WiFi Safety Check, Changes To Hotmail and More

Lots to talk about, and pretty important information to boot on this week's Tech Talk, so let's get to it, shall we? Everyone is worried about getting their computers broken into, right? Do you even know if your Wi-Fi is secure at home? Could somebody drive down the street and break right into your system? Well not if you're password-protected correct? That should do it, right? Not really. I guess there are still ways that a clever hacker could break in.

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

There is a website called GRC.com that I heard about from a friend. You go on the site and you click on where it says shields up. Make sure you are connected to your wi-fi, and it runs a test right on there and will tell if you have a secure box or not. My wifi comes from Time Warner, and I tested it. It says that I am OK, but I'm sure there are many that aren't. There is some kind of flaw in the way some older WiFi's were made that allow hackers to hack, so beware.

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WARNING TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A HOTMAIL ACCOUNT!!!

According to BGR.com, if you have Hotmail, you won't very soon. They are dumping it for Outlook.com. I guess Outlook.com's service has picked up 60 million users in just 6 months.

You wont LOSE your account or address, by the way. You'll just be rerouted to Outlook. Check the article above for more information .

From Computer Renaissance.com

This is a continuation of last weeks question from Christian in Gloversville… What is the Cloud and why is it good?

This week we will cover what people should be aware of when using cloud services

Our friends at Computer Renaissance say the first thing to be aware of when using the cloud is bandwidth and Internet costs. Sending email or looking at photos through these services don't use a lot of bandwidth, but playing games and streaming movies can eat up your monthly data or bandwidth allocation. Make sure you don't go over your monthly allocation, if you have one.

The second is that you will need that Internet connection to get to your data. So if you are on a plane with no WiFi or in an area with no connectivity you won't have access to those files or photos in the Cloud.

Third: make sure you are using strong passwords with these services. Your data now lives someplace other than the hard drive in your computer -- it lives in the cloud -- so you just want to be safe and protected.

Get to Computer Renaissance for all your computer questions and problems… Route 9 Newton Plaza in Latham… Call 220-4445 that’s 220-4445