Using buffers against malware And Virus : Computers

Using buffers against malware

People use the term “virus” for any piece of software that causes harm to their computers. Nevertheless, a computer virus is only one form of harmful software among many others which are purposely fabricated to disrupt computers or computer networks. Other types of harmful software include worms, trojans, spyware, adware, etc. Malicious Software or Malware for short, is the common term used to define all these harmful software. Malware can destroy your data in computers, shut down networks/services by creating enormous amount of data traffic, or steal your confidential information which may result in considerable amount of losses both in terms of time and money. Even worse, you may not be able to recover the systems back to the original condition resulting in a permanent loss of your valuable data. In order to protect your computers from these malware you need to get some basic understanding on the behavior of each type and possible defensive mechanisms. Viruses A malware can be called as a virus only when if it fulfills the following three (3) requirements. It should have the capability to cause harm to a computer or its information It propagates with the support of another file (host file) It can add or send its replica to selected targets Worms A worm is a self propagating malicious piece of software. It uses the network connections of the infected computers or services such as email to propagate and infect other computers. Worms do not need a host file to propagate as in the case of a virus. Spyware and Adware These types of malware are distributed using malicious or compromised web sites. If you access such web sites spyware/adware will be installed secretly on the computer without your consent. The intent of these programs is to spy on your interests and browsing habits so that some web sites can tailor their advertisements to those interests. They might send the list of web sites (URLs) that you are visiting to an Internet connected computer or store them in your computer itself in small files known as “Cookies” for later retrieval. Spyware may also collect your personal information; credit card numbers etc. and send them outside entities without your knowledge. Spyware and adware may also degrade the performance of your computer, steal confidential data, capture passwords, destroy data etc. Let’s see how we can defend against malware. Most of the antivirus software has the ability to detect viruses and other forms of malware. So make sure that you have installed antivirus software in your computer and it is running in the background. In order to detect malware, antivirus software look for specific code sequences called “Signatures” which are used by known viruses inside the files of your computer. So it is very important to update the database of known signatures by updating the antivirus software. Otherwise the installed antivirus software may not be able to detect newer malware and your computer will be still vulnerable to them. There are both free and commercial antivirus software available for your selection. Following tips will also help you to keep your computer malware free: Do not open emails or email attachment received from unknown sources Turn on automatic updates so that your operating system and all software are kept up to date by installing patches developed by the vendors Use strong passwords for all computer user accounts Configure installed applications for maximum level of security Don’t copy or open files from USB drives, diskettes, CD ROMs received from unreliable sources. Do not surf / download files from unknown web sites. Enable or install a personal firewall in your computer It is impossible to protect any computer system interacting with the outside world from malware with a 100% guarantee even if you use the best antivirus products. However, above tips will help to make your computers fairly safe from malware infections by reducing the potential risks. ********* Dailymirror.lk**********

The Secret to Fast Torrent Downloading

The Secret to Fast Torrent Downloading

The Secret to Fast Torrent Downloading
by FrosT

Introduction
After a recent format of my computer I installed UTorrent a Bit-Torrent software package that is very light weight and works extremely well. I found out that my download speeds were extremely slow. 10KB/sec on average! Well I love to seed after I have downloaded the whole package and this has worked well for me in the past. Now that the computer was formatted and all my settings were wiped out my speeds were crap. I will describe the steps I took to go from a speed of 10KB/sec to a speed of 300KB/sec on average. Remember this is all speculation from what I noticed; I do not have any proof that any statements said here will make your speed increase. It worked for me and logically from that I will make the statements. First things first, make sure your network settings and ports etc are all correct, I will not re-invent the wheel here and tell you how to do that. Google provides lot's of great tutorials on how to setup different Bit-Torrent clients.

