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My Thoughts On India’s 62nd Independence Day

10:07 am by rajeshmago in Personal

Hello!

Today is India’s 62nd Independence Day and I feel very happy that India is progressing in every field. I also recognize that freedom fighters, leaders and soldiers have done immensely to give freedom to us by making the supreme sacrifice of their lives. I respect the sacrifices of these bold and courageous people and feel that I must do more for my country. Just making monetary donations at the time of earthquake or natural disasters, helping people only at time of need and giving employment isn’t enough.

In my school days, I used to remember Independence day because of assembling for flag hoisting, ladoos distribution, flying of kites and watching a good patriotic movies in the evening. I didn’t have to study the whole day and I still remember watching old movies such as Leader, Shahid and Haqeeqat etc. They had a great influence on me and I can never forget some of the songs and scenes of these old chauvinistic movies.

Now, I have grown and become mature enough to do introspection behind the real meaning of Independence day. According to me, it’s a day to think about my self-growth and analyze if I have made progress by being free of anger, laziness, greed, hatred and fear. I know that I have improved personally but there is still lot to be done to be a better human being.

Thinking more on Independence day, I have still not got freedom from the blame game of finding faults with others of not doing their duties rather than doing my own duties towards the nation. On this 62nd India’s Independence day, I once again salute the martyrs, people in NGO’s and everyone who have truly done something for India. I will definitely do more contribution towards my country progress by succeeding more in my business and giving a meaningful employment to people. Through this blog, I will also give free education in computers and help people in being more productive and happy in using their computers.

Wishing you all a very Happy Independence Day!

How did you enjoy your Independence day? Let me know.

Your friend,

Rajesh Mago

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The Expert, No Nonsense Tips On Keeping Your’s PC and Online Identity Secure - IV

12:09 am by rajeshmago in Security

Hello!

Hope that your PC’s and you all are doing great.

As this blog is primarily aimed for keeping PC’s fit, it’s my duty to wish good for PC’s first and then for you people (includes me too).

You can really understand the above statement if your business runs on your PC, like me. And, thus making your PC secure from growing online and offline threats is really critical. This is the reason that I am writing so much on this topic of Keeping your PC secure and have reached part IV.

I pay my bills online, transfer money using Electronic Funds Transfer and payment processors, download files from Net (email attachments, freeware, bought SW, tutorials, guides, ebooks etc.), check emails and do lot of surfing everyday. I also have files that contain important personal and business details stored on my PC. With so much reliance on my PC for my personal and business activities, can I afford to get my data stolen by someone online or offline? No!. I hope that you also answered same as me. So, this fourth post on “The Expert No Nonsense Tips on Keeping Your’s PC and Online Identity Secure” is going to help you in knowing some more tips for making your’s computer security and online privacy strong.

The previous three posts of this series can be checked at the following URL’s (latest first):

http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=31 (Part III)
http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=30 (Part II)
http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=29 (Part I)

Oh, I have written so much and am still continuing Great! Well, to be frank, the blog is new and there are not much sources of encouragement for my sincere efforts, except from some of the commenter’s and me - owner of this blog.

Coming back, in case, you want a summary of the points covered in the above three posts on Keeping your PC Secure, these are given next (in the order of the above URL’s, IIIrd, IInd and Ist):

• Using An Antivirus Software
• Using An Antispyware Software
• Using A Firewall
• Always Keeping Operating System Patched and Updated

• Configuring CMOS Supervisor or Setup Password in Security/Password Section of CMOS
• Disabling All Other Boot Devices Except Hard Disk Or The Ones Required
• Configuring A Screen Saver That Requires Password
• Disabling Sharing Of Hard Disk/s And Keeping Them Password Secure When Their Sharing Is Done

• Installing A Physical Locking Mechanism For PC
• Configuring Boot Password or User Password in CMOS Security/Password menu
• Using An Entry Level Biometric Fingerprint Scanner For Authentication (Use an additional method too for backup if biometric method fails)
• Using Windows Password To Login To Your Network

It’s an exhaustive list! The reason for going into such detail is that I want to cover every tip - minor or major, as I have always found security of my PC to be on the top of my priority list and want my readers also to pay attention towards their computer’s security.

Ok, so some more tips on maintaining your PC security are:

Don’t Use File Sharing, i.e., P2P Programs

The chances of your PC getting infected by viruses, trojans and being spied by spyware are really more if you are downloading file using any of the file sharing or P2P (Peer to Peer) programs such as Kazaa, edonkey, Bearshare and Limewire etc. The hackers and crackers very well understand the greed of the users looking for free paid software. They make the popular cracked versions of these system and application software, music, movies etc. available from their PC’s, but they are coded with spyware and viruses to cause damage to your privacy and files. To test, I have myself checked some of the P2P networks and found both the P2P program and the files being downloaded are highly risky to the computer. The files were either spyware or infected with viruses and trojans; thankfully they were detected by my antivirus and antispyware programs.

