Mobile Stew

I've been thinking recently about getting a hardware firewall as in my mind it should offer a better level of protection for my home network (currently I have 2 PCs, a Xbox 360 and 2 Modded Xboxs running XBMC connected to a Netgear WPN-824 router), whilst freeing up resources on my PCs. 

It just seems to make more sense to stop attacks at the 'edge' of my network rather than letting them through to PCs.  I also wouldn't have to fiddle around with setting up firewall rules on each PC, instead just setting rules at a network level.

Has anybody else done this or considered this?  Can you recommend any devices?

A new SMS encryption service is now available.  The service has been developed by CircleTech, s.r.o., a Czech software corporation. The Java (J2ME) application, which can run on majority of current mobile phones, uses encryption standard AES and user-derived keys to securely encrypt the SMS communication between parties which use it.

SMS 007 has been available for Czech customers for almost 5 months, but only very recently has entered the international market. The main distributor for Europe is Nokia Softwaremarket.

Besides encryption of the messages, SMS 007 has also other security features like a hidden contact list, which cannot be seen from the outside without knowledge of the main password - therefore, if someone steals your phone or just gets it in their hands for a while, he/she still cannot ...

Nate Anderson of Ars Technica has written an interesting article that highlights how difficult it can be for Government agencies to track Skype calls.  Governments are worried about the rise in encrypted VoIP conversations,such as those made with Skype, and they're seeking ways of extendingtheir wiretapping power to the Internet.

I hadn't considered this issue before.  All Skype traffic is automatically encrypted end-to-end withoutrequiring any user intervention, and this encryption is posing aproblem to authorities who need (or want) to listen in on conversations

More:  Is Skype a haven for criminals?

I just received an email entitled "You've received a greeting from a family member!" which contained a virus.  I was suspicious from the outset, but given that it is almost Christmas I opened it with my virus scanner running at maximum, just in case it was from a friend.

I'm just putting a warning out as I bet this email or similar ones are going to be popular this week.  Remember, if you don't know the sender or an email comes through anonymously be safe, not sorry and don't open it.

Major Nelson of Xbox Live fame, who is also a Microsoft employee, recently stated that the Xbox360 will never support DivX.  And the reason why?  Because DivX is primarily used to "backup" DVDs and Microsoft don't want to get involved in this contentious area.

If this is the official view from Microsoft it's complete tosh in my view.  Microsoft don't have a problem supporting DivX within XP Media Center Edition so why is it a problem within the Xbox360 Extender?

Also, MCE and Xbox360 both support MP3s.  MP3 is principally a "backup" format as well - if you purchase any music it's usually in WMA or AAC format.  So if they are happy to support MP3 then why can't they support DivX?

I really hope Microsoft change their views ...

The self-destruct sms service launched by Staellium over the weekend is proving to be popular with thousands of people subscribing so far.  I find this very impressive considering that each message costs 50p and a user has to sign-up for a minimum of ten messages. 

To use the service a small application has to be downloaded to the phone.  Messages that are then sent via the service are destroyed 40 seconds after being read, although for legal reasons a log of the message is kept on a secure server.

Apparently the Ministry of Defence is interested in using the system.  Other potential uses could be for sending username and password reminders.  If the time before deletion could be extended then the system could also be used to send vouchers and ...

Most proxy sites don't have easy to remember names.  If you find remembering the url of a proxy site too hard to do then check out Pimpmyip.com. which not only has a catchy title, but is also well laid out and easy to use. 

Proxy sites are great for browsing blocked sites both at work and at school, or for browsing securely if you are worried about protecting your computer or identity.

I've just finished setting up a new PC for a friend and I think some of you will be interested in some of the tweaks I make to all of my PCs to make them just a little bit quicker.  I've focused here on the ones which are simple to do and won't cause problems if you get it wrong, rather than listing registry tweaks etc.

1. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning ...