When the program is finished, it displays a dialog box telling you the operation is com-

Part VI ✦ Managing the Network Understanding Pretty Good Privacy Pretty Good Privacy, commonly known as PGP, is a utility that enables computers to exchange messages, secure files, and use network connections with privacy and strong authentication. PGP uses verification of individuals through authentication and encryption of data using keys. In addition to verifying those computers and users from whom you receive messages and files, PGP also stores the encrypted data on your computer, guaranteeing privacy from hackers. PGP uses encryption and decryption keys to ensure privacy. The keys are a pair of mathemat- ically related cryptographic keys. PGP uses a public key for the encryption. Public keys are published on many Internet sites and even on private servers, if you have a PGP or other secure program. You freely distribute your public key so it can be seen and used by all users. A corresponding private key is used for decryption. The private key is unique; it remains on the individual user’s PC. Private keys are securely protected. Private keys are located in a keystore, which is protected by many security measures. Anyone who attacks your computer Optimizing the Network You can take some steps to optimize a network that is sluggish. Sometimes, just adding some memory helps. At other times, however, you might have to add more hardware to keep the net- work running smoothly. You should weigh the benefits to the cost. Adding hardware isn’t a cheap way to optimize your network, but you might not think the network is slow enough to warrant these measures. ✦ Most computers are at the least Pentium III and the newer ones are Pentium 4’s and 5’s. There are also Celeron processors, which are good for home and even small-business computers but are a bit limited in some areas, such as with some computer games and with heavy-duty accounting, graphics, or mathematics programs. Xeon is the most devel- oped processor you can get now, and it’s more in the range of a server processor because of its power, speed, and cost. Stick with Pentium to optimize network and com- puter efficiency. ✦ Add memory to your computers if you have less than 128MB; 256MB or more is better. ✦ Break up large files — video, music, data, and so on — to help reduce network traffic. If, for example, someone uses a lot of video files each day, try saving the files to a faster com- puter or to the user’s computer instead of running the files over the network. ✦ Consider changing your network design. If you’re using phone line networking and you want a faster transmission speed, consider going to 10Base-T. If you’re using 10Base-T, consider changing to 100Base-T. ✦ If you’re using multiple protocols — such as NetBEUI and IPXSPX or TCPIP and NetBEUI — consider changing over to just one protocol. This change could eliminate many bottlenecks and improve performance. Choose TCPIP for the most flexibility and effi- ciency and remove the other, unused protocols from your computers. Extra protocols on a computer might slow the processing.