The Forge is Greensboro North Carolina’s first Makerspace.

From the Greensboro News Record.

“Pi Day (3/14) Career Exploration Jobs Event

9:25 a.m. – noon, March 14, The Forge, 115 W Lewis St.
Career Exploration event spotlighting math-intensive jobs. Employers will be in the workshop area focusing on aviation manufacturing, machining, and welding jobs and in the “soft space” we will have employers looking for talent in IT and code-related jobs.
Information: Employers may contact Joel@skilltv.net to reserve a table.”
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From The Forge.

“Amenities

• 24/7 hours of operation
• A/V system with projector
• Business class internet and WiFi
• Business class server network
• Community space with kitchenette
• Conference room
• Patio area with parabolic canopy
• Rapidly growing inventory of equipment
• RFID access control system
• Secure environment
• Three phase power

Facility Specs

• 3,700sqft
• 2 Bathrooms (ADA compliant)
  • 1 Shower
• 4 separate areas
  • Workshop
  • Collaborative
  • Conference room
  • Patio
• Garage door
• RFID access system
• CPI monitored security system
• 3-phase power”

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Thinking of starting a business now or later?

Of course you will want a catchy, meaningful and easy to remember business name.

After you have chosen a business name, you should reserve a “.com”, domain name.

I have done this on numerous occasions.

First, give some thought to your business name and try not to limit the scope of your potential business activities if applicable.

Next do a search on the internet to see who, if anyone is using your name and what your competition is.

Next, check with your Secretary of State’s office, or other state agency, to see if the name is being used.

Concurrently have some idea of what type of business organization you will use. Corporation, LLC, etc. You may need to consult a tax/business expert for advice.

As soon as you have a handle on your business name, reserve one or more domain names. If you are reserving a .com you may want to also reserve a .net and other
suffixes to keep a potential competitor from usurping your internet name.

If you have chosen a web hosting provider, you can search for a domain name and purchase it there, although it is often provided with the initial cost of hosting,

If you have not chosen a hosting provider or early on you just want to search for a domain name, here are some suggestions:

InstantDomainSearch.com

“See Domain Name Search Results As You Type

Just start typing! If the domain name you are looking for is taken, you can click WHOIS to find out who registered it or the URL to visit the website.

We apply a $0.99 coupon for .com domain names when you buy at Go Daddy. The offer is valid for only one .com purchase, and does not include the ICANN fee of $0.18 per
domain name per year. That’s a sweet deal!

Love the site? Spread the word on Twitter and Facebook!

All domain searches are encrypted over https, and searches do not leave our servers. Your search results are not recorded. Pressing Enter or Return will take you
directly to Go Daddy or the registrar you’ve chosen where you can buy your domain name. Good luck!”

Search

DomainsBot.com

“The domain name search engine!

Available domain suggestions + expired, expiring and for sale domain name search + whois lookup. Domain + Twitter + Facebook identity suggesitons.”

Search

PCnames.com

“Check Domains, Instantly!

Based on your query, PCNames.com instantly checks whether .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us, .mobi and .name domain names are available. The domain search results
will appear with 2-second delay for your convenience.

Your domain search results are not shared with 3-rd parties. However, we keep history of your recent domain searches and favorite domain picks so you can easily follow
up on all the important search results.”

Search

From Entrepreneur.

“Do’s and Don’ts of Securing a Domain Name

Consider these six tips from small-business owners and experts before deciding on a website name.”
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A friend of mine has a coffee shop that I frequent.

He recently went to Time Warner Business class and installed a faster router.

When the router was up the speed was fast.

But it began malfunctioning adn requiring numerous resets.

Time Warner technicians came out, diagnosed their equipment and performance and discussed the results and possible problem areas.

I happened to be present then and the question of Mac addresses came up.

I did some research and the new non commercial Linksys router has a limitation of 32 Mac addresses.

After some trial and error testing and more discussions my friend had his technical support person make some adjustments.

This solution seems to work.

There is now a guest signon screen. In this setting many of the customers have computers and almost all smart phones.

It does not take too many customers to hit the 32 Mac address limit.

Also, the router is reset, unplugged, several times a day.

After unplugging, 10 seconds are waited before plugging back in.

