Ham Map

There is a cool GoogleMaps “Mash-Up” over on N4MC’s Vanity HQ website. Once at the site, select the “N4MC Ham Locator” in the left panel.  The tool takes a zipcode and displays a map of the area with a plot of licensed Amateurs from the FCC database.  Thanks to Mark KJ7BS for highlighting this site in the SKCC July Newsletter.

Computer Security

I am departing from the radio theme a bit, but I have been hearing of some folks having to deal with computer viruses/trojans/malware so I thought I would pass along some tips on keeping the bad guys out of your computers.

There is an excellent website sponsored by CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team, not the disaster folks) at Carnegie Mellon University. Their Home Network Security overview explains the “what, why, and how” of computer security and is written for home users with no technical background.

While the CERT document lays out several steps to secure your computer, I want to emphasize some key elements.

• Back-up your data. Back-up your data. etc… If your system goes down for any reason, virus or component failure, you should have the data that is important to you stored as a copy some place other than on one computer.  Back-up as often as you would be comfortable re-creating the data. Be prepared to re-create (or live without) everything you did on the computer since the last back-up.
• Turn on automatic updates for Windows.  Every second Tuesday of the month is “Patch Tuesday” when Microsoft releases the latest updates for Windows operating systems.  Many of these updates fix security vulnerabilities that could allow access to your computer. As recently as February 08, Microsoft sent out fixes for security flaws that would allow remote access to a computer by only visiting an infected web site, bypassing anti-virus programs- no attachments or running of files needed.  Keep it patched!
• Use a router.  All modern routers up include at least a rudimentary NAT firewall, and better ones have more sophisticated SPI designs.  Acronyms aside, the router is the first line of defense against an intruder.  They have to get through the router before they can get to your computer, and most hackers pass up the routers for easier pickings.
• Install an Anti-Virus program.  There are dozens of AV programs and NONE of them are 100% effective in protecting your computer against attack.  90% may be asking too much. Don’t count on the AV software because new threats appear daily and you might encounter them before the AV software company does.

Some free options for Antivirus and security software follow- I am not necessarily endorsing these, and there are other programs out there.  Stay away from anything that is promoted in a pop-up window or says “click here to check your computer security…” 99% of those are malware installers.

If you are a Comcast customer, you can get the Mcaffee security suite free at http://security.comcast.net/ -Personal note- I used this for a couple of years but have been disappointed with the way it slows down my system.

If you have one or two files that are suspicious, or your AV program says a certain file contains a virus but you think it might be a “false positive”, send it to http://www.virustotal.com/  They have a free battery of all the popular AV programs that will scan the file and give you the results.

http://free.grisoft.com/ww.homepage Is the home of AVG FREE, an excellent AV program.  It can be a bit hard to navigate to the free download and I had a hard time getting the file to complete without timing out, but it is a decent program and you can’t blame Grisoft for trying to get you to buy the regular version and make a buck.

ThreatFire at http://www.threatfire.com/ is a relatively new AV program that is completely free (so far). I started using this recently and it has a low impact on system speed, but I have had one “false positive” so far.  Threatfire claims to best their competition by concentrating on identifying viruses by their behavior, making it more effective against new viruses that have not been entered into AV databases yet.

Mcaffee has one other product that is free to anyone and I like it alot. Site Advisor at http://www.siteadvisor.com/ is a plug in for your web browser that gives a security rating to every website you visit. It also integrates with google searches so you see a flag by every search result: Green=safe, yellow=caution, red=bad.  If you go to a red site the program will pop up a warning asking if you are sure you want to proceed.  Note that Mcaffee sells a paid version of Site Advisor, but you get all of the functionality in the free version.

 One last suggestion for the more technical computer user. Open DNS  http://opendns.org/ provides a free DNS server that intercepts a lot of phishing spoofs and filters evil domains.  There are also options for filtering adult websites and such but I would not trust it to keep an Internet connection completely “family friendly”- there is just too much stuff “out there” to keep the filters up to date.  My experience is that their service is at least as fast as Comcast so there is no performance hit. Although it can’t filter everything, at least it stops some… and for a free service that is great.  They make their $$$ by showing targeted links if you enter an unregistered URL rather than giving an error.  Check your service providers agreement- they may disallow use of outside DNS servers (why?).

 

 

Community Networking

I wanted to pass along some information I gleaned from the Linuxfet Northwest presentation by Russell Senior of The Personal Telco Project Inc.  While it does not involve Amateur Radio, it IS about RF communications serving the public and I found the seminar very informative.  I want to enumerate some links that I found of interest.  In a nutshell, “The Personal Telco Project” is based in Portland and institutes and supports free open access WiFi to the masses.  Russell brought along a lot of neat hardware for the attendees to examine.

The Personal Telco Project A non profit organization.

Atheros- WiFi hardware provider. Components integrated in to some of the following gear.

