Raymond.CC Blog

Category: Computer

  • Script based VNC Server Port Scanner • Raymond.CC

    You can simply use any port scanner to scan your network on port 5900 for VNC Server because the default port for any VNC Server is 5900.
    I’ve found a script based port scanner which claims to be a VNC Network Scanner. I believe you can also use to scan for other services since you can define both port and IP range to scan. This is something different to me because most of the port scanners out there are in executable(.exe) format.

    This script has the extension of .wsf, which is Windows Scripting Host. The script makes use of function pointers hooked up to a programmatically generated Internet Explorer page to allow user input in a flexible environment while giving the advantages of the tighter security and lower overhead of WSH.

    As you can see, the image below shows that this VNC Server scanner is being run on Internet Explorer and it’s not any compiled executable program.
    SCAN4VNC VNC Server scanner

    SCAN4VNC may be run directly after the Winsocklib DLL is registered on your system. You can obtain the Winsocklib DLL file from the zip archive with the filename kvbWinsockLib.Dll. Running scan4vnc.wsf directly without registering the kvbWinsockLib.Dll will give you an error message “Error: 424 Microsoft VBScript runtime errorObject required”

    You need regsvr32.exe to register the kvbWinsockLib.Dll. Follow the steps below to register kvbWinsockLib.Dll to your system.


    1. Double click kvbWinsockLib.Dll file. You will get a caution prompt. Click on the “Open With…” button
    RealVNC

    2. Select the option “Select the program from a list” and click OK button.
    UltraVNC

    3. Click on the Browse button to search for regsvr32.exe which is usually located at C:\Windows\System32\
    TightVNC

    4. After you located the regsvr32.exe, select to highlight the file and click on Open button.
    OSXVnc

    5. You should get a prompt saying “DllRegisterServer in “C:\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\kvbWinsockLib.Dll succeeded.”
    Chicken of the VNC
    The xxxxxxxxx is the location of your kvbWinsockLib.Dll file.

    I tested using the script to scan for RealVNC server which I installed on another computer, and below is the report.
    RealVNC Port Scanner
    The reporting should be improved because if the RealVNC server service is running, it will show you “7“. For computer that doesn’t have RealVNC server, it will show you “Timeout“.

    This time I used the script to scan on UltraVNC server. Also show “7“.
    UltraVNC Port Scanner

    In my opinion, this script works but the scan result should be improved. I tried scanning port 80 which is WWW port, and the result also shows “7″. It seems like any active service will show “7″ in SCAN4VNC. The readme.txt file did say that this script is still in early beta demo and it’s FREE so we shouldn’t complain about it.

    [ Download Scan4VNC ]

    Related posts:

  • Change the Listening Port for Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection
  • Web Based Help Desk Software
  • FastPush to silently and remotely install VNC Server
  • TCP Scan for alive VNC Server
  • Google 502 Server Error

  • Convert DVD to VCD • Raymond.CC

    My boss bought a DVD from United States and need to show the movie to his colleague..
    Afraid of his colleague loosing his DVD, he needs to create another VCD from the DVD to lend it to them.
    Since it’s only a 25 minutes DVD presentation, I believe I can create a SuperVCD (SVCD) instead of VCD because SuperVCD has better quality.


    VCD
    Resolution NTSC/PAL: 352×240 & 352×288
    Video Compression: MPEG1
    Audio Compression: MPEG1
    Size/min: 10 MB/min
    Min/74 minCD: 74min
    DVD Player Compatibility: Great
    Computer CPU Demanding: Low
    Quality: Good

    SVCD
    Resolution NTSC/PAL: 480×480 480×576
    Video Compression: MPEG2
    Audio Compression: MPEG1
    Size/min: 10 – 20 MB/min
    Min/74 minCD: 35-60min
    DVD Player Compatibility: Good
    Computer CPU Demanding: High
    Quality: Great

    I found “The Ultimate Solution” by Manfred Bittersam on how to convert DVD to Video CD.

    This guide describes how to convert a PAL-16:9-DVD into several 4:3-VideoCDs with great picture and sound quality

    Remark:
    The conversion times were evaluated with a 150 min film on an 866 MHz machine.

    *** what you need:

    – DVD Decrypter
    – DVD2AVI + VFAPI Plugin
    – TMPGEnc
    – Nero

    *** This guide is divided into 7 steps:

    1) Decrypting
    2) Creating FILM.D2V and FILM.WAV
    3) Creating FILM.M1V (=Video)
    4) Creating FILM.MP2 (=Audio)
    5) Multiplexing
    6) Cutting
    7) Burning

    ===============================
    *** GUIDE:
    ===============================

    1) Decrypting:
    a) Copy the whole video_ts directory from the DVD to a directory on your harddisk (e.g. “C:\TheDVD”).
    b) Use DVD Decrypter to decrypt all files in the directory “C:\TheDVD” (you can leave all settings unchanged)

    2) Creating FILM.D2V and FILM.WAV:
    a) Start DVD2AVI
    b) Select the VOB files you want to convert:
    File…open…*.VOB
    Add…*.VOB
    OK
    c) Move the scroll bar to see whether the VOB files are in the right order and displayed correctly.
    d) Optional: Select a part of the film using the buttons “[” and “]”
    e) Audio…Dolby Digital
    f) Audio…Decoding…Track1 (original language) or Track2 (translation)
    g) Audio…48->44.1kHz…Normal
    h) Audio…Normalize…DRC (=dynamic range compression)
    i) File…Save Project…e.g. “C:\MyCopy\FILM.D2V”
    -> DVD2AVI generates a D2V and a WAV file (conversion time: 5 hours)
    Warning: The D2V file is just a pointer to the VOB files.
    So don’t delete the VOB files after this conversion!