Instead of downloading free but infected software from P2P, the better idea would be to find a freeware version of a similar program or go for a paid one if the free version is not available.

In case, you still decide to install P2P software, then kindly watch out for your PC’s drives and folders being shared. The shared folder mustn’t contain any of your confidential files. Explore your P2P program and you will easily find the drives and folders of your PC being shared (a check sign).

Never Open Any email Attachments From Unknown Senders

Well, I don’t need to explain much on this as I am sure that you all understand the reason behind this tip. Once my known friend (his email address was known to me and was there in my address book) sent me an attachment and when I opened it, it showed that all my files are being deleted, along with their names. I couldn’t do anything to stop it as it was so quick and unexpected. Thankfully, at the end, I saw that it was just a program that showed the files as being deleted but really didn’t do anything on my PC.

So, never open an attachment from an unknown sender as it might have something to destruct files on your PC.

Monitor processes of your Operating System

How can monitoring of processes help you? It’s simple. In case your system has spyware or virus etc., then there will be a background process that will be running and residing in your computer memory. If you monitor the processes of your computer regularly, you can easily see an unusual process. You can then take action to stop it and then remove the program or clean the system with an antivirus or antispyware to make your PC secure.

In case, you don’t understand about a process from its description in Task Manager, then google it with its name. Some examples of genuine Microsoft processes running on my Microsoft Vista Business Edition PC presently (should be there on your Windows PC too) are given next:

explorer.exe, lsass.exe (Microsoft Local Security Authority service), services.exe (part of Microsoft OS that starts or stops a service), svchost (an essential part of Microsoft OS that help in executing of DLL files), winlogon.exe (Manages user logon and logoff) and many more.

To see processes, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click on - Task Manager (in Windows XP) and Start Task Manager in Windows Vista.

A site that can help you in identifying of the genuine and damage causing processes for your Windows OS is:

http://www.tasklist.org

Screenshot Showing Windows Vista Processes in Task Manager

Use Antiphishing Toolbar

Phishing is a variant of fishing - throwing a bait, and hoping that someone will fall a prey by entering critical details and financial information. The most common way of phishing is through an email threatening a customer to click on a link, login and update his/her details otherwise the user account will be locked. The idea of these phishing emails is to take the user to a fake site and get the username, password and other confidential details of the user. Some of the phishing emails that I remember receiving are from bank (Wachovia), payment processor (Paypal) and ebay instructing that some unsuccessful attempts have been made to access my account and I must login and update my information quickly to avoid getting my account blocked. Well, I allowed them to block my account that never existed with them It’s very easy to spot phishing emails as they are very poorly written (have spelling and grammar mistakes) and clearly points to a different site when mouse is hovered on the hyperlink in the phishing email.

One of the freeware and popular antiphishing toolbar that can help new users in spotting the phishing (fraud) sites is Netcraft antiphishing toolbar.

Its brief description is available at:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Browser-Tweak/Netcraft-Toolbar.shtml

To download, use the URL:

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/install/Netcraft%20Toolbar.msi

Being aware of the phishing attempts and not clicking on the fraudulent links will definitely help you in keeping your financial identity and information secure.

My sincere attempts in writing these posts on Keeping your PC and online identity secure is to help you in protecting your online privacy and damage to PC’s data by theft and corruption of files.

Now, after writing so much in these four posts of this series, I hope that you will definitely make your computer more secure by using at least some of the major PC security tips - installing antivirus, antispyware and firewall etc. The decision of choosing which of these security tips are major and minor is up to you (depending on your work environment and importance of data).

Let me know your feedback about these tips.

Take care,

Your friend,

Rajesh Mago

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What’s Up? - My professional test scores at oDesk - Site for freelancers and buyers

2:45 am by rajeshmago in Personal

Dear friends,

Hello!

Hope that you and your PC’s are doing great

Today, I am going to discuss about a site called oDesk and my test scores that I have achieved by my hard work and years of skills and experience. Ok, coming back, What’s oDesk? I will call it as Official Desk meant for telecommute workers (freelancers - individuals and companies interested in doing remote work) and persons and organizations who want to get their assignments done remotely from these freelancers. The site is professional and is designed well (review after my three months experience till date as a freelancer). There is no fees that is charged to the freelancers but the buyers have to pay 10% of the total project cost for hourly and fixed assignments after they find suitable candidate/s and the work gets started/completed.

The worker has to build a profile with his/her qualifications, skills, experience and test scores to convince that he/she is the best candidate for the job posted by the buyer. So, building an excellent profile increases your chances of getting work.

According to my analysis, the site is good for programmers, writers in general fields, researchers and data entry workers. The statement comes from the research of seeing the complete profile of some of the freelancers in these areas and the jobs they have got. They have easily received assignments whereas persons like me with excellent test scores and experience in technical writing (Computers, Networking and IT), Networking and System Administration and technical support are struggling to find work. Yes, it’s bad but certainly true. I won’t say that I am not getting offers for doing work but the writing assignments for which I am being contacted are in general areas (non computers) and are low paid.

To make my profile impressive, I have cleared seven papers with good grades in the last three months. I have been able to only get one technical writing assignment so far and I have completed it with excellent ratings from the buyer.

My test scores for technical and language skills follows (the latest ones coming first):

The above scores shows that I am pretty good technically and my English structuring skills are also fair!, right? I am working on improving my English editing skills and am sure that I will make it to the top 10% in my next attempt (one retake attempt per month).

Some of the test scores will not be visible until you click on “See All Tests Taken” hyperlink. To see more details of the topics covered in the test, click on the respective test hyperlink below “Name of Test”.

oDesk is good resource for my freelancer friends - writers, researchers and data entry workers. If you people know some good freelancing sites (free ones and tested by you) that can be tried for getting some good paying jobs in technical writing, networking and system administration and technical support, let me know. I am still continuing improving my profile and bidding at oDesk for getting more interesting jobs in my domain. My target is to get more challenging work in my domain though I always have some local clients and online customers who give me repeated work.

Oh yes, if you are a buyer and after seeing my test scores at oDesk (the online tests are conducted by ExpertRating - A well known reputed testing and training company), you think that I can do a project in my domain (see my detailed profile at oDesk) for you, then kindly give me chance to work for you. My id at oDesk is rmago, click on “Hire” to have an interview discussion with me.

For freelancers, I will keep you updated on my progress at oDesk. I have some queries for you:

- Is getting freelancing jobs easy online or really tough?
- How do you get repeated work?
- If you get repeated work, do you find it boring?
- How do you keep your repeated assignments as challenging?
- How do you manage to get permanent clients and yet get good rates?
- Do you face problems in getting payments from clients?

For buyers, I have the queries as following:

- Are you satisfied with the quality of workers at freelancing sites?
- Do freelancing sites and their feedback systems and freelancers profiles, really a good showcase of their real job skills?
- Do you trust the freelancers for very critical and highly skilled jobs or do you prefer hiring local workforce?
- Do you think that freelancers are well paid?

Looking for your valuable insights on any of these queries.

Take care,

Rajesh Mago,
New Delhi, India

Comments (2)

The Expert, No Nonsense Tips On Keeping Your PC Secure - III

12:34 pm by rajeshmago in Security

Hi,

Welcome to the blog again.

Whether you are a student, individual doing business, professional working in an office or a user using PC for fun or for day-to-day activities, it has become really critical to keep your computer secure from offline and online threats from hackers etc. I have already covered some of the computer security tips in my previous two posts of this series. These two posts are at -

http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=30 (Part II)

http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=29 (Part I)

The list of security tips that have been covered by me in these two posts are:

- Deployment of a physical locking mechanism to prevent complete PC and data from being stolen

- Setting system password in CMOS for entering a password prior to the booting

- Using fingerprint biometric scanning to make authentication method more secure

- Using password in Microsoft Windows to login

- Employing CMOS Supervisor Password to not let everyone change your boot sequence settings

- Disabling boot devices other than hard disk in your CMOS

- Configuring a Screen Saver that requires password

- Disabling sharing of hard disk/s and other storage devices or setting up a password to access them

I know that it’s a long list and going to be more longer with this post but believe me, all of these tips are really worth reading and implementing, depending upon your work environment. Office users having more sensitive and confidential data need to take more security precautions compared to a student or housewife using PC for educational and general routine tasks respectively. It ultimately depends on how valuable you rate the data on your PC; if you can’t afford to loose it then you will pay more attention to its security, right?

Some more tips to improve your computer security are as following:

1. Use an Anti Virus

Protecting PC from viruses - programs designed to corrupt files and cause data loss by infecting other computers, is really a primary task when talking of security of a PC. There have been incidents where users have lost years of data due to virus infection as they were not having any anti virus on their PC.

