I was trying to install Gamer XP v4 yesterday, a heavily modified Windows XP for gamers, and I got an error message like the one below.

“An error has been encountered that prevents Setup from continuing.
One of the components that Windows needs to continue Setup could not be installed.
Manifest Parse Error : Invalid at the top level of the document.
press OK to view the Setup log file.”

When I press OK this is what I get:

Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file ” D:\I386\asms\52\POLICY\MSFT\WINDOWS\NETWORK\RTCDLL.MAN” on line 0
***
Error:
Installation Failed : D:\I386\asms. Error Message : Manifest Parse Error : Invalid at the top level of the document.
***
Fatal Error
One of the components that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
Manifest Parse Error: Invalid at the top of the document.

I thought that maybe the Gamer XP was corrupted and somehow was not suitable to install on my computer. I tried searching if anyone had the same problem as me during installing Gamer XP but none had this problem. I started to think that maybe I did not burn the ISO image correctly because I was doing a fresh clean installation.


From Microsoft Knowledge Base, it stated that this issue may occur if the file that is on the Windows XP CD-ROM is damaged. I checked the Gamer XP CD that I burnt and it has a little scratch. I took a new CD-R and burn the Gamer XP ISO image again. This time I am able to install without problems.

So if you have this error message, just try another CD, I would say most of the time will work.

Hard drive bad sectors can cause your operating system to be unstable and also data corruption. If a sector that already contains data becomes damaged, you will need special software to recover the data. Today I am just going to teach you how to repair damaged or corrupted ZIP archive. Whether it’s from bad sector, or from your friend who didn’t transfer the ZIP archive completely to you, or even from a bad and old floppy. Usually a corrupt Zip file gives the error message “Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive“.

If you do a simple Google search on “repair zip file”, you’ll find a lot of relevant results but most of the ZIP repair utility on the first page are shareware. You have to buy their utility to repair your damaged ZIP file. Having a bad ZIP file is already bad enough, asking you to pay to repair the damaged ZIP file is not going to make the situation any better! So here I am, trying to make your situation better by introducing you to a FREE Zip repair utility.


Object FIX ZIP is a program for repairing Zip archive files. It can reconstruct a specified Zip file by creating a new Zip archive while recovering the contents of the faulty Zip file where possible. This software is designed for testing, fixing and processing of corrupt or unusable ZIP archive files that are partially damaged or not completely downloaded.

Only 4 steps are required to perform a repair on the damaged or corrupted ZIP archive.
1. Select 1 more more ZIP files to check.

2. Select an action to perform on the damaged ZIP archive. Every action is checked by default.

3. Third step will display the recovery progress. Nothing to do here except pressing the “Next” button.

4. Final step lets you view the repaired ZIP archive or extracted files. If you’ve missed a ZIP file to repair, you can click on the “Repair (an)other File(s)” button.

Object FIX ZIP supports all version of Windows including the new Windows Vista and it’s FREE! Repairing damaged or corrupted ZIP archive file MIGHT work and not 100%. Let’s say for example you have a ZIP file that’s 80% damaged. If there are a lot of small files and not 1 huge file in that ZIP archive, chances are you can still get back some of the small files. So don’t give up. Always try because you might never know you can get back the file that is most important.

[ Download Object Fix Zip v1.6 ]

Till today I do not have any news of the MSI 955X Platinum motherboard that I’ve ordered because my old motherboard failed.

All my datas are stored in my 250GB and 200GB Maxtor hard drive and I need to use them for my work!
I leave my computer on almost 24/7 when my computer is working fine and I know the lifespan of the hard drive will be shorten. I’ve already had 2 hard drive failures and lost a lot of data. Certainly don’t want that to happen again.
I think I will invest in two 3.5″ hard drive external enclosures. I can connect it to my notebook or my future computer via USB2.0 or Firewire. Whenever I don’t need to access the hard drives, I can just power it down.

I called up my friend who is working for computer hardware supplier. He let me have a look at the enclosure that he has and it looks nice! The casing is made up of aluminium which keeps the hard drive cool.
Weirdly, there is no brand on the box and the casing. I thought it was some cheap OEM 3.5″ hard drive external enclosures. I searched around the internet from the model number and found that the brand is ArrowMicro.



Features
• Model#: HD6-U2FW (USB 2.0, Firewire Interface &IEEE 1394A 3.5″ Hard Drive External Enclosure)
• Support USB 1.1 on Window 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP and Mac O/S 8.6 or above
• Support USB 2.0 on Window 98SE/ME/2000/XP and Mac O/S 8.6 or above
• Support MAC OS 8.6/9.X/10.X
• USB 2.2/IDE compliant:
-Integrated USB transceiver
-High speed (480mbit) and full speed (12mbit) support
-USB suspend/resume, remote wake up support
• Fits all 3.5-inch hard disks
• Support ATA PIO modes 0-4: ATA interface operation mode is automatically selected during device initialization or manually programmed with configuration date
• support UDMA modes 0-4 operation
• Bootable: The computer can be booted directly from this enclosure, forthe purpose of switching OS and system backup. BIOS support bootable function required.
• 40x time faster than USB 1.1
• Support 40-pin IDE interface
• Easy to replace and assemble ATA device
• USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant
• Up to 480mb/sec
• Support up to 300GB Hard Drive
• Plug and Play hot swapping
• Superslim, lightweight and portable

Package Includes
• HD6-U2FW Case,
• Driver CD,
• Case Stand,
• USB cable,
• IEEE 1394 Cable,
• External Power Adapter

Specifications
• USB 2.0
-Complies with Universal Serial Bus Specification Rev. 2.
-Complies with ATA / ATAPI-6 Specification Rev 1.0 (PIO mode 0~4, DMA mode 0~2, UDMA mode 0~5).
-Supports 16-bit multiword DMA mode and Ultra DMA mode interface (Ultra 33 / 66 / 100 / 133)
-Genesys GL811E Chipset

• 1394 Link (Firewire)
-Fully interoperable with IEEE-1394(1995) and IEEE 1394.a-2000 compliant
-Support for SBP-2 target agent
-Fully ATA/ATAPI-6 compliant
-Supports IDE PIO modes and DMA modes and Ultra DMA modes up to UDMA100.
-Genesys GL711 Chipset

Last time RapidShare would host your files as long as your Premium account is still valid but now they’ve changed the rule. The rule of files not being downloaded longer than 90 days will be automatically deleted is now effective for Premium accounts too! I think they’ve implemented this rule for Premium accounts is because they have too many premium account users and files are flooding RapidShare’s hard drive space really fast.

The way to avoid your files from being automatically deleted is to download it yourself when there is no download for nearly 90 days. If you have a lot of files, it is going to be tough to keep track of the last download time from Premium Zone. Good news is, the creator of RapidGrab and The Grabber, Team CodeMasters, has created a tool that is able to extend your files life in RapidShare. I also found another simple DOS tool that is able to generate lists that shows you which files are about to expire in RapidShare.


Rapid Refresh downloads very small part of your files from RapidShare so that it will set a new expire date.

You can download files selectively, just critical files or all. You can import links from clipboard or from Premium Zone. Importing links from clipboard is useful for keeping RapidShare files alive that are uploaded by other people. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a RapidShare Premium account, this tool won’t work for you.

[ Download Rapid Refresh ]

Another DOS tool that I found doesn’t really have a name. I can only identify it as RS90(Maybe it means RapidShare 90 days expire?)

RS90 generates lists sorted by the date of last download. This gives you a clearer picture of which files that are hosted in RapidShare is about to expire soon. RS90 can support up to 3 RapidShare Premium accounts but do take note that RS90 doesn’t extend the expire date.

It is advisable to place RS90 folder at the root of your drive such as C:\RS90 then run RS90.exe. If you’re running RS90 for the first time, you’re required to enter the RapidShare Premium account login details. You won’t need to enter your login details the next time when you run RS90.exe. Your login details are saved as CLEAR TEXT in RS-Data.ini. Meaning anyone can open the RS-Data.ini file and see your RapidShare Premium login details. Just becareful of that…

[ Download RS90 ]

Hope these 2 tools are able to help you to keep your files hosted in RapidShare servers as long as possible.

I started using RapidShare premium account about 4 months ago because I download a lot of stuff from RapidShare everyday. Actually I didn’t need to buy the premium account because I can always disconnect and reconnect my ADSL connection to obtain a new IP address from my ISP and continue downloading the next file. That is all right if I need to download only a few files but it will be a BIG problem if I need to download 50 files or more everyday from RapidShare.

So I decided to try out RapidShare premium for a month which cost only 6.99 EUR and I also get 8000 points. With 8000 points in hand, I can easily get another 2000 points to extend my RapidShare premium account for another 30 days. That’s a pretty good deal for testing out RapidShare premium account.

Once I got the RapidShare premium account, immediately I went searching for ways to automate downloading from Rapidshare. I found Orbit and it was able to act as a download manager for RapidShare without problems.

If already have a download manager installed (such as FlashGet) and don’t want to install Orbit, then here’s an alternative on how you can easily download multiple files from RapidShare.


gRapid allows premium users of RapidShare to automate downloading of files without having to attend to them. It relies on Java and GNU Wget to process downloads from a file containing Rapidshare links, one on each line. It can perform simultaneous downloads of any number you may desire.

A few things you need to have before using gRapid.
1. Java
2. RapidShare Premium account
3. RapidShare links input into a text file called in.txt

If you have all the above, you can start downloading rapidshare links by running the command line:
java -jar gRapid.jar PremiumLogin PremiumPassword in.txt 8

PremiumLogin is your RapidShare Premium username and PremiumPassword is your password. The in.txt file would be used as your downloads list (one rapidshare link per line). The last number “8″ is the number of simultaneous downloads you would like to queue. Simply put, if you have 10 links in “in.txt” and 8 as the last number, then 8 copies of Wget would be running simultaneously to service the downloads, and as soon as one finishes, the one of the remaining 2 would kick in. My download speed is only 1024KBps and one connection is already using up all my download bandwidth. Unless you have a very fast connection, you can specify more numbers of simultaneous connections.

To see the progress of the download, just check the log file “wget-log.txt“. It shows you the download speed, download percent and also the file size.

Downloaded files can be found in Downloads folder inside gRapid folder. Currently there is no way to change it because it’s hard coded. Another thing is gRapid doesn’t warn you if links provided in the input file (in.txt) are not present, i.e. not found on Rapidshare or deleted, etc. To check RapidShare-URLs for availability, just use RapidShare Link Checker.

Here’s a very important RapidShare configuration for gRapid to work. Even the author of gRapid don’t have this information on his website. You must make sure that RapidShare “Direct-downloads” option is being turned OFF / uncheck.

By default Direct-downloads is uncheck. This option can be found by logging in to your RapidShare premium account and click on the Options button.

If the Direct-downloads is checked, you’ll get an error message saying “Exception in thread “main” java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space” after a few minutes of downloading.

Oh and by the way, gRapid is open source. Open Source = FREE.

[ Download gRapid ]

So yesterday, shortly after I finished writing last night’s post on HMTL5, my girlfriend messaged me and asked me what the heck was going on with Google. For those not living in US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain or Russia, Google Instant was rolled out last night. Seeing as I’m a person who uses Google and Scroogle a lot, I decided to try spoofing my IP via proxy to try it out before it comes to Canada officially. And what I saw officially makes me crept out, and very happy that it hasn’t rolled out into Canada officially yet, mostly because I’m not a big fan of it.

The first thing I’d like to note for those who haven’t had a chance to try out Google Instant is that this is my opinion of what I feel when I use it, and you might actually like this feature more then yours truly. However, I find it a waste of my time, and these are the reasons I’m not going to be using it.

The first thing I’d like to point out about Google Instant is the instant “creepy” factor, of Google trying to actively predict on what you’re trying to search. Now, don’t get me wrong, we use Google so we can figure out something, and the closer Google can get to our actual result, the better. After all, that’s how Google’s worked for more then the past ten years. But now with Google Instant, we have a new way of searching: Google will look up every letter on top what you’re spelling. So if you’re trying to look up “Richard Stallman’s contribution to Windows” (here’s a hint: none), it will start looking up things while you type that all out. “R”, “Ri”, “Ric”, etc, until you get the proper search term you want to see. Which is all fine and good, but what if you’re trying to look up Justin Lang. Guess who takes number one spot instead?

Um… no.

If I’m looking up something that has nothing to do with what Google pulled up, I find that annoying. And if I happened to be look up for Beiber (if I ever did, I would shoot myself), then that would be completely creepy. And if I absolutely wanted to type anything at all… I could have typed it faster because I have a high enough WPM count, something most geeks I know of are able to say with ease.

Now, I have to give marks to Google for trying something new… it’s not every day someone’s trying to improve on search engines, especially because they are mostly pretty static. And there will be the people that will love this feature, don’t get me wrong. Personally, I find it a pain in the rear end, but that’s my two cents. Some people will certainly find this new feature of Google highly useful, which is exactly what Google’s hoping. And who knows? It might be a lot more successful then Google’s Buzz. Whichever way you swing it, Google Instant is very unusual, very different, and might just be the thing for you. It is possible to disable it if you don’t want to use it, via the Preferences, but try it before you do. No way to find out based on my review: try it yourself.

– Try Google Instant – (Free!)

When UAC was introduced in Windows Vista, it sucked, PERIOD. Symantec came to the rescue by releasing a tool called Norton User Account Control which will replace parts of the Windows Vista UAC system. The good thing about Norton UAC tool is it allows you to whitelist programs so that you will not be prompted by the UAC warning on the allowed software. However the Norton UAC tool was never publicly released nor updated to work with Windows 7 maybe due to Microsoft decided to fine tune and polish the UAC in Windows 7.

UAC in Windows 7 isn’t any better either. As a power user, I find UAC really annoying and it is the first thing that I disable after installing Windows 7. The only reason I kept the UAC enabled on my test system is because I want to simulate normal user’s computer when I am doing research or testing some software. Don’t get me wrong, UAC does help a bit in protecting the computer although a lot of malware already comes with UAC bypass mechanism. If you would like to keep UAC enabled but run some programs without the UAC prompt in Windows 7, here is a software called UAC Trust Shortcut where it allows you to disable User Account Control for a specific application, by defining a trusted shortcut.


I had to test the UAC Trust Shortcut software extensively to fully understand how it really works. After installing UAC Trust Shortcut, a UAC Trust Shortcut Tray Manager will be added to Windows startup and sits in notification area. It doesn’t really do anything other than providing a convenient way for you to start the service and trusted shortcut creator.

To create a trusted shortcut, right click on the UAC Trust Shortcut tray icon and select “Open UAC Trust Shortcut 1.0″. A window will appear where you can add the name of the program that you want to whitelist, browse for the program and click the Add now link. The trusted shortcut will be added to Desktop and you can now run the program from the trusted shortcut without getting the UAC prompt. As easy as it seems, there is actually an additional step where it must be done or else the trusted shortcut will always prompt the User Account Control warning.

You need to manually start the background service (tracer.exe) from the UAC Trust Shortcut Tray Manager (which requires the UAC elevation) every time you restart, or log off Windows. This is only required once in every Windows session and then you can launch as many trusted shortcuts you want without getting the UAC prompt. The tracer.exe is the important main process where it needs to be running in order for any software that you want to run without the UAC prompt. Be informed that you should not attempt to run the tracer.exe directly from C:\Program Files\ITknowledge24\ or else you will get an endless loop of launching the program when you run any shortcut that invokes. I found that the UAC Trust Shortcut tool doesn’t support command line arguments and it doesn’t work with batch files as well which I thought I could call a program with arguments.

