Security vs. Usability

One of the things I'm passionate about is security. Many end users have no idea about security. I challenge you, visit Steve Gibson's website www.grc.com click the "services" tab, and go to "ShieldsUP!". Use the "common ports" utility. Each of the tests shown on this page is a potential security problem. The Windows family of Operating Systems are designed to be very user friendly. In doing so, Microsoft has also made them very hacker friendly.
Many cable and DSL modems pass the public IP right onto your machine, putting your computer directly on the internet. If you have a good firewall that is properly configured, this isn't too bad of a problem. Most people, however, don't have such a firewall. If there are several ports that show "open" on ShieldsUP!, then consider getting a home NAT router with a built-in firewall. You won't notice a difference in your browsing, but it increases your level of security immensely.
Ideally you want your firewall to reject everything. This means that no one can get to your computer from the internet at all. If configured correctly, ShieldsUP! will give you a "perfect stealth" rating. Im my next post, I'll talk about what to do when you do want a port accessable from the internet.

An SSH client under windows

I use SSH all the time. It's the simplest way to go in and fix something on a Linux server. From time to time, I find myself on a Windows machine, needing to use ssh. The solution: Putty http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe

Put it on a thumb drive, and take wherever you go. Another slick trick, copy it into C:\windows\system32 That way, you can hit 'logo+r' to bring up the run program dialog, and just type 'putty root@192.168.0.1'. It will bring up it's window, ask for a password, and you're set.

Fedora 11

I torrented Fedora 11 yesterday, and installed it on my Asus Eee 900 last night. There were some serious problems in the install, but I found a workaround.
On the smaller drive, I created a 200 meg ext3 partition for /boot, and use the rest of the space for an ext4 "/" partition. On the larger drive, I created a 4 gig ext4 "/usr/share" partition. This is the folder that all the documentation is found in. Putting it on the larger but slower drive not only saves space, but also keeps your programs running quickly. I intended to create a 2 gig swap partition on this drive, but for some reason, that was crashing Anaconda. So I left a 2 gig hole in that drive, with the intention of adding a swap partition later. The rest of the space went toward my "/home" folder.
So far I am pleased with Fedora 11. Everything "just works", including my webcam, which I hadn't gotten working under Fedora 10.

What is VoIP, anyway?

VoIP has been called the future of telecommunications. It is definitely a popular buzzword at the least. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

The traditional phone system is delivered on wire pairs by the phone company to whatever office is to use the lines. At the Central Office, the phone company then digitizes the conversation, and sends it along it's network.

A VoIP conversation leaves a customer's office over the internet. It bypasses much of the traditional phone network and delivers the conversation using the internet.