Actually I’ve installed an automated link exchange script – LinkMan when I started this website.
However, I never really got it to work properly. I’ve always wanted my Links page to automatically update and display the new links added but I didn’t know how to integrate LinkMan’s PHP code into WordPress.

Even asking help from LiewCF and Kahsoon was being ignored! Hmmph! Perhaps they are too busy earning their money from blogging eh? Thanks to PHPJunkYard author, Klemen Stirn for helping me integrating the LinkMan PHP codes into my WordPress. I will soon post out the method I use to integrate LinkMan to my WordPress.

Anyway, if you’d like to submit your website/link to my website, please do so at my Links page.

Please add a link to http://www.raymond.cc before you submit your website address.
Thank you.

My site is now PR3 and I strongly believe it will increase in near future 😉

3 days ago I wrote a tutorial on how to remote access with reverse connection. You have to do a little configuration on your side such as port forwarding and creating the server. As for your customer’s side, they only require 2 steps which is to run the file that you created and then add a new client which is your IP address. I think it’s more secure this way because your customer is the one that decides to let who control their computer.

Today I am going to show you how you can actually skip the part where your customer needs to enter your IP address. So they only require to run the server which you created. It’s the easiest way already and there is no other shorter way than this one.



PCHelpWare is a free alternative to the various paying remote assistance services that can be found on the net. PCHelpWare is a powerful remote support software that allows you to control (right from your own PC) a distant PC connected to the internet. It is the ideal solution to provide quick remote assistance and help your customers, colleagues, friends and family members, even if they are on the other side of the world. Best part about PCHelpWare is, it’s customizable: you can create your own server package with your logo and -company- name. The individual you want to remotely assist only has to download and execute your customized package. No router/modem/firewall configuration is needed to access a remote PC even when it’s standing on a protected network behind a NAT If your PC is also behind Firewall/NAT routers, PCHelpware has the solution that makes everything simple anyway.

Using the provided Repeater service, no router configuration is needed at all.

Key features of PCHelpWare:
* Security: Build-in communication encryption (TWF 256) and DH key exchange (using a 512 prime)
* File transfer (using clipboard style Copy/Paste : ctr-alt-c, ctrl-alt-v)
* Text Chat
* Clipboard transfer (Text, RTF, HTML, pictures)
* Scalable and easy to use Viewer. Various color modes to fit bandwidth at best
* International keyboard support
* Additional password if wanted

Since PCHelpWare is very powerful tool and highly customizable, I will only show how to create the server package so that your friend, family or customer doesn’t need to mess around with anything other than running the server.
1. Download PCHelpWare
2. Extract and you’ll see 6 folders, 2 DLLs, 1 execuable and 1 readme text file.

3. Run PcHelpWare_viewer.exe and configure it by referring the the image below.

Notes: Alias is the name that you want to connect to. Password should be 7 characters of LESS. ID must be something unique. AVOID using numbers such as 1234 or 9999. This is because you’re using uvnc’s repeater and chances are, there are people listening to the same ID as you configured. The UPnP doesn’t work for me as PCHelpWare did not automatically add/register the port to Internet Gateway Device. So I had to manually map the port on my router.

4. Click Save. After saving, a PHW-file will show up in the list box called Repeater.phw.
5) Click Create Server.
5a) Select “No” to Does the user need to enter the ID?.
5b) Select “No” to Does the user need to enter the password?.
This will create a PcHelpWare_server.exe in the PcHelpWare\myservers\Repeater directory. This is the file you need to get to those you wish to support.

You can either send the PcHelpWare_server.exe to your customer by email or host it on a file sharing website.
To start connecting:
1) Open PcHelpWare_viewer, select Repeater.phw and click Start.
b) Your customer only needs to download the PcHelpWare_server, run it and then simply need to click Connect.

