How to Set Up a Wireless Router

As more and more devices are able to connect to wireless networks, setting up a wireless router has become a crucial step for virtually any home network. Setting up a wireless network will allow your devices to connect to the internet from anywhere in the house, without the need for messy wires. To get started setting your network up, see Step 1 below.

Steps

Connecting the Hardware

1. Purchase a wireless router. Routers come in all shapes and sizes. Compare features to find the router that is right for you. If you have more area that you need to cover, or have lots of walls in your home, you’ll need a router with more antennas.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • All modern routers should support 802.11n, or Wireless-N). This is the most stable and quickest frequency, and is backwards compatible with older standards such as 802.11g.


2. Connect your router to your modem. Wireless routers enable you to share your broadband internet connection with multiple devices. To do so, you will need to connect your broadband modem to the router. For best results, place your router near your modem.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • Connect the router and the modem with an Ethernet cable. Most routers come packaged with a short Ethernet cable that you can use for this.
     
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Connect the modem to the WAN/Internet port on your router. It is usually offset, and may be color-coded (typically yellow).
     
     
     
     
     


3. Connect any devices you want to hardwire. If you have computers that are close, or a video game console or TV, you can connect them to the router via Ethernet. This will result in a more stable and faster connection, and doesn’t require any extra configuration.
   
   
   
   
   


4. Connect at least one computer via Ethernet. You will need at least one computer connecting via Ethernet cable in order to adjust your router settings. You can disconnect this computer afterwards if you want to connect wirelessly.
   
   
   
   
   

Configuring the Router

1. Find the IP address of the router. Most newer routers have this printed on a label affixed to the router. Older models will have this listed in the documentation. If you can’t find the router’s IP address anywhere, you can do a web search for the router model to see what the default address is.^[1]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • IP addresses are formatted as four groups of up to three digits, separated by periods.
   
   
   • Most default IP addresses are 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, or 192.168.2.1.


2. Open a web browser on the computer that is connected to the router. Enter in the IP address of the router into the address bar and press Enter. Your browser will attempt to connect to the router’s configuration menu.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • If your router came with an installation disc, you can run the configuration program from that instead. It will accomplish many of the same functions.


3. Enter your username and password. In order to access the configuration page, you will need to enter a valid username and password. Most routers have a basic account set up that you will need to use to log on. This varies from model to model, but should be printed on the router or in the documentation.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • The most typical username is “admin”.
     
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • The most typical passwords are “admin” and “password”.
     
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • Many routers will only require a username and a blank password, and some allow you to leave all fields blank.
     
     
     
     
     
   
   
   • If you can’t figure out your username and password, search for your router model online to see what the default login is. If it has been changed, press the Reset button on the back of the router for 10 seconds to restore factory defaults.
     
     
     
     
     


4. Open the Wireless Settings. When you log in to your router, you will be taken to the router’s main menu or status screen. There will be several options to choose from. The Internet section can usually be left at default settings, unless you received specific instructions from your internet service provider. The Wireless section will allow you to set up your wireless network.
   
   
   
   
   


5. Enter a name for your wireless network. In the Wireless section, you should see a field labeled SSID or Name. Enter a unique name for your wireless network. This is what other devices will see when scanning for networks.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • Check the box to enable SSID broadcast. This will essentially “turn on” the wireless network.
     
     
     
     
     


6. Choose a security method. Choose from the list of available security options. For the best security, choose WPA2-PSK as the encryption method. This is the most difficult security to crack, and will give you the most protection from hackers and intruders.
   
   
   
   
   


7. Create a passphrase. Once you’ve chosen your security method, enter in a passphrase for the network. This should be a difficult password, with a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t use any passwords that could be easily deduced from your network name or from knowing you.
   
   
   
   
   


8. Save your settings. Once you are finished naming and securing your wireless network, click the Apply or Save button. The changes will be applied to your router, which may take a few moments. Once the router has finished resetting, your wireless network will be enabled.
   
   
   
   
   


9. Change your router’s username and password. Once you have your network configured, you should change the username and password that you use to access your router. This will help protect your router from unauthorized changes. You can change these from the Administration section of the router configuration menu.^[2]
   
   
   
   
   


10. Block sites. If you want to prevent devices that are connected to your network from accessing certain websites, you can use built-in blocking tools to restrict access. These can be found in the Security/Block section of the router.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    • You can usually block by specific domain names, or by keywords.

