Tips & Tricks – tech-junky.com

Get The Most Out Of Your Wireless Network

Kenneth — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:15:20 +0000

Technology is like anything else, it needs repair or attention every now and again to keep it working properly. Your Wireless internet network is no different. Even if you have a really decent Internet provider, you still might want to boost your signal or increase the rage of your router. There are several things that you can do to get the most from your wireless network:

Reposition Your Router

Sometimes it doesn’t take anything more than repositioning your wireless router or modem router to a better access point. This basically means that, as is often the case, routers are placed in a location in a house that gets a bad signal. Repositioning your router to a more central location might do the trick. Obviously, if you’re using a cable, you don’t need to worry about this. With wireless routers, they can be in an area where the signal is partially blocked by a wall or is receiving electronic interference. If you’re having a lot of trouble getting a stronger signal, try repositioning the device before you call your Internet provider. It might be that simple.

Electronic Interference

This works similarly to repositioning your router. Ideally, you want to keep your router away from areas that have a lot of metal nearby. Also, if you have many other electronic systems stacked up in a small area or room, you might get a lot of droppage in your connection. These other electronic systems can often be obstructions and create pretty severe interference and make your connection seem weaker than it really is.

Router Antenna

Sometimes people simply have a bad antenna on their wireless router. Most antennas on a router are omnidirectional, which means that the signal is broadcasting in all directions. When placed inside a home or office, you’re losing much of your signal. You can go to an electronics store and get a better antenna that will increase the signal that’s being emitted outside your home. This can be easily done because router antennas are removable.

So, before you decide to switch providers because you keep getting drop in your connection, look at some of the simplest reasons why you might be getting poor service. It could save you a lot of time and hassle talking to tech support. It could also keep you from having to look for another internet provider or spending a lot of money of a new plan that you don’t really need.

What Makes a Password Easy to Hack?

Kenneth — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:15:35 +0000

A password being a secret access code to your email account or any other account for that matter is to be created in a way that is never cracked or guessed by anybody else. This is the only way to keep all the confidential data secure from all the cyber miscreants. Password hacking or password cracking can be defined as the recovery of the passwords that are stored on a computer or by any other illegitimate means. The password hacking is usually done retrieve the passwords in case they are forgotten. But a password hacker makes use of various methods to gain unauthorized access to email accounts or into secure systems. In order to keep your email account or your system safe, it is important that you create a password that is difficult to crack. Here are a few factors that make your password easy to hack.

Using your name as password makes it more susceptible to hacking as anyone may easily make a guess. Using your spouse’s name or the children’s or the pet’s name is also equally prone to hacking.
Maintaining the same password for different accounts is also a common mistake that is made by many. When any one of your account is hacked, it is natural that the other accounts have a possibility of getting intruded too.
Using the word ‘password’ as password is also a common mistake and there are also some who use the username as the password. This makes the password and your account or system easy to hack.
Consecutive numbers as passwords are no doubt easy to remember, but they are quite vulnerable. Using your telephone number as a password is also a bad idea.

Choosing the right password

Choosing a password that easy to remember and yet difficult to crack is not a tough job. All you need to do is just remember a few points while creating a password.

The length of the password is an important aspect to keep in mind. The longer the password, the safer it is. Make sure you password consists of more than seven characters.
Make a combination of numbers and alphabets in the password. Inclusion of special characters also adds extra strength to your password. For example, ri68h43. Passwords like these are difficult for a password hacker or even hacker software to guess and crack.
Using a funny phrase that is not so popular is also a good idea. This makes it easy for you to remember your password too.
After choosing the password, do not reveal it to anybody or write it down anywhere. This is the way you can safeguard your password from hackers.

Virus Zone!

Kenneth — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 11:15:32 +0000

The world of internet has experienced certain threats over the years in form of piracy and disturbances which can fault your computer system and its working. Virus is one of such disturbing factors. Viruses are nothing but computer programs coded with intent of copying its image and infect a system. Virus has shown the negative aspect of programming as these are also built to steal information from a system.

Viruses came in different categories and they are distinguished on the basis of their activity. This is done because all the viruses don’t have the same behavior and it helps the antivirus to differentiate among the viruses and take action accordingly. Viruses should be termed computer malwares. Any software which gets infected and also increases the chance of threat or some of them infects the system software by itself. So here are the different types of virus.

1. Computer worms – as the name suggest the infecting program works as a worm by replicating itself throughout the system and when it reaches on the Win32 folder it corrupts the dynamic link library files which help all the software even the operating system runs. Its works as a worm that is this kind of viruses are termed as worms.

2. Trojan – it is a stealthier. When it came into existence it was termed as the worst time IT especially the software area of this field. One of the most popular viruses. Renowned for it infecting features as it remains hidden in the registries and in temporary files where anti viruses fails to verify. It has different sub divisions and it mostly enters the system through the internet.

3. Root kits, spywares, adware – this are another version of the new generation of viruses. Root kit can only be detected and destroyed by an anti root kit program. Spywares are program which enters into a host system and transfer sensitive information to the sender. Dishonest adware can be malicious and may have some viruses in their package files.

As multimedia cell phone are nothing but a smaller version of a computer system and the latest advancement in this technology has also seen the emergence of malwares build for cell phones. Malwares can include viruses, spywares, corrupted adware, and any malicious files etc. To stop all intrusion there are many anti spyware for cell phones that will surely remove the viruses. Here the list of anti spyware for cell phones:

1. Spyaxe

2. SpySheriff

3. PSGuard

4. WorlsAntiSpy

5. Spy Trooper

6. Razespyware

7. Spyware bomber

Introduction of backdoor Trojan removal has further enhanced the threat of viruses as they once downloaded, can take over the registry and full control of your computer right from the boot function. Fortunately there seems to a solution for such an occasion by means of Trojan removal tool which detects and kills the process of the viruses in operation.

Hackingalert.com is a site which includes various hacking tips and techniques and so on. Any clarifications about hacking kindly visit this site.

High CPU Problems And How To Handle Them

Kenneth — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:15:22 +0000

Sometimes, while working on your computer you may experience system slowdown problems. With some research, you may come to the conclusion that the problem is originating from high CPU usage. Many PC users have reported CPU usage nearing one hundred percent at times. This could be alarming for a common user and the initial reaction could be shutting down some of the running applications to see if the problem goes away. Often, the problem is not because of actual system overload due to running applications, but due to some other computer problem that is behind this issue.

There are numerous reasons why your system could be reporting such alarmingly high usage. This article will help you understand high CPU problems and offer an easy solution to resolve this problem.

Exe processes consuming large amounts of CPU resources

Some exe processes, such as csrss.exe, ekrn.exe, and wdfmgr.exe are known to consume 99% or 100% of CPU resources on a computer. This generally happens when the files of a program are outdated or corrupt. You can correct this problem by updating the program that is consuming the huge amounts of system resources. To fix wdfmgr.exe error and other exe process, you can update Microsoft products using the Windows update or Automatic Update features. You can update third-party products, such as ESET NOD32 Antivirus suite, by enabling the software’s automatic update feature or by manually downloading the updates from its Website.

An attack by virus or other malware

You may also experience high CPU usage problems if your program files are infected with malware or if malware processes are running on your system. This is why it is important for you to protect your computer from malware programs, using robust antivirus and antispyware tools. You should schedule regular system scans to remove any malicious programs present on your computer. Also, remember to update your security tool with the latest virus definitions and updates in order to protect your machine from the latest malware.

Damaged or outdated device drivers

Outdated drivers or damaged driver files may also result in high CPU usage. You may update drivers from the driver manufacturer’s website. Alternately, you may use a reliable driver scanner tool for this purpose. A driver scanner tool automatically updates the drivers when new updates are released by the vendor.

A corrupt or large Windows registry

A large, corrupt and fragmented registry may also lead to high CPU usage. The registry of a new computer is compact and contains only basic information that is required to keep it functional. With continuous usage, a lot of unwanted and redundant information creeps into the registry. To make matters worse, malware programs also deliberately inject malicious entries into the system registry. All of this junk causes the registry to bloat. Also, the information stored in the registry gets fragmented. As a result, it takes more time to obtain and process information that is stored in the registry. To maintain a clean and compact registry, it is important that you use a good registry cleaning tool to scan and remove the malicious and unnecessary information stored in it. An efficient registry cleaning tool also defrags the registry, and helps speed up the data processing time.

Love Your Computer? Keep It Healthy! Here’s How:

Kenneth — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:15:26 +0000

As computers become more pervasive in our daily lives, they become extremely important to us and we begin to depend on them for our everyday activities. This is the reason why, problems with our computer system can leave us feeling helpless and frustrated.

For those of you who love your computer, listed here are a few simple tips on how to keep it healthy and free of errors.

Tip 1: Scan and clean malware infections: If your computer was working fine and you suddenly notice the appearance of unwanted ads, computer error messages, or if your computer deteriorates in performance, then it is quite likely to be infected with some kind of malware program, such as a virus, Trojan, spyware or adware. To remove these malicious programs, you need to perform a thorough scan of your computer and detect all unwanted data planted by these programs on your PC. To do these tasks, you may seek the help of antimalware tools, such as antispyware and antivirus tools. You must keep these tools updated with the latest definitions and schedule them to run on a regular basis to keep your PC free from malware. If your computer was recently infected with a malware, it is recommended that you run the scan by starting your system in Safe Mode.

Tip 2: Clean and defrag your hard disk: Your operating system, program, files, emails, and all other information is stored on the computer hard disk. This makes the hard disk quite vulnerable to attract a large amount of unwanted data. Most of the time, this data comprises no-longer-used programs, temporary program and internet files, old program setup files, and so on. All this data unnecessarily fills up the hard disk and also causes data fragmentation. To clear this mess, the first step you need to take, is to use the Add or Remove Programs feature, or a good Program Uninstaller tool to uninstall all programs that you do not use. Next, use the Disk Cleanup utility to clear temporary files, empty Recycle Bin, and compress old files. You may also use the tool to remove old Windows XP or Vista system restore points.

Tip 3: Scan, clean and defrag your registry: The registry plays an important role in running your Windows computer because it is a database of all hardware, software, and user configuration information. This information is stored in the form of keys, subkeys, and their entries. When you perform various operations on your computer, entries are added, removed or modified within the registry. Ideally, the information that is no longer required, should be removed from the registry. However, it does not always happen like that. Quite often, empty, orphan, redundant, and outdated entries stay behind in the registry causing it to unnecessarily bloat up to a very large size and not only slow down your PC, but also generate several computer errors. If this happens, to perform Windows XP or Vista registry fix, you may need to thoroughly, scan, clean and defrag the registry. Although you will be able to perform some of these tasks using the Windows Registry Editor tool, it is best to use a good and simple-to-use third-party registry cleaner tool.

Add live web pages to your PowerPoint presentations

Kenneth — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:15:07 +0000

Lets suppose that you are giving a presentation on “Using Google Effectively” and at some time you need to demonstrate certain Google tricks through the web browser.

To do so, you minimize your slideshow, launch the browser, open google.com and wait for the page to load and then show the tricks. Once you are over with it, you again resume your PPT slideshow.

Well that’s a bit crappy, so why don’t we directly embed the web page into the slideshow?

Check out LiveWeb-it’s a free add-in for PowerPoint that lets you insert live webpages to your slides. LiveWeb is like embedding a normal web browser into your presentations as it allows you to interact with web pages as if they are opened in a web browser.

LiveWeb uses a wizard based approach to add websites into presentations. You can add URL’s and assign their relative positions on the slide.

Besides websites, you can even embed dynamic web graphics into your slideshows.

LiveWeb is a freeware and is available for all versions of PowerPoint (97-2007). Installation is simple and steps regarding the same are provided at their site. [via Digital Inspiration]

Monitor your CPU temperatures in Ubuntu

Kenneth — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:05:21 +0000

One of the main things that concern power users are whether their PC components are running at appropriate temperatures or not. Since high temperatures can result in hardware failures or vice-versa, you need to keep a check. If you are running a Linux distro like Ubuntu , you can add CPU temperature displays to your Gnome desktop panel.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have the ‘universe’ repository enabled. To enable it, go to System > Administration > Software Sources and check the option for ‘universe’.

2. Install the lm-sensors and sensors-applet packages. You can either install them from the Synaptics Package Manager or through the terminal:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors sensors-applet

3. Once you are over with the installation process, add the sensors applet to your desktop panel. To add it, right click on the panel and select ‘Add to Panel’. From the list, choose Hardware Sensors Monitor and click on ‘Add’.

If you do not see any temperatures being displayed, then it may be possible that lm-sensors does not support the sensors present in your machine. You can verify it by running the ‘sensors ‘ command in the terminal. It will tell you about the supported sensors available.

If you wish, you can download the source package from their site.

Change the yellow folder icons in Windows plus drive icons too

Kenneth — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:15:17 +0000

It sometimes feels boring seeing those yellow folder icons in WIndows again and again. You can change those icons to your own favorite icons through a pretty easy way. Open notepad and copy the following lines into it:

[.ShellClassInfo]

ICONFILE=Drive:PathIcon.ico

Replace the ICONFILE path to your own icon’s path and save this text file as ‘desktop.ini‘ in the folder whose icon you want to replace. Now since this file will be displayed each time you open that folder, there is a chance that it can be deleted by mistake. To prevent this, change it’s attributes to ‘Hidden and Read Only’ by using the ATTRIB command through CMD or by properties menu.

You can also give your drives new icons. To change a drive’s icon, add the following lines to notepad:

[Autorun]

ICON=Drive:PathIcon_name.extension

Save this file as ‘autorun.inf‘ in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change.

For Example, if you want to change the icon of your D: drive with an icon located at ‘D:icon_name.ico’, then save the ‘autorun.inf’ file in root i.e. D: with the icon path being the location of your icon.

This trick of changing a folder’s icon is pretty simple and fast as you don’t have to right click each folder and then change it’s icon from the properties menu. You can mass copy the ‘desktop.ini’ file you created above to as many folders as you want and change their icons.

Change the look of your Gmail account

Kenneth — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:15:14 +0000

Gmail is surely one of the best e-mail services. Personally I love Gmail for it’s simplicity and features. The Gmail interface is pretty neat and clean. Despite this, you might get bored looking at the same interface day after day.

Well you can change the look of your account, thanks to Google Redesigned. Basically, Google Redesigned is a Firefox extension developed by Globex Designs. It skins your Gmail account and gives it a complete makeover just like the one shown above.

To change your Gmail account’s look, follow these steps:

Note: Google Redesigned is built for Mozilla based browsers (Firefox, Flock, IceWeasel, and such). The extension will not work with any other browser.

1. Download and install the Google Redesigned extension.

2. After the installation finishes, restart your browser.

3. Thats it! Everything has been set up. Just open Gmail and you’ll see the difference.

This extension also changes the interface of another Google service ie. Google Calendar.

After the install, you will also notice a small Google Redesigned icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. To check for new updates to styles manually you can click on the icon and press the “Check for Style Updates” button. From the menu you can also enable and disable the individual styles which are available.

This extension gives Gmail a pretty cool look. There is no harm in trying it as it’ll just be visible on the browser which has this extension installed. Hope you like it!

Download videos from YouTube in Ubuntu

Kenneth — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:05:08 +0000

Watching videos on YouTube is great fun. Loads of videos are uploaded everyday including music videos, movie trailers, T.V. shows etc. But what about saving your favorite videos on your hard drive? It’s easy if you use Windows as you can extract the videos from your web browser’s temporary internet files folder. But doing this work on a Linux distro like Ubuntu can be difficult for some people, especially for people who are new to Linux. It may seem uneasy but it’s not that hard.

You can make use of the commands in Ubuntu to save your videos. ‘youtube-dl‘ is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube. Firstly, you will need to install ‘youtube-dl’ in Ubuntu.

To do so, give the following command at the terminal:

sudo aptitude install youtube-dl

Using youtube-dl is easy. Use youtube-dl followed by a YouTube video URL to download the video.

For example: youtube-dl “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz”

Here the video be saved to the file xyz.flv. Since YouTube videos are encoded in Flash Video format, their extension is .flv.

You can change the file name of a video using the -o option.

For example: youtube-dl -o myvideo.flv “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz”

In this case the video will be saved as myvideo.flv.

You may have noticed that some videos require you to login before playing them. It’s so because these videos have been flagged as containing mature content. To download such videos, you can pass the program the username and password for your YouTube account with the -u and -p parameters.

For example: youtube-dl -u yourusername -p yourpassword “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz”

Here you username is ‘yourusername’ and password is ‘yourpassword’.

Now you can download your favourite videos and save them on your hard drive on Ubuntu too. Keep them and play them whenever you want.