Windows Firewall Profiles for Different Networks
Folks, whether you are aware or not, the default security agent, Windows Firewall has not always the same policy of it’s deployment as you move on. By this, I mean that the Windows Firewall changes or maintains a separate profile which is a complete collection of settings, including rules for various programs, services, and ports for the most common three different network location types. These three different network location types have its own set of profiles namely: domain, Private and Public.
Profile settings for different Networks:
Domain This setting is used when your pc joins an Active Directory domain. In this environment, firewall settings are typically (but not necessarily) controlled by a network administrator.
Private This is for when your computer is connected to a home or work network in a workgroup configuration.
Public This is intended for when your computer is connected to a network in a public location, such as Discussion room, airport or library. It’s is always recommended to allow fewer programs and have more specific restrictions when you are on a public network.
Suppose that you’re simultaneously connected to more than one network. For example, if you have a Wi-Fi connection to your home network while you’re connected to your work domain through a virtual private network, or VPN, connection), Windows 7 will automatically use the appropriate profile for each connection with a feature called multiple access firewall profiles (MAFP). This is not the case in Windows Vista, which uses the most restrictive applicable profile when the system is connected to multiple networks at the same time.
The settings in Windows Firewall can be made independently for each network profile. The settings in a profile apply to all networks of the particular location type to which a user is connected.
Configuring User Account to Log On Automatically in Windows 7
Requiring a user to enter credentials like password when his computer starts is an important part of Windows security. But, their might be situations when you needn’t worry about any sort of security threats which means your computer is physically secure and hassle free method might be desired. In such conditions, configuring Automatic Log on is a wonderful idea. But, it is to always keep in mind that, a user account automatically logs on means anyone who has physical access to the computer can restart it and access the user’s files. So, it’s completely upto your requirement and priorities.
Now, to configure a workgroup computer (and, please, make sure that you cannot perform these steps on a domain member) in order to automatically log on,
following are the steps:
1. Click Start, type netplwiz, and then press Enter.
2. In the User Accounts dialog box, click the account you want to automatically log on to.If it is available, clear the Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer check box.
3. Click OK.
4. In the Automatically Log On dialog box, enter the user’s password twice and click OK.
The next time you restart the computer, it will automatically log on with the local user account you selected. Furthermore, please beware that configuring automatic logon stores the user’s password in the registry unencrypted, where someone might be able to retrieve it.
Technology between now and 2020
We all know technology is now changing in a pace like nothing else in this whole planet. It’s never going to be same, ya. As we approach the end of the first decade of the new millennium, let’s consider what life will be like a decade hence. Changes in our lives from technology are moving faster and faster. The telephone took 50 years to reach a quarter of the population in US but the search engines, social networks and blogs have done that in just a few years time. A fact that Facebook started as a way for Harvard students to meet each other just six years ago, it now has 350 million users and it’s counting.
Between now and 2020, the trend will continue, spreading cutting-edge technologies to every corner of the country and beginning to make innovations once consigned to the realm of science fiction real for millions of people.
What will drive all this accelerating change is precisely what has driven it this past half-century: the exponential growth in the power of information technology, which approximately doubles for the same cost every year. During 1965, people shared a computer that took up half a building and cost tens of millions of dollars. The computer in our pocket today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful. That’s a billion-fold increase in the amount of computation per dollar since couple of years back.
Again, everybody must have noticed that electronic gadgets are getting smaller and smaller; a latest music player holds 1,000 songs and weighs 0.38 ounces. Another example of a mobile phone in your hand is now much smaller than it was a few years ago and can do much more. By 2020, memory devices will be integrated into our clothing. And, the very idea of a “smart phone” will begin to change. Rather than looking at a tiny screen, our glasses will beam images directly to our retinas, creating a high resolution virtual display that hovers in air.
That virtual display will be able to take over our entire visual field of view, putting us in a three-dimensional full immersion virtual reality environment. We’ll be able to watch movies virtually and read virtual books. A lot of our personal and business meetings will take place in these 3D virtual worlds. The design of new virtual environments will be an art form. We’ll even have ways to touch one another virtually.