The MacXperts
Tips and Tricks

Smooth Running

The best way to keep your computer systems running smooth, and problem-free is to create a healthy environment for it. A healthy environment begins with clean, filtered AC power. Never use a surge protector with your computer. Only use an Uninterruptible Power Supply, sometimes called a UPS or battery backup. These are power rated in volt-amps. Generally, a laptop or mini will require at least a 350 va unit. An iMac 750 va, and a Mac Pro or server 1500 va. I recommend American Power Conversion (APC), Belkin, and Triplite units

Repair Permissions

The life-blood of any unix system is the directory structure and permissions. Think of the directory as the table of contents to a book, with the hard drive being the book. If the directory becomes corrupted, it is not possible to find the desired data. Permissions specify who can read and write to files and folders. Damage to both is just part of the nature of computing, but can render your data and computer useless. To prevent small problems from snowballing, use Disk Utility weekly to repair permissions and to check your directory. Even better, use Mac HelpMate from The MacXperts to automate this and other routine maintenance jobs.

Crash Plan

It is not a question of if you will ever lose important data, only a matter of when and how often! Backing up your data is an essential part of computer support. It is vital to have at least one on-site and one off-site backup. In the event of catastrophic loss, such as fire or theft, your on-site backup will be lost. This is where your off-site backup becomes a life-saver. For Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 users, Time Machine is the ideal on-site backup option. Off-site solutions include Mozy, SpiderOak, Carbonite, JungleDisk with Amazon S3 Services, and CrashPlan.

Malware

Think your Mac is immune from malware? Think again. Sure, we don't get nearly as many infections as Windows users, but it does happen. Perhaps even worse is that your Mac can receive a Windows virus that can then be sent to a Windows user, destroying their system. Not such a good move if you are trying to build a business relationship with that person or organization. Every Mac should have a solid anti-malware utility installed. My personal choice is Intego VirusBarrier.

Office Alternative

Need a full-featured office application suite, but don't want the expense and bugs of Microsoft Office? Sun Microsystems Open Office, available for the Mac as both Open Office and NeoOffice are terrific alternatives for many users - and they are free!

Bootcamp Partitions

Got Boot Camp? Now how are you going to backup your windows partition? WinClone to the rescue. WinClone will create a duplicate of your Boot Camp partition, saving it to your Mac partition. Then when your Mac side is backed up with TimeMachine, your Windows data is doubly safe.

Windows on a Mac

Think you need to go through the expense, hassle, and security concerns to install Windows on your Mac to run your Windows-only applications. Perhaps not. There are may alternatives to running Windows software without windows. Check our our blog "Running Windows on Macintosh".

Remote Access

Ever been out of town and just had to have that important document that was safely stored away on your home computer? There are now many free and easy options to have remote access to all of your Mac and Windows systems.

Facebook: Protect Your Privacy on Facebook

2011 | March | 08 | 07:34 PM mountain time

SUMMARY

Over 400 million people worldwide are members of Facebook. It is the place for social networking. As an aside, as of mid May 2010, it is also ranks among the top three sites for online advertising. But it is also among the least secure sites that contains your personal information.

Read on for how to secure your personal information.

BACKGROUND

Security has never been a top priority for the developers of Facebook. This lax attitude towards security has recently come under fire by both computer professionals and the press. Enough so that significant numbers of Facebook members are shutting down their accounts.

Money talks.

Security is now a top priority for the developers of Facebook!

Well, maybe not the top priority, because they did not make the new security options turned on by default. You need to take steps to activate it.

The new security measure in Facebook allows only specific computers and mobile phones to log in to your Facebook account. Should another device attempt to log in, the account holder is notified via email or SMS. The idea is that should a hacker get into your account from an unauthorized system, you will be immediately notified, allowing you to:

1. Get into Facebook and block that system from accessing your account, and
2. Change your hacked password.

ACTIVATE YOUR FACEBOOK SECURITY

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Select the Account > Account Settings menu located at the top right of the window.

3. In the Account Settings window, scroll to the bottom to Account Security. Click the Change link.

4. In the option "Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices?", click Yes. If you use a mobile phone that can receive SMS messages, enable the “SMS (mobile text)” to receive an instant alert.

5. Log out of your Facebook account

HOW TO USE A NEW COMPUTER OR MOBILE PHONE WITH FACEBOOK

If you now want to login to your Facebook account with a computer or mobile phone that you have not used in the in the past, you will be prompted to assign this computer a name.

Within seconds you will receive an email (and SMS on your mobile phone if so selected in step 4 above) alerting you of the newly authorized device:

ADDITIONAL SECURITY MEASURES TO TAKE

Most people use the same password and user account name for everything. Bad most people. Bad, bad, bad! Though it is not a trivial task to hack a password, there are people “out there” that have nothing better to do than spend 24/7 attempting to break your password. The issue here is that if your Facebook (or any other password-protected website) account is hacked, there is a good chance the hacker now has the account name and password for your bank account, every site you have password protected, and maybe your wireless network and computer!

This is why security professionals urge people to use a different password for each site, computer, etc. that they use.

Your next step is to change your Facebook password, along with the password to every other website that requires a password to login.

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Select the Account > Account Settings menu located at the top right of the window.

3. In the Account Settings window, four options down you will see “Password”. Click the Change link.

4. Follow the on-screen instruction to change your password.

5. Though each website has slightly different procedures to change your password, repeat the process as appropriate for each of the password-protected websites you use.

USING A WIRELESS INTERNET CONNECTION?

If you will be accessing Facebook while using a wireless connection to the Internet, think twice about it. Shown below is a screen shot of the Facebook login page:

Note the URL field: “http://www.facebook.com”. The “http” indicates that any data you send (such as your username and password) are sent from your computer to Facebook in clear text. Anyone that is snooping on your wireless network will be able to pick your data out of the air and read it without any translation!

Now go to your bank login page (in my example, Wells Fargo):

Note the URL field: “https://www.wellsfargo.com”. The “https” indicates that any data you send will be sent from your computer to Wells Fargo fully encrypted. Anyone that may be snooping on your wireless network will be able to see a data transmission, but it will be completely unreadable, and impossible to decode.

You can still use Facebook on a wireless network, but the wireless portion of the network must be using either WPA or WPA2 encryption - not WEP encryption or unencrypted. How to determine if your wireless network is using WPA or WPA2 encryption?
1. On the Mac that is on the wireless network, open the Network System Preference.
2. From the left sidebar select the wireless interface currently in use.
3. Click the Advanced button in the bottom right corner.
4. Click the AirPort tab at the top left of the window.
5. A list of wireless networks that have been accessed in the past - including the current one - will display.
6. Look at the current wifi network. Under the Security heading, it must say either WPA or WPA2.

So what I’m saying here is Don’t access Facebook while on a wireless network unless you know with certainty that your wireless network is using WPA or WPA2 encryption. This is true for any website that requires you to enter sensitive information on a page that does not start with “https”.

Tags: Facebook, Security