November 30, 2009 • 33 mins
In this episode of TechStuff, Jonathan and Chris respond to listener mail and discuss some of the different types of wireless networks and standards.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With
tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey, there
are kids, and welcome to tex stuff. My name is
Chris Pellette, and I'm an editor here at how stuff
(00:21):
works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always is,
is the smirking senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, you're
smirking at my opening my kids thing, right, Yeah, you
know I mix it up a little. It was I
never mix it up a little. That's well, you know,
it's good to humorless. That's true. That's true. Chris kill
(00:44):
Joy Pillette, that's what we call him here in the
office at how stuff works dot com. It's said, yeah,
I would find some humor in it, but I don't
never mind. Okay, it's better than Josh creepy hands Clark.
So you know, we all got our own little monikers.
I won't go into mind because you know, modesty forbids.
But let's start this off with a little listener mail.
(01:09):
This mail comes from Mark. Mark says, Dear tech Stuff,
thanks for a great podcast. I was wondering about how
wireless home networks work when my dad was talking about
upgrading ours and didn't know what the different network types were,
such as wireless G and wireless IN and how networking
you and not so new computers work and if it
will cause any problems. I think it would be an
(01:29):
interesting topic for a podcast because so many people have
home networks now. Anyway, thanks again for the great podcast
your seventh grade fan, Mark, well Mark. We thought we'd
talked a little bit about the different kinds of wireless
networks out there are the ones that use the various
standards set out by our good friends at the I
Triple E, or as I always like to call them I. Yeah. Yeah,
(01:56):
you know, early early networks were sort of like tin
cans with the string between them. This sort of makes
the string virtual. Yeah, there you go. That's all you
need to know. There's We're all right. So anyway, uh,
we're talking about a set of standards that in general
(02:18):
fall under the designation eight zero two point one one.
Doesn't that easy? Yeah, well it's it's the most those
are the most common frequency variations of wireless networking. So
the way you uh, you'll see on things like routers
and modems, and stuff. You'll see this number followed by
(02:39):
a letter, and that tells you which of the specific
sets of standards you're working with. Now you gotta understand
what I was getting Ready to correct myself because I
said frequency and that's not a frequency, it's just a designation.
Is a designation? Yes, so so the I triple E.
They they work on various designations for different UM networking solutions.
(03:03):
And with the eight to two point one one, you
have different working groups all working on different sets of
standards to try and create the most stable and reliable
form of wireless networking in this case wireless networking UM.
And it's it's a little confusing because you have all
these different groups working on working from the same basic
(03:24):
set of standards, but they're all tweaking them in different
ways to try and get different kinds of performance out
of them. So let's try and go through some of these.
It's really kind of complex, but um yeah. One of
the things to uh that's kind of interesting about these
different standards is, UH, as we start going through them,
(03:45):
if we are going through them in alphabetical order, you
will find that they do not necessarily uh go start
from the bottom up like if we start with eight
eight O two dot eleven A. Uh, this actually opera
rates on the five gigga hurts frequency and can carry
up to fifty four megabets of data per second. Uh.
(04:08):
In contrast ATO two dot eleven B you'd figured to
be faster. No, actually it's not. It operates at the
two point four gigga hurts frequency and only can handle
eleven megabets of data per second. And that's just one
of those things that makes it so confusing, is you
you'd figure there would be a logical progression there, and
there's not necessarily one. Yeah, so uh, what do you
(04:29):
think should we go by just by letter even though
it's not logical progression necessarily, but just to make it
easier to move from one to the other. Those two,
those two do fit well together because they were the
first two very common UM standards, at least in my experience. Well.
ATO two point eleven B uses uh unregulated radio signal
(04:52):
frequencies and the two point four gigga hurts range. So uh,
here's something. Here's some things about the ATO two A
point one one B set standards. It's single ranges is
pretty good UM. In the two point four gigg, it
hurts range, and it's not going to have problems with
obstructions that some other frequencies do. So in other words,
(05:15):
you might be able to use this kind of signal
through walls things like that. You don't have to worry
about losing signal as soon as you turn a corner
some UH from the source of the UH. The frequency UM,
and it's not very expensive. The range is pretty good, UM,
but it's not a very it's not very fast, as
(05:37):
you pointed out, you know, compared to eight oh two
point eleven A. It's it's fairly slow. UM. And because
it's an unregulated frequency, some other appliances that generate radio
frequencies can cause interference within that wireless UH frequency because
you have to remember the computer you're using whatever, Like
(06:00):
if you have a wireless router that's broadcasting WiFi on
this set of standards, if it's using unregulated radio frequencies,
that means that it can fall within a wider range,
and that things that also generate radio frequencies within that range.
When you're using your computer, your computer doesn't know which
one of those which of those signals are coming from
your router and which are coming from other devices. So
(06:23):
that's where you get your your interference. And if you're
saying what kind of interference could you possibly be talking about, Well,
we're talking about things like your cordless phone in your
house for example, or UM perhaps an alarm system where
you have UH wireless UM the devices that go above
(06:44):
your windows and doors, if it you know it uses
radio frequencies to talk to the main box, UM and
baby monitors stuff like that. Those are all using you know,
those radio frequencies in those ranges. And of course you
can you can buy cordless phones and are not to
over use that word range of different frequencies UM. So
(07:07):
you could try to get to to get around that.
But UM that's one of those things that UH I
think they've been trying to improve is is cut down
on some of the interference. And that's why um ATO
two eleven A uses the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Basically,
it's it's just a system of splitting down that signal
into a group of sub signals to kind of make
(07:31):
it UH less likely that you're going to be interfered with,
and breaks it down so that it's not all in
in one UH one signal right, so you're not gonna
you're not gonna have the same interference issues. UM, it's
you shouldn't. And again, like we point out, it is
faster at two point eleven A is faster than NATO
to a point eleven B. But it's also it's UM
(07:53):
range is shorter, it's not it doesn't go as far.
And because of the frequencies that uses UM, it's a
little more easily obstructed. So you can't necessarily broadcast through
several walls. If you have a large house and you've
got a wireless router in the middle, then you may
notice that as you move away you start having problems
getting a signal. I also suggest that you don't make
(08:15):
your walls out of lead. Yeah, I um, never again,
never again. I tell you one thing. You know what,
You make your walls out of lead, and you invite
Superman over. The dude is just a total jerk face
the entire time. Well he's just hes right, he's just
standing around, staring at the walls and just mumbling curses.
(08:36):
I can't even repeat the things that man says. He
just Oh what a mouth on that guy. At any rate,
I had no idea that my little joke would turn
so awry. No, but tell you what, green lantern is awesome.
