With more and more people working from home, keeping your personal computer safe and secure is important. There is always somebody out there that will want to get your information and/or data. So here are five (5) things to look at to protect your computer when working from home.

It is hard not to be paranoid when it comes to the security of your computer at home. You hear about all the ways that the bad guys can get access to your data. But with a few simple changes, you can harden the security of your personal computer.

E-mail

E-mail is the most popular way for the bad guys to get access to you. They will try and infect your computer with a malicious attachment or get you to go to a compromised website to get your information. Sometimes they just want you to respond to their e-mail with your personal information.

Either way, e-mail is currently the largest source of attacks and scams. But there are some simple things you can do to protect yourself. The first thing you want to look at is how you view your e-mail.

Now e-mail can be written using two (2) different formats: plain text (like in a .TXT file) or HTML (like the code used for websites). Plain text e-mail cannot have any special formatting but HTML e-mail can.

Just like malicious websites can have hidden code that can download and install malware, adware, and viruses, so can malicious HTML formatted e-mail. There is no difference between the two.

So, just like if you went to a malicious website and viewed an infected web page that had a malware payload inside of it, viewing a malicious HTML formatted e-mail has the same effect.

The best way to avoid downloading the contains of an HTML formatted e-mail is by not using the preview feature in your mail program. Most of them, like Outlook and Thunderbird, can turn off the preview pane. If the HTML formatted e-mail can't be rendered, it cannot execute the code inside.

One thing to remember is that if you do not know or recognize the person or company that sent you a questionable e-mail, just delete it. It is not worth the trouble a malicious e-mail can cause just to see what is in the e-mail.

While on the subject of malicious e-mail, knowing how to spot a piece of junk mail is important. I go into more detail on how to do it in the following article I wrote a little while back.

How to spot a piece of spam e-mail

There is another option when it comes to e-mail security and that is using an anti-spam program. Since I get hundreds of e-mail a day, I started using the anti-spam program MailWasher almost two decades ago. It is perfect for getting rid of junk mail.

For more information on MailWasher, check out this article I wrote a couple of years ago. They have a paid version and a free version.

Eliminate spam from your inbox with MailWasher 7.5

Tech scams

Tech scams have seemed to lose there popularly with bad guys. I guess is it because consumers are getting smarter and not falling for them anymore. But you still get them from time to time, so here is a link to an article I wrote about avoiding them.

How to handle a tech scam

Bottom line is, don't give them any information and, whatever you do, do not give them access to your computer!

Software updates

Allot of people don't apply updates to Windows and other programs because they are afraid that the updates will break the software. Yes, it does happen occasionally, but not regularly.

Sure, I have had my fair share of repairing computers that have experienced a failed update. But more often than not, updates install flawlessly. With all of the testing that software manufacturers do to updates, a failed update is kind of rare.

But recovering from a virus or malware infection that could have been prevented by applying software updates can be expensive. And kind of embarrassing too.

Then there is using an operating system, like Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 that has reached its end-of-life and no longer gets security updates. I get the "I just like the way it works" or "My software won't run on the latest version of Windows" arguments.

I have found solutions to those arguments and many like them. When there is a will, there is a way. But running unpatched software is just way too dangerous. Bite the bullet and apply updates or upgrade your software.

Anti-virus software

This is another piece of software you have to keep an eye on. The biggest problem I encounter is expired anti-virus licenses. A customer will get a new computer with anti-virus software preloaded that has a 30 or 60-day trial license.

When the trial license expires, they just ignore the pop-ups telling them about the expired license. Luckily, Windows 10 has a highly rated anti-virus program (Windows Security) built-in. It will usually take over when a trial anti-virus license expires.

Normally when I set up a new computer for a customer, I ask them what they want to do about anti-virus software. The majority of them tell me to remove the pre-loaded trial version of anti-virus software.

If they don't have a preference for a particular anti-virus program, I have them go to an independent, third-party website like AV Test and check the ratings for the different anti-virus software.

A lot of people are surprised that Microsoft's Windows Defender / Windows Security is rated so high. Microsoft has worked hard over the years to improve its anti-virus software.

Now the cool thing is even if you have installed another companies anti-virus software on Windows 10, Windows Security will see it and set it as the default. But you can still have Windows Security do periodic scans.

Routers

This security tip may or may not affect you. If you lease your router from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), then this topic is not relevant to you. If you own your router, then this will be of interest to you.

Home Internet routers have always been a target for the bad guys. There are two reasons for that: First is the fact that home users don't usually change the default administrative passwords. Luckily, a few years ago, router manufacturers started to install complicated default passwords.

