TV and Phone Plans from the past that we all have to get past!

I have been on a quest for many years to simplify and lower the cost of our very expensive cable TV, entertainment and Internet smartphone services. Given the above hardware configuration with multiple TVs without tuners, I had been in a quandary for years.

I have tried many things, from streaming Netflix on DVD players to Netflix snail mail DVDs and so on. First we purchased a DVD player for the bedroom but it is very old and only streams the Netflix queue. Then we bought one for the bathroom that streams a lot of stuff we had never heard of and were not willing to pay for in addition to Netflix and Cable. Upon further investigation, it is amazing and as good as Roku with firmware and app updates. It now streams thousands of shows with many options from which to choose.  However, I admit that took a bit of work on my part.

I have seen many crazy things over the years, such as my wife buying DVDs at Redbox while we were able to stream and get DVDs from Netflix and so on. The re-evaluation/transition of entertainment technology that has taken place in the last six years has been astronomical and you need to take/make a note of the change and consider your options. The change has happened so fast you need to educate your family on what is available and how to get at it before you continue to spend money on the way things used to be.

For example, my mother uses Direct TV and I have also looked at Dish TV for her and us. Because I have many large trees nearby these satellite services were never an option for my family and changing things for my mother was a bad idea unless the savings is huge, which it was not. However, being the miser (Grinch I am), I hate her giving away money to Verizon when I could get her so much more for less. For example, I would like to get her an unlimited $45 Straight Talk or AT&T Go plan at Walmart with a smartphone instead of her VERY EXPENSIVE Verizon plan using a very old talk only cellphone. She is paying that while maintaining a land line! Her phone bills are near $100 a month and she hardly ever even uses her phones. She is 78 and does not want to change.

I have also contemplated the advantages of universal AT&T DSL versus broadband from my local cable TV providers. Once a year I have had to call on my local cable provider to renegotiate our contract getting such things as free DVR rental for a year, which has been very tiresome. All I have ever wanted was a good universal entertainment/Smartphone/Internet/Household option that did not cost hundreds of dollars a month and simplified our lives. Reducing the cost of renting cable equipment is an annual phone call event that all Americans don’t need in their lives. There are M-Type Cable cards that can free us from expensive cable bills but this is a roll of the dice at best with your local cable provider.

As a result of my cable bill going nuclear expensive (for basic cable and Internet), I have spent years researching how to reduce this bill and still provide the same or more entertainment, news, weather and other coverage options.  I approached this task willing to spend any amount of money (within household reason [no more $1200 plasma TVs]) on hardware with a long term vision of saving a few dollars in the long run. Many of us live month to month and cutting the cable cord to save up the money for new equipment makes a lot of sense if we can do it.

Why do I want to keep my 5 TVs, please let me explain, my household is one of those crazy places where I have TVs are needed everywhere to watch the news, stock market and so on. In years past, three of them did not have digital tuners and things needed to change.

For example, I have a computer lab where I had a very old CRT TV that I like to have on for background noise as silence and the radio does nothing for me.  It is great to be distracted by the occasional TV event or story before you get back to some serious work. I was paying $3.00 a month for this privilege plus the energy cost.

How we came to own 5 TVs, other streaming Internet devices, and how you might relate

Before we move forward in time giving you all my streaming solutions we have to move back in time. OK, I admit my wife and I are unusual in that we our have gotten used to TVs in many places in our house (mostly me). The TVs just kind of multiplied over the years. My first story is when my 20-year old stepdaughter destroyed the downstairs bathroom, for the second time. While my wife and I were gone on vacation, the water pipe burst and rather than turn off the water using the basement valve, she allowed water to pour over the bathroom floor, basement joists, dumping water on everything on the basement floor for days! When we asked her about this, it was a minor leak and nothing to really worry about. Rather than ask a neighbor how to stop the disaster… you get the picture. The bathroom floor never caved in but some joists under the floor finally cracked open. My $10,000 bathroom remodeling project turned into a lot more pain and expense when she moved out. In for a penny in for a pound so I put in a Jacuzzi tub paying contractors to reinforce the floor and replace the floor joists. While on vacations, I have sat in small Jacuzzi tubs without entertainment and things get boring fast. Reading in these tubs is next to impossible. We only had room for a small tub so I had to have TV entertainment. It was years ago when I mounted a very expensive 23 inch SONY LCD TV without a built-in digital tuner in the corner next to the bathroom door. The TV is now worthless for the most part but still has a good picture and has survived a lot a bathroom steam. I will leave it behind when we move.

20 years ago, my brother died in a car accident and left me his 35-inch CRT TV. That became our living room TV for many years and I think it weighed about 300+ pounds. When I got cancer, the fellas at work pitched in and bought me a 48-inch Visio 720p LCD TV. We replaced the CRT with that and yes that 300+ pound CRT was properly recycled.

Then there were the romantic evenings on cold nights in the bedroom. We live in the North so getting out of our warm bed and bedroom to cuddle in the freezing cold living room to watch TV got old fast. We saved up and found a sale at Costco, $1,500 for a 42” LCD TV. When we marched in, they had a massive 50-inch plasma for $250 less but it weighed 150 pounds. I’m a woodworker so I knew I could get it mounted on the wall. This sucker had a digital tuner and was 720p, which was all the rage at that time and 1080p TV was selling for over $2,000.

Then my wife wanted a treadmill and TV in the basement. Many years ago we purchased a CRT flat screen DVD/VCR for the basement to watch while treadmilling with, once again, no digital tuner in the TV. She had to have the VCR even though LCD TVs were out and much better.

About 10 years ago my mom wanted new digital LCD TVs for her and dad (cable was getting rid of analog broadcast) so she donated her analog 27 inch CRT TV to me. I put that sucker up in our office, but once again no digital tuner. However, I became hooked on having the TV as background noise which I worked on the computer and paperwork. I found that my brain would need a rest from time to time and I would watch shows repeatedly and look up at the good parts of the show. Transformers a dozen times were perfect while I worked.

Then on February 17, 2009, my analog world ended. Cable companies were about to make a fortune on renting digital-to-analog converter boxes for my TVs. This tied us into a digital cable DVR for $13 a month, a digital box at $6.00 a month, and three digital tuners at $3.00 a month each, which equals $28 a month in cable fees. I investigated other options but everything I investigated at the time was a dead end. I even purchased an antenna for the office TV but it was a digital antenna and my CRT TV was analog. Plus all the TV stations were either transitioning or already broadcasting in digital TV formats. When the cable bill hit $125+ a month I knew things had to change! The simple answer was to give up a TV everywhere in my house, but I was a TV Addict used to viewing it anywhere. I chose to pay the cable bill expecting to come up with a solution any day but life throws curves you can never expect. After surviving cancer twice and sitting in my recliner day after day, I enjoyed my cable TV!  The fellas at work buying me the 720p Visio TV had done well and I never worried about the expense of the other four TVs… until now.

Cutting the Cable Cord, Confessions of a TV Addict with 5 TVs!

