Top Security Systems And Gadgets You Should Consider Using For Your Home And Business

Being vulnerable to all sorts of crimes can be very scary. But if you are one step ahead of these crimes, you can lead a normal life without having to look back at your shoulder every now and then. With the help of advanced security systems, keeping your home and business establishments is now easier. You can rest assured that your home as well as your business is safe by using reliable security systems.

Top Surveillance Systems And Gadgets

CCTV Monitors

CCTV Monitor or Closed Circuit Television Monitors has been around for quite some time. Take advantage of modern digital surveillance systems to prevent crimes. Basically surveillance monitors are comprised of hardware and software. The hardware will collect information and transfer that information to fiber optic lines that lead to control rooms. These control rooms are manned by security professionals.

There are various types of closed circuit television. There are compact cameras that work better for small business establishments and homes. It is better to use direction-controlled models because they work better under dark lighting and they have broader surveillance range.

Look for a closed circuit television provider to understand the type of surveillance camera that will work better for your needs.

CCTV DVR

CCTV with DVR systems became more popular in the mid 90's. Today, the CCTV with DVR technology is already computer-based. DVR or Digital Video Recorder is hooked up to the CCTV and allows the users to record images at a higher resolution. When you need to look at previously captured images, you can use the DVR without interrupting its recording cycle.

It also shows the time and date the images are captured so investigation is easier. Most business and home owners prefer using CCTV with DVR because of the additional security that it brings to the table.

IP Cameras

IP Cameras or Internet Protocol cameras are a kind of CCTV camera that makes use of the internet or a computer network to send and receive data. This is one of the most beneficial surveillance systems today because of its ability to transmit Pan, Tilt and Zoom commands using a single network cable. Even if you are away from your home or from your store, you can still check out the security around that area by using a secure network. This system allows remote accessibility.

This kind of system is more ideal for larger homes and establishments. Instead of installing CCTV to the various areas of the building or the house, install IP cameras instead to cut down on costs. Managing these cameras is also easier.

Hidden Cameras

Hidden CCTV systems are surveillance cameras in disguise. They might look like random things such as clocks, smoke detectors, cellular phones, speakers, thermostats, binders or boxes but they are actually hidden cameras designed to capture images. A lot of manufacturers create small and undetectable hidden cameras.

Infrared Business Cameras

These are more ideal for business establishments that operate at night, especially those that have low lighting conditions such as clubs and bars. What makes this different is that they have their own invisible infrared light. They can work at night and during the day. They can also be used for parking lots.

Hybrid Digital Video Recorders

They are not your average DVR systems. The Hybrid ones are more functional because they offer more advanced video management and data integration. They already have their own processors so they can record data like a computer. They can also work in networking CCTV cameras so you can cut the cost of purchasing IP cameras. Some brands incorporate Core 2 Duo micro processors. They are also more ideal when it comes to recording images. Some can record up to 480 images per second. These are more expensive but they work great for larger business establishments and public infrastructure such as banks, corporate establishments and schools.

Many people refuse to part with their hard-earned money to purchase modern security systems. But there is no price to you and your family's security. Installing CCTV DVR and CCTV monitors alone can significantly lessen the likelihood of crimes.

Iain Jenkins writes articles for CCTV Direct who provide security systems to businesses and private customers. Their CCTV DVR products are reliable and offer excellent value for money. In addition, customers can purchase CCTV monitors for direct surveillance.

WRSV4400N Security Appliance For Small Business Networks - Should You Upgrade?

When you build a small business computer network, typically the main concern is having high-performance and secure network. Unlike home computer network where security is the last thing you probably concern, in small business computer network - security must be given a serious attention in protecting your valuable information business assets against any internet threats.

With lack of security expert, one of the easiest and affordable ways to protect your small business network is by implementing a wireless security appliance, or network security appliance, or UTM appliance. Cisco WRSV4400N is one of wireless security appliance available in the marketplace you can consider to deploy in your small business network.

Cisco WRSV4400N is a complete device for your small business infrastructure including wireless and wired network. It's a high-speed and secure wireless security firewall.

