17.15

Mozilla firefox hack :Add Simple POP3 Mail Client and Notifier to Firefox

If you like to have your entire computing experience within your Firefox window, you might be interested in accessing your POP email accounts directly in Firefox. The Simple Mail extension gives you this functionality, and true to the name it's very simple.

After installation, you should notice the little mail icon in the status bar, which will highlight and display an unread count if there are new messages, but first you'll want to right-click it and open the preferences to add your new account.

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Here you can add a new account or import from Thunderbird (a feature I did not test)

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Left-clicking on the mail icon will open the mail client interface, nothing more than a two-paned display of the messages sitting on your server. You can choose to delete the individual message through the right-click menu.

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The new or reply options bring up the new email dialog, which is also really simple.

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Thoughts

I would personally only use this as a pop mail notifier, as the client interface is just far too simple for any serious usage. There are much better options that you could use:

  • Forward your POP email directly to Gmail and access it from there.
  • Sign up for Google Apps for your Domain and use Gmail with your own email domain.
  • Use Gmail's Settings\Accounts tab to add in a POP email account that gmail will check for you.

You can use any of those options in conjunction with the excellent Gmail Manager extension for Firefox.

Read More..

17.13

Mozilla firefox Hack Keyboard Ninja: Use StumbleUpon With The Toolbar Hidden

If you haven't heard of StumbleUpon you are probably still a very productive person. If you want to make your time-wasting sessions slightly more efficient, you can use the keyboard to stumble instead of clicking the Stumble! button.

I've calculated that you could save an entire 32 seconds per year this way, which is at least one more stumble (well worth it). It will also allow you to stumble without having the toolbar visible, so you have more screen space to stumble with.

Just click on the Stumble toolbar's Tools menu and choose Toolbar Options.

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Select the Shortcuts tab and then check the box for "Enable stumbling shortcuts" to enable the hotkeys.

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You can change the shortcut keys if you wanted to, just click in the new shortcut key box and press your new key. When you've chosen it, click the Change button.

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Disclaimer: Two hours were wasted in the research for this article. We are not responsible for lost time as a result of stumbling too often. I also tested this in Firefox.

Read More..

17.10

Enable Hidden BootScreen in Windows Vista

The Windows Vista BootScreen is pointless, but Microsoft decided to hide a more visually appealing boot screen that can easily be enabled with very little trouble. I'm not sure why they didn't make the boot screen better.


Here's the default boot screen:

And here's the hidden one, called "Aurora"

All you have to do is type msconfig into the start menu search box, and hit enter.

Click the Boot tab, and then check the "No GUI boot" checkbox.

Hit OK and reboot the computer. You should see the new boot screen immediately.

Note: You may get a Windows Defender error on the next startup. You can enable the system config utility using the tray icon and this error will go away.

Read More..

16.56

Create a Custom Boot Logo for Windows Vista


If you are a desktop customization kinda guy, one of the first things you'll want to figure out is how to create a customized boot logo. There's a little utility that you can use to create the boot logo formats.

First you'll need to download the Vista Boot Logo Generator 1.1 utility, which we'll use to create the correct logo image type. Once it's installed, you need to make sure that you run the application as administrator:

We should choose an appropriate logo file. Since I'm a big fan of linux, and not as big a fan of Windows Vista, I chose an image of Tux making windows suck that I found over here.

Choose two versions of the image, one needs to be 800×600 at 24 bit color, and the other 1024×768 at the same color depth. Both files must be in Bitmap(BMP) format. Save the file somewhere like your desktop, because we can't yet copy directly to the correct directory, until we take ownership of the file.

To take ownership of the file, you'll have to open an administrator command prompt. (type cmd into the start menu search box, and hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter), and then run this command:

takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui

Now run this command, substituting geek for your username:

cacls C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui /G geek:F

Now copy the file that you created into the C:\windows\system32\en-US\ directory. Make sure you choose the overwrite option.

Now you'll need to use the msconfig utility. Just type msconfig into the start menu search box, and then click the Boot tab:

Check the "No GUI boot" option, and we're all ready to reboot and test it out. Sweet!

Read More..

16.54

War Craft III: DotA in Linux?? Why not?

It's amazing to find what you can do with Linux nowadays. Just several years ago, back when I was still in university, the WINE (Windows emulator in Linux) could only emulate Windows' mini games like Minesweeper. Now it could run many native Windows applications, including my favorite games, War Craft III!

Here's a step-by-step installation I did. I used OS Linux Ubuntu Desktop Edition v7.10 (Gutsy). Since this was my first experiment with Linux Ubuntu, please correct me if you know a more efficient way.
1. First install Linux Ubuntu by rebooting into Ubuntu Live CD. Just click "install" icon in the Ubuntu desktop.

2. Enable Ubuntu APT global repository:
# sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bck
# sudo sed -i -e "s/#deb/deb/g" /etc/apt/sources.list
# sudo apt-get update

3. Install NVIDIA drivers (I used nVidia Quadro NVS graphics card):
# sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-generic
# sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
Use 'nvidia' as the X graphic driver. Then restart X by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.
# glxinfo | grep -i opengl
Make sure you can find "NVIDIA" and "Quadro NVS" displayed correctly.