Connecting Your Devices

1. Connect a computer, tablet, or smartphone to the network. Scan for the wireless network. On any device that supports wireless networks, you should see your new network as long as you are within range of the router. Select it and you will be prompted for the passphrase.
   
   
   
   
   


2. Enter your wireless passphrase. Once you enter the passphrase, your device will be automatically connected to the wireless network. The network will be stored in your devices memory and will automatically connect whenever you are within range.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   • For detailed instructions on selecting and joining a wireless network for your specific computer, tablet, or smartphone, follow this guide.


3. Connect your other devices. Besides other computers and tablets, you can connect other devices as well, such as printers, game consoles, TVs and more. See the following guides for instructions for your specific device.
   
   
   

from http://ift.tt/1q9Vqtr

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How to Turn Your Zombie PC Back to Normal Without Cutting Off Its Head

You opened an e-mail attachment that you probably shouldn't have and now your computer has slowed to a crawl and other strange things are happening. Your bank called you saying there has been some strange activity on your account and your ISP has just "null routed" all traffic from your computer because they claim it is now part of a zombie botnet. All this and it's only Monday.

If your computer has been compromised and infected with a virus or other malware you need to take action to keep your files from being destroyed and also to prevent your computer from being used to attack other computers. Here are the basic steps you need to perform to get back to normal after you've been hacked.

1. Isolate Your Computer

In order to cut the connection that the hacker is using to "pull the strings" on your computer, you need to isolate it so that it can't communicate on a network. Isolation will prevent it from being used to attack other computers as well as preventing the hacker from continuing to be able to obtain files and other information. Pull the network cable out of your PC and turn off the Wi-Fi connection. If you have a laptop, there is often a switch to turn the Wi-Fi off. Don't rely on doing this through software, as the hacker's malware may tell you something is turned off when it is really still connected.

2. Shutdown and remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer as a non-bootable drive

If your computer is compromised you need to shut it down to prevent further damage to your files. After you have powered it down, you will need to pull the hard drive out and connect it to another computer as a secondary non-bootable drive. Make sure the other computer has up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware. You should probably also download a free rootkit detection scanner from a reputable source like Sophos.

To make things a little easier, consider purchasing a USB drive caddy to put your hard drive in to make it easier to connect to another PC. If you don't use a USB caddy and opt to connect the drive internally instead, make sure the dip switches on the back of your drive are set as a secondary "slave" drive. If it is set to "master" it may try to boot the other PC to your operating system and all hell could break loose again.

If you don't feel comfortable removing a hard drive yourself or you don't have a spare computer then you may want to take your computer to a reputable local PC repair shop.

3. Scan your drive for infection and malware

Use the other host PC's anti-virus ,anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit scanners to ensure detection and removal of any infection from the file system on your hard drive.

4. Backup your important files from the previously infected drive

You'll want to get all your personal data off of the previously infected drive. Copy your photos, documents, media, and other personal files to DVD, CD, or another clean hard drive.

5. Move your drive back to your PC

Once you have verified that your file backup has succeeded, you can move the drive back to your old PC and prepare for the next part of the recovery process. Set your drive's dip switches back to "Master" as well.

6. Completely wipe your old hard drive (repartition, and format)

Even if virus and spyware scanning reveals that the threat is gone, you should still not trust that your PC is malware free. The only way to ensure that the drive is completely clean is to use a hard drive wipe utility to completely blank the drive and then reload your operating system from trusted media.

After your have backed up all your data and put the hard drive back in your computer, use a secure disk erase utility to completely wipe the drive. There are many free and commercial disk erase utilities available. The disk wipe utilities may take several hours to completely wipe a drive because they overwrite every sector of the hard drive, even the empty ones, and they often make several passes to ensure they didn't miss anything. It may seem time-consuming but it ensures that no stone is left unturned and it's the only way to be sure that you have eliminated the threat.

7. Reload the operating system from trusted media and install updates

Use your original OS disks that you purchased or that came with your computer, do not use any that were copied from somewhere else or are of unknown origin. Using trusted media helps to ensure that a virus present on tainted operating system disks doesn't reinfect your PC.

Make sure to download all updates and patches for your operating system before installing anything else.

8. Reinstall anti-virus, anti-spyware, and other security software prior to any other programs.

Before loading any other applications, you should load and patch all your security related software. You need to ensure your anti-virus software is up-to-date prior to loading other applications in case those apps are harboring malware that might go undetected if your virus signatures aren't current

9. Scan your data backup disks for viruses before your copy them back to your computer

Even though you are fairly certain that everything is clean, always scan your data files prior to reintroducing them back into your system.

