By Dan Cash CCTV • Do It Yourself • General Information • Home Cinema • Home Entertainment • Home Security • Tips and Tricks • WiFi • • • • 0 Comments

Unlimited Data Means Students And Renters Can Get All The Benefits Of The Smart Home Revolution Too

smart devices, connected devicesA short while ago Three.co.uk started offering a HomeFi wireless home router which delivers unlimited 4G to 32 devices for £22.00 per month. I had to check that was correct, as compared to other providers unlimited internet access for more than 30 phones, laptops, smart speakers, CCTV and alarms seems phenomenally good value. I was assured by the sales assistant that yes, it really was unlimited and, as he signed me up he checked all the ‘unlimited’ boxes on the form, which made me phenomenally happy!

Now, this package isn’t designed for a small business running their entire internet service via this one little Huawei device. You could try to connect 32 computers all streaming movies all day all month, but it’s only a little box which works on a GSM network so the connection just isn’t built for for that kind of data usage, so ‘unlimited’ actually means ‘unlimited depending on the speed and quality of the phone reception you’re receiving’. But if you’re not able to consume huge amounts of data due to the limitations of the phone network, what is it good for? Read more

By Dan Cash Business Security • CCTV • Do It Yourself • General Information • Home Entertainment • Home Security • Tips and Tricks • WiFi • • 0 Comments

After Recent Home Network Security Breaches, What Are The Top Tips To Secure Your IoT?

Modern angular lounge in earthy neutral colours. The room is filled with modern technology.Over recent weeks we’ve heard about staff at the head office of a major smart home security and environmental control manufacture sharing video that the home security cameras with colleagues. It’s hard to define this abuse of trust a breach as such, but it does highlight the responsibilities service providers have to look after their clients’ interests when they put themselves in a position of trust.

Concurrently a homeowner in California had her home system hacked. She was told that North Korea had launched a retaliatory missile attack, followed by sounding alarms. Then there was a family in Illinois who had someone talk to their baby, swear at them, and turn the heat up to above 30 degrees. Other households have had people watching them and speaking to them via their security cameras, threats made against their children and loud music played over baby monitors. While being frightening, so far there have been no reported incidents of people taking over a home network and using it to facilitate a crime but it’s a distinct possibility that it could happen if people don’t tighten up the way they secure Smart Home Devices when connecting them to the network. Read more

By Dan Cash Do It Yourself • General Information • Home Security • Management • Tips and Tricks • WiFi • • 0 Comments

Increase Both Speed And Security When You Buy A New Router

Yellow ethernet cables plugged into the back of networking hardware.We’ve been concentrating on how adding new digital devices to your home network has the potential of introducing vulnerabilities into your home network, both for data security and the physical security of your property. However, it’s also worth looking at some of the older equipment that has to go from providing broadband to a couple of computers and phones to supplying data to dozens of different devices, all trying to talk to one another at the same time.

Your home router is essentially the brain and beating heart of your system, an yet it’s quite possible that you’ve not even looked at it since you last changed your internet provider. It’s true, as far as digital technology is concerned, a small box that just sits there with one or two flickering lights is hardly the most exciting piece of equipment, and it only draws attention when it stops working or you need to find it for the sticker with the wireless password printed on it. Read more

By Dan Cash Do It Yourself • General Information • Home Entertainment • Home Security • WiFi • • • • 0 Comments

Safe, Simple Wireless Technology Security, A ‘How To’ Guide

We’re not suggesting that the typical burglar has added a laptop to his traditional striped top, mask and duffle bag with ‘Swag’  printed on it, but as crime rates climb, it increases in the cyber realm as much as it does on the streets. Criminals aren’t the kind of people to let opportunities slip past them, and once the thief or burglar catches on to the fact that they can use wireless technology to make their lives of crime easier, they certainly will.

The ways that criminals can take advantage of your incorrectly secured wireless home network can manifest themselves in several ways, many of which we’ve probably never thought of yet, but they currently include identity theft, credit and debit card data scraping and cloning, disabling security cameras and controlling webcams. It’s a truism to say that you wouldn’t go out and leave the house unlocked, but if you don’t lock down your home wifi network, that’s exactly what you’re doing with your data, and, as Wi-Fi enabled access control becomes more prevalent, your front door too. Read more