4. Install WINE through APT:
# wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
# sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list
# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install wine

5. Copy the entire War Craft III folder to any path in Linux.

6. And finally, run War Craft III through WINE:
$ wine "/home/kevin/mywine/wc3/Warcraft III 1.20/War3.exe" -opengl -window

This proves that you don't have to buy Windows to play War Craft III. Amazing huh! Open-source rulezz!! Bye-bye Micro$oft.. Read More..

16.52

Dota Guide

This time I'll just show you my note on DotA heroes. I always keep this note on my XDA and revised it whenever possible. For you who has just started playing DotA and not sure what items or magic to be picked, you can start with this note. Please send me comments if you have something that I missed.

I've found a way to shorten the skill (magic) writing. I wrote it with the most important one to be picked, then followed by the 2nd most important, and so on. For example you'll find for abaddon support I wrote: ultimate --> shield --> heal --> frost mourne. It means:
lev 1: shield (because you can only get ultimate on lev 6)
lev 2: heal
lev 3: shield
lev 4: heal
lev 5: shield
lev 6: ultimate (this is the time you can get the first ultimate)
lev 7: shield
lev 8: heal
lev 9: heal
lev 10: frost mourne (because shield and heal both have reached their max level)
lev 9: frost mourne
lev 10: frost mourne
lev 11: ultimate (note that now we can increase the level of our ultimate, which is the most important skill)
lev 12: frost mourne
lev 13-15: stats
lev 16: ultimate (another increase on ultimate)
lev 17-21: stats

Got it? No? Haha.. Let's try one more time. For example you see for abaddon killer I wrote: ultimate --> shield + stats 2 --> frost mourne --> stats. It means:
lev 1: shield
lev 2: stat
lev 3: shield
lev 4: stat
lev 5: shield
lev 6: ultimate
lev 7: shield
lev 8: frost mourne (because shield has reached its max level and we've taken 2 stats)
lev 9: frost mourne
lev 10: frost mourne
lev 11: ultimate
lev 12: frost mourne
lev 13-15: stats
lev 16: ultimate
lev 17-21: stats

Still don't get it? Let's try a hard one: naga siren. I wrote: ensnare --> crit 1 + mirror image 2 --> ultimate 1 --> mirror + crit --> ultimate. It means:
lev 1: ensnare (yes you got it)
lev 2: crit
lev 3: ensnare
lev 4: mirror image
lev 5: ensnare
lev 6: mirror image
lev 7: ensnare
lev 8: ultimate (we're taking ultimate after ensnare has reached max level, crit 1 level, and mirror image 2 levels. got it?)
lev 9: mirror image
lev 10: crit (plus sign means they have the same level of importantance, so take them alternatively one after the other)
lev 11: mirror image
lev 12: crit
lev 13: crit
lev 14: ultimate
lev 15: stat
lev 16: ultimate

I hope you understand what i'm trying to say here. One more thing, you'll see date and a name beside it. The date shows the date i wrote the guide, and the name shows who i get the ideas from. Read More..

16.50

How to hack Billing Explorer 2006/2007

Last week I was curious about Billing Explorer (http://www.billingexplorer.com/). Billing Explorer is a billing software used in many game centers / internet cafes in Indonesia. This software basically protects the screen and keyboard until a guest logs in and then it will start counting the usage for later charging.

My objective is to get the administrator password for this software. There are several articles about Billing Explorer that you may find on the internet, but none of that works for version 2006 above since they introduce "encrypted data communication" *yeah right*. So I'm doing my own research. Please read below article with your own responsibility.

Here's how I hack the software:
1. Login as guest on Billing Explorer. Hey do not use your real name haha..

2. Install Ethereal (http://www.ethereal.com/). This software can capture and display all network packets to and from your PC.

3. Start capturing network packets from Ethereal.

4. Logoff from Billing Explorer (yeah you will be charged for it, but it worth it *haha*)

5. Click "Admin". The Billing Explorer will ask for administrator password. This is the password we are looking for. Enter anything. It will fail, but not for long *haha*

6. Login again on Billing Explorer.

7. Stop capture packets from Ethereal.

8. Analyze the packets generated between our PC and server, you'll find some form of communication like this:

Client --> Server port 1500:
0000 00 14 2a b2 36 be 00 d0 59 c5 03 36 08 00 45 00 ..*.6...Y..6..E.
0010 00 33 00 b0 40 00 80 06 2c 8c 0a 60 5c 65 0a 60 .3..@...,..`\e.`
0020 5c 64 04 03 05 dc 85 4f 6b ab b1 9f f8 52 50 18 \d.....Ok....RP.
0030 fc 6f 7b b0 00 00 58 4a 36 24 77 77 77 34 24 31 .o{...XJ6$www4$1
0040 24 $

Server port 1500 --> Client:
0000 00 d0 59 c5 03 36 00 14 2a b2 36 be 08 00 45 00 ..Y..6..*.6...E.
0010 00 c8 8b de 40 00 80 06 a0 c8 0a 60 5c 64 0a 60 ....@......`\d.`
0020 5c 65 05 dc 04 03 b1 9f f8 52 85 4f 6b b6 50 18 \e.......R.Ok.P.
0030 fc a2 2a 2d 00 00 59 41 36 24 77 77 77 34 24 30 ..*-..YA6$www4$0
0040 38 38 31 30 34 31 30 34 31 30 34 31 30 34 31 30 8810410410410410
0050 34 24 49 6e 74 65 72 6e 65 74 20 4d 65 64 69 74 4$Internet Medit
0060 65 72 61 6e 69 61 24 41 70 61 72 74 65 6d 65 6e erania$Apartemen
0070 20 4d 65 64 69 74 65 72 61 6e 69 61 20 4a 61 6b Mediterania Jak
0080 61 72 74 61 24 45 6d 61 69 6c 20 69 6e 66 6f 5f arta$Email info_
0090 30 30 38 40 79 61 68 6f 6f 2e 63 6f 6d 20 2d 20 008@yahoo.com -
00a0 68 74 74 70 3a 2f 2f 77 77 77 2e 62 69 6c 6c 69 http://www.billi
00b0 6e 67 65 78 70 6c 6f 72 65 72 2e 63 6f 6d 24 30 ngexplorer.com$0
00c0 38 38 31 30 34 31 30 34 31 31 32 24 50 50 50 24 88104104112$PPP$
00d0 36 32 24 34 33 33 62$433

What's this all about? Well you see this is a form of TCP/IP communications between Billing Explorer client and server. Basically they are translated like this:

- Client --> Server port 1500:
"Tell me all information you can give about myself". It is represented with a string "XJ6$www4$1$".

- Server --> Client:
"Okay, okay. Your administrator password is "088104104104104104" (this is still in encrypted form). The internet cafe name is "Internet Mediterania". The address is at "Apartemen Mediterania Jakarta". E-mail is "info_008@yahoo.com". And the exit password is "088104104112". It is represented with a string "YA6$www4$088104104104104104$Internet Mediterania$Apartemen Mediterania Jakarta$Email info_008@yahoo.com - http://www.billingexplorer.com$088104104112$PPP$62$433"

Hmm this is interesting.. So how can we decrypt these numbers to reveal the real administrator password? After doing some research, here's what I found:
- Password 008 (the default password): 090106106114
- Password 007: 090106106113
- Password 0123456: 091107108109110111112113
- Password abc123: 088153154155105106107

Find the algorithm already? Yeah, the first 3 numbers represent "seed" (they are 090, 090, 091, 088 respectively in above examples). Then each character of the password can be found by substracting the next 3 numbers with the "seed". Let's try with examples:
- 090106106114: Seed "090". Password: 1st char: 106 - 090 = 16. 2nd char: 106 - 090 = 16. 3rd char: 114 - 090 = 24.
- 091107108109110111112113: Seed "091". Password: 1st char: 107 - 091 = 16. 2nd char: 108 - 091 = 17. 3rd char: 109 - 091 = 18. 4th char: 110 - 091 = 19. 5th char: 111 - 091 = 20. 6th char: 112 - 091 = 21. 7th char: 113 - 091 = 22.
- 088153154155105106107: Seed "088". Password: 1st char: 153 - 088 = 65. 2nd char: 154 - 088 = 66. 3rd char: 155 - 088 = 67. 4th char: 105 - 088 = 17. 5th char: 106 - 088 = 18. 6th char: 107 - 088 = 19.

Next to convert from these numbers to the real password is very easy. 16 means "0", 17 means "1", 18 means "2", etc. And 65 means "a", 66 means "b", 67 means "c", etc. Pretty simple huh?! So can you decrypt "088104104104104104" now? Yes, it's 00000.

Well I suggest to the creator of Billing Explorer to think a more secure way of communicating the administrator password from server to its clients. One good method is by using private and public key (ie: RSA), or another simpler one is to send the hash (ie: MD5) not the password itself.

By: Kevin Haritmonds Read More..

10.22

After investing a cool $84 million in devising a porn filter the Federal Government in the land down under are now reeling, thanks to a 16-year-old schoolboy. Tom Wood, (who could actually be a porn star with that name), managed to hack the security measure within 30 minutes of it going live, last Tuesday (21/08/07).

Not only did our hormone raging hacker get round the filter, he managed to preserve the status bar, indicating a functional security system. Not only is it possible for him to look at porn, he is able to deceive his parents into thinking he only ever uses the Internet to check New Scientist—the sneaky devil!

The Australian government, understandably embarrassed by the situation, attempted a remedy. A new filter called Intergrad was uploaded to central servers for domestic distribution. A whopping 40 minutes later, Tom rescued puberty-infested individuals across Australia once again.

Senator Coonan, a government official did the best she could to salvage the sorry situation with, "Unfortunately, no single measure can protect children from online harm and ... traditional parenting skills have never been more important." Basically what I interpret that to mean is; "Tom is really getting on our tits; if you don't want your kids looking at porn don't have them in the first place."

The flawed Internet filter is available as a free download here. As for Tom, he is no doubt quickly being escalated to national treasure status. Add him as a friend to your Facebook account, tell him he rocks and ladies, get him laid; if his cyber security cracking skills do not impress you, what ever will? Read More..

10.15

SPAM FILTERING SOFTWARE

To give SpamKiller its due, it appears to be an excellent product. There's a free 30 day download available at http://www.spamkiller.com . I downloaded it myself to see what, if any, cautions are given to users about the need to make sure that the recipient of the complaint is, in fact, responsible for the email concerned.

Well, there is such a caution but it took me a good 45 minutes to find it. The software comes with an excellent, comprehensive built-in help facility. Tucked away at the end of the page on "Sending manual complaints" is the caution:

"Note: SpamKiller does not check that the loaded addresses are appropriate for the selected message. Don't use a ... complaint unless you are certain that its recipients are responsible for the spam that you are complaining about."

