Wireless all- In-One for Dummies- P12 doc

Book V Chapter 5Now it’s almost expected, especially among mid- to high-end hotels, that you’ll have wireless Internet access from your room and possibly the lobby, too.. Going Public310

Book V Chapter 5

Now it’s almost expected, especially among mid- to high-end hotels, that

you’ll have wireless Internet access from your room and possibly the lobby,

too Note that wireless access outside the United States is generally not free

and can cost upwards of $25 per day For example, these large hotel chains

offer some services (if you’re in the U.S.):

currently there are 414 properties that offer wireless The service is available in the lobby, other public areas, and some guest rooms Hyatt charges a daily rate that varies by location

access Hotels include Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels &

Resorts, Courtyard, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, and SpringHill Suites Access is available in hotel lobbies, meeting rooms, and public spaces

Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn) offer wireless access Generally speaking, the Hilton properties charge a daily fee for Internet access;

however, its partners (notably the two mentioned here) offer mentary wireless access

more than 150 Sheraton, Westin, and W hotels in the United States It also provides access to about 40 properties in 10 countries and regions across Asia Pacific

some hotels, this is limited to certain rooms or public areas

industry is embracing Wi-Fi And how: Best Western plans to install less access in 2,300 properties throughout North America

wire-In the (city) clouds

A new movement is equipping many city centers with Wi-Fi access The Wi-Fi

service areas, called city clouds or hot zones, are a way for cities to

differ-entiate themselves from other business and tourism centers In many cases,

the hot zones are dual use, with police and fire workers using it along with

residents and visitors

It is good PR: If you can check your e-mail on your Wi-Fi–enabled laptop or

PDA while visiting a city’s downtown, aren’t you more likely to remember your

visit and have good feelings about the hospitality? Covering several or more

blocks beats isolated hotspots at coffee houses and other limited locations

Going Public

310

Here’s a small selection of cities and states offering wireless access:

are planning a Wi-Fi network for public safety employees The price tag: a staggering $500 million to $1 billion For the general public, you can find wireless access virtually anywhere just due to the sheer size of the city

Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and the Capitol visitors’ site The nonprofit group deploying the network has a hot zone stretch from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument

360 solar-powered bus stops with Wi-Fi across the city over the next couple of years

be able to access what city officials hope will be border-to-border less Internet access Of course, this city has what seems like a limitless number of coffee shops ready to provide you with Wi-Fi coverage in the meantime

wire-Not surprisingly, the United States is the nation

with the most hotspots In fact, it has more

hotspots than the next nine nations on the

worldwide top ten list combined The source of

this list, JiWire (www.jiwire.com), counts over

✓ New York City: 885

Book V Chapter 5

area that is a mile long and a third of a mile wide

wireless access It’s also home to Intel’s primary manufacturing center

zone covering an area about 20 city blocks

wireless access system in Paris Many parks and other public spaces offer free wireless internet access It’s not uncommon to see people in parks with their laptops, working

McWireless and others

What’s left after the other locations? In many places, such as Seattle, Wi-Fi–

equipped coffee shops are all the rage (If you live in Seattle, check out the

Caffeinated and Unstrung Web site at www.seattle.wifimug.org.)

Wireless Internet access is also making inroads to fast-food restaurants and

sports venues

Retailers

Schlotzsky’s Delis, Apple retail stores, Panera Bread, and Krystal Restaurants

are among the national chains that have Wi-Fi in at least some of their

locations Not only can you buy goods and services from these places, you

can go online:

wired, it also offers Wi-Fi access The company says that Wi-Fi users stay

in its stores longer, with the average wireless session lasting about 45 minutes Now it’s safe to drink and (hard) drive

to a McDonald’s to get some work done, but 15,000 of the restaurants worldwide now offer wireless access I’ll have a salad, a large fry — and

my e-mail, please

center’s 1,000 U.S locations They welcome your use of the stores as surrogate offices

high-speed access to customers, they were unceremoniously dropped, and I’m not quite sure what’s on the menu anymore

Clenching Your Security Blanket

312

Stadiums and arenas

During baseball game broadcasts, I’m surprised how many people I see in the stands chatting on their cell phones Maybe providing wireless Internet access is the next logical step? The San Francisco Giants is offering free Wi-Fi access to its baseball fans Now you can attend a day game while checking your e-mail, making it appear you’re working You also can check on scores and stats — anything you can do at home is available The Charlotte Bobcats basketball team offers a similar service Other stadiums and arenas have toyed with the idea, too

