Tech Talk #83 – Aug 4, 2018
Email fun facts
Email, as we know it, was invented by Ray Tomlinson in 1972 while working as a government contractor on the U. S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET.) He used the @ symbol to separate the name of the recipient from the computer holding the recipient’s emails.
OK, here are some email facts:
- Today, there are 3.7 billion email accounts, worldwide.
- 269 billion emails are sent every day.
- More than 60% of all email is read on mobile devices like phones and tablets.
- Business email users receive an average of 120 emails a day and write 40 emails each day.
- Nearly half of all emails sent are spam.
- Companies and persons in the United States generate the most spam, followed by China and Russia.
- 2% of all emails have malicious attachments, usually a ransomware payload.
- More emails are opened on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday than other days of the week.
- Emails have the best chance of being opened within four hours of arriving in your inbox. Fewer than 1% of emails older than 24 hours will ever be read.
- 70% of people will open emails from a brand or company in search of deals and discounts.
- Groupon sends out more emails per user than any other company.
- “I get too many emails” is the number one reason US subscribers unsubscribe from emails.
How to secure your WiFi router
OK, I agree it’s extremely unlikely anybody is going to hack into your WiFi router. Like, extremely. But if they do, why make it easy for them?
There are lots of different router brands and models out there so this is more of an overview, and not a nitty-gritty how-to for your specific router. Also, if your router is provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you may not be able to make any changes to it at all.
All of these changes require you to login to the admin screen of your router, which is a small webpage that runs inside your router. Here’s how to get in:
PC
- Click on the Start icon and type CMD
- At the black command prompt screen type ipconfig
- Look for the address for the default gateway, that’s your router’s IP address.
- Open any web browser and enter your router’s IP address in the address bar. Your router’s admin interface should open up.
Mac
- In System Preferences > Network, click on Advanced in the bottom-right corner. Now click on the TCP/IP option router’s IP address. Look for your router’s Ip address.
- Open any web browser and enter your router’s IP address in the address bar. Your router’s admin interface should open up.
Now that we’re in, here’s what you can do to lock down your router:
Update your router’s firmware
Remember that firmware is software for your hardware. In this case, your router’s firmware needs to be updated to keep your network traffic secure.
All of your usernames, passwords, credit card details, emails, and more go through your router and out into the world. Keep it as secure as possible by updating your router’s firmware.
As important as it is, updating router firmware is often buried somewhere in a maze of menus. Keep looking until you find it, or, Google your specific firmware update settings. And then do the update.
Change your router’s login and password
All routers come out of the box with default usernames and passwords. Change both if you can. This is your first line of defense as far as someone getting into your router. Make it long and hard to remember or guess. And write it down somewhere. The longer and more obscure the better.
Change your router’s DNS provider
You can usually browse the web a bit faster if you change away from your IPS providers DNS service. You’ll also decrease chances of man-in-the-middle attacks, popups, redirects, interstitials, or those annoying “you made a typo in your web address so we’re going to redirect you to a webpage filled with spam and ads” that your ISP might use.
Change your DNS servers to 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) or 8.8.4.4 (Google) or 208.67.222.222 (OpenDNS)
Disable remote management on your router
You’ll never need to change the settings on your router while you’re not at home, so disable any options for “remote management” or “remote administration” you might see. Again, a Google search can find where this setting might be for your specific router.
Put your answer in the form of a question, please.
The story I get the biggest kick out of is when my name and e-mail appeared on ‘Jeopardy’ a couple of years ago. My mother was a faithful viewer, and she said she was happy that they finally had an answer she knew the question to.– Ray Tomlinson
Do you have a computer or technology question? Greg Cunningham has been providing Tehachapi with on-site PC and network services since 2007. Email Greg at greg@tech-hachapi.com.