    3) Creating FILM.M1V (=Video):
    a) Start TMPGEnc
    b) Video Source…Browse…”C:\MyCopy\FILM.D2V”
    c) Click “Configure”
    d) Enter configuration settings:
    Video:
    Stream Type: MPEG-1
    Size: 352 x 288
    Aspect Ratio: 4:3, 625Line (PAL)
    Frame Rate: 25 fps
    Rate Control Mode: constant bitrate (CBR)
    Bitrate: 1150 kbps
    VBV Buffer Size: 0 (automatic)
    Motion Search Accuracy: Highest quality (very slow) -but effective
    Advanced:
    Video Source Type: Interlaced
    Field Order: Even Field first (field order A)
    Source Aspect Ratio: 4:3, 625Line (PAL)
    Image Positioning Method: Center (preserve aspect ratio) or Center (custom size) with 483 x 386, if you want to kill the black bars.

    *** If you want the perfect quality
    (conversion time: five days!)
    use the filters as follows:

    DoubleClick on “Noise Reduction”-checkbox:
    Select Spatial: 100
    Range: 4
    Temporal: 100
    Enable Filter = TRUE
    High Quality Mo = TRUE
    Click “OK”
    DoubleClick on “Edge Enhancement”-checkbox:
    Select Horizontal: 127
    Vertical: 127
    Enable Filter = TRUE
    Fieldwise = TRUE
    Click “OK”
    DoubleClick on “Deinterlace”-checkbox:
    Select “Even field (adaptive)”, Enable filter = TRUE.
    Click “OK”

    *** If you want acceptable quality
    (conversion time: 24 hours)
    set the checkboxes above to false (no filters).

    The “Do not change frame rate”-checkbox = TRUE.
    Click “OK”
    e) Click “Encode”
    -> TMPGEnc generates a M1V file

    4) Creating FILM.MP2 (=Audio):
    a) Start TMPGEnc
    b) Delete all filenames
    c) Audio Source…Browse…”C:\MyCopy\FILM.WAV”
    d) Click “Encode”
    -> TMPGEnc generates a MP2 file (conversion time: 30 minutes)

    5) Multiplexing:
    a) Start TMPGEnc
    b) File…MPEG tools…Basic Multiplex
    c) Type: MPEG-1 VideoCD
    Video Input: “C:\MyCopy\FILM.M1V”
    Audio Input: “C:\MyCopy\FILM.MP2″
    d) Click “Start”
    -> TMPGEnc generates a MPG file (conversion time: 15 minutes)

    6) Cutting:
    a) Look at the size of your MPG file, and decide how many parts you want to make of it.
    One part should not be bigger than 620 MB, if you use 74 min discs.
    b) Start TMPGEnc
    c) File…MPEG tools…Cut/Join
    d) Type: MPEG-1 VideoCD
    e) Add…”C:\MyCopy\FILM.MPG” -> The list shows a new entry
    f) Click “Edit”
    g) Select a part of the film using the buttons “[” and “]”
    h) Click “OK”
    i) Output…Browse…”C:\MyCopy\FILM1.MPG”
    j) Click “Start”
    -> TMPGEnc generates your FILM1.MPG
    (conversion time: about 15 minutes, depending on the location of the part selected)
    k) Repeat (f) to (j) for each other part (FILM2.MPG …)

    7) Burning:
    a) start Nero
    b) select the icon “Video-CD”
    c) Click “New”
    d) From the Explorer on the right, choose “C:\MyCopy\FILM1.MPG”, and drag it into the list on the left.
    -> Nero checks whether the MPG file is VideoCD compliant or not.
    e) When the test is ready, click File…burn CD
    f) Enter a volume descriptor
    g) Click “OK”.
    -> Nero burns the CD
    h) Repeat (a) to (g) for each other part (FILM2.MPG …)

  • File Automatically Deleted By Windows in WLM File Transfer • Raymond.CC

    There’s a nagging security feature in Windows Live Messenger file transfer. Let’s say a friend of mine, John Doe transferred a 15MB MP3 file to me. Once it has completed transferring, it will say “You have successfully received C:\music.mp3 from John Doe“. The filename will look like a hyperlink because it is underlined in blue color. By logic we should be able to click on the hyperlink and it should open the music.mp3
    Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file

    But then after clicking the hyperlink, a message saying “Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file” will appear.
    Windows found that this file is potentially harmful. To help protect your computer, Windows has blocked access to this file

    Well, you might think that it might be Windows Live Messenger security features that prevented the mp3 from being executed. I manually looked for the mp3 file and it wasn’t in “My Received Files” folder. I did a complete search but also couldn’t find the MP3 which I just received. Looks like the MP3 file has been automatically deleted!

    I was really mad when Windows automatically deleted the file that I just received. Now Windows Live Messenger has really made me mad and I am going to find a way to disable Windows from automatically deleting my files when I click on a “potentially harmful” file.


    By default, Windows will delete any of the files with an extension listed below once you click on the hyperlink in Windows Live Messenger.


    Older versions of MSN Messenger can be easily fixed by using A-Patch “Remove File Transfer Protection” fix but for Windows Live Messenger, you need to edit your registry. I wouldn’t advice a computer newbie to manually adding new registry entries because it involves quite a bit of steps which can cause problems on your computer if you do it wrongly. The easy way is to download a registry file and run it. It will automatically import the settings to your registry.

    Thanks to Petri for figuring out this solution!

    [ Download Windows Live Messenger File Transfer Protection Fix ]

    Related posts:

  • Lightweight Universal Windows Live Messenger Patcher
  • Latest Windows Live Messenger v8.1.0178 + Mess Patch
  • Official NEW Windows Live Messenger v8.0.0787 Final is out!
  • Clean your MSN/Windows Live Messenger Interface
  • Accelerate Hard Disk Drive to Speed Up File Transfer

  • Monitor voltages, fan speeds and temperatures • Raymond.CC

    If you are looking for a tool that can change your computer’s fan speeds, that can read your hard disk temperature and S.M.A.R.T. status, that can read temperatures, voltages and fan speeds and much more, then you’re reading the correct article.
    SpeedFan works fine with Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, 2003 and Windows XP. And this is absolutely for free 🙂
    SpeedFan

    SpeedFan monitors temperatures, through available hardware monitor chips which expose their temperature sensors connected to different places inside your computer, and, according to your setup, does its best to keep those temperatures at your desired value. You can even change a fan speed according to the temperature of your hard disk.

    SpeedFan can:

  • handle almost any number of South Bridges
  • handle almost any number of hardware monitor chips
  • handle almost any number of temperature readings
  • handle almost any number of voltage readings
  • handle almost any number of fan speed readings
  • handle almost any number of PWMs

    • First of all, you have to identify which temperature sensor is which. SpeedFan strictly adheres to available datasheets for each sensor chip. Please remember that hardware monitors are chips that do have some pins (small connectors) which should be connected to some additional hardware (temperature probes, thermistors or thermocouples) in order to be able to read temperatures. Only a few hardware monitor chips do label their connectors with “CPU”, “System” and the likes. Most of them use labels like “Temp1″, “Local” or “Remote”. The hardware manufacturers connect available pins to different temperature sensors basically according to the physical placement of components on the motherboard. This means that the same chip, an ITE IT8712F, for example, might be connected to a sensor diode measuring CPU temperature on Temp2 and, on a different hardware, it might be connected on Temp1. If you have a “Local” sensor and a “Remote” labeled one, this usually means that “Local” is the temperature of the monitor chip itself and “Remote” is the temperature read from a “remote” probe.
    When you have properly identified which temperature sensor is which, try to lower the speed of each fan and look at reported speed and temperatures. If you do not allow SpeedFan to change any fan speed and set all the speeds too low, then SpeedFan won’t be able to avoid overheating.

    [ Download SpeedFan 4.27 ]

  • How To Record Malaysian Radio Streaming Broadcast On Computer • Raymond.CC

    I use to record Hitz.FM Club Hitz every Saturday at 10pm so I can listen to them again whenever I want to. No, I did not use the traditional method of recording it to tapes from a radio player. Things are much more advanced now. I record streaming radio using my computer and I am going to show you how I do it.

    There are tons of sharewares that is able to easily record streaming audio but why pay when you can do it for free? Of course there are cracks and keygenerators for those shareware but I am not going to encourage piracy. The free and manual way of recording streaming audio requires 2 freewares and a few steps. Trust me, it’s not that hard.


    I will show you an example on how I record Hitz.FM streaming radio.

    You need to download and install 2 softwares.
    1. URLSnooper
    – URL Snooper provides easy solution to finding the URLs for all streams by by watching network traffic and identifying potential urls, especially streaming media urls.

    2. Flashget (Or any other download manager)
    – One of world’s most popular download manager.

    Steps to capture and record streaming audio:
    1. Run URLSnooper.

    2. Open Hitz.fm website on Internet Explorer

    3. Click on the top right where it says “What’s Playing Now“.
    Record RTSP and MMS streaming
    A new window will appear asking you to login. You can register for a free epass account and login.

    4. Once the player is loaded, check URL Snooper. It will show you a few URLs.
    Download streaming mp3
    There are 2 types of streaming audio that you can capture and record. Windows Media MMS Stream or RTSP.

    5. Right click on either one protocol, and select “Copy Selected URL(s) to Clipboard“.

    6. Now run FlashGet and press F4. You will get a “Add new download” window. By default, it should automatically paste the URL to FlashGet. Just make sure you set the Threads From main site as “1” and hit the OK button.
    Capture Streaming audio

    7. FlashGet will now download the streaming radio. Pause the download whenever you want to stop recording.

    Important Note: If you selected RTSP protocol to record, you won’t get any file extension. Simple add .asf file extension at the end of the filename and play with your favorite audio player to listen to the recorded streaming radio. If you select Windows Media mms stream, FlashGet will automatically assign .asf file extension. So you don’t need to modify the extension and you can directly play on your favorite audio player.

    Since Hitz.fm streaming radio is powered by Digital Visual Radio(DVR), you can also record 16 live music channels using the method above. How cool is that?

    HITZ – English
    MIX – English
    LIGHT & EASY – English
    CLASSIC ROCK – English
    GOLDEN OLDIES – English
    NOSTALGIA – English
    JAZZ GREATS – English
    OPUS – English
    MY – Chinese
    MELODY – Chinese
    ERA – Bahasa Malaysia
    SINAR FM – Bahasa Malaysia
    XFRESH FM – Bahasa Malaysia
    INDIA BEAT – Hindi
    OSAI – Tamil
    MUSIQ’A – Arabic

    I am sure this method works with many other online streaming radio stations as well. Hope you’ve learn something new today.

    Related posts:

  • Watching Live TV broadcast and Listening Radio on Internet
  • Easily Record Your Desktop Screen
  • Fix FlashGet Default .torrent File Opener/Handler Association
  • New Oil Meter for Malaysian Cars
  • Rude and Impatient Malaysian in Lift/Elevator

  • Novell Disable Login Feature in Windows With Network Share Monitoring

    In Novell NetWare, there is a very useful “DISABLE LOGIN” command which is used to prevent users from logging in when you are making repairs, backing up files, or loading software. Good thing about “DISABLE LOGIN” command is users already logged in aren’t affected. However, a user who logs out can’t log in again until ENABLE LOGIN is executed.

    Let’s say you have a Windows server with a lot of shared folders. You want to temporarily stop users from connecting to shared folders but you can’t disable the network connection or bring down the server. How nice if you can use the “DISABLE LOGIN” command…

    Well now you can with this free tool which I am about to introduce to you! Other than having disable login command in Windows, you can also monitor network shares.


    WhoIsConnected is a free tool for observing and controlling of network connections. This program works on computers with operational system Microsoft Windows 2000 and later.

    Who Is Connect to server

    WhoIsConnected Features:

    * Monitoring of network connections and open resources.
    * Disconnect any selected connection and closing any open resource.
    * Monitoring Your network connections.
    * Processes controlling.
    * Show open IP ports (Windows XP/2003).
    * Disable the newest connections to Your computer (analogue of the command “disable login” in OS Novell NetWare).

    Simply click the small computer icon on the program to execute the Disable Login command in Windows. When I tried to access the computer, I get the error message “The remote server has been paused or is in process of being started.”
    Novell Disable Login for Windows

    WhoIsConnected is very similar to NetShareMonitor. The only difference is WhoIsConnected has DISABLE LOGIN feature and NetShareMonitor is able to notify you when a shared folder is being accessed. WhoIsConnected has an “Connection Notify” option but I can’t get it to work. When a shared folder is being access, there is no notification window… but when I try to access another computer’s shared folder from Start > Run and type double back slash followed by computer name (\\computer), the connection notify window appears.
    Whoisconnected connection notify window

    [ Download WhoIsConnected ]

    Related posts:

  • Comprehensive Security and Network Monitoring Tools
  • Dangers of Sharing Folders on the Network
  • Network Benchmark – Test Your Network Speed
  • How To Remove or Disable Shared Documents from My Computer
  • Auto Login Windows XP without typing password

  • Monitor and Analyze Network Activity with Proc Net Monitor

    A large proportion of the software installed on a computer these days requires some form of internet access, whether it’s for registering, activating or just for updates, even if the software itself has no need for a web connection during normal usage. Unfortunately, malicious software will use your internet connection in a similar way as well, although what it sends is far more likely to be your personal data and what it receives could be more malware code. Sometimes there just might be a process connected to another piece of software that you really don’t expect or want to have access, but often you won’t even know this network activity is going on behind the scenes.

    With so many programs periodically going online to do their tasks, it can be difficult to stay totally safe. What you need is something to give a you picture of what is going on with your internet connection and what software is actually trying to use it. There are utilities around to do this and sometimes there will be some sort of similar function in security software, but there’s a tool called Proc Net Monitor which aims to be easy to use, but also offer some very useful options.


    Proc Net Monitor is from SecurityXploded who make a lot of useful internet and network tools. This one will monitor and analyze the network activity of all running Programs on your system while also showing active network connections for each process and what ports are being used. If you identify that any programs accessing the internet look suspicious, there’s an option to check with some online services to hopefully find out.

    There has been a recent update that added the new GUI interface, Online Malicious Process Verification, Right Click Context Menu and advanced HTML/XML Reporting. Proc Net Monitor comes with the portable version and the setup installer in the same zip file, so once it’s extracted, it can be launched either way.

    Network Activity

    The layout is pretty clean with buttons and extra options kept to a minimum. The main part of the window displays all current processes requiring network access. Listed is information such as name, PID, TCP/UDP connections along with the date and path of the process. Above the window is the option to search for processes using a specific port or unhide the processes which are not trying to access the network.

    Network Activity

    Double clicking an entry will show the file properties and right clicking will bring up a context menu with some useful options if you are not 100% sure of the running process. Firstly, if you have any major doubts about it, you can kill it. Secondly, there is a very handy sub menu to submit any suspicious processes to VirusTotal.com, ProcessLibrary.com or simply perform a Google search. The last entry can open the file location in which the selected process resides. ‘File Properties…‘ is the same as double clicking the entry.

    Network Activity

    The lower left window will list any open network ports the process is using and their type.

    Network Activity

    The lower right window displays the active network state of the process including host names and addresses and active local and remote ports.