On the road

You can be between points A and B and still get online:

regards to the U.S market, Delta and Virgin America are the most advanced so far This service is provided by Gogo Inflight, which is available at http://gogoinflight.com/

e-mail and paperwork to file Offering access differentiates one truck stop from the other, providing a competitive advantage

encourage tired drivers to stop more often at highway rest stops: Offer them wireless Internet access from the comfort of their vehicles It’s especially a boon to truckers and RVers With the security lines in air-ports being so long, the highways may become an important alternative

to business travelers

park campground It plans to do this in other state parks, as well I’m sure this is happening elsewhere, too My idea of roughing it is watch-ing TV on anything other than a big screen, so battling insects in a tent and foot fungus in the shower is not within my definition of reality Yet I understand many folks like this return to precivilization days Now they can swat the mosquitoes while surfing the Web Progress!

Clenching Your Security Blanket

Most, if not all, of the public hotspots I discuss in this chapter provide cured wireless Internet access That means you’re out there naked, baby The guy with the tall latte at the next table can easily access your laptop

unse-or PDA files if you’re not careful Use a firewall and buckle down your file access, as I discuss in Book IV, Chapter 1 If you’re connecting to a corpo-rate network, do so through a virtual private networking (VPN) connection, which I discuss in Book V, Chapter 6

Book V Chapter 5

Clenching Your Security Blanket 313

Don’t send out personal information like credit card numbers unless you’re

connecting to a Web site that encrypts the data before sending it You can

tell if it’s a secured site by the Web address, which usually begins with https,

and a closed padlock icon appears in your browser

T-Mobile, which operates hotspots in Starbucks locations, is very clear that

you’re on your own when it comes to security “The T-Mobile HotSpot

net-work is based on evolving wireless technology and is not inherently secure,”

it says in a security statement posted on Starbucks’ Web site “We

there-fore cannot guarantee the privacy of your data and communications while

using the HotSpot service.” The statement cautions that an unexplained

loss or deterioration of your connection could mean that a nearby hacker

has gained free access to the Internet using your HotSpot username and

password If you suspect that’s the case, logging out knocks the freeloading

hacker off the Internet T-Mobile suggests you then call its customer service

department

While I cover many of these security issues elsewhere, they’re worth

men-tioning here as you consider connecting to a public hotspot There’s no

need to be paranoid (believe me, I know), but vigilance is diligence T-Mobile

makes these security recommendations:

✦ Don’t leave your computer or device unattended (Duh! The worst

secu-rity is a stolen laptop.)

✦ Don’t loan your computer or device to someone unfamiliar to you (You

might be a Dummy, but you’re not an idiot.)

✦ Watch for over-the-shoulder viewing of your login, credit card number,

or other personal information

✦ Log out of Web sites by clicking Log Out instead of just closing your

browser or typing in a new Internet address

✦ Create passwords using a combination of letters and numbers, and they

should be changed frequently (This is always good advice.)

✦ Keep passwords and account numbers secure; don’t store them on your

computer or device or share them with anyone

✦ Avoid using Web-based e-mail or instant messaging that uses clear,

unencrypted text to send confidential information

✦ Remove or disable your wireless card if you’re working offline and you

are not planning to connect to a hotspot

Any way you sip it, it’s worth letting this advice brew and considering it the

next time you connect to the Internet through a public Wi-Fi hotspot

Book V: On the Road Again — But Without Wires

314

Chapter 6: Setting Up a VPN

Connection

In This Chapter

Wireless networking security is an evolving area Though wireless

networking has some built-in security features, you can’t be as fident with it as you can with wired networking What if you want to wire-lessly move information from your PC to a computer located elsewhere? You’re in an airport, using public Wi-Fi access, and you want to connect to

con-an office computer — con-and don’t wcon-ant con-anyone to see the information you’re sending How can you pull this off? I’m glad you asked

I show you how to create and use what’s called a virtual private network (VPN) to move your data safely over a public network such as the Internet When you create a VPN connection, you’re creating a virtual tunnel Everything moving through this tunnel is encrypted, or scrambled, so it’s safe from prying eyes Once the data reaches the computer on the other end, the information is decrypted so users can see what you sent

Setting Up a VPN Connection

Follow along with these steps and you find it’s pretty easy to set up a VPN connection (one of which is shown in Figure 6-1) If you have set up other network connections using Windows Vista’s Network and Sharing Center, it

is even easier for you

Here’s how you set up the VPN connection:

The Control Panel opens

The Network and Internet dialog box appears

The Network and Sharing Center appears.

to a workplace.

