Protect yourself online

Our cyber world is growing day by day. Our life is becoming easier and comfortable. But on the other side cyber crimes are increasing at very high rate which is really shocking. Thus let us stay safe from such attacks by taking some necessary and simple safety measures.

TYPES OF CYBER ATTACKS

• COMPROMISED ACCOUNTS – where an e-mail or online bank account has been taken over by hackers
• E-MAIL ABUSE – Sending spam (massive amounts of unsolicited e-mail), offensive or fake e-mail, and e-mails that propagate malicious (malware) codes
• COMPROMISED WEBSITE - Defacement or phishing

HOW TO AVOID E-CRIME

• Don’t scrimp on computer security. Use anti-virus software, keep it up to date and use spam filters
• Update security patches, operating system and web browser; Use a personal firewall
• Use a mix of letters and numbers for your password and change them often.
• Don’t use words from the dictionary
• Do not open or click on any unknown e-mail attachment; never click on hyperlinks within e-mails. Instead, copy and paste them into your browser
• Always look for “https://” and padlock on web sites that require personal information
• Keep your computer clean from spyware
• Educate yourself of fraudulent activity on the internet
• Check and monitor your credit/bank report
• Seek Advice - if you are unsure, talk to a computer security company like Symantec, Trend Micro, Sophos, Kaspersky, McAfee, etc.

Are you facing high Bounce Rates in your blog?

Hi friends,
Most of you maybe blogging for a long period of time and might have achieved a good traffic rank and enough genuine visitors...but your blog maybe having very high rate of bounces which may adversely affect your overall ranking......

This bounce rate is only because that you display the whole post in your home page so that people dont need to visit any other pages on your blog to gain information. To get rid of this problem:

Torrents can harm your computer!

Hi friends,
Most of us are familiar with the Peer to Peer file sharing technology, which is now commonly used to share large files through the internet. Now a days this service is being misused at a high rate. You can find anything and everything as torrents. Latest movies, games, softwares, books, songs and much more...

Data Recovery is Nothing but something!

Hi friends,
I think most of you are familiar with Data Recovery. Often it is very expensive to get this simple system done. In UAE, where I live it costs about 75-100 Dhs (750-1000 Rs). As you all know it is quiet expensive for a normal person who uses this service to get back just some less important files or folders. 


Recovering data from physically-damaged hardware can involve multiple techniques. Some damage can be repaired by replacing parts in the hard disk. This alone may make the disk usable, but there may still be logical damage. A specialized disk-imaging procedure is used to recover every readable bit from the surface. Once this image is acquired and saved on a reliable medium, the image can be safely analysed for logical damage and will possibly allow for much of the original file system to be reconstructed. But if it is a physically damaged hardware it is quiet expensive. 


There are many softwares available in the market. These softwares are not very expensive but obviously costs little. Stellar Data Recovery (shareware), Windows Data Recover (shareware) are some of the examples. 


Hope you got an outline of this service.....

Firefox add-on encrypts sessions with Facebook, Twitter

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project have released a public beta of a new Firefox extension that lets people encrypt their communications with Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

The HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension was inspired byGoogle's encrypted Web search option, the EFF said in announcing the tool on Thursday.

In addition to Facebook and Twitter, the Web sites that the software works on are Google Search, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Washington Post, PayPal, EFF, Tor, and Ixquick.

The tool works by creating an HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) connection to the sites. But even if "https" is used, unless the address bar is colored and an unbroken lock icon is displayed in the bottom right corner, the page is not completely encrypted, EFF says.

Our colleagues over at ZDNet's Zero Day blog point out that using HTTPS doesn't hide a computer's IP address and users are still susceptible to tracking from broken SSL sessions displaying unencrypted third-party content.

"Forcing a full session on a popular social-networking service such as Facebook for instance, without taking into consideration the fact that SSL would not magically make all the personally identifiable information, including your IP, disappear, is wrong," writes Dancho Danchev on the Zero Day blog. "Full-session SSL, in combination with tools such as Vanish, next to Tor-like/VPN based anonymity network, are great for a fresh start."

Thanks: cnet.com

Secure your wireless network!

Hi,
Here are some ways to secure wireless network. (optimized for U.A.E)

1st Step: Secure your wireless network with a password.
The first step is to secure your wireless network with a password, WEP is recommended. Change the wireless network password provided by the network provider.


To change the password (in UAE): 

• Type http://192.168.1.1 on the address bar.
• Select wireless from the top menu bar.
• Select security from the left menu bar.
• In the password column type the desired password.
• Now press the save button.
• Then press the restart router button at the bottom.  

Step 2: Find if somebody is using your wireless network
Finding if somebody is using your network is very simple. See whether the LED named "wireless" is blinking in your router.(first disable wireless connection in your computer)
If it is blinking, that means that somebody is using your network.

Step 3: Block the mac address of the trespasser
To find the mac address of the intruder and block them: 

• Type: 102.168.1.1 in  your address bar.
• Select wireless from top menu bar.
• Select Manage from the left menu bar.
• Select Associated Stations from the middle of the page.
• Copy the mac address of the computer connected to tour network.
• Select Access List from the middle of the page.
• Tick enable access list
• Select Ban
• Enter the mac address
• Now restart your router.

Hope this post will help you secure your network.

How to Operate Mouse Pointer Without Mouse!

Hi,
Are you experiencing problems with your mouse. Dont worry! Mouse isnt really important. Try this.

(May or may not work in Windows XP)


Press Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock Button + Ok
with the help of Numeric Keypad e.g ( Press and Hold the following Keys )

7   8    9

4        6

1   2    3

For Normal Click Press 5 
Default
Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock

Visit again for more tricks :)

Microsoft Internet Explorer Shortcut Keys

Hi Guys,
This is a listing of Microsoft Internet Explorer shortcut keys. Some keys are only supported on the new versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The shortcut keys below are very useful when you use on Microsoft Internet Explorer often, especially when you perform a web search on multiple internet explorer windows. A quick refresh might be necessary every once in a while, or opening a new window faster with a shortcut key.

Shortcut	Description
F5	Refresh current page, frame, or tab.
F11	Display the current website in full screen mode. Pressing F11 again will exit this mode.
Backspace	Back a page.
Alt + Left Arrow	Back a page.
Alt + Right Arrow	Forward a page.
Ctrl + I	Display the saved favorites.
Ctrl + N	Open New browser window.
Ctrl + P	Print current page / frame.
Spacebar	Moves down a page at a time.
Shift + Spacebar	Moves up a page at a time.
Tab	Moves from one link to another.
Shift + Tab	Moves backward from one link to another.
Esc	Stop page or download from loading.
Ctrl + (- or +)	Increase or decrease the font size, pressing '-' will decrease and '+' will increase.
Ctrl + Enter	Auto complete a url address. For example, type thecomputricks in the address bar and press CTRL + ENTER to get http://www.thecomputricks.com.
Ctrl + D	Add the current page to favorite.
Alt + Down arrow	Display all previous text entered in a text box.

The followings are some mouse shortcuts for Microsoft Internet Explorer

Shortcut	Description
Ctrl + Wheel down	Increase font size
Ctrl + Wheel down	Decrease font size
Click then Shift+Click	Click at one point of the page, then go to another point hold shift and click will create a selection from the two points
Double-click	On a word, will select the word.
Triple-click	Selects the entire line of text.
Wheel click	With some wheel mouse, you can click on the wheel and move the mouse to scroll the page smoothly

Try them
Bon Voyage

How to Say ‘No to All’ During File Copy Operations in Windows

While copying or moving a large number of files from one location to another folder in Windows, you may often encounter errors or warning messages saying the file(s) you are trying to copy already exists in the target location.

Windows No to All – Keyboard Shortcut

If you are using a previous version of Windows (like XP or Windows 2000 but not Vista), the default error window will offer four choices – "Yes", "No", "Yes to All" and "Cancel".
There’s no "No to All" button in the File Replacement dialog but you can simply hold down the Shift Key before pressing the No button and Windows will automatically interpret this action as a "No to All" command.
This will be so useful when you are copying a large number of files and folders but don’t want to overwrite content that already exists at the target.




In case of Windows Vista, Microsoft designed a more intuitive warning message with a check box that lets you repeat the same operation on all upcoming conflicts.
Thanks Labnol.org

Refine your image search with visual similarity- Today's Tip

Today's Tip:
Similar Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words. Click the "Similar images" link under an image to find other images that look like it.

Thats what is known as Google Similar Image Search...

A DOS magic

Dear friends,
Today I am going to share a DOS magic with you!
You can watch a movie made of dots.
The steps are as follows:
1. Start menu
2. Run
3. Cmd
4. Enter
5. telnet towel.blinkenliggts.nl
6. Enter
Make sure that you are connected to the internet.
By this way you can watch the movie 'star wars'.

Taking Full Screenshots of Web Pages Was Never This Easy!

Do you want to capture a full screenshot of a web page without installing any software or browser extensions?
Well, here’s a simple trick.
Open the web page that you want to capture, go to the address bar of the browser and type "aviary.com/" just before the http:// part of the URL.
For instance, if your web address is something like http://blog4info.co.cc, the new URL will become aviary.com/http://blog4info.co.cc - hit Enter and there you have an editable screenshot image of that page.
Or add this bookmarklet to the bookmarks bar and you can even save yourself from typing aviary.com every time you want to capture a screenshot.

You can save the image to the desktop or further add annotation using the Type Tool, freehand brushes, arrows and other tools available in the Aviary editor. It can’t get easier than this.
And it even works with the Flash videos of YouTube.
Another web services that allows screen capture of web pages in the browser is Kwout.com though it won’t do full pages. [via RWW]

Compiled from: labnol.org

Expand the YouTube Video Player to its Maximum Size without Full Screen

The default full screen button in the YouTube video player expands the video such that it covers your entire desktop area and all existing windows on the screen stay hidden as long as you are watching the video is this "maximized" state.

That’s one way of doing things but what if you want more control over the size of the YouTube video player, here’s a simple hack - just replace the word "watch" in the URL of any YouTube video with "watch_popup" and the video will expand to fit your browser window, not the desktop.
For instance, if the original YouTube video is located at ..
youtube.com/watch?v=2mrRvUNlq50
the same video can be accessed standalone outside the YouTube website at..
youtube.com/watch_popup?v=2mrRvUNlq50
Resizing the browser window will also resize the YouTube player and you can press F11 in Firefox to mimic YouTube’s full screen mode even with this hack.

YouTube & Sticky Windows
You may also use the trick for watching YouTube videos in sticky mode. Just open the YouTube video in a new window (not tab), resize it according to your need and use a program like Always on Top to watch videos while working on other tasks.

Embed YouTube Player
You can use the the watch_popup URL with the IFRAME tag to directly embed any YouTube video on your website without having to calculate the confusing height and width ratios necessary for the EMBED tag. In the case of IFRAME, specify the height or width as 100% and it will auto-expand to fit the entire available space on the site.

Switch from Yahoo Mail to Gmail

CONTENT COURTESY: LABNOL

If you like to abandon your Yahoo Mail account in favor of Gmail, here’s some good news. You can now move copy all your old contacts and email messages from the Yahoo! inbox to your new Gmail address without having to worry about complex IMAP or POP3 configuration.

How to Move from Yahoo Mail to Gmail
Gmail now offers a new import mails option under Settings -> Accounts and Import. Enter the username and password of Yahoo Mail account and all the messages will be copied to your Gmail account in the next few hours. Once the migration is over, any incoming email on your old Yahoo address will be auto-forward to your Gmail account for another month.
The reason why I stressed Yahoo! Mail here is because it was the only web email service that required users to upgrade to Mail! Plus for them to move their data out to another email provider. That however changed with today’s announcement on the Gmail blog.
The Import function is currently available in new Gmail accounts only (not Google Apps) but it will soon be available for all so if you are in a hurry, just set up another Gmail account and use Mail Fetcher to copy Yahoo mails from this new address to your old Gmail account.

How to recover corrupted PowerPoint file using TEMP folder?

Today tip will help you to recover the unreadable and corrupted file of Microsoft PowerPoint. Normally PowerPoint open files can become corrupted when you are trying to save it or if you were working on it and your PowerPoint application or windows crashed due to power failure. Windows saves a duplicate copy of working file as a temporary version. There is no need to use any third party software to manage these types of corrupted files, because you can recover them from TEMP folder.
Follow the given steps to recover the corrupted files in MS PowerPoint:
1. First click on Start button then click on Search option to start your search process.
2. Here type the *.TMP in "All or part of the file name" box then choose the "Local Hard Drives" option in "Look in" box.
3. Now click on Search button to start the search process of temporary files on your system local drives.
4. After some time, windows locate the list to temporary files. Here arrange the all temp files as Date modified.
5. Now open the PowerPoint and try to open these temp files or double click on that file to run in PowerPoint.

Keep Visiting!!!

The "MUHAHAHA" virus!

Hi
The "MUHAHAHA" virus is a highly contagious virus. If this virus is infected in your computer, you must immediately remove it. MUHAHAHA.!!!!!!!!! virus migrates through pen drives or even through CD’s. In CD’s or USBs if you find a file named Microsoftpowerpoint.exe kindly delete it. The virus gets installed to the computer by this executable file.


Symptoms:
When you open some sites (for eg: youtube), a dialog box appears that "this site is blocked for you fool, The admin did not add this dialog and who did? Muhahaha" and a laughing sound.


This virus has already infected millions of computers. This virus cannot be removed with the help of an antivirus.


