E D G E the Outer

August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 1 | The Outer E August 2012 Vol. 26, No. 1 d Whole No. 303 ISSN 1055-4399 g e

The Friendly Computer Club Helping Make Computers Friendly. On the Web at www.cipcug.org

COMMAND.COM Attendance at the By Jim Brown, President July general meeting: “Promoting the Harmony of Computer Education, and Camaraderie” 44 members and guests.

t is true: “Time Marches On,“ and we are going to celebrate it. At our To Contact CIPCUG September regular meeting (Sept. 22, 2012), we will celebrate our The Outer Edge...... 805-485-7121 computer club’s 26 th birthday. General Information………...805-289-3960 Mailing Address...P.O. Box 51354, Oxnard, CA The planning for the celebration is ongoing, and we plan to have fun Iwith a look to the past, reconnecting with longtime members, especially 93031-1354 On the Web: cipcug.org those who were instrumental in the establishment of this club, and honoring On Facebook: Facebook.com/groups/cipcug their dedication and sacrifices. Following the meeting we plan to have a social lunch at the nearby Texas Cattle Company restaurant, which has a moderately priced

($10-$15) menu, which we all can afford. Costs might force The planning committee does have a few requests for our membership- changes in TOE Please sign up for the luncheon. We just need to know how The time has come to do some seri- many people plan to attend (we encourage you to bring your ous thinking about our newsletter, The Brown significant other) so that we can give an approximate count to Outer Edge. In all probability, we are the restaurant. You can sign up at our August meeting or use the CIPCUG.org website to let us know your intention. going to have to cease mailing copies We also ask that if you have photos of the club (especially photos of to members. the beginning years) you share them with us. Putting the photos on a disk In order to qualify for second-class would be great; however if you have individual photos we would like to dis- postage rates, we need to mail 200 play them and we promise to return the photos quickly. copies per month. Unfortunately, our Your help in these matters is greatly appreciated!! As a reminder — the club members post a lot of information on Face- membership has fallen to 178. We ex- book. We encourage you to log on change newsletters with several clubs So keep cool during the summer months and we will see you at our Au- and organizations, so we are still mail- gust meeting (Aug. 25, 2012). ing out 203 copies per month, but that is

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Page 2 The Outer Edge August 2012 Channel Islands Root Directory PC Users Group CIPCUG mailing address: CIPCUG NEWS P.O. Box 51354, Oxnard, CA Benefits ...... 19 93031-1354 Bits & Bytes ...... 9 CIPCUG is a member of APCUG, Board minutes ...... 8 Executive Committee The Association of PC Users Groups Coming CIPCUG events ...... 3 (Elected members of Board of Directors) Contributors to TOE...... 13 President……..………………...Jim Brown Command.com ...... 1 .………….…………[email protected] The Outer Edge Costs might force changes in TOE .. 1 Vice President/Program Chairman Editor……………………..John Weigle Map, schedule ...... 20 ………………..………………..Craig Ladd P.O. Box 6536, Ventura CA 93006 Membership report ...... 13 ………………[email protected] 485-7121………[email protected] Program: Office 2013 ...... 7 Secretary……….………..Diane Mortensen The Outer Edge is published monthly by Channel Q&A session ...... 4 ……………………[email protected] Islands PC Users Group (CIPCUG), P.O. Box 51354, Treasurer’s reports ...... 10 Oxnard, Calif. 93031-1354. an independent, nonprofit Treasurer…………..….……....…Art Lewis corporation. Contents of The Outer Edge copyright …………………...…[email protected] 2001  by Channel Islands PC Users Group. GENERAL Immediate Past President Permission for reproduction in whole or in part is …………………………...... …..Rick Curry granted to other computer user groups for internal Certificate authorities help ……...……………...... [email protected] nonprofit use provided credit is given to The Outer make you secure ...... 11 Edge and the authors of the reproduced material. All

Penguin’s Lair: Open source other reproduction is prohibited without prior written

software for Windows users ...... 17 consent of Channel Islands PC Users Group. (Appointed members Opinions expressed in this journal are solely those of Rick’s rant: iYogi ...... 14 of Board of Directors) the authors or contributors, and do not necessarily Secure your router ...... 18 Technical Adviser…………..Toby Scott represent those of Channel Islands PC Users Group, its officers or membership as a whole. The Web Page Editor….………..Andy Toth information provided is believed to be correct and ADVERTISEMENTS ………………[email protected] useful; however, no warranty, express or implied, is Creative Technology ...... 15 TOE editor.…….………….John Weigle made by Channel Islands PC Users Group, its officers, Members’ classified ads ...... 15 ……………………[email protected] editorial staff or contributors. This disclaimer extends O’Reilly ...... 15 Membership Chairman.…...Ken Church to all losses, incidental or consequential, resulting from the use or application of the information provided. Ventura County Computers ...... 14 ………………[email protected] Channel Islands PC Users Group does not endorse or recommend any specific hardware or software products, Ex-officio members of Board of Directors dealers, distributors or manufacturers. All trademarked CIPCUG ISP Signups………..Art Lewis or registered trademarked names are acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners, and are used Sound Equipment Technicians for editorial purposes only. ………..David Minkin and Curt Davison Program Chairman………..…Craig Ladd Advertising in The Outer Edge Publicity Chairman...……...…Rick Curry Advertising is accepted for computer-related SIG coordinator…..……....Larry Hudson materials, businesses and services only. Rates are for Camera-Ready copy (clear, clean black and Past Presidents white masters). Typesetting and graphics are Walt Yates………………………1987-1989 available at an additional fee. Lois Evans de Violini…………...1989-1991 Terry Lee………………………..1991-1993 SIZE Cost/Issue Jerry McLoud…………………...1993-1995 FULL-PAGE (9½”H x 7¼”W)...... $50.00 Robert Provart…………………..1995-1997 HALF-PAGE (4½”H x 7¼”W) Toby Scott………………………1997-1999 or (9½”H x 3½”W )....…...... $30.00 George Lakes …………………...1999-2001 THIRD-PAGE (3”H x 7¼” W)………….$25.00 Andy Toth……………………….2001-2003 QUARTER-PAGE (4½”H x 3½W)...... $20.00 David Harris…………………….2003-2005 BUSINESS CARD ad...... $15.00 Lois Evans de Violini ...... 2005-2007 Discounts for multiple issues (3, 6, 9 and 12 Paul Westefer…………………….2007-2009 months) Rick Curry………………….…….2009-2011 Ad copy deadline is the 5th of the month of (With the exception of the immediate past publication. president, past presidents are not board members.) Make all checks payable to CIPCUG . Life members Frank Segesman* Members’ classified ads are free but are limited to Toby Scott 105 characters, including spaces. Lois Evans de Violini Art Lewis 2006 Southwest User Group Helen Long Conference: second place in both the *Deceased newsletter and Web site contests.

August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 3 CIPCUG news and events Paper copies of TOE Coming events Security programs to be might disappear discussed this month orrection: The developers of FileLocatorPro noted an error in my review of the program in the Programs last issue. I said FileLocator Pro hadn’t been up- David Perry of Comodo has agreed to present our Aug. 25 C dated since March 29, 2010, but that is actually program. Comodo offers a variety of computer security products Agent Ransack's last update date. FileLocator Pro was up- for home and business users. More information about Comodo dated (at the time of the review) on Nov. 1, 2011, and was products can be found at the company’s website at http:// just re-updated. My apologies for confusing the two dates. www.comodo.com. meeting * * * Editor’s The meeting starts at 8:45 a.m. in the Camarillo Boys & Girls CIPCUG faces a problem that many other corner Club, 1500 Temple Ave. (Ponderosa Drive and Temple Avenue), groups, families and individuals do — in- Camarillo (see the map on the last page.) creasing costs and declining income — so the The doors open at 8 a.m. The pre-meeting SIGs starts at 8:45 possibility of ending the printed version of a.m. TOE is again on the table. While the annual Other meeting dates for this year: cost of TOE is about half of what it was in Sept. 25th anniversary event 1998-99, the number of members has also Oct. 27 Weigle dropped. To keep our bulk mail permit, which Nov. 17 ( third Saturday ) cuts mailing costs to just over $50 per month Dec. 15 ( third Saturday ) in most months, we must mail 200 copies. Our current SIGs membership is 178; the balance of the mailing consists of The Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are sponsored by CIPCUG copies sent to libraries, schools, former speakers and other and led by volunteer club members. They are free to CIPCUG user groups. (Continued on page 4) We face several options, with the most attractive one being attracting new members. That requires a concerted recruiting effort by all members along with a bigger and better publicity effort to attract people who don’t know any Door prizes of our members. We have two types of raffle tickets: one for prizes offered by New revenue is also attractive, but someone has to fig- the presenter and one for clubprovided prizes. The tickets for the ure out how to get it: raising dues (never an attractive plan presenter’s prizes are free and limited to one per member. and one that usually results in losing some members when The tickets for the clubprovided prizes are $1 each, $5 for six renewal time comes), selling more copies of “Secret Guide tickets, $10 for 13 tickets, $15 for 20 tickets and $20 for 27 tickets to Computers” (yes, we still have some left), having a high- and are available to anyone. Those who can’t stay until the drawing may sign their tickets and give the person selling the ly successful sale of the updated flash drives containing tickets a list of the prizes they would like in the order they’d pick freeware when they become available later this year, find- them. Winners’ prizes will be held until the next meeting. ing advertisers for TOE or developing other fundraising. Least attractive but maybe the only choice is to cut ex- Consignment table penses. As Art Lewis’ annual report (see page 11) explains, A consignment table is set up at every meeting. Anyone can our annual expenses for insurance, rent and TOE come to buy, but only members can sell. $6,176, while membership brings in only $4,890. And peri- The club gets 10 percent of the sales price. Sold items must odically we have to buy computers, projectors and other be picked up at the end of the day’s meeting. equipment. Any items not picked up will become the property of CIPCUG Eliminating the printed version of TOE might solve the and will be subject to disposal at the club’s discretion. financial problems, at least for several years, unless it also CIPCUG is not responsible in any way for items bought or resulted in a great loss of members who prefer a printed sold at the table. Each item is sold asis unless otherwise stated. version. Giving members a choice of printed or electronic Meeting, SIG notices versions would probably just take us below the minimum If you would like email notices of regular meetings and SIGs, number needed for bulk mail rate, thus wiping out any sav- go to www.cipcug.org, where you’ll find a link on the home page ings by requiring first-class mailing of all the remaining to sign up. The URL is cipcug.org/listserv.cfm. copies. Your ideas are welcome. (For more on this subject, You will need your membership number, which is on the see page 1). — John Weigle, editor back cover of TOE, to complete the sign-up.

Page 4 The Outer Edge August 2012 CIPCUG news and events Q&A Web security certificates, archived Web sites

Internet and networking SIG Internet SIG Chrome and calendars The Boys & Girls Club has installed Browser blocks Navy website Sharing Google calendars new sliding wall dividers, so we resumed Archived web sites File associations the practice of having two pre-meeting Spam emails Excel numbering issues SIGS in July. Toby Scott covered Internet AOL hack, password issues USB 3.0 and networking questions, and Jessica Word problem Scott met with a smaller group in the This month’s Q&A topics: Upgrade to USB 3.0 small room to discuss tablets and Repairing Office programs Changing task bar icons in XP smartphones. This is the schedule we plan Firefox problems to stick with assuming there are no changes in the meeting room policies. Unless otherwise noted, Toby Scott number of companies, but since the hack- will fill your hard drive with malware. answered the questions in the Internet ing of the Dutch company Digi-Notar, Audience: A couple of years ago, we and networking SIG, and Michael which issued certificates (and closed its bought something from Amazon on what Shalkey handled the computer duties doors after the hacking), developers have said it was a secure site. It was a store on while also answering questions. made browsers more careful about invalid the Amazon site. A couple of months certificates. later, someone in Germany took $200 Most people wouldn’t recognize the from our ATM account. Browser blocks Navy website names of the companies that issue certifi- A: Unless you didn’t use the card Q: I learned that people can’t access cates. anywhere else, you can’t be sure that the our Navy website and wonder what we The message in this case means that break-in was a result of the secure site. can do about it. The IT folks gave me this the certificate for the site was allowed to As we’ve said before here, the most dan- printout, but I don’t understand it (the expire. It’s possible to go to such sites gerous place to use a credit card is in a sheet was given to Toby). anyway — the warning message gives restaurant that takes the card out of your A: The site involved is a secure one, you the option to do so — but unless sight. When that happens the restaurant with the first portion of the address being you’re absolutely certain of what you’re employee can make a copy of the card, HTTPS rather than HTTP. Browsers doing and that the site is valid, bypassing write down the information or make a should show a lock at the top or bottom the warning is a bad move. As a general purchase. Amazon has strict security poli- of their screens to indicate that the site is rule, you don’t want to go to a purported cies and standards, and it’s unlikely that a secure one. Secure sites display certifi- secure site that has an invalid certificate cates issued by a comparatively small (Continued on page 5) because it can be a fraudulent site that More on coming events ...