    Network Activity

    There is also an option to export what is displayed in the current windows as an HTML or XML file.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7

    Website

    Download

    Related posts:

  • Monitor Processes That You Want With Kiwi Application Monitor
  • Monitor Internet Bandwidth Usage with iTraffic Monitor
  • NetLimiter 3 Monitor is Finally Available to Download!
  • Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk for Microsoft Network in Floppy and Boot CD
  • Get Back a Useful Windows 7 Network Icon with Network Indicator

  • Disable the ‘Program Might not have Installed Correctly’ Window

    While installing or running programs on your computer, the chances are very good you will have encountered a window that pops up telling you “This program might not have installed correctly“. There was a new feature introduced in Windows Vista and 7 which is supposed to actively monitor and detect the known compatibility issues with older programs when you try and run or install them. If it detects any potential issues, it will throw up the not installed correctly window. You will then have a choice whether to try to reinstall with the recommended settings, which is usually detecting issues with User Account Control or trying to run the program as an earlier version of Windows in compatibility mode. Or you can simply tell it there was no problem and carry on.


    That’s the theory anyway. Unfortunately, the Program Compatibility Assistant is far from perfect, and quite often will show the window when there have been no issues at all with the program or installer. Even worse, this window will also be triggered by a lot of portable software, or even when you simply cancel an install process. If you are someone that likes to try out a lot of different software, or use a number of portable programs, this window showing up so often can be quite irritating.

    Thankfully, there is a simply way to disable this as the ‘Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA)’ is nothing more than a Windows service that can be manipulated like any other. Type ‘services.msc’ into the search box in the start menu, or open the Task Manager, go to the Services tab and click the ‘Services’ button. Look for the ‘Program Compatibility Assistant Service’ and right click on it.

    Select ‘Properties’ and change the ‘Startup type’ in the dropdown box to Disabled, and then apply it. The Assistant will now be disabled and no more popup windows will appear.

    Do be aware that on occasion the Program Compatibility Assistant can sometimes completely block a program from running because it has detected more severe issues than those which would trigger the simple “This program might not have installed correctly“ window. If you have turned PCA off, this software will now run and could cause issues with the system if there really are serious compatibility problems with it. It is probably not advisable to turn off the Compatibility Assistant if you are not experienced enough to know when there is likely to be an issue with a piece of software, or you use a lot a lot of older software.

  • Remove Adware, Spyware, Trojans, Viruses and Rootkits with FreeFixer

    Most people will use anti-spyware program such as Spybot and Ad-Aware to run a scan on the computer when they notice their computer acting weird. Why? The reason is anti-spyware program automates cleaning and removing spyware, trojan or adware found on the computer which is much easier compared to manually digging through your auto startup locations which is risky if you removed the wrong file.

    Unlike HijackThis, which advance users will agree that it is a very powerful tool but it requires you to have plenty of experience in removing spyware so you can immediately identify the unwanted entries from the log file. If you’re a novice computer user, you might not even understand what is in the HijackThis log file.

    If you’d like to try out yourself on manually removing spyware from your system, you can start off by using this free tool called FreeFixer.


    FreeFixer is a general purpose removal tool which will help you to delete potentially unwanted software, such as adware, spyware, trojans, viruses and rootkits. FreeFixer works by scanning a large number of locations where unwanted software has a known record of appearing or leaving traces. The scan locations include the programs that run on your computer, the programs that starts when you reboot your computer, your browser’s plug-ins, your home page setting, etc.
    FreeFixer Easily Removes Spyware

    In order to reduce the number of items appearing in the scan result FreeFixer will not show known Microsoft files. For example, no one wants to remove the legitimate explorer.exe or svchost.exe files, so they can safely be hidden from the scan result. To achieve this FreeFixer uses file signatures and catalog files located on your system to check if a file is a legitimate Microsoft file.

    However, FreeFixer does not know which the bad files and settings are, so the scan result will contain items you want to keep and perhaps some that you want to remove. It’s up to you to decide. Please be careful! If you delete a legitimate file you may have problems in running a particular software in future. To assist you when determining if anything should be removed you can find more information at FreeFixer’s web site for each item in the scan result. You can for example see what other users chose to do in the same situation. You can also save log file of your scan result and consult the volunteers in one of the FreeFixer helper forums.

    It’s slightly easier to use. Just download, install, run FreeFixer and click Start scan. Once the scan is finished FreeFixer will display the scan results for each category. If you’re unsure what is the item, just click “more info” and it’ll show you item information. If you fix an item in the scan result FreeFixer will choose the most reasonable action for that item. For example, if you fix your homepage setting FreeFixer will restore it to the homepage set in a clean install of the Windows operating system. If you choose to fix an item from the process list, FreeFixer will first shut down the process and then remove the executable file.
    Free Fix Spyware

    You should check out this article written by the author of FreeFixer, Roger Karlsson, about “a typical case of spyware removal“. It is a very good guide for you to learn how to clean a typical spyware infection with the help of FreeFixer.

    Note: I noticed that FreeFixer is updated every month. So please make sure you’re always using the latest version. I’ve checked and FreeFixer is portable. After installing, just copy the FreeFixer folder from Program Files to USB flash drive.

