A local area network (LAN) is a group of smart devices connected together to create a network within the same location. A home is a good example of LAN consisting of a few computers, tablets, smartphones and IoTs devices over the physical wires and through the Wi-Fi. A LAN can be as small as connecting 2 devices or as large as enerprise network interconnecting thousands of computers, servers and smart devices. A few other examples of LAN include offices, buildings, schools, and corporations.

Both TCP and UDP are protocols used to send data from one device to anoter within the TCP/IP network. When sending data, they are broken into smaller IP packets and sent over the TCP or UDP transport layer. Applications may choose to use either TCP or UDP to send data to the other end depending on whether the reliability or speed is more important. For reliable delivery, TCP is used while UDP is used for faster delivery. TCP/IP is comprised of 4 layers with each providing a specific protocol functions as shown below:

An Autonomous System (AS) is a large network that has a common routing policy used to serve a set of IP prefixes. An AS is assigned to a single organization and is connected to multiple ASes to route IP packets in a redundant manner. An AS is assigned a 16-bit or 32-bit number (ASN) by the IANA to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), governments, universities, and enterprises.

A RIR (or Regional Internet Registry) is a nonprofit organization that allocates Internet Numbers which is comprised of IPv4 Addresses, IPv6 Addresses, and ASN (Autonomous System Numbers) within their respective regions. An IP address is a globally unique number that is assigned to computing devices to communicate with each other within a network (or Internet). ASN is a group of one or more IP prefixes that are used to define routing policy. With IP Address and ASN, IP packets are routed from one IP address to another regardless of where they are located within the world. There are 5 RIRs in the world, and their serving regions:

Apple's iCloud keychain is a password manager for macOS and iOS devices including Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Username/password pairs, credit card information, Wi-Fi credentials, and other personal data can be stored in iCloud, and shared amongst all of your Apple devices. Your personal data are encrypted with 256-bit AES, and saved in your iCloud, and transferred to and from iCloud to your devices encrypted so it is very secure. The data stored in your keychain can be accessed through Safari, and some third-party Apple apps but not with Google Chrome, unfortunately.

2FA (2-factor authentication) is a form of MFA where a user is required to supply 2 forms of authentication to allow access to the system. The traditional authentication system used the username/password pair to grant access to an account, but a growing number of hacking due to the use of weak passwords prompts the industry to offer an additional form of authentication to enhance the security of login access.

Web browsers today offer a built-in password manager, and auto-populate username and password on the websites you visit. This is a very convenient feature offered by virtually all web browser makers including Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. The question is whether you can trust browser password managers to store your passwords without a security risk.

Before we can discuss CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing), we need to understand what IP address is, how it is divided (subnetting), and what versions of IP addresses are available. Currently, there are IPv4 (version 4) and IPv6 (version 6) addresses. IPv4 was introduced in 1980, and it is a 32-bit number having a total of about 4.3 million addresses. With the prosperity of the Internet and smart devices joining the network, 4.3 million IP addresses weren't enough to connect all devices available worldwide, and hence 128-bit IPv6 address was invented in 1998. For each computer, smartphone, tablet, and IoT devices joining the Internet, the number of IP addresses available within IPv4 wasn't enough to connect all devices.

Google Analytics keeps track of website visitors as users, and it uses the Client ID stored in the browser cookie to determine it. Google Analytics stores _ga cookie in the user's browser and the browser sends cookie data to a web server every time it makes a request. To view your Google Analytics (GA) cookie for a specific site, you may use developer tools available on your browser to view them. For example, on Google Chrome you may click the F12 key -> Applications Tab -> Cookies to view them. An example of "_ga" cookie looks like below:

WordPress is the most popular website builder platform that hosts up to 75 million websites on the Internet today. Despite its core being secure, hackers and other mischievous characters have compromised security for millions of self-hosted sites. The following 8 reasons describe why you need to secure your Wordpress website, and how to achieve them.