UAC Trust Shortcut is free and works on both Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. Just make sure you download the correct version or else the setup will fail to install.

Download UAC Trust Shortcut

VNC is the abbreviation of: Virtual Network Computing if you didn’t know it.
There are many types of VNC such as TightVNC, RealVNC, UltraVNC and etc…

RealVNC is a remote control software which allows you to view and interact with one computer (the server) using a simple program (the viewer) on another computer anywhere on the Internet. The two computers don’t even have to be the same type. You can use RealVNC to view an office Linux machine on your Windows PC at home or help friends who are living far away without driving lots of miles.

Recently, there is a big security issue in RealVNC v4.1.1 discovered by Steve Wiseman.


It actually allows you to connect to any computer without password! Usually after vnc server installation, it will advice you to set a new password so not to allow any unauthorized user with VNC Viewer to remote control.
Just by modifying a few lines of code in the viewer, and the viewer is turned into a universal hacked viewer which can simply connect to any vnc server v4.1.1 without password.
Imagine what a person can do when there is a VNC Null Authentication Vulnerability Scanner!
He can scan the whole world of computers to find for VNC Server v4.1.1 and then use the hacked VNC viewer to connect to it. He will have 100% access to the computer.

If you are using RealVNC v4.1.1, PLEASE download the latest version v4.2.5 immediately because any minute a hacker can be viewing your VNC servers without knowing the password.

[ Download latest RealVNC v4.2.5 ]

Note: The below information is ONLY for educational purposes only.
You can download a copy of old RealVNC v4.1.1 from this link.
You can then use an already hacked version of VNC viewer that is able to connect to any RealVNC v4.1.1 servers without password.
RealVNC 4.1.0 – 4.1.1 (VNC Null Authentication) Vulnerability Scanners is also available here. It allows you to scan for computers that has RealVNC v4.1.1 servers installed.

Anyone got this 502 Server Error message when browse to http://www.google.com?

Hopefully it’s just temporary because I tried to refresh every 30 seconds and I still get the same 502 Server Error…

Update: Oops… the minute after I posted this article, Google is back to normal 😛

There are dozens of web-based applications that allow you to sign into your favorite messenger service from within your web browser.
But Meebo deservers the extra attention. To begin with, it allows you to sign into four popular IM services simultaneously, including -of course- MSN Messenger and newcomer Google Talk. “Semi-interoperability”, you could call it. All you have to do is enter your login details for the service(s) you want to log on, and off you go. Before you ask, they have a clear and safe privacy policy.


Another point worth noting is the technology behind the application, which is -just like Gmail- AJAX. This translates into a very smooth operation without page reloads, and the typical Windows “feel” (chat windows can be maximized and overlap). The graphical user interface itself resembles MSN Messenger’s new best buddy, Yahoo! Messenger.

Meebo was launched last month by three people, and it’s still in BETA-phase. For now Opera is not yet supported, but it worked great in IE and Firefox.

>> Try Meebo (not to be confused with MeeGo).

USB flash drives are so common nowadays and I believe most of us already have one. It is very convenient to carry along our data with us all the time but can also be a problem when you’re unable to properly eject it from your computer. The error message “The device ‘Generic volume’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.” is what you’ll see when you’re having the problem. You can use Unlocker to unlock the files in used and then eject OR you can use a special tool called USB Safely Remove developed to help you easily manage your external hotpluggable device.

USB Safely Remove normally cost $20 for a single user license which last a lifetime but they’re giving away free licenses to everyone for a week in order to promote upcoming version 4.0. You may use all the features of the program and get upgrades for one year for free. Actually they’ve done this early this year on February to promote version 3.3, so no big surprise that they’ll start doing it again. Continue reading on how to get your free USB Safely Remove v4 registration code.


USB Safely Remove is a neat and handy replacement for the standard ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ tool. It will make life easier and save time for those who have several hotplug (USB, SATA, Firewire) devices and those who use them extensively.

USB Safely Remove is better than the Windows ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ tool because:

The ability to hide any device from the ‘stop’ menu.

Uses real device names and allows renaming.

Keyboard shortcuts for easy device stopping.

Unique menu for one-click stop.

Programs autorun on device plugging/unplugging.

It tells you why a device cannot be stopped immediately.

The latest USB Safely Remove version 4.0 includes a few very useful features such as “Return device back”. After you stopped a device, but still did not unplug it, sometimes it would be very useful to return it back to the system. For example if you have remembered you forgot to write a file to the drive after you stopped it. In this case you are compelled to physically replug the device. However sometimes it is quite inconvenient if the device is connected to the rear panel of the computer. USB Safely Remove allows you to return your device back as easy as you do safe removal – in a one click!

The new version can see and stop such devices like PCMCIA. Also it has a unique feature to stop even those hot-swap devices whose drivers does not support “authentic safe removal” (they cannot be seen in the native Windows Safe Removal tool), e.g. Silicon Image SATA devices. USB Safely Remove stops these devices via “disabling” (as Windows Device Manager do), however it makes stopping of these devices convenient for user – in the same manner as you do ordinary safe removal.

Most of the card readers create a drive letter for every slot even if it doesn’t contain a memory card. Those who uses only one or two memory cards at the same time, might dislike this behaviour. The new version allows you to get rid of this problem – you will see only those drives of the card reader where memory cards are connected.

To get your free USB Safely Remove 4.0 license, head to this page http://safelyremove.com/giveawayweekp.htm, enter your full name (nickname not accepted!), email address and click “I want the license button”.

Your license will be sent to you within 24 hours. There is a great likelyhood that you’ll get it much earlier, but just in case, be patient please. Once you got the registration name and registration code, launch USB Safely Remove > go to Help > Enter License Key. The latest USB Safely Remove v4.0 beta works on both 32 and 64 bit of Windows.

I am starting to think whether they’ve officially started giving the free license away or not because I couldn’t find any page linking to the offer page. I’ve just requested a free USB Safely Remove v4 license and hope to get it soon. Will report immediately when I do get the free registration code.

[ Download USB Safely Remove v3.3 | v4.0 Beta 8 ]

Did you know that when you chat with your friends using any instant messenger such as Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger, the conversation is being sent as clear text form which can be intercepted by sniffing the network data? I know many of you who work in office often talk to your friends using a messenger thinking that it’s safe to reveal anything but it’s not. Most company uses a server to share internet connection, so all traffic will go through the server first. If the administrator install a packet sniffer that is able to decode MSN packets on the server,the admin is able to intercept all messages in and out of MSN.

Don’t believe? See how easy I sniff and decode MSN messages. I install MSN Sniffer 2 from EffeTech on my server. Then I use two workstations to chat with each other. I logged in to Windows Live Messenger for both account on different computer, then I start a conversation.

As you can see, MSN Sniffer is able to capture and decode MSN packets. It displays both MSN incoming and outgoing messages.

It is wrong for the administrator to install a packet sniffer to capture and decode packets but then you can’t blame them because they are afraid of you leaking confidential company information to other people. However, you can use encryption solution to protect yourself from being sniffed.


There are many encryption utilities but the one that works the best for me is Simp Pro/Lite created by Secway. SimpLite prevents eavesdroppers from reading your personal instant messenger conversations. There are 2 versions of Simp, the Lite and PRO. The PRO version is the shareware version of Simp and it supports all types of instant messengers. But if want to use it for free, you can use Simp Lite with the catch of only one product from the SimpLite family can be launched at the same time on your computer. Meaning if you’re using SimpLite-MSN, you can’t use SimpLite-Yahoo simultaneously.

