Free 15GB Cloud Storage - Google Drive

Some of you may not even know it but you may already have some free cloud storage. Google offers 15GB of free online storage. You only need to have a Google account, which in most cases is the free Gmail webmail account. If you don't already have a Gmail account you should sign up for one and create a new email address. You can access Google Drive here

(https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive)

There are no monthly fees or hidden fees associated with Gmail or Google Drive. If you ever wanted to share some files securely with other people without having to use other cloud or subscription services, then Google Drive is exactly what you're looking for.  A quick example of a file on Google Drive is my current Resume. It is online for free and is publicly posted on a secure link on my own Google Drive. (2016 Resumé - Walt Jimenez). Any file type that you want backed up can be saved onto Google Drive. If you want the option to share any of your individual files, you can just create a secure link to each specific file you want to post.

As long as your files are moderate size and you don't need more than 15GB of storage, Google Drive is amazing. If you need more than 15GB of storage, you can use a 128GB USB flash drive or a 2TB portable hard drive and carry it on your person. You don't need to waste your hard earned money.

However, if you do prefer to have more online storage and are willing to pay a recurring fee, Google Drive also offers 100GB of storage for $1.99/month or 1TB of storage for $9.99/month.

There's a pretty big selection of other Cloud Services. The more recognizable ones such as Micrsoft's One Drive, or Apple's iCloud services can all do the same thing. I just prefer Google branding. Their Android OS is amazing on phones and tablets and Media devices. Because of Google's open source attitude, the innovations that other people create will always be better than what Apple or Microsoft can create in-house only.

With Google, there's a lot less proprietary bullshit and less limitations on how the technologies can develop which helps to improve technology products and services as a whole. That's not to say that Apple and Microsoft products are bad. They are quite amazing actually but what I'm trying to convey is that "thinking out of the box will always generate better ideas than thinking inside the box". Tech will evolve much faster without the restraints and red tape.

5D Data Storage - 360 TB of data for up to 13.8 billion years

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/02/16/five-dimensional-glass-discs-can-store-data-for-13-billion-years

Wi-Fi As Fast As 100 Gigabits Per Second Fibre

Check out this interesting article about super charged Wi-Fi proof of concept.

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-transmitter-could-make-your-wi-fi-connection-10-times-faster?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

Track Your Android Smartphone

I was about to write a post about how to find your lost Android Smartphone but instead I found a far more expanded article that covers almost everything you'll need. 

Before losing your phone definitely check out this page and give it a good read. 

http://trendblog.net/how-to-track-your-lost-android-phone-without-tracking-app/


Requirements (before losing your phone):

• ensuring your device is connected with your Google account.
• ensuring your device has access to the internet, which means it needs to have some charge left in the battery, and have a monthly data plan with your provider.
• allowing Android Device Manager (ADM) to locate your device (it should be turned on by default). This can be changed within the Google Settings app.
• optionally enabling and turning on the 'location' or GPS setting on your device will dramatically increase the chance of finding your phone much more quickly.

Extending Wi-Fi @ Home - Part 2

Here's some tips on choosing the right Wi-Fi router or access point for your home and choosing the right configurations and security settings.

First off, when choosing your device try going for a more recognized brand name. If you are going for an off-the shelf consumer brand, stick with something like one of these: D-Link, Asus, Linksys, or Netgear. Cisco brand is usually reserved more for the high-end workplaces like businesses or corporate environments. There's alot of other brands that can do the job and the decision may come down to your own preference.

Secondly, make sure that the router/ap has the newest wireless standard 802.11ac. It is the most current and fastest Wi-Fi available to consumers and is backwards compatible with devices that use the older standards as well.

All routers/ap's will come with instructions on how to install it on your network and how to log into the device to configure it. Follow the directions and log into it. Every device is handled differently and the user interface is a little different with each brand. I'm not going to tell you how to do it as there's too many different brands and ways to describe each one. There are a few things that are essentially the same though. You will log into the device by typing in it's IP address into the address bar of your internet browser. Once there, it will ask you for the username and password which are usually at the default settings indicated in your instruction manual, and can be changed to whatever you want once you log in.

When configuring the security settings, choose a Network Name for your SSID. That is how your Wi-Fi is uniquely recognized and what all your Wi-Fi devices will connect to. DO NOT choose to hide the SSID broadcast if that option is given. This will just create unneeded problems for Wi-Fi devices trying to connect. Leave it set to broadcast and there will be less issues.

Secondly, you should try to choose WPA2 encryption for your security setting and choose a password. Any security settings lower than that such as WPA or WEP are more of a security risk and can be exploited by people knowing what their doing (hackers).

Often these newer routers/ap's have a feature called Wi-Fi Protected Setup or WPS that was designed for beginner users on setting up their Wi-Fi with one touch of a button. While it sounds attractive and can make things easier for some, I would recommend to never use this option as it can be used by others to get into your Wi-Fi network. I would skip this option entirely or if there is a setting in the configuration to disable it, you should do it.

Wi-Fi isn't perfect. It is still very susceptible to interference from neighboring Wi-Fi routers and access points. Often those devices are broadcasting on the same wireless channel which causes your router/ap to perform poorly, which in turn makes it so that your devices have a slower connection. Nowadays, the newer generation routers/ap's should have an option to automatically choose channels, also known as DFS. In the past, older routers/ap's had to have their channels manually set.

When wireless issues appear and a company or individual needs advice on setting up a wireless network, people often call me to help investigate. I have done hundreds of professional wireless surveys, to help troubleshoot, or help design Wi-Fi deployments. I have helped businesses and individuals set-up over 1700 Wi-Fi hotspots. One of the only ways to actually see how much wireless interference there is in an environment is to have a professional Wi-Fi wireless site survey performed.

Extending Wi-Fi @ Home - Part 1

Many consumers out there are already using Wi-Fi but alot of people find they want more coverage at home. Maybe your Wi-Fi works great in your living room but not so great once you carry your device to into your kitchen or some other room and suddenly you lose the internet connection.

Alot of people think that by going out and buying a brand new wireless router and adding it onto their network will solve their Wi-Fi problems. In theory they want to extend the wireless coverage but in actuality, adding a router is a surefire way to add problems to your home network. What you really want to do is add an Wireless Access Point, and NOT a Wireless Router or at least disable the routing DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) features on the new router.

Adding a router will cause problems. Usually the internet provider whether it be Telus, or Rogers or Shaw or any other company usually already gives you a hardware router so you should already have a router. It is important to only have ONE single router on your home network. It is completely counteractive to have more than one router on your home network. Having more than one router on your home network can potentially cause a network loop and connectivity problems. The routers will compete with one another to try and hand out IP addresses to devices detected on the network and will cause errors. Some devices won't connect because of IP address conflicts and in some cases, the device may not even get connected to the outside internet. This network loop problem will affect both wired and wireless devices on the network.

There are a couple of solutions to this. If you already went out and bought and installed a router then, the first solution is to disable a feature called DHCP or DHCP Server within the router. You would access this by logging into the router and changing it's configuration. Reference your Instruction Manual on how to do this. By turning off the DHCP settings in a router, you are essentially turning the network router into a network switch. This will alleviate any network conflicts with any existing router.

The second solution, if you did not already buy a wireless router, is to just go out and buy a Wireless Access Point. It can be plugged into the network and should work automatically without creating any network problems. You will still need to log into the device and change the Wireless Security Settings to your preferences. Don't leave it at the default state or you could be giving free and open internet access to any Wi-Fi device.

Eliminate Nearly All Microsoft Spying on Windows 10

If you are an Administrator, you can enable viewing of hidden folders and system files and then do the following steps. Edit the Hosts file.

- find the original hosts file by browsing to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
- right-click the hosts file and open it with notepad
- copy and paste the lines and domains below onto the bottom of the hosts file text
- save the hosts file as a copy on the desktop as hosts.txt
- rename the hosts file and remove the .txt extension
- cut and paste the hosts file back to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and replace the old version

0.0.0.0 vortex.data.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 vortex0.0.0.0 win.data.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 redir.metaservices.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 choice.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 choice.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 df.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 services.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 sqm.df.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 watson.ppe.telemetry.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 telemetry.appex.bing.net
0.0.0.0 telemetry.urs.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 telemetry.appex.bing.net:443
0.0.0.0 settings0.0.0.0 sandbox.data.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 vortex0.0.0.0 sandbox.data.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 survey.watson.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 watson.live.com
0.0.0.0 watson.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 statsfe2.ws.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 corpext.msitadfs.glbdns2.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 compatexchange.cloudapp.net
0.0.0.0 cs1.wpc.v0cdn.net
0.0.0.0 a0.0.0.0 0001.a0.0.0.0 msedge.net
0.0.0.0 statsfe2.update.microsoft.com.akadns.net
0.0.0.0 sls.update.microsoft.com.akadns.net
0.0.0.0 fe2.update.microsoft.com.akadns.net
0.0.0.0 diagnostics.support.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 corp.sts.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 statsfe1.ws.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 pre.footprintpredict.com
0.0.0.0 i1.services.social.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
0.0.0.0 feedback.windows.com
0.0.0.0 feedback.microsoft0.0.0.0 hohm.com
0.0.0.0 feedback.search.microsoft.com
0.0.0.0 rad.msn.com
0.0.0.0 preview.msn.com
0.0.0.0 ad.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ads.msn.com
0.0.0.0 ads1.msads.net
0.0.0.0 ads1.msn.com
0.0.0.0 a.ads1.msn.com
0.0.0.0 a.ads2.msn.com
0.0.0.0 adnexus.net
0.0.0.0 adnxs.com
0.0.0.0 az361816.vo.msecnd.net
0.0.0.0 az512334.vo.msecnd.net

What this does, is that whenever a secret program or process is trying to secretly send or receive information, they are instead directed to a blank internet IP address (0.0.0.0), therefore blocking any transmission of data.