Thursday 31 May 2012

How to Find Your Computer IP Address in Windows XP and Vista

There are many reasons why you would want to find your computer IP address.some reasons might include, Internet connection problems, setting up a new home network, sharing files over a home network, and so on.
Every device connected to the public Internet is assigned a unique number known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses consist of four numbers separated by periods (also called a ‘dotted-quad’) and look something like 127.0.0.1. Go here for your public Internet IP address lookup.
However sometimes you need to find your computers IP address on your home network. Now days computer networking is very common in the average household and not just used in the office or business work environments. In fact many home computer networks have already upgraded to a wireless setup. If you ever need to change your ip address because of a conflict on your network here’s how…

 

Here are two ways to find your computer IP address:

First Way
  1. If you have an Internet connection icon in the bottom right corner of the taskbar, you can double click this to open it.
  2. Then choose the support tab at the top.
  3. Your IP Address will be there.
Second way
  1. Go to The Start Menu, then choose to open control panel.
  2. Choose Network connections. (Choose Wireless Network for Wireless setups)
  3. Right click on your internet connection icon and choose properties.
screenshot
  1. While you are there you should tick the box Show icon in notification area when connected.
  2. Then from the list choose Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
find your computer IP address

This is my Internet Protocol Properties box. I have chosen to Set my IP address to 10.0.0.1 and the default gateway is my modem IP address.

How to find your IP address for your computer in Windows Vista?

  1. If you have a network icon in the notification area in the right hand corner of your taskbar then you can click on it.
  2. This small box will appear. (below) Click on Network and sharing center link.
sc1
sc2

Notes on how to find your computer IP address

  • See how to change your IP address
  • Your Ip address can also have 192.168.0.1. It just depends on how your Home Network is configured.
  • If You have the button checked that says to obtain an address automatically you can view your ip address by clicking on the internet connection icon in the right corner. Go to the support tab. Then you can find your computer IP address.

Wednesday 30 May 2012

How to Find Your Computer Name and Change it

There will be times when you need to know your computers name. This is not the same as your computer username. You might use your computer name to share files and printers on your home network and sometimes the default computer name is just too difficult to remember. This is the number one reason for changing your computer name. If you are using the computer name to setup a shared printer you will need to rename your computer something easy. You do not want a string of numbers and letters.

How to find your computer name and change it?

  1. Press the Windows key and the Pause Break button at the same time. How easy is that? Applies to Windows Xp and Vista.
  2. Or go to Start menu>control panel>system (For Vista you can get more details by clicking on the items in the left bar menu.)
  3. Or go to the Start Menu and right-click on My Computer and select Properties (For Vista its not my Computer but just computer)
screenshot
To get a similar dialog box, as above, to appear in Vista you need to look a bit further. When you open system properties as in the steps above, you also need to click on a menu item in the left panel. For example, you can click on Advanced Options. This will bring up a dialog box like the Windows XP one.
You can also see your computer name  in System properties as the arrow shows below. And here you can click on change settings to change your computer name.
screenshot

Where is the name of your computer?

  1. Choose computer name from the tab
  2. And there it is in small writing…If it is a difficult or overly long name click on change. Change your computer name to something easy. Mine is called ‘server’ See screenshot below.
sc3

Can I change the computer name and still keep all of my files?

Changing your computer name will not effect your files on your computer. The will stay where they are, untouched and safe. Changing the name of your computer may effect your network settings. For example if you are sharing a printer and the path to the printer is rizviprinter and you change rizvi to saboo it will not find the printer.

Notes:
  • Windows Vista displays the computer name on the first page of the system properties.
  • When networking or sharing files you can either use your computer IP Address or your computer name.
  • All computers on the Network should have different names and IP address’s to avoid conflicts.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

To find your mac address in Windows XP

Your computers Mac address or physical address can be used as a part of your wireless network security. If you have this security enabled, your router will only let the computers into the network with the corresponding mac address .


