Free Computer Firewall Security List

Firewall is an important components in computer security. Therefore, I would like to list some free firewall that you can use. I've not tested all of it and I cannot give you any recommendation. But if you've tested it and wanted to give your review, feel free to link to this post.

PC tools firewall plus http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

Comodo Firewall Pro http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Outpost Firewall http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpostfree/download.php

Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/Download
(Paid version for 30 days and free version after that)

AshampooA Firewall Free http://www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_0050__.htm

R-Firewall http://www.r-firewall.com/

Jetico Personal Firewall V2 http://www.jetico.com/

SoftPerfect Personal Firewall http://www.softperfect.com/products/firewall/

Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6 http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=53687

Filseclab Personal Firewall http://www.filseclab.com/eng/products/firewall.htm

Ghostwall Firewall http://www.ghostsecurity.com/ghostwall/

Core Force http://force.coresecurity.com/index.php?module=base&page=main

SmoothWall http://www.smoothwall.org/

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How You Can Analyze Your HijackThis Log

As many of you know, HijackThis is a very useful tool. It can detect malicious software infection in your registry and it can fix most of the problem. But, this tool is for those who can read it as it's an advanced tool.

Posting your HijackThis log in tech forum is one of the solution and you have to wait for someone to analyze it before you can remove any entries. But I've found another solution and you don't need to post your log in any forum. This solution will make it easy for you to read your HijackThis log and you will know which entries to fix instantly.

However you must be very careful because the tool that I'm about to mention is still in beta version. If after using this tool you cannot fix the problem, then you can try posting your HijackThis log in any forums.

So, how you can fix your HijackThis entries?

1. Run HijackThis and copy the HijackThis log.
2. Post your HijackThis log in http://www.2-spyware.com/hjt.php
3. Remove all the red entries.

This is how you can fix the HijackThis log yourself. But be careful when removing the yellow entries because sometimes it's not malicious entries.

That's how you can fix your computer problem using HijackThis log yourself.

One more thing, I'm not taking any responsibilities if any problem occured after you've done the method above.

How I Managed To Filter Phishing Website

Several days ago, I received a phishing email. The email asked me to update my banking information. At that time, I already installed two tools that will prevent me from visiting phishing website.

So, I decided to try the tools by trying to visit the phishing website. After I clicked the link, it opened my browser and my browser tried to visit the website. However, the first tool blocked the website saying it's a phishing website. Then, I clicked 'visit the site' despite the warning because I want to see if the other tool is working and sure enough, the second tool blocked me from visiting the phishing website.

Today I want to share with you what are the tools so you can use it and browse the Internet safely from phishing websites. The first one is Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer 7 has built-in phishing filter and this is the first one that blocked me from visiting the phishing website.

The second tool is McAffe Site Advisor. It blocked me after I skip the Internet Explorer phishing filter warning. So, by having these two tools, you can know if you're visiting phishing websites. Therefore, I highly recommend you to use these tools. But, if you're using Firefox, then download McAffe Site Advisor. It's very good.

Please comment on my post if you want and to receive future updates, subscribe to my RSS feed.

Computer Security - Books That I'm Reading Right Now

Today I decided to go to the library and find some books on computer security. I manage to find four books. However, I haven't finished reading it yet. Therefore, I cannot tell you if it's good or not.

This is the books that I'm reading right now

Computer Security Fundamentals by Chuck Easttom, Pearson Education Inc , 2006

Introduction to Computer Security by Matt Bishop - Pearson Education Inc, 2005

The Underground Guide to Computer Security by Michael Alexander - Addison - Wesley Publishing Company, 1996

The International Handbook of Computer Security by Jae K.Shim, Anique A. Qureshi, Joel G. Siegel - Glenlake Publishing Company Ltd, 2000,

These are the four books that I'm reading right now. Even though some of the books are quite old (One of it were published in 1996!), but I think I will gain valuable knowledge from it.

Fighting cybercrime will not be over as long as the Internet is here. Many malicious software are created everyday and removal or antivirus software alone are not enough. What we need is knowledge.

Protecting your computer is not just about you. It's about all of us. If you don't lock your house, you're the one that will have a problem. If you don't lock your car, it's you that will have a problem. But if you don't protect your computer, it will involve all of us.

Therefore, took action today and learn more about computer security. For starter, you can buy PC Safety 101 here - http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety or subscribe to my 5 Day PC Security E-Course for free here - http://www.chuangcomputer.com/5day

Useful Computer and Internet Tips Posts

Today I decided to surf Technorati and find some good blog posts and I found three posts that I like. The first one is Living Open Source - http://www.livingos.com/

I like his post here http://www.livingos.com/2007/09/18/open-source-software-a-big-bucket-of-free-software/

This post tells you about some free open source software to manage your photos, software that can replace MS Office, how to communicate with everyone around the world, and my favourite - free software to fight spyware. The software that in this post are very good. Check it out.

One more blog post that I like is Security Fix - http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix

I like the post "Your Money or Your Email" because it explains about email security. Something that people always neglect. Read that post and learn how his friend's email got locked.

Another blog that I like is the How-To Geek - http://www.howtogeek.com/

It contains lots of useful information. Great site and I like it very much. Tips such as Vista tweaks, how to install Windows XP on pre-installled Vista and so much more.

Check it out.

Missing Taskbar Icons In Windows XP and How I Manage To Fix It

I have a problem with my taskbar when some of my taskbar icons were missing. I don't know what was the cause of this problems. While searching for answers, I found several websites suggesting several methods. I tested it all and I manage to fix it by doing the steps below.

1. One of the websites said the problem is with the UPnP and I need to uninstall it from Windows Components. So, first I open the Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs and on the left side, choose Add/Remove Windows Components. Wait for it to load.

2. After it loads, choose Networking Services and click details. Untick the UPnP User Interface and click ok.

3. After that click next and restart Windows.

After you've done all the steps above, the missing taskbar icons will appear and that's how I manage to fix this problem.

FAQs For Forum Spammers

Today, someone was spamming on Warrior Forum and there is a thread going on as of right now. One of the members, Michael Oksa created this interesting FAQs for forum spammers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: To be a good spammer should I put spaces between paragraphs?

A: No! Keep going as long as you can. There is also no reason to
have a grasp of English, or any other language.

Q: Should I add my affiliate link to the post or forum signature?

A: YES! It is also important to just leave it as is. Don't try to
disguise it by taking 5 minutes to learn how to make them text links.

Q: What is the best thing to do if people call me a spammer on the forum?

A: Easy! Call them names and accuse them of anything you can think of.
After all, you are the one spamming them, don't give them control.

Q: Are there any role models I can look up to in my spamming pursuits?

A: There is only one and their name is "n/a". Follow their lead and you
will do fine.

Q: Shouldn't I consult and/or follow the rules or terms of service for
any forums I plan on spamming?

A: No! Even though you likely agreed to them when you signed up using a
fake name, remember rules are always optional. And you don't have enough
time to read them when there's so many people who care about your message.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty nice sarcasm FAQs if you ask me, and funny too. All credits goes to Michael Oksa for creating this FAQs.

How To Locate Your Inbox Possible Spammer

I want to share you this one tip on how you can locate your inbox spammer. Actually it's not that hard. But, I cannot assure you that this will locate the spammer. Sometimes, you can only locate the zombies computer that the spammer use to send spam.

So, here's how:

1. After you've received the spam email in your inbox, first step is to report it to spamcop.net. Create an account with them and report the spam.

2. When you report the spam, you will have to paste the email header and the email body. Then, spamcop.net will process the email. After spamcop.net has done processing the email, you will see the sender IP address. It will say something like "possible spammer: (IP address of spammer)"

3. Copy the spammer IP address and go to http://www.ip-adress.com/iptracing/ and paste the IP address. You will see the IP location complete with a map showing the location.

Again, I cannot assure you that this method will find the spammer's location. Maybe you'll only find the zombies computer. I have received one spam email saying I've won a Yahoo lotteries.

What the heck? I haven't entered any lottery draw. Then I report the email to spamcop.net and find the IP location. I found the spammer is in Czech. Complete with the location.

So, next time you receive any spam emails and want to know who sent it, try this method.

Computer Safety Tips - Six Tips You Should Know Before Downloading Any Files From The Internet

The Internet contains vast amount of information and information such as ebooks and software can easily be obtained by downloading it into your computer. This will save time and effort and everything can also be automated. You can download the files even though you’re on a different time zone.

However, even though downloading files from the Internet have many advantages, there are some disadvantages because the files that you’ve downloaded maybe are malicious threats. Before downloading any files to your computer, I have six tips you should know so you can be more secure when downloading files from the Internet.

1. File Size

First of all, look at the file size of the files that you want to download. For example, you want to download freeware software from a web site and you know that the software file size should be around 12 or 13 MB. But on that web site, it says 234 kB. You need to be very careful with this as it might be a virus or trojan because the size is just not right.

Many people have been tricked to download this type of file and the files turn out to be malicious software.

2. Firewall

Use a firewall before downloading any files. If the files you’ve downloaded are trying to send privacy information to the hackers, it will not be able to do so because the firewall will block its outgoing traffic.

3. File Extension

File extensions is very important when downloading files from the Internet. File extension with .exe and have a small file size might be malicious software. It would be better you have an antivirus that will terminate the connection every time you tried to download any malicious software.

I have this one time when I was trying to download a files with .exe extension from the Internet without knowing it’s a trojan. My antivirus (I used Avast! at that time) terminate the connection immediately because it recognizes the file as a trojan. So, when you want to download any files, watch the extension. Files with double extension such as FILENAME.img.exe are mostly malicious software because it tries to trick you to think that it’s not malicious software.

4. Antivirus

As I told you from my story, I was saved from downloading malicious software by my antivirus and therefore, I strongly advise you to find an antivirus right now. If you don’t have any antivirus or anti-spyware programs on your computer, your computer might be infected.

5. Feedback

Websites such as download.com provide comment section or feedback for the download. Always read the download feedbacks before downloading because it will help you to know if the files are malicious software.

6. Internet Explorer Add-On

Use Internet Explorer Add-On that will tell you if the website you’re visiting contains threats that can affect your computer. Use add-on such as McAffe Site Advisor that you can download for free because this add-on will advise you which websites are safe to visit.

As I mentioned in the first tip, you need to know the file size before downloading. If you don’t know the file size, google it and visit the website which the site advisor add-on consider as safe.

There is no complete solution to computer security. The only way you can be sure your computer will be safe from any threats is by turning it off and sealed it in a sealed box. But what we can do is arm ourselves with essential security knowledge as it will help us in many ways.

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.

Will You Give Up Friends and Sex For Web Life?

Recent survey that was released on Wednesday revealed a shocking fact:

" Surfing the net has become an obsession for many Americans with the majority of U.S. adults feeling they cannot go for a week without going online and one in three giving up friends and sex for the Web."

Wow...that's shocking. Only 1/5 respondents said they can live without the Internet for more than a week and the 4/5 said they cannot live without the Internet for less than a week.

"People told us how anxious, isolated and bored they felt when they are forced off line,"

Actually, I agree with this survey. Because there was one time when I don't have any Internet connection for the whole day (check my earlier post) when a car hit the telephone line near my neighbourhood.

That accident made my whole neighbourhood lost the Internet and telephone connection. I feel disconnected from the whole world and something just feel not right at that time. Yeah..that's what I felt.

The poll said the Internet and the cellphone were becoming more essential to our life. Do you agree with this? I totally agree.

They also came up with a new term for people whose life are so tied up with technology.

"We are calling them 'digitivity denizens,' those who see their cell phones as an extension of themselves, whose online and offline lives are co-mingled and who would chose a Wi-Fi connection over TV any day,"

I think I fall into this category....

How about you? Are you in this category too?

