steve gibson Archives - The Silicon Underground

Is Windows Firewall enough protection?

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 11:00:07 +0000

Windows versions from XP onward include a built in firewall. But is Windows Firewall enough protection? Yes. And no. Security answers are almost always complicated. But I’ll explain. Is Windows Firewall enough protection? Yes. From a firewall perspective, Windows Firewall

The post Is Windows Firewall enough protection? appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Use guest networks to secure IoT “smart” devices

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 12:00:50 +0000

A neighbor asked me about a recommendation Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte made a couple of weeks ago about securing your IoT household “smart” devices, like doorbells, thermostats, televisions, and anything else that wasn’t traditionally computerized, by putting it on a

The post Use guest networks to secure IoT “smart” devices appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Listen to this if you think a router makes you invincible

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 11:00:39 +0000

One myth that I hear over and over is that having a router on your Internet connection makes you invisible, and makes you somehow invincible. I even heard someone say recently that if you have a router/firewall, you don’t need

The post Listen to this if you think a router makes you invincible appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Steve Gibson on Truecrypt

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 23:44:13 +0000

Dan Bowman sent me this link to Steve Gibson’s analysis of Truecrypt, a suddenly dear departed piece of full disk encryption software. The important thing to remember right now is that we still don’t know what’s going on. Johns Hopkins

The post Steve Gibson on Truecrypt appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Long passwords aren’t necessarily good passwords

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:09:16 +0000

Well, crud. Not all long passwords are good passwords. I’ve suspected for a long time that street addresses aren’t good to use–the formula is too simple–but now it seems that even mashing together a sentence into a long password doesn’t

The post Long passwords aren’t necessarily good passwords appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Spinrite 6: An overdue review

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:39:57 +0000

Spinrite 5 is an old friend. It got me out of some jams in the late ’90s, but as new versions of Windows that defaulted to NTFS came into my life, Spinrite 5 ceased being an option, since it only

The post Spinrite 6: An overdue review appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Defrag scareware

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:55:44 +0000

This isn’t exactly news, as word has been going around for a couple of weeks, but if you haven’t heard about it elsewhere, there are some fake defragmenters going around. I heard mention of it today, and it reminded me

The post Defrag scareware appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

DNS and iTunes and other streaming media

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:00:07 +0000

There are reports floating about regarding third-party DNS affecting downloads of movies and other media, particularly from iTunes. So, if tweaking DNS settings used to be what all the cool kids are doing, maybe it’s about to become less trendy,

The post DNS and iTunes and other streaming media appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

The solution to paper passwords

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:34:57 +0000

I know your passwords are either written down or insecure. I know it just as surely as I know New Year’s Day is January 1. I know because passwords have to be incredibly complex to be secure, and I know

The post The solution to paper passwords appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Best public DNS – finding the best for you

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:47:02 +0000

DNS is so important that Google decided to get into the business.

Normally DNS isn't anything we think about. And you probably shouldn't, unless your job happens to be maintaining one, like mine once was.

But trust me, if you want your Internet connection to be just a little bit faster and more reliable, you need to keep reading.

The post Best public DNS – finding the best for you appeared first on The Silicon Underground.