This is not a myth. They learned the hard way.

I told them to wait 10 seconds and that has worked.

You may wonder why.

From How To Geek.

“SuperUser contributor Phoshi offers a great, concise reason why it’s a valid procedure:

A lot of modern technology contains capacitors! These are like energy buckets, little batteries that fill up when you put a current through them, and discharge otherwise. 10 seconds is the time it takes most capacitors to discharge enough for the electronics they’re powering to stop working. That’s why when you turn your PC off at the wall, things like an LED on your motherboard take a few seconds to disappear. You probably could wait a different time, but 10 seconds is the shortest time you can be sure everything’s discharged.

Why fully powering down the device matters hinges on how data is temporarily stored in it. A typical modem or router has two types of memory: Non-volatile Memory (NVRAM) and regular old Random Access Memory (RAM) like the kind in your computer. The router boots off the code stored in the NVRAM and then uses the RAM just like your computer would to write temporary variables, execute code, etc. By fully powering down the device and letting the electrical charges dissipate, the RAM is wiped and, upon rebooting the device, the micro operating system in the device has clear RAM to use.”
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From the Internet Explorer Team Blog January 22, 2015.

“Project Spartan and the Windows 10 January Preview Build

Thursday, January 22, 2015 12:08 PM

Yesterday, we announced that Windows 10 will ship with a brand new browser, codenamed “Project Spartan.” Designed for Windows 10, Spartan provides a more interoperable, reliable, and discoverable experience with advanced features including the ability to annotate on web pages, a distraction-free reading experience, and integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster.

Spartan is a single browser designed to work great across the entire Windows 10 device family – from keyboard and mouse on the Windows 10 desktop to touch, gestures, voice, controllers and sensors.

Powered by a new rendering engine, Spartan is designed for interoperability with the modern web. We’ve deliberately moved away from the versioned document modes historically used in Internet Explorer, and now use the same markup as other modern browsers. Spartan’s new rendering engine is designed to work with the way the web is written today.

Like Windows 10 itself Spartan will remain up-to-date: as a service, both providing new platform capabilities, security and performance improvements, and ensuring web developers a consistent platform across Windows 10 devices. Spartan and the new rendering engine are truly evergreen.

Spartan provides compatibility with the millions of existing enterprise web sites designed for Internet Explorer. To achieve this, Spartan loads the IE11 engine for legacy enterprise web sites when needed, while using the new rendering engine for modern web sites. This approach provides both a strong compatibility guarantee for legacy enterprise web sites and a forward looking interoperable web standards promise.

We recognize some enterprises have legacy web sites that use older technologies designed only for Internet Explorer, such as custom ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects. For these users, Internet Explorer will also be available on Windows 10. Internet Explorer will use the same dual rendering engines as Spartan, ensuring web developers can consistently target the latest web standards.

What does this mean to web developers?

If you are building a public consumer-facing web site here’s what you need to know:

Our new rendering engine will be the default engine for Windows 10, Spartan, and Internet Explorer. This engine has interoperability at its core and consumes the same markup you send other modern browsers. Our standards support and roadmap can be found at http://status.modern.ie.

Public Internet web sites will be rendered using the new engine and modern standards, and legacy Internet Explorer behaviors including document modes are not supported in the new engine. If your web sites depends on legacy Internet Explorer behaviors we encourage you to update to modern standards.

Our goal is interoperability with the modern web and we need your help! You can test the new engine via the Windows Insider Program or using http://remote.modern.ie.

Please let us know (via Connect or Twitter) when you find interoperability problems so we can work with the W3C and other browser manufacturers to ensure great interoperability.”
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Computer system security, especially in regard to internet access, is in the forefront of technical and business reporting.

We are constantly being told about major corporations being hacked and sensitive data being breached.

Target and Sony are some of the more prominent examples.

What is less conspicuous is the hacking of routers, used by businesses and many homeowners.

From setting up my own routers I was aware of important details when configuring them.

What I was not so aware of is the frequency of router hacking and just how vulnerable they are.

A friend of mine owns a coffee shop in NC. Recently 2 of his routers were hacked. He knew this because of performance and setup problems and ultimately by confirmation from the tech support at Linksys.

