DEALWAP

The Best Image Formats – gifs, jpgs, pngs and more explained

2015-03-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

There are many different image formats available, although the most common are .gifs, .jpgs and .pngs. Despite these file formats being widely used around the internet, the description and use of each of these image formats is not commonly known. In this article, we shall be taking a look at some of the most used image file types available, and giving some details on when to use them, and why.

When you choose to put up an image on the web, you have a wide range of image formats that are worth giving a try. Each of the formats explained below can all be used for the same purposes, but if you want the best results, you may want to consider using them over the alternatives in certain scenarios. Let’s first start with perhaps the most used image format to date, the .JPG.

JPEG, JPG

The JPEG, or JPG for short is an image format that is best used for photos or for pictures that you don’t mind sacrificing a bit of quality for to reduce the file size. Whilst JPEGs can do a good job at keeping small sized photos at a fairly decent quality, their quality drops a bit when used for text, large block colored shapes, or other block color, because lines of these shapes can often blur, and colors can be saturated.

PNG

The PNG is perhaps one of the best image formats for creating small file sizes that lose little quality. PNGs are great for capturing a variety of images, and their best feature is it’s capability for full transparency. If you have ever noticed images online that have transparent backgrounds, they were created and saved as a PNG.

BMP

The BMP, or bitmap, is a pixel-based image format that is best for graphics and images that are not photos. BMPs can be pretty large in file size, and because of this there will be no loss in quality, making them a great choice for large displays, wallpapers or screensavers.

GIF

The GIF is perhaps the internet’s most known file type – GIF images can be animated, and this acts a great way to share small, compact animated videos with friends. When used as a still image, GIFs can be great for creating drawings, banners, text and other block shapes you may create in a program such as Photoshop or Microsoft Paint.

Hopefully this has helped you to understand the basics of the different file types used frequently online. There are many other image formats available for use, but these are the ones that get the most use. What image formats do you usually use, and after reading this do you think you might change things up at all?

Tips to Improve your Download Speed

2015-03-20T11:40:00.003-07:00

Unfortunately, unless you upgrade your package in an area that supports faster internet, there is no way to improve your speed past the maximum speeds your ISP has already given to you, however in most cases your internet speed will never be near the suggested max speed, and there can be ways to improve your download speed to a speed that is closer to what your max is. In this article, we will be suggesting some ideas that could potentially speed up your internet.

Switch Up Your Cables

If you are using Wi-Fi, grab an ethernet cable! In most instances, ethernet cables can transfer data quicker, and this can be a good way to improve your download speed. Whilst your Wi-Fi may be blazinly fast in the same room as the router, as the Wi-Fi passes through more walls and objects, it’s transfer speed will be reduced, so running a ethernet cable through the ceiling might be a smart call. Interestingly, there are some certain ethernet cables that can transfer data faster, although this is only the case when the cable is at least a certain length. If you are going to be trailing an ethernet cable through your house, try to pick up a Cat-6 or Cat-6E cable.

It should be noted that your max Wi-Fi speeds will only be lower than your max download speed if you are in an area that supports decent upload and download speed. For example, if your download is only around 5MB/s, you will not get increased speed by switching to an ethernet of a Cat-6 cable.
Ring Up Your Provider

A lot of times ISPs will claim that your area can reach a certain speed, but when you use them, you’ll find that the speeds are a lot less than advertised. This is because ISPs state that the max speeds are a certain number, but it’s okay for your speed to go below this. In most cases, the reason you are not receiving the max advertised speeds could be due to some interference or issues with the wiring that is used to transfer internet to your router. If you ring up your ISP and state that you are not getting the max advertised speed, they may come out and attempt to fix things up a little. There may be a charge to improve your line quality, but in the grand scheme of things it is usually very worth it.
Turn Off Your Devices

Having lots of devices such as tablets, laptops and smartphones idling in your house can cause a lot of data to be used, and whilst one device may not be an issue, over time your connected devices may begin to grow, and these will all slowly eat away at your available bandwidth. If you are having unusual slow spots and nobody is using the internet for streaming or video calling, then check around the house to see what devices are connected to your Wi-Fi. Turning off the majority of these may improve your download speed.
Get a New Router

Chances are, the router you got given as part of a welcome pack to your current ISP isn’t so good, and there are many other routers out there that you can buy. Once again, this is only something you should consider if your speeds are already quite high, but you are noticing that they are not as high as they could be. It’s best to research your router model and see if anybody else has been having any problems with it before investing in a new router.

Hopefully these tips will help you to improve your download speed – with these suggestions, you should have at least a little luck increasing your speed.

HOW TO DECREASE BOOT TIME SPEED ON WINDOWS

2015-03-20T11:39:00.001-07:00

Ways to Decrease Boot Time Speed on Windows

Whilst the distant memories of your brand new superfast computer or laptop may still be fresh in your mind, the truth is, your Windows PC is starting to slow down – it’s starting to act like it’s on it’s last legs, and bootups are nothing like they used to be. Luckily, there are many ways to decrease boot time speed on Windows, and the majority of them are surprisingly simple.

If your bootup speed is making you wonder whether your PC is on it’s last legs, try these tips to make things a little quicker next time you turn your desktop or laptop on

Change what programs start automatically

If you are like me, over the years you have probably built up a large collection of apps, software and programs that want to pop up onto your home screen as soon as you get control of your cursor – most of the time, these apps won’t be used till later, and they drastically increase boot time speed on Windows. By disabling programs from starting up automatically, you will save yourself a lot of waiting time, and you can simply open up each program manually after your computer is on.

To do this, you can open up msconfig from the Run menu or start search menu. From there, you can click on the Startup tab and cancel everything you don’t need at startup. It’s important you don’t disable anything nesacary for your PC to operate, so make sure to research what each listing on this page does before unticking it.

Once you have unticked items on this list and started your PC back up, you’ll most likely notice a huge increase in boot time speed. On top of this, your PC may even seem a little more responsive, because your CPU isn’t having to deal with lots of extra background tasks.
Declutter your Desktop

After a while, your desktop may become littered with downloaded files, links and applications, but quite frankly, these are not very helpful at all. Whilst it may be nice to have some desktop shortcuts for your most used programs, cleaning up your desktop to the point that there are less than a dozen icons on-screen can help to decrease boot time speed on Windows.

Whilst the actual boot speed may not be affected that much, the time it takes for your computer to become responsive after it has reached the Windows login screen will be affected by the number of items on your desktop

Clean Up Any Old Software, Run a Virus Scan

Whilst cleaning up storage space may not increase boot speed times, it is a step you should take into consideration before taking the next step. On top of this, make sure to run regular virus scans so that you’re sure your computer does not have any viruses that could be slowing things down.

Disk defragmenter is a useful tool that can be used to physically move related data on your hard drive closer together so that your computer can find it easier to fetch large files in the future. Using disk defragmenter is a great step to increasing the overall PC speed, but it can help to increase boot times as well. If you have an SSD, disk defragmenter will serve no benefit.

Talking about SSDS, getting a Solid State Drive could really help to increase boot time speeds – even the slowest read and write speeds of an SSD is far superior to most hard drives, and this will really help to decrease boot time speed on Windows.

WHY DROP BOX IS STILL THE KING OF ONLINE BACKUP

2015-03-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

About four years ago, a man named Drew Houston started up a small company in the Silicon Valley and named it Dropbox. Dropbox was officially launched at the TechCrunch50 in 2008 after securing funding from the Y Combinator. The idea behind Dropbox was quite simple, although the implementation involved a lot of complexities. It allows you to put all files in a single place so you can access them from any place at any time. The idea was actually quite good. Dropbox today has more than 50 million users around the world and this number is quickly growing.

Dropbox – The Most Preferred Online Backup Solution

Without a doubt, Dropbox is the most popular and widely used tool for storing and sharing file repositories on the internet. Users around the world use it for sharing files in bulk or simply use it as a backup tool. Although the company did suffer a setback recently because of a security problem that affected a few accounts, it has definitely not slowed it down. This only goes to show that the service offered by Dropbox is not rivaled by another company yet.

What Do You Get with Dropbox?

When you create an account with Dropbox you get 2 GB default storage along with additional storage for activities and referrals. The basic account is free but you can also sign up for pro packages for $99- 50 GB and $199- 100 GB per year. It allows public and private sharing of files and does have excellent photo features. What makes Dropbox unique is its visual style. The online folder and file listing is very clean, streamlined and uncluttered. Learning how the icons work is simple and you wouldn’t need to worry about anything else.

What Makes Dropbox the Best Option Today?

Dropbox performs exceptionally well and its focus is on keeping things simple for the users. The new features that are introduced make it easier for users to share and view their photo galleries online. While some people have been concerned with the security of Dropbox recently, there is no question that the company is committed to delivering an exceptional experience to its users. The company has also made substantial investments to extend its service capabilities for sharing, organizing and uploading digital photos. Users can also include links to Twitter and Facebook and do much more than any other online backup solution.

HOW TO BLOCK A WEBSITE ON YOUR PC

2015-03-20T11:37:00.001-07:00

How to Block a Website

Sometimes you have a need to block a website. Perhaps for the safety of a family member or even security reasons in the workplace. Here are the easy steps to get this accomplished.

This method can be used in any browser, but it requires the edit of your Host File. Before making any changes to the Hosts file, you should create a backup copy, in case you need to revert to the original. There may be different procedures required for different browsers, but the hosts file is common to all systems and should work independently of the browsers.

Locating your host file is very easy. Type file://C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc. in the address bar of an open Explorer window.

