About me Contact @defensivecomput Mastodon :@defensivecomputing RSS Feed
My latest website: DefensiveComputingChecklist.com VPN page and the page with
Domain Name rules. The site went live in March 2019.
My other website is RouterSecurity.org
My most important blogs
My recent blogs
A new aspect of Google's spying February 16, 2024Defending Yourself From Apple's Design Mistakes April 21, 2023The Best VPN January 27, 2023Kicking the tires on the pcWRT router Jan. Feb 2022
Windows 10 spies on your use of System Settings October 23, 2021The Adobe PDF Reader occupies a massive 2 Gigabytes on Windows October 13, 2021Using ProtonMail encrypted messages with a normal email account October 2, 2021A firewall rule can help block ransomware August 29, 2021Hiding on a Wi-Fi network August 4, 2021Lowering the Shields - the down side to ad/tracker blocking July 31, 2021More strange network activity from an iPad May 20, 2021 (updated May 22)Bing prefers miserable Router Security advice May 15, 2021 (updated June 22)Asus router firmware: How do you prefer your bugs? New or Old? May 11, 2021Banned by Bing April 26, 2021 (Updated May 16))First impressions of the Lenovo Thinkpad C13 Chromebook April 13, 2021The misery of a Linksys router January 2, 2021Location Tester What does your browser know about your location? November 10, 2020 Two Chromebooks compared - the Lenovo Flex 5 and Google Pixelbook Go November 5, 2020 Another miserable visit to an Apple September 21, 2020You will be spied on August 27, 2020 (updated Sept 4)My Android tablet spied on me while we both (me and the tablet) were sleeping June 29, 2020What is my iPad doing? It made strange outbound connections. June 18, 2020Windows Update vs. a Router May 28, 2020Windows 10: Default apps by file type (Microsoft makes miserable software) May 11, 2020Internet Speed Tests Testing the testers. March 24, 2020 (updated April 1st)Shame on American Express and evaluating a phishing email March 18, 2020Submitting Data with HTTP and HTTPS February 27, 2020 | Updated Dec. 30, 2020.A sample Mixed Mode web page February 27, 2020Hover a mouse over a link - just don't trust the results February 16, 2020 (updated Sept 30, 2021)A nifty router firmware trick December 23, 2019Web browser fingerprinting - testing the testers November 27, 2019Judging a VPN by its website November 22, 2019Tracking down a port 53 (DNS) mystery October 25, 2019Private IP addresses on the Public Internet What the heck? October 20, 2019The only way to fight Windows 10 spying is in your router October 15, 2019Faster Backups - Tales From The Trenches September 25, 2019Hidden Wi-Fi Networks on a Synology Router September 20, 2019Firefox Send is broken in many ways September 11, 2019About the Guardian iOS Firewall App August 2, 2019Strange network things: the Brave Browser and UDP port 137 July 15, 2019 (Updated Aug. 17, 2021)Twitter has a few problems with email June 20, 2019Debugging a Chromebook Powerwashing has a side benefit June 14, 2019Asking the Wrong Question The Elephant in the room. Commentary on the state of IT May 30, 2019Barbarians at the gate Attacks/Probes of a router May 28, 2019Ticketmaster fails three times I could not buy tickets on their website April 30, 2019 Why I like my router About the Pepwave Surf SOHO April 26, 2019 Is Word 2016 spying on users? April 18, 2019. Updated Nov 27, 2020Saved by my router - debugging a network problem. March 4, 2019Two things about Eero routers having nothing to do with Amazon February 18, 2019. Updated Feb. 26th.Reporting a UPnP quirk in a Netgear router February 16, 2019I found a Windows 7 PC still infected with GWX (Get Windows 10) software January 14, 2019Blocking Windows Update on Windows 10 with C disk freespace January 8, 2019A case of bad IT at Lord & Taylor Normal, ordinary screw-ups January 4, 2019Killing Windows Update on Windows 10 - a cheat sheet Sometimes stability trumps patching December 5, 2018Defending against Windows 10 bug fixes Anyone using Windows 10 should read this. Last updated Dec 18, 2018. First released Oct 20, 2018.Spying on web browser history. News or not? November 5, 2018. Using a router to defend against Xiongmai video devices October 10, 2018Tales from the trenches - Ethernet LEDs October 8, 2018Windows Update on Windows 7 is not secure September 24, 2018 (and its buggy too)Making Windows 10 a bit more private by blocking Cortana with firewall rules September 3, 2018Audio problems with the MLB At Bat app A story from the trenches of technology July 30, 2018A hidden Firefox feature easily verifies websites July 15, 2018Debunking the New York Times on Router Security and VPNFilter Lots of errors in an article.
