Roku Channel Review - Plex Parental Controls Are (finally) Here!

 

  Late on the night of November 24th, I received a notification via email. It had finally happened. Plex finally announced long overdue parental controls. The folks at Plex even admit it themselves - these controls are years overdue. But alas, they are here. For those like myself who use Plex as their primary media server and have little ones in the home who shouldn't have easy access to some of the content, this is big news. In January, I wrote about what I feel is an excellent alternative known as RARflix which I still use to this day. Though effective, RARflix requires establishing multiple Plex accounts, and sharing the portions of your Plex library that you want those accounts to have access to. You can then password protect any or all of those profiles using your Roku remote. Again, this works once all set up. But the fact is, Plex users shouldn't have to go through this type of setup. There should be native parental controls.

   Plex pulls this all together with a new feature called Plex Home. Simply select "Check For Updates" via your Plex server icon and it should grab the latest version, 0.9.11.4 (although thanks to the auto-update feature built in it should have already updated on its own). You'll then need to grab the Plex Test Chanel for Roku. It is important to note here that to take full advantage of this new awesomeness, you need to be a Plex Pass subscriber.

   Quick and simple: 1. The server updates. 2. You add the Roku channel. Boom - done! On top of that, Plex did an excellent job making the user setup as simple as can be via the server UI - a process they refer to as Creating A Plex Home. A very common sense approach: add a user, name the user, and if you want it to be a secured user enter a PIN. On the Plex Home website, there's an example Home setup that illustrates this effective simplicity.

   Once completed, my setup looks like this:

   As this is new, it is not without at least on shortcoming. Oddly enough, the shortcoming is on the most important screen - the login screen itself. Not sure about anyone else, but I have one son in particular who likes to play the "I bet I can guess your password" game. As such, he often tries to sneak up on me to try to figure out the PIN and/or password for my cell phone or tablet, or the current PIN for RARflix. Thus, the problem with the current Plex PIN entry screen is that anyone can see your PIN as you are entering it because you have to navigate to each number on the keypad to select it:

   For the sake of Roku users, perhaps Plex will want to adopt a different approach. As for RARflix, the password is setup via the Roku as an admin user and is actually a directional pad combination (ex. - UP, DOWN, DOWN, UP, LEFT). Thus when entered at the login screen, there is no visible keypad but a blank area that displays asterisks as the directional pad is used:

   Other than that, I have had no other issues with this new setup. I applaud everyone at Plex for finally bringing this much needed feature to the most important element of my cord cutting universe!

   Have you created a Plex Home? If so, please share your thoughts on it below!

'Tis The Season For Online Safety

  In this age of online everything, perhaps one of my favorite things is online shopping. I often say it was invented for men - most guys like myself don't get all too excited about hopping in the car, driving somewhere, and shuffling around a store trying to buy 1 or 2 things. With online shopping, from the comfort of where ever I happen to be at the moment, I can snag what I'm looking for and in most cases have it by the next day.

   And during the Christmas shopping season, online shopping is the perfect tool for the consummate procrastinator - which I'm at times guilty of being myself. And speaking of shuffling around a store, what bigger pain is there for a guy like me than shuffling around a store with wall-to-wall glassy eyed Christmas shoppers?

   It doesn't take an accounting genius to recognize that online shopping is huge business. According to the statistics portal Statista, retail e-commerce sales in the United States alone jumped from around $42 billion in 2002 to around $210.6 billion in 2013.   As one can imagine (or learn by simply watching the news), a considerable percentage of this revenue comes during the holiday season with popular shopping days such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday. As per the norm where big money is concerned, so comes the criminal element circling like hungry sharks waiting for the chance to feed on unsuspecting victims. The holiday shopping season is often the feeding frenzy time for these criminals.

   Without question, online attacks and threats are nothing new. But with the ever-growing amount of private information being shared online for multiple reasons, with shopping being perhaps the most popular among them, I feel that it's important for everyone to have some basic guidelines and tips for navigating the waters as safely as possible. First off, one needs to know what to look out for.

Phishing

  This particularly nasty (and actually pretty genius) form of threat typically involves legitimate - looking websites that trick people into sharing user names, password, or other sensitive information. The hope is that you won't realize you're not actually at "Bank of ____" 's website and will unassumingly provide this information. Then, they can use this to log into your real accounts and....well, I think you get the picture.