Of course this has more far reaching consequences such as potential compromise of customer debit and credit card information.

And don’t forget, when you are using someone’s WIFI internet access, you should be mindful of this fact and probably not enter or access important information while using their router.

From what I have uncovered from research over the past several days, this problem has not been taken seriously enough by the public and router manufacturers.

A great article from CNET in 2013 explains the extent of the problem and provides a clear warning.

From CNET April 17, 2013.

“Top Wi-Fi routers easy to hack, says study
The most popular home wireless routers are easily hacked and there’s little you can do to stop it, says a new study by research firm Independent Security Evaluators.”

“The Wi-Fi router you use to broadcast a private wireless Internet signal in your home or office is not only easy to hack, says a report released today, but the best way to protect yourself is out of your hands.

The report, written by research firm Independent Security Evaluators of Baltimore, found that 13 of the most popular off-the-shelf wireless routers could be exploited by a “moderately skilled adversary with LAN or WLAN access.” It also concludes that your best bet for safer Wi-Fi depends on router vendors upping their game. All 13 routers evaluated can be taken over from the local network, with four of those requiring no active management session. Eleven of the 13 can be taken over from a Wide-Area Network(WAN) such as a wireless network, with two of those requiring no active management session.”

“Before you dismiss router hacks as exceptionally rare, it’s important to note that they’ve been a small but growing segment of computer security threats. In 2011, one firmware vulnerability affecting six hardware manufacturers combined with two malicious scripts and 40 malicious DNS servers to attack 4.5 million Brazilian DSL modems, with the goal of stealing bank and credit card information.

Craig Heffner, a vulnerability analyst at Maryland-based Tactical Network Solutions, said that he isn’t familiar with the Brazil story but isn’t surprised by it. “In a lot of countries, there’s only one or two ISPs, and you get whatever router they give you,” he said. “They often enable remote administration by default, so any vulnerability would be amplified.”

And just yesterday, ReadWrite reported on wireless router hacking, based in part on research conducted by security firm Rapid7. ISE’s study, while similar, reports “all-new findings,” said ISE’s marketing head, Ted Harrington.

Harrington further explained why router hacking could turn into a big problem. “What’s notable about this is that if you compromise the router, then you’re inside the firewall. You can pick credit card numbers out of e-mails, confidential documents, passwords, photos, just about anything,” he said.

He added that ISE plans to release additional information from the study in the coming weeks, following the routine security community best practice of giving vendors a chance to respond to vulnerabilities that have been uncovered before publishing them.

“We notified all vendors about all vulnerabilities that we found,” said ISE security analyst Jake Holcomb. “We’re in the process of receiving Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE) numbers” for tracking information security vulnerabilities.

Some vendors, Holcomb said, got back to ISE quickly and had beta firmware with fixes ready to test within 72 hours. “Other vendors escalated their Tier 1 support up the chain but we never heard back from them,” he said.”

Read more

I have been referring to PC Magazine in print and on the internet for 30 years. They have some pretty good reviews. However, the following article on purchasing routers is an example of downplaying the importance of security.

From PC Magazine January 31, 2014.

“First, ask yourself how high-end you want to go with a router. If you need nothing more than to create a wireless network, you can get away with a fairly cheap router—spending less than $100 should do. If you want extras such as security, parental controls, and the ability to connect USB printers and external storage drives for sharing data, you’ll want to look at higher-priced premium routers.

What Type of Security?
Most of the newer routers support the highest level of security, WPA2. If in the market for a new router, make sure it supports WPA2.”

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“extras such as security”

Really??

Selecting WPA2 for security is important. However, apparently, WPA2 scurity and the latest firmware cannot be counted to stop hackers.

Just this morning I was discussing this with a friend who owns a tax/accounting business.

Forget the bells and whistles that PC Magazine focused on.

When I am purchasing a router, I first want it to be reliable, i.e, keep functioning and be secure.

I spoke to another friend a few hours ago. He is charge of network security for a NC company. In college he was taught to expect routers to be hacked.

Here are some more warnings and useful precautionary steps.

From Tom’s Guide.