This is the link to the full news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070920/wr_nm/technology_addiction1_dc

How To Delete Spam Emails Before It Comes To Your Inbox

Spam is junk emails sent by the spammers to your inbox. Some companies paid the spammers to send emails for advertising purpose. Spam emails are so annoying and it's a waste of time.

In this post I will tell you how you can stop the spam emails before you download it to your inbox.

First of all, you need to download the PopTray freeware software. http://www.poptray.org/

This software was created by Renier Crause and it can delete messages before you download it into your email client. So, let's say you received an email and this software will notify you that you've received an email. Then, you right click on its icon on the taskbar and choose show messages.

You can preview the message before you download it. Therefore, if it's a spam email, you can mark it as a spam and delete it (or you can just delete it). It also has rules feature that you can customize. This feature will make the software to identify a message according to the rules that you've customized.

I totally love this software because I can delete the spams before downloading it and it will notify me for any new messages.

Bring Your Privacy Suite On The Go

Let's say you're travelling away from home but you cannot bring your computer with you. It means you cannot bring your antivirus, your email client and your web browser.

So, let's say you will receive an important email while you're away from home and you want to check it on the go. You use a computer at a cyber cafe and configure the email client at the computer. But, you forgot to remove the settings when you're done.

Now when other people used that computer, they will be able to access your email. So, how you can bring your email client with you?

Well, I just found the solution. You can bring your web browser, antivirus and email client with you on the go with Democrakey.

http://www.democrakey.com/

This software contains Thunderbird (email client), ClamWin (Open source antivirus) and Torpark (Security enhanced Firefox 2.0 web browser). Democrakey can fit into your USB flash drive easily. Making it a complete privacy suite. So when you're on the go, you can bring your email client with you.

Other than this software, you can also check for lots of portable application at http://portableapps.com/apps and all of it can fit your USB flash drive. As long as it has enough space. Some of the applications are Firefox, Notepad, Nvu, Sudoku, Filezilla, VLC Player, OpenOffice.org, Mac OS and so much more.

So next time when you travel, you will never leave your PC applications at home again because you can bring it with you all the time.

How To Recover Lost Password

You've lost your password? You don't have a copy of your password anywhere? Fear not, there is a solution to this problem.

If you've lost your password, you can recover it using a freeware called OphCrack. However, OphCrack can be detected by your antivirus as malicious program. It's because one of the file that this program used can be used in malicious program to obtain your password.

Therefore, your antivirus will identify it as a hack tool or malicious program. Here's the link to OphCrack.

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

According to the website:

"Ophcrack is a Windows password cracker based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method. It comes with a GTK+ Graphical User Interface and runs on Windows, Mac OS X (Intel CPU) as well as on Linux"

Features:

» Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (intel).
» Cracks LM and NTLM hashes.
» Free tables available for alphanumeric LM hashes.
» Loads hashes from local SAM, remote SAM.
» Loads hashes from encrypted SAM recovered from a Windows partition, Vista included.

and if you have problem downloading this software to your computer, try using the LiveCD 1.2.1 and burn it into a CD. When the system boot the CD, it will boot the program.

Using The Recovery Console On Windows XP For Windows Boot Problems

If you got error messages like:

"NTLDR is missing"
"Disk boot failure"

or something like that when the system starts booting the Windows, your best solution might be using the Windows Recovery Console. It can be accessed by inserting the Windows CD and configure your BIOS to boot the CD first.

Then, the computer will boot the CD first and a message "Press any key to boot from CD" will come out when it boots. After that, run the Windows Recovery Console by pressing 'R' in the Welcome to Setup screen.

Here's some useful command in the Recovery Console and the use of it:

CHKDSK - Find and repairs the hard disk for errors or bad sectors.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD - If the problem is with the corrupted boot.ini, this command will replace the corrupted boot.ini
FIXBOOT - If the problem is with the boot sector, this command will check and repairs it.
FIXMBR - Fix the master boot record

Using the Recovery Console and the correct command can save your money, time and effort. So next time when you got error messages when Windows boot, try running the Recovery Console before sending your computer to the technician.

Free DVD Maker and Free CD-DVD Burner

Sorry because not updating this blog for a whole day. There was an Internet connection problem in my neighbourhood. A car just hit the telephone pole and my whole neighbourhood cannot use the Internet.

Right now, it has been repaired. Even though it's not as fast as it should because the repairing is not done yet. But it should do for now.

I found two software to burn and create DVD for free. So I thought I'd share it here. It's on http://www.protectedsoft.com/ and it's free.

For those who want to burn CD and DVD but don't have the budget, try it.

Registry Cleaning Or Registry Defrag?

Registry cleaning can speed up your PC performances. But, sometimes registry cleaning will delete useful entries and will make some programs unusable. However, rather than cleaning your registry, why don't you just defrag it? It's much safer.

For this purpose, there is one software. It's called the Free Registry Defrag. This software will analyze your registry and see how much space it'll save after compacting it. It's a good software and it's safer because it will not delete any entries from your registry.

I've used this software and other than speed up your PC performance, it'll also free some space in your registry. It has three steps cleaning.

Step 1: Analyze the Windows registry for fragment
Step 2: Review the analyzing result
Step 3: Defrag, Compact, Optimizer the registry and restart the computer

Computer Threats - Ten Computer Security Threats That Can Cost You $2000

Computer security threats have cost most people around $2000 to buy a new laptop. When the threats are infecting their computer, they cannot do anything and have to buy a new computer. Have you ever wondering why your computer is running slow? Or why your memory usage is always 100%? Or are you getting the same pop-up every time you open your web browser? These are caused by the nasty threats that lurk in your computer.

Therefore, computer security is important to all Internet users. These threats bring nothing but trouble and it can also cost you your personal and confidential information. There are ways to remove the threats that didn’t cost you near a price of a laptop. But, before you learn how to remove the threats, first you must know what the threats are.

In this article, I will explain ten must-know threats for any computer and Internet users.

1. Internet Worms

Internet worms are programs that can affect another computer on the same network and it works differently from virus. It doesn’t need to attach itself to another programs to be harmful and can create an exact copy of itself. Worms spread via network and consume bandwidth. Have you ever wondering why your network connection becomes so slow? It might be because of the worms. Worms can have many malicious effects such as causing a server to crash, make a user’s files unusable, or creating a backdoor on target computer.

2. Rootkit

Rootkit can hide it presence in a computer and can avoid detection while running its utilities. It can create a backdoor on target computer and allow hacker to send spam emails or use the target computer to perform denial-of-service attack on servers. Detecting it is difficult as it can conceal its presence in a computer. One way to detect it is by running virus scanner while it’s not running. In this case, running the antivirus before the system boots the hard disk.

3. Zombies

When a virus or trojan has infected a user’s computer, it will open a ‘backdoor’ to allow hackers use the infected computer for malicious purpose without the owner knowledge. This infected computer is called the zombie. Furthermore, the hacker can sell the target computer access to others and others can use if for their own purpose. If a spammer has gained an access to the target computer, it will use it to send spam.

4. Browser Hijacker

A browser hijacker can change your browser home page or search pages in your browser. In worse cases, it can disable your internet option so you cannot change the home page to the default home page. Furthermore, the browser hijacker can edit the registry so it can run every time you restart the Windows.

5. Email Virus

Email virus can distribute itself using email as an attachment. When you open the attachment, it will launch the virus and the virus will use the target computer to send the same email with the same attachment to other computer. It can also find files containing email addresses in the target computer and send the same email to the email addresses that it found. Sometimes, it can launch itself when the user views the email even though the user didn’t launch the attachment.


6. Mousetrapping

Was there a time when you cannot leave a website? This is called mousetrapping. The website will use a script preventing the Internet user from leaving the website. Sometimes, it will open a new browser and will display the same website. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to disable java script so the script no longer working.

