Ashampoo makes some of the most user friendly software that I have ever use.  Previously, I have posted an article to highlight Ashampoo's free offers.  Here is the latest batch of software available for a limited time 

This gift from Ashampoo includes the following five full versions.

Ashampoo® Photo Commander 9 is the software for efficient management, creative editing and stylish presentation of your photos

Ashampoo® Photo Optimizer turns your pictures into eye-catchers. The Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 4 is the perfect tool for the wow effect in your photos – quite simple, entirely comfortable and easy to use even for inexperienced users.

Ashampoo Photo Converter is your perfect tool to edit hundreds of photos in just one go – customize the size of the photos, rotate, correct automatically, save them in one of several new formats or protect the photos with your watermark.

Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements offers you everything you need to burn movies, music and data - fast and effectively. The software with the intuitive user interface focuses on the core competencies of burning software and offers you compact functions to tackle all tasks relating to your burning projects – easily create data discs, burn backups, rip music, create audio CDs or burn already existing film files on Blu-ray Disc and lots more. More info at: Burning Studio

There are many CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning software available but I find Ashampoo Burning Studio Elemets very easy to use, currently I am using it.

With the Ashampoo Registry Cleaner you will easily and safely delete redundant or damaged registry entries. Faulty links in the registry are also repaired. You’ll be amazed how the Ashampoo Registry Cleaner will quickly and easily improve the performance of your PC! More info at: Registry Cleaner

To get those software, just visit Ashampoo Free Offer  and enter this coupon code: ASH-111PR
After that you can start downloading whichever software  you want. No registration need. It's guaranteed free and unrestricted.

Note that the offer above is for a limited time, so you might to download soon.

Beside the time limited free offer as mentioned above, Ashampoo also gives other several software. One of the free software you might want to try is its clip finder which is a software to search for video clip and save them to your PC.

The brand-new Ashampoo ClipFinder HD gives you web video the way it should be. Search in up to fifteen video portals at once or in selected portals, view videos directly and convert and save them to your hard disk with a single click.  Go to : video clip finder

Enjoy the software!

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Download Ashampoo Internet Accelerator software to optimize and speed up your broadband internet.

Internet Accelerator cost US$19.99 but here is how you can get download and the get the full license for free.

This Windows software help you to weak various Windows internet setting to speed up broadband internet.  You can choose the automatic optimization based on your type of internet connection or you can choose to do it manually.   I am not really fond of the automatic setting but with the manual setting with you can experiment a lot because you can adjust the individual setting.

Most of the internet optimization available with Internet Accelerator is similar with some other internet tweaking software but Ashampoo Internet Accelerator has some extra neat feature.  You can configure and boost Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer easily here. The other feature is the host file management feature which is neat.  You can check your host file conveniently here without the need to navigate deeper into Windows file.

Why it is important to check host file? Some virus or malware can change your host file. Some of these change can be dangerous. It can redirect you to other place – a phishing technique. For example it when you enter your bank url in the browser can redirect you to other website in order to get your online banking login and password

In you want to tweak it manually you can refer to the help section. There is explanation of the setting, for example what is MTU or QoS. The user interface looks nice and there is a built-in MTU tester tool to check your optimization.  You read more about it here: Internet Accelerator

How to get this PC software for free? (UPDATE: This free offer is not available anymore)

1. Go this this page: Free Ashampoo Internet Accelerator

and then enter this code:  ASH-111PR

2. You will get to the download page – choose Internet Accelerator of the list. Download.

3. Install (choose custom install to avoid toolbar installation) and run.

4. When you first run the program, your internet browser will open he website page where you can enter a email to create an account with Ashampoo. Enter your email and follow the steps accordingly.

below is then screenshot of the webpage where

5. You will receive the full license code in the email. Click the Enter Code button on the software and enter the full version license code to activate it.

Now, does this type of software works? Theoretically yes, but in practice due to speed your Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides, the result may be unnoticeable. You need do the speed testing many, many time. The speed your IPS provides, way too big a factor in determining your internet speed that any improvement due Windows tweaking may be unnoticeable. So, don’t expect too much, consider this as tool so that you computer doesn’t become a weak link in the whole internet connection chain. Enjoy.