 Getting rid of the Cable or Satellite TV bill to have more Entertainment Options for Less!

This series of ThatCyberSecurityGuy blog entries took years of experimentation, limited technology purchases over years of study, near death experiences, and a lot of dedication as life moved on during the recent years of our entertainment world’s revolution. As smartphones and other devices leave the PC and laptop world behind (somewhat), so has the streaming TV content world left satellite and cable TV behind! Years ago, for the most part, power hungry Plasma TVs quickly came and went. Less power hungry Liquid-Crystal-Display (LCD TV) were rapidly replaced with more energy-efficient and high-quality picture LED TVs. Writing and researching my book “The Internet is Infected!” for five years did not allow me the luxury to investigate TV entertainment technology to cut the cable cord before now. The truth is this cheap technology was not available back then and I was too busy launching my business, attending classes along with a multitude of other things. However, a major priority in the evenings, I would always set aside a few moments of fun time to just surf the web and read about the inconsequential entertainment options in hopes of cutting our monthly expenses and cable cord was a major priority! I’m happy to say, that moment has come at last!  You can negotiate your download speed with an ISP.

Advantages:

1. Significant savings, our bill for cable + Internet was $129 a month.
2. Comcast Xfinity Internet Blast offered Internet download speed up to 150 Mbps for $60 a month.
3. AT&T U-verse HSIA 75 was $35 a month for a 1-year term with a download speed of up to 75 Mbps.
4. Wowway.com had $25 a month for a 30 Mbps download speed.

Disadvantages:

1. Sling streaming service for $20 will give you access to ESPN and other channels that the other streaming services do not provide.
2. Hulu streaming service for $12.00 a month, Hulu only streams in 720p.
3. Netflix streaming service is $9.00 a month but it does not offer downloads.  Content can be dated.
4. Amazon Prime is $99.00 a year or $8.25 a month but that does include free 2-day shipping on orders purchased.
5. Streaming will go in and out if/when your ISP has problems. You will find your devices losing reception more frequently than cable TV. To ensure that you can stream to your smart or Roku TVs you may need to pay your ISP for a maintenance plan. When the squirrels chew on the cable leading to your house you don’t want to face a $200 bill to have a service technician to replace that cable.
6. Streaming requires a bit of configuration, work and initial set up of all your Internet devices. This leads to security concerns as the inclination is that once everything is set up to leave the status quo. The reality is that you should be changing your passwords at least once a year, but even I admit that I have not done that. Roku wanted a credit card and personal information for me to pay my Hulu bill, for example. If a hacker gets in there I’m in trouble. Same goes for Netflix and Amazon.
7. Streaming devices require maintenance. The firmware and apps have regular updates.  This can be annoying when you are settling in for the evening and just want immediate gratification. If you don’t have built in Roku or smart TV streaming you will have the added expense of purchasing these devices separately, which can be unsightly and require an extra cabling expense. However, cable TV devices, often require the same cabling.
8. Without Internet devices such as computers, Smartphones, and Tablets you may miss such things as the latest sporting events, infotainment news from CNN, CNBC, FOX, and HLN. However, if you have a browser and Internet access there are usually other options for this type of viewing.  For example, CBS made the Super Bowl available to a broad range of streaming devices without login.  So yes, even after cutting the cable cord I could stream the Super Bowl to my Roku TV having the annual party or I could have traveled to my local American Legion hall or a sports bar to get rowdy with the folks.

I chose Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix as our streaming bundle. Here are my reasons why:

1. Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the United States. It has an amazing movie collection and catalog of TV titles, sometimes months old and a great selection of old films. It also has original content such as “House of Cards”.
2. Amazon Video on Demand has over 75,000 of your favorite movies and hit TV shows.  Amazon, like Netflix, has a good offering of old and new hits for movies but unlike Netfilx, it has for a price, more current U.S. TV shows including premium cable shows from HBO and Showtime for a price. It also has original content such as “Transparent, Alpha House, and Mozart in the Jungle” among others, which have not been as popular as “House of Cards”.
3. Hulu Plus has a better selection of current TV shows than Amazon Prime and Netfilx, and carries some TV channel series that the other two do not. Hulu is the best way to watch shows from NBC, FOX and Comedy Central.  You gain access to full seasons of shows instead of the last four of five episodes that cable “On Demand” offers.
4. Giving up cable means losing ESPN and our favorite U.S. infotainment news channels but much of their content can be found online or at your local gym. If you are hankering for the latest news, the BBC at https://www.BBC.com for example has a lot of news you can stream for free if you want to read about the real things taking place in our world (other than Donald Trump and the endless coverage of the U.S. presidential election).  Aljazeera America at http://america.aljazeera.com has a ton of relevant news that you can stream and read about world events.  It was the best news channel I witnessed for real news while serving in Kuwait during the Iraq war and the only one we watched for real news.  Then there is also http://www.npr.org where you can listen and watch a commentary and news on variety of topics anytime you want.

Unlike cable, the free and paid services above can be streamed to many devices such as your tablets, smartphones, TVs, etc. Also, unlike cable, except for “On Demand” these online options can be paused, played in the background, made full screen, fast forwarded and rewound quickly to anywhere in the broadcast and much more. Having streaming YouTube to watch “Professor Messer” to study for my class work in my Jacuzzi tub to study is quite the boon.

Apple's response to my commentary on privacy in support of their FBI stance!

I wrote Apple about my support of their position that backdoor algorithms to encryption technology are a bad idea and I expected nothing in return. I have also sent out many resumes and filled out many applications in the years since I fought Lymphoma cancer caused by radiation exposure during the Iraq war that received no response. Apple actually went so far as to send me back this letter.

________________________________________________________

March 27, 2016

Thanks for contacting us. We welcome your feedback on Privacy and Security.  Apple strives to provide a positive experience to our customers. You can submit feedback here:

http://www.apple.feedback

Please be assured that Apple values the time and consideration that you invested in your email.  Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us..

Sincerely,

Apple Customer Care

________________________________________________________

No wonder Apple is one of the leading U.S. companies. Kudos to Apple!

The answer to why the FBI does not ask the NSA to break into the terrorist phone and demands Apple do it!

Adding to the debate, we have to question why the FBI does not ask the NSA to break into the terrorist’s phone. The NSA has massive and very expensive supercomputers that can crack codes/encryption very quickly.  No form of encryption technology can stand up against the infinite computing power of the NSA. However, if, and that is a BIG IF, information on the phone led to a criminal court case, the NSA may have to describe the method it used to crack the phone, which they want to avoid at all costs.

Therefore, in February 2016, the FBI asked for $38 million in funding to counter the growing use of encryption technology employed.  This is a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated $52.6 billion dollar BLACK BUDGET. The U.S. BLACK BUDGET spans over a dozen agencies that make up the National Intelligence Program.  The top five agencies, by spending:

  

 The above information was taken from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget.