June 17, 2018VPNFilter router malware - just the bad stuff June 4, 2018An insecure credit union website in Texas. A trend? May 6, 2018Insecure bank websites South Central in Kentucky and First National in Pennsylvania May 3, 2018Routers are constantly being probed - An examination of a firewall log March 19, 2018Some Routers can force their DNS servers onto all devices to make them safer March 5, 2018
Using a Ubiquiti AmpliFi Mesh Point to extend a non-AmpliFi Wi-Fi network February 27, 2018
Windows 10 Forced Updates Yet another reason to dislike Windows 10. January 30, 2018Windows 7 users without 3rd party antivirus can get the January patches without manually updating the Registry How? MSE. January 19, 2018Explaining a CPU flaw with an analogy January 5, 2018Donating privately to NPR December 9, 2017Some thoughts on the F-Secure Freedome VPN December 6, 2017 (updated Dec. 12, 2017)NBC News promotes a web browser extension that can spy on you November 26, 2017Net Neutrality Explained by Examples November 24, 2017People do care about Router Security November 22, 2017Lying to non techies November 9, 2017A tale of two cable modems Netgear vs. Arris October 25, 2017The downside of Security Software on Windows October 23, 2017The Best Security for Wireless Networks October 17, 2017 at eSecurity Planet. A thorough revision of an introductory article that stood the test of time.
ComputerWorld Defensive Computing Blog: Defensive Computing at Computerworld
WifiInfoView is a great Wi-Fi utility for Windows Now with extra data. September 18, 2017Testing
an AmpliFy mesh point as a Wi-Fi extender Initial setup. August 7, 2017Tweaking Internet Explorer to only use TLS 1.2 July 24, 2017If you're going to lose a laptop, better it be a Chromebook July 21, 2017 follow-up article at Chromebook Live (in French)Verifying and testing that Firefox is restricted to TLS 1.2 July 16, 2017Restricting Firefox to TLS version 1.2 makes browsing safer July 13, 2017A Chromebook can increase the protection of air gapped computers June 28, 2017Are Android bug fixes worth $510 when buying a phone? June 20, 2017Flash Player Updated just 3 days after an update June 18, 2017The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool has been updated for WannaCry May 26, 2017Windows Defender does not defend Windows 7 against WannaCry May 21, 2017The Windows firewall is the overlooked defense against WannaCry and Adylkuzz May 19, 2017Patching Windows XP against WannaCry ransomware May 14, 2017Third party antivirus programs interfere with Windows Defender critical patch Avast, in particular May 10, 20177 mistakes Google made updating my Google Wifi router May 8, 2017Asus router warnings on privacy and security May 5, 2017Bookmarking some IP addresses now provides easy DNS debugging later May 1, 2017How seven mesh routers deal with WPS 5 of 7 don't support it. One does push-button only. April 28, 2017An introduction to six types of VPN software April 15, 2017How to test your home network for a Telnet vulnerability April 12, 2017 VPNs on a Chromebook: a scorecard of VPN providers April 6, 2017 Triple your privacy with a Chromebook and two VPNs March 31, 2017. Thinking out of the boxUbiquiti called out for security flaw March 19, 2017Defensive Computing for email attachments March 15, 2017Computers in the news -- how much can we trust what we read? Hint: Not much. March 9, 2017A hard learned lesson in VPNs and secure websites March 6, 2017Defensive Computing and the Academy Awards March 2, 2017How to immediately update Flash in Chrome February 14, 2017President Bannon Chrome Extension is a security problem, not a joke February 6, 2017Spyware on a Chromebook Applies to all instances of the Chrome browser January 25, 2017The Netgear router flaw post mortem -- plenty of blame to go around December 24, 2016Updates and more on the Netgear router vulnerability December 17, 2016Easily exploited Netgear router flaw
discovered December 10, 2016Blame the ISPs rather than
