10 steps to take when your account is hacked
Any personal account can be hacked, such as Facebook or your email account. If these have been hacked, there are several steps you should perform to safeguard your account and prevent future hacks. If you are unable to access your account, you should alert your provider immediately. Depending on your provider, you will have specific instructions regarding how you should proceed and are able to place a hold on your account, if needed.
Typically, your contacts or Facebook friends receive mysterious spam to beguile them into clicking on must see videos or a website. Don’t worry, your friends most likely realize these emails are not from you and most likely one of your friends has already contacted you regarding the hack. So, remain calm and follow these steps:
1) Change your password to a strong password. A strong password is not password1 or 12345. A strong password includes upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and a special character. Please refer to this blog post for an easy way to create a strong password you can remember which contains these attributes.
2) Change your security questions. It is actually rather easy to find these out, so it is good practice to actually make something up.
3) I always recommend deleting your contacts from your email if you do not use them. This way if you are hacked in the future, the hacker will not have access to the list of email addresses.
4) Check your signature and other settings to determine if they have been compromised. Make sure your account isn’t set up to send an email to the hacker if changes are made to the password.
5) If offered, it is good practice to set up secondary authentication. This means if someone attempts to access your account from an unrecognized device, you are notified and offered a PIN number for access.
6) I always recommend setting up two email accounts, one personal and one for signing up for web services and giving to retailers. This keeps your personal correspondences separate from junk. Most of us wish we could do this with actually mail.
7) Take an inventory of what was housed in your account. In the case of email, you may have contacts, calendar information, archived emails, etc. You should act as if the criminal now has access to all your information in the account. You should also verify that your secondary email has not been compromised.
8) Next, you should run an antivirus software on your computer. Microsoft was kind enough to provide a free antivirus program here. If you have a Macintosh computer, don’t worry they never get viruses. Sure. Not really, but Steve Jobs wasn’t as generous as to provide freebie software so you will need to find a suitable alternative.
9) Lastly, make certain you check other accounts such as financial and social media. It is recommended you use a different password for each account.
10) Recheck your account about 24 hours after resetting everything and again in about a week to make certain nobody has returned to your account.
Facebook Default Privacy Settings
Facebook is not known for clearly advertising changes to their privacy settings nor making it easy to understand the settings and how they affect what is showcased on the Internet for all to see. Simply remember this – don’t put anything online you wouldn’t want everyone to view. With that being said, Facebook does offer some rather simply ways to make your content a little more secure and private. Oddly enough, this basic change is something many users fail to do and opens up all their honeymoon photos for everyone to see.
The first order of business is to access the privacy settings in Facebook by selecting the drop down arrow on the near the top right corner of your Facebook page. Then select the privacy settings menu option.
Afterwards, you will be directed to the main privacy settings page in Facebook. 
In this main area, you will see three distinct icons which represent default privacy for any content you share. This means anytime you share an item, such as a photograph or location update, by default it will be shared with the public, your friends, or a custom list of your friends. At the very least, select friends. This will keep all the items you share from the general public. Changing the default to friends, but have custom lists for photo albums and other shared items.
How to use MAC Address Filtering
While MAC Address filtering can be easily overcome by a dedicated hacker, it does allow for some extra security against your average neighbor hogging your bandwidth by illegally downloading the latest episode of Game of Thrones.. For wireless security, priority should be placed on a strong password for access to your router as well as your wireless network. Ideally, your router should support WPA PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key) mode with an optional AES encryption mode. Regardless, here is the procedure for setting up Mac Address filtering.
First off, find out the Mac Address on all your wireless devices. These might be on the bottom of the device or accessed through your computer settings via these instructions. Afterward, you need to access your router settings by entering the IP address of your wireless router in the URL address field. Typically this nugget of information is located in your router’s manual or you can normally enter “198.168.1.1” as the address which is the default IP address for most routers
Once this is complete, access the wireless settings which allow for Mac Address Filtering which your router manual can assist you with as well. Typically this is found under advanced settings. 
Sometimes it may be referred to a wireless access list. In any case, once you find it, you will need to add the MAC Addresses of each of your wireless devices from your list. You want to make certain you give accurate descriptions to your devices as well in case you have issues or need to delete old ones. When done, simply apply your settings and make sure you can connect. On occasion you may mistype your MAC Address and need to fix it. In that case, simply edit your address and retry. Otherwise, you will only be allowing access to the wireless devices in your list.