Looking at the chart above, the requested FBI budget for 2016 is $8.48 billion.  Some of the breakdown of that budget is as follows as taken from https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/fbi-budget-request-for-fiscal-year-2016, “The request includes a total of $8.4 billion for salaries and expenses, supporting 35,037 permanent positions (13,074 special agents, 3,083 intelligence analysts, and 18,880 professional staff), and $68.9 million for construction. Two program enhancements totaling $20 million are proposed: $10.3 million to increase cyber investigative capabilities, and $9.7 million to leverage Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) components and services within the FBI.

The FY 2016 request includes the cancellation of $120 million from Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) excess surcharge balances and $91.4 million in non-recurred spending ($50.4 million in the salaries and expenses account and $41 million in the construction account).

Overall, the FY 2016 request represents a net increase of $47 million over the FY 2015 enacted levels, representing an increase of $88 million for salaries and expenses and a decrease of $41 million for construction.”

As you can see from the above numbers most of the FBI budget supports their 35,037 employees. Comparing their $8.4 billion dollar budget to the $52.6 billion dollar black budget leaves the FBI very limited resources to spend on cyber security and breaking encryption. Something U.S. taxpayers have to ask themselves is, with such a well-funded cyber security and encryption breaking BLACK BUDGET, why does the FBI need such underfunded and redundant cyber security expenditures?

Therefore, how does the FBI get around their lack of ability to break encryption when they are blocked from using the unlimited BLACK BUDGET cyber security/encryption breaking capabilities? They do so by asking U.S. companies to put in easy backdoors nullifying the encryption techniques being employed to protect data. Once those backdoors are leaked, the Russians, Chinese, criminals, and back hat hackers now have an easy path to get at the data stored on those devices. This results in a HUGE loss of intellectual property in the United States to other countries.

Ironically, the FBI states that preventing intellectual property theft is a priority for them. However, these engineered backdoors may have enabled the biggest theft of trade secrets and infringements on products that impact consumers’ data, health and safety, such as counterfeit aircraft, car, and electronic parts in U.S. history. The FBI even admits that much of theft takes place overseas, and costs U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year as well as robs the nation of jobs and lost tax revenues. In Fiscal Year 2011, federal agencies only made 24,792 intellectual property rights seizures valued at $178.3 million. (See:  https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/ipr/ipr, https://www.dhs.gov/topic/intellectual-property-rights)

Compare that trivial number to the 2013 report documented by the Huffington Post, which concluded that hacking costs the overall U.S. economy as much as 100 billion each year. That means we are countering 0.1783% of all intellectual property being stolen in the U.S. and to counter that threat, “U.S. companies are spending millions of dollars securing their networks, buying insurance and repairing their reputations after getting hacked.” (See:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/hackers-jobs_n_3652893.html)

How much of those numbers that can be traced back to encryption backdoors is unknown. For example, a stolen cell phone of a corporate executive or integral employee may have given up a treasure trove of information such as corporate accounts and passwords that hackers exploited later. Another example is perhaps the personal information on a hacked phone gave a criminal the ability to blackmail a knowledgeable corporate employee. The possibilities for the invasion and exploitation of easy FBI backdoors to iPhones are endless and this is a rabbit hole that should not be opened when there are U.S. BLACK BUDGET options that can achieve the same results.

In interview after interview everyone is missing the point behind Apple's battle with the FBI

This is the next blog entry in what will be an ongoing series as the battle between Apple and the FBI continues. This is one of THE most important legal battles in the history of the United States and THE purpose behind my book and most of my writing.

Folk's, I'm growing very tired of listening to radio and TV interviews that are all missing the point behind Apple's battle with the FBI. It is certainly about privacy but that is just the Tip of the Iceberg. Here is something for you to think about as NPR and others only put lipstick on the FBI pig!

About 10 to 12 years ago the government passed legislation to ensure that customers private, personal, and financial information, which is collected and manipulated by corporations, is to remain as secure as possible under penalty of prosecution.

Apple, in direct response to that concept, created an operating system that explicitly complies with the heart and soul of that mandate. As a result, Apple, itself, cannot even access that data on the person's device, a phone.

The government has now mandated that Apple violate that principle by writing code against that security which, after it is written, has no reasonable guarantee that such code would remain under the control of responsible users. The case in point is Edward Snowden, who the NSA thought would not violate the secrecy of the NSAs violation of data gathering without due process.

If the government (NSA) cannot protect its own dirty secrets (The Atom bomb, the Hydrogen bomb and so on), how will the government (FBI) protect the code they had the courts mandate to be written? How is Apple going to protect itself from prosecution when that release ultimately happens? Catch 22.

Even if Apple is not ever prosecuted does every United States citizen want to surrender all the data they store on their smartphones to the Russian mafia or the Chinese syndicates? This last sentence is something you won't hear any radio or TV interview mention!

Apple fights an unprecedented battle! The U.S. government threatens what is left of the security and privacy of every U.S. Citizen!

Folks, since I wrote my book "The Internet is Infected!" we just seem to continue down the path to the total destruction of privacy for any U.S. citizen. Apple computer has launched a battle that the average U.S. citizen does not understand. (See: https://www.apple.com/customer-letter, http://thatcybersecurityguy.com/TIIICEChapter5.html) I'm hoping this blog entry will aid them in their battle with the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) U.S. government. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi)  (See: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-vs-fbi-where-does-everyone-stand-163132527.html)

Taken from my book:

On July 11, 2014 in an interview with the Guardian, William Binney, a 30-year veteran of the intelligence community stated the following as fact; "At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US… At least 80% of fiber-optic cables globally go via the US… This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in... The NSA lies about what it stores… The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control…" William Binney resigned from the NSA on October 31, 2001 because he was disgusted by Washington's move towards mass surveillance. The difference between Binney and Snowden was his high rank and that he did not take any documents as proof with him. From that time forward, he has been an outspoken critic of the NSA's unnecessary mass surveillance stating, "it's better than anything that the KGB, the Stasi, or the Gestapo and SS ever had!" He likes to mock the NSA by pointing out such things as how the NSA's mass gathering of data did not stop 9/11, missed Russia's intervention in Ukraine, the Islamic States' take-over of Iraq and has stopped zero terror attacks inside the US. Because of his vocal criticism he has been persecuted with investigations, had his home raided by the FBI who also took his computer and backup disks, had his security clearance revoked, which forced him to close a profitable $300,000 a year business and spend $7,000 on legal fees.  In his Guardian interview he laid down the gauntlet by saying, "There are no other views for the judges to consider. There have been at least 15-20 trillion constitutional violations for US domestic audiences and you can double that globally.  I call people who are covering up NSA crimes traitors." Binney expressed publically on CBN in July 2014 that the ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control. He also stated that Internal Revenue Service has "direct access" to the NSA's domestic spying data and was likely using it to target the tea party.  (See:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/the-ultimate-goal-of-the-nsa-is-total-population-control, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/August/Whistleblower-NSA-Goal-Is-Total-Population-Control)

As you now know, any email sent via any major email provider is screened automatically by intelligence services. Most people in the U.S. I have met say "so what, let them screen me because I have nothing to hide". This is because they and their ancestors never experienced the Soviet Stasi excesses during Communist rule. A common joke in Germany is "Why, despite all the shortages, is toilet paper in eastern Germany two-ply? Because they have to send a copy of everything they do to Russia." German courts are blocking the implementation of the EU Data Retention Directive, and they have ruled against Google's data gathering practices. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated "These two values – freedom and security – to a certain extent are and always have been at odds with one another. The proper balance needs to be struck again and again by means of the law. The end does not justify the means. Not everything that is technically possible should also be permissible." Western citizens in the U.S. do not understand how violations in their privacy can be exploited or how providing this information can come back to haunt them.

