technical

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,

 

Thanks for any input.

~ Ron Walker ~ 22 Comments

I have missed blogging the last few days. With several distractions taking up most of each day, thoughts and ideas for posts just seemed to elude me. I also was trying very hard to fine tune my hosting, in attempts to shave every second possible off the loading time.

I would appreciate it if you could let me know how the loading time is for you. I realize there are a myriad of variables that can affect it, but I don’t always trust the testing software. If you would leave a comment and let me know if the loading for you is average, slow, or very slow, I would appreciate it.

I want to thank all of you for the visits, and the support you show. Bloggers are truly a great community of people. I enjoy the interaction with others. Now, it’s time for me to get busy.

Comments welcome,