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Category Archives: Security

Is it safe to enter credit card info on public WiFi?
Posted on May 11, 2020 by pcwrt in Security, Technology, WiFi.
How big is the risk? Time and time again you’ve been told that public WiFi hotspots or compromised routers will get your credit card numbers and banking info stolen. However, such risks have been overly hyped. We agree that public, open WiFi networks totally cannot be trusted. And that compromised routers can be used to […]

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Monitor activities on your home network
Posted on May 6, 2020 by pcwrt in Parental Control, Security.
The pcWRT router provides two ways to monitor your network activities. You can view every site visited (or blocked) by each device (or user) by clicking the “View Logs” link on the Access Control page. And you can view the bandwidth consumption of each device on the Bandwidth Monitor page. Access Logs Click the View […]

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Block ads with router
Posted on May 2, 2020 by pcwrt in How To, Router, Security.
You’ve probably heard of Pi-hole, an open source software package that runs on a Raspberry Pi and blocks ads on any device connected to your network. It’s efficient and cost effective, but requires you to have some technology know-how. This is a detailed write-up if you are interested in setting up Pi-hole by yourself: Install […]

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Concerned about privacy? Don’t bother to reset your advertising ID
Posted on February 21, 2020 by pcwrt in Security.
What is the advertising ID? The advertising ID is an identifier on your mobile device that is created to identify you for advertising purposes. It is present on both Android and iOS devices. Apps on your mobile devices can send your behavior along with the advertising ID to one or more advertising networks. By linking […]

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How to set up an OpenVPN client connection on the pcWRT router
Posted on December 24, 2019 by pcwrt in How To, Router, Security.
Setting up a VPN connection on the router is not an easy task. First of all, not many routers support VPN. If your existing router does not support VPN out of the box, you might need to flash it with open source firmware so that you can install VPN software on it. Then you need […]

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Why it’s a bad idea to show all notification content on Android lock screen
Posted on December 14, 2018 by pcwrt in How To, Security, Technology.
By default, Android displays notification content on the lock screen. While it may seem like a convenient feature at first, it’s probably a bad idea. This is what my lock screen looked like after I requested a password reset on Facebook: Looks scary? Here’s how to turn it off: Open the Settings app Tap on […]

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Does a VPN Really Protect My Privacy?
Posted on August 19, 2018 by pcwrt in Security, Technology.
The above picture is often used to illustrate how VPNs can protect your privacy. Because the VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between you and the Internet, your privacy is protected. However, the picture is missing a very important piece: the VPN service provider. As you can see, the encrypted tunnel ends at the VPN service […]

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Another simple check to avoid router being hacked
Posted on August 16, 2018 by pcwrt in Router, Security.
Recently, two unsecured databases were discovered on the Internet. Exactis, a Florida marketing data aggregator, exposed 340 Million Consumer Records to the world. Another company, Telemedicine, exposed detailed health care information on more than 2.3 million patients in Mexico, by making a MongoDB database accessible to anyone without a password. In both cases, the researchers […]

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How to get rid of ads that follow you around the Internet
Posted on August 12, 2018 by pcwrt in How To, Security.
You’ve had the experience. You looked at something on a shopping site, then that thing follows you all around the Internet. It feels creepy. Trust me, those companies take privacy very seriously – their privacy. You see, you looked at the pair of shoes you later bought. The shopping site knew that you looked at […]

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Block third party tracking cookies, does it work?
Posted on August 12, 2018 by pcwrt in How To, Security, Technology.
People don’t like to be tracked around everywhere they go on the web. So all major browsers give you the option to “block third party cookies”. And there’s a DNT header that your browser sends on your behalf to nicely tell the tracking parties that you don’t want to be tracked. However, the big question […]

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