Archive for December, 2009
December 29th, 2009 | 
Author: Microsoft Security Essentials.
If you have read some of my free antivirus reviews you know I am a fan of Eset Nod32 antivirus.
Eset Nod32 however, is not free. I have found that free antivirus programs, like so many other free things in life, usually do have a cost. I do not need to take my PC to the geek squad or the local PC shop for repair or pest eradication, and hopefully you do not either, but if you do, don’t be surprised if you get a bill between $150 and $250 for backup, complete operating system re-install and restore. This may well be part of the true cost of your free anti-virus! I imagine your time is valuable to you also, so even if you perform this yourself, you could be looking at a minimum of a few hours of work.
When I first heard of a free security package from Microsoft I was intrigued. We all have heard the MAC vs PC, and PC vs Linux propaganda . Sample Below!
You know the comments…..my MAC never gets viruses, or Linux is so secure it doesn’t need any protection. I agree that the VBA scripts and Macro languages that have been used and still available in Microsoft Office products open up security holes. They are also responsible for much of the interoperability between the applications in the office suite that makes them so popular. The Microsoft Platform, depending on what you believe is on between 75 -90% of the worlds PC’s… If you’re a budding virus writer and want to leave your mark or society, what operating system are you going to pick on?
I am excited to see Microsoft offer Security Essentials as free software. Who better to have a stake in its success! I am really putting Microsoft Security Essentials to the test. Two weeks ago I removed Nod32 on my production PC, an Intel Quad Core windows 7 box, and installed Security Essentials. So far I am very impressed. Watch for full review on this product Mid Feb 2010.
Download Microsoft Security Essentials
Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with the latest posts.
Posted in 
Tags: 
AVG Free Edition
Please take into consideration any of the free products links we post on this site are for your convenience only.
We do not recommend one over the other, unless we indicate so in the article.
I personally have utilized and recommended this product, along with Avast in the past for home, and not for profit clients when they considered cost is an issue.
Really though, if you consider cost an issue with an Antivirus subscription you either have……
1) Never experienced a virus or spyware infection
2) You enjoy a challenge
3) You have a geek you trust that works for nothing.
Most all clients where I installed AVG or Avast I have sense moved over to Eset Nod32.
That being said, this is another free option.
I am also currently evaluating Microsoft Security Essentials. Watch for a full review of that product soon!
Download AVG Free Edition Antivirus Software
Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with the latest posts.
There is a lot of software out there in the field of defraggers.
What makes this software different is not only is it free but has an automated defragged that continuously defrags your hard drive without a drag on you system resources.
While running in the background on my Windows 7 PC, it is using less than 8M RAM!
You can also schedule it with many options.
Smart Defrag is complete free for home, organization, and business.
Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with the latest posts.
Avast Home Edition Antivirus
Please take into consideration any of the free products links we post on this site are for your convenience only. We do not recommend one over the other, unless we indicate so in the article.
I personally have utilized and recommended this product, along with AVG in the past for home, and not for profit clients when they considered cost is an issue. Most, I have moved over to ESet Nod32.
Really, if you consider cost an issue with an Antivirus subscription you either have……
1) Never experienced a virus or spyware infection
2) You enjoy a challenge
3) You have a geek you trust that works for nothing.
That being said, yes this is one of the best free solutions.
I am currently personally evaluating Microsoft Security Essentials.
Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with the latest posts.
Basic Wireless Security
OK you got you wireless network up and running. Hopefully which ever wireless router you’ve chosen included a section on security, if so read it, if not, the following information should help you to secure your wireless network. If you have not viewed our article on Networking 101 you can view it here
http://danieljmiller.net/?cat=4
There is a nice flash basic tutorial provided by Cisco posted there. If you have already viewed that or just want to review wireless security, here is a link to the security section
http://www.linksys.com/flash/learn_networking/5_1.html
After reviewing that video, we will pick up our discussion where that left off hopefully adding to your knowledge of basic wireless security.
Even though the video is pretty good it left out a few items I would like to discuss here, and add a little detail.
1st off what is NAT?
