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Nov
9
Stealing a neighbour’s Internet connection
Filed Under Security, advice, internet usage | 3 Comments
As I write this article, I am in my favourite cafe. I’ve logged onto their free internet access so I can pretend to work. A curious thing occurred when I popped open my laptop and fired it up. I automatically connected to someone else’s network - not the cafe’s. I have no idea who this person is or where they are located, they are identified as Netgear only. My computer saw an open connection with no security and logged onto it.
Voila, a free ride on someone else’s dollar.
I run into this type of security risk quite often. There are 3 competing cafes on this corner alone, each one offers Internet access. Two of them do not offer an open connection, you have to take out a subscription. I’m sure many customers log onto Netgear for free, rather than pay for the connection. I am sure some customers connect to Netgear and don’t even realise it.
What’s the problem with that? Let me count the problems:
- Netgear is the name of the router. This tells me the router is working on all the default (factory) settings. Easy to log in and reconfigure the router and lock the user out. What a major pain that can be. Think of the time wasted trying to find out why you can’t connect to the Internet. Internet providers will not help you troubleshoot your router problems so you will be on your own to figure it out.
- This also tells me the Netgear owner has zero security on their connection. This is a major problem. And don’t give me the line about “I have nothing valuable on my computer”. This answer drives me up the wall! Are your photo’s valuable to you? How about your name, email address, do you have your banking information on your computer? Do you have something like Quicken? Great way to loose your identity. Your photo’s are valuable to you! Do you really want to risk having some punk with a attitude playing around with them? How about your email address? I’m sure you will be quite pissed if they suddenly disappear.
- Just what are these anonymous users doing with your connection? I have a customer, who at the time he called me in was in his 70’s. He thought mastering cut, copy and paste were major achievements. He received a letter from a lawyer telling him to “Stop his hacking endeavours immediately” or he would be faced with court action. Turned out someone was using his connection, here in Toronto to hack into a company in Calgary. Who was this person? We never knew, but my customer was being held accountable because the ip address was his. Maybe the unknown person using your wireless connection is downloading movies. Do you think the lawyers for the Movie industry will care you left your connection wide open? Your connection, your responsibility, your lawsuit.
- Just think of the number of people who are having a free ride on Netgear’s dollar. Potentially 90 unwanted users taking up Netgear’s bandwidth in a month. Wonder if Netgear is having speed problems with their connection. Bet they are really sluggish around lunch time and after work! I calculated this by 1 customer per cafe x 3 cafes x 30 days.
- Many Internet providers have a bandwidth transfer limit. This means, the more you cruise and download, the more you may have to pay. Most providers provide their customers with plenty of bandwidth space. But bandwidth is calculated for single home use - not sharing your connection with 90 other people. I wonder if Netgear has been hit with extra fees for extreme bandwidth usage.
- I become quite steamed when I hear people talking so blithely about using someone else’s connection without permission. Stop being so damned cheap and get your own.
So, still think you don’t need to secure your wireless connection?
Oct
11
Blogging for beginners - the who, what, where and when
Filed Under advice, beginners blog, blogging | Leave a Comment
Remember the old lessons from school on writing an essay?
Who, what, where and when?
I wish more bloggers remembered these tried and true methods of keeping a coherent thought on paper. Many new bloggers commit the cardinal sin of forgetting what they are writing about. This problem runs, not only through individual posts, but through the entire bog itself. It is hard to stay focused. If you remember the basic rules from school, you will succeed.
Today we are going to look at the Who of blogging.
How many times have you wandered across a blog only to find out it hasn’t been updated in months. It is hard work maintaining a blog, with a bit of pre-planning, you can simplify the job and have fun.
Before you even write your first entry, sit down and make a few decisions. These decisions will affect how the blog looks and how often you are able to update it.
Decision one: Who are you writing for? Are you writing for yourself? Or a specific audience? Forget the gloomy souls who advice you to forget about blogging if it’s personal because no one will read it. This is not true. You may never get 100’s of hits a day, but then, do you care?
Strange things happen on the Internet. You may find kindred spirits who log in to read your random thoughts, if they are presented properly. Look at the classic Julie/Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen from just a few years ago. Julie Powell started the blog to detail her efforts to cook 1 recipe from the Julia Child’s cookbook everyday. It was amusing, fun to read and at times very personal. Despite all this, it reached a very wide audience and was published in hard cover form. Chances are you and I will never reach such heady heights of blogging fame. That shouldn’t stop you. It sure doesn’t stop me.
So .. decide upon your audience. Maybe its just you and your mother. Maybe its you and 20 other people who share a love of collecting small dragon figures or the problems of your particular job. Blogging is about getting your thoughts down on ‘paper’.
Remember who your audience is and design your site around them. Why do I say this? I log onto quite a few blogs and find I cannot read a thing on the page… the page is too busy, its too hard to find the posts, the colour contrast is buggered, the background screams out at me. If I land on a site that includes the above I say bye, bye to the site and move on. I don’t want to end up with a headache from trying to figure out your page. Clean and easy to read with a simple navigation menu will always win you more readers. I go for the traditional white background and black font because I have a hard time reading anything other than that.
This doesn’t mean you should restrict yourself to this type of format. This works for me. The basic look works best for this type of content. If I were writing reports on the latest punk concerts in my area then this format would well … suck. It would not suit the audience it is trying attract. A livelier format does not preclude the above rule of keeping the format clean and easy to read. There is never an excuse for a blog that is so bogged down in whirling, spinning crap and so full of ads the reader cannot find your posts. Readers come to SEE YOUR POSTS, never forget this.
A couple of rules to remember - not everyone has 20/20 vision. A lot of we myopic cats out there have a terrible time with busy backgrounds. Mute the background. Your background should never be the primary focus of the site. Wavy, swirly backgrounds just make me motion sick. Tone them down because they are competing with your posts.
Keep in mind approx 7% of the population is actually colour blind. Certain colour combinations make it impossible for people who are colour blind to read your site. I have a friend who is colour blind and he finds it very frustrating.
Blinking anything should be punishable by ostracisms. Never use the justly hated blink feature on any part of your site. Not only will it piss off the bulk of your audience, using it makes you look like a silly amateur who should have their keyboard taken away. I cannot explain how much I loath blink or any of the spiny twirly special affects I see. Some pages actually trigger off, in me, a violent headache if I stay for any length of time. Cut it, concentrate on what you are posting.
Navigation is another feature you should pay attention to. Make it easy to find info on your page. Don’t hide the navigation links.
Clutter - well this all depends upon your audience. As long as it’s easy to navigate and easy to read and your audience is of like mind, go ahead and put as many chicklets as you want on your blog. Link away. Just remember, don’t hide your posts. I have purposely left this particular blog clean because the cluttered look would detract from it. Over at the the other blog I maintain, Catpaw - diary of an angry cat, it is much busier with connections to blog catalogues etc. But then, the audience is different and likely more tolerant.
Next instalment in this series will discuss the What of blogging? What are you going to write about? And how to stay on topic.
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