Double-click the hosts file and open with Notepad when prompted. The hosts file directs the system when certain IP addresses or domains accessed. You can issue instructions to the system when sites, domains, URLS, or addresses are accessed.
Once inside hosts, find the line “127.0.0.1 localhost” or “:1 localhost”. and place your cursor at the end of the line.
Enter a new line and type in the address of the site or sites, each on a new line, to which you want to prevent access.
The website must be prefaced by “127.0.0.1” Eg to block “badsite.com” you will enter “127.0.0.1” then a single space followed by “badsite.com”. Be sure to enter each site on a new line.
Save the hosts file. If you are prompted for administrator permissions, in order to save the file, you can change to administrator, by following the following procedure.
Right click on the hosts file, and select Properties, then Security. Check all boxes before saving the changes, and this should allow you to save the file as an administrator.

The process is the almost the same with a Mac, but the process for locating and editing the Hosts file may be different. In a Mac, the hosts file is found with the Terminal utility. Once Terminal is open, the following code should be entered.

sudo /bin/cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts-original
You will be asked to enter your password to open text edit with the following command line.
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts
The hosts file will be opened in a separate window. If it is locked, you can unlock it by clicking unlock in the menu under Locked.
Locate the line “fe80::1%lo0 localhost” in textedit and create a new line under it, where you can enter the site(s) you wish to block. Each address or location must be prefaced by 127.0.0.1 followed by a space.

Save the changes before you exit. It is easy to check to confirm, whether the sites that you have entered are blocked. Simply enter the URL or IP address in your address bar, and you should receive an error message indicating that the browser is not able to access the site.

How To Increase Your Laptop Battery Life

2014-09-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

We’ve all been there. You’re in a meeting, or on the road, or in a classroom, and you find, to your horror, that your laptop is nearly dead. Maybe you forgot your power adapter, maybe there isn’t an available outlet. For whatever reason, your battery power is dwindling, and you still have stuff to get done. Hope is not lost, however. There are some things you can do to buy more time on that almost-dead battery so you can meet a deadline or respond to an important email before it’s too late.

Some of these techniques are for when you need to stretch your battery at that very moment, while others are preventative measures, best implemented before your battery life comes up short. There is some of overlap between the short- and long-term strategies we’ll outline below, but even when the actions are the same, the reasons behind it may be different.
Short-Term Battery-Stretching Strategies
If you’re in a tough spot right now, there are things you can do to extend the battery life immediately. None of these actions will actually increase the amount of power left in the battery, but instead will reduce the amount of power the laptop is using, letting you squeeze in a few more precious minutes before the battery goes kaput. The name of the game in these instances is power consumption, and you need to reduce yours to as little as possible.
1. Activate Your Laptop’s Battery Saver Mode or Eco Mode
Designed with these sorts of circumstances in mind, most Battery-Saver or Eco modes will engage a number of automatic changes to lengthen usable battery life—many of the same changes we’ll be making here. This saved profile will adjust your laptop’s settings and shift components into low-power states to help you ration your remaining juice a bit longer.
Once you’ve turned on the automatic battery-saver tool, there are still plenty of steps to take to eke out even better efficiency. This is done by turning off unnecessary devices, adjusting settings to reduce power consumption, shutting down unwanted apps and processes, and adjusting your activities to use less power.
2. Disable Unused Devices and Ports
The easiest way to reduce power consumption is to simply turn stuff off. Every component in your laptop needs power to function, but that doesn’t mean you need to power all of those components all the time. Start by disconnecting any unneeded peripherals (like a USB mouse or external drive) and turning off the biggest power hogs, like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, graphics processors, and unused optical drives.
WARNING: Before disabling any component or device, stop and make sure that this device is not in use, and that it is not essential to continuing operation of the laptop. For example, you DO NOT want to disable the hard drive that houses the operating system, or the processor the runs the entire laptop. Only disable those devices you are comfortable turning off.
To disable unused devices on a Windows system, open up your system’s Control Panel and find the Device Manager. In the Device Manager, individual components are grouped by category. For example, Network Adapters will often include both the LAN adapter, which provides Ethernet connectivity, and Wi-Fi, for wireless networking.

The four standard candidates for saving power are the graphics card (found under Display Adapters), the optical drive (found under DVD/CD-ROM Drives), and the Ethernet and Wi-Fi adapters (under Network Adapters). Find the device you want to shut down within the relevant category. Right click on the device name, and select “Disable” from the drop down menu.
While you’re in the Device Manager, you can also turn off any unused ports. Just like an extension cord left plugged into an outlet, these unused plugs still have power going through them, and losing some in the process. The actual impact on battery life will be minimal, but if you need to eke out another minute or two of life, this will help. Take a quick glance at your ports, and turn off anything that’s not being used, like USB ports with nothing connected to them.
While you can disable USB ports on a Mac using the terminal program, it’s something that IT administrators would use to lock down Macs for security purposes. We don’t recommend doing it as an end user because it may make your system act up. You can, however, disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the Menu bar at the top of the screen.
3. Adjust Your Settings
While you’ll still have to use the display and the keyboard, you can adjust the settings for each to reduce power consumption. One often overlooked power drain is keyboard backlighting. Unless you’re in the dark, and need the backlight just to make out each key, turn the backlight off entirely. You can typically assign a hotkey for this function.
The next power drain is your screen. While you need to keep the up and running to use the laptop, you don’t necessarily need it running at 100-percent brightness or full resolution. Many laptops will have hotkeys for increasing and decreasing the screen brightness, but if not, it can be adjusted in the control panel. Reducing the display to 50 percent when you’re running on battery power can add a significant amount of time.
Additionally, if you’re simply typing up a document, you don’t need all of the detail offered by a 1080p or higher display. Dialing down the screen resolution to a basic 1,366-by-768 resolution or lower reduces the amount of power used in graphics processing without negatively impacting your ability to work, letting your laptop a bit longer than at full resolution.
Finally, turn off or turn down the sound. If you need to hear, drop the sound down as low as you can, and consider switching from the laptop’s larger speakers to a set of tiny earbuds to get the audio piped right to your ears. Whenever possible, just mute the laptop altogether. That way, the speakers won’t be getting any power, and you’ll buy yourself some more precious time.
4. Turn Off Apps and Processes
It’s not just the hardware that’s stealing your battery juice. Multiple apps and processes running on your system will also chew through battery life more quickly. As with the hardware, start by turning off anything that isn’t being used.
In Windows, start by taking a look in your System Tray, the collection of icons in the lower right corner of the desktop, next to the clock. On the left end of the System Tray, select the icon to display hidden icons. Take note of which apps are running in the background.
Open up the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc, or use Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager from the menu. Once in the Task Manager, look at the open apps—you may find that a program or two have been left running simply because you forgot to close a window instead of minimizing it.
Next, go to the Processes tab. This shows you what processes are currently running on your machine. While some of these are needed, some, like those associated with music and video players or cloud storage services (like Dropbox or Google Drive) can be disabled without causing any problems.
For MacBooks, the process is a little different. Take a look at System Preferences > Users&Groups for a menu called Login Items. Delete any power-hungry programs that you don’t need anymore, or disable things like Google Chrome’s automatic launch at startup. You can also see programs that are using a lot of power at any given moment by holding down the Option key, then clicking on the battery indicator in the Menu bar. Alternately, you can open the Activity Monitor utility to see a list of all the programs and processes you currently have open , and which of these are using the most power. You can stop these processes by selecting the program and then clicking the Stop icon. Power Nap is an Apple OS X feature that checks your email and twitter feeds for activity while the system is asleep. If you are trying to maximize battery life, it would be wise to turn that feature off.
5. Simplify
You can also stretch your battery life by simplifying your own activities. Multitasking is nice when you have full power, but running several programs at once puts a greater load on the processor and draws more power. Adjust your computer use by sticking to one application at a time and avoiding resource-intensive programs.
Start by single-tasking—if you need to type up a document, close any additional programs. You’ll get longer battery life by not running Spotify in the background. If you need to keep some tunes going, switch from streaming media to locally stored songs—you’ll still be using some extra power to play them, but streaming media over Wi-Fi also uses the laptop’s wireless radio.
You might also benefit from switching to simpler tools for the same tasks, like opting for a simple text file instead of a Word document. With fewer features and none of Word’s automatic actions (like Spell Check and Autosave), you can do all the writing you need without using quite so much power. Some activities you’ll want to avoid entirely, like photo and video editing tools, which place a significant load on the processor and graphics card, and are real power hogs.
By eliminating unnecessary power uses, you should be able to extend the life of your battery in those moments that you find yourself high and dry.

How to Design a Website Easily – No Experience Required

2014-09-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Don’t forget! Before you start your website, you need a domain name and web host. Click here for details.

1. WordPress is a very popular choice today. It’s flexible, constantly improving and doesn’t require any design experience to use.

You just pick a theme design that you like, add your text and you’re ready to go live!

When I created this site back in 2002, I had to do it manually through software. Now more people are gravitating to programs like WordPress because they are much easier to use.

Below you can find out how to gain access to my free WordPress training video for beginners.

2. Use a clean design. Forget the multi-colored websites with flashing buttons, banners and loud backgrounds. Simple is in.

If you’re using WordPress to build your website, consider using a Genesis theme - one of the most popular WordPress frameworks with crisp, clean designs.

They also use HTML5 with a lot of their themes. Don’t let the techy speak fool you. That just means they use the latest code that helps your pages load faster and easier for the search engines to read.

3. Use simple navigations. Don’t overwhelm your visitors with 20 choices on your menu. Highlight the most important pages and use sub menus to keep your navigation clean.

4. Larger fonts and white space rules. To make your pages easier to read, it’s important to use larger fonts (at least 14px and lots of white space).

5. Build a responsive site. This ensures your site displays optimally in all browsers. For example, I use the WordPress Prose theme on my blog and it automatically loads optimally on phones, tablets, etc.

