Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for Rs 1,999

After a year long of peek-a-boo, Windows 8 is finally here. Looking at how we have been using our mobile devices, Windows 8 is here to offer a seamless integration across various devices – desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to change the way we have been using our PC. If you are a Windows XP (SP3)/Vista/7 user and want to lay your hands on the new OS, then you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro instantly for only Rs 1,999, starting today until January 31,2013. Moreover, those users who have purchased a Windows 7 PC after June 2 can download the Windows 8 Pro for a discounted price. So, anyone with a Windows 7 PC bought between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013 can download Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of Rs 699.

Here’s a step-by-step procedure showing how you can upgrade your Windows 7 PC to Windows 8 Pro at Rs 1,999.

Step1: Go to Microsoft India website and you will find the option to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. It is a limited time upgrade available for Rs 1,999 which runs from today until January 31,2013.

Microsoft homepage

Step2: Once you click on ‘Download Pro for INR 1999, a pop up will ask you to Save and Run it.

Install Windows 8 Updater

  

Step 3: It will install and start running the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant that checks if your PC can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. It provides a complete compatibility report. Basically, it will assess your system to find out if it is compabtle with Windows 8 and inform you before you buy the OS. 

                         Checking for compatibility

                                   Lists out compatibility details

Step 4: Once it finds your system compatible, it lets you import your data like personal files, Windows settings and apps to your new Windows 8 installation. You can also choose to import nothing.

                       Choose what to keep

Step 5: The next screen lets you place your order for the Windows 8 Pro. In case you plan to buy it later, you can do so by restarting Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant.

                               Place your order

Step 6: The next screen will take you to the checkout. Here, you also get the option to get a Windows 8 installation DVD worth Rs 1,060.

Review your order...and you can also buy the Windows 8 installation DVD

Step 7: Once you click on checkout, Windows takes a little less than a minute to take you to the billing form. Just key in your essential details and click on Next.

                        Key in your billing details

  
Step 8: Once you hit ‘Next,’ it will confirm the order and you can also view the order summary.

                          Confirm your order and recheck all details

Step 9: Microsoft will send you an email receipt, provide the product key and begin downloading Windows 8 Pro.

                         Note the product key

 The new Windows 8 Pro is quite cheap compared to previous versions.

                          Windows 8 Pro download begins

Getting an installation of Windows hasn't ever been easy. If you already have a Windows 7 installation, it's quite affordable as well. If you've just made the move to Windows 8, let us know what you think of it.

How to Set up Your PC as an HTPC

Most of you will have a desktop PC or laptop just lying around simply because it’s either too old for daily use or the resale value is too low for you to bother with it. Why not convert it into an HTPC (home theater PC) for use in your living room or bedroom? You don’t need any large capacity hard drives, high-end graphics cards or even an expensive operating system for the HTPC conversion. All you would need is your bank of media files either stored on the hard drive, external storage or on a DLNA/UPnP compatible NAS.



On booting from the USB drive, choose the XBMCLive option unless you intend to permanently install the XBMC OS on your PC's internal hard drive.

In this workshop, we will show you how you can use XBMC Live (formerly known as Xbox Media Center) on an old PC and connect it to your LCD TV to enjoy your movies and music on the network. XBMC is an open source cross-platform media player and home entertainment system application designed for a living room TV. It has a graphical user interface and allows one to play video, photos, music and podcasts on your TV.


You need to initially setup the networking parameters. Unless your router assigns the IP address via the DHCP server, you should specify the IP address.

XBMC Live is a free Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with XBMC for Linux pre-installed and pre-configured, and hence we can avoid the purchase of an expensive operating system such as Windows. For this workshop, all you need is a regular x86-based PC and a blank CD or a 1 GB USB pen drive. Your media files can either be on your PC’s internal hard drive, external storage on a media server available on your network. This server can either be a Windows PC with Windows Media Player configured to stream your movie collection, a DLNA/UPnP compatible NAS, or a router which holds your entire media collection.


Once done, you must add the source of your media files, be it the internal hard drive, a USB storage, a NAS, PC or SAMBA share, or DLNA server.

First, download the XBMC Live distribution from ‘www.xbmc.org’ or use the ISO distribution in the CHIP DVD. Download a utility called ‘UNetbootin’ for Windows from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net. This application will help you create your XBMC Live USB drive, unless you prefer burning the ISO file onto a CD. That’s all; the XBMC Live media center is ready to play your favorite flicks over the network. Connect the PC reserved for the HTPC to the LCD TV (VGA/HDMI, whichever is compatible), run your audio wiring accordingly (from the PC to the home theatre speakers or amplifier),configure the BIOS to boot from USB/CD ROM and boot the PC from the USB/CD drive. You will shortly be taken to the XBMC user interface, where you can select the ‘Live’ option. If your media collection is on the internal hard drive or an external USB storage, make sure you have the drive connected before powering up the HTPC.



Select the source(s) accordingly and add them to the list. Once done, you will be able to select the source of your media files in the begining.

Once the XBMC media center is running, you can browse through your collection and enjoy your favorite flicks. If your media files are located on the network server, you will need to configure the network card or WLAN adapter. Also make sure you have connected the network cable before XBMC is booting. Usually, XBMC, being based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution, installs the network drives by default. If your PC is fairly new, you might need to download the necessary drivers and setup the network accordingly. In case you face any troubles with XBMC, you can always refer to the ‘xbmc.org’ website for any issues.


Remote control apps for iPhone as well as Symbian, Java and Android-based mobile phones are available for free.

