Tweaking and knowing your Firefox settings....

Here are some awesome links from where you can have a broad picture to customize/tweak your Firefox and know the details of the about:config settings....

1. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_About:config_Entries

2. http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_10.html

Tune up your Firefox !

Hello happy Firefox users !

More reasons for you to be happy ! Try out Firetune.
It has optimized my browsing speed to more than 500%.

Try it. Go on right now !

Sometimes it happens that as Firefox takes up a big share of your RAM, other simultaneous runnig programs jumble up with this on their share of RAM and end up crashing the system. This is called memory leaking.

This is how you fix this “memory leak” problem. It’s not actually a leak, it just doesn’t flush the cache it has:

type about:config into the location bar, press enter, right click any line, choose “new”>”integer”, paste this into the dialogue that appears:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

click okay, specify the amount in kb (about 20000 should do) in the next dialogue that appears, restart firefox.

Happy browsing ;)

System running at the highest speed !

I downloaded some awesome softwares today. Now my system is running as fast as never before. I have installed almost 40 applications yet the system resources are 88% free.

1. WinASO : Registry Cleaner and registry Defragmenter
2. Folder Protect : Locks an entire folder with files and subfolders.

The security is so high for this appplication that after a locking a folder, even a media file within it cannot be played from a separate application like Windows Media Player !

Again, after a folder/file is locked,
1. It cannot be opened.
2. It cannot be modified.
3. It cannot be deleted.

I wonder what would happen if after locking an important folder the master password is lost ! I hope unistalling the entire application would solve the problem !

Firefox : A better substitute for Internet Explorer

The Firefox browser -- released this week -- packs security protections and other welcome features that emphasize just how little Microsoft has innovated with its aging Internet Explorer browser in recent years. And how Firefox is a viable alternative right out of the gates.

By Anick Jesdanun,

AP Internet Writer InformationWeek

Web surfing has belonged almost exclusively to Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer ever since it buried Netscape's pioneering browser.

That doesn't seem to have bothered the developers of the Mozilla Firefox, a feisty new kid on the block that's worth a serious look.

Officially released this week, Firefox packs security protections and other welcome features that emphasize just how little Microsoft has innovated its aging Microsoft browser in recent years.
True, Microsoft made significant security improvements to IE when it released Service Pack 2 for Windows XP computers in August. But the improvements aren't available for older Windows systems.

Nor does the updated IE offer a versatile search box feeds of frequently visited Web pages or the ability to open windows within windows. More on that later.

The biggest reason to consider Firefox is security.

To its credit, Microsoft is trying hard to address that. But as long as IE commands more than 90 percent of the world's computers, malicious hackers will continue to target it. The very IE features that Web developers love are also exploited by virus and spyware writers.

That's not to say you can't get spyware or other malicious code using Firefox, but risks are greatly reduced.

Firefox also offers protections against phishing -- those e-mail scams that pretend to be legitimate notices from banks and service providers. A few scams did slip through during my test, but I was warned about others.

Still not sold?

Then check out Firefox's non-security features, which in some cases are available on IE only by downloading third-party toolbars or plug-ins, some of which carry a fee:

Search. From a toolbar up top, you have instant access to several search engines and can easily switch among them. You can also customize the browser so that typing ``book'' followed by a title automatically performs a search at amazon.com.

Pop-up blocker. It does the job, while letting you open pop-ups you want.

News feeds. Firefox supports Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology for pulling headlines from news sites and Web journals so you won't have to keep checking them.

Tabbed browsing. Instead of constantly opening new windows to browse, cluttering your Windows taskbar, Firefox lets you open new pages as tabs within a single window. Click on the appropriate tab to switch among the pages.

The latest version of Netscape, which shares much of Firefox's core technology, also has many of these features, and Norwegian browser Opera offers all four _ and more.

But both bundle e-mail and other tools that can get in the way. When viewing a Web page on Opera, for instance, clicking on an e-mail link calls up Opera's own e-mail software _ not Microsoft Outlook, which my company requires me to use.

And did I mention that Firefox is free? Opera costs $39 for an ad-free version.
Despite being a ``1.0'' release, Firefox is mature. And the breeding is good. It's the product of more than a thousand full-time engineers and volunteers and is based on the open-source Mozilla suite, which in turn has its roots in Netscape.

Plus, Firefox is available for Linux and Mac computers as well. I tried the Mac version and found all the major features available right away.

The browser was also available in more than a dozen languages on its first day -- a commendable feat.

Of course, no good product comes without a catch. I ran into trouble with a few Web sites designed specifically for IE, mainly those requiring ActiveX controls or the portion of JavaScript in which Microsoft departs from published standards.

So you can forget about watching movies on CinemaNow or Movielink. You also won't be able to update your Windows operating system relying on Firefox alone (Good thing Microsoft bundles IE with its operating systems).

Plug-ins designed for Netscape or Opera should work with Firefox, but you won't be able to use any of the IE toolbars, including Yahoo's spyware scanner and e-mail checker, or fully take advantage of Google's new desktop search software.

Nevertheless, some companies, including Amazon.com, are starting to adapt their tools for Firefox.

Some Web pages won't display correctly -- among the ones I encountered were spam stats from Postini Inc., stock indices for the Bombay Stock Exchange and one AP internal site.
And Firefox mysteriously froze the first time I checked America Online mail. Closing the browser and restarting it fixed it on two different computers.

As for the RSS feeds, though I was impressed with how easy it was to add feeds for sites that let machines automatically detect them, manually adding feeds was overly complicated. I also found the tools for reading feeds quite clunky and inflexible. Opera has much better RSS tools.

In fact, I see little reason to switch from Opera, unless you'd prefer to drop the e-mail integration. The features are comparable.

As an alternative to IE, Firefox is a strong contender. And for the few sites that don't work with Firefox, you can always launch IE.

Firewalls

(fīr´wâl) (n.)

A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

There are several types of firewall techniques:

Packet filter: Looks at each packet entering or leaving the network and accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Packet filtering is fairly effective and transparent to users, but it is difficult to configure. In addition, it is susceptible to IP spoofing.

Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to specific applications, such as FTP and Telnet servers. This is very effective, but can impose a performance degradation.

Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP connection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can flow between the hosts without further checking.

Proxy server: Intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network. The proxy server effectively hides the true network addresses.

In practice, many firewalls use two or more of these techniques in concert.

A firewall is considered a first line of defense in protecting private information. For greater security, data can be encrypted.

-----------------from webopedia.com----------------------

I've found some legally free (for personal use only) Firewalls which promise security :

1. Jetico Personal Firewall

2. Sygate Personal Firewall Version 5.6

Upgrading to Windows XP from Windows 98 SE

I have been downloading dozens of new softwares over the last month since we got the broadband connection. Some of these softwares after being downloaded, unfortunately said that they require a higher version of Operating System. Moreover, XP has that 'glam-factor' associated with it. So, I've been considering to upgrade to Windows XP the next time I format my hard disk.

Here is a brief comparison between Windows 98 and WIndows XP :

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/featurecomp.mspx

Weekly Tasks

1. Full System Defragmentation
2. Full System Thorough Scan using Scandisk
3. Full System AVG Antivirus Scan
4. Full System SpyBot Scan
5. Full Registry Scan using WinASO
6. Full Registry Defragmentation using WinASO Defragmenter

SpyBot Rocks !

Now that I've tried out all the above by installing them, I hereby conclude that SpyBot ROCKS !!

It has cleaned my computer and even accelerated the system to almost double and you wont believe that I downloaded files @ 25KBps at a constant rate, whereas it never happened to stay constant at greater than 8 ever before !!

So, dont hesitate and immediately install SpyBot ! It also has exciting skins !!

Viruses, Adwares and Spywares : Removal Softwares

Till now, I've been very satisfied with Norton 2005 Antivirus. But due to some reasons I had to uninstall it. Norton used to take care of all spywares, adwares and viruses. But now that I have installed AVG Antivirus Free Edition 7, I had to download specialists for adwares and spywares.

After rummaging (Google-ing) through the internet, I came upon some softwares which claimed to be high rated for their functions :

1. Spyware Blaster : Freeware with no limitations
2. Spyware Doctor : Freeware minus the real time guard (ad+spy)
3. Lavasoft AdAware : Freeware minus the real time guard
4. SpyBot : Freeware with no limitations (ad+spy)

users have given high ratings to Spybot and Spyware Doctor.
Lavasoft weighs too much on the resources.
Spyware Blaster seems to be good.

For more details and rankings, consult Spyware Center.

p2p clients : Heaven for download freaks !

p2p (short for peer-to-peer) networks are really heaven for download freaks like me.

you can download files ranging from ebooks, music,cinemas,softwares (legal and illegal) ,etc etc etc

some of the best p2p hosts are :

1. i-Mesh
2. Limewire
3. Morpheus etc

I personally prefer i-Mesh and then Limewire.

But you always have to be very careful about viruses. 5 out of 10 files contain viruses. So before running them you MUST scan them with a powerful antivirus. Most of these viruses are very fatal and can even incus physcal damages to your hard drive.

Some more to be careful about .....

I had saved almost 100 hot site links from various aspects last time. But I forgot to save the Favourites folder and so I am at a complete loss now......I have to be more careful in the future.

I have to learn more about p2p servers, (eg. Limewire).

One of the good freeware download sites is Top Downloads.

Handling Registry Files

There are a lot of registry cleaner freeware available on the net. I came across a program called Registryseeker, which detected 250 errors in my registry files and I decided to 'fis' them and some of the registry files got deleted. After that every other program started saying that this DLL file is missing and that DLL file is missing.

At the end, I decided to format the drive and re-install all the softwares. It took 6 hours to do so. Enough of time wasting.

So, in the future I'll have to be careful about deleting registry files.

Moreover, I decided to keep Norton Antivirus 2005 in my system's guard (though it takes up much of my system's resources and makes it almost miserably slow) as I've more faith on it than AVG Antivirus, which runs fast but seems to neglect adwares and worms. After all slow but steady wins the race !

Best software download websites

Download.com

Tom Download

Free Downloads Centre

Software Vault

Freeware Files

Snap Files

High preference programs

It has happened a number of times that I had to format the C drive to fix some fatal problems.
After installing the OS (Win98SE) from D drive I have to install some programs for almost daily use. Here is the complete list below :

1. Adobe Acrobat Reader
2. LAN driver
3. Motherboard driver
4. Nero Express
5. MsOffice XP
6. Feedreader
7. Freshdevices (3 separate programs)
8. AVG Antivirus / Norton 2005 Antivirus
9. Hello
10. MS Reader
11. MS Visual Basic (for my sister)
12. Picasa 2
13. Sify Broadband
14. Webshots
15. Windows Media Player 9
16. Winzip 8
17. Borland Turbo C++ compiler
18. InCD for CD-RW
19. Samsung DVD Player
20. Modem driver (though unnecessary now)

Acknowledgements !

First things first.

All these wouldn't have been possible without the intiative taken by Tilak Ghosh, who had provided my life's first computer and its sevral accessories. Recently, he has my computer connected to the internet through cable, which makes everything wonderful and perfect.

Thank you so much.

Announcing the Grand Opening !

I am glad to announce the opening of this blog : Cyber World.

However, the information in this blog shall be highly technical and mostly for my own use, research and learning. But public are also welcome to view this.

Vivek Panda