New Technology Reviews!.: Networking

In Depth: 20 OS X networking problems and fixes

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab3-200-200.jpg"> If you've got problems with your Mac and your network, you've come to the right place. We've gathered together the 20 most common OS X networking annoyances and solved them on the spot. Q. When my MacBook is right next to the wireless router, it connects, but if I move to another room, it then asks for the password, even though other computers can connect just fine. A. This is a hardware fault with your MacBook's AirPort card or the antenna. The AirPort icon still reports a good signal because it is measuring the signal received from the router and the problem doesn't affect the receiver. But the transmitter's signal isn't strong enough to reach the router unless the range is virtually zero. It's time to get the AirPort card replaced – you can do so at an authorised Mac service centre. Q. I connect wirelessly to the internet with a BT Home Hub 2. Recently, Safari has started opening at btopenzone.com instead of my home page. What's going on? <img alt="BT fon homepage" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab6-420-100.jpg" width="420"></IMG> A. If your ISP is BT, your router will create two networks – the password-protected one and an open one called BT FON that can be accessed by anyone with a BT broadband account If your router isn't available when your Mac starts for whatever reason, you can sometimes find yourself connected to a neighbour's FON network instead. Rightclick the AirPort icon and select the correct network to reconnect. Q. My iMac used to be able to create computer-to-computer networks with my Windows laptop. Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I can't do this. Why? A. If you use the Mac as a Wi-Fi base station, then Windows PCs at least, won't be able to connect to your network unless you untick the Require Password box. Alternatively, use a separate wireless router and connect both computers to that. Q. How can I configure my AirPort Extreme to run both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously, to give me two independent networks? A. It already uses both frequencies by default. The newer wireless n models automatically pick whichever band offers the best reception. Separate your network traffic at the IP address level, using a router – not by using different radio frequencies. Q. When I'm using MS Office, I frequently get asked whether I want the application to accept incoming network connections. Is there any particular reason why I might click 'allow'? A. Incoming connections are network packets that were not specifically solicited by the application. MS Office applications listen on certain ports to receive notification of updates, for example. If you have your firewall set to block all incoming connections, it won't be able to do this and that's why it pops up the message, asking if you want to let this one through. If you trust the application, it's safe; probably safer than leaving MS Office unpatched, in fact. Q. How can I use my home Mac to access my Windows XP computer at work? <img alt="GoToMyPC" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab8-420-100.jpg" width="420"></IMG> A. You could use the Remote Desktop Host included with Windows XP Professional, but it's probably easier to use a web service like GoToMyPC.com, which enables you to access your Mac or PC from anywhere (for a price). Q. I use an Orange Internet Livebox, with Wi-Fi turned off, connected using Ethernet to a Time Capsule in Bridge Mode. This provides my wireless network. However, I'm restricted by the five-connection limit of the Livebox, even though I'm using the Time Capsule. How can I get round this? <img alt="NAT" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab12-420-100.jpg" width="420"></IMG> A. In bridge mode, the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule don't provide any network address translation. They just rebroadcast the network packets wirelessly, so you're still restricted to the five-address limit imposed by the Livebox. Fortunately, however, the solution isn't a convoluted one. All you need to do is put the Time Capsule into NAT mode. This will take one of the five IP addresses handed out by the Livebox and split it into as many wireless addresses as you need. Q. My hard drive is only 80GB and is almost full. I am thinking of getting a 1TB Time Capsule to fix this and also provide a wireless network. Is this the best solution? A. The Time Capsule won't back itself up, so whatever files you migrate to the 1TB disk will be unprotected. Also, your files will only be accessible over a Wi-Fi connection, which is much slower than USB or FireWire. Use an external disk directly connected to your Mac for your overflow storage. Then let the Time Capsule back up both this and the internal