Who is stealing my data?

Question
I've recently connected my laptop wirelessly to the Internet. My desktop is connected through an ADSL cable. Since then, my downloading and uploading have increased greatly, (9GB in one week). When both computers are on the net but no activity whatsoever the desktop don't show any "transit" under the activity window but the laptop under the same display shows an increasing number "going up" under "packets sent". Could you please tell me (since I'm being charged for uploading also) that my connection is secure and nobody is stealing my bandwidth? I spoke to my ISP but they assured me that my connection is 100% secure and my router has a password.

Answer
Something is very wrong as this is well over 1GB a day, something many users don't reach even in a month, and the most likely explanation is that somebody living close to you has connected to your wireless access point and is downloading videos or music. Your ISP cannot possibly know how your wireless security is set, or if you have any security at all. The password that they refer to is their password. If the wireless router packets are increasing while the Task Manager, Networking shows no network activity on either computer, then you can be 100% sure someone is connecting to the wireless router.

I would start by changing the encryption key on the router as this will probably defeat them. Other steps to take would be to disable the SSID broadcast as someone wanting to connect to your system will need to find that out. Read the manual that came with the wireless router on how to implement these changes. You'II then only once have to type these items into the laptop the next time that you reconnect.

I suggest that you also enable MAC (Media Access Control) address filtering. A MAC address is a 12-digit unique code assigned to each Ethernet card. This will only permit users with that specific Ethernet card to access your router and deny network requests from others. To find out the MAC address of the computers in your house, for each computer open a DOS box by clicking Start, Run and enter CMD, then in the DOS box type IPCONFIG /ALL and look for the line Physical Address... and enter the characters such as 00 60 67 76 FC EF of the permitted user.

To monitor and record your downloads use NetMeter which is a free program. See: www.metal-machine.de/readerror/ for details. However, be aware that if the data is going from the wireless access point to some other house, this traffic will not appear on your computer's Ethernet port. To see the traffic flowing you must connect to the wireless router and look at the statistics there.

You may have some spyware that's sending stuff, but with this volume, this is not likely. Use Ad- Aware from www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php or Microsoft's Defender is also good. The actual URL is very long and it is faster to the Microsoft home page, Downloads search for Defender.

PPS on vista

Question
I've recently bought a new computer with Vista Home Premium installed and have had PPS files sent to me and Media Player says it does not support the these files. How can I get the files to run?

Answer
This is not a problem with Vista but is caused by the fact that you do not have the appropriate version of Microsoft Office installed which includes PowerPoint. You can download a free PowerPoint viewer from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/CD010798701033.aspx.

This program will allow you to view all PowerPoint presentations but not to edit them or to create new ones. There's a complete set of Office 2007 Converters at http://tinyurl.com/y5a879 - combined into one 28MB file.

How to prolong laptop battery life

Question
Laptop batteries - when used in an office should they be left on charge all the time, or discharged regularly?

Answer
All laptop batteries have a finite life, typically 3 to 4 years and I will give guidelines to prolonging the current lithium-ion batteries.

As the lithium-ion batteries don't suffer any memory effect, frequent full discharges should be avoided as this shortens the battery life. Leaving the battery constantly on charge is also not a good idea. The best solution to prolong the battery life, although not a really practical one, is to remove the battery and run just from the mains. Unfortunately there's a problem with this method. In the case of a power failure and if you are not running off a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) you'll lose your open files and may suffer disk corruption, just as with a desktop when the lights go out. If you do decide to store the battery then it should not be fully charged but left at about half capacity for best results.

Another important factor that is detrimental to long life is heat. The worst combination is to keep the battery fully charged at a high temperature and this is something that happens regularly. It's best not buy spare lithium-ion batteries initially for later use, but if you have a spare then keep it in a cool place at half charge.

Reprinted from the November 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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