Two Proven Tips To Block Porn Sites

Today I will write about parental control software. Parental control is important for parents. If you have younger children and have internet connection, it will become a problem if your child use the computer to access porn websites.

In this post, I will tell you two methods on how you can block porn websites. First of all, you can use the Internet Explorer content advisor to block certain websites. Just go to control panel->Internet Option-> Security-> Restricted Websites and enter the websites that you want to block.

The other method you can use is using parental control software. There are many parental control software available and some of them are free. Here I will list some of it.

1. The ParentalControl Bar http://www.parentalcontrolbar.org/ -Free
2. Safe Families We-Blocker Parental Control http://www.safefamilies.org/ -Free
3. Parental Lock Guard http://www.riasc.net/plg.aspx - Free
4. Net Nanny http://www.netnanny.com/
5. K9 Web Protection http://www.k9webprotection.com/ - Free for home use

You can use the two tips that I mentioned above to filter the internet content for your child. However, there is one more tips that can solve your problem:

Remove the internet connection.

That's all that I want to write for this post and if you like this post, please comment or subscribe to my RSS.

P.S - I think I'm gonna create a free 5 day PC protection e-course soon enough. So, be sure to visit this blog again.

Secret Tips To Prevent Phishing Attack

If you use your credit card online, then you're exposed to phishing attack. It's not just credit card users, but others who always entering their information through the Internet are also exposing themselves to this type of threat.

Phishing is define as stealing sensitive information using social engineering tactics. The phishers will attempt to duplicate trusted websites to retrieve your information.

Recently, researchers have found that the phishers can used a domain
trusted by phishing filters to retrieve information from unknown users.
This can become a headache because this attempt can bypass anti
phishing filters and steal our information with the anti-phishing software installed.

How we can avoid this from happening? Nowadays, even trusted
domain cannot be trusted.

I would like to suggest you to be very careful when entering
your information to any website. Especially the website that you
do not trust.

If you're using the Internet Explorer 7, it has a built-in
phishing filter. This built-in phishing filter can checks wether
the website you're visiting is a suspicious website or not. But,
don't rely on this filter too heavily.

Install a third-party anti-phishing software. It can help
to protect you from phishing website. One anti-phishing software
that I recommend is CallingID.

Remember to not click the link inside any emails you receive
asking you to log in. If you receive an email asking you to
update your banking information or whatever, type the URL
directly to the web address. Do not click the link provided
in the email. For example, if you receive an email from Paypal
asking you to log in, type the Paypal URL directly to the
web address instead of using the link provided in the email.

This can prevent phishers to steal your username and password.

Everyday there will be attempt to steal our information and
if we let our guard down, we might become their next victim.
Before this happened, remember to take all the security
measures that you know.

Even though we cannot have a water-tight security, but,it's best
to take all the security measures that we can afford rather than
have nothing against the phishers.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips http://chuangcomputer.blogspot.com/. Want to know the secret of securing your PC from dangerous spyware, adware, and malware programs that can ruin your PC, your finances, and your sanity?!! Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety for more info.

Liveeye BladeBox eXtreme

Go to http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ to download Liveeye BladeBox eXtreme for free now! Only 17 hours and 9 Minutes left!

Review from the website:

"Liveye BladeBox eXtreme is the encrypted virtual disk solution that allows you to protect your data by applying sophisticated encryption techniques on-the-fly.

BladeBox uses the well-known and ultra-secure AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), this symmetric encryption algorithm is currently believed to be the highest security standard, and it guarantees an excellent level of security and privacy. So, restricted information or data are protected against every unauthorized access. Even the use of low-level recovery software can do nothing to recover data stored inside BladeBox virtual disks"

Go to the website now before it'll not available for free. It usually sells for $50. Get it now!

Beware Of Free Adware And Spyware Removal Software

Adware and spyware are nasty threats lurking in our PC. If your PC has been infected by adware and spyware, what will you do? I think most of us will search the Internet for any solutions available and in this case, free removal software.

Free adware and spyware removal software can be found easily on the Internet. However, we must be very careful when downloading this type of software because I've been scammed by the 'free removal software’ before.

How is it possible?

Admit it, everyone likes the free stuff and so do I. I googled for "free removal software" and found this one removal software and immediately downloaded it. What I didn't know at that time was, not all the free software are good.

After downloading the software and installing it, I ran the software and it said it found 5 or 6 threats from my PC which is odd because I just ran a complete scan using removal software that I trust.

Well, guess what? It wants me to upgrade the software for a paid version so I can remove the software. Not pretty much the 'free' software right?

For the threats entries that it founds, when I checked it again, it turns out the entries are from the software itself! This software puts bogus entries so we will upgrade the software for a paid version while we don't have any threats in our PC.

Before you guys fall for this type of scam, I suggest you to be very careful of the software that you download because it might be an anti-spyware scam.

Many people fall for this trap because they are unaware of this type of scam. In other case, the removal software is the spyware. So, beware of the free removal software.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips http://chuangcomputer.blogspot.com. Want to know the secret of securing your PC from dangerous spyware, adware, and malware programs that can ruin your PC, your finances, and your sanity?!! Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety for more info.

FLV Player, Free FLV Player, FLV Convertor

FLV is a flash video format used to deliver video around the web. Most of the popular video sharing websites are using this type of video such as Youtube, Google Video and Yahoo Video.

In this post, I will explain how you can download, save and play FLV video format.

First of all, I will explain how you can download video from video sharing websites. There are many websites are offering video download service for free and you can google it. However, there is this one website that I always use to download video from video sharing websites. The website is http://www.keepvid.com/ and it supports many video sharing websites.

When you're saving the video, remember to put .flv extension after the video name (E.g get_video.flv) so the video will be associated with the FLV player and can be played.

Next, to play the video, you can use either Wimpy FLV Player or VLC Player. Both are free and you can google it to find the website. I use Wimpy FLV Player to play most of the videos that I downloaded.

That's all the tip for today. If you have any questions, mail me at ketawaubat[at]yahoo.com.my and I will try my best to reply your email as soon as possible. Subscribe to my feed so you can receive constant update from my blog.

Want to learn more about PC safety? Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety for more info.

Watch This Video (New Type of Trojan Horse Attack From Email)

"What are you doing in this video? hxxp://www.youtube.com/?watch=xxxyyyxxxx"

I received this email today and it says something about me doing something in a video. I know it's a spam but, I just want to tell you guys to be aware of this type of email.

As I mentioned before, you can know if the links in any emails are fake if the links look like an IP address. But in this case, the Youtube link is actually blue (just like a normal link) but if you look at the bottom left of the browser, you can actually see that the link pointed to an IP address.

You can always know if a link is fake by watching where does the link pointed to. Next time you received this type of email. DON'T CLICK THE LINK. This is just a friendly reminder to you.

Would you like to know how you can protect your PC effectively? Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety for more information.

How To Guard Your Computer From Virtual Threats

I love to surf the Internet. Why? Because there are too many information available and it will always growing. New websites are created everyday and this means more information.

However, more information equals to more threats. People are creating viruses, spyware, adware, malware and many more everyday.

Why are people creating this stuff?

There are several reasons why they're doing this. For example, maybe they want to test an OS security system. They want to know if they're good enough. Well, maybe if it can bypass the firewall or the antiviruses, then they're good. But, who are the victims here? Of course one of them will be me. Because I use the Internet daily.

There was one time when I was attacked by many viruses, spyware and adware and I don't know what should I do.

At that time, I only know how to format my computer and it was not a good solution because in two days, the same thing happened to my computer. What the hell? I just formatted my damn computer.

But, when I met this one guy (he is a software engineer), he taught me that formatting my hardisk is the last solution to my computer problems. Because if I don't learn how to protect my PC, it will always get infected by viruses.

From that day onwards, I never formatted my computer and it has been four years since the last time I formatted my computer.

But, I have to learn how to guard my PC the hard way. Luckily, you don't have to do the same. I have one ebook on how to you can guard your computer from virtual threats. This ebook will teach you things that you should know to protect your PC.

Learn more about this ebook here http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety

Basic Computer Security Tips

Computer security is important and one shouldn't take it lightly. Everytime you go online without taking any security measure, you're increasing the risk of leaking your private information stored in your computer to an outsider. In this article, I will explain four basic computer security tips that you should know.

1. New Computer

When buying a new computer, it is important for you to turn the firewall on. For example, you're buying a Windows XP operating system computer, what you need to do is turn on the Windows Firewall first before going online. Even though it cannot protect you completely, but it is good enough to protect your PC before you buy a new firewall.

2. Email

Attachments in unknown emails are usually a threat. Never open any attachment from an unknown email. Sometimes, the email subject said something about you getting a greeting card and ask you to click the link inside that email. I've opened this type of email and was attacked by a trojan horse. Luckily my antivirus aborted the connection.

If the link inside that email is something like an ip address (http://aaa.bbb.x.y/) instead of a domain name, never click it.

3. Update Your Virus Definition

Installing an antivirus will not be enough. Constant update is needed so you can receive new virus definition. New threats are being created everyday and updating your virus definition on regular basis is crucial to detect newer threats.

4. Don't Surf Suspicious Sites

Opening a porn site or a warez site will also increase your risk of getting a virus. Application such as cracks and patches from warez sites will also increase your risk. Furthermore, it's illegal.

Using these tips will decrease the risk of getting your private information stolen by an outsider. However, these tips are not enough to protect your computer as this is only a basic computer security tips. Learn more so you can create a virtual wall around your computer.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips. http://chuangcomputer.blogspot.com/. Would you like to learn more about PC protection? Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety/

How To Protect My PC From Online Threat?

This is one question that I often heard people asked. There are many ways on how you can protect your PC. However, in this article, I will tell you five tips on how you can protect your pc from online threat.

1. Antivirus

Antivirus can protect your PC from viruses and can warn you if there are some suspicious activity going on in your PC. Some antivirus have email shield and will scan your email for threat. I personally recommend Avast! Antivirus. If you don't have any antivirus, get one immediately.

2. Firewall

Firewall is a great way to prevent traffic going in and out from your PC. This way, information stored in your PC will never be stolen and you can watch your network for suspicious applications.

3. Never Open Any Unknown Email

Email is a good way of communicating and it is also a good way to send virus attachment. Opening an unknown email will increase your risk of getting a Trojan Horse attack or spyware attack. If you received an unknown email, delete it immediately.

4. Uninstall All The Unwanted Software

Unwanted software could be a spyware or adware and it could slow down your internet connection. Therefore, if there are software that you don't know in your add/remove list, uninstall it.

5. Use Other Web Browser

Many people use Internet Explorer as a web browser, however I suggest you to use other web browser so you can reduce the threat. People tend to hijack Internet Explorer because it is a widely used browser.

Having a PC is not only about using it, protecting it is also important. Therefore, learn more about PC protection so you can protect your PC.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips. http://chuangcomputer.blogspot.com. Would you like to learn more about PC protection? Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety

Explorer.Exe 100% CPU Usage , Cannot Delete File :It is Being Used By Another Program

Another friend of mine came to my house asking for my help. His laptop was infected by something which he doesn't know and ask me to take a look at it.

The symptoms are the Explorer.exe was using 100% CPU usage and there was this one file that he cannot delete.He tried to delete the file, but an error message "Cannot delete [File Name]: it is being used by another person or program close any programs that might be using the file and try again" came out.

That file is a video file that he downloaded from Ares (a P2P program) and he cannot delete it. Since that, his laptop has become slower than ever.

I opened his task manager (His OS is Windows XP) and saw the explorer.exe was using 99% CPU usage which is unusual. I tried to delete the video file but, the same error message came out. He also said that before he downloaded the file, he has 17 Gigabyte free space, but after he downloaded the file, the free space has been reduced greatly to 9 Gigabyte. However, the video file is only 400 MB in size.

It is unusual for this thing to happened. I thought it might be the video file that causing the problem and it must be deleted. I tried entering the safe mode to delete the file so the programs that might be using it will not run in safe mode. But, the file cannot be deleted from the safe mode.

I ran the SmitFraudFix and tried to delete the file after that. However, the same thing happened and I thought it must be because of the explorer.exe. Something has attached to the explorer.exe process to make it like this.

I restart the computer to the normal mode and open the task manager, the explorer.exe taking up to 99% CPU usage. I kill the explorer.exe process from the task manager and from the task manager, I opened file->new task (run) and click browse.

From there, I find the video file that was causing the problem and tried to delete it. It worked! The file has been deleted and the explorer.exe is no longer using almost 100% CPU Usage. The free space also return to normal (17 Gigabyte) and his computer is running smoothly right now.

In my opinion, this thing happened because he downloaded the video file from unreliable source. Anyone can send a virus, trojan or spyware from P2P programs. Therefore, be very careful when using the P2P programs. To be safe, don't use any P2P programs.