10. Make a complete backup of your system

Once everything is in pristine condition you should do a complete backup so that if this ever happens again you won't spend as much time reloading your system. Using a backup tool that creates a bootable hard drive image as a backup will help speed up future recoveries immensely.

from netsecurity

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How To Access Your Entire Computer From an iPad

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I don't buy into the iPad as a laptop replacement—not quite. But it is fantastic at tapping into your computers to access video and audio, documents, and even your full desktop, remotely. Here's how.

The iPad is first a foremost a device for consuming media, and where is most of your media if not on your desktop or laptop? All your videos, both self-created and downloaded; your music collection, which is so much larger than your iPad's flash storage can dream of accomodating; your store of documents, which contain so much information about you, your work and your interests. On your iPad, this stuff is too often there, not here—but it doesn't have to be.

You can easily access all of these things from your iPad with a set of simple-to-use apps, and where those don't work, you can actually control your computer—mouse and all—from your iPad. Here's what you need:

Audio and Video

Audio and video streaming on the iPad is, for the time being, the domain of two apps: Air Video and StreamToMe. They're extremely similar, sharing their $3 price, iPhone compatibility, and an underlying video conversion library, but a few key differences will determine which one you need to download. So!

If you...

• Have a Windows PC
• Don't need to stream audio
• Tend to store your content in h.264/mp4 files

Go with Air Video. It's a wonderful app, which lets you stream video—even in formats not natively supported by the iPad—both locally and remotely (with simple port forwarding), and which has both Mac and PC server software. It's flexible as well, giving you precise control over streamed video quality, and options for either transcoding video live, or pre-converting it before streaming.

h.264 playback, even in HD, seemed cleaner and bit smoother than in StreamToMe, so if you've ripped or downloaded most of your content in that format, Air Video is a slightly better choice. It transcodes your downloaded .avi file beautifully, too.

(Note there currently isn't a good DLNA streaming app, though once its bugs are worked out, PlugPlayer shows promise. For the time being, Air Video is the only way to stream and transcode your video library stored on a Windows PC)

If you...

• Have a Mac
• Want to stream audio files as well

Then you should download StreamToMe. It too can transcode video in real time, so you don't need to worry about converting your home video files or P2P downloads. Its main advantage over Air Video is that it can stream audio. It'd be nice if the app had an iTunes-style artist view, but if your iTunes music folder is organized by artist name and album title (if you haven't told it to do something else, iTunes will have taken care of this for you), navigating through and playing songs is pretty straightforward.

The setup routines for both apps are nearly identical. Each requires a server app to be run on your computer, which needs to be pointed to your video library, and each will automatically recognize your computer over a local network. For remote streaming, each app provides guidance for which ports to forward on your router. (For instructions for your specific router, check here.) This means you can stream your home video from anywhere—work, a hotel room, whatever—over Wi-Fi.

Documents

Document sharing on the iPad isn't particularly easy, relying on the awkward iTunes file sharing system, which only lets you access documents in the app they've been flagged for. To browse apps in a more useful way, you'll need get an app called GoodReader. Its $1.

GoodReader is an app that enables you to connect to all kinds of file servers, be they cloud-based (Google Docs, Dropbox, or MobileMe) or local (an FTP or WebDAV server). Once connected, GoodReader lists files that can be read on a given server, which are left up to the iPad's inbuilt viewers to display. This means that Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, as well as a range of other text files, images, and even audio files, can be opened in the app.

One of the most compelling features of GoodReader is that it can turn your iPad into a local file server, which you can mount and connect to from any Mac or PC. This feature lets you drag and drop your documents to the iPad, as if it were a NAS device. (GoodReader also shows up in the iTunes USB file transfer dialog, but Wi-Fi drag-and-drop transfer is much faster and easier, once it's set up.) Instructions for server setup are available here.

Additionally, using the app's "Manage Files" pane, you can sort, administer and email your documents as well. It's basically like having a disk for all kinds of media, on your iPad, along with a file browser. Ha!

Controlling Your Desktop

If you want full access to your computer, video, audio and document file servers won't be enough. What about your applications? Your iPad-incompatible files? Your entire desktop? To get that kind of control, you need to use VNC.

From our previous How To guide on the subject:

VNC (virtual network computing) is one of those tricks that never gets old, and having it set up can often save your ass-whether you left some info on your home computer that you need at work, want to check on your massive BitTorrent queue to schedule the evening's entertainments, or help your poor parents use clip art in Microsoft Word, having remote access can be handy dandy.

