Checking for Windows XP Firewall

To see if you're running Windows Firewall:

1. Click on the Windows Start button, and select Control Panel. The Control panel window will appear.
2. Click on the Security Center link. The Security Center will appear.
3. If the Firewall header says ON, you are running Windows Firewall.

Configuring Windows XP Firewall

If you're running Windows Firewall and having connection problems in Firefox:

1. Click on the Windows Start button, and select Control Panel. The Control panel window will appear.
2. Click on the Security Center link. The Security Center will appear.
3. If the Firewall header says ON, you are running Windows Firewall.
4. Ensure that Don't allow exceptions is not selected.
5. Click to select the Exceptions tab.
6. Find Mozilla Firefox (or firefox.exe) in the list of programs. If it is there, click to select it. If not, skip the next step.
7. With Mozilla Firefox selected, click the Delete button. Confirm that you want to delete the entry.
8. Click the Add Program... button.
9. In the Add a Program window, click the Browse... button.
10. Navigate to the Firefox program directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\) and double-click on firefox.exe.
11. Click the OK button to close the Add a Program window.
12. Click the OK button to close the Windows Firewall Settings window.

Source:- http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Configuring+Windows+Firewall

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Computer hackers accessed the home e-mail account of Indiana University South Bend's arts dean over the weekend and sent dozens of e-mails to students and others containing links to a drug designed to treat sexual dysfunction.

Arts dean Marvin Curtis says he noticed the problem Saturday and placed a notice on his Facebook wall to alert friends that he had found a computer virus on his laptop and that e-mails linking to Viagra marketing sites were not from him.

Curtis says he has downloaded antivirus software and hopes that fixes the problem.

Source:Chicagotribune.com

Your internet cafe might be housing a potential security threat-called the Typhoid adware, it works in similar fashion to Typhoid Mary, the first identified healthy carrier of typhoid fever who spread the disease to dozens of people in the New York area in the early 1900s.

Adware is software that sneaks onto computers often when users download things, for example fancy tool bars or free screen savers, and it typically pops up lots and lots of ads.

Typhoid adware needs a wireless Internet cafe or other area where users share a non-encrypted wireless connection.

"Typhoid adware is designed for public places where people bring their laptops," says Aycock. "It's far more covert, displaying advertisements on computers that don't have the adware installed, not the ones that do," he added.

The study demonstrated how Typhoid adware works as well as presents solutions on how to defend against such attacks.

Typically, adware authors install their software on as many machines as possible.

But Typhoid adware comes from another person's computer and convinces other laptops to communicate with it and not the legitimate access point.

Then the Typhoid adware automatically inserts advertisements in videos and web pages on the other computers.

Meanwhile, the carrier sees no advertisements and doesn't know that he or she is infected, just like symptomless Typhoid Mary.

U of C researchers have come up with a number of defenses against Typhoid adware.

One is protecting the content of videos to ensure that what users see comes from the original source. Another is a way to "tell" laptops they are at an Internet cafe to make them more suspicious of contact from other computers.

"When you go to an Internet cafe, you tell your computer you are there and it can put up these defenses. Anti-virus companies can do the same thing through software that stops your computer from being misled and re-directed to someone else," said Aycock.

The study was presented at the EICAR conference in Paris, a conference devoted to IT security.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Users of Apple's iPad tablet computer have been targeted by hackers with an email offering a fake iTunes update that downloads malware to their Windows PCs, internet security firm BitDefender warned yesterday.

The company reported on its official blog that several iPad users who also owned a Windows PC had received an email with the subject line 'iTunes Software Update'.

The email contained a link that led users to a fake download page, designed to precisely resemble the real iTunes page. BitDefender identifies the malware as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY.

It's the first piece of malicious software aimed at taking advantage of the current buzz surrounding Apple's new tablet computer, which has seen record sales since it was launched on 3 April.

Sabina Datcu of BitDefender wrote on the company's Malware City blog that “The figures make it clear as daylight why malware creators were so keen on crashing this promising party. To carry conviction, the e-mail emphasizes that users should keep their iPad software updated 'for best performance, newer features and security'.”

