Category Archives: Networking

Working With Lightroom: Incorporating Personal Cloud With Lightroom To Free Up Local Disk Space

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Posted by on in Networking, Photography

In the video right after the break, I’m working with Lightroom 4, therefore if you’re using a different Lightroom version, things I talk about within the video might turn out to be somewhat different for you.  Nonetheless, the main concept should be the same.  Anyhow, in the video, I emphasize retouching photos in Lightroom on a local hard drive first, and then move the original photos that you don’t have the need to work with anymore over to the personal cloud for safekeeping.  This way, you organize your original photos in the personal cloud and free up the local disk space.  Also, you can always move the same original photos from the personal cloud back to the local hard drive for retouching.  The trick is to do all of this within Lightroom user interface.  If you are going about doing this manually (i.e., digging into local hard drive and move the photos manually without letting Lightroom knows of what you’re doing), Lightroom might not know how to update the metadata and locations of the original photos in Lightroom’s archive database.  The whole idea is to use Lightroom to organize your photos locally or over the network.  When you’re doing this neatly within Lightroom, whenever the need arises, you can easily recall the original photos for further retouching.

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Turning Local Dynamic IP Address Into A Local Static IP Address By Reserving It (Video)

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Posted by on in Internet, Networking
A little diagram of an IP address (IPv4)

A little diagram of an IP address (IPv4) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is local static IP address?  When someone talks about setting up a computer with a local static IP address, this person probably means to have a computer to use a local IP address that will not change.  Static means never change.

What is a local dynamic IP address?  It means a router will monitor the expiration dates of the leases of the local dynamic IP addresses which the router gave out to various computers within a network.  So when a computer uses a local dynamic IP address, sometime in the future a dynamic IP address will have its lease expired.  When this happens, a router will assign a new local dynamic IP address to this particular computer.  This means a dynamic IP address will have to change from time to time.

The benefits of having a local static IP address is that whenever a machine within a network is acting as a server of some sort, its local IP address remains the same as always.  This means if you had done a port forwarding for this particular machine, the port forwarding settings will not have to be changed.  This won’t be the case if you have a machine with a local dynamic IP address, because the local dynamic IP address will change and then the port forwarding settings too have to be reset so the router will know which local machine or server of some sort of which local IP address will be able to accept the port forwarding’s data.  So, it’s clear that using local IP addresses is best when you have machines that act as servers and so on.  Perhaps, a Time Machine server for doing backups for a Mac?

So, what is good about using local dynamic IP addresses?  The good thing about using local dynamic IP addresses is that once you set your computer to accept dynamic IP addresses in the network settings, you can move around the whole city or just about anywhere that hands out free Internet connection and not have to mess around with the network settings again.  What happens is that any public place that lets you tap into their network will probably assign your computer a local dynamic IP address.  Since your computer is set to accept a local dynamic IP address, you’re good to go.  You know, surfing the web and so on and not having to mess around with network settings.  If you’re already have your computer sets to use a local static IP address, it will be messy for you when you tap into a public Internet connection.  You will have to go into your network settings and then switch from static network settings to DHCP one.  After that, when you get back to your local network, you will have to re-enter all your local static IP settings into your network settings again so your computer will be able to use a local static IP address.

What if you want to have the benefit of not messing around with the network settings at all and allow the router of whatever network to do all the hard work by assigning you a local dynamic IP address whenever, and then you still keep the local static IP address settings when you get back into your local network?  How are you going to do just this?  Well, the answer is to reserve a local dynamic IP address.  When you reserve a local dynamic IP address, this particular local reserved dynamic IP address will always be assigned to the same machine.  So, in a sense, the router is always going to automatically assign a local static IP address for a particular machine.  So, in this sense, using local reserved dynamic IP address retains the same benefit of using a local dynamic IP address (i.e., the router will automatically do all the dirty work and you don’t have to mess with the network settings).  So, imagine this scenario.  You get to a Starbucks, get a latte, turn on your computer and then it will automatically accept a local dynamic IP address from the Starbucks’ router.  When you get back home, your local network will automatically assign your computer with the reserved local dynamic IP address.   This scenario allows you not to have to ever mess around with network settings once you have reserved a local dynamic IP address with your router.  Yet, a particular machine which you have reserved a local dynamic IP address for will have a local static IP address as this particular reserved local dynamic IP address will never change.

Just remember, when a router automatically assigns a local IP address, it’s doing its dynamic IP thing, and when you have to open up the network settings of your machine to add a static IP address manually, you’re doing static IP address thing.  Having reserved a local dynamic IP address, the router will do both dynamic and static IP things for you, letting you have more free time to do whatever.  Router will automatically assign a local dynamic IP address to your machine but this particular dynamic IP address will never change.  Anyhow, I hope you get it.

Within the video above, you get to see me showing you how to add a local reserved dynamic IP address so you can use it as a local static IP address for your machine.  Enjoy!!!