disk. Q. I have added a Time Capsule by connecting it directly to my broadband modem with an Ethernet cable. But my Mac now frequently selects the wrong network and AirPort Utility can't see the Time Capsule at all. A. Instead of connecting to the Wi-Fi network from the modem and reaching the Time Capsule through that, reconfigure the Time Capsule to create its own Wi-Fi network and turn off Wi-Fi on the modem. Having two wireless networks just increases interference. Q. I recently changed broadband provider. My networked printer, which used to work perfectly, now causes me to lose my network connection every time I turn it on. A. Your printer probably has a static IP address assigned which now conflicts with the IP address range used for DHCP on the new router. Change the printer to use DHCP as well, or move the static address to an unused number. Q. After reinstalling OS X, my iBook won't accept the network password, even though all the other computers in the house connect perfectly well… A. Assuming that you're definitely using the right password for the router (and not confusing the router admin password with the AirPort password, say) the most likely problem is a corrupted plist and deleting this file should fix it. You'll find it in the folder Macintosh HD\Library\Preferences\ System Preferences. Q. I sometimes get an error message that comes up and says 'IP Configuration'. Nothing else seems wrong. Should I worry? A. This message occurs when another device tries to connect with the same IP address as you. You were there first, so the other device is locked out, but OS X is warning you about the conflict. Check all your network devices are using DHCP, or static IP addresses that don't overlap the DHCP range or conflict with each other. Q. I have an Apple TV that I would like to set up with my Buffalo LinkStation. Can I use this drive as my location for iTunes on my iMac and then play music and films on my Apple TV? A. Using NAS disks for iTunes is probably still more trouble than it's worth. iTunes has a habit of reverting to a local library if the NAS is in sleep mode when iTunes starts. You could enable the iTunes server on the LinkStation itself, but Apple TV won't connect directly to that. Alternatively, connect the LinkStation directly to your Mac as an ordinary external disk. Your Mac would need to be on whenever you wanted to stream media to the Apple TV, though. Q. What is the best way to add really old Macs (G4 and G3 iMacs) to my wireless network? A. Use a wireless bridge. It plugs into the Ethernet port on your Mac and lets the G4 ignore the wireless aspect. The bridge will relay all the traffic from the G4 to the router without the Mac ever being any the wiser. The Airport Express will do this, but Belkin and Linksys also have compatible bridges. Q. I have moved my iTunes and iPhoto libraries to a networked hard drive. Unfortunately, I can no longer use Front Row to watch or listen to my media. Is there anything I can do to point Front Row at an external drive? A. Front Row won't access networked drives directly, but you can easily create an alias to one and drop that into your Movies or Music folder. Provided that the network drive is accessible and mounted, Front Row should display this perfectly well, though there might be a short delay for Front Row to buffer the stream before it begins playing. Q. I'm trying to connect a PC and a Mac. In System Preferences, under Sharing-Services, I've ticked Personal Web Sharing and under Sharing-Internet I've turned on Internet Sharing. But if my Mac has access to the internet, the PC can't get onto the web at the same time. <img alt="Personal web sharing" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab13-420-100.jpg" width="420"></IMG> A. Personal web sharing is just so that you can have web pages on your local hard disk that others on your network can view as if they were published on the internet; it has nothing to do with sharing an internet connection. And the Internet Sharing preferences setting is designed to allow your Mac to share its own internet connection with one or more computers on that network. This is what your router is already doing, and by enabling it on the Mac as well you are just tangling everything up. Turn off Internet Sharing on the Mac (and the PC too if it is enabled there) and just let the router handle the NAT. Q. What is MAC access control and will enabling it improve my Wi-Fi security at all? A. The Media Access Control, or MAC, address is hard-coded into every network device at manufacture and is unique to each one. You'll find it by selecting About This Mac from the Apple menu and then clicking the More Info… button. Then select Network from the list on the left and scroll the right-hand pane all the way down to the bottom, where you should see the MAC address in question presented as six, two-digit, hexadecimal numbers.