Wireless Networking

Cisco WRSV4400N is powered by wireless -N (draft 802.11n) technology with 3 Omni-directional 2-dBi gain external antennas with MIMO (Multiple-in Multiple-out) technology for longer distance range and better performance. The router is compatible with wireless -b/g/n devices. Wireless security connection using industrial Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) WPA2.

Not just wireless encryption, the Cisco WRSV4400N supports up to 4 SSIDs for secure guest access. With secure guest access, you can segregate different security boundaries for different groups of users. With your business partners or business visitors who might frequently come to your office, providing them wireless internet access with their laptop is safer without compromising your system.

Wired Networking

Cisco WRSV4400N wireless security firewall is embedded with four Gigabit LAN Ethernet ports for reliable high-speed data transfer. And the beauty with this router is that it supports up to 4 VLANs you can configure to meet your security policies. You know that communication between VLANs require layer-3 device which is a router. Cisco WRSV4400N supports inter-VLAN communications. Not just that, with your VLANs you can map SSID-to-VLAN with wireless client isolation.

Security Features

Both of multiple VLANs and SSIDs are important features for this wireless security router with regards to the network security. Like other ordinary wireless routers, Cisco WRSV4400N also supports security features such as ACL, MAC address control, Firewall SPI and NAT, content filtering, and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).

Security is very expensive, regarding content filtering - you cannot just rely on the static URL or keywords blocking because un-healthy and harmful websites out there are growing rapidly each months. You need to have a way to update the black-lists automatically - you cannot do it manually and yet you don't know which ones. This is what Cisco would like to get more revenue not just once but in a yearly basis. WRSV4400N wireless security router supports the optional dynamic filtering through Cisco ProtectLink Web security service. Not all Cisco routers support this ProtectLink security solution.

Cisco also introduces new wireless security router - the RV-120N firewall router. The price between the WRSV4400N and RV-150N is nearly the same. But both security routers have some major differences as follows:

Firstly, the difference between the two is the wireless technology. WRVS4400N is still powered by the draft version of 802.11n technology, but RV-120W is powered by the final version of 802.11n. Some people might thing that this is a big different, but it is not. There are only several options updated from the draft version to the final version of 802.11n standard.

Secondly, the WRVS4400N supports Gigabit Ethernet ports but RV 120W doesn't. If you demand reliable high-speed wired connection, you should choose WRSV4400N.

Thirdly, the number of VPN tunnels the routers can support. If you require more VPN tunnels, you can choose RV 120W (10 remote clients and 10 site-to-site tunnels). WRSV4400N supports only 5 remote clients and 5 site-to-site tunnels.

And lastly is about the optional Cisco Protect-Link services support. WRVS4400N router supports Protect-Link but RV-120W doesn't. Should you require dynamic content filtering services - choose the 4400N router. But you must pay in a yearly basis for the services.

Security is expensive, but it is worth for your valuable business assets protection against any threats.

By Ki Grinsing

Ki Grinsing was graduated from ITS-Surabaya with MCSE and CCNA certifications. You can read the articles here WRVS4400N wireless security router and small business network security.

Why You Should Delete Your Social Networking Accounts

Everyone has at least one. A Facebook account. A Twitter feed. Maybe a lingering MySpace page. Probably in conjunction with these you are running a LinkedIn page for connecting to work contacts; posting location information through 4Square; or have a personalized iGoogle homepage. Let's face it social networking has become the hottest way to keep in contact with your friends, co-workers, lost acquaintances, even family. Social networking has allowed individuals to maintain vast social networks that span across the globe. Individuals, groups, and organizations are utilizing social network sites to reach out to their communities. They have become the preferred means to spread interest in specific topics and advertise upcoming local events. Staying connected with the people that influence our lives has never been easier. But with all the advantages these sites offer, it comes with a profound price: our privacy.

We hand over most of our personal information to these sites: where we work, our telephone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, personal history, and much more. All of this information is accessible by not only the system administrators for these companies but also the people we accept as our friends; not to mention whatever information left unprotected that can be accessed by individuals or law enforcement surfing social network sites. Through our posts we provide information on our spending habits, where we are, our personal thoughts on popular culture, where we shop most, even the events of our mundane lives. We upload photos, create blogs, post comments, and comment on other people posts. Through all of this, we are creating mass information databases that can teach enterprising parties a lot about the kind of people we are. As we increasingly put more of our private lives into these vast social information databases growing concern is mounting about the amount of privacy a person has online and the possible profits that can be generated from data collected about you and your friends through social media posts.