7. Phishing

This is another threat that we faced online. Phishing is a term comes from fishing because the phisher will try to obtain your private information using bogus emails or bogus websites. If the phishers want to obtain your PayPal username and password, they will create a website that is the exact copy of PayPal and will email you asking you to enter your username and password using the link provided. The link they provided in the email will not go to PayPal, instead, it will go to the phishing website and if you enter your username and password, they will use it to get your money out of PayPal.

8. Spam

Spam is the junk emails or bulk emails send by the spammer to numerous recipients aimed to advertise something, scam, or sending virus. Spam can disguise itself as a personal email to bypass the spam blocker. Some spams do no harm but it’s a waste of time deleting it and it’s also annoying.

9. Spyware

A spyware is software used by hackers and advertisers to gain information about you. When visiting certain websites, you’re asked to install this type of software or updates that you need and the updates that you installed are actually spyware. Spyware can also install itself in your computer and it consumes memory usage and will slow down your computer.

10. Adware

Software that displays advertisement in your computer is adware and some of it installed itself in your computer without you knowing. However, not all adware are bad. Some of it is used to advertise something to fund the company. This type of adware will ask and tell you that they will install software that will display related advertisement in your computer. But, adware is a problem if it’s too difficult to uninstall, or it installed itself without you knowing, or it hijack your web browser and slow down your computer. This type of adware needs to be removed.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips. 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.

New Type of Virus Attack!

I just received an email today saying something like this:

"Good Day, dear Friend!

Want to see free porn films?
Use real-player in your attachment. Enjoy!

Best Regards."

This is a new type of trojan attack. So, if you received an email saying something like this, don't open the attachment. After I received this email, I reported it to spamcop.net so they can cut it right to the sources.

Discover Four Proven Tips To Fight Spam Emails

Spam emails are junk emails or bulk emails sent to numerous recipients. Spam emails are usually aimed to advertise something, scam, or sending virus and trojan.

If we do not take precaution against spam, we will always receive it even though we’ve changed our email address, it’ll keeps coming to our inbox. Therefore, in order to block the spam emails, these are four proven tips that will block the spam emails completely.

1. Whitelist

Keep a whitelist. Whitelist is a list of everyone who can send emails to you and you can receive the emails if the person on your whitelist is the one who sent it. However, by using the whitelist, you're having a problem receiving newsletter or ezine if you forgot to add their email addresses. This is the problem of using whitelist. But, by using it, you will not receive anymore spam emails. Any emails that are not in your whitelist, will be sent to spam inbox.

2. Blacklist

Blacklist all the senders that you don't know or email addresses from previous spam emails. It will prevent the spammer to send more spam using the same email address to your inbox. A blacklist can blocks several email addresses and it will blocks any blacklist emails from entering your inbox.

3. Spam Blocker

If you're serious in fighting spam, consider investing in spam blocker software. Spam blocker software will filter the emails that you receive and distinguish it between spam or normal emails. There are many spam blocker software and you can search it on Google.

4. Report The Spam Emails

This is one of the methods that I like. If you receive more spam emails, report it to spamcop.net. Create an account with them and send your spam report to them. They will send the report to the hosting company of the email used by the spammer and the hosting company will do what is necessary to stop the spammer from sending anymore spam.

Spam is one of the threats that we faced when we're using the Internet. Even though some of the spam emails are not harmful, but it is a waste of time deleting it and it's annoying. Some spams are harmful to our computer because the spammer will send viruses or trojan as attachment and if we’re not careful enough, we will become their next victim.

Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips Would you like to learn more about PC protection? Visit PC Safety

New MSN Virus -TanyaBabe

There is a new MSN virus. The TanyaBabe. It will send messages to other users in Live Messenger and the messages will be about some girl picture and a link for you to download the picture in .zip format.

If you receive this type of messages,

"Who is this girl?"
"Do you remember this girl? I can't believe she took this pic..do you know her"

Ignore the messages and the link. I read about this stuff at http://blog.spywareguide.com/
If you download the file and run it, your CPU will use 100% load and your PC will become slower than ever. Never click a link from someone you don't trust.

Restore Deleted Files

A friend of mine ask me on how to restore deleted files. The deleted files have been deleted from Recycle Bin and the files were important files. Therefore, I google the subject and do a research on restoring deleted files.

Then, I found many software that can restore deleted files. However, one software that I likes is Restoration. It's a small software and sized almost 500kB. Furhtermore, it works on Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows XP. As for Windows Vista, I'm not sure. But, if you've tried the software on Windows Vista, please share it with me by commenting on this post.

I likes the software because of its simplicity. Just extract the software, run restoration.exe, and search for the files that you want. The files that you've deleted will come out and press 'restore by copying' so you can restore it.

Social Networking Websites Are Teaching People Wrong Lesson?

Social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and many more are teaching users wrong lesson? This news was featured yesterday in Yahoo News (Original article from InformationWeek.com). Here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20070906/tc_cmp/201804314

I think it's must be because of the news on 4th Sept when personal details of numerous users based in U.S, has been discoverd in a server located in France. The personal details were gathered by exchanging it with freebies. The websites offered freebies to get their personal details. However, no financial information were found.

So, why the social networking websites are teaching users wrong lessons? It's because the social networking websites are asking personal information and when the users found another websites (phishing websites) asking for the same information (name, address, age,job, etc), users will tend to give it away. Even their financial information because they're used to give personal information to social networking websites.

Therefore, in my opinion, we need to be careful when certain websites ask too much information. To be safe, NEVER give your financial information to websites you don't trust. If they ask your name and email, maybe we can give it away. But when they ask about address, company, hobbies, spouse name, credit card or other sensitive information, better leave that websites before they installed keyloggers to your PC.

P.S - Do you find this post helpful and know someone who can benefit from this post? Point them here and I'll be glad to have them here. Remember to comment this post and subscribe to my RSS.

Eight Spyware Removal Software Tested by PC Answers!

I just bought PC Answers Magazine September edition and in this month edition, they were testing 8 spyware removal software. Four of it are free and four of it are paid software and they compared it based on 4 criteria. Ease of use,features,performance and value for money.

The eight software were :

Free
1. Ad-Aware 2007 Free
2. Spybot S&D 1.4
3. Spyware Terminator 1.9
4. Windows Defender

Paid
1. AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5
2. Spy Sweeper 5.3
3. Spyware Doctor 5.0
4. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.5

They tested all these software on newly installed Windows XP Home SP2 without installing any updates for the system and visited websites listed by stopbadware.org and SiteAdvisor.

They also installed two keylogger manually and then tested all the eight software. Let me list the result according to the percentage given by PC Answers

1. Spyware Doctor 5.0 - 95%
2. Spybot S&D 1.4 - 88%
3. AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 - 85%
4. Ad-Aware 2007 Free -80%
5. Spy Sweeper 5.3 - 80%
6. Spyware Terminator 1.9 - 75%
7. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.5 -75%
8. Windows Defender - 60%

According to this test, the free software almost as good as the paid one. Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware 2007 Free scored above 80%.

Spybot S&D 1.4 and Ad-Aware 2007 Free doesn't have real-time protection. But, Spyware Terminator 1.9 and Windows Defender does have real-time protection.

As for the paid one, it's obvious that Spyware Doctor 5.0 scored almost 100%. There were only 3 software that didn't caught both keyloggers in their test. Spy Sweeper 5.3, Spyware Terminator 1.9 and Windows Defender. These 3 software only caught one of the keyloggers.

Spyware Doctor 5.0 and AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 have starter edition for those who want to try these both software. However, the free edition lacks real-time protection.

Better thank PC Answers for their amazing test.

Go to giveawayoftheday.com now!

Go to http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ now! The East-Tec Backup 2007 is available for free. Usually it's price at $39.95 but today it's free. 1 hour left!

This software can protect your data and as for me, it's an important software for my pc security. Get it now

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/east-tec-backup-2007/

Web Browser

Today I'm going to list several web browser as alternatives to Internet Explorer.