NAT is what a router (wired or wireless) uses to isolate your internal private ip addresses used on your home network. NAT stands for (N)etwork (A)ddress (T)ranslation. To communicate on the internet you need what is called an IP, (I)nternet (P)rotocol, address. In a home networks and most business networks we use IP addresses that fall into several private IP address ranges. Most home routers come with a CD that, if you follow all of the steps do the following:
1. Set all clients to use the routers built in DHCP server. DHCP stands for (D)ynamic (H)ost (C)onfiguration (P)rotocol. This protocol sets your clients, (the PC’s on your network that connect to the router), to automatically get IP addressing information from the router. The addresses that the router hands out are in one of the following ranges. These ranges are the Private IP ranges seen below:
10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255 and
192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255
2. Your home router has 2 IP addresses. 1 that the PC’s on your home network see (called the local IP address, and one that the internet sees. (Your public IP address).
In Home networks, the public IP address of the router is commonly set to obtain the IP address from your internet provider. At some point you must have a public IP address so your privately addressed network can communicate with hosts, (web servers) on the internet.
What NAT does, is to only expose your public IP (your routers IP address) to the internet, effectively isolating your home net work from the internet. If your internal private IP address say is 192.168.15.100, when you connect to www.google.com, google only sees communication from your routers public IP address, which maybe something like 72.193.236.75, not your internal IP address.
Your router strips off your internal IP address and replaces it with your public IP address.
Your routers local IP address has a manufacturer default setting that may be something like 192.168.0.1. DLink and Netgear typically use this address. The documentation that comes with your router will tell you what the factory settings are.
To communicate on the internet every device must have a UNIQUE IP ADDRESS…. Ok, another reason why there are private IP addresses……. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH IP ADDRESSES in the current IP version 4 IP scheme to give every device a unique IP address. The current IP Version 4 allows for about 4.3 billion IP addresses. There are now over 7 Billion people on the planet. Having these private IP addresses that are hidden from the internet allows these private IP addresses to be shared.
HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK ON THE INTERNET?
NOTE: I am going to over simplify this next part to keep this posting a reasonable length.
Packets are the chucks of data we pass back and forth on a network or the internet. All packets, just like letters sent via the mail, must have a source address (Return Mailing Address) and a Destination address, (mail to address). Effectively the router strips off your source address (return mailing address) and replaces it with its address. It also adds some additional information to the packet and stores this mapping information in memory, so when the packet returns it knows what local IP address to send it to.
Optional: For more information on NAT (N)etwork (A)ddress (T)ranslation
http://www.howstuffworks.com/nat.htm/printable
OK Now back to Wireless Security. There are many ways to improve security on a wireless network.
What was mentioned in the video was:
1.) Change the default password for the administrator on the router. If possible change the administrator username.
2.) In the video it suggests changing the default SSID (Service Set Identifier) That does nothing to improve the security of network. All wireless networks routers have this turned on by default and usually have a SSID the same as the manufacturer of the router. That’s why scanning your local wireless network may show many linksys or netgear SSID’s. By renaming the SSID to something like yourlastname, all you’re doing is telling others who’s network it is. To me that is worse than leaving it Linksys.
BETTER SUGGESTION…. TURN IT OFF! It’s not needed. When you or someone wants to connect to your wireless network they must now know the SSID as it is not broadcast.
3.) Implement WEP, WPA or WPA2 Security. These utilize encryption through the use of a passkey. – See your router documentation. Of the 3 WEP is the weakest and WPA2 the most secure. NOTE all devices connecting to your wireless network must support the security chosen; older devices may only support WEP.
4.) Use Mac address filtering. A MAC Address (Media Access Control Address) is a unique identifier assigned to network communication equipment by the manufacturer for identification. By turning this feature on only communication devices with their MAC address registered can communicate on your network. Keep in mind however, a knowledgeable hacker can easily get past this.
5.) Always Disable Remote administration. Enable it only if needed and only if you can define a specific IP or range of IP addresses allowed.
6.) Disable DHCP on your wireless router, Assign your IP addressing manually.
I Hope this helped you to make your wireless network a bit more secure.
See you after the Holidays!
Dan
Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with the latest posts.