“Your Router’s Security Stinks: Here’s How to Fix It”

“Earlier this year, a router worm called TheMoon used the HNAP protocol to identify vulnerable Linksys-brand routers to which it could spread itself. (Linksys quickly issued a firmware patch.)

“As soon as you get home, this is something you want to do with all your routers,” Horowitz told the tech-savvy crowd. “Go to /HNAP1/, and, hopefully, you’ll get no response back, if that’s the only good thing. Frankly, if you get any response back, I would throw the router out.”

The WPS Threat

Worst of all is Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), an ease-of-use feature that lets users bypass thenetwork password and connect devices to a Wi-Fi network simply by entering an eight-digit PIN that’s printed on the router itself. Even if the network password or network name is changed, the PIN remains valid.

“This is a huge expletive-deleted security problem,” Horowitz said. “That eight-digit number will get you into the [router] no matter what. So a plumber comes over to your house, turns the router over, takes a picture of the bottom of it and he can now get on your network forever.”

That eight-digit PIN isn’t even eight digits, Horowitz explained. It’s actually seven digits, plus a final checksum digit. The first four digits are validated as one sequence and the last three as another, resulting in only 11,000 possible codes instead of 10 million.

“If WPS is active, you can get into the router,” Horowitz said. “You just need to make 11,000 guesses” — a trivial task for most modern computers and smartphones.””

“Regardless of whether a router is commercial- or consumer-grade, there are several things, varying from easy to difficult, that home-network administrators can do to make sure their routers are more secure:

Easy fixes

Change the administrative credentials from the default username and password. They’re the first things an attacker will try.

Change the network name, or SSID, from “Netgear,” “Linksys” or whatever the default is, to something unique — but don’t give it a name that identifies you.

“If you live in an apartment building in apartment 3G, don’t call your SSID ‘Apartment 3G,'” Horowitz quipped. “Call it ‘Apartment 5F.'”

Enable WPA2 wireless encryption so that only authorized users can hop on your network.

Disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup, if your router lets you.

Set up a guest Wi-Fi network and offer its use to visitors, if your router has such a feature. If possible, set the guest network to turn itself off after a set period of time.

“You can turn on your guest network, and set a timer, and three hours later, it turns itself off,” Horowitz said. “That’s a really nice security feature.”

Do not use cloud-based router management if your router’s manufacturer offers it. Instead, figure out if you can turn that feature off.

“This is a really bad idea,” Horowitz said. “If your router offers that, I would not do it, because now you’re trusting another person between you and your router.”

MORE: 7 Computer-Security Fixes to Make Right Now

Moderately difficult

Install new firmware when it becomes available. Log into your router’s administrative interface routinely to check. With some brands, you may have to check the manufacturer’s website for firmware upgrades. But have a backup router on hand if something goes wrong.

Set your router to use the 5-GHz band for Wi-Fi instead of the more standard 2.4-GHz band, if possible and if all your devices are compatible.

“The 5-GHz band does not travel as far as the 2.4-GHz band,” Horowitz said. “So if there is some bad guy in your neighborhood a block or two away, he might see your 2.4-GHz network, but he might not see your 5-GHz network.”

Disable remote administrative access, and disable administrative access over Wi-Fi. Administrators should connect to routers via wired Ethernet only.

Advanced tips for more tech-savvy users

Change the settings for the administrative Web interface, if your router permits it. Ideally, the interface should enforce a secure HTTPS connection over a non-standard port, so that the URL for administrative access would be something like, to use Horowitz’s example, “https://192.168.1.1:82″ instead of the more standard “http://192.168.1.1″.

Use a browser’s incognito or private mode when accessing the administrative interface so that your new URL is not saved in the browser history.

Disable PING, Telnet, SSH, UPNP and HNAP, if possible. Instead of setting relevant ports to “closed,” set them to “stealth” so that no response is given to unsolicited external communications that may come from attackers probing your network.

“Every single router has an option not to respond to PING commands,” Horowitz said. “It’s absolutely something you want to turn on — a great security feature. It helps you hide. Of course, you’re not going to hide from your ISP, but you’re going to hide from some guy in Russia or China.”

Change the router’s Domain Name System (DNS) server from the ISP’s own server to one maintained by OpenDNS (208.67.220.220, 208.67.220.222, 208.67.222.220, 208.67.222.222) or Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4).

