MouseBlog

Someone broke into my room and took away my laptop that I was so fond of. After losing lot of work, passwords and of course, money, here are few lessons that I got:

1. Get your laptop insured.

2. Keep your Windows account/ or any account protected with a strong password.

3. Don’t save your passwords on the computer. No “Remember me” please.

Until I get a new computer, no more frequent updates on my blogs. I cant work on my blog during hours which my company pays for.

What do you do when you Google for something, say Wallpapers? Click the links that appear on the top by making some guesses about the safety of the site. But since google doesn’t really filter the good and bad on the web[at least not extensively] you may end up at some malicious site that may infect yourPC with some virus or spyware. What if you could find out which sites were safe and which were not?

In my last post, I mentioned about open source, free antispyware Winpooch that integrates with ClamWin antivirus to provide real-time protection to your PC.

McAfee Site Advisor

All those lucky guys who use Mozilla Firefox web browser, you can make your PC more secure by getting real-time advice regarding the safety of the site and also the links that appear on webpages by installing McAfee Site Advisor plug-in for Firefox. (more…)

[Windows only] The web is a vast repository — both of good things and the malicious. As soon as you connect to the internet [or even without connecting] your computer is always vulnerable to attack from viruses that may damage your system or remain dormant without causing any apparent damage to the PC. There are also the dangers of spywares lurking on the web which are quick to capitalize on your slightest neglect or carelessness. a spyware infected computer does not only cause irritation but may also lead your to embarrassing situations. Imagine someone need to use your PC for sending a mail. You don’t want them to see the unwanted toolbar that was downloaded to your browser when you visited some malicious site.

Winpooch is a  free and open source anti spyware and anti trojan for Windows. It gives full protection against local or external spyware attacks by scanning the activity of programs in real time.

(more…)

Are you among those who want to use illustration softwares like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw but can’t afford these expensive softwares? Creative Docs .NET is the answer for you.

Creative Docs .NET is an vector-based graphic design tool which can be used for creating posters, brochures, illustration, flow charts and the like. The application is free for non-commercial use. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Server and the latest Vista.

(more…)

However absurd it may sound, it’s a fact that deleting the password from your Windows XP user account will only make it more secure and save your from any unauthorised access to your computer from the internet or local network.

Most of the time we do not want to set a difficult password to our Windows account. And these passwords can be easily cracked by hackers. If the computer is connected to the internet or a local LAN network, it becomes easy target of hackers.

So, you may desire to secure your computer by adding a password to your computer and would also like to make it some what difficult to guess. [I actually did set a password that was too easy to crack to keep hackers at bay. Now I know I only made my computer more vulnerable to attacks/hacking.]

Windows XP disables the facility to access the computer from network for any user account which is not password protected. This simple trick can work the best for those who have just one computer , or whose computers are not networked and does not require access from other computers. But if the computer is not in a safe physical environment, it becomes easy prey to those who want to steal something from your computer. All they will have to do is turn on the computer and get easy access to your account.

So there you will have to secure your account with a strong password.

[Digital Inspiration, Image: LifeHacker]

With the Web 2.0 phenomenon gaining momentum, there is a large number of services offering online file storage and sharing, like Xdrive, FreeDrive. [Learn about more file sharing sites, including media sharing sites, here.]

But you may still not be satisfied with these sites because they do not give you the complete freedom. You may have to cross several hurdles to access these ervices. But what if you can use an online-file sharing site that synchronizes with your Windows or Machintosh, allowing you to save and share your files and folders online as if you were saving it locally on your PC.

You can save and share you files very easily by just dragging-and-dropping your files and folders in a Dropbox, one of the most simple online file sharing and synchronizing service.

Dropbox is an intelligent combination of Box.net, dot.mac and Microsoft’s FolderShare* syncing service. It makes online storage and sharing of files as simple as dragging files into specially marked local folders.

(more…)

[Windows Only]

Do you keep changing your Windows desktop resolution (screen size)? And are you among those who arrange their desktop icons to suit their needs and preferences? [I like the Recycle Bin to stay in the bottom-right of the desktop. Makes things lot easier as I can delete temporary files/folders that re on my desktop after work easily by dragging-and-dropping.]

Whenever you change the screen resolution one undesired thing that happens is that the desktop icons get re-arranged in a way that many people would not like. So, you end up spending good time arranging icon to your desired locations.

Here are two small freewares for Windows that will save you from the hassles when you change screen resolution or want to have different setting for icons –Icon Restore and DesktopOK.

(more…)

This is a nice cartoon that I found at Brainstuck.com, a cartoon blog.

How true is this cartoon. Most anti-virus applications eat up so much of resources, including memory and internet bandwidth. And even then you can get infected with some virus or spyware that can outsmart the dumb anti-virus.

In response to this post, Anshul [the person behind Brainstuck] wants us to see the smart virus in action.

Thanks Anshul.

Do you know what Ubuntu is? If you know that it is one of the most popular Linux distribution, you might be tempted to give it a try. But then you may not be willing to change your existing operating system for giving it a try. Wished if there was any spare PC to install Ubuntu and check what this OS has to offer, which is so widely talked about on the internet?

If you are among those who are afraid to install Ubuntu on their PC, here’s a way how you can taste Ubuntu on your own PC without having to create a dual-boot or harming the existing Windows, which is infamous for crashing every now and then.

Wubi: The way to Ubuntu

An open source application Wubi allows you to install and taste the Ubuntu flavour on your Windows system. Wubi is an Ubuntu installer for Windows that takes you inside the Linux world with a single click. It allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other application.

(more…)

When I was new to computers and the internet, I used to wonder how websites were available. And once I knew that sites are hosted by web servers, I wanted to have one of my own to host my own site. I thought it would be difficult to have a web server but now i know it’s not that difficult. It’s really easy to have a small web server on your own PC.

What do you need to convert your Windows PC into a web server ?

• Web server application like Apache and Windows Server
• Database server [optional]
• Mail server [optional]
• FTP server [optional]
• Broadband internet

Get a web server application

The web server that’s very popular is Apache. But handling it on your own can be a bit tricky. Instead, we would like to use pre-configured packages which will gives us Apache, My SQL (database server) , a mail server and a FTP server.

NetServer: It is the most easy-to-use server package that I have come across. It’s controls are very indicative and can be easily tweaked to create your own aliases [domain names]. It also has My SQL database server, FileZilla FTP server and a mail server. The only minus point– you won’t get the latest applications as the package has not been improved since years. But this will not be a problem for us.

It does not require installation. Just unzip the package and run the server by clicking the NetServer icon. This works with Windows NT/2000/XP. It should work with Vista as well. [Freeware]

XAMPP: It a more popular server package. But I found it difficult to configure and handle. It is also free and does not require installation. It is available forWindows, Linux and Solaris.

WAMP: It is also a Windows freeware but requires installation.

Now you need to configure the server. I will tell here just about NetServer which I feel is the easiest to handle for enthusiasts like us.

(more…)