    [ Download FreeFixer | Website ]

    Related posts:

  • Remove HotBar – Adware Spyware Removal Instructions
  • Effectively Remove Trojan, Virus, Spyware from Windows Startup
  • How To Clean or Remove Virus/Spyware/Trojan When You Can’t Boot In Windows
  • Auto Removal Spy Sheriff Spyware
  • How To Remove ASecurityAssurance.com Zlob Trojan

  • Watching TV with a TV Card Under Linux And Windows

    I’m not sure how many people are using a TV card on their computer, rather then a full blown TV, but I know that in my testing of Linux systems, I’ve always needed to have my TV card working so I can use it for my game systems. My TV card is an old Conexant bt878 card, used mostly in my father’s line of work as a very basic capture card that has four possible input ports. Though I’m not kidding when I say it’s old: the card itself was “new” to me, at four years old, and my dad has a few in his truck that are closer to six or seven years old. It’s also exceptionally hard to find working drivers for it that work in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, which perhaps is the worst part.

    But being the geek I am, I put up with this and use only Windows XP and Salix Linux, mostly because I know it’s completely supported under both of them along side audio input from the TV card as well. So while my technology is very old, I admit, borderline obsolete, if not already at that mark, it does works like it says it will on my operating systems that I use it for.

    However, because I got my card second hand though my father, there were no drivers and certainly no software that came with it to use with it. Once I set up the drivers under either operating system, I’ve only had one problem: how to view it. And like most people out there, I didn’t have a media center PC so I was forced to use third party applications. The two I’ve used and can recommend to people who would like to know how to watch your TV under Windows and Linux are TVTime and DScaler


    TVTime, above, is the Linux TV card viewer I always use and recommend.

    TVTime is found in the repositories of nearly every Linux system I’ve used to date, such as Ubuntu, Salix, Mandriva, Fedora, etc. Simply open your package manager and search for it, install it, and it works fine. I’ve never had a problem using TVTime with any cards that are supported under Linux, and if you need to change any settings, it’s a simple right click to configure your inputs, picture settings, video processing, and how it looks on the output. For something free, for something simple like this, I feel there is nothing better to use under Linux. However, I’ve also heard good things about MythTV, but I’ve never enjoyed going though the complete hassle that it’s been by comparison. The other thing that keeps me from MythTV is that it has a lot of features that I won’t use or need for a long time, so to me, there’s no point in using something that offers me features I won’t use.


    Above this time, is DScaler, a TV viewer for Windows.

    On the Windows side, from Windows XP though to Windows 7, there is DScaler. Much like TVTime under Linux, it’s a simple download and install of it’s main site. After install and first run, it will ask you how you’d like it set up, if it’s the only process you’ll be using at a time, or if you’re going to run it with other processes, the speed of your CPU, and if you’d like, the quality of your output, which would be advantageous to change if you’re using a slower machine. After that, you have to select your device from the drop down lists, but if it’s not on there, you can try using ‘Unknown/AutoDetect’ for both, and I know personally that this worked for me under Windows XP and 7.

    So if you see a TV card for sale somewhere online sometime, advertising it cheap without software, don’t avoid it and get the pricier one if you won’t use all the features of the more expensive card with software. Most times, the driver can be found online and you can use one of these two TV Card viewers to work with your new TV card. It’s cheap, but hey: it works! That’s what’s important.

    Related posts:

  • Watching DVDs in Linux by installing one library
  • Helpful Sites to Help You Run That One App You Need For Linux
  • Editing the HOSTS file under Linux or Windows
  • Setting up your Wireless in Linux – NDISWrapper
  • DJL – Steam Clone for Linux

  • Watching DVDs in Linux by installing one library

    I was asked recently about how long it might take for me to push out the Fedora review and at present, it is still being tested, only being pushed off by the fact that I’ve been having a near constant work week at the store I work for, and until next week, when I have a few days off in a row, will I be able to finish up the review. I must say, for a distribution that in the past has never worked out the way I had hoped, it has gotten a lot better. The documentation is a lot cleaner then it was at previous as well as the system itself becoming simpler. I’ll be sure to cover more next week once the review is finished.

    However, I did receive a rather interesting email yesterday, asking me how to set up DVD playback under Linux, seeing as the person wanted to watch the DVD copy of My Name Is Khan they had bought a little while ago. And while I’m aware Linux Mint has DVD playback installed right away, they are using Ubuntu 10.04, and are enjoying it, so I couldn’t tell them to go to Mint. Telling someone to go to a different OS when something works for them is an extremely foolish thing to do if you ask me. So today, I’m going to show you how you can set up Linux to work with any DVD out of the box.

    The only thing you have to do really is add in a repository for Ubuntu and install the playback/codec that you need for Ubuntu or Salix. Since most people I know use Ubuntu or Linux Mint, these steps remain the same. Open up the terminal, then copy and paste the following line:

    sudo wget –output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get –quiet update && sudo apt-get –yes –quiet –allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

    What this does is that it adds the repository as well as the GPG key that says it can be trusted and installed from. This is only for Ubuntu and spinoffs of Ubuntu, seeing as Salix has the component we need in their default repositories. Before closing the terminal, issue this command:

    sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs -y

    which will then install the DVD playback as well as media playback of non-standard formats.

    If you’re using Salix, it’s even simpler then that. Open up Gslapt, and install libdvdcss (which you’ll notice is exactly what you have to install in Ubuntu), then open up your video player of choice and slip your DVD in. It really is that simple to have DVD playback in Linux, like what you’re used to in Windows. This will also allow you to have any front end you’d like to rip your DVD as well if you’d like to do that too. My personal choice for DVD and video playback is VLC Player, but I know some people who are happy with Totem and MPlayer, so in the end, whatever you choose, now has the ability to play back your DVDs. And to the writer of the email, I have this to say: as someone who enjoyed My Name Is Khan, I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did, it was quite a tearjerker!

