Readings+summaries

Definition (Class Summary)
A network is a series of computers or IT devices interconnected which allow the users to share information. There are 2 main computer networks. Wireless and wired

Wireless This wireless conection works with a server, router and an anthena. Wireless connection are usually slower than wired, they are also less secure because information is sent everywhere.

Wired connections are those that are connected through a cable (ethernet) This is usually much more safe because the information passes only from the computer to the cable. Wired connection is faster than wireless.


 * [[image:supaawsomewiki:wired_network.gif height="240" caption="wired connection"]] ||
 * wired connection ||

The wifi connections (wireless) have SSID which is kind of the name of the network. E.g infinitum005739.They also have different types of encription like: WEP, none, WPA and WPAII. This encryptions work as security for the networks. The best one is WPA11.The most common one is WEP which is provided by Infinitum networks.Most motorola connections does not have any encription at all, this means that with a double click you can access that internet connection and apart from having internet which you are not paying for, you can easily access personal informations from the users of the network. WPA provides more security than WEP. a WPA example is: WifiADC in the school. When we did the activity around the school we could not identify any network with a WPAII encryption. Ways of increasing security Having a WPA or WPAII increase a lot the security of the network. Hidden the SSID is another ways of increasing security. it is important to recall that you need to have the SSID and the password (if it has) to connect to the network.

To Have access to a wireless connection you need the SSID, to know the type of encryption (WEP; WAP; WAPII), and to know the password. A strong password should be one which contain 8 or more caracters, including symbols and capital letters. Some password searchers and hackers look for words on dictionaries and try them all, that is why it is not recommended to put a real words as a password. The hacker or the password searcher will then start trying combinations of all the symbols and characters to try hack your account however it can take ages to guess the password.

News Articles
http://lifehacker.com/#!5763170/how-to-secure-and-encrypt-your-web-browsing-on-public-networks-with-hamachi-and-privoxy Here is an article that talks about an efficient way of securing and encypting your web browsing on public networks, This is very important because there are hundreds of different tools to spy on personal information if you are working on a public network. like Firesheep (mentioned in the article). It is quite important that people secure and encrypt their information and avoid spies and hackers.