More and more people are surfing the Web on their mobile devices so having a responsive site, or a design that works with all resolutions, is ideal.

Click here to learn more about mobile web design.

6. Save Your Money

Unless you need a very customized design, there’s no need to spend thousands of dollars on web design.

I cringe when I hear people say they spent thousands of dollars for a basic WordPress website. Yikes!

The only thing you really should pay for is your domain name,hosting (WordPress comes free with paid hosting) and perhaps a premium WordPress theme like Genesis.

And if you don’t want to buy a theme, you can use one of the many free WordPress themes that come with the platform.

Need Help Starting Your Site?

In order to start a website you need a domain name (yoursite.com) and a web host.

If you decide register your domain name or host your site atWebsitePalace.com then you will gain instant access to a 27 minute introductory video about WordPress that covers…

Installing a theme design
Adding a contact form
Installing social media sharing icons
Adding advertisements
Adding an email subscription form
Creating a custom menu/navigation for your site
And much more!

HOW TO INSERT SOCIAL BOOKMARKING BUTTONS IN YOUR WORDPRESS SITE WITHOUT PLUGINS

2014-09-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

HOW TO INSERT SOCIAL BOOKMARKING BUTTONS IN YOUR WORDPRESS SITE WITHOUT PLUGINS

Yes, Plugins are important because of their functionality but if there are alternatives to plugins then why not use them to get your work done. Using Manual code to replace wordpress plugin is a much better way.
In this post I will be highlighting the manual codes that we can use to create share buttons for Retweet, Digg, Buzz, DesignFloat, StumbleUpon, FShare, Delicious, DZone, Reddit, Technoraiti.

How to use

For WordPress Blog Paste the following code in your theme folders single.php file and for your website paste it on proper place where you want to display.

Retweet Counter

{code type=codetype}
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js”></script>
{/code}
Source

The Digg Button

{code type=codetype}
<a> (‘<img src=”http://digg.com/img/diggThis.png” height=”80″ width=”52″ alt=”DiggThis” />’)</a><script src=”http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
{/code}
Source

StumbleUpon

{code type=codetype}
<a href=”http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink(); ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>”><img src=”http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_solid.gif” alt=”StumbleUpon.com”/></a>
{/code}
Source

Delicious

{code type=codetype}
<img src=”http://static.delicious.com/img/delicious.small.gif” height=”10″ width=”10″ alt=”Delicious” /><a href=”http://delicious.com/save” onclick=”window.open(‘http://delicious.com/save?v=5&noui&jump=close&url=’+encodeURIComponent(‘<?php the_permalink() ?>’)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(‘<?php the_title() ?>’),’delicious’, ‘toolbar=no,width=550,height=550′); return false;”>Bookmark this on Delicious</a>
{/code}
Source

DZone

{code type=codetype}
<script language=”javascript” src=”http://widgets.dzone.com/links/widgets/zoneit.js”></script>
{/code}
Source

DesignFloat

{code type=codetype}
<script type=”text/javascript”>submit_url = ‘<?php the_permalink() ?>’;</script><script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.designfloat.com/evb2/button.php”></script>
{/code}
Source

fShare

{code type=codetype}
<a name=”fb_share” type=”box_count” href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php”>Share</a><script src=”http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share” type=”text/javascript”></script>
{/code}
Source

Mixx

{code type=codetype}
<a href=”http://www.mixx.com/” onclick=”window.location=’http://www.mixx.com/submit?page_url=’+window.location; return false;”><img src=”http://www.mixx.com/images/buttons/mixx-button4.png” alt=”Add to Mixx!” border=”0″ /></a>
{/code}
Source

{code type=codetype}
<a href=”http://www.reddit.com/submit” onclick=”window.location = ‘http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=’ +encodeURIComponent(window.location); return false”> <img src=”http://www.reddit.com/static/spreddit1.gif” alt=”submit to reddit” border=”0″ /> </a>
{/code}
Source

Technorati

{code type=codetype}
<a href=”http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://myphpscriptz.com”><img src=”http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png” alt=”Add to Technorati Favorites” /></a>
{/code}
change ?myphpscriptz.com? with the actual name of your blog.
Source\

Buzz

{code type=codetype}
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge2.in.js” badgetype=”logo”>ARTICLEURL</script>
{/code}
Source

Blog Engage

{code type=codetype}
<script type=”text/javascript”>submit_url = “<?php the_permalink(); ?>”;</script><script src=”http://blogengage.com/evb/button.php”> </script>
{/code}

How To Improve cyber security

2014-06-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

How to make your PC secure from all the threats in the online world and improve cyber security? Not sure? Then read on. Here is a list of things you should know to improve your online cyber security:-

1. Anti-virus : Probably one of the first thing which comes into one's mind when thinking about security. An anti-virus is an inevitable tool for the security of a PC. One can either choose a paid version of the anti-virus of his choice or opt for the equally effective free antivirus. Before choosing the anti-virus, it is necessary to check whether the anti-virus has resident protection or not. Resident Protection automatically detects viruses when they are loaded into the memory and takes the appropriate action thus saving a user from sitting hours in front of the PC scanning for viruses. It is important to check regularly for updates. Also do a quick scan (scanning Windows folder, Registry, Documents and recent downloads) at least once a week and a full scan at least once a month even if your PC appears fine.

2. Anti-spyware: A spyware is a program which collects private information and sends it to its programmer. Spywares are considered more dangerous than viruses as they steal private information like Windows registration number, bank account details, credit card's information, site logins, which can be used to harm a user in all possible ways. Login Accounts to social networks like Facebook seem to be the prime target. Thus, it is necessary to have a good anti-spyware software with resident protection , registry monitoring and browser monitoring. Again it is the user's choice to either opt for a paid one or a free one. It is important to enable the automatic update function in the anti-spyware software and to do a quick scan of the PC once a week. It is also necessary do a full scan once every month for best results.

3. Firewall: A firewall prevents unauthorized or malicious applications from reaching a computer. A firewall is basically needed to protect a PC against Trojans, spyware, worms, hackers, hijackers and other known and unknown threats. However, a firewall must not be assumed an alternative to the anti-virus or anti-spyware software. Before choosing a firewall, the most important thing to keep in mind is the ease of use and the amount of customization possible. An often overlooked factor upon choosing a firewall is the amount of resources consumed by it. Keeping all these factors in mind, a good firewall software(free or paid) must be chosen. It is important to read the alerts displayed by it carefully, and select an appropriate action to do.

4. Anti-spam: Anti-spam software has become important because of the amount of spam messages received by internet users frequently. These spam messages are the most common cause of cyber crime. Installing one and using it is easy. So don't worry about how to use one. The only difficult thing is to be patient with it. Its performance will improve over time. You can download any of the free anti-spam available over the web or can opt for a paid version.

5. Windows Update: A very important aspect of PC security is updating Windows. It is necessary to enable Automatic Updates in Windows which help to get all the latest security fixes. Getting these updates will help Windows work better and will make one's working more secure.

6. Backing Up: It is important to back up all your important data to have a copy of it whenever needed in case of a virus attack. A back up comes in handy in such unexpected situations.

How To Stay Safe On Your iPhone

2014-06-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

By now, it is certainly safe to say that Apple has gained a wider following than just the young, tech-savvy demographic that initially seemed to flock to Mac products. While Mac computers (and specifically the MacBook Pro) have steadily arisen in popularity, the brand’s move to household name is built largely on their fleet of iOS products, and specifically the iPhone. Apple boasts intuitive-yet-sophisticated software as at least one reason that users from a broad range of demographics are drawn to their products.

Most users will find the transition into using an iPhone fairly smooth and will have very few problems with the basic usability of their phone even without much research or practice. While this is definitely a good thing, many users tend to settle into a rut, using only the basic functions of the device and failing to capitalize on additional features. In many cases, this simply means less entertainment so it might not be a big concern. In others, however, it might mean less security and that should definitely be a concern. The iPhone has several security features enabled by default but users (particularly those new to iOS products) should at least be aware of a few additional safety features.

1. Auto-lock and Passcode

The iPhone is set by default to Auto-Lock after 1 minute without use but this setting can be disabled (Settings > General > Auto-Lock) or set to auto-lock after 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes. When combined with the Passcode Lock setting, Auto-lock is a simple, yet effective, safety feature. When Passcode Lock is activated (Settings > General > Passcode Lock), it requires that a 4-digit code be entered before the phone is unlocked. Enabling both of these settings will prevent unauthorized activity on your phone (be it your 2 year old son or a stranger that has found your lost phone).

2. Wi-Fi Settings

One of the big advantages of an iPhone (or any Smartphone) is Wi-Fi support. This advantage can also be a potential risk because it opens up the possibility that hackers access your phone data via the web. One simple precaution can be taken by enabling the Ask to Join Networks feature (Settings > Wi-Fi > Ask to Join Networks). When this feature is enabled, an alert will pop up before automatically joining any new or unknown Wi-Fi network. This feature gives you the ability to only join networks you trust.

3. Device Usage Restrictions

The iPhone now allows users to enable specific usage restrictions (Settings > General > Restrictions). This setting allows you to block the use of certain features such as Safari, YouTube, or the Camera. It also allows you to block music and video content based on various rating systems. Many users with children take advantage of these settings but it is also a good way to avoid viewing or hearing explicit content unintentionally.

Cool Keyboard Tricks (Windows) : Make a Disco

2014-06-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Keyboards usually have small LEDs which indicate whether different types of locks are activated or not. Here is a trick to use the lights of your keyboard in a more creative manner in Windows.

This trick uses a simple Visual Basic Script which when activated makes your Scroll lock, Caps lock and Num lock LEDs flash in a cool rhythmic way which gives the perception of a live disco on your keyboard.

To make your own live disco, follow the steps given below:-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy paste the exact code given below:-

Set wshShell =wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
do
wscript.sleep 100
wshshell.sendkeys "{CAPSLOCK}"
wshshell.sendkeys "{NUMLOCK}"
wshshell.sendkeys "{SCROLLLOCK}"
loop

3. Save the file as Disco.vbs or "*.vbs".

Double click on the Saved file to see the LED lights on your keyboard go crazy and make your own cool disco.

This trick has been tested on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and found to be working perfectly.

You can disable the keyboard disco by starting Task Manager and ending the wscript.exe process.

How to Move a Blogger Blog to Your Own Domain: Tips and Tricks

2014-06-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

What a week this has been for this Tech Blog! I finally moved it from blogspot subdomain to a custom domain. I have been wanting to do this since a long time (ever since this blog started getting some attention) , I somehow couldn't manage to do so because of the fear of losing search traffic.

Google's recent move to redirect blogspot.com to country specific sub domains helped me solidify my decision to the extent of finally moving. I made a lot of other changes as well and have listed as much of them as possible as they might help some of you who are also planning to make the move. I have listed them in the order in which I made them.

1) Registered Dealwap.com.

2) Changed my domain's settings to hide personal information from being displayed in the who is database.

3) Modified my domain's CNAME and A records to correctly point to Google's servers. Check this page from Blogger for details regarding this step.

4) Generally, it takes some time for your domain registrar to completely update the settings mentioned above. So, if you immediately point your new domain to your blog, users will see a 404 error. To avoid this, I created a new blogspot blog and modified its settings to point to my new domain.

5) When my domain correctly started loading the temporary blog, I modified this blog's settings to link it to the new domain. Now my new domain was correctly loading my blog. While doing this, I made sure to select redirecting the non www version to the www one.

6) Downloaded my blog's template and opened the downloaded XML file in Wordpad. I then used Wordpad's Find and Replace function to replace each occurrence of tweakandtrick.blogspot.com with www.tweakandtrick.com and uploaded the modified template. This automatically changed all navigational links to use the new domain.

7) Some widgets still had links pointing to the blogspot subdomain. I changed them manually.

8) Went to Google Webmaster Tools, added my new domain and submitted the full sitemap. Normal Blogger feeds show only 20 URLs, so in order to submit all the URLs, I submitted a custom queried feed that includes 500 URLs.

Normal Feed: /atom.xml

Feed I Submitted: /atom.xml?redirect=false&orderby=updated&max-results=500

9) Bing also brings considerable amount of traffic to this blog. So, I added the new domain to Bing Webmaster Tools and submitted the same sitemap.

10) Blogspot uses 301 permanent redirects to redirect visitors to new domains. This should have normally allowed Google to immediately index my new blog's URLs but it did not. So, I resubmitted my old blog's complete sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools. As the Blogspot blog had some authority in Google, GWT quickly processed the sitemap and immediately noticed that all those posts had moved to the new domain. This notified Google to index my content under the new domain and after almost 12 hours, my old blogspot URL's started getting replaced by the new ones.

11) Notified readers of the move on Facebook and Twitter.

12) After making the move, my search traffic is way lower than normal. This should change and traffic should return to normal once search engines completely transfer my Blogspot subdomain's trust and authority to this new one.

Some other changes I made

1) Used Feedburner's MyBrand feature to transfer my FeedBurner feed to my own sub-domain.

2) Modified my social profiles to link to my new domain.

3) Earlier, my about page and categories on this blog were simple posts that included dates in the URL. This made them look ugly, so I shifted these to independent Pages and canonicalized the old pages to new ones.

Some Noticeable Benefits
It is too early to say this but ever since I moved to my own domain, the subscription rate has gone up considerably. It has also increased the percentage of users who are completing the subscription process.

HOW HACKERS HACK FB ACCOUNT AND HOW TO STOP THEM

2014-06-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Facebook is, undoubtedly, the most popular social networking website with more than 500 million active users. Due to its popularity, many hackers (or should I say crackers?) are actively involved in hacking Facebook accounts of unsuspecting users. This article outlines the many strategies that such hackers use to gain access to Facebook accounts of hundreds of users each day and how you can stop them from hacking your account.

Facebook is one of the prime target of hackers!

Email Address Hack

I have always been puzzled by Facebook's leniency in this matter. All a hacker needs to do is know your email address and he will be displayed a confirmation showing your name even if he enters the wrong password. How easily a hacker can then hack your Facebook account if he 'guesses' your password (if you use a weak password) or answers your security question! This is something I hope Facebook improves on quickly. Until Facebook does so, here are some tricks you can use to protect yourself from this vulnerability.

How to safeguard your Email Address?
Just follow these steps:-

Hide your Email Address from everyone by going to Edit Profile>Contact Information>Clicking on the icon beside your email address> checking 'Only Me'.
Change your primary email address to a one that is only known to you by going to Account Settings>Email> and changing your primary email to the new one (known only to you) and removing your previous email address.
For additional security, when in Account Settings, check 'Secure browsing' and 'Send me an email when a new computer or mobile device logs into this account' and click Save.

A hacker at work!

Phishing

Phishing is one of the easiest ways to trick users into giving out their login credentials. All a hacker does is setup a webpage similar in design to that of the Facebook homepage, attach a server sided script to track the username and password entered and store it in a log. Sending people emails stating that someone tagged a photo of them on Facebook in the same format as Facebook and giving a link below to the phishing website further reduces the chances of it being detected as a fake. Sometimes, spam Facebook apps, like those promising to tell who viewed your Facebook profile, automatically post links to phishing websites. A new trend amongst phishers is creating Facebook look-a-like widgets for stealing user's login credentials.

How to prevent yourself from being phished?
At all costs, avoid clicking on suspicious links. Moreover, always check the URL in the address bar before signing in. Avoid logging in through various "Facebook widgets" offered by websites and blogs. Instead, use Facebook's homepage to sign in. Always try to use Safe Search while searching. If you do manage to get phished, report the website so that others may get a warning before visiting it.

Keylogging through Keyloggers

Keylogger is a type of computer virus that tracks key strokes. Keyloggers can be installed remotely on a computer system by a cracker to record all the activity that is going on the victim's computer. Keylogging gets more easy if the hacker has physical access to the victim's computer.

How to stop keyloggers?
Install a good antivirus and update it frequently. Do not click on suspicious links and avoid downloading illegal software. Also, avoid installing free toolbars and other such spam software. Always scan third-person's flash and pen drives before using them on your computer.

Social Engineering

Social engineering involves using any trick to fool the user into making himself vulnerable to exploits. This could involve anything from sending spoof emails, pretending to be from Facebook, telling you to change your password to 12345678 to a hacker maliciously getting out the answer to your Security Question in a friendly chat or discussion.

How to prevent yourself from being socially engineered?
Stay aware during chats and discussions. Use a tough security question, preferably one whose answer you would never disclose to anyone. Moreover, Facebook, or any other company for that matter, will never ask you to change your password to 12345678 or do something as silly as asking you to send out your login details to prove that you are an active user. Always think before taking actions and your e-life on Facebook will be safe from hackers looking to hack Facebook accounts.

Setting up Feedburner RSS and Email subscription for your blog

2014-06-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have been asking me about RSS feeds and Feedburner over the past few weeks.
So I’ve decided it’s time to update my ‘how to’ Feedburner info so that:

All the required instructions are in one post
It is current for the latest version of Edublogs and Feedburner

What is RSS?

The easiest way to receive latest posts from your favorite blogs is to subscribe to RSS using feed readers such as Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes.
RSS (means Really Simple Syndication) retrieves the latest content from the sites you are interested and pulls them into your feed reader where you can read them all in one location rather than visiting each site separately.

The presence of the orange RSS icon indicates a site has an RSS feed and means you can subscribe to it using a feed reader.

What is FeedBurner?

Most blogs have RSS feed which is detected automatically by commonly used feed readers when the blog URL is added to the reader.
However, if you want to make it more obvious and easier for readers to subscribe using RSS, or want to know exactly how many people subscribe to your blog then the best option is to add a Feedburner RSS feed and email subscription to your blog.
Feedburner is a free web service which enhances bloggers and podcasters ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers.

Setting Up Your Feedburner Feed

1. Go to Feedburner and sign in to Feedburner with your Google Account (create a Google Account first if you don’t have one!).
2. Add your Blog URL to the Burn a Feed Right This Instant and click Next.

3. Leave RSS 2.0 source selected and click Next.

4. On “Welcome” page, make sure you are happy with the title and FeedBurner address (URI) of your new feed and then click Next.
5. On the Congrats! page click Next
6. On the stats configuration page select Clickthroughs and I want more! and then click Next.

Adding Your Feedburner Feed To Your Blog

This is used to add the RSS icon and easy subscribe options to your blog side bar using a text widget as explained below:

1. Click on the Publicize Tab > Chicklet Chooser in your Feedburner account and copy the HTML code.

2. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard
3. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets
4. Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

5. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from FeedBurner, click Save and then Close.

Adding a FeedBurner Email Subscription

It’s important to add an email subscription option to your blog sidebar as some readers prefer to receive latest posts from blogs using email subscription.
1. Click on the Publicize Tab > Email Subscription in your Feedburner account and click on Activate.

2. Copy the HTML code.

3. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard
4. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)
5. Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.
6. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for Feedburner email subscription, click Save and then Close.
7. Now readers simply enter their email address and then click on “Subscribe” and Feedburner emails your entire post to them on the day after it has been published on your blog.