The second reason is that once people set up their routers, they have a tendency not to think about them anymore until something goes wrong. Its as I like to call it, the set it and forget it syndrome.

Just like I discussed updating software earlier in this article, your router also has software that gets updated. It is called firmware and it is the operating system for your router. Think of it as what Windows is to your computer, the firmware is to your router.

Now the problem is that the firmware in your router does not get automatically updated. You have to do this manually. And sometimes it can be kind of hard to determine what version of firmware your router is running, if there is an updated version of firmware for your router and how to go about upgrading the firmware of your router.

The first place to start is to log into your router and find out what version of firmware it is running. It is usually listed right on the first screen. From there you go to the manufacturer's website and find the product page for your router. What you are going to need is the manual for your router.

A really easy way to find it is by just searching on Google. Just search for manufacturer model manual and the product page for your router should be in the top three (3) results. Once you have the manual, you can search it for Firmware Update and it should explain where to go inside of your router to look for and upload a new version of the firmware.

Now that we have looked at the firmware of the router, let's take a look at the security of your router. The bad guys regularly scan an ISP's range of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses looking for open ports to attack. An IP address is a unique string of numbers that identifies each device on the Internet.

We now want to check and see if your router has any open ports that can be used by the bad guys to gain access to your router or any of the devices inside your network. For this, we want to do an unintrusive scan of all of the service ports on your router.

Gibson Research Corporation has a fantastic tool for doing this called ShieldsUp!. Just go over to the website and under the Services pull-down, you will find ShieldsUp.

Once you get to the ShieldsUp! page click on the Proceed button. From there you can select from several different types of scans. I recommend the All Service Ports scan.

Once the scan is complete, the webpage will display the scan results. If you score a perfect rating, you are good to go. If any ports that require attention, the webpage will tell what you need to do.

Do you have two personal computers and would like to remotely access one from the other? Looking for a really easy way to do it? You can do just that for free with the personal version of TeamViewer.

Remotely accessing a computer is pretty commonplace nowadays. It used to be pretty technically involved to set up remote connections between two computers. But with software like TeamViewer, setting up remote access between computers is pretty easy.

So what would be the main reason for using remote access software? First, it would be to access the software installed on another computer. Second, it would be to use that software to access files on that computer or the network it is on. Basically, it comes down to being able to work on your computer without having to be sitting in front of it.

We here at Geeks in Phoenix have been using commercial, pay-per-seat remote access software for years now. In researching this article, I wanted to find remote access software that could be used for personal use for free.

I have worked with TeamViewer over the years, as some of our customers use it regularly. For personal use, the free version works quite well. Sure, it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of the paid version, like remote printing or tech support, but for remote access and file sharing, it works well.

Setting up TeamViewer on two computers for personal use is pretty simple. The installation process consists of installing the software on both systems and creating a TeamViewer account that links the computers together.

The first thing you do is download and install the TeamViewer software on one of the two computers you want to link together. During the installation, you will come to a screen that asks you how you would like to set up TeamViewer.

When prompted for the type of installation, I recommend using the default setup. When you get prompted for how you want to use TeamViewer, select Personal / Non-commercial use since you are just using it to connect two of your personal computers.

Once the installation is done on the first computer, the TeamViewer program will appear. In the left-hand column, you will see a menu with several categories: Remote Control, Remote Management, Meeting, Computer & Contacts, Chat and Augmented Reality.

The Remote Control category should be highlighted and in the center column, you will find a section labzeled Unattended Access.

Select Start TeamViewer with Windows and Grant easy access.

When you select Grant easy access, the Assign to account form will pop-up asking you for an e-mail address and password.

This is where you are going to create a TeamViewer account.

Click on Create Account and then the Create TeamViewer account form will appear.

Just fill in the required information and go through the steps to verify your e-mail address.

You now have a TeamViewer account. Go back to the TeamViewer screen and make sure that Grant easy access is selected under Remote Control. If it is not, then select it and put in your TeamViewer account details.

Now download and install TeamViewer on your second computer. Use the same options you used for the installation on your first computer. When the installation is complete the TeamViewer main screen will appear.

Just like with the first computer you installed TeamViewer on, the Remote Control category should be highlighted. Under Unattended access select Start TeamViewer with Windows and Grant easy access. When the Assign to account form appears, just type in your e-mail address and password associated with your TeamViewer account.

Once you have both of your computers linked to your TeamViewer account you should see both of them listed under the Computers & Contacts category on both computers.

You can double-click on the name of the computer you want to access remotely and a separate screen for that computer will appear. For more options, you can also right-click on the computer name

and a context menu will appear with all of the options available. For more information on TeamViewer, just click on the link to their website below.