The website also features downloadable skins for tweaking the user interface. Additionally, you can use your Wi-Fi capable mobile phone or a Windows Media Center remote as a remote controller or you can also use XBMC to act as a media server on your network. There are several other features in XBMC waiting for you to be discovered.


Add-ons and plug-ins for XBMC for playing movies and music over the Internet can be downloaded from XBMC's interface itself.

Beginner's Guide to Overclocking Graphics Cards using Software

PC enthusiasts have long relied on overclocking their components in order to extend the time their hardware stays potent enough. However, the processes seemed too risky and complicated for the layman to attempt. That has now changed over the years, and the process of overclocking, especially for Graphics Cards, has become extremely simple. So much so that it only takes a couple of clicks and minutes.


In this tutorial, we’re going to teach you how to overclock your graphics card. In case you’re wondering how to get some extra juice out of your card, you’ve come to the right place.

Why is Overclocking possible?

However, before we start with that, we need to understand why graphics cards are overclockable in the first place. The obvious question here is, wouldn’t manufacturers clock them to the maximum possible level by default, so they extract the most performance from them? The answer to that is no, because of a couple of extremely simple reasons.

Yield being one of them. Manufacturing chipsets is no easy task, and requires lots of precision. It’s also dependant on a lot of other factors, such as the quality of the raw materials, etc. So it’s highly unlikely that two chipsets will ever be the exact same – in fact it’s almost practically impossible.

So what do manufacturers do? Through extensive testing, they decide on clock speeds where they can keep the maximum amount of the chipsets they produce working properly. Of course, the speeds can’t end up being too low, either, lest they sacrifice too much on performance.

What that means is that every graphics card in the world is overclockable, but just how much leeway you have depends on the quality of your card. You could end up with a sample that hardly overclocks, or one that gives you a 20 per cent increase in clock speeds. It’s all in the luck of the draw, and there is absolutely no way of telling if the graphics card you’re buying is a good piece, or not. Unless you purchase one of the factory overclocked cards, but those are usually priced at a premium for the performance boost they give you.

The Actual Process

The process of overclocking a graphics card has become extremely simple these days, what with manufacturers releasing overclocking utilities for use with their cards. The good news here is that these utilities end up working with most other cards, as well. For this tutorial, I’ll be using MSI Afterburner to overclock the ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II.


Before

Test Rig:

•Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz

•Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD3R

•Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 4 GB DDR3 (2 x 2 GB)

•Hard drive: WD Velociraptor 300 GB

•GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II

•PSU: Cooler Master 1000W

•Forceware 266.58

Before you begin, make sure you get GPU-Z, so you can check if your overclocks are actually being applied. Also prepare a benchmark utility, like a game or synthetic benchmarks like Unigine Heaven, which will tax your graphics card and help you figure out if the overclock is stable.

Now for NVIDIA cards, there are three adjustable clock speeds – those being the Core, Shader and Memory clocks. The Core and Shader clocks are usually linked to each other (with the Shader clock being 2x the Core clock), unless you have a really old card. Afterburner, by default, has these values linked and will maintain the ratio itself. These two clocks are what we’ll start with.

Do NOT, under any situation, go for a drastic increase in clock right off the bat. Go higher in increments – let’s say 20MHz at a time – and then use the benchmark and test if your card is running stable, while keeping an eye on the operating temperature. If it is running stable, you can increase the clock speed by the same number again. Rinse and repeat until you start seeing artifacts (flickery textures or coloured dots) on the screen, or if your card crashes. Once you reach that point, go back to the last stable overclock and leave it there.

Repeat the process, but with the Memory clock this time. Artifacts resulting from the Memory Clock being too high usually end up in a different colour than they’re intended to be. Also, most cards these days have the fan speed set on auto, which reacts to the operating temperature and in turn increases or decreases fan speed accordingly. While overclocking though, it’s wise to set a constant, and high enough, fan speed so the temperatures don’t go out of hand.


After

This is what we clocked the GTX 580 to, and even though the card had a bit more headroom, we decided to settle down here because it gave us a decent enough improvement in performance. For example, this card on stock benched at 80.3fps in Just Cause 2 at Max settings, 8xCSAA and 16xAF. Following the overclock, it gave us a healthy increase to 92fps. Keep in mind, this is a very moderate overclock.

Overclocking ATi/AMD cards:
The process for overclocking ATi or AMD cards is nearly the same as the one for NVIDIA cards, except the Radeons have one single processing clock, instead of NVIDIA’s divided Core and Shader clocks.

Upping the Voltage

Once you hit the effective ceiling for your graphics card’s overclock, you could go even higher by increasing the voltage level for your card, in turn increasing the amount of power your card receives. However, this reduces your card’s life span, makes it run hotter and therefore (because you’ll have to increase your fan speed so your card doesn’t burn out) noisier. I wouldn’t recommend doing it, but if you’re really feeling adventurous, most of the overclocking software include ways to increase the voltage levels. In case, Afterburner doesn’t work for you, get the software your card’s manufacturer provides and try it out.

So there it is, the beginner’s guide to overclocking your graphics card. Try it out, and let us know your results. Be warned though, that you have to be extremely careful doing this because it could end up frying your card, and most manufacturers consider overclocks as warranty voiders.

Enable Night Vision on a Webcam

Most digital cameras, still, video or webcams, can only capture images when there is sufficient light on the subject. Insufficient light creates hazy and bad quality images. So what do you do when you need to capture images or record videos when there is low or no light at all? Infrared (IR) light can illuminate the subject and you can capture images even in the dark. IR light is actually an electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is higher than normal light visible to the human eye. This means, when a subject is illuminated with infrared light, humans cannot see it, but a digital camera can capture these images quite well.

