Tag Archives: Internet

Deadline for Public Comments is September 15th

If you’re an American, I’ve got a fun little Sunday activity for you…

The Federal Communications Commission is making new rules affecting something called ‘Net Neutrality’. Before we get to what that actually means, here’s the important part: The FCC’s deadline to receive public opinions about these new rules is September 15th and I think that you ought to take a few moments today to do some reading about the issue.

Once you get into the details, I suspect you’ll laugh out loud at the absurdity of the current situation (that’s where the “Fun Sunday Activity” part comes in). [Read more…]

In Laos, opening up a usable connection to the wider world takes money — and patience!

A Fistful of Kip: "You should have seen how big the stack would've been before they started printing larger bills", Carol said.

Here’s a quick “Help In Your Own Way” story… the one that started the whole project!

When Lauren and I first visited the @My Library last June, we noticed two things right away: That the students loved using computers — and that their shared internet speed was slow… painfully, glacially slow! When one student named Morthor asked us to sit with her and help fix her web email, we couldn’t even get through to the website. Our connection was so bad that, essentially, it was refused.

“How much does faster internet cost?”, I asked Carol.

“A lot — especially when adjusted for the cost of living here.” After I left, she sent me the exact figure: $1900 per year for a connection speed which, in the United States, would cost 1/10th that price.

[Read more…]

A VPN service can help you avoid having your data stolen or your internet traffic blocked. Here’s how I use VyprVPN while traveling to reduce the risk of both!
A VPN service can help you avoid having your data stolen or your internet traffic blocked. Here’s how I use VyprVPN while traveling to reduce the risk of both!

No Internet For You!

The recent proliferation of internet snooping tools like Firesheep — which allows a semi-knowledgable hacker to hijack any number of your personal accounts — highlights an under-examined need for many travelers: A secure connection to the internet.

After all, most people are just worried about how they are going to connect to the internet as they travel — not even considering how safe that connection is. A person on the same network as you can actually see the information you’re sending and receiving — or sometimes even read the files on your hard drive.

Sound alarmist? Take a moment to look your computer’s network file browser the next time you hop online in a hotel, on a plane, or at a free WiFi hotspot and you’ll probably see a number of other computers visible. Some of them even probably have their file sharing turned on, exposing all sorts of personal data, photos, etc. to theft or vandalism.

Not good.

[Read more…]