What is a VPN?

 What is VPN? Longmont Computer Physicians has the answer:

what_is_vpn

VPN – virtual private networking

VPN allows you to connect over the internet securely as if it is a private office network.

With a non-protected internet connection is it possible for a hacker to intercept internet data communications.   A hacker does this by going in-between the two locations and delivering a man in the middle attack to see the information. For example, a hacker can  intercept your data in a coffee shop on an insecure wireless network, using a packet sniffer program.

VPN uses a tunneling protocol.   It sets up a tunnel. Inside the tunnel it encrypts the data inside the tunnel.  So, even if a hacker can break inside the tunnel the data inside is encrypted.

vpn_tunnel_block_diagram

If the hacker does try to break inside the tunnel, the tunnel will detect it and shutdown.  It will then reroute traffic to another router thereby bypassing the attacker.

This is how VPN protects data over the internet.

The VPN is a server/client system.

Whatever VPN server you are using, you need to use the same VPN protocol on both the server and client.

The upload speed in VPN is just as important as the download speed.   Old wiring and old routers may not work well with VPN.

VPNs allow employees to securely access their company’s intranet while traveling outside the office.

VPNs can securely and cost-effectively can connect geographically diverse locations within an organization, creating one cohesive virtual network. VPN technology is also used by ordinary Internet users to connect to proxy servers. To prevent disclosure of private information, VPNs typically allow only authenticated remote access and make use of encryption techniques.

Secure VPN protocols include the following:

Internet Protocol Security – IPsec

Transport Layer Security SSL/TLS

SSH

OPEN VPN

-Longmont Computer Physicians LLC

Help for seniors and handicapped people who have problems accessing their Computer, Tablets, Smart Phones in Longmont, CO

Computer Physicians of Longmont Provides help with teaching, training, tutoring on how to use the computer, smart phone, tablet, and programming accessibility methods to more easily use the devices. For seniors and handicapped people who have problems accessing the computer system.

1. Making the page, fonts, letters, and words bigger to make it easier to read. Adjusting the size of the screen. Configuring the back light, brightness, contrast of the screen. Adding an onscreen magnifying glass to the screen so that they can adjust the screen as large or small as they want.

2. Configuring and adjusting the touch sensitivity of touch screens to more easily use the touch screens.

3. Programming and configuring voice recognition to control the computer by just your voice and to write email, letters by using your voice only.

4. Many seniors and handicapped people cannot move the mouse and double click the mouse buttons effectively because of shaking hands. Steve at Computer Physicians will either customize the mouse to make it easier to use or eliminate the need to use the mouse and using other ways to control the computer.

5. Program and configure the computer/tablet/smart phone for hearing impaired people.

6. Program and configure the computer/tablet/smart phone for people with mobility problems.

7. There are many other program and configuring issues that could also be done to help people with all types of physical limitations.

8. Setting up and teaching how to use the computer/tablet/smart phone to provide video conferencing, send pictures, etc. to keep in touch with loved ones.

9. Using the computer/tablet/smart phone to use as a telephone to call anyone in the world and talk as long as you like for free.

Remote computer help

Computer Physicians provides remote PC computer help for just $59/hour.  Just contact us and we will arrange a time to help you with your computer issues remotely through the internet. We can also provide computer training, tutoring, software instruction (including Song Director) and classes remotely.   By using your internet connection we can access your computer temporarily to fix your computer problems.  We use a secure connection and once either one of us log off, the session is ended and would need a new password to reconnect again. We are located in Longmont, Colorado, USA.

The difference between laptops and tablets

Programs

Laptops are a mini computer and act just like a desktop. This means you can run the same programs that are designed for large desktops on a laptop just fine.  This is not the case for many tablet computers.  Many tablets and phones will only run “apps” which are different then desktop computer programs.

Keyboard

The first very clear difference between a tablet and a laptop is the absence of a keyboard. If your tasks don’t involve typing, or only involve a small amount of typing, then you can safely ignore this as a drawback. If you collect a lot of data door-to-door, as some professions do, then a small hand-held will almost certainly be better.

For writing or number-intensive tasks then a keyboard is a given requirement. Voice control is good but many people will prefer an old-fashioned key-it-in approach. There are keyboards and keyboard cases for tablets but these vary in performance; early models tended to make characters appear a split second before they were typed, for example. Go to a shop and try one out; keyboard cases that hold plenty of charge are available for seven inch tablets and they work well, but the physical size means they’re small and cramped to use.

They also require independent charging which means organising yourself so that they don’t conk out while you’re in the middle of something. And keep an eye on the cost. A tablet plus keyboard case might well end up costing as much as a full-blown laptop.

External storage

One advantage of a laptop is its ability to use external storage media. If you have a large file on an external drive and can plug it in via USB, great – but this may not be possible without at least an adapter for your tablet, depending on which model of tablet you’re using. And if you wanted to use a CD drive it’s far simpler if it’s built in to your computer (although these are being phased out on some laptops as well – an external CD drive connected through USB will still work).

File system

Related to external storage is internal storage. Download a file to your laptop, find the downloads file and you can send it to someone else. Download the same thing to your tablet and good luck finding where it’s put it. Picking up more than one document and sending it by email starts to require a new app to help you work out just where they’re located on the disk.

This isn’t a criticism – the essence of tablet computing is that it’s supposed to hide some of the complexities from the person using it. They’re supposed to be as easy to use as your phone and that means the manufacturers are going to conceal as much under the bonnet as they can. Which means you’re going to get a slightly cut-down version of a computer when you use one.

Is my data and information secure on the internet and cloud? – Longmont Computer Repair

We often get the question “Is my data and information secure on the internet and cloud?”   The answer is NO!

Below is a letter from Brendan Eich – CTO of the Mozilla Firefox web browser which explains why this is the case:

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust the privacy properties of software and services we rely on to use the Internet. Governments, companies, groups and individuals may be watching us without our knowledge. This is particularly troubling when such surveillance is done by governments under statutes and laws that provide limited court oversight and almost no room for public scrutiny.

As a result of laws in the USA and elsewhere, prudent users must interact with Internet services knowing that despite how much any cloud-service company wants to protect privacy, at the end of the day most big companies must comply with the law. The American government can legally access user data in ways that might violate the privacy expectations of law-abiding users. Worse, the government may force service operators to enable surveillance (something that seems to have happened in the Lavabit case).

Worst of all, the American government can do all of this without users ever finding out about it, due to gag orders.

Brendan Eich
CTO and SVP Engineering, Mozilla
Andreas Gal, VP Mobile and R&D, Mozilla

The Internet defined

Computer Physicians, LLC Colorado customers frequently ask many questions about their computers.   Therefore we have created a blog to help customers understand some topics in the computer and internet world.

What is the internet?

The Internet Is a Big Network of Computers.

The Internet is named for “interconnection of computer networks”. It is a massive hardware combination of millions of personal, business, and governmental computers, all connected like roads and highways. The Internet started in the 1960’s under the original name “ARPAnet”. ARPAnet was originally an experiment in how the US military could maintain communications in case of a possible nuclear strike. With time, ARPAnet became a civilian experiment, connecting university mainframe computers for academic purposes. As personal computers became more mainstream in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Internet grew exponentially as more users plugged their computers into the massive network. Today, the Internet has grown into a public network of millions of personal, government, and commercial computers, all connected by cables and by wireless signals.

internet-diagram

No single person owns the Internet. No single government has authority over its operations. Some technical rules and hardware/software standards enforce how people plug into the Internet, but for the most part, the Internet is a free and open broadcast medium of hardware networking.

2: The Web Is a Big Collection of HTML Pages Within the Internet.

The World Wide Web, or “Web” for short, is the very large subset of the Internet dedicated to broadcasting HTML pages. The Web is viewed by using free software called web browsers. Born in 1989, the Web is based on hypertext transfer protocol, the language which allows you and me to “jump” (hyperlink) to any other public web page. There are over 90 billion public web pages on the Web today, and over 300 billion private (‘invisible’) web pages.

internetdiag

 

 

 

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Computer Physicians, LLC Colorado provides:

  • System Crash Recovery
  • Data Recovery
  • Internet setup
  • Computer, internet, and network Troubleshooting
  • Virus, spyware, malware, and adware removal
  • Hardware and software computer repair
  • Computer Sales, systems, parts
  • Upgrades and Installations
  • Building PC computer systems
  • tutoring & training
  • Computer and network security
  • Computer PC repair

Located in Erie, CO we service the Colorado front range, including:

Erie, Boulder, Longmont, Denver, Brighton, Louisville, Lafayette, Fredrick, Firestone, Fort Lupton, Thornton, Northglenn, Arvada, Superior, Broomfield, Gunbarrel, Henderson, Englewood, Aurora, Lakewood, Berthoud, Lyons, Niwot, Dacono, University of Colorado at Boulder, Weld and Boulder counties, and surrounding areas of Colorado.

