I am always on the look out for a good and easy to use remote access software because I very frequently provide computer help remotely to users in other part of the world while I am sitting at home or office. Sometimes seeing the problem with my own eyes is much more easier than explaining it over the phone or via forum.

Here is another easy to use free remote access software called ShowMyPC which works with firewall and without port forwarding. Pretty similar as Crossloop and TeamViewer. Let’s see if ShowMyPC is good enough to beat my favorite remote access software TeamViewer…



ShowMyPC combines VNC remote access technology with an open-source SSH forwarding client to provide you with the option to allow other users to view and control your desktop. The remote user needs to download the standalone ShowMyPC application and can access your computer with just a password (no IP address needed). The temporary session password is automatically generated when you start the viewing session and must be provided to the remote user by email, phone or other means. If you have access to your own SSH server, you can use it instead of the one provided.

ShowMyPC Features:

Free

Desktop and single Application Sharing

Screen Recording

Built using standard SSH and VNC software

Use Private SSH server

Schedule Meetings

I will again use the same scenario as I’ve used before in TeamViewer and Crossloop article. Let’s say Joe wants to connect to Sharon’s computer to help her troubleshoot some computer problems.

1. Both Joe and Sharon must download the latest ShowMyPC.

2. Joe and Sharon will have to run the downloaded ShowMyPC. It will automatically extract the files in temporary folder and run the program. No installation is required.

3. Since Sharon is the one getting help, she will click the “Show My PC Now” button. A 12 digit random access code will appear and she’ll give it to Joe.

4. Joe clicks the View a Remote PC button and enters the 12 digit random access code.

5. Joe is now connected to Sharon’s computer and able to view and control her computer.

ShowMyPC application and the service, both utilize VNC for desktop sharing over SSH for secured communication. ShowMyPC software uses its pool of servers in the middle located across the globe to interconnect users. ShowMyPC doesn’t have to worry about the file transfer because this feature is already built-in to TightVNC.

TightVNC also has another great feature which is Java Viewer. Now the person who is providing computer support can be on Windows, Mac OS or Linux because it runs on web browser through Java. Currently only Mac OS can support both Viewer and Desktop Sharing and I am sure it will support all platforms in future.

The only advantage that ShowMyPC has over TeamViewer and Crossloop is the scheduled meetings. This feature enables multiple remote access connections rather than only one. ShowMyPC also tends to be slow because it uses SSH connections.

My favorite is still TeamViewer but no harm having another alternative in case TeamViewer doesn’t work for some clients.

[ Download ShowMyPC ]

I am sure most people have a Hotmail email account. For me, Hotmail was my first email account and my cousin helped me registered it 16 years ago. Back then the 2 most popular free email service provider was Hotmail and Yahoo. Google’s Gmail is still unheard of because they only started in year 2004. Back then most people were using ICQ messenger and for some unknown reason everyone started to switch to Windows Live Messenger (back then it was called MSN Messenger). As long as you have a Hotmail, MSN or Live account, you can instantly sign in to Windows Live Messenger.

However if you’ve noticed, some people uses their Gmail account or even their own personal domain name (such as [email protected]) to sign in to Windows Live Messenger. I never had the interest to know how to do that because I have my personal Hotmail account which I use to sign in to Windows Live Messenger. Recently one of my old friend that is not very good in computer wanted to use Windows Live Messenger to talk to his kids in overseas. He already have a Gmail account and he didn’t want to register an extra Hotmail account just for that as he claimed that old people find it harder to remember login names and passwords.

If you try logging in to Windows Live Messenger with your Gmail username and password, it won’t work and you will only get the error “We can’t sign you in to Windows Live Messenger. The Windows Live ID or password you entered is incorrect. Error code: 80048821″. The trick is, you will still need to do a one time sign up for a Windows Live ID with your Gmail address.

1. Go to http://www.passport.net

2. Scroll down a bit and click on the Get started now link for Use an e-mail address you already have.

3. Enter your Gmail for email address, your password, secret question and answer and finally the verification code, then click the Continue button.

4. Review and sign the agreements by typing your email address in the box and click I Accept.

5. Login to your Gmail and you should receive an email from Windows Live Team asking you to confirm your email address for Windows Live ID. Click on the confirmation link to complete the process.

You can now sign in to Windows Live Messenger using your Gmail or non hotmail/msn/live email address. If you want people to add you to their Windows Live Messenger contact list, just give them your Gmail email address instead.

Let’s say I have a really cool and hard to get email address username such as [email protected] or [email protected]. I would be so proud but then I dare not simply use it to sign up on any forms or let everyone know to prevent spam or even someone hacking it. When a Hotmail or Gmail email account is hacked, it is nearly impossible to get it back after the hacker changed the secret question and answer or the alternative email address. If you send an email to Hotmail support, they will only reply you with a ready written email template that ask you to try recovering your account through the secret question and answer or just sign up a new email account.

To solve this problem, a lot of people including me have more than 1 email account. I have a Hotmail which only my close friends and family knows about it, a Gmail for everyone else to contact me and finally, my domain email address for my customers.

Another solution which I recently discovered is we can have only 1 email address with multiple email addresses. How cool is that?


akapost is a simple and easy way to protect your email identity from being exposed on the Internet. With akapost, you can send and receive emails from any of your existing email accounts but still keep your actual email addresses private. akapost works with any email client or device such as computer, cell phone, or handheld, etc. No software download or installation is required. Simply sign up and register your email address, it’s ready to go. Protecting email identity has never been so easy – and yet it’s FREE!

The below example scenario would help you understand akapost’s concept better:

1. Brian would like to send an e-mail from his company e-mail account to Lisa. But he doesn’t want Lisa to know his actual e-mail address.

2. Brian signs up with akapost, creates an akapost e-mail address “[email protected]”, and associates it with his actual e-mail address “[email protected]”.

3. Next Brian appends the extension “.akapost.com” to Lisa’s e-mail address and sends a message to this customized e-mail address “[email protected].akapost.com“. The message is then redirected to akapost.

4. akapost substitutes Brian’s e-mail address with Brian’s akapost e-mail address, strips all personal information in message headers ties to Brian’s actual e-mail account, and delivers the message to Lisa.

5. When Lisa receives Brian’s message, she doesn’t know Brian’s actual e-mail address because the original sender address has been replaced with Brian’s akapost e-mail address. To Lisa the message seems to be sent directly from Brian’s akapost e-mail address. When Lisa replies this message, the replied message is sent to Brian’s akapost e-mail address “[email protected]”.

6. akapost receives Lisa’s replied message and forwards it to Brian’s actual e-mail address “Brian.Jones@companycom”.

akapost currently offers three types of services: akapost Basic, akapost Plus and akapost Premium. akapost Basic is completely free, which allows you to create one akapost email address and protect one your actual email adddress. akapost Plus cost $22.95 per year and you can create up to 5 akapost email addresses and protect up to 10 registered email addresses. As for akapost Premium, it cost $9.95/month. You can create up to 25 akapost email addresses and protect up to 50 registered email addresses. You can also create customized email addresses (for example, [email protected]) with an additional fee.

[ Sign Up for a FREE akapost Account ]

Every feature in Windows works perfectly after installation but unfortunately after installing and uninstalling a dozen of third party software and drivers, Windows will start to act weird and behave abnormally. This is mostly caused by third party software or malware leaving traces behind and not reverting back to the changes that it was before. Not every Windows user knows how to analyze the problem in order to logically figure out a solution, so the best option is to look for possible solutions that are posted on the Internet.

If you’ve tried every single suggested solution out there but they don’t seem to fix the Windows problem that you’re experiencing, then you may want to consider using the Windows Repair (All In One) tool created by Shane from Tweaking.com. There is a case where one of our forum user named MindDoctor was having problem with Internet Explorer not detecting Silverlight even though Silverlight is already installed. He tried every possible solution that he could find in Google but all failed to fix the problem. Then he found Windows Repair tool, decided to give it and the problem is fixed!


Windows Repair is an all-in-one repair tool to help fix a large majority of known Windows problems including registry errors and file permissions as well as issues with Internet Explorer, Windows Update, Windows Firewall and more. Malware and installed programs can modify your default settings and you can easily restore them back to the original settings with Windows Repair.

When you launch the program, it introduces four optional steps which you may want to perform before starting the repair as it may help fix the problem.

The first step is to make sure your computer is clean from virus infection which can be causing the problem. There are 4 recommended tools which you can use to check if your system is clean from infection. The second step checks the file system for errors using check disk. The third step is check the system files for corruption or mismatched versions using the Windows built-in SFC command. As for the final fourth step, you are advised to create a system restore point before running starting the repair.

Finally we’ve reached the last tab which contains 3 repair modes, Basic, Advanced and Custom. Unless your computer is so badly corrupted, I would suggest you to use the Custom mode and only select the necessary repair option. For example, if Internet Explorer is working fine, then you should uncheck Repair Internet Explorer from the repair options.

When you start the repair with Windows Repair tool, you will see a lot of black command prompt windows opening and closing by itself which is normal. Wait till everything is complete and then restart your computer for the fix to take effect.

Although the Windows Repair tool doesn’t fix every problems in Windows, but it is still a very useful tool to both computer users and technicians that automatically helps to fix problems in Windows. This program is constantly being updated so make sure that you have the latest version before using it to repair Windows. Windows Repair tool is free and compatible with Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 & 7 (32 & 64 Bit). I personally prefer the portable version over the installer so that I can run it from my USB flash drive 😉

Download Windows Repair (All In One)

That’s right folks! This technology blog site is officially 3 years old today. The date that I installed WordPress was on 3rd of October but the actual date when I started writing my first article was on the 11th of October. Time passes so fast nowadays and with a blink of an eye, it’s been 3 years already. The main reason why I created this site at that time was to record down what I discovered and learned about computers and I have no problems in sharing it to everyone. From a site with merely less than ten visitors a day turned into 60,000. I’d say that’s quite an achievement as I did not spend a single cent on advertisement and marketing.

I believe the main reason how this blog site has got so popular with many visitors per day is probably because of YOU telling other people about my site. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and as an appreciation, I am giving out 10 Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 genuine license that is valid for 1 year and another extra 50 Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 genuine license that is valid for 2 years! That’s a total of 60 KIS 2009 license to be given away! If you’re wondering where did the license came from, they are purchased with my own money and NOT sponsored by anyone.


Since there are two types of KIS 2009 license (1 year and 2 years), I thought of a fair way to give out the license. Users or subscribers that has personally emailed me before to thank me for what I’ve done and also active forum members that has spent hundreds of hours in helping other people with their computer problems will have priority for the 2 years KIS 2009 license first.

As for the other 10 unit KIS 2009 license that is valid for a year, I will randomly give out to my newsletter subscribers. Let’s say if there are any remainders for the 2 years KIS 2009 license, it will be added to the 10 units of 1 year KIS license to be given away. I hope this is fair enough…

To be eligible for the Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license lucky draw, you will need to:
1. Be a subscriber
2. Write a comment at the end of this article to let me know that you would like to take part in the Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 lucky draw. (Please don’t email!)

The deadline for this draw is a week later on the 18th of October and winner will be announced on the same day at this page. So go ahead and press Ctrl+D to bookmark this page and check back on the 18th of October to see if you’ve won the Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license. Imagine this, if you manage to get the 1 year KIS license from Barclay’s promotion few months ago plus winning this 2 years Kaspersky Internet Security license, you’d have a total of 3 years subscription and that should last you until Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 or even KIS 2011.

Thanks for all your support, good luck to everyone on the giveaway, and happy birthday to Raymond.CC!

I bet many people were very excited last week because Windows 7 was officially launched plus Kaspersky and PandaSecurity joined in by giving away free license. PandaSecurity was very generous in giving 1 year Panda Internet Security 2010 to everyone including those are not from the United States although it stated that this offer is only for people from US but for as Kaspersky, it is strictly for attendees and hosts of Windows 7 launch parties. To redeem the free 1 year Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 license, all they need is a valid host email address and it’s easy guessing or even googling the host’s email address from their username.

Since this promotion is very limited (15 license codes are available for each launch party and 1 code per attendee), I did post any tricks on the blog or forum on how to get the codes nor support the actions of people who got the codes illegally. I personally felt that it’s not right. Anyway, Kaspersky stepped up by deactivating fraudulently obtained codes and the attendees will have to get the free KIS 2010 license from the host.

Actually I wanted to post a method which Björn Söderberg shared with me 3 days ago where everyone is able to request for a 6 months KIS 2010 key. I was out of town and has scheduled to post it today but unfortunately it has already started circulating yesterday night and causing the offer to close. I believe some of you probably stay up because of what I said yesterday, so now I will instead give out 100 KIS 2010 product key valid for 6 months to the first 100 people who write a comment with the condition of ONLY ONE REQUEST PER PERSON.


Although the method below no longer works, but I will still share it with you in case if it ever re-opens again. It is working now!

1. Visit http://www.pctidningen.se/kaspersky

2. Enter your email address at the “E-postadress:” box.

3. Type in the correct CAPTCHA code. Some of the characters are Swedish characters. You can use this online swedish keyboard to create the letters, then copy and paste it to the box.

4. Click the Skicka button. The KIS 2010 serial number will appear and will also be sent to your email address. Yes, it’s THAT SIMPLE!

This offer was way too easy without any restriction at all. You can use any email address whether it’s valid or not as long as it is an email format. It doesn’t check your IP address nor drop a browser cookie to recognize that you’ve requested for a free KIS 2010 key. True enough, this offer only lasted 1-2 hours.

Note: The offer page says that the license is for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, it can also be used on the latest Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. Thanks anyway to Björn Söderberg and Hogge for sharing this tip with me! As for the FILEminimizer Pictures, I’ve already closed the comments and will start to randomly select the 200 winners.

*****************************************************************
UPDATE: The promotion has reopen! You will need to type in the correct CAPTCHA code but there are some Swedish characters. You can use this online swedish keyboard to type the letters, then copy and paste it to the CAPTCHA box. Good luck!
*****************************************************************

One of my reader informed me about Kaspersky Key Finder and told me that this tool is able to search for Kaspersky Key. His guess was it could somehow connect to Kaspersky’s server and download genuine keys. I didn’t really believe that Kaspersky Key Finder is capable of doing that because people would actually be selling this tool for a lot of money instead of putting it RapidShare mirrors for anyone to use.

I’ve managed to download a latest copy of Kaspersky Key Finder V1.5.0. It claims to find keys for Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) Version 6, 7, and 8, and keys for Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) Version 6, 7, and 8. Requires .NET Framework 3.5 from Microsoft to run. I scanned it with 36 antivirus using VirusTotal and 8 antivirus found that KKF is a hacktool. I am sure it is a false positive because I’ve analyzed the file with ThreatExpert and it doesn’t contain any threat. This tool seems very easy to use. Clicking the list keys button would connect to a database somewhere to search for kaspersky keys. Currently a total of 799 keys is found. To download a key, i just need to place a mark on the checkbox and click Save Key button. There are 5 servers to download the keys from. I got an error “Unable to Download, Try Another Server” error on server 1 and 2. The rest of the servers worked fine and was able to download the key.

I was curious to know where did Kaspersky Key Finder checks for a list of available keys to download and where are the servers located. Please note that you will not find download links for Kaspersky Key Finder here but I will show you how I manage to find out how it works.


Whenever you have a tool that acts as a download manager and it connects somewhere to download a file, the ultimate tool to use to sniff the link is URL Snooper. It even helped me before in sniffing out the direct link so I can record radio streaming broadcast.

I launched URL Snooper and start sniffing for URLs. I then ran Kaspersky Key Finder, clicked the List Keys button and URL Snooper immediately picked up a URL. It shows that Kaspersky Key Finder is downloading a KKP file from http://www.freewebs.com/kkfpage/KKF/TheList.KKP

Opening the freewebs URL in web browser displays a page with a list of uncomplete link with date and filename. Looks like TheList.KKP is the “database” of where Kaspersky Key Finder will load from when you hit the List Keys button.

Next, when I place a mark on any of the checkbox and click Save Key button, again URL Snooper is able to tell me where did it came from. Server 1 and Server 2 didn’t work for me as I got the error “Unable to Download, Try Another Server”. When I selected server 3, 4, 5 and click Save Key, URL Snooper picked up the following URL. It will download .ffp file from the URL below and then rename the file extension to .key

Server 3: http://k-k-f.0catch.com/KKF/2008/Oct_16/
Server 4: http://www.k-k-f.we.bs/KKF/2008/Oct_16/
Server 5: http://kkf.freehostia.com/KKF/2008/Oct_16/

All the servers used to save the key files are from free webhosting. As you can see from the test above, Kaspersky Key Finder tool requires to be updated and maintained by the author of this tool or else it will stop working. Kaspersky Key Finder doesn’t really “find” or crawl from various websites for keys or exploit Kaspersky servers but simply retrieves from a list of database that is manually created.

I’ve seen many corporate and education facilities using AVG Anti-Virus free edition. Although it is said to be free, but it is only meant for Home users. It only gives basic protection and no technical support. The corporate company might get into trouble and being heavily fined if they use the AVG Anti-Virus free edition on the office computer. AVG website did state very clearly that: