Is the Email Link Taking you to the Correct Place?

Looking at the example below from an actual email,  notice where it says “login to mailchimp” on the right side of the picture.  When I hover my mousse (without clicking) over this link, I see the text on the bottom left of the screenshot that says, “http://login.mailchimp.com”.   The take home here is that as I said above, sometimes the text of the link doesn’t match the destination. In this case, the link text is for mailchimp, and the actual site I’m going to be taken to is mailchimp.  In this manner, I can now safely click the link because the link text is for the site that the link will take me to.

An just in case you were wondering, MailChimp is a mailng-list/newsletter program that I use for this site and for my new site, ClassicalWeekly.com. (And in case you were wondering once again, Classical Weekly is a FREE “classical music recommendation of the week” site that you will LOVE, and you should check it out!)

How to See if a Website is Safe.

Much of figuriing out if a website is safe to visit is based on common sense.  Sites that provide illegal downloads and the link are much more likely, for example,  to have viruses and malware than major corporate news sites.

That being said, you can never be sure, and if you want to really check a site out you can head to one of the following sites to look up if the site in question to see if there’s any information in one of the lookup site’s databases. There are many sites that provide this service but I like these two: (and I like to check both as a second opinion is almost always a good thing):

1)  AVG Web Page Scanner

2) PhishTank - (to test to see if there’s a Phishing scam on a website)

The best protection against internet threats is always just being smart:

1. Don’t click links you don’t know.

2. Don’t open email messages from people you don’t know or recognize.

3. Don’t click links in email messages from people you don’t know or recognize.

4. NEVER click a link in an email that requests your username and password for your bank,credit card  or other financial institution.  If you ever have a question about one of these types of accounts, pick up the phone and CALL.  One of the most popular scams out there is to send people a scary-sounding email about account activity and then have people click a link to a fraudulent website where the person’s information is stolen.

Be smart and stay safe!

This type of filtering is an added level of security, as even if someone does have your network password, they still need to have a machine with a MAC address that’s “on the guest list”. Note that you can also restrict MAC Addresses as well, so if you know a MAC address that you don’t want on your network, you can specifically exclude it.

Before we can enable MAC Address Filtering, we have to know how to find a MAC address. This post goes over how to find your MAC address in Windows.

Now let’s head to the router to enable Mac Address Filtering.

1. Login to your router as usual.  If you forgot how, look at this post — it’s about how to change your SSID but it goes over how to login to your linksys router.

2.  Head to the Wireless settings and select “Wireless MAC Filter”

3.  In the menu that appears…

Click “Enable”.  And then select either the “Prevent” or the “Permit” option.   Personally I use the “Permit” option as that’s just like having a restricted guest list.

Then click on the “Edit MAC Filter List”. Go ahead and type the MAC address for each machine you want to allow on your network to the list. Press “Save Settings” at the bottom when you are done (I’ve blued out my MAC addresses in this image).

That’s it. Any questions?

1. Change the default router  password.  Here’s a post that explains how to change the default  router password.

2. Change the default  SSID.  The SSID is the router’s “name”, and for a linksys router is set as “linksys” as the default.  Change the SSID to something else — it doesn’t have to be complex but don’t leave it as linksys.   Here’s a post on how to change the SSID on a linksys router.

3. Once you’ve setup the other computers on the network, disable the SSID to hide your network.  Note that more modern machines can see networks with no SSID, but this step is an easy one to do and can still  help secure the network.

4. Setup WPA2 security (tutorial to come).

5. Enable MAC Address filtering MAC Address Filtering is a way to restrict access to your network by using a network card’s unique ID, or MAC Address.  The process is like having a restricted guest list for a party, and only people who are on the list can come in.

With these steps in place you can feel more comfortable about the security on your wireless network.

In my search to find such a solution to my backup problems, I came across SpiderOak.  SpiderOak is a backup company that touts what they call a “zero-knowledge environment”.   One of their major selling points (which is the selling point for me) is that while they store your data, they don’t know what data of yours they are storing.  Their proprietary system is quite complex, but the gist of it is the company sees your data as block on their servers, as opposed to actual folder and file names.  So in theory, if one of their servers were compromised, all you’d be able to get out of it would be gobbledygook.

