Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[clvrlad]

i take it no joy in finding the password?

on your laptop browser go to 192.168.2.1 (you might need to be connected by a wire in stead of just by wifi)
it doesnt ship with a password securing this page so you should be able to change your current log in to a convenient one
and write it down preferably stick it to the bottom of your router
however it will mean you'll have to change it on your laptop the next time you use it

[tricia]

thanks clvrlad, i shall do that

tricia

[MBH]

Here's a question that I first thought of, and THEN saw the idea of it used in a Karen Rose novel Silent Scream.

I've used 3 different Internet Cafe's this weekend - some of them as a small bank of computers in the back of a general store, others like this one I'm in now which is very professional looking and you buy a pass with a code-number on to log onto the maching. In addition to this I also know there are free Wi-fi locations available in coffee shops and a thousand other places.

HOW SAFE are these methods of getting online? Here in the cafe you're in the hands of the software on the machine and Internet server. In a Wi-fi location you may be using your own machine but you're going through someone elses connection and therefore (technically) their computer server that the broadband is connected to.

I'm thinking of key-loggers to capture your email account names and passwords. Club logins (like Puzzlebrains). With your login details for your email they then get to read everything you've sent or recieved (which could include financial information).

We already trust a lot of people by using electronic media. Even if outsiders can't find your information I know that the technical staff at the email services like Hotmail or Gmail will have tools to look directly at the data. I know that's the equal of a physical postman messing with a physical letter - but as a programmer I can think of some evil things that can be done. [We were always 'trusted' people because we had direct access to things like client's payroll systems - so sensitive information like wages and bonuses were all known to us. As 'professionals' that data was treated properly and with the utmost confidence]

So - how safe are these places?

[SparkOut]

"Not necessarily" safe at all.

The code supplied may be for access, but it may not encrypt the connection between your wireless laptop and the wireless router, or the encryption may be relatively weak. The radio signal broadcast is not directional. Anyone sitting within the range of your wifi signal (whether in the cafe, in a car parked outside or elsewhere) will actually be receiving that signal. For the most part, "that person's" computer will ignore the signal entirely. There is a "possibility" that such a person will have a "sniffer" running, which can "eavesdrop" on the communication between your computer and the router.

You may consider the analogy of talking to the bank cashier, while someone is in the queue behind you, or at the next counter window.
MBH: Could you give me the balance on my offshore account number XYZ123BCA567?
Cashier: Please tell me your date of birth for security...
MBH: 2nd Octember 1821
Cashier: The balance in your Cayman Islands account XYZ123BCA567 is $76,988,212.55

If you speak loudly enough for the cashier to hear, then there is a distinct possibility that someone else can hear. In terms of the radio broadcast, it's more like you were shouting that conversation.

Now... to make things more secure, wifi communications should be encrypted. It is dependent on the provider of the service to set up encryption. They may choose to make the service freely available without "bothering the customers by requiring them to set an encryption key at all" in which case you might as well have shouted that bank conversation.
They may choose to enable WEP encryption, which is perhaps as good as having that conversation in the bank in Mandarin Chinese. It would be much less likely that anyone could immediately understand, but if an eavesdropper made a recording, they could get a translation made.
The provider may choose to enable WPA encryption which is perhaps more like translating each sentence in the conversation into Navajo, then changing that into Morse code, and finally encoding it in the manner of one of Scurra's puzzles. Technically it's still feasible to eavesdrop and decode, but much harder work.

So... there is no great likelihood that you will find security a problem, but the more you expose your personal information/passwords to "the public" the more chance there is of having it compromised. Some "best practice" thoughts:

1) Never use an "open" service where there is no encryption required. If your computer doesn't ask you for a security code (or "network key") then don't use it for anything.
2) Never use the same password for different sites like Puzzlebrains, your online shopping account, and your bank. Especially not the bank.
3) Even if you have an encrypted connection, don't use your online bank account on a public service hotspot.

