Amazon Indoor Delivery – Avoid the Porch Pirates

Package thieves (AKA "porch pirates") have become a huge problem because of the ease of theft. Many criminals don't care about cameras because here in California theft is barely illegal... I like to shop on Amazon, so I was eager to try their Amazon Key indoor delivery. I first purchased the Amazon Key system with …

Ring Home Security System

I purchased the "Iris by [b]Lowe's" home do-it-yourself security system in July 2018 for close to $500 only to have [b]Lowe's decide they were killing off that business in March 2019. [b]Lowe's also decided I would only receive a partial refund of $200 by Visa gift card, but this is a gripe for another discussion. …

JideTech Inexpensive Outdoor PTZ Surveillance Camera

I had been looking at getting an outdoor PTZ surveillance camera, but I didn't want to spend hundreds dollars on something like the Amcrest IP2M-853EW. I'm sure this is a very nice camera and the features are impressive, but I simply do not require a PTZ camera so I don't want to spend $290. I …

Filter Ads on Your Network with Pi-hole

I had previously written a post about using a virtual machine to run the ad blocker called Pi-hole, but I found it better to use a Raspberry Pi. Advertisements online can be annoying, slow the loading of web pages (especially on mobile devices), and the worst is when ad servers actually deliver malware. Yes, a …

Opera Web Browser Adds Free VPN (More Like a Proxy Service) & Ad Blocking

The Opera web browser is not one of the most popular browsers, but it is actually quite decent. Don't get me wrong, I will use Chrome or Firefox first, but it is a close third. However, Opera is doing something a bit radical. The developer edition of the Opera web browser now includes free, unlimited …

Be Prepared for Ransomware & Other Threats

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts your data and demands money before you may decrypt it. This essentially holds your data hostage until you pay a ransom. Most variants of this type of malware uses strong encryption and you will not defeat it. It is either pay or lose your data. Thinking about …

Google Two-Step Verification

I keep up with tech security threats and I worry about my accounts being hacked. I use complicated passwords, but they can get compromised. One way to greatly decrease the odds of being hacked, even with a compromised password, is to use what is known as two-factor or two-step verification. This means that you use …

Synology NAS: Block Access by Region (Country)

The ability to block internet access by region or IP range was very sought after on the Synology NAS devices. I read several forums explaining how to do it, but it seemed very complicated and many people did not seem to have much luck implementing it. A recent Synology update added this capability with just …

Why You Should Not Post Too Much Information Online

This is why you should not post too much information on social media. If this were a bad guy, he could use some of this information to his advantage for social engineering, guessing passwords, etc.

Gmail: See IP Addresses Accessing Your Account

While writing the quick tip on how to use Dropbox to locate a stolen computer by seeing the connected IP address, it made me think that this also can be done in Gmail. I recommend this tip more for seeing who is connecting to your account and not necessarily to locate a stolen computer. Why …