Why?
A man in his twenties, let’s call him Bill, gets on a bus in Oslo. He carries with him a portable computer, complete with a wireless network adapter. The computer is running Windows XP Professional, and has an app installed called NetStumbler. The man is bored, and decides to have some fun…
Bill turns the computer on and starts NetStumbler. After a short distance, he has found in excess of two hundred wireless networks, half of which are unsecured. The man unboards the bus, and selects one which is unsecured called “Linksys”. He decides to punish the owner a little, you simply don’t leave your wireless network with default settings, onw do you?
He logs onto the network, and using Google, it is the work of a minute or two to learn that the config-page of the router is located at the IP-adress 192.168.0.1, and the default user name and password are both admin. He logs on, and finds another computer connected to the router. He shuts the computer out, and starts working his mischief.
Bill starts out turning off broadcasting of the SSID, and changes the SSID, following which he sets WPA-security. He then changes the admin-password of the router, logs off, and gets on the next bus. The entire process, from logging on to the config-page until he logged back off, took him less than two minutes.
How?
The above scenario is not unthinkable. In spite of it mostly being mindplay, I have myself seen close to fifty available wireless networks, many of which are not only unsecured, but also sport default values for everything. So, what does the scenario teach us?
If you know something of routers, you’ll know that the first thing you’ll try when unable to contact the router, is either connect directly to it with a cable (which wouldn’t help you in the above scenario, as the admin-password has been changed), or simply push the reset-button, located on the back of the router. In the case detailed above, the problem will be solved, and for the owner in question, who hasn’t bothered to set up the router, the default settings will be restored.
The next piece of knowledge we can glean from this, is that by doing two simple things, the security of your router will be heightened by large degrees. By changing the SSID (the name the router presents to the outside world), and changing the admin-password, much has been achieved. If you want to go a step above and beyond this, I’d recommend turn off broadcasting the SSID, and setting some sort of security, either WEP or WPA2. These simple steps will prevent trespassers to connect to the network, and secure the network even more
I’ll not tell you what will work best for you, but I personally feel that if the SSID does not identify you is better than a SSID that does. If your name is John Smith, I think that it is better to call the network HomeLAN than calling it JohnLAN or SmithLAN.
Another thing I’ll tell you is that it is better to use a randomly generated WEP-code, instead of one that can be logically disseminated. A quick Google-search for “random WEP code generator” will provide you with many useful pages, for example this one, whereas a search for “WPA2 code generator” will, among others, turn out this one.
Securing wireless networks is very important, so much so that even Microsoft has created a guide to help users set up their wireless networks.
Blog
-
Securing Wireless Networks, why and how?
-
Changing the Program Files Folder
Why would one want to change the default Program Files folder? I like to compartmentalize my disks so that should something go wrong, I can still recover data after a reinstallation. Part of preparing this is the fact that all of my computers’ main hard drives (HDD) are partitioned into a minimum of two partitions, a 5GB one for the system, and only the system, and the rest for everything else.
-
Net neutrality
Net Neutrality has become a heated topic over the last few years. The debate is whether an Internet Service Provider (ISP) should be allowed to decide what their customers are allowed to use the service for. Examples are many, and range from the Norwegian ISP Telenor attempting (however unsuccessful that attempt might have been) to charge content providers (notably the Norwegian Broadcasting Company) for Telenors clients to gain access to content.
-
Testing Opera – first impressions
A friend of mine whose tech savvy is usually worth listening to waxed religious about Opera the other night. When he does, there’s usually a good reason, so I decided to check it out.
-
Taking screenshots of DVD’s
I’ve been having a lot of problems getting screenshots of DVDs I am reviewing. Searching online, I’ve found many solutions, but none that have worked consistently. I decided to try out a few things myself, and here’s my solution for the problem:
To do this, you’ll need to have Media Player Classic installed. (You can get Media Player Classic here.) Once you’ve got MPC installed, you’ll have to set a few settings to get it to work, or you’ll get this errormessage:
In the Options menu of MPC, you’ll want to play around with the settings until you get it to work. You’ll want to restart Media Player Classic before testing the settings. Here are the settings that worked well for me:
To take screenshots, simply go to the “File” menu, and press “Save Image”. Here’s a screenshot I took, just as an example.
-
Windows keyboard shortcuts
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to see the desktop of your computer quickly? Or maybe you wanted to open the Windows Task Manager quickly? You might have needed to see how much RAM your computer has installed, wanted to get Windows Explorer open, or even the Run-dialog box without needing to much about going to the start-menu?
There are many ways of doing all of these tasks, there are the ones most people know, and many tasks also have keyboard shortcuts. I prefer using the keyboard to using a mouse most of the time, and keyboard shortcuts, or hotkeys as they are often called, saves time. It has come to the point where I don’t think about the keyboard combination, but just punch it in.
