Monday, January 21, 2013

Is there an advantage to disabling the SSID on your router?

Q. I understand to increase security on your network, some suggest to Disable the SSID so the router doesn't broadcast your network name for others to see. That's fine, but, my own desk top & iPod's don't see my network either, so, how am I suppose to find it to log on? Wouldn't having the network pass worded & having WPA2 be enough to prevent intrusion?
Thanks for any tips!

A. Disabling the SSID, making what's called a "hidden network", really doesn't stop those sniffing the wifi signals. It's all viewable to them using special software.

Not only that, when you use a device like a laptop that tries to reconnect to the hidden network when your away from it, say at a coffee shop of hackers, the laptop is just calling out the network name like "hey joe you there" letting those who know you got a hidden network somewhere.

The hidden network feature only helps if your in a high traffic area with a lot of regular computer users with their "always looking for a network" devices from overworking your router.

If not overworking your router is what you need, and you don't need remote log-in to it over the Internet, then you should also disable it and ping as well. This does increase security as well as creating a WPA2 AES (personal) password with 24 or more random letters, numbers and characters for the Admin access and another 24 plus random character password for the Guest Internet access only account.

The advantage of a Guest Access is that's what you use in all your devices, if a computer gets hacked via web site or a download, the attackers only have the routers Guest password, not the Admin password. Therefore they can't change the routers Domain Name Service and route all banking sites on all devices to dummy sites in Nigeria for instance.

If you want to restrict certain devices to your network, you can allow them with only certain MAC addresses unique to every device. However this won't stop a hacker as they can mask their own MAC address with one that is allowed on the network when they "sniff" the network traffic. So again the (so far) uncracked WPA2 with AES is your only protection. WEP and WPA are both cracked and software is freely available to compromise these network encryption standards.

To connect to a hidden network requires going into your Network Setting and creating a new entry with the SSID name, password and type. Saving it, then attempting to connect. The hidden network name isn't being broadcasted by the router so the automated software doesn't display it in a list of other network names.

Some newer operating systems provide a easy menu option to "Connect to Hidden Network" which gives a dialog asking for both the name (SSID) and the password (and it's type) of the network.

How do i get a Control panel on my laptop?
Q. when i go to start there is No Control panel how do i get one. is there like a Code or Software i can use.

A. start>run>command>

here is a list...as you can see every one has a different code depending on what you want to do

Accessibility Controls - access.cpl


Add Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl


Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl


Administrative Tools - control admintools


Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl


Bluetooth Transfer Wizard - fsquirt


Calculator - calc


Certificate Manager - certmgr.msc


Character Map - charmap


Check Disk Utility - chkdsk


Clipboard Viewer - clipbrd


Command Prompt - cmd


Component Services - dcomcnfg


Computer Management - compmgmt.msc


Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl


DDE Shares - ddeshare


Device Manager - devmgmt.msc


Direct X Control Panel (If Installed)* - directx.cpl


Direct X Troubleshooter - dxdiag


Disk Cleanup Utility - cleanmgr


Disk Defragment - dfrg.msc


Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc


Disk Partition Manager - diskpart


Display Properties - control desktop


Display Properties - desk.cpl


Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected) - control color


Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility - drwtsn32


Driver Verifier Utility - verifier


Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc


File Signature Verification Tool - sigverif


Findfast - findfast.cpl


Folders Properties - control folders


Fonts - control fonts


Fonts Folder - fonts


Free Cell Card Game - freecell


Game Controllers - joy.cpl


Group Policy Editor (XP Prof) - gpedit.msc


Hearts Card Game - mshearts


Iexpress Wizard - iexpress


Indexing Service - ciadv.msc


Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl


IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) - ipconfig /all


IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) - ipconfig /displaydns


IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) - ipconfig /flushdns


IP Configuration (Release All Connections) - ipconfig /release


IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) - ipconfig /renew


IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re - Registers DNS) - ipconfig /registerdns


IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) - ipconfig /showclassid


IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) - ipconfig /setclassid


Java Control Panel (If Installed) - jpicpl32.cpl


Java Control Panel (If Installed) - javaws


Keyboard Properties - control keyboard


Local Security Settings - secpol.msc


Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc


Logs You Out Of Windows - logoff


Microsoft Chat - winchat


Minesweeper Game - winmine


Mouse Properties - control mouse


Mouse Properties - main.cpl


Network Connections - control netconnections


Network Connections - ncpa.cpl


Network Setup Wizard - netsetup.cpl


Notepad - notepad


Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed) - nvtuicpl.cpl


Object Packager - packager


ODBC Data Source Administrator - odbccp32.cpl


On Screen Keyboard - osk


Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed) - ac3filter.cpl


Password Properties - password.cpl


Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc


Performance Monitor - perfmon


Phone and Modem Options - telephon.cpl


Power Configuration - powercfg.cpl


Printers and Faxes - control printers


Printers Folder - printers


Private Character Editor - eudcedit


Quicktime (If Installed) - QuickTime.cpl


Regional Settings - intl.cpl


Registry Editor - regedit


Registry Editor - regedit32


Remote Desktop - mstsc


Removable Storage - ntmsmgr.msc


Removable Storage Operator Requests - ntmsoprq.msc


Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof) - rsop.msc


Scanners and Cameras - sticpl.cpl


Scheduled Tasks - control schedtasks


Security Center - wscui.cpl


Services - services.msc


Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc


Shuts Down Windows - shutdown


Sounds and Audio - mmsys.cpl


Spider Solitare Card Game - spider


SQL Client Configuration - cliconfg


System Configuration Editor - sysedit


System Configuration Utility - msconfig


System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately) - sfc /scannow


System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot) - sfc /scanonce


System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot) - sfc /scanboot


System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting) - sfc /revert


System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache) - sfc /purgecache


System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x) - sfc /cachesize=x


System Properties - sysdm.cpl


Task Manager - taskmgr


Telnet Client - telnet


User Account Management - nusrmgr.cpl


Utility Manager - utilman


Windows Firewall - firewall.cpl


Windows Magnifier - magnify


Windows Management Infrastructure - wmimgmt.msc


Windows System Security Tool - syskey


Windows Update Launches - wupdmgr


Windows XP Tour Wizard - tourstart


Wordpad - write

Do you have to be a programmer to develop a tech business?
Q. And I mean by programmer is an understanding of code.

A. There are many aspects of IT that don't involve programming.

Computing Security, Disaster Recovery, Computer Hardware, Help Desk, Remote Access Administration, Storage Administration, Network Administration, Systems Administration, Systems Engineering, Enterprise Administration, Active Directory Administration, Exchange and Messaging Administration, Backup Administration, Database Administration, Data Center Administrator and Physical Security just to name a few.

A full service tech shop would probably have a programmer that does web and app development but many companies want to get away from custom software development. They want help implementing COTS (Common off the shelf software) and want to avoid developing and supporting custom software.

Best wishes!




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