Revenue is being invested and generated from information gleaned on social network sites. Companies like Gnip are making money as social media aggregators by designing tools that search user posts for information on specific products and events. This information they collect is then being sold to other organizations to use however they wish. Information can be collected on our political views, our distaste for one store over another, what products we bought, what products we are using, how we are using products, our taste in food, the music we like, the places where we live, etc. Companies can learn a lot about the people who are making posts about them (i.e. who that person is, where they live, where they work, who their friends are, a person's age, even what that person looks like). Imagine if a government like China wanted to start aggregating some of this information.

The point is that the information people are posting in private to be shared with friends and acquaintances they have made on the internet is not in fact private. Even though the average Facebook surfer cannot access a private account without friending that person does not mean a company cannot obtain information about what you are posting when doing a mass search of "News Feed" comments. Now not all information a company collects from an individual's posts seems malicious. So what if an internet service provider (ISP) does a search on twitter to see when people are doing most of their online gaming? When coupled with the rising issue of net neutrality ( http://lifehacker.com/5720407/an-introduction-to-net-neutrality-what-it-is-what-it-means-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it ) said ISP could be doing this so they can charge more for internet use at these peak gaming times or determine which areas of the world are doing the most online gaming and then raise internet service rates in these areas. This does not include all of the other information companies can gather to use in expanding their profit margins.

Bug companies aggregating comments for personal gain is not the only issue to be concerned with when posting personal information on the internet. Hackers have always been an issue on the internet. Social networks are huge information databases that can provide a hacker with a vast volume of content to use. Hackers break into these websites with ease and STEAL data on millions of people. They can use information taken from your account to learn where you shop online, stalk you, access your email, or obtain specifics about your friends. Each year dozens of Fortune 500 companies get hacked. Everything from account login information to personal data is stolen in these security breaches. Hackers have been know to use hacked social network accounts to steal personal data for setting up fake shopping accounts, spam user contacts, impersonate users, discover information about online shopping habits of users, and more. Hackers can use information stolen from your account to change login information to sites like Amazon or PayPal by studying your posts and reviewing your user comments.

These websites offer users a false sense of security promising that storing your personal private information is safe from malicious use. The problem is that hackers target these sites for the information they contain. But once your information has been leaked onto the internet, there is no telling where it ends up. Most hacker breaches, as with the recently exposed online payment services and the Gawker media hacks, show private secured networks are breached quite often and sometimes these breaches last for months as the hackers syphon off huge amounts of data about users. Even worse the long term affects of such hacks are hard to quantify and discover. But once the data is exposed on the internet there is no way of securing that information again.

Social media sites provide many beneficial conveniences to interact with the world and friends. But those benefits come with a cost. We expose ourselves and contacts to the chance of having personal information stolen. It can take years, even a lifetime, to counter the ill affects of a possible identity theft caused by a social network hack. The ONLY way to keep your information safe is to stop using these sites. To protect your identity and personal information delete all of your social network accounts and do not sign up for any new social network services. Not providing social networks your personal information is the only 100% safe means from having your personal information stolen.

Your computer's security is always at risk of external invasion. If any of your social network passwords are stored on your computer, it is only a matter of time before they are stolen through an invasion of your personal computer. From there it is only a matter of time before this information is used to obtain your personal information stored in your social network accounts. From there it is only a matter of time before hackers are stealing the information from your social network contacts. Learn how to protect yourself from the invasion of your personal information and how to delete your social network accounts at http://HowToDeleteYourAccount.com/.

Act now before you become the next victim of identity theft.

Basic Network Safety That No One Should Neglect

Isn't life grand? Most everyone is somehow able to move into this new century with technology sitting in their laps... It's a new found crush for misunderstanding simple things. What I mean by that is when you were little, one touch told you not to paw at the stove. As a teenager, one car accident may have put seat belts on your mind. Now you have a wireless network at home! What will it take to consider networking safely?

Think of all the strange and forgotten information in your computer - some of it, not surprisingly, you've forgotten about. Sure you delete your cookies and wipe the Internet History clean from time to time. You ask your computer not to remember passwords too, but you're still a target in two possible ways that are as easy to fix as not touching hot things and putting on a seat belt.

