Network security people have long warned about the dangers of unsecured 802.11 wireless networks. Failing to enable even basic security measures on a wireless network will leave your computers–and your private data–exposed to any wireless hackers that might be in living your neighborhood, or simply driving by your house. So how do you keep the information streaming across your wireless network secure?

The recommendation for many years has been to enable WEP encryption. WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) was the very first security mechanism for 802.11 wireless networks. It provided data privacy by encrypting the data contained within each wireless network packet. WEP provides a greater level of privacy than found on a open wireless networks, and insured that your data could not be “sniffed from the air” by someone using a scanning or packet capturing tool. However, in the present day, it has been proven that WEP itself is not secure–and therefore neither is your WEP-encrypted wireless network.

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Today Dell announced that by the end of this month it will offer laptop and desktop system pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux. Dell has partnered with Canonical to make Ubuntu 7.04 available on select systems for customers desiring an alternative to the Windows operating system on Dell computers. Dell has previously sold enterprise system pre-installed with Red Hat Linux, but the move to sell systems with Ubuntu is in response to many requests from Dell’s customers.

This announcement on Dell’s blog features a video interview with Canonical’s CEO and Ubuntu’s founder Mark Shuttleworth.

Do you have questions about Ubuntu on Dell computers? Visit the Dell Linux Community Board.

Do you have question about Linux itself? Visit the LinuxQuestions.org Wiki.

The programs of Microsoft Office 2007 are capable of reading files created by all previous versions Microsoft Office and even earlier releases. For example, Word 2007 can read .doc files created by any version of Word from 1.0 to 2003. When an Office 2007 program opens a file saved using an older Office format, it uses Compatibility Mode to correctly interpret and render the file’s contents. This excellent functionality, however, is not all that you need to make the move to Office 2007.

A great concern among possible Office 2007 adopters is the ability to share Office 2007 files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with people who haven’t yet made the move to Office 2007. Microsoft has addressed this concern by releasing the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. Using this update, users of Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003 will be able to open, edit, and save files created using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. It also upgrades Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved using the new Office 2007 formats.

Even if you are not considering making the move to Office 2007 yourself, do consider the possibility that one day you may download or receive files created using Office 2007. Having already downloaded and installed this upgrade will save yourself the time of searching for this blog article telling you how to do it.

There has been a lot blogged about the apparent hardware problems with the Xbox 360. I don’t own an Xbox 360 (I’m strictly a PC gamer), but I have many friends that own and love their 360, and none of them has had more than the occasional crash (these are mostly due to software problems in the game). However, this situation finally caught my attention when the Penny Arcade guys blogged about it and linked to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 907534, indicating that Microsoft says too the problem is real.

The specific problem Xbox 360 owners are seeing is three of the lights on the Ring of Light (RoL) continually flash red indicating a hardware failure. 360 users commenting at DevLib and 1UP note that when the three RoL appears, the 360 sometimes continues to operate, it may need to cool down, or sometimes it’s a complete brick. This seems to happen with 360 boxes that have been used for only a few months, indicating if you’ve made good use of your 360 for more than six months you may never see this problem.

What should you do if your beloved 360 gives you the three-flashing-lights salute? Just like when you see and idiot light on the dashboard of your car, you can know that something has gone terribly wrong–regardless if the 360 continues to operate. The Microsoft Knowledge Base article points to a few other articles containing things to try, but with three flashing reds it’s like giving a Windows user false hope by telling them all they need to do to fix the problem is to defrag their hard drive. Instead, immediately call Microsoft and make use of your warranty (you did buy the extended warranty, didn’t you?).