Gpg4win is Windows encryption software supported by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Because of the expressed German outrage over the NSA scandal, we can have a high degree of certainty that there are no U.S. backdoors built into this open source software. However, the source code is freely available, and you can rest assured it has been studied and perhaps broken by some very smart NSA folks. Gpg4win is actually a suite of encryption utilities bundled together that will be installed on your Windows computer. From the Gpg4win website those utilities are:

• GnuPG - The core; this is the actual encryption tool.
• Kleopatra - A certificate manager for OpenPGP and X.509 (S/MIME) and common crypto dialogs.  (See:  http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdepim/kleopatra/kleopatra.pdf)
• GPA - An alternative certificate manager for OpenPGP and X.509 (S/MIME).
• GpGOL - A plugin for Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007/2010/2013 (email encryption).
• GpgEX - A plugin for Microsoft Explorer (file encryption).
• Claws Mail - A complete email application with crypto support.
• Gpg4win Compendium - The documentation (for beginner and advanced users), available in English and German.

The Gpg4win Compendium documentation is an excellent reference for learning about their software, how email message encryption works and much more. Their encryption software is designed to integrate well with Microsoft Outlook using their GpGOL plugin. However, using other email clients is a bit more difficult, but easily mastered. Since many of you are probably not using Outlook, I decided to only present a simple solution using the Gpg4win Claws Mail client. Rather than repeat what is in Gpg4win's documentation, the following example is intended as a quick step-by-step guide to get you started. I chose to present only OpenPGP message encryption in Gpg4win because by using this method you can practice generating key pairs exchanging your public key with Gpg4win's automated practice server. I have found that many people are intimidated by this technology, and having a tool where you can practice without repercussions should make things fun and easy. For example, posting a public key on a public key server or saying something incorrect on technical forum can invite some hostile criticism and attacks from knowledgeable computer professionals. I highly encourage you to read Gpg4win manual at http://www.gpg4win.org/doc/en/gpg4win-compendium.html, which details everything you need to know about encrypting messages, files, setting up certificates and much more. If you are a SBO you will need to study and pay close attention to the certificates portions of the manual. Setting up, registering and using certificates is a somewhat complex topic that I chose not to cover in my book. It is important to an SBO, but has little or no significance to an HCU. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpg4win) Buy my books for the rest...

You have it within your power to turn back these draconian invasions into our privacy. Support Apple in their fight for your privacy. Encryption is simply a method of encoding information that makes it more difficult for someone to view if our files or messages are intercepted. Mankind has been employing, developing and using encryption for thousands of years, and it is time we all do so safely when using our infected Internet. Encryption seems like a lost art to the common person, but it need not be. This skill is mandatory to develop to be able to survive in today’s digital world. If you want to keep the data that you exchange with your business partners or family secure, it is essential that you master this skill.

Cleanup your Disk Files and Backups with CCleaner Duplicate File Finder

Now that you have done step one on your computer or laptop and have upgraded from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10, you may still have a few weeks of work ahead of you.  Luckily, there are tools that I will describe to aid you in cleaning up your computer.  Many of us have cloud drives, backups, and are constantly creating files.  When we do this we create duplicate files, duplicate backups, and multiple file revisions that become file chaos on our hard drives.  At some point we need to examine/compare our files to our backups, cloud drives and such.

What I found was I had many duplicate files on my newly upgraded Windows 10 computer.  Once upon a time I had stored files on cloud drives such as SpiderOak and Windows Live Mesh.  Mesh was deprecated and replaced with OneDrive and SpiderOak became unusable after I accidentally went over my 2GB storage limit.  I also had copied files to various directories on my computer, which also created duplicates.  Working with other people, such as my artist and editor, I had created many revisions of files.  These important files were still stored on my local computer hard drive, my backups, and USB drives.  In the past, I would bring up multiple copies of Windows Explorer (now called File Explorer avoiding confusion thank god in Windows 10 as I teach classes on Windows 7!) and try to root out and destroy duplicate files.  As you can imagine this was incredibly time consuming and proved ultimately to be an impossible task.

For many years I have been using and advocating that everyone using Windows install and use the free (or paid for) Piriform CCleaner tool.  (See:  http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner)  I use it to cleanup temporary files, wipe out cookies, look at startup files and more.  However, when I embarked on my disk file cleanup project I discovered the CCleaner also has a Duplicate File Finder tool.  This tool proved to be a quick and easy way for me to find all of those old duplicate files that were in my Mesh, SpiderOak and backup directories.  It made the elimination of all those duplicate files on my hard drive, backups and USB drive possible.  Try it out and I bet you will be surprised to discover how many duplicate files you have on your devices.

WinMerge Large File Compare Work-A-Round

One of the things I noticed comparing my C: drive files to my USB backups was the WinMerge utility did not error out on large files in separate directories.  What I discovered is you can move one large file to a new directory (C:\users\<username>\Tmp) for example, rename the file to the name of the file in the original directory, and compare the two directories.  WinMerge will recognize if the files are identical or not without erroring out.  If all files are identical, delete the TMP directory and all files in it.

What is cool that now WinMerge will work with all files enabling you to clean up all your backups!

Merge the files on your hard disk, cloud drive, USB drives and backups with WinMerge.org open source software

Removing duplicate files with CCleaner was only the first step to cleaning out your “basement” (disk cleanup process).  Now we need to merge all of your backup, old cloud drives, current cloud drives and so on.  We need a tool that we can use to compare the differences between files and help you make a decision on which file to keep.  That tool is provided by the WinMerge.org open source project.  It can be used to compare both folders and files, and presents differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and process.  You can quickly copy files back and forth, delete files, and even delete both files.  (See:  http://winmerge.org)

The merge process can be a long and painful depending on how organized you have been in the past.  Since disk space is cheap, we tend to make copies of file systems to back them up, thus creating many redundant files.  Sometimes we have multiple backup devices and do not keep track of what we backup where.  This results in many stored revisions of files that we work on regularly so at some point we need to organize, consolidate and combine all of these files.  This step in the Windows 7 to 10 upgrade cleanup process should make you consider how you are handling your backups and file systems as it certainly did me.

How to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 Safely

Warning:  If you value your privacy upgrading to Windows 10 needs some consideration.  As with every release of Windows, you have to judge what is good and bad about any new product.  Before you upgrade, I suggest you read about Window 10 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10.  With that said, Windows 10 is a bad ass upgrade that will enhance your productivity and online experience at the sacrifice of your privacy and to some extent, online security.

Advantages:

• In my book, “The Internet is Infected!” I wrote extensively about how to use VMware Player and VirtualBox to install and load up Windows 7 with virtual Linux OSs.  Windows 10 comes with a built in Hyper-V virtualization solution that may be better.  I will blog about Hyper-V in the future when I can find time to try it out with some Linux installs.
• Windows 10 comes with a built-in email app that was as easy to setup as inputting your email address and password.  I tried it with Yahoo, Outlook and Gmail, and it worked perfectly for all three.
• I only have a few third party applications installed but there is a noticeable performance improvement over Windows 7.  My very old HP-dv6t laptop is screamingly fast.
• Windows 10 comes fully integrated with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall.  Windows Defender uses real-time protection to scan everything you download or run on your PC.  In Windows 7 we had to install and update Microsoft Security Essentials.  If you prefer other more highly rated antivirus software Windows Defender will turn itself off when you install another antivirus app alleviating the concern of conflicting antivirus software running.
• Windows 10 is fully integrated with Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage.  Your OS is automatically set up for it when you log in with a Microsoft Account.  In my case I set up/logged in to Microsoft’s new email app and OneDrive was available.  It is as easy to use as drag and drop using the Windows 10 “File Explorer”.  If you right click on the OneDrive icon in the notification area, you can select Settings and do things such as select folders to sync, access your files remotely and more.  OneDrive is offering a whopping 15 GB of storage which is more data than most of us can produce in our lifetimes!  (See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneDrive)

Be very careful what you share with Microsoft on your OneDrive or their new Groove for music.  This data is regularly scanned for pirating and illicit content.  What you may think is benign could come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined.  Also understand, these cloud storage places are regularly hacked, are available for provider employees to view as well as the U.S. government NSA.

Disadvantages:

• While I’m still learning the Windows 10 start button, if you can call it that, it does not appear to be very configurable.  There are too many options/links presented there to be able to sift through quickly.  For example, in order to make more of a profit, it looks like Microsoft is guiding users to Grove Music, The Weather Channel, Movie and TV, their Store, and so on.  If I want these things I will add them myself, I don’t need them in my face all time on the menu.  The menu should be what is available to run on the computer and not about what is on the Internet; that’s why we have browsers to do that sort of thing.  However, they can be manually removed.
• I mentioned the privacy concerns above.  In this release, Microsoft is sharing more information about your computer and what you are doing with it in this release.
• There is no way to disable automatic updates.  With Windows 7, I had control over when I would expose my computer to Internet and update the OS.  I usually did this late at night while watching Netflix.  Now when I am using a hotspot Microsoft will announce to the hackers my computer is connected and polling the Internet for updates.  This is very disturbing!

There is a lot more for you to consider that the Wiki page above describes very well.
________________________________________

My laptop was running a loaded up version of Windows 7 Premium.  Sometime after the July 29, 2015 release of Windows 10, I registered the laptop for an upgrade to Windows 10.  As with all Microsoft releases I waited a few months to see if there were any major problems with the 10 release.  All the articles I have read have praised Microsoft for a smooth rollout of Windows 10 and its new interface.

Because Windows 10 had addressed many of the complaints I had heard about in Windows 8 and 8.1, I wanted to take the plunge and upgrade my laptop.  I registered it and attempted the upgrade to 10.  The upgrade failed so I examined the event log, searched for the error code on the Internet and tried various fixes.  The Microsoft community recommended the usual stuff such as:

• Turn off my antivirus (which was Security Essentials)
• Make sure the computer is not configured for a proxy
• Turn off all services except the Microsoft services
• Open a command prompt with “Run as Administrator” and type “sfc /scannow”
• Manually reset the Windows Update process
• Delete the C:\$Windows~BT folder and everything in the download folder

And so on as I tried many things…  I finally got the install to go all the way to the end only to fail and have to start over at the beginning each time.  This was wasting way too much of my valuable time.

Therefore, I decided to change strategies.  I used an old hard drive for my laptop that I swapped with my Windows 7 drive, zeroed it and loaded it up with a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate.  I applied all system updates and left the Windows 7 OS as clean as possible.  (NOTE:  You have to have SP1 installed)  I was hoping I would not have to upgrade to 10 by having a clean version of Windows 7.  I downloaded Windows 10, burnt the ISO file to a DVD and attempted to do a clean install.  (See:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10)  The install prompted for a Windows 10 license key so I tried my Windows 7 keys.  I had no luck there so I was stuck with doing an upgrade which I was adverse to do.

To do an upgrade:

1. Activate Windows 7 (required to upgrade, which is unfortunate.  It is always nice to see if things are going to work before burning a new Windows OS activation).
2. Log in to Windows 7 as administrator.
3. Run the “setup.exe” from autoplay or from the DVD drive.
4. On the “User Account Control” confirmation box, click Yes to continue.  Windows will prepare the files for installation.
5. On the “Get important updates” window, make sure that the “Download and install updates” radio button is selected.

From there the upgrade is self-explanatory by following the Windows 10 installation prompts.  This upgrade can also be performed by using Windows Update, but if you have multiple computers you may have to perform this process again having the DVD is a better solution.

If you want to do a clean install there is hope.  There is an excellent article at http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10-from-windows-7-and-8/ that describes how to do that in a two-step process.  It is fairly straightforward and requires an upgrade, creation of a Window 10 install DVD, and then a reinstall of Windows 10 which is pretty slick.  After purchasing a new terabyte SSD for my old laptop I chose to use this option.  The results were pronominal!  A clean install that for my old laptop turned it into a Ninga warrior.  I highly recommend this upgrade option.

You may also want to burn a reinstall Windows 10 DVD for your current computer which the article above describes how to do.  Unfortunately, with that DVD this license key may only work on your current hardware with that DVD.  Other computers with different hardware will likely require my procedure outlined above.

When you are done and the Windows 10 OS is stable you may want to clean it up  (See:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-do-I-remove-the-Windows-old-folder).

1. Open Disk Cleanup by clicking on the Start button,  In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Cleanup.  If/when prompted click on the drive where you just installed/upgraded to Windows 10.
2. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click on Clean up system files.  Once again, choose the drive you just upgrade to Windows 10.
3. Select the Previous Windows installations(s) check box, and any other boxes for the files you want to delete, and then click OK.
4. In the dialog message that appears, click Delete Files.

The easy integration with Microsoft's cloud is your opportunity to backup everything on your computer that does not require privacy.  I took the opportunity to spend weeks going through my backups, deleting files and copying downloads and such to my OneDrive.  If my house catches of fire I will have all the files I'm not worried about keeping private.

Upgrade the Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 to the Jelly Bean OS

To update the phone, I needed the Samsung Kies software installed on my laptop. Beginning April 8, 2015 the Samsung Galaxy S II had an optional software update to Android version 4.1.2/ Software T989UVMC6 via Samsung Kies only.  This update changes the cell phone OS to Jelly Bean.

