PC tips n tricks

We all know that while surfing Internet we leave our information and whereabouts behind us in the form of IP addresses in the log files on the remote web servers of the sites that we visit. But did you know that this may unknowingly lead you into trouble? How? - Let’s quickly run through a list of scenarios wherein you might want to browse Internet in anonymous mode.

• You work for an organization and have been working from a different country. For security reasons your company does not want to let anyone know that you connect to their servers. For this reason alone, you will be required to connect as an anonymous user who can not be traced back.
• You work for defense department and connect to the office network from home. You may wish to connect anonymously to protect your identity.
• You are visiting your competitor’s website and do not wish to leave anything behind you that can help your competitor determine your visit to their website. In this situation you may want to visit their website as if you were surfing through anonymous proxy server.

The above mentioned scenarios are just few of the hundreds of reasons because of which you may want to surf the Internet as an anonymous user. Now let’s look at how do we become anonymous.

Using Tor: anonymous internet software

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. Since it uses a distributed and anonymous network, no single point on Internet can link you to your destination. Instead of taking a direct route from source to destination, data packets on the Tor network take a random pathway through several servers that cover your tracks so no observer at any single point can tell where the data came from or where it’s going.

Installing Tor on your system: Browsing anonymous

You will have to download and install the Tor application bundle that will also install aTorbutton plugin for your Firefox browser (using Firefox browser is highly recommended). Post which you may configure your other applications that you want to protect and anonymize, that’s it.

» [Download Tor] | [Documentation of Tor]

Tired of looking at same menu for very long? Try the [Personal Menu], a free Firefox Add-on that will let you hide existing menus in the Firefox tool bar and design your own menus with few settings to work with. There is a history and a bookmark button.

However, the tool bar items that you hide might still appear upon a restart of Firefox but that requires a change of setting to change the delay before hiding and you should be all set with it.

If some of the menu items are not replaced to their original location after you hide the menu, just take a back up of ‘menuedit.rdf’ in your profile’s folder and then delete it.

Did you know that you can create your own, private and secured network over the Internet? Your private network can have its own members, password, applications, you decide who joins it and not only that, it’s free.

We are talking about an application called Hamachi which is in fact a Virtual Private Networking application enabling you to create your own private network over the Internet.

Before we get to know how it works, let’s see its features:

• Ability to run almost any application in your private network on Internet that you run on your local network at home or office. Examples of such applications are VNC, File Sharing, Intranet Messenger, Web Servers or even Gaming.
• Industry standard encryption algorithms to secure over private network. Once a network is created, the communication remains private amongst the members of the network only.
• The private network can be created any time you need it.
• Very small in size, less than 1MB for Windows.

How does Hamachi work?

You will have to download Hamachi software that will run on your systems. This software, when run for the first time, will connect to Hamachi servers to obtain an identity and from next time onwards it registers itself on the Hamachi network. After which it becomes easy for anyone to find and join your network. Your friends can simply key in the password and join your private network.

[Website of Hamachi] » [Download Hamachi]

1.Let your PC boot up completely before opening any applications.

 

2.Refresh the desktop after closing any application. This will remove any unused files from the RAM.

 

3.Do not set very large file size images as your wallpaper. Do not keep a wallpaper at all if your PC is low on RAM (less than 64 MB).

4.Do not clutter your Desktop with a lot of shortcuts. Each shortcut on the desktop uses up to 500 bytes of RAM

 

5.Empty the recycle bin regularly. The files are not really deleted from your hard drive until you empty the recycle bin.

 

6.Delete the temporary internet files regularly.

 

7.Defragment your hard drive once every two months. This will free up a lot of space on your hard drive and rearrange the files so that your applications run faster.

 

8.Always make two partitions in your hard drive. Install all large Softwares (like PSP, Photoshop, 3DS Max etc) in the second partition. Windows uses all the available empty space in C drive as virtual memory when your Computer RAM is full. Keep the C Drive as empty as possible.

9.When installing new Softwares disable the option of having a tray icon. The tray icons use up available RAM, and also slow down the booting of your PC. Also disable the option of starting the application automatically when the PC boots. You can disable these options later on also from the Tools or preferences menu in your application.

 

10. Protect your PC from dust. Dust causes the CPU cooling fan to jam and slow down thereby gradually heating your CPU and affecting the processing speed. Use compressed air to blow out any dust from the CPU. Never use vacuum.

 

RAM IS THE WORKING AREA (DESKTOP) OF THE CPU, KEEP IT AS EMPTY AND UNCLUTTERED AS POSSIBLE!

 

You can login with multiple id's on the same yahoo messenger without any download or patch .
Follow these steps :

You only had experience with Windows operated computers, so this is what we referring to you. Computer repair specialists were always hard to find, and many times we had to try to figure out a solution to fix a computer which stopped working, because no specialist would come home, and to take a PC to the service company was extremely troublesome.

Computer Repair Tip 1: Defragment Often

The information on the hard disk is written in chunks called sectors. One application can spread across many such sectors, and if they are not next to each other, the head which reads the information on the hard disk has to make additional movements, thus increasing the reaction time of the computer, resulting in sluggish, slow launch of the respective application.