Simp can handle both encrypted and unencrypted chats. To have encrypted conversation, both parties must have Simp installed. If either one person doesn’t have Simp installed, the conversation will remain unencrypted.

Here are the steps to use SimpLite for encrypting your chat messages.
1. Download and install SimpLite.

2. You’ll be presented with Simp configuration wizard. Select whatever is appropriate.

3. After finish configuring, you’ll need to generate keys. Click next at the welcome screen.

4. You can use the default Cipher and click Next. Make sure the RSA is 2048 bits for maximum security.

5. Enter a password to protect your private key. Whenever you run SimpLite, you’ll need to enter this password.

6. Move your mouse cursor around the window to generate random numbers. Click Next and it will generate your RSA 2048 bits keypair.

Ask the other person that you want to securely chat with to install and configure SimpLite like what you did. When both of you have SimpLite installed, either person will have to send a message. That will bring up a screen on both party asking whether to accept the new key.

Once both party has clicked Accept button, you’ll get a popup window stating “Authenticated and encrypted“.

If you open SimpLite window from the tray bar, you’ll notice that a new key being added. The next time when you chat with the same person, the conversation is automatically encrypted.

To proof that the chat is encrypted, I run MSN Sniffer again and start capturing the packets in the network. Then I start a conversation with the same message as above “Hello Peter, how are you today?”. This is what the MSN Sniffer logged.

I bet the administrator would be cracking his head on what has happened to his MSN sniffer when he sees messages that only has random letters and numbers.

SimpLite can work on MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google and Jabber. Do take note that SimpLite encryption only protects you from network sniffers but not keyloggers. If you’re sure that your local computer is clean from keylogger, then having SimpLite would be an added protection.

[ Download SimpLite for MSN Messenger ]

Are you aware of all the devices – USB sticks, CDs, floppies, smartphones, MP3 players, handhelds, iPods, digital cameras – that have been connected to your network? As an administrator, do you know how many employees have been using or are using portable storage devices at the moment? Monitoring your network for these devices is not only time-consuming but nearly impossible to do manually.

Often the weakest link in security is not the technology but the people who use it. The extensive use of portable storage devices on your network can expose it to unintentional and malicious security threats and result in data theft, virus attacks, legal complications and loss of productivity. Knowing what devices are on your network today is the first step towards minimizing these risks.

Good news is now you can actually check what devices are or have been connected to computers in your network and by whom within minutes!


GFi, the famous IT security and productivity solutions provider has created a free web utility called EndPointScan which lets you check what devices are or have been connected to computers in your network and by whom within minutes.

Doesn’t require any configuration or huge installation. Just make sure you visit EndPointScan website using Internet Explorer. Or if you’re using Mozilla Firefox, use IETab. Simply click on the Scan my network! button and it’ll ask if if you want to scan a single computer, a range of computers or list of computers.

If this is the first time you are using GFI EndPointScan, an ActiveX control (0.7MB) must be downloaded and installed on your computer. Select ‘Yes‘ when prompted to download this control.

Once a scan is completed, GFI EndPointScan will display scan results in a graphical report. The report includes device usage, device threat level and computer risk level. The information presented refers to devices connected both currently and historically.

Only Windows 2000, XP and 2003 is supported. Windows 95, 98 and NT is NOT supported. If you’re having trouble installing ActiveX, just set your Internet Explorer security settings to Medium. You will need administrator rights and privileges to set Internet security settings and execute EndPointScan.

You can only scan your network for free and that’s it. If you want to do more such as controlling network access of portable storage devices and drives, such as USB drives, iPods and PDAs, you have to purchase GFi EndPointSecurity which is quite expensive. I believe this is the reason why GFi made EndPointScan available for free. Anyway, it’s still a good online utility to scan network for devices. It’s quite similar to what USBDeview can do.

[ Scan Your Network with EndPointScan ]