Briefly, wireless networks consist of three things: The signals, the broadcaster and the receiver. Your Internet connection is the signal. Your modem feeds into the router which acts as the broadcaster. The network adapter in your computer is then the receiver. With those items, you can surf the Internet without inhibitions; and with no passwords or hurdles for novice hackers to stumble on, they can surf your computer without inhibition.

The open door, even for modest hackers, is that broadcaster. It says, "here I am!" Your receiver is tuned in to it. Other receivers can be tuned in to it from beyond your walls. Once on the same router, they can query for other computers (that's YOU) on that router. Your defense is simple but certainly not fool-proof for real professional cyber evil-doers. When you set up your wireless network, 9 times out of 10, you're asked to create a password so that users may sign on - it's often called a WEP.

This is not a busy-task to waste your time. If a casual user with an infected computer shares your router, your computer too will share in the joy of infection with zero hacking required on the part of the casual user. They were just looking for a free ride that you offered by NOT creating that WEP. You don't need a hard word but definitely don't use an easy word that creates the 'key'...

The computers in the router and in your lap will most likely do the rest. This is a one-time procedure UNLESS your router is reset. To reset the router is to force it to forget everything it knew. All your Internet Settings and magic high speed Internet access numbers will have to be re-entered. A router is reset internally or externally by pushing a button generally on the back. It's labeled too.

Internal settings can be accessed by entering the IP of the gateway which will soon be common knowledge. If you've not placed a password there, anyone can change anything - especially that computer-savvy kid coming home from school who always messes your stuff up as a thank you for room and board. Change the default password to avoid the thanks. And in extreme cases, you can physically HIDE the router to keep that reset button from being pushed thereby defeating all your modest counter measures!

The strongest reason to employ any simple safety here is to eliminate neighborly free-rides from machines that may be infected. Like buckling up, ten seconds setting a router with passwords can save you a lot of grief.

Bryan Applegate spends his time with Dinarius, Inc. repairing networks that were never secured. While the money's good, there's other things in life like teaching. Other free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com

Basic Network Safety That No One Should Neglect

Isn't life grand? Most everyone is somehow able to move into this new century with technology sitting in their laps... It's a new found crush for misunderstanding simple things. What I mean by that is when you were little, one touch told you not to paw at the stove. As a teenager, one car accident may have put seat belts on your mind. Now you have a wireless network at home! What will it take to consider networking safely?

Think of all the strange and forgotten information in your computer - some of it, not surprisingly, you've forgotten about. Sure you delete your cookies and wipe the Internet History clean from time to time. You ask your computer not to remember passwords too, but you're still a target in two possible ways that are as easy to fix as not touching hot things and putting on a seat belt.

Briefly, wireless networks consist of three things: The signals, the broadcaster and the receiver. Your Internet connection is the signal. Your modem feeds into the router which acts as the broadcaster. The network adapter in your computer is then the receiver. With those items, you can surf the Internet without inhibitions; and with no passwords or hurdles for novice hackers to stumble on, they can surf your computer without inhibition.

The open door, even for modest hackers, is that broadcaster. It says, "here I am!" Your receiver is tuned in to it. Other receivers can be tuned in to it from beyond your walls. Once on the same router, they can query for other computers (that's YOU) on that router. Your defense is simple but certainly not fool-proof for real professional cyber evil-doers. When you set up your wireless network, 9 times out of 10, you're asked to create a password so that users may sign on - it's often called a WEP.

This is not a busy-task to waste your time. If a casual user with an infected computer shares your router, your computer too will share in the joy of infection with zero hacking required on the part of the casual user. They were just looking for a free ride that you offered by NOT creating that WEP. You don't need a hard word but definitely don't use an easy word that creates the 'key'...

The computers in the router and in your lap will most likely do the rest. This is a one-time procedure UNLESS your router is reset. To reset the router is to force it to forget everything it knew. All your Internet Settings and magic high speed Internet access numbers will have to be re-entered. A router is reset internally or externally by pushing a button generally on the back. It's labeled too.

