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MEMBERS PAGES
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Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
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Miscellaneous Useful non-archaeological information and links for the group. Use your CTRL key together with '+' or '-' keys to control text size on your screen Sometime ago Microsoft announced that they were going to develop their own free anti-virus software: Security Essentials. As they know better than anyone else the threats to their operating systems it should be a well developed system. It was made available at the beginning of October 2009. The 'security gurus' have given it an initial thumbs up. You have to uninstall your current anti-virus software before installing Microsoft's Security Essentials. More information and the download link can be found here Microsoft also have a free online safety scan if you want to get your system checked over without using the above software. This can be found here. Note if you are a Firefox user then you may need to use the latest IE version for this. 25 GB of online storage for
all your photos and files is available free from Microsoft Live SkyDrive.
More information and the download can be found
here Microsoft offer a second online data store called Live Mesh which has 3 very useful functions. When installed you get 5 GB of storage this time: 1) You can right click on any folder and nominate it as a Live Mesh Desktop folder. Live Mesh then copies it to the online desktop. So this is an excellent off site backup of your valuable data. 2) If you have more than one PC or Laptop you can install Live Mesh on them all. You can then synchronise each folder as required to some or all pc's. This is a simple method of keeping the same data one multiple pc's. Synchronisation takes place in the background when you set Live Mesh to login and open automatically on boot up of your pc's. 3) You can use Live mesh to remotely control any PC you have added to your system. This is very useful if you either want to support a friend's or relatives PC from your own home or get a trusted person to do likewise to your machine. You control the access permissions. More information and the download can be found here When looking for information do you sometimes worry that the downloads you are making could contain malicious viruses or spyware? Sandboxie is software where you can isolate your browsing. So you can then delete the 'sandbox' that contains all you have downloaded without giving it chance to get at your system. You can also let selected files out of the sandbox into your system as required. The free version has restrictions, but it should be all you need. More information and the download can be found here Want to try out Linux or a second version of Windows on your pc? Then the best way to do that is to install it as a 'virtual machine' One you have booted into your normal operating system you can start the second operating system up in the virtual machine whenever you want. Virtual machines can be deleted at will. For more information about this free Open Source software and download see Sun VirtualBox here How secure is your broadband router? There is a safe and reliable way of accessing this using grc.com. A wise move if you use online banking or submitting your credit card details. The 'SHIELDS UP' tests can be found here. Read this page then click Proceed to get to the tests. There are 7 options. Explore them as required but I would suggest initially: File Sharing, Common Ports and All Service Ports are the most important. Read the advice on the associated pages. For File Sharing grc.com shouldn't be able to connect to either Internet Port 139 or the NetBIAS. For Common Ports best is a green PASSED flag and all ports identified as in Stealth mode. All Service Ports ideally should be all 'green'. Remember you are testing your router's integrity. It is equally important that you keep a software firewall on your PC(s) turned on, and equally important, make sure your router's admin password has been changed from the default to a strong password of your choice. Strong means a mixture of letters and numbers using different cases and incorporating other characters like @, # etc. The longer the better but not less than 8 characters, preferably 12+. Note: when you use your laptop at a hotspot in a hotel or other places that offer free WiFi, then once connected check your firewall is active, and repeat the File Sharing, Common Ports and All Service Ports tests to see how secure their router is. Don't use these hotspots to contact your bank or enter your credits card details, especially if their router security is poor. Remember even when the Hotspot router is secure, everyone else using the same hotspot could be trying to get in your computer using your wireless connection. It is only your firewall and secure passwords that are blocking them. Always make sure that you are using https when doing sensitivity submissions like bank and CC transactions. Check their verifications certificates are valid, for example in your browser, left click on the blue part beside grc.com to see that is verified by VeriSign Trust Network. Have a look at the 'More Information' too. [for companies like grc.com to get a valid certificate so that they can use the secure https, they have to prove the company's integrity, address, ownership etc., to the verifying agency like VeriSign] You will see larger company's get their name highlighted in a green background. They are using https but paying a large amount of money each year to get the 'green - safe' background. If you have a hard drive that has failed and you have lost data. Then the grc.com website is the home of the industry standard data recovery software called SpinRite. It is not cheap at $89, but if you have lost some valuable date on a hard drive then it is likely to be the cheapest option for you to try if you need the data. If you buy the software it also has a maintenance function by running it on your hard drive when new, and then quarterly, it maintains the disk's integrity to minimise the chances of a hard disk failure. SpinRite needs a disk that is functioning in the sense that you can hear it spinning. It is then very good and resolving disk corruptions that stop you accessing the data. If a damaged disk is badly damaged SpinRite may take a number of hours to work it's magic. The time taken is dependant on the amount of corruption it finds. Other security tips: If you have Bluetooth turned on, then make sure you have set it so that it is not discoverable. If you are in a public area but not using Bluetooth or WiFi , then turn them off so no one can use them to gain access to your laptop. Your emails will not be secure unless you send them using https or use an alternative encryption system. Google Mail settings have an option to turn https on for all email transmissions. Check your software and select https transmissions so your emails are no longer sent in plain unencrypted text. Firefox is recognised as a much safer web browser than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox can be downloaded here If you use Firefox then the Xmarks Add-on is an excellent way to safely store your passwords and bookmarks. If you use more than one PC then it will update your other machines when you next log on. If you rebuild your machine or buy a new one, then as soon as you reconfigure Firefox and add the Xmarks add-on, you have all your bookmarks and passwords back. But remember to use strong passwords to protect your Xmarks data!
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