(Continued from page 3) tions to be announced on the meeting SIGs. members. day. Tuesday, Aug. 28: Linux SIG. Topic: Other than those presented during or The general schedule: We will let our freshly installed Ubuntu just after the regular meeting, the SIGs Fourth Tuesday: Linux. 12.04 PC upgrade its software to current run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Ventura Fourth Saturday (or the regular versions, discuss open source software County Computers, 2175 Goodyear Ave., meeting day): Social Media SIG (Jessica for Windows, and ask and answer any Unit 117, Ventura; phone 289-3960. Scott and Mark Maidel) or Internet and questions that may come up. From the 101 Freeway, exit at Telephone, connectivity SIG (Toby Scott), 8:45 a.m. September take Telephone south to McGrath, turn The location of Michael Shalkey’s after- Saturday, Sept. 22: Pre-meeting So- left and go one block. Turn right on meeting SIG, on days there is one, is an- cial Media and Internet, connectivity Goodyear and right again into the second nounced at the meeting. SIGs. driveway. Unit 117 is the back, right The July and August schedules: Tuesday, Sept. 25: Linux SIG. Top- corner of the building. The pre-meeting August ic: TBA. SIGs are at 8:45 a.m. at the Boys & Girls Saturday, Aug. 25: Regular meeting, Be sure to check the calendar on Club. The after-meeting SIG is at loca- pre-meeting Social Media and Internet cipcug.org for updates on event programs, dates and times. August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 5 CIPCUG news and events

(Continued from page 4) messages. He contacted AOL and got a need be. For instance, if the site was anyone planning to violate them would do really nasty letter from them saying he AOL, I’d change the second and third so for only a $200 purchase. was violating his contract terms. I don’t letters of my basic password to O and L. Microsoft has a list of certificate pro- think that’s reasonable. If I need to change my passwords, it’s viders that it accepts, and the list changes A: The letter was probably generated easy to pick a new base word and change regularly. The message says Microsoft is automatically when AOL spotted the the second and third letters. I can remem- no longer accepting Navy certification. spam messages. Chances are that your ber my password just by knowing the You can add the domain to your allowed friend had an easy-to-guess password or name of the site. And if anyone sees my list if you’re positive the site is OK and he used his email address when he regis- password for just one site, there’s no way not a fraud. tered for a site and used the same pass- to figure out what I’m doing because the Michael Shalkey: Steve Gibson’s word for that site as he uses for email. A base word is spelled phonetically. GRC.com has many features, including hacker who had a name and email address Audience: I’d suggest you don’t use podcasts of a regular security program. and the password for the email account profanity as a password. I was having He took a lot of flak recently because would start testing them on other sites. trouble with a site and speaking to a Mary people trying to log on to hear a podcast Don’t use the same password on one site Poppins-type tech person and had to tell were getting notices that the certificate that you use on any other site. her the password. It was a bit embarrass- was invalid. Gibson apologized and said Michael Shalkey: There was a breach ing. he’d meant to renew the certificate the of Yahoo passwords that also affected A: Now you probably could use that day before and forgot. (For more infor- Gmail, Hotmail and AOL (see details at because they wouldn’t ask you for the mation on certificates, see the article on http://preview.tinyurl.com/6utyde4) earli- password. They’d walk you through your page 11. — Editor) er this month. When you sign up for Web security questions and then reset the pass- Archived web sites pages, you give a name and password. If word and send it to you so you could log- Q: I read an article in the newspaper the site is poorly administered and stores in and change it something else. about someone being ordered to remove that information in a spreadsheet, it’s Q: Can I store passwords in Dropbox? some information from the Web, but the fairly easy to hack into. You have to de- A: Dropbox has been hacked. person given the order could not get it pend on the sites you use to store the in- Michael Shalkey: Dropbox has also removed from Wayback Machine and formation properly because you have no said it will comply with governmental other archive sites. I thought the archival way to know how they’re doing it. demands for data stored on its site. If you sites were something new. Toby Scott: That’s why we included put the information in an encrypted Zip A: Wayback Machine (http:// KeePass on the last freeware flash drive. file, you should be safe. archive.org/web/web.php) has been You store your passwords in the program Q: So I have to have a password to get around for quite a while. It has what I and create a strong password for the pro- my password? think is my second webpage from 1996 or gram. That’s the only password you have A: Yes, but you only have to remem- 1997 saved and available for viewing. It’s to remember after that. A new program, ber one password, not dozens. almost impossible to remove information LastPass, has gotten good reviews, and it Q: What’s the best site for password from the Web because of Wayback Ma- might be the one we put on the new flash help? chine and other archiving sites. drive, coming out later this year. A: As new attacks occur and technol- Michael Shalkey: People running mail ogy advances, everything written five Spam emails servers should not keep passwords and years ago is out of date. It’s hard to rec- Q: My husband is getting spam ad- email addresses together. Some compa- ommend a single site as best. dressed to someone else. nies announce hacks; others don’t, unless Michael Shalkey: The best approach A: The sender is using BCC to hide the news breaks somewhere and they’re is to find someone who is up to date in a the addresses of all but one recipient. forced to. field you want information about and who Senders can also spoof what shows as the Toby Scott: What you need to do is keeps up to date. Then work with that sender of a message. The header will tell use different passwords for all logins and person. you what IP address the mail is coming make them fairly complex. The Sony Toby Scott: Find a site you like and from, but that has little value for most PlayStation hack showed that only 17 that you understand and follow it. people. It’s useful to people like me be- percent of the hacked passwords had a Q: What do you do at a site that wants cause I run email servers. If a lot of spam non-alphanumeric character. It’s pretty a long password or one that won’t allow shows up from a given IP address, I’ll easy to do a password that won’t be certain characters? block that site’s mail from entering my hacked. I use a five-character word — a A: If you have to provide an email system. Russian word spelled phonetically — and address, establish a junk one to get the AOL hack, password issues change the second and third characters to confirmation of your account or order and Q: I have a friend who has AOL. He something related to the website. I can kill it or let it die after you print the con- found that his address book and been then pad it out with other characters if (Continued on page 6) hacked, but I didn’t get any of the spam

