Plain English Technical Advice

Internet Life—Telephony

Skype have been the pioneer in the field of internet telephony, also known as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

To be quite clear, PC-to-PC phone calls are absolutely free using this technology and often exceed the quality of landline calls where there is a fast internet connection at each end—any type of connection works in theory but, in practice, you really need broadband.

Obviously, this assumes that each user has an internet service offering unlimited connection time (generally the case with broadband) though heavy internet users may incur modest extra charges when exceeding ISP monthly bandwidth limits.

PC-to-landline (or mobile) calls can also be made at extremely competitive rates—other services supported by Skype include internet messaging (chat), SMS messaging (text to mobiles) and video calling.

Calls can be made using the PC speakers and microphone though a USB headset or USB telephone generally produces better results while leaving the computer speakers to operate independently in response to operating system and other software audio.

The nice thing about a USB phone (about £15 from eBay) is that it works just like a telephone—it rings, you can dial numbers directly with your finger and you answer by picking it up or pressing the ’connect’ button.

There are a number of other VOIP services including those provided by Microsoft (Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger) and various internet service providers but the Skype service has proven consistently reliable and very cheap for international PC-to-landline or PC-to-mobile calls.

Using alternative services in circumstances where rates are cheaper has not given rise to any practical problems.

Skype also seems to work well on the Apple MAC (OS X v10.3.9 or newer).

www.skype.com

Communicating with your PC—Wireless Connectivity

The easiest way for several users to share data and resources is through the use of a wireless (WiFi or 802.11) network.

This is usually implemented with a central Wireless Router which controls communication between PCs and other network resources.

For the ADSL broadband user, there are a number of combined Modem/Routers which also control internet connection sharing.

Each ‘wireless’ PC requires a wireless network adapter, either an internal card or a plug-in device such as a USB adapter.

Most wireless routers also provide connections to plug-in network resources directly using an Ethernet cable—any devices (printers, for example) attached directly to PCs may also be shared throughout the network—directly connected PCs require a ‘wired’ network card.

Major names in network hardware include Belkin, BT Voyager, Netgear and Linksys.

Of course, network access needs to be restricted so that it is not available to everybody within wireless range—typically, 100-300 metres though there are a number of new products, based on MIMO technology, which offer greater coverage although the specifics are somewhat difficult to pin down without actually trying them out.

Security on the network is commonly provided in three ways:

The wireless network name (SSID) may be hidden so that users need to know the name in order to connect—the name is normally broadcast so that it may be detected by any wireless-enabled device within range

Network traffic may be encrypted requiring each user to supply a password before access is granted

The network may be set up so that only specific wireless network devices are allowed in—this is controlled using the unique MAC (Media Access Control) address for each device

Connecting to a wireless network is simple enough—using the software installed with your wireless network adapter, simply scan for the available wireless networks, select from the list (or enter the name directly) and supply the password if required.

For the mobile user, there are a growing number of WiFi ‘hotspots’ which may be used for internet access—locate them with a Google search.

www.netgear.com

www.belkin.com

www.linksys.com

www.voyager.bt.com

Protecting your computer—Password Security

Although many people worry about transmitting credit card or bank details over the internet, it is actually a great deal safer than handing the card to a waiter or reading-out the details over the telephone.

The Hollywood concept of some 8 year-old ‘whiz kid’ hacking into your bank account in 10 seconds flat is basically nonsense and most computer frauds are quite conventional crimes where the use of the computer is incidental.

In the same way that many people leave their house key under the doormat or plant pot, PC users are sometimes careless enough to write passwords down near their desk or use the name of their dog—most so-called ‘hackers’ are simply good at guessing passwords based on the victim’s family or other interests.

An old survey discovered that ‘password’ was the most common password.

The technique known as ’phishing’ is a clever wheeze where the fraudster persuades the PC-user to voluntarily reveal their username and password.

This is done by sending authentic-looking emails purporting to originate from a bank, credit card company or on-line shopping site—they usually offer some pressing reason for accessing your account and helpfully provide a link for this purpose.

Trouble is, the link provided goes to a fraudulent web site where you will obligingly give them your username and password by attempting to log in.

This is possible because the visible link is simply a text description of the target web page—with Windows systems, the actual link is usually revealed as a highlighted ‘tooltip’ by just placing the cursor over the text version.

The rule here is to never log into an account from a link included in an unsolicited email—the major banks and responsible on-line traders never send emails requesting such a log-in.

Always log into bank, credit card and shopping accounts directly from the web browser using the known genuine web site address.

Once accessed, the genuine web site address may be saved for future use in your web browser ‘favourites’ or as a desktop ‘shortcut’.

Finally, do be careful with the use of ‘remember me’ boxes to retain your password if anybody else has access to your computer.