The Benefits of Networking with Computer Physicians

Computer Physicians, LLC Colorado customers frequently ask many questions about their computers.   Therefore we have created a blog to help customers understand some topics in the computer and internet world.

What are the Benefits of Computer Networking with Computer Physicians?

The most obvious benefit of computer networking is that you can store virtually any kind of information at, and retrieve it from, a central location on the network as well as access it from any connected computer. You can store, retrieve, and modify textual information such as letters and contracts, audio information such as voice messages, and visual images such as facsimiles, photographs, and even video segments.

A network also enables you to combine the power and capabilities of diverse equipment and to provide a collaborative medium to combine the skills of different people—regardless of physical location. Computer networking enables people to share information and ideas easily, so they can work more efficiently and productively. Networks also improve commercial activities such as purchasing, selling, and customer service. Networks are making traditional business processes more efficient, more manageable, and less expensive.

COST-EFFECTIVE RESOURCE SHARING

By networking your business computers you can reduce the amount of money you spend on hardware by sharing components and peripherals while also reducing the amount of time you spend managing your computer system.

Equipment sharing is extremely beneficial: when you share resources, you can buy equipment with features that you would not otherwise be able to afford as well as utilize the full potential of that equipment on your network. A properly designed network can result in both lower equipment costs and increased productivity.

Suppose that you had a number of unconnected computers. Employees using these computers would not be able to print unless you purchased a printer for each computer or unless users manually transferred files to computers with printers. In this scenario you would be choosing between hardware and labor expenses.

Networking the computers would give you other alternatives. Because all users could share any networked printer, you would not need to buy a printer for every computer. As a result, instead of buying numerous inexpensive, low-end printers that would sit idle most of the time, you could buy a few inexpensive printers and a few printers with high-end productivity features. The more powerful printers would be able to print more rapidly and with better quality than the less expensive ones. In addition, the more powerful printers might also be able to print in color and to sort, staple, or bind documents.

When you select the right mix of printers and assign each network user appropriate access to them, you have enough printing power to address the needs of all of your employees. Rather than leave expensive equipment idle, you provide your employees with the latest, most powerful productivity features—all for a significantly lower cost than if you were to purchase an inexpensive printer for each workstation on the network.

A network enables you to share any networkable equipment and realize the same benefits that you would enjoy from sharing printers. On a network, you can share e-mail systems, modems, facsimile machines, data storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives, data backup devices such as tape drives, and all network-enabled software. When you compare the costs associated with sharing these resources to the costs of purchasing them for each computer, the savings can be enormous.

A network also enables you to save money on software. Instead of buying separate copies of the same application for various machines, you can purchase one copy with enough user licenses for your network. In large businesses the amount of money saved on software is substantial.

Finally, you will also be able to reduce your administrative overhead. On a computer network, updates to software, changes in user information, and network security can all be accomplished from one location. With standalone computers you would be required to make these updates on each individual computer workstation.

 

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Computer Physicians, LLC Colorado provides:

  • System Crash Recovery
  • Data Recovery
  • Internet setup
  • Computer, internet, and network Troubleshooting
  • Virus, spyware, malware, and adware removal
  • Hardware and software computer repair
  • Computer Sales, systems, parts
  • Upgrades and Installations
  • Building PC computer systems
  • tutoring & training
  • Computer and network security
  • Computer PC repair

Located in Erie, CO we service the Colorado front range, including:

Erie, Boulder, Longmont, Denver, Brighton, Louisville, Lafayette, Fredrick, Firestone, Fort Lupton, Thornton, Northglenn, Arvada, Superior, Broomfield, Gunbarrel, Henderson, Englewood, Aurora, Lakewood, Berthoud, Lyons, Niwot, Dacono, University of Colorado at Boulder, Weld and Boulder counties, and surrounding areas of Colorado.

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