Phishing Scams and how to protect yourself

Avoid Phishing ScamsEven if you don’t know the term ‘phishing scam’, chances are you’ve already been targeted by many of them.

A phishing scam is when someone uses a genuine-looking e-mail, login page, SMS, or whatever to fool you into giving up personal data – like logins, passwords, card and banking info, etc.

They often involve some kind of ‘hook’ that makes you worried or scared. When that happens, you stop thinking and fall into the trap.

But these scams are very easy to avoid with a bit of extra attention. I’ll show an example of a phishing scam I received recently and then take it apart piece by piece so that next time, you’ll know exactly what to look for to protect yourself!

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The BEST way to stay safe on the Internet

Stay safe online!Ah, the internet!

It’s so incredibly useful, and at the same time you won’t find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Well, technically, it’s more useful than villain-y.

Still, it’s good to be careful!

So what’s the best way to stay safe when using the internet? Strong passwords? Antivirus? Browser add-ons? Privacy enhancers? VPNs?!

That’s all well and good, but there’s one trick that will never let you down…

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FLoC and the future of Internet Privacy

FLoC is bad for privacyWhen it comes to privacy on the internet, the new word on the street is ‘FLoC’.

Led by Google, a group of businesses and advertisers is pushing a new standard that would have your browser identifying your particular group of interests by a unique ID number.

This number will be sent to all sites you visit. VOILA! No more 3rd party cookies, and supposedly more privacy!

Of course, there’s the marketing mumbo jumbo and then there’s the reality of the situation.

So: What is FLoC? How does it work? And most importantly: Will it improve your privacy??

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No more WiFi, Part 4: Wire and test your house network

No more WiFi: Connect and test!This video is a continuation of Part 3!!

What happens if you want to set up a home network, but you already have existing Ethernet cabling and wall jacks?

While it may seem simple, it turns out that you need to do some investigation first.

In Part 1 of this video, I described the different types of patch panels you may find in your home, how they work, and how you will use them (or not).

In this video, I’ll show exactly how to connect everything!

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No more WiFi, Part 3: All about existing house wiring

No more WiFi: All about existing house wiringWhat happens if you want to set up a home network, but you already have existing Ethernet cabling and wall jacks?

While it may seem simple, it turns out that you need to do some investigation first.

In this video, I describe the different types of patch panels you may find in your home, how they work, and how you will use them (or not).

It’s worth noting that if you only have twisted-pair phone cabling (often called PTT-298), you CAN use that wiring for 100 Mbps Ethernet – but not for Gigabit+ speeds.

Fortunately, most homes these days have Cat 5e or higher cabling, so that part shouldn’t be a problem…

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Fix stunnel “Bad magic at ssl.c” error / crash on Ubuntu

stunnel bad magic ssl.cUbuntu server 18.04 LTS is a rather popular linux OS for servers.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t come without its problems. For example, the current version of stunnel – an SSL tunnel – is woefully outdated.

It seems that although Canonical is aware of the problem, they have no intention of fixing it!

Fortunately, there’s an easy workaround that’s much simpler than you might think…

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Is 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet better than WiFi 6E?

WiFi 6E vs 2.5 Gigabit EthernetFirst of all, it’s finally happened: 2.5 Gbps Ethernet is HERE!

It’s already rolling out, and consumer-grade 2.5 gig switches will arrive shortly.

The other big news is the unveiling of WiFi 6E.

A new flavor of WiFi 6, the 6E variant adds the 6GHz radio band and speeds of up to 11Gbps… Or so they say.

So, the question is: stick with wired, or go WiFi 6E wireless? Which is faster?

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Is Wi-Fi 6 really that much better?

How good is Wi-Fi 6?There’s a new flavor of Wi-Fi in town: Wi-Fi 6!

In case you’re confused, I’m talking about IEEE 802.11ax, the successor to 802.11ac (which is now called Wi-Fi 5).

Are you confused yet?

While I’m not a terribly big fan of wireless stuff, Wi-Fi 6 does include several improvements that increase capacity and speed for more connected users.

The question is: does Wi-Fi 6 go far enough, or is wired still better?

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No more WiFi, Part 2: Home Powerline Networking and MoCA

Powerline Networking and MoCA adapters for home networkingSo you’ve read all the studies about our Wireless Wonderland, and you’d like to go wired.

You’ve also watched my first video, No More WiFi: How to wire your home for internet.

You’re not big on drilling holes and running cables everywhere, so you decide to use powerline ethernet or ethernet over coax.

Before you go that route, there are a few things you should know about these two home networking solutions.

Not only are they generally more expensive than ethernet cabling, but they’re also usually not as fast or reliable…

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