I heard about TORPARK today. Does it work, if so what are the implications for abuse, terrorism etc.? Does this software make us completely unanswerable? Puzzled and bemused!

Torpark is one of several freely available approaches to surfing the Internet anonymously.

Sort of.

Anonymous surfing might not be everything you think, and it’s important to understand what it does, and does not, do to protect you.
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I’m not able to reach some Web sites, and the list seems to be growing. I’ve checked your other articles on the topic, but nothing seems to help. Now, all of a sudden, I can’t reach anything. Even my email doesn’t work. What’s going on?

There are so many reasons that things can go wrong, sometimes it’s a wonder things work at all. However, once configured properly LANs tend to be fairly stable.

That is, until they’re not.
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Some (not all) of the time, when I attempt to watch a news clip or movie trailer online, the picture continually flickers. Why, and how do I fix it?

It depends on what you mean by flicker.

Various things can disrupt viewing video online. But the increase in popularity of sites like YouTube and Google Video, in addition to the news and movie sites you mention, has a lot of people giving it a try.

Let’s look at some of the issues.
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I just read your automated answer to the question I posted, and you’ve got me worried. I can see my IP address in your answer. How did you do that? Does that mean that if I email you you also get my IP address?

I’m constantly amazed at how many people are concerned about the privacy of their IP address.

I guess I shouldn’t be that amazed, because of the number of other questions I get by people trying to trace an IP address to a specific person or location.
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I recently installed a wireless network so I can use my laptop in other areas of my house. I’m a little confused regarding its security. Should I enable encryption or is my firewall enough? I understand from what I have read that encryption will slow down the network.

There are some exceptions, but more often than not, yes, you need encryption.

A firewall gives you certain type of very important protection - but not against the types of issues that a wireless network opens up.
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I forgot to log in to my Hotmail account for a while, and today when I logged in it was suspended for lack of use. I re-opened it, but this means I’ve lost all my previous mails which included some really important ones.

Is there any way to get them back? In particular there was a folder which contained very important mails.

No.

I know of no way to get your messages (or any contacts) back once they have been permanently deleted from Hotmail. Whether it’s you deleting them accidentally, or Hotmail clearing the account for lack of use, permanent is permanent. The messages are gone.
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My images are coming through ‘blurred’ when I first call them in, and only start to clear after maybe one or two seconds when they get progressively clearer until reaching the correct resolution. Do I need to download something from somewhere to enable my images to come straight in at maximum resolution?

It’s not your problem, and there’s nothing you can, or need, to do about it.

In fact, in classic software parlance: it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!

Let me explain why.
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Listen to the podcast: Exploding Laptops?

Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.

I think we all know someone, perhaps a family member, an acquaintance, or an employee, that takes some of our terminology just a little to literally. For example if you say that a program “blew up” - something us software geeks say all too often - there are folks who’ll take that to mean that the computer literally exploded.
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My son’s hard drive is having serious problems. I was wondering how hard it is to install a new hard drive and copy files from the old hard drive. My husband is an electrical engineer and has installed a hard drive on one of our computers before. The main thing I don’t know about is if we will be able to copy his files from the old hard drive. He has a lot of music files that he has recorded and doesn’t want to lose them.

Replacing a hard drive isn’t terribly difficult, and I’ll point you at a couple of articles I’ve found on line with step-by-step instructions.
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AOL’s recent intentional, yet mistaken, release of search data shows how tenuous our privacy really is.

Listen to the podcast: Privacy? What Privacy?

Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.
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Security Now is a weekly podcast covering technology and the security issues related to it. Security Now is a podcast I listen to and recommend.

“TechTV’s Leo Laporte and [Steve Gibson] take 30 to 60 minutes near the end of each week to discuss important issues of personal computer security. Sometimes we’ll discuss something that just happened. Sometimes we’ll talk about long-standing problems, concerns, or solutions. Either way, every week we endeavor to produce something interesting and important for every personal computer user. “

I subscribe to a number of podcasts, as you might imagine. There are few - very few - that get my attention nearly 100% of the time.

Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte is one of those podcasts.

And it’s not because the co-host’s name is also “Leo.”

I’ve recommended Steve Gibson’s site grc.com before - he’s an internet security guru, and as I’ve also said before, his site has come to be known as the place for security tests and related utilities.

Leo Laporte is an internet columnist, TV and radio personality who’s been making great use of podcast technology. From his weekly tech Q&A radio show, to one of the most popular tech podcasts around, This Week in Tech, Leo Laporte is likely to be one of the most listened to voices on the internet.

Putting Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte together works very well.

Each week they discuss assorted security issues, tools, tips and techniques. The discussion isn’t just about what the issues are, but why - how things work, or don’t, and why it’s important.

Paraphrasing from a recent podcast, Security Now is for the curious. Over the 50 podcasts that have been produced so far on topics include Spyware, RootKits, VPNs, vulnerabilities, how the internet and networks work, cryptography, buffer overflows, NAT routers, and more. Every fourth podcast is dedicated answering listener questions.

Each podcast is archived with both high and low bandwidth audio, and a full transcript.

I’ve been doing this “stuff” a long time - longer perhaps than the hosts themselves - and yet with each podcast I pick up a bit of data, a tip or an explanation that I hadn’t put yet together - each week there’s at least something that makes me go “oh, yeah.”

Security Now is a easy and educational listen. If you’re curious at all about security and technology, I highly recommend it.

Related:
Security Now
Steve Gibson - grc.com
Leo Laporte - TWiT Podcast Network
Leo Laporte - Leoville

Vista could be cool. Or not. It could be on schedule. Or not. Is it worth your time now? Probably not.

Listen to the podcast: Why I’m Ignoring Vista.

Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.
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Those that many of us consider to be “newbies” probably reflect the majority of computer users.

Listen to the podcast: Newbie? Or Normal?

Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary, and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.
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I think I may have been “phished” with the “request to confirm” scam email. How can I tell? And if I have been “phished” what do I do now?

First, don’t feel too bad - phishing attempts are getting very, very sophisticated. I haven’t fallen for one yet, but I’ve come darned close a time or two in recent months.

But be prepared for a painful recovery, if you were phished.

How to tell depends on where in the process you are: looking at the email, after clicking a link in the email, or some time thereafter.
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Most of the self-help books that have been written about XP say the same thing - if you can’t start XP in safe mode you might have a virus so run an anti-virus program. Well, all of my anti-virus packages were downloaded, so I have no install disks. But even if I had an install disk, if I can’t boot Windows, or I can’t connect to the Internet, a disk won’t do me any good. So how do I run an anti-virus scan under these conditions? And if I reformat and reinstall XP, isn’t there a possibility that a virus could attach itself to the new install if I haven’t eliminated it beforehand?

You’re experiencing a definite chicken-and-egg situation. You need to run an anti-virus program to possibly fix Windows, but you need to be able to run Windows in order to run the anti-virus program.
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Frequently, while reading blogs - or sites such as tamingemail.com - I come across links called “permalinks.” I figure this must be some sort of special link to which other bloggers can refer that won’t “break.” But what puts the “perma” in the permalink? Why is it different from any other link?

That stumped me too, when I first entered the world of blogging. I mean, a link’s a link, right?

Well, yes, and no. But mostly yes.

Among other things, it’s a helpful reminder of what you might want to link to, if you want that link to be meaningful a month or a year from now.
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Windows Genuine Advantage has all the earmarks of spyware. What should the average user do about it?

Listen to the podcast: WGA: Is it spyware?

Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.

Windows Genuine Advantage, or WGA, has come under heavy fire lately. Among other things, Microsoft has been accused of:
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I am running Windows 2000 and I am wondering if I should run the Disk Cleanup (compress old files). It is currently taking up 14372KB of space.

Should I compress old files?

While you’re only asking about Disk Cleanup, I’m going to talk about Windows File Compression in more general terms. Using file compression to save space is nothing new, even when it’s native in the file system used by Windows. But it’s not necessarily a slam dunk.

In fact, without knowing more, I get to use all of my favorite answers:
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We are going on a cruise to Europe in October and I want to take my laptop with me to use in the airport and I suspect I can use it on the plane and on the ship to communicate back home, though I am not sure as I am not a traveler. I don’t even know if I can use my cell phone in Europe, as I’ve never gone before. I also know that my battery will only work for about 2 hrs. and then will have to be plugged in somewhere to be able to use it and not sure there are places to do that anywhere but on the ship.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone abroad, and at that time both travel, and connectivity, was provided courtesy of my employer. It’s a good work if you can get it, but not an option for everyone.

There are two major issues that need to be thought of before you head out. Let’s review them…
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I just purchased 1GB of RAM for my computer and it works great. What didn’t work was trying to use my previous two 256MB RAM sticks in combination with my new 1GB Stick. Is there any way to make this combo work? Perhaps a specific order to install the RAM?

The short answer is: maybe.

On some computers you can, and on others you cannot. On some you can, if, as you suggest, you do it “the right way.” So how do you tell?

It really all depends on how the computer’s motherboard is designed. The definitive answer comes from your computer manufacturer. My first step is always to visit the support Web site for that specific computer and see what’s available, and how memory can be configured.

Another good resource is Crucial.com. I’ve purchased memory from there a time or two, and it has a fairly helpful compatibility identifier which can step you through the process of selecting the proper memory for your computer.
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