HOMS Blog

Hacking the company's laptop

2013-09-18T10:30:00.002+05:30

This articles talks about hacking and other activities which may seems to be illegal and will certainly get you into trouble if you are caught doing it. I would advise you read it as a form of entertainment and treat it as entirely fiction without any truth in it. Ok, let’s set this imaginary environment.

WE all had laptops for a long, long time that I did not even remember the days where laptop did not exist. Due to special considerations, my department had always had the privilege of admin rights on our laptop due to the work we do. We are required to install software, run privilege tasks etc on a daily basis. We never imagine the day that this would end. We never had the problem of facing this. Until now.

Due to new firm requirement, we are required to upgrade to a new version of the laptop OS with some enhancements as well as a new set of software for our work. This time, the top management came down on us hard and decided that we should not have administrative rights to the corporate laptop because we are supposed to perform our privileged task on another laptop. Ok, let’s leave that out of our story. The fact that we may be caught out in the field for weeks, it does not seems logical that we do not have access to our email and other corporate information systems. Therefore, we NEED to have administrative rights to the laptop. SOMEHOW.

Let’s pause for a minute if you feel that we need to discuss the moral and legal issue here. Like I said, its an imaginary environment. By all rights of standard, we should never have to ask for any thing and everything is given. However, this does not actually happen in the real world or for that matters, this imaginary world of our. So, someone needs to be the hero. Someone need to break some rules. Someone will have to do it. Yes, I know, that would be me.

Ok, lets come back to the story. So, many of us find that we cannot even insert a thumbdrive (oops, sorry, flashdrive) without triggering an administrative prompt. Life has been hell since the upgrade and it seems like the end of days is just about to begin. Unknown to most, a few of us are already beginning to work on this “problem”. The intention is just to be able to have enough rights to perform some of our installations etc without having to tear the laptop apart. Of course, in the process, we would not want to trigger any alert or alarms as well. Hackers get caught. Good hackers DON’T get caught.

So, we narrowed down our options. One of the endgame objectives would no doubt be the administrative rights. A more direct answer would be the administrator password. And inside our laptop, there is the local administrator account, which is used by the IT support department to roll out updates and perform installation on our laptop. This seems like the very object we want.

Usually before I go about the hard way, I try the easy way. In fact, the easy way usually works. I tried a few passwords. No luck. In fact, I was very caution to ensure that password lockout was not enable on this account. For very obvious reasons, if this account is lockout, it will be difficult to recover the system. I always wonder if this is the reason why everyone wants to attack the admin account, beside than knowing it has the rights of god on the machine. So, it does not use a simple password.

Another very direct way to recover a system is to wipe the password. This is more effective than you can imagine. I had broken tons of laptop whose owner does not want me to enter their system by simply rebooting into my boot CD and wiping off the administrator password. However, we have a problem here. This system is protected by a disk based encryption. When we boot up from a foreign OS, the encrypted partition simple will not mount. In fact, this was one problem I was dying to crack. Anyway, wiping the password is not the way to go.

Another approach is to extract the password hash. We all heard of rainbow tables and LCP. I guess this would be easy. I had extracted lots of passwords hashes in the past using PWDump or FGDump. One obstacle lies ahead. Antivirus. The antivirus is switch on to the maximum mode which simply detect and delete anything and everything it feels is dangerous. This includes some of our tools which we use for work as well. Nasty. The question is : Do I want to break the antivirus as well? Antivirus firm has spend millions on R&D to ensure their solution works and works well in a corporate environment. I am sure they had figured out that someone will want to disabled or uninstall their product in the corporate. Secondly, I also do not want to trigger some alarm if I had my antivirus off.

In the above detail, I mentioned how easy it was for me to obtain my administrator’s right simply by social engineering the IT support department. However, that doesn’t not solve ALL the problems we have. It is good to have a laptop with an additional local admin account, but it is not enough to simply have that. There are still other helpless laptops out there. Ultimately, what I wanted was the admin account so that I can help them out too.

While I have my admin rights, it’s easy and simple to just change the password of the admin account to whatever I like, but that’s not my aim. I also realized that in order to push my hacking tools onto the laptop to extract the password hash, I will probably have to disable or uninstall the antivirus system because it is basically blocking and deleting my software whenever I copy it in.

Touching the antivirus is probably not where I want to go. Basically, messing with the antivirus may trigger some audit alarms which will not look nice on me. Secondly, I may not be able to properly uninstall or install the antivirus back because it may have a secondary password or some required files for the group policy. Enterprise level antivirus usually has all these additional stuffs. Destroying the antivirus will be a last resort for me.

Just to recall in the first article, the hard disk has a disk based encryption and that is why I am unable to use a boot disk or boot CD to extract the password hash. In short, I am pretty screw if I continue in this path to try to extract the password hash. In a separate thread, I did manage to break one of these systems using a floppy boot up, but that’s another story. I had another thought. That is to install the system console and boot that up. But the chances that I will be able to run or do anything else in that restricted shell is quite close to none. So, what will be better than the password hash? Answer : The password itself.

So, how can one get the password? Let’s backtrack this a bit. How does the IT department upgrade and change all our passwords? Typically if you work smart, you will either push it down a GPO or use some sort of batch processing, maybe even SMS or WUSS. Now, being such a huge enterprise, I would guess they would use at least one of these. I strike GPO off because the admin account is a local account. So, what I will do is to find out how they changed the password (in batch).

I do not know why, but my IT department like to leave a link to their software repository around on their desktop. I guess that’s probably the root of corporate piracy if any happens here. In any case, this is the place I would start. Looking through the folders, I basically had gone through these times to times for other reasons, so pretty much know which are the new stuffs, or simply just sort them by date. Then from the new folders, I found another link to another server which contains the new software sets for this upgrade. Now, this will contains the binaries for the antivirus. I almost thought that I would reconsider breaking the antivirus and reinstalling it back using these binaries. Until I saw a very obvious file in the root directory. It sound like jackpot. In fact, there is even a file call “ChangePasswordforXXX.exe” lying around there for the picking. Bingo.

So, this is a exe file. I would like to break it apart using IDA Pro or other debugger, but just throwing at a long shot, I thought I would start with a text editor instead. Based on my experience, most people do not encrypt or even obfuscate their binary. I had been able to break many applications and website basically because the binaries is not protected. Again, this enables me to accomplish what I did. By looking through the binary file, I notice this is a simple WISE installation binary. Yes, actually I already knew that when I saw the icon. They did not even bothered to change it. WISE has tendency to leave some of the configuration in clear text even when it is compiled into a binary. That is the reason why I saw the things I saw without even the use of a debugger. Somewhere in the file, I saw the password I was looking for. In fact, I did not even really take a look at the file, I simple do a search for “password” and I am brought to that offset in the file.

The password was long, complex and consists of alphanumeric with upper and lower case and symbols. But it is just another password hacked by me today.

As an added bonus, I even got hold of an additional password in the file just right below it. It is the encryption password for the harddisk. I haven’t figured out how I could use it, but I guess it will probably be useful, someday.

Who Reset My Password

2013-09-18T10:26:00.005+05:30

Today I am going to talk about yet another simple and effective hack. This time, we are going to go into the scenario of grabbing password from forums, portals etc. Imagine this scenario. You are user A and you want to get into user B's account. We can safely assume that User B's email is inaccessible, otherwise, we all know we do not have a problem then.
Suppose as A, I decide I wanted to go reset my password instead. More often than not, it will be sent to A's email address, a link that enable user A to reset my password. In other times, they may even allow other means as well such as mobile phone or messenger, but the concept is still pretty much the same, except it just complicate the trace hiding part sometimes.
Now, after A check the email and a link will appear. If the link is embedded in HTML, uncode it and look for something like this:

uid=12314800&uname=xxxxxxxx&mail=yyyyyyyy

Now. isn't that cute. But what we are interested is the UID most of the time. And I don't need to point finger at what sort of program usually have this type of parameters. Now comes the interesting part. I have a link for A to reset A's password, but what if I CAN reset B's password instead? OK, this is where the complication may or may not help. Basically what you are interested is to obtain B's UID. To my surprise, it's something more easy than you think. Some portal, you will even be able to get that from the "reset password" page, while others, its just a matter of keying in the password incorrectly once on the login page.

Now, lets UID replace. Note that if the site uses some sort of hash check on the URL, this is probably not going to work. But then again the hash is usually going to be a combination of the parameters plus some unique identifier, with some luck, you might even be able to break the hash. In one case I encounter, the hash is basically the whole URL excluding the hash=ZZZZ parameter right at the end.

Assuming its not, replace B's uid with A's uid and you are sent to the password reset page. Go ahead and don't be shy about it. After which, go back to the login page and log into B's account successfully. And B may or may not even know the password had been changed.

You may laugh and think the hack is silly. 10 sites I saw and 10 I entered within last 3 days is not so laughable. If you maintain a portal, I think you should re-look at your password reset workflow seriously.

DVDFab and BD-RE

2013-09-18T10:26:00.002+05:30

I had just recently gotten a Blu-ray write finally. Now, say goodbye to my DVD writable, or so I thought. While Data and other files has absolutely no problem with a BD-R or BD-RE (Yes, I do not know why, but they decided BD-RW doesn't sound good), it becomes a complication when it comes to the media like music and movies.
Lets leave the AudioCD part out of these, since its still in the legacy CD format. Take a look at DVD. I had always used DVDFab to "squeeze" DVD9 into DVD5 and it works like a charm. Lose some sound quality, but the video is usually 100% well kept. (Yes, don't we all hate the FBI notice delay and ads and to be honest, I think DVDFab should sell this as their prime point. Not sure if the FBIs are so happy about it though.
OK, this is where I am finally going to talk about why we can't do without DVDFab for Blu-ray. I had check out many (Yes, about 10 or so) who claim they can squeeze a Blu-ray without (much) loses. WEll, before that, let me stress that most Blu-ray out there simply are dual layers. Well, not that you get great quality or something, there are usually about 29GB (Single layer only houses 25GB) and I can't help thinking, they had done it on purpose so that people cannot copy it 1-1. And for me. BACKUP is a must. Especially when you own a Blu-ray, you would share with friends (and god knows, maybe even their dogs) all over. I do not want to have to pay almost USD40 and then, well own a very expensive coaster. So I insist on backing up my Blu-ray.
Well, why not buy a BD-RE DL? Yes, why not? It's just about 8X the price of the single layer! This is where DVDFab comes in. In most of my "test" (I own the Blu-ray by the way!), most of the "Extra" bytes comes from the previews or additional language tracks. And in Blu-ray, audio track is crazily large, especially when they are in 7.1 Digital or something. It's crazy! And I don't really care about the Russian language, for example. So these goes and all done nicely by DVDFab. In fact, I do not really even need to give up on quality on most of the movies. So its like 1080p, without some audio and definitely without FBI warnings and previews (by the time I watch these preview, the show is probably out anyway). And all this via DVDFab.

The current DVDFab comes with 2 major version, version 9 comes with the newer interface, but I prefer the old interface more like the above. There is a trial version which you can try for 30 days and decide for yourself if you want to buy it.

Check it out at:

http://www.DVDFab.com

Last, but not least, DVDFab does not require AnyDVD or other decrypter to decrypt the content of the DVD or Blu-ray! So, that's a bonus!

Well, I do not work for DVDFab in case you are wondering and there is no referral bonus or anything from my link.

Windows Update Unlocked and Manual Trigger

2013-09-18T10:25:00.001+05:30

Ever seen this before? Well, this is an old version of Windows, but it would look somewhat similar when you have policies that preset and prevents you from doing a Windows Update. Usually there is nothing you can do about it and hope that you will eventually get the patch, thanks to your company, but if you are the owner of this machine and has admin rights, then read on.

Usually this is caused by GPO or similar policies preventing you from updating. Or you are not in the administrator group. To solve the GPO, you will need to fire up regedit.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ WindowsUpdate \ AU.
Delete the keys AUOptions and NoAutoUpdate.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ WindowsUpdate.
Delete the key DisableWindowsUpdateAccess.

Alternatively, you can also use the Group Policy Editor.

Fire up GP Editor by running "gpedit.msc" in command prompt.
Go to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update.
Set "Configure Automatic Updates" to "Not Configured".
Got to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update.
Set "Remove Access" to All and "Windows Update features" to Not Configured.

On server, you may be able to run "gpupdate /force" to restart the policies, but a reboot is one sure way to get it done.

Next, we sometimes wants to fire up Windows Update and do a on demand update. But in a company wide deployment, often you will get a no access page at Microsoft because the Windows Update Server is set to local. So, here is the way to get it done, via script of in command prompt.

You can skip this steps sometimes, but I find that the sure way to trigger the update is sometimes to shutdown and restart the Windows Update Service like this:

net stop wuauserv

net start wuauserv

After this, you can start the actual trigger to Windows Update:

wuauclt /detectnow

This should make the yellow shield at the tray pops up. You may want to see a update status by:

wuauclt /r /ReportNow

This will communicate with the update server and takes a few minutes.

And when something does crap out, there is always a very detail log in %systemroot%/WindowsUpdate.log. You will find all your problems inside be it wrong server, connection timeout etc.

Now, the above can definitely be put into a script to be run by schedule and you have your own "Automatic Update" so to speak. Have fun updating Windows (and other Microsoft Products)

FLV to MP# Convertor

2013-09-17T15:02:00.006+05:30

Today, I transferred approximately 200 music files into my mobile phone, but when I tried to play them, only 30-35 files were showing up in the media player. After a quick check, I found that the player in my mobile phone can only play WAV and MP3 files. When I looked at the files, they were mostly in FLV format.

So, quickly done a search on the Google and found this tiny tool, which is just 500KB. It is really an amazing tiny application, which took less than half a minute to install and only few seconds to convert all the 170 FLV files into MP3. Quality remained intact.

Download FLV2MP3 converter (on Ziddu), install it, and when you run it a small window will appear. Just drop your files onto it and it will convert it to MP3 and stores in the same directory with the same file name.

How to restore the Windows XP bootloader

2013-09-17T15:02:00.001+05:30

I have searched the Internet if there is any solution and what everyone was to use the Windows XP CD to repair it. Once we boot into the XP CD, we need to type “fixmbr” into recovery console to repair it. So, I digged the net to see if there is a simple solution and came with this. It worked for me great and there is no need to have XP CD. Follow these steps and you are done.

Right click on “My Computer” and click “Properties” which is at the end of the menu.
Select the “Advanced” tab from the list of tabs. Then, click “Settings” button in the “Startup and Recovery” section at the bottom.
It will open up a new window and then click “Edit” button, which will load boot.ini in notepad where you can edit it.

A normal boot.info file look like this:

[boot loader] timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional”/fastdetect

Though I have uninstalled the Ubuntu, the boot.ini was looking like this:

[boot loader] timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional”/noexecute= optin/fastdetect

c:\wubildr.mbr=”Ubuntu”

I have just copied the normal boot.ini code into the boot.ini, saved it, and restarted. Voila…..I got rid of the nagging dual boot window. Below are the screenshots to guide you visually.

Free mobile video converter – XMedia Recode

2013-09-17T13:10:00.002+05:30

last week, I was downloading and testing few best mobile video converters available on the net. After a day of testing, I found that XMedia Recode is the best video converter that can convert videos for almost all mobiles. It has a list of mobile brands and models to select and it will convert the video compatible for that model. Best of it, it is a free software.

Once you installed it, click open file and select the video to be converted for your mobile. Then, in “Profile,” select the brand of your mobile and in the below list, select the model of your mobile. Then, click on the “Add Job” button in toolbar. Then, the “Encode” button will active and click it to convert. It also has an option to shut down the system automatically when the conversion completes.

You can also use it for normal video conversions. Choose the profile name “Custom” and you can see more than 20 types of formats you can convert your video into.

It can convert for Acer, Apple, Archos, Asus, BlackBerry, Cowon, Creative, Elson, Epson, Garmin-Asus, Hauppauge, HTC, Hyundai, Intenso, iRiver, LG, Loewe, Motorola, Nikon, Nintendo, Nokia, O2, Palm, Phillips, Pocket PC, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony Ericsson, Sony, Sony PlayStation 3, PSP, Toshiba, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Western Digital TV Box, Xbox, Zune, and YouTube (as of version 2.2.4.2).

How It is possible to make Inkjet printing cheaper and cost-effective

2013-09-17T13:09:00.003+05:30

Everybody knows that cartridges are very costly. Keeping that in my mind, I have started doing homework before purchasing one. Went to eBay and searched for compatible cartridge prices of different brands (they are cheaper than original cartridges). Cannon and Epson had cheap compatible cartridges.

While searching on eBay, I came across a listing of refillable cartridges for Epson. That listing instantly attracted me. It costs around Rs.600 for four cartridges (CMYK) and all comes with plastic lids, which you can open and fill the ink “n” number of times. eBay also has a listing of CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System) for various printer models of Epson, which makes printing cost dirt cheap.

Looking at these options, I settled down with Epson. I then did my research for an Epson All-in-one model, which is cheap. Epson Stylus TX121 was the cheapest and better one. Then, visited all the online e-commerce sites and found that IndiaPlaza offer is lowest. After applying a coupon code, I got it at Rs.2600 (MRP Rs.3999).
If you are using original cartridges, color print costs anywhere from 4-8 rupees for an A4 print (photo), black costs Rs.1-3 (depends on the brand). If you are using compatible cartridges, you can cut the price to half.

Refillable 73N cartridges with four color bottles of 100 mL each cost Rs.1050 on eBay. Only ink costs Rs.700, which you can use to fill all the cartridges 10 times. Assuming that one fill prints 300 prints (black and color), it will give a total of 3000 prints, which makes the cost per print 24 paise. If you are only printing black, then it becomes very, very cheap.

You might have doubt that these inks will damage the printer head, but think, two or three sets of original cartridges cost is equivalent to your printer. I have already experimented with my printer and the quality of print is same as that of original ink. What all you need to keep in mind is to purchase products from eBay Power Sellers and seller with good feedback. They tend to sell good products to maintain their feedback.

PS: Epson Printer with Ink Tank System is available at Rs.6800 on eBay.

How to stop Telemarketing Calls

2013-09-17T12:40:00.002+05:30

I hope you have enjoyed my previous post on funny telemarketing calls. This post will guide you on stopping telemarketing calls. After I got the credit card, these annoying calls have increased in number. I was aware of “National Do Not Call Registry,” but never tried it. As the calls increased to 4-5 a day, I registered for NDNC and surprisingly never received a marketing call thereafter.

What is “National Do Not Call Registry” ?

The NDNC Registry is a database having the list of all telephone numbers of the subscribers who do not want to receive Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC). Telephone subscriber (Landline or mobile) who does not wish to receive UCC, can register their telephone number with their telecom service provider for inclusion in the NDNC or directly as mentioned below. Telecom Service Provider shall upload the telephone number to the NDNC within 45 days of receipt. The telemarketers will have to verify their calling telephone numbers list with the NDNC registry before making a call.

How to register for it?

Dial 1909 or SMS to 1909 with message ‘START DND‘ (remove quotes).

Do Not call Registry of other countries:

Do Not Call Registry is also maintained by several other countries. Below is a list of countries and their websites to help the international visitors/subscribes of my blog.

USA: https://www.donotcall.gov/
Australia: https://www.donotcall.gov.au/
Canada: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng
NewZealand:http://www.nzma.simplicitycrm.com/editors/content.aspx?config=NRR_DoNotCall
UK: http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

How to know from where the junk SMS has come from..

2013-09-17T12:39:00.002+05:30

I always wondered what those two letters added to the sender name of a bulk/junk SMS refers to, like TD-ICICIBANK, BD-FORTUNE, etc. These days, the junk SMS has become a pain and I get unsolicited spam SMSes from Vastu consultant, Astrologer, Real Estate agents, LIC agents, which I have not opted to receive. Today, an article in Times of India says that these junk SMSes have reached an astounding number of 100 million a day sent throughout the country. As the SMS cost has become so cheap, it has become a low-cost marketing trick to reach the targeted customers.

As per TRAI, every bulk SMS must have 2 letters as initials: the 1st letter stands for the service provider sending SMS and the 2nd for location eg, TD is Tata Delhi, BD is BSNL Delhi, etc.

This is the complete chart:

Service Provider	Code
Aircel	D
Airtel	A
BSNL	B
BPL Mobile	L
Loop Telecom	L
Idea Cellular	I
MTNL	M
Reliance Comm	R
Reliance Telecom	E
Spice Comm	P
Tata Teleservices	T
Vodafone	V

So, now you can find out the origination of bulk SMS using the above chart. If you are getting huge number of bulk SMS daily, register for National Do Not Call Registry and see if it can be of help.

Adobe Reader direct download

2013-09-17T12:35:00.002+05:30

I already dumped Adobe Reader for Foxit Reader as it is tiny in size, runs fast, and consumes less system resources. Today, I was checking a mutual fund consolidated statement, which was not opening in Foxit as it was intended to be opened only in Adobe Reader. So, I went to Adobe Reader website to download it. I was browsing through Firefox. It downloaded a plugin called “Adobe DLM” to download the reader. It asked me to restart the Firefox and then started downloading McAfee Scanner without my permission, installed it, and then started downloading Adobe Reader. It looked to me nonsense. Why the hell we need the plugin and a virus scanner just to install the Reader.

So, I did a search on the Internet and found the direct FTP link to it. I thought it would post this direct link for the people to download easily without going through the hassles of plugins and scanners. Here you go:

Go to ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/

Click on your respective operating system. Hint: win for Windows. Then, select the latest version. At the time of this writing, the latest version is 9.x. Then, the latest release. Again, at the time of this writing, the latest release was 9.4.0. Click on that and then, select you language. For English, select en_US. You can download either EXE file or MSI. EXE is smaller in size, so it will be the best option.

I have Deep Freeze installed in my system, so after installing Adobe Reader and reading the Adobe-only Mutual Fund Statement, I just restarted my system and it went back to its earlier state making it Foxit Reader-Only system

free Audio File Joiner and Converter

2013-09-17T12:34:00.000+05:30

Today, I had to join around 20 .wav audio files into one. I have downloaded few free software and tested. The best one I have chosen is All Free mp3 Joiner with lots of options. It can convert files between various formats. Even, you can merge audio files of various formats and convert them into one format at a click. It can export the files into .wav, .ogg, .mp3, .wma. You can also change channels, sample rate, and bit depth. You can drag the files up or down to rearrange the order.

Get it here: http://www.allfreevideoconverter.com/freemp3joiner/index.html

TXT to RTF and HTML Converter

2013-09-17T12:29:00.000+05:30

Found this tiny (600KB) piece of software that can convert TXT files to RTF and HTML files. It is called Docfrac. It is an Open Source, free software. It can converter a single or a batch of files at a go. It also has the ability to converter vice versa too.
Conversion Formats

RTF to HTML
RTF to TEXT
HTML to RTF
HTML to TEXT
TEXT to RTF
TEXT to HTML

I came across number of bulky software costing anywhere from $30 to $150 before landing on this open source project. Thanks to the developer
Get it from the SourceFourge project page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/docfrac/ or Click Here.

Increase system volume - Free

2013-09-17T12:12:00.002+05:30

I have been noticing that one of my systems’ volume is very low compared to the other. I have checked all the settings to increase it, but in vain. Then, done a search for the freeware tools to increase the volume and found this little software, which found that I am using only half of the volume of my system. The volume controls were showing wrongly as full.

This software is called VolumeTouch, which primarily aims at increasing and decreasing the system volume using the keyboard and mouse. You can assign a specific key combination to initiate the control and then using arrow keys or mouse scroll, you can control the system volume.

But, the interesting thing was when I double clicked the tray icon of VolumeTouch, it opened Master Volume showing the exact volume I was using. So, if you think your system’s volume is low, you can try this software and see whether it is the maximum you can get.

Software: VolumeTouch Site URL: https://notendur.hi.is/antoni/volumetouch/ (showing “Not Found” error at the time of writing) Download: Click Here

2013-09-11T15:17:00.000+05:30

I see a lot of newbie webmasters asking how to know whether a link is DoFollow or NoFollow in the webmaster forums. Some people say just see the source code to see whether there is a “NoFollow” attribute to the link. If it is not there, it is a DoFollow. But what if you are checking a group of websites for link building. It is tedious and time taking task, right!'

What is DoFollow attribute?
It is a hyperlink attribute which tells search engines not to pass any significance or value to the outbound links. If your site has a Google Pagerank (PR) of 5 and a DoFollow link goes to another site, which has zero PR, it is going to get some PR when Google updates the Pagerank. NoFollow also prevents spammers spamming the high PR sites with their spam links.

So, what is the easy way to check whether a site is DoFollow or NoFollow easily? Here comes the tiny Firefox plugin, NoDoFollow, which makes it pretty easier. Get the plugin here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5687

Once, it is installed you can see the option of “NoDoFollow” in the right click context menu. Now launch a webpage, right click, and select the option. That’s all, the plugin will turn all the DoFollow links to light blue and NoFollow links to light red. It is so simple. Isn’t it!

Saving Private Hard Disk

2013-09-02T12:18:00.000+05:30

Today I am going to talk about something which gives us nightmares. Yes, even with the most sophisticated preparation, it is still bound to happen sooner or later - Hard Disk Failure. Let start this a few weeks back. While slipstreaming a XP Disc, I found that my hard disk was particularly slow. In fact, it even stalled at some point. I know I had a WD Green HDD which is not really state of the art in terms of speed, but I should not be expecting the HDD to stall anyway.
So, I check my SMART statistic via my Hard Disk Sentinel. While this program doesn't fix anything, it does tell you what happened on your HDD on the hardware level. In this case, I see a huge number of bad clusters detected and there had been a lot of relocation as a results. This is a good tell tale sign the HDD is going to fail or at least you will lose data if you do nothing about it.
If you are interested in getting Hard Disk Sentinel, it can be purchased here: http://www.hdsentinel.com/
Now, I am going to talk about 2 tools which I have in mind. They are :

Spinrite 6 ( http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm )
HDD Regenerator 1.7.1 ( http://www.dposoft.net/ )

Spinrit 6 is the latest version, but for HDD Regenerator, there is a 2011 version which actually works in Windows. Since I did not have that, I have to fall back to the good old DOS version 1.7.1. The main differences for these programs are as follows:

Spinrite can process ONLY your data area and leave those empty spaces alone. This is good enough if you want to recover the data and go RMA / Exchange the HDD.
HDD Regenerator processes ALL of the HDD area including empty spaces. This is good if you plan to KEEP the HDD since checking the empty space will preempt any possible failure in the future in those area.

I prepared for the worst and go for option 2 anyway although it took much much more time. Also considering that HDD Regenerator saved my ass once in:

http://nemesisv.blogspot.com/2006/12/hd-regenerator-vs-spinrite.html

HDD Regenrator will take a considerable time, but here is where paying for a Raptor pays out. The RAW speed of your HDD is what counts here. It is also rare that HDD Regenrator cannot read out and relocated the data unless the HDD is really gone BAD in a very bad way. In which case, you should savage whatever you have and RMA the HDD.

Needless to say, the HDD was saved, and the bad cluster counted also return to normal as checked in SMART. It could be just magnetic retention problem. But I guess I was lucky. But in this case, maybe using Spinrite would had saved me some time.

I would know many readers will think that it is really expensive considering they cost about USD$80-100 raw. And I also know that there are many so called "cracked" editions of these software floating around. You know that I do not encourage piracy and I won't here. Think about this. It is your data which matters. Will you trust a "cracked" version of the program which may have a chance that it is damaged or even worsed trojanized. Instead of saving your data, it can corrupts it or send it out somewhere. I think I will not take the risk even if it is slim. When it comes to data, I will deem it as priceless, so USD$100 is nothing compared to it. Well, if you really want to be cheap about it, you can share it with a friend or even better, buy a different one each so that you can compare.

These tools are life saver when shit happens. And all we can hope is that day does come (too often).

How to get a free US phone number

2013-08-22T12:32:00.000+05:30

I needed a US phone number to register with a site as it only allows the people from US with a valid US phone number. We can use a US proxy to bypass the country limit, but how can we get a US phone number?

I know that for a fee, I can get a US phone number from Skype, but I wanted a free one as I will receive call only once. I ran searches in Google to find a free phone service. There were lot of suggestions, which does not work well. Some were not working and some sites disappeared. Some methods required me to register with a free SIP provider and then forward those calls to a free phone number provider.

So, tried a number of services and the best I found was VoxOx. Very simple registration will give you a free US phone number that you can use to receive calls. By subscribing to their plans, you can even make outgoing calls and they were cheap too. There were wonderful plans like US & Canada unlimited calling at Just $2.45 per month (3000 minutes fair usage policy applies).

You need to configure the client correctly to receive the calls, otherwise it does not work well.

Install it, run, and login with your credentials. Click on File>Preferences and in preferences window, select “Phone.”

Modify the options as you see below and you are done.

Click for a bigger picture

Possible other uses:

If you run a cybercafe, you can offer US Phone Calls at Rs.2/minue and make 6K by subscribing to unlimited US and Canada phone calling pack at $2.45/month (approx. Rs. 150)
If somebody in your family is in US, give this number to him/her, so that they can call at anytime right from their mobile or land phone at a local call charge and you can also talk to them at just Rs.150 for 3000 minutes.

Testing Part:
If you want to see if it is working fine, use Evaphone to make a free call right from your browser.

Interviewing Tips 2013

2013-08-14T17:57:00.003+05:30

Here are some tips that will help make your interview a positive and fun experience.

Research the company-know what you are interviewing for and exactly what the company does.
Be enthusiastic--show excitement, sit forward in your chair, smile, people hire people they like and trust.
Sell yourself---this is a time to brag about your skills and talk about your self. Think about what separates you from the other candidates they are interviewing. How do you add value to the company.
Bring current / updated resume--it is your presentation ( Work History, Education, Other Skills, Personal info is the best format).
Social Media: be aware of what your public image is online: If you are googled, your linked in profile, Facebook, blogs, pictures, etc.
References must be past supervisors and one character reference.(make sure references know they might called.)
Be yourself and be 100% honest.
Be prepared to fill out application, take personality test, interview with multiple people.
Arrive 15 minutes early.
Dress professionally--conservatively.
Have firm handshake and good eye contact.
Listen to the interviewer.
If you find yourself having a question during the interview, it is ok to ask, "may I ask a question?"
Sit up slightly forward in seat( to show interest).
Leave cell phone and purse in car-no exceptions!!!
Ask your recruiter, mentors, or friends who work at the place, for advice. Do not leave anythng to chance
Know where you stand at the end of the interview by asking one very important question:

"Do you have any concerns at this point that would keep you from hiring me, because I want to work for you?"

" I am really interested (or want to work for you) do you have any concerns that would keep you from hiring me?"

This question allows you to ask for the job, the interviewer to tell you if there are any problems; you get the chance to overcome any objections/concerns, it is a compliment to the person doing the interviewing that you want to work for them, and you leave with the knowledge of where you stand and what the next step will be.

Call your recruiter right after the interview.
Send a hand written thank you note and even a quick email-Keep the note simple, no more than 3 sentences.
Your Recruiter will guide you through the process.

5 Points remember before going to job interview

2013-08-14T17:51:00.001+05:30

Landing a job interview is incredibly exciting –- and often terrifying. But fear not. There are clever ways to transform your angst into nerves of steel. After all, a good interview should feel like a conversation, not an interrogation. Here are five essential key tips from the world of public speaking that’ll help you look just as awesome in person as you do on paper.

1. Know Yourself

Most people dread the moment when their interviewer utters the words - “So, tell me about yourself.” But it’s actually the simplest question to navigate once you get down to the root of what’s being asked. "Tell me about yourself" really translates to: “What can you tell me about how your personality, interests, work habits and background will help you rock this position?”

Before you answer, rewind back to when you applied for the job -– the moment you decided that you and the position would be a solid match. Usually, the reasons that ran through your mind before you chose to apply are the answers the interviewer is looking for. Since you’re the most well-versed on the subject of you, this is your moment to paint the picture of what you bring to the table and why you’re the most dynamic and capable person for the job.

2. Bridge the Gap Between Confidence and Enthusiasm (Then Marry the Two)

How many times have you been confident in your ability to perform a task but not necessarily enthused about doing it (or vice versa)? Confidence speaks to the way you perceive you, while enthusiasm is more indicative of your feelings about something or someone other than yourself — in this case, the gig.

To make sure there’s a healthy balance between the two, draft a list of reasons you’re confident about your ability to perform the job, and pair each one with a reason why you’re enthusiastic about showing up. You should be able to clearly communicate these reasons during your interview.

Example: "In over 15 years as a graphic designer, I’ve mastered a number of software programs and techniques. Those skills have helped me contribute to some great work, but the best part of the experience, for me, is collaborating with a team to build something that clients can fall in love with."

3. Use Your LinkedIn Profile to Practice

The last thing you want to do in an interview is regurgitate your resume or Linkedin profile. Instead, take a look at how you described your role at previous jobs and practice how you might integrate these into an actual conversation. In other words: if your resume bullet points were complete sentences describing how your experience is relevant to the new job, what would they sound like?

To prepare like the pros, do a mock interview with a friend and video record your answers. Ask yourself, “Can I really see myself saying this?" to gauge the authenticity of your delivery.

4. Know When to Wrap It Up

Big audiences don’t like a Chatty Cathy -– and neither do busy interviewers. To avoid coming across as a rambler or bad listener, always be mindful of the length of your answers. Even if the interviewer doesn’t give you validation in the form of a nod, smile or laugh, don’t be afraid to simply stop talking once you’ve answered the question.

If you can effectively communicate a point in five words, don’t use 25. Trust that if they want to know more, they’ll ask.

Need a little practice on this? Do a search for the “most asked interview questions” relevant to the position you’re applying for, jot down the ones you struggle with and practice answering them. Open-ended questions sometimes require lengthier responses, but typically, you should be able to provide a thoughtful answer to most interview questions in under 60 seconds.

5. Be a Team Player

The letter "I" stands alone. Unless you’re applying for a position that requires you to work independently, the reality is that stellar results (no matter the industry) require team effort. Be sure to incorporate "we" language to show your ability to work well with others. This doesn’t mean refrain from sharing your individual responsibilities and accomplishments, but be clear about how those things benefitted your team.

When in doubt, stick to this equation: What my team does + How I do my part to make sure we get to the finish line = Victory

Of course, no two interviews are the same, but if you apply these tips, you’re guaranteed to boost your odds of getting a call back. Knock ‘em dead!

IDwhois – Free WhoIs client for Windows

2013-08-05T17:47:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I have come across this fast and free WhoIs checking software, IDwhois. Before findings this, I was using another free client, which checks only few TLDs like .com, .net, .org, and .info. I use this software to check domain availability across different extensions.

It is too fast and checks nealry 130 gTLDs and ccTLDs. It has checked 500 domains in less than a minute. You can prepare the domains list in text format and upload it when you are ready, and also you can save the results into XML format too.

IDwhois Features :
- More than 130 TLDs to lookup
- Stand alone whois client
- Integrated Parser
- Export results on .HTML, .CSV or .XML for fast reporting
- Import domain name list from a .TXT file
- XML Configuration files to add or modify TLD settings / interfaced
- Multi thread WHOIS lookup
- WHOIS Request timer to avoid registrars/NICs time out
- multi-IP bridge lookup environment (avoid NIC black list)
- Rearrange the information in your whois results
- Tree view result
- Free online support by mail
- Proxy environment

Download it here.

What does “Who Is” mean?
WHOIS is a TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying a database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet. WHOIS lookups were traditionally made using a command line interface, but a number of simplified web-based tools now exist for looking up domain ownership details from different databases. Web-based WHOIS clients still rely on the WHOIS protocol to connect to a WHOIS server and do lookups, and command-line WHOIS clients are still quite widely used by system administrators. – Wikipedia

Free and reliable PHP and MySQL web hosting

2013-07-22T16:34:00.000+05:30

I have tried a lot of free web hosts when I was learning WordPress and other open source CMS applications. From year 2005 to till date I have tested more than 15 free web hosts. Free web hosts normally put their advertisements on top of the site to cover the costs they incur on free web hosting, which makes the site appear somewhat ugly. The ads occupy the large space. Another disadvantage using free hosts is that we cannot question them if it goes down. Some free hosts go down even for weeks.

After testing these free hosts for more than six months, I chose FreeHostia as the best free web host. I have been using it for more than three years without a problem. I have been building mini websites and blogs for my customers using FreeHostia. FreeHostia offers an ad-free Linux hosting for free. It has the following features:

Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, and Perl
Hosting for 2 domain and 10 subdomains
Data storage of 250 MB
Monthly bandwidth of 5 GB
1 MySQL database (10 MB DB space)
1 FTP account & web-based file manager
3 POP3 accounts with SpamAssassin protection & Webmail
FrontPage Extensions
Free 24/7 technical support and ticketing system

Review and sign up for the free hosting here.

The downside of FreeHostia is 10 MB limit of MySQL DB. When you reach that limit, you can either move to their paid hosting plan, which costs $1.95 per month and upgrades your MySQL database size to 25 MB or to a better and cheap paid web hosting like DraemHost, which removes all limits. If you are planning to install WordPress on it, don’t forget to install the plug-in Revision Control, else your database will be filled up too fast because of the new feature called “Post Revisions.”

CutePDF – Add a PDF printer

2013-07-17T12:31:00.000+05:30

CutePDF is a free software to create PDFs from any Windows application. It installs a printer driver and shows up as a virtual printer when you print from any application. While giving the Print command (Ctrl+P), select the “CreatePDF Writer” as printer and it will create a professional quality PDF. I have been using it for years and helps me a lot. It has endless possibilities. I downloaded a free invoice template from Microsoft Office Templates. I use it to prepare invoices entering all the details of customer, particulars, and bill amount and export it as PDF just clicking the “Print” button and selecting the “CutePDF Writer” as printer. I can export the Wikipedia pages from browser as PDF files for storing. I can print PDF from any application let it be Excel, Power Point, Firefox, medical dictionary, etc. etc. and it goes on.

CutePDF supports Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 (x86/x64). It requires PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript.

Online Free SMS Applications – With Address Book & Reminders

2013-07-10T17:25:00.000+05:30

I used to use Krify SMS for all my free SMS needs, but as the time is passing on, new SMS sites have been coming up with lot of features. So, here is the review of two best applications I have been using for sometime. They also offer address book facility, so that you can store all your friends and family’s mobile numbers and just by typing few words, you can retrieve just like what you do while sending SMS on your mobile.

1. 160by2.com

This is really a nice fast-loading site with Ajax touch. It offers address book as well as reminder facility. It also comes with predefined quick SMS templates. It sends the message within few seconds. It allows the users to send message up to 80 characters and they append an ad to the message sent using the rest of 80 characters. That is why, they chose 160by2 as their site’s name. 160 characters shared by user and the site.

They also offer features like address book and alerts. By using alerts, you can set reminders to be sent to your mobile. You can separate the alerts into three different predefined sections Birthday Alerts, Reminders, and Anniversary Alerts. This is my favorite option is 160by2. You can also create groups and send message at one click via web access or by sending from your mobile to a designated 160by2 member, which is available in the section >Contacts>My Groups

2. SMS Me – Orkut Application

SMS Me is also a free SMS application which is available as an application in Orkut. To start sending free SMS using this application, first you need to add this application in your profile. Click on the “Add Apps” on the left side right below your avatar. It will show a number of applications available to add. If your browsing Orkut in India, then the application will be in the second place right below the Slapster.

It also has address book facility and if your friend is also using this application in Orkut, then you can send SMS at one click without needing to remember his/her number.

How to filter adult content at home/office – An easy way

2013-06-25T17:47:00.000+05:30

My friend called me asking a solution for the above question. He runs a small medical transcription company. When transcriptionists are busy with searching medical terminology, there is a chance for accidentally going to the sites with adult content. He also wants to restrict the net use for the night shift people. He don’t want to spend money buying the content filtering software and it must be easy to setup because they don’t have system administrators to do that. Everything related to systems is taken care of by themselves.

So, I have started searching the net and found these easy steps to stop the adult content showing up in browsers. It is basically about changing the DNS servers in your system.

What is DNS?
DNS (Domain Name System) is a process that translates easy to remember addresses (like www.scrubit.com) to a numerical IP address used by computers (67.138.54.99) Everyone uses DNS. Most DNS is provided to the user by your internet service provider, or a recursive DNS service like ScrubIT. More info you can read on Wikipedia here.

Here I explain about two services OpenDNS and ScrubIt.

OpenDNS: It offers more free services than ScrubIt and more it is faster than ScrubIt. But, adult content filtering is not turned on by default. You have to create a free account on OpenDNS to turn it on. It will give you access to a number of interesting features like Adult Site Blocking, Phishing Site Blocking, Phishing Site Blocking, Stats and Logs, Typo Corrections, etc. Change your DNS servers to 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220, create a free account on OpenDNS, add your IP address, and turn the adult site blocking on. Now you are free from adult sites.

Note that this works only with static IPs as your free account is linked to the IP to gain the control. Lot of broadband accounts comes with static IP and if your internet provider does not support static IP, you can download the Dynamic DNS client to update your IP address automatically. More information is here: http://www.opendns.com/support/dynamic_ip/

Below are some screenshots. It is totally free, so give it a try to learn more about OpenDNS.

ScrubIt: Just change the DNS servers to 67.138.54.100 & 207.225.209.66, and it starts working. Though it is somewhat slow compared to OpenDNS, there is no hassle of setting up anything. Takes few seconds and efficiently starts blocking adult content.

Go to the ScrubIt’s website to know more.

Screenshot:

Finally, how to change the DNS servers in your system? Do the following:

Right click on the network connection icon displayed in the notification area on the taskbar. A menu will appear and select “Status” from the list

Click the “Properties” button and a properties window will open.

Then click “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) ” and it will open up a window with DNS servers list.

You can also locate the local area connection from control panel

Sharing internet connection between two computers – a step-by-step guide

2013-06-12T12:39:00.000+05:30

A week ago, I have purchased another system as we got a small project to work on. It is an online project and both systems need to have Internet. We have Sify connection at home and now we have to share it in both systems. I never tried before connecting two systems or sharing an internet connection. I have digged the net and found that we can share the internet using router. Router is a bit expensive one, so further digged the net for a simple workaround to connect both computers and share a single internet connection.

I found that using LAN card and crossover cable, we can setup a LAN connection and share the internet connection. Everything I did, but network icon in system tray was showing limited or no connection. For another one hour, I tried all sort of things, but failed. I put the same IPs in both systems, it did not connect. Then, I selected the option of obtaining IP automatically, again failed. Everyone one the net was describing about connecting it step-by-step, but no one explained about IPs. At last, I searched for it on Microsoft website and in an article, I found the IP numbers to put in, which are the default when you connect in LAN.

Following is a step-by-step instruction to connect two systems and share the internet connection.

Things you need: LAN Card and crossover cable.

Install LAN card in one of two systems, which will act as a Host. You need to connect to the internet through this computer. Connect one of two pins to the Host system and another pin to the second system. Once you connect both through cable, you can see the network icons glowing in your system tray. Sometimes, it may show the message that it is acquiring the IP address.

Click for bigger & clear image

Now, go to the Control Panel>Network and Internet Connection>Network Setup Wizard in Host system, in which you have installed an extra LAN card. Look at the screenshot on the right side.

It will show a popup. Click two times and follow the below screenshots. Click on the images for a bigger and clear images.

Select “Just finish the wizard” on the last window and we are done with the Host system. I named it as “Home.”

In the Client system, run the same network setup wizard, but this time select the connection method as second one, look at the image below. Rest of the process is same.

Now, in the Host system, you will be entering the IP address provided by the Internet provider. In the Client system, enter the below IP details and click ok. Now, you will see a popup from the second connection telling that it is now connected at 10 mbps speed.

Now when you connect the Host system to internet, you can access it from the Client system too.

Pros:
1. Any type of Internet connection works.
2. Low cost of implementation (Rs.200-250)
3. Easy to install.

Cons:
1. You can only connect two systems.
2. Host always to be on to access net on the Client system.

If you still have problem, post in comments and I will try to answer.