Yesterday I written an article about “How To Recover Deleted Digital Photo from Digital Camera’s Memory Card“. It works most of the time if you followed the instructions carefully. However, there are chances that the recovered photo might be not viewable after recovering. That’s what happened to me. I was recovering some photos from my memory card and I saved all of the images that can be recovered. Some photos displayed perfectly and some gave the message “No preview available” in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

Another way that can corrupt an image file is hard drive Bad Sectors. If so happen that the image file is on the bad sector, the image will not be viewable. Even if you fix it with Scandisk, it will not save your image.

Please take note that recovering photos from memory card is different from recovering images from damaged/corrupted images. In this case, you already have the image file but it won’t display. Here’s what you can do when you have an image file that you can’t view.


After much searching, it didn’t seem like there were many tools or tips and tricks to repair a corrupted image file. There’s only one software I found called PixRecovery which is data recovery program for damaged images. It supports GIF, TIFF and JPEG formats. It is sort of like a picture repair utility.

It’s very easy use. Just run PixRecovery, click on the “Recover” button to browse for the image file that you want to repair. It will then automatically detect the picture type, tries to recover the picture and prompt you where you’d like to saved the recovered damaged image file.

The only drawback is it’s not free. PixRecovery cost a whopping US$149.00 for a single user license. I think it’s expensive because it’s the only software that is able to recover and repair corrupted image files. Like I said in previous article, photos are precious which can last a lifetime, that’s why programmers know that people would pay for a software that can help them recover their corrupted photos. I couldn’t find any retail versions, cracked versions or keygenerators for PixRecovery. But I managed to find OfficeRecovery.Enterprise.v2007.Incl.Keymaker-AGAiN. OfficeRecovery Enterprise is a suite of recovery programs that includes PixRecovery.

You can try the free demo version of PixRecovery which recovers a limited amount of corrupted data. The remaining recoverable data will be labeled as “demo” in the demo-recovered file. Full version of PixRecovery will recover the demo-limited data as well.

[ Download PixRecovery Demo ]

I wanted to buy a special microfiber cloth from the Internet. It measures 40 x 35cm and I don’t have any idea how big is 40 x 35cm. I know it’s small, but how small is it? I can’t be really sure until I’ve got the measurement from a ruler or measuring tape. I tried looking for a measuring tape or even a ruler but I couldn’t find one. In fact, I can’t even remember when was the last time I used a ruler or measuring tape to measure something!

Desperate to know, I thought I might find something on the Internet that can teach me how to measure without using a ruler or measuring tape. Wonderful, I found a solution and now I don’t even need a ruler or measuring tape anymore to measure length, width and height!

JS Screen Ruler is a great tool that allows you to accurately measure anything on your screen. This is especially useful when measuring graphics, web page browser sizes or whatever. Screen Ruler can display Pixels, Inches, Picas or Centimeters.

Right clicking on the ruler gives you the ability to flip the ruler from horizontal to vertical, mark the exact center of the ruler with a vertical slash, move the ruler to the far left of your desktop screen and also setting the different measuring system to either pixels, inches, picas or centimeters(cm).

JS Screen Ruler is FREE but it also has a shareware version which offers more features such as rotate the ruler, set transparent background, capture active window size and customize color. I personally think that using the FREE version is good enough. Actually I found quite a lot of free on screen ruler but they all have nearly the same features.

[ Download JR Screen Ruler ]

Here’s something I want to share with all of you. If I am not wrong, about 4-5 years ago, I’ve got a friend telling me how much fun he had by scanning the whole college network for shared folders. He was able to discover so many important files and also did many bad things by deleting important files from My Documents and also destroying Windows by deleting Windows system files. I was totally against that because who knows that the poor guy/girl spent many weeks to complete an assignment and was about to hand over to the lecturer but found out that it’s GONE!

For people who don’t know nuts about repairing own laptops, they’d have to fork out extra money just to get their Windows fixed or reinstalled. My friend could have been the good guy in placing a note in the shared folder to warn them about the danger of sharing but he had an evil sick and twisted mind instead.

So I am here to warn you about the danger of sharing folders on the network and I am going to show you how easy it is to scan the whole network, or even the whole Internet for shared folders.


If you didn’t know, sharing a folder on the Network is VERY easy. Just right click any folder or even your drive, select “Sharing and Security” and all it takes to share is by checking the “Share this folder on the network” checkbox. That leaves the folder open for everyone to access. Checking another box “Allow network users to change my files” lets anyone on the network to create and delete files in the shared folder.

Most common mistake that a lot of people make after sharing the folder to the network is forgotten to unshare it. Unchecking the checkboxes will unshare the folder. If you want to know what folders are being shared by you, use Computer Management to show you all your shared folders. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and expand System Tools -> Shared Folders -> Shares.

The ADMIN$, C$, and IPC$ is shared by default. You do not need to worry about that.

Here are a few steps you can take to protect yourself from intruders in getting in your shared folders.
1. Unshare the shared folder after you’re done sharing the file to another person.
2. Use a money dollar sign $ at the end of the Share name to hide shared folders from being displayed publicly.

3. Use NetShareMonitor to notify you when someone is accessing your shared folders.
4. Use a “router” instead of direct connect to the Internet as it gives you a layer of protection against intruders. Works only at Home.
5. Do not use Simple File Sharing. Go to Control Panel -> Folder Options -> click the View tab, and uncheck “Use simple file sharing”.

6. Finally, a decent firewall can protect you from intruder.

Now I’ll show you how easy and fast it is for an intruder to scan for open shared folders in network or Internet. There are many types of security scanners but I am going to use a simple, small and fast tool called “Angry IP Scanner” to scan hundreds and thousands of computers for shared folders.

I downloaded the latest Angry IP Scanner and also the Windows Shares plugin. I ran a test scan on a range of IP addresses and found a few victims that has some folders being shared.

I simply use the Windows method of access another computer \\IP or \\HOSTNAME. In this case, I enter \\218.208.224.16 in Windows RUN and hit the OK button.

Within seconds, a window box appears displaying the shared folders. I can now access the victim shared My Documents folder and “maybe” even have the rights to change, add or delete files.

See how easy it is for an intruder to access your shared folders? Stop being a victim and start protecting yourself.

[ Download Angry IP Scanner ]

One of the new feature in Windows XP is the login screen. When it first came out, it dazzled everyone!

But after a few years, some might get bored of the Windows XP default login screen. How would you like to change your boring default Windows login screen to a flash based one?


FrontMotion Login is the next generation logon interface for Windows NT, 2000 and Windows XP. It goes beyond the normal Microsoft Windows logon and offers more interactivity and functionality through the use of Macromedia Flash and custom logon implementation (gina). No DLL hacking is needed and no system files are replaced.

It’s FREE for personal use and easy to install. Just download, install and the configuration is at your Control Panel. You can change the FrontMotion Login interface theme from Control Panel -> FrontMotion Login.

FrontMotion Login does not use up any memory or CPU resources. Flash files are dynamically loaded when they are displayed and unloaded when they are not shown. If FrontMotion Login is not working for you, it crashes and etc.. You can bypass it by pressing and holding the SHIFT key about the time the Windows startup screen disappears and around the time the mouse is revealed on the screen. It will give you the normal Windows login screen.

Instead of using the themes provided, you can also create your own login screen theme. Refer to this page for instruction on how to create your own FrontMotion Login theme.

If you want to temporarily disable FrontMotion Login but don’t want to uninstall it, you can simply uncheck “Use FMLogin (requires reboot) from the Advanced tab.

[ Download FrontMotion Login ]

As I previously mentioned that I’ve finally managed to integrate link exchange manager LinkMan into my WordPress.
I’ve also seen some post on forums asking for help on how to integrate the link exchange manager LinkMan php code into WordPress in order to automatically update the links added at their WordPress Pages whenever someone submit their links.
After weeks of trying and asking for help, I’ve finally did it and I will now show you exactly how I did it.


1. Download link exchange manager LinkMan and install it according to instructions provided.
( I installed LinkMan at http://www.raymond.cc/linkman/ )
2. Download and install runPHP, a plugin for WordPress.
3. Create/Write a Page from your WordPress.
( I created a WordPress Page at http://www.raymond.cc/blog/links/ to display the links exchanged from LinkMan )
4. The links.php file from your LinkMan folder contains the necessary php code to call out the links exchanged from linkinfo.txt
Just copy and paste the PHP code below into your Page that you created in step 3.
[code]
require ‘../linkman/settings.php’;
$lines = array ();
$lines=file(‘../linkman/linkinfo.txt’);
echo ‘

‘;
foreach ($lines as $thisline)
{
$thisline=trim($thisline);
if (!empty($thisline)) {
list($name,$email,$title,$url,$recurl,$description)=explode($settings[‘delimiter’],$thisline);
if ($settings[‘clean’] != 1) {$url=’../linkman/go.php?url=’.$url;}
echo ‘‘.$title.’ – ‘.$description.’
‘;
}
}
echo ‘

---

Powered by Link manager LinkMan ‘.$settings[‘verzija’].’ from PHPJunkYard – free php scripts

[/code]
If you’re using WordPress v1.5.x, select the “eval() Content” checkbox to enable PHP code in the Page.
If you’re using WordPress v2.0, select the “run PHP code?” checkbox to enable PHP code in the Page.

That’s it. Login to your LinkMan and manually add some links to test it out.
If it doesn’t work, try adding or removing ../ in paths on the PHP code.

Another alternate and simpler way you can integrate link exchange manager LinkMan into your WordPress blog is to insert only 1 line code to your WordPress Page.
[code]

[/code]
Don’t forget to select the “eval() Content” checkbox if you’re using WordPress v1.5.x or “run PHP code?” if you’re using WordPress v2.0 to enable PHP code in the Page.

Once you’ve successfully integrated link exchange manager LinkMan on your website, don’t forget to exchange links with raymond.cc!

Emsisoft, the maker of Anti-Malware 5.0 has released a new free tool called Emergency Kit. It is well known that Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5.0 can make your computer slow compared to other major antivirus brand but its detection rate has been topping the ranks. There is a freeware version of Emsisoft Anti-Malware which allows you to scan and remove malwares but without the real time protection which needs to be installed on your computer.

As for Emergency Kit, it is portable and you can run it directly from your USB flash drive or from your computer’s hard drive without installation. This gives you the convenience of using one of the best detection engine that is able to detect more than 4 million known dangers but without installing extra files and registry to your computer. Basically the features of the freeware version of Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5.0 and the Emergency Kit are the same except that the freeware requires installation and auto loads a2service.exe process in background that takes up 1.5MB of memory.


Installing Emsisoft Emergency Kit to a USB flash drive is easy. Just download and extract the zip file EmsisoftEmergencyKit.zip to the root of your USB flash drive. It has an autorun.inf file which launches the start.exe, a nice interface with options to run the Emergency Kit Scanner, Commandline Scanner, HiJackFree or BlitzBlank.

The Emergency Kit Scanner is the graphical disk scanner to check and clean infected computers. As for Commandline Scanner, it has the same functionality as Emergency Kit Scanner but with no graphical user interface. You have to specify the scan parameters or you can simply double click on the CommandlineScanner.bat batch file to run a smart scan and auto quarantine detected files. The HijackFree is an advanced system analysis tool for manual Malware removal. BlitzBlank is also another tool for experienced users. When you know which file/registry cannot be deleted or removed, you can use BlitzBlank to perform the actions before all other programs are loaded via its special low-level technology.

Emsisoft Emergency Kit takes up merely 100MB space and I can finally use Emsisoft dual engine to scan computers without actually installing it. There are times when a computer is infected by malware or spyware so badly, it is nearly impossible to install any software or antivirus. Remember, Emsisoft Emergency Kit does not provide real time protection. It is most useful when you need a second opinion when you already have an existing antivirus on your computer or for technicians to scan their customer’s computer.

[ Download Emsisoft Emergency Kit ]

Previously I’ve shared with all of you on how to obtain free BitDefender Antivirus 2009 license key for free that is valid 1 year (some of you even got up to 3 years!). The promotional site has been updated with Chinese CAPTCHA and I’ve also updated my steps on how to solve the Chinese CAPTCHA even if you can’t read or write Chinese characters. BitDefender Antivirus 2009 is a very basic antivirus software to protect your computer against virus. If you’re looking for something that gives you extra protection against hackers such as Firewall, Parental Control and etc, you can consider BitDefender Total Security 2009.

BitDefender Total Security 2009 provides comprehensive proactive protection against all Internet security threats, along with system maintenance and backup, without slowing down your PCs. The normal price for BitDefender Total Security 2009 is $69.95 for one year per PC. You can download the trial version of BitDefender Total Security 2009 but it only last for 30 days. Once the trial version expired, you can extend the subscription period another 180 days for free, by following the below steps:

BitDefender Total Security 2009 Features:

Scans all web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic for viruses and spyware, in real-time

Proactively protects against new virus outbreaks using advanced heuristics

Blocks attempted identity theft (phishing)

Prevents personal information from leaking via e-mail, web or instant messaging

Instant Messaging Encryption

File Vault securely stores personal information or sensitive files

Backs up files and folders locally

Provides secure on-line storage

Automatically modifies firewall protection settings to suit location

Wi-Fi monitor helps prevent unauthorized access to your Wi-Fi network

Blocks access to inappropriate websites and e-mail

Schedules and limits kids’ access to Internet and to applications

Reduces the system load and avoids requesting user interaction during games

Uses few system resources

Laptop mode prolongs battery life

Removes unnecessary duplicates of files and registry entries

Irrecoverably erases unwanted files and “traces” of files

You can directly go to the promotional page if you’re in Germany. If not, you will automatically being redirected to BitDefender’s main page. So the simple solution is to use a Germany open proxy or Germany web proxy. Using web proxy is much easier but if you want to use open proxy, here are 2 Germany proxy that is currently working (85.93.26.3:3128 or hbpoprox.hbpogroup.com:8080)

1. Go to http://www.proxy-service.de

2. Enter either promotional link below to the URL at Proxy-Service website and click GO.
http://www.bitdefender.de/site/Promotions/pcgots2009
http://www.bitdefender.de/site/Promotions/pcmag2009
Note: Both promotional site generates the same 20 digit license key. So use either one will do.

3. Fill in the form by entering your first and last name, email address and click the red colored registrieren button.

4. Now check your email that you entered in step 3. You should receive an email from BitDefender (noreply@wotan.bitdefender.com) with the subject BitDefender Total Security 180 -Tage Testversion‏. Note down the 20 digit license key in bold.

5. Download BitDefender Total Security 2009 (or here if you’re using 64bit Windows operating system) and install.

6. Restart your computer when prompted to. When Windows is booted up, BitDefender Registration Wizard should appear. Select “I want to register the product with a new key”, enter the 20 digit license key and click Next.

Complete the registration steps and voila! You should now see that BitDefender Total Security 2009 expires in 180 days.

To get 210 days, simply download and install the trial version of BitDefender Total Security 2009. Use it until the 30 days trial expires, then only enter the 180 days license key. Do take note that the 30 day trial allows you to use the 2GB online backup while the 180 days don’t. So make sure you either download all your backup before activating it with the 180 days license key or don’t use the online backup feature at all.

BitDefender products are well known for it’s lightness in system resource usage. BitDefender Total Security 2009 averagely only takes up approximately 17MB and it constantly cleans up the memory usage like what the Norton 2009 products are doing.

Earlier this year I’ve shared with you 10 free data recovery software that you can use to recover accidentally deleted files from your computer. All of 10 free data recovery software can only recover data on local computer. Today I discovered a very cool network data recovery software called Smart Data Recovery Enterprise where you can remotely scan, search and recover deleted files on a remote computer.

Network data recovery is handy when it comes to big offices, large corporations or even at home networks. The demand is there, causing outrageous prices for remote data recovery solutions. Don’t be fooled by the word “enterprise” in the software title where it usually means expensive shareware. Surprisingly this tool is absolutely free and there are no terms saying that this can only be used at home!


Smart Data Recovery Enterprise offers system administrators a free and reliable way to secure corporate networks against data loss that occurs when the users accidentally delete files. The remote recovery allows network administrators to locate and recover deleted files remotely over the network without leaving your chair.

Smart Data Recovery Enterprise is easy for you and for your users. The powerful technologies used to locate and recover the deleted documents are coupled with a convenient and easy user interface that requires absolutely no prior experience with disks, partitions or file systems.

Smart Data Recovery Enterprise is divided into two parts: the Administrator and the Agent. The Administrator controls the process of scanning, previewing, and restoring of deleted files on remote computers, while the Agent performs the actual job of scanning, previewing, and restoring of deleted files. You should run agentsetup.exe on the computer where you want to scan for deleted files and adminsetup.exe on the computer where you’ll be running the scanning from. At the agent, you’ll need to configure the administrator’s hostname or IP address to connect to. The default port being used is 999 and can be changed. Make sure that Automatically connect to admin is checked.

As for the admin, all you need to do is to click the “Activate” button to start accepting connection from agent. If you’ve set the IP address correctly at the agent and port 999 is not blocked by firewall, you should see an agent appearing on the left hand sidebar. Simply click on the computer, select the drive that you want to scan and click the Find button. Within a few seconds, Smart Data Recovery will show you the files that can be recovered.

Everything is great about Smart Data Recovery Enterprise except that the agent has to be running in order for the admin to connect to the computer to remotely search for deleted files. There’s no password protect feature or an option to stealth the agent program. The user can just close the program and the admin won’t be able to connect to the remote computer. To solve this problem, you can use third party software such as OuttaSight and HyperHide to stealh or hide the agent program from appearing at system tray area. Smart Data Recovery Enterprise supports Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.

[ Download Smart Data Recovery Enterprise ]

The new Windows Live Messenger features the new My Sharing Folders which enables you to share files with your contacts.
Even if you’re not using it and the feature is being turned off, you will still see the “My Sharing Folders” icon in your My Computer and Explorer.

To remove the My Sharing Folders from My Computer and Explorer…


First, you need to check what version of Windows Live Messenger are you using.
Run Windows Live Messenger, go to Help -> About Messenger and you should see an info box like the image below.

I have Windows Live Messenger version 8.0.0812.00.

I need to paste the command line below to Start -> Run and click on OK button (Refer image below)
regsvr32 -u “%PROGRAMFILES%\MSN Messenger\fsshext.8.0.0812.00.dll

If you got it right, you’ll get a confirmation box saying “DllUnregisterServer in C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\fsshext.8.0.0812.00.dll succeeded.”

Important Note: If you have other versions of Windows Live Messenger such as 8.0.0787.00, you’ll need to change the command line in order to successfully unregister the fsshext dll. For example, if you have version 8.0.0787.00, the end of your command line would be fsshext.8.0.0787.00.dll instead of fsshext.8.0.0812.00.dll

Good luck!

Kaspersky Lab Benelux introduces an unique offer in collaboration with PC Magazine. As a PC Magazine reader, you will enjoy a FREE 6 months Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 license. If you don’t know what is Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, it is probably the best if not one of the best complete PC protection software to keep your computer safe from virus, trojan, spyware, adware, rootkits, bootkit, botnets, hackers, offensive web content and spam. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 can run on Windows XP, Vista and 7 (both 32 and 64 bit).

I am very sure that this promo is not being posted at anywhere yet because googling the voucher code doesn’t show any results, so it should still work but maybe not for very long. There is a deadline though for this offer which is the 30th of November 2009.

1. Go to this page http://free.kaspersky.nl/

2. Fill up the form. You have to enter your name in the “Achternaam” box, Voucher code as HP2NT3X2 and then your working email at “Emailadres” and “Herhaal emailadres” box.

3. Click Bevestig button and you should immediately get an email from Kaspersky Lab Benelux (register@kaspersky.nl) with the KIS 2010 activation code.

4. Download the latest version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and install. Enter the code when asked to activate the program.

For your information, I just found out that the version 2010 of Kaspersky cannot be activated offline using key file. It must be activated online with the 20 characters activation code. However, you can still go to their activation website and convert it to a key file to be used on older versions of Kaspersky.

I tried converting the activation code to a key file and then used KL Key Viewer to check the details on the license. It is a full commercial license (not trial) and it is set to expire on 12 May 2010. Logically if you don’t activate your code, it should be activated automatically by itself when the date reaches middle of November since it is only a 6 months key. So if you ask me how long is this license shelf life, I’d say that it has only 1 month. If you already have Kaspersky Internet Security and a valid license that last until 12th May 2010, then this offer is pretty much useless to you.

Thanks Marc from Netherlands for sharing this tip with us!

***SORRY GUYS THE VOUCHER CODE IS NO LONGER VALID AND VERY LIKELY THERE WON’T BE A REPLACEMENT***

Wake on LAN (WOL, sometimes WoL) is an Ethernet computer networking standard that allows a shut-down computer to be turned on remotely. Most of new motherboards that has integrated ethernet controller supports this feature. You can enable the Wake on LAN feature in the Power Management section of the motherboard’s BIOS.

So what is so useful about Wake on LAN? You see, I am required to do computer maintenance at a company that has more than 10 computers. I can only do that when all of the employees have gone home otherwise I’ll be interrupting their working hours. If I don’t use Wake on LAN, I need to ask them to leave their computer turned on and sometimes I need to manually turn them on if they forgot to leave it on. But with Wake on LAN, client systems can be easily remotely powered up and I can remote access to do maintenance.

There are two ways of how Wake on LAN can work. The first one is you want to turn on a computer on the same local area network and the second one is you want to turn on a computer on another location through the internet. I didn’t know that Wake on LAN can work through Internet until an old friend of mine Dennis from www.annoying.dk told me about it.


This is how Wake on LAN works. The target computer is shut down, with power reserved for the network card. The network card listens for a specific packet, called the “Magic Packet”. The listening computer receives this packet, checks it for the correct information, and then boots if the Magic Packet is valid. A magic packet is data consisting of “FF FF FF FF FF FF” followed by 16 repetitions of the listening network device’s MAC address.

Here is how you can turn on a computer on the same local area network using Wake on LAN.
There are many many Wake-On-LAN tools that can be downloaded on the Internet and of course I always try my best to find the easiest one to use.

1. Nyxbull Wake on LAN

Only MAC address is required and works on LAN. Freeware.
[ Download Nyxbull Wake on LAN v1.0 ]

To find MAC address, double click on the network icon located at tray bar, go to Support tab and click on Details button. The physical address is your MAC address. It is in 00-11-22-33-44 format.

Another way is to open up command prompt and type “arp -a“. The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) command can only display MAC address of other computer that is turned on. You can’t use it to display your own MAC address.

2. FUSION WakeUp on Lan

Also FREE. What I really like about this tool is it has the ability to get MAC address from IP address. If the target computer is off, you can still try the Get MAC button because it can search in the cache. As for the password box, you can leave it blank.
[ Download Fusion WakeUp On LAN ]

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any simple Wake On LAN tool that can save a list of MAC Address. It will be so much convenient if I can just select the MAC address from the list and click a button to boot up a computer.

We’ll now continue to the more interesting part, booting up computer on another location through Internet. Let’s say I am in Singapore on a business trip and I need to turn on my computer to retrieve some files. It may seem impossible but it is possible. For Wake-on-LAN over the internet, you must have a router that is turned on in order to wake up a computer over the internet.

At first I found Depicus Wake on Lan tool that is able to boot up a computer using Wake-on-LAN over the internet.

One thing I find very confusing about this tool is the Subnet Mask entry. It somehow modifies the entered IP address to become something else. I have just tried different numbers for the last part of the subnet mask, until the small graphical interface tool finally showed my IP in the status bar. The description about the whole Subnet Mask thing on that website is:

How to calculate the subnet-directed broadcast address
1) Convert machine address to binary e.g. 10.208.20.1 = 00001010.11010000.00010100.00000001
2) Convert the Subnet Mask to Binary e.g. 255.255.240.0 = 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000
3) Invert the Binary Subnet Mask e.g. 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000 becomes 00000000.00000000.00001111.11111111
4) Or the machine address and the inverted subnet mask e.g. 00001010.11010000.00010100.00000001 Or 00000000.00000000.00001111.11111111 = 00001010.11010000.00011111.11111111 = 10.208.31.255

Please don’t ask me about it… I spent many hours trying to understand and also searching on the Internet for more information about subnet directed broadcast but couldn’t find much. I gave up… No not on Wake-on-LAN over the Internet, but only on this tool.

Update: You can forget about calculating the subnet directed broadcast. Just use the subnet mask 255.255.255.255 and it’ll send the magic packet to the IP address and MAC Address that you’ve specified. Thanks to Ed for this tip.

Then I found 2 websites that allows sending magic packets to boot up computer over the internet. It is a free service that can be used by anyone.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you configure your router to forward port 9 to the computer that you want to boot up otherwise it will not work because the Magic Packet can’t get in your network. Refer to PortForward.com on how to configure port forwarding for your router.

1. Wake-On-LAN Online

You must know the external IP address, MAC address and also the Port. The default port for WoL over the Internet is 9. Some use port 7. Enter the correct information, hit the “Wake Up!” button and it’ll send the magic packet to turn on your computer. I’ve tried it and it worked.

2. RemoteWakeUp

The requirement is save as above. You need to enter IP address/hostname, MAC address and port.

Update: Here’s a third website that provides free Wake on LAN over the internet service.
3. Depicus Wake on LAN over the Internet

Other than entering IP Address, MAC Address and Port, you need to enter subnet mask as well. Just enter 255.255.255.255. Thanks to Ed again for this tip.

If both of the websites is down and you desperately need to remotely wake up a computer, try using a free PHP script created by Soeren. You need to upload it to a webhost that supports PHP. It may not work on some web servers, because the socket functions it makes use of are often disabled on web servers, for security reasons I assume. This is how the Wake-on-Internet PHP script look like.

If Wake-on-LAN doesn’t work for you, try using Wake on Lan Monitor/Sniffer. You can use this tool to test if the magic packet is reaching your computer or not.

[ Download Wake on LAN Monitor/Sniffer ]

Tip: There are some routers that supports Dynamic DNS. This is a very useful feature where if your IP address changes, you can still keep track of your current IP address. My Belkin N1 wireless router has this feature and it’s easy to configure. I only need to sign up with DynDNS.org, and enter the information in my Belkin router.

If you’re interested in knowing how to wake a computer up over the internet using linux, check out Dennis blog.

Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. Play it, view it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go or even share with devices around your home—all from one place.

If you do not have a legitimate Windows XP and would like to install Windows Media Player 11, follow the steps below.


I’ve updated this post with 3 methods on installing Windows Media Player 11 final on a pirated Windows. Please try method 1 first, and if it doesn’t work, then try method 2 and so on.
Method 1:
1. Download and extract (unrar, unzip) wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe to a new folder
-Steps Removed or else I’m in trouble-

Method 2:
1. Download (Link removed or else I’m in trouble) Windows Media Player 11 CRACKED.
2. Unzip and install.

Method 3:
1. Download registry CRACK. (Links removed or else I’m in trouble)
2. Run wga.reg and click on YES when prompted.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Download Windows Media Player 11.
5. Run wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe and install as normal.

Leave your comments if you have difficulty in getting Windows Media Player 11 installed on your computer.

avast! has been gaining popularity every since version 5 and even more when Avira started to partner with ASK.com. According to download.com total downloads statistics, you can see that AVG grabs the first place, avast! at second and followed closely by Avira. Here is one of the freebies shared by LunarWolf where everyone can use avast! Internet Security 6.0 until 18 April 2012 for free! avast! has 3 home products and they are the free version, Pro and Internet Security. The Pro version has 3 extra protection module which is Sandbox, SafeZone and Command line scanner if compared to the Free version. As for the Internet Security, it comes with everything in Pro plus Anti-spam filter and a built-in firewall. The Pro version cost $39.99 per year and Internet Security at 49.99.

If you are using avast! Free Antivirus or avast! Pro Antivirus, here is your chance to upgrade to avast! Internet Security for FREE which gives maximum protection, powered by avast! SafeZone technology. If you already have a license for avast! Internet Security which expires earlier than 18th April 2012, you can extend it using this license.


Just follow the simple steps below to get your free avast! Internet Security 6.0 license file valid till 4/18/2012.

1. Go to http://www.my-avast.de/AVAST-Aktion-com-so-gehts

2. Fill up the form by entering your first name (Vorname), last name (Nachname), email address and click the Absenden button.

3. Check the inbox of the email address that you have entered in the form. You should receive an email from Globell Marketing (marketing@globell.com) with the subject Registrierung Avast Internet Security 6. In the email, there is a link to download the license file. Download the ZIP file and extract it.

http://www.my-avast.de/aktion/AVAST/down/license-com-so-gehts.zip

4. Download avast! Internet Security 6.0 and install.

5. During the setup, you will come to a License part where you have to select “Supply a license file”. browse for the License com! so geht?s.avastlic file and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.

Note: If your computer already have the free or Pro version installed, all you need to do is double click on the license file where avast! will recognize and ask you “Are you sure you want to insert the license file with the following parameters?” Click the Yes button and avast! will then download the necessary file from the Update tab to automatically upgrade it to Internet Security 6.0.

It is definitely a win-win situation for both users and avast! because when the license expires on April 2012, satisfied users will definitely extend their license subscription with their own money. By the way, the 5 lucky winners of KeyScrambler Premium has been chosen and will be receiving an email from me shortly.

So recently I thought up an idea, now that my classes are back in session, and that’s to watch my teacher’s powerpoint presentations as a video. This is a classic idea, one that makes these kinds of software sell, but how about converting my teacher’s PPT/PPTX powerpoints to video, specifically, FLV, to carry around on my media player. Since my media player is a new one, as well as being great quality, it can handle all kinds of video formats, but for the life of it, can’t handle a simple PPT or PPTX to watch. I’m aware of no media players that can offer these functions, and if I ever run into one, I admit, I would be amazed. But this is a small price to pay seeing as it plays all of my audio/video files fine. The thing I had to keep in mind though, was the fact that there are some pretty bad PPT to Video converters out there on the market. Considering that I’ve tried Wondershare products before, I decided to try theirs first, which I must say, I’m pretty happy I did.

The first thing I’d like to point out when using Wondershare’s PPT2Video, is the fact that you must have a copy of Microsoft Office installed on your computer. It can not work with OpenOffice.org, unless you install it on a computer that has MS Office, and you bring a OpenOffice.org PPT to it to convert. Right off the bat, for a few people I know, this will not be useful. However, it makes up for this shortcoming by being extremely simple to use and an an extremely easy conversion system to understand.

It’s impossible to get lost in the menus… seeing as there are none.

Another thing that’s important to note is that while it is extremely user friendly, there is no loss of settings. Simply select the file that you want to convert, no matter if it’s PPT or PPTX, and set the custom settings, which I have taken a series of screenshots of below for you to see just how intensive the settings are. I’m aware some of them are indeed hard to read, but they do offer a frames-per-minute option, something I never expected to see on anything shy of a video converter or editor.

The settings this program offers is surprisingly a lot, more then I expected in a simple PPT2Video program.

However, nothing is ever perfect, and the PPT2Video program certainly has two important hitches I’ve noticed that are minor to me, but might be game killers to other users. Both glitches involve the video portion of a powerpoint presentation. The first case is when I’m adding a PPTX, and has a video in it, it throws up an error of “Failed to Import Presentation: Error Code = “0x8001010a””, however, removing the video will allow for PPTX to be converted without issues. The second bug comes with the normal PPT format and an embedded video, in that it doesn’t play automatically like it should when I’m watching it. However, seeing as my teachers do not use videos embedded in their powerpoint presentations, I’m not that worried myself. The Wondershare PPT2Video Pro that they also offer allows for automatic burning to DVD, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to try that one out, especially seeing as I know a fair amount of freeware that will allow to burning to DVDs from common video formats.

To show off how good Wondershare’s PPT2Video program is, I decided to create a quick powerpoint presentation that I could convert, which explains why it’s nothing really fancy. Had I had more time, I’m sure I could have made this look so much better. For optimal viewing of how good or bad it is, please make sure to watch it in 480p if your Internet connection is good enough. The link to the video is now here if you’re still interested in watching it.

Finally, I’d just like to say that this program is a real treat. Which is why I contacted Wondershare and asked them if I could provide a giveaway for the readers of Raymond.cc. Sure enough, they were kind enough to offer five licenses to me, which if you want one, you have to simply do one thing: comment on the blog. I’ll be randomly selecting the winner of the giveaway next week on Friday the 24th. I know this is now one product that I won’t be able to live without, for it will make it that much easier for my classes, and I’m sure if you’re a student, you’ll find the exact same thing. Best of luck to all whom enter!

Antivirus software is the most important software you can have for your computer. It can be a very tough decision to choose the right antivirus program especially when there are so many of them and you can only have one on a computer. Late 2008 I did a test on 29 antivirus software to look for the free antivirus that is the lightest on system memory usage. I only checked the total memory usage during idle and during scanning. Other than that, I’ve also checked on the detection to see if it can detect the private trojan which I had at that time. Two years has gone by and I was curious to know if Kaspersky still do well or has been overtaken by Norton? After the new year, I’ve decided to do some tests on a total of 104 different types of antivirus and internet security applications. I’ve taken nearly a month, running the test day and night to finish this report. This is what that has been keeping me really busy the whole month of January 2010.

The test includes Application Launch Time, Boot Time Increase, Time to complete a Full Scan, Memory usage during Idle, Peak Memory Usage and Installation Size. Every test is done on the same clean Windows XP SP3 with all latest updates. Norton Ghost is being used to re-image the hard drive whenever I am going to test the next antivirus so that the test is fair. All antivirus tested had the latest versions, upgrades and updates and default settings being used. Here are the antivirus and internet security that is included in the test.