You get a few drinks in him. So uh so
yeah eight to two point eleven A faster, shorter range,
also was more expensive. Both A and B were being
(08:57):
worked on at the same time. UM B was even
though B was slower, it was less expensive and had
a greater range, so it it caught on a lot
faster than A did. Um A was much more expensive,
so you didn't really see that getting adopted in home
networks as much. But that brings us up to ATO
two point eleven. G. Yes, we skipped a few letters
(09:19):
and specifications, yes, um not that. Yeah, I mean you could.
If you look up all these different numbers, uh along
with I E. You'll see that there are all these
different working groups that are working on various projects that
have different designations. But it gets way too complex to
talk about all that, especially since it doesn't really relate
to what we're talking about here with home networking. So
(09:41):
ATO two point eleven. Yeah, that was A and B
were popular together for a while, and then G was
a good sized leap forward. I would say, yeah, I agree,
and it has been the standard. Um it's been widely
adopted up until just recently, but we'll get into that
in a moment. Um ATO two dot eleven G also
uses the two point for giga hurts spectrum, just like
(10:04):
at two dot eleven B. However, it is much faster
band with up to fifty four megabits per second as
I as I see before me, that's the figure I
have as well. So yeah, that's really fast speed. And
it's actually the it has really much better range. It's
not easily obstructed, so it's it's kind of taking the
(10:25):
best of both worlds here. It's got the range and
and uh and the penetration of ATO two point eleven
B and the speed and um and and uh well
probably just the speed of two point eleven A UM.
But it it was a little it's a little more expensive,
or at least it was more expensive than ATO two
(10:46):
point eleven B. It took a while for that to
kind of become the standard and home networks, but that
did become the standard after shortly after it was introduced.
And uh so you would look on routers and you
would see if we know which which, then it was
compatible within eight or two point eleven G became more
and more common and uh yeah, again had another problem
(11:10):
with the fact that it had the unregulated signal, just
like a two point eleven B did. So again there
were there was at least the potential for signals to
have some interference issues if you had a lot of
other wireless technologies running in the house, a lot of
kids running around on walkie talkies or you know exactly,
(11:32):
I'll never be over it. I'm never over kids over
at my house walkie talkies. That is just the most
distracting thing in the world, because especially because you don't
have kids. Yeah that people, how did you get into
my house? Did Superman let you in? Has he not
gotten over the lead walls thing? Yet? Does that bring
us up to two eleven in? Yes? And up until
(11:55):
very very recently, this was not an approved standard. However,
UM know I have seen from looking at the WiFi
Alliance's website, UM that ATO two dot eleven and is
actually an accepted specification at this time, um, which was
supposed to happen this year. So you know that those
(12:15):
of you who are going, yeah, okay, so where's the
surprise in that. No, that's that's uh, that's right on time.
They're supposed to do that this year. Um. And UH,
basically you're supposed to be able to get a lot
better range with ATO two dot eleven and and speed
for that matter. UM, that was one of the things
when I got UM. I got a new wireless access
(12:38):
point UM a few months ago, and it had a
proposed ATO two dot eleven and specification in it. Um.
You know, since I am sitting right next to or
almost right next to the the access point, I find
the range is great. But yeah, you are right next
to it as if you could actually plug your device
(12:58):
into it with a physical are how great the range
of details details? Actually? Um, when I was down the hall,
I actually moved the computer since then, UM no, it
was it was giving me a much better range than
the old one, so UM, so you know it was
it was an improvement. Um. But yeah, the eight to
two dot eleven N is supposed to get you up
to a hundred forty megabits per second, which is pretty speedy. Yeah,
(13:22):
that's considering I can't even get my my DSL connection
near that fast. So you were asking Mark about the
difficulties in networking if you have different machines running on
different uh that require different standards. Yes, that will be
a problem because you have to have the right it's
(13:43):
it's like an antenna. You have to the right kind
of antend to pick up the right kind of frequency.
And um, it sort of depends on what kind of
card you have sorright interrupt No, no, go ahead. You
need to have something that will receive the signals in
your computer. Um. And uh, you know you can get
cards that are built right in. And there are also
different kinds of cards that you can add on an
(14:04):
aftermarket depending on what kind of computer you have. UM.
And many of these cards can actually accept more than
one standard, like they'll they'll say it'll be you know,
you'll see like a B slash in or something like that,
or in slash G or Yeah. The chances are actually
if you go out and buy whatever off the shelf,
now it's going to be end compatible and backwards compatible
with the other three standards, which is great. I mean
(14:26):
if you don't have those compatible ones, then obviously if
you were to get if you were to have an
old ATO two point eleven G wireless card and a
laptop and you got an ATO two point eleven in router,
it's not gonna do any good. Yeah, you're not gonna
be able to access those faster speeds because you're limited
by it's kind of the weakest link in the in
(14:46):
the chain kind of thing. Um, you're you're limited by
whatever you are, your least fast device is going to
be uh in that in that chain from router to computer.
So yeah, it can cause a little issue. It's not
not as bad as you might think because most things
that are most of routers and modems that have been
sold in the last few years have really kind of
(15:09):
ironed out a lot of the compatibility issues. Um. But
that's and you know, again it's kind of confusing because
the standards do evolve over time and the group is
always working on different projects. That mean that you know,
within another five or six years we may see something different.
And not only that, but we have other networking technologies
(15:30):
that also come into play that can be a little confusing.
There's Bluetooth. Actually, it's funny you mentioned that I was
getting ready to mention please do um. There are a
couple different standards of Bluetooth technology. Now. Bluetooth UM in
general has a shorter distance that you can use a
smaller range. Yes, that's what I meant thank you for
(15:51):
fixing that. Um hey, who's the editor here? Yeah, well
that would be me, except when I'm talking. This is
why I edit. Um. Yeah. It actually operates on frequency
of two point four five giga hurts. Uh, generally between
two point four zero two and two point four eight
zero if you're you know split in hair for those
(16:12):
of you taking notes, Yeah, yeah, and you can you know,
connect up to eight devices. Um you find I don't
think a lot of people use Bluetooth to connect a
lot of devices to their computer. Exp maybe like a
wireless keyboarder mouse maybe maybe or or yeah, maybe a printer,
sometimes your phone. I had a phone that used Bluetooth,
and I could drag and drop files over like if
(16:32):
I wanted to change ring tones, I make an MP
three and and you know, connect with it. The wireless
The promise of Bluetooth is really really cool in the
sense that you can have this personal area network and
you know, you the network would constantly be changing depending
on what devices you brought within the scope of that network.
So you can bring two devices together, it creates one network.
(16:55):
You bring those two devices toward a third device, and
you've got a new network. You take one device away.
I mean it's a really flexible UM and and dynamic system.
It's really really cool. I don't think anyone uses it
to the to its potential really. I mean, I don't
know one I know of uses Bluetooth. Like the people
(17:17):
who use Bluetooth that I know are using the very
very basic. So it's the headset and the and the
phone the handset. Um that's pretty much it. Or some
of them are using some sort of handset and a
car like the car that's Bluetooth enabled so that the
handset sinks with the car and they can listen to music,
or they can use a GPS system something like that
(17:38):
where or even use the cars sound system for a
if they're taking on calls or things of that nature.
But again it's still you're talking about a two device
maximum there as opposed to what the real potential or
Bluetooth is. I know somebody else is going to write
into now that I think about it. Another device that
you might see people use with their Bluetooth enabled computer
(17:58):
and be a set of headphones. Yeah, that's that's pretty common.
That's true. That's true. That is another common one. Um
and another thing we're another kind of wireless standard. Was
going to talk about y max. So y max and
WiFi are two different things. They are not the You
often will see the media reference why max is saying
(18:19):
something like WiFi on steroids, which is I mean it's
an oversimplification. Yeah, it's definitely an oversimplification. Yes, y max
has a greater range than WiFi standards because it can
reach up to a thirty miles right, something like somewhere.
And so wy max has a much larger range. And yes,
you can get very fast. Uh, down link and uplink
(18:41):
speeds on y max are relatively fast anyway, about megabits
per seconds. So yeah, that's pretty fast. I mean it's
still not as fast as you know, eight or two
point eleven and but yes, but you're not gonna get
eight or two down eleven and much past I don't know,
like the street in front of your house. Yeah, you're
not gonna That's the other thing is that when we
talk about these speeds, we're talking about the maximum that
(19:01):
those devices are capable of generating. That doesn't necessarily mean
that's the speed you will experience. That will experience it
based upon what your I s P provides to you.
Actually when I was saying a few minutes ago that
my DSL struggles to reach one point five megabet per second.
You know, I have a my router now is an
eight or two data eleven n I'm never gonna see
(19:22):
anything faster than one point five megabets per second, because
that's as fast as it's gonna go out. Now, if
I connect with another computer, if I have, you know, say,
my music library at one computer I want to move
it to another, I can move it at that speed
provided my cards in both computers will reach that speed.
So data transfers within your network will go at at
the ideal speed, right, But data coming into or moving
(19:46):
out of your network to the outside world the Internet,
is going to move at whatever speed the Internet service
provider has designated, or what your current technology is capable
of delivering. Yeah, so the slowest point of connect in
this case would be my you know, pipe to the
outside world, and everything else is regulated by that, right,
Everything inside super fast, everything outside not so fast. Still fast,
(20:10):
just not nearly as fast. As we sit there and
think about how slow this is. But then we sit
there and like, hey, do you remember that there's bod modems? Okay,
so it's very fast compared to dial up modems. But anyway,
so so wy max getting back to wymax. Um, yeah,
it's a totally different set of standards. Uh, dot one six.
I like to I like to describe wy max the
(20:30):
way I tried to describe it to someone, uh, and
how it works if you if you want to try
and visualize it within an analogy is imagine a big
circular building that has a set number of doors along
the perimeter of the building. So we'll say forty forty
doors are along the perimeter of the building. That means
that forty people can walk in and out of that building,
(20:53):
carrying stuff in and taking stuff out. So there's forty
people that would be people connecting to the y max
tower to get data. So home networks necessary pretty much. Um.
And after the after those forty doors are taken up
by the various people, that's it. It's not going to
accept any more people on that tower, which means that
every single person is going to still get the speeds
(21:16):
that they were promised. You know, there's no choking because
there's no bottleneck there because the tower has cut off
the number of people who can connect to it. WiFi
is different. WiFi. People just keep piling in and out.
There's like one big set of doors and everyone is
trying to get in and out that set of doors
at the same time. So the more people are trying
to access a WiFi spot, the slower you're going to experience.
(21:40):
The slower the data rates will be slower, data transfer
rates will be um because it does not limit the
number like y max does, So it's a different approach
rely UM and why MAX of course, is just one
of the four G solutions that we're looking at in
the in in the future. There are others as well
as LT, which is long term evolution. Looks it looks
(22:01):
like those two are going to be fighting it out
to be the four G standard, depending on on whom
you ask and where and what what company you happen
to be working for that is backing which standard. Here
in Atlanta we're actually seeing WiMAX now up and a
few other cities in the United States also have Wi
max now and more are expected to get it within
(22:24):
the next year. YEP, but LT is on its way,
I'm I'm pretty sure. And it's also that's also being
giving the UH the fast track and development. I do
want to clarify though, just to make certain that everyone
understands that if you have a Wi Fi card, a
O two, DON eleven, a b G or n UM,
those may or may not be compatible with you know,
(22:46):
a a particular card, or you know, some plug in
for your computer. But Bluetooth and Wi Max are going
to require their own separate thing. They're not they're not related.
You can't get one card, as far as I know,
you can't get one card that will get all of
those frequencies you know, in one thing that you can
plug into your machine. You're looking at probably three. Yeah,
(23:09):
although I guess you could argue that y max could
replace WiFi, except unless you're actually, well, if you're doing
home networking stuff, if you're trying to actually transfer data
between machines in your home network, then you will need something.
Because y max it's it's reporting back to the internet
service provider. It's not it's not a home networking solution. Well, okay,
(23:30):
that's actually a good point, because, um, the the particular
y Max provider that is advertising in the Atlanta area
shows off that you can have your laptop with you
and get access anywhere. You could be on the bus,
you could be you know, at an sidewalk cafe, you
could be at your home and you're still going to
get your wy max speed. Well that's great. However, if
(23:50):
you're using basically what they're showing off as a as
a dongle type card modem thing. Um, that's the scientific
term for it, type mode them card thing. Yes, yes,
I think it's on the box. Okay, okay, So anyway,
you plug the thing in the side of your computer,
you can get it and you can go anywhere. What
happens if you go home and you want to hook up,
(24:11):
say your spouse is computer, Well, now you kind of
need the internet. We'll see, that's that's going to do
with it. Okay, So then you're stuck. That's no, no
more home networking if all you have is that one
type of you know, connectivity, you know, they offer this
the wmax provider also offers a home modem and then
(24:33):
you can plug that into wave WiFi connection. But if
you want to get you know, the y max all
around town, you're gonna have to have the portable. Yeah,
so that's that's a difference. Does have it might actually
have a WiMAX and a WiFi Well yeah, they Yeah,
that's true, that's true. I've seen I've seen the packages
I've seen usually involved you can get one of each.