[MBH]

That's Wi-fi taken care of - but as I still think of people having their own laptops as 'posh' [I know - I'm old - they're much more accessible now], it's not likely to bother me. It was the Internet Cafe thought that first spurred me to ask.

Cashier: The balance in your Cayman Islands account XYZ123BCA567 is $76,988,212.55

I'd like to make a withdrawal

[clvrlad]

even a novice can look at your wifi
http://www.blog.jbi.in/security/fireshe ... nightmare/

and even better did you use an oyster card while in london??
http://codebutler.com/announcing-farebot-for-android

not that im scare mongering
we should be more careful and only use regulated place to view/access our accounts

my bank has introduced what i'd call an authenticator a device that takes a algorithm and uses it to generate a number that is new for each session, the only thing i dislike about it is it's compulsory

[tricia]

I have just got a new Android phone - Ive never had an MP3 player and have never downloaded music files. Can anyone tell me how I can download my music onto the phone.

It is a Samsung Galaxy mini

Tricia

[MBH]

Music is stored in files, and these files are being tranmitted all around the world all the time. So if you wave your phone about in the air there's a possibility you will catch some while they are passing by. This is known as 'Music Fishing'.

I do talk some nonsense - don't I? LOL

The truth is that this was so far out of my field I took myself on a half-day course at the Sage, Gateshead to find out more. I was looking for old fashioned ideas of 'file transfer' but the teacher immediatly started talking about downloading other software, in particular iTunes that seems to try and act as a file manager on the computer (which can then link to outside devices like your phone).

When you plug the phone in I hear talk of it 'synchronizing' the music on the PC with the music on the phone. I'm hoping this is an 'option' because I have a deep seated objection to computers doing things for me because some progreammer somewhere thinks that's what I want to happen

[clvrlad]

basically you should down load Samsung's software to let you do it easyily

its explained here
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobi ... EU-support
open the manual from the 16th of may and goto page 86

[tricia]

Thanks clvrlad

Tricia

[giraffe]

What is the name of that film that you all told me I should watch (and I did) where a bunch of people are planning a crime and they keep putting a record on so they sound like they are practicing music to cover up what they are planning?

[LAT]

The Ladykillers?

[LAT]

I thought I would get a bit ahead of myself and try to print out labels for Christmas cards. I tested a couple of pages on plain paper first and they looked as though they were lined up about right. Then I put the sheet of labels in the printer and the printing started about half an inch further up with the result that the labels now have one person's address on them right at the top plus another person's name at the bottom of the label. And it did it for each sheet so it wasn't just that the label sheet had slipped as it fed into the printer.
Anybody any ideas why it is doing this and how I can correct it?

[Bunnylump]

Did you set it for the right type of label? There are lots of different sizes. And goodness, you're organised!!

[LAT]

did I set what? I printed it on plain paper and checked that the addresses would all line up ok on the labels from that but the printer seems to have adjusted it's top margin for no apparent reason.

And it's only because I have a couple of days when I could maybe write a few cards before everything gets too manic and I have no time for anything.

[Bunnylump]

Errr.. I can't remember how I do it now. MBH - help!! I used to do it on a mail merge thing where it took the names from my address book on Outlook express. And when you do that it asks which size labels you are using. But more recently I just have a master copy which I edit and just print it out.

[giraffe]

Does your printer photocopy? I have been known to print on paper and then photocopy onto the labels. You can move the paper copy that you are copying down a bit to get it in the right place. (Yes I know it's cheating, but sometimes it saves a lot of time and labels)

[Scurra]

That's not cheating, that's intelligence.
Yes, it may use more paper (although you can always reuse the paper you are scanning/copying from) but it is almost certainly a lot less stress-inducing, especially if you are in a hurry/busy.

[giraffe]

I then keep the piece of paper and use it as my master list for next time, because the computer has usually eaten the file that the addresses were in.

[LAT]

that's a brilliant idea giraffe. I'll take my printout and labels into work and do it there.