Seed, Seed, Seed
The key to getting awesome download speeds is seeding. From the looks of it UTorrent may have an internal credit system. I could be wrong, but from my extensive downloading research it seems as though there is a Credit system internally built into UTorrent. What is a Credit system you ask? Well a Credit system means that there is a record being kept at how much you download to how much you upload. A general rule is for every megabyte you download, you should at least upload 1.5 megabytes. This will get you a ratio of 1.5 which is ideal for most downloader's and uploaders.

Having a good ratio helps boost your speeds dramatically. Remember after a torrent has finished please seed till at least a 1.5 ratio. This will help out the whole Bit-Torrent community. Do not be a jerk.

Downloading the File First, Seeding Later
Back to my scenario, I love to download the file first and seed later. I used to set my upload speeds to 2KB/sec so I could accomplish this. I have a cable connection of 3MBps down and 40KB/sec up. The more upload speed I use the slower I can download. This is probably the case for most people. How do you get around this little mishap? Here is how, when you first start the torrent, make sure your upload speed is above 20KB/sec. Let this setting stay for at least an hour. Once your ratio has reached something above a 1.0, lower your upload to speed to 8KB/sec or above. I recommend 10KB/sec. This will show UTorrent and the tracker that you are a good seeder and from that they will send more bandwidth your way. Give it another hour and check on the torrent, your speeds should have dramatically increased. If not chances are the torrent is either not a very popular torrent, I am completely wrong or my testing was just a spoof.

Seeding Later
Remember to seed after the torrent file has finished. Seeding is how Bit-Torrents are kept alive. You were able to download the torrent because someone else was seeding it for you. Remember that! It is not just a take, but a give take community. You give back 1.5 times what you take. My suggestion is after you downloaded 3 torrent files, open those torrent files up for a single night at your highest upload rate. Once you hit a 1.5 ratio or above stop the torrents and you are finished. Than repeat the process for your next 3 torrent downloads. This way you can have the full file quickly and give back to the community at the same time when your internet connection is generally idle.

Ending Notes
Be a good seeder and leecher. Do not just take. Give back to the torrent community what they give to you. Without that Bit-Torrent will not survive and end up in the gutter. Seeding is the key to using Bit-Torrents. Hopefully the steps outlined here to improve your torrent downloading speed will inspire you to seed more and be known to trackers as a great seeder and be able to get any file you want in no time. I just downloaded a 4.7 GB movie file in less than 12 hours on a Cable connection. That is proof enough for me that this works.

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How to solve QuickTime error in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 7th edition, Extracted from the site "marridian.blogspot.com"

I Had an un-resolved problem regarding the "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 7th edition". It was working with "Quick Time 6, But newer versions didn't supports it's sound files. That means.. I could use without Pronunciation guide. After seeking many months I've found out the secret to recover the software very easily. The Link I've found out the solution is this one. Or read the Extracted files here. If you click on a link there You'll automatically connect to the. http://marridian.blogspot.com/2007/04/solution-for-quicktime-error-in-oxford.html

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Solution for QuickTime error in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 7th edition

I just got the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 7th edition. I think it has a bug with QuickTime plug-in. When I installed it, it told me whether I want to install QuickTime. I clicked "No" because I already have QuickTime v.7, then the installation finished. I launched the program, suddenly I got an error.


"The QuickTime Plug-in requires the QuickTime System extension version 5 or later."

Whether I click "OK" or "Cancel", the program is launched. I can search for some words without any problem. Yet I click to hear the pronunciation then it comes the error.

"ERROR function playPron:
TypeError: oEmbed.SetURL is not a function
........MP3"

If you come across this problem too, here is the solution. It is very simple, just follow these steps.

1. Go to the program's folder, it should be in "C:\Program Files\Oxford\OALD7".
2. Rename the "plugins" folder to another, for example "oaldplugins".
3. Go to QuickTime's folder, it should be in "C:\Program Files\QuickTime"
4. Copy the "Plugins" folder and paste it in OALD folder (the same folder as in the step 1)
5. Run the program, you will not get any error again.