Which brings me to my next feature of SpiderOak’s service: because they don’t store your password, if you lose it you are on your own — e.g. you won’t be able to access your data and neither will they.  Now many computer users promise themselves (and others) that they won’t forget their passwords, and do rely on companies to provide them an easy way to reset their passwords.  But if you want the level of privacy and security that SpiderOak provides, you are going to need to understand this fact right from the start.  That being said, it makes sense:  if they don’t have your password then they can’t email it back to you, but they also can’t access your data.

In terms of the backup interface, SpiderOak can’t be simpler.  There are only a few tabs which are quite intuitive to use, and you are presented with a familiar windows explorer style interface to select the files and directories you wish to backup.   The main screen of the software gives you a nice overview of the current operation  – if you are backing up it shows you the status of the backup, and there is also a progress bar-type indicator at the bottom to let you know where you are in terms of your storage space.

Another feature that the software adds  is the ability to schedule a time to backup.  You can select a day and time so the software can automatically check your files and run the backup for you.  Because I’m paranoid about cpu usage, I don’t like to have many programs running in the background.  And as a power user I don’t need a program to remind or prompt me to run a backup, as my backup schedule is ingrained in my daily schedule. So for my purposes (at this time I run local backups daily and I archive online once per week). I can turn on SpiderOak once per week, push the refresh button in the lower left part of the interface and then let it do it’s thing (by the way the sofware will tell you the last time it refreshed which I think is pretty cool).  Now I’m sure the folks on SpiderOak customer service team will tell you that their program has a tiny footprint and will stay out of your way and won’t use up your precious CPU cycles; and from what I’ve seen this is true.  But for someone like me, facts don’t always matter when it comes the way I manage my machine — but the important point here is that SpiderOak gives me, the power user, the ability to run the program the way I want to run it, when I want to run it.

And on that note, I’ve been quite impressed with SpiderOak’s customer support team.  I’ve been speaking with one member of the support team throughout my review period of the software and service and he’s been nothing but helpful and professional the entire way.   Because of my specific needs, I peppered him with questions about the program and his answers were prompt and informative.

The pricing schedule for SpiderOak is reasonable, as well.  At first glance you may wonder why it costs $10/100GB where other companies give you unlimited storage for less.  I suggest two major reasons that make this service worth the price.  First, I know of no other service that provides the privacy and flexibility that SpiderOak offers (the service also allows you to have synchronization and sharing services for no additional cost) and the privacy alone makes it worth it.  Secondly, SpiderOak puts no restrictions on the number of computers that you can use with their service under your account.   If you compare this pricing structure to other companies out there, you will find many other companies will charge you if you use more than one computer with their service (though some companies do allow you to have two computers under one account).  The number of computers included in the backup price becomes an even bigger issue when you look into specific online backup business plans. as their fees get higher and higer as more machines are added.  Obviously you will need to look and do some simple math to figure out your savings, but with the number of machines I have, a flat rate fee per account works for me.  And then add to the calculated price the value of your privacy and you’ll see that you will come out on top.

Now when using SpiderOak it’s important to understand that the service is for the most part a backup service (though there is a very neat sync feature that will allow you to share data across all of the computers on your account), and not a comprehensive synchronization program.  SpiderOak does not have the advanced comparison features that a program like SyncBack has, but remember that SpiderOak isn’t designed to do that.  If you are using only  one machine and backing up directly to an external hard drive (which you already do, right?), then you can go right to SpiderOak to backup online at your preferred interval.   However, if you are like me and have multiple machines,  you can use first use SyncBack to synchronize the data between your laptop and your desktop, and then upload this synchronized data from your desktop to SpiderOak.  Again, the program gives you flexibility so you can find the backup procedures that work best for your home or business.

In the interest of keeping this review at a manageable length, I won’t get into the features I glossed over above: namely the ability to sync data across all of the machines on your account, as  well as the ability for you to share your data to users over the web (only if you choose).

In summary, SpiderOak is a secure online backup company that provides top-notch service and support at a very reasonable price. Their  number one priority is privacy — and privacy is the magic word for me when it comes to selecting an online backup provider.

Disclosure. I originally approached SpiderOak about writing a review of their online backup service, and I was given some complimentary storage space.  I like the service so much that I am continuing to use it and I encourage you to check it out.  Here is our affiliate link so you can try out the service: