Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
October 21, 2007

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 3, Number 19 — Sunday, October 21, 2007

Part 1  | Part 2

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IN THIS WEEK'S ON-LINE ISSUE:
   1.   Windows XP Service Pack 3 - a Warning
   2.   Updates Last Week
   3.   Setting Up Your Router
   4.   Securing Your Wireless Network - Securing Your Wireless Router
   5.   My Computer Security Software Recommendations
   6.   Outlook Express - Problem Compacting Email Folders
   5.   Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.

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1.  Windows XP Service Pack 3 - a Warning

If you've been paying attention to some of the Usenet news groups and various blogs, you may be tempted to try the new Windows XP Service Pack 3 beta.

Got that last word? "Beta." As in —"we think we have something that is approaching a workable version and we're willing to let some guinea pigs try it out for us."

I've read some comments recently from people who were eager to install the Windows XP Service Pack 3. But, they either missed the fact that it was a beta version — or they didn't have a clue about the implications for their system in the future.

Microsoft has a developed a fine tradition of allowing a public (open to the public as long as they are users of legitimate copies of their software) beta test of their new software versions.

I'm not griping about this at all — it is a great thing and I think it is a very valuable tool for all users, since it enables Microsoft to identify, in advance, more potential problems with their new software.

The first problem is that some people will grab the beta version and install it, expecting perfection.

The second problem is "what happens when the service pack beta has a problemm?" Answer: usually, you get to reinstall Windows.

The third problem is "what happens when the final service pack — the official, released version— gets released?"

Unfortunately, Microsoft's usual approach is to force you to reinstall Windows at that point. If they provide a method to uninstall the beta version (one that really works and reverses all the changes that the beta makes, you'll be lucky.

Bottom line: caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware"). Or, perhaps, caveat beta tester...

Save yourself some pain — wait for the final release of XP Service Pack 3.

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2.  Updates Last Week

Microsoft (operating systems, email, web browser, office suites):
Microsoft releases almost all updates once per month, on the second Tuesday. This week did not include Patch Tuesday.

Firefox (web browser, http://www.mozilla.com, free):
New Version! Version 2.0.0.8 was released on October 18, 2007. This was primarily a security update.

Opera (web browser, http://www.opera.com, free):
New version! Version 9.23 was released on October 17th. This release is a recommended security upgrade.

Netscape (web browser, http://browser.netscape.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.0rc1 (release candidate #1 - still not a final version) was released during the week ending October 6, 2007.

SeaMonkey (web browser, email, HTML editor, newsreader; http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey; free): New version! Version 1.1.5 was released during the week ending October 20, 2007.

Eudora (email, http://www.eudora.com):
No update last week. Version 7.1.0.9 was released October 11, 2006. Eudora is now free, with no ads and no "paid mode" option.

The first beta version of v8 (v8.0.0.b1) was released several weeks ago and is available from http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope_Releases .

Mozilla Thunderbird (email, http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird, free):
No new version this week. Thunderbird version 2.0.0.6 was released on August 1, 2007. This is primarily a security update.

OpenOffice (office suite — spreadsheet, word processor, presentations, graphics, web design; http://www.openoffice.org; free): Version 2.3 was released during the week ending September 22nd. This version includes new features as well as bug fixes.

3.  Setting Up Your Router

Setting up a router for your home network, or even to protect the one computer you are connecting to a cable modem or dsl modem, can be very straight forward. Most people will plug it in, turn on their computer and see everything works — and not even think about the manufacturer shipping it in an insecure mode so that startup is easy.

After you hook up your router and see that it works, there are some basic security settings that you need to change, whether you're setting up a wireless router or a wired router.

The first thing to remember when setting up a wireless router is that you will have to connect one computer to the router via an Ethernet cable, at least initially and periodically.

You configure the router via the network. So far, so good. But, when you try to configure the router using a wireless connection, the first thing that happens is that you get your wireless connection cut off.

That's right, almost every individual change you make from a security point of view will cause your computer to lose its wireless connection to the router. Then, you'll have to hook it up by Ethernet to the computer in order to re-establish the connection. This isn't an "oops" — it's not an error in what you did — it's the nature of the beast.

Fortunately, with a wired connection, that seldom happens... I'll write more about wireless in the next article. But first, let's look at some of the changes we need to make whether we're using wired or wireless.

There are some basic security changes that you should make with any router, whether it is a wired router or a wireless router.

First, you should set (or change) the password for access to the router's administration pages, which are accessable via a web browser.

By changing the password, you prevent anyone with local access from messing up the settings. Equally important, you prevent any nastiness (that you might have accidentally downloaded) from accessing and changing your router's settings. Since the router gets the real IP address from your Internet Service Provider, and since the

Second, you should change the IP address range for the local (home) network side of the router.

Each router manufacturer selects the IP range they want to use for their default local network. Linksys uses 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0 (IP address / Netmask, IP Addresses Explained) for its wireless local network. Similarly, Linksys uses 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0 for its wired router's default local network. DLink, if I remember correctly, uses 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0. These numbers are not unique to these manufacturers; they are part of a series that is available for anyone to use on a private network.

The real issue is that, if you have the default IP address on your home network, you're more likely to accidently "trust" other computers on the network if you take your computer elsewhere — like the repair shop, to a friend's house, or take a notebook computer to a coffee shop. Trusting unknown computers is not a good thing — you're telling your firewall that anything the other computer wants to do with yours is OK!

So, there are two changes you need to make at a minimum, whether you're using a wired router or a wireless one — change the password from the default password and change the IP address range from the default IP address range.