Secure your wireless network with Windows Live OneCare 2.0

Today, quite a few households have wireless networks that are unsecure - wide open for anyone to connect to. This could be a huge problem especially if PC’s in that home are sharing important family files - like photos and documents - that shouldn’t be seen by strangers. In Windows Live OneCare 2.0, a new feature is coming that will let users of Windows Live OneCare secure an unsecure wireless network in their home. I decided to give this new feature a try and share my experience.

Once I connected to the unsecure wireless network, I launched Windows Live OneCare and was alerted by Windows Live OneCare that I was on an unsecure wireless network and that it can help me to secure it.  I clicked “Turn-on” and started the process. Here is a video demo of me going through the process of securing an unsecure wireless network:

Video: Demo: OneCare Wireless Security

I’d like to take a few moments to elaborate on a few things from the video. First off: the router I used to test this was *not* connected to the Internet. Most users who will use this feature to secure their router will have it connected to the Internet. Once going through the wizard to secure the router with Windows Live OneCare - the user and any other PC’s on the home network should be able to access the Internet just fine. There will be no issue securing a router connected to a WAN (WAN being your ISP for Internet access).

To secure your wireless network - you are required to connect via cable (Cat-5) - which is why I needed a Cat-5 cable in my video to proceed with the process of securing my router. This is important as this prevents anyone from connecting to your network wirelessly and using Windows Live OneCare to wipe your wireless networking settings with their own settings. This is what the OneCare Team calls the “proof of ownership” check.

In securing your router - it does not completely wipe out all your settings. The settings that Windows Live OneCare changes during the securing process are the SSID, enabling of WEP security, & setting of the WEP key. After Windows Live OneCare secures your router, you are given instructions on how to set up other PC’s on your home network with the new settings Windows Live OneCare enabled on your router.

This is looking to be a very useful and interesting feature for home users who are unfamiliar (and maybe uncomfortable) getting onto their router and configuring it for secure wireless capabilities.

There is a wiki setup over on Channel 9 with informaton on this feature of Windows Live OneCare 2.0 worth checking out as well.

Written by Brandon LeBlanc. Read more great feeds at is source WEBSITE
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Limiting the Applications of Network Participants

Most network administrators would care less of what applications are put into play. In fact, most of them would rather address the firewall and network security issues before sitting down on the actual workstations individually and check which applications should be enabled and which should go.

Such is a common practice in companies that place a lot of emphasis in making sure that their workstations adhere towards policies. Further it is a good way to ensure that no untoward infections stemming from browsing or accessing files that are not permitted on the network. Source such as floppy drives or links that anyone could get from browsing can be entirely hazardous and apparently this is where a good clamp down has to be done.

But among their priorities, this is perhaps the last of their priorities. It remains that most network administrators would do well to focus on what comes in. They can do their part by limiting the access from a remote destination within the intranet but like all viruses, they will always find a way to ruin desktop programming or workstations.

Add to the fact that users could care less of what happens to their workstation as they know that the IT or MIS people are always there to rescue them. Such may be called a petty belief but as long as it works, nothing is bound to stop them from doing so. That is perhaps one reason why most administrators have a hard time managing networks. People fail to go deeper on how to safeguard them.

Written by PC Freak. Read more great feeds at is source WEBSITE
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