Technical

Computers, Phones, Gaming. Hints and tips for technical things.

Thursday Tech Tip (Free WiFi cautions)

~ Ron Walker ~ 21 Comments

I am by no means a computer wizard, but I do enjoy sharing what I have learned when the opportunity presents itself. I thought a Tech Tip might be good blog material, and help others at the same time. If you ever have a question, I’ll do my best, if I don’t know the answer I’ll say. I will never be condescending due to a question, I dislike people like that, those technicians who feel superior to us mere computer using mortals.

I was enjoying myself reading on Views and Mews this morning, and noted that some might not know of the dangers of free public WiFi hot spots. Many places have them now, book-stores, coffee-shops, restaurants, doctors/hospitals buildings and many more.

Free Wi-Fi hot spots can save on data usage if you’re on a limited cell phone plan or afraid you may go over your data allowance. They are great for the tablet or laptop you may have with you that doesn’t contain cellular capability (connecting through your cell phone account). If you are going to take advantage of free WiFi, refrain from going to sensitive places such as your bank, utilities, pay-pal or email.

When using free WiFi access, these venues are many times not “secured” with encryption. You don’t even need a password to connect. Those that do use a password are marginally more secure, but I still would not trust my sensitive information on a pretty much open network. When you connect using an open network that doesn’t need a password, your passwords you type in, or that your browser types (auto-completes) for you are generally sent in “plain text”. This means some kid, or adult with a free program could listen in on your connection and actually see your passwords and record them for later use.

This practice of sniffing the airwaves at free hot-spots used to be very popular by criminals and geeks looking for a thrill, but has faded over the last few years thank goodness. With users being more security conscious these days, it isn’t worth the effort and time for the thrill seekers to do. Criminals however, will put forth the effort to cruise coffee shops and other venues to scan for passwords in the open.

Again, while it is not a popular method as it once was, I still would not tempt fate and connect to sensitive sites while using free public WiFi.

Comments/Questions Welcome,

Lost in the land of Programming/Coding.

~ Ron Walker ~ 31 Comments

Sorry for the absence of late. I have been working on a computer project here at home. My mind has been mushy trying to learn new things like coding, scripts and various other elements of complicated operation. I switched from Windows to Linux over a year ago. While Linux is much easier to install and use than years past, high quality programs at times can be more complex to install. I love a challenge though. Solving problems, or managing to install something that is difficult, is like a video game is to the younger crowd. The sense of solving a difficulty gives me satisfaction.

I finally managed to figure out how to install the camera software to monitor all my cameras for security. It has taken about 3 days of research, trial and error.

After 3 days of staring at lines of code and typing commands, I am ready for a break. Here is a small “snippet” of code I had to dig through at times.

sub moveConUpRight
{
my $self = shift;
my $params = shift;
Debug( “Move Diagonally Up Right” );
my $cmd = “decoder_control.cgi?command=90&”;
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
my $autostop = $self->getParam( $params, ‘autostop’, 0 );
if ( $autostop && $self->{Monitor}->{AutoStopTimeout} )
{
usleep( $self->{Monitor}->{AutoStopTimeout} );
$self->moveStop( $params );
}
}

sub moveConDownRight
{
my $self = shift;
my $params = shift;
Debug( “Move Diagonally Down Right” );
my $cmd = “decoder_control.cgi?command=92&”;
$self->sendCmd( $cmd );
my $autostop = $self->getParam( $params, ‘autostop’, 0 );
if ( $autostop && $self->{Monitor}->{AutoStopTimeout} )
{
usleep( $self->{Monitor}->{AutoStopTimeout} );
$self->moveStop( $params );
}

My finished project with 5 of the 8 cameras up and running. 🙂

Zoneminder software.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I can get back in my routine of posting again now. There’s not much going on in the park, maybe I should go stir something up.

Comments welcome,

 

 

I actually miss my webcams, I feel isolated.

~ Ron Walker ~ 6 Comments

I had an older computer running Vista, it was that machine which hosted my webcams as security cameras. I was able to determine if someone was at the front door, in the yard, or what the dogs were doing in the backyard. When Vista was discontinued last month, I had to shut down that computer to avoid possible security risks since Vista is no longer supported.

This picture shows a time when I had it running in a Special program on Linux that allowed me to run Win7 also, it kept crashing though so I moved it back to Vista.

From left to right, Backyard, offline spare, view to front from office window, front porch and door, living room. All the cameras are pan and tilt. Can be controlled via computer or smart phone.

At least I can still use them all remotely by Android phone and tablet. I think I will just buy a cheap tablet and dedicate it to the webcams. I just never realized how blind or isolated from the outside I would feel, not having them. Of course running a $60 tablet instead of a large more costly computer will be a plus.

Do any of you use your computers for security around the home, or other jobs?

Comments welcome,

 

Repost: Extremely Dirty Computer. Things we do for friends.

~ Ron Walker ~ 21 Comments

I brought this old post back from May 2013. While I was blowing out my computers this morning and though they are only slightly dusty, something triggered this memory. It was one of those neighbors, who after they learn you work on computers as a hobby ask if you mind taking a look at it. Out of kindness you do a favor.

One of the worst  computers I ever worked on. While we all know that computers will gather dust and none are them are perfect after owned awhile. You expect to maybe have to blow some dust out when you work on one. This is an actual computer that I worked on once in Sept 2009 for someone in the community. I should have refused, but donning gloves, a mask, and doing it outside on top of the garbage can, I managed to clean is some, not totally, but enough that it would again run without totally overheating.

Photo by Ron

There were no bugs in it, but that is probably complimentary of the bugs having better taste, than take up residence in there.

First inspection, with this much dust and dirt you can imagine what the CPU fan/heat-sink looked like under that green air hood. They reported it had a “slight” over heating problem, It’s a wonder the CD player worked. The environment was a house with lots of small dogs, on a very dusty dirt road and vinyl floors.

Photos by Ron

Would you type on this? I suggested they trash it. I used my own keyboard for testing the computer.

Photos by Ron

After taking the unit outside where I had a compressed air supply, I removed the green air tunnel. It is rumored that when I hit it with the high pressure air, that I disappeared for a few moments till I ran from the cloud. Fire Rangers in their fire towers seeing the cloud, probably thought our home had been hit with a small tactical nuke.  I would think that Air Traffic was probably diverted around our area for a short while.

I managed to get most of it out using the air and some large type Q-tips. I didn’t scrub it hard so it was still a tad dusty in places, but I didn’t want to crumble something into dust if that was what still held it together.

All photos by Ron

Comments welcome!