A web camera, a screw driver, a knife or a needle, some IR LEDs, a solder iron, some solder wire, some regular wire, an AC-DC voltage adapter or batteries and veroboard/ general purpose PCB (optional)

The CCD or sensor
The main image capturing chip inside a digital camera is highly sensitive to infrared light. But there is an obstacle here—manufacturers of digital cameras implant an IR filter in the pathway of the lens and the sensor.  This filters out the IR rays so that only pure visible light can pass through. The reason—infrared light can agitate the image quality and produce overexposed pictures. This workshop helps you remove the IR filter in order to get the camera to capture images in the dark. Basically, all you need to do is remove the IR filter completely. We shall also show you how to make your own infrared light source so that you can use the webcam as a surveillance device at night. The best part is that nobody would even know that there is a camera as nothing is visible in the dark. Try out this workshop at your own risk.

          Night Vision Webcam

Hacking the webcam
Unplug the camera from the computer and remove all the screws using a screw driver. You can do this trick with any still/video/mobile camera too. Open the camera case carefully to expose the internal circuit board. Remove the lens housing by unscrewing it anti-clockwise. Now carefully observe the rear section of the lens housing and you shall find a red-tinged glass—the IR filter. This filter needs to be carefully removed from its place. Pop out the seal to separate the IR filter from the housing carefully using the sharp, pointed edge of a knife or needle. Make sure you do not damage the filter or the seal in case you decide to place it back again. Mount the lens housing back and close the camera the same way you opened it. The camera is now ready for action
.

Create a circular LED ring and mount it on your camera's lens directly. You can make the ring out of plastic/cardboard or design a custom PCB. Place the IR LEDs on the panel and solder them accordingly from behind. Using this trick will ensure that the subject in focus is completely lit with IR light.

Stealth lighting
Now we show you how to make an Infrared LED array. IR LEDs are available in any electronic spare parts shop for around Rs 4 each. You can also rescue some from damaged, old or discarded IR remote controllers. The amount of LEDs to be used would purely depend on the amount of light you would require and the voltage you would be applying to the circuit.

Follow the instructions carefully

Each LED runs on approximately 1.2 Volts DC (confirm the voltage ratings of the ones you buy). So ideally, if you plan on using 12 Volts to power the array, make sure you use at least 10 LEDs in series. Do your calculation and assign the number of LEDs to be deployed on the job. Once done, mount each LED on a veroboard or general purpose PCB and create your LED array. If you are not familiar with electronics and/or soldering, you could ask a friend for help or have the circuit assembled for you by an electronics technician. Solder all the LEDs in serial and finally solder some wires to connect it to the power adapter or battery. Alternatively you can design your own LED arrays. Assemble it on a cardboard or plastic ring and mount it around your camera lens, or create miniature spotlights to spread it around your house. Let your imagination run wild with ideas. If you hack your mobile phone camera, you can use a single IR LED to secretly take pictures at night.

Next set of steps

All done
Now that your camera is hacked and the infrared array is ready, you need to try out your camera in the dark. Create a dark environment either by closing all windows and curtains in your room or wait till sunset. Start a webcam software and switch on the Infrared LEDs. Observe that what a human eye cannot see is being captured very easily by the webcam. Infrared pictures captured by the camera will be in black and white, so don’t panic about the absence of color detail in the images. You can use an array with a large number of IR LEDs for a more powerful light throw or use multiple smaller arrays in different areas to brighten up the whole room/area.

Caution: Continuous exposure to infrared light can be harmful to the human eye. Make sure you do not stare directly into the LED array when switched-on. You would not notice any light, but the eye pupil is wide open in the dark and Infrared light can blast through freely and cause damage too.

What next?
If you have a wireless/Wi-Fi camera, you can use it as a surveillance camera at night. Use applications such as ‘WebcamXP’, ‘HandiAVI’, etc, which support motion sensing or time scheduled image capturing and recording. You can mount it on your main door, in your garden, in the garage, on the stairway or any place to be monitored in the dark.

Note: Once the IR filter has been removed, pictures in broad daylight get highly overexposed.

How I improved my Blog!. Small things made big differences.

I started blogging  and tweeting just in december 2009. ( though my twitter a/c was an inactive bot for almost a year). after my friend asked me to join in and start haveing some learning with him , I was confused, scary, inquisitive and whatnot. But my friend kept patience, gave me asnwers to most of my questions which I indeed took time to understand. Today, I love to tweet, to blog, and to manage wordpress data. I love to work on website content, layout, color combination and soo much more. During all this we changed the website look and feel. Am sure once you visit , I can look at your valuable comments:). We used some good techniques to make it worth and honestly it helped. I share all those things with my friends and readers:). I am sure it would help them as well .

1) Major Change : You can make a major change to it by adding a new design, or adding a forum to it or something  minor like changing a title of a blog post.

2) Add a “back to top” link to  footer:Blogs have a tendency to create huge scroll bars. Whether that scroll bar is long because you don’t use the more tag to cut down your posts, or you get a lot of blog comments – the fact of the matter is if you have a huge scroll bar and no easy way to get back to the top, it will annoy us as your readers.

So when a user gets to the bottom of the page and sees the link, when the click it – they go to the very top of the page. It’s very easy to create. Just use this code and add it to your footer somewhere:

Back to top

It’s just that easy. When that link gets clicked, it automatically shoots to the top of the page.