Page 6 The Outer Edge August 2012 CIPCUG news and events

(Continued from page 5) and Flash Blocker. NoScript is built in by Toby Scott: If there’s no further de- firmation message or download it to your default, but it can still be disabled. You velopment it does raise the question if hard drive. I have several throwaway ac- can try disabling suspects one at a time or Thunderbird will work in Windows 10. counts for such uses, but it’s easy for me you can start Firefox in safe mode (hold How many more years do you have? because I run a mail server. down the shift key and click on the Fire- Audience: I prefer Sunbird. Q: Do they ever close those junk ac- fox icon). If that solves the problem, you Toby Scott: But it’s also at end of life. counts? know one of the extensions is the cause. Mozilla is putting its energy into an oper- A: Yes, usually after about six months Go back and start one at a time until the ating system and tablets. If there weren’t of non-use. problem returns, or enable everything and smartphones and tablets, there would be Michael Shalkey: Sometimes they’ll disable one at a time. When the problems no metro on Windows 8. revive them if you ask, but the messages resume, you’ll know which extension is Sharing Google calendars will be gone. the cause. You can disable it or if it’s Q: Does Google calendar allow shar- something you really want and use search ing? Is it the best solution to see if there’s a later version that Regular Q&A session A: Yahoo is also popular. There are a doesn’t cause the problem. lot of calendars out there. Google calen- Repairing Office programs Q: Could this help with my invisible dar is easy to use and probably known to Toby Scott: I had an email from Art check boxes problem? more people. I couldn’t pick a “best.” Lewis, who said that Word icons had A: It might. It won’t hurt to try it. Google is terminating a whole bunch of disappeared from both his desktop and Chrome and calendars programs that aren’t in line with the core the Start menu. Fortunately, it’s easy to Q: Is there a way to export my Google of the business, which is advertising. fix. Go to Control Panel > Programs and calendar to my hard drive as a backup? The calendars can be shared. You Features > Uninstall or Change a pro- I’ve been able to export my contacts to an send people a link to the calendar you gram. Highlight the program and click on Excel spreadsheet but can’t find a way to want to share and they can follow it to get Uninstall/Change. Pick the Repair option, save the calendar. the information. You don’t establish ac- which will check to see that all the Word A: I don’t know of a way to save the counts for them. Go to your Google cal- files are in the right place and the ver- calendar, but I don’t think you have to endar and you’ll find a spot to select the sions are correct. This works in all the worry about the cloud disappearing and calendar(s) you want to share. Open the Office programs. losing the information. drop down menu to find the list of calen- Sometimes, Office gets out of sync — Michael Shalkey: I don’t think there’s dars. a program won’t open or shows some a program that will read the calendar in- We have a Google calendar on the other issues. This method will work 75 formation even if you get it to the hard CIPCUG website. It’s a public calendar, percent of the time for such problems. drive. meaning that anyone can see it, but only a Q: Do you need the installation disk? Toby Scott: The calendar isn’t de- few people can change it. A: Generally, no. If you’re adding signed to be backed up locally. features you might need it. File associations Audience: You can synch the infor- Q: Does this work with other pro- Q: How do I change the file associa- mation with Outlook and Thunderbird’s grams? tions in Windows 7? Lightning. A: None that I know of. It’s an excel- A: File associations determine what Michael: There’s a sync tool for mo- lent feature for Office programs, howev- program automatically opens certain bile and for Outlook. There is also an er. types of files. You can right click on a file export to mobile device function. Q: What about Microsoft’s Fix-It cen- of the type you want to change the associ- Toby Scott: There is a synch tool to ter? ation for and pick the program you want Outlook and the Thunderbird calendar A: Fix-It center is aimed at some spe- to open it. Check the box to always use that might do it. cific problems, such as failed updates or a this program (you can change your mind Michael Shalkey: Play around with CD that isn’t working. The Repair option at any time by repeating the process). the Use Offline feature in the Google is much more general. You have to have the program installed calendar. on the computer, of course. Firefox problems Did anyone else read about Mozilla’s Excel numbering issues Q: I’m having a problem with Firefox plans to stop further development of Q: In Excel, I deleted a row, but the that seems to be growing. Videos aren’t Thunderbird? It’s going to be put in row numbers did not update. It’s a mem- playing, and some pictures aren’t show- maintenance mode, meaning there will be bership list and now it goes 1, 2, 3, 5, ing. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling no further development of features, but rather than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Firefox and I’ve updated the extensions. there will be security and stability up- A: You hid the numbers when you A: Go to Tools > Add-ons > Exten- dates. (The details can be found at http:// deleted the line. Right click on the row sions. The problem is almost always a preview.tinyurl.com/czr7a7w and at and use unhide to bring the missing num- result of an extension. Consider NoScript http://tinyurl.com/chydvof). (Continued on page 7) August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 7 CIPCUG news and events Program: Office 2013 Next Microsoft suite promotes working on cloud

By John Weigle model won’t work in a distributed infor- date. [email protected] mation world,” Scott said. “This is an It’s not clear yet if the rental will in- eatures of Microsoft’s next Of- application built entirely upon the cloud.” clude an automatic update to the next fice suite, Office 2013, were The promo version gives you 20 giga- version of Office or if that will be an ad- previewed at the July meeting bytes of storage, but when the final ver- ditional cost, he said. by Toby Scott and Michael sion is released the documents stored in “Because of the ability to have every- FShalkey, both of whom were impressed the SkyDrive account will disappear. thing in the cloud they can do a lot of by what they had learned. Even though the programs are cloud- really, really neat things that you couldn’t Office 2013 is designed to be a unify- oriented, users can also save documents do with the old Office,” Scott said. ing product, meaning that it’s designed to to their hard drives. Information on the This will be a “bridge product,” he be used on all communications devices hard drive will not disappear when the said. You’ll still be able to buy a version and it unifies the stand-alone Office 2013 final version of Office 2013 is released. that you can install on your computer. program and the online Office 365 cloud Release of the final version is ex- Later versions of Office will be cloud version. Sometimes Microsoft’s website pected late this year, but some predict only. will say “Office 2013” and sometimes that it won’t be until early next year. All the Office products “operate pret- “Office 365,” but they are now both part Users will be able to buy the software ty much the same as they did before,” he of the Office preview. The preview ver- and install it on their hard drives or pay a said. The preview version includes Ac- sion lets you install it on five devices, monthly fee to rent it and use it on the cess, Outlook, Publisher, Word, One- such as his and her cellphones, laptops, cloud. Prices have not been announced. Note, PowerPoint and Excel, and they’re and desktops. The advantage of renting the soft- “at least as fully featured as the Office “It is designed from the ground up to ware, Scott said, is that users will always 2010 programs.” Current online versions, be an instant, across-the-Internet commu- have the latest version with all updates including Office 365 and SkyDrive’s nications device, and that means basically installed automatically. “You can migrate online version, are stripped-down ver- it’s not designed to take your Word files your data back down to your computer,” sions of the full programs, he added. and store them in My Documents and he said, but you don’t have to worry “Office 2013 has everything pretty tether them to your desktop because that about keeping the Office programs up to (Continued on page 8) More on Q&A ...

