network security Archives - Molnar Home Computing

Finding MAC Addresses: Consoles, PCs & More

Finding MAC Addresses: The Talk In the first part of this three part series, we discussed MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. We learned that computers are full of address information. We learned that the MAC address can be thought of as the hardware address of a computer, gaming console, phone or tablet. In fact, just about every device that can communicate on a network has a MAC address. We learned that a MAC address consists of twelve characters (hexadecimal numbers) from 0 to 9 and A to F. These twelve characters are represented as six pairs. Each pair is traditionally [...]

2017-09-06T21:06:18-04:00By Charles|

MAC Address: It Isn’t 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino

MAC Addresses: The Talk Computer systems are full of addresses. Some of them look like regular numbers to the human eye (192.168.1.1) and some of them look a little more complex (2bb1:db8:85a3::8a2e:fa53:7b3c). There are others less complex ( 7255: F13B) but still just as meaningless to the average eye. Our computer systems need these addresses for the same reason humans need addresses: to find things. We use addresses daily to find work, home, friends' houses and school. Having a street name and a number associated with a city and zip code helps us find our way. We also use addresses within the [...]

2013-08-23T11:10:16-04:00By Charles|

Home PC Security Primer: Don’t Be an Alien!

A Venn diagram that pretty well sums up something that plagues many technicians. Problems are not always related to PC security. Everyone with a computer has heard of at least one of these network and PC security terms by now: viruses, spyware, phishing, scareware and spam. What are they? What do they do? Who creates them? Why? The last two questions can be difficult to answer: perpetrators range from pranksters with odd senses of humor to thrill seekers who just want to crack existing PC security mechanisms to criminals looking to extort or steal money. The first [...]

2017-09-09T15:05:31-04:00By Charles|