Internal settings can be accessed by entering the IP of the gateway which will soon be common knowledge. If you've not placed a password there, anyone can change anything - especially that computer-savvy kid coming home from school who always messes your stuff up as a thank you for room and board. Change the default password to avoid the thanks. And in extreme cases, you can physically HIDE the router to keep that reset button from being pushed thereby defeating all your modest counter measures!

The strongest reason to employ any simple safety here is to eliminate neighborly free-rides from machines that may be infected. Like buckling up, ten seconds setting a router with passwords can save you a lot of grief.

Bryan Applegate spends his time with Dinarius, Inc. repairing networks that were never secured. While the money's good, there's other things in life like teaching. Other free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com

Basic Network Safety That No One Should Neglect

Isn't life grand? Most everyone is somehow able to move into this new century with technology sitting in their laps... It's a new found crush for misunderstanding simple things. What I mean by that is when you were little, one touch told you not to paw at the stove. As a teenager, one car accident may have put seat belts on your mind. Now you have a wireless network at home! What will it take to consider networking safely?

Think of all the strange and forgotten information in your computer - some of it, not surprisingly, you've forgotten about. Sure you delete your cookies and wipe the Internet History clean from time to time. You ask your computer not to remember passwords too, but you're still a target in two possible ways that are as easy to fix as not touching hot things and putting on a seat belt.

Briefly, wireless networks consist of three things: The signals, the broadcaster and the receiver. Your Internet connection is the signal. Your modem feeds into the router which acts as the broadcaster. The network adapter in your computer is then the receiver. With those items, you can surf the Internet without inhibitions; and with no passwords or hurdles for novice hackers to stumble on, they can surf your computer without inhibition.

The open door, even for modest hackers, is that broadcaster. It says, "here I am!" Your receiver is tuned in to it. Other receivers can be tuned in to it from beyond your walls. Once on the same router, they can query for other computers (that's YOU) on that router. Your defense is simple but certainly not fool-proof for real professional cyber evil-doers. When you set up your wireless network, 9 times out of 10, you're asked to create a password so that users may sign on - it's often called a WEP.

This is not a busy-task to waste your time. If a casual user with an infected computer shares your router, your computer too will share in the joy of infection with zero hacking required on the part of the casual user. They were just looking for a free ride that you offered by NOT creating that WEP. You don't need a hard word but definitely don't use an easy word that creates the 'key'...

The computers in the router and in your lap will most likely do the rest. This is a one-time procedure UNLESS your router is reset. To reset the router is to force it to forget everything it knew. All your Internet Settings and magic high speed Internet access numbers will have to be re-entered. A router is reset internally or externally by pushing a button generally on the back. It's labeled too.

Internal settings can be accessed by entering the IP of the gateway which will soon be common knowledge. If you've not placed a password there, anyone can change anything - especially that computer-savvy kid coming home from school who always messes your stuff up as a thank you for room and board. Change the default password to avoid the thanks. And in extreme cases, you can physically HIDE the router to keep that reset button from being pushed thereby defeating all your modest counter measures!

The strongest reason to employ any simple safety here is to eliminate neighborly free-rides from machines that may be infected. Like buckling up, ten seconds setting a router with passwords can save you a lot of grief.

Bryan Applegate spends his time with Dinarius, Inc. repairing networks that were never secured. While the money's good, there's other things in life like teaching. Other free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com

Computer Network Security Software - Why You Should Never Be Feeling Too Secure

Once you hook up your computer to a network - be it at home or at the office - you are vulnerable to attacks from the internet. It is therefore essential to have some kind of network security software installed.

Sure, your PC might not get compromised without this software just like somebody riding a motorbike without a helmet is not necessarily going to die in crash because they didn't wear a helmet. You get the picture.

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about security software is of course an antivirus program with the latest virus definitions installed. This is not only for your own safety, but also for other people's safety. An infected computer can be manipulated by the cyber-criminal to infect other computers, all the contacts stored on your computer for example.

The "good old days" of only virus attacks are long gone now. Attackers have access to highly sophisticated spyware programs - some of them readily available for download on the net- which keep on getting better every day. The biggest pest nowadays are Trojans. These are malicous programs which often contain a variety of malware. So if you get one Trojan on your PC, you can be pretty sure it can contain a combination of worms other trojans or even worse, rootkits.

That is why you should supplement your antivirus program with a good anti-spyware program. Both do an excellent job at what there are meant for. Most antivirus software offers some malware protection, but nothing as good as a standalone anti-spyware program. This also doubles your defense if you care about computer network security.

Does it end there? Network security is a never ending process, depending on how secure you want your computer to be. For the home user there is another very important factor which often gets overlooked.

Most of you have heard about a firewall which is standard in an internet security suite. Few of you will understand the workings of a firewall. What does it mean if your firewall software asks you "program x wants to access the internet, allow once, allow always, deny?"

Just press "deny" once for the wrong program and you will have disabled your internet access. Much better to get a hardware firewall which is standard and already configured in a SOHO router and consequently will not nag you with those incomprehensible questions.

As a home user do not hook up your PC directly to the network, get a router to tunnel and control the traffic between your PC and the internet.

There are of course other "nasties" out there. If you would like to find out more about some extra protection visit http://pcuserinfo.com/reviews/sentrybay-personal-data-protection/ where you can find out more about hidden spyware.

Basic Network Safety That No One Should Neglect

Isn't life grand? Most everyone is somehow able to move into this new century with technology sitting in their laps... It's a new found crush for misunderstanding simple things. What I mean by that is when you were little, one touch told you not to paw at the stove. As a teenager, one car accident may have put seat belts on your mind. Now you have a wireless network at home! What will it take to consider networking safely?

Think of all the strange and forgotten information in your computer - some of it, not surprisingly, you've forgotten about. Sure you delete your cookies and wipe the Internet History clean from time to time. You ask your computer not to remember passwords too, but you're still a target in two possible ways that are as easy to fix as not touching hot things and putting on a seat belt.

Briefly, wireless networks consist of three things: The signals, the broadcaster and the receiver. Your Internet connection is the signal. Your modem feeds into the router which acts as the broadcaster. The network adapter in your computer is then the receiver. With those items, you can surf the Internet without inhibitions; and with no passwords or hurdles for novice hackers to stumble on, they can surf your computer without inhibition.

The open door, even for modest hackers, is that broadcaster. It says, "here I am!" Your receiver is tuned in to it. Other receivers can be tuned in to it from beyond your walls. Once on the same router, they can query for other computers (that's YOU) on that router. Your defense is simple but certainly not fool-proof for real professional cyber evil-doers. When you set up your wireless network, 9 times out of 10, you're asked to create a password so that users may sign on - it's often called a WEP.

This is not a busy-task to waste your time. If a casual user with an infected computer shares your router, your computer too will share in the joy of infection with zero hacking required on the part of the casual user. They were just looking for a free ride that you offered by NOT creating that WEP. You don't need a hard word but definitely don't use an easy word that creates the 'key'...

The computers in the router and in your lap will most likely do the rest. This is a one-time procedure UNLESS your router is reset. To reset the router is to force it to forget everything it knew. All your Internet Settings and magic high speed Internet access numbers will have to be re-entered. A router is reset internally or externally by pushing a button generally on the back. It's labeled too.

Internal settings can be accessed by entering the IP of the gateway which will soon be common knowledge. If you've not placed a password there, anyone can change anything - especially that computer-savvy kid coming home from school who always messes your stuff up as a thank you for room and board. Change the default password to avoid the thanks. And in extreme cases, you can physically HIDE the router to keep that reset button from being pushed thereby defeating all your modest counter measures!

The strongest reason to employ any simple safety here is to eliminate neighborly free-rides from machines that may be infected. Like buckling up, ten seconds setting a router with passwords can save you a lot of grief.

Bryan Applegate spends his time with Dinarius, Inc. repairing networks that were never secured. While the money's good, there's other things in life like teaching. Other free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com

Computer Network Security Software - Why You Should Never Be Feeling Too Secure

Once you hook up your computer to a network - be it at home or at the office - you are vulnerable to attacks from the internet. It is therefore essential to have some kind of network security software installed.

Sure, your PC might not get compromised without this software just like somebody riding a motorbike without a helmet is not necessarily going to die in crash because they didn't wear a helmet. You get the picture.

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about security software is of course an antivirus program with the latest virus definitions installed. This is not only for your own safety, but also for other people's safety. An infected computer can be manipulated by the cyber-criminal to infect other computers, all the contacts stored on your computer for example.

The "good old days" of only virus attacks are long gone now. Attackers have access to highly sophisticated spyware programs - some of them readily available for download on the net- which keep on getting better every day. The biggest pest nowadays are Trojans. These are malicous programs which often contain a variety of malware. So if you get one Trojan on your PC, you can be pretty sure it can contain a combination of worms other trojans or even worse, rootkits.

That is why you should supplement your antivirus program with a good anti-spyware program. Both do an excellent job at what there are meant for. Most antivirus software offers some malware protection, but nothing as good as a standalone anti-spyware program. This also doubles your defense if you care about computer network security.

Does it end there? Network security is a never ending process, depending on how secure you want your computer to be. For the home user there is another very important factor which often gets overlooked.

Most of you have heard about a firewall which is standard in an internet security suite. Few of you will understand the workings of a firewall. What does it mean if your firewall software asks you "program x wants to access the internet, allow once, allow always, deny?"

Just press "deny" once for the wrong program and you will have disabled your internet access. Much better to get a hardware firewall which is standard and already configured in a SOHO router and consequently will not nag you with those incomprehensible questions.

As a home user do not hook up your PC directly to the network, get a router to tunnel and control the traffic between your PC and the internet.

There are of course other "nasties" out there. If you would like to find out more about some extra protection visit http://pcuserinfo.com/reviews/sentrybay-personal-data-protection/ where you can find out more about hidden spyware.

Basic Network Safety That No One Should Neglect

Isn't life grand? Most everyone is somehow able to move into this new century with technology sitting in their laps... It's a new found crush for misunderstanding simple things. What I mean by that is when you were little, one touch told you not to paw at the stove. As a teenager, one car accident may have put seat belts on your mind. Now you have a wireless network at home! What will it take to consider networking safely?

Think of all the strange and forgotten information in your computer - some of it, not surprisingly, you've forgotten about. Sure you delete your cookies and wipe the Internet History clean from time to time. You ask your computer not to remember passwords too, but you're still a target in two possible ways that are as easy to fix as not touching hot things and putting on a seat belt.

Briefly, wireless networks consist of three things: The signals, the broadcaster and the receiver. Your Internet connection is the signal. Your modem feeds into the router which acts as the broadcaster. The network adapter in your computer is then the receiver. With those items, you can surf the Internet without inhibitions; and with no passwords or hurdles for novice hackers to stumble on, they can surf your computer without inhibition.

The open door, even for modest hackers, is that broadcaster. It says, "here I am!" Your receiver is tuned in to it. Other receivers can be tuned in to it from beyond your walls. Once on the same router, they can query for other computers (that's YOU) on that router. Your defense is simple but certainly not fool-proof for real professional cyber evil-doers. When you set up your wireless network, 9 times out of 10, you're asked to create a password so that users may sign on - it's often called a WEP.

This is not a busy-task to waste your time. If a casual user with an infected computer shares your router, your computer too will share in the joy of infection with zero hacking required on the part of the casual user. They were just looking for a free ride that you offered by NOT creating that WEP. You don't need a hard word but definitely don't use an easy word that creates the 'key'...

The computers in the router and in your lap will most likely do the rest. This is a one-time procedure UNLESS your router is reset. To reset the router is to force it to forget everything it knew. All your Internet Settings and magic high speed Internet access numbers will have to be re-entered. A router is reset internally or externally by pushing a button generally on the back. It's labeled too.

Internal settings can be accessed by entering the IP of the gateway which will soon be common knowledge. If you've not placed a password there, anyone can change anything - especially that computer-savvy kid coming home from school who always messes your stuff up as a thank you for room and board. Change the default password to avoid the thanks. And in extreme cases, you can physically HIDE the router to keep that reset button from being pushed thereby defeating all your modest counter measures!

The strongest reason to employ any simple safety here is to eliminate neighborly free-rides from machines that may be infected. Like buckling up, ten seconds setting a router with passwords can save you a lot of grief.

Bryan Applegate spends his time with Dinarius, Inc. repairing networks that were never secured. While the money's good, there's other things in life like teaching. Other free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com