    Related posts:

  • Installing via Terminal and Compiling Files from Source
  • Increasing or Decreasing the Maximum Volume in Linux
  • Installing Sun Java in *buntu 10.04 Long Term Support
  • Setting up your Wireless in Linux – NDISWrapper
  • X/K/Ubuntu 10.04 Releases today – Easy to install, configure, and use!

  • Increasing or Decreasing the Maximum Volume in Linux

    Many people have told me that the main reason that they do not use Linux is not because of the lack of games or the lack of commercial software, but mostly because they find the buggy at times. This is completely understandable to me and I nod my head and let them know that I am missing out some of my favourite applications under Linux as well and I’ve found my share of bugs which I have reported, but I still provide it as an option to myself to relax and lay back. This is because under Linux, I have faced far less bugs then I have with under Windows, especially Vista. In fact, my copy of Vista was completely unstable nightmare, even with the proper updated drivers for everything. Ever since I’ve gone to Windows 7, I’ve no longer had many issues with Windows… which I find very funny considering the fact that that’s when my issues with Linux started up, though none of them too serious compared to what I had to face in Vista. And today, I’m going to provide you with a solution to a problem that I know has been poorly documented in most official documentation I’ve read: how to adjust the maximum volume settings.

    Unlike Ubuntu and the other Linux distros lead you to believe, they often tend to run quite quiet compared to the Windows operating systems on the same computer, and while this is not a bug by any stretch of the imagination, I’m still not sure the exact reason why they have it turned down. Perhaps penguins have sensitive ears or the developers simply do not see a point to having the volume so loud to begin with. However, I can assure you, there are two easy ways to resolve it, depending on how you’d like to use your operating system.

    If you’d like the easy route that I can assure you works with 99.9% of the Linux systems out there, open up your terminal and type

    alsamixer

    which should drop you like something below.

    Once alsamixer opens, just use your arrow keys to adjust the volume of each one, and if any are shown with ‘MM‘, simply hit the M button on your keyboard to unmute it. I’ve personally never had this fail on me yet on any Linux distro.

    If you’d rather do this the graphical way, it’s not that much different. Open up your mixer settings and hit the Select Controls button, checking off everything, then modifying the sliders with your mouse. If for any reason, it say it is muted, just simply hit the button to unmute it.

    While this isn’t a hard thing to find out yourself, this should stop people from asking me how they can turn up the volume or why Ubuntu is so quiet compared to Windows. I’ve had several people the past few days who have emailed me just to ask this question, I just find it rather odd that it’s one of the most popular “problem” faced, at 50,500 results via Google alone.

    Related posts:

  • Helpful Sites to Help You Run That One App You Need For Linux
  • Setting up your Wireless in Linux – NDISWrapper
  • Fix Low Volume When Playing DVD Movies
  • Windows and Linux, the same, only different
  • Changing or Spoofing Hard Disk Hardware Serial Number and Volume ID

  • Analyze Malware Behavior with Joebox Online Sandbox

    There are a few popular online service which I am sure you have heard of such as VirusTotal, an online virus scanner that scans the file you upload with multiple (40+) antivirus and ThreatExpert, an online automated threat analysis which analyzes the file that you upload on check on what it does when it is ran on the computer. I personally use ThreatExpert a lot because I prefer to know what the file is doing rather than putting my full trust on the antivirus which sometimes gives us false detection. Other than ThreatExpert, I have previously mentioned CWSandbox, Anubis, Sunbelt Sandbox, Norman Sandbox and Comodo Instant Malware Analysis.

    Here is another another online sandbox called Joebox to add in to the list of file behavior analyzers. JoeBox has been around since early 2008 and it is updated and improved periodically. 3 days ago JoeBox has been updated to 1.5.5 that fixes bug on big html files, added file written and key value queried section, increased HTML layout and fixed virtual machine guest time update bug.


    The good thing about Joebox is you can set the file that you want to run in which version of Windows. By default Joebox runs the malware in XP SP3 but you can select to also run it on Vista SP2 and Windows 7 at the same time. Other than that, you can enable Joebox to get the network data (PCAP) and then open it with Wireshark to analyze the captured traffic.

    joebox analyze file behavior

    You will need to enter a working email address because the analyzed report will be sent there. The report is generated in a HTML file and frankly speaking, the report might not be easy to interpret for non savvy computer users.

    Joebox HTML analysis report

    You may ask why do you need Joebox when there are other online file analyzers which provides report that is easier to understand? Joebox is a good alternative to other online sandbox because there are tools that can make a malware un-analyzable in online sandbox because of the “anti” features. Since Joebox is not the popular ones, chances of it getting blocked is low.

    Make sure you only submit the binary file itself and not in compressed archive such as ZIP, RAR, 7z and etc. However if you are afraid that you might accidentally run the malware on your computer, you can submit the file without any extension and Joebox is able to automatically detect it as an executable file. A binary file means files with extension such as exe, dll, sys, doc, pdf…

    [ Analyze File Behavior with Joebox ]

    Related posts:

  • Analyze Suspicious EXE Files with Comodo Instant Malware Analysis
  • OSAM a Powerful and Reliable Autorun Manager with Online Malware Scanner
  • How To Easily Analyze and Get Detailed Report of Suspicious Files
  • Battle of the 6 Online Malware File Scanners
  • BEST Rated Firewall Online Armor Premium v3 Genuine License Key for FREE

  • How To Send Anonymous MSN Messages

    During the years when ICQ was popular, there were so many third party tools to exploit ICQ. You can check a person’s invisibility status, hijack, flood, bomb and etc… Slowly everyone moved to MSN Messenger but surprisingly until today there isn’t much tools for it. If there is only one tool that I can have for MSN, I want a tool that can check a person’s offline status.