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Using VPN To Access All Local Services Without The Need To Open Up Unnecessary Inbound Ports

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Posted by on in Internet, Networking, Security

Before knowing much about VPN, I usually opened up many inbound ports for my computer firewall and the firewall that resided within the router so remote services such as APF (Apple Time Machine) would function correctly.  Obviously, these remote services (e.g., APF, FTP, CIFS, etc…) are also accessible within local area network, therefore one does not need to have to be outside a local area network to use these remote services.  For an example, one can just sit next to the APF server (i.e., APF which hosts on a network attached storage) and locally backup one’s Mac to the Time Machine service.  When using such services locally, one has to use local IP addresses, because one  is within a local area network (e.g., home network, office network, etc…).

The idea is to open up less ports to protect everything within a local area network better.  So, when one travels abroad, one cannot use local IP addresses to access one’s remote services (e.g., APF, FTP, CIFS, etc…), and one has to open up ports for these remote services so remote access would be possible.  Since one has to open up inbound ports for remote connections, one’s local area network might become more vulnerable.  The more open ports there are, the more exploits that hackers can use to test or attack against the services that rely on the open ports.

Luckily, we have VPN.  VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.  Big companies love to deploy VPN for their employees.  If you have ever met one of those employees from one of those big companies, you might see this person logins into a VPN network through a laptop when this person is away from the company.  Since big companies are using VPN, VPN must be for the elites only right?  Wrong!  Just about anyone can use VPN to protect oneself, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do so.  If you watch other videos of mine within my YouTube channel, you will see how easy it’s to set up VPN server/service on Windows 8.  Anyhow, the whole idea is to open up less ports for a network so everything within a network can be somewhat more secure.

Using VPN, one can access local area network as if one never leaves local area network all along.  For an example, one can sit at a Starbucks and yet connect to remote services(e.g., APF, CIFS, FTP, SSH, etc…) with local IP addresses.  How is this possible?  Like I said, using VPN, one never leaves local area network!  This is why VPN is definitely a better option than just opening up whatever inbound ports there are for different remote services.  With VPN, all one has to do is to open up one port which VPN relies on.  Through the connection of VPN, one then can just access all services within a local area network as if one has never leave a local area network all along.  In case you don’t know, VPN encrypts data automatically.  This is just another reason why I think VPN is definitely a better solution for remote access.

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Let Run VPN Server On Windows 8 To Allow You Securely Transmit Data At Any Public Place Which Relies On A Public Internet Connection

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Posted by on in Internet, Networking, Security

Using VPN (Virtual Private Network), one can securely transmit data back and forth in a public place which relies on a public Internet connection.  Wait, what is a public Internet connection?  It’s just an Internet connection in which just about anyone who has a computer can tap into and use.  A good example would be at a Starbucks.  Transmitting data in a public location is a very dangerous thing to do (i.e., only if you’re connecting to the public Internet connection), because you never know someone might do something nefarious nearby.  He or she might sniff the network traffics, and this means anything you transmit through a public Internet connection can be intercepted by such a person.  With VPN, it will be a lot harder for such an evildoer to actually get hold of your data in a public place.

Why using VPN can safeguard your data better when you’re connecting to a public Internet connection?  VPN will create a safe connection between your computer and a VPN server, and whatever gets transmitted through a VPN connection will be encrypted.  Nonetheless, VPN isn’t an end to end encrypted connection.  What this means is that when your data leaves VPN server so it can go to a server which hosts the web service on the Internet, the data will become unencrypted.  How come?  The Internet isn’t opening up an encrypted channel with your VPN server!  To put this in another way, it’s only the computer which you use to connect to a VPN server can actually open up an encrypted channel with the VPN server.  This is why you need a VPN client.  Nowadays, you don’t have to install VPN client much, because most operating systems (i.e., Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) come with a VPN client by default.  You might have to install a VPN client if you’re connecting to a non-standard, third party VPN server/service.

You can imagine the VPN encrypted channel as in a VPN tunnel or just a tunnel where cars travel through.  When a car got out of a tunnel, the daylight will hit the car in every direction.  Got the gist?

VPN is definitely a good thing to have when you are using the Internet in a public location.  Even though VPN isn’t an end to end encrypted connection, it’s still going to prevent the hackers in a public location from hacking you.  Of course, he or she can try, but it won’t be easy!  Let say, the hacker cannot magically insert himself or herself between the VPN server and the web service (which locates somewhere on the Internet and you want to connect to).  If the hacker wants to hack you in a public spot when you’re using VPN, he or she must hack your VPN connection first, and then everything else would be secondary.

To be even more secure, you can totally transmit all data within HTTPS protocol (a secure/encrypted hypertext transfer protocol), and this way the hacker is going to work even harder.  This means, a hacker must first hack your VPN connection, and then your HTTPS connection afterward.  VPN connection itself is already a difficult thing to tamper with.

Right after the break, you can check out a video I made on how to allow Windows 8 to host a VPN server/service.  Running a VPN server/service on Windows 8 allows you to go just about anywhere and connect back home for a VPN connection.  Of course, if your home network isn’t secure and already being infected with hackers’ exploits, then your VPN connection might as well be rendered insecure.  So, make sure your home network is actually well guarded.  A well guarded home network will definitely ensure your home devices such as a Windows 8 computer — which runs VPN server — won’t be tampered with.  I think a well guarded network equates to deploying all security elements within a network, and this means something as a strong firewall, strong antivirus software, strong network security policies, and the list would go on.

