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 By Argile Stox Feb. 26, 2006 In my last article concerning the Vista Operating System and my laptop that was wireless, I expressed how overjoyed I was having wireless. That joy was replaced by terror this morning. Last evening, I was sitting upstairs watching the boob-tube when the fan on my desktop began to start spinning at a rapid pace. This is a normal operation for that HP desktop. Whenever the CPU (Central Processing Unit) becomes over heated, the fan clicks on for a few minutes to cool it down To my surprise, the fan kept on clicking on and off at a rapid pace. Again, this is a normal operation when the CPU is being taxed by a pre-programmed defrag operation. Yet, the fan clicked on and stayed on for almost one hour. This was quite unusual. I investigated the desktop and found that it was not running any programs in the background. Figuring that the fan was stuck in the on position, I rebooted the computer. Almost immediately, the fan clicked on and stayed on. I quickly shut down not only the desktop, raced downstairs and shut down my laptop that was hooked up to a wireless router. Both computers were completely shut down overnight. In the afternoon, I turned on both computers and could not connect to any servers. I had a strong Internet signal (100Mbs) through the cable modem, yet, both computers could not connect to the Internet. I called up my Internet provider, and ran through some steps to repair the Internet connection. I ended up disconnecting the wireless router and had my laptop hard wired to the modem. Guess what folks, even though I have an encrypted signal on my wireless router, firewalls, and antivirus programs on both computers – some hack was trying to get into my files on one or both of my computers the previous evening. I had to completely eliminate the wireless router and replace it with a standard router. The upstairs computer booted right up – hardwired to the router and cable modem. My laptop, hard wired to the router and cable modem refused to boot-up and connect to Explorer 7 operating on the Vista Platform. I could access the internet through the back-up browser FireFox; but not to Explorer 7. All my shortcuts were through Explorer 7. I had to manually type each Internet address to get to a server. Fortunately, as I had mentioned in my previous article the backup rescue disks that were prepared last week were available. Yet, that would have taken at least five hours to complete. On XP, you could go back to an earlier date through the Restore program. On Vista , that function is hidden and you have to really seek it out to find it. In addition, my router was not configured to my laptop. I was perplexed. Finally, I found the Restore to an earlier date – before the hacker intruded and restored every program and access to Explorer 7. I was relieved and delighted that it took only a few minutes to restore my laptop and configure the router in only about five minutes. Whew! At the time of this writing, each of my computers is hard wired to the router and cable modem. The wireless router is completely disconnected from the Internet connection. A word of caution to those who have their wireless router connected all the time and the computer on, all the time. DON’T DO IT! The wireless router transmits with in a 150 foot boundary. There have been cases written in the newspaper and on short segments on television News reports, that individuals will sit in their cars somewhere along the street and seek-out wireless hotspots and try to hack in through their laptops to steal personal information from computers that are hooked up to wireless routers. This hacker must have spent hours trying to figure out the encrypted signal, and trying to bypass the firewalls in each computer. I have a feeling that this hacker had almost cracked the code before I shut both computers down. That hacker must have been so frustrated to be foiled by an off switch. There is a solution to this problem. Only have your computer connected to the wireless router when you are using your laptop in various parts of the house. If the laptop is on A/C power and set up in one spot in the house – completely disconnect the wireless router from your system. Identity theft is number one priority on the hacker’s agenda. Once that person has your files of the banking accounts you access on the Internet, say goodbye to your credit rating, and your bank account could be drained in one felt swoop. I almost learned that lesson the hard way – last evening. It took me the better part of the afternoon and evening to repair any damage that the hacker may have inflicted on my computers. Thank goodness for the firewalls and Restore programs on Vista and XP. If it was not for those programs included in both the XP and Vista operating systems, it would have taken me at least ten hours to completely re-install both backup programs I created for each computer. Wireless is a wonderful invention. Use it only when you absolutely need to roam around the house with the laptop or in secure public places that offer free wireless connections while you sip coffee and work on your laptop. Hard wire the Internet connection when at home. Your identity and personal records can be snatched easily, with patients from a hacker looking to steal them at will. ------------ Email Argile Stox: argilestox@gmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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