    Today I found a way to send anonymous messages to any MSN messengers users regardless of whether or not they are currently on your list, or have you blocked. If the .NET Passport address you specified can receive anonymous messages, your anonymous message will be sent. By default the option “Only people on my Allow List can see my status and send me messages” is NOT checked, so you can send anonymous messages.


    MSN Geeks specializes in MSN protocol and they created many free service such as Mass Delete Check, Mass Reverse Delete Check, Block Check, Contact List Rebuilder, MSN Emotions, Profile Viewer and my favorite Anonymous Messenger.

    Send spoofed msn messages

    You must be logged in as an MSNGeeks.com member before using any of the tool at MSN Geeks. This measure is meant to help reduce the number of abuse complaints regarding the tools usage. You can of course enter bogus information while registering. One thing I don’t like to reveal is “Secret Question and Secret Answer” which is used for recovering your MSNGeeks.com lost password. Make sure you do NOT use the same secret question and answer as your Hotmail. Even if you loose your MSNGeeks.com login information, just sign up for another new account.

    Once logged in, go to the Anonymous Messenger link. To send an anonymous message to your MSN friend, just enter your friend’s .NET Passport Address or Hotmail email address, type your message and click the Send Message button. You can also select which font family and color you wish to have your message format in. Please note that many passport accounts are not capable of receiving anonymous messages. MSNGeek are well aware of this issue, there is currently no way around this as of yet. This is not a bug, it is simply the limitations of the MSN protocol. I’ve tried sending a message to my MSN Messenger and this is what it looked like. When I am receiving a message from someone who is not in my allow list, it might be spam. That’s why a warning window will appear first.

    Allow messages from unknown senders

    After selecting allow messages from unknown senders, the anonymous message appears.

    mass msn message

    As you can see, it clearly shows that this message is being sent by MSNGeeks.com Anonymous Messenger but the email address is random characters followed by @hotmail.com. It’s either they registered a few random hotmail accounts or they have the technique on how to spoof usernames.

    Can be fun, but please don’t abuse this service.

    [ Send Anonymous MSN Messages ]

    Related posts:

  • Easily Send Private, Secure and Encrypted Email Messages
  • How Terrorist Hide Messages in Images
  • Send Unlimited FREE SMS Anytime from Anywhere
  • Decode Yahoo Messenger Messages Archive
  • Send 100% FREE SMS Worldwide

  • How To Resize Any Window To An Exact Predefined Size

    Whenever I write an article on this blog, I prefer to attach screenshots because it gives a better idea of what I am talking about. A very common problem that I face when taking screenshot is I had to capture a few times before I get it right. Reason is I can only attach image with a maximum of 513px width or else it the sidebar will be distorted. I try to avoid scaling whenever possible because it makes everything in the picture smaller. Imagine a 1024×768 screenshot turns into 513×385. You can hardly see the text in the screenshot!

    So here’s a tool that has been helping me to resize the window so I can capture it at exact predefined size.


    Sizer is a freeware utility that allows you to resize any window to an exact, predefined size. This is extremely useful when designing web pages, as it allows you to see how the page will look when viewed at a smaller size. The utility is also handy when compiling screen-shots for documentation, using Sizer allows you to easily maintain the same window size across screen grabs. When you run Sizer the ‘sizing arrows’ icon appears in the system tray. The screen grab below shows the Sizer icon in the right most side of the system tray.
    Resize window

    There are a few ways to resize a window. While Sizer is running in system tray, move your mouse cursor to any edge or corner of the window and right click. A pop up menu will appear with a list of predefined sizes. Simply select an item from this menu to resize the window to that size. To add new sizes to this menu or redefine existing ones use the Sizer Configuration Dialog.

    Resize a window

    I love the interactive sizing the most. It immediately shows me the current size of a window in a tooltip as I resize it. In addition if you press and hold the Control key while resizing a window, Sizer will snap the window size to the nearest grid size. By default this grid size is 10 pixels, but this can be set to a different value in the Configuration Dialog.

    The official website says that Sizer is not supported under Windows Vista. There are issues installing the program and using interactive sizing. I tried installing Sizer in Vista and got the error message “Failed to copy file C:\Program Files\Sizer\Sizer.exe. Access is denied. Sizer installation was unsuccessful.“. Then I tried downloading the package that don’t require installation. I extracted it in Vista and ran Sizer. There wasn’t any problems running it but the interactive sizing is indeed buggy. Sometimes it works and sometimes don’t. At least the system menu integration and system tray resizing still works.

    If you’re looking for a tool that is able to resize an unresizable window or dialog box, check out this article instead.

    [ Download Sizer ]

    Related posts:

  • How To Resize An Unresizable Window or Dialog Box
  • Easily Resize Your Pictures and Images
  • Resize Image or Pictures Online
  • Most Convenient Way to Automatically Resize Photos for Email, IM, Blogging and Web galleries!
  • Size DOES Matter *FUNNY*