3) Adding ICONS: Every minor detail counts when it comes to designing for a blog. It’s the minor details that make some designs so excellent, and adding icons next to links on your blog can really make some parts of your blog stellar looking.

3)Input Forms :Input forms are used all the time on blogs. To sign up for newsletters, to fill out a comment, and anything else that generally involves getting information from the user.Input forms without style are often very ugly and boring to use.

4) Creating thumbnails for posts : Thumbnails are good to attract people. It looks good and fun. People enjoy thumbnails more and more. It makes them more active than compared to Just text. So lets add some colors and make it match with our layput and design theme.

5)Numbered page navigation :Try putting a list of pages you can visit on the blog. All of those numbers link to a page full of articles on them.Using numbered page navigation gets a lot more posts available to readers, which increases pageviews and can really show off the age of your blog with the more number of pages you have. It is a much more effective method of navigation than the standard “previous” and “next”post links that is standard on many blogs today.

How strong is your password

 

If you invited me to try and crack your password, you know the one that you use over and over for like every web page you visit, how many guesses would it take before I got it? Let’s see… here is my top 10 list. I can obtain most of this information much easier than you think, then I might just be able to get into your e-mail, computer, or online banking. After all, if I get into one I’ll probably get into all of them.

1. Your partner, child, or pet’s name, possibly followed by a 0 or 1 (because they’re always making you use a number, aren’t they?)
2. The last 4 digits of your social security number.
3. 123 or 1234 or 123456.
4. “password”
5. Your city, or college, football team name.
6. Date of birth – yours, your partner’s or your child’s.
7. “god”
8. “letmein”
9. “money”
10. “love”

Statistically speaking that should probably cover about 20% of you. But don’t worry. If I didn’t get it yet it will probably only take a few more minutes before I do…
Hackers, and I’m not talking about the ethical kind, have developed a whole range of tools to get at your personal data. And the main impediment standing between your information remaining safe, or leaking out, is the password you choose. (Ironically, the best protection people have is usually the one they take least seriously.)
One of the simplest ways to gain access to your information is through the use of a Brute Force Attack. This is accomplished when a hacker uses a specially written piece of software to attempt to log into a site using your credentials. Insecure.org has a list of the Top 10 FREE Password Crackers right here.
So, how would one use this process to actually breach your personal security? Simple. Follow my logic:

• You probably use the same password for lots of stuff right?
• Some sites you access such as your Bank or work VPN probably have pretty decent security, so I’m not going to attack them.
• However, other sites like the Hallmark e-mail greeting cards site, an online forum you frequent, or an e-commerce site you’ve shopped at might not be as well prepared. So those are the ones I’d work on.
• So, all we have to do now is unleash Brutus, wwwhack, or THC Hydra on their server with instructions to try say 10,000 (or 100,000 – whatever makes you happy) different usernames and passwords as fast as possible.
• Once we’ve got several login+password pairings we can then go back and test them on targeted sites.
• But wait… How do I know which bank you use and what your login ID is for the sites you frequent? All those cookies are simply stored, unencrypted and nicely named, in your Web browser’s cache. (Read this post to remedy that problem.)

And how fast could this be done? Well, that depends on three main things, the length and complexity of your password, the speed of the hacker’s computer, and the speed of the hacker’s Internet connection.
Assuming the hacker has a reasonably fast connection and PC here is an estimate of the amount of time it would take to generate every possible combination of passwords for a given number of characters. After generating the list it’s just a matter of time before the computer runs through all the possibilities – or gets shut down trying.
Pay particular attention to the difference between using only lowercase characters and using all possible characters (uppercase, lowercase, and special characters – like @#$%^&*). Adding just one capital letter and one asterisk would change the processing time for an 8 character password from 2.4 days to 2.1 centuries.

Password Length	All Characters	Only Lowercase
3 characters 4 characters 5 characters 6 characters 7 characters 8 characters 9 characters 10 characters 11 characters 12 characters 13 characters 14 characters	0.86 seconds 1.36 minutes 2.15 hours 8.51 days 2.21 years 2.10 centuries 20 millennia 1,899 millennia 180,365 millennia 17,184,705 millennia 1,627,797,068 millennia 154,640,721,434 millennia	0.02 seconds .046 seconds 11.9 seconds 5.15 minutes 2.23 hours 2.42 days 2.07 months 4.48 years 1.16 centuries 3.03 millennia 78.7 millennia 2,046 millennia

Remember, these are just for an average computer, and these assume you aren’t using any word in the dictionary. If Google put their computer to work on it they’d finish about 1,000 times faster.

Fundamentals of computer hacking

Getting access to a secured system is not that easy nor too difficult too for a computer hacker. Protruding into ones system to get the secure informations is the main aim of hacking which includes the hacking into the system to get organizational layout, one’s personal information, banking activity and so on.

We have the technology advancement that is more effective and accurate in making the process of hacking a successful one with the help of simple knowledge on working procedures on the tools and hacking software. Knowledge on the fundamentals on computer hacking and tool utilization can make wonders to hack a computer.

How to computer hack via 3 hacking techniques?
1. FOOT PRINTING
The process of obtaining the secure data of organizations that is more confidential. It includes the information on the Internet, remote access, intranet and extranet. When you hack a computer you can trace the critical situation of an organization that affects the over all growth on profit quality rate.

• First stage in foot printing an organization’s layout starts with fixation of target activity including collection of information from website holding the company and its employee’s. Social engineering is a target to hit upon to get easy access to the network on cracking the link in the internet to hack this site in specific.