According to the blog, the malware infects a Windows PC's explorer.exe file and opens a backdoor to the computer, allows hackers to access the system.


Source: itproportal.com

This is one question that asked many people. "Should we get a desktop or laptop?" It’s depending on your requirement. Desktop and Laptop both are same computer.
For and unfortunately, most uses may require the power of a desktop pc. I will list some of the more common uses of a pc and discuss the specs needed.

Office Uses:
Mostly use in office like Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. We also use for mail checking, store data and use like small server. This type of computer have not heavy requirement for extra use. You have able to handle very easy that type of any new desktop or laptop.


Multimedia Applications Uses:
laptops are mostly used for listening to music or watching movies. The only times that it will not be adequate is if you want better components like a much larger and better screen resolution and better sound quality. If you want high resolution viewing, you can connect a laptop to another separate monitor but then you might not be able to go with a higher resolution because of your graphics hardware on the laptop. Also, your sound options are very limited with laptops. All laptops use onboard cards that are adequate for most uses but for the highest sound quality, you will not have it and your external component options are very limited. For desktops, you have a wide range of choices for internal PCI slot upgrades. To sum it up, for high resolution and high definition audio, you may have to go with desktops.

PC Games:
Here I am not talking free in build games in your computer or laptop Solitaire or any other simple game. We are talking about PC Games like Counterstrike, Crysis, Sins of a Solar Empire etc. If you want batter playing of pc games then you have required heavy hardware it will depend on the graphics hardware.

Multimedia Encoding:
If you are looking any video or audio production and encoding, you better go with desktops. You will need lots of hard drive space and most laptops do not have choices for very large drives. You will also need a very good processor and a powerful video card will help too.
The most important are computer installation with Latest OS.

I will introduce some latest operating system features and what are the features that a particular operating system should have used. Some of these features are a part of all operating systems, while some of them may or may not be available in the computer operating system you are using. So I will give you online computer support 24x7 every time.

Managing Hardware/Software
As already know, it is the operating system that causes the software and hardware in a computer to interact with each other. It is also the platform that causes one software in the computer to communicate with another. Once the computer operating system in a computer loads during the booting up process, other application software’s can be loaded into the computer.

Consistent Application Program Interface
Application Program Interface which software development peoples refer to as APIs allow the applications those run on one computer to run on another computer having the same computer operating system. It is important that the operating system has a consistent API. Undoubtedly, every operating system will have deferent type’s requirements, but it should be enough to support computer hardware’s.

Program Execution
The operating system to execute all the types of computer programs running in it. It is a rather more complicated process. It allows to multitasking and allows different programs to run at the same time and share the many types of computer system resources. Here, it requires allotting RAM space to different computer applications running on the computer. The execution of more than one program may also require the computer operating system to prioritize the operations running on the computer system.

Memory Management
we already defined in the part on program execution, it is up to the computer operating system to provide memory to the different programs running on the computer system. It has to prioritize and allocate memory to each application. Even when data is saved in a secondary storage device, it is the computer operating system that decides how that particular chunk of information should be stored.

Networking
Computers need to communicate with each other via networking. A computer without Internet is not even imaginable. It is the task of the computer operating system to provide the required networking features. It allow to you used two or more computers to connect and form a network or connect to the Internet. More on computer networking.

Security
Computer system security that an operating system should provide is undoubtedly one of its most important features. We used passwords setting for logging in, to providing firewall protection; everything comes under the tasks of an operating system. Many network utilities may require printer sharing, file sharing and using TCP/IP protocols. Hence, it becomes very important for the computer operating system to provide proper security so that the computer's security is not compromised in such cases.