the routers December 3, 2016Getting started
with the Ubiquiti AmpliFi mesh router November 23, 2016Bloomberg says Apple is getting out of the router business Not really the topic. November 22, 2016Another HNAP flaw in D-Link routers And, how to test if your router supports HNAP. November 11, 2016Windows Update on Windows 7 is fast again Yippee. November 6, 2016The continuing slowness of Windows Update on Windows 7 November 4, 2016Why
OpenDNS succeeded where ISP DNS failed when Dyn was unavailable October 25, 2016Testing for vulnerable IoT devices using
ShieldsUp! port probes. October 22, 2016Today's Internet DNS outage and
me About DNS. October 21, 2016Tweaking WSH helps defend Windows PCs from malicious email attachments October 16, 2016Taking a break from Windows Update October 9, 2016Kim Komando offers flawed advice on router security October 8, 2016What the Ubiquiti AmpliFi mesh router is missing
Hint: Remote Administration. October 1, 2016The Social Security website is now secure Some good news for a change. September 25, 2016Dealing with
VPNs on a Chromebook running Android apps September 23, 2016A Defensive Computing term paper on privacy: VPNs, Tor and VPN routers September 18, 2016Apple websites can leak Apple ID passwords September 14, 2016Trusting the Social Security Administration?
September 4, 2016Windows Update update -
You're welcome everyone August 17, 2016A router security cheat sheet August 16, 2016ISP outage: my personal disaster recovery August 12, 2016A bug fix bake-off Comparing how Windows 7/8,
iOS9, OS X Yosemite and Chrome OS install OS bug fixes. August 5, 2016Backing up to the cloud? Read the fine print About accidentally deleting files. July 30, 2016TP-LINK
lost control of two domains used to configure routers and Wi-Fi extenders July 4, 2016here ,
here ,
audio ,
here ,
here ,
here ,
here ,
and here . Blocking JavaScript can stop some Windows malware June 29, 2016Lessons
and observations from the GoToMyPC hacking incident June 24, 2016Windows 10 forced updates - lots of blame to go around June 13, 2016Upgrading to Windows 10 and questioning the
New York Times Note: two pages long. June 2, 2016Michael Horowitz takes on the Win10 FUD and hits the New York Times . A web page consumes a constant 25% of the CPU - after it has loaded May 25, 2016Dealing with a
problematic Chromebook - Part 2 May 20, 2016 Dealing with a
problematic Chromebook - Part 1 May 17, 2016 Windows Update on Windows 7 is still a problem May 15, 2016 The shame of Windows Update on
Windows 7. May 8, 2016 Patching Windows 7 can be painfully
slow But, there are 4 patches to fix it. April 27, 2016 An
experiment with a secure web browser fails Remotely control a Chromebook? Nah. April 18, 2016 A handy tip about updating Flash in the Chrome browser April 14, 2016 More Adobe
mistakes with Flash April 11, 2016 Screwed by a VPN April 5, 2016 Blocking Windows 10 with Never10 March 31, 2016 Router Security done wrong
February 29, 2016 Poor Wi-Fi security - my visit to the dentist February 3, 2016Defending a network from the NSA
February 1, 2016Defending yourself from Amazon.com
January 29, 2016 Sub-optimal computer advice from
the New York Times January 14, 2016 Flash has been updated again. Seriously. Really. No joke. January 2, 2016 When it comes to bugs, the Adobe Flash Players cup runeth over December 28, 2015 To share or not to share - a look at
Guest Wi-Fi networks December 13, 2015 Buying a surge protector remains hard
December 6, 2015 The D-Link DIR860L router - how secure can
it get? Extra long, don't miss page 2 November 20, 2015 How secure can your router get? November 10, 2015 Controlling Chrome plugins:
Lessons learned the hard way October 26, 2015 Trusting Lenovo A follow-up to the prior blog. October 20, 2015 Lenovo collects
usage data on ThinkPad, ThinkCentre and ThinkStation PCs September 22, 2015. This got some traction:Statement on Lenovo Statistical Data Collection 3 days laterpicked up on it in his Security Now podcast. I am 44 minutes in went a bit overboard said not to buy Lenovo PCs their