Once you've done that, you'll need an iPad VNC client. The iPad App Store already has a handful of VNC apps available for download. The ones I'd go with are Mocha VNC Lite (a free, limited-capability app), and if you find you like the VNC concept, the $12 Desktop Connect.

It's strange, controlling a mouse-based computer from a touchscreen device, but there's one option I've found makes life a lot easier: In Desktop Connect, turn Touchscreen Mode off. This options has you control the mouse as if the whole touchscreen is a trackpad, rather than having to guide the mouse directly with your finger. After a few minutes, you'll be clicking around Windows or OS X without thinking about it.

And that's it! If you have more tips and tools to share,Happy iPadding, folks!

From  Gizmodo

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How To Jailbreak Any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad

So, you've heard about jailbreaking, and it sounds intriguing. And dangerous. (But mostly just intriguing.) Here's how to hack your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad—yes, iPad—into an unrestricted, freshly empowered mega-machine.

Jailbreaking: The What and the Why

In buying an iProduct, you're accepting that its fate will be dictated by Apple. They control what kind of apps you install on your device, which of the hardware functions you can exploit to their full potential, and which carrier you can use your iPhone with. They've loosened up on at least one of those fronts in the last year or so, expanding the types of apps available in the App Store, but many—screw that, most—of the same restrictions still apply. Want to install an app that Apple hasn't explicitly approved? Sorry. Want to use an app over 3G that's been designated for Wi-Fi? Nope. Want to tether your phone? Run applications in the background? Change your device theme? Install system-wide gestures? No. Such. Luck.

Enter jailbreaking. In technical terms, to jailbreak is to enable a device to run code, meaning programs or system modifications, that hasn't been sanctioned by Apple. Its roots reach back to a time when there were no apps for iPhone OS, and a clever group of hackers zeroed in on some exploits gave people their first way to install apps on their devices, by way of an underground App Store called Installer. It used to be that you could hack your device simply by visiting a webpage. That was two years ago. Since then, the iPhone and iPod Touch have been given a legit App Store, Apple has closed one security hole after another, and jailbreaking has become alternately more and less difficult, depending which device and software version you have.

But just last week, a Windows and Mac tool called Spirit was released to the world. It's simple, relatively safe, and finally, works on all devices. Every iPod Touch can now be jailbroken to run custom apps. Every iPhone, too. Even the brand new iPad can be hacked. Theming, data tethering, multitasking, console emulation, secret settings, and yes, you filthy thief, even pirated apps: With jailbreak, your iThing is truly yours.

Here's how to jailbreak (or in the case of phones, unlocked) any iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad, using the new Spirit tool. But first, a disclaimer:

When you jailbreak or unlock a device, you're changing some fundamental aspects of the system software—you know, real low-level stuff. The tools are generally good, and if you follow directions carefully, you should be fine. But if something goes wrong—and there is more than one way this can happen—you can suffer data loss, or even brick your phone. Even worse, Apple claims that jailbreaking voids your warranty. You can restore your device to remove evidence that it ever happened, but if the device goes down while jailbroken, you could well be stuck. In addition, jailbreaking does not jibe with the DMCA, and breaks relate license agreements.

To the point: Follow this guide at your own peril, know that there's risk and be careful. Consult elsewhere if you're nervous, or worry that I've missed something.

How To Jailbreak

The Spirit tool has made the jailbreak fairly simple, but there's still room for error. Step by step:

What You Need:
• Spirit Jailbreak Tool (Windows and Mac)
• iTunes 9.x (Latest confirmed working version: 9.1.1)
• iPod cable
• An iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch that a.) Isn't currently jailbroken (obvious, but just in case), b.) is working, i.e. not stuck in a startup loop, or displaying that "Connect to iTunes" screen and c.) is running a device software version 3.1.3 or lower (or in the case of the iPad, version 3.2)

1. Plug your device in, so that it's recognized by iTunes
2. Back up your device to your iTunes library, and sync it. Having the backup handy will allow to you restore your settings in case you need to wipe your device later; syncing everything—including photos, which some users report losing during the jailbreak process—ensures that all the media on your device will remain untouched, or at least restorable.
3. Open the Spirit Jailbreak tool. It will open in a small window, and should display a message like "iPad (3.2) Connected." If not, disconnect and reconnect your device, and open the tool again.
4. Click "Jailbreak"
5. During the jailbreak routine, don't interfere with the device. It's probably better to leave your computer alone as well, to avoid a crash at a critical moment. First, you should see a screen on the device that says "Restore Complete." The device will restart, display a spinning pinwheel icon, and open up a colorful screen like this, with a progress bar:

Spirit should be done doing its thing in under 30 seconds. Your device should then boot up to your homescreen, as it was before—same background, same apps, same settings. Now you're jailbroken. But there's one more thing:

6. When you restart your device, you'll see a new icon on your homescreen, called Cydia. Open it up. This is your new App Store. Don't worry, the regular App Store still works. Now you've just got another one.

