Computer Tips Archives - Page 179 of 230

How to set up a VPN with Hamachi

Posted on September 29, 2016

If you travel frequently, you probably use public, unencrypted Wi-Fi fairly often since it’s available for free at restaurants, shopping malls and many other public places around the globe.

If you do use public Wi-Fi, everything you send or receive over the Internet is out in the open for any hacker to intercept and use as he pleases.

But a Virtual Private Network (aka VPN) will let you send and receive your data through a secure, encrypted “tunnel” even when you’re connected to the Internet via an unencrypted Wi-Fi connection. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I reset my Windows login pin, but keep using the same pin?

Posted on September 9, 2016

Question from Bob S.: I had been using a pin instead of a password and that worked just fine.

I had some other issues and needed to do a safe boot. Then back to regular boot. Now it is asking for my password instead of a pin to log in.

I want to use my pin, but I don’t want to change it. The only options I have are change or remove the pin.

Is there a place I can say use my pin instead of my password? I want to keep the same pin I have been using. Don’t want to change it.

Any thoughts on what I might do? Thanks in advance … Bob

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to force Outlook.com to check for new mail on a POP3 account

Posted on September 4, 2016

Microsoft’s Outlook.com web mail service is a sleek alternative to Gmail, and I really like it.

That being said, it does come with one major annoyance: It insists on waiting a while between checks for new messages on POP3 email accounts.

But what if you’re expecting an important email that really needs to hit your inbox as soon as possible?

Outlook.com doesn’t come with a Send/Receive button and you can’t alter its built-in schedule for checking POP3 email accounts, but if you really need to check for a new email RIGHT NOW you can force it to check a specific POP3 account any time you wish with this workaround: [Read more…]

WiFi Guard – Find out if someone is piggybacking on your Wi-Fi network

Posted on September 2, 2016

wifi Most people assume that their Wi-Fi connection is safe from hackers if it is secured with encryption and a password, but the sad truth is even a “protected” Wi-Fi connection can be broken into by a determined hacker using the right software.

If you suspect that someone might be piggybacking on your wireless network (and even if you don’t), I suggest downloading and running a free tool called WiFi Guard.

WiFi Guard is a small and lightweight utility that will scan your entire network and list all the devices connected to it including computers, tablets, smart phones, wireless printers and more. If it’s logged into your network, it’ll show up!

Using WiFi Guard is easy. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Keep your emails private and secure by encrypting them with Hushmail

Posted on August 28, 2016

The inherent insecurity of sending email messages over standard, unencrypted email systems has been dominating the news of late thanks to the baffling actions of a certain Presidential candidate.

As you probably already know, any information that’s transmitted over an unencrypted email system is wide open to anyone who might happen to intercept it while it’s on its way to the recipient’s computer or mobile device. And trust me, it happens all the time.

While maintaining our own personal email server and using it to encrypt our emails is probably not a realistic option for most folks, you can still easily send your emails to their intended recipients in secure encrypted form. [Read more…]