February 18th, 2009

Posted by Mary Jo Foley

Internet Explorer 8 {IE 8} is nearing the finish line, with a March release to manufacturing looking like a distinct possibility. But is IE 8 — or, more accurately — Web site developers and owners — really ready?

I have been testing IE 8 since the code became available publicly. And one thing that hasn’t changed much over the past several months is the fact that many Web sites still aren’t compatible with IE 8.

I’m not blaming the site owners here. Microsoft officials have known all along that even though the IE team is doing the “right” thing by finally making IE more standards-compliant, they are risking “breaking the Web” because the vast majority of Web sites still are written to work correctly with previous, non-standards-compliant versions of IE.

Microsoft has tried to mitigate the effects of moving to a default standards-based view in a few ways. IE 8 comes with a “Compatibility View” button that will “fix” a seemingly broken site if a user knows to press it. Microsoft went a step beyond this with IE 8 Release Candidate 1, issued in January, by adding a downloadable list of sites that would automatically trigger IE 8 to move directly to compatibility mode, rather than standards mode.

(Here is the list of the 2,400 sites that are on Version 1.0 of Microsoft’s Compatibility View list.)

The Compatibility View list includes some major sites — Apple.com, CNN.com, eBay, Facebook, Google.com, NYTimes.com — even Microsoft.com (!) — and lots, lots more. Users also have the option of adding IE-8-incompatible sites they visit that didn’t make it onto the list that will be appended to the schema list they download.

The Compatibility List has made my IE 8 browsing a lot more stable. When I go to the NYTimes.com site now, it just works. The Compatibility View button (the icon for which looks like a broken Web page and is typically located directly to the right of the URL address bar) doesn’t appear at all (as is the case for all sites on the Compatibility List).

That said, there are a lot of sites I visit that aren’t on the list. And more often than not, they fail to render correctly with IE 8. Sometimes I remember that I should try hitting the Compatibility View button to see if there are boxes and buttons and text there that I can’t see because I am using IE 8. Other times, when I am visiting a site with which I’m unfamiliar, I don’t realize what I’m missing.

I’m at the point now — if a site looks weird, is slow or just doesn’t seem to be working right — I simply assume it is IE 8’s fault. Sometimes I’m right (as I discover when I open the same site in Firefox or Chrome and it looks and works fine). Other times, cialis professional vs cialis I’m not — a site just might be down or broken. The bottom line is I’ve come to expect a rocky browsing experience when using IE 8.

I doubt the compatibility experience is going to change much, if at all, between now and the time IE 8 is released. For months, Microsoft has been banging the drum for site owners to update their code — either by adding compatibility tags or redoing sites to take into account the changes in IE 8. Many site admins and developers have said they weren’t willing to take on that task until Microsoft delivered a near-final test release — at least a Release Candidate.

Some critics have said they think Microsoft is doing a disservice to developers by offering compatibility work-arounds. They say Microsoft created its own problems by delivering previous IE releases that flouted standards — which is true. And now Microsoft should bite the bullet and just go the 100-percent-standards route, they reason. That might be a better course in the long run for Web developers tired of having to do separate versions of sites and apps for standards-based browsers and for IE, but it punishes Web users in the interim.

What’s going to happen when IE 8 goes final and non-techie users have it pushed to them or get new PCs with IE 8 preloaded? I wouldn’t be surprised to see further losses in IE market share, as frustrated users find only some of their favorite Web sites displaying correctly but don’t really understand why. Perhaps Opera and its chums won’t need the antitrust courts to get a leg up on Microsoft, after all….

What’s your take? Is Microsoft taking the right course with Compatibility Mode in IE 8?

February 12th, 2009

Posted by Robin Harris

Comcast lost corporate credibility last year over Internet bandwidth management: breaking FCC rules; enraging customers; and packing public meetings with Comcast employees. All that over network management?

Nope. Comcast has a much bigger problem – and it isn’t with Torrent users.

Follow the money
How does Comcast make its money? Selling TV programs – and now HDTV programs – to subscribers. Internet access is a profitable addition for current subscribers, but as a stand alone business it stinks: cable costs are too high to be supported by ISP revenue alone.

But what are Internet users doing? The are using the Internet to download TV shows and movies. Comcast can’t sell you the content as “cable TV” when you can get it for free on the web.

VOIP too
Another fast growing business for Comcast is VOIP. But if you use Skype over your Internet connection you won’t buy Comcast’s VOIP service.

It is a conundrum, indeed. If they increase the bandwidth of their system to enable Internet HD video, they slit their own throats. If they don’t the telcos may steal Internet business with DSL or wireless 3G.

