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)

Setting up a DD-WRT robust router by author Matthew Robinson

For today’s small business or home computer user, sometimes an ordinary router just doesn’t cut it. Many of us require the manageability and flexibility of a more robust router.  Whether we are setting up a home VPN/SSH server, have the need to manage who can access the network, or desire the ability to configure every aspect of our network, ordinary will just not do.  This is where DD-WRT steps in. Today, I am going to walk you through the basic setup of a DD-WRT router and explore the feature rich interface that it has to offer. Before we get started there are a few questions that need to be answered.

First of all, what exactly is DD-WRT?

DD-WRT is a Linux-based, OpenSource firmware that is made for wireless routers.  It offers all of the functionality for which a home user or small business could ask.  Some of the highlighted features include:

·         Configuring QoS (Quality of Service) to regulate which users or applications take priority.

·         Enable Port forwarding: This option allows you to access your local network from anywhere. The use of a VPN/SSH server gives you secure access to your network or you could enable your home/small business webserver to be accessed from anywhere in the world

·         Access restrictions based on time or destination

How do I get a DD-WRT router?

Currently there are a few ways to get your hands on a router running DD-WRT.  The first option is to buy a router that has the software pre-installed. Due to DD-WRT’s growing popularity there are several places to find a router with it preinstalled.  Manufacturers such as Buffalo http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless offers pre-installed DD-WRT routers straight from their website, while other manufactures, such as Asus http://promos.asus.com/US/ASUS_DD-WRT are offering a wider range of products with DD-WRT compatibility.  A simple search on Amazon or eBay will show dozens of results for routers with DD-WRT ready to go.

The other option is for the DIYers out there.  All you need is a router that is compatible with DD-WRT and the latest version of the firmware.  Flashing your router with the new firmware is beyond the scope of this post.  The process can be a little tricky and the steps to complete the task can differ between the various manufactures.  You also risk turning your new (or repurposed) router into a nice paperweight if things don’t go as planned.  For this reason, I recommend buying a router with DD-WRT pre-installed.  It may cost a few dollars more but it’s worth the peace of mind (and the warranty) that comes with it.

DD-WRT.com http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation has extensive documentation on flashing (upgrading/installing) DD-WRT including hardware specific instructions.  It is strongly encouraged that you read through this documentation before upgrading or installing DD-WRT on your router. Installations and upgrades do have specific instructions that vary between different manufacturers.

How do I know if my router is supported?  Where can I find the latest version of DD-WRT?

If you still wish to do it yourself, you can download the latest version of the firmware direct from DD-WRT’s website: http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index.  Using the router database http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database you can check to see if your router is supported.  By selecting your router you will be presented with a list of files containing the firmware that is available for download.

Now that you know what DD-WRT is and where to find a router of your own, let’s explore the basic setup.  For my setup I will be using a Buffalo AirStation N600 router with DD-WRT pre-installed.  The first step is to plug the router in and wait for it to boot up.

Once the router is up and running, go to your wireless enabled device and search for the network.  On Windows 7 Go to Start > Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center and click on Connect to a Network or click on the arrow in the bottom right of the screen > then click the network icon (stepped bars).  This will populate a list in the bottom right of the screen with the available wireless networks.  Select the network that pertains to your router. (Mine was Buffalo-7FB212_A.  The default network name will be listed on the back or bottom of the router as SSID: networkname) > Click Connect.  You will be required to enter the encryption key, which you can find on the back or bottom of the router.

After entering the key, your default web browser will open and prompt you for a user name and password (If your browser does not open automatically, open your browser and type in 192.168.11.1 (192.168.1.1 for other manufacturers) in the search bar.  This will take you to the router interface.)  The default username/password for DD-WRT is root/admin.  This also varies by manufacturer.  For example, the default username/password combination for my router was admin/password.

Immediately after being granted access to the router web interface the wireless Setup Assistant will pop up.  This allows you to change the default SSID and Encryption Key (Password) to whatever you like.  For now, keep it as the default.

As you will notice, there are numerous tabs across the top including Setup, Wireless, Services, Security, Access Restrictions, Nat/QoS, Administration, and Status.  Clicking on each tab reveals a submenu that has even more options.

The first thing you will want to do is check for firmware updates.  To do this Go to the Administration tab > Select Firmware Upgrade from the submenu > under Online Updates click Check for Upgrades.  After checking for upgrades, if there are any that need to be installed click the Radio button next to the file and then Upgrade at the bottom of the screen.  This will take a few minutes to complete.

Note: These directions assume that the router is new and already set to factory default settings. It is recommended to set the router to default settings before upgrading the firmware. During the upgrade process do not power down the router or press any of the buttons on the router.  Doing so could interrupt the upgrade and leave the router in an unusable state.

Once the router is finished with the upgrade process you will need to restart the router for the changes to take effect.  To do so, with the router powered "ON", press and hold the reset button for 30 seconds, which is located on the outside of the router. Then, unplug the router from the power source and continue to hold the power button for another 30 seconds.  Finally, plug the power source back in and continue to hold the reset button for another 30 seconds.

When this is complete the router will boot up using the new version of the DD-WRT firmware.  The default IP address to access the web interface for Buffalo routers is 192.168.11.1 (This can vary between manufacturers).  Type this into your browser search bar and again you will be prompted for a username and password. Enter the password as before and you will be granted access.

There are two more important configurations you need to change before anything else. The default username and passwords for the router and for your wireless network. This can be done by utilizing the Wireless Setup Assistant or changing the configuration under the Administration tab.  Clicking the Setup tab shows you the current configuration of your wireless network.  From this page you are able to change the default SSID and the Wireless Passphrase.  Clicking Apply Settings and Save at the bottom of the screen will allow you to save all configurations.

At this point, you are ready to start configuring your router towards your specific needs.  Take some time to explore the tabs and different options offered.  There are far too many options to list here.

To highlight a few, look under the Access Restrictions tab.  Here you can create different policies to dictate which days and times access to the WAN (internet) is allowed.  You can also choose to block specific URLs or websites containing certain keywords.

Under the NAT/QoS tab you can configure port forwarding to allow services like SSH or VPN to pass through your router.  By clicking the QoS sub-tab you can change the QoS settings to give certain services priority on the network.

Another useful feature of DD-WRT is the ability to run commands from the web interface.  Go to the Administration tab > click on Commands.  Here you are presented with a “Command Shell”.  You can type commands into the shell and choose from the options along the bottom that include: Run Commands, Save Startup, Save Shutdown, Save Firewall, Save Custom Script.  This feature comes in handy during router troubleshooting, diagnostics, and advanced configurations.

One other feature worth mentioning is under the Status tab.  By clicking on the WAN sub-tab you will be able to monitor the network usage by month.  Under the Bandwidth sub-tab you will be able to monitor bandwidth/network usage in real time.

DD-WRT’s advanced functionality combined with its easy to use web interface offer an exciting solution for home users and small business networks.  It can provide the security you need and a solid platform for a controlled, more efficient network.

Your welcome for this free help from author Matthew Robinson.  Matthew gave this free advice to ThatCyberSecurityGuy, LLC, which we all must greatly appreciate.