Understanding different types of Wi-Fi security

Filed Under (Web, Technology) by froy on 05-12-2011

When connecting to Wi-Fi networks you may have seen notifications referring to WEP, WPA and WPA2, but what exactly do these terms mean?

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was the first standard implemented to make Wi-Fi networks secure. It was designed to be a strong type of security encryption which would keep Wi-Fi user’s data safe. However, it was discovered that WEP had some serious flaws and was not particularly difficult to hack.

Unfortunately, many Wi-Fi users are unaware that WEP is vulnerable and continue to use this type of encryption. This is not helped by the fact that some wireless router manufactures still ship their devices with WEP set as default when the routers are capable of more secure encryption.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was developed to replace WEP and address the security issues associated with Wi-Fi networks. This more secure type of encryption was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance and released in 2003. The Wi-Fi Alliance is an organisation dedicated to promoting and improving wireless networking technologies. It was founded and run by a group of companies which had an interest in standardising and improving wireless networking technologies.

While far more secure than WEP, it is still possible for a skilled and determined hacker to break WPA encryption. To further improve Wi-Fi security the Wi-Fi alliance developed WPA2. The main difference, in terms of security, between WPA and WPA2 is the type of encryption algorithm used.

WPA uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption. When introduced it was thought that this type of encryption was extremely secure. However, as security advances, so do hackers and WPA’s TKIP encryption was eventually hacked in 2008. As it was based on the WEP type of encryption it was found to be vulnerable to similar, but more advanced, types of attack.

WPA2 uses Counter Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP, although sometimes known as AES). CCMP was a significant improvement on TKIP and has proved to be extremely resilient to attack. While it is theoretically possible to hack CCMP encryption it would require tremendous computing power and would take an extremely long time.

Remember it is very important to keep your wireless network safe; you should make sure you are using WPA2 in order to keep your data secure. This is especially true for business broadband users. Businesses often have very sensitive and potentially damaging information on their networks and a successful cyber-attack could cost a company a lot of money.

Fiona Roy writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

The Grid 2.0 - The Fifth Utility?

Filed Under (Web, Technology) by froy on 05-12-2011

The internet is already considered by many people to be an essential part of everyone’s life and not having access to it can put you at a great disadvantage.

In recent years governments in the western world have gone to great lengths to connect all of their populaces to a high speed internet connection, even in the remoter regions, as people have come to demand access to the internet, in much the same way as they demand running water.

As well as connecting to the internet through their phone lines, people can now access the internet on mobile devices like their smart phones and tablet devices. The internet has become ubiquitous and essential.

Every year people are demanding faster and faster connections, as people look to the internet more and more as a reliable source of entertainment and business. Fibre optic broadband is heralding a new age of superfast broadband into people’s homes and offices and with it may come an even more essential utility, remote processing power.

In the future processing power may become a utility just like electricity. In this brave new world you would access this processing power through cheap, low-specification terminals; all of your documents and data would be securely stored externally, online; and all the operations on them will be carried out by software provided, run and upgraded by online application providers, perhaps Google. Like any other utility, the more processing power you use, the more you will pay for it - and vice versa.

This future is not as far away as you might think, you probably already store a lot of your data online, be it in email inboxes, drop box accounts or new services like Apple’s iCloud. The concept of running software remotely is something familiar to anyone that has ever used the remote desktop function in windows and running software remotely is already being commercially sold by video games companies like OnLive.

What will be essential to the development of this technology will be the necessity to connect everyone to fibre optic broadband, as a large bandwidth would be essential in ensuring that computers could communicate rapidly across the internet.

The possibilities of this new technology could be astonishing. Imagine just a simple, small, basic computer terminal connected through fibre optic broadband to an online network of supercomputers. You could call upon as much processing power as you need, to run whatever program you want, from the latest computer games to modelling your own weather forecast.

Fiona Roy writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

Are you satisfied with your web hosting?

Filed Under (Services, Web, Web Sites) by admin on 04-12-2007

Normally the answer would be positive, i don’t know why but many people do seem to feel comfortable with whom their sites are hosted regardless of the fact how many down time the servers at time face.Iin my case am currently hosted with a Virtual Private Server that has a great performance overall and a great speed specially with the sites loading, support etc but one of my other site that happens to be hosted with a local hosting company is truly in a mess, the server often gets down times, most of the parts of the world including the isp am using, the sites won’t load at all and neither would the FTP log on in, it has caused a serious delay in one of my project and am really pissed with it. Its always a good idea to choose the right web host for your websites and for that it needs a good web hosting choice, which can be gained through a little research over the web for different available and within range hosts and than taking time to see the reviews added by there users. Other than that a web hosting review sites, a simple google search will lead you to plenty of such sites , i personally suggest Web Hosting Choice, a comprehensive web hosting directory portal that gives you plenty of information and performance about several web hosts, while on the other hand you can get the package information, and also suggestions for the end user to choose the right web host for you or your company according to your needs and demands.

So if you are not satisfied with your web hosting, don’t delay in the switch, because a good change always brings benefits and comfort in the long run.

Find Babysitter’s online now:)

Filed Under (Online Business, Business, Web, Web Sites) by admin on 30-11-2007

You don’t have to worry about your child if you are a working women on a full time or a part time job and luckily that your husband is also employed, many women had a big big problem taking care of there children while they were employed and on job cos for the best growth and care of the children many women had to either quit the job or leave there kids in friend’s and relatives care giving them not a good time and also disturbing them the other way. I stumbled across this Australian based website Findababysitter.com.au where one can easily hire baby sitters for there children on daytime, after work, at work and permanent based timings. So now if you are at Melbourne and need a Melbourne Nanny for your kid, Findababbysitter.com.au is the best ultimate solution and the best of all everything is online.Currently the website functions only for Australia and not sure about its services in other countries.

I am really surprised at the ease internet has brought for us in our life, shopping online, and online business was something that was really even worth a thought but now hiring people on jobs online, finding the soul partner online and even hiring baby sitters for your kids online is something really internet should be thanked for.

The Web Directory industry~

Filed Under (Web Directory, Web, Web Sites) by admin on 27-11-2007

The directory market has a great value in the Web, not only does a good directory provides helpful and valuable resources to the end user but also enhances the business of those who got there sites listed but provides good and healthy income to the directory owner. There are many types of directories but the two most common ones are General and Niche based directories, a general directory however is a huge collection of multiple hundreds of niche’s and than sub divided into many other categories however a niche directory is a simple web directory that lists websites related to a specific niche.

I personally run a general web directory as well as a niche directory and both have been great value to the end users, there are many many other niche directories specially the web designers directory from my brother has been a very healthy resource to many webmasters all over the world as well as America, another great niche directory of American lawyer referral holds a complete database of listings of lawyers from all over the USA. So to cut it short the directory market that evolved from the DMOZ and Library Internet Index has matured enough as to even become the replica of the business yellow pages, although the end user still needs some know how cos other wise the web directories are good enough to provide the information that anyone needs.

Facebook beats Orkut in the Social networking war!

Filed Under (Social Network, Web) by admin on 09-11-2007

Facebook became a very famous social networking website ever since it launch but no one expected it to rise at such a massive rate as to become not only the top 10 most accessed portal but beating the rival Orkut with a big and clear margin due to its enhanced features and apps. Currently Facebook is on the rank 7 according to Alexa while Orkut is on the 10th.

Here we’ll see a Graph trend of Facebook.com and Orkut.com for the past 1 Year.

THE IMAGE HAS BEEN TAKEN OFF DUE TO SOME REASON!, please check the comparison manually at Alexa.com.