When you visit https://www.samsung.com/us/kies you will see two versions of Kies to download so make sure you get and run the Kies installation software built for your phone. In my phone's case, I needed Kies 2.6, which provides support for devices launched before September 2013. I renamed the file Kies2.6Setup.exe and then downloaded the Kies3Setup.exe file so I could also work on my wife's Samsung Galaxy S4 phone later. No matter what you see on the Internet, Kies is your one stop shop in which to use a USB cable:

• Keep your device updated to the latest software updateTransfer photos and videos to your PC
• Master your music library if you have one
• Backup important content from your device such as contacts, text messages, etc.
• If you choose to perform the following procedure, make sure:
• Your phone is FULLY CHARGED
• The weather outside is AOK
• Your Internet connection is flawless and pray that once you start it does not go out
• Make sure all applications on your computer, except Kies, are not running
• There is nothing (animals, kids, wife, yourself) that will touch your computer once the update starts
• Don't open any menus or press any buttons on your computer, external hard drives, etc.
• Don't accept any phone calls or use the call button on your phone
• Do not connect any other devices to your computer such as MP3 players, cameras, etc.
• Make sure the cable cannot become disconnected by anyone or anything
• You see the update successfully applied screen at the end after a very long time

Unhook your phone now that you have backed up all your files. Under Settings, go down to Developer options and check USB debugging, OK > run Kies2.6Setup.exe, which will take some time to install and update your computer's device drivers, or run your already installed Kies software > plug in your USB cable and you should see Installing device driver software… followed by  Connecting… screen (be patient this takes a while). Kies then prompted me to automatically update the software on the phone from PDA:LI1 / PHONE: LI1 / CDCLI1 (TMB) to PDA:MC6 / PHONE:MC6 / CSC:MC6 (TMB) Size 473 MB, Next > click on the Update button. Hopefully, in the end you will see:

• Software update for SGH-T989 successfully completed.
• Device will now restart.
• Disconnect and reconnect the cable. OK

Congratulations, you now have an old/new phone that you will have to learn how to navigate and use all over again. However, all that it cost you was your time and not another $700 out of pocket! Plus, now you can now brag to all your geek friends how you upgraded your phone to Jelly Bean.

How to Update the software to Jelly Bean on a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989

Updating the software on a smartphone goes against everything I preach about in my book. It is incredibly difficult for software developers to develop ways to upgrade an existing operating system rather than wipe it and install a new OS. However, management teams and software companies task them with doing this to accommodate their customers, which are many times against the customer's best interest. However, mobile phone companies are resistant to wiping smartphones and just installing a totally new OS as customers want their contacts, pictures and such readily available. Therefore, we are stuck with very dangerous procedures to apply updates to our smartphones.

Searching the Internet for procedures and software to update an old smartphone can be a daunting task. I found a multitude of articles and YouTube videos about updating my phone to various versions of the Android OS in a variety of questionable ways. Many of those articles offered downloads without saying where they obtained the files or who created them. This made me worry about bricking my phone or loading a corrupted, virus-ridden update so I put together a strategy.

1.       Determine what my phone was currently running.

2.       Find out what the latest version my phone can be upgraded to is and understand the advantages and disadvantages.

3.       Locate the web page where the latest legitimate build, installation software and loading files reside, and download them.

4.       Put together a step-by-step procedure to update the phone and then give it all a try.

To see the information about what the phone is currently running:

Press the pancake stack lower left > select Settings > scroll down the bottom menu item and press About phone > There I see that my phone running Android version 4.0.4, Baseband version T989UVLl1, Kernel version 3.0.8, Build number IMM76D.UVLl1.

Now I searched the Samsung website and other sites to figure out to which version I could upgrade my phone to.  After viewing various YouTube videos, scouring web pages and such, I finally found the information I needed on Wiki which says Jelly Bean 4.2 is the latest version of the OS I can use.  (See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_II, https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-3029) Before I get into updating the phone I wanted to learn about what Jelly Bean is, its advantages and disadvantages and so on... (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Jelly_Bean, https://support.t-mobile.com/community/phones-tablets-devices/android/samsung-galaxy-s-ii) Now that I have read all about all of the advantages of upgrading my phone and read the FAQ, I examined the requirements from Samsung to allow me to do so: 

•  A rooted device may cause updates to fail, unstable mobile phone operation, and/or other problems.
• It is recommended to use an official Samsung USB cable.
• Please fully charge the battery of the mobile device. 
• Please back up your data.
• Please do not open any menus by pressing any buttons.
•  Do not connect any other mobile device (MP3 players, cameras, external hard drive etc.) to the PC.
• You cannot use the call function.
• Please do not disconnect the cable until the update is complete.

Since my cell phone guru recommended that I root my phone months ago, this shows how you have to do your homework before updating of making changes to your phone.

Backup your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 phone files

When you hook your phone up to your computer via USB cable you should see Windows display Installing device driver software lower right.  Unhook your phone > click on Settings > go into USB utilities, which will bring up USB mass storage, click on the Connect storage to PC, this should bring up the Connect USB cable to use mass storage dialog > connect your cable and the phone and your computer will present all the files on the phone via Windows Explorer. In my case, all I had to backup was the DCIM > Camera and Thumbnail files. Actually, I just moved them off my phone to a USB drive so my phone would be ready for future pictures.

Switching your Samsung Galaxy phone to a new carrier, the new AT&T GoPhone plan!

Years ago, I purchased a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 model SGH-T989 because of the Walmart Family Mobile plan. While the T-Mobile cell network had dead spots in their coverage of my area, this inexpensive unlimited, no contract, everything smartphone plan met my needs for as little as I used my phone. However, with the launch of my business ThatCyberSecurityGuy, LLC and having a new, January 2015 copyrighted cyber security book, I wanted better coverage so I investigated the switching of my phone to a new carrier.

After a lot of research I decided on the AT&T GoPhone plan.

• 4G LTE speeds on the AT&T network
• No annual contract, no credit check
• Easy activation
• Great plan choices to fit your needs
• Convenient and flexible - Renew your service when you need it for up to one year after your plan expires
• Variety of refill card plans at Walmart from which to choose
• Once plan is established you can purchase refill cards at any AT&T store easily with credit card or pay online

I chose the $45 plan that provides unlimited calls & texts, limited international texts and 1 GB of data. What is weird about this is that this plan is not listed at the AT&T / GoPhone website. To switch my phone to the new plan, I found out I needed something called an unlock code. This is intended to inconvenience customers as most mobile devices are programmed to prevent the device from operating with another wireless carrier network without first obtaining an unlock code. To get a 'unlock code' you have to meet your carriers unlock requirements. If you visit https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588 you will see the requirement for the various T-Mobile phone plans. In my example they were:

Unlock eligibility for monthly phones, tablets and mobile internet devices

The requesting line on the device must have been active on the T-Mobile network for at least 40 days on the requesting line.

• If the device is financed using T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment Plan (EIP), all payments must be satisfied and the device must be paid in full.
• If the device is on an account that is under a service contract term, at least 18 consecutive monthly payments must have been made or the account has migrated to Simple Choice no contract rate plan.
• If the device is associated with a canceled account, the account balance must be zero, including all pending charges.
• T-Mobile may request proof of purchase or additional information in its discretion and certain other exceptions may apply.

