Trouble accessing Internet from a Network now and then

A few years ago, I discovered a problem that kept me from accessing the Internet. My computer was on Linksys / wireless network that could manage 4 desktop PC’s directly wired too as well as wireless systems. The problem I would have is that every several months, I could not connect to the Internet.
I would spend hours trying to fix this. Then with no avail, I would call my ISP (Verizon.net) and have a techy help me through this ordeal. After this happened again several months to a year later, I again called for help. After this experience, I made notes on what happened and what was done. When it came around again and it did, I said wait a minute, I know how to deal with computers, I should be able to figure this out. So, I examined what was going on combined with what was being done to fix this. Then it hit me! They are having me do all this crap and what I really only have to do is reset my password from within Linksys!!!! All that frustration for such a simple and minor thing. So basically if you are on a network (at home), and you are not able to connect to the Internet, you can try accessing your Linksys and changing the password. This password is the SAME password that you use to check your email from your ISP. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I do not guarantee that this is the problem that you could be facing, but, it could be a pretty good bet!

Safer Browsers

While working on one of my blogs today, I found out about a website called http://www.browsehappy.com promoting safer browsers. While looking at this site, I said to my wife, that I really don’t have any issues right now and can’t see the need to change. She replied, “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. So, I did not change browsers. In the past I had multiple browsers on my PC. But, now that I have a new laptop that is one of the near top of the line models, I decided to keep it simple. I think what they are promoting does take some merrit. But, in my case, I’m not changing unless the need warrents.

The Verdict is in on those annoying emails

If you get emails like UK Lottery or one from Microsoft or other emails referring to handling money, I just heard that they are ALL scams. Ignore them, delete them. After all, if you didn’t play, how on earth would you get an email about it anyway. I find these emails just as agonizing as spam.
I must get 2 or 3 of these buggers in a week. They only end up in the trash bin. No one should take these emails seriously. Doing so would be costly for those who do.

To find out if something you get is a scam, check out http://www.snopes.com/
for more information.

They keep coming, and I keep deleting. Some, I unsubscribe if possible. You know, don’t our
inboxes get full enough with other emails anyway?

See also Those meaningless annoying why did you get it emails

Those meaningless, annoying, why did you get it emails

If you are like me, you are getting meaningless, annoying, why did you get it emails. I am referring to those emails like you won an Internet Lottery, or some Attorney is representing someone and they are emailing you for assistance. Someone emails you with a very polite manor requesting you to handle funds of a large amount. Did you ever get any emails like these? I must get about 2 or 3 minimum a week, and all they do is end up in the trash bin.

Not only that, what in the world did you do to get any of these emails in the first place? Somehow our email addresses get on someone’s email list and the rest is history. I find this very annoying if not a waste of my time and e-space. Somehow these emails get past the spam blocker. Also, some have no message in the body, just an PDF attachment. I only ever opened one once and it was some information on Viagra. NO, I don’t need any of these products please! I just have gotten in the habit of deleting anything like this. I don’t eve bother with them. After all, opening anything like this could bring about things we don’t want.

I would have to guess that the better majority of these kind of emails are either scams or the fact that they have sent to a wrong email address. I don’t even respond to them anymore. I used to reply back “Wrong Email address” and click send.

I’ve been meaning to write about this subject for sometime now, but, have delayed until now, since I wasn’t sure what to say about it. If anyone out there is reading this post and you are one of those who send these types of emails, PLEASE! S T O P!

I just wanted to share this today, since it was kind of on my mind. Hope this post was useful.

Starting a Home Based Business

It doesn’t matter if you fall into this category or not, even those and especially those who start a home based business, should be just as careful if not more careful about security and Identity theft. I decided to write an article on this subject since I fall into this category. In addition to blogging, I am an Independent Herbalife Distributor and I work from home. So, I as well as you need to always be concerned about your Internet Security and Identity Theft. WE all need to be concerned about Phishing, Identity Theft, malicious attacks and the list goes on.

As a Home Based Business owner, I too have to be concerned with these issues as well as doing my own backups, keeping records and so fourth. I do have the luxury of having 2 PC’s on a network so if one goes down, I can still be in business, but, there would be some impact. My PC is the main one and am slowly kind of merging both in ways that I can have access to all my files.

If you decide that starting a home based business is for you, then you need to be very selective of the type of business you choose. They are not all created equal and some can be scams. While the purpose of this post is not to talk you into anything, if you would be interested in a home based business, you may call me at 877-234-2784 or email me at timabeck@verizon.net for more information.

Home Based Business are really not any different then those with an address other than where you live. Same business realities, it’s just you live there. Except of course, other employees.

Why is security so important for the Home PC User?

Home PC Users need to be concerned about security regardless of what their usage is. Whether it be for games, chatting, personal finance, or even starting a home based business. Home users can range from kids, teens, young and older adults and so fourth. Adults need to watch out for their kids and teens. Security has become so much more important since the addition of the Internet. Like Earth, the Internet is also a planet in which the same rules apply.

When kids play online with other kids, you have to assume that those they are playing with are themselves kids and not someone out there up to no good. Parents should set limits for their kids using the Internet. These limits can range from time spent, to purpose and with whom they are playing with. A good software to protect your PC and kids is K9 Web Protection. You can find this on http://www.download.com

Other harsh realities include Identity Theft, Malware, Viruses Hackers, the list goes on. Companies need to be concerned about the Home PC User as well. In fact, some have started to be concerned for the Home PC User and started offering Free versions of the Anti Virus, and Spyware products. This is an important and significant step. If Home Users can’t tackle security issues, then, this can have a bad impact on companies. Each connection to the Internet no matter what the origin is, is a potential victim.

Planet: Internet

Good, bad, ugly, unseen, are some examples of what awaits us on the Internet. I’ve been writing about spam, phishing and security issues lately, and it seems that this is a never ending subject. Everyone from a new user to someone at the top of the corporate world needs to be concerned about this subject. The Internet is like a planet, in that, you can find just about anything on it like you can anywhere on Earth. Also, from within the Internet, you can find viruses, and other malicious and non-malicious things just waiting to get you. On the other hand, there is a vast amount of good and reliable resources available on the Internet. Of course, you have your online stores such as Amazon, Barns and Noble, Ebay and so fourth. Now, being just a user of the Internet like many others, I have no idea if there is something patrolling the Internet looking for these evil items of interest? Perhaps something like and Internet patrolling software could be created, which I will call “I-Cop” could be created to cut down on these items. Now, perhaps, something like this already exists? I don’t know, but, wouldn’t it be neat if something could be out there dealing with this stuff, so we would not have to? I am not sure how something like that could be implemented. After all, we have police on Earth, why not something on patrol watching the Internet? Forgive my rambling, I am just “posting my thoughts” as in thinking out loud so to speak.

SPAM – It’s effects and what to do – Part 3

Now that you have learned about some of the effects of spam, it’s time to see what can be done to deal with spam. Some of the links provided prior to this post cover some useful information in this area.

The following are steps you can take to deal with spam:

1. Make sure that your ISP’s Spam detector or Spam blocker is ON. Also, make sure that
if there are any necessary settings that go along with this, are set to your desired statuses.

2. Make sure that any “spam” or “Junk” settings are ON and set to your desired statuses when using any email browser such as Thunderbird or Netscape Inbox. Also consider reviewing any of these type of settings if you are using any web based email systems such as Yahoo.

3. Since spam can contain Trojans, you need to make sure that your firewall and anti-virus software are ON or running. Just in case any spam gets through and you don’t catch it in time and you accidentally activate something without realizing it.

4. If you receive an email and you don’t know who it is, don’t open it, delete it!

5. (if you are a business) You need to determine your policy on spam. Consider that some spam that is blocked may not be actual spam, but, what the blocker thinks is spam.

I have a spam policy for my blogs, and I admit that I have been lenient on the policy and checking it and either approving or deleting the spam that comes in. There have been a very small amount of spam that was actually worth while comments that had to be approved. This is why I haven’t enforced my spam policy to the letter. How ever, I may modify my policy a bit as time goes on.

SPAM – It’s effects and what to do – Part 2

In part 1 of this article, I used an acronym to try to describe in my view what spam was. I also provided some informative links regarding spam. In this part, I want to go into more detail on the effects of spam. Spam can effect everyone, not just business or corporate.

Here are some effects:

1. Spam Spikes: These defeat anti-spam systems that rely heavily on signatures like desktop anti-virus systems do. For smaller businesses, this can be similar to a distributed denial of service attack. Also can effect email servers.

2. Increased work: SPAM can also add to the work for those people or businesses that review what spam comes into their sites. Sometimes spam contains useful information that can get confused as spam. During such reviews, decisions are made to keep or delete selected entries. Some elect to have spam automatically blocked and deleted, thus never having it reviewed.

3. SpamZoids: This is an every day Internet User who’s PC has been infected with a Trojan that sets up an SMTP application that sends out spam. SpamZoid is a term that I came up with to describe this problem.

Here are some forms of a SpamZoid:

One form is that the user’s PC forwards spam sent by a spammer and another form is that the Trojan came preset with spam and a mailing list. Thus the PC sends out spam and the user has no idea what is going on. The user may eventually understand that the PC is becoming slower than normal. There is also a 3rd form of a SpamZoid. In this case, there is an opposite effect of sending spam out, the user’s PC automatically downloads junk files from another site on the Internet. Thus wasting disk space. I found out about this form slightly over 2 years ago when a friend of mine encountered this problem.

More to come in part 3 (of 3), or you can refer to the first post:

SPAM – It’s effects and what to do – Part 1

What you should know about Phishing

After a very recent phishing attempt (unsuccessful) on me, I decided to write about this nasty subject again. I recently received an email asking me to update my account information. The email provided a link for me to click on to log in and update my account information. I went to click on it and I immediately realized what this could be, so even thought I did click on the link, I did not do anything that provided any kind of useful information. So, I completely stopped what I was doing and closed it out and logged into the REAL website to verify my account status. It was ok. I immediately notified the website about the incident and they responded back that they never sent me an email and thanked me for notifying them.

You need to be really careful with the emails you get each day. Phisher’s are getting really resourceful in there ability to create emails that look authentic enough to fool you. We’ve become so automatic at times that we do things without even a thought. This is exactly what Phishers are counting on. Then, before you know it, the damage is done. This is a real serious issue, and anyone who uses the Internet, should be careful.

For more information, please see these links on Phishing:

1. Recognize Phishing scams and fraudulent emails

2. Let’s not go Phishing (a post in this blog)