(Continued from page 6) bought two. them by enabling the macros. ber back. To delete a row, click on the A: USB 3 is approximately 10 times Upgrade to USB 3.0 row and select delete. The numbers will faster than 2.0, but you won’t get the full Q: Can you upgrade laptops and desk- then adjust automatically. speed because of Windows. What was a tops to USB 3.0? Audience: I go to Home > Delete and 14-hour project should be about two A: On a desktop you’ll have to put a pick the row or column to delete from the hours. riser card in the back unless it’s a real old dropdown menu. Word problem computer. Laptops are more problematic. USB 3.0 Q: I have a Word document that has a Some will be upgradeable and some Q: I have a large file of music that security warning that macros have been won’t. You’ll need a PC card slot. was on an external hard drive. I put that disabled. It says I can click to enable Changing task bar icons in XP drive in a new computer and want to copy them, but I’m afraid to. Q: I need to change the size of the the music to a new and larger USB 3.0 A: That was probably a Word file you taskbar icons in Windows XP. How do I external hard drive. The new computer got externally — that is, you didn’t create do it? I need to run it on a large screen. has two USB 3.0 ports. The input speed it. Your security programs don’t know if A: It’s pretty much the same as in on the original external drive was USB the macros are safe, so the warning is Windows 7. Right click on the Start menu 2.0. What speed will I get when I copy saying that you don’t enable the macros and go to customize. You’ll have the the files? unless you know absolutely they’re safe. choice of small and large icons. The prob- A: The copy will go much faster. Unless you know it needs macros, don’t lem is that it may already be using large Q: Western Digital has a new 2 tera- enable them because there is malware that icons. When XP came out, no one had 24- byte hard drive for about $100, so I can infect flash drives and you can get inch screens.

Page 8 The Outer Edge August 2012 CIPCUG news and events Minutes of July board of directors meeting By Diane Mortensen Craig Ladd, Rick Curry, John Weigle, secretary. The meeting was called to or- CIPCUG Board of Directors held its Helen Long, Andy Toth, and Toby Scott. der by Immediate past president Rick monthly meeting on July 28, 2012. Members not in attendance were Jim Curry. Members in attendence were Art Lewis, Brown, president; and Diane Mortensen, (Continued on page 9)

More on Annual report ...

(Continued from page 10) This report has been prepared without audit from the books and Assets decreased $1,392.37 during the year. CIPCUG has no records of the corporation and is believed to fairly represent its finan- debt, long-term liabilities or long-term contracts. cial condition as of June 30, 2012. CIPCUG books are available for CIPCUG still needs to find additional sources of income in inspection by members on written request to the treasurer. CIPCUG records are audied biennially in the odd years. order to cvontinue to provide a significant level of service to its Arthur V. Lewis Jr. membership. Treasurer

July 28, 2012

Page 12 The Outer Edge August 2012 CIPCUG news and events More on future of TOE ...

(Continued from page 1) has continued to support mailing cop- and a premium for small quantities. I obviously going to drop through the ies. But the reality is that we are not doubt many would opt for that. 200 barrier pretty soon. First-class going to be able to continue to mail We would avoid all this if we postage is prohibitively expensive; out copies before meetings for long. could increase our membership. The rates would nearly triple. Most issues We could print copies and hand them board has attempted to do so but are about 4 ounces. The current cost out at meetings, or just resort to simply has not thought of a way to for TOE as we currently receive it is online copies and let those who want stop the slow leak in membership. If at least $1.10 per issue. We are cur- paper copies print them themselves. anyone in the membership has ideas rently paying only 21.4 to 35.6 cents Most computer clubs have already and is willing to put in the work to per copy, depending on the numbers gone the latter route. Having a two- make them happen, we would be sent to specific ZIP codes. Unless we tiered membership where members most grateful. want to increase dues to over $50 per could pay for first-class paper copies The board has pretty much run out year, we can’t afford first-class. The or elect to save money via electronic of maneuvering room. Unless some- last time we had a dues increase we copies has its own problems. If TOE thing drastic changes, we’ll be forced lost about 20 percent of our member- were electronic only, we’d definitely to convert TOE to electronic only. If ship within the year. want to do it in color. For upper-tier any member has an alternative idea, We know that many members like members that would mean a triple in we would be most appreciative. having the paper copy, and the board postage, a double for color printing — Toby Scott More on certificate authorities ...

(Continued from page 11) the certificate authority certificates have number of fraudulent certificates issued, your bank’s certificate/key for only a expired, and you will not be able to form the significance of the entities affected limited time. It is the bank’s job to create an HTTPS connection at all. (Google, CIA, Mossad, Equifax, Mi- a new certificate/key pair and register it This system works so well that, as crosoft, Skype, Yahoo and many others), with the certificate authority before the Toby adds, the most realistic danger we and how it revealed the difficulties in old certificate expires. Your bank can face these days is that a criminal might revoking those certificates in the Safari generally be counted on to take care of talk the certificate authority into handing browser and with MAC OS X (where the this important piece of business. A small over a key (a process called social engi- user needed to manually remove the cer- company doing e-commerce on the Web neering that really is a modern phrase to tificates.) might forget. When you receive a warn- describe a con-job). As an aside, anyone can generate a ing that a certificate has expired, you are In the well-published case of Digi- pair of keys. The person generating the taking a chance if you elect to proceed Notar, the exploit has been called an act keys tells anyone who is interested what with the transaction. How much new in- of cyberwarfare and is believed by some the public key is and keeps the private formation are you sending? How badly to have been perpetrated by the Iranian key a secret. If you generate a pair of could a criminal harm you by copying government. The breach occurred in July keys on a computer with a weak pass- everything you typed? 2011 but was not reported until Septem- word or no password at all, the pair of The certificates for certificate authori- ber. Within a month, the company filed keys is nearly worthless because a hostile ties that come pre-registered in your for bankruptcy and was liquidated. This is entity can locate and copy your secret browser also expire. Generally you get not the first or last problem with certifi- private key. the latest batch every time your browser cate authorities getting conned, but it This is not as big a deal with the tem- updates. Microsoft updates also provide certainly was the worst. Notable issues in porary keys generated by your browser, certificate refresh updates. If you attempt the case of DigiNotar are how long it as those keys are not written to the disk. to conduct financial transactions using a took for the problem to be reported (it is But good passwords are always a good really old browser on a really old system not clear the company would have ever idea. (first of all: shame on you), you may find revealed the compromise on its own), the Happy (and safe) computing

Back up, back up, back up … and test the backup to be sure it worked.