Cydia will look a bit different on the iPad and iPhone or iPod Touch, but will contain most of the same software.

The first thing you need to do, though, is click the button that says, "Make my life easier, thanks!"

This will back up your device activation profile (called an SHSH blob) to remote servers, which ensures that you won't lose the ability to jailbreak if you accidentally upgrade your device device software in the future. More on that later.

Regarding Unlocking

Traditionally, unlocking (opening your phone to use with different carriers) and jailbreaking have fallen to the same tools. Since unlocking has become more difficult with later firmwares, the tools have grown apart. Spirit doesn't unlock. If you want to unlock, though, there may be hope.

If you haven't upgraded your iPhone to firmware 3.1.3, or can downgrade to an earlier build, you can use the Pwnage Tool, located here. The process is self-guided and quite similar to using Spirit. Unlocking is a comparatively narrow concern, and can get much more complicated, so I'll leave it at that. More info here.

Anyway, that's it! It's time to explore Cydia.

What to Download

Now that you're jailbroken, it's time to start downloading apps. Here are a handful of must-tries to get you started:

• Backgrounder: Lets you run apps in the background, full stop. Perhaps my top reason to jailbreak, period. The latest version lets you set apps to run in the background with a huge variety of gestures.

• Activator: Speaking of gestures, this provides a framework for all kinds of gestures across jailbroken apps. (iPad and iPhone)

• Kirikae: A task switcher to be used with Backgrounder. (Think alt+tab) (iPhone)

• SBSettings: This opens up a whole slew of settings, accessible at any time via a pop-down system tray. Adjust brightness, toggle Wi-Fi, whatever. (iPad and iPhone)

• Cycorder: Lets you take full-motion video with your pre-3GS iPhone. (iPhone)

• MyWy: Lets you share your 3G connection with other devices over Wi-Fi. It's paid software, but a trial is available. (iPhone and iPad 3G)

• Winterboard: Lets you change themes, and install a lot of interesting modifications to your device's homescreen, including folders, different icon arrangements, widgets and more.

• iRealSMS: Lets you send text messages without opening the SMS app. (iPhone)

• VoIPOver3G: Tricks apps into thinking they're connected over Wi-Fi, even if they're connected to 3G. (iPhone, iPad 3G)

• Intelliscreen: Puts all kinds of useful information on your lock screen, from weather to email to calendar events. Another paid app, but one that will be worth it to a lot of people. (iPhone)

• Console emulators: Do your own searching on this one; there's one for virtually ever console released pre-2000, and many have different approaches to controls, and acquiring games. Some, like those by ZOTDD, actually let you search for and download ROMs from within the app. (iPhone and iPad)

• Veency: A VNC server. No, not a client—a server. Control your iPhone from your computer. (iPhone)

• Illicit goods: They're there, but I won't tell you how to find them. Pay for your apps! Trying before you buy is only a conscionable excuse if it's actually true.

Some general observations: Right now, a lot of apps haven't been updated for the iPad, so it's worth doing a little Googling to see how they handle the subtle changes in the new OS. That said, most apps do work, although if you experiment enough, you'll eventually get burned and have to restore your OS and start over, losing whatever tweaks you've made in the jailbreak process.

Un-Jailbreaking

If you've decided the jailbreak lifestyle isn't for you, or managed to screw up your device software enough that you want to switch back, it's easy. (Also, if Apple will be handling your device for any reason, you should probably un-jailbreak it. Warranties!)

All you need is your device's latest firmware file, helpfully linked here.

Oh, and make sure you've backed up—you're going to lose everything.

(This guide only applies to software versions 3.1.3 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and 3.2 for the iPad. These are the latest versions at the time of posting, and newer software could break compatibility.)