I would respectfully suggest that this warning be displayed in a more prominent position, coupled with warnings about what can happen to those who use the software in an irresponsible manner so as to ensnare innocent parties. Read More..

10.09

How to Convert Your Movies Easily to DVD

How to Convert Your Movies Easily to DVD

Hi welcome to my simple but effective guide on how to convert your downloaded movies to DVD so they can be playing in any standard home DVD player for your viewing pleasure.

Ok so the program you will need to download and install is Convert X to DVD by VSO

Download
http://download2.vso-software.fr/vsoConvertXtoDVD2_setup.exe

addons
http://rapidshare.com/files/46769128/Key.txt Read More..

08.24

How to: Rip DVDs with VLC

VLC Media Player is one of the most versatile media players ever. What it lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in functionality. It can read and save all the major formats of video and audio, and much more than that, it can rip DVDs. This is a pretty simple process, if you know what you’re doing. Plus, it saves you having to buy expensive DVD ripping software!

Image

The first step is to open up VLC and click the open button (it’s the leftmost one). From the dialog box that appears select Disc and then DVD. Enter the letter of your DVD-ROM drive in the device name box, and 0 in the title box. Click OK to see if that’s what you want to rip. If it is, click the stream/save box and then settings. Otherwise, change the title to 1 and then keep increasing the number until you find the one you want. It might take a little bit, some DVDs have the main video as late as title 15.

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Once you’ve got the right video though, open the settings box and uncheck the “play locally” box if it’s checked (unless you want to watch it at the same time it’s ripping) and check the file, video, and audio boxes. Select where you’re going to save your movie (save it as a .mpg, like movie.mpg) by hitting browse and then navigating to the folder where you want to save it and typing moviename.mpg in the name box. Select mp1v for the video codec and mp3 for the audio, 1024k is usually a good size and produces a nice balance between size and quality.

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Click OK, and OK again. VLC should start transcoding the disc to your hard drive, where you can watch it. As a bit of a warning, when you want to watch the file with VLC, be absolutely sure that the stream/save box is unchecked in the open dialog box, or bad things might happen. Like your two hours of transcoding being erased (guilty!) You can watch the ripped files in any media player though.

VLC is by far not the best way to do this, it is the most portable. Just stick VLC on a USB key and literally do almost anything with it. I don't have room to carry the 20 common video apps I use on my key, and they are not optimized for limited write media. VLC works fine for that purpose.

Enjoy

Read More..

08.23

Make ur Internet n Bandwidth Rapid - Rapid Speeds 100% works

Here are Registry Tweaks and Scroll down to see Patches


1.Increase bandwidth by tweaking QoS in Windows XP Pro

The following tweak applies only to Windows XP Professional edition.

The default system behavior is that all 100% bandwidth is available, however, if there is a running application that indicates to the OS it needs to send high priority/real time data, then as long as it has the socket open, Windows XP will restrict “best effort” traffic to 80% of the bandwidth so that high priority traffic can be accommodated. Basically, applications can make this request to the operating system for QoS support using the QoS application programming interfaces (APIs) in Windows and this only applies if a specific app is requesting QoS.

If you'd like to change how much bandwidth is reserved for QoS (the default is 20% of the total bandwidth), do the following:

1. Make sure you're logged in as "Administrator" (not just any account with admin privileges).
2. Navigate to START>Run and type: gpedit.msc
3. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Network > QOS Packet Scheduler
4. In the right window, double-click the limit reservable bandwidth setting
5. On the setting tab, check the enabled setting.
6. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %", change it to read 0 (or whatever percentage you want to reserve for high priority QoS data)
7. Click OK, close gpedit.msc

Under START > My Computer > My Network Connections > View Network Connections, right-click on your connection and under Properties (where it lists your protocols), make sure QOS Packet Scheduler is enabled.



The tweak desribed below helps boost priority for DNS & hostname resolution in general. What this means is, it helps web pages load faster, and has negligible effect on downloads (not counting the couple of ms gain with the host resolution at connect-time).

Applying this tweak assumes some proficiency in editing the Windows Registry using Regedit (Start > Run > type: regedit). As always, backup your Registry before making any changes so you can revert to the previous state if you don't like the results.


2.Host Resolution Priority Tweak
host name resolution priority

Windows 2k/XP

First, open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider



Note the following lines (all hex dwords):
Class = 008 (8) - indicates that TCP/IP is a name service provider, don't change.

LocalPriority = 1f3 (499) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 1f4 (500) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 7d0 (2000) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 7d1 (2001) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

What we're aiming to do is increase the priority of the last 4 settings, while keeping their order. The valid range is from -32768 to +32767 and lower numbers mean higher priority compared to other services. What we're aiming at is lower numbers without going to extremes, something like what's shown below should work well:

Change the "Priority" lines to:
LocalPriority = 005 (5) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 006 (6) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 007 (7) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 008 (8) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

Windows 9x/ME

The tweak is essentialy the same as in Windows 2000/XP, just the location in the Registry is slightly different. For a more detailed description see the Windows 2000/XP section above.

Open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider

You should see the following settings:
Class=hex:08,00,00,00

LocalPriority=hex:f3,01,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:f4,01,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:d0,07,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:d1,07,00,00

The "priority" lines should be changed to:
LocalPriority=hex:05,00,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:06,00,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:07,00,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:08,00,00,00

Reboot for changes to take effect.


In addition to the tweaks already covered in Win 2k/XP Registry Tweaks and More Win 2k/XP Tweaks, the Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduces a few new issues covered in the article below. Please make sure you understand what you are doing before making any changes to your Operating System. Note the information below only applies to Windows XP Service Pack 2.



3.Remove the limit on TCP connection attempts

Windws XP SP2 introduces a few new twists to TCP/IP in order to babysit users and "reduce the threat" of worms spreading fast without control. In one such attempt, the devs seem to have limited the number of possible TCP connection attempts per second to 10 (from unlimited in SP1). This argumentative feature can possibly affect server and P2P programs that need to open many outbound connections at the same time.

Rant: The forward thinking of Microsoft developers here is that you can only infect 10 new systems per second via TCP/IP ?!?... If you also consider that each of those infected computers will infect 10 others at the same rate:
second 1: 1+10 computers
second 2: 10+10*10 computers (110 new ones)
second 3: 10+100*10 computers ( 1110 new ones)
second 4: 10+1000*10 computers (11110 new ones)
....
all the way to 10*60 + 10^60 computers in a single minute (that's a number with 60 digits, or it would far exceed Earth's population). Even if we consider that 90% of those computers are unreachable/protected, one would still reach ALL of them within a minute.

In other words, even though it is not going to stop worm spreading, it's going to delay it a few seconds, limit possible network congestion a bit, and limit the use of your PC to 10 connection attempts per second in the process ! I have no problem with the new default setting limiting outbound connection attempts. Still, users should have the option to easily disable or change this setting. I might be going out on a limb here, but ever since the introduction of Windows XP I can't help thinking that I dislike all the bult-in Windows "wisardry" in a sense that the system also limits user access. That irritating trend to ease the mental load on end users is somewhat insulting, considering that Windows is to make the more "intelligent" choice instead of the end user, as well as limit their access to tuning such settings...
End of rant.

With the new implementation, if a P2P or some other network program attempts to connect to 100 sites at once, it would only be able to connect to 10 per second, so it would take it 10 seconds to reach all 100. In addition, even though the setting was registry editable in XP SP1, it is now only possible to edit by changing it directly in the system file tcpip.sys. To make matters worse, that file is in use, so you also need to be in Safe mode in order to edit it.

You only need to worry about the number of connection attempts per second if you have noticed a slowdown in network programs requiring a number of connections opened at once. You can check if you're hitting this limit from the Event Viewer, under System - look for TCP/IP Warnings saying: "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts". Keep in mind this is a cap only on incomplete outbound connect attempts per second, not total connections. Still, running servers and P2P programs can definitely be affected by this new limitation. Use the fix as you see fit.

To change or remove the limit, you can use the following program:

Event ID 4226 Patcher v2.11

Code:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/xp_sp2/EvID4226Patch211a-en.zip


- A patching program for removing or changing the limit imposed on connection attempts in SP2. The patcher has the ability to restore tcpip.sys back to the original... Still, you might want to back up tcpip.sys, use it at your own risk. The author of this patch can be reached @ http://www.lvllord.de/

4. Recommended settings for Windows 2000 / XP
Windows 2000 & XP, unlike NT supports large windows as described in RFC1323 ( the 'RcvWindow' has a maximum value of 2**30 rather than 64K), and includes some other improvements over its predecessors you can use to speed up any TCP/IP transfers. , the descriptions and other options are added to provide you with better understanding and enable you to customize your settings.

All the following entries, unless otherwise noted should be placed in the Windows 2000/XP Registry under the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

TCPWindowSize

The value of TCP Window in the Windows 2000 Registry is DWORD, representing number of bytes, with range from 0 to 2^30. The recommended values (in red) optimize TCP for any high speed Internet connection and work best in most cases, however if you'd like to use a custom value follow these guidelines:

For best results, the TCPWindow should be a multiple of MSS (Maximum Segment Size). MSS is generally MTU - 40, where MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is the largest packet size that can be transmitted. MTU is usually 1500 (1492 for PPPoE connections). To determine the MTU value of your ISP, check out the Advanced Registry Editing section of our site.

There are three places in the Windows 2000 Registry where you can add the TCP Window parameter.

HKLM/SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal. Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that's a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0)

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD, number of bytes) Valid range is from MSS to 2^30. Add the value as a decimal. TcpWindowSize can also exist under TcpipParametersInterface - if added at this location, it overrides the global setting for this particular . Note (10/20/00): Seems MS has found another bug in Windows 2000, the TCPWindowSize should be configured with the global setting (GlobalMaxTcpWindowsSize) rather than this one - Q263088

Note: For best results RWIN has to be a multiple of MSS lower than 65535 times a scale factor that's a power of 2, i.e. 44 x 1460 = 64240 x 2^2 = 256960. If you choose to use a RWIN lower than 65535, you can simply make it multiple of MSS and turn scaling off (Tcp1323Opts=0)

Tcp1323Opts

Tcp1323Opts is a necessary setting in order to enable Large TCPWindow support as described in RFC 1323. Without this parameter, the TCPWindow is limited to 64K.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Tcp1323Opts="1" (DWORD, recommended setting is 1. The possible settings are 0 - Disable RFC 1323 options, 1 - Window scaling but no Timestamp options, 3 - Window scaling and Time stamp options.)

Note: Tcp1323Opts="3" might help in some cases where there is increased packet loss, however generally you'll achieve better throughput with Tcp1323Opts="1", since Timestamps add 12 bytes to the header of each packet.

