Securing your home wireless isn't that difficult, but it can take a few extra steps to accomplish. Before I get into this let me say that I'm by no means an expert in wireless security, these are just some suggestions that I have seen and have implemented on my own network at home. I'm going to use my equipment as an example and that is all it is, an example. Most of the suggestions will work on most wireless routers, but you may have to consult the manual on exactly how to configure your device. With that said here are a few ways to secure your wireless home network.

Most of the wireless routers that people have at home come with some defaults turned on that will allow easy access to your system by the snooping onlooker. These defaults are all too often left unchanged and this can be a problem. So let's start with what a few things to update and/or change.

 

Change Admin account:
I use a Linksys wireless router and by default the Admin account is accessed by leaving the username blank and admin as the password. So when I first setup my router I changed the password before I made any other configuration changes. This is just common sense, because you don't want anyone else to be able to get on your router and make changes, and wouldn't you look like a fool if someone did, and they used the default password. I would also recommend changing the password regularly.

Change the SSID (Service Set Identifier):
Make this unique, don't leave it set to default. Why? Because when someone scans for open wireless networks and sees one that says Linksys, then they know two things right off the bat, 1) What brand of equipment you are using and 2.) a starting point to break in. The second thing I would do with the SSID is turn off the broadcast. If they can't see it, it makes it harder to get into it. Linksys recommends you change this often.

 

Turn off DHCP:
This one is a big one, easy to fix, but a big one none the less. Why? Well let's say that someone happened to find your network, all they would have to do is connect to it and then they would be given an DHCP assigned IP address and would be able to access your network resources because your router didn't know that you didn't want them on. And lets get serious, how many of you have so many machines on your network that it would take more than a few seconds to give each machine a static ip? This will at least make them work at getting on.

 

Turn on WEP Encryption:
Ok, I want to make one thing perfectly clear, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) will not make you safe; it will just make it harder for a hacker to break in. You are not impenetrable because you run WEP Encryption.

 

Enable MAC address filtering:
This will allow your router to only provide access to those MAC address that you assign here. This will take some time, but it does help secure your network. No, this is not a full proof measure, but it will make it harder for someone to gain access. They will have work at it.

 

Last but not least, Update your firmware to the latest and greatest. This will hopefully fix any bugs that have been found for your router and also help with any known security flaws in the router itself.

 

As I said before I am no wireless security expert, and I'm sure I've left some stuff out. But in the most part if you do the above steps your wireless network will be harder to gain access to than if you left just the defaults.
 

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You do know that file-recovery software can resurrect everything you just emptied out of your Trash or Recycle Bin, right? It may look as if you’ve removed them from the hard drive, but the 1s and 0s of the so-called deleted files still exist. The only sure way to permanently erase sensitive material is to overwrite the disk space with new data.

 

PC
Go to www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php and download the free Eraser app, which uses a process rigorous enough to meet Pentagon standards.

 

MAC
Overwriting is easier on a Mac. (What isn’t?) Choose “Secure Empty Trash” from the Finder menu and the skeletons in your hard drive are toast.

The System Volume Information Folders contain your System Restore points. You can delete all or just the oldest ones manually if you like (but they must be sequential). These folders are hidden system folders on each drive. In order to gain access, follow the directions below depending on your version of XP and File System:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition Using the FAT32 File System

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box

Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Click OK 

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

Windows XP Professional Using the NTFS File System on a Domain

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options         

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders 

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box

Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Click OK

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security 

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Choose the account location if appropriate (either local or from the domain). Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK 

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

Windows XP Professional using the NTFS File System on a Workgroup

Click Start , and then click My Computer 

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options 

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box

Click OK 

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security 

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

Windows XP Home Edition Using the NTFS File System

In Windows XP Home Edition with the NTFS file system, you must use the Cacls tool, which is a command-line tool to display or modify file or folder access control lists (ACLs)

Click Start , click Run , type cmd , and then click OK 

Make sure that you are in the root folder of the partition for which you want to gain access to the System Volume Information folder. For example, to gain access the the C:\System Volume Information folder, make sure that you are in the root folder of drive C (at a "C:\" prompt). To get to the root of any partition, make sure you are in that partition and then type "cd\" (without the quotation marks).