August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 13

CIPCUG news and events

Membership report: July 2012 renewals payment due: First Is it time to renew? Mbr# Last Name Pd to Dt Name By Ken Church 1122 Brody Richard 201207 email address: [email protected] 1028 Burke Jim 201207 0350 Colter Don 201207 CHURCH Welcome — 0354 Ferro Joe 201207 New Members: Wanted — bring a friend. 0624 Lambert Ted 201207 1149 Little Robert 201207 Attendance at the July 2012 general meeting: 1144 Mortensen Diane 201207 44 members and guests 1206 Ohrt Juergen 201207

Total membership: 178 1157 Sifuentes Octavio 201207 1158 Woodruff Ayn 201207

MEMBER RENEWAL INFORMATION $30 for single membership, August 2012 renewals payment due: $35 for two or more family membership. First Mbr# Last Name Pd to Dt Name NEW MEMBER INFORMATION 0028 Fiedler Art 201208 $40 first year for single membership, 0806 Hurme Seppo 201208 $55 first year for two or more family member T ship in same household. 0986 Kennedy, Jr. Robert 201208 0867 Pryor Dorothy 201208 Please send your payment to: 0474 Pryor John 201208

CIPCUG MEMBERSHIP 1222 Quint Richard 201208 P.O. BOX 51354 1223 Reed Dan 201208 OXNARD, CA 93031-1354 1125 Robinson Bill 201208 0722 Smith Gary 201208

Or bring your payment to the signin table at the Aug. 25, 2012, meeting.

June 2012 renewals payment due: First Mbr# Last Name Pd to Dt Name 1118 Haggard Roy 201206 1221 Harris Jack 201206 2012 contributors to The Outer Edge 0593 Shalkey Mike 201206 Your name can appear here, Michael Shalkey too. Share your knowledge with Rick Smith other members by sending an article, Andy Toth letters or computer tips to Jim Thornton [email protected]. Bill Wayson John Weigle CIPCUG MEMBERS Ken Church OTHERS Rick Curry Nancy DeMarte (APCUG) Bob de Violini Rick Eblaw (APCUG) Craig Ladd Larry Mobbs (APCUG) Art Lewis Leo Notenboom (APCUG) Helen Long John Somers (APCUG) Diane Mortensen Judy Taylour (APCUG) Toby Scott

Page 14 The Outer Edge August 2012 General news, commentary I yogi, you yogi, we all yogi with iYogi By Rick Smith after hearing about a problem on the are coming” is the call that I, your hum- [email protected] land. However, all it is, is a boundary ble opinionater, am calling out. And you he British are coming, dispute, which can be easily solved. But better look out because they may get you The British are coming” Drysdale is worried about losing the like they’ve gotten so many of us in the was the call that went Clampett land, and Granny is worried past few years under the guise of out on April 18, 1775, about an attack, especially when she “technical support.” Leading the charge is by“T Paul Revere. Well, not really. What he hears they are visiting Beverly Hills. a company called iYogi, which I’d like to really said was the “The regulars are However, the two Native Americans who focus on today. Here’s some background coming.” Nobody really visit, Chief Running Wolf and his son, info on the “Good Karma” company as it Rick’s Little Fox, come to talk and visit with Jed likes to label itself. rant cares, but I had to correct myself or else I’ll have to and Jethro. But Granny is still expecting iYogi is a remote technical support sit through another lecture a full attack. Drysdale arranges for a firm based in Gurgaon, India. iYogi was from Toby Scot about my fake attack to occur to satisfy Granny so co-founded by Uday Challu and Vishal historical errors. she doesn't go back home. The attack Dhar in 2007. iYogi deploys more than happens before Jed and Jethro arrive 6,000 technology staff on its global deliv- On Feb. 1, 1967, the call went out, “the Indians are home, and they see the effects of it, think- ery platform, iMantra. In May 2012, iYo- coming, The Indians are ing Granny did this to keep from admit- gi launched a comprehensive “Digital ting she was wrong. Granny, having lived Home Plan” for consumers that offers Smith coming” in Hollywood in Season 5, Episode 20 of through the "“attack” is visited by a man, tech support for setting up, installing, “The Beverly Hillbillies” John Wayne, and asks him where he was diagnosing and repairomg of up to three by none other than Granny Clampett. when she needed him. computers and connected devices in the Here’s what happened: Granny is wor- Ahh, those were the days, but let’s home. For a monthly fee of $29.99, sub- ried about an Indian attack on their land, move on. scribers will get unlimited access to iYo- “The Indians are coming, the Indians (Continued on page 15) (805) 289-3960 2175 Goodyear Ave. #117 Ventura 93003

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August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 15

General news, commentary (Continued from page 14) Members’ Manual (.pdf) http:// gi's technical experts, who will provide 24/7 support for any pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/ number of computer and related peripheral issues. classified ads FAXMACHINES/Sharp% Thanks again to Wikipedia for the info. Now that you know Classified ads are free to 20UX300%20Plain% who they are, let me do my best to sound the alarm. “STAY members. Each ad is limited 20Paper%20Fax% 20Machine.pdf — David Min AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY” unless, of course, you’re one to 105 characters, including spaces and to one ad per kin of those kinky individuals who likes to be abused. In that case, member per month. Copy has go ahead, have at it. But for the rest of us, let me tell you why to be to John Weigle, editor of I have the following For Sale you should steer clear. TOE ([email protected]), (contribution to CIPCUG): In the past week I have encountered two clients who have within the week after the 2 each Microsoft Mouse, $2 had experience with the Indian menace known as iYogi. Both regular meeting. Otherwise, each clients paid money for nothing, and both had to pay a local com- the ad is held to the following Internet Scrollin Mouse pany to easily fix the problem for a quarter of the price. One of month. (COMP USA), $2 them is a member of the fine organization CIPCUG. I’ll leave it Video Selector Switch (5 in Free puts/2 outputs), $5 — David up to that person to decide if he or she wants to divulge his or Minkin her identity. iYogi provides remote control tech support for a For sale number of companies that either don’t support their products or Wanted really don’t want to help you after the warranty runs out. These I have the following Free/For Sale (contribution to CIP include hardware manufactures but mostly antivirus software CUG): Other categories providers such as AVG, Avast, Kaspersky and the list goes on. One SHARP UX300 FAX as needed One of the companies that doesn’t use iYogi is Symantec, pro- machine with Handset vider of the Norton Antivirus. It has its support team. You get what you pay for, I always say. Anyway, hundreds, if not thou- sands, of hapless individuals get sent to this company when they The Outer Edge is printed and prepared for mailing by: call for help with an issue. Avast seems to be the worst in sending people to this company, even though one customer reported iYogi tries to sell MacAfee Antivirus for $169 and says Avast is crap. Go figure. When you call, the representative offers to help and asks you to let allow remote access to your PC. The person then downloads the iYogi client, which on a new, 1-week-old Windows 7 PC told the user she had 10,000 errors. The representative then offers you a one- or two-year support contract to “fix the issue” even if the issue you have can’t be “fixed” by them. So for $169 they go to work and by most accounts do more harm than good. One user reported that the company took out a two-year charge on the credit card instead of a one-year charge. I am listing below some of the complaints filed on iYo- gi’s own website. The common theme from all of them was that once the company had your money, if you wanted the 100 percent guaranteed satisfaction or your money back you faced long hold times, multiple hard-to-understand people to talk to, multiple disconnections and flat out misdirection and insistence that you’re the problem, not them. Oh, I almost forgot. When their techs aren’t busy screwing up somebody’s PC they make random calls drumming up business. Take a look at some on the examples I have below. All of these are available on iYogi’s website under complaints. Some were edited for space. iyogi making random calls ? This guy (Indian from the accent) calls me and immedi ately starts to tell me that my computer has serious soft ware issues. This is news to me, I had just finished a McAfee scan and was using it at the time. We went on again how my computer was seriously infected by damag ing software. I explained to this "tech/marketer" that there (Continued on page 16)

Page 16 The Outer Edge August 2012 General news, commentary

(Continued from page 15) Don't let them on your comput- chased a oneyear subscription in is only one way they could know this, er. They will lie to you. September when iyogi told me I had ie, they have infected my system with HP sent my mom to iyogi for a several serious viruses on my com reporting software. I have no idea printing issue. The tech told her that puter. So anyways, iYogi scanned my how they obtained my home phone he would need to connect to her com computer and said the viruses had number, I don't use it for any busi puter, and once he was connected he returned and that I needed to pur ness online. said he was going to have to charge chase this MacAfee virus protection POOR SERVICE Don't buy iYogi her $250 to fix her computer or she through them for a discounted price I was on hold 45 mins, I hung up would not be able to print. She was of 209.99 and have called them 3 times (30 finally smart enough to shutdown her Ethical company? minutes between calls) on their push computer and hang up on him. The I used AVAST for a few years and to call icon. It's been 2 hours and NO only issue was that her default printer thought it was performing fine. No call backs to help me I Yogi is not needed to be switched. These guys problems. So I decided to 'purchase' a good company to do business with are a scam!!! AVAST. Big mistake, I Was sent to and I would like a refund Business Owner their tech support, IYOGI. They Mislead I had to take it in to get fixed and 'captured' my computer AND my lap I thought I was speaking with a had to pay over $250 to get it fixed all top. It took over TWO hours. They Webroot representative about issues due to I Yogi's tech for AVG Security told me my computer would be so with the program and a virus that had software program. much faster I would not recognize it! I attached to my laptop and got a gen REFUND watched them almost the whole time tleman who said he could correct the First IYogi is deceitful. I am a cus going into my two computers. After it virus after he was allowed into my tomer of CA security trough my cable was over, I noticed the next day that system DID NOT correct the situa provider I had a problem and made my computer was not any faster and tion and created more was the end the mistake of goggling the number maybe even a bit slower. Since I pur result. He tried to sell me on a $200+ for ca. I was connected to I yogi who chased AVAST in March of last year technician to correct the virus. I am said The only way to fix the problem my computer has not only been very upset now with Webroot and feel was to pay 169.00. I said I never paid worse, but several 'popups' come up very deceived by iYogi for not saying before and that I was a customer of on each boot up they were not with Webroot Ca. They took my money and did a And finally folks, this next one is my Can't get my refund! poor job in fixing my pc. Now I am favorite. — Rick IYogi technical support messed up trying to get a refund that was prom All Around Dreadful, Spans sev- my computer. I kept telling them I had ised to me since Jan 4 eral categories of bad a bad virus & they did not fix it (I end ripped off again I repeat, do NOT do business with ed up having to replace a hard drive I was ripped off for a service they these people! I can't tell if they're real that was less than 2 years old be are incapable off. had to go to anoth ly dishonest or just really incompe cause of it) They promised to issue er service who fixed the YOGI in tent! me a full refund ($169.99) on April 13, duced problems. Today i try to con Now, to be “fair and balanced,” I did 2012. As of today (06/17/12) I have tact Yogi for a refund and they disap find one positive post. — Rick still not received my money! I have pear. i yogi called repeatedly & each time they The Iyogi Bait and Switch i yogi is the best!!!!! i am quite say the money will be refunded in 5 to I somehow found myself chatting computer savy but i dont believe i 7 business days!! REALLY?!?! This is online, thinking that I had contact out could own a computer without the a scam!!!!!!!!! sourced tech support for Norton. I support of i yogi. they are ENGI Unwanted changes made dur- was having a hard time uninstalling NEERs in their field, not just techni ing tech support call Norton. These people kept saying cians. And they will rarely tell you that On 6282012 I called for tech that they support Norton, but when because the are humble. We are so support. After the call ended and after nailed down, they admitted no affilia elitist in the US, we really dont think your tech remoted in to diagnose my tion. They insisted they could remove their is a product or service outside computer, I noticed that iYogi search Norton, but kept leading me on, until I our borders that deserve our atten had been installed as an addon to finally put my foot down. tion. That same isolationist policy explorer and my home page was Big scam! didnt get us far in WWII and it wont changed to your search page. I did After receiving numerous calls the get us far now. not authorize those changes and was last few weeks from iYogi, saying that i yogi is a great company and has unaware they were even being made. my computer submitted an alert, I saved me so much time and money Very dishonest of your company. I will finally decided to let iYogi take anoth in service and product. i applaud NEVER use you again. er look at my computer. I had pur (Continued on page 17) August 2012 The Outer Edge Page 17 General news, commentary Windows users might like these programs By Bill By By Wayson split one into many. It can record as well tures. [email protected] as read and save many different formats, Pingus X-Fi2 ost of my discussions of and has many features such as built-in pingusxfi2.bplaced.net open source software re- audio effects, plugin support, virtually Pingus X-Fi2 is a port of the PC game volve around Linux, which unlimited undo, and scheduled recording. Pingus, which is a based on the video is understandable. After Classic Shell puzzle game Lemmings. From the Pingus Mall, there is a huge number of open source classicshell.sourceforge.net website — [t]he player takes command in applications available for Linux, and the Have you moved on to Windows the game of a bunch of small animals and Linux ecosystem itself is primarily open Vista or 7 but miss the old XP Explorer? has to guide them through levels. Since source. That doesn’t Classic Shell adds back some XP features the animals walk on their own, the player Penguin’s mean you Windows us- such as a classic start menu, a Windows can only influence them by giving them Lair ers are out of luck in the Explorer toolbar, and other items aban- commands, like build a bridge, dig a hole open source world, for doned after XP. or redirect all animals in the other direc- many such applications Create Synchronicity tion. The goal of each level is to reach the will run under Windows. synchronicity.sourceforge.net exit, for this multiple combination of This month I will survey Create Synchronicity is a lightweight commands are necessary — I could find a few open source pro- backup and data synchronization tool. no mention of a Boss Key. jects for Windows that Use it to back up your important data or TurboCASH Accounting are not well-known, to synchronize your desktop data to your www.turbocashlive.com maybe unfamiliar to notebook before you head out of town. TurboCASH is an entry-level ac- Eraser counting application suitable for personal Wayson Windows users, but wor- thy of investigation. eraser.heidi.ie use and small businesses. It can run Advanced Onion Router Eraser is a tool for completely remov- standalone or over a network, so the (advtor.sourceforge.net) ing data from Windows disks by over- whole family can share one TurboCASH The Onion Router, TOR, is a popular writing it several times with carefully installation. It can be customized with program that very effectively hides your selected patterns. But it goes further by scripts and plugins, and supports multiple identity as you surf the Web, and the Tor- erasing deleted file areas such as the languages. Vidalia-Privoxy bundle makes installa- NTFS Master File Table and xFAT disk UltraDefrag tion easy on Windows computers. Ad- File Allocation Tables. You can also ultradefrag.sourceforge.net vanced Onion Router, AOR, is an alterna- schedule your data removal in advance. UltraDefrag is a disk defragmenter tive project providing the same anonymi- FOG that can defrag locked system files by ty plus advanced features such as forcing www.fogproject.org running during the boot process before use of AOR despite how individual pro- Disk imaging and cloning is a popular the files are locked. It can process an en- grams are configured, faking identity- method for creating backups — think tire drive or individual or multiple files revealing headers, and much more. Ghost. FOG provides a free alternative to and folders from the command line or a Audacity Ghost as well as memory and disk tests, GUI, either on demand or on a schedule. audacity.sourceforge.net disk wiping, anti-virus scanning and task It supports filtering by name, degree of Audacity is a feature-filled and pow- scheduling. fragmentation, and size. You can set an erful audio-file editing tool. Use it to mix Freeplane execution timeout, after which it will stop down multiple audio tracks into one or www.freeplane.org defragging gracefully. Outlines are a popular tool for organ- WinDirStat