You may either buy an anti virus (check the online reviews till I write one to find the best one) or use a free one, don’t forget to scan your PC and update the anti virus software regularly (at least once in a week when your PC is free). Explore the anti virus program settings and see if online email scanning, heuristic scanning, alert options and auto update settings etc. (if there) are enabled.

You can either buy anti-virus software or go for AVG personal edition, the free one, available at:

http://free.avg.com/ww.download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition#tba2

This free program has limitations in terms of features and you must see if you can manage without paying for the paid one. I have earlier used this free version of AVG and never faced any virus related issue.

2. Use Anti-Spyware Software

Your computer is not secure if you are being - tracked for the sites you are visiting, redirected to other sites and your chat and email sessions are monitored by the keystrokes pressed by you and transmitted somewhere else without your knowledge. Your privacy is in danger if you have spyware on your PC. Spyware also makes your PC slow by displaying unnecessary popup advertisements and using your computer resources to take traffic to some of the sites programmed by the spyware developer. Spyware is not meant for doing any good to you, there is dialer spyware that can make your modem dial a remote premium level number instead of your ISP, resulting in very high telephone charges to you. The main intention of getting spyware developed by the marketing companies is to make money at people expense.

Spyware can also modify your system software files, especially Windows (due to wide users usage) making your OS extremely slow and unusable leaving no other option, except re-installation.

My tip would be not to install any software on your PC unless you are sure of its credibility. There are lot of free programs that have spyware hidden in it. Read reviews before installing any such software and keep your browser security high so that you get alerts before any such program installation while surfing the Net. If your browser security is low, then you will not get any popup alert and the spyware will get installed without you being aware of it.

Spyware is a big security threat to your computer and you must use an anti-spyware - paid or freeware to not let it affect your PC security. One popular spyware, free of cost for personal use is - LavaSoft Ad-Aware and it can be downloaded from:

http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

3. Use Firewall

A firewall is a software or hardware device that is meant to stop hackers and intruders from making attacks to the computer/s on the network.

Different servers such as web servers, ftp servers, mail servers and telnet servers use different ports. The firewall only allows genuine users to access these servers by means of some rules in the form of filters and access lists that are configured in the firewall. The same applies for your home computer that connects to the Internet. A firewall makes a database of these access rules (for inside and outside traffic) and alerts you whenever there is any change in these rules. For example, a remote user trying to access your PC by any means will be monitored by the firewall and an alert will be shown along with your permission to allow access.

Most of the big companies use a hardware firewall whereas home users uses software firewalls.

A good software firewall, free of cost is ZoneAlarm Free Firewall that is good for work from home users. The configuration of firewall is not very difficult and mostly the auto configuration is sufficient; only few basic queries are to be answered by clicking at the time of fresh installation and afterwards upon changes.

If you don’t use a firewall, then the security of your PC is definitely compromised. If you are a work from home user, use the ZoneAlarm Free Firewall version available at:

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/zonealarm_free_firewall.jsp

4. Keep your Operating System Patched and Updated Regularly

Microsoft OS and applications have inadvertent bugs and security holes that are somehow not known to the developers at the time of programming (flaws in browser, Microsoft Outlook and Office etc.). Later when the users or security experts report these security flaws or they come into notice by other means then solutions to these bugs are developed and licensed users of the OS can download these files and update their operating systems for being more secure than previous state. Other operating systems too have some security flaws but Microsoft has large user base and thus hackers mostly try to find and attack Microsoft OS based systems and thus there are more reports of Microsoft’s OS based computers and servers being cracked.

A patch is a term for a solution to a specific issue whereas an update is a fix for a commonly used software problem. A service pack contains both - updates and patches and undergoes a rigorous testing.

The default configuration for updates (software and security) that should be in your Windows Operating System should be to auto update so that you do not miss any of these critical patches, updates or service packs anytime.

I am sure that with these twelve tips, covered in three posts so far, you will definitely realize the importance of making your computer more secure. If there are any issues with these tips or comments so far, let me know.

Security is such a diverse field that these twelve tips given by me so far are still not enough, so I will cover some more security tips in my next post of this series.

Keep improving your PC security and enjoy working on it without any downtimes due to security lapses!

Take care,

Your friend,

Rajesh Mago

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The Expert, No Nonsense Tips On Keeping Your PC Secure Part - II

8:32 am by rajeshmago in Security

Hello,

PC security has really become critical nowadays as we all continue using PC’s for automating most of the things in our life - searching for information, paying bills, banking, emailing, selling and buying stuff online and much more. This is the second part of the series on how to keep your PC secure.