In Depth: 20 OS X networking problems and fixes

If you've got problems with your Mac and your network, you've come to the right place. We've gathered together the 20 most commo...

Tutorial: OS X networking explained

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab6-200-200.jpg"> Networks can be complex. They are much better than they were, but they are always the most complicated part of your Mac. When you send a document to a network printer, it is transmitted from one protocol to another, broken into pieces, each with their own addressing system, until finally it is transmitted as radio signals represent the bits and bytes. As your print job flies through the air, it encounters interference and interference from cell phones, microwaves and power tools. Your Wi-Fi access point plucks this signal from the air and reassembles the scrambled mess. Small errors are corrected, large errors are replaced with valid data, patiently re-sent. Your router reads the address on each packet and chooses the best way to pass it to its destination. At the printer, the packets of data are placed in the correct order, the envelopes are opened and the wrappers discarded. As your document is finally translated from electricity to ink, the printer sends you a confirmation message that this miraculous endeavour has succeeded. And to get to you, that message makes the same incredible journey back through the protocol layers and across the airwaves to reach your Mac. At least, that's what you hope happens. With so many different steps, it's no wonder that things sometimes go wrong. Network problems can feel daunting, with intermittent faults and error messages. But we're going to put a stop to all that. With our guide, we'll show you how your network is put together and where the choke points are. We'll cover how to set up a new network and why some networks are more error-prone than others. We'll tell you what kit to buy and what to avoid. Despite all this, your network may still sometimes break. Long after death and taxes have both been abolished, network problems will remain. Home networking is a rough neighbourhood and you're always going to get shot at. But armed with the next few pages, you'll be able to roll for cover and return fire. Networking basics When you get broadband, your internet service provider (ISP) normally supplies you with a broadband modem. This, plus your Mac, is the simplest network you can have, and for lots of people it's all the network they need. If you have ADSL broadband – the most common kind – it's delivered to your house through the phone line. At the phone socket, you plug in a filter that splits the frequency range, so that the lower 4KHz is used by voice phone calls and the rest is sent to the modem. The modem takes the analogue electrical signal from the phone line and extracts the digital data stream encoded within it. This data takes the form of network 'packets' that are wrapped up using an addressing protocol called TCP/IP. (This is a fairly meaningless acronym, so don't bother trying to remember what it stands for.) Each TCP/IP packet contains a small piece of a website, or a graphic, or a downloaded file, or whatever is being sent from the internet. And every packet has a number, called an IP address, which identifies which computer or device it's intended for. Your broadband modem has an IP address assigned to it by your ISP and, if you have a modem that plugs into a USB port on your Mac, then this IP address is available exclusively for the use of that Mac. But if you want to connect more than one computer through the same broadband connection, you need a router – if you're not sure where yours is, that's because most modern broadband modems have a router built-in. If your modem has sockets for Ethernet cables, then it is actually a modem/router. Router vs modem The router is like a telephone exchange; it assigns separate IP addresses to all the computers connected to it and acts as a single point of contact for the wider network beyond it. When an incoming TCP/IP packet arrives from the internet, the router opens it and re-addresses it using the local IP addresses of your home network. This process is called Network Address Translation, or NAT. As well as enabling your broadband connection to be shared among many computers, NAT provides a measure of security from hackers, as the IP address of your Mac is never exposed to the wider internet. Only the router uses the external IP address provided by your ISP. <img alt="BT router" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab1-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> This anti-hacking function is called a firewall. By itself, NAT already does quite a good job, but almost all routers nowadays have much more sophisticated hardware firewalls that actively block probing attacks and make it hard for a hacker to tell that you're actually connected to the internet at all. Going wireless A broadband/router with a Mac connected via an Ethernet cable is the simplest configuration. But your phone socket doesn't generally come into the house right next to the Mac and most of us would rather not have to start tacking Ethernet cable around the skirting board. The solution is wireless networking, also called Wi-Fi or AirPort. A Wi-Fi connection is provided using a wireless access point and, again, most broadband modems include this in the same device. Instead of converting the TCP/IP packet into an electrical signal to transmit it along an Ethernet cable, a wireless access point broadcasts it as a radio signal. This is received by the Wi-Fi antenna in your Mac. There are several international standards for Wi-Fi devices. They are cryptically labelled as 802.11a, 802.11b and so on, but they are usually just referred to by the last letter – as 'wireless b', for example. The most widely used systems are b, g and n. The later letters are faster, or more reliable, or both, but they are backwards-compatible with earlier Wi-Fi standards. Generally, the slowest point in your network is your broadband connection, so unless you do a lot of transfers between devices on your network (to and from a networked disk, for example) it's a non-issue. If you want to print across your network, you can always connect the printer to one of your computers and share it from there. But this only works when that computer is running. Some printers are network-aware and can be connected to your router directly. Otherwise, you can use a print server. Your printer is served This device connects to your router with a wired or wireless connection and lets you plug in one or more printers. It keeps its own queue of print jobs and makes sure they go to the right printer. Apple's own-brand network devices are the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Airport Express and the Time Capsule. An AirPort Extreme is a router with a wireless access point built-in. This is the same as the Wi-Fi router/modem from your ISP, except that it doesn't have the modem part. There are still some reasons why you might want to add an AirPort Extreme though. It has a USB port that you can use to add an external hard disk or a printer (or both if you use a USB hub); these will then be accessible across the network, from your Mac. The AirPort Express is a cut-down version of the Extreme. It only supports 10 simultaneous wireless devices instead of 50, and only one wired connection instead of three. The USB port on the Express can only be used to network a printer, not a hard disk, but it does include a stereo speaker jack that you can use to connect speakers or an amplifier and stream your music wirelessly from your iTunes library on your Mac. Time Capsule is an AirPort Extreme with a hard disk actually built-in. You can use the disk for overflow storage or you can allocate it for use with Time Machine backups. You can also do this with a USB drive plugged into an Airport Extreme, but it's a setup that isn't officially supported by Apple, and using a Time Capsule is a little tidier. When a network problem strikes, it isn't always immediately obvious. It's rare to get a clear message on the screen and it's easy to imagine that your Facebook app has simply crashed or a website is temporarily offline. A good first check is to open a new window in Safari and try pointing at www.google.com. The web requires the least complicated protocols of any of the services that run over the internet, and Google has a nice fast web page that is always up. <img alt="internet fail" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab2-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> The front page itself could be loading from Safari's internal cache, of course, so test your live connection to the internet by typing something random into the search box to force it to query the server. If you get a page of results, then you have an internet connection, at least. If you get a progress bar that goes nowhere, followed by a 'Safari can't find the server' page, you've got problems. If you have a wireless connection to your broadband router, cast a glance up at the menu bar on your Mac. The 'stripy slice of pie' icon on the right-hand side should be black. If it's greyed out, right-click it and see if you're connected to the right network. Sometimes you'll see your Wi-Fi network listed in the 'available' section, but it won't have a tick against it to show that it's selected. This is because the network briefly disappeared from the radar and OS X hasn't automatically reconnected when it came back up. Just click it on the list to reconnect. <img alt="network list" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab3-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> If your Wi-Fi link looks okay but you still have no internet connection, it's time to take a look at the router. Broadband modem/routers are little computers running an embedded operating system and they can crash just like any other computer. If none of the lights on the front are flickering – either because they are all stuck on or they are all switched off – turn the modem off at the wall. Actually, do this even if your modem lights look normal – different modems use different light sequences to indicate problems and rebooting the modem is an easy and quick way to rule out a crash. Light show When your modem starts up it will begin with a power-on self-test, which is normally indicated by the power light flashing steadily. After about five seconds of this, the power light will change to steady. Next to light up will be the LAN lights for any wired Ethernet connections that are active, closely followed by the WLAN light, which should start blinking away. <img alt="router" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab4-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> After that there will be a pause as your modem logs in to your ISP and then the light labelled 'broadband', 'ADSL' or just 'DSL' will come on. After that, there should be another pause before the internet light comes on to indicate that the router has been allocated an external IP address from the ISP. If all the lights come on in more or less this sequence, then you can be confident that the broadband modem is working fine. If any of the lights are yellow or red, or if the broadband or internet lights don't come on at all, then it could be that your modem is damaged. This can happen if the modem isn't ventilated and has overheated, or if the phone lines near your house are struck by lightning, sending a power surge to the modem. (This is why it's a good idea to disconnect the phone line from the modem if you have a big thunderstorm nearby.) Alternatively, your ISP may be having technical problems at your exchange. Try calling their support hotline to check this. Simplify, simplify Assuming that the modem restarts correctly but your network problems remain, the next step is to take as much complexity out of your network as you can. This will help you identify which link in the chain is failing. Does your iPod touch or iPad still connect through Wi-Fi? If so, it's a sign that the problem lies with your Mac. If none of them can connect, try a wired connection. There are lots of things that can cause Wi-Fi networks to suddenly break, but most of them boil down to either incompatibility with another network device or problems with wireless security. If you have recently changed broadband provider your wireless security key will have changed, but the new modem/router might also be using a different wireless security protocol. Some older network devices and computers have problems with the newer WPA2 protocol. Try temporarily turning security off and see if that makes a difference. It's possible you might need to fall back to the older WEP protocol. This is less secure than WPA or WPA2, but it's still better than nothing. Wireless security is only to protect yourself from hackers within physical wireless range of your network, so depending on your neighbours you might not really need more than WEP. Every device on your network must have a unique IP address. These take the form 192.168.1.n, where n is a number between 0 and 255. When you install a device, you can either choose a number for it yourself or you can let the router allocate one automatically, using a service called DHCP. <img alt="DHCP" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20228/MAC228.main_feat.grab5a-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Using DHCP for all devices is usually the easiest option, but some devices do not support or behave oddly with her. If you assign static IP addresses to some of your network devices, make sure you restrict the range of addresses that the DHCP server on your router may use, and assign static IP addresses that do not reside in this range .

