Steps to Secure Your Wireless LAN

by Gavin Sanderson

It is the duty of technology not only to improve itself, but to become more and more user friendly. We can see this happen within the ever evolving sphere of Wireless LAN connections. Here the only constant is the easy to install, plug and play hardware which is well complimented by simple user friendly software. One only has to plug in the device to explore the network or even the Internet, however, Wireless LAN connections are often vulnerable to hackers or even virus threats. These malicious entities try to infiltrate the network and destroy important data. Then again, there is good news for all those people who wish to secure their Wireless LAN connections. Now you can enjoy the benefits of a protected Wireless LAN experience for less than a hundred dollars.

The first step after installing the hardware is to work out the configuration best suited for your network. Pay close attention to the security settings in particular and do not enable the Wireless LAN before you have everything in place and configured. After all, it is better to be safe than sorry. There are a few safety precautions one can adopt after setting up the Wireless LAN network.

Let us begin with the router and the access points. We recommend that you deploy an administrator password to reinforce and bolster access routes. In this way, the intruder will not be able to log into your Wireless LAN system without entering the correct password. Then again, certain systems or devices are preconfigured with default passwords.

Unfortunately, these passwords are often the manufacturer's own name, because it is easy to remember although it lacks originality. We know that leaving a network unguarded with default passwords is the fool hardy option. This is why we must customize all the access points and the wireless router with our own unique passwords. Often we forget these passwords since we do not need to use them on a regular basis. At this point there is no option but to revert back to the default settings to reenter your network. The only problem is that all your time spent on customization will go to waste as those change are erased when default settings are applied.

Remember that the access points and the routers are specifically configured to retain and protect vital information like the SSID (Service Identifier) and even the name of the Wireless LAN network. This system makes it difficult to identify our own network, but thankfully, it doesn't compromise the security. Without this elaborate masking system, you could be leaking away important details or clues that prove handy to outsiders with ill-intentions.

Now we study the two types of encryption employed to secure a Wireless LAN system. They are WEP or Wired Equivalency Privacy and the WPA or WiFi Protected Access. We know that the WEP system is widely used but it also has a sequence of easy to exploit weaknesses because of its poorly designed encryption software. On the other hand, there is the highly recommended WPA option which reinforces your network while proving surprisingly easier to install and configure. One should note that unlike WEP, WPA is not inhibited by a limited number of password combinations as it explores the keyboard beyond the alphabets and number keys. There is a preloaded WPA support system within the Windows XP software package. WPA2 is the next generation WPA, which provides greater security but relies on specially downloaded updates.

About the Author

Read more about wireless network installation and know all there is to know about wireless networking.

source:www.goarticles.com

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The Idiots Guide To Showing Hidden And Password Protected Files On Windows

by Sam Miller

1. In Windows Explorer, (for this select "Start"=>"All Programs"=>"Windows Explorer") 2. Select "Tools" and go to "Folder Options" 3. Click on the "View" tab 4. On the "Hidden files and folders" tab, click on "Show hidden files and folders"

It's as simple as that!

Windows hides some files because it doesn't want the occasional user interacting with them or indeed accidentally deleting them and causing a system crash or an application not to run. This makes a lot of sense from a personal and business users point of view.

There are also some circumstances when you will purposely hide files because they contain confidential information such as financial details or personal data that you do not want made public.

The question is though, what happens when you forget where you've put them?

After all, these files are hidden precisely so they cannot be easily found, and what do you do if they are password protected?

First of all let's deal with cracking passwords that protect files and applications. You may be surprised to learn that there are a large number of software tools that are freely available from the internet that will crack any Windows based password that is applied to an application, folder or file. These common shareware or freeware utilitiy programs include Protected Storage Viewer (just put those three words in your search engine and you'll find the download) and this utility will open and acquire the characters that a Windows based application or file will usually represent as the asterisks when the password input field is being used (when you type "password" it is shown as "********"). This is a pretty neat tool for when you've mislaid or lost your password and it doesn't need any external installation or complicated setup routine to get it working on password recovery. Even better is that this utility will work on Windows applications such as Outlook, Internet Explorer and MSN, basically if you are dealing with a Windows environment it will do the business for you.

Another good free utility for recovering passwords is Password Recovery Pro, and this is really simple to use. All you need to do is hold your cursor over the asterisk password field and the password will be revealed. It works on most Windows files but is no use for Internet Explorer or other web browsers and a patch for Windows Vista is not yet available but that should be along any time now.

If you are looking for hidden files protected with a password on your machine, you may find that simply enabling the Windows "show hidden files" does not pick up every hidden file. Just as there are password recovery utilities easily available, there are utilities that will seriously hide a file so that even Windows does not register its presence. This may be something you've done yourself but what if someone else has put a file or application on your machine ?

There are specialist utilities that you can use that will perform a security scan of your hard drive and perform various cross checks to see if there are any hidden files and if so, where they are and if they are authorized by you. You can imagine the issues that can be raised if someone has planted a key logging application on your computer that you cannot see but which is recording every key stroke you make, including when you are inputting your passwords for personal banking, online credit card transactions as well as snooping on what you are doing on your PC. Find Protected is not free, but you can download a fully functional evaluation version and this is an easy to use tool and again is very good at finding these files.

About the Author

If you are interested in learning more about how to show hidden files, check Sam Miller new web-site.

source:www.goarticles.com

No Comment | Posted in » hidden files, passwords, utilitiy programs