To find your mac address in Windows XP there are two ways
The first way to find your mac address
  1. Double click on the internet icon (near the time) in your system tray.
  2. Choose the support tab
  3. Then choose details.
  4. It will be labelled the physical address.
  5. It will look like this 00-D8-85-F8-D5-52 with 12 numbers.
screenshot
    screenshot




You can also
  1. Open a run command box. Startmenu>run
  2. Type in cmd /k ipconfig /all
  3. Once again it will be labelled physical address
screenshot
screenshot

Monday 28 May 2012

Convert Nero image (.nrg) to ISO9660 (.iso)

n case you need to convert Nero image file .nrg into regular ISO9660 .iso utility nrg2iso might be helpful then.

It’s included into apt repositories of Debian and Ubuntu, so to install it execute:

sudo aptitude install nrg2iso


When it’s done, convert file by command:
nrg2iso image.nrg image.iso

Sunday 27 May 2012

Is The Internet Down? 5 Common Home Network Problems

Sometimes home network problems are as easy to fix as plugging in a cord, yet “check your cords” is almost all the advice you’ll get from overworked help desk operators. Sometimes you get onto a help desk operator that wants to take you through every simple step, even the ones you have already performed. The average computer user gets very frustrated with troubleshooting methods used over the phone when trying to diagnose their home network problems. If you do not have time to sit there and listen to an hours worth of pre-recorded troubleshooting tips will give you a few ideas to try when having home network problems. If you have a wireless connection you should also see 5 Threats To Your Home Wireless Connection.

Here are 5 common home network problems:

These common  Home Network Problems may be responsible for the Internet not working as you expect. We also have an article about 5 uncommon home network problems.

Common Home Network Problems #1: Router Failure

Although computer hardware is increasingly reliable these days, I find that routers are one of the devices most likely to fail when having home network problems. Unlike most computers, routers stay on all of the time and perform millions of complicated electrical connections every second, causing them to wear down faster than most other hardware.
All modern routers run a stripped down operating system (usually Linux or NetBSD) which can suffer from its own errors besides the possible  home network problems that can occur. Here are three steps to follow to diagnose and possibly repair your router:
home network problems
  1. Unplug the router, count to three, and plug it back in to the wall. Routers often suffer from micro-blackouts present in home power supply (also called brownouts) which can screw up the operating system on the router. Unplugging the router and plugging it back in will force the operating system to reboot.
  2. Most routers start with all of their lights on and then turn off the lights for any unused network ports. If the lights all come on and stay on, it usually indicates the operating system failed during boot. If your device is under warranty, contact the manufacturer or your service provider. If you need to repair this problem yourself, follow the instructions in your router’s manual for resetting the software; if that doesn’t work, you need to buy a new router.
  3. If none of the lights on your router light up, make sure it’s plugged into a working electrical socket and that you have at least one computer plugged into it. If it still doesn’t work, then the router is dead and probably not worth repairing.

Common Home Network Problems #2: Wireless Interference

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) never gave computer companies permission to create wireless devices. The companies just started doing it using a special part of the wireless spectrum the FCC calls unlicensed.
Problems WIth Home Networks Sometimes Caused By Wireless Interference

Anyone can run a device on this part of the wireless spectrum for any purpose (except for the purpose of deliberately jamming other people’s connections). Because the unlicensed part of the spectrum is free, many companies besides computer companies use it to transmit wireless communications for their devices. Devices using the unlicensed spectrum include cordless telephones, bluetooth devices, wireless speakers, small FM radio transmitters used with iPods, walkie-talkies, and baby monitors.
People with an FCC-approved amateur radio license, such as your author, can broadcast at high power on the unlicensed frequency.
All of these other signals can significantly reduce the quality of your wireless Internet connection and cause network problems. The only way to deal with the annoying error is to find the offending device and try to turn it off or move it away from your laptop or router. Here are some steps you can use to find the offending device:
If you have a walkie-talkie or a baby monitor, walk around with the hand-held part until you hear a lot of noise. Keep trying to get closer to the noise until you find the offending device.
If all you have is a laptop and wireless router, you need special software. For Windows, I suggest the free inSSIDer 2 from metageek.net. Install it, open up its Time Graph, and start walking around where the interference is greatest until you find the offending device.
If the offending device belongs to your neighbor, there’s nothing you can do legally (unless you can prove your neighbor is using too much power or is purposely trying to block your signals). However, I find that an amicable solution can usually be reached: ask your neighbor to move the device to end of his or her house which is furthest from your house; then, move your router to the end of your house furthest from your neighbor. In most cases, this should be enough distance to eliminate the interference and give you full-speed wireless networking.
The problem can also stem from having two wireless routers in the same house.
See how to setup a home wireless network.

Common Home Network Problems #3: Too Much Upload

Everyone knows that downloading a big file makes downloading any other files or Web pages run slow, but did you know that uploading a file can make downloading run slow too?
The most common networking protocol on the Internet is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP says that your computer must send an ACK packet (for acknowledgment) to the computer it’s downloading from every time it gets a big packet of downloaded data. This prevents the other computer from sending data to your computer after you cancel a download.
If your network is using all of its available upload bandwidth, your computer can’t send its ACK packets, so other computers stop sending data to your computer.
If your Internet connection is running slow, check the computers on your network to see if any are uploading a lot of data. Here are some applications that often hog the upload:
  • Filesharing applications like BitTorrent
  • 3D multi-player games like World of Warcraft
  • Voice over IP (VOIP) Internet phones like Skype. See making conference calls with Skype.
  • File uploads like uploading your pictures to Shutterfly or sharing files with family using Dropbox or uploading a video to YouTube

Common Home Network Problems #4: Bad Network Drivers

Microsoft Windows ships with over 100 different network drivers, which is a great convenience–you can usually just insert a new wired or wireless network card and start surfing the Internet. The only problem is that Windows only gets major updates once a year, so any drivers it ships with are usually out of date. This can cause home network problems as the driver will be out of date very quickly.
If you just purchased a new network card and it isn’t performing as well as you expect, you can try a very easy solution: install the driver that comes with the card (or download the driver from the card manufacturer’s website).

Common Home Network Problems #5: Zealous Firewall Rules

Firewalls provide essential security to Windows computers, but they can be a huge hassle when you try to share resources on your computer with other computers on your network and around the world. This is one of the most common home network problems that can interfere with your internet connection.
If someone is trying to connect to your computer and they get a “Connection Denied” error or a strange error, check your firewall rules to see if you’re blocking the other computer. If you are, you need to make an exception–but be careful, too broad an exception can open your computer to attacks from hackers.
The best exception only lets a specific computer connect to a specific port. You can figure out the port by searching Google for the name of the service you’re attempting to share. For example, a search for “windows printer port” brings up a Microsoft Technet article indicating the printer port is 9100.
To only allow a specific computer to connect, you need to know its IP address. If the computer is on the same network as you, open the start menu on that computer, click the Run… icon, type in cmd, type ipconfig on the command line that appears, and write down the IP address. Use that IP address in the exception you create to your firewall rules.
If the computer is running on the Internet, open a Web browser on the other computer and go to whatsmyip.org. Write down the IP address they give you and use it to create the exception to your firewall rules that fixes the problem with your home network so the other computer can connect.


If you didn't solve your home network problems please see this article about 5 uncommon home network problems

Saturday 26 May 2012

5 Uncommon Home Network Problems

Home network problems are a common occurrence now days. Just think about it? Everyone is now on the internet and most houses have some type of network setup to enable more than one computer to use the internet connection. Unfortunately this means that there are more Home network problems because people are settings these up themselves. There is no problem setting up your own home network and usually the hassles only start when you run into a problem that you cannot solve. It can be very frustrating when you have home network problems but hopefully we can help. This is not a tutorial on how to get a faster internet connection but rather to find network problems that might cause connection problems.

5 uncommon Home Network Problems

You’ve probably read our article about 5 common home network problems, but you didn’t find your problem listed. If you have not red this article you really should! After that, read on because we’ve got solutions to five more uncommon home network problems listed below.

Home Network Problems #1: Server Not Found

Sometimes you’ll try connecting to a website you know is still working and get a “server not found” error. This especially happens when you try to connect to new websites or websites you visit infrequently.
This isn’t an error with your home network, but rather a problem with your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) Domain Name Server (DNS) setup. It most often occurs when your ISP changes DNS servers and you’re stuck using the old server.

Among the many home network problems, this is one of the simplest to fix, although it can be annoying. You need to get the list of updated DNS servers from your ISP. To do it, you first need to purge the current list of DNS servers from the two places it’s stored on your network—your computer and your router.
First turn off your computer. Then unplug your router, count to five, and plug it back in. Wait for it to start flashing like normal, then turn on your computer. Of course, if other people share your home network, you want to give them fair warning before you restart the router.
Restarting your router will force it to ask for network settings using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which sends IP addresses, DNS server addresses, and some other network information. Restarting your computer tells it to get its own network settings from your router also using DHCP, and your router will pass along the address of the DNS server it just received—which will be your ISP’s current DNS server.

Home Network Problems #2: Intermittent Cable Signal Loss

There are may kinds of intermittent signal loss, but in this case we’ll describe the inability to connect to any site on the Internet due to apparent problems with your cable modem. If you don’t use a cable modem, this isn’t your problem.
Cable providers send Internet signals along wires originally designed for mediocre television, and even in the days before cable broadband, it wasn’t too unusual in many places to lose television signal occasionally. Now, the Internet was designed to work even over horrible connections, but unfortunately, your cable modem is probably more picky than any other networking hardware in your house. Cable modem-powered Internet requires a good, strong signal, and that’s what you’re missing when you have intermittent cable signal loss.
Of the home network problems described in this article, intermittent cable signal loss is most often easily traceable to its cause by recording when you lost signal. If you lose signal most often during days of extreme heat or humidity (especially during rain or fog), then the problem is probably your cable wires.
There are a few ways to boost your signal. Go through your house and see how many times your cable signal is split—how many times one wire connects to a box with two or more wires coming out of it. The cable that goes to your cable modem shouldn’t go through more than one splitter. You also need to make sure all the splitter connections are connected to wires or have ends on them, or you’re wasting precious cable signal on dead air.
Making sure your use every bit of signal that comes down your cable line can significantly improve the functioning of your cable modem. Not only will it reduce the number of intermittent signal failures, but it can improve your download and upload speeds.

Home Network Problems #3: High Latency

If you use your Internet connection for voice or video chatting or gaming, significant lags in the applications you use can ruin your fun. Sometimes these lags can be caused by something besides high latency, but there’s an easy test for high latency so it’s a good place to start diagnosing:
  1. Open the Windows terminal by opening the Start menu, choosing Run…, and entering cmd.
  2. At the command-line, type ping google.com. Windows will send four special Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets to Google’s nearest server and Google will kindly return four responses. Windows will then calculate how long it took for the packets to get to Google and back—this is your latency.
How long it takes for packets to get to Google and back to you depends a lot on how close you live to Google’s nearest server, but for anyone using broadband and living within 50 miles of an affluent city or a major population center, it should take between 20 and 30 milliseconds (ms). If all four packets take longer than 50ms, then you may have a problem—longer than 100ms and you definitely have a problem.
High-latency has two main causes: your network can be overloaded, in which case the answer is to shutdown all Internet-using applications on your computer and every other computer on your network and try running ping again. The other cause is bad wires or wireless signal. Try swapping wires between your computer and another computer without problems, or try moving your wireless laptop closer to the wireless router.

Home Network Problems #4: Can’t Connect To Router Admin

Many of the articles you read on this site tell you to change settings in your router administration interface, but if you don’t have the manual that came with your router, you may not know how to access the administration interface. Almost all routers use the same simple instructions:
Home Network Problems
  1. Open a Web browser and try each of the following links in a new tab (Ctrl-click) until you find one that displays a username and password prompt:
    • http://192.168.0.1/
    • http://192.168.1.1/
    • http://192.168.2.1/
    • http://10.0.0.1/
    • http://10.0.0.2/
  2. If you changed the password for your router before, enter it now. If you haven’t, these are the most common defaults (username/password):
    • admin/admin
    • root/root
    • admin/1234
    • admin/password
    • Administrator/admin
    • (leave empty)/admin

Home Network Problems #5: Forgot WPA Password

It can be embarrassing when you invite a friend over for a work or study session and they ask you for the password to your wireless network—and you don’t know what it is. Windows will let you see the password as you type it but, for security reasons, you can’t go back into the Wireless Connection Manager to get the password after you save it.
One option is to log into your router admin and go to the Wireless Security screen to figure out the current password—but what if you forgot the password and you don’t have your laptop? Is your only option to reset the router and set it up all over again? Luckily, there’s another solution.
Almost all routers include ethernet ports. These ports don’t include any security—if you’re close enough to plug in to them, you’re probably authorized to be on the network. So just find some ethernet (CAT–5) cable, plug in your friend’s laptop, and log into the router using the instructions above to find your password and eliminate your home network problems.

Large VM crashes during snapshot commit

Snapshots can be your friend but they can most certainly also make your life miserable. The other day we had a rather large VM (with 20 GB mem, 8 vCPUs and 28 TB storage divided on 22 .vmdk's) that crashed during a snapshot commit. The error stated: "Performing disk cleanup. Cannot power off." The snapshot had been taken while the VM was powered off and only a few changes had been made to the VM before the snapshot was committed.


After the crash, the VM would not power on. The error stated: "Reason: Cannot allocate memory" and in the error  description (see screendump below) there's an indication of disk a lock or disk error. Fortunately, the VM could be started from the service console (ESX 4.1 classic) with 'vmware-cmd'.

After boot, vCenter stated that there was no snapshots on the VM. However, 22 delta files on a single LUN was telling otherwise.

A normal procedure to do cleanup is to power off VM and clone it. However, with 28 TB storage in the VM, this was not an option.



Instead, the following did the trick: Log on to the service console, change directory to the folder where the .vmx file for the VM resides, take a new snapshot and then do a remove all snapshots (see this KB article for more info). This removes the new snapshot as well as the 'defect' snapshot.
To see if any snapshots exist (that will probably not be the case): 
vmware-cmd vmname.vmx hassnapshot

To take new snapshot (with no quiesce and no memory, see this KB article for details)

vmware-cmd vmname.vmx createsnapshot snapshot-name description 0 0


As you can see in screen dump below at first I tried to run the command without the two boolean arguments that relates to QuiesceFilesystem and IncludeMemory. 



To remove all snapshots:

 vmware-cmd vmname.vmx removesnapshots

In the screendump above the removesnapshots command returns an error code '1' which means that all is well and snapshots are gone.

Friday 25 May 2012

iPhone Error 3194 and Solution

If you have been using iOS 4 on iPhone and if you have downgraded iOS4 to 3.1.3 then you might have encountered this Error 3194. This error is associated with firmware.
iPhone Error 3194

This error occurs when you have an unsigned firmware. This is because, Apple now signs the firmware and if your firmware has no authenticity then you are bound to get this error. However, getting back on the signed firmware might not solve this error.
So, how do you fix this error?

Solution to Error 3194

In order to fix the Error 3194 and enable the users to downgrade iOS 4 to 3.1.3, you need to follow the steps discussed below.
It is important to note that this solution is applicable to all the operating systems and any version you are using.
Now quickly follow these steps:
  • First, you have to quit iTunes.
  • In  Mac OS X, search out for host file: /etc/hosts
  • If you are using Windows OS,then locate c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
  • Now using the administrator privileges open the host files.
  • Now, at the bottom of the host file, you have to add the following line:
  • 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com
  • Once you have done this, connect your iPhone to your computer or laptop.
  • Plus, now launch the iTunes.
  • Now put your iPhone in the Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) mode.
  • In order to put the phone in DFU mode, first turn off the phone.
  • Now hold the Home and Power button simultaneously for exactly 10 seconds.
  • The computer should give you a beep sound and the screen would turn black and blank.
  • Now you are in the DFU mode.
  • Now use the normal Restore option in iTunes.
  • After your upgrade is finished, you will have to remove “74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com” from your host files.
  • This will update the iTunes properly.
  • This is the IP address of signing server to associate with apple.com
This process is applicable to iPad and iPod as well.
So, now that you have learnt this process, you can be free from Error 3194.

Thursday 24 May 2012

To save any image while surfing the internet

Tap the image you want to save and hold it for a moment. A save picture option will be prompted and you can save that image very easily.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

To Enjoy Multi-Tasking in IPad

If you want to switch between any task without closing the running program, you should,
  • Double click on the ipad HOME button.
  • Touch the application you want to open from the list shown at the bottom of the home screen.
  • You may need to swipe the icons to find yours when many tasks are running.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

To take Ipad screenshot

Press [Home] + [Sleep/Wake] together. 
A photo is taken with a click by your ipad 
and 
automatically saved to your ipad photo gallery.

Monday 21 May 2012

To secure data to be leaked in IPad

If your ipad contains some confidential and valuable data, you can prevent it to get leaked. All you need to Settings → General →Passcode Lock → Erase Data. It erases all the valuable data when your passcode, set for the ipad, is wrongly typed 10 times.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Install app on Citrix server - change user

This is mostly a reminder to myself as I seem to forget the syntax.

When installing applications on a Citrix server in production, you need to change to install mode. After installation the mode has to be changed back to 'execute'.

From CMD prompt:

Install mode:

change user /install

Execute mode:

change user /execute


5 Threats To Your Home Wireless Connection

Keeping your wireless connection safe should be a top priority, especially if you use your wireless laptop or cell phone to login to secure financial accounts or business email. We all use the internet to access personal information, do banking, and chat in private to friends. Image if someone was watching you, browsing through your files, or recording your every move on your computer? Well don’t just sit there and think that it will not happen to you! If you have a wireless connection then you should make sure it is safe and secure by adding at least one simple security measure. Wireless network security is very important when it comes to protecting your privacy and precious data.

The Risks of a Weak Wireless Connection

Last year, the Washington Post report on a series of Facebook scams. Hackers would break into people’s Facebook accounts, claim to have been robbed in a foreign country, and ask their Facebook friends for someone to wire them money. Could this fool your family and friends into handing over hundreds or thousands of dollars?
One thing that makes this possible is that hackers can access your Facebook account, no matter how strong your password, if they can snoop on your wireless connection. They don’t need special equipment to do this—any basic wireless card lets hackers snoop on wireless connections using free software.
Wireless Connection Threats

There are three ways to protect yourself from wireless connection hackers:
  1. Don’t use a wireless connection. Always plug your computer into a blue Ethernet cord.
  2. Only use a wireless connection at least 1/2 mile (about 1 kilometer) away from any hackers.
  3. Secure your wireless connection from the five types of threats described in this article.

Wireless Connection Threat #1: Unencrypted Connections

Unencrypted connections are great—they’re easy to set up on your wireless router and all of your devices connect automatically. But because they’re unencrypted, hackers can eavesdrop on all of your wireless traffic. Well, almost all of your wireless traffic—anything that uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption like websites starting with HTTPS will be encrypted.
Unfortunately, although Facebook and GMail and other sites use SSL for login screens, they don’t use it for their regular connections. In these cases, hackers can still break into your accounts by reading the cookie your Web browser sends to Facebook and Google every time you connect.
If you own the wireless connection, your best solution is to enable encryption on your router. Choose WPA encryption if possible, but on older routers you’ll need to settle for WEP. See the next section for information on the risks of WEP.
If you don’t own the wireless connection, for example you’re at a library or coffee shop, then you need to protect your connection by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or by using one of the plugins for your browser which force Facebook, GMail, and other services to use SSL.

Wireless Connection Threat #2: WEP

The Wired Equivilance Privacy (WEP) system was part of the original specification for wireless Internet, but within a few years of being released, hackers figured out how to break it. In 2007, three cryptoanalysts broke into a WEP connection using a 1.7 GHz laptop in less than 1 minute. They published their technique and now any hacker can use it to eavesdrop on any WEP-protected connection.
WEP has been officially replaced by Wifi Protected Access (WPA), but many old routers only support WEP. If you have an option to use WPA, please use it. If you don’t have support for WEP on your router and you’re concerned about security, you should see if the manufacturer of your router offers a firmware upgrade. Otherwise you should buy a newer router.