DefaultTTL

DefaultTTL determines the time in seconds and the number of hops a packet lives. While it does not directly affect speed, a larger value increases the amount of time it takes for a packet to be considered lost, discarded and retransmitted. A value that's too small can cause packets to be unable to reach distant servers at all.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
DefaultTTL="64" (DWORD, recommended setting is 64. Other settings that are widely used are 128 and 32)

EnablePMTUDiscovery

When set to 1 (True), TCP attempts to discover MTU automatically over the path to a remote host. Setting this parameter to 0 causes MTU to default to 576 which reduces overall performance over high speed connections. Note that this setting is different than our Windows 9x recommendation.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUDiscovery="1" (DWORD - boolean, valid settings are 0-->False and 1-->True. Many connections perform better with this entry at 1, however, if you prefer to set your upstream to send fixed 1500 packets, you might want to use 0 instead). When set at 1, establishing connections and initial transfer speed might slow down a bit, however you will get better throughput if somewhere in the path large packets need to be fragmented.

EnablePMTUBHDetect

Setting this parameter to 1 (True) enables "black hole" routers to be detected, however it also increases the maximum number of retransmissions for a given segment. In most cases you'd want to keep BHDetect to 0 (False).

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
EnablePMTUBHDetect="0" (DWORD - boolean, valid settings are 0-->False and 1-->True. Recommended setting is 0)

SackOpts

This parameter controls whether or not SACK (Selective Acknowledgement) support is enabled, as specified in RFC 2018. SACK is especially important for connections using large TCP Window sizes.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
SackOpts="1" (DWORD - boolean, recommended setting is 1. Possible settings are 0 - No Sack options or 1 - Sack Option enabled).

TcpMaxDupAcks

This parameter determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered to resend the segment that has been dropped in transit.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
TcpMaxDupAcks="2" (DWORD - range 1-3, recommended setting is 2).



Patches


This Includes

1. sguide_tweak_2k.zip
Description: Generic patch for Windows XP and Windows 2000 (all versions). This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.

Code:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sguide_tweak_2k.zip


2.sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip

Description: Generic patch for Windows XP/2000 and DSL connections using PPPoE. This patch will optimize your TCP/IP Registry settings for high speed Internet connections. It is specifically designed for PPPoE DSL connections. To install, extract the .inf file first, then double-click (or right-click on filename and choose install from the pull-down menu) and reboot for changes to take effect.

Code:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sguide_tweak_2k_pppoe.zip



3. winxp_dnscache.zip

Description: Patch Windows 2k/XP not to cache failed DNS entries. By default, when a DNS lookup fails (due to temporary DNS problems), Windows still caches the unsuccessful DNS query, and in turn fails to connect to a host regardless of the fact that the DNS server might be able to handle your lookup seconds later. This patch fixes the problem by configuring the DNS client to continue sending queries to an unresponsive network. To install, save to your HD, unzip the .reg file, then double-click the filename.

Web Patches - faster loading of Web Pages

The following patch increases Web page loading speed, by doubling the number of possible concurrent open connections. For example, imagine a web page has 20 images and some text - in order for your browser to get all these files, it opens 2 or 4 concurrent connections, depending on the Web server. Increasing the number of open connections allows for faster retrieving of the data. Please note that the patch sets some values outside of the HTML specs. If you decide to install it, backup your Registry first. Changes will take effect after you reboot. Download the patch appropriate for your OS:

OS: Windows 9x/ME

Code:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sg_webtweak_9x.zip


OS: Windows 2K/XP/2k3

Code:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/sg_webtweak_2k.zip


TCP OPTIMISER

Please reupload this image to another image host:
http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/31/tcpoptimizer12es.png


Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. Just download and run, there is no installaion required. The program makes it easy to find the best MTU and RWIN values, test latency and tweak all the important broadband related registry parameters. The Optimizer can be helpful with tuning any Internet connection type, from dialup to Gigabit+

Code:
URL http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe
Read More..

08.17

How to clone a hard drive for Backup or use in another XBOX (v0.1)

How to clone a hard drive for Backup or use in another XBOX (v0.1)

Tutorial written by : Jeepman

This tutorial assumes:

- basic hardware skills & knowledge (IDE Master vs. Slave, Jumpers, etc)
- basic DOS skills, BIOS navigation, etc.
- that your XBOX either has a mod chip installed that supports Hard drive swap or have the BIOS flashed with a cracked BIOS that support HDD swap.

Recommendations:

• Make sure the hard drive you are cloning is fully functional and has on it all the games or apps backed up that you want on the new HDD.
• Make sure the EvolutionX Dashboard or a Dashboard or your choice is installed on the hard drive you are going to clone. (http://www.xboxscene.com/articles/evox-install.php)
• Hard drives should be the same size. (I have not tried with different sizes but since you are doing bit for bit cloning, I would expect problems if the drives are different sizes)

Instructions:

1) Make a Norton Ghost 2002 boot disk. (There are other programs that will do bit for bit copying but Norton was the easiest for me here). If you use something else and it don’t work, I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’).

2) Set the Jumper(s) on the original hard drive so that the HDD is master and install it into your PC.

3) Set Jumper(s) on the hard drive to be cloned so that the HDD is slave and install it on the same IDE channel in the PC.
note: You can do the Original as Master on IDE1, and the Clone as Master on IDE2, but be CAREFUL NOT to kill your original HDD by overwriting the clone to it. Doing as outlined here makes it more ‘obvious’ as to what should be copied where… however, proceed at your own peril.

4) Make sure your computer CMOS is set to boot to the floppy first and boot the computer off the Ghost 2002 boot disk.

5) Once the program loads, go to the menu and quit or exit to DOS.

6) Re-execute Ghost from DOS but this time add the switch “/ir”. At the DOS prompt type: “ghostpe /ir”. This will allow Ghost to simply copy bit for bit on the clone rather than try to read the image on the original HDD as a valid FAT32 or NTFS.

7) When Ghost has loaded this time, open the menu and go to “Disk” and then “to Disk”.

8) Select the original hard drive as the source. (If you jumpered the original as the master it will be the top drive to select in the menu and will have a “Raw Image”)

9) Select the new hard drive as the destination and give her nuts.

10) This process will take about 45 minutes to clone an 80 gig hard drive depending on your computer speed.

11) When the clone is finished, the new hard drive should work identical to the original in any modded xbox that supports HDD swap.

12) Take the hard drives out of the PC and rejumper them to what they were before you installed them into the computer, most likely CS (cable select) or MAS (master).

13) Install them back into the XBOX or put the back up hard drive in a safe place and you are done.

14) This will work in place of installing a hard drive and portioning it via ftp if you are swapping hard drives on an xbox. You will just need to find someone with a hard drive you can clone.

MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHICH HARD DRIVE IS WHICH WHEN YOU GO TO CLONE THEM. BE CAREFUL BECAUSE YOU CAN DESTROY THE ORIGINAL HARD DRIVE IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL.

If you do torch it, then again, I ‘told you so’. Don’t bug me or msg me… and if your question is something like ‘how do I get into the BIOS?’ then just take your HDD and throw it out the window… ‘cuz when you are done with this tutorial, that is all it will be good for. =)

Tutorial written by : Jeepman

Read More..

08.02

List virus From Email

  • $800 from Microsoft
  • 3b Trojan
  • AIDS
  • Antichrist
  • AOL4Free Virus
  • AOL and Intel
  • AOL.EXE
  • AOL Flashing IM
  • AOL RIOT 2 Virus
  • AOL Year 2000 Update
  • Awareness Virus
  • Baby New Year Virus
  • Bad Times
  • Be My Valentine
  • Be Spooked
  • BestBuy Order Fraud Alert
  • Bicho7
  • Big Brother
  • Blue Mountain Virus
  • Blueballs Are Underrated Virus
  • BUDDYLST.ZIP
  • BUDSAVER.EXE
  • Budweiser
  • BUGGLST
  • California IBM
  • California Virus
  • CELLSAVER Virus
  • CLEANMGR.EXE Warning
  • Coke.exe
  • D@Fit
  • Dana
  • Dear Friends
  • Death69
  • Deeyenda
  • Desi1love
  • Despite Virus
  • Discount Virus
  • DR.SIMON.WAJNTRAUBWS
  • E-Flu
  • eBook
  • Economic Slow Down
  • Elecciones 2000
  • EVIL THE CAT Virus
  • Family Pictures
  • FatCat Virus
  • February 1
  • Flashmaster G
  • Flower for You
  • Foot N Mouth Virus Warning
  • Forward
  • FREE M & M's
  • Free Money
  • Free Pizza Virus
  • FROGAPULT, ELFBOWL, Y2KGAME virus
  • Gamma2.exe
  • GAP Email Tracking
  • Get More Money
  • Ghost
  • Gift from Microsoft
  • Girl Thing
  • Go Hip
  • Goldbear Virus
  • Good Times
  • Got You
  • Guts to Say Jesus
  • Hacky Birthday Virus
  • Halloween Virus
  • Happy New Year Virus
  • Hello Dear
  • Hairy Palms Virus
  • Help Poor Dog
  • Hitler
  • How to Give a Cat a Colonic
  • INFILTER
  • Information on SARC 'Virus Test'
  • Iraq War
  • Irina
  • Irish Virus
  • Jan1st20.exe Virus
  • Jdbgmgr.exe file
  • John Kennedy Jr Trojan
  • Join the Crew
  • Launch Nuclear Strike Now
  • Let's Watch TV
  • Life is Beautiful
  • Londhouse Virus
  • Lotus Notes Worm
  • Lump of Coal Virus
  • Macdonald's Screensaver
  • Matrix Virus
  • Microsoft Virus
  • Millennium Time Bomb
  • MobilVirus
  • MOBILE PHONE
  • MSN Messenger add a Contact
  • MusicPanel
  • NASTYFRIEND99
  • The New Ice Age
  • NEWYORK BIG DIRT
  • Norman Virus
  • Norton anti - virus v5
  • Osama vs Bush
  • Outback Steakhouse
  • Pandemic
  • Penpal Greetings
  • Perrin.exe Virus
  • Phantom Menace Virus
  • Pikachus Ball
  • Playboy Girls
  • Pluperfect
  • Postal Service Email Charge
  • Red Alert
  • Sandman
  • Sarc Virus Test
  • Scoutshacker
  • Simon Pugh
  • Slavemaster
  • South Park News Letter
  • SULFNBK.EXE Warning
  • Symantec ASDL Virus
  • Teletubbies
  • Time Bomb
  • Tuxissa
  • Upgrade Internet 2
  • Very Cool
  • Virtual Card for You Virus
  • Virtual Card Virus
  • Virus Business
  • W2 Sync Virus
  • W32-PrPlCrcl-G
  • W32.MFG.Tassos@mm
  • W32.XPExp.Worm
  • Wait 48 Hours
  • Watching
  • WAZ UP
  • Win a Holiday
  • Windows will Fail on Jan 1
  • Wobbler Virus
  • Wooden Horse
  • WordScribe Virus
  • Work Virus
  • World Domination
  • WTC Survivor
  • Y2K7 Virus
  • Yellow Teletubbies
  • Zlatko
  • ZZ331 Virus

Read More..

02.22

GOOGLE SECRET

Great Site Ranking in Google The Secret's Out
Google recently filed a US patent which reveals a great deal of how they rank your web site. Some of it you could never have guessed at...

How many years did you register your domain name for?
If it was only one then Google could hold that against you.

Why?

Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. A domain name registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.

This is just one of the unusual factors possibly considered by Google when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could never even have guessed at in some cases.

How do I know this?

Google recently made public, March 31 2005, the contents of their filing of United States Patent Application 20050071741.

In which many of the search giant’s secret ranking criteria is revealed and it makes very interesting reading. You must read this if you are serious about ranking well in Google. The days of Spamming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent they reveal just how hard they're coming down on Spam sites. You Do Not want to get caught out.

Listed below you will find the hard facts, I recommend that you bookmark this page now. You will need to reference it each time you optimize a new site.

• Links.

It's common knowledge that Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site. Now they explain exactly how it works.

As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link. Google seems to also consider historical factors. Apparently the Google 'sandbox' or aging delay begins count down the minute links to a new site are discovered.

Google records the discovery of a link, link changes over time, the speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.

With this in mind, fast link acquisition may be a strong indicator of potential search engine Spam.

Gone are the days of pages and pages full of links. You must grow your links slowly to stay below the radar and be careful who you exchange links with. That means no more buying hundreds of links at once or other underhand tactics.

PR is now very valuable.

Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange you gain. That's 'anchor Spam'. Instead vary them around your top five to ten keywords.

Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and utilize them ethically. If you don't and you get caught, the recovery from a ban can be months and your host and IP may also be recorded.

Softly seems to be the message. The fact is fewer but better quality links will benefit you more and they will be much more likely to be over the long-term which is good too.

• Site click through rates (CTR)

CTR may now be monitored through cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites via the Google toolbar or desktop tools. Many have suspected for some time that sites are rewarded for good CTR with a raise in ranking. Similar to how Adwords works.

CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result.

CTR is also analyzed for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons.

• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.

• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.

• Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site may rank higher in the winter than in the summer. Google can monitor and rank pages by recording CTR changes by season.

• Bookmarks and favorites could be monitored for changes, deletions or additions.

• User behavior in general could be monitored.

As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Ideally you will want to integrate a call to action in there to increase your listings CTR.

Clicks away from your site back to the search results are also monitored. Make your site as sticky as possible to keep visitors there longer. As mentioned above it may also help if you could get your visitors to bookmark you.

• The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages.

Mass updates of hundreds of files will see you pop up on the radar.

On the other hand, few or small updates to your site could see your rankings slide --unless your CTR is good. A stale page that receives good traffic may hold it's own and not require an update. So don't update for the sake of it.

Depending on your market, fresh content may not be a requirement. If the information your pages contain do not go out of date then updating may not be necessary. If your market is more news based for example, then changes regularly are a must. In general changes don't necessarily have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits to current content.

A further indicator that Google is really cracking down on Spam is made clear in the following extract from the Patent. Reference is made to changing the focus of multiple pages at once.

Here's the quote -
"A significant change over time in the set of topics associated with a document may indicate that the document has changed owners and previous document indicators, such as score, anchor text, etc., are no longer reliable.

Similarly, a spike in the number of topics could indicate Spam. For example, if a particular document is associated with a set of one or more topics over what may be considered a ’stable’ period of time and then a (sudden) spike occurs in the number of topics associated with the document, this may be an indication that the document has been taken over as a ‘doorway’ document.

Another indication may include the sudden disappearance of the original topics associated with the document. If one or more of these situations are detected, then [Google] may reduce the relative score of such documents and/or the links, anchor text, or other data associated the document."

There's still more to look out for:-

• Changes in keyword density is monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.

• The domain name owner’s address is considered, most likely to help in a local search result.

• The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency. These are often falsified for Spam domains.

• Your hosts IP address. If you are on a shared server it's possible somebody else on that server is using dirty tactics or Spamming. If so, your site will suffer since you share the same IP.

The impression I get here is that Google has learned from the Spam 'attack' they suffered in early 2004 and they are determined to eradicate it from their listing results.

So what do you do?

There's a lot to take onboard here and consider. But you can't go far wrong with your SEO if you try to grow your site as organically as possible.

If you know what you are doing you can take short cuts. Carry on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully and slow down in your gathering of them. Vary your anchor text. Add small amounts of good quality content to your site regularly. Check your search engine listings and edit your site to include a call to action in them if possible. Make your site more 'sticky' to encourage visitors to stay a while. Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site. Oh, and register new domain names for at least two years.

Before you do anything remember to reference the above info first. It may just save you months of misery as your site gets banned and 'Sand boxed'.

Overall keep it ethical and you can't go far wrong.

Do not be tempted to Spam. Stick to the guidelines above and you are much more likely to outlast and out rank your competition.
By Darren Yates
Published: 6/11/2005 Read More..