Cannot Boot Windows XP , Windows XP Recovery , Windows XP Blue Screen of Death

There are times when your desktop computer cannot boot into Windows XP and the blue screen always come out. After the blue screen came out,your computer will restart itself.

I'm not really sure what happened. But in my opinion, I think it's because the Windows files are corrupted.

There are 2 ways to fix this problem that I know. If you know more about this, I suggest you email me so I can post it here.

You can repair this problem by doing the recovery console. Insert the Windows XP cd, and then enter your BIOS setup to make the CD-ROM Drive to boot first before the hardisk. When the CD has been booted, run the recovery console.

Usually, when you have done the recovery console, the Blue Screen of Death will go away. But, if it does not, there is one more solution to fix this.

Shut down your computer and unplug your hardisk from your computer, and plug it into another Windows XP working computer as secondary hardisk. Therefore, you can access the hardisk from that computer.

Then, run the scandisk for the secondary hardisk from that computer. Let's say the primary is C:/ so, run the scandisk for D:/ or whatever the secondary drive is. After you've ran the scandisk, unplug the hardisk and plug it into your broken computer.

If this two method cannot solve your problem, then I think it's time for you to format your computer.

Get Into Safe Mode Without Pressing The F8 , Reduce Your Startup Time (Windows XP)

Did you know that you can get into safe mode without pressing the F8? You can actually. However, I only know how to do this in Windows XP.

This can be applied if you have a problem with your keyboard and you cannot press the F8 during the BIOS screen. You can do this using the 'msconfig'. Just go to start->run and type 'msconfig' and you will see the System Configuration Utility



If you want to reduce your startup time, click the startup tab and choose the programs that you want to run during startup and click apply. It will ask you to restart. Choose restart and when you've restarted the computer, it will ask you to configure the 'msconfig' again. Select 'Don't ask this question again'.

That's if you want to reduce your startup time. If you want to enter the safe mode without pressing the F8, just run the System Configuration Utility again and this time click the BOOT.INI tab



Choose /SAFEBOOT and click ok. When you restart your computer, it will restart in safe mode without pressing the F8. To return to normal boot, just run the msconfig again and deselect the /SAFEBOOT by clicking the box again.

General Tips To Solve Your Computer Problems

Owning a computer doesn't mean that you only need to know how to use it. Knowing what to do when your computer is having a problem is also important. I saw many people (mostly my friends) who knows how to use a computer but don't know what to do when his/her computer is having a problem. The only solution that they can come up with is formatting the computer.

Knowing how to format your computer is important. However, formatting a computer can only be used when THERE ARE NO OTHER SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE. As one of my friend said,

"Formatting is the last solution to your computer problems when there are no other solution."

Therefore, when having a problem, formatting your computer to make the problem goes away is not right. Let's say you cannot open your task manager or task manager is disabled, there are many solutions to this problem. Formatting the computer will solved the problem, but, it'll take longer time and your data will be erased. Furthermore, you will not know what is the source of the problem and you will not be able to learn how you can prevent it from happening again.

Let me tell you some general tips that I always do when facing computer problems.

There is one 'default' method that I always use. First of all, you need to download all of these software:

1. Spybot Search & Destroy
2. Ad-Aware SE Personal 2007
3. Antivirus (any antivirus will do)
4. Windows Defender
5. CCleaner
6. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
7. SmitFraudFix
8. HijackThis
9. Comodo Firewall Pro

All of these software are free and you don't need to pay a dime. Except for the antivirus. However, there are free antivirus out there such as Avast!(recommended) and AVG.

After you have all the software, next you need to find what is your problem. Let's say your problem is you have a slow internet connection in your PC eventhough you're subscribing to a broadband ISP. You know that your ISP is not the problem because when you use other computer, it's as fast as usual. What you should do is you need to run the number 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 software from above list.

Usually, after you run these software, your problem will cease. However, if it does not, you need to run the number 7 software (safe mode recommended)and choose clean registry and if the problem stays the same, run the number 8 software.

But, be careful when running this software (number 8) as it will affect your computer if you delete the wrong entries, therefore, please consult an expert before deleting any entries. To do this, participate in a computer tech forum and ask people there nicely after introducing yourself.

After your problem is solved, run the number 9 software so you can protect your computer from any threat. When doing this method, you can also know what is the source of your problem, if the problem is solved after you run the Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware SE Personal, then you know it was a spyware, malware or adware that was causing your problem. Therefore, you can prevent the same thing from happening again in the future.

This is my 'default' method of solving a computer problem. Knowing this method and having these software are important because it will help you in many types of computer problems. Remember to update the software regularly and I also advice you to save these software in a USB memory stick (pendrive, thumbdrive or whatever you people call it) so you can help your friend anytime if they're having the same problem.

SpeedBit Video Accelerator

Yup..there are no spyware in SpeedBit Video Accelerator. I think you can use this software safely

Increase Your Video Streaming Speed

I stumbled upon this software while searching a way to increase my video streaming speed. Because I'm a frequent user of Youtube, so this software is useful to me.

It uses the same principle as download manager where it'll download several parts together to make the streaming faster. This software is called the SpeedBit Video Accelerator.

This software supports many video streaming sites such as Dailymotion, Veoh, Youtube (Partially) and there are many other video streaming sites. You also can search any video from these sites using the search function in its video search section. It'll also saved recently accelerated video for later viewing.

However, as I'm typing this, I'm running the Spybot Search & Destroy to find if this software contains any unwanted threats such as Trojan Horse, Spyware and such. I'll post the result later if this software is safe.

But, as far as I know at the moment, there are no other threat associated with this software.

I'll post the scan result later and see if this software contains spyware or not. If you want to use this software,

Email Me

Hello guys,

I think some of you has a question or questions to ask me regarding computer and Internet. If you have any question that you would like to ask me, email me at ketawaubat[at]yahoo.com.my

I will try my best to answer your question and will post the answer here. Feel free to ask.

Greeting Card Received...(Trojan Horse Attack!....Again)

Another clever attempt to attack my PC using Trojan Horse. However, I'm lucky to have this Avast! Antivirus because it aborted my connection before the Trojan Horse was downloaded into my PC.

So, how does this attack happened?

First of all, they (the unresponsible person) will send an email saying that someone has sent you a greeting card and they will ask you to click the link inside the email to retrieve your greeting card.

Then, you innocently will click the greeting card and it will open your internet browseer and the Trojan Horse will be downloaded into your PC.

Pretty smart attack if you ask me.

They knew that your antivirus will scan the email first and any Trojan Horse that is included in the email as attachment will be detected and of course it will be deleted. Therefore, the attack will not become successful.

So, instead of sending it (the Trojan Horse) as an email attachment, they will provide you a link so you will click it and the Trojan Horse will be downloaded into your PC. This way, they can bypass your email scanner.

There are three ways on how you can prevent this.

1. You need to download any web shield that can prevent this from happening. As for me, I have Avast! Antivirus and in my case, it aborted the connection so this Trojan Horse file won't get through. Avast! Antivirus has 7 shield and one of it is the Web Shield.

2. You can look at the link provided. Let's say the greeting card is from greetingbluecard.com, but the link is something like http://202.298.12.1/blablabla... If this is the case, then it is a Trojan Horse and never click it.

3. Never click a link from an unknown email.

Remember, next time you received an email containing greeting card link,be careful....

Temporary Internet Files and Video Sharing Web Sites

Browsing a video sharing web site such as Youtube or Metacafe will make your computer slower and will also take some of your hardisk space.

This is because a video sharing website will download the video to your temporary internet files folder first before playing it. The more video that you've seen, the more it'll take your hardisk space.

Maybe you're wondering why your hardisk space always decreasing from time to time. Actually you don't have to worry so much about this because this problem can be settled.

After you've done watching videos from it's website (Youtube,Metacafe), what you should do is you should run disk cleanup wizard. How to do this?

First, you need to go to my computer (assuming your OS is Windows XP), and then right click your local drive where you stored the Windows folder (E.g, (C:)), and then choose properties. After that, click the disk cleanup and tick your Temporary Internet Files or everything that you want to delete.

All the files that can be deleted from the disk cleanup wizard are safe to be deleted and it will not affect your Windows OS. However, if there are files in recycle bin that you don't want to delete, just don't tick the recycle bin.

Then, you can click ok. Windows will ask you if you want to delete all the files and click ok.

Another method that you can do is you can download the CCleaner software and run the software. Click Analyze first, and then run cleaner.

This will make your Temporary Internet Files empty and your hardisk space will increase by a little bit and it will also make your computer faster.