Tutorial: OS X networking explained

Networks can be complex. They are much better than they were, but they are always the most complicated part of your Mac. When you send a do...

How to Create Secure Passwords For Social Networking Sites

If you've been involved with social media then you've heard about the hacks on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. User accounts have been broken into and used to spread spam or links to sites carrying viruses or other malware.Time and again, the reports try to drill into your brain that you need to make your password secure. But I've yet to hear anyone report on just what a secure password is! In order to help correct that, I'm going to provide you a shortened version of what I provide my clients and students about creating secure passwords. To appreciate how easy it is to hack a social networking account, you have to look at your profile the way a hacker does. Hackers know that most people use passwords that are easy for them to remember. That means that your profile contains much of the information a hacker can use to guess your password.For example, many people will use the name of their dog, spouse, or child and their birth date to create a password. So, if you have all your family listed on your profile, along with the pet chinchilla and your birth date, that's the first thing any hacker will try. So if you have a pooch named Rex, and your birthday is 07-17, a password of rex0717 is probably a bad idea. Similarly, your spouse, John with your anniversary date - john0422 - is also easily hacked. I think you got the picture.These skills are called social engineering techniques and have been around since the dawn of hacking. But that's not the only tools these folks have at their disposal. There are freely distributed hacking tools programmed to run through the entire dictionary, along with combining numbers and characters to also break your password.So, any use of a full word contained in the dictionary is also off limits for any part of a password.By now I'm sure you're wondering how to create a password without using words, right? It's actually easier than you think!Take some phrase or concept that's very meaningful to you and create a password from it.Let's say that your favorite movie is the Wizard of Oz. You could use the phrase, "Follow the yellow brick road" to create the password. Or, Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!Using the yellow brick road phrase, you take the first letter of each word in the phrase to start the password. So you would use the f in follow, the t in the, y from yellow, b from the brick, and r from road. Now you can come up with a multiple combination of this by also switching the case on this phrase. Some of them might be as follows: ftybr FtYbR fTyBr FTybr FtyBR Now, you need to add something to the end or the beginning to make it even harder to hack because the longer the password is, the longer it takes for someone to process the multiple variations on it.So, using the Oz from the title of the movie, you can substitute the o in Oz for a zero or number. Then your password may look like this: FtyBR0z.To add even more length to it - thus making it even harder to guess, you could add: FtyBR0zL&t&b0m!Did you guess the ending? Lions & tigers & bears with the zero representing the o in Oh my! And of course the m and exclamation point. But a tilde would do just fine also, as in: FtyBR0zL&t&b0m~You see from that example that there are no words being used that are included in the dictionary, and no identifying information that could be gleaned from your social profile. Unless of course, you have as I do, Wizard of Oz listed as one of your favorite movies on your profile! Needless to say, this not my password!Also, a word of caution. While this may keep you from getting your account hacked now, it doesn't mean that someone won't find a way to break your code and get in. So my advice to you is, don't use the same password for all your social networking sites. You can use the same theme, but switch things around so that in the event one account does get hacked, you don't give the hacker instant access to all your accounts.A final word about social engineering techniques. Don't trust just anyone with your passwords or the phrase you use to create them. You just never know who you might be sharing that information with. And do not use a phrase you are recognized with.A friend of mine is known for his tag line, "Show me the money." That would be the first phrase I'd guess if I was hacking his account. So make sure it's something known and meaningful only to you.Now you know how to create a secure password! 	 	 		 			 				 					 						Debbie Mahler is the owner of a female-owned IT company (<a href="http://mice.org" target="_new">http://mice.org</a>) that works with individuals and small-to-midsized businesses with security solutions, networking, education, and online presence. If you liked this and other articles, please sign up for our free newsletters & get the free eBook: Why is my PC so slow? <a href="http://mice.org/lists/" target="_new">http://mice.org/lists/</a>

How to Create Secure Passwords For Social Networking Sites

If you've been involved with social media then you've heard about the hacks on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. User accounts have...

