I keep my Wi-Fi completely open.  I don’t want to have to remember anymore passwords than i absolutely have to.  Besides, I would notice someone sitting on my front lawn trying to steal my Wi-Fi…wouldn’t I?

Not necessarily. Distance isn’t a viable security option, unless you live like on your own personal island, or in Grizzly Adam’s old cabin.  And just how much DO you trust your neighbors?  Or the guy a mile away accessing your network to steal your identity, or the guy  driving past your house downloading kiddie porn courtesy of your network…right before he calls the cops on you.

If your network is secured, you should check if you’re using the old WEP encryption.  If you do, your network may not be as secure as you think.  There are all sorts of downloadable how-to’s on the internet giving step-by-step instructions on how to crack a Wi-Fi network that is WEP-encrypted.  So what you say?  Not news.  Well, the surprising part of it, is that it’s not even that hard, and can be done by someone with minimal networking experience, free software, and a cheap Wi-Fi adapter.  I’m not going to go through the instructions here.  They are accessed easily-enough without my help.  If you do need my help to access the instructions, then the world has nothing to fear from you anyways.

If you are unsure of what kind of security encryption your network currently uses, check.  In Windows XP (with at least Service Pack 2), networks using some type of security will say “Security-enabled wireless network”. If WPA or WPA2 is being used it will be shown in parentheses; otherwise WEP is being used. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, hover over the network on the list to see more details, including the security type.  Most Wi-Fi products bought in 2005 or after should support WPA2. If you have a wireless router, access points, computers, or other Wi-Fi devices that were purchased in 2005 or before, you might want to double-check the support of WPA2.

If you’re worried about memorizing yet another password, simply put a sticky-note on your monitor, or on your router.  If someone in your home is accessing your network, you’ve either obviously given them permission, or you have more to worry about than just the security of your network.  Or use a simple password that is easy for you to remember (a pet’s name, your pet name of your private part), but not so easy for someone randomly trying to access your network from outside your home.

By the way, if you choose to Google whether or not the instructions are, in fact, available on the internet, AND decide to test if they actually work, please keep this in mind…Knowledge is power.  But with great power comes great responsibility.  It doesn’t automatically mean you have to turn to the dark side, or do evil things with this power.  Knowing how to pick a lock doesn’t automatically make you a thief.  It just gives you the knowledge you need to protect yourself, and locks that are harder for others to pick.

After all, even if you do trust your neighbors, do you lock your door when you leave the house or go to sleep?  If the answer is no…then ignore this post, put on your rose-coloured glasses, and by all means leave your Wi-Fi open.  BUT…be ready to accept the consequences.

Otherwise, just secure your network.

 

 

We dust our houses (or someone does, anyways), to keep things clean and keep us healthy.  What about your computer’s ‘house’?  It’s often overlooked by many of us.  However, dust in your computer tower can affect your computer’s performance, and even cause it to fail entirely.  So it’s important to clean computer-house every once in a while, in order to keep things running smoothly.

Cleaning your computer takes a lot of care, and a bit of technical know-how.  So if you’ve done it before, and are confident you have done so without crashing your system, go ahead and do so.  If you need some pointers on how to do it, and can follow directions well, check out http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/how-to-clean-your-pc-of-dust-and-dirt-936244 for tips on how to clean your computer tower correctly, and safely.  Only take on a computer spring-cleaning if you’re confident, as you can do some damage if it’s not done correctly.  If you’re not confident, please seek out your neighborhood (professional) computer geek, to do the cleaning for you.

Having your computer cleaned out regularly, can keep it running smooth, safe, and as fast as it should.

Sometimes, when someone emails me a picture within an email (instead of an attached file that I need to open), instead of the picture I get a little red ‘x’.  How do I get rid of the red ‘x’ and see the picture?

 

The red ‘x’ is still fairly common in web browsers and email providers, even though most email providers support ’embedded images’ (pictures within the email, instead of as an attachment that you have to open separately).

For an emailed picture:

If your email provider is having trouble displaying the photo, and all you’re seeing is a red ‘x’, try the following:

– Look towards the top of the email message itself.  There may be a window that asks you to indicate whether the email provider should download the embedded images.  Usually, this window will ask if you would like the email provider to download embedded images automatically in the future (usually with a ‘do not ask me again’ click box).

