Netstat displays active TCP connections, ports on which the computer is listening, Ethernet statistics, the IP routing table, IPv4 statistics (for the IP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP protocols), and IPv6 statistics (for the IPv6, ICMPv6, TCP over IPv6, and UDP over IPv6 protocols). This tool is very useful when you are trying to diagnose open connections to other computers.

A good use for this tool is to run this on a computer when you think that the computer may be talking to an unauthorized computer without your knowledge (example : spyware).

If you suspect your computer is making connections to another computer and passing information without your knowledge, you can use this to see which connections/post are currently in use and use this information to try and diagnose the issue at hand.

Most people think that VPN's are only for corporate networks or Computer People. The truth is VPN's are very easy to set up and they provide a level of security that is really needed in today's world.

There are may ways to set up a VPN, some of these options are more difficult then others. You can set up a VPN using client side software, or you can be a little more conplex and set up a domain at home and use your router to pass authentication to a RADIUS server.

Today, I will talk about a program called "Hamachi" that will allow you to have a very secure VPN, with almost no work at all.

This article describes how to change the port that Remote Desktop listens on.

Note The Remote Desktop Connection Client for the Mac supports only port 3389. 3389 is the default port.

You can use the Remote Desktop feature in Microsoft Windows XP Professional to connect to your computer from another remote computer.

Warning The Remote Assistance feature in Microsoft Windows XP may not work correctly if you change the listening port.

To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

TrueCrypt is the opensource community's response to disk encryption. This is important because in order for encryption to be completely secure the source must be open, otherwise there could be a backdoor that is only known to the developer (or the developer's company).

TrueCrypt

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux

Main Features:

* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

* Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB flash drive.