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Tips to get Norton Antivirus for full 270 days (9 months) for free. Also free full trial of Norton 360 version 5 and Norton Internet security for  3 months (90 days).

You might already know it's very easy to get Norton antivirus and protection suite with 1 months trial. If you look harder, it is easy to get 3 months full trial too. The three antivirus and protection software by Norton are Norton 360, Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus.  Norton 360 is the most complete protection suite from Norton but I think Norton Antivirus is good enough for most people. Just make sure to scan first before opening any file download from internet, set the firewall to on and update your antivirus regularly (set it to auto update).

How to get Norton Antivirus free for 9 months? What you should know is that Norton Antivirus itself is a component of Norton Internet Security and Norton 360. Norton Antivirus has these function: antivirus, anti-spyware and antirootkit, both Norton Internet Suite and Norton 360 has these function too. So, if you install the 3 months full trial version of the protection/antivirus software, each after the previous one expired you will get 9 months Norton Antivirus protection for free.

What you should do first is to download all the 3 months full trial of Norton 360, Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus. Install any (just) one of them first, after the 3 months full trial expired, uninstall it and install any of the other two. You will get 90 days for free. Is it works? Yes, it worked for me. Make sure you download all three first because I think the 3 months trial is 'linked' to the particular software file that you downloaded.

After installation, you need to activate your version with en email, you might want to use different email for each installation. Your email will be used to create an account with Norton.

Well, to get 3 months trial for the products you need to search a bit. To make your life easier (so you can spend more quality time watching viral video on YouTube ), here is a few sources where you can download them.

For 90 days Norton 360 version 5 and Norton Antivrius 2011 :
buy-static.norton.com/partner (UPDATE: now available for 60 days only)

Norton Internet security 2011 (90 days):
buy-static.norton.com

Norton 360 version 5 and norton antivirus 2011(russian language page website, you can change the product language setting after installation:
buy-static.norton.com (rus) (UPDATE: now available fro 60 days only)

For free 90 days of Norton 360, Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus (russian language page website, you can change the product language setting after installation:
symantec.com (rus)

If you prefer direct download (from that website):
Norton 360 (version 5)
Norton Internet Security 2011
Norton AntiVirus 2011

Norton is among my 3 favorites  antivirus. Actually I had been ignoring Norton since mid 2000 because I think their product have became so bulky and heavy on resources. In the year 2010 though, Norton have rebuilt their antivirus from the ground up which is now we can see can their product is faster and lighter on resource.

If you feel it still heavy, this is because the features of Norton product is quite comprehensive (compared to many free antivirus software available). Try to set certain function to off. For example you can set the 'File Insight' setting to off. Also the SONAR protection. Above screenshot is the setting for my Norton Antivirus. There are many other more features you can turn off, just go to Miscellaneous setting. Those setting like Performance Monitoring, Norton Community Watch and Norton Task Notification can be set to off.

I think the links posted here, the promo offers by Norton can last for a long time. There is one ultimate  tip that I haven't mentioned here but watch out for my future blogposts. Until then, enjoy this one first.

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Talk about Internet Service Provider's Fair Usage Policy .

What I wrote below is based on my observation of Malaysia broadband's FUP that might apply to other countries too.

Have you ever heard someone said something like "What so fair about Fair Usage Policy" or "Nothing is fair about Fair Usage Policy". What is Fair Usage Policy? Why it is relevance to you as a broadband internet subscriber?

Internet Service Provider (ISP) have  a policy of what they call Fair Usage Policy (FUP) which is most of the time is never explained to customer. The sales agent will not tell unless the customer ask and the web copy is buried somewhere in the ISP homepage. Plus, it is literally in small prints.

You can read an example Fair Usage Policy by an ISP at: Celcom Fair Usage Policy

Well, the actual policy is quite lengthy, you might want to find it on the ISP homepage itself. The important part on the policy are  the speed and the total bandwidth that you may get.  ISP need FUP so they get the 'slack' in case they cannot deliver the plan's exact specs to customer. If you buy a piece of chocolate donut, a piece of chocolate donut you shall get. If you buy internet access plan with 2 mbps of speed,  it 's NOT necessary you shall get internet access with 2 mbps of speed.

Typically, say if you subscribed to a broadband package of 8 Gig monthly bandwidth with 1 mbps speed, then you will get 8 Gig of bandwidth per month (or could be more depends on the ISP's FUP) but NOT necessarily with the speed 1 mbps all the time. In fact most of the time you will not get 1 mbps speed but maybe around 0.7 mbps.  You may even NEVER get the subscribed maximum speed. Of course this depend on your area, signal strength, number of users etc.

Understandable, giving the nature of internet itself, ISP needs FUP. Internet access is no chocolate donut. ISP use FUP  in order to give every user a comfortable internet experience and not just to a handful of people that tend to hog the internet or when too many users are using.  Let's hope ISPs are really  trying their best to give every user a good broadband access.

TM does provide every customer with an allocated bandwidth, where other customers may use when not used by the others.  Unfortunately, the nature of P2P more often than not, takes more than their allocated bandwidth, thus causing undue setbacks for other users when they want to use the service.  ..... from TM's Streamyx website

You may experience slower internet speed within peak hours due to too many users are using it. Within this period, ISP cannot give you the high speed as stated in your subscribed plan because they need to give the access to all the users at the same time.

You might asked why ISO doesn't give the speed as per plan subscribed since you already paid for that. Well, if ISP gives the maximum speed all the time then you wouldn't  get the plan at the price you subscribed now. Of course, that is questionable (let's talk about that at some other time). Anyway, these this type of slower than normal speed happens on peak hours only and most of the time the internet speed is comfortable enough (this depend a lot on your location, certain location there is no difference at all). Same thing goes to allowed bandwidth.

There is another reason of reducing speed that made Fair Usage Policy infamous, they called it 'throttled speed" or "managed speed". You will get throttled speed when you have used up all the bandwidth quota allowed with your subscribed plan.  You will get back the normal speed after your subscription period is over and a new subscription period begin.

FUP also makes supposedly unlimited bandwidth internet plan 'limited'.  Maybe you have subscribed to unlimited bandwidth plan which is seem great but actually have 'limit' too.  The thing is, once you hit the FUP's limit you still get unlimited bandwidth but with a snail crawling throttled speed that gives 'broadband' another meaning. How much banadwith can you use with that kind of speed?

The throttled speed depends on the ISP's discretion which may suite the users in the particular  location. I don't think they spell out exactly what speed is the throttled speed,  some users say around 56kbps- 125bkps . Let just say it just good enough for checking email. This is one the 'slack' that ISP have in the policy because they cannot  ascertain how many users and how much bandwidth will be used in certain area in advance (beside many other reasons). Hence, users in different location may get different throttled speed and some lucky ones may not experience it all even after they have used up way beyond the allowed bandwidth.

If your location have way too many user then prepare to experience more disruption  and reduce speed. That apply if ISP use the same infrastructure with the same capacity since the day one (despite the increased number of subscriber). ISP may upgrade the facility but then it's not an everyday thing. You got to pat on the back of ISP that keep on upgrading their service. I mean really, really upgrade their service and not just an excuse to say to you when you asked them why the internet is down.

Said that, it made ISP Fair Usage Policy a little bit funny. In a minor way, FUP work against ISP. With other product, if you think it is a good product you would like to recommend it to others but not with broadband provider. The more people in your area use the same broadband service then  the slower it  becomes.

If you are using a ISP that you think is good then keep it to yourself. "Don't kiss and tell."  If you neighbor asked, then say "I'm not sure but I heard ........ is good". Fill in the blank with the ISP you are NOT using. You don't want your internet in you area to be congested, don't you? Especially when many of your neighbors have teenagers addicted to manga anime movie

'Funny advice', huh? I knew. Sad but true. Tell that to your ISP!

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Kaspersky Antivirus is the most expensive antivirus software available to home user.  One year license cost is $39.95 (that even after the developer reduced the price recently).  I might say this 6 months license offer worth $19.98.  Now is your chance to get Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 for free but as usual you better hurry for this type offer.  To comfort you, the total number of license give away is 2 million.

Key Features and Benefits
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 – the backbone of your PC’s security system, offering real-time automated protection from a range of IT threats:

Real-time protection against viruses and spyware Improved!
Scanning of websites and emails for malicious code Improved!
Protection for your digital identity at all times Improved!
Vulnerability scan and treatment advice
Easy-access Desktop gadget New!

Airasia shopping club is giving away 2 million free Kaspersky Antivirus 6 month subscription to its members. If you need one too for free, first you need to become  its members. Membership is free, no credit credit card required.

1. Join as a member at : Airasiamegastore
2. Check email for the membership activation. (immediatley)
3. Log in to airasiamegatstore and look for Kaspersky banner on the left. Yeaap, with Jackie Chan photo on it. (Oh I didn't know the drunken master is the ambassador to Kaspersky Antivirus - virus must be really tough nowadays, we need kung fu to fight them
4. Click the banner and redeem the gift (see the photo below). Make sure you read the instruction carefully because there is a couple 'dos and don'ts'  you need to know. The important one is, you must not have Kaspersky Antivirus 30 days free trial installed on your pC.

5. Wait for Kaspersky activation code and the download link in you email. Note that you will not received the email immediately, so do allow 24 hours.
6. Go kill all the virus.

I have never tried Kaspersky Antivirus, Norton Antivirus is still my favorite (beside NOD32). I feel reluctant to try other antivirus simply because I find Norton Antivirus is good and 'light' enough. When it is not scanning it provide always-on-protection that is light on resources (BTW, the lightest antivirus I have used is NOD32). I read Kaspersky antivirus is faster on virus scanning but heavier on PC resources while on always-on-protection. (Enlighten me on this if you have tried both antivirus).  What do you think of Kaspersky compared to Norton Antivirus?

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Just found out a Malaysia Internet Service Provider has closed for good. And that's not a happy news. Izzi net is the best Malaysia wireless internet broadband ISP I have subscribed.

Its official website at www.izzi.com.my is there no more. Prior to this, there is no announcement on their website, early notice nor any information were given to their subscribers. Their subscribers were left in the dark when there was no internet access at all (although the subscriber can still connected) for several days. Nobody is answering the customer hotline (the line is  still available).

After three days of calls with no reply, one of my friend went to its office in Menara Olympia, Jalan Raja Chulan and to his horror the company already winded up. Nobody in the office anymore except one man whose task there is to assist claim for any subscriber who still has subscription balance.

I have 28 days subscription left and look like my RM88 went down the drain, according to that man you can only claim for refund if your subscription balance is over one month.

Other ISP could be happy with this (less competitor) but it is not good for us, one less choice and competitor for ISP to compete with.

I have noticed a few internet disruption since early of 2011 and did suspect something is wrong. Even the official website haven't been updated for so long and the last update I notice was in 2009.  My opinion is Izzinet didn't spent much on marketing except probably in its first year (2007/2008) and that's probably why their subscribers base didn't increase much (while other ISP on marketing frenzy). Subscriber entry cost is higher for Izzi since you need to pay one whole year in advance and this could be a reason too.  Or maybe there is other deep problem that we may never know.  Anyway, I am sure many  big companies would be able to buy over  Izzi especially when Izzi already have the ISP licence and infrastructure.  (I am not sure of the financial sheet though.)

I mentioned earlier that Izzinet is the best wireless ISP provider I have subscribed. I will tell you why in my next post with the hope that we can suggest other ISP to adapt a certain aspect of Izzinet's policy.

Adios to Izzinet, after so many years.

Any problem on refund:

Suruhanjaya Komunikasi & Multimedia Malaysia:
Website:  http://aduan.skmm.gov.my/
Hotline: 1-800-888-030

Jabatan Insolvensi
Website: http://www.insolvensi.gov.my
Tel: 03-8885 1000

Izzi  net parent company: (a Bursa Malaysia public listed co.)
I-Power Berhad
L4-E-11 Enterprise 4, Technology Park Malaysia
Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-89968080
Website: http://www.mobif.com.my

This could be the reason:
Silver Ridge Sdn. Bhd. through its solicitors has issued a statutory notice pursuant to Section 218(1)(e) of the Companies Act 1965 to Izzinet Sdn. Bhd. (Company No. 732916-D) dated 7 November 2008 claiming therewith a sum of RM1,555,322.22 ........read more here

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