– If there is no window as above, try clicking the ‘Forward’ button on your email.  This sometimes makes the embedded images appear.  It’s not the most straight-forward way to see the picture, but it works (although just temporarily).  You can also ask your contact that initially sent you the email with the embedded picture, to resend the email.  Sometimes the red ‘x’ was just a fluky present from the world wide web, and it now miraculously works.

For a picture/graphic on a website:

– Sometimes web pages simply load with errors, so hit the ‘Refresh’ button on the address bar.

– Sometimes your web browser or security software has blocked the image.  If this is what is happening, try right-clicking the image.  This should open a window that offers you the option that will allow you to view it.  Some browsers will offer you a reason as to why it blocked the image…you might want to consider this before you view it.

– Sometimes, the website’s server is down.  To test this, try going to a different website to see if the images there are also affected.

– If your browser isn’t showing any images, from any website, go to ‘Settings’ in your web browser, and make sure the ‘Show Pictures’ option is checked, and hit ‘Apply’.  After doing this, hit “Refresh’ on the address bar.

This should solve your problems.  Well, with missing images and/or graphics anyways.  The rest of your problems may take a paid professional.  I know mine do…

 

Computer users these days may change email accounts several times within their computer-usage life.  I think I’ve changed email accounts 5 times in the past 3 years.  It can be a pain in the butt to import your contact list from one provider to another…unless you know how.  Some internet providers can import your contacts directly from your old account.  If you provide the username & password from your old email account.  Following these simple steps should simplify things for you.

– Open your new email account.  Click on the ‘Contacts’ section.  Look for ‘Import Contacts’ (or something similar).

– In Gmail, it’s slightly different:  Click on the ‘sprocket’ icon in the top right corner.  Click ‘Mail Settings’, then click ‘Accounts And Import’.

If your new account doesn’t import contact directly, you can still transfer your contacts yourself.

– Copy your contacts to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file, using your old email account’s ‘Export’ tool.  To do this, when you go to save, click ‘Save As’ and under the ‘Type of File’ drop-down menu, choose ‘CSV’.  Save this file to your computer.

– Open your new email account.  Use the ‘Import’ tool to copy the contacts out of the CSV file.  This will not remove your contacts from your old email account, merely make a copy & place the copy into the new email account.

HINT:  Don’t forget to email the contacts you don’t want to lose, from your old email address, and inform them of your new email address.  Otherwise, your emails from your new email account may end up in their trash (depending on their privacy settings), and you’re stuck wondering why they aren’t answering your invite to the lan party Friday night.

Following these steps should keep your email running smoothly.

 

 

For a computer to run smoothly, it needs several things.  Among the important stuff is to be free of viruses and malware.  Another is to have enough storage space to run the programs you want and/or need (not always the same thing…but that’s another blog).  Yet another is to have programs that do not conflict with one another.

Many of the error messages and system ‘glitches’ we see every day, are caused by software (aka program) conflicts.  Conflicting security programs are frequently a culprit!

For example, if you run two antivirus programs, you will likely see problems when the programs attempt to use the same resources.  The same problem will likely occur if you have a security suite as well as a separate antivirus program, as the security suite likely already has antivirus    capabilities.  A good rule of thumb is to run a software firewall, an antivirus program, and an   antispyware program.

You can buy the software separately, and use multiple brands, however, you will find certain perks to buying a security suite that includes all three programs (such as being able to manage all of the software from a single interface).

Forward your questions to geek@tbyd.ca to have your questions answered, and translated from Geeklish to English!

 

Do you have a burning question that needs answering??

Email the Technology By Design Resident Geek!  We’ll even translate the answer from Geek-lish to English, so the answer actually helps!

In our geek-search to fix all things computer, we have found that our clients often have many of the same questions or concerns.  We often don’t have room in our monthly TechTips newsletter, or the newsletter simply doesn’t come out often enough to address these frequent questions or concerns.  This blog is our attempt to alleviate that problem.

Email your question to: geek@tbyd.ca

 

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