You can get one that's the home solution where you
(24:55):
you hook that up to your router. So you have
to buy both of them, yes, but but it's there's
some that's like a package deal though, so you're getting
a discount as opposed to if you were buying each separately. Yes, yes, so, yes,
you would still have to have your wireless router, which
would that's working on the WiFi if you want to
(25:15):
hook up all your computers, yes, exactly, and within your home,
and then you would have the y max dongle for
whichever computer you have designated as the the main one
whenever you're heading outside the house and you want to
be able to hook directly to your I s P.
The nice thing about that is you don't have to
pay for any other like WiFi services, any hotspots or
anything like that, and you don't have to you don't
(25:37):
have to depend upon no. Yeah, because with the wax range, Yeah,
you're connecting right to the Wi max thing tower, not
not to WiFi networks. And so I know that's a
big problem for us us, being me and my wife,
we when we're traveling around UH town, we have to
hope that wherever we're going has a WiFi network and
(25:58):
that that hopefully it's a why find network where we
don't have to pay extra to get attached to it,
because when you're already paying uh an internet service provider
to get access to the internet, you kind of hate
the thought of having to pay again because you're like,
if we were home, we could access this based on
our plan, we wouldn't have to pay extra. So yeah,
we get a little yeah, mightily miffed. Great was the
(26:22):
message thereof all right, well I think that that pretty
much covers the whole WiFi angle. Yeah. I'm sure we've
confused everyone by now. I know I'm more confused than
when we started, so good job. Um well, you know,
I guess that means that it's time to wrap things
up with a little a listener mail. This listener mail
(26:47):
comes from Casey. Hey, guys, I love the podcast. I
had a quick question for you. I've heard that Mac
and Linux operating systems don't get viruses like Windows computers do.
As far as I can tell, I haven't even heard
of a virus protection software from my Leopard running operating system.
Is this because the Unix base that Mac and Lenox
were built on is less susceptible, or because Windows is
a little easier to target because of how mainstream they
(27:08):
are operating system is? Keep up the good work, and
I would love to hear the answer to this sometime,
o K. See. First of all, let's let's address a
couple of things. UH. Linux does not have a Unix
base technically, it is it was inspired Lennox was inspired
by Unix, or rather we should say Linus was inspired
by Unix. Actually he was inspired by um minix Minix,
(27:32):
which in turn was a a kind of open source
alternative to Unix. See, you have Unix, you had the
open source alternative to Unix called Minix. You had Lenis
Torvald's who was then inspired by Minix to create Linux.
So let's get that all the way. UM As for
are they just naturally less susceptible? Not technically, I mean there,
(27:56):
it's it's more challenging to create the UH something that
exploits a vulnerability in Linux or Mac because you've got,
within the case of Linux, you've got a community that
is dedicated to finding these things out and fixing them
before they become problems. It doesn't mean that it's impossible.
It just means it's more challenging because you've you know,
(28:16):
you've got the entire worldwide Linux community working on this stuff. Um.
Even though there are various distributions, and each distribution is
slightly different from each other distribution Mac, you've got a
closed system which is harder to get into and learn
how that works because Apple controls the whole Mac UH
situation from the hardware to the operating system. Even so,
(28:40):
it is possible to create UH programs that exploit vulnerabilities.
We've seen that both in MAX and in Linux systems. Recently,
we've seen some that went as that that even exploit
vulnerabilities or could exploit of vulnerability within the Linux kernel itself. Um,
that doesn't mean that there as vulnerable as a Windows system.
(29:02):
Your question of is Windows more vulnerable because it's more
popular In a way, Yes, it's certainly more popular with
hackers for one thing. I mean it's it's more accessible. Also,
more people are using Windows. So therefore your target is
You've got a target rich environment is what our friends
in the military would call it. It's it means that
if you do write some malicious software, you're gonna hit
(29:25):
way more victims if you do it for Windows, then
you're gonna hit if you use it for macor Linux,
just because there are more people using Windows out there
than the alternatives. But if you look at some of
the vulnerabilities that exploit server software, that's all Linux based stuff.
I mean almost all of it. Not not all of it.
Don't write me I know, not all of it, but
a great deal of it. So it is possible, it's
(29:47):
just not as common. Yeah, And there are there are
a couple of security providers who have written uh mac
virus software and has been out for many many years now.
Um at Actually I think snow Leppard came with some
anti virus in under the hood. Yeah, it's it's sort
of invisible. Actually, not like I've actually noticed that, let
(30:09):
me put it that way. Um, but but yeah, I mean,
and and the one, the one I would say that
is arguable arguably the largest. Um it's a company called Intego,
And they're the ones who always draw attention to vulnerabilities
when they are pointed out, and um, they usually get
sort of picked on. Uh and and uh, some of
(30:33):
the stuff that I've read, because they go, oh, yeah, well,
you guys are the ones writing the software. Of course,
that's what happens when samantech or or McAfee also points
out that there are vulnerabilities out there, I mean, they
have a vested interest in keeping that um in mind.
But a lot of and a lot of cases to
the Mac stuff scans for Windows uh um malware as well,
(30:56):
which is useful if you're running an Intel Mac and
happen to be running and happen to have an installation
of Windows and the Mac operating system on your Mac UM.
So you know, it can be handy. But a lot
of people in the Mac world still believe that their
position is very secure and do not use any virus
software right now. That does not mean if you have
(31:16):
a Mac or Linux machine that you should go clicking
on every single link and and installing every single application
you come across, because you never know when that that
vulnerability will be discovered and exploited. Uh. Here's the tricky
thing about hackers who find vulnerabilities. Some of them don't
make it public knowledge, and so it may be you
know that it's constantly a game of let's catch up
(31:38):
to what the hackers know and uh and then patch it.
So just be careful. Yeah, Max and Lenox machines aren't
gonna experience them as often as windows are, uh, just
in general. But it's it's not outside the realm of possibility.
It's like to throw this one last thing out there. Um,
for everybody who is using any kind of computer on
any kind of operating system, keep in mind their vulnerabilities
(32:00):
in the operating system and uh, security software patch is
there to protect you from malware that has been discovered.
But as long as there's a vulnerability, anything that hasn't
been discovered, that's right. As long as there's a vulnerability
and someone is there to exploit it and nobody knows
about it yet, so it's best to keep up your
guard and pay attention to what you're doing. That is
(32:22):
the best security procedure you can have. Why is words
to live My from tech stuff. Thanks Casey. If any
of you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions for podcasts,
please write us. We love getting the mail. I know
that I've been a little slow answering mail recently, but
we do read each end every single email that comes in.
You can email us our address is tech stuff at
(32:43):
how stuff works dot com and Crispy and I will
talk to you again really soon for moral this and
thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot
com And be sure to check out the new tech
stuff blog now on the House stuff Works homepage, brought
(33:03):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With
tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey, there
are kids, and welcome to tex stuff. My name is
Chris Pellette, and I'm an editor here at how stuff
(00:21):
works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always is,
is the smirking senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, you're
smirking at my opening my kids thing, right, Yeah, you
know I mix it up a little. It was I
never mix it up a little. That's well, you know,
it's good to humorless. That's true. That's true. Chris kill
(00:44):
Joy Pillette, that's what we call him here in the
office at how stuff works dot com. It's said, yeah,
I would find some humor in it, but I don't
never mind. Okay, it's better than Josh creepy hands Clark.
So you know, we all got our own little monikers.
I won't go into mind because you know, modesty forbids.
But let's start this off with a little listener mail.
(01:09):
This mail comes from Mark. Mark says, Dear tech Stuff,
thanks for a great podcast. I was wondering about how
wireless home networks work when my dad was talking about
upgrading ours and didn't know what the different network types were,
such as wireless G and wireless IN and how networking
you and not so new computers work and if it
will cause any problems. I think it would be an
(01:29):
interesting topic for a podcast because so many people have
home networks now. Anyway, thanks again for the great podcast
your seventh grade fan, Mark, well Mark. We thought we'd
talked a little bit about the different kinds of wireless
networks out there are the ones that use the various
standards set out by our good friends at the I
Triple E, or as I always like to call them I. Yeah. Yeah,
(01:56):
you know, early early networks were sort of like tin
cans with the string between them. This sort of makes
the string virtual. Yeah, there you go. That's all you
need to know. There's We're all right. So anyway, uh,
we're talking about a set of standards that in general
(02:18):
fall under the designation eight zero two point one one.
Doesn't that easy? Yeah, well it's it's the most those
are the most common frequency variations of wireless networking. So
the way you uh, you'll see on things like routers
and modems, and stuff. You'll see this number followed by
(02:39):
a letter, and that tells you which of the specific
sets of standards you're working with. Now you gotta understand
what I was getting Ready to correct myself because I
said frequency and that's not a frequency, it's just a designation.
Is a designation? Yes, so so the I triple E.
They they work on various designations for different UM networking solutions.
(03:03):
And with the eight to two point one one, you
have different working groups all working on different sets of
standards to try and create the most stable and reliable
form of wireless networking in this case wireless networking UM.
And it's it's a little confusing because you have all
these different groups working on working from the same basic
(03:24):
set of standards, but they're all tweaking them in different
ways to try and get different kinds of performance out
of them. So let's try and go through some of these.
It's really kind of complex, but um yeah. One of
the things to uh that's kind of interesting about these
different standards is, UH, as we start going through them,
(03:45):
if we are going through them in alphabetical order, you
will find that they do not necessarily uh go start
from the bottom up like if we start with eight
eight O two dot eleven A. Uh, this actually opera
rates on the five gigga hurts frequency and can carry
up to fifty four megabets of data per second. Uh.
(04:08):
In contrast ATO two dot eleven B you'd figured to
be faster. No, actually it's not. It operates at the
two point four gigga hurts frequency and only can handle
eleven megabets of data per second. And that's just one
of those things that makes it so confusing, is you
you'd figure there would be a logical progression there, and
there's not necessarily one. Yeah, so uh, what do you
(04:29):
think should we go by just by letter even though
it's not logical progression necessarily, but just to make it
easier to move from one to the other. Those two,
those two do fit well together because they were the
first two very common UM standards, at least in my experience. Well.
ATO two point eleven B uses uh unregulated radio signal
(04:52):
frequencies and the two point four gigga hurts range. So uh,
here's something. Here's some things about the ATO two A
point one one B set standards. It's single ranges is
pretty good UM. In the two point four gigg, it
hurts range, and it's not going to have problems with
obstructions that some other frequencies do. So in other words,
(05:15):
you might be able to use this kind of signal
through walls things like that. You don't have to worry
about losing signal as soon as you turn a corner
some UH from the source of the UH. The frequency UM,
and it's not very expensive. The range is pretty good, UM,
but it's not a very it's not very fast, as
(05:37):
you pointed out, you know, compared to eight oh two
point eleven A. It's it's fairly slow. UM. And because
it's an unregulated frequency, some other appliances that generate radio
frequencies can cause interference within that wireless UH frequency because
you have to remember the computer you're using whatever, Like
(06:00):
if you have a wireless router that's broadcasting WiFi on
this set of standards, if it's using unregulated radio frequencies,
that means that it can fall within a wider range,
and that things that also generate radio frequencies within that range.
When you're using your computer, your computer doesn't know which
one of those which of those signals are coming from
your router and which are coming from other devices. So
(06:23):
that's where you get your your interference. And if you're
saying what kind of interference could you possibly be talking about, Well,
we're talking about things like your cordless phone in your
house for example, or UM perhaps an alarm system where
you have UH wireless UM the devices that go above
(06:44):
your windows and doors, if it you know it uses
radio frequencies to talk to the main box, UM and
baby monitors stuff like that. Those are all using you know,
those radio frequencies in those ranges. And of course you
can you can buy cordless phones and are not to
over use that word range of different frequencies UM. So
(07:07):
you could try to get to to get around that.
But UM that's one of those things that UH I
think they've been trying to improve is is cut down
on some of the interference. And that's why um ATO
two eleven A uses the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Basically,
it's it's just a system of splitting down that signal
into a group of sub signals to kind of make
(07:31):
it UH less likely that you're going to be interfered with,
and breaks it down so that it's not all in
in one UH one signal right, so you're not gonna
you're not gonna have the same interference issues. UM, it's
you shouldn't. And again, like we point out, it is
faster at two point eleven A is faster than NATO
to a point eleven B. But it's also it's UM
(07:53):
range is shorter, it's not it doesn't go as far.
And because of the frequencies that uses UM, it's a
little more easily obstructed. So you can't necessarily broadcast through
several walls. If you have a large house and you've
got a wireless router in the middle, then you may
notice that as you move away you start having problems
getting a signal. I also suggest that you don't make
(08:15):
your walls out of lead. Yeah, I um, never again,
never again. I tell you one thing. You know what,
You make your walls out of lead, and you invite
Superman over. The dude is just a total jerk face
the entire time. Well he's just hes right, he's just
standing around, staring at the walls and just mumbling curses.
(08:36):
I can't even repeat the things that man says. He
just Oh what a mouth on that guy. At any rate,
I had no idea that my little joke would turn
so awry. No, but tell you what, green lantern is awesome.