To remove this virus follow these steps:

Step: 1. Click on “Run” and type the following address: C:\heap41a and hit Enter key.

You cannot find the “heap41a” file by navigating thru files and folders using mouse in C drive.

Inference: You will find the following files in the above path
a) Offspring (folder), b) 2.mp3 (Muhaha laughing sound that is played while virus closes the window),
c) drivelist (notepad file), d) reproduce (notepad file), e) script1 (notepad file), f) std (notepad file), g) Icon (Icon file)
h) svchost.exe (executable file)

Step: 2. Delete the “svchost.exe” file with the big “H” icon.

Step: 3. Then press start button, click run and type regedit and click ok. Your registry will be opened. Then press F3 and find comes. There type heap and search. Wherever it stops and gives any values, corresponding to “Heap”, just press delete button on key board and delete it. Then Press F3 once again and so … on, till you delete all heap folders and values.
Then restart the computer. Your MUHAHAHA virus is gone for ever !!!!

Note: Some times the access in denied to this file and thus cannot be deleted, in such situations download GIPO FILE UTILITIES to delete it.

Change Default Icons in Windows XP

1) Start Windows in your normal fashion.

2) Click the Start menu and select the "My Computer" option. Alternately, you can double-click the "My Computer" desktop icon if you've enabled it to appear on the desktop.

3) Double-click on your hard drive to open the directory.

4) Find the program for which you wish to change the associated icon. You'll need to know its location on the hard drive. If you don't know where it is, you can use the Start menu "Search" feature to locate it.

5) Right-click on the file, and click the "Properties" menu option. This will open the Properties menu for the file.

6) Click the "Change Icon" button. If there is no "Change Icon" button, you will need to create a desktop icon instead. To do so, cancel out of the Properties menu and right-click the file again. This time, select "Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)."

7) Click on one of the icons that appears in the list. If the icon you want isn't on the list, click the "Browse" button to search for more icons.

8) Click "OK" once you've chosen the icon you'd like to use.

9) Click "Apply" to confirm your changes, and then click "OK" to close the window.

10) Wait a moment to see the icon change. There are times, like when a lot of system resources are in use, when icon changes can take a moment to appear.

Recommendation from experts: "Better to use icon managers or icon packs instead of manual editing"

Open Orkut where ever!

Hi Friends,
Today I am gonna teach you or tell you how to open orkut even if it is blocked by your country without changing any IP or using any sofwares. It really works with orkut, myspace, facebook and more. What you have to do is only to visit www.power.com. Through this site you can login to most of social networking sites. Thats it! No hacking, changing proxy etc. It really works in U.A.E too. It is a superb service. You can even log in to all ur accounts at the same time through power.com. Hope you will check it out soon.

How to increase your Laptop Battery's Life?

Dear friends you have read many interesting tips from my site and I think you have gained more knowledge from them. Now I have a more interesting tip to increase your Laptop's battery life. There is no matter, laptop manufactures gives you the guarantee about the battery that how long it works. The battery of laptop always stops working very early at some stage in essential research, just like when you are watching a DVD movie.

Follow the few steps to increase the laptop battery's life:

Lower the backlighting on your screen.

The screen of your Laptop takes up significant amount of power and you do not require its maximum brightness. You should have to check your system and decrease the screen brightness it to a comfortable point.

Stop your wireless signal when you are not using.

After turning off your Laptop can save max. 20 minutes of your laptop's battery time because WiFi can use a considerable quantity of power. By right clicking you can stop your WiFi signal when you are not using.

Manage the correct power scheme in XP

Windows XP contain a number of predetermined power plans, which control settings like how rapidly your laptop turns off and when your screen saver boots in. You can change your laptop power scheme by choosing Control Panel > Power Options. For max. Battery life from the "Power scheme" chooses the option "Max. Battery" and decline the list. There are good choices for you just like "Low Power Mode" and Portable /Laptop. They don't conserve as much power as Max Battery. After selecting a power scheme you click Ok button to finish the process.

How you can Automate the DIR Command

If your are using same switches frequently in Command prompt then open your system command prompt using open Run option

Click Start and open Run option then type cmd to open command prompt, here type

set dircmd=/w/o/p

then press Enter, now every time thereafter that you type

dir

the /w/o/p switches will be automatically applied and now need to type every time. If your are interested to use single switch like /w you can use it

set dircmd=/w

and press Enter.

and same if you wants to undo these switches then you can very easily by typing

dir /-switch

For example, if you wanted to do a directory with only the /w switch, you could enter

dir /-p/-o

When you exit the Command prompt window, however, the Dircmd setting returns to its default settings.