How not to get hacked

It's important to know how not to get hacked. The following details the layers of security you can place on your wireless network, as well as the effectiveness of each layer.
In some ways, securing a network is like the security on your home:

• Leave the front door wide open. Seen by curious honest people and criminals alike as an open invitation to enter. See, it even says ‘Welcome’ on the doormat!
• Shut the front door. This will keep out an honest person, but a crook wouldn’t be deterred, as they’ll walk right up and try the handle.
• Lock the front door. This will again keep out the opportunist thief who will only try the door handle or climb in open a window to see if he can get it. Luckily most criminals fall into this category, so lock your door!
• Bolt the door with deadbolts, bars on the windows, and alarms. It takes a lot more to keep out the determined criminal who, with a little equipment and know-how, might pick the lock, disable your alarm, or break your whole door down!

Wireless security falls into the same categories:

Leaving the door open: an open invitation

• Broadcasting a default SSID
• No MAC filtering
• No encryption
• DHCP switched on/No access controls

Shutting the door:

• Changing the SSID (the name) of your network and disabling SSID broadcast. The determined hacker can discover this, so it merely protects you from the opportunist who’s in a hurry.
• Disabling DHCP/Access Control. This will not stop a hacker with even minimal knowledge, as there are many tools which will sniff out available IP addresses on your network
• MAC address filtering. A hacker with only a little know-how will be able to clone your MAC address--and see everything you see on your network.

Locking the door

• WEP: Wireless Encryption Protocol can be hacked in seconds using free tools that are widely available.

Bolting the door

WPA: A randomized pre-shared key of at least 10 characters would take half-a-million years to crack. More info about this here. (Note: A random key means that it shouldn’t be a word that exists in any dictionary (hackers have extensive dictionaries that include all common passwords, English words, nicknames, and misspellings of words. This is called a “dictionary attack.”) A random key is a meaningless mix of lower- and uppercase letters and numbers, and sometimes special characters like punctuation, depending on whether your router supports it). If you’re not sure how to get a random key, you can generate a simple WPA key online on this Web site or a more complex one here. You can also get software that will generate a key for you (type “software generate wpa key” into your favorite search engine).

It’s best to build up each type of security in layers, checking that all devices can connect and communicate at each step before adding another layer. Make sure you read your router’s manual to ensure you’re storing the settings correctly (some routers require you to save the settings each time you make a change or the changes will be lost).

Get the most out of your laptop's battery

Think small
The slower the components and the smaller the display, the less power needed to run the machine. A 12.1-inch screen uses 50 percent less juice than a 17-inch model, and getting a 4,200rpm hard drive instead of the 5,400rpm model can mean an extra 15 to 20 minutes of battery life.

Control your power
Adjust your laptop's power settings to find a comfort zone where you're using as little power as possible with no interference in your computer tasks. The path to the control panel will vary according to your operating system and setup, but for Windows XP Home and Pro users, follow these steps: Go to Start > Control Panel > Performance And Maintenance > Power Options. Set the LCD screen to go off after 5 minutes of inactivity, let the hard drive stay active for 20 minutes, and store the system's contents in RAM when it shuts down. If your laptop goes to sleep too soon, adjust the settings.

Dim all the lights
Your LCD's backlight uses up to 10 watts of power, a huge battery drain. Lower the screen's brightness to where it's comfortable to view without squinting. In addition to the Power Options settings detailed in tip 2, most laptops have convenient function keys for controlling brightness. Look for the function key with the brightness icon and a down arrow next to it. (This is the F6 key on many laptops.)

Shut down unnecessary programs
When you're running your laptop on battery power, turn off devices and programs you don't need. When not connected to a wireless hot spot, turn off the Wi-Fi hardware. If you access wireless networks with a PC Card, remove it when not connected. Listening to music via the CD-ROM drive and watching DVDs are also big battery drains.

Top 10 tweaks tips and tricks for windows vista

• If you’re annoyed by Internet Explorer’s incessant barking that you’ve lowered your security settings (like, if you’re a non-paranoid expert), launch “gpedit.msc” from either the Run command or Start Search field, navigate through Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer. In the rightmost pane, double-click “Turn off the Security Settings Check feature” and set it to Enabled.
• If Internet Explorer’s Information Bar also annoys you, you can turn it off (again) in the Group Policy Object Editor (gpedit.msc) through Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer / Security Features. In the rightmost pane, double-click “Internet Explorer Processes” and set it to Disabled. Hallelujah!
• I’ve just mentioned two tweaks that are buried inside the Group Policy Editor. Jim Allchin pointed out that there’s a Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet available. Makes for great weekend reading.
• Read the Background on Backgrounds if you’re a performance junkie. Don’t set your wallpaper through Internet Explorer ever again! Now that Windows supports JPG wallpapers, there’s absolutely no need (or excuse) for using BMPs anymore.
• If you insist on keeping UAC (User Account Control) turned on for yourself, you might care to make the elevation prompts a bit less visually jarring. Brandon told me about this one, even though I have UAC turned off. Launch the Local Security Policy manager (secpol.msc), and navigate through Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options. In the rightmost pane, scroll to the bottom and double-click “User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation.” Disable it, and you can keep UAC turned on without getting turned off by the embarrassingly craptacular Aero Basic theme.
• Vista can send you emails! The Computer Management tool can still be accessed by right-clicking “Computer” and selecting “Manage” from the menu. However, now you can attach a task to any event. Try navigating through System Tools / Event Viewer / Windows Logs / Application. Now, go ahead and select an event - then look to the rightmost pane and click “Attach Task to This Event.” Name it whatever, describe it however, click through the next step, then in the Action step, you’ll see the “Send an e-mail” option.
• The Windows Task Manager gives you a lot more troubleshooting information in Vista. Flip to the Processes tab, and in the View menu, click “Select Columns” and add Description, Command Line, and Image Path Name. Moreover, when you right-click a process, you can select either “Go to Service(s)” or “Open File Location.” These are all long overdue options.
• This one’s interesting. Open up the Date and Time Control Panel applet. Flip to the “Additional Clocks” tab. There, you can configure two more clocks from different time zones. They’ll appear in the tooltip when you hover over the Taskbar clock. No additional software (or silly sidebar widgets) necessary.
• Applicable in other versions of Windows, I’m going to throw it in here for good measure. Create a shortcut to RegSvr32.exe in your SendTo folder. To get there quickly, enter “shell:sendto” in the Run command dialog or Start Search field. Now, when you wanna register a DLL or OCX file with the system, you can select it/them and “Send To” the RegSvr32 shortcut.
• I figured I’d round out my first set of Windows Vista tips and tricks with a tiny bit of eye candy. It doesn’t beat Picasa, but the Windows Photo Gallery is better than nothing. Once it’s indexed all your photos, click the icon next to the Search field and turn on the “Table of Contents.” That’s kinda nifty.

Thanks Chris for this great finding on Windows Vista!