TeamViewer

Microsoft developers have always like to create handy system utilities that add more functionally to the Windows operating system. They call them PowerToys and are released as stand-alone programs. And as always, these programs are completely free.

It is kind of like Déjà vu for me with the PowerToys for Windows 10. I hate to admit it and I'm going to show my age here, but I have used the two (2) previous versions of PowerToys. The first version was PowerToys for Windows 95. The second version was PowerToys for Windows XP. TweakUI (Windows 95 / Windows XP) and Command Prompt Here (Windows 95) / Open Command Windows Here (Windows XP) were two (2) of my favorites.

PowerToys have always been a cool collection of really useful programs that you wonder why they were not part of Windows, to begin with. If fact, some of the functionality of the PowerToys do get built into later releases of Windows.

The third version, PowerToys for Windows 10, has three (3) programs included right now, but I have to imagine there will be more to come. As they do, I will update this article.

And since the Windows 10 PowerToys are all inside of one program, updates and new features will be easy to get installed. There is even an update button that takes you to the website so you can check for new releases.

The PowerToys General Settings includes all of the options for all of the actual PowerToys. This means that there is only one place to enable/disable and configure the settings for the various programs.

Now you have to keep in mind that the PowerToys is an open-source project and code is freely available. That is why the installer is over on the developer website GitHub, which, by the way, Microsoft owns.

As of the time of writing this article (3/2/2020), there are currently three (3) programs included in the PowerToys for Windows 10. They are:

FancyZones - This is a program that allows you to create zones (predefined areas for program windows) on your desktop for the various programs you run.

For example, you can create a layout that has a separate zone for your e-mail program, word processor and spreadsheet all neatly arranged on your desktop. This program is really helpful if you have multiple monitors and want to keep all of your running programs organized.

PowerRename - This utility does just what its name implies, it renames files. But it has so many options that it can be used in so many different ways.

You change just the file names or just the file extensions. You can exclude files, folders, and sub-folders. It is the swiss army knife of file renaming.

Shortcut Guide - This cool little program shows you what Windows logo key shortcuts you can use at any given time.

You just hold down the Windows logo key for a preset amount of time and the screen appears with the available shortcuts you can use. If you find these shortcuts handy, we have a complete list of Windows logo key shortcuts for Windows 10.

If you would like to give the PowerToys a try, I am including two (2) links at the bottom of this article. The Windows 10 PowerToys are only available for the 64-bit versions of Windows 10. As I told you before, the PowerToys download is on GitHub and for an average Windows 10 user may be kind of hard to find.

The first link is to the PowerToys project description page. It has an overview of all of the programs included in the PowerToys.

There is a download link on that page, but it is labeled Supported. That is why I have also included a link to the download page.

Windows 10 PowerToys on GitHub - Description page
Windows 10 PowerToys on GitHub - Download page

Working remotely, such a teleworking or telecommuting is becoming more popular nowadays. Being able to access files on another computer that is miles away from you can be a real lifesaver. So here is how to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on Windows 10 using LogMeIn Hamachi.

Hamachi is a hosted VPN service that allows you to remotely access files on another computer. It works well for home users or small businesses that just need to open and save files on a computer outside of their network.

And pricing for Hamachi is pretty reasonable. In fact, if you have five (5) or fewer computers than need VPN service, it's free. I have set up Hamachi several times for customers that just wanted to access files while they were on vacation.

Setting up Hamachi is pretty simple. The first thing you will need to do is create an account over at VPN.net. Once you have created an account, you will log into your account, set up your network and deploying the Hamachi software to your computers.

Note: When you log in to VPN.net you will be taken to the LogMeIn website. Hamachi is one of LogMeIn's products. Everything you will need for configuring and deploying Hamachi will be under the Networks menu in the left-side column. Completely ignore the rest of the sub-menus in the left-side column, as they are for other LogMeIn products.

Under the Networks tab, you will find three sub-menus: My Networks, Deployment, and Network Settings. The majority of configuring for your Hamachi VPN can be done under My Networks. Here you can Add Client or Add Network. You can add clients or networks in whatever order you want, but for this article, we are going to start with setting up a network first.

Now there are three (3) types of networks you can create in Hamachi: Mesh, Hub-and-spoke, and Gateway. For the free version (under five clients), a mesh network is recommended. Keep in mind that once you create a network, you cannot change the type of network it is. If you want to change the network type, you will need to create a new network.

And since you can have multiple types of networks, all you have to do is give them different names. And you can quickly reassign a client to a different network if you want. For this article, we will create three (3) different networks based on their type.

