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Networking Issues
Frequently Asked Questions
Networking Issues
- Spyware is as costly to most people as viruses.
Many of our clients get more loss from their
machines from spyware and pop ups as they do from the virus people. These are
small little programs which are essentially invisible and come mostly from web
sites. Many of the "free" sites leave this behind when you leave to sell
information on your use of the internet to other firms. But unauthorized access
to your machine and an uncontrolled exodus of information from your machine are
just some of the side effects. You may even find your ability to navigate where
ever you want on the internet blocked.
We have put together a "How To" page on using
free software to get most of the use of your system back. In most cases this
removal process causes no harm except some "free" software which you installed
on your system will quite working. We of course can not be responsible but you
are probably looking at completely rebuilding your system disk which is an
extreme solution.
- Who needs a firewall?
The same programs and networks which allow you
to traverse the internet and find things of interest to you, allow
hackers to potentially get at your computer(s) and
network. machines and networks which connect up by modem are of less interest
because thoses connections can go down at any momment when they are either
disconnected or timeout. The Internet now has a lagre number of networks and
machines which are constantly connected and therefore vulnerable. Corporations
and businesses frequently know they have to add security at the time they
connect permanently. Most sites using DSL or
Cable Modems are less likely to protect themselves.
If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you are advised to place
some protection between you and the internet.
- Working from home
With more and more people having fast Internet
Connections(DSL/cable modems) it
is now possible to work almost as efficiently from home as at work. One of the
two major ways of doing this involves bringing files home from work and working
on them at home and later returning them. The other involves actually
contolling your work machine from home as if you were sitting at it. This
latter one is called Remote Control. You
have to have the fast Internet connection because the screen is sent from the
work machine to the remote machine as it changes and this can involve a large
amount of data. This is possible on a modem but so painful as to make it not
practical. Limited work can get done. On a fast connection with good remote
control software, it can seem very similar to working at work. Prior to
Microsoft's release of Windows XP Professional, the program called LapLink was
the best out there. However the remote control abilities built into XP
Professional far exceed that program and the approximate cost of the software
covers the $200 needed to upgrade a work machine to Windows XP
Professional.
There are many issues with working from home
that companies have to deal with even though the technologies exist and work
well. One is that these home machines which get connected up to the company
network can cause an entire new source for viruses. This is a significant
concern. There are also issues of company efficiences if people are not at the
office. There can be substantial gains for getting back lost time when parents
have to be away to care for sick children or cover days without school. This
can be a huge gain for evryone. The issues are non-trivial.
Networking Questions
- How much does a
firewall cost?
- What is NAT
- What is Internet
Sharing?
- How much
does a firewall cost?
There are programs which are free to
individuals like ZoneAlarm which can be irratating to have to more
sophisticated products which get in the way less and allow internet sharing.
Sometimes a hardware device is the easiest. On the low end, a free software
package can do the trick. Other less abnoxious programs can be had for as
little as 50$ or less. A simple DSL/Cable Modem router can be had for as little as $80 plus
setup and it provides NAT for security and allows Internet
Sharing
- What is NAT?
NAT stands for Network
Address Translation and it is the simplest kind of firewall
possible and quite secure. Simply put, it limits things coming in to the
network or computer behind it to things which have been requested. If the
incomming message was not asked for, it is refused.
- What is
Internet Sharing?
Internet Sharing allows you to have one
Internet account or connection and have all your computers connect and access
the Internet as if they were a single machine using the account. For this to
wotk, all of the machines must be on a network so they can all access the
existing connection to the internet. The hard part is getting the computers
networked if they are not already. After that the choices range from a hadware
device which also sits on the network and brings up the modem connection
whenever there is a need for any computer on the network to a
firewall which has NAT in it
and makes all of the machines look like a single machine while allowing all the
machines to use the Internet at the same time.
Networking Definitions
- Virtual Private Network(VPN)
This is the term used to utilize the internet
to connect a computer or another network to another network. It is done in a
secure mannerwhich has the data being sent back and forth over the internet is
encrypted(encoded and not readable).
- Network Firewall
A firewall is a program or a hardware device
which prevents unauthoried use of the computers and network resources hidden
behind it.
- Hacker
There are a number of people who spend
substantial amount of their time exploring weaknesses of computers and networks
which can be reached by modem and Internet.
- DSL
Digital Subscriber Line - this Internet
connection method provides consistent speed and is connected constantly. It
provides a stable access route either to the Internet or to your machines.
Additionally the addresses on the Internet where DSL is used are well known and
therefore primary targets for hackers.
- Cable Modem
These devices also offer constant connection
to the Internet but with less reliability and predictability then DSL. This is because the connection to the Internet is shared
by a number of the people around you getting serviced by the same
bale.
- Remote Control
Remote Control is a very powerful tool in this
day of fast personal Internet connections. It involves first establishing the
away machine from the work network as part of the work network using a
VPN. This makes the work machine now accessible and any data
going to and from it as secure and safe. Then one uses a software program to
bring the desktop to the distant computer. Once that is done, any application
or resource on the work machine and be directly accessed from the away machine
as if one were using the work machine directly.
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