Category Archives: Internet

Free Email Providers

April 7, 2012 --- Miles V.

OR “Alternatives to GMail” Whichever title you prefer. With Google’s not-so-new but stating-plainly-and-thereby-legitimizing-all-the-shady-user-tracking-they’ve-done-from-the-start policy, I’m sure some of you out there are wondering if it’s possible to exist in this world without getting involved with the big G.  The answer. . . . . is actually probably not.  But what is possible, more easily than most people probably realize, is to abstain from Google’s core service that binds all the others together.  No, not the … Read more →

Posted in Internet | Tagged email, Google, internet | 3 Comments

Zero.Access Rootkit on the Loose!

October 18, 2011 --- Admin

I’ve treated four or five machines in the last week for this nasty new infection: mostly XP machines, but Vista and Win7 are susceptible as well.  It has similar symptoms as other rootkits: preventing your antivirus software from running, redirecting your web search results, etc., but this one is a little nastier.  It doesn’t just disable your software, it mangles the executable file so the antivirus needs to be removed and reinstalled after the infection … Read more →

Posted in Internet, Software | Tagged repair, rootkit, virus, Windows | 1 Comment

How Much Bandwidth do I Need?

May 4, 2011 --- Miles V.

When you’re shopping around for internet service, an internet provider (i.e. AT&T, Comcast) will typically offer many differently-priced service plans depending on how much bandwidth they will provide.  This equates almost directly with connection speed and load times, so it’s important to have enough bandwidth to accommodate your browsing habits. There are two important metrics in bandwidth allocation (measured in Megabits per second or Mbps): upstream and downstream, denoting the speed of outbound and inbound … Read more →

Posted in Internet, Network | 33 Comments

Stop Router DNS Hijacks

April 12, 2011 --- Miles V.

It’s fairly common for a virus/malware infection to redirect web browsing by displaying pages the user didn’t request.  There are many ways to do this: proxy settings, DNS hijacks, modifying the hosts file, sticking a nasty LSP into the TCP stack, etc. The result is always the same: you try to visit a particular website and get a different one instead.  This appears most often in the form of Google search results not taking you … Read more →

Posted in Internet, Network | Tagged hijack, router, virus | Leave a comment

Securing Facebook with SSL

February 15, 2011 --- Miles V.

Let’s face it: Facebook has way too much dirt on most of us.  In our eagerness to show family, friends, acquaintances, and some people we’ve never met, our photos, relationship status, and Farmville achievements, we all kinda forgot that we were putting this data on the internet.  Alarmist italics aside, we love our Facebook and we need to do all we can in this fool’s errand of keeping our massive stash of personal data private. … Read more →

Posted in How To, Internet | Tagged facebook, security | Leave a comment