documentation on the subject at least 3 times since the blogWi-Fi at DEF CON -
dealing with the worlds most dangerous network August 23, 2015 Flash click-to-play on Chrome breaks
Ticketmaster August 19, 2015 Stop the Flash Player madness - 5 new bugs a week
August 16, 2015. This was picked up on by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in Adobe Flash: Kill it now A look at the security
of Wi-Fi on a plane August 6, 2015 Reviewing the Windows Scheduler with TaskSchedulerView from Nir Sofer August 2, 2015 Windows 10 is for Suckers
July 28, 2015 Linksys Smart WiFi makes
a stupid Guest network June 25, 2015 The
NetUSB router flaw Part 2 - Detection and Mitigation June 20, 2015 What
most people don't know about the NetUSB router flaw - Part 1 June 16, 2015 Some perspective on Flash Player bugs And, 4 defensive strategies May 17, 2015 Insecure routers hacked yet
again May 13, 2015Security issues at the HP online store May 5, 2015SSL/TLS/HTTPS: keeping the public
UNinformed A rant. April 13, 2015Web browsers are
also to blame for Lenovo's Superfish fiasco Tell us the CA vouching for secure sites. Also at cio.com March 7, 2015Bloatware free
Windows computers Both buying and keeping February 28, 2015Using a router to block a modem
A follow-up to the previous blog February 23, 2015Talk to your modem February 5, 2015.
Steve Gibson discussed this on his Security Now podcast
(Question 7) Down the rabbit hole
with NOD32 antivirus January 19, 2015Recovering lost bookmarks in the Chrome
browser on Windows 7 January 5, 2015Fighting with a broken Windows
Update - Part 2 November 24, 2014Windows Update is broken on XP
November 21, 2014Wi-Fi security vs. government spies
November 3, 2014What's new with Java
October 31, 2014SSL,TLS, POODLE,
email, Fastmail, Popcorn and me October 15, 2014Fallout from the JPMorgan Chase
breach October 11, 2014A router firmware update goes bad
(and, what to do about it) October 6, 2014Scammed by EarthLink
September 23, 2014 In Aug. 2014 Computerworld re-did their website. Initially, the reader comments disappeared, then many of them returned. The re-design has left a lasting effect on page layouts. If the blogs below have images all over the place, that's why.
Financial firms
not offering two factor authentication (so use Chromebook Guest Mode) August 12, 2014Consumer Reports
drops the ball on airport Wi-Fi August 7, 2014The security flaws in
Tails Linux are not its only problem July 25, 2014Protecting email at a hacker conference
July 10, 2014Comcast XFINITY WiFi: Just say no
June 27, 2014
Five days after this article was published, PCWorld covered the exact same topic. Co-incidence?Xfinity WiFi we're all hotspots, but you don't
have to be July 2, 2014 The Woops of
WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) raises its ugly head again April 12, 2014Why
Chrome OS should have fewer bugs than other operating systems March 12, 2014Chromebooks are
a revolution in Easy March 4, 2014Chromebooks
defend against the Flash Player February 26, 2014A
Chromebook offers Defensive Computing when traveling February 14, 2014The
Adobe Reader consumes mass quantities of hard drive space February 6, 2014How and
why to check port 32764 on your router January 27, 2014
CNET Defensive Computing Blog Defensive Computing blog for
CNET. Here is an index of those blog postings. My old retired websites
JavaTester.org has been retired after 30 million page views. An applet that I wrote reported the version of Java used in your browser. For now, the site still exits.FlashTester.org started off as just a link to the Adobe tester page that reported on the version of Flash used in your browser. Then, I added a monthly Flash release history, and did so from 2003 through 2019. The site was retired in January 2020 and someone else now owns the domain and uses it as an ad for gambling. Here is what it looked like at the end.
My First Public Blog
I started out at Blogger from January through July 2007.