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Opera
3. K-Meleon
4. TheWorld
5. Konqueror
6. Flock
7. Netscape
8. Off by One
9. Elinks
10. SeaMonkey
11. Amaya
12. Maxthon
13. Lynx
14. Avant Browser
15. NotJustBrowsing

This list is just 'some' of the web browser. There are many more out there. Oh yeah, did you know the Safari web browser has been released for Windows? But it's still in beta. See here
http://www.apple.com/safari/

P.S- In case you missed the previous post, here's the link to the free 5 day PC security e-course
httP://www.chuangcomputer.com/5day

The Free 5 Day Ecourse!

Hi guys,

The 5 Day PC Security E-course is officially launched right now! You can sign up at http://www.chuangcomputer.com/5day . I will teach you 5 proven ways to improve your PC security.

Best of all, it's free!

So, subscribe now and you will receive a special offer from me.

Here's the link again
http://www.chuangcomputer.com/5day

Azwan Asmat

5 Reasons Why You Need PC Protection Software

The Internet is a place with loads of information. In just one
click, we can find what we need in one place.

As of right now, there are 6,574,666,417 Internet users worldwide
(stats by Internet World Stats) and this number is increasing
everyday. Because of the number of users, security become an issue
for Internet users.

Internet users are faced with many online threats everyday. In the
nineties,the Michaelangelo virus storm through the Internet and in
the year 2000, the ILOVEYOU worm appeared.

Let me tell you five reasons why you should protect your PC and
why I should do the same.

1) Adware

Have you ever wondered why you're getting the same popup everytime
you open your web browser? This software is called adware and it
displays advertisement in your PC. The software will installs
itself in your PC and it's difficult to uninstall it and it also
can slow down your PC.

2) Browser Hijackers

When you open your web browser, your home page has changed.
In this case, it is the browser hijackers that changed your home page.
Other than changing your home page, it can disable your Internet Options
so you cannot change the current home page.

3) Phishing

The hackers can steal your confidential information or personal information
using phishing techniques. Phishers will duplicate trusted websites
and ask you to enter your information. Many people are fooled using
this technique and many has suffered. Therefore, if you don't learn
how to protect your PC, you're risking your confidential information to
other people.

4) Spam

Spam is junk emails or bulk emails aimed to send advertisement
to your inbox. Sometimes, the emails will send virus in its attachment
or a link that will point you to download a virus or Trojan Horse.

5) Spyware

Spyware is software used by the advertisers to gain information
from you such as your browsing habit, which websites that you visited,
and it will send that information to certain people without you knowing.
It also can change your home page.

These are the 5 reasons why you should protect your PC. Leaving your
PC unprotected while using the Internet will make you vulnerable to
these threats. Learn how to protect your PC by reading articles, ebooks,
participate in tech forums and reading books. It can help you to
avoid these threats.

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

Video Invitation In MSN and Yahoo Messenger?

A video conversation trough MSN and Yahoo Messenger are ways to communicate with other people. However, recent discovery has shown that there is a malicious attack using video invitation in MSN and Yahoo Messenger. I have two tips on how you can avoid this attack and use the video conversation safely.

1. Run Updates

As for this issue, Windows Live Messenger 8.1 is not vulnerable to this attack and to avoid the attack, you need to upgrade your MSN messenger to Windows Live Messenger 8.1 for better security. However, it has been confirmed that the hole in Yahoo Messenger has been patched and it's safe to use it. But, in my opinion, I suggest you to upgrade your MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger to the latest version.

2. Don't Receive The Invitation

You're only vulnerable to this attack if you accept the invitation, therefore don't receive a video invitation from someone that you don't know. Only accept a video invitation from those that you know.

Update your security often by obtaining the latest security patch from Microsoft and upgrade your software to the latest version.

Would you like to learn more on PC safety? visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety

P.S - The free 5 day PC Security e-course is almost ready! Visit this blog again if you want to receive the e-course for free. Maybe it'll be ready in next week.