» Tips & Tricks

smart password

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:43:28 +0000

GgOoOoOoOGgLeEe Worrning

Thousands of online accounts are hijacked every day. If you re-use your Gmail password at other websites, change it now

Use a unique password
For every unique account, use a unique password.
Using the same password on different websites allows hijackers to access your important accounts if they manage to steal your password from a less secure website. At a minimum, choose unique passwords for important accounts like your email and online banking.

What’s a smart password?
Your password is the first line of defense against cyber criminals. Follow these tips to create a smart password:

Use a unique password for all your important accounts

Use unique passwords for your accounts, especially important accounts like email and online banking. Re-using passwords is risky. If someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address, and even your money.

Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols

Using numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters in your password increases the difficulty of guessing or cracking your password. For example, there are more than 6 quadrillion possible variations for an eight-character password with numbers, symbols, and mixed-case letters — 30,000 times more variations than an eight-character password with only lowercase letters.

Create a password that’s hard for others to guess

Choose a combination of letters, numbers, or symbols to create a unique password that’s unrelated to your personal information. Or, select a random word or phrase, and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as “sPo0kyh@ll0w3En”). Using simple words or phrases like “password” or “letmein,” keyboard patterns such as “qwerty” or “qazwsx,” or sequential patterns such as “abcd1234″ make your password easier to guess or crack.

Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure

Make sure to regularly update your recovery email address so that you can receive emails in case you need to reset your password. You can also add a phone number to receive password reset codes via text message. Additionally, many websites (including Gmail) will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you’re able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. The answer shouldn’t be something that someone can guess by scanning information you’ve posted online in social networking profiles, blogs, and other places. If you’re asked to choose a question from a list of options, such as the city where you were born, be aware that these questions are likely to be less secure. Try to find a way to make your answer unique — you can do this by using some of the tips above — so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won’t know how to enter it properly.

Keep your passwords in a secret place that isn’t easily visible

Don’t leave notes with your passwords to various sites on your computer or desk. People who walk by can easily steal this information and use it to compromise your account. If you decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don’t know what’s inside. Avoid giving the file an obvious name, such as “my passwords.” If you have a difficult time remembering multiple passwords, a trusted password manager may be a good solution. Spend a few minutes checking out the reviews and reputations of these services.

Why are unique passwords important?
Using a unique password helps keep your accounts and data safe. It’s especially important to use unique passwords for important accounts such as banking, social networks, and email. You’re likely to have dozens of accounts across the web, and you can’t guarantee the security of all of those accounts. Many smaller companies don’t have security technology capable of guarding your data from cyber criminals. When you use the same password across the web, a cyber criminal can gain access to a less secure account and then use that password to compromise your important accounts.

How do I add an extra layer of security?
Once you’ve created a smart password, you can add an extra layer of security by enabling 2-step verification. Not all Internet accounts have this security option, but your Google Account does. 2-step verification requires you to have access to your phone, as well as your username and password, when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can’t sign in to your account because they don’t have your phone. Now you can protect yourself with something you know (your password) and something you have (your phone).

Content From Gmail.com & http://www.google.com/support/

Howto Boot XP from second hard disk using GRUB

admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:15:23 +0000

Contents of /etc/grub.conf

# grub.conf generated by anaconda

# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/

splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows XP
# as far as I can understand it the Windows XP hard disk hd1
# needs to think it is the first disk on the IDE bus in order to boot
# so do a swap and add the following two commands to change it
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
# you then need to tell grub which hard disk and which partition
to read the booting information from
# although you have done a swap using the above commands the disks
don’t change their labelling
# so use hd1,0 as the root device (in grub all numbering starts at zero)
# the telltale to knowing which partition to add to the rootnoverify option
# is the output of fdisk -l the `*’ on /dev/hdb1 showing it’s the
active or boot partition
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
# now tell grub that you are going to be doing an indirect boot
using an external chainloader
# i.e it’s going to grab the Windows boot code and run it instead
# of directly loading the linux kernel like it usually does.
chainloader +1
# not sure exactly what makeactive does
# I’m assuming it is marking the root partition you specified
# with the rootnoverify command as the active or boot partition
# if it isn’t already marked as the `*’ or boot partition
makeactive