Online Scams

   I often joke about how I actually don't need to work another day in my life, given the amount of money that has been entrusted to me by every Nigerian prince that ever (not actually) existed. I use GMail, and thankfully its filters work effectively enough to provide me with a very entertaining spam folder. But as time goes by, these attempts grow more and more sophisticated. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center lists dozens of variants on email and online scams - from fraudulent automobile auctions to online dating schemes - in its annual Internet Crime Report. In 2013 alone, more than a quarter of a million complaints were submitted related to online scams. But hey - you're young and savvy. This is somewhat old news and you've warned your parents and grandparents, right? Well, consider this: one fifth of scam victims last year were younger than 30. 

Massive Data Breaches

   

    To be clear, my intent isn't to scare anyone away from Internet use. In fact, I'm often questioned about personal online safety and security. As I assist with explaining the risks and tactics to stay safe, I try to reiterate that these same risks have existed long before the Internet, often in greater proportion. I also try help people understand that the truly serious, "professional" hackers are not after you particularly. The fact is, the vast majority of these individuals are very smart and aren't going to risk getting caught committing a crime over your personal information only, which may not amount to anything of value to them. Simply put - why risk jail time stealing one person's info when you have the same capability of harvesting tons more?

  Recent hacks of Home Depot, Target and other major retailers have led to millions of credit card numbers being compromised.  Hackers turn around and sell these numbers and information on a black market to anyone who might be willing to buy them. Sometimes, these numbers and forms of information aren't directly tied to individuals but can instead be used to establish fake identities that can be used to harvest hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit, which has a damaging affect on the overall consumer market.


   So with these and other threats out there looming, just how do you protect yourself? First and foremost - DON'T BE PARANOID. Truth be told, throughout the years I've serviced many PCs that had crashed due to people doubling up on anti-virus this or that, every other firewall, and multiple anti-malware packages. Just remember, the Internet isn't "out to get you". Instead, employ a bit of vigilance -

• Look carefully at any website you're considering purchasing from. Be on the lookout especially for poor spelling and grammar. 
• Look for incorrectly placed characters - for example, a zero (0) placed where and O should be such as "Home Dep0t".
• Be especially careful when bargain hunting. A website selling a brand new iPhone 6 for $200 is more than likely not a safe place to provide personal information to.
• Pay attention to website names. Remember - all websites reside in "domains". The most common of these domains is the ".com" domain. This domain stands for "commercial", thus most of your trusted retail sites will have this domain suffix. For example - if you're trying to purchase something online from Walmart, yet the website reads something odd like "www.walmart.krq", don't proceed!

   Another effective tool is two-factor authentication. Most major banks nowadays (mine included) require this when you first log in from a computer that you have authenticated or added to a trusted device list. This often works by the institution sending you a text to your phone number on file, or an email to your email address on file. After entering this number you are usually prompted to register the device you're on (if it's your personal device that you plan on accessing with in the future), or to just activate for one time use (if it's a device that you're using just once - i.e. you're using a computer at your Public Library). This particularly effective in a case where your user name and password may have been stolen. As for email accounts, Google takes this a step further with Google Authenticator .

   These tips should help you protect your personal data by being mindful of your online activity. But what about those merchants your choose to do business with? After all, what happened with the likes of Target and Home Depot was not due to any fault on the consumers' part. Don't be afraid to ask these merchants exactly HOW they are storing your customer data. Some may do so in-house, while others do so on secure servers. And if you know of a start up merchant who is looking for a secured solution, please don't hesitate to provide this information to them. After all, malicious online activity does not only hurt the consumer, it can also cause permanent damage to a merchant's reputation.

   Overall, don't be afraid to swipe up some good online deals. Don't be paranoid by shopping online - I do a large percentage of my shopping online. But please be mindful of what sites you're visiting. If things look somewhat odd, chances are something is wrong - trust your gut instinct. Try to stick to reputable, well-known sites like Amazon. But most of all, have fun and enjoy this holiday season!

  Do you have any online safe shopping tips? Please feel free to share below!