Security Issues Abound As Social Networking Goes to Work

Employees use two types of social networking sites. They bring their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other identities to the office. At the same time, they use professional social networking - LinkedIn and others - for more "official" duties.It has the potential to be a major problem. A recent Newsfactor piece based on Forrester research identifies social networking as a key element of the ongoing corporate Web 2.0 wave. By 2013, the firm says, social networks will constitute a $2 billion chunk of what will be a $4.6 billion sector.Hopefully, organizations will catch up on the security front. The piece says that only half of Web filters deployed by Barracuda Networks are blocking MySpace or Facebook. Those who are doing so are trying to guard against virus and spyware and to maintain employee productivity. It would be interesting to understand how many of these organizations understand that social networking sites are great avenues for phishing and other social engineer exploits, and for dishonest or ignorant employees to send vital information beyond the firewall.Recently CNN had a nice overview of the flow of social networking into the corporate space. What the author doesn't say is that the evolution of social networking from consumer to business use is precisely what happened with cell phones, Wi-Fi and other tools: People used them in their private lives, liked them, and brought them to work. In this case, the writer says, more secure, corporate-aimed offerings are available. Yammer, for instance, is a business version of Twitter. Other corporate social networking newbies, according to Forrester, include Awareness, Communispace and Jive.One of the advantages of the fact that new technology has moved from the consumer to business world so many times in the recent past is that experts consider the security issues more quickly. There seems to be a bit less denial. <a href="http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=49053" rel="nofollow" target="_new">This Legal Technology</a> piece offers a good description of social networks, and references a Black Hat presentation that looked at insecure features of social networks and identified the biggest vulnerabilities. They include cross-site request forgery (CSRF), cross-site scripting (XSS) and the lack of a mechanism to validate the security of customer applications. The writer offers seven tips for safely using and administering social networks.This is not all theoretic: Business people are using social networks - and the bad guys are going after them. For instance, <a href="http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=49057" rel="nofollow" target="_new">SPAMfighter cites</a> reports from The Washington Post's Brian Krebs about spear phishing attacks against about 10,000 LinkedIn members. The story says social networking sites often are the target of spear phishers because users are used to getting e-mail from other members. This e-mail purported to come from <a href="mailto:support@linkedin.com">support@linkedin.com</a> and carried the subject line "Re: business contacts." Recipients following the instructions in the e-mail installed a malicious program aimed at stealing sensitive information from the computer.There is a lot to worry about. <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=162226" rel="nofollow" target="_new">Dark Reading </a>offers a scary vignette on how dangerous a social networking site can be. The big problem is that there is no way to simultaneously optimize security and interactivity. To a great extent, emphasizing one comes at the expense of the other. Dark Reading runs through some of the problems, and links to pages that describe in more detail seven of the most dangerous activities: impersonation and targeted hacks; spam and bots; "weaponized" applications; XSS and CSRF; identity theft and corporate espionage.

Security Issues Abound As Social Networking Goes to Work

Employees use two types of social networking sites. They bring their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other identities to the office. At th...

Social Networking Sites - Security Concerns

Over the past few years social networking has become increasingly popular. Everyone is scrambling for the latest piece of technology and these new devices ensure that you can use social networks anytime you want. The topic of security has been an issue of the years with specific cases cropping up, however when the hype fades, people forget and continue to use and love these social sites.With everyone loving social networking sites as much as they do, it's hard for people to think about them having flaws. They provide a way to share photos, information with friends and share a laugh or two through thoughts of the day and instant messaging. When a family lives all over the world from each other or friends moves far apart, they give a way to communicate and share their lives with each other on a technical level.The problem with sharing your life online is that it is subject to being looked at by people that you do not know. It may seem scary to think of someone else viewing your pictures or seeing your profile but it is even worse when you think about them accessing your password and getting into your files, or just seeing your files and using the info or pictures for their own good.Security needs to be beefed up on social sites. Many social sites do not view security as a huge issue. They know that more important internet situations do not provide heavy duty security so they feel that social networking is important but not as important of the ones who are lacking it as well. There are SSL codes that can be in scripted to make privacy an addressed issue, but many internet sites refuse to use them.A popular social network website had a hacker that broke into everyone's account. He spread a virus around that got into everyone's account and while he didn't do any harm or damage he proved his point, that it can be done and it can hurt a lot of people.A site that allows people to post journal entries had someone break into someone's account. The hacker changed things around and deleted entries, they also hacked into friend's accounts through the one account. Lots of information was leaked and people were hurt. It made the account holder upset but they just went on with changing their password and resuming their life.Most social network websites started off small and a few turned into something massive. The idea really caught on because everyone likes the idea of being so connected and close to people through the internet... something many people use all day and every day. The problem is that all the little cute programs that people are so tempted to load on to their accounts may allow people access to all their information.And while it seems many people don't think about it too hard, it may do some harm. Whenever someone can see your private info without consent that is a security issue that should be a hot issue. Some networking sites have tried to make it seem that people have control over who sees certain information but there must be other ways such as loading applications that allow for security issues to happen regardless.It is amazing to think that people do not really care that much about internet security, if they did then everyone wouldn't be on social networking sites. It is also concerning to think that hackers are using the internet to target people and use them for their own advantages and scams.	 	 		 			 				 					 						Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for <a href="http://polomercantil.livejournal.com/" target="_new">Polomercantil</a>

Social Networking Sites - Security Concerns

Over the past few years social networking has become increasingly popular. Everyone is scrambling for the latest piece of technology and ...

Tutorial: 25 computer networking tips and tricks

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.feat1network.tips2-200-200.jpg"> Running a home network is pretty essential in this day and age. Thankfully, modern hardware and software has reduced the complexities of configuring networks down to a few setup screens, and the relevant hardware often comes free with an internet connection. If you have multiple computers, the chances are they're already talking to each other, either through wires or wirelessly. However, while your home network might be up and running, optimising it takes some doing. Follow our simple tips to extract the last drop of juice from your network hardware. 1. Change channel number Wireless routers operate on a fixed channel. Since most routers ship with a pre-selected channel, the wireless signal may interfere with other routers in the vicinity that are operating on the same channel. Changing the wireless channel from the factory default is a good starting point if your wireless signal strength is poor. 2. Give the router space to breathe The biggest advantage of a wireless router is that it can penetrate doors and walls – but that doesn't mean you can just stuff it next to a wall or cordless telephone, or use it as a stand for your stack of DVDs. Treat it with respect. Try to keep it in a central location, away from other wireless devices; make sure it's not in direct sunlight; lift it off the carpet; and ensure its vents and air holes aren't covered. 3. Improve reception Try as you might, you'll find it's sometimes not possible to put the router in a good spot. One way around the problem is to buy a router with multiple antennas and point them in a variety of directions covering your home. Alternatively, if you've already got a router, check whether it's possible to upgrade its antennas to something stronger. However, don't get disheartened if your router doesn't have any antennas. A wireless repeater compatible with your router is a perfect solution. 4. Use WEP Running an unsecured network will earn you brownie points from neighbours and hackers with cars, but that's about it. Wireless routers support a variety of encryption methods, such as WPA and WEP, but these aren't enabled by default. WPA2 is the most secure method at the moment, but before deciding on an encryption method, make sure your network cards and adapters support it as well. Bear in mind that older machines – and games consoles such as the Nintendo DS – don't support WPA. 5. Restrict access to specific PCs If you really don't want to use encryption, you can force your router to only connect to specific PCs. Your router identifies each computer by the unique MAC address of its network gear. Feed it a list of MAC addresses to connect to and you save yourself the trouble of entering a password each time you log in. The disadvantage is that you'll have to add the MAC address of any new computer before it can get on your network – which is probably a more annoying way of getting things done. 6. Disable SSID broadcast All wireless routers have a Service Set Identifier (SSID) that identifies them to network computers. Routers from the same manufacturer generally ship with the same SSID; 'Netgear' or 'Cisco', for example. You should first change the SSID to something unique to set your router apart from those of your neighbours. Then, once all your hardware has been set up, it's better to turn off broadcasting the SSID altogether. This ensures your router isn't displayed in the list of available networks, and won't be a target for potential hackers. 7. Keep the firmware updated Router manufacturers keep working on firmware, even after hardware has been shipped. In addition to tweaks in the user interface, new versions might make better use of the various components in the router, or add extra features. Just like with an operating system, it's a good idea to upgrade the firmware of the router regularly – check the manufacturer's website for a new version. In the good old days, there was the risk of a botched firmware upgrade bricking your router, but it's a lot safer today. 8. Familiarise yourself with the router manager All routers ship with a browser based manager. To use many of the tips in this article, you'll have to log in to this interface – try typing 192.168.1.1 into your web browser for the most common location. It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with the various options and settings you can tweak from within this software. Many routers also have detailed documentation that's updated regularly, so hunt out the latest manual online. 9. Check your connections There's nothing more irritating than receiving a 'cannot connect to remote machine' error. To ensure a solid connection, use Ethernet cables where possible. It's also a good idea to check the connection between the two PCs with the ping command. To do this, simply open a command line and type, for instance, ping 192.168.1.2. You'll need to replace the address given here with that of your target machine. Ping works identically on Windows, Mac and Linux. 10. Forward ports <img alt="port forwarding" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20300/PCP300.feat1network.tips1-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG> Many servers and applications – for example, file-sharing software, FTP servers and music-streaming servers – need to serve people outside the network. These applications accept connections on specific ports. With port forwarding – check your router's interface – you can poke holes in your router and ask it to direct incoming traffic on a particular port (or, if you wish, a range of ports) to a specific computer that's on the network. 