Keep in mind this will not prevent a dedicated hacker to accessing your wireless network, but it will add an additional layer of security and help keep your neighbors at bay. Again, the best security is having a solid password and an updated operating system as well as a wireless router with the latest security encryption.
Setting the duration in After Effects
In order to change the duration of a composition in After Effects, go to Composition > Composition Settings. The duration text entry box will be located near the bottom:
The duration is displayed in the format 0:00:00:00, i.e. Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames. The maximum duration time is 3 hours in After Effects and the default duration is 30 seconds.
- A few tricks to entering duration: if you simply enter a number only, you specify the number of frames. So if you entered 30, your composition would be 30 frames. Also, if you enter a number followed by a period this will convert it to seconds.
Optimizing your dual band router
First, you need to access your router administrative tools. This is typically done by your router’s IP address or by a specific address. For instance, for the NetGear family of routers, you can access the tools by routerlogin.net. Afterward, make your way into the general wireless settings which allow for SSID naming options and other security settings. It should look something like this:
First off, you want to specify a SSID broadcast name for the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band. The SSID broadcast name is simply the name of your wireless network. Since you have a dual band, you essentially have two networks. Pick a name for each band. Also for an extra security measure, choose not to broadcast your SSID name. This prevents your neighbors and potential hackers from seeing your broadcast without additional tools.
As for the channel, keep as default unless you are running into interferance as in dropped signals. You should also choose a lower mode for the 2GHz band and a higher mode for the 5GHz band. Since the 5GHz band is what you are going to use for your devices that stream video or use higher bandwidth, pick a higher Mbps. For the security, WPA2 is a solid option.
Once you have setup both bands, determine your high bandwidth devices in your household like an XBox or an iPad which streams HD video. Assign these devices to the 5GHz band. Finally assign those devices which simply surf the web like your low-end netbook or Macbook to the 2.4GHz band.
Be certain to evaluate each device to make certain it is wireless N or A compatible and will run on a 5GHz band.
How to buy a wireless router
Buying a wireless router
Before searching for a wireless router, you should examine your personal habits to determine what is best for your particular needs. Do you watch any television shows or movies via the Internet? Are you an avid online gamer? Do you simply surf the web close to your modem? Taking a close inventory of any wireless devices in your home or office is highly advisable. Before blowing over $100 on a router, make sure your devices will connect to it. Does the device you plan to use to stream video support 5GHz? Does it support 802.11n? You can typically find this information online at the product website or on the box if you haven’t thrown it away.
Band – 2.5Ghz, 5Ghz, etc
When considering bands, you need to ascertain how much wireless noise you currently have in your home or plan to have in your home. The 5Ghz band has less interference from devices like baby monitors, cordless phones, and microwave ovens that operate in the 2.4 Ghz radio band. But the range is limited so consider distance carefully. Dual band routers are convenient since you can connect low bandwidth gadgets like a smartphone to the 2.4 GHz and connect more demanding devices that stream HD video or music to the 5GHz band.
Speed
The speed of your router determines the performance, not the speed of your internet connection. Your internet service provider (Cox cable, Comcast, etc) determines your internet speed. Choose the fastest router within your budget, but pay close attention to older devices since some don’t work well with N routers. If you can afford it, choose a dual band router which is a good way to segregate your bandwidth consumption. Remember if you stream video or engage in online gaming, a faster router and solid internet speeds are critical. 
Security
Choose the highest level of security, currently WPA2. Also one with parental controls which limit time and use, web search terms, and specific domains can be very useful.
Using shortcuts in iOS
Using shortcuts on your iPhone, iPad, or even your iTouch are an excellent way to decrease the amount of typing for words that you use frequently. I use them to store my email address, so each time I need to type in my email, I simply type in the shortcut instead which is only to letters.
To access shortcuts, launch your settings. Then select: General > Keyboard > and scroll down to shortcuts.
When you have found shortcuts, select add new shortcut. From here you see two boxes: phrase and shortcut. Use phrase to determine what you what to show up when you type in your shortcut. For instance I typed my email address.
After you choose your phrase, choose the shortcut you want to type to automatically display your phrase. Make certain you pick something that you wouldn’t ordinarily type for something else. Don’t use em for email because you may type email in context of something else, like text me your email and that would launch the phrase. Instead, choose something else like ym for yahoo email because not many words start with ym.
When finished, type in your phrase and the shortcut appears. Your life just became easier.