You get a few drinks in him. So uh so
yeah eight to two point eleven A faster, shorter range,
also was more expensive. Both A and B were being
(08:57):
worked on at the same time. UM B was even
though B was slower, it was less expensive and had
a greater range, so it it caught on a lot
faster than A did. Um A was much more expensive,
so you didn't really see that getting adopted in home
networks as much. But that brings us up to ATO
two point eleven. G. Yes, we skipped a few letters
(09:19):
and specifications, yes, um not that. Yeah, I mean you could.
If you look up all these different numbers, uh along
with I E. You'll see that there are all these
different working groups that are working on various projects that
have different designations. But it gets way too complex to
talk about all that, especially since it doesn't really relate
to what we're talking about here with home networking. So
(09:41):
ATO two point eleven. Yeah, that was A and B
were popular together for a while, and then G was
a good sized leap forward. I would say, yeah, I agree,
and it has been the standard. Um it's been widely
adopted up until just recently, but we'll get into that
in a moment. Um ATO two dot eleven G also
uses the two point for giga hurts spectrum, just like
(10:04):
at two dot eleven B. However, it is much faster
band with up to fifty four megabits per second as
I as I see before me, that's the figure I
have as well. So yeah, that's really fast speed. And
it's actually the it has really much better range. It's
not easily obstructed, so it's it's kind of taking the
(10:25):
best of both worlds here. It's got the range and
and uh and the penetration of ATO two point eleven
B and the speed and um and and uh well
probably just the speed of two point eleven A UM.
But it it was a little it's a little more expensive,
or at least it was more expensive than ATO two
(10:46):
point eleven B. It took a while for that to
kind of become the standard and home networks, but that
did become the standard after shortly after it was introduced.
And uh so you would look on routers and you
would see if we know which which, then it was
compatible within eight or two point eleven G became more
and more common and uh yeah, again had another problem
(11:10):
with the fact that it had the unregulated signal, just
like a two point eleven B did. So again there
were there was at least the potential for signals to
have some interference issues if you had a lot of
other wireless technologies running in the house, a lot of
kids running around on walkie talkies or you know exactly,
(11:32):
I'll never be over it. I'm never over kids over
at my house walkie talkies. That is just the most
distracting thing in the world, because especially because you don't
have kids. Yeah that people, how did you get into
my house? Did Superman let you in? Has he not
gotten over the lead walls thing? Yet? Does that bring
us up to two eleven in? Yes? And up until
(11:55):
very very recently, this was not an approved standard. However,
UM know I have seen from looking at the WiFi
Alliance's website, UM that ATO two dot eleven and is
actually an accepted specification at this time, um, which was
supposed to happen this year. So you know that those
(12:15):
of you who are going, yeah, okay, so where's the
surprise in that. No, that's that's uh, that's right on time.
They're supposed to do that this year. Um. And UH,
basically you're supposed to be able to get a lot
better range with ATO two dot eleven and and speed
for that matter. UM, that was one of the things
when I got UM. I got a new wireless access
(12:38):
point UM a few months ago, and it had a
proposed ATO two dot eleven and specification in it. Um.
You know, since I am sitting right next to or
almost right next to the the access point, I find
the range is great. But yeah, you are right next
to it as if you could actually plug your device
(12:58):
into it with a physical are how great the range
of details details? Actually? Um, when I was down the hall,
I actually moved the computer since then, UM no, it
was it was giving me a much better range than
the old one, so UM, so you know it was
it was an improvement. Um. But yeah, the eight to
two dot eleven N is supposed to get you up
to a hundred forty megabits per second, which is pretty speedy. Yeah,
(13:22):
that's considering I can't even get my my DSL connection
near that fast. So you were asking Mark about the
difficulties in networking if you have different machines running on
different uh that require different standards. Yes, that will be
a problem because you have to have the right it's
(13:43):
it's like an antenna. You have to the right kind
of antend to pick up the right kind of frequency.
And um, it sort of depends on what kind of
card you have sorright interrupt No, no, go ahead. You
need to have something that will receive the signals in
your computer. Um. And uh, you know you can get
cards that are built right in. And there are also
different kinds of cards that you can add on an
(14:04):
aftermarket depending on what kind of computer you have. UM.
And many of these cards can actually accept more than
one standard, like they'll they'll say it'll be you know,
you'll see like a B slash in or something like that,
or in slash G or Yeah. The chances are actually
if you go out and buy whatever off the shelf,
now it's going to be end compatible and backwards compatible
with the other three standards, which is great. I mean
(14:26):
if you don't have those compatible ones, then obviously if
you were to get if you were to have an
old ATO two point eleven G wireless card and a
laptop and you got an ATO two point eleven in router,
it's not gonna do any good. Yeah, you're not gonna
be able to access those faster speeds because you're limited
by it's kind of the weakest link in the in
(14:46):
the chain kind of thing. Um, you're you're limited by
whatever you are, your least fast device is going to
be uh in that in that chain from router to computer.
So yeah, it can cause a little issue. It's not
not as bad as you might think because most things
that are most of routers and modems that have been
sold in the last few years have really kind of
(15:09):
ironed out a lot of the compatibility issues. Um. But
that's and you know, again it's kind of confusing because
the standards do evolve over time and the group is
always working on different projects. That mean that you know,
within another five or six years we may see something different.
And not only that, but we have other networking technologies
(15:30):
that also come into play that can be a little confusing.
There's Bluetooth. Actually, it's funny you mentioned that I was
getting ready to mention please do um. There are a
couple different standards of Bluetooth technology. Now. Bluetooth UM in
general has a shorter distance that you can use a
smaller range. Yes, that's what I meant thank you for
(15:51):
fixing that. Um hey, who's the editor here? Yeah, well
that would be me, except when I'm talking. This is
why I edit. Um. Yeah. It actually operates on frequency
of two point four five giga hurts. Uh, generally between
two point four zero two and two point four eight
zero if you're you know split in hair for those
(16:12):
of you taking notes, Yeah, yeah, and you can you know,
connect up to eight devices. Um you find I don't
think a lot of people use Bluetooth to connect a
lot of devices to their computer. Exp maybe like a
wireless keyboarder mouse maybe maybe or or yeah, maybe a printer,
sometimes your phone. I had a phone that used Bluetooth,
and I could drag and drop files over like if
(16:32):
I wanted to change ring tones, I make an MP
three and and you know, connect with it. The wireless
The promise of Bluetooth is really really cool in the
sense that you can have this personal area network and
you know, you the network would constantly be changing depending
on what devices you brought within the scope of that network.
So you can bring two devices together, it creates one network.
(16:55):
You bring those two devices toward a third device, and
you've got a new network. You take one device away.
I mean it's a really flexible UM and and dynamic system.