Redirecting All Your Blog Feed To Feedburner

Unless you redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner you won’t get accurate subscriber numbers because some of your readers subscribe using your original blog feed.
If you’re an Dealwap supporter you can redirect your blog feed as follows:
1. Go to Settings > Feedburner in your blog dashboard
2. Add your Feedburner address and click Save Changes.

3. Now all your feeds is automatically redirected through FeedBurner and you’ll be able to track subscriber numbers accurately.
If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

How to be popular on the internet

2014-06-28T09:48:00.001-07:00

We all wish to be popular. But unfortunately, getting popular is not so easy in the real world. However, in the cyber world of which we all are part of, it is not so tough if you follow some tips given below. Now what are you waiting for? Bring your Pen and Paper start taking notes on how to become famous.

1. Start a Website: You might have heard the cliche, "everyone popular has a website." But fortunately, you don't have to be famous to have a website. You can have your website made from a specialist or can make it yourself. Just choose a topic you like, get your pen...err... keyboard ready and start creating killer content for which people would come back again and again.

2. Start a Blog: Some bloggers are ridiculously famous. No matter what they write, people like it and start praising them. Although such wizardry would have no reason in the real world, the cyber world has a reason for everything. To become one such popular blogger, the basic thing required is killer content. The second most important thing is being regular in posting articles, and probably the most important thing required is humility. You can have your self hosted blog or choose any of the free blog hosting platforms. The two leading ones are Blogger and WordPress.

3. Join Facebook: Facebook is the second most visited website on the internet after Google. Almost everyone is on Facebook. Having so much traffic each day make Facebook a potential advertising source. Just Join Facebook, add everyone you know as a friend and also add the friends of your friends to your friends list.
Create a Facebook Fan page and add a link to your website and blog on it. Observe what people like on Facebook and start a postathon of posting such articles. 'Like' other people's posts and give genuine comments on them. There is a good chance that they might get to your fan page and start following you.

4. Join Twitter: Twitter is the latest buzz on the internet. Everyone well-known is on Twitter. Be it Tom Cruise or Sachin Tendulkar, Twitter has left no one untouched. So why shouldn't you be on Twitter too? Join Twitter and start following people. It is more than likely that they will follow you in return. Be controversial but only to a limit. Moreover, tweet on any latest buzz you might see on the internet. e.g. Octopus Paul was the latest buzz on the internet in World Cup 2010. A lot more than many people tweeted about it. Most of them are popular on the internet.

5. Join Social Networking Sites: Aside from Twitter and Facebook, join all the social networking sites you can think of. Try to be an active member of the community and take part in discussions. People will eventually start liking you and will be pulled to click on your Profile. Have an amazing profile and do not forget to add a link to your website, blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter account.

6. Join Forums: Be helpful in forums. Welcome new members and don't discourage newbies. Always encourage them and remember that there are people on the other side of your Computer reading what you are typing. If you do all this, people will feel that they are under a charm and will click on your Profile. Again don't forget to add a link to your website, blog, Twitter account and Facebook fan page in your profile.

7. Your Profile: Having a well written profile for uploading in social networking sites, your blog and website will help make you notorious much sooner. Remember to have a descriptive profile, with a slight comic touch. People will praise your profile and will be attracted to you like bees to honey.

8. Start Commenting: Give intelligent comments on other blogs/websites with a link to your website/blog. But remember not to give spammy comments followed by a link. Use the Name/URL field to give a link. Try to correct other blogs and suggest improvements in the posted articles. But remember not to become too much of a corrector. People don't like such commentators.

I am pretty sure that if you follow all of the suggestions given above, you will also become popular on the internet in no time and would also join the elite group of famous people.

How to Know if your PC is infected with Viruses, Trojans or other Malware

2014-06-28T09:41:00.003-07:00

The reason why most computer malware are so deadly is because many users fail to recognize whether they have been infected or not. Had they detected the infection at an earlier stage, the damage caused could have been greatly reduced. As each virus is programmed differently, it becomes difficult to identify a virus outbreak. However, there are some general symptoms that make it easy to detect an infected computer. Here are some of them:-

1) Programs won't start or crash suddenly: If some system programs like the task manager or registry editor have suddenly stopped working or crash randomly without any visible reason, it is more than likely that your computer has got some form of worm that is attaching itself to various programs and thus, corrupting their code. A virus modifying registry entries to prevent these programs from running could also cause this.

2) Unusual Network Traffic: If even after closing your browser and other applications that may use the internet, you see that your computer is still downloading or uploading anything, then your computer is possibly infected with some form of spyware that is either downloading other viruses to your computer or is uploading your private information to a remote computer. In case you use a wifi connection, it is also possible that your neighbors are using your network. If that indeed is the case, you need to make sure that wireless network is properly secured.

3) Internet Connection not available or is slow: If suddenly, your internet connection has stopped working or has become extermely slow, it is possible that a malware is the cause. However, problems with your internet service provider could also be the cause of such issues.

4) Annoying Popups or Redirection to Strange Websites: If there has been an increase in the number of annoying popups while browsing the internet or your web browser redirects you to a different website from the one you wanted to visit, a virus or adware might be the cause.

5) Computer won't boot: If your computer has suddenly stopped booting, it is possible that some malware has modified your computer's system files. In such a situation, re-installing or repairing your operating system might be the only solution.

6) Slow Computer: Some viruses are designed specifically for this purpose. Malware programmers achieve this by designing viruses that increase your CPU's usage level to 100%. If on running the Task Manager, you find that your CPU's usage is constantly at 100% level, a malware might be the cause.

7) Programs start automatically: Some viruses and adware automatically start strange programs on your computer in order to show unwanted advertisements or simply to frustrate users.

8) Unusual File Associations: Some viruses change .exe or other file associations which prevents these files from opening. Some viruses also do this to automatically start themselves when a file of a particular type is started.

9) Security Software Disabled: Most malware disable antiviruses and firewalls to prevent themselves from being detected. If only a single software stops working, it might be a specific software failure issue. If it is a general trend and almost every security software is facing this issue, a virus infection is most likely.

10) Weird Behaviour: If your computer automatically starts sending emails or opens strange applications randomly or does things different from its "normal" behaviour, your computer is most likely compromised by malware.

Enable Command Prompt Disabled by Administrator or Virus

2014-06-28T09:28:00.004-07:00

Command Prompt is the tool in Windows which allows users to interact with their computer from a character user interface(CUI). It allows users to bypass most restrictions that are enforced on the Windows explorer based GUI. Hence, it can also be used to remove viruses and malware and also undo their effects. To avoid this, most viruses disable command prompt. Some administrators also purposefully disable it to avoid users changing critical settings of the computer.

In these situations, if you run the command prompt (cmd.exe), you will get an error saying "The command prompt has been disabled by your Administrator". However, there are ways in which you can re-enable it. This article contains some such few simple techniques using which you can easily enable the command prompt.

Enable Command Prompt using the Group Policy Editor

1) Click on Start. Go to Run. Users running Windows 8, Windows 7 or Vista, go to Search.
2) Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
3) Navigate to User Configuration/ Administrative Templates / System.
4) In the work area on the right side, double click on "Prevent access to the command prompt".
5) In the popup dialog, encircle Disabled and click OK.
6) You should be able to immediately use the command prompt. If you still cannot access it, restart your computer.

Home editions of Windows do not contain the Group Policy Editor.

Enable Command Prompt from Registry in Windows 8, 7, XP or Vista

Registry Editor is an in-built tool in Windows which is used to view and edit the Windows registry. You can use it to easily enable the command prompt by simply modifying a registry key. To do so, follow these steps.

1) Users running Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, go to Start>Search. Users of Windows XP, got to Start>Run.
2) Type regedit and press Enter.
3) Registry Editor will start. If it is disabled, you will need to enable Registry Editor first.
4) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System. If the Windows key is not there, you will need to create a new key called Windows. Also, if the System key is not there, you will need to create it.
5) In the work area on right side, double click on DisableCMD and set its value to 0. If you cannot locate DisableCMD, you will need to create a new DWORD value called DisableCMD and set its value to 0.
6) Close the Registry Editor.

The Command Prompt in Windows 8

The command prompt should immediately be accessible. If it isn't, restart your computer.

Enable Command Prompt by simply running a command

If you are unfamiliar with directly editing the Registry, you can use a simple command to quickly enable the command prompt. Just follow these steps:-
1) Click on Start and go to Run. Users of Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista, go to Search.
2) Copy and paste the following command and execute it.

REG add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System /v DisableCMD /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

3) This should enable the command prompt. If it is still not enabled, restart your computer.

The methods mentioned in this article work on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

HOW TO ACCESS BLOCKED WEBSITES

2014-06-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Most of us find ourselves in situations where a website we wish to visit is blocked by a software or by our ISP (Internet Service Provider). So the question arises, how can we access blocked websites? The answer to this is simple: Proxy websites. Before going into details, let us know a bit about these proxy websites.

Proxy Websites

A proxy website acts as an intermediate source between the user and server the site being contacted is hosted on. Users send requests to proxy websites which conveys them to the site's server. The reply received by the proxy website is then forwarded to the user's computer. This gives an impression to ISP's and blocking software that the user is visiting the proxy website but in reality, s/he is visiting the site which was blocked. Thus, proxy servers also provide extra security to users by hiding their online activities from their ISP's.

Commonly Blocked Web Sites

The sites which are most commonly blocked at workplaces, schools and offices include websites like Facebook, Orkut, Blogger (blogspot), Google News, Typepad, eBay, MySpace, YouTube, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Bebo, Google Talk, Gmail, Photobucket, AOL AIM, Flickr, Twitter etc. In some countries, social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit are also blocked. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China have even blocked access to mainstream media websites like The New York times. A proxy website can be used to easily access these blocked websites. As proxy websites hide a user's location, they can also be used to access popular websites which are restricted to particular countries and block users from other countries from visiting them.

Types of Proxies

There are two types of proxies. First, there are web proxies which have an interactive interface; and second, the proxy servers which work on the basis of IP Addresses and port numbers. Proxies can also be segregated on the basis of anonymity into Anonymous, Transparent and High Anonymous depending upon the amount of privacy they provide.

How to Find Proxy Websites and Proxy Servers

A simple Google search containing the word "proxy websites" is likely to return a lot of useful results. However, most of them are likely to be lists containing proxy servers which you can setup using their IP Address and Port Number. So, in order to find interactive proxy websites, you will have to search for something like "Facebook Proxy Server" or "Orkut Proxy Server". A search like this is most likely to return interactive proxy websites with which you can access your blocked website by simply entering the URL in URL field. If you want additional security and anonymity, you can opt for a paid proxy server.

If you do not want to search, here are few popular free proxy websites you can use:-

http://www.hidemyass.com
http://www.spysurfing.com/
http://proxify.us/p/

How to Setup Proxy Servers using their IP Address

If you wish to visit your blocked website using a web proxy, you do not need any setup. However, if you wish to use a proxy server that can only be accessed by using its IP address and port number, you must configure your browser to use it. Follow the instructions given below to setup this type of proxy in your browser:-

Google Chrome and Internet Explorer Users

Google Chrome uses the same network settings as Internet Explorer. So, in order to configure Google Chrome to use a proxy server, you have to configure Internet Explorer. You can configure a proxy server in Internet Explorer by following the instructions given below:-

Start Internet Explorer.
Click on Tools, Internet Options.
Click on Connections Tab, select your Network Connection and click on Settings.
Check on Use a Proxy Server for this Connection.
In the Address field, add the IP Address of your Proxy server. In the Port field, enter the Port Number.
Click on OK and OK again.

Mozilla Firefox Users

Mozilla Firefox users can configure their browser to use a proxy by following the instructions given below:-

Start Mozilla Firefox.
Click on Tools, Options.
Click on Advanced Tab.
Click on Network tab.
Click on Settings.
Encircle Manual Proxy Configuration.
Enter the IP Address and Port Number at the appropriate place. In most cases, it will be a HTTP server.

After you have successfully configured your browser to use the proxy server, you will be able to access blocked websites whenever you browse the internet with your browser.

HOW TO USE YOUR KEYBOARD AS MOUSE

2014-06-28T09:10:00.003-07:00

If your mouse is not working and you don't wish to wait till you get a new mouse, you would definitely like to know how you can use your keyboard as your mouse. It is easy to use your mouse as keyboard in Windows using the On Screen Keyboard utility, but it is also possible to do the reverse.

All you need to do is:

Windows XP Users:-

Go to Control Panel.
Then click on Switch to Classic View.
Then Click on Accessibility Options.
Then Click on the Mouse Tab.
Select Use MouseKeys.
Click on OK.
Then activate NumberLock (by pressing the NumLk key).
You should hear a beep sound.
Now you can control the mouse pointer using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad.

Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista Users:

Open Ease of Access Center by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Ease of Access Center.
Click Make the mouse easier to use.
Under Control the mouse with the keyboard, select the Turn on Mouse Keys check box.

You can also increase the acceleration and speed of your mouse movements according to your needs.

You can alternately press the Alt+Shift+Num Lock combination to instantly activate the mouse keys.

For laptops, this will only work if your laptop keyboard has a numeric keypad or alternative keys which you can enable by pressing the Number Lock Key or the Function key.

On my laptop, number 6 key of the numeric keypad moves the mouse pointer left, number 4 key moves the mouse pointer right, number 2 key moves it down, number 8 key moves the mouse pointer up, number 5 and + key serve as right click while the number 0 key works as left click.

HOT TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER WELCOME YOU

2014-06-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Do you watch movies? Have you always loved the way how Computers in movies welcome their users by calling out their names? I bet that you too would want to know how you can achieve similar results on your PC and have a computer said welcome.

Then you are at the right place, this article describes exactly how you can make your computer welcome you like this.

With this trick, you can make your Computer welcome you in its computerized voice. You can make your Windows based computer say "Welcome to your PC, Username."

Make Windows Greet you with a Custom Voice Message at Startup

To use this trick, follow the instructions given below:-

Click on Start. Navigate to All Programs, Accessories and Notepad.
Copy and paste the exact code given below.

Dim speaks, speech
speaks="Welcome to your PC, Username"
Set speech=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

   3. Replace Username with your own name.
     4. Click on File Menu, Save As, select All Types in Save as Type option, and save the file as Welcome.vbs or "*.vbs".
   5. Copy the saved file.
     6. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows XP) and to C:\Users\ {User-Name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista) if C: is your System drive. AppData is a hidden folder. So, you will need to select showing hidden folders in Folder options to locate it.
     7. Paste the file.

Now when the next time you start your computer, Windows will welcome you in its own computerized voice.

Note: For best results, it is recommended to change sound scheme to No Sounds.
You can change the sound scheme to No Sounds by following the steps given below:-

Go to Control Panel.
Then click on Switch to Classic View.
Then Click on Sounds and Audio Devices.
Then Click on the Sounds Tab.
Select No Sounds from the Sound Scheme option.
If you wish to save your Previous Sound Scheme, you can save it by clicking Yes in the popup menu.
Click on OK.

Try it yourself to see how it works. In my personal opinion, this is an excellent trick. Whenever I start my PC in front of anybody and the PC welcomes me, the fellow is left wondering how brilliant a computer do I have.

How to Get Google to Index Your New Website & Blog Quickly

2014-06-28T08:55:00.001-07:00

Whenever you create a new website or blog for your business, the first thing you probably want to happen is have people find it. And, of course, one of the ways you hope they will find it is through search. But typically, you have to wait around for the Googlebot to crawl your website and add it (or your newest content) to the Google index.
So the question is: how do you ensure this happens as quickly as possible? Here are the basics of how website content is crawled and indexed, plus some great ways to get the Googlebot to your website or blog to index your content sooner rather than later.

What is Googlebot, Crawling, and Indexing?

Before we get started on some good tips to attract the Googlebot to your site, let’s start with what the Googlebot is, plus the difference between indexing and crawling.

The Googlebot is simply the search bot software that Google sends out to collect information about documents on the web to add to Google’s searchable index.
Crawling is the process where the Googlebot goes around from website to website, finding new and updated information to report back to Google. The Googlebot finds what to crawl using links.
Indexing is the processing of the information gathered by the Googlebot from its crawling activities. Once documents are processed, they are added to Google’s searchable index if they are determined to be quality content. During indexing, the Googlebot processes the words on a page and where those words are located. Information such as title tags and ALT attributes are also analyzed during indexing.

So how does the Googlebot find new content on the web such as new websites, blogs, pages, etc.? It starts with web pages captured during previous crawl processes and adds in sitemap data provided by webmasters. As it browses web pages previously crawled, it will detect links upon those pages to add to the list of pages to be crawled. If you want more details, you can read about them in Webmaster Tools Help.
Hence, new content on the web is discovered through sitemaps and links. Now we’ll take a look at how to get sitemaps on your website and links to it that will help the Googlebot discover new websites, blogs, and content.

How to Get Your New Website or Blog Discovered

So how can you get your new website discovered by the Googlebot? Here are some great ways. The best part is that some of the following will help you get referral traffic to your new website too!

Create a Sitemap – A sitemap is an XML document on your website’s server that basically lists each page on your website. It tells search engines when new pages have been added and how often to check back for changes on specific pages. For example, you might want a search engine to come back and check your homepage daily for new products, news items, and other new content. If your website is built on WordPress, you can install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin and have it automatically create and update your sitemap for you as well as submit it to search engines. You can also use tools such as the XML Sitemaps Generator.
Submit Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools – The first place you should take your sitemap for a new website is Google Webmaster Tools. If you don’t already have one, simply create a free Google Account, then sign up for Webmaster Tools. Add your new site to Webmaster Tools, then go to Optimization > Sitemaps and add the link to your website’s sitemap to Webmaster Tools to notify Google about it and the pages you have already published. For extra credit, create an account with Bing and submit your sitemap to them via their Webmaster Tools.
Install Google Analytics – You’ll want to do this for tracking purposes regardless, but it certainly might give Google the heads up that a new website is on the horizon.
Submit Website URL to Search Engines – Some people suggest that you don’t do this simply because there are many other ways to get a search engine’s crawler to your website. But it only takes a moment, and it certainly doesn’t hurt things. So submit your website URL to Google by signing into your Google Account and going to the Submit URL option in Webmaster Tools. For extra credit, submit your site to Bing. You can use the anonymous tool to submit URL’s below the Webmaster Tools Sign In – this will also submit it to Yahoo.
Create or Update Social Profiles – As mentioned previously, crawlers get to your site via links. One way to get some quick links is by creating social networking profiles for your new website or adding a link to your new website to pre-existing profiles. This includes Twitter profiles, Facebook pages, Google+ profiles or pages, LinkedIn profiles or company pages, Pinterest profiles, and YouTube channels.
Share Your New Website Link – Once you have added your new website link to a new or pre-existing social profile, share it in a status update on those networks. While these links are nofollow, they will still alert search engines that are tracking social signals. For Pinterest, pin an image from the website and for YouTube, create a video introducing your new website and include a link to it in the video’s description.
Bookmark It – Use quality social bookmarking sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon.
Create Offsite Content – Again, to help in the link building process, get some more links to your new website by creating offsite content such as submitting guest posts to blogs in your niche, articles to quality article directories, and press releases to services that offer SEO optimization and distribution. Please note this is about quality content from quality sites – you don’t want spammy content from spammy sites because that just tells Google that your website is spammy.