• Network enumeration is one of the techniques made in use to spot out the domain name and the network utility attributes. Getting into the database with tools on searching the internet can help in getting most of the needful informations.

• DNS interrogation: DNS a distributed database is utilized to modify domain name into IP address and reverse. DNS configured (server’s installation and registration) with low-security gives off copy of organizational secure data on DNS zone transfer.

• Network reconnaissance: On getting access through the Network it is easy to get into the network topology and the paths that link the terminals. Tracerouter program and hacking code tools are best to find the IP packet data that move along the paths. With the ICMP time exceeded message and hop count it is easier to get over the data transmitted.

2. SCANNING:

PING request sent to the IP address inside network terminals is ICMP ECHO packets and the response is the ICMPECHO-REPLY. Once the reply is obtained it will hack a computer to fetch the data packets through the connectivity
.

3. ENUMERATION:
Protruding into the user’s account via network resources, shared informations, users, groups and applications to extract data is termed enumeration.
NMAP, STROBE, NESSUS and SATAN variants involving SARA and SAINT for LINUX. WINSCAN, SAMSPADE for WINDOWS are the best tools. Viable products utilized include CyberCop scanner as well as Internet Security scanners.
Queries helping hacker’s to begin cracking attacks include Registrar info and whois server’s data, Organizational info; Domain related data, Network or IP address data, Points of contact.

How to Access the blocked web

Since we all know that DoT has implemented orders to curb piracy via torrents, P2P sharing software and large file hosting portals, most Internet service providers have started practising a mega block on major torrent search engines and file hosting sites, such as Torrentz, The Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, Torrent Hound, Rapidshare, Mediafire, Hotfile and many others. Obtaining torrents and other files from these websites has now become a difficult task, but there are many other routes that you can take to gain access to these websites and download the files that you need. Let’s check out a few methods whereby, you can fulfill your desire for downloading any type of file. Beware, these methods involve passing through unknown and unauthorized means; it could mean bumping into viruses, malware and spyware or even compromising on your security and risk getting your PC hacked. Do this at your own risk.

Method 1: Use of proxy services.
A proxy server, as the name suggests, is a website service that allows you to browse through websites from their Internet connection. It means tunneling through the Internet connection into another PC somewhere in the world, and accessing websites or downloading files using their Internet connection. The browsing or downloading speed totally depends on their Internet connection speeds and the number of people accessing the service during the given time. Proxy servers are hosted by common or unknown people who have a (possibly) high-speed open Internet connection in their home or office.

                                    No shortage of free web browsing proxies

They simply install a web server on their PC and allow other Internet users around the world to surf through their proxy websites and gain access to websites that may be either blocked by their ISP or office administrators. Some of these websites are listed below. Note: Although there are different proxy websites available online, usually these are tracked and hunted by various administrators and blocked, accordingly. While most of these websites get blocked because they are well-known, others that do not publicize much manage to stay under cover until they are discovered. However, it is very simple for them to get themselves unblocked by using a different website name.

Here is a tiny list of a few proxy servers that can be used to get around blocked website:

• Vtunnel.com
• Ltunnel.com
• n-tunnel.com
• imsly.com
• freetoview.com
• overridewebsense.com
• sneakzorz.com
• apchemistry.info
• apushistory.info
• radius.ws
• linear.ws
• safeforwork.net
• apenglish.info
• factorial.ws
• circumventer.info
• graph.ws
• hidemyass.com
• UnseenIP.tk
• weddingface.info
• anonymise.us

These proxy websites are usually created with a weird name, so that they cannot be easily tracked (for example, the website www.weddingface.info) will not even be thought of as a proxy website as the name suggests something else. These websites make their money by hosting advertisements and possibly viruses or malware.
  
Method 2: Using a proxy add-on in your browser is not a new technique. Those using Firefox might already know about the idea and probably might be using them on and off. The method is pretty easy and can be set up in around two – three minutes. Simply search for proxy add-on's from Firefox, download and install the one you want and restart Firefox.

                         Proxy control addons for your browser

Once it's done, just Google for available recently updated proxy server IP addresses and port numbers and feed it into the add-on. Next, you will be browsing through restricted websites via the proxy server located elsewhere in the world. There are a few proxy modules available for Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer too, but Firefox is a working example.

Method 3: Using Google’s caching server to open up the blocked website. This method does not actually take you to the website itself, but make use of the cached files stored on the Google servers. These cache files are recently browsed data elements that others around the world might have accessed from their unblocked connections.

Using Google's cache to access the web

To use it, simply log on to the Google website, enter the words ‘Cache:’ and type in the website you need to browse. If you are lucky enough, you should get through the latest updated website with ease. Take for example, the blocked Chinese shopping website www.focalprice.com, which can be accessed using the Google cache. Even the Google translation service website helps in a lot of similar ways.

Method 4: Using an alternate DNS server is also an option A DNS server is like an index, with a list of domain names - such as YouTube.com, Google.com, Mediafire.com, Rapidshare.com, Thepiratebay.se and pretty much every other website on the Internet. When you type in a website address into your browser, your computer sends a request to the DNS server, and it tells you the IP address for that site. One of the easiest ways for ISPs to stop access to a particular site is by removing the IP address entries for the sites that need to be blocked. ISPs can choose to redirect the request to a different site or a notice page as well. There are free, fully open third-party DNS services run by organizations and other ISPs. The most popular ones are run by Google and OpenDNS. All you need to do is change your DNS server settings to theirs. The simple procedure to do so is to change the Primary and/or Secondary DNS server address that is set for your network card to a third-party DNS address. You can try some of these alternate DNS server addresses in your network settings.