This page keeps an a list of alive uvnc hosted Repeater servers: http://repeaters.ultravnc.info/
I hope this will solve all your remote access problems and also hope that I’ve explained it well enough for you to understand. I was having problems understanding PCHelpWare at first. So if you’re stuck, just leave a comment and I’ll try to explain it in a simpler term to you.

[ Download PCHelpWare ]

As far as I know, there are 4 things that we’ll need to take care of in order to stay totally anonymous during surfing the web. First is whenever we’re connected to the Internet, our Internet connection is assigned with a unique IP address. Search engines and websites that has statistical software installed, your IP address will be recorded together with the time you access the site. This can easily be changed by either using VPN such as Hotspot Shield and UltraVPN or an open proxy. The difference between VPN and proxy is VPN routes all internet traffic through the VPN service automatically and as for proxy, you will need to configure it on the application to use it. Proxy is normally slow and unstable but VPN is the opposite where it is faster and stable.

Next comes to Javascript, Java or Flash which can be used to extract more detailed information about your computer. BrowserSpy.dk shows exactly how it can be done and fortunately this can be blocked by using NoScript which I’ve posted earlier this week. Third, is by removing browser cookies. Finally, the fourth one is the user-agent where NoScript cannot block and it is able to identify your browser and provide certain system details to servers hosting the Web sites you visit.


To check your user agent string, use your web browser and go to http://www.useragentstring.com/.

The user agent string that is gotten from my latest Firefox 3.6.11 browser is the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

Quite a lot of information is revealed from that short line. It shows Mozilla version, platform, security values, operating system, language tag, version of Gecko, build date, and version of Firefox.

If you’re a firefox user, there’s a very useful extension called Proxy Tool where you can set it to randomly change your user-agent string whenever a page is refreshed. No configuration is needed except the only gripe I have on this extension is you need to always enable the Randomize ALL feature whenever you open Firefox because it seems that the settings are not saved.

Other than that, Proxy Tool extension also has other useful feature such as changing the Referrer (where you came from) and also using of free HTTP proxies which I do not recommend because it’s slow, unstable and you never know if the other side is actually sniffing your internet traffic. By default this plugin also automatically deletes your Firefox cookies.

With a combination of NoScript to block untrusted Javascripts, Java and flash, VPN to hide your IP address, and Proxy Tool to spoof your user-agent string together with auto cookies removal, maybe even the almighty Google who keeps their logs of what you searched for cannot identify that it is you.

I was at my clients place yesterday for weekly computer maintenance. Things I usually do is scan for virus/spyware, install Windows updates, remove temporary files, defrag and etc. While I was trying to check for Windows update, I got this error “The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view” with the error code 0x8DDD0009.

Many steps were taken to try to fix this problem but to no avail. Before I gave up, I remembered that many years ago I was using Windows Update instead of Microsoft Update. Perhaps switching to Windows Update would work. I manually entered the URL http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ but it redirects me to Microsoft Update. Here’s how I disable Microsoft Update and use Windows Update.


The difference between Windows and Microsoft Update is Windows Update provides updates for the operating system and related components, such as definition updates to the Windows Defender antispyware product and Junk Mail filter updates for Windows Mail. As for Microsoft Update, it provides updates not only for the operating system, but also certain Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, Windows Live applications, Microsoft Expression and some server products.

Just follow the few simple steps below to stop Windows Update website from automatically redirecting to Microsoft Update.

1. Go to Windows Update or Microsoft Update site

2. When you see the page asking you to click either Express or Custom, DO NOT click either one. At the left hand sidebar, click Change settings.

3. Scroll right to the bottom of the page and you’ll see an option to disable Microsoft Update. Check “Disable Microsoft Update software and let me use Windows Update only” and click Apply changes now button. Click Yes to continue.

4. You should get a confirmation page stating “You have successfully disabled the Microsoft Update software on your computer. To keep your computer up to date, make sure you have turned on Automatic Updates in Control Panel. You can also visit the Windows Update website at any time.”

Since my client doesn’t have other Microsoft software such as Office, it’s OK to turn off Microsoft Update and use Windows Update. Even if they have Microsoft office installed, I can use Microsoft Office Update. What I am suggesting here is a workaround, not to fix the problem.

Note: You can’t revert back to Microsoft Update from Change Settings page. You’ll need to follow this link to enable it back.

Have you ever encountered problems in identifying what fonts is being used in an image? Of course fonts being used in popular movie banners can be found easily because you have the keyword but what if you found a free template and the font is not included? You either recreate the buttons with your own fonts replacing the original, or try posting in forums and hope that someone would have seen that font before and let you know what is the font name. There are so many fonts, maybe hundred of thousands fonts available on the internet and to identify an unknown font is definitely NOT an easy task!

If you need to identify a font, don’t despair. I have found 2 methods that is able to help you identify an unknown font. If it is not able to help you identify the font, it will at least help you narrow down to the closest ones.


Identifont, a free service offered to help you identify fonts by answering a series of simple questions about its appearance.

You can identify fonts using a set of restricted letters because sometimes you won’t have A-Z alphabets in an image. Identifont uses a patented expert system containing information about a large number of typefaces, and from this asks a series of questions about key features of the typeface. The system is adaptive, so at each stage the sequence of questions is chosen to identify the font in the smallest number of steps. A typical identification takes about 15 steps, after which it shows the matching font or fonts, together with character-set samples to allow the user to check the answers. Identifont also includes links to the main vendors of each typeface, so the user can order the typeface once they have identified it.

[ Identify Unknown Fonts with Identifont ]

Next is, WTF. WhatTheFont offers different font identifying technology than Identifont. WhatTheFont system accepts image files uploaded by us, then analyzes them and finds the closest match on WhatTheFont site.

Images can be color or black & white, and they don’t have to be very high quality (although that helps). Even a digital photograph of some lettering you like can be accepted. Accuracy of results is unprecedented by previous automatic systems.

[ Identify Unknown Fonts with WhatTheFont ]

Finally, if WhatTheFont system is unable to give you a good match of the font you’re looking for, you can then submit your image to WhatTheFont Forum to have your image viewed by font geeks the world over.

The best way to visualize statistical information is by using charts. If you present an audience with raw figures, people’s eyes may glaze over. But if you present data visually such as when you need to show how sales of your product have grown, then more people will follow your main points. Microsoft Excel provides a pretty easy way to create charts based on the data in the worksheet but there are times when I do not have Microsoft Excel installed and I really need to create a chart.

Not to panic because as long as you have a web browser and an internet connection, you can easily create Bar, Pie, Line Plots, Gauge, Map, Ring, Cartesian, Candle, TimeSeries, Diagram, Radar type of charts. All you need to do is visit the online chart creator website, specify the size of the graph, graph type, color, X and Y data, and you’re set. Some websites requires you to create an account for free so you can actually save your graph and then modify it at a later time.


I’ve found 10 websites that offers free online chart creation, but only the top 4 which I personally felt that its easier to use because it has the ability to import data from text or excel file.

1. ChartGizmo
2. ChartGo
3. Chartle
4. DIY Chart

Although the 4 websites above should be enough for me to create my own free graphs, but I’m just listing the others that I’ve found.

5. Chart Tool
6. BARCHART
7. Create A Graph
8. CSS Chart Generator
9. Google Chart Creator
10. Hohli Online Charts Builder

For those people like me that doesn’t know how to use Excel at all, creating a chart from it is going to take some learning. But when I use ChartGizmo or ChartGo, it’s so simple and straight forward that I can just enter the data, select the options and I get a nice looking graph. Can’t get any easier than that.

I have a lot of files and icons on my desktop and it’s filling up nearly 75% of my desktop space. Even though it’s quite messy but I remembered where I placed the icons and files that I always use because I never move them around. Yesterday I booted my computer into Safe Mode and the screen automatically changes to a bigger resolution. When I booted back to normal Windows, all my files and icons on my desktop automatically reshuffled! It took me sometime to rearrange the icons and files back to the place where it used to be. Here’s how I solve this problem in case next time my icons and files gets reshuffled without my knowledge.


Icon Restore installs LAYOUT.DLL (along with the required registry entries) from Microsoft. Two new options are added to the pop up menu that opens when any Windows system icon (ex. My Computer) is right clicked. These options are “Save Desktop Icon Layout” and “Restore Desktop Icon Layout“. See the screen shot below:

After installing Icon Restore, simply place your icons wherever you want them on your desktop, right click My Computer (or any ‘system’ icon) and left click on “Save Desktop Icon Layout” from the pop up menu.

If your icons ever get moved because your computer entered safe mode or you changed the screen resolution, right click My Computer (or any ‘system’ icon) and left click on “Restore Desktop Icon Layout” from the pop up menu.

It’s that easy to use and the installation file is only 281KB.
[ Download Icon Restore ]

Currently Icon Restore does not support UnInstallation from Windows Add/Remove Programs. However, if you installed Icon Restore and want to get rid of it, download the following uninstall program and run it. This will remove Icon Restore from your system.
[ Download UNINSTALL Icon Restore ]

I believe many of you experience Explorer.exe crashing before especially during Windows 98 era. This is mostly due to corrupted Windows, spywares or unstable software that has not been extensively tested.
Once explorer.exe crash, most of your icons in your traybar which located at the bottom right will disappear.

You might also see that everything in your desktop and taskbar went missing for a while and then comes back again. Windows is somehow smart enough to restart it’s explorer.exe when it crashes but it’s not smart enough to restore the icons of running programs in your traybar. Don’t get me wrong, the program is still running, but it’s hidden and you have no way of bringing it back. What I used to do is to go to Task Manager, kill the process and run the software again.

There’s a way you can bring back the hidden running applications without killing the process and running it again…


Win-Res-Q (read “win rescue”) is a simple utility that restores (shows) hidden windows.

It can be used for bringing back your “lost” applications after their tray icons disappear following Explorer crashes that abundantly occur on Windows 98(It also happens on Windows XP!). It’s also useful for exposing strange, hidden windows lurking around your desktop.

Very simple software and easy to use. Win-Res-Q shows a list of running applications, you choose the application that you’d like to restore/show, and click on the left button below. The middle button is to refresh the list of running applications and the right button is show the About/Credit screen of Win-Res-Q.

[ Download Win-Res-Q 1.0 ]

Let’s face it, we’ve all been in a situation where we have accidentally deleted a required file, or lost important files on a ‘dead’ floppy. At this point, most people accept the loss with frustration, thinking that once a file’s gone, it’s gone. Not exactly. From a normal point of view, the file is gone and it’s not possible for the file to be still laying somewhere hidden from you. But from an experience computer person point of view, the file is still around and it’s recoverable IF the cluster hasn’t been overwritten.

Before we can determine how to restore files that were incorrectly deleted, we must first understand how Windows handles deleted files. Many people are unaware that when they delete a file, the file is not actually removed from their hard disk. Instead, Windows just marks the file as being deleted, and treats it as free space, ready to be written over. For this reason, the trick to regaining these deleted files is to restore them before Windows writes over them again. Therefore, it is very possible to be able to restore files that were deleted anywhere from a few minutes ago to a few days ago. Obviously, files deleted more recently are much more probable to be recoverable. If you realize that you accidentally deleted files that you need, it is very important to stop using your computer extensively until they are recovered, because any hard drive action could potentially overwrite the file.

Now you should understand how this works. Most of the software required to recover the files back are shareware. Today I found a FREEWARE utility that does the same with a much simpler graphical user interface.



Recuva (pronounced “recover”), created by the same author as CCLEANER, is a freeware utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Windows Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

After installation, you’ll only find 2 files in the program folder which is located at C:\Program Files\Recuva that is recuva.exe and uninstall.exe. Recuva.exe is only 180KB and it doesn’t require any other DLL files. You can copy recuva.exe to your thumb drive and run it from there.

The inteface is very simple without any settings needed. Just select the drive that you want to scan and click on the Scan button.

Files that has “Excellent” state and with the comment “No overwritten clusters detected” can be recovered. It is very important not to restore files to the same drive that you are recovering from, as you could very easily overwrite the files you need!

[ Download Recuva ]

Some of the company or school doesn’t allow installing instant messenger application such as Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger. You can risk your job being terminated if they found out that you’ve installed any of the instant messaging program above. In school, there are all sorts of disciplinary actions can be taken against you if you install instant messaging program on the library computer. So what should you do if you need to send an important message to a friend or family?

Yes, that’s right. Use web based instant messenger. It eliminates the need to download and install the program. It can even work behind a firewall or proxy servers. Here’s are the links to ICQ, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger web based messaging.


1. ICQ

Notes: ICQ web messenger is called ICQ2Go! By default, it uses flash when you click on the big “Launch” button. If you prefer to use Java web based version, there’s a link where you can click on the ICQ2Go! Java. I’d prefer Flash over Java because not all computer has Java installed and Java takes time and resources to load. Flash is faster.
Link: http://download.icq.com/download/icq2go/

2. Yahoo! Messenger

Notes: Yahoo! web based messenger is newly launched. Some of the countries are not yet supported. Maybe changing the Country on your profiles lets you use Yahoo! web messenger. If can’t, there are alternatives at the end of this article.
Link: http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/

3. Google Talk

Notes: Google Talk web based messenger is called “Google Talk Gadget”. Click on the “Launch Google Talk” button and sign in with your Google account.
Link: http://www.google.com/talk/

4. Windows Live Messenger

Notes: Very plain web design with no screenshot of web based Windows Live Messenger. However, it works the same. Just click on the “Start MSN Web Messenger” button and sign in with your Passport account.
Link: http://webmessenger.msn.com/

5. AOL Instant Messenger

Notes: The last time I remembered installing this application was 8 years ago. However, it doesn’t mean that no one is using it. If I am not wrong, many people from USA has an AOL account. Now AOL and ICQ can talk to each other, so there is no need to use AOL if you have ICQ.
Link: http://aimexpress.aim.com/

All the above websites are OFFICIAL web based instant messenger. There are also third party websites that provides all in one web based instant messaging. If you’re afraid of your instant messenger login being used on the third party websites, you can use the official ones instead.

1. Meebo

Notes: The most popular third party web based instant messenger website. Supports the most instant messaging networks which is Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, Jabber and AIM.
Link: http://www.meebo.com/

2. eBuddy

Notes: An alternative to Meebo except doesn’t support ICQ and Jabber. Clean interface and not too much advertisements.
Link: http://www.ebuddy.com/

3. ILoveIM

Notes: The least that I like because it has a lot of advertisements. But it still works and can be another alternative in case the administrator of your network has banned all web based instant messaging website but missed this one.
Link: http://www.iloveim.com/

I will never get tired of freebies and promotions. Today I’ll share with you another freebie which I just discovered. So far this promotion is still unknown to anyone and searching in Google yield 0 results. Most of the freebie software that I shared with you belonged to the same category but this one is totally different and I believe it will be very useful to anyone who is using a Windows computer.

This software is called DriveLED 2 by O&O Software and it is used to monitor the condition and activity of your system’s drives at all times. The good thing about DriveLED is the possibility for you to backup your data and change out the potentially affected data volume, before the hard disk fails. Now we no longer need to be afraid of sudden hard drive failure which result in important data loses.

O&O DriveLED 2 normally cost $19.95 but it’ll be totally FREE if you follow the steps below.


Because hard disk drives contain parts designed to operate with precision to the nearest micro inch or at speeds topping as many a thousand of revolutions per minute, the possibility of a malfunction rises with the age of the hard disk. However, the possibility of a failure and subsequent loss of data is now easily controllable with O&O DriveLED 2.

With O&O DriveLED 2 you have a reliable partner that accurately tells you when it is time to backup your important data or even if it is necessary to replace the hard disk. With this free DriveLED 2 license in your computer, you will remain constantly informed as to the condition of your hard disks and, most importantly, be warned in the event of a pending malfunction. O&O DriveLED not only contributes greatly to your system’s security and the sustained availability of your data, but is the correct solution for SMART inspections of your hard disk.

Features of O&O DriveLED 2:

Automatic monitoring using S.M.A.R.T.

Warning notification of possible operational errors on all hard disk drives

S.M.A.R.T. self-tests for an immediate health-check of your hard disks

Displaying the current temperature of each hard disk

Forecasting the life expectancy of each hard disk

Tracking and display of read/write access for logical volumes

Here’s how to get your free O&O DriveLED 2 license registration serial key code.

1. Visit this page, select your Salutation, enter your first name, last name, E-mail, Phone, Street address (1), ZIP, City, Country and hit the submit form button. It is only important that you enter a correct email address because the registration code will be sent there.

2. Check your email and open the email from O&O Register (register@oo-software.com) with the subject Your free license of O&O DriveLED V2.0 ‏. Note down the Name, Company and License information.

3. Download OODriveLEDEnu.exe and install.

4. To convert DriveLED 2 from trial to fully registered version, run the program and select Enter registration code when you get the prompt. At the next screen you will get to enter the registration code.

I ran SMART Self Test using O&O DriveLED 2 on both of my laptop and desktop. Desktop hard drive detected no problem but I got “uncorrectable read error (0×7)” on my laptop. I knew long ago that my hard drive has problems because everyday I’ll hear a loud “TAK” noise coming from my hard drive whenever I put a little stress on it. I am now convinced that I should do a full backup of my laptop. The official page for O&O DriveLED 2 only states that it can run in Windows XP, 2000, 2003 Server, NT 4.0. I tried on Windows Vista and it works like a charm. Very useful tool!

Earlier this month I’ve posted a tip on how to obtain a 1 year genuine license for BitDefender Internet Security 2009. As usual, the promotion ended in less than 12 hours because it was too easy for everyone to request for the free license, some abusing by requesting for multiple licenses, and a finally lot of copycats that didn’t even bother to link back. Doesn’t matter, I’ve accepted the fact that this happens to every website but I am confident that you all know where to get your fresh and hot news from 😉

Yesterday night I found out on how to get a valid 1 year BitDefender Internet Security 2009 license and honestly I was quite reluctant to post it here. I wanted to use this promotion to help the needy ones and prevent people from abusing it. Posting it here will definitely kill the promotion fast and possibly causing all the promotional license to get blacklisted. Remember what happened to Barclay’s Kaspersky and Trend Micro? Thinking about it, if I don’t post the trick, someone else will and eventually killing the promotion. Moreover, this tip is shared by Ed and he wanted to share with everyone, so it’s only right that I fulfill his wishes. Unless I have a way on how to generate keys using the not-so-legal backdoor method, then I am keeping it to myself and be the Robin Hood of internet world.

Enough of the rant, here’s how to get your genuine BitDefender Internet Security 2009 license key valid for 365 days. For those that missed the previous free BDIS 2009 license, here is your chance to get one for yourself.


1. Go to this page http://www.securitasdirect.pt/antivirusmail/

2. Enter your name, email address and click the red Downloads button. Please use a real email address because the license key will be sent there.

3. Check your email that you entered in step 2. You should receive an email from nobody@151.hostxtremdns.com with the subject “Oferta“. Note down the license key that is in 20 characters after the line “O número da sua Licença é”

4. Download latest version of BitDefender Internet Security 2009 from the link below:
– English 32-bit MSI installer
– English 64-bit MSI installer

5. Restart your computer when prompted to. When Windows is booted up, the BitDefender Registration Wizard window will appear. Select the option “I want to register the product with a new key” and enter the license key.

Voila! You now have BitDefender Internet Security 2009 registered for 1 year without paying a single cent.

I find it a little confusing on which version of BitDefender should I use with the key that I got from this promotion? The promotional page clearly stated it is for BitDefender Total Security 2009, then the email says it is for antivirus BUT the download link from the email links to BitDefender Internet Security 2009 Portuguese version. I can confirm with you all that the license key that you get is ONLY for BitDefender Internet Security 2009. I’ve tried using this key in BitDefender Antivirus 2009 and BitDefender Total Security 2009 but kept on getting the error saying that this key is for a different product.

Enjoy! Thanks ED / p3na!

Lenogris posted a question in forum about low volume when playing DVD movies at his sister’s computer. The low volume only happens when he plays DVD movies. MP3 music and Windows sound is loud. He tried using headphones but the volume is still very low. When played the DVD on his and his dad’s computer, the volume is fine.

At first I didn’t know what can cause the low volume problem when playing DVD because I never watch DVD movies at my laptop or desktop. For Lenogris case, there’s only 2 possibility. It’s either the sound card is faulty, or the codec problem. Out of curiosity, I took some DVDs from my store room and played it on my laptop. At the DVD menu, the sound is loud enough. Now I start the movie, the volume is also low! Looks like I also have the same problem as Lenogris!

I search in Google on low DVD volume and found that many people are actually having this problem especially on laptops. Laptop’s volume can never be louder than desktop speakers even if you cranked it to the maximum volume. I’ve managed to find a solution to boost the volume for DVD movies.


Before I show you how I boost the volume when watching DVD movies, here are some basic settings you should check to make sure that it’s not your codec problem.

1. Windows Volume
– See a small speaker icon at the bottom right hand side tray bar? Double click on the speaker icon and you’ll get Volume Control. Make sure that you’ve tried bringing up the slider to the max for Volume Control and Wave. If you can’t see Volume Control or Wave, go to Options -> Properties and check Volume Control and WAVE. You can also try increasing the rest EXCEPT microphone.

2. DVD Player Software Volume
– Different DVD player software works differently. For example, if you increase PowerDVD’s volume, it actually increases the volume on your Windows Control Volume. As for Windows Media Player, even if you increase the volume there, the Windows Control Volume stays where it is. Just double check the DVD software that you’re using to play the DVD movie and make sure that the volume is raised.

3. Hardware Rotary Volume Control
– Some laptops has a manual rotary volume control where you can use it to easily increase or decrease volume. It is usually at the front or side of the laptop. If you have that dial, try increasing that.

4. DVD Sound Options
– Try all Sound Options in your DVD menu. Usually there’ll be Dolby Digital and DTS. Maybe one of it will give you a louder DVD movie volume.

5. Codec (AC3Filter)
– If you’ve gone through all 4 methods above and the DVD movie volume is still low, you might be able to increase DVD volume by installing AC3Filter codec and boost the GAIN. Download AC3Filter from the link below. After installation, go to Start Menu -> Programs -> AC3Filter and run AC3Filter Confiig. Increase the Master at Gain, click Apply and OK. You will notice that the DVD movie volume has been increased.

[ Download AC3Filter ]

Download Movies Download Movies

If you didn’t know, 2 weeks ago the Thai government has banned access to YouTube from within Thailand. This is because there were offensive video clips to the Thai king. Now Thailand residents is not able to view nor upload videos to YouTube. The ban is expected to be lifted before April 20th but if it’s still not lifted on that time, there are ways to bypass the ban. I am going to share with you how easy it is to bypass the ban on YouTube or on any particular website.


With YouTube Proxy, you can access YouTube even if your ISP has banned the website. How it works? It’s easier to understand if you look at the image below.