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How To Create, Attach/Associate, And Mount EBS Onto Amazon EC2 (Using Ubuntu 12.04 Linux OS)

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Posted by on in Linux, Networking, Web Services
English: Cloud Computing

English: Cloud Computing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was playing around with Amazon Web Services, and then I thought it would be a good idea to make a how-to video which shows people (who are new to Amazon Web Services) how to add, attach/associate, and mount EBS (Elastic Block Storage) to Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing) instance (using Ubuntu 12.04 Linux OS for the EC2 instance).  For your information, Amazon Web Services is like a cloud web hosting and network infrastructure (plus a whole lot more).  Nonetheless, if you have no idea what I just spewed and still think Amazon Web Services is interesting, you definitely can find out more about Amazon Web Services at Amazon (the website and not the jungle).  Anyhow, the thought is awesome in my opinion, and so the end result is the video right after the break.  Enjoy!!!

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Iran Internet Might Inspire Even More Of The Same

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Posted by on in Internet, Networking
The IMP Log: The Very First Message Sent on th...

The IMP Log: The Very First Message Sent on the Internet (Photo credit: FastLizard4)

If it’s true that Iran is separating its Internet from the rest of the world, then it also might be true that we might see something like this to be a common thing in various parts of the world in the near future.  According to the Guardian “The internet in pieces” piece, Iran is creating a giant Intranet.  Nonetheless, I prefer to call Iran’s giant Intranet as Iran Internet since the whole Iran country would be able to use this particular Intranet for everything.  They would use it for banking, e-commerce, news, entertainment, streaming, and you name it.  The list goes on.  Nonetheless, none of the activities that can be done within Iran Internet will be able to share communication with the world Internet (i.e., the Internet which everyone across the globe is using).

The whole idea for Iran to have its very own Internet is to have better control of the flow of the information.  Furthermore, it’s much harder for hackers outside Iran to deploy payloads (i.e., hack exploits/attacks) against Iran’s electronic infrastructure, because I surmise Iran Internet would not have any real physical connection between itself and the world Internet (i.e., the Internet in which everyone across the globe is using).  I also surmise that to retain some communication between Iran Internet and the world Internet, Iran might deploy not one Iran Internet but two or more.  How come?  I surmise Iran might deploy a second Iran Internet which isn’t so isolated from the world Internet to allow Iran’s authorized entities perform electronic transactions with the world.  Then there is a question, how would Iran retain and transfer the information from the exposed Iran Internet to the isolated Iran Internet?  I guess, Iran must have a way to copy information from one network to another without having two networks connect to each other physically.

Why did I say that Iran Internet might become a common thing in the future?  It’s obvious that various parts of the world are totally aware of the dangers of being hacked.  Unlike a regular citizen of a country, a country itself has lot of state secrets to protect, therefore it’s unacceptable for state secrets to be leaked through electronic hacks.  If Iran Internet is a success in term of protecting Iran from state hacks, we might see various countries create state Intranet which separates from citizen Internet.  Nonetheless, some countries might go just as far as how Iran is doing with its own Internet by creating state Internet which encompasses citizen Internet, to isolate many citizens from the world Internet.

The only thing I can think of for any country to build citizen Internet is to control the inflow and outflow of the information that get in and out of a country.  This way, a country can monitor, censor, and regulate the flow of information between a country and the world.  In a way, some countries might have been doing this, already!  Nonetheless, these countries’ approaches to the Internet aren’t extreme as Iran Internet.  These countries employ sophisticated firewall to filter out things that need to be censored, effectively preventing regular citizens to have access to the world and domestic information alike.  Nonetheless, any avid computer user in these countries can totally use a technology known as proxy to bypass any computer network censorship.  When a country adopts Iran Internet strategy, proxy technology might become useless in regarding to allowing computer users to bypass network censorship.  How come?  Isolated Internet (or Iran Internet kind of network) is physically disconnected from the world Internet (i.e., the Internet which everyone is using across the globe).

I think it’s a shame that in our near future, the information age might see the Internet breaks into pieces that segregate from each other.  It’s a possibility since many countries want to protect state secrets and have better control of the information flow that gets in and out of a country.  A polarized Internet of tomorrow will not be the Internet of today, and I fear we might not be able to call such polarized Internet as the Internet.  What’s the point of naming a polarized Internet as the Internet when the main function of the Internet, which is allowing the free flow of information, isn’t possible?  Perhaps, the real Internet of tomorrow only occurs on intermittent basis and under heavy monitoring!

The citizens who live in the countries that employ isolated Internet will not be so informed about the world as much as the people who live in the countries that impose no Internet censorship of whatsoever.  I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to be more informed about the world, but I think it’s definitely more exciting for someone like me to know more about the world through the lens of the free Internet (i.e., no censorship).  What do you think?

Source:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/iran-us-cyber-espionage-intranet

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