In my previous post, “The Expert No Nonsense Tips On Keeping Your PC Secure Part - I”, I covered the following topics (brief summary) -

1. Installing some physical locking mechanism to prevent data stored on PC from being stolen.
2. Setting system password in CMOS for giving a password prior to the booting (loading of Operating System).
3. Using economical biometric security such as fingerprint scanning to make authentication method more secure.
4. Using windows password to login

For more details of the above topics, kindly check the URL: http://www.pctipstricks.com/?p=29

Reverting to the present post, it explains some of the more ways to make your online PC more secure from hackers, crackers and data stealers etc.

These tips are:

1. Put CMOS Supervisor Password

CMOS or BIOS chip stores your computer’s vital hardware configuration and boot preferences etc. To go to your CMOS, you will see some key like F2 or Del (Delete) etc. to be pressed as soon as your power it on. Press that key, enter your CMOS and give a CMOS supervisor password so that someone who knows the CMOS setup password can only change these settings.

What configuring a CMOS setup password will do? It will prevent stealing of data by those people who can change your PC’s boot preferences to boot from their devices such as USB flash drive and CD or DVD etc.

2. Disable Boot Devices other than Hard Disk in your CMOS

To keep your computer secure, you must disable other boot devices and options such as floppy (in case it’s still there), CD/DVD (Compact Disc/ Digital Video Disc), USB flash drive and Boot from Network etc.

Why am I giving this tip? Imagine the situation where someone with an intention of stealing data from your PC comes with a bootable USB flash drive in his/her pocket, plugs it to the USB port and boots your PC after changing the boot preferences and copies the data on the same drive. This will be easy if you have ignored my above tip and have not put any CMOS supervisor password.

And if you have put a CMOS supervisor password plus have disabled booting from other devices, then the person won’t be able to do the booting from the devices other than those configured by you, i.e., hard disk.

3. Configure a Screen Saver that requires password

Don’t leave your PC desktop open for anyone when you go for a short break in a office or in a place where someone can access it and do copy, delete or emailing of your files etc.

To configure a Screen saver in Windows Vista Business, do this -

- Right click on your desktop
- Click on Personalize
- Click on Screen Saver
- Choose the settings such as Screen saver picture, speed of slide show and time to wait after which the screen saver appears. To enable

Windows Vista to prompt you for password to unlock the Screen Saver, check - “On resume, display logon screen”

Your work that you were continuing to do prior to appearance of Windows Screen Saver will be there in the same state. (E.g. - mail window, explorer window and browser screens, all open in the same condition as you left them).

For other Microsoft’s Windows version - XP, 2000, 98 etc., right click on your desktop and you will find the way to setup Windows Screen Saver, probably in Display Properties or from Control Panel –> Display (Double click) and then Screen Saver. Screen saver can also be used for power conservation by displaying the minimal graphics (if corresponding light screensaver with minimal graphics is configured) after the system has been idle for the chosen duration of time.

4. Disable Sharing of hard disk/s and other storage devices or give a password

If your PC is on a network (LAN, WAN or Internet etc.) connected to other computers by any means, then you must disable the sharing of hard disk/s and other secondary storage devices - CD, DVD, USB flash drive etc. if it is not needed.

Otherwise, if you want others (in your office team or friends or relatives etc.) to transfer files from your PC to theirs using some kind of network, then give a password for your shares and keep it very strong (use alphanumeric characters of length eight or more). In the process of sharing, configure to whom you want to give access and of what type. It’s better to give read only rights under normal circumstances but you might have to give full rights if it demands - A System Administrator who is remotely troubleshooting a technical problem of a software not working on your PC may require full rights to a particular folder or drive.

To enable or disable sharing (by default sharing is disabled), go to My Computer or Computer (depending on your Windows OS), Right click on the drive or folder you want to share or remove share and then give or remove the rights to the users. A user who needs to access files and folders on your computer that has password protection turned on, will need to have user account on your PC and will have to use the password also.

When a drive or folder is shared successfully, you should see a hand under it and when the share is removed, there should not be any hand under it.

If there are issues with any of the above four tips (given in short) on keeping your PC secure, let me know what assistance you require and I will try to help you.

I will give more tips on keeping your computer secure in my next post of this series.

Take care,

Rajesh Mago

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PC tips and tricks Authors

• PCtipstricks Administrator
  Glad to be finally Administrator of my own blog after working as a Network and System Administrator for many IT Companies in past :). Sex: Male, Marital Status: Married and still happy with my wife and two beautiful children, Nationality: Does it Matter? (BTW: I am an Indian). Thanks. Check "About" for more details.
• Rajesh Mago
  I am Rajesh Mago, the administrator of this blog. My profile is same as above, i.e. Administrator. Kindly check "About" for knowing more about myself. Thanks.