If you have a T-Mobile phone, you can visit https://support.t-mobile.com/community/contact-us, which has all their contact information. However, in my case I have a Walmart Family plan so I had to contact Family Mobile at 611 or 877-440-9758. (See: https://www.myfamilymobile.com) I knew that before I called I would need all my phone information, which required me to open it up, take out the battery, find a magnifying glass and write down all the phone information. After navigating their very lengthy automated phone question system and waiting on hold for a long time, I finally got a person on the line who did not speak English very well. That person then asked me for my passcode, which I did not have handy. I had written it down somewhere and stored it on my computer years ago.

I cried as I hung up to go search for the passcode. I finally found it, called back and an hour or two later after being on hold again I finally got a person on the line. My phone was going in and out on the network as he kept saying, "I could not hear that, why do you want an unlock code?" I finally shouted, "I think you can see why, because you can't hear me most of time!" He finally capitulated and gave me the unlock code but it was a long conversation and I could tell they really did not want to allow me to unlock my phone. I took the unlock code to Walmart and had them unlock the phone.

I needed to switch plans which required the purchase of a new SIM card. I could have purchased the AT&T card online for $4.95 but Walmart sells a universal SIM card kit for about $10 in case I want to use other networks. After purchasing the kit the Walmart employee swapped the phone SIM card and after I have purchased my first month on the GoPhone plan, he then switched my phone number to AT&T's. I knew I did not have the patience to navigate the Family Mobile phone system again without screaming… This took an extraordinary amount of time so I wandered around the store and did a little grocery shopping.

I'm thinking I'm done at last and take my phone home but for some reason I start getting text message errors about 50 times a day. I have no idea what is happening so I run the phone to an AT&T store… no one there knows anything… I go to the Walmart store and once again, no one knows anything. Weeks later, I corner the Walmart cell phone guru (this guy knows everything!) who helped me switch my plan and had described all my plan options in great detail and patience. He went to work on my phone, he pulled out the battery… no luck and then searched the smart phone websites he knew about and found an article on a T-Mobile application that was known to cause this problem. After another ½ hour of research he figured out how to delete the application and all was well at last, or so I thought. He suggested that I root my phone and update it to get all the old T-Mobile apps off my phone to which I replied, "Oh yeah, I'll have to do just that someday!"

I was being sarcastic but this project stuck in the back of my mind and I'm happy to say now, months later, I finally found time to do this and blog about it. Stay tuned as next month I describe how you can do this also.

How To Setup your Windows 7 VPN Client to use at Hotspots Everywhere

We now have to configure our client as an outgoing VPN connection:

Click on Start > in the search bar type VPN and then select Set up a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

In my book we set up an SSH server; we learned that most ISP's assign a DHCP IP address to our cable modem.  This means that this IP address can shift from time to time.  Therefore, I showed you how to set up your router to use http://dyn.com to set up a domain name and automatically update your router whenever your IP address changes.  This used to be a free service but now you will have to pay a nominal cost to maintain a domain name that will always keep you pointed at your local network.  We did this so that whenever we are at some other place in the world our shifting IP address never prevents us from connecting to our network.

In the Create a VPN connection dialog enter your Internet address: that can be a domain name or the IP address of the router or server to which you want to connect (e.g. yourdomainname.dyndns.org).  If you're connecting to a work network, your IT department will provide you the address, username and password to use.

The Destination name: field is how you have to identify the connection so it can be resolved on your local network.  The destination name is your VPN server computer name that you made note of while setting it up.  The default, which is "VPN Connection", must be overridden with your VPN server's hostname.

At the bottom are three options from which you are to choose.  Check Use a smart card if you are using one > if this is your laptop or you share it with others check Allow other people to use this connection > if you want to set up the connection, but not connect, select Don't connect now;… otherwise, leave it blank, Next.  I recommend that you never select Don't connect now, as you will have to go back, experiment and reconfigure everything if it does not work the first time you try to connect.

On the next screen, you can either put in your username and password or leave it blank. You'll be prompted for it again when you establish the actual connection.  For convenience, enter both and check Remember this password.  If your Internet device is ever lost or stolen you can easily and quickly delete the server VPN connection information.  Click on the Connect button at the bottom and the Connecting to VPN server name… screen will appear.  If you are successful you should see the You are connected message which means you have a working VPN connection.

To connect, click on the Windows network logo on the lower right part of your screen, then select Connect under VPN Connection.

In the Connect VPN Connection box, enter the appropriate domain and your login credentials, and then click on the Connect button.

To delete your client VPN connection:

1. Bring up the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click on the Change adapter settings link on the left pane.
3. You will then see the adapters and the VPN connection, right-click on the VPN connection and select Delete.

To use your laptop remotely at a hotspots in the future, click on the network icon on the lower right of the task bar and pick the client VPN Connection that we just configured > click on the Connect information and enter your username and password.

Disabling your VPN Connection when it is not in use

When you are not on the road and just using your local network, you should disable your VPN connection.  You can do this by telling your router not to forward incoming connections to your Windows VPN server or by deleting the connection from your VPN server.  To delete the connection right click on the Start button > in the Search box type Network and Sharing and click on Network and Sharing Center or right click on the desktop Network icon and arrow down to select Properties > on the left, click on Change adapter settings > right click on the Incoming Connections network connection and arrow down to select Delete, Yes.

The other option is to disable the connection in your router by logging in and clicking on the Advanced tab at the top > click on Advanced Setup > arrow down to select Port Forwarding / Port Triggering and delete the VPN-PPTP port 1723 service forwarded to your VPN server.

Troubleshooting your Windows VPN Connection Setup

You will find the procedure and steps above detailed at Microsoft, as well as at many websites and blogs.  I often wonder if these authors actually get their VPN connections working or just say that they do.  After following the detailed steps above, unfortunately for me, when I attempted to connect to my VPN server I received the following message:

The "Connection failed with error 800" message indicates that your connection is unable to reach the VPN server behind your router and/or software firewalls so you have to start eliminating the usual suspects.  First try disabling the Windows firewall on your VPN server by clicking on Start > Control Panel > select the Windows Firewall icon > on the left click on the Turn Windows Firewall on or off and disable your Windows Firewall.

If that does not work, make note of your cable modem IP address and try taking your router out of the loop.  Hook your cable modem directly to the local VPN server and travel to a nearby hotspot to try to connect to your VPN server via your cable modem's IP address.

