New Epic Quickly Becoming Browser Of-Choice for Those Big on Privacy

4GHadmin | 25 March 2019

Things change quickly in the digital world, and what was barely even on the radar can become a front and centre issue overnight in some cases. Go back 10 years and the issue of privacy in web browsing wasn’t something the vast majority of people paid even the slightest bit of attention to. Nowadays, however, it’s definitely a hot-button topic given all the news that’s come out about web browsing histories and the like being tracked, monitored, and then made available to whoever doesn’t mind paying for information about what people like YOU search for online.

Some people don’t have a problem with that. Other people have quite a significant problem with that. If you’re part of the second group there then you may have already switched over to using a web browser like DuckDuckGo or something similar. It’s a fine privacy-promoting web browser in itself, but it’s a bit of a generalist in that it works suitably well across the board but not especially well for any one framework.

And that’s where and why Epic coming onto the scene is as noteworthy as it is. It is a Chromium-based browser designed to ensure privacy without giving up anything i speed or functionality. It blocks ads as well as prevents user tracking, and also includes built-in protection against a wide range of surveillance methods cryptocurrency mining scripts among them.

It promises to be just what the Doctor ordered for those who think these types of overwatch activities are unacceptable, and here at 4GoodHosting we’re like any other quality Canadian web hosting provider in that we agree with you wholeheartedly. Let’s take a look at what makes this new no-tracking web browser such a good fit and why it promises to be especially well received.

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It’s fair to say that it’s really a shame that the innocence and carefreeness of using the world wide web to gain information is gone now, and that government agencies, corporations, and malicious hackers lurking in the shadows and taking notes is entirely unacceptable. Even those who aren’t overly incensed at having their privacy violated will almost certainly choose to stay ‘incognito’ if the opportunity to do so exists.

Epic’s creator, Alok Bhardwaj, attributes much of his need to build such a resource on coming to understand that on average, there are some 10 or so trackers on pretty much every website you visit. For some still, there’s up to 30 or 40 companies that are logging your visit.

Fortunately, his new Epic browser includes built-in protection against a wide range of surveillance tactics, and without any of the BS like what was seen in 2015 in the States with AT&T’s policy where subscribers had to pay up to 50% more to secure a reasonable level of privacy.

The original version of Epic has been around since August of 2018, but the Chromium-based version of it is still new to the scene. It allows users to enjoy private browsing without sacrificing speed or functionality, and also blocks ultrasound signal tracking and cryptocurrency mining scripts. Plus, with a new mobile browser on the way, Epic continues to take actions that support the company’s belief in a free internet.

 

Sight for Sore Eyes: Privacy-Focused Web Browser

U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to cann internet privacy rules as passed by the Federal Communications Commission in the previous year put an effective end to internet users having more rights concerning what service providers can do with their data. Here in Canada we certainly haven’t been immune to the increasingly grey areas of what can and can’t be done as far as monitoring a web browser user’s history.

Likely no one needs convincing that relying on governmental agencies to solve data privacy issues will likely result in little if anything being done. So we’re left to take matters into our hands as much as we can. Good news on that front, as Epic is an exceptionally private browsing experience that’s also fast and intuitive and based on Google’s open-source Chromium project for long-term practicality in the bigger picture of things.

That perspective was very important in the development of this new browser, according to Bhardwaj. Microsoft announced that the company would build their next browser on Chromium, and so the decision was made to build a browsing experience that’s very private, but just as fast as using Google Chrome.

Mission Accomplished

We’d say it is – Epic is one of the most simple, private, and fast browsers on the market today, and it’s really raised the bar that was set by the original private browser, Tor. (which is still a great browser FWIW, still doing very well and also offers an extremely anonymous service)

One area where Epic meets a need that Tor can’t, however, is with malicious cryptocurrency activities. Hackers have used Tor to steal cryptocurrency from users, and fairly recently too.

Long story short, Epic is the only private browser out there that just works out of the box with a high level of privacy and speed, and it doesn’t have any of the issues where advanced security protocols render certain website undeliverable. In the event that one won’t, Epic lets you turn off the proxy and ad blocking feature for a particular website if needed.

Other appealing features:

  • Free VPN
  • 1-click encrypted proxy
  • Blocks fingerprinting and ultrasound signaling
  • Locally stored database of the top 10,000 websites in the world

Coming to Mobile Soon

Epic is expected to launch the company’s mobile browser before long. They expect their mobile browsers to be even more significant than the desktop browsers, given the scale that mobile’s going to operate on. With the extent to which most of us use our smartphones for internet search queries, there’s no doubt that this mobile browser release will put Epic even more in the spotlight in the near future.

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Windows 7 End Time Reminders On Their Way for PCs Starting Next Month

4GHadmin | 19 March 2019

It would appear that a good many personal computers out there are still running Windows 7. If they weren’t then we can assume that there wouldn’t be the need for Microsoft to take the action they’ll be taking soon – sending out reminders to PC users still running this admittedly archaic OS that the end is nigh. Microsoft is calling them ‘courtesy reminders’ and while the message doesn’t go so far as to say what’s really the message – update your operating system or your device will become by and large inoperative – it certainly implies as much

Now admittedly as a leading Canadian web hosting provider we’re the type to be updating our OS systems just as soon as the opportunity presents itself each time, but we’re also able to go ahead and imagine that many of our clients will have friends or family members who don’t have the need to be equipped with the latest and greatest in computing technology. As such this might be a prompting to tell those people not to ignore anything that pops on their screen talking about the end of Windows 7.

So what’s all this going to involve? Not a whole lot really, but it’s worthwhile to take something of longer glance at why this is necessary and what PC users can expect if they’re still rocking Windows 7.

Friendly, yet Persistent Reminders

Microsoft has stated that starting in April if you are a Windows 7 user you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC a number of times over the next month. The hope is that one or more of them will be all it takes to make you aware that Windows 7 will officially be unsupported as of January 14, 2020.

As you might expect, users will be able to reject future notifications by selecting a ‘do not notify me again’ option, or if they’d prefer to know a little bit more about why their favourite OS (we have to assume there’s a reason they’ve resisted updating for so many years) is going the way of the Dodo Bird then there’ll also a be a ‘learn more’ button.

FWIW, the same thing happened with Windows XP a few years back. That OS went extinct fairly smoothly, so the expectation is that the same thing will happen here. Just in case that’s not the way it goes, however, Microsoft is trying to be proactive. The Windows 7 notices will appear eight months earlier than those XP warnings.

One big difference will be in that it was only in March of 2014, just a month before XP’s expiration, that Microsoft began placing on-screen reminders of the impending date. After that, they came monthly. Should Microsoft follow the same schedule and cadence, it should begin pushing notices to Windows 7 on April 14 before repeating them on the 14th of each month following.

Accelerated Schedule

The issue behind this sped-up schedule regarding the whole thing is that – believe it or not – Windows 7 is still surprisingly relevant. Check out this stat from Computerworld; it’s estimated that Windows 7 will still be powering more than 40% of all Windows personal computers at the end of January 2020.

If that’s correct, that number is quite a bit higher – about 35% – than the one attached to Windows XP when it was coming to the end of its working life. It would seem that Microsoft’s logic in starting to send out this reminders earlier is that it will reduce the larger fraction of Windows 7 systems before support ends.

As recently as 5 years ago Microsoft pushed on-screen alerts only to systems maintained using Windows Update, working with the knowledge that most small businesses and the like would be utilizing that resource. Windows 7 PCs managed by enterprise IT staff using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) had no such reminder delivered. Administrators were also able to remove and / or prevent the warning by modifying the Windows registry, or by setting a group policy.

We can likely expect that similar options will exist for the Windows 7 notices. As the saying goes, all good things come to an end. We’ll try to pacify anyone who’ll be sad to see Windows 7 go by saying that by putting these OS out to pasture the developers are able to put more of their energies towards improving existing and future ones, and that’s better in the big picture of things.

We’ll conclude here today by leaving you with a Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration guide.

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5G Networks: What to Expect

4GHadmin | 12 March 2019

We don’t know about you, but for those of us here it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that 3G Internet speeds were being revelled in as the latest and greatest. Things obviously change fast, as 3G has been in the rear view mirror for a long time now, and the reality is that the newest latest and greatest – 4G – is about to join it there.

Here at 4GoodHosting, the fact we’re a leading Canadian web host makes us as keen to learn more about what the new 5G networks have in store for us as anyone else who’s in the digital space day in and out. It appears that we’re in for quite a treat, although there are some who suggest tempering expectations. That’s to be expected anytime wholesale changes to infrastructure key to big-picture operations are forthcoming.

Nonetheless, we’re supposed to be immersed in the 5G world before the end of next year. Mobile 5G is expected to start making appearances in cities around North America this year, with much more extensive rollouts expected in 2020 so a discussion of what we can all expect from 5G is definitely in order. Let’s do it.

What is 5G, and How’s It Going to Work?

To cut right to it, 5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will augment 4G LTE connections for now before eventually replacing them. 5G is promising to deliver exponentially faster download and upload speeds along with drastically reduced latency – the time it takes devices to communicate with each other across wireless networks. Right, that alone is worthy of some serious fanfare, but fortunately there’s even more to this.

But before getting into additional benefits expected to be seen with 5G networks, let’s have a look at what makes them different from 4G ones and how exactly these new super networks are predicted to function.

Spectrum-Specific Band Function

It’s important to start with an understanding of the fact that unlike LTE, 5G is going to operate on three different spectrum brands. The lowest one will be the sub-1GHz spectrum bands like GSMA / ITU. They are what’s known as low-band spectrums, and they’re the ones used for LTE by most carriers in North America. This spectrum is quite literally running out of steam, so it’s ready to be replaced. It does provide great area coverage and signal penetration but peak data speeds never exceed 100Mbps and often you’re not even anywhere close to that even.

Mid-band spectrums provides faster coverage and lower latency but the long-standing complaint related to them is that they fail to penetrate buildings and peak speeds top out at around 1GB

High-band spectrums (aka mmWave) are what most people think of when they think of 5G, and high-band spectrums can offer peak speeds up to 10 Gbps along with impressively low latency most of the time. The major drawback here though? It has low coverage area and building penetration is poor.

It appears that most carriers are going to start out by piggybacking 5G on top of their 4G LTE networks to start, and then nationwide 5G-exclusive networks will be built. Providers are very aware that small cells are going to required so that these suped-up 4G LTE networks don’t have their 5G appeal diminished with poor penetration rates and intermittently average download speeds.

In this regard, we all stand to benefit from the industry being cautious about not rolling out 5G on its own and then having growing pains with these networks.

Right, some people may not be familiar with small cells. They’re low-power base stations that cover small geographic areas that allow carriers using mmWave for 5G to offer better overall coverage area. Beamforming will be used to improve 5G service on the mid-band by sending a single focused signal to each and every user in the cell, while systems using it monitor each user to make sure they have a consistent signal.

Latency promises to be nearly if not entirely non-existent between the small cells and beamforming within 5-G enabled 4G LTE networks.

Examples of How 5G SHOULD Make Things Better

  1. Improved broadband

The reality today is that carriers are running out of LTE capacity in many major metropolitan areas. In some spots, users are already experiencing noticeable slowdowns during busy times of day. 5G will add huge amounts of spectrum in bands that have not been dedicated for commercial broadband traffic.

  1. Autonomous vehicles

Uber may have a devil of a time getting footed in Vancouver, but you can likely expect to see autonomous vehicles made possible with ubiquitous 5G deployment. The belief is that it will make it possible for your vehicle to communicate with other vehicles on the road, provide information to other vehicles regarding road conditions, and share performance information with both drivers and automakers.

This applications has a TON of promise, and it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

  1. Public Infrastructure & Safety

It’s also predicated that 5G will allow cities and other municipalities to operate with greater efficiency. All sorts of civic maintenance process will be made more efficient by means of 5G networks.

  1. Remote Device Control

The remarkably low levels of latency expected with 5G make it so that remote control of heavy machinery may become possible. This means fewer actual people in hazardous environments, and it will also allow technicians with specialized skills to control machinery from any location around the globe.

  1. Health Care

5G and its super low latency may also be huge for health care applications. Since URLLC reduces 5G latency even further than what you’ll see with enhanced mobile broadband, we may see big improvements in telemedicine, remote recovery and physical therapy via AR, precision surgery, and even remote surgery in the very near future once 5G becomes the norm.

One of the most beneficial potential advances that may come with 5G as it concerns healthcare is that hospitals may be able to create massive sensor networks to monitor patients, allow physicians to prescribe smart pills to track compliance, and let insurers monitor subscribers to determine appropriate treatments and processes.

  1. IoT

Last but certainly not least is the way 5G will benefit the Internet of Things. As it is now, sensors that can communicate with each other tend to require a lot of resources and really drain LTE data capacity.

With 5G and it’s fast speeds and low latencies, the IoT will be powered by communications among sensors and smart devices. These devices will require fewer resources than ones that are currently in use, and there’s huge efficiencies to be had with connecting to a single base station.

It’s interesting to think that one day 5G will probably be as long-gone and forgotten as 3G is now, despite the fanfare we all gave it many years ago. You can’t stop progress in the digital world, and it’s fair to say that 99% of us wouldn’t want to even if we could.

 

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What’s Best? Sleep, Hibernate, or Shut Down Your Computer at Night

4GHadmin | 05 March 2019

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Most people are perfectly fine with prompting their desktop or notebook to ‘nod off’ at the end of a day, and especially for those who work on their device and will be back in front of the screen first thing tomorrow morning. It’s true that they can go into a low-power mode and there’ll be no light coming from the screen and illuminating the room once you tell your computer to go to sleep. Others who aren’t going to be using theirs as regularly may instead choose to shut those down and be perfectly all right with the time it takes to get it booted up and running again once they do want to use it again.

The majority won’t really give it much more than that, and here at 4GoodHosting we’re like any other good Canadian web hosting provider with a good reputation in that we’ve got our minds on much more detailed and relevant aspects of what’s going in the digital world. But like any of you we’ve got desktops and notebooks at home too. That’s why we found a certain article on this topic to be informative in just the type of way we aim to offer our weekly blog content, and so here it is for you too!

Let’s have a look at this, and try to come to a consensus on what’s the best choice for you when you’re doing using your computer – put it to sleep, have it hibernate, or shut it down entirely.

Popular Thinking

The standard belief is that choosing not to turn your computer off at night is preferable, because shut downs and start ups tax the computer and lead to some of its components wearing out more quickly. Alternately, leaving it on does the same for other ones that never get to rest when the computer is still running, and even if it’s long since asleep.

There’s some truth to each of them, so the question then becomes which is the better of the two choices. Here’s the skinny on all of that.

The Issue

It’s easy to understand why believing that cutting the power with shutting down properly has the potential to do damage to your computer’s hardware. But can frequent shutdowns and restarts do the same? What are the comparison between turning the device off and leaving it on but in low-power ‘sleep’ or ‘hibernate’ states when not in use?

The source turned to for a definitive answer in this case was Best Buy’s Geek Squad, and here’s what they had do say on a topic that most would agree there very well qualified to comment on. So they were asked very plainly – is it best to leave my computer on and let it go to sleep and eventually hibernate if I’m done using it, or is it best to shut it down and then restart it then.

The Verdict, and Reasoning

According to the knowledgeable guys and gals at Geek Squad, the answer as to which choice is best depends on how often you use your computer. Those who use it more than a few times every day are best to leave it on and let it drift off into a sleep. Alternately, those who use it for an hour or two a day and here and there should go ahead and turn it off between usages.

The long and short explanation for this – and the most relevant piece of information regarding resultant wear & tear on the device – is that leaving a computer on indefinitely is less stressful overall than turning it on and off, especially if you were to do that several times a day.

Every time a computer turns on, the surge of power required for the boot up isn’t harmful in itself, but over years the repeating of that power surge can shorten the computer’s lifespan. These risks are of course greater for an older computer, and in particular for ones that have a traditional hard disk drive with moving parts rather than a solid state drive that’s more robust.

That said, all mechanical parts will fail eventually, and using them constantly will inevitably wear them down. There’s drawbacks to leaving devices on too; computers heat up more and more as they work and certain processes continue even when the device is asleep. Heat is detrimental for all components, and with computers left on you have a steady supply of it at varying moderate levels.

However, the heat and gear grinding that goes on with start up IS more detrimental long term. The exception to this would be with LCD panel displays if they weren’t timed out to go dark after certain timed period of inactivity. If they weren’t, leaving your computer on would be much more problematic – not to mention the nuisance of never-ending illumination of your workspace area.

Batteries and hard drives also have a limited life cycle. Allowing them to turn off (or sleep) and spin down when not being used will extend the life of these components, and especially if you’re only restarting the computer once or twice in a week if at all.

Even Better Reasoning

Some people will aim to refute this belief, stating that the very concept that shut downs and start ups make for damaging stress on components is a very dated way of looking at things. There are arguments to be made for both sides.

Reasons to leave it on

  • Using the PC as a server means you want to be able to remotely access it.
  • Background updates, virus scans, or other activities are welcome to go ahead while you’re away.
  • Long waits during start ups are unacceptable.

Reasons to turn it off

  • Conserving electricity and can slightly increase your power bill.
  • Wishing to not be disturbed by notifications or fan noise.
  • Rebooting does improve computer performance inherently

Having It Sleep, Or Hibernate?

Sleep puts a computer into a low power state without turning it completely off, while when hibernating your computer stops using power and resumes where it was when you put it in that mode. Overall, the consensus seems to be that sleep mode is preferable to hibernate because hibernate produces wear and tear that is similar to start and stop.

The recommendation is that if you’re going to leave it on all the time, make sure that you have the right sleep options set up in the Shut down menu. Saving a lot of power with no real downside becomes possible

Surge Protectors a Must

We’re going a little off topic here to wrap this up, but it really is worth relating the importance of using a surge protector between your computer and the wall outlet. Unless you actually like the idea of having expensive componentry fried by an electrical spike that arrives without warning, a surge protector is going to be a nice defense that hopefully you never need.

The best choice is to get an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which is basically a battery backed-up surge protector. These help condition power to even it out, and power spikes that can do irreparable damage to your computer’s components.

Lastly, keep your computer clean. Spend some time now and then to open it up and get rid of dust and debris. Uninstalls of old software and cleaning up old files and processes is recommended too.

The Final Decision

Here it is – if you use your computer more than once a day, leave it on at least all day. If you use it only briefly during the morning and at night, leaving it on overnight is probably best. Those who use their computer for only a few hours once a day or even less that should go ahead and turn it off when they’re done.

 

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