Use a virtual private network (VPN) router to supplement or replace your existing router and encrypt all your network traffic.

“When I say VPN router, I mean a router that can be a VPN client,” Horowitz said. “Then, you sign up with some VPN company, and everything that you send through that router goes through their network. This is a great way to hide what you’re doing from your Internet service provider.”

Finally, use Gibson Research Corp.’s Shields Up port-scanning service athttps://www.grc.com/shieldsup. It will test your router for hundreds of common vulnerabilities, most of which can be mitigated by the router’s administrator.

• 7 Scariest Security Threats Headed Your Way
• Identity Theft Victim? Here’s 6 Things You Need to Do
• 10 Facebook Privacy and Security Settings to Lock Down

Follow Paul Wagenseil at @snd_wagenseil. Follow Tom’s Guide at @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.”
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During the past 2 months my bank messed up an otherwise pretty good online bill pay screen.

I bought a different brand of running shoes after wearing Nike Air Pegasus for over 20 years.

Why, the last 2 pairs developed holes in the toes. The last pair within 2 weeks.

I canceled 3 Hostmonster hosting accounts after using them for years.

Why, lousy tech support.

I purchased my fifth Toshiba notebook computer in a row 3 months ago. The first one from 1993 still works.

The new one developed a horizontal line on the bottom left approx. 15 percent screen width in size.

Several days ago I chatted with tech support apparently with Mr./Ms. no personality, no personal skills Doe.

A few minutes ago I provided serial & part info (that was a pain) and found warranty information.

I will call soon.

I will be bracing myself for the worst.

The computer is under warranty but with my recent experiences I question if I will get satisfaction.

Otis redding and Mick Jagger were ahead of their time.

I will keep you updated.

Wish me luck.

Wells

“Technical support is like insurance. You should rarely need it but when you do, you really need it.”…L Wells

I have used Hostmonster for web hosting for years and other services prior to that.

Three of my Hostmonster accounts were to be consolidated into one or two accounts and some of the numerous domains were to
be discontinued.

Recently I attempted to contact tech support at Hostmonster. I have rarely had to do so. What had been a great experience
a few years ago turned into a nightmare.

I tried both calling and chatting. Both wait times were extremely lengthy.

When I finally engaged a chat, the person was not listening to what I wanted, made assumptions and eventually gave me
incorrect information.

I spoke to someone in sales (the only responsive dept.) who did listen and was apologetic.

Without boring you with details I spent some more money and followed the chatter’s advice.

This turned out to be a bad decision.

Further attempts to get tech support were futile.

I did the usual internet search to find out the experience of others.

I found the following.

“As time went on performance for my websites became worse and worse. It turns out the *actual* culprit of all this was
drastically oversold (overloaded) servers.”

“After receiving several complaints from family who gave up on trying to view some photos in my photo gallery and numerous
complaints from customers (for the software I sell here) I tried contacting HostMonster support again. The chat log from
this contact can be viewed below.”

“Since HostMonster clearly did not value me as a customer and offered nothing to resolve the situation I decided to change
web hosting companies. I am now a proud customer of WebHostingHub.com. The performance on all of my websites has
dramatically improved. They’re snappy even! Hopefully I haven’t lost all of my friends & family as readers. If you stopped
checking in because my sites were slow, you have my apologies. I’m welcoming you back with open arms — better performance
and all. If you stumbled across this post because you’re having similar issues with HostMonster’s performance–what are you
waiting for? Cancel your account with HostMonster for a pro-rated refund and make the switch to WebHostingHub.com. Life
here is grand”

Read more:

http://www.schiffner.com/11-excruciating-months-with-hostmonster-have-come-to-an-end/

One of my favorite expressions is “talk is cheap unless you are talking to an attorney.”

Therefore, I tried a test with Webhostinghub tech support chat and someone responded well and within 30 seconds.

And this was as a non customer.

I then signed up for a two year service of hosting with them. The introductory price was $ 89.64 for two years.

Since signing up, I have received the best support ever with each call or chat responded to with 30 seconds.

This article will be updated with more information as time progresses.
In fairness to Hostmonster and ironically, I got my best response when I cancelled all three accounts.

Too little too late.