Type the following line, and then press ENTER:

cacls " driveletter :\System Volume Information" /E /G username :F

Make sure to type the quotation marks as indicated. Also, if your user name contains a space you'll need to put your username in quotes. This command adds the specified user to the folder with Full Control permissions

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

If you need to remove the permissions after troubleshooting, type the following line at a command prompt:

cacls " driveletter :\System Volume Information" /E /R username

This command removes all permissions for the specified user.

 

Want to clear programs that have been uninstalled from the Customize Notifications window?
To clear the Past Items list:

 

1. Use Regedit to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify.

2. Delete the IconStreams Value Name.

3. Delete the PastIconsStream Value Name.

4. Close all instances of Windows Explorer.

5. Open Task Manager and select the Processes tab.

6. Select Explorer.exe and press End Process. This will close the shell.

7. In Task Manager, press File / New Task and type explorer.

8. Press OK.

In Windows XP, I like to disable including recent items on my start menu, and instead pinning all my most-used programs. But I have alot, and it can get confusing rather quickly, but there isway to include seperators to organize my data on the start menu.

The first thing to do is create a new shortcut on the desktop. Select any file for the target, and under the name of the shortcut, use the trick to add a blank space for the filename (ALT+0160 on the keypad -- making sure NUMLOCK is on). Then click finish.

 

Next right click the file and choose properties -- change icon. You should automatically be browsing the windows\system32\shell32.dll folder. About 1/4 down the list, choose one of the blank icons (or another icon you may want to use). Then click OK. You can also remove the target. You now have a completely blank icon on the desktop.

 

Now just drag the blank icon to the XP start menu and you now have a seperator.

 

To completely remove Outlook Express from your system:

Get the complete details at:

 

The instructions even include a method to reinstall Outlook Express just in case you change your mind

 

If you open System Restore and try to choose a restore point but the calendar is missing, it's probably the Hypertext Markup Language Component associatiion (.htc) that is missing or corrupt.

Cut and paste everyting below into notepad, save it as a .reg file, (sysrestore.reg) and then double-click on it and let it put the information into the registry:
 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htc]
"Content Type"="text/x-component"
@="htcfile"

 

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\text/x-component]
"CLSID"="{3050f4f8-98b5-11cf-bb82-00aa00bdce0b}"
"Extensi on"=".htc"

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3050f4f8-98b5-11cf-bb 82-00aa00bdce0b}]
@="Microsoft  Html Component"

   [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3050f4f8-98b5-11cf-bb82-00aa00bdce0b}\InProcServer32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\mshtml.dll"

"ThreadingModel"="A partment""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.htc]
"Content Type"="text/x-component"
@="htcfile

 

 

Having trouble watching a movie when you also have a lot of background processes going on?

1. Create a new textfile in the root of c:\, but instead of giving it the .txt extension you name it  wmp_AboveNormal.bat

2. Right-click this file and choose 'Edit', you'll see it'll open notepad. Put this line in:
start /AboveNormal C:\"Program Files"\"Windows Media Player"\wmplayer.exe %1 %*

3. Save (make sure you save it as .bat, not as .txt) and close.

Now all you have to do is register your mediafiles to this batchfile. Here's how to do that:

4. In Windows Explorer choose Tools>Folder Options >File Types

5. Scroll down(press A) to the AVI filetype

6. Click 'Change' and point to c:\wmp_AboveNormal.bat . Click OK and Close.

Now everytime you dubbleclick an .avi WMP will open with the 'AboveNormal' -priority setting !  (Repeat steps 4-6 to register all mediatypes you want to be opened this way.)

These are all the settings: Realtime, High, AboveNormal, Normal, BelowNormal, Low.

*Realtime is not recommended unless you have a dual-CPU system!

 

 

 

It seems that even without pointer precision disabled, the mouse under Windows XP is still influenced by an acceleration curve. This is especially noticeable in games. To completely remove mouse acceleration from XP, you will need to go into the registry and adjust the SmoothmouseXYCurve values. Here is how its done.

 

1. Click Start button
2. Select Run
3. Type 'regedit' in the open textbox
4. Open the tree 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER', select control panel, then select mouse
5. Right clicking, modify the SmoothMouseXCurve and SmoothMouseYCurve hexidecimal values to the following:

 

SmoothMouseXCurve:
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,a0,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,40,01,00,00,00,00,00
00,80,02,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,05,00,00,00,00,00

 

SmoothMouseYCurve:
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
66,a6,02,00,00,00,00,00
cd,4c,05,00,00,00,00,00
a0,99,0a,00,00,00,00,00
38,33,15,00,00,00,00,00

 

If done correctly, you will notice you are holding a markedly more responsive mouse.