izing your thoughts, projects, or speeches. windirstat.info More on Rick’s rant ... Freeplane goes a step beyond outlining, WinDirStat provides a very graphical using an organizational technique called disk usage statistics viewer and disk (Continued from page 16) mind mapping to more easily turn your cleanup tool, simplifying the management them for their excellence. pam thoughts and ideas into a visual represen- of your disk usage. See your disk, file, XXXXXXXXX tation useful for clarifying the big picture and directory sizes in a tree listing as well There’s always one in every crowd, or making a presentation. as graphically in a tree map, similar to As you can see, the proof is the pudding. Hugin SequoiaView or Linux's KdirStat. So heed my warning, good people. hugin.sourceforge.net WinMerge “THE INDIANS ARE COMING, Hugin is a powerful program special- winmerge.org THE INDIANS ARE COMING” to a PC ized for creating and processing panoram- WinMerge is a graphical tool that near you. ic images from multiple individual pic- (Continued on page 18)

Page 18 The Outer Edge August 2012 General news, commentary Unsecured router can lead to big trouble

By Bob de Violini the case. What helps are the questions the anyone within range of it to use it to con- [email protected] police are asking you such as why you nect to the Internet, and that’s probably K, so there you are in your have been making threats against them on what the person who actually made the comfy chair in front of the an Internet message board because they threats was counting on in order to not new computer you just bought claim to have proof that the threats came get caught. In this case, the person proba- from your local friendly com- from your IP address. After being over- bly was somewhere in the neighborhood O whelmed by all this, you deny the charg- but still within reach of the router’s sig- puter store owner who promises friendly service most of the time. You plunked es, and the police realize their mistake nal. With more powerful routers these down a few hundred bucks on your credit after investigating a little further at the days, the signal doesn’t necessarily stay card, but, hey, it was worth it. Your older scene. You are released by the police within the house’s walls, especially if it is XP machine was getting on in age (7 with their apologies (and promises to set to maximum power. years old is ancient to some folks in the repair all the damage they caused) and If you have a router that supports computer world) and XP with all its up- proceed to go about your day-to-day life. WPA2 security, you want to enable that dates was getting a little long in the tooth The above scenario might seem like a scheme and set the encryption protocol to as well by having minor hiccups every so tale from an overactive imagination, but AES, not TKIP. If your only choice for often, so it was time to get a new Win- most of it actually happened! All because security on the router is WEP, or if WEP dows 7 or 8 machine. The store owner of an unsecure wireless router! The raid is your only choice because that’s the gave it to you with all the latest updates did happen, but no one in the house was only security setting the wireless adapter from Microsoft and a few other compa- tweaking a newly bought computer. on your computer supports, I recommend nies whose non-bloatware programs were Some unfortunate folks in an Indiana you look for new hardware like a new installed for you. It was now up to you to town were rousted from their home by a router, wireless adapter, or both. WEP finish tweaking it to your liking; for ex- local SWAT team, and the entire incident security, while better than no security at ample, by installing your browser of was caught on video by a local TV station all, can be defeated in a matter of a cou- choice and updating all of the plug-ins that was invited along for the raid. The ple of minutes with one of the widely and add-ons that you like to make the police were acting on a search warrant available tools on the Internet. Ensure the browser and the computer truly your own. they had obtained based on threats that new hardware supports WPA2 for securi- Suddenly you hear a commotion outside had been made against them on some ty. On some routers, the encryption followed by a crash at the front door and Internet message boards. Right after the choices within WPA2 might look some- a flash-bang grenade being thrown into raid, the police realized the threats were- thing like WPA2 Personal and WPA2 your house and detonating. “Oh my good- n’t coming from those in the house at the Enterprise/Radius. You want the WPA2 ness, could my credit card payment to the time of the raid. Later on, they figured Personal setting unless you’re in a busi- computer merchant have been denied and out the threats had actually come from ness that uses a Radius server that doles he’s coming to take back the computer?” another nearby house. out encryption keys for individual com- you think while all that’s going on. But So how did the innocent folks get puters. Some routers will then ask you to then your tremendous amount of common targeted in the first place? Their open (or choose the encryption scheme as either sense prevails and you realize that’s not unsecured) router was the key. It allowed (Continued on page 19)