amazing facts of windows xp

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:12:58 +0000

1. Windows XP boasts of how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to run and type systeminfo and you can see a lot of nice data about your Windows installation.
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type gpedit.msc then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care — some may stop your computer behaving as you wish.
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter ‘rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation’ in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That’s it — just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that’s not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. Windows XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word ‘hide’ and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include ‘eventcreate’ and ‘eventtriggers’ for creating and watching system events, ‘typeperf’ for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and ’schtasks’ for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options — they’re all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support — the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type ‘ipv6 install’ into Run… (it’s OK, it won’t ruin your existing network setup) and then ‘ipv6 /?’ at the command line to find out more. If you don’t know what IPv6 is, don’t worry and don’t bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using ‘taskkill /pid’ and the task number, or just ‘tskill’ and the process number. Find that out by typing ‘tasklist’, which will also tell you a lot about what’s going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you’ve got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing ‘regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll’ at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing ‘regsvr32 zipfldr.dll’.
9. XP has ClearType — Microsoft’s anti-aliasing font display technology — but doesn’t have it enabled by default. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who’s using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum’s real IP address — they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com, and get them to make sure that they’ve got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As… and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run… from the start menu and type ‘control userpasswords2′, which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatic Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options… and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can’t see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You’ll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By… Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks — if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn’t, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

Installing Linux with no CD-ROM drive or modem

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:41:16 +0000

Most Linux distributions come on a CD-ROM. You can also download them from an FTP site, but that
requires an Internet connection. What if you have a system with no CD-ROM drive or Internet connection,
like an old 486 laptop? The trick here is to have another desktop system with a CD-ROM drive, and a
null-modem serial cable.
I will show you how to do it with Slackware. It is also possible with most other Linux distributions. Insert the
Linux CD-ROM in the drive on the desktop and copy the A (base) and N (networking) packages on diskettes.
You need at least those in order to use a serial cable to transfer the rest of the packages.
Now you need to enable NFS networking on the desktop, and allow the laptop to connect. You can give a
temporary IP address to the laptop, like 192.168.1.11 that you need to add to your /etc/exports file on your
desktop.
To link the two systems together, this is what you need to type on the laptop:
/usr/sbin/pppd -detach crtscts lock 192.168.1.11:192.168.1.10 /dev/ttyS1 115200
And this on the PC:
/usr/sbin/pppd -detach crtscts lock 192.168.1.10:192.168.1.11 /dev/ttyS1 115200
This is assuming the cable is linked to ttyS1 (COM2) on both systems.
With NFS, you can mount the CD-ROM drive remotely and tell the installation program to use a specific
path to install the remaining packages. Mount the CD-ROM with a command like this:
mount -tnfs 192.168.1.10:/cdrom /mnt
Then run the installation program:
setup
and enter the new path for the packages files.

Who is online? on your Linux PC

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:33:08 +0000

Many system administrators use scripts to help them in the process of managing a server. A common problem
is finding out exactly what users are on the system and what they are doing.
Several tools are available on the system to see who is online, what processes are running, and pipeing them
together can resolve many problems. Here are 2 small scripts that will show, first if a user is online, and then
what he is running:
who | grep $1
ps -aux | grep $1
The variable $1 here means the first command line argument, from a shell script. The who command first
checks if the user is online, then ps will show all the processes currently running under that user’s UID.

Move a text into upper case letters

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:26:35 +0000

When you want to do text manipulation, you can use Sed and Awk. These 2 tools which come on most Linux
distributions, will allow you to modify text files in many ways.
To move a text file into upper case letters, you can use Awk in the following way:

awk ‘{ print toupper($0) }’ old_file > new_file

Sed and Awk are useful for a lot of other uses, and are integrated in several products.

Microsoft Windows shortcut key

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:08:05 +0000

you can perform your task faster by using these shortcut key.

Ctrl + Esc = Start Menu
Ctrl + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
Ctrl + Alt + Del = Security Dialog
Ctrl + F4 = Close current window

Window Key + Pause = Launch System Properties
Window Key + D = Toggle between minimize all windows and restoring them
Window Key + E = Launch Window Explorer
Window Key + F = Launch File Search
Window Key + Ctrl + F = Launch Computer Search
Window Key + F1 = Launch Window Help
Window Key + L = Lock desktop
Window Key + M = Minimize all window
Window Key + Shift + M = Restore all minimize window
Window Key + R = Launch Run Dialog

ALT + Tab = Task Switcher
ALT + F4 = Close current window or quit program
ALT + Spacebar = Display the current window’s system menu

Ctrl + A = Select All
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
Ctrl + Z = Undo
Ctrl + X = Cut
Ctrl + P = Print

run commands

cmd – Command Prompt
dxdiag – Direct X Diagnostic Tools
ipconfig /flushdns – IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents)
control netconnections – Network and Dial up Connection
msconfig – System Configuration Utility
notepad – Notepad
regedit – Registry Editor
services.msc – Service
shutdown – Shutdown computer
tracert (hostname or IP) – Trace Route
winmine – Minesweeper Game
wupdmgr – Windows Update Launches
write – Wordpad