Wireless Connection Threat #3: Weak Passwords

WPA lets you secure your wireless connection using a password, but this password can be hacked like any other weak password. Because this password helps keep all of your other passwords secure, you should put some extra thought into making it very secure. Besides, you’ll only have to type it once on each computer, so it won’t be much of a hassle to make it extra hard to guess.
I suggest you add a few numbers and some punctuation to your password to help keep hackers from guessing it. Also make sure it’s at least 8 characters long—and preferably 12 characters or more.

Wireless Connection Threat #4: Snooping Users

No matter how secure you make your wireless network using WPA and strong passwords, you still must trust every user you let onto your network. Once users have access to your network, they can snoop on every packet sent on your wireless connection.
For example, if you’re at a hotel which uses WPA and you log into Facebook, any hacker who’s in a nearby room can also use his WPA-protected connection to snoop on your packets. At an office, employees can snoop on the boss’s WPA connection to get access to confidential information.
High-end routers can give each user their own secure connection, or you can just buy separate cheap routers for each class of user—for example, one router for managers and one router for employees.

Wireless Connection Threat #5: Traffic Analysis

One of the most advanced hacker techniques which is probably not used much in the real world is called traffic analysis. It lets hackers snoop on certain communication even when it’s encrypted.
For example, researchers from John Hopkins University in Maryland, US, were able to decode encrypted voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone calls by looking at the size of the encrypted packets. The sound “c” produced small packets, but the sound “ow” produced a big packet, so a small packet followed immediately by a large packet might mean someone said, “cow”.
Other researchers and possibly hackers can use traffic analysis to figure out all sorts of interesting things about your communication. There’s no easy solution to traffic analysis—you have to hope the people who make your software read the security journals. However, you can try to avoid sending highly-sensitive information on the same wireless communication network hackers use. 

Saturday 19 May 2012

Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP

If you have a home network and are running Windows 7 and have XP on other PC(s) you might want to share files between them.  Today we will look at the steps to share files and hardware devices like a printer.
Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP
Sharing folders between two Windows 7 machines with the new HomeGroup feature is an easy process, but the HomeGroup feature is not compatible with Vista or XP.  For this tutorial we are using Windows 7 x64 RC1 and XP Professional SP3 connected through a basic Linksys home wireless router.
First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.
workgroup
On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing settings.
network and sharing
advanced
You will want to verify the following settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Home or Work and Public profile.
home or work settings
If you want any user to have access the public shares turn off password protection.  This is located in Advanced Sharing Settings toward the bottom of the list.
turn off pw
If you want to keep it enabled make sure there is a log in account for the other XP machines and they have a password.
create pw
Now if you go into Network in Windows 7 you should see your XP machine and the Windows 7 as well which in this case is Mysticgeek-PC.
Explorer
To share the printer on the Windows 7 machine go into Devices and Printers from the Start menu and double click on the printer icon.
devices
Next double click on “Customize your printer”.
1 Printer
In the Properties screen click on the Sharing Tab and check the box to share the printer and type in its share name.
2 printer share
If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.
3 Printer add drivers
To find the shared folders and devices double click on the Windows 7 machine icon under Network.  Here you can see the printer connected to my Windows 7 machine is shared and also the Users Folder.
shared device and users
Continue into the Users folder and Public to see the shared folders, here I also created a folder called XP Share just to keep everything in central location.
xpshare
Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 (mysticgeek-pc) shared folder.
My Network Places
Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in the Public folder on Windows 7.  If you have password protection enabled you will need to type in the username and password of the user account on the Windows 7 machine first.
folders
Setup XP With Shared Printer
To set up the shared printer in XP you will need to go into Printers and Faxes from the Start menu and kick off the Add Printer Wizard.
add Printer
Now select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” then hit Next.
network option
Next select “Connect to this printer…” and type in the path for the printer connected to the Windows 7 machine and click next.  
print
Now click Yes to the confirmation message.
confirm msg
Then click Finish the printer to install and complete the Wizard.
Complete
In some cases you will need to install the x86 XP drivers for the shared printer because the Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with XP.  When everything is installed open up Printers and Faxes to find the shared printer.
in explorer
This should help you get started with sharing your files and other devices with your Windows 7 machine.  When I first started I was able to see the printer on XP right away because I had a HomeGroup set up, but once I deleted it I needed to share the printer like you would for a workgroup.  You might also have to do a couple restarts of the XP machine for it to see the shared resources on Windows 7.  If you have had any experiences with sharing between Windows 7 and XP leave us a comment!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Windows 7 Tricks