What is Comcast to do?
It looks like they’re moving towards a multi-prong strategy:

• Meter Internet bandwidth. This is a winner: less investment in bandwidth; a chance to collect overages from heavy downloaders; entry-level pricing low enough to keep DSL and satellite at bay.
• Push “everything” packages. TV, phone, Internet at a price carefully calculated to be less than the sum of the parts. Grab telco revenue, minimize downloading, lock out ISP competition.
• Kill “net neutrality.” Comcast wants to charge Internet entertainment suppliers so make up for the people canceling cable TV service. Common carrier status (see “Net Neutrality” is stupid) eliminates this revenue, so Comcast is fighting it.

The Storage Bits take
Cable’s had a good run, but it is coming to an end. TV, which used to be concentrated in 3 networks, is now atomized among dozens competing for screen time with video games, DVDs and computers.

Cable’s costly infrastructure, optimized for hundreds of channels, can’t adjust to a world where entertainment is downloaded. They have to tame the Internet to survive.

The telcos have been going through hard times as land line usage craters. Cable is next up.

Gigabit Ethernet to every home should be a national goal. Let people, not companies, decide what cialis prescriptions they want to see. Let entrepreneurs build new services to use that bandwidth and see what happens. It will be cool.

Comments welcome, of course. I’m their worst nightmare: no cable; no landline; just a wireless ISP and a cell phone. I don’t miss either.

Network security doesn’t end with the installation of a firewall or any automated security package. There are times when you’ll need to block certain ranges of IP addresses (or known hosts) based on a service and/or block specific IP addresses from gaining access to your network cialis plus (or machine). Peer Guardian 2 makes this task simple in a Windows (currently 98/ME/2000/XP) environment. The application is open source, so you can download the source code, modify it, and even create your own branch of the software.

This little gem of a software package makes blocking IP addresses very simple. But in its simplicity, Peer Guardian 2 does not lose either functionality or robustness. I’ll explain how to create lists of IP addresses to block in Peer Guardian 2, but first let’s get the software installed and up and running.

This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

Getting and installing

As with most all Windows software, installation of Peer Guardian 2 is a snap. Simply download the OS-specific binary from the Phoenix Labs download site and double-click the installation file. The standard installation steps will take place and, once the application is installed, you will be asked to walk through some initial setup configurations.

The first part of the setup will ask what types of lists to install. There are six types of lists as well as an option for always allowing HTTP requests. The options are shown in Figure A.

Figure A

Don’t worry if you select something wrong, you can always edit your lists manually.

The next phase in the setup is to configure updates. The setup system wants to know whether it is to update lists and/or software and how often these updates are to occur. Figure B illustrates the configuration options for automatic updates.

Figure B

Unless you plan on manually updating Peer Guardian 2, make sure you select to have it updated automatically along with the lists.

Once you have completed the updates section, you are finished with the configuration. After the configuration is complete, you will be greeted with a small window (Figure C) that shows the progress of the updates.

Figure C

Even if you’ve configured updates to occur automatically, you can check for them manually from the main window.

Once the updates are finished, click the Close button and you are ready to run Peer Guardian 2.

Fire it up

Go to your Start menu and look for the new entry for Peer Guardian 2. Within that menu you will find the entry to start system. When Peer Guardian 2 starts up, you will see the main window, shown in Figure D.

Figure D

Take a look at the number of blocked IP addresses: 774,193,650!

Now what we want to do is open up the List Manager. This is where blocked IP addresses are listed. From within the List Manager (Figure E) you can enable lists, edit lists, create lists, open lists, and remove lists.

Figure E

The lists shown are the default lists created when Peer Guardian 2 is initially set up.

Creating a new list

Click the Create List button. This will open a new window (Figure F) where the initial information for the list will be set up.

Figure F

This window sets up the type of list, the description, and the file name.

At first it seems a file has to exist in order to create the list. This is not so. When you click the Browse button in Peer Guardian 2, a Save As window will appear. Locate the folder where the file is to be stored and give the file a name. That’s it. Once the new list is saved, the list editing tool will open (Figure G).

Figure G

Once your list gets large enough, you might have to use the Search function to locate a specific IP address.

Click the Add button and a new text area will appear. This first text area is really just for a description of the IP range. Here’s an example: On an inside network there is a specific database server that houses all of the company’s private Human Resource data. This data is off limits to a large range of employees (IP addresses 192.168.1.100 – 192.168.1.200). To block those IP addresses from gaining access to this particular machine, you could set up a range, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Once you enter the description, hit Enter to move to the starting IP address and then hit Enter again to move to the ending IP address.

If that is the only range that is necessary to block, click Save and the list will appear in the List Manager.