There are many hotkeys around, and not all of them apply to every users needs. My needs are different to those of a user that spends most of their time in Photoshop. The keyboard shortcuts I have listed below are used in Windows, and are not dependent on any other software. If there are shortcuts you feel I’ve overlooked, feel free to tell me about them in the comment field.
Windows key+Pause – Opens the System Properties dialog box
Windows key+E – Opens the Windows Explorer
Windows key+D – Minimizes all windows and shows the Desktop, second use will revert to previous state
Windows key+R – Opens the Run dialog box
Windows key+L – Locks the computer
Windows key+M – Minimizes all windows
Windows key+Shift+M – Restores all previously open windows to how they were before you minimized them
Windows key+F – Displays the Find all files dialog box
Windows key+F1 – Displays the Windows Help Menu
Ctrl+Shift+Esc – Opens the Task Manager
Alt+Tab – Switches between windows
Alt+F4 – Closes the currently active window. If there is no active window this opens the Shut Down dialog box.
Ctrl+Esc – Opens the Windows menu -
A better Task Manager
Windows Task Manager is a decent enough tool, but it doesn’t really give you all that much information, nor is it always able to do what you need it to, such as end certain processes. By default, the Processes view looks something like this:
While this is enough for most users, it isn’t always enough information, nor capability, for techies. A wonderful little company called SysInternals, now owned by Microsoft, has made a wonderful little utility called Process Explorer. Let’s have a look at the information it gives us:
Not only does it feature tree-structure of processes, but it also features windows to show live data and history of CPU usage, Commit history and I/O Bytes. Clicking any of these windows will display a full system information window, as shown below. These features are only the tip of the iceberg of what should make Process Explorer an essential part of any techie tool kit.
-
Securing transfer of Anti Virus policies
Fighting and defending against computer viruses is one of the largest challenges facing businesses and individuals in the IT world of today. To guard against this, most people have anti-virus software installed on their computers. However, even though you have anti-virus software installed, how can you be certain that the policy-files are the ones your anti-virus supplier has supplied? What is done by the different developers to secure the transfer of these files? What sort of knowledge and access would be needed to hack through the protection?
I’ve asked these questions to a few of the leaders in anti-virus software development. Only two answered my questions; here’s what they said:
Norman -
Customizing MediaWiki
Mediawiki is a very good CMS, and the one that I have chosen to use for my website, for various reasons. The most readily obvious reason is that it is simple to use and administer, and that I can add content from wherever I might be in the world.
However, I don’t want anyone to be able to register as a user, nor to be able to edit or post posts. In addition, I wanted to make a few changes. All the changes are done to one out of two files, either LocalSettings.php or MonoBook.php
LocalSettings.php
First off, I changed the page title that shows up
(more…) -
Making changes to critical (and less critical) system files
From time to time, you might want or even need to make changes to system files that are more or less critical. This can be risky business, and as a result, it is always smart to make the changes in a non-operative version of the file, then back up the file, and only then implement the new version.
A practical example; You want to change the OEM-info of your computer. The way you do this is first to locate and make a copy of the OEMINFO.ini-file, then make the changes in the copy. Once you’re done, you rename the OEMINFO.ini-file to OEMINFO.ini_old, and only then do you actually implement the new file, copying it back in.
The reason for this is twofold; firstly you’ll not be screwing up anything while editing, and should something go wrong, it’ll be that much simpler to roll back; simply rename the original file and you’re back up and running. -
Changing the OEM-info
The OEMINFO.ini-file is a file that stores support information about your computer, which usually ships with computers delivered with a preinstalled operating system. It can contain virtually anything, but usually it contains the name of the manufacturer, the address to their website, and similar information.
The following hack allows you to change the information contained in the file, as well as the logo set by the manufacturer.
Here’s how to do it:
Open %root%\WINDOWS\system32, find the file OEMINFO.ini, and open it in notepad.
It will look something like this:
[general] Manufacturer=%Name of manufacturer% Model=%Model of computer%
[Support Information] Line1=Web: %URL to manufacturers website% Line2=Email: %Email address of manufacturer% Line3=Phone: %Phonenumber of manufacturer%
Edit this file at will.
The file I edited, looks like this:
[general]
Manufacturer=A. R. Rødner Tech ENK
Model=WiseDesk 2.2
[Support Information]
Line1=Web: https://www.razumny.no
Line2=Email: **********@******.**
Line3=Phone: +**-********
Line4=If in need of software support, refer to software manufacturers
Line5=website.
Line6=If in need of hardware support, refer to hardware manufacturers
Line7=website.
Line8=If all else fails, consult the forum at http:\\www.itpro.no
If you want to change the image that goes with the OEMINFO, you need to make a .bmp-file called oemlogo.bmp, which is to be no larger than 100 by 102 pixels (you may make it as large as you want, but make it much larger than 100 by 102 pixels, and not all of the image will be shown.
Here’s what mine looked like:
