I personally believe that any popular site will get attacked by DDoS at some point. WordPress is one of the latest victim that got hit by multiple Gbps of DDoS with millions of packets per second. This can only be done by a very large botnet controlled by cyber criminals. A good antivirus should be able to protect a user from being infected in the first place and since there are over 60 brands of antivirus, not all of them are as equally good. So if a user ends up using an antivirus that doesn’t have very good detection, then his/her computer is probably part of the botnet that is attacking online services or servers without their knowledge.
The Anti-Botnet-Advisory Centre has been set up to to reduce the number of Botnet infected computers in Germany and to help affected users rid their PCs of malicious files. First of all the ISP plays a very important role in detecting certain patterns of behavior on their customer’s computer to assume that it is part of a botnet. The user will be contacted by their ISP to go through the required steps to help remove the Botnet. This initiative is to take Germany out of the Top Ten list of countries which is based on the assumption of Botnet activities… If you’re not from Germany, you can still use the free DE-Cleaner tool developed by Avira, Kaspersky and Symantec to detect any malicious malware on your computer.
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Most of the people know when the Windows system is hung, it may generate a ‘memory dump file’ and the dump file normally is located under C:\Windows\ directory. This dump file is named as “memory.dmp” (this setting is set by default in Windows). This configuration is basically provided in-depth information on why the system goes down, and what is the cause of the system hung. For those technical support guys, sometimes you may need to deal with dump file and send it to service provider such as Microsoft for further investigation.
But how about programs that hung? Can I also do something for that, so that I got some ideas on troubleshooting? Or at least I got something that can send to the program’s support team on the hung errors? YES, you can do that! In order to do create a memory dump for a program, you will need to download a tool called ADPlus.
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3 years ago I’ve written about CaSIR, which is a very useful small and portable tool that has helped me removed a lot of stubborn virus infection with just a click (especially Brontok and some unknown variant) from computers when antivirus has failed to remove them. All I need to do is run it from my portable USB drive and click the Start button. Back then when CaSIR was in version 2, it is a shareware that cost USD14.95 and is limited to only running it on your computer since the license is machine dependent.
I revisited Sergiwa’s website today (the author of CaSIR), and found that CaSIR is now a freeware. Everyone can now use CaSIR on any computer without limitations. CaSIR takes merely a few seconds to scan because it only checks the areas where malware mostly hide and cleans them. Once the infection has been removed, I can then use other tools to further clean up any traces of the malware.
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Fast broadband internet connection is quite common nowadays whether it is wireless or wired. With more and more people able to download at super fast speed, sometimes a website can’t even cope up in serving a file for people to download with maximum speed. For example, let’s say you have a 1Mbps connection which gives you the capability of downloading at 128KBps max. Sometimes you end up downloading a file at only 40KBps from a website because the server limits you to that speed. The only way to overcome that is to download using multiple threads with a download manager.
With so many download managers nowadays, I’d say that Internet Download Manager or often shortly called IDM is without a doubt one of the best. I used to be a hardcore FlashGet and Orbit Downloader user but when I started trying out IDM, I pretty much got hooked to it and never use back what I used before or even want to try any other download managers. Believe it or not, IDM is even able to help you finish your download slightly quicker than other download managers (yes I’ve timed it).
Internet Download Manager is a shareware that cost $29.95 for a single license. Thanks to IDM’s company, Tonec Inc, they are very kind to sponsor 30 lifetime Internet Download Manager license to Raymond.CC readers as Christmas giveaway.
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Let me start out by I’ve never been one that has really used or tried many cloud antiviruses. Hitman Pro and Panda Cloud are the two that I’m used to, and use all the time in terms to cleaning up virus infections, though Panda I had for a short time on my desktop when it was still Windows XP. It was lightweight and protected me from a lot of viruses, so I was happy to be using it. I switched away from it only because of the fact I decided to make my desktop system Linux only. And while I don’t know exactly how they work one hundred percent other then uploading files to a remote server and checking them for viruses. Aside from that, I don’t know how any antivirus works… but the truth is, most times we don’t need to know how something works to protect us. I might not understand how MBAM or ESET finds a virus on my system, but I’m glad that it can and that it does. At the end of the day, the thing that matters that it does work. To this extent, I recently tried a newer cloud based anti-malware, named PREVX, and see how well it worked.
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Pardon me for the lack of updates. I would say that currently all of my time is dedicated in taking care of my baby and wife’s needs. My baby is now 2 months old and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she would be easier to take care by the time when she’s three months old. Otherwise, me and my wife will be have to either employ a full time maid or ask my mother-in-law to help us out or else I won’t have time to do my work and keep this site updated.
Today I just wanted to share something which I’ve just gone through. I found out that a company called Medela has developed a new type of teat called “Calma” which mimics breastfeeding. So far it is only sold in some parts of European country and not even in the US yet. I wanted to get it for my baby so bad that I asked leofelix to help me check if he could buy it and then send it to me but unfortunately it is not sold in the town that he lives in. I had to look for another alternative and found out that it is possible to buy it online, have it shipped to a virtual address and then the forwarder will send it to me via DHL.
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While using NoVirusThanks online service to scan a suspicious file today, I discovered a new service developed by NoVirusThanks Company called URLVoid which was recently launched two days ago (21 May 2010). Many of us should have already heard about VirusTotal, NoVirusThanks, Jotti, VirusChief, Filterbit which allows anyone to upload a suspicious file to have it scanned with multiple up-to-date antivirus engines. As for URLVoid, it allows you to scan websites for viruses using multiple scanning engines.
Scanning websites is very different from scanning a file. The website scanners normally crawls the website and test to see if it can find any malware or spam. When found, it labels the site as dangerous. Some website scanners also takes user’s comments and ratings into consideration. Web of Trust (WoT), McAfee SiteAdvisor, Norton Safe Web are some of the website analyzers which are widely used and sometimes depending on a single service may not be accurate enough. For more accurate result, you can use URLVoid which will help you scan the URL with 9 different scanning engines.
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In the previous post, I mentioned about how to prepare your system using Sysprep and received a few requests for information on how to perform Sysprep in Windows 7. Here I would like to share the steps and the information on how to Sysprep your Windows 7.
Surprisingly, I noticed the process of new Sysprep has been simplified. You can just simply execute the Sysprep located at C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder to prepare your machine, and apparently there are not much choices for you to choose compare to the previous Sysprep. From the Sysprep windows, you can only see option for System Cleanup Action & Shutdown Option.
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If you are using the latest version of Windows Live Messenger 2009 build 14.0.8117.416, you may have noticed that the very useful Show My Webcam feature has been stripped off. For many years Windows Live Messenger has two webcam features which is the viewing of webcam without voice and the Video Call. The “show my webcam” feature is very useful especially when either party has a slower connection but still able to see each other. When I compared the amount of bandwidth taken up between a Video Call and Viewing of Webcam, Video Call takes up 30KB/s but the webcam viewing takes up only 10KB/s. I tried disabling speaker and microphone so that it does not transmit any sound but the video call still takes up 30KB/s.
Although speedy broadband connection are pretty common nowadays but the upload speed given by most ISP are still quite low. If you didn’t know, showing of webcam uses your upload bandwidth and watching a webcam uses download bandwidth instead. After researching and testing, I found out that it is still possible to use the Show My Webcam feature.
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If you haven’t been receiving any newsletter from us lately, not to worry at all because we have not given up on this blog yet. Although we rarely publish any new posts lately, it doesn’t mean that nothing has been going on. I guess we do owe you an explanation on what we have been doing and what we will continue doing in future.
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Normally I’m not one that supports or uses proxies myself, seeing as I usually can access 99% of what I need and want on the internet without the use of them. However, because I live in Canada and not in the United States, I can not access certain sites or certain Youtube videos without the stereotypical “This video can not be shown in your country”. And I’m sure the majority of us have seen it as well: the fact that we are not allowed to certain things only because our countries are not seen as equals. A prime example of this is with Pandora Radio: in Canada, we can not access it because of having less restrictive copyright. However, my American friends can access it fine. And at the same time, in the European Union, they have an application called ‘Spotify’, that if you aren’t aware of, is a streaming radio application for your desktop that you have to sign up for… but can only sign up and use if you’re in the EU. And despite the fact that, yes, I could move to these countries when I get older… why on Earth would I do that if I enjoy Canada?
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Paul is the one that normally post about Linux because he is the expert on it but I am going to steal his show today. I just found out about a software that works on Windows called Linux Live USB Creator or short for LiLi which is pretty interesting. There are quite a number of free applications such as UNetbootin that allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for many Linux distributions without burning a CD. After installing the linux distro into the USB flash drive, to test it you will have to boot up the computer using the USB flash drive and you won’t access to Windows environment.
The only way to test a linux distro or rescue system disc is by using virtualization software such as VirtualBox. For computer users that are not so familiar on how to configure VirtualBox, LiLi has gone one step ahead by allowing you to launch a Linux Live directly in any windows without any configuration nor software installation on your hard drive. It uses a portable version of VirtualBox to achieve that and the best part is you don’t need to configure anything at all.
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Whether you are using Avira, AVG, Kaspersky, Norton, ESET, Avast, Comodo and etc, all of them slows Windows down and that is a fact. Most Windows users needs an antivirus because it can protect their computer from most viruses that are spreading through network, internet and USB flash drives. Without an antivirus, the user can get infected by virus, spyware, trojan, worms, bots very easily and quickly if they have not much knowledge in computers. Even though I know the importance of an antivirus software, I don’t really like to install them on my computers because of one simple reason only and that is slowing down in everything I do on the computer.
I do fine most of the time without an antivirus because like I said before I always test run and analyze any suspicious file that I downloaded on the Internet on another computer that is running a clean Windows without anything that the virus can steal or damage. However as a tech guy, I am faced with the ultimate question of which is the fastest / lightest / best antivirus? It is really hard to say which one is the best because there are a lot of points that has to be taken into consideration such as the performance, detection and removal.
I have completed 2 performance tests so far and I have to admit that both tests are flawed and inaccurate. The test is fair because the antiviruses are tested on the same computer with the same steps and method. However there are some illogical part of it which I will explain more in detail.
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Previously I’ve answered your question on my opinion about which is the best antivirus program. After that article, people has started asking me which one is the best firewall that can protect their computer from hackers. Honestly, I’ve never tried any firewall software before because I don’t want to put any more load on my computer. Even if I have experience with some firewall products, I can never be qualified to judge which is the best firewall program. However, I will still try my best to answer your question. I found a website called Matousec and they run a project called Firewall Challenge. This project examines personal firewalls, Internet security suites and other similar products for Windows OS that implement process-based security. They have the best answer on which firewall software gives the best protection against spying, data and identity theft.
Matousec tested 25 products with Security Software Testing Suite. SSTS is a set of tools used for testing personal firewalls and Internet security suites for Windows. SSTS is based on the idea of leak-tests, small independent programs that attempt to bypass an outbound protection of the security software. SSTS also consists of many independent programs that test specific features. SSTS is published with its source code, which makes the testing as transparent as possible.
Here are the 25 personal firewall or security suite that has been put to test:
AVG Internet Security 8.0.93
Avira Premium Security Suite 8.1.00.206
BitDefender Internet Security 2008 11.0.16
BullGuard Internet Security 8.0.0.13
Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.21.329 – FREE
ESET Smart Security 3.0.621.0
Filseclab Personal Firewall 3.0.0.8686 – FREE
FortKnox Personal Firewall 2008 3.0.195.0
iolo Personal Firewall 1.5.2.7
Jetico Personal Firewall 2.0.1.5.2216
Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.1.325
Look ‘n’ Stop 2.06
McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 9.1.108
Norton Internet Security 2008 15.5.0.23
Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.119 – FREE
Outpost Firewall Pro 2008 6.0.2302.264.0490
PC Tools Firewall Plus 3.0.1.9 – FREE
Privatefirewall 6.0.11.30
ProSecurity 1.43
Rising Personal Firewall 2007 19.66.0.0
Steganos Internet Security 2008 7.5.509
Sunbelt Personal Firewall 4.5.916
System Safety Monitor 2.3.0.612
Windows Live OneCare 2.0.2500.22
ZoneAlarm Pro 7.0.462.000
I was surprised by the result of the tests because the only 2 product that scored perfect (100%) against 62 tests are Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.21.329 and Online Armor Personal Firewall 2.1.0.119 which is FREEWARE. This test results really puts those paid firewall software to shame… As for Kaspersky Internet Security, it manage to take the 5th place which is pretty good. You can check out the results at this page.
It’s very hard for me to tell you which firewall would work better because every computer is different. Some would have better performance with Comodo Firewall and some Online Armor. It’d be an endless debate if trying to compare which is better. If you don’t believe me, try doing a search in Google on “Comodo Firewall vs Online Armor” and you’ll find that there are some forums that has a discussion on this topic up to 8 pages long with no conclusion. As far as I can see, Online Armor has an older but easier to use interface. As for Comodo, it has a better looking interface with many settings. Comodo supports Windows Vista but Online Armor don’t. One thing I don’t like about free version of shareware is some features will be disabled.
Why don’t you try both Comodo Firewall and Online Armor and tell me which you prefer and why. Just remember not to run both Firewall at the same time. You can either uninstall either one or simply disable it.
Been out of action for nearly 2 months and didn’t even realize that IObit’s Game Booster software has a paid version (shareware). The last time I reviewed Game Booster version 1 was two years ago and it managed to squeeze a little more FPS on the game Counter-Strike:Source by temporarily terminating unnecessary services and releasing RAM. Game Booster is now at version 2 and it has two versions which is the premium and free. From the official comparison webpage, it stated that both versions are able to provide basic game boosting and improved gaming experience.
As for the Premium version of Game Booster, it has advanced game boosting by detecting and closing more unnecessary services, tweaking system, adding unlimited games into Game Box, controlling interface settings, fast automatic update and free technical support. I think that the first three features are the main selling point of the Premium version.
I was curious about what other “more” unnecessary services that the Premium version can detect and close so I made a comparison but found no difference. I see the same list of unnecessary services on the Main tab. Weirdly if you click on the yellow Upgrade button where it shows “What’s in Premium”, it doesn’t say anything about “detecting and closing more unnecessary services”. My guess is either IObit forgot to update the comparison page on the website or they have it there to attract people to buy the software…
The Premium version of Game Booster also activates System Tweaks where in my test system shows 7 items, probably a small fraction of system tweaks that can be found on Advanced SystemCare. They are disabling 8.3 names and last access for NTFS to speed up disk access, boosting priority of foreground applications, increasing IE download sessions, speeding up menu display (the good old MenuShowDelay registry tweak that has been around since Windows 95) and making system shutdown faster.
Another interesting feature I noticed on Game Booster Premium is the “Game Box” where it acts like a shortcut window allowing you to easily launch your favorite game and automatically boosting your system by turning on the Gaming Mode. Free version only allows you to add one game to the Game Box where the premium allows unlimited.
The official Game Booster Premium website states that the 1 PC license with 1 year maintenance cost $19.95 which sounds like a subscription based license structure but I think it’s not. I believe that when the 1 year period is up, you can still continue using the Premium features that is currently installed on your computer BUT you cannot use the Premium features of the “latest version released at that or later time”. You probably need to pay some money which is normally lesser than the original price to upgrade.
Currently IObit is giving away free license of Game Booster Premium for a week starting from yesterday. All you need is a Facebook account and follow the instructions on the link below to Like the page, Share it on your Facebook profile to get the unique ID and finally go to your profile and click on a link to convert the unique ID into Game Booster Premium license code. Do note that you only have 10 minutes to do that… http://db.iobit.com/gamebooster/share.php
Once you got the license code, download the latest free version of Game Booster 2 from the link below, install it and enter the key to convert it to Premium edition. Do note that the current Game Booster 2.2 has a bug where it reverts the Premium version back to Free when relaunching the program. All you need to do is wait for the upcoming bug fixed version 2.3 which will be released soon.