1. Plug your device in, and open iTunes
2. Shift-click (Windows) or Option-click the "Restore" button in your iTunes device summary page. Navigate to the firmware you've downloaded, and restore.
3. Once this is done, iTunes will ask you if you want to set up your device as a new device, or from a previously stored backup. If your goal is to return to a life before jailbreak, you're probably going to want to restore.

And that's it!

From gizmodo

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How to Secure Your Computer With a BIOS or UEFI Password

A Windows, Linux, or Mac password just prevents people from logging into your operating system. It doesn’t prevent people from booting other operating systems, wiping your drive, or using a live CD to access your files.

Your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware offers the ability to set lower-level passwords. These passwords allow you to restrict people from booting the computer, booting from removable devices, and changing BIOS or UEFI settings without your permission.

When You May Want to Do This

Most people shouldn’t need to set a BIOS or UEFI password. If you’d like to protect your sensitive files, encrypting your hard drive is a better solution. BIOS and UEFI passwords are particularly ideal for public or workplace computers. They allow you to restrict people from booting alternative operating systems on removable devices and prevent people from installing another operating system over the computer’s current operating system.

Warning: Be sure to remember any passwords you set. You can reset the BIOS password on a desktop PC that you can open fairly easily, but this process may be much more difficult on a laptop you can’t open.

How It Works

Let’s say you’ve followed good security practices and have a password set on your Windows user account. When your computer boots, someone will have to enter your Windows user account password to use it or access your files, right? Not necessarily.

The person could insert a removable device like a USB drive, CD, or DVD with an operating system on it. They could boot from that device and access a live Linux desktop — if your files are unencrypted, they could access your files. A Windows user account password doesn’t protect your files. They could also boot from a Windows installer disc and install a new copy of Windows over the current copy of Windows on the computer.

You could change the boot order to force the computer to always boot from its internal hard drive, but someone could enter your BIOS and change your boot order to boot the removable device.

A BIOS or UEFI firmware password provides some protection against this. Depending on how you configure the password, people will need the password to boot the computer or just to change BIOS settings.

Of course, if someone has physical access to your computer, all bets are off. They could crack it open and remove your hard drive or insert a different hard drive. They could use their physical access to reset the BIOS password — we’ll show you how to do that later. A BIOS password still does provide extra protection here, particularly in situations where people have access to a keyboard and USB ports, but the computer’s case is locked up and they can’t open it.

How to Set a BIOS or UEFI Password

In the BIOS settings screen, locate the password option, configure your password settings however you like, and enter a password. You may be able to set different passwords — for example, one password that allows the computer to boot and one that controls access to BIOS settings.These passwords are set in your BIOS or UEFI settings screen. On pre-Windows 8 computers, you’ll need to reboot your computer and press the appropriate key during the boot-up process to bring up the BIOS settings screen. This key varies from computer to computer, but is often F2, Delete, Esc, F1, or F10. If you need help, look at your computer’s documentation or Google its model number and “BIOS key” for more information. (If you built your own computer, look for your motherboard model’s BIOS key.)

You’ll also want to visit the Boot Order section and ensure the boot order is locked down so people can’t boot from removable devices without your permission.

On post-Windows 8 computers, you’ll have toenter the UEFI firmware settings screen through Windows 8′s boot options. Your computer’s UEFI settings screen will hopefully provide you with a password option that works similarly to a BIOS password.

On Mac computers, reboot the Mac, hold Command+R to boot into Recovery Mode, and click Utilities > Firmware Password to set a UEFI firmware password.

How to Reset a BIOS or UEFI Firmware Password

You can generally bypass BIOS or UEFI passwords with physical access to the computer. This is easiest on a desktop computer that’s designed to be opened. The password is stored in volatile memory, powered by a small battery. Reset the BIOS settings and you’ll reset the password — you can do this with a jumper or by removing and reinserting the battery. Follow our guide to clearing your computer’s CMOS to reset a BIOS password.

This process will obviously be more difficult if you have a laptop you can’t open up. Some computer models may have “back door” passwords that allow you to access the BIOS if you forget the password, but don’t count on it.

You may also be able to use professional services to reset passwords you forget. For example, if you set a firmware password on a MacBook and forget it, you may have to visit an Apple Store to have them fix it for you.

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BIOS and UEFI passwords aren’t something most people should ever use, but they’re a useful security feature for many public and business computers. If you operated some sort of cybercafé, you’d probably want to set a BIOS or UEFI password to prevent people from booting into different operating systems on your computers. Sure, they could bypass the protection by opening up the computer’s case, but that’s harder to do than simply inserting a USB drive and rebooting.

From howtogeek.com

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