FCC ID Database - This is way cool and I don’t know why I had never heard of this before.  Every RF device sold in the US has an FCC ID code (look for a sticker with some fine print and a snappy FCC logo) that you can plug in to this website and retrieve user manuals, photos, test results and other detailed info. Just go to the website and put the (split) FCC ID in the first two fields.  Leave the rest of the fields blank and submit the form.  Good stuff!

TPTP Uses a lot of Linux PC’s to control their wireless access points, but they have been making more use of embedded Linux based routers as self contained devices with no external PC needed by re-flashing the units with Open WRT and using products such as WiFi Dog.

Mesh Networking technologies were discussed and devices from Meraki Networks were passed among the attendees. Look at the Open Mesh website for an open source alternative to proprietary Meraki systems.

The Metro Flex from  Ruckus Wireless and the $79 Nano Station from Ubiquiti Networks were displayed as very useful high gain directional WiFi gear for difficult reception areas.

One of the attendees was with a Vancouver BC group called Free The Net that is promoting free open access Internet in Canada.

 

LinuxFest Northwest April 26 & 27

Bellingham Technical College  is once again hosting LINUXFEST NORTHWEST on Saturday and Sunday April 26 & 27.  Linux is the open-source operating system that is rapidly overtaking Micro$oft as the OS of choice on the new low cost “ultra portable” PCs like the ASUS EEE and the Everex Cloudbook.  Linux is also the host OS for the D-Star Gateway system and the D-Rats communications program, as well as many other Amateur Radio applications. This is a fantastic opportunity to attend some seminars and learn more about Linux and supporting software. Like Linux, the event and seminars are all FREE.  Check their website for a list of presenters. As of this writing the schedule has not been posted yet, so keep checking to get the time and room for presentations you wish to attend.  I have attended the last couple of LFNW and they are not to be missed.

-KNØN

Comments access is “open”

WordPress implemented some changes recently and I can now allow comments to be posted with out requiring an account or email ID.  I have adopted this policy but may need to re-impose the restriction if spam starts getting through.  Also, I have set up auto forwarding on the whatcomradio.org DNS files so that the address “Blog.WhatcomRadio.org” will redirect to this site. -KNØN

How to Join the WhatcomRadio Blog

 WordPress does a good job of hiding the instructions on how to create an account, so I created a step by step guide on how to join WordPress so you can contribute or comment on the blogs.  Look at the menu line at the top of the page under the heading.  Right after HOME and ABOUT click “HOW TO JOIN AND POST”.  After you register as a WordPress user, don’t forget to send me a note with the email address you used so I can add you to the user list.  Send it to kn0n@WhatcomRadio.org.  You only need to register once to access ANY blog on the WordPress system, including NWQRP or WhatcomRadio.  WordPress has a lot of capabilities that unfortuanately can seem a little overwhelming at first… Stick with it!

Comments and Submissions Welcome

PLEASE feel free to use the “Comment” link at the bottom of any item that you would like to post a comment or additional information on.  You must register with WordPress to post here, but it is simple to do, free, and you will not get spammed by the host.  I recommend using your callsign as your WordPress ID so others know who is posting.  I set the requirement to be registered before allowing comments to block “spam-bots” that routinely tag blogs like this one with advertising.  Your first comment will be delayed for review, but once I put your email address on “the list” your comments will appear online almost instantly.

  If you would like to create your own blog entries, send me a note asking for access, giving me your email address that you used to register, your WordPress user name, and tell me who you are (if you use something other than your callsign for your ID).  I will then set your privilege level to allow article creation and editing.

73,  KNØN

Weather Alert Dec 1-2

The National Weather Service and Whatcom County DEM are issuing an alert for possible lousy weather this weekend. I have added an RSS feed box on the right column of this blog site that will show the last few NWS alerts for the state of Washington. I am not too happy with the way the NWS formats their Internet feeds, so I have resisted adding this feature in the past. I decided that in light of the impending foul weather, I needed to add something to the site. I will keep looking for a more useful feed design to implement.

I have also added some links to the right sidebar under the Northwest heading: Bellingham Traffic Cams,  Whatcom County Road Conditions, and Washington State Road Conditions.

WR Calendar broken

EDIT- I gave up trying to fix this… Looks like Google found their problem and it is working again…. for now.  BL

The calendar on the WhatcomRadio.org page is broken… Every once in a while Google updates their widgets and breaks a bunch of them. At the moment, the only way to see the calendar is to have a WhatcomRadio.org account. I am working on a fix for Google’s fix.

Possible 404 errors on the portal

Halloween gremlins are visiting WhatcomRadio.org in the form of DNS registration problems.  If you can’t get the site to load, try adding or removing the “www.” before the WhatcomRadio.org   Hopefully the issues will resolve as the settings propagate through the DNS network.  Remember, case does not matter for web addresses or emails… I just use it for readability.