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What are some ways I can secure my network?
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Use all the available security tools at your disposal. If your hardware supports MAC address filtering (which allows only the network adapters you specify to join your network and does so by looking at the unique "hardware signature" in every network adapter), then use it. This will keep unauthorized computers from joining your network. Use the best encryption system available to all of your hardware-this means AT LEAST WiFi Protected Access (WPA). DO NOT BOTHER WITH WEP BECAUSE IT IS NOT SECURE AT ALL. If all your equipment supports WPA2 (which is even more secure than WPA) use that. If something you use doesn't support WPA, then replace it! This is not necessarily practical, since there are some items people use whose manufacturers refuse to build in WPA-items like wireless TiVos, for example. In this case, just don't get the wireless version! Buy a wireless bridge that supports WPA and connect that way.
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Tell me about passwords
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Use good passwords/passphrases. What do I mean by "good?" Complex strings of characters that do not include real words but do include all possible types of characters. A really good tool for generating complex passwords is PC Tools Software's Secure Password Generator. If you select all the options on this page except the "no similar characters" option, you will generate very strong passwords. Use the longest password your application supports, too. Every additional character makes the challenge of breaking a password an order of magnitude more difficult, so make it hard on the bad guys this way too!
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Managing Passwords
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"But Glenn, how can I ever remember that kind of password?" You do NOT need to! Copy the password(s) to a text file and save that onto a USB flash drive. (This particular application is great for the really cheap, really low capacity key drives that you often see at big grocery stores-who needs more than 64MB for this kind of file?) Once that's done, entering the password is a matter of copy and paste, which not only relieves you of needing to remember anything of the password, but prevents the possibility of mistyping it too!
"But Glenn, I was told never to write down any passwords-isn't this writing down my password?" Yes, it is. But the admonition not to write down passwords applies in PUBLIC locations, such as at work. Your home computer is NOT in the public space, so it's not a security problem to have your passwords written down there. Take simple precautions like not allowing your written passwords to be visible through a window or something, but having a small notebook on your desk with all your web login names and passwords is not a serious breech, and the First Rule of Computer Security is "If the bad guy can touch your computer, it IS compromised." That means that PHYSICAL security is the MOST important step. If an intruder can physically get to your computer, your eBay account's security is the LEAST of your concerns! I go to the trouble of locking up my password list with my important papers (will, passport, etc.) out of habit, and I think that's not a bad tactic, but my web logons are in a little spiral notebook in the drawer of my desk. My USB key drive with all my passwords in it is either in my actual possession all the time, or it's locked up, pretty much like my credit cards.
Macola adds that he "would add one point as an alternative to (or even in combination with) the flash drive. If you have a lot of passwords, KeePass X is an excellent open-source password manager that offers strong encryption."
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