Figure 6-2 shows this being done The Network Connection dialog box appears Despite the menu selection’s name, the VPN connection can be made anywhere, not just to a company network

connec-tion, as shown in Figure 6-3.

This procedure creates a new connection

Book V Chapter 6

are connecting, as shown in Figure 6-5.

You can get this information from your network administrator

Book V Chapter 6

Connecting to a Remote Computer Using VPN 319

Connecting to a Remote Computer Using VPN

If you’ve set up a VPN connection on your computer, you can connect to

a remote computer that accepts incoming VPN connections Ask your

net-work administrator whether a remote computer accepts VPN connections

(In the next section I show you how to create an incoming connection for a

Windows Vista machine.)

Here’s how you connect to a remote computer using VPN:

connection.

A connection dialog box appears

Figure 6-7.

You can get this information from your network administrator

If you select Save This User Name and Password for the Following Users, everyone with access to your PC can connect to the remote computer

The username and password are saved on your computer, so users won’t need to know that information to connect

You see the Connecting dialog box shown in Figure 6-8

If the connection is a success, your Virtual Private Network icon in the Network Connections dialog box says Connected

Creating an Incoming VPN Connection

Creating an Incoming VPN Connection

Windows Vista lets you create an incoming connection so that other users — maybe even yourself while on the road — can connect to your computer using a VPN connection

The Home edition of Windows Vista can only accept one incoming VPN connection at a time The Professional version allows multiple incoming connections

These steps create an incoming connection:

Connection.

The following dialog box appears, once you get past the User Account Control, as shown in Figure 6-9

The network will accept incoming calls from these users Once you click Next, the Allow connections to this computer dialog box appears

Book V Chapter 6

Creating an Incoming VPN Connection

322

Figure 6-11:

Accepting incoming connections using these protocols

The procedure is completed, and your selected users can now access the network, as shown in Figure 6-12

Your new incoming connection shows up in the Network Connections dialog box like you see in Figure 6-13 That’s it: You just set up an incoming VPN connection

Figure 6-12:

Be sure to note this information down!

Contents

Chapter 6: Setting Up a VPN

Connection 315

Setting Up a VPN Connection 315

Creating an Incoming VPN Connection 320

Book V Chapter 6

Book V: On the Road Again — But Without Wires

324

Chapter 7: Taking Home with You

In This Chapter

I know this sounds bad, but I love watching American television Except

for the abundance of commercials, it’s like hunting through a junk shop You’ve got loads of channels and only a handful of shows worth watching One of the things I missed about home when I moved to Europe was all the shows that I would miss

Thinking back a few years to my first stint living abroad in the late 1990s, technology was nowhere even remotely close to where it is today Back in the day, phone calls back to America were outrageously priced, dial-up was the norm here, and streaming technology? Forget it

Jumping ahead to 2009, times certainly have changed For starters, my ISP has download speeds that I hadn’t dreamt possible just a few short years ago Thanks to VOIP technology, I am able to have a local number from the United States so family and friends can call me for the price of a local call Finally, thanks to one great leap for mankind, I can watch my beloved sit-coms (and here’s a special shout-out to DVR technology for surmounting the seven-hour time zone difference)

This chapter explores my latest toy, the Slingbox, from Sling Media, which allows me to watch television remotely with very little setup Thanks to Slingbox, VOIP, and Web cams, I can feel like home even when I am thou-sands of miles away

Watching TV around the World

The Slingbox, in my humble opinion, has to be one of the coolest, more practical gadgets for road warriors of the past 20 years It’s especially useful for those who travel out of the country frequently

Once you take care of the hardest part (finding someone who will share their television with you), installation is easy, and you’re on your way within minutes Of course, there is some mild inconvenience for the host, as I dis-cuss later in this chapter