Temporarily allowing lists

Going back to the Employee example, let’s say it is necessary to allow that range of employees access to the server for a short window of time. To do this, open up the List Manager, highlight the list containing the Employees range, and click Open List. Now highlight the entry containing the range of IP addresses to be allowed and right-click the entry. A drop-down list will appear, giving you four possible choices (Figure I).

Figure I

Unfortunately these options cannot be modified without going into the code (but since this is open source, it is possible).

From the drop-down list, select the option that best suits the situation and click Save. Depending on the system, there might be a brief stall on the machine as Peer Guardian 2 makes the necessary changes to allow the range of IP addresses. At this point a List Cache might be created, which will take a moment (again depending on the speed of the system).

Logs, history, and other features

Another nice feature of Peer Guardian 2 is the log file viewer. The log file actually keeps a running log that is retained by date. And until the history is cleared, all logs are retained. This is a great help when security audits are done.

From the Settings tab you can configure a few settings for Logs, History, and Notification. As you can see in Figure J, configuration is very straightforward.

Figure J

By changing the Log Allowed Connections to Archive and Remove, the Archive To option becomes available.

Click the Next button and the Settings tab will change to offer another group of straightforward configuration options (Figure K).

Figure K

The proxy setting is for when a proxy is needed to download updates.

Another nice Peer Guardian 2 touch is that with a single button on the main screen you can disable it. And with the same ease, Peer Guardian 2 can also be re-enabled. In addition, HTTP can be allowed or blocked with the click of a button.

Final thoughts

Peer Guardian 2 is an outstanding tool to add to your security arsenal. Not only is it good for network-wide security, it’s great for single server (or even desktop) security. Peer Guardian 2 is simple to set up, but its power is not diminished by that simplicity.

Q:
I just set up a wireless network in my home and while I love it, I'm still a little concerned about others being able to use my signal or even hack into my computer. I was told that hiding my SSID will take care of the problem, but I'm not sold on that idea. I'm not even sure what an SSID is or how to hide it. Can you please help me? Thanks!

A:
First of all, I want to welcome you to the world of wireless! I've been using a wireless connection in my home for a few years now and I absolutely love it. I'm sure you will too! And it's very impressive that you're already concerned about your safety when it comes to using your wireless network. A lot of people don't start worrying about that until it's too late, so it's great you're already so far ahead of the game. I think your question will help a lot of other readers out there who are using wireless networks as well. I just love that!

As we all know, when you use a wireless router, there's always a chance that other computers will be able to pick up your signal and use it, without you ever knowing a thing about it. Even more than that, there's always the risk of your computer being hacked into as well. So, what can you do to keep yourself safe when using your wireless connection? Well, the person who asked today's question mentioned hiding their SSID and while that helps, it's not always the best solution. Let's take a look at your options!

To begin, wireless routers are set up to send out a beacon called the Service Set IDentifier (SSID), which is what helps your wireless devices (laptop, etc.) connect to the Internet. The main purpose of the SSID is to broadcast wireless signals and invite available devices within range to connect to them. Now, if a device doesn't know a network's SSID, it will not be able to connect. So, if you change your SSID settings, only the people who know the SSID will be able to connect to your wireless network. That can help keep some of the "outsiders" away.

Now, while hiding your SSID keeps casual users at bay, you could still have trouble with hackers. Unfortunately, a hacker who is determined enough to get into your network will find a way. If they have the right kind of software, they will be able to easily gain access to your computer. Plus, changing your SSID can result in a slower performance and it could take you longer to connect to the Internet. Who wants that?! Luckily, there are a few other things you can do to keep your wireless network as secure as possible. Let's check them out!

For starters, you can change your router's login and password to be different from the default settings. If you're still using the login and password that came with your router, anyone could connect to it, change your settings and even lock you out. You should also change your SSID to something a little more unique. Most routers come with a name of "default," which is very easy for hackers to figure out. You should change it to something a little more meaningful to yourself. Lastly, you should turn on your encryption. If you do that, your router will not give access to any wireless devices unless they can provide the password you specify. It will also encrypt any communication between your computer and your router so that no one will be able to see what goes on. Note: If your router supports WPA encryption, you should use that over WEP, which is an older version.

Doing the three things I discussed above are your best bets for secure wireless networking, but if you still want to hide your SSID, you can do so by following cialis no prescription the directions in your user manual. Every router is different, so your manual should give you detailed directions on how to get the job done. If that doesn't work, you can always contact your ISP for help as well. Either way, it's very important to keep your wireless network as safe as possible. Hopefully one of the above suggestions is just what you've been looking for. Test them out today!