1. Avira AntiVir Personal v9
2. Avira AntiVir Premium v9
3. Avira Premium Security Suite v9
4. AVG Anti-Virus v9
5. AVG Internet Security v9
6. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition v9
7. avast! Free Antivirus v5
8. avast! Internet Security v5
9. avast! Pro Antivirus v5
10. a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5
11. Ashampoo AntiSpyWare 2.10
12. Ashampoo Anti-Malware v1
13. ArcaVir 2010 Antivirus Protection
14. AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0
15. Antiy Ghostbusters v6.5.1.4
16. Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security v8.1.3
17. BitDefender Antivirus 2010
18. BitDefender Internet Security 2010
19. BitDefender Total Security 2010
20. BluePoint Security 2010
21. BullGuard Internet Security 8.7
22. CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2010
23. CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
24. Command Anti-Malware v5.1
25. Comodo Internet Security v3.13
26. Digital Patrol v5.2
27. DriveSentry Desktop v3.4 and DriveSentry Security Suite v1
28. Dr.WEB Anti-Virus v5
29. Dr.WEB Security Space v5
30. eEye Blink Personal v4.5.1
31. eScan AntiVirus v10
32. eScan Internet Security Suite
33. ESET NOD32 Antivirus v4
34. ESET Smart Security v4
35. FortiClient Endpoint Security Suite v4.1.2
36. F-PROT Antivirus v6
37. G Data AntiVirus 2010
38. G Data InternetSecurity 2010
39. G Data Total Care 2010
40. IKARUS virus.utilities v1.0.166
41. Immunet Protect v1.0.22
42. iolo AntiVirus v1.5.3
43. iolo System Shield 3
44. KV AntiVirus 2010
45. K7 AntiVirus v7.0
46. K7 TotalSecurity v10.0
47. Kingsoft Internet Security 9 Plus
48. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010
49. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
50. McAfee VirusScan Plus
51. McAfee Internet Security
52. McAfee Total Security
53. Microsoft Security Essentials
54. mks_vir v9.0
55. MultiCore AntiVirus & AntiSpyware v2
56. My Free Antivirus v2.2
57. Net Protector 2010
58. Norman Security Suite
59. Norton AntiVirus 2010 v17.1.0.19
60. Norton Internet Security 2010
61. Norton 360 Version 3.0
62. nProtect Anti-Virus Spyware 2007
63. Outpost Antivirus Pro 2009
64. Outpost Security Suite 2009
65. Keygold Secure Internet Security Suite
66. Panda Could Antivirus
67. Panda Antivirus Pro 2010
68. Panda Internet Security 2010
69. Panda Global Protection 2010
70. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS v6.1.1
71. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2010
72. PC Tools Internet Security 2010
73. Prevx 3.0
74. Protector Plus Professional v9
75. Rising AntiVirus 2010
76. Solo Anti-Virus 2010
77. Spyware Terminator 2.6.5
78. Steganos AntiVirus 12
79. Steganos Internet Security 12
80. The Cleaner 2010
81. Security Shield 2010
82. The Shield Deluxe 2010
83. Thirtyseven4 Antivirus
84. Trend Micro Internet Security 2010
85. Trend Micro AntiVirus + AntiSpyware 2010
86. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010
87. TrustPort Antivirus 2010
88. TrustPort PC Security 2010
89. Twister AntiVirus
90. Vba32 Personal v3.12.10.11
91. VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
92. Vir.IT eXplorer AntiVirus v6.5
93. ViRobot Desktop v5.5
94. VirusBuster Personal v6.2.51
95. VirusBuster Professional v6.2.51
96. VirusBuster Internet Security Suite v3.1
97. Virus Chaser v5.0b
98. VIRUSfighter
99. Webroot AntiVirus with Spy Sweeper 2010
100. Webroot Internet Security Essentials 2010
101. Zondex Guard v5.4.2
102. ZoneAlarm Antivirus 2010
103. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2010
104. ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010
105. F-Secure Antivirus 2010
106. F-Secure Internet Security 2010

Test 1: Application Launch Time
– 10 launches of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox) were timed. The average in launch time is shown in the graph below.

Test 2: Boot Time Increase
– Ten reboots were performed and the average boot time is shown in the graph below.

Test 3: Idle Memory Usage
– Allow the computer to idle for 10 minutes and then the memory reading is being taken.

Test 4: Peak Memory Usage
– Allow the computer to idle for 10 minutes and then the peak memory usage is being taken.

Test 5: Installation Size
– The installation size of each Antivirus program before any updates were downloaded.

Test 6: Detection
– Bifrost trojan being crypted with Incognito to avoid detection. Theoretically it should bypass all antivirus scan time because each stub is nearly 100% unique, thanks to the polymorphic generator. This test will show how good is the runtime scan of an antivirus (heuristic).

Test 7: Full Scan Time
– Scan Times shown below are for default settings for each Antivirus program. 13.23GB of used hard-drive space was scanned with each virus scanner.

Note: To me, the idle memory usage readings is no longer accurate because a lot of antivirus is able to clean its memory usage bringing it to a really low number when the computer is idle. Do take a look at the peak memory usage instead. If I would to compare between the few giant antivirus brands such as Avast, Avira, Norton and Kaspersky, I’d say that Avast is the lightest of all. As for Kaspersky, it is also very light but it took longer to run Firefox and this is caused by the Kaspersky URL Advisor plugin. If you remove the plugin from Firefox, it only takes about an average of 0.79 seconds. As for Avira, it has one of the fastest launch time but the peak memory usage is pretty high and the boot time is slower than Kaspersky and Avast. From the charts, I also found out that Outpost did pretty well. It is able to successfully block the crypted Bifrost trojan by detecting memory injection/modification.

Update: Added F-Secure (duh not sure how I missed that one) in the test report and also included full scan time test which I suppose to attach but somehow it got left out. Make sure you hit the Refresh/Reload button to see the latest bar graph.