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Tech News & Commentary
Michael in Iowa listens via the App asked: “My son told me, for privacy sake, I should have a VPN, whih the Internet says is virtual private network. What is it realy? What does it do and are there any good free ones?”
Michael, A VPN routes traffic through an external network so that whatever you do on the network you happen to be connected to at the time cannot be sniffed out.
It’s not something you’d use at home or on trusted connections, but if you’re on a shared connection it does provide a way to encrypt your information that is fairly effortless to you. Depending on the quality of the service, it may slow down your connection, since you’ll be limited by the speed of the VPN network.
You’d mostly find this useful if you’re connecting from public Wi-Fi networks a lot and those networks don’t have a password, that’s where you’re most at risk.
The free ones will tend to be slow, and may have caps on how much data you can transfer, but they do exist, PrivateTunnel.com offers limited free data, so does OpenVPN Shield Exchage, but they both offer very little free data and you’ll probably need to pay if you use either service often. VPNBook offers both OpenVPN for maximum privacy, and PPTP for maximum compatibility, it’s free and it may work for you.
You can always run your own server too, but that requires having a machine that’s always on, setting up the encryption you need, creating the users you need, setting up your router to allow the outside connections to use your network, and making sure everything’s always updated so you actually get the protection you think you’re getting, third party services are usually simpler if you don’t need to have you own for a different reason.
In layman’s terms, a VPN creates a private tunnel of sorts that carries your data through the Internet cloud without letting anyone else get a look at it. As we already said, this is done by encrypting the data. It does require that you have both a pitcher and a catcher, though. You can’t install VPN software on your computer if you don’t have a VPN to connect with.
If you use a VPN service that makes the final connection for you, that might protect you from someone on the same coffee shop WiFi from sniffing your packets and reading your data, but it does mean that you’re trusting the operators of that VPN service.
So while a VPN can create an absolutely secure end-to-end connection back to a corporate LAN, where your IT staff has set up a VPN on their end and installed the VPN client software on your computer, it can’t do that accessing public websites. At some point, you’re going to have to trust someone.
Our opinion is that having a password protected and encrypted connection to the WiFi network is probably secure enough, especially if you’re using a secure browser connection as well, the easily recognized “https” prefix on the address bar. We would never connect over an unprotected and unencrypted WiFi connection, and we urge you to adopt the same policy.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Bill in Manchester, Tennessee listens ono WTN 99.7 asked: “I have a iPhone 5s, and somebody told me that other people can watch you on your camera. Is this true?”
Bill, To put your mind at ease, you cannot be seen by others through the camera on your phone.
Now, newer iOS devices have FaceTime which is a built-in app that allows you to video chat with people who have called you or if you’ve called them. If you happened to accidentally video call someone then of course they can watch you that way, but if they are good friend they will let you know. Unless, you have some of those goofy friends who love to embarrass you by showing off the fact that you accidentally video called them. There are other apps with video chat such as ooVoo, Google Hangouts, and Skype. I wouldn’t worry though about being watched because you physically have to push buttons for it to engage the video chat on all these apps.
No one will be watching you without your permission, but if you’re worried about your camera being on without you knowing it, a band-aid may solve that problem for you quite inexpensively.
If your iPhone is not jailbroken, then apps running on it should not have the level of security access needed to take over your phone. There have been a few reports of iPhones doing things as if they were under remote control, sending text messages or emails, opening up apps, those sort of things. But the text messages were gibberish and the app opening was random. In almost every case it turned out to be a hardware fault with the touchscreen that was generating random “phantom” taps and swipes.
So I wouldn’t worry. By the way, it IS true that you can hack in to a MacBook computer and activate the webcam without causing the green light to turn on. So if you want to cover anything with that bandaid we mentioned, it might be your webcam (Mac or Windows).
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guest Segment:
Karen Reynolds, President – zBoost
Cell Signal Booster at low price
Mike in Milford, Delaware listens on WXDE 105.9 FM – and is calling via the App asked us: “I’m trying to find the perfect music player for my Smartphone. I’m a huge music fan. I’ve stored over 5,000 songs on the SD card on my HTC M8. I’m looking for something that’s unique and different. I use Rocket Player now.”
Mike, The amount of music players in the Google Play store are endless but if you are looking for “unique and different” we recommend “3” by DoubleTwist. “3” gives users a more visually appealing music player. It stores all your music on a 3D cube, which can be easily maneuvered by sliding left and right to change songs and up and down to change albums. The app is still in beta version, so it will take awhile for it to be the “perfect” player that you are looking for. The app can be found by searching “Cubed Music Player” in the Google Play Store.
Another app worth taking a look at is “N7player Music Player”, it isn’t really different and unique but it is an ideal app for anyone with a big library of music. The app offer very easy browsing based on album and artist.
Luckily both apps are free, and offer a great music player. If you want a unique and different player, “3” is your best bet, if you want to browse your music library easy and fast, then download “N7player Music Player”.
Perhaps a bit less on the style side but a bit more function would be PlayerPro for Android. Available in both free and paid versions, this music player offers the ability to edit your music tracks, applying effects from its built in library, as well as voice search.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
SMS Audio: Street by 50 – Over-The-Ear Headphones and earbuds
Parellels:Parallels Desktop 10 Software allows you to run Windows on your Mac
Kanex: GoPower Battery Pack – Mobile battery pack with built-in stand for smartphones