Network Security Principles and Practices Secure LAN Switching. This excerpt is reprinted with permission from Cisco Press. For more information or to order the book.

Find a Network Term Most Popular Tutorials The most daunting part of upgrading to Windows Vista may be trying to figure out where in the layers of menus the networking and file-sharing options are hidden. It may not be something you do everyday, but having the supplies and know-how to whip up a network cable on the spot can be very handy. Seemingly minor and easily overlooked settings can still have profound security implications. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your wired or wireless home router — and by extension, your network — is as secure as possible.

Most Popular Reviews If you have a home network, you'll welcome the easy file sharing, remote access and the image-based backup features of Windows Home Server. Iomega's fourth generation StorCenter Network Hard Drive brings many of the features found in higher-end storage devices down to an attractive price. Stm Flash Loader Demonstrator. This free tool delivers many of the same capabilities that you'd find in pricey network monitoring tools. As long as you don't mind tinkering, The Dude is a decent network utility that should be worth the download.

Security Scans There are some good guys out there who will, with your permission, scan your Internet connection and give you feedback on how secure it is. These services are free and usually involve going to a web page and clicking on a button or filling out a form to get things started. The service will then check your connection to see how secure it is, and give you feedback on what it finds.

Rise Of Nations Gold Edition Patch Itau. If you're unfamiliar with networking terminology, some of the feedback can be confusing, and make you even more paranoid than you already may be! However, the site contains excellent explanations of virtually everything involved with securing your LAN against intruders, so there's no excuse for being uninformed! The security check programs all do their work by attempting to connect to your system, just like a cracker would do.

If you are on a corporate or other network that is administered by someone else, it would be a good idea to not use these programs. They could cause security alerts and create unnecessary work for your IT department! • This is the place to go for virtually everything related to securing your LAN! Lots of excellent explanatory material and very good NetBios and Port Scanner utilities that give clear feedback. Pretty fast, too! • runs checks on NetBios, open common TCP and UDP ports, webserver vulnerabilities (mostly CGI based), and will even ping and traceroute your IP address to test for packet loss. You can select which of these tests you want to run.

The bad news is that the port scans can take 30-60 minutes to run. 12/99 The site has been changed so that you don't have to remain online if you're a dialup user. They also have a mini-scan option that completes in under a minute, and have a Telnet scan that will attempt to get around proxy servers.