Check If Your Wireless Network Safe With AirSnare

These are the shortcuts I use every day and these are the ones you should be learning first. If you ask Microsoft for a list of essential shortcuts, they'll be handing you a list as long as your arm. Instead, do your sanity a favour and learn the ones I've given you first - then combine them with the Firefox shortcuts , then the ones for Gmail , Windowsmastery.Com then Google Reader , then Google Calendar . Once you've mastered that lot, you can pat yourself on the back and crown yourself Keyboard Maes

A small and simple program that locks-unlocks directories/folders/files on a NTFS volume. Using the hide option, the folder can be made invisible (enable the "˜Do Not Show Hidden Files' option in the Folder Options-View settin

Chances are you are receiving too many. Hopefully you're receiving little spam, but certainly you have a lot of mail hitting your inbox that doesn't need your immediate attention. Maybe you even receive private stuff at work that you should rather not attend to at all until you're h

When I start working on the computer, I mostly tend to head straight to the start menu so let's go there. To bring up the start menu using the keyboard, just press the START key (also called the WIN key) which is normally at the bottom left of the keyboard close to the spacebar. It will have a small Microsoft symbol on it. It varies slightly in design according to what keyboard you're using but it looks something like th

Occasional snoopiness is the habit of man. The little world contained within our computers isn't safe from eavesdroppers. The need to feel secure probably explains the surplus of encryption software available. We all have some skeletons in our hard disks or just need to keep some valuable files away from prying eyes. We already have looked at a few ways to do it manually here on MakeUseOf. You can read about it here , here and he

Losing your valuable files as a result of a hard drive failure, virus attack or even accidental file deletion can be very devastating. Whether it's your photos, giant music collection, important documents - data loss is always costly and stressful. Hard drives always crash, it's just a matter of time, therefore DO regular backups. Especially when there are so many free backup software options that can run regular backups automatically. Just set it once to run scheduled backups every week or so and forget about them. Then when disaster happens you will be able to restore your files in no t

So what do you do when you detect a questionable MAC address? If there is suspicious activity on your wireless network, you best change your network key, exclude the MAC address via your router, and eventually change your IP subnet. If the activity comes in via the wired network, you should also increase your local security, scan your system for malware, update your firewall, and lock up your network as best as you

This virtual TrueCrypt volume can be kept hidden thus making the files invisible. TrueCrypt can also encrypt an entire drive, partition or even an external storage device like a USB drive. As further evidence of its capabilities, TrueCrypt can also encrypt the Windows boot partition or the entire boot drive. Furthermore it has the ability to create and run a hidden encrypted operating system. With these advanced features, TrueCrypt has become a power user's favorite t

None of them involve going anywhere near the registry or indeed altering your Windows settings in any way. What I am about to talk about is just plain old keyboard shortcuts to make menus jump up and down, windows change or make you bounce your way around the desktop - without touching that mouse o

You can also sort several different mails that you receive on a daily basis into one folder. For example set up a rule that catches all mail from MakeUseOf (Sender contains MakeUseOf.com), then set up a different rule within the same Filter for each of the other newsletters or eMail updates you would like to sort into the same fol

What remains to be done is monitor your wireless network for suspicious activity. If you don't find your router's built in MAC address login and protocols convenient to use, here's an alternative. AirSnare [Broken URL Removed] is a thorough network monitor for both wired and wireless networks from Windows 98 up to Windows XP. It will detect all active MAC addresses and monitor their activity. Warnings will be issued if unknown / unfriendly MAC addresses are detec

A lightweight software at 477KB, Sofonesia Folder Protector requires .Net Framework to function. Beyond that, hiding the folders is a cinch. Just add multiple files to the protected folder's list and click. The software also does not encrypt the contents, it only hides the folder. Folder Protector also works in the Safe Mode. Password protection also has a failsafe in a "˜Forget password' hint quest

The free version of Cryptainer though only allows for 25MB of "˜vault' space per disk volume. So if you are looking to hide larger files, this isn't the answer.The free version is available for Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista from he