From past few days, I was facing several technical issues with my computer like, blue screen error, system slow down, applications taking long time in launching, system crash, etc. I decided to contact iYogi Technical Services for troubleshooting my computer related technical issues, and one of its tech experts resolved my problems in few minutes via remote connection.
Features
Numerous services are offered through online technical support for troubleshooting computers. These services include resolving Internet browsing issues, troubleshooting software and hardware errors, configuration of many applications like Office suite, e-mail, PC optimization, software installation, re-installation and un-installation, Windows upgrade, resolving registry issues, diagnostic and repair services for hardware and software, spyware and virus removal, driver update, etc.
All these services are offered anytime and anywhere. It means you can access online services from any location, provided you have an Internet connection.
Usability
Computer troubleshooting via remote connection offers many benefits like cost effectiveness, availability, instant access, etc. In online technical support, a tech expert accesses your PC via remote connection, after getting your permission. Once he gets access on your system, he starts diagnosing it for finding out the possible causes behind the technical issues.
After completion of diagnosing process, tech expert will carry out the necessary steps to root out your technical issues. In this way, process of computer troubleshooting via online support gets completed.
Limitations
Online technical support offers many benefits as compared to on-site support. In on-site support, you either have to take your system to any service centre, or you have to call any technician at your premises. If you will take your system to any service centre, it would take three to four days in troubleshooting your computer. If you will call any technician at your home, then you have to pay extra for the services.
Therefore, it is wise to go for online tech support to resolve the issues related to computer troubleshooting.

Features
There may be manual fault or some unavoidable circumstances related with technical issues, when you lost your important home or business files (such as MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, Bkf, Zip), e-mails, photos, music and other rare things.
Although this happens very rarely, but the data once lost can take long time to recover or may be not be recovered at all, so there should be adequate management for data backup to assure that you access important files and folders anytime.
You would be considering me too much obscene, but I have suffered from data lost on my Windows 7 computer recently, that’s why I want to discuss with you about some important data recovery methods for Windows 7 and you must add the data recovery agent.
First I want to tell you about prevention, because it is an old saying that “prevention is better than cure”. As you do Ctrl+S with your word document every time to ensure it is saved regularly, similarly you should make a practice to take data backup of your hard drive memory on an external hard disk or other optical device, which can be used to combat such situations.
Next, when you are trapped under the situation and you don’t left with much of options, then Windows 7 recovery software is a better alternative. Some of the best recovery software available in the market are Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery v4.1, Advance Windows 7 Data Recovery Software and Recover My Files data recovery software.

Usability
Windows 7 data recovery software can effectively restore or recover entire data of your hard disk including deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, infection with computer viruses, and unexpected system shutdown or software failure. You can also recover your data, which is located in corrupted partition, such asFAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS & NTFS5 of Windows 7 based hard drive. Windows 7 data recovery software are also compatible enough for recovering data from other types of data storage media such as floppy drives, flash drives, USB digital media, pen drive, zip drive, memory stick, multimedia card, secure digital card & many more.
Limitation
Data recovery is not possible with Windows 7 Recovery tools if it has been physically overwritten by low level disk format. You may face issues while recovering files located on hard disk which is well encrypted.

Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, and media centers. It was released in 2001 and has been the most popular operating system all over the world.
If your computer is not working properly then, you might need to repair or format your computer. Repairing a computer will fix the corrupt operating system, and it will not delete your data. Follow these steps to repair Windows XP computer without any data loss:
Step 1: Firstly, you need to insert the XP CD into CD drive and restart your computer. As computer shuts down, keep pressing DELETE to enter the BIOS setup. In the BIOS setup, set the 'First Boot device' to CD-ROM and exit saving these settings.

Step 2: Now, your Windows XP computer will restart and a message will appear saying 'press any key to boot from CD'. Press space bar or any other key to continue.

Step 3: Next, you have to wait for few minutes as setup will inspect your hardware and Windows on computer. Setup will also load some necessary files to repair the Windows XP computer.

Step 4: Now you have to press F8 to accept the Windows XP license agreement, and then you have to select the drive which you want to repair. There may be more that 1 drives in some cases, then you can select the drive by using UP/DOWN arrow keys to select the drive which you wish to repair.

Step 5: Now, setup will examine the drive which you have selected and will go through 1 to 100% and a new window will appear on screen, hit F3 to continue and setup will reboot the Windows XP computer.

If you follow the above steps, you can repair your computer without any data loss.

Nowadays, computer has become mandatory equipment for every home. Therefore, it is important to take care of computer’s health for its prolonged life.
Most of the problems faced by computers are simple and common in nature. There causes too, are more or less similar. Some basic issues are computer freezing, blue-screen error, no sound, auto restart, etc
You can easily resolve the above mentioned issues, if you take some important steps. Microsoft has enriched its operating system with memory management tools like Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, which can take care of your computer’s memory. These are easy to execute even without much of computer knowledge. These utility organize your important files and remove the temporary and unwanted files, which are created while uninstalling and installing a program. This helps to create more space on your hard disk. These applications provide you a detailed report about your hard disk and help you take the right decision about your hard disk and we offer a computer support service so you can fix PC problems with our advice.
You should also check Windows start up programs, to repair your computer against slow performance. There can be lot of programs, which are not required or are outdated. You should remove those applications from your computer’s hard disk. In addition to that scan your computer with a compatible registry cleaner tool, which can fix Windows registry related issues.
To ensure good speed over Internet, you must delete your browser cookies on regular basis and also modem driver should be updated, if required.
In addition, you should ensure that you have a good antivirus protection, because viruses make your computer vulnerable towards other damages. This can lead to blue screen error, slow performance of computer, and hard disk crash. Above all, you should keep regular data back of your important files, so that you can combat any situation of data loss.

Undoubtedly, Windows XP is a good operating system. But sometimes you may find certain issues with your computer running on Windows XP OS. Some of the randomly discovered issues are slow startup, SVCHOST.EXE error, blue-screen error, slow internet browsing, registry related error, shutdown issues, generic host WIN32 error and upgrade issue.
Most random issues of your Windows XP, like slow boot performance, slow browsing, blue-screen are easy to fix, with some basic tips and tricks. They just need your proper attention. For example, you should be habitual of defragmenting your hard disk on regular basis, scanning your PC with effective virus scanner every month, cleaning your windows registry with registry cleaner tool. Also don’t open any e-mail attachment, which comes from unknown destination, because it might be a source of virus. Keep your anti-virus program updated and to get effective results, contact your tech support provider without any delay.
When you keep working for a long time on your computer, your hard disk get cluttered with innumerous temporary files, Windows registry get flooded with invalid entries as a consequence of which, your system starts freezing or becomes totally unstable. You can fix hard disk related issues of your Windows XP, by using the disk defragmenter tool available in System Tools. You can access it as: Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. You can customize the tool to do partial or complete defragmentation. The process takes some time, so have patience.
To counteract the invalid entries in your XP operating system, you can go for online registry cleaner software, which can automatically fix Windows XP’s registry. You can also perform manual tweaking of corrupted Windows registries, if you are confident with your tech skills. The Windows XP Support platform is a comprehensive and resilient operating system for the Home and Business PC user.
However, if you fail to fix any of the Windows XP issues, you can contact some authentic organization, which is offering support for Windows XP. For regular support you can avail some suitable subscription too.

Since its inception in the year 1947 HP has covered a long distance. Throughout its journey in this highly competitive sector, it has focused itself in developing models which are more and more user-friendly.
It debuted as a manufacturer of electronic test gadgets like signal generators, voltmeters, oscilloscopes, frequency counters and others.
From 1966 onwards, it started focusing on the computer manufacturing. The very first model was a notebook series HP laptop 2100/HP 1000.
But now it has become a global leader in computer manufacturing industry. It has dominated every segment, whether it is for home user or a business user. In addition to computer, it has also made entry in manufacturing of peripheral devices like scanners and printers. It has created such a reputation and trust in the market that every user before buying, does make a search on the latest available model from HP.
Let’s have a glance at a most recent HP model, HP Pavilion p6300Z series. This model was introduced with the launch of Windows 7. User will be getting its Home Premium version absolutely free. This machine will be empowered with AMD Sempron(TM) LE1300 processor [2.3GHz, 512KB L2, up to 1600MT/s bus], 4 GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] memory, 750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3 GB/s hard drive and 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 [DVI, HDMI, VGA] graphic card. Hence, you will be getting incredible performance from your HP computer. In addition, Internet Explorer 8 will give you a better Internet experience.
Understanding the mind setup of customer with the launch of Windows 7, it has become an active partner for offering upgrade to eligible buyer.
To keep a deep penetration into the market it has also collaborated with major tech support provider so as to address any issue on the priority level.

A firewall is a device or a set of devices, which can be implemented in any of the hardware, software or both. All the messages passing through the firewall are verified to meet some level of security criteria.

It acts as a computer security barrier, which analyzes all the incoming and outgoing traffic to and from your computer or network based on the firewall settings. There are some common types of firewalls like: Application level gateway, Packet filtering firewall, Circuit gateways and Hybrid firewall.

Application level gateway firewall works on the application layer of the protocol stack. It works more intelligently than the packet filtering firewall. Packet filtering firewall examines the information contained in the header of the message packets.

There are some factors based on which the filters can be added or removed from the firewall:

1. IP address

2. Ports

3. Protocols

IP address: Every computer connected to Internet has a unique IP address. The firewall configuration can be customized to block any IP address so that your computer will not allow any kind of communication to take in between.

Ports: The firewall can be configured to allow or block messages from any port number.

Protocols: There are some commonly used protocols like IP, HTTP, TCP, FTP, and SMTP etc., which can be included in the firewall filter.

Some operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows offer built-in firewalls that are turned on by default to block all the incoming threats from Internet. There are several other third party firewalls available. You can choose any one the firewall to replace the default firewall in Windows.

A successful business organization must secure its data to remain a viable force. The Internet has enabled employees of an organization to work even when they are away from their workstations at their office. As employees work at various different locations, a large amount of data is always at risk. So, it is always recommended to have the best Data Backup Support.

You can go for an online data backup support which is the safest and secured way to keep your data protected as well as accessible. It is the price worth paying to get the PC Support for data backup because you can access your data anytime and from anywhere.

Data backup is nothing but a process in which additional files are made and kept at some other place. For data backup, you will be provided with software bundled together in a package by your service provider. This software allows you to select a range of files that is compressed by the software which is stored at safe location.

Main features of the online data backup support:

1. It is safe as it protects your data from any natural disaster, hardware and software crash.

2. It is portable and you can access your data from any location through the Internet connection.

3. You can get support very easily.

To have a data backup is always beneficial and this will definitely help your organization to grow.

You can lose your data at any point of time so don’t delay and get support for your data now.

There has been a noticeable hike in the demand for computer repair services and laptop repair services with the increase in computer normal population. Laptops are hi-technical electronic instruments which can start to malfunction at any point of time. Here we shall consider Dell laptop repair support techniques.

If your are having a Dell laptop and needs Dell support for its overall repair performance and speed, or for removing some unusual content or displaying pops on screen, or laptop's home page is changing without your knowledge, then to save up your machine from various virus or spyware you must look for a Dell laptop repair expert. The expert will install relevant antivirus or anti spyware security program on your laptop to prevent it from other dangerous infection. One time installation of the antivirus and antispyware security program is not enough, as you need to go for virus and spyware upgrades too. Network installation expertise will ensure addition of new equipments to your network quite easily. This will help you to make faster and effective deployment and negligible disturbance in your business process.
People opt for a laptop because of convenience. It can be carried anywhere, any time. If your laptop is used for your business, computer maintenance is one of the most essential things for you to follow. The complete laptop repair service package includes diagnosis of hardware and software, hardware and software upgrades, network upgrades and other necessary repairs. It is best sorted out by the experienced technical expert when it comes to any problem with your laptop or desktop.
Owning a personal laptop, especially Dell is a big deal which signifies how they are trying to make themselves a part of the world of technology. Along with that, people may encounter difficulties like downloading and uploading applications or even worse, which resulted in laptop hard disk crash. But you ask PC Experts have certified technicians who can diagnose and fix all errors and problems of your Dell laptop or desktop. Quick, easy and secure remote Dell computer support is now within your reach anywhere, anytime.

The windows system Registry has been called the most important part of any Windows PC operating system (OS), but you probably didn’t even know it exists. There is a good reason for that. Microsoft doesn’t want you messing with it. Like so many other features in Windows, Microsoft chose to hide information considered too powerful to be left in the hands of mere mortals. Only the wisest of gurus can be entrusted with such knowledge.
The registry controls everything and a single mistake can have devastating consequences on the entire OS. Installed programs and applications will write important data into the registry. User defined data and configurations are also stored.
The data is tracked through a tree of folders and it’s called “keys” that branch off the registry nodes. Every key can have sub keys nested in multiple levels. Its data known as “values” are stored in the keys and sub keys. Groups of related keys, sub keys and values are known as hives.
Applications can modify the keys by changing the values, adding new keys or deleting existing ones. More recent versions of Windows will back up the registry and in the event of a problem, will ask you if you want to use the “Last known good configuration.” This was an option that began in the old Microsoft Windows vista days.
The good news is that such configuration issues related to the registry will not affect your important data like documents, photos, etc. The bad news is that many times the problem that caused the crash in the first place may also be saved in the backup versions of the registry.
Many software programs exist to examine registry the keys and make any necessary repairs. These programs can even check your registry for unused keys that clog your system. Removing these keys can significantly improve performance.
For more information on the Windows Registry, check out the Microsoft software support program.

In today’s computer world no software is the ultimate one. As developer are working deliberately to give the best to the users. Hence, computer install is an essential part, both for beginner and the experts.
For critical software install user can take the help of reputed organization who are offering remote support for installation purpose. But, you must be aware of some general installation procedure so that you don’t have to frequently call them up.
Let’s get acquittal with installation of some important software program on your computer.
Installation for Security software and web browsers
Users can make use of CD/DVD of the latest security software like Windows Defender, Spyware Doctor, No adware and so on. For browser you have plenty of options, you can go for Firefox, Opera, IE 8. If you have the internet connectivity you may go for online download from authentic sites. General steps can be followed as:
STEP 1. Download and save the startup program to a desired location.
STEP 2. Run the setup file and proceed on following the prompts.
STEP 3. Accept the agreement and enter the suitable key words.
STEP 4. Click on “Finish.” Restart your system.
Communication has been revised well with the latest email clients. Programs like email client can be installed internally from the web browser.IE 8 have been designed to automatically launch your default email client.
However, if you have the ambition to install a different email client on your computer, you can change your default client in the browser's Internet Options menu. Proceed as follow:
STEP 1. Explore the Internet Explorer.
STEP 2. Navigate on to the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options."
STEP 3. Select the "Programs" tab.
STEP 4. Click the button "Set Programs." Select "Set Your Default Programs" from the window that appears.
STEP 5. Select your email client from the list of programs on the left side of the screen. Next, click "Choose defaults for this program."
STEP 6. Check the box next to "Mailto" and click "Save."
Hence, you have got your preferred email client installed on your computer. Hope, that the above computer install article would be useful for you.

Computer optimization can be understood as the vital tonic to boost up the system. It has become the major area of concern for the users. Many computer tech support firms are making campaign for computer optimization. They are making use of troubleshooting techniques and implantation of third party software to resolve the issue.
I will concentrate this blog to resolve some general issues. Unfortunately you may face issues where your screen freezes and programs stop responding. Even you are unable to close the windows of some application. This is the disgusting situation. The reason behind could be scarcity of RAM, infection of virus or fault in windows registry.
Notice the time of the freezing, in majority of the cases your system will be able to restore the normal condition by default without any attempt. But if the things are not in favor bring out the Task Manager utility with simple keyboard activity: Press the ‘Alt’, ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Del’ buttons all at the same time. You would land to a Window format, now scroll down the program which is causing the error and choose to end the program. Now, again you can start the program and get the normalcy.
Note: Lower value of RAM is the prime reason behind hence to avoid regular repetition you may upgrade the RAM.
However, you may not be lucky every time. If the concern is not addressed with the Task Manager then the root cause may be virus infection or corruption of Windows registry.
If you don’t have any compatible anti-virus, than opt for the best one available in the market. Some trusted names includes, McAfee, Bitdefender, Kaspersky and so on. Before making download, make sure that they are compatible to your windows platform. The role of the anti-virus program is to scan and remove any virus, spyware, malware, keyloggers, rootkits and so on and do the computer optimization.

Many independent software are available for computer optimization which can fix, Error messages, slow performance, slow internet browsing and many more within few minutes. Some of the best are RegCure PC optimizer, XoftspySE.