                              Changing the DNS on your PC

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
67.138.54.100
207.225.209.66  
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6
151.197.0.38
151.197.0.39
151.197.0.84
151.197.0.85
151.202.0.84
151.202.0.85
141.155.0.84
141.155.0.85
151.203.0.84
151.203.0.85
199.45.32.37
199.45.32.40

Method 5: Using a third-party utility, such as TOR can help you access blocked websites without any effort, whatsoever. Using it is pretty simple, but it is definitely slower than your Internet speed as it uses the Internet connection with another computer somewhere in the world. It securely creates a type of an Internet tunnel, which passes through a few more websites, countries and Internet service providers before picking up the desired website and brings it back again. It keeps hopping through various routes and channels to help create a secure, untraceable path.

                 TOR is an effective way of access the web

To use TOR, simply download the utility from www.torproject.org and run the executable file. The downloaded file does not need installation, but it extracts a few required portable executable files to a folder on your desktop. Once done, simply open the folder and execute the file ‘Start Tor Browser.exe', and it will bring up the Vidalia control panel, connect anonymously to the respective servers and later automatically starts a secure Firefox (portable) browser, using which you can access your blocked websites. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms, back to the user and is intended to protect users' personal freedom, privacy, and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored.

Method 6: Using online services to download files when P2P and torrents are blocked at your end. It is pretty simple. Websites, such as ZbigZ.com or Put.io offer services to download your torrents and store them in your online storage quota at very high-speeds. For example, a 4GB torrent download, which would take me anywhere between 24 hours to 48 hours on a standard 1 Mbps Internet connection, and a bittorrent client can be downloaded in less than two hours. Simply paste the link of the torrent (you don’t even need to download the .Torrent file) or the magnet link or if you have the .torrent file. Just upload it to the servers, and it will download the files for you. In our tests, a single 4.7GB ISO file took only 15 seconds to download. The file is stored on their servers and offers you a HTTP link to download it later at your convenience. While ZbigZ.com offers a free service (with limitations) and a paid option too, Put.io offers a 3GB online space for just Rs. 250 (USD $5) per month. This not only saves your bandwidth speeds, but also allows you to download your P2P using an HTTP download service.

Method 7: Using VPN (Virtual Private Network) services. Popularly known over many years, this one is a more concrete and secure way of accessing the Internet. The system works by setting up a connection that is channeled through your ISP, through to a VPN service or a computer that has open Internet access. Using this technique, you should be able to access the web freely with no restrictions on sites, keywords, services, etc. Unfortunately, VPNs are a bit more complicated to set up. Usually, free VPN services, such as Hotspot Shield are known to be around, might be a bit difficult to find free ones. If you don’t, you might need to ask a friend to open a connection (install a server) on his machine provided he has an unblocked gateway. Then you can access your websites using his/her machine. Services, such as ProXPN and XyberGhost are some you can try out. Hotspot Shield installs a routing driver automatically on your PC during installation, creates the necessary routing methods and gives you access to the open Internet service from various open VPN services around the world. Once enabled and running, you will be able to access any website out there, but will be disturbed by continuous ads littered around your screen.

There are numerous other methods of getting around blocked and censored websites. While some are more straightforward and easy, others are a bit difficult and more secure. Paid services are also in the offering, but most often people are on the look out for free ones. Necessity is the mother of all invention, they say and as long as there is necessity, somebody out there will definitely invent ways to get there.

How to: Unrestricted web access on your Android.
Most of the times you end up with a restricted Internet connection, be it at home, office, college or hotspots. Internet service providers and network administrators are working hard on trying their best to keep you from accessing censored and restricted websites. However, if you are using an Android handset, you can get around it with ease. All you need are two apps, and you are ready to go. The app is a VPN service, which helps you browse through restricted websites using someone else’s unblocked Internet route. Let's begin. Head on to Google Play (Market) on your phone and download the two apps—‘DroidVPN’ and ‘TUN.Ko Installer’. Both are free and should take you less than a minute to get them installed. Once installed, start the Tun.Ko Installer app and select your phone (which is automatically detected and listed) and hit the install button.

TUN.ko, another app that helps you gain unblocked access

You should get the message stating ‘Tun module successfully installed’ on your screen. Some handsets might not be featured on the installer app, and you may get messages that it is incompatible. Simply Google your handset model number, and you might find someone who has compiled the file and hosted it online. Download the file and place/copy it to the root folder on your SD card. Now that you have all requirements in place, all you need to do is start the DroidVPN app, and you will be prompted to enter your username and password. You can register yourself for free by clicking the menu button and clicking on the create account link. The app will open the Internet browser and take you to the respective website for registration. Fill in the required details and your password will be available on the e-mail address that you provide. Use these credentials on the app, click on the ‘Start’ button, and DroidVPN will connect to its servers. You’re done—hit the home button to send the app running in the background. Now you are free to use your browser, torrent client or whichever app you want to use and gain unrestricted access. 

                                                VPN apps for Android

There are a few websites that are not allowed to be viewed either outside their operating country or certain countries. For example, www.pandora.com only works in the U.S and some other countries and their services are not accessible in India. To access these websites, VPN utilities, such as Hotspot Shield or Tor are best alternatives that allow you to access these websites. Registration on these websites can also be done using U.S zip codes, which can be obtained from Google. We launched Hotspot Shield, accessed the website, registered ourselves with a U.S-based zip code and create a free account. Now we can stream or download videos and music without any issues. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer is also another example website that is not allowed in India, and you need to be in UK to access it. www.hulu.com, www.netflix.com, www.vevo.com, www.abc.go.com and many more are examples that have their services (from their end) blocked to Indian viewers. Using VPN clients are the best means. You can also use DroidVPN on your Android handhelds to gain access without any difficulty.