Try to connect multiple times so that if your VPN server is rejecting your connection it will be reflected in its event logs, this will provide irrefutable evidence that your remote connection never made it to your VPN server.  Log in and view the VPN server event logs by clicking on Control Panel > select Administrative Tools > select Event Viewer > under Windows Logs click on System and examine your errors & warnings.  If, for some reason, you do not see any messages indicating that your Windows VPN server rejected a connection for some reason you will have to look elsewhere for the problem.  In my case, when trying to establish a VPN connection from my client laptop it was:

Connecting to domainname using 'WAN Miniport SSTP'…
Connecting to domainname using 'WAN Miniport PPTP'…

After viewing the VPN server event logs it was obvious that the VPN client connection never even made it to the server, so what to try next?  Bypass your cable modem and router and just try connecting to your VPN server using its local network IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.x).  Hopefully, this will solve your problem or at the very least you will get yourself one step closer to getting a working VPN to use at hotspots.  In my case I got the following error message on my VPN client:

"Error 720: A connection to the remote computer could not be established.  You might need to change the network settings for this connection."

I looked at the VPN server event logs and at last found an error message at last indicating that it was rejecting the connection, "CoId={CB8A5A38-787F-4EEF-A931-D0232ADB8A21}: The user asuscrosshairv\User connected to port VPN3-1 has been disconnected because no network protocols were successfully negotiated."  When scouring the Internet for a solution, I found the answer at http://www.chicagotech.net/VPN/error720b.htm, which described this as a weird problem that may arise due to a Protocol issue on the remote computer.  This explanation is not very scientific but to establish a VPN connection I had to perform the following steps on the VPN server, right click on the Network icon on the desktop arrow down to select Properties, which will open up the Network and Sharing Center > on the left menu click on Change adapter settings > right click on Incoming connections TBD… > click on the Networking tab at the top > double click on Internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) >tick Specify IP address and type the IP range values that includes your remote device local network and later your cable modem IP address from your ISP, OK.

After performing these steps, I at last had a VPN connection at last via my local area network.  The next step is to change the Internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) IP addresses to the address range of your cable modem and attempt to connect from a hotspot.

Web pages I looked at to research and put together this blog entry:

http://lifehacker.com/5900969/build-your-own-vpn-to-pimp-out-your-gaming-streaming-remote-access-and-oh-yeah-security
http://www.howtogeek.com/135996/how-to-create-a-vpn-server-on-your-windows-computer-without-installing-any-software/
http://power-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/mastering-security-part-2-create-home-vpn-tunnel-0130261/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030763/how-and-why-to-set-up-a-vpn-today.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733803%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

What is "No Fault Insurance" and how are you protected?

This blog entry came about because a friend backed her car into mine, so I filed a claim with my insurance company.  My friend's husband was very angry with me stating that by filing a claim their insurance would go up.  Since we live in a "No Fault Auto Insurance" state I did not understand how my claim with my insurance company could possibly affect their insurance so I decided to research what "No Fault Insurance" truly was, how it works and who pays when.

No-fault car insurance is currently in place in 12 states and causes their residents to have insurance policies that are up to 19% more expensive than in personal responsibility states.  Very simply, a No-Fault auto policy requires the policyholder's own insurance company to reimburse them without proof of fault and restricts their right to seek or recover damages through the civil justice system for losses caused by someone else.  This eliminates the need or the ability of a driver to go after another party's insurance company in order to be reimbursed for damages caused by the other party.

If you have an auto accident, no-fault insurance pays for your medical expenses, wage loss benefits, replacement services, and the damage that you do to other people’s property.  It does not matter who caused the accident.  It is actually made up of three parts, Personal Injury Protection (PIP), Property Protection (PPI) and Residential Liability Insurance - Bodily Injury and Property Damage.  In Michigan, if you are ever in an accident here are what each of these three parts covers:

•  If you are injured in an accident, PIP will cover all medical costs.  If you injured and cannot work or are killed PIP will cover up to 85% of the income that you would have earned for up to three years.  The phrase "up to 85%" is capped at a fixed amount, which changes every year.   Effective 10/1/13, the maximum was set at $5,282 a month.  There is also a $20 allowance to pay for household services that you can no longer perform because of the accident.

• No-fault is required to provide up to $1 million for any damage that the owner's car does to another person's property, such as houses, trailers, buildings and fences.  It will also pay for damage that your car does to another person’s properly parked vehicle, but it will not pay for any damage to cars in a moving accident or for an improperly parked car.

•  The Residential Liability Insurance protects the driver from being sued in the event of an auto accident, except in many special circumstances that will vary from No-Fault state to No-Fault state.  In Michigan, the exceptions include when someone is killed, seriously injured, or permanently disfigured; if you are in an accident with a non-resident who is an occupant in a vehicle not registered in Michigan; you are in an accident in another state; if you are more than 50% at fault in an accident with an uninsured vehicle up to $1,000.

Who pays and when?

As it turns out, my friends had a small right to be concerned that their insurance company could become involved in my insurance claim.  Michigan's no-fault insurance covers damage that you do to another person's properly parked car.  The clause reads, "If your car is properly parked and hit by another car, the other driver’s no-fault coverage will pay for the damage to your car."  This appears to be covered under the $1 million clause of the no-fault policy covering personal property.

Since I had "Standard Collision Insurance", my insurance company would pay to fix my car, except for the deductible that I had to pay on the policy.  Had the damage been extensive and if I had required my insurance company to fix the car, I imagine that my insurance company might have pursued a settlement with my friend's insurance company or the person who hit my car.  As it was, only my insurance company was involved in my collision claim and my friend's concerns were irrational.  I would have had to obtain my friend's insurance company's information and then pursued a claim with their company before they would be affected or involved at all.

1. Now the question became what could be done about the deductible on my claim?  Because we were friends a check passed hands covering my cost, end of story, but what if you are not so lucky?
2. If you can get the insurance company information from the "at-fault" driver who struck your parked car, you can get their insurance company to pay for the repairs and no deductibles would be involved.  Your car would be fixed with nothing out of pocket for you.

If you know who stuck your car and they don't want their insurance company involved, you have two options.

1. If you have "Standard or Broad Collision" you can have your insurance company pay for the damages, less your deductible.
2. Have the person who hit your car pay to have it repaired.

Of course, if you do not know who struck your car, in any state you are out of luck unless you have "Standard or Broad Collision" auto coverage.  If you have "Limited Collision" coverage you will have to prove to your insurance company that you did not cause the damage yourself, which could prove messy.

If you can prove that someone stuck your properly parked car, that someone is liable for the full amount of the damages to your car even in a no-fault state.  If the other driver doesn't have insurance or lacks the appropriate coverage, you can sue them for damages.  If you have collision coverage you may want to leave it up to your insurance company to pursue them for damages as you can go after your deductible in small claims court if it is $1,000 or less.  The sad news is that in small claims court, even if you get a judgment in your favor it does not necessarily mean that you will collect and there is a lack of recourse in the U.S. that you can pursue without great expense.

In a moving accident, if the other driver has no-fault insurance and is proven to be over 50% at fault, you are very limited in what you can get back in court.  In most no-fault states, if all you have is a deductible to cover, you can certainly sue to have them cover up to $1,000 in most no-fault states.  Michigan law has a "mini-tort" provision in their no-fault law that allows the victim to collect up to $1,000 in damages from the "at fault" driver. (See:  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cis_ofis_ip202_25083_7.pdf)