YouTube Proxy is a proxy server that sits between a client application, such as a web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests (of the client) to the real server and forwards it to the real server, returning back the requested data to the client. There are software that is able to hide your IP address by using proxy but why need to install a software when you can simply use your browser? YouTube Proxy si a kind of proxy server that’s work directly from your web browser, without the need of installing software or change your browser configuration.

Here are the technicals specifications of YouTube Proxy:
– Works through an encrypted connection (SSL)
– Support connections to secure websites (HTTPS Sites)
– Hides the real client IP providing an anonymous connection
– Support Cookies, support cookie editing, and custom cookie creation!
– Support Posting (Post, Get, & Query Post)
– Support of Uploads!
– URLs or other navigation information are NOT logged
– Support all kind of files (Html, Swf, Pdf, Zip, Rar, etc…)
– Clean Design: No ADS, Banners or surfing console, you will see as you are surfing the web directly

Will definitely work, but if your ISP ban *youtube*, then all websites with the word youtube will also be banned including YouTube Proxy. You can use this free YouTube Proxy service to bypass any banned websites in any place(universities, company, etc..). I think I’ve discovered a small bug that is it doesn’t support proxy’ing .CC domains. I tried entering http://www.raymond.cc on the address and hit enter, it brings me back to YouTube Proxy main page. Most probably YouTube Proxy only supports top-level domains such as .com .net and .org. I will write them an email about this problem.

Update: The owner of YouTube Proxy replied my email within minutes. He said that the problem was raymond.cc responding with a wrong encoding type… Not sure what that means but it’s now fixed.

[ Visit YouTube Proxy ]

If you’re interested in trying out ESET’s security software, you can go to ESET’s official website and you’ll find that there are 2 versions of installer for their products. They have the trial version where you can use 30 days free and can be directly download by clicking on the link. Then they have commercial download link where you’ll have to login with a valid username and password in order to download. The commercial version is for customers that has purchased a license to download and install. I’ve never personally tested the trial version of ESET’s product but I got reports that they have the same restriction as Kaspersky where you can only activate the trial ONCE.

There is another way of evaluating ESET’s product for 30 days, or even sometimes up to 90 days when they have promotions by using the commercial installer, not the trial ones. The best part is when the username and password has expired after 30 days period, it is possible request for another new username and password using a different email address! I will show you where to request for a valid ESET username and password to download the commercial version of ESET software.


There are actually tons of official locale ESET website that you can use to generate free trial commercial username and password BUT they all share the same database. If you try to enter the same email on a different official ESET website, it will tell you that the email you have entered has already been registered. The trick here is to always use a different email address.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus:
http://mercuryservices.eset.ie/evaluate/evaluate.php?evaloption=EAV

ESET Smart Security:
http://mercuryservices.eset.ie/evaluate/evaluate.php?evaloption=ESS

ESET Mobile Antivirus:
http://www.eset.ie/download/free_trial_download_ema.php

All you need to do is to fill up the form and make sure you use a valid email address that you can check. After submitting the forum, check your email. Once you got the username and password, you can head on to this official ESET download page and choose the commercial version software that you want to download.

I’ve tried installing the trial version and it is slightly different than the full commercial version. The trial version doesn’t require username and password to update but it has a 30 days time limit. You can also “upgrade” to the commercial version if you have a valid username and password. If I am not wrong, you can continue updating ESET as long as you have a valid username and password for the specific product. That’s how NodEnabler and NodLogin keeps your product licensed by finding a valid trial username and password on the internet and automatically insert it to the program.

On the article that I posted two days ago, I made a mistake saying that the username and password works on ESET Smart Security, ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Mobile Antivirus. It actually only works on ESET NOD32 Antivirus. I’ve wrongly configured NOD32 Update Viewer and the color confuses me as I find it hard to differentiate the color when the letters are very small. After zooming in, I can now see the difference. By the way, the offer is no longer available. I hope I’ve made it up by showing you how to download the full commercial version of ESET Smart Security, NOD32 and Mobile Antivirus.