• Netflix.com
• Bbc.co.uk/iplayer
• Hulu.com
• Vevo.com
• Pandora.com
• cwtv.com
• abc.go.com
• fox.com
• rdio.com
• music.google.com
• music.aol.com
• deezer.com
• Napster.com
• music.yahoo.com

Happy browsing!

Networking @ home

With laptops and Netbooks becoming growingly affordable by the day, most homes would definitely have more than one computer. Data would also be scattered across these computers, be it music, videos or documents. In such a situation, transferring and synchronizing data between the computers is the need of the hour. This can be achieved with flash drives and external storage devices, but the transfer would be slower as it involves copying the data to the storage and then again to the other computer. Networking the two computers is the ideal solution, be it using Ethernet switches or routers, but the cost would be Rs 1,500 or higher, and it only makes sense if you need to network more than two computers. For connecting only two computers to each other, you can use a simple Ethernet cross-cable, which can be made in just Rs 100 or less. We show you how to network two computers in a simple two-section workshop.

Making the cross cable Requirements: A minimum of two RJ45 connectors, CAT5 Ethernet cable (the length will depend on the distance required), and an RJ45 crimping tool. Cut the required length of the CAT5 cable you need. Peel off the insulating sleeve at both ends by approximately 2.5 cm. Separate the four colored and white wire pairs from each other. Keep the blue and the orange pair and chop off the remaining two pairs as we need any two pairs for a cross-cable. Now straighten all the wires in a neat line and align them in the following manner — White Orange -Orange - White Blue - Blue. Next, neatly cut the edges of the wire in a manner that all the wires are now of the exact same length. Make sure the length of the wires coming out of the sleeves is around 1.5 cm. Now separate the last wire (Blue) from the others, keeping a gap of around ½ cm. The first three wires will connect to pin numbers 1, 2, and 3, and the last wire will connect to pin number 6 of the RJ45 connector.  Now carefully insert the wires into the connector. Carefully match the colors with the pins and confirm they are in the exact order and groove. Push the wires all the way inside the connector using a little force. Finally, after ensuring that all wires are in place inside the connector, insert the connector into the crimping tool. Apply a little force on the cable to push the sleeve and the wires as far as they can go into the connector and immediately press the tool’s handle to crimp the connector. You should also hear a click sound when crimping to indicate the sleeve has been locked in position inside the connector. To crimp the other connector to the other end, follow the same procedure above, but the only difference now will be the order of the cable colors. This time, follow the order of the colours as follows — White Blue – Blue - White Orange - Orange. The rest of the procedure is the same. Your cable should now be ready for use. Connect the cable to each computer’s Ethernet port and you are ready for the next step. Networking the computers In order to network two computers together, a few settings need to be altered in each computer’s network card properties section. Firstly, each computer has to have a unique name and a similar workgroup name. To change the names of the computer and workgroup, do the following - right-click on the ‘My Computer’ icon on the desktop and click on ‘Properties’. Select the ‘Computer Name’ tab (in Windows 7: ‘Advanced system settings | Computer Name’) and then click on the ‘Change’ button. Enter a different computer name for each computer and a similar workgroup name for both. Apply the changes and the system will prompt you to restart the computer. Choose to restart later.  Now open the network section (For Windows XP: ‘Start | Settings | Network Connections’, and for Windows 7: ‘Start | Control Panel | Network and Internet | Network Connections’) and right-click on the Ethernet card, select ‘Properties’, and double-click on the ‘Internet Protocol TCP/IP’. Click on the radio button to enable ‘Use the following IP address’and enter unique IP addresses along with the Subnet Mask in each computer’s network card. For example, enter the IP address ‘192.168.0.1’ on one PC and ‘192.168.0.2’ on the other while keeping the subnet mask common as ‘255.255.255.0’. Keep the DNS and Gateway fields blank. Apply the settings by clicking on ‘OK’ twice. Your computers are now networked. Now all you need is to share some folders or drives on each computer in order to exchange data. This workshop can be carried further to share a single internet connection between the two computers by adding another Ethernet card on one computer and sharing the internet with the other.

How To Get the fastest Internet connection ever

It has always been a geek’s dream to have the fastest Internet connection ever, and we bet you would desire the same too. Almost all those who are hooked on to the Internet to surf, download or entertain themselves would definitely be owning an broadband connection at home. It could be via a telecom service provider, your local cable guy or 4G wireless Internet providers. Some even own 3G USB Internet dongles for their work and entertainment while being outdoors. Most smartphone users today also opt for 3G Internet services on their phones and tablets. All these connections can be individually used on your PCs, laptops and handhelds efficiently.

Download, set up and activate the utility

Though you can connect them all together on a single PC and access the Internet, the Internet speed will be only drawn from the last connected network, leaving the others unused. For instance, you have four different Internet connection sources A, B, C and D.  Your PC will access Internet from A when it is connected. The moment you initiate a connection from B, the PC will divert all network connections via B, leaving A unused. The same happens when C is initiated; A and B are unused and it applies the same to D. The operating system is not smart enough and does not know that there are multiple Internet networks. It needs help, but is unable to do so. In Linux, it is possible to do so by tweaking the kernel, adding some modules and running some scripts that will tell the operating system about the various active Internet connections and balance the network load accordingly. On Windows, it is not possible and a third-party utility is required.

