface.
I'm sure IE will catch up but even if you don't want tabbing there are many good reasons to have a backup browser installed, but that's for another post.
Posted by Peter at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)
Boy this makes me feel old
Looking at this review for the new Linksys wireless game adaptor just makes an old board game player like me feel ancient. You can actually configure this wirelss card DIRECTLY ON THE XBOX CONSOLE for head to head gaming wirelessly on the box.
This is a nifty little product, I'm sure my youngest will ask for it so he can eat up my bandwidth online. What happended to the days when they just wanted a toy firetruck?
Posted by Peter at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
First Entry
Just a little hello to everyone on the Lilypad here. I'm here as well to offer my knowledge, insight, zaniness, and my unique sense of humor. You have been warned. ;)
Posted by at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
If you can set it, it can see you
Michelle Malkin includes a link on her blog to a story from WTOC11 concerning a man who got more than he bargined for when using his P2P network.
File sharing software allows you to download files stored in certain shared folders on other users' computers. The flipside is they can also download files from your shared folder. There's a folder on their computer the Bodikers use store the music files they wanted to share. What they didn't realize is that their tax return software saved their returns in the very same place.
Just remember when you see the internet the internet sees you. If you are putting key files on your computer make sure they are NOT in a shared folder. You never know who might be watching.
Posted by Peter at 12:13 AM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2005
Welcome to the new LightFrog Blog
Welcome to the NEW Lightfrog Blog! We at lightfrog are very excited about entering the blogosphere and we will do our best to make this new medium both useful and fun for you our customers (and future customers) and for us.
The format is going to be a bit free wheeling as we get our bloglegs under us, I'm sure over time we will have many changes, but for we're going to just play it by ear and hopefully all learn a thing or two.
Posted by Peter at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)