Computers and Technology

Hi, lots to consider here. What level computer expertise do you have? In the past 15-years I have gone through two analog systems, one IP system, and now cloud (Ring). Oh the money I spent on AD converters.

If you have decent IP cams (3MP or above) you will need some beefy CPU to encode the video. I have tried a couple different (Mac) programs…[Read more]

Hey, thanks for the response.

I switch a lot based on browsing habits between Safari, Epic, and Firefox. If you have enough memory there should not be performance issues. Also depends on how many tabs you have open. For my work machine I use Chrome but would never use it on my personal machines.

Hey another thought on VPNs if anyone goes down that path, make sure they have an…[Read more]

which works a lot like the old Netscape-integrated browser with email client and composer. It uses the Mozilla Gecko engine.

For some things I use Firefox

And for my complete do not track I use Pale Moon.

I only have one open at at a time.

I try to minimize the amount of programs I have open at one time. Old habits die hard even though my…[Read more]

I apologize that I am asking such basic questions.  Do you keep more than one browser running at a time?  Does is slow things down?

That sounds like a good idea.  Might I ask what browsers you prefer.  I use FireFox.

The ones I use for my general browsing, social media, etc. I don’t really care if the snoops look at that.

I have a separate browser that I use for things I don’t want tracked in conjunction with my VPN.

Since I have a Gigabit Fiber Optic connection, even with the VPN slowing things down it’s still more than fast enough to do anything I want.

Via cookies. If you have Facebook cookies they can grab data including browsing history even if you logged out. Or Google cookies or a zillion other trackers. That’s why I mentioned clearing cookies and browser data. Some cookies can be very persistent.

Yes, you can reduce but not eliminate your exposure with HTTPS sites. VPN is a great tool for…[Read more]

Thanks for the great tips.  I am on Facebook but I didn’t give them any of my personal data.

If I am using a public wifi and only go to sites (https://)  is that enough to keep someone from accessing my traffic?

I have had occasion to use sites that are not secure (http://).  If I am just there to look at their data or info is there a reason to…[Read more]

Sorry so late just joined.

IMHO if you use Facebook, Twitter, or most other social media – you are already surrendering tons of privacy and VPN will not yield much benefit. If you do not use social media, VPN can help hide your activity from your ISP. This could be important if your ISP is ever subpoenaed by a court for your browsing history…[Read more]

because my preferred webmail service (Yandex) stopped working properly in Vivaldi, but works fine in Opera. Vivaldi is my primary browser for everything.

This problem happens even when I’ve just rebooted, and only whatever programs that load up in the background are all that are in operation. I don’t recall exactly how I noticed, but if I had one…[Read more]

and the drivers do not play nice with Linux (I haven’t checked lately, but in the past I never saw Wacom-supplied drivers for Linux.) Plus, I don’t want to have to learn a whole new OS just to do the things I do now. I’ve also tried Libre-Office, and couldn’t get used to it. I’m more familiar with Word commands and am happy with it. If the…[Read more]

but just with my browser, not any other program.  It has something to do with where the mouse is positioned.

I can be working away in the browser and all of a sudden, it just disappears.

I will watch to see if this happens with other programs, but I think it’s just the browser.

Russians make good software (seriously) and I get to choose (a little bit) on who is collecting information on me!!

Being that Win-Doze (as Hobbit labels it), does not provide support any more. My guess is that in addition to a lack of technical support, the things that were updated before Jan. are no longer available to you. But it’s been going on for a year? I used to have Win 7, but I completely changed my OS to Linux. A much better OS that Win7. Although…[Read more]

I know of Kaspersky, but have never tried it. I’ll look into that now 🙂

I use Kaspersky Free: https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/kaspersky-free-faq/17887/ .