It's really really cool. I don't think anyone uses it
to the to its potential really. I mean, I don't
know one I know of uses Bluetooth. Like the people
(17:17):
who use Bluetooth that I know are using the very
very basic. So it's the headset and the and the
phone the handset. Um that's pretty much it. Or some
of them are using some sort of handset and a
car like the car that's Bluetooth enabled so that the
handset sinks with the car and they can listen to music,
or they can use a GPS system something like that
(17:38):
where or even use the cars sound system for a
if they're taking on calls or things of that nature.
But again it's still you're talking about a two device
maximum there as opposed to what the real potential or
Bluetooth is. I know somebody else is going to write
into now that I think about it. Another device that
you might see people use with their Bluetooth enabled computer
(17:58):
and be a set of headphones. Yeah, that's that's pretty common.
That's true. That's true. That is another common one. Um
and another thing we're another kind of wireless standard. Was
going to talk about y max. So y max and
WiFi are two different things. They are not the You
often will see the media reference why max is saying
(18:19):
something like WiFi on steroids, which is I mean it's
an oversimplification. Yeah, it's definitely an oversimplification. Yes, y max
has a greater range than WiFi standards because it can
reach up to a thirty miles right, something like somewhere.
And so wy max has a much larger range. And yes,
you can get very fast. Uh, down link and uplink
(18:41):
speeds on y max are relatively fast anyway, about megabits
per seconds. So yeah, that's pretty fast. I mean it's
still not as fast as you know, eight or two
point eleven and but yes, but you're not gonna get
eight or two down eleven and much past I don't know,
like the street in front of your house. Yeah, you're
not gonna That's the other thing is that when we
talk about these speeds, we're talking about the maximum that
(19:01):
those devices are capable of generating. That doesn't necessarily mean
that's the speed you will experience. That will experience it
based upon what your I s P provides to you.
Actually when I was saying a few minutes ago that
my DSL struggles to reach one point five megabet per second.
You know, I have a my router now is an
eight or two data eleven n I'm never gonna see
(19:22):
anything faster than one point five megabets per second, because
that's as fast as it's gonna go out. Now, if
I connect with another computer, if I have, you know, say,
my music library at one computer I want to move
it to another, I can move it at that speed
provided my cards in both computers will reach that speed.
So data transfers within your network will go at at
the ideal speed, right, But data coming into or moving
(19:46):
out of your network to the outside world the Internet,
is going to move at whatever speed the Internet service
provider has designated, or what your current technology is capable
of delivering. Yeah, so the slowest point of connect in
this case would be my you know, pipe to the
outside world, and everything else is regulated by that, right,
Everything inside super fast, everything outside not so fast. Still fast,
(20:10):
just not nearly as fast. As we sit there and
think about how slow this is. But then we sit
there and like, hey, do you remember that there's bod modems? Okay,
so it's very fast compared to dial up modems. But anyway,
so so wy max getting back to wymax. Um, yeah,
it's a totally different set of standards. Uh, dot one six.
I like to I like to describe wy max the
(20:30):
way I tried to describe it to someone, uh, and
how it works if you if you want to try
and visualize it within an analogy is imagine a big
circular building that has a set number of doors along
the perimeter of the building. So we'll say forty forty
doors are along the perimeter of the building. That means
that forty people can walk in and out of that building,
(20:53):
carrying stuff in and taking stuff out. So there's forty
people that would be people connecting to the y max
tower to get data. So home networks necessary pretty much. Um.
And after the after those forty doors are taken up
by the various people, that's it. It's not going to
accept any more people on that tower, which means that
every single person is going to still get the speeds
(21:16):
that they were promised. You know, there's no choking because
there's no bottleneck there because the tower has cut off
the number of people who can connect to it. WiFi
is different. WiFi. People just keep piling in and out.
There's like one big set of doors and everyone is
trying to get in and out that set of doors
at the same time. So the more people are trying
to access a WiFi spot, the slower you're going to experience.
(21:40):
The slower the data rates will be slower, data transfer
rates will be um because it does not limit the
number like y max does, So it's a different approach
rely UM and why MAX of course, is just one
of the four G solutions that we're looking at in
the in in the future. There are others as well
as LT, which is long term evolution. Looks it looks
(22:01):
like those two are going to be fighting it out
to be the four G standard, depending on on whom
you ask and where and what what company you happen
to be working for that is backing which standard. Here
in Atlanta we're actually seeing WiMAX now up and a
few other cities in the United States also have Wi
max now and more are expected to get it within
(22:24):
the next year. YEP, but LT is on its way,
I'm I'm pretty sure. And it's also that's also being
giving the UH the fast track and development. I do
want to clarify though, just to make certain that everyone
understands that if you have a Wi Fi card, a
O two, DON eleven, a b G or n UM,
those may or may not be compatible with you know,
(22:46):
a a particular card, or you know, some plug in
for your computer. But Bluetooth and Wi Max are going
to require their own separate thing. They're not they're not related.
You can't get one card, as far as I know,
you can't get one card that will get all of
those frequencies you know, in one thing that you can
plug into your machine. You're looking at probably three. Yeah,
(23:09):
although I guess you could argue that y max could
replace WiFi, except unless you're actually, well, if you're doing
home networking stuff, if you're trying to actually transfer data
between machines in your home network, then you will need something.
Because y max it's it's reporting back to the internet
service provider. It's not it's not a home networking solution. Well, okay,
(23:30):
that's actually a good point, because, um, the the particular
y Max provider that is advertising in the Atlanta area
shows off that you can have your laptop with you
and get access anywhere. You could be on the bus,
you could be you know, at an sidewalk cafe, you
could be at your home and you're still going to
get your wy max speed. Well that's great. However, if
(23:50):
you're using basically what they're showing off as a as
a dongle type card modem thing. Um, that's the scientific
term for it, type mode them card thing. Yes, yes,
I think it's on the box. Okay, okay, So anyway,
you plug the thing in the side of your computer,
you can get it and you can go anywhere. What
happens if you go home and you want to hook up,
(24:11):
say your spouse is computer, Well, now you kind of
need the internet. We'll see, that's that's going to do
with it. Okay, So then you're stuck. That's no, no
more home networking if all you have is that one
type of you know, connectivity, you know, they offer this
the wmax provider also offers a home modem and then
(24:33):
you can plug that into wave WiFi connection. But if
you want to get you know, the y max all
around town, you're gonna have to have the portable. Yeah,
so that's that's a difference. Does have it might actually
have a WiMAX and a WiFi Well yeah, they Yeah,
that's true, that's true. I've seen I've seen the packages
I've seen usually involved you can get one of each.