   Single connection speed

Clubbing all your available Internet connections into one single mammoth pipeline was not possible until Connectify, a well known software development company which developed Connectify hotspot, a virtual software router for Windows, stepped in. It kickstarted a campaign to help collect funds for the project and achieved it. It finally came up with Connectify Dispatch, a utility to connect to multiple Internet connections for combined speed and reliability. Using this utility, you can now connect all your available Internet connections – be it from a DSL modem, a wired cable connection, a wireless router, a tethered mobile phone or a USB Internet dongle – into a single mega broadband connection. Read ahead to know how you can do it in four simple steps.

                       All adapters active and associated with Dispatch

Step 1: Download Connectify Dispatch and install it. It is not a free utility and there are no demo versions available. The utility costs Rs 5,114 for a lifetime license, which includes the HotSpot Pro utility as a bundle. Optionally, you can opt for a one year license for Rs 4,023, but we recommend the lifetime offer, which is reasonably cheaper than this one. Once installed, activate the utility and you can see it running, but not active, in the system tray.

                         System tray showing adapters activated and deactivated

          Speed using a single Internet connection only

All Internet connections combined as a single large bandwidth

Step 2: individually set up and test all your Internet connections on the PC. Install the USB dongles, tethered phone, wireless network, Ethernet cable Internet, or whatever sources you may have. Ensure they are working and all connected to the PC.

                             Using only three connections

Step 3: Double-click on the Connectify icon in the system tray to pull up the Dispatch user interface. Here you see the Dispatch utility, which is not started as yet. There is a graph available to know the bandwidth of all your available connection’s, and the overall bandwidth speed. Also, you will see the number of active adapters (Internet connections) in the lower half. Other icons available are Hotspot (to start the Wi-Fi hotspot) and Settings (to tweak a few changes). 

Step 4: Connect, enable or start all your Internet connections. Once all are active, hit the ‘Start Dispatch’ button on the Dispatch window and you are ready to cruise the Internet highway by utilising all the Internet connections simultaneously. The Dispatch utility will automatically combine all the Internet connections together, analyse each one of them and route the Internet traffic accordingly whenever and wherever necessary. You can check the download speeds by downloading some large file, video or torrent. You will definitely notice a difference.

                            Assign individual applications to select particular Internet routes

How we tested
1. Internet connection A – Tikona Wireless 4G broadband via Ethernet – 2 Mbps speed.
2. Internet connection B – Tata Photon Plus 3G USB internet dongle – Speeds up to 3.1 Mbps.
3. Internet connection C – Tata Photon Plus 3G USB internet dongle – Speeds up to 3.1 Mbps.
4. Internet connection D – Tata Photon Plus 3G USB internet dongle – Speeds up to 3.1 Mbps.

                              Set bandwidth limitations for each Internet connection

The setup was done on a Lenovo laptop and was conducted inside a house in the suburbs of Mumbai. The testing was done at night around 1 AM when we could obtain maximum speeds and minimum interferences from any other networks in the surroundings. As we all know, the USB 3G Internet dongles claim maximum speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps, but this entirely depends from area to area. In our case, the maximum Internet speeds we acquired was between 800 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps at any given time. The Tikona connection was stable at around 2 Mbps. In all, estimating the USB dongles gave us around 1.2 Mbps speeds and the Tikona Wireless giving us around 2 Mbps speeds, clubbing them together, the speeds we acquired was a little more than 6 Mbps.

                             Override the default DNS

Testing and using the Connectify Dispatch for a few hours, we definitely state that the utility works and can benefit those who are looking for higher broadband speeds. BitTorrent is designed to make use of many network sockets simultaneously, which makes it a perfect application for Connectivity Dispatch.

                        Select adapters to act as Primary connections or stay as backups

Other options possible with Dispatch
You can further tweak the Dispatch utility to benefit your work. You can set up individual applications to use particular Internet connections to balance the load manually too. In this way, for example, you can download multiple files from Hotfile, Rapidshare, Mediafire and other similar file hosting websites that have IP-based time limitations to download the next file. It can also benefit those who want to download particular files faster than others, such as torrents can be on a faster bandwidth while smaller files can use the slower Internet connections.

Start Hotspot with a combined speed and share it to other devices

You can also use Dispatch to balance the load as per your will. You can set it to keep particular Internet connections as standby or backup connections in case any one of them fails. Other options available are to use DNS servers other than the ISP provides you. You can use Google or OpenDNS to your advantage. You can also meter individual connections to limit the Internet usage so that you don't exceed the download limits according to your plans. This can be done on daily, weekly or monthly rules according to your download plans. Lastly, you can set Dispatch to draw the bandwidth from the available connections that have the best latency and reliability.

An Android phone using Hotspot over Wi-Fi with full combined speed

Finally, if you have bought the Dispatch + Hotspot utility together (Rs 5,114), you can start up HotSpot and share this combined mega-Internet pipeline to all other computers and devices on the network wirelessly or using a router.

Connectify Dispatch is a very powerful utility that can benefit small and large business environments too. Take for example, a large organisation that provides most of the employees with a USB Internet dongle for use when they are travelling. When they are not travelling, the Internet connection is wasted as they are lying unused and the office Internet connection is used at work. By using these dongles on a PC installed with Dispatch, the entire bandwidth can come in handy for the entire office to have a faster Internet connection. Other areas where Dispatch can come in very handy is for video chat, online high-definition and 3D video entertainment, distributed or cloud gaming, online backups and data sync servers, remote desktop sharing, and a few others.