Mar 15 2008
Internet has a trash problem, researcher says
The Internet is meaningless packets of information, used in distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS) to knock Web sites offline.
Those are the findings of Arbor Networks, a network traffic analysis company that recently looked at traffic flowing among more than 68 Internet service providers to see how much of it was malicious.
Mar 13 2008
Speeding Up Internet Access
People usually complain that the Internet is slow and they blame their ISPs. However, the problem usually lies in user’s own systems. If you’re connecting to a high-speed ISP with a modem over a telephone line, you’ll still get slow internet access. To get a fast internet experience start with hardware. Get a relatively high-speed, low-latency connection to the Internet like cable or DSL, and then make sure your computer can handle the load. Connect to the modem via an Ethernet port and not serial, parallel, or USB. Finally, see to it that your computer has enough memory; in most modern computers this is more a bottleneck than speed.
Mar 10 2008
Virgin Media denies purge on pirates
Virgin Media has denied that it is team up with music trade organization the British Phographic Industry (BPI) in a trial crackdown on illegal downloaders. Spokesman Asam Ahmad said that like all service providers the company is looking at the issue and had held talks with the BPI but was far from coming to any agreement.
Mar 06 2008
Risk in Using Proxy Servers
When you use a proxy server, the data sent to the service that you use must pass through the proxy server before being sent to the service. This data is in unencrypted form usually, thus a malicious proxy server can record everything sent to the proxy: including unencrypted logins and passwords. However, if you use an HTTPS proxy such as LinkItTo, your information will be encrypted thus making it harder for thieves to steal your info. Chaining proxies which do not reveal data about the requester will hide activities from the eyes of the user’s destination.
Advice: Use proxy servers of known integrity. If there is no choice but to use unknown proxy servers, do not pass any private information through the proxy unless it is properly encrypted.
Mar 01 2008
Video Killed the Overbearing Internet Provider
After denying that it blocked bandwidth-eating file swaps from popular video and music sharing sites like Bit Torrent and Google’s YouTube, Comcast finally caved Thursday and extended an olive branch to a former foe.
The Philadelphia-based cable television and Internet network operator said it would collaborate with Bit Torrent, a file-sharing services provider.