You can get one that's the home solution where you
(24:55):
you hook that up to your router. So you have
to buy both of them, yes, but but it's there's
some that's like a package deal though, so you're getting
a discount as opposed to if you were buying each separately. Yes, yes, so, yes,
you would still have to have your wireless router, which
would that's working on the WiFi if you want to
(25:15):
hook up all your computers, yes, exactly, and within your home,
and then you would have the y max dongle for
whichever computer you have designated as the the main one
whenever you're heading outside the house and you want to
be able to hook directly to your I s P.
The nice thing about that is you don't have to
pay for any other like WiFi services, any hotspots or
anything like that, and you don't have to you don't
(25:37):
have to depend upon no. Yeah, because with the wax range, Yeah,
you're connecting right to the Wi max thing tower, not
not to WiFi networks. And so I know that's a
big problem for us us, being me and my wife,
we when we're traveling around UH town, we have to
hope that wherever we're going has a WiFi network and
(25:58):
that that hopefully it's a why find network where we
don't have to pay extra to get attached to it,
because when you're already paying uh an internet service provider
to get access to the internet, you kind of hate
the thought of having to pay again because you're like,
if we were home, we could access this based on
our plan, we wouldn't have to pay extra. So yeah,
we get a little yeah, mightily miffed. Great was the
(26:22):
message thereof all right, well I think that that pretty
much covers the whole WiFi angle. Yeah. I'm sure we've
confused everyone by now. I know I'm more confused than
when we started, so good job. Um well, you know,
I guess that means that it's time to wrap things
up with a little a listener mail. This listener mail
(26:47):
comes from Casey. Hey, guys, I love the podcast. I
had a quick question for you. I've heard that Mac
and Linux operating systems don't get viruses like Windows computers do.
As far as I can tell, I haven't even heard
of a virus protection software from my Leopard running operating system.
Is this because the Unix base that Mac and Lenox
were built on is less susceptible, or because Windows is
a little easier to target because of how mainstream they
(27:08):
are operating system is? Keep up the good work, and
I would love to hear the answer to this sometime,
o K. See. First of all, let's let's address a
couple of things. UH. Linux does not have a Unix
base technically, it is it was inspired Lennox was inspired
by Unix, or rather we should say Linus was inspired
by Unix. Actually he was inspired by um minix Minix,
(27:32):
which in turn was a a kind of open source
alternative to Unix. See, you have Unix, you had the
open source alternative to Unix called Minix. You had Lenis
Torvald's who was then inspired by Minix to create Linux.
So let's get that all the way. UM As for
are they just naturally less susceptible? Not technically, I mean there,
(27:56):
it's it's more challenging to create the UH something that
exploits a vulnerability in Linux or Mac because you've got,
within the case of Linux, you've got a community that
is dedicated to finding these things out and fixing them
before they become problems. It doesn't mean that it's impossible.
It just means it's more challenging because you've you know,
(28:16):
you've got the entire worldwide Linux community working on this stuff. Um.
Even though there are various distributions, and each distribution is
slightly different from each other distribution Mac, you've got a
closed system which is harder to get into and learn
how that works because Apple controls the whole Mac UH
situation from the hardware to the operating system. Even so,
(28:40):
it is possible to create UH programs that exploit vulnerabilities.
We've seen that both in MAX and in Linux systems. Recently,
we've seen some that went as that that even exploit
vulnerabilities or could exploit of vulnerability within the Linux kernel itself. Um,
that doesn't mean that there as vulnerable as a Windows system.
(29:02):
Your question of is Windows more vulnerable because it's more
popular In a way, Yes, it's certainly more popular with
hackers for one thing. I mean it's it's more accessible. Also,
more people are using Windows. So therefore your target is
You've got a target rich environment is what our friends
in the military would call it. It's it means that
if you do write some malicious software, you're gonna hit
(29:25):
way more victims if you do it for Windows, then
you're gonna hit if you use it for macor Linux,
just because there are more people using Windows out there
than the alternatives. But if you look at some of
the vulnerabilities that exploit server software, that's all Linux based stuff.
I mean almost all of it. Not not all of it.
Don't write me I know, not all of it, but
a great deal of it. So it is possible, it's
(29:47):
just not as common. Yeah, And there are there are
a couple of security providers who have written uh mac
virus software and has been out for many many years now.
Um at Actually I think snow Leppard came with some
anti virus in under the hood. Yeah, it's it's sort
of invisible. Actually, not like I've actually noticed that, let
(30:09):
me put it that way. Um, but but yeah, I mean,
and and the one, the one I would say that
is arguable arguably the largest. Um it's a company called Intego,
And they're the ones who always draw attention to vulnerabilities
when they are pointed out, and um, they usually get
sort of picked on. Uh and and uh, some of
(30:33):
the stuff that I've read, because they go, oh, yeah, well,
you guys are the ones writing the software. Of course,
that's what happens when samantech or or McAfee also points
out that there are vulnerabilities out there, I mean, they
have a vested interest in keeping that um in mind.
But a lot of and a lot of cases to
the Mac stuff scans for Windows uh um malware as well,
(30:56):
which is useful if you're running an Intel Mac and
happen to be running and happen to have an installation
of Windows and the Mac operating system on your Mac UM.
So you know, it can be handy. But a lot
of people in the Mac world still believe that their
position is very secure and do not use any virus
software right now. That does not mean if you have
(31:16):
a Mac or Linux machine that you should go clicking
on every single link and and installing every single application
you come across, because you never know when that that
vulnerability will be discovered and exploited. Uh. Here's the tricky
thing about hackers who find vulnerabilities. Some of them don't
make it public knowledge, and so it may be you
know that it's constantly a game of let's catch up
(31:38):
to what the hackers know and uh and then patch it.
So just be careful. Yeah, Max and Lenox machines aren't
gonna experience them as often as windows are, uh, just
in general. But it's it's not outside the realm of possibility.
It's like to throw this one last thing out there. Um,
for everybody who is using any kind of computer on
any kind of operating system, keep in mind their vulnerabilities
(32:00):
in the operating system and uh, security software patch is
there to protect you from malware that has been discovered.
But as long as there's a vulnerability, anything that hasn't
been discovered, that's right. As long as there's a vulnerability
and someone is there to exploit it and nobody knows
about it yet, so it's best to keep up your
guard and pay attention to what you're doing. That is
(32:22):
the best security procedure you can have. Why is words
to live My from tech stuff. Thanks Casey. If any
of you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions for podcasts,
please write us. We love getting the mail. I know
that I've been a little slow answering mail recently, but
we do read each end every single email that comes in.
You can email us our address is tech stuff at
(32:43):
how stuff works dot com and Crispy and I will
talk to you again really soon for moral this and
thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot
com And be sure to check out the new tech
stuff blog now on the House stuff Works homepage, brought
(33:03):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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