11. Change DNS providers DNS is what fetches you a website by translating the human-friendly address, such as www.pcplus.co.uk, into a bunch of machine-friendly numbers. It also displays the '404 page not found' error, corrects misspelt URLs and finds the fastest route to a web server that hosts the site you want to visit, along with lots of other cool things. Generally, it's up to the ISP to put up a DNS server. However, there are other free services as well, including the likes of OpenDNS and Google Public DNS. 12. Use USB adapters These days, it's difficult to find a laptop or netbook without a built-in wireless module, but if you've used one, you'll know that they can't always be relied upon. Network cards with antennas are the best option, but they're really only suitable for desktops. If you really need both mobility and assurance, make sure you get a USB adapter. Most of them ship with a Windows driver, but many work out-of-the-box on Linux as well. 13. Enable Dynamic DNS The Dynamic DNS feature enables you to connect to your computer remotely. Back in the day, when real-estate on the web was expensive, it was a wonderful option to show off your HTML skills and host your own website. Now, by associating your dynamic IP address with a domain name, DDNS enables you to connect to the internet-exposed home computer from anywhere in the world. In addition to enabling the feature on your router, you'll also have to register with a dynamic DNS provider, such as DynDNS.org. 14. Save power with Wake-on-LAN What's the point of keeping a print server on when there's nothing to print? The smart way to save energy is to use the Wake-on- LAN feature of the network card. Thanks to this, you can put the machine to sleep after it's been configured to wake upon detecting network activity. 15. Encrypt your online activity With the range of snooping tools now available, it isn't safe to do anything online without covering your footprints. There are lots of tools that promise to encrypt your online activity, making it completely unintelligible to anyone who might be listening in. Some of the best ones to try are the <a href="http://enigmail.mozdev.org/download/index.php.html">Enigmail plug-in for Thunderbird</A>, <a href="http://psi-im.org/">Psi for Google Talk</A> and <a href="http://getfiregpg.org/s/home">FireGPG, available for Gmail</A>. 16. Get a Firewall distro You can configure a firewall on a Windows or Linux machine, and there are also a bunch of third-party software firewalls available. However, building a firewall isn't easy. If you're serious about putting one up, download a dedicated firewall distro, such as Ebox. 17. Install the software Ebox is distributed as a Live CD ISO and there are VirtualBox/VMWare images as well. It's based on Ubuntu Server 8.04. You can also pull in Ebox packages to a standard Ubuntu Server 10.04 installation. You can find it at <a href="http://www.zentyal.org/">www.ebox-platform.com</A>. 18. Configure settings Ebox can be adapted flexibly to your network. You can use it to restrict services that can be accessed and slice the network to keep some areas more secure than others. The distro runs a browser-based interface for adding, removing and configuring the components. 19. Filter content Besides the firewall, intrusion detection (via Snort) and filtering content (via DansGuardian) are two other highlights of the distro. DansGuardian can also plug into the ClamAV antivirus scanner and filter content based on known virus signatures. 20. Exploit other features In case you're still not satisfied, Ebox can also act as a gateway and provide a host of other services. It bundles various applications that enable you to turn your network into a VPN, host XMPP chat sessions or run a Postfix mail server, a Squid web proxy and more. 21. Turn on UPnP Universal Plug and Play helps smart devices that support UPnP to discover each other without any user intervention. Once turned on from within your router, UPnP enables a compatible infrared device, a Bluetooth phone or a FireWire camera to see and talk to each other. 22. Write files remotely The most logical use of a network is to share files. This is the job of the SMB protocol. Thanks to it, you'll be able to write files to a remote network share via Network Neighbourhood. On Linux, the SMB protocol is implemented by Samba. 23. Share printers remotely In addition to sharing files, SMB can be used to share printers attached to a Windows machine. Once configured via the Windows Control Panel, a printer can be used to accept print orders or even be managed from a remote machine, irrespective of its operating system. 24. Format shareable partitions as FAT PCs running Windows can easily see each other and share files. For Linux or Mac machines, ensure the partitions are formatted with the FAT filesystem. Create them as Samba shares and they'll show up under Network Neighbourhood. 25. Plug in USB drives Once, if you wanted to share files on the network, a network-attached-storage, or NAS, device was the best bet. Not any more. New routers enable you to plug in one or more USB devices that are automatically accessible by all the users connected to the router.

Tutorial: 25 computer networking tips and tricks

Running a home network is pretty essential in this day and age. Thankfully, modern hardware and software has reduced the complexities of con...

Are Predators Waiting , Watching, and Engaging on Your Child's Social Networking Sites?

MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head." It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!Remember: When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose.	 	 		 			 				 					 						Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.saynotohackersandspyware.com" target="_new">http://www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/</a>.

Are Predators Waiting , Watching, and Engaging on Your Child's Social Networking Sites?

MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and ph...