Windows 7 is the most updated and an excellent operating system. But to work well with windows 7, you must know some tricks. I am discussing some of the windows 7 tricks here.

Windows 7 Trick 1:

In general, when you want to create the zipped version of any file or folder, you just right click on that file and use the send option from the drop down list. But in the case of Windows7, you do not able to get options in the ‘send to’ menu. Here you have to use this trick to get the option in ‘send to’ menu, which is hidden in Windows7. To get them, simply press the Shift key on your computer keyboard and hold it. Now, right click on that file or folder; go to ‘send to’ option, you can get those option.
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Windows 7 Trick 2:

If you want to open any command prompt from any folder, just press the Shift key on your keyboard and hold it. Then right click on any folders from anywhere in your commuter; then you get an option from the dropdown list “Open command window here”, select this option and you will get a command prompt with that folder as the default path.
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Windows 7 Trick 3:

In Windows7, if you want to cascade two or three opened windows in the task bar or tile them and view side by side, you should know this trick. To do this, at first you have to open the task manager. Then simply press the Ctrl key on your keyboard and hold it. Then select the open windows, you will get a pop up list; from that, just choose “cascade/show windows stacked” option from there.
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Windows 7 Trick 4:

There are some shortcut keyboard tricks for Windows7:-
  • Magnifier:- “Windows” + “+” or “Windows” + “-“
This shortcut key zooms in or zooms out your computer screen and activates ‘Windows Magnifier’.
  • “Windows”+ “SHIFT” + “1” through “Windows” + “SHIFT” + “9”
This is used to start new instances of the respective taskbar icons.
  • “Windows” + “B”
By this you can focus on the “show hidden icons” on the system tray.
  • “Windows” + “1” through “Windows” + “9”
This launches 1st through 9th icon on the taskbar.
  • “Windows” + “Ctrl” + “1” through “Windows” + “Ctrl” + “9”
This toggles through the multiple instances of the icons.
  • “Windows” + “SHIFT” + “right arrow” or “Windows” + “SHIFT” + “left arrow”
This can be used to move any selected icon, from one monitor to another.
  • “Windows” + “P”
This is used to select “presentation display mode”.
  • “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “D”
This switches to “docked mode”.
  • “Windows” + “T” or “Windows” + “SHIFT” + “T”
This will help you to move focus to front/back on the taskbar.
  • “Windows” + “Esc”
The magnifier view can be exit by this.
  • “Windows” + “Alt” + “1” through “Windows” + “Alt” + “9”
This is used to open jump list for respective icons.
  • “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “L”
This is used to switch to “lens mode”.
  • “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “F”
This can be used to switch from ‘Docked’/’lens’ mode back to ‘Full Screen’ mode.
  • “Windows” + “G”
This toggles through desktop gadgets.
  • “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “I”
You can invert colors by this.
  • “Windows” + “X”
This shortcut key is used to launch ‘Windows Mobility Center’ especially useful for laptop.

Windows 7 Trick 5:

If you want to add any folder to the start menu, you can follow this trick. To do this, simply right click on them and select the ‘pin to start menu’ option. Or you can also drag that folder to the location you want.
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Windows 7 Trick 6:

In Windows7, if you want to see the Alt-Tab prompt like XP, just press one Alt key on your keyboard and hold it, simultaneously press and release the other Alt key on your keyboard; then press the tab key. By using this trick you can able to see the XP Alt-Tab prompt in your Windows7.
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