“Every man-made security measure can and will be broken.” That’s my motto when I secure my car, my house, my belongings, my money, my computer, and – most importantly – my data. If God did not protect it, with enough time, it will be exploited.

Password-locked Laptop
A couple of weeks ago, my dad’s boss dug an old 2002 laptop out of his garage. It was a decent IBM ThinkPad with Windows XP. His only problem was that he did not remember the Administrator password. They went to various computer shops like Circuit City, Best Buy, and Goodwill Computer Works to get an estimate on the time and cost it would take to crack or just reset the master Windows password. To their dismay, the price quotes ran at least $50 and the required time would take at least 24 hours! My dad knew that I would be able to find a way to crack it in a short amount of time and at a cheaper cost. So, his boss hired me to do it instead.

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I love the United States Postal Service (USPS) advertising campaign. It targets online small business owners and home entrepreneurs. So many times I am reminded of the benefits of using USPS: schedule a pickup, print labels online, buy supplies online, order free Priority and Express Mail supplies online, etc. But there is something lacking in one particular feature. USPS offers users the convenience to print and pay for postage online. The only caveat is that you can only purchase postage for (the more expensive) Priority and Express Mail. They leave out First Class, Media, and Parcel Post Shipping, which are the budget shipping options. If an eBay seller wants to maximize the profit of an auction he or she will ship with the lowest possible rate. USPS does not let us do this!

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So, there I was in this motel, Econo Lodge, which was not too posh (if you know what I’m talking about). I mean, the logo and name look and sound cheap! Anyway, I assumed that there would be no Internet access included in this wonderful motel package. I looked in the Econo Lodge booklet and found no information. I was too embarrassed to call the operator and actually ask if there was a way to access the Internet. He or she would probably tell me, “What do you think this place is? A Hilton? No! This is ECONO LODGE!” I thought to myself, maybe there would a stray open wireless network floating about the airwaves. I doubted it. I mean, I was really in an out-of-city old-fashioned small town. It really wasn’t the type of place where cutting-edge technology harbored. Boy, was I wrong!

To my surprise, as scanned the airwaves, I came across two networks. The first one, which had an acceptable signal of 60%, was DAYS_INN. I thought, “Well, that makes sense! There is a Day’s Inn next door!” Unfortunately, I was unable to access the network. I guess they only let their customers access it, which is only natural. I scolded myself for not staying at the Day’s Inn.

The other network was called PRE-N. The signal was a next to nothing, a pitiful 0-1%! I wasn’t too enthusiastic about this network. Then, when I told my Wifi client to connect to the network, it seemed to work smoothly. Cautiously, I opened the DOS prompt (Start Menu, Run, “cmd” or “command” for those of who do not know) and entered “ping google.com.” It worked perfectly! I was so excited! Free Internet access!

Later, after checking my mail and doing some routine business, it dawned on me that I was getting a decent speed (400kbps) on a 1% signal. How could this happen? Then I remembered that the name of this network was PRE-N. The 802.11n protocol, as opposed to 802.11b and 802.11g, had not been completely standardized. That didn’t stop manufactures from selling networking components that had some features of the promised 802.11n. These products were of the Pre-N class. One of the promised features of 802.11n was long distance over low signal. I was impressed! I bet that the wireless router that was supplying Internet access to me was several buildings away!

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