The following is a list of the different types of networks.

• Mesh - With this type of network, every device is directly connected to each other. This is a simple, no-frills, peer-to-peer type network and a good choice when each device needs access to all of the other devices on the network.
• Hub and spoke - This type of network is more restrictive and is more like a standard corporate network. With this type of network, you have servers (hubs) that have access to all of the devices (spokes), but the devices only have access to the resources on the servers, not each other.
• Gateway - This type of network is a standard point-to-point VPN. The gateway device controls IP addressing and allows remote devices to access the entire network. There can be only one gateway in this network and it cannot be a workstation that is a member of a domain.

Once you have decided on the type of network you want, you need to configure some of the details of it. How you will the devices join the network, is a network password required to join and the subscription associated with the network. Just go to My Networks in the left-hand column and left-click on the Add Network button.

Remember that you can easily change any of the settings for your network(s) from the website interface. You can add or remove devices with a click of the mouse. It comes in handy if you find a device that is having trouble connecting to a specific network.

Once you have a network setup, it's time to get deploying the Hamachi installer to the clients. Now you might have noticed that I have been referring to the Hamachi members as devices. That's because you can have computers and mobile devices connecting to your Hamachi VPN.

Computers have software that you install to connect to your network, mobile devices do not. Mobile devices use web browsers to access resources on your network. And since there is no app to install on mobile devices, you cannot share any resources on them. For this reason, I am going to focus on setting up Windows 10 computers on the VPN. I have included links at the bottom for how to connect Android and iOS devices.

There are a couple of ways to deploy the Hamachi software to your computers. You can either directly download it from the LogMeIn website when you are logged into your account (preferred) or send an installation link via e-mail. I like to directly install it from the website, as I can check the status of the installation as soon as it is done.

When you directly download the software from the website, you do not have to option of predefining a network to attach it to. When you send a link via e-mail you can decide what network to add it to. But changing the network that a Hamachi client is attached to is easy on the website. Like I said before, you can do all sorts of modifications to your network(s) on the website.

The Hamachi software will work on various operating systems including Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It also works on Mac OS 10.6 or higher, Ubuntu 16.04 or higher and CentOS 7.2 or higher. The only drawback is that you cannot use a Mac OS computer as a gateway, but it can be a client on a gateway network.

Once you download and install the Hamachi software on your computer, you should be able to see it listed in the LogMeIn website console. It will show up under the network name you attached to or as a non-member client.

If the computer is listed as a non-member client, just click on the Edit link on the right-hand side, then click on the Networks tab and select the network(s) you want it to be a member of.

Then just click on Save.

Now click on the My Networks tab in the left-hand column and that computer should now show up under the network(s) that you just attached it to.

It will have a status indicator (dot/circle) to the left of its name. Green means it is online, red means it is offline.

Technically, we should now have our VPN all set and ready to go. The next thing we have to do is to set up the resources we want to share. There are two (2) things we can share across a network, folders/files, and printers. Now since we are connecting to a remote network that is not close to us, you may not want to set up a remote printer.

Setting up folder sharing on a Windows 10 computer can be a little frustrating, so here's a link to an article that shows you how to share a folder on Windows 10.

How to share a folder on a private network in Windows 10

Sharing a printer is pretty simple. On the Windows 10 computer that has the printer attached you want to share, bring up a Run dialog box and type in control printers and click OK.

The Device and Printers dialog box will appear. Just right-click on the printer you want to share and left-click on Printer properties.

Left-click on the Sharing tab and left-click on the box next to Share this printer. You can keep the name that appears or change it to something that might make more sense to a remote user. Maybe add in the location of the printer (city or office name). Then left-click on the Apply button in the lower right-hand corner.

Now that you have got the resources you want to share ready to go, let's go ahead and get things set up. The first thing we need to do is bring up the LogMeIn Hamachi program. By default, it starts up when you start Windows 10 and the icon is located in the notification area on the Taskbar (down by the clock). Just right-click on the icon and left-click Restore. You can also double-click on the shortcut on the desktop.

Now that you have the Hamachi program on the screen, right-click on the name of the computer you want to access the folder(s) or printer(s) on.

Left-click on Browse in the context menu that appears. This will bring up the File Explorer with a list of resources that are shared on that computer.

To access a shared folder we could just double-click on the folder name and be done with it. But we would have to open the Hamachi program every time we wanted to get to that folder. But we can just map that folder to a drive letter and access it through File Explorer.z

To map a shared folder just right-click on the name of the folder and left-click on Map network drive.

The Map Network Drive form will appear. Just select the drive letter you want to use for the folder from the pull-down menu.

Make sure that Reconnect at sign-in is selected and click on Finish.

To use a remote printer, we will need to install the remote printer on your computer.

To do this we need to right-click to the name of the printer and left-click on Connect. Windows 10 will then download the driver for the printer and install it into your computer.

At this point, you should be ready to go with your VPN. Just rememeber that you need to be connected via the LogMeIn Hamachi program to be able to access any shared folders or printers.

Setting up an Android device as a Hamachi mobile client
Setting up an iOS device as a Hamachi mobile client

There may come a time when you want to share some files with someone on your private network. Maybe a document, spreadsheet or a pictures of your favorite pet Here's how to share a folder across your private network in Windows 10.

Note: Do not set up a shared folder if your computer is a laptop and you use public WiFi Internet access at coffee shops, airports, etc.! The risk of being hacked and having the security of your laptop compromised is too high. These instructions are only for computers that are attached to private networks.

It may seem like a fairly easy thing to do to share a folder, but it can quickly become a problem. So what I am going to do is to go the steps of sharing a folder on a private network in Windows 10. Then we'll look at some of the things that may cause a problem. Let's get started.

The first thing we need to do is open File Explorer. There are several different ways to do this. You can:

• Left-click on the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar (manilla folder).
• Type File Explorer in the Cortana search box and left-click on File Explorer in the search results.
• Right-click on the Start button and left-click on File Explorer from the Power User menu.
• Press the Windows logo key + E..

Once you have File Explorer open, you need to find the folder you want to share. Navigate to This PC in the left-hand column, then to the local disk drive (usually C:\) then to the folder you want to share.

Keep in mind that you cannot share a complete drive (like C:\), only folders on it. You also cannot share mapped network folders either. Just folders located on your computer. For this demonstration, I am going to use a folder named Shared Folder.

I have located Shared Folder on my Local Disk C:\ drive and I'm going to right-click on it and select Properties.

I'm going to left-click on the Sharing tab

and left-click on the Share button.

This brings up a Network access dialog box.

Your username should already be there with Owner permissions. You can keep just your username in the permissions box, but anyone trying to access that folder will need to have your username and password get into it. And if you don't use a password to log into your computer (local account), then you'll have to create a new user on your computer.

But if you just want to share the files and aren't worried about anybody seeing them, you can just let Everyone have access. By giving Everyone access, you don't have to have a password to get into the folder. But you will have to choose if you want Everyone to have Read or Read/Write permissions.

Either way, left-click on the pull-down menu and select either Everyone or Create a new user. If you decide to create a new user, the User Account dialog box appears. Left-click on Manage another account. On the next dialog box that appears select Add a new user in PC settings. Then left-click on the plus (+) sign next to Add someone else to this PC and fill out the forms that follow.

Once you have another username in the Network access dialog box and have chosen the permission level,

left-click on the Share button in the lower right-hand corner. Then you will get a confirmation that the folder is now shared. Left-click on the Done button in the lower right-hand corner.

You are ready to go. You can either close the folder properties dialog box or add more sharing options like multiple share names or custom permissions using the Advanced Sharing button. But for basic folder sharing, you are all set.

Now let's find out if we can see the shared folder on your private network. You will need the name of your computer for this next step. Right-click on the Start menu and left-click on System on the Power User menu. Make note of the device name in the right-hand column.

Next, go to another computer that is on the same private network and bring up File Explorer using the steps outlined earlier in this article. This time, instead of expanding the This PC folder in the left side column, we want to go down and left-click on the Network folder.

If you get a warning across the top of the File Explorer that says Network discovery is not turned on, left-click on it to activate it. Sometimes Windows 10 will mistakenly classify a private network as public. If you get a warning that the network you are on is not a private network, select the Make this network private.

The name of your computer should now show up under the Computer category of Network. If it does, double left-click on it and you should now see the folder you shared and all of the files inside of it.

If you don't see your computer listed under Network, there are a couple of things you might want to check on your computer. The first thing to look for is a third-party firewall, like Norton or McAfee that might be blocking access.

If you granted Everyone access to your shared folder, you can turn off password protected sharing under advanced sharing settings. Just right-click on the Start menu and left-click on Network Connections on the Power User menu. In the right-hand column left-click on Network and Sharing Center. On the screen that appears, left-click on Change advanced sharing settings.

Under All Networks find Password protected sharing and select Turn off password protected sharing. Go back to the other computer and try to access the shared folder on your computer under Networks. You should be able to view and open all of the files inside of it.