And many times, it is due to some careless online behavior from the user itself, which is responsible for him to be a victim. A few careful steps can help you great deal to identify and prevent falling in the trap.

One of the common way to trap innocent users is to send fake emails looking to be from a genuine source like Paypal, Ebay or your Bank. Often a careful look at the email for the sign of phishing might help you to identify and avoid phishing emails. But due to the lack of knowledge and carelessness people ignore to remain cautious and get trapped.

Iconix – A Handy Way to Identify and Avoid Phishing Emails

Iconix is a freeware plugin, which when installed, gets seamless integrated with most of the Email clients and checks the original source of the emails. If the email is coming from a popular financial institution or website, which are often targeted by the phishing scammers, then a lock icon along with the tick mark appear before the sender’s name. This identifies that the source of the email is genuine.

If you want more details about this, then you can click on the icon, which will open a TrueMark Certificate verifying the source of the email.

Iconix uses industry standard technologies like DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), a standard established many years ago and led by Yahoo! and Cisco. It uses public key encryption to prove not only that the message sender is authenticated, but that it has not been modified in transit.

[Download Iconix]

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You have to click the link “Use Enhanced Security (SSL)” at the bottom to use this feature. Based upon your cookie settings, this option will be stored, and the next time when you login, this feature will be automatically selected.

You can turn it off any time, by clicking “Turn Off Enhanced Security (SSL)” option, if you think that it is slowing down your browser speed. But I strongly recommend you to use this feature to protect your Hotmail Login.

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To make its services more secured, Hotmail has now allowed its users to let their passwords expire after 72 hours, if they opt for it. This may sound as added hassles for many of the users, but if you are really concerned about the security of the passwords, then this is for you. Opting this option, will require you to reset your password after 72 hours.

You can use this link to use this hotmail security feature.

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• Clipperz | A Free Online Password Manager you can’t ignore

There is a freeware utility called ProtectMe, which can be used to hide, store and protect your important files under EXE cover.

Protect Me! 2010 creates secure executable (.exe) container files to which you can add any files and directories you want to! Your files will be stored securely inside the container file.

To ensure a maximum of security, Protect Me! 2010 uses SHA1 for password validation and AES for encryption.

This is a freeware utility and works on all presently used versions of Windows.

[Download ProtectMe]

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• Folder, File Manager Utility for Multi-Pane Drag & Drop – QDir

DNS Servers allow the Internet to go human-friendly and increase its usability. They are generally maintained by your ISP’s although there are public DNS server applications like OpenDNS and Google’s Public DNS as well.

How to Change the DNS Server IP Address Settings

You have to go deep down to your Windows settings and change the IP address settings in the TCP/IP Protocol settings of your network connection every time you want to switch your DNS Server settings. With so many useful DNS services available today, it sometimes becomes difficult to manually change them as it is also difficult to memorize them all.

There is a handy utility, which can do this job just perfectly for you.

DNSJump is a freeware utility, which memorizes upto 16 DNS Server IP Address settings and you can choose any of them to work at a given time, with just a single click. No more remembering of the DNS settings, and no more hassles of changing them.

[Download DNSJump]

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• Use OpenDNS to Block Conficker / Downad Worm

WinUtilities Pro is a Windows Repair, Optimization and SpeedUp tool, with a regular price of $49.99. But they are giving it away absolutely free for the Softpedia users at present.

You just have to download the trial version from the softpedia site , and use the following credentials to register it.

regname: Softpedia User
regcode: C1H0L9-20CC-321B-36F7-4117-W6Y1L3

Here is the promotion page.

Enjoy.

WinUtilities Pro is an award winning collection of tools to optimize and speedup your system performance. this suite contains utilities to clean registry, temporary files on your disks, erase your application and internet browser history, cache and cookies. it also supports to defragment your disk drives and improve computer performance and stability. built-in StartUp Cleaner allows you to control startup programs that load automatically with windows, find duplicate files, fix broken shortcuts and uninstall unneeded software. other features include secure file deletion, recycle bin shredding, system maintenance tasks scheduling and undelete deleted files.

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Q-Dir – Advanced File Manager

Q-Dir is one such advanced file and folder manager utility, which works like charm in such a case. There are lots of options for you to play around and set it as per your convenience and requirements. You can make it as your default File Manager, replacing the utility which comes with standard windows,

You can also run it as a portable file management utility without installing in standard mode. It also allows you to mark your often used folders as favorite for quick access.

And the best part is that it is a freeware utility. Try it. Chances are that you will leave the default file manager of Windows permanently.

[Download Q-Dir]

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But still there are situations, when a Windows user want to list, print or save the list of files and sub-folders contained in a folder. At times you may also like to compare the contents of the files contained in two folders for which you may have to save the list.

GetFolder is one such freeware utility, which allows you to do the job perfectly. It allows you to save the content of a windows folder in any of the four formats like csv, txt, html or xml. You can then manipulate or print the saved data in any manner you like.

Great.

[Download getFolder]

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• Get, Access and Browser Special Folders in Windows Vista, XP
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• Protect, Hide, Store and Send Files Secretly Under EXE Cover

If you are a software developer or compiler, and want the functionality of autorun in your CD, then there are a few freeware available.

Compact AutoRunner Software – A freeware Autorun CD Creator

Compact AutoRunner is one such freeware which does the job just perfectly.

Have a look at its features.

1. This program is FREEWARE / DONATIONWARE!
2. Allows you to have a simple, compact, no frills autorun menu on your cd.
3. Comes with a configuration builder for helping you build menus.
4. The main exe filesize is small so it doesnt take up much space on your cd leaving room for more files.
5. You may test the menu by running the main exe of the menu configuration you want to test.
6. The configuration builder now has a dynamic positioning system for the form size and the button sizes and positions.
7. Does not need any programming runtimes.
8. System Requirements are Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/VISTA

[Download Compact AutoRunner]

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In case you are on a LAN and wondering why the speed of your LAN is slow while using Internet or other works, then the first thing you have to do is to analyze the traffic flow of your network.

You have to first ascertain, which users and applications are consuming most of the bandwidth and then take steps like isolating them so as to increase the overall net speed.

And here is a free tool to help you analyze and increase your net speed.

SolarWinds Real-time NetFlow Analyzer is a free desktop tool that captures and analyzes NetFlow data in real time to show you exactly what types of traffic are on your network, where that traffic is coming from, and where it is going. If you are new to NetFlow, we’ve bundled another free tool with your download – NetFlow Configurator – to help you remotely configure NetFlow v5 via SNMP on supported Cisco® devices.

Put an end to complaints about the network being slow! With Real-time NetFlow Analyzer, you’ll have the power to:

• Investigate, troubleshoot, and quickly remediate network slowdowns
• Easily identify which users, devices, and apps are consuming the most bandwidth
• Isolate inbound and outbound traffic by conversation, app, domain, endpoint, and protocol
• View traffic by type and specified time period

SolarWinds Real-time NetFlow Analyzer supports NetFlow v5 and records up to 60 minutes of NetFlow data.

[Download SolarWinds Real-time NetFlow Analyzer]

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