How to Get Your New Blog Discovered

So what if your new website is a blog? Then in additional to all of the above options, you can also do the following to help get it found by Google.

Setup Your RSS with Feedburner – Feedburner is Google’s own RSS management tool. Sign up or in to your Google account and submit your feed with Feedburner by copying your blog’s URL or RSS feed URL into the “Burn a feed” field. In addition to your sitemap, this will also notify Google of your new blog and each time that your blog is updated with a new post.
Submit to Blog Directories – TopRank has a huge list of sites you can submit your RSS feed and blog to. This will help you build even more incoming links. If you aren’t ready to do them all, at least start with Technorati as it is one of the top blog directories. Once you have a good amount of content, also try Alltop.

The Results

Once your website or blog is indexed, you’ll start to see more traffic from Google search. Plus, getting your new content discovered will happen faster if you have set up sitemaps or have a RSS feed. The best way to ensure that your new content is discovered quickly is simply by sharing it on social media networks through status updates, especially on Google+.
Also remember that blog content is generally crawled and indexed much faster than regular pages on a static website, so consider having a blog that supports your website. For example, if you have a new product page, write a blog post about it and link to the product page in your blog post. This will help the product page get found much faster by the Googlebot!
What other techniques have you used to get a new website or blog indexed quickly? Please share in the comments!

30 Things You Should Not Share On Social Media

2014-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

I don’t know whether you have started to notice that a lot of people are wanting help with their cows and ducks on Facebook (and I am finding it a touch annoying as I am not fond of cows),this activity is due to a very popular online game called Farmville.
What prompted me to write this list germinated when the few Farmville updates turned into a stream and then became a raging torrent. On Facebook you can actually turn this stream off in the settings section which is a good thing as I have stopped counting sheep when trying to go to sleep and started counting bovines… by the way Mashable have a post that shows you how to block those fascinating Farmville updates.
For those of you who are statistically minded… the Facebook-platform game FarmVille has
So what have the settings for controlling Farmville streams have to do with not sharing certain things on Facebook. Well there are settings on Facebook that allow your updates to be made very public or private and Facebook’s latest privacy changes in the last few months have actually made more information and photos public in its bid to open up the previously very private walled garden of Facebook (unless you go back to your settings and reset the privacy controls) in its bid to compete with Twitters real time open stream of information in this increasingly competitive social media world as more marketers start implementing social media marketing campaigns like Ford, General Motors and Tourism Queensland (Best Job In The World).
So to protect your reputation, personal brand, your bank account and your privacy you need to be very careful what you write and post on social media channels.

30 Things You Should Not Share on Social Media

What chicken you are plucking or cow you’re milking on Farmville on Facebook
How many you have killed on Mafia wars or where they are buried.. again on Facebook
Party photos showing you inebriated or a hand placed where it shouldn’t be
That you are having a party.. you might get more guests than you counted on
Photos revealing you flirting with the bosses wife at the annual work Christmas party
That you are having an affair
That you are thinking of having an affair
Complaints about your boss
That you hate your job and want to leave.. you might get your wish.. involuntarily
Don’t share photos or an event that reveals that you were not sick that day at work
That are you are planning to take a sickie
Drama with your friends
Issues with your parents
Passwords.. unless you have more money than brains
Hints about passwords like dogs names
Images and videos of your children
Updates on Facebook after you have escaped from Jail and on the run (don’t laugh it has happened)
Revealing your thoughts about a court case… when on jury duty
Don’t link personal sites to professional business sites like LinkedIn.. don’t mix business with pleasure
Financial information such as how much money you do or don’t have in your bank account
Personal Information
How to get more friends or followers.. it already sounds like a scam
You are leaving on a holiday
The dates you are away on your holiday
Your daily schedule.. burglars have been known to use these little hints to their advantage
Showing you doing something stupid .. not good for personal branding
Your bodily functions
Revealing extreme views on Race, Religion or politics
What you had for breakfast
Finally, If you are not comfortable about it … don’t share it

Do you have more things you think that should not be shared on Social Media networks?

HOW TO GET HIGHLY RANKED BY GOOGLE

2014-06-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Search engines such as Google are seen as black boxes that hand out page one search rankings for websites and blogs based upon secret and mysterious calculations. In essence that is true.
Hundreds of scientists and mathematicians are constantly working in quiet rooms to increase the artificial intelligence of its search engine.
Some search engine optimisation experts have used devious means to try and trick Google into getting ranked high in search results. This has been done via tactics such as “Black Hat SEO” that are used to try and fool Google. Google doesn’t encourage these activities and is constantly fine tuning its search algorithms to eliminate these practices.
Google’s objectives is to ensure that it is always delivering search results that users find relevant, interesting and also timely. If they don’t keep doing this then people will stop using Google and then its $30 billion of revenue it earns off search advertising is under threat. Also breathing down its neck are rapidly growing social sites such as Facebook that indirectly are providing alternatives to Google (rumours are constantly circulating that Facebook is building its own social search engine). If Google doesn’t continue to deliver then its whole existence is heading for a slippery downward slope of Web extinction.
In the last 2 years Google has increased the importance of usability such as measuring the speed of websites and sites that are producing unique content , hence the targeting of content farms and de-ranking them.

Google Loves Unique Content

What Google does like is great unique content. We have seen the rise in importance of content creation and curation as a marketing tool over the last few years. People use the web to find information, that is why Google is putting such a high value on unique content. Creating great contagious content that begs to be shared such as videos, blog posts and ebooks also has a big side benefit. That benefit is that people will link to your website or blog and hence Google gives you big ticks in its search engine calculations the more often back-links are created to your blog and website from other websites.
This is is where the tactic of “offsite optimisation” starts to make its importance and presence felt and should be included in your SEO strategy. This is the final stage of getting Google to like you.

Off-page Optimization

SEO experts generally agree that off-page link building techniques can contribute around 80% of the effectiveness in any SEO campaign. Off-page optimization or building links, is by far the most important activity for assisting us in getting our website well ranked in search engines. And the key driving force in this, is backlinks.

The Importance of “Back Links

A link, or back-link, is the link that you use to be brought to another page. Backlinks are incredibly important because they are basically like “votes” for your page that tell search engines that other webpages like and utilise your page for information. The more websites that you have linked or “voting” for your webpage, the higher your ranking will be. Though, not all votes are weighted the same, as links from the homepage of major websites, like the Australian Government australia.gov.au, amazon.com or facebook.com, are going to be worth a lot more than a lesser known website.
So here are 6 tips for easy link building:

Tip 1: Competitor analysis

Assuming you won’t be getting many links from those major sites, there still are easy link building tactics available to you. Begin your link building campaign with a competitor analysis. Basically, you want to repeat what your best competitors are doing, as one of the key link building principles is to match and exceed your competitors. Meaning, if you can go through and match all the links they have, or at least a majority of them, and find a couple of other ways to get additional links that they don’t have, you will be able to easily surpass them in searching ranking results.

Tip 2: Content, content and content

As always, the best way to encourage people to link to your website, is by consistently providing new, compelling and useful content. Content, content and content, to steal a well known phrase.
Creating compelling, relevant and useful content; such as writing about your products, industry, general current market information with keyword oriented useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factor discussed here. After the Google Penguin update, regularly posted quality content is the recommended method to getting more traffic to your website. Ideally you should post at least 2 new articles per week, more being better, as Google will favour websites with frequently updated material that contains unique and relevant content. And if your website offers good content, other websites will naturally want to link to you as well.
When you are posting articles, don’t forget to apply the same principles of Title tag and Meta Description to your articles, and don’t forget to include your desired keywords or phrases.

Tip 3: Guest blogging

Other ideas for a successful link building campaign include guest blogging. The general idea behind guest blogs is to get a link to your website posted on an already established website/blog. These links tend to carry more weight in Google because they are harder to acquire. Some sites will have very stringent requirements for the types of articles they will accept, so links from these sites have more value. Another popular and highly successful method is to contact bloggers or webmasters in your niche and simply ask them for a link. Or, ask to be a guest blogger for the sole purpose of getting the chance to link your guest blog posting back to your site. Establishing relationships with reviewers, authors, professors, enthusiasts, topic experts or anyone else who is operating a website in your niche area, whether it be through social networking or message boards, is a great way to build a network of people who might be willing to reference your website in their content.

Tip 4: Join web 2.0 site

Joining a web 2.0 site is an excellent method of developing search engine friendly links. If you are not familiar with the name, web 2.0 is the term used to describe websites that have a social networking component to them. Sites like Squidoo, StumbleUpon, and Delicious generate most of their content from the site users themselves. These types of pages facilitate interactive information sharing as well as collaboration, where you yourself can add articles that include up to 9 free backlinks per article to your website. Don’t duplicate any of your existing articles on your website and use them for either Squidoo or HubPages though, as search engines are filtering out content that way.
The best way to build links and create strong SEO benefits through Squidoo.com is by creating unique content that focuses on your keywords. Always try to incorporate multimedia, such as videos or images to gain more trust and authority quickly. It only takes a few articles until you’ll be able to add on a number of backlinks in your articles to your main site. I also really like Squidoo’s RSS feed widget, as this gives nice backlinks plus context to the links, which is great for search engines.

Tip 5: Vendors, Partner testimonials

Always give online testimonials to your suppliers, business partners or anyone else you can give a testimonial to, as it is a great way to get free backlinks from legitimate websites. Don’t forget to include your strategic keywords into your testimonials and hyperlink it back to the appropriate webpage from your website.

Tip 6: Link request to your connections

And finally, source your own networks for possible opportunities to build more links. Business contacts, suppliers, distributors, family members, friends, even your children’s school, all have the potential for providing you backlink opportunities. If you have been nice to them and they like you, ask for a free backlink on their website. Of course, the higher page rank or relevant websites you can link to, the better. If you can manage to obtain powerful and valuable links from websites like edu.com, that would be highly beneficial to you SEO efforts.
There are a lot more tactics involved in SEO to help you compete and surpass your competitors in search engine ranking results. The aforementioned tactics are basic initial strategies that help build a strong foundation and starting point for your SEO efforts, and will immediately help you move your website traffic and search engine ranking results to the next level.

How To Get Huge Facebook Likes On Pages

2014-06-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Big brands have big likes!
Big likes are on your mind day and night!
And it should be.
Having thousands of likes for your Facebook page ensures you are going to have fans that will visit the next article you write for your blog every time you post the update to your Facebook page.
Facebook is still the king of all social media networks.
In order to get results from social media, Facebook should be one of the top two networks you engage on and optimize.
Just setting up your Facebook page is not going to be enough.
One should develop a strategy in order to get those “likes” for the page. With a plan down you are on your way to more likes.
In this article, I will outline plenty of ideas on how to develop your strategy and tactics to get likes for your Facebook page.
So read on and get those likes!

Engagement Is Key

On every social media site, engagement is the key to success and Facebook is no differeent.
In order to attract attention on your Facebook page, be engaging on your personal profile as well.
I always channel my new likes through the engagement I create on my personal profile.
Sharing, commenting on other statuses is is one of the ways I engage on Facebook.
Here is a screenshot of my wall:

You can clearly see I am always doing something on my wall.
Model the same idea on your part since it can create a new channel of likes to your business Facebook page.
What I also do is create a nice header image of what you do on your site or just simply the logo.
Here is my header image of Internet Dreams on my personal profile:

After you upload it to your personal header, I always invite them to check out my page through a link I create on that image.
Always be cunning on creating new ways of attracting attention since it can lead to greater success!

Sharing For The Others

Sharing your articles on Facebook goes hand in hand with the engagement you create.
What’s nice about Facebook is that when you share an article of another individual, you can create a notification and alert them about it.
Just write their name in the status, and Facebook uses the “mention” functionality to alert them:

Also hosting a contest to increase Facebook likes is another great tactic.
Have a really nice incentive as the prize in order to receive a very nice amount of Facebook likes.
When you are starting to create some sort of income through your blog, then create regular contests on your Facebook page.

Frequent Updates For Growth

Every time you eat something very good, you will always go for seconds.
I know you will!
Think of it this way.
The updates you add to your Facebook page is like giving your fans something very good to eat.
That is where excellent content goes in!
They will “like” it and even maybe share it onto their profile.
“The sharing and liking they do will attract more new people to your Facebook page.”
Automatically afterward, your audience is absolutely expecting the same experience they had with your other update.
You can see the chain here….give them something good and see the reaction!!
This works well for my Facebook page:

The benefits are so many.

Facebook Ads To Boost

Don’t think Facebook ads are useless.
Give it a try. I have.
They have been instrumental in helping me gain Facebook likes for my Facebook page.
If you set up the ad right, it can send your Facebook page to a bigger audience!
I would advise you to set up the ad to go to specific countries.
Another tip is to use the the “interest” option for the ad.
Watch the performance of the ad and tweak to whatever necessary step you need to take in order to make it better.

Connecting and Asking

“Communication–the human connection–is the key to personal and career success.” – Paul J. Meyer
Connections are the cornerstone of spreading ideas and helping each other gain success.
Connections on Facebook are keyin gaining likes for your page!
I always gain new likes through a connection I create on Facebook.
First, find a person that is interested in the same thing you do.
Send them a friend request and wait for their approval.
After, send them a friendly message like this:

First, you thank them for connecting with you and include a nice compliment.
This way they are more inclined to like your page!

Writing Excellent Content

Just write excellent content that will just want them to like your Facebook page!
If you have nothing to show for, then you can forget about gaining new quality likes.
Writing great content should make it possible for them to like your page easily.

Add the “Facebook Social Plugin” to your blog

This makes it easy for people to “like” your Facebook page without even visiting it!
Your blog visitors can like your page right there while reading your blog post!
This is a free WordPress plugin that puts the “like box” in the sidebar of a blog.

Whatever your preference is, find your right spot and create excellent, juicy content that they would crave.
This will lead to more Facebook likes!

How To Protect Your WebSite Against Sql Injection By Nosisky

2014-06-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

What do Sony Pictures, PBS, Microsoft, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and the CIA have in common? These organizations and their web sites have all been successfully breached using what has become the weapon of choice for hackers: SQL injection.
SQL, or the Structured Query Language, is the command-and-control language for relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL. In modern web development, these databases are often used on the back end of web applications and content management systems – meaning that both the content and behavior of many web sites is built on data in a database server.
A successful attack on the database that drives a website or web application can potentially give a hacker a broad range of powers, from modifying web site content ("defacing") to capturing sensitive information such as account credentials or internal business data.

The Danger of Unsanitized Input Data

Broadly put, a SQL injection attack sends malicious commands to the database by sneaking through unauthorized channels. By far the most common such channel is unsanitized input data.

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How does this work? Consider a website login form, for example. A savvy hacker can try to compromise this form by submitting data that is intentionally malformed in an attempt to push a SQL command to the underlying database.
The vulnerability arises when a web application fails to "sanitize" the user input – i.e., filter out dangerous or non-conforming data – prior to handing it off to the database. Suppose, for example, that a hacker submits a login with the username dummy'. (Notice the single apostrophe.)
If the web site returns a database error when that username is submitted, then the hacker has just learned a piece of valuable information. The error message indicates that the backend code has literally included the user input into the syntax of a SQL query, because the single apostrope caused a syntax error in that query. Needless to say, this loophole reflects insecure coding and poor practice – but is also all too common.
A securely coded web site would have removed that dangerous apostrophe from the hacker's input – in fact, it would have sanitized the input by disallowing all characters except those that are specifically relevant to the data context. For example, a numeric input field (such as "age") should filter out any non-numeric input data before passing it to the SQL command.
But now the hacker has learned that a potential target is not santizing input data and proceeds to submit increasingly sophisticated code snippets into the input form. A smart hacker well-versed in SQL can peck away to reveal snippets of information – potentially revealing field labels and table names. Ultimately the hacker may even be able to dump data from the database or insert data. If the hacker manages to insert a new user account into the database, then all bets are off and the web site may be completely compromised.

Havij: No SQL Mastery Required

SQL is a complex language. It's not a trivial task to construct code snippets that can be injected into a query to successfully compromise a database. This type of hacking requires a solid understanding of the structure of typical SQL queries as well as in-depth knowledge of common website backend databases. So one would think that the number of hackers smart enough to succeed at this type of activity would be quite small. Why then are SQL injections the most common and successful web attack?
The answer is that human beings are very good at creating tools, especially tools that simplify the application of complex knowledge. After all, you don't need to be an automotive engineer to drive a car – or a computer scientist to operate a software program.
One popular "cheat sheet" for aspiring hackers is a list of so-called google dorks. These are Google search queries which are constructed to find web sites that conform to known characteristics. For example, a list of google dorks for SQL injection attacks can easily be found online. These queries are not attacks themselves — they help identify web sites that might be vulnerable to attacks because they use known database backends.
With a target in sights, any hacker with a mouse can fire up a copy of Havij. Developed by Iranian security professionals, Havij is, quite simply, a point-and-click tool for executing SQL injection attacks.
There mere existence of Havij can probably be credited with the widespread success of SQL injection. The app, for which many online tutorials can easily be found, does most of the heavy lifting. Point it at a potential target and Havij probes the site to determine what type of database is in use. Using that knowledge, Havij then builds queries to probe characteristics of the database. Requiring little to no SQL expertise from the end user, Havij can potentially extract fields, tables, and sometimes even full data dumps from a target.
It is important to understand that Havij can't compromise a web site that is well secured against SQL injection. But for those sites that are vulnerable, Havij puts a powerful attack arsenal – one that would otherwise be limited to experts – right into the hands of any "n00b" hacker who has the motivation to try.

Defending Against SQL Injection Attacks

The good news is that there actually is a lot that web site owners can do to defend against SQL injection attacks. Although there is no such thing as a 100 percent guarantee in network security, formidable obstacles can be placed in the path of SQL injection attempts.
1. Comprehensive data sanitization. Web sites must filter all user input. Ideally, user data should be filtered for context. For example, e-mail addresses should be filtered to allow only the characters allowed in an e-mail address, phone numbers should be filtered to allow only the characters allowed in a phone number, and so on.
2. Use a web application firewall. A popular example is the free, open source module ModSecurity which is available for Apache, Microsoft IIS, and nginx web servers. ModSecurity provides a sophisticated and ever-evolving set of rules to filter potentially dangerous web requests. Its SQL injection defenses can catch most attempts to sneak SQL through web channels.
3. Limit database privileges by context. Create multiple database user accounts with the minimum levels of privilege for their usage environment. For example, the code behind a login page should query the database using an account limited only to the relevent credentials table. This way, a breach through this channel cannot be leveraged to compromise the entire database.
4. Avoid constructing SQL queries with user input. Even data sanitization routines can be flawed. Ideally, using SQL variable binding with prepared statements or stored procedures is much safer than constructing full queries.
Any one of these defenses significantly reduces the chances of a successful SQL injection attack. Implementing all four is a best practice that will provide an extremely high degree ofprotection. Despite its widespread use, your web site does not have to be SQL injection's next victim.

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30 Things You Should Not Share on Social Media

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Tip 1: Competitor analysis

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Tip 6: Link request to your connections

How To Get Huge Facebook Likes On Pages

Engagement Is Key

Sharing For The Others