The would-be burglar’s best partner in any home invasion is darkness. Darkness hides an intruder from sight, muffles noise and may trick the eye of anyone who might spot their activity. So, it stands to reason that lights of any kind will provide a good deterrent to would-be thieves.
Interior Lights
The most common type are interior lights connected to a timer. In essence, you attach a timer to lamps in your home. When the timer goes off, lights connected to it will go on. You can set the timer for a specific time, or have it go off randomly; this will give the illusion that someone is at home. Handy to have around if you’re out of town a lot, or planning a long vacation.
Cross-rigging the light-timer with an electronic dog-bark or even the radio or television can portray a more comprehensive illusion of habitation. However, as it is only an illusion, it will only deter the casual house-breaker. A professional thief may notice that no movement is visible within your house despite the lights coming on, and may see through your ploy.
Security Lights
Security lights can be either inside or outside your home and will come on at regular intervals during the evening hours, flooding an area with light. These lights can be connected to motion sensors as well, prompting them to flash on when movement is detected. Security lights only reach a limited area though, so if you’re using them outside, you’ll need more than a few.
Flood Lights
If you have a large area you need to keep lit, flood lights are probably your best bet. Flood lights will illuminate a large area, and are probably best used when there’s room between yourself and your neighbors.
Security Lights Exterior
Connecting motion sensors to flood lights can be a handy addition. There’s probably nothing a burglar hates worse than motion activated security lights. An intruder can suddenly be caught by a massive wave of light.
Remember though that lights, while a satisfactory deterrent in most cases, are best used in conjunction with other security measures. Lights alone are hardly a comprehensive security measure, and while they startle or drive off a spur of the moment smash and grab artist, a professional thief may be less put off, especially if they cut the power to your home as a matter of course before attempting entry. In this case install a few battery powered security lights in the most critical areas.
Bottom line – install as many lights as possible, by all means, but also invest in some strong locks, bolts and bars, just in case the lights don’t do the trick.
The proper application of lights can go a long way towards making your home just that much more secure from prowlers, invaders and predators of every stripe. There’s nothing a criminal hates worse than to be exposed to bright light, and a bevy of floodlights flashing on at the wrong moment can send even the toughest felon fleeing with his tail between his legs.
Mac Abley is a Home Security enthusiast. Visit All About Home Security for more expert advice on motion activated security lights, installing home security, improving home security, and other tips you can use right now to setup a rock-solid home security system.
Spyware: What It Is and How to Combat It
by: Dean Phillips
Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without the user’s knowledge which gathers information about that user for later retrieval by whomever controls the spyware.
Spyware can be broken down into two different categories, surveillance spyware and advertising spyware.
Surveillance software includes key loggers, screen capture devices, and trojans. These would be used by corporations, private detectives, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, suspicious spouses, etc.
Advertising spyware is software that is installed alongside other software or via activex controls on the internet, often without the user’s knowledge, or without full disclosure that it will be used for gathering personal information and/or showing the user ads. Advertising spyware logs information about the user, possibly including passwords, email addresses, web browsing history, online buying habits, the computer’s hardware and software configuration, the name, age, sex, etc of the user.
As with spam, advertising spyware uses the CPU, RAM, and resources of the user’s computer, making the user pay for the costs associated with operating it. It then makes use of the user’s bandwidth to connect to the internet and upload whatever personal information it has gathered, and to download advertisements which it will present to the user, either by way of pop up windows, or with the ad banners of ad-supported software. All of this can be considered theft in the cases of advertising spyware that installs without disclosure.
And while anti-virus software like Symantec’s Norton Anti- Virus or McAfee’s ViruScan can offer some protection, one of the best ways to combat spyware is with anti-spy software. Two of the best are Lavasoft’s Ad-aware and Spybot’s Search & Destroy, which are available as free downloads.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
The free version of Ad-aware does not proactively protect against spyware infestation. You have to start the Ad-aware application and initiate a scan to detect spyware. But the paid version, Ad-aware Plus does remain alert in the background, like Spybot, to deflect any attempts at infestation. In recent tests, Ad-aware Plus and Spybot both protected systems extremely well.
If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend installing Microsoft’s Service Pack 2. SP2 tightens your PC’s security with a new Windows Firewall, an improved Automatic Updates feature, and a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer. Plus, the newly minted Security Center gives you one easy-to-use interface for keeping tabs on your PC’s security apps.
There are also other steps you can take to protect against spyware. One simple step is to switch from Microsoft’s browsers, which have security holes for spyware programs to exploit. A good alternative is Mozilla Firefox. Another not- so-simple step is switching to the Mac or Linux operating systems, which don’t have spyware problems.
Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Double your income! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will teach you how to double your income, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.
Website: http://www.lets-make-money.net
About The Author
Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Double your income! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will teach you how to double your income, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.
Website: http://www.lets-make-money.net
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Tue, Jan 5, 2010
Mac Security