 

 

Contrary to the popular opinion that "Advanced" file security is only available with WinXP Pro, it is also available with Microsoft XP Home edition as well. Specifically, I am referring to the "Security" tab that is available in Microsoft XP Pro in the properties menu of any file or folder when "Enable simple file sharing" is unchecked in the Tools->Folder Options->View applet. This "Security" tab is the same as WINNT and WIN2K which allows you to use advanced options for file/folder security that apply to groups and users such as Read,Write, Execute, etc. Although Microsoft claims that this is not available in XP Home it is!

First, NTFS must be your file system, this will not work with a FAT file system. To enable "Advanced" security permissions in XP Home simply boot into safe mode, rt-click any file or folder, and now you will have the "Security" tab - just as in XP Pro! Simply make your changes and reboot into normal mode. This is very useful when you have 'limited' users on your computer and they are unable to run certain applications as a limited user - you can simply boot into safe mode, change the permissions according to each user, and reboot! The advanced tab is even there that will give you even more permission options such as inheritance, etc.

  

By default, Microsoft Windows XP opens all picture files (gif,jpg,...) with the included Windows Picture and Fax Viewer no matter what other picture viewers you have installed. To disable the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, unregister shimgvw.dll. This can be done from command prompt:

 

regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

 

(Additional note: unregistering shimgvw.dll will also disable thumbnail view in Explorer and may cause problems changing user account and desktop background pictures. To reenable Picture and Fax viewer again type:  regsvr32 shimgvw.dll)

 

To change the interval that Windows updates the time using the internet time servers navigate to:
START-->>RUN-->>type "REGEDIT"
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\W32Time\Tim eProviders\NtpClient
2. Select "SpecialPollInterval"
3. Change decimal value from 604800 to some other value in seconds. EX: 172800 (2 days)

 

In Windows, normally when you open or access a document or file it is added to the list of recent documents on the Start Menu. This tweak will stop files from being added to the list.

Open your registry and find the key below.

 

Registry Settings
User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: NoRecentDocsHistory
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called 'NoRecentDocsHistory' set the value to equal '1' to enable the restriction.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart for the changes to take effect. 
 

Windows XP Search can get slow if you have a lot of compressed files on your hard drive. Speed up your searches by disabling this. Open the Run command and type the following:

 

regsvr32 c:\winnt\\system32\zipfldr.dll /u or

regsvr32 c:\windows\\system32\zipfldr.dll /u   ( if installed in the windows directory)

 

To turn this feature back on:

regsvr32 c:\winnt\\system32\zipfldr.dll or

regsvr32 c:\windows\\system32\zipfldr.dll       (if installed in the windows directory)

 

 

 

Wanna try out the new Ofiice suite from Microsoft?

Well you have the chance to try out the BETA version of Microsofts next generation of its popular office suite

Office 2007!

Note: Need a high speed internet connection for downloading

 

Get the public beta from http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx

Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 (BETA)

This setting will rearrange files on the hard drive when the computer is idle thus improving the performance of the system.
Open your registry and find or create the key below.
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called "EnableAutoLayout" and set it according to the value data below.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: The computer must be restarted before the changes take effect.
START->RUN->REGEDIT
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
OptimalLayout]
Value Name: EnableAutoLayout
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)
 

 

By default the USB polling interval is once every millisecond (ms). Even if no USB devices are connected the polling operation is still performed and the processor may not be able to enter power-saving state. Use this tweak to increase the polling interval
Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}\0000]

Create a new DWORD value called "IdleEnable" and set it to "1" to enable USB idling and increase the polling interval.

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: This tweak should resolve the issue of laptop computers unable to enter the C3 processor power-saving state. By increasing the USB polling interval from one ms to five ms the processor can enter a C3 power-saving state during its inactivity and extend the battery life of the computer.

START->RUN->REGEDIT

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Usb\0000]
Value Name: IdleEnable
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = enable idle)

This setting allows you to use the quick reboot function to restart Windows immediately without shutting down. When enabled, press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + Delete for a quick reboot
Create a new String value, or modify the existing value, called "EnableQuickReboot" and set it according to the value data below.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
RUN ->START->REGEDIT
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
Value Name: EnableQuickReboot
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

 

Wanna remove E-Books, My Pictures and My Music from My Documents ? Simple to do Go to START then RUN. Type "Regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll" and hit enter. They won't come back