Liax Technology Blog

Router Passwords

Posted on May 2nd, 2007

All routers come with default security settings; most can be accessed from your browser through 192.168.1.1, well if you reset your router to its original settings and you’ve lost the default username and password, here is a useful site to search for your specific router login info:

http://www.routerpasswords.com/

Quick keyboard shortcuts

Posted on March 31st, 2007

Ok type this address and time yourself http://www.google.com it may take you from 10 seconds to a full 30 seconds if you are not too good at typing, ok here is an easy way to save a few minutes a day.

Instructions
â€¢ Step 1
Open your browser

â€¢ Step 2
On the Address bar, type google

â€¢ Step 3
Press CTRL + Enter (on your keyboard)

Your browser will automatically add the http://www at the beginning and the .com at the end.

Key combinations
CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER = .org

CTRL+ENTER = .com

SHIFT + ENTER = .net

Most new browser will take you to the .com address automatically if you type the name of the company.

Email spam

Posted on February 6th, 2007

Email Spam
You’ve seen them as messages about a missing girl or about world hunger/poverty or even about 9/11, email messages that will touch your heart which only purpose is to generate internet spam. I can say confidently that 99.9% of email forwards are spam generators.

What is spam?
Scott Hazen defines spam as flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it.
You might be asking yourself if it is so bad, why is it allowed?
When e-mail was invented, it was used to send short messages between government agencies and universities, they never expected it would grow to the monster it is today, as always, advertisers are thinking of ways of reaching you and your money, they see email, they think opportunity and that is how spam was born.

How does it work?
Every time someone sends an email forward it includes the email addresses of all the recipients, these recipients forward the message to an even larger list and it creates a snowball effect, if that long list of email falls into the hands of a email marketer you can declare your email address officially dead. It will be bombarded with emails such as “Would you like to refinance your home?” or “Viagra or Cialis for free” or “Free pharmaceuticals” which will make your email address impossible to use.

At one time I ran at experiment with spam and an email address, in less than a month I was receiving over 350 spam email PER DAY!!

How does it affect you or me?
Email spam is a waste of time, it takes time to clean your inbox everyday, specially when your email address is being targeted and you get more than 10 spam emails a day, we all know time is money, so you are getting hit directly where it hurts the most, your wallet.

Also, some users get viruses through those emails they receive later and some even become victims of identity theft which costs the industry 1 billion dollars a year. In 2006 there where over 27.3 million victims of identity theft in the U.S.

What should I do?
First, refuse to receive forwards, every time you get an email forward from someone you know, write them back, explain to them in a nice way what email forwards only generate spam and expose your email address to marketers and spammers.

How to detect a bad email forward?
Bad email forwards have 2 main characteristics:

They contain instructions for the recipient to send it to as many people as he or she can. (or a limited number like 10 or 20, etc.)
When you open the email they contain a list of emails all bunched up as part of the message.

Conclusion
No matter who is dying of cancer or how much money they promise you, never under any circumstance send email forwards, unless you like to help marketers and spammers.

Windows Vista released

Posted on January 30th, 2007

Today is the day when you can go to the store and buy your own copy of Windows Vista, the new operating system from Microsoft, against my wish I will probably get my copy too just to help you out in case you have questions but honestly, I don’t want to upgrade, at least not yet. When Windows XP came out, there were many security concerns because flaws were discovered that allowed hackers to attack your system.

It is the same story all over again, they release an operating system, people rush and install it, to find out that they are being used to find the bugs, errors and security flaws, then the first patch will be released and that’s when you upgrade…not a minute before that.

A few things to consider
Windows Vista is the new version in the family of operating systems, it was released last year to corporate users and today it gets released to the general public. The main question probably is: “Is Windows Vista for you?“. First you have to consider the following: