Computers and Technology Articles

It is possible to recover your registry no matter how little computer experience you possess. There are many reasons why it may be necessary to recover or clean the registry, and all users have experienced registry problems at one time or another. Freezing, slowing down, frequent error messages, and very slow web page loading are all signs that the registry of the system may need to be recovered or cleaned. When the registry of a computer becomes full, corrupted, or damaged, the computer can show symptoms, and if the registry is not recovered the result can be much more than just frustration. Physical damage to the disk can occur if the registry problems become severe.

Start with registry cleaner software. This software makes maintaining the registry simple and easy. There are a number of these programs available that will help clean and recover the registry of your system, making it run much faster and more efficiently without frequent error messages. The registry is the most critical component of the Windows operating system, and if there are problems or corruption in the registry, it will have a detrimental effect on the entire computer. The very first step to registry cleaning and recovery is to ensure that the system is free from any spyware or virus infections. Electronic infections pose a serious threat to the system, including the registry, and can be very difficult to remove and repair.

Windows registry recovery involves good anti virus and anti spyware programs, as well as a quality registry cleaner and recovery program. Once the anti virus and anti spyware programs have scanned the system, and any resulting electronic infections have been healed or removed, run a full registry scan with the registry cleaner software, to find any errors or problems in the registry. Once the unneeded or unwanted registry entries and keys have been identified, the registry cleaner program can automatically fix or remove registry components.

USB flash drives are common place in the work place and home and have almost become a necessity like the desktop . But, however handy these devices may be, they can also serve as a tremendous source of data leakage. USB flash drives have become as common as writable CD-ROM drives in most organizations. The problem is that some users have access to sensitive information, and want to have access to it no matter when or where they are. I can’t tell you how many people store sensitive information on USB flash drives. Information such as passwords, corporate secrets, and sensitive personal information just sitting on the USB flash devices is not secure.

And with the easy of use (plug and play) anyone can just plop the USB flash drive in and they can store about 16 GB as of January 2009 ish. 16 GB of data on a flash drive is insane! Image the amount of data one could leak with all that disk space! Disgruntled employee’s could copy data to the drive and sell it to a competitor, by the GB, LOL. How about thieves? They can steal the drive easy as 1,2,3 and no one will ever know who did it. Stealing it would be easy due to it’s size, think about it.

But don’t worry there are many ways to secure the data on a flash drive:

Password Protection

Encryption

Buried under a concrete slab

Password protection will stop the most elementary user from gaining access to your device. The data however is not fully protected and needs to be secured from more technically apt user. To secure the data from this type user we will use

Encryption, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) symmetric encryption is an encryption standard adopted by the U.S. government. AES jumbles up the data and makes it’s virtually impossible for anyone to read the information on that disk.

Buried under a concrete slab would be one extra step… ha ha?

From my experience I recommend both the Lexar JumpDrive Secure USB Flash Drive and the Kingston DataTraveler. Both of these devices use AES and are simple to understand and use. USB Flash drive security can also be accomplished with free software available online.

If you have already invested in a jump drive you could encrypt it with TrueCrypt, free open source encryption software. TrueCrypt creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case you’re forced you to reveal the password:

1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.

2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

TrueCrypt also user ASE 256 encryption.

External hard drive docks are the perfect addition to the seasonal computer tech. Many people like me have several hard drives floating around, and every time one has to get data from a crashed computer (PC or laptop) it either has to install it inside their own computer (sometimes a hassle) or use an external hard drive enclosure.

With a hard drive docking station (like the Thermaltake BlacX) those problems are part of the past, you can now hook up a 2.5″ or 3.5″ hard drive with out having to open your computer case and without turning your computer off!!!

The Thermaltake BlacX docking station offers a slot that is compatible with internal SATA drives that are 2.5″ or 3.5″ it either uses USB 2.0 or eSATA connectivity (eSATA being the fastest).

Docking Station Uses:

• To recover files from crashed computers
• Use it for back-ups
• Use it to boot into different operating systems
• Or simply as extra storage

Thermaltake BlacX Specs:

• Supports All 2.5″ and 3.5″ SATA Hard Disk Drives, up to 1.5TB
• Hot-Swap Capability for Rapid Multi HDDs Access and Exchange
• Supports eSATA Transfer Speed up to 3Gbps
• Supports USB 2.0 Transfer Speed up to 480Mbps
• Compact Docking Station Design Maximizes Heat Dissipation & Exhaust

Without any doubts, this option is a lot better than using an external enclosure.

I also found this interesting hard drive docking station from StarTech that has not 1 slot, but 2. Yes, you can have 2 hard drives connected at the same time! It seems to be the ideal solution for disk imaging or data recovery. It’s a bit more expensive than the Thermaltake one but it may be a better buy for some of us.

Metal detectors are interesting pieces of technology. They have a variety of uses and have become even more versatile throughout the years. Ever since the first metal detectors came out in the 19th century, scientists and engineers never stopped working on better and more efficient designs.

Nowadays, there are metal detectors that can pinpoint metals so accurately that they have become indispensable tools in fields like mineralogy, engineering, security and even in the military.

From the crude models of the 19th century, the modern detectors had its debut in the 1930s when Gerhard Fischer released and patented his very own metal detector. Fischer’s design used resonating coils to detect the presence of metal under the ground. These metal detectors proved to be an asset during World War II.

Metal detectors were used during the war to find land mines scattered across the paths of troops. They saved a number of soldiers back then. However, these metal detectors could have been more useful if they were not that heavy.

Early designs of metal detectors were not that convenient as compared today. These detectors require a great amount of “juice” to power up which means lugging behind heavy batteries.

The modern detectors basically are made up of coils and uses electromagnetic induction to detect the presence of metal. Aside from the portable metal detectors that we have grown accustomed to and use in hobbies and games like treasure hunting, there are some bigger models that are used mainly in security and related fields.

Other uses for metal detectors include detection of foreign objects in food. These pieces of equipment are of course very useful in the construction industry as well. You could easily detect steel reinforcing bars, pipes and wires that are buried in walls and floors with a detector.

Powerful metal detectors are also used to determine the location of mineral ores for the mining industry. In the field of archaeology, artifacts can be detected even if they are buried deep underneath sand or soil. During rescue missions, sometimes metal detectors also come in handy.

In places like airports, security uses walk in metal detectors to determine if people are carrying metallic objects like knives and guns which can cause potential dangers to passengers or commuters.

The standard coil detectors were the trend back then, but recent technologies have brought about new breeds of metal detectors. You can now see the Beat Balance and Coil Coupled Operation metal detectors which were made available to the public just a couple of years ago.

OK, so you are asking the question: How Do I Speed Up My PC? I hear you. I use to ask this question all the time, and could never really seem to find an answer. So, I took it upon myself to find out how to do this. And now that I have found out exactly how to speed up my pc, I want to let you know how to accomplish this in 6 steps.

Here are the 6 simple steps you can do to help speed up your computer. These are the bare minimum things that every computer user should be doing to ensure that their computer runs as fast as possible.

1. Antivirus - This is an obvious one, but it is still a program some people fail to use. There are some antivirus software programs that will make your computer run slower, but there is one that will not dampen any of the computer speed you currently have.
2. Spyware remover - With all the surfing on the internet, you need to ensure you remove any of the tracking cookies that are following you everywhere.
3. Internet Eraser - This will help remove all of the temporary internet files and all of the internet history from your computer. This freed up about 6 GB of space the first time I ran it.
4. Registry Repair - This will fix all of the registry problems, which is what causes programs to operate slower and freeze when opening certain things.
5. Defragmenting - This will place all of the needed files for certain files and programs in one location. This helps to load the files and programs much faster.
6. Firewall - OK, so maybe this will not speed up your computer. But picking the wrong firewall can definitely slow down your computer and the internet usage.

These 6 simple steps can be take by anyone at home to speed up your pc. This will help to prevent you from paying some box chain store enormous amounts of money to fix your computer. You can actually do this yourself.

Spyware & Adware can not only result in data corruption, personal profiling. Spyware infections are even worse than you thought because. Spyware is basically a malevolent program that monitors your work on your PC. Spyware usually remain well hidden from the users, and are evident in terms of their effects. Spyware gets installed in a number of ways, each more inconspicuous than the other. Spyware applications are the sneakiest and nastiest of all privacy and security violation programs.

Spyware

Spyware applications hide on your PC’s hard drive and in most cases without your knowledge or full consent. Spyware on the other hand is more difficult to visibly detect as Spyware programs usually just sit there in the background monitoring your keyboard, mouse and browser activity and sending your private information to Spyware corporations. Spyware logs the information such passwords, email addresses, web browsing history, online buying habits, the computer’s hardware and software configuration, the name, age, sex, etc of the computer that infected with spyware.

Fixing you computer’s performance and removing viruses, adware (out of control pop-ups), and spyware on your own is not as hard as you might think. Eliminate spyware, adware, malware and all harmful software from your computer. Your PC is probably infected with adware & spyware if: You have downloaded music online Your PC is running extremely slow you. Eliminate all Spyware, Adware, malware and all dangerous software from your computer and safeguard your privacy. Get rid of harmful adware, spyware and all harmful software and protect your privacy.

Scan your PC for any spyware or adware your hard drive may be harboring, Remove Hidden Malware and correct performance issues caused by infections found on your system, Future spyware infections are prevented with automatic database updates. AntiSpyware 2007 is a cutting-edge anti-spyware solution. This revolutionary anti-spyware program was created by the industry’s top spyware experts in order to protect your computer and your. New built-in features also detect threats such as Spyware.

Web

Adware programs often “piggyback” on programs you choose to download “free” from the Web. Other adware programs breach your system through browser vulnerabilities and certain web sites exploit security holes to install adware on your system. The law defines a pop-up ad as: material offering for sale or advertising the availability or quality of a property, good, or service that is displayed on a user’s computer screen, without any request or consent of the user, separate from an Internet website that a user intentionally accesses (emphasis added).

Spyware is basically a malevolent program that monitors your work on your PC. Spyware usually remain well hidden from the users, and are evident in terms of their effects. Spyware uses exactly the same techniques to infiltrate and maintain itself on your system. Spyware keep vigil on the website that the user visits, pages that the user surf, time spend by the user on particular websites, email addresses used by the user and so on. Spywares even scan the hard disc of your PC to collect information.

When Microsoft created Windows operating system they designed how all of the processes were run in the operating system and tried to blend MS-DOS seamlessly with Windows. A big change over the years was the use of the dynamic-link library (.dll) files and svchost.exe. The executable file that is know as svchost.exe has one purpose and that is to run the various .dll files contained in the system folders.

Without the file svchost.exe, the operating system would not be able to access the registry and run .dll files, but this became a problem as more and more malware creators and hackers took advantage of the svchost.exe itself. By creating malware that uses the svchost.exe they made it harder to remove malware and when someone did remove the svchost.exe they were never completely sure they were removing the right one. In many cases the svchost.exe would either reinstall the malware or create a process loop that would eat up computer resources.

It is not just malware that can cause these types of problems. If someone adds and removes a lot of different programs, then over time some of svchost.exe and .dll files associated with them can get left behind. The reason for this is that the .dll files are a shared system and some of the registry entries are used by multiple programs. If all of the programs associated with the process are removed or new programs are added that add new files, then the old ones might still try to run or end up corrupted.

The average computer using Windows might have multiple different svchost.exe files running at the same time. When removing malware or even legitimate programs, the svchost.exe that is associated with it might not get removed. These can cause problems that might slow the processor down or even cause a lockup.

The svchost.exe is critical to registry health and with malware created files left half removed or multiple redundant running processes, it might be a good idea to look at the registry if the computer is not running properly. By cleaning the registry of these left behind files many people have been able to speed up their computers without having to spend hundreds of dollars.

If you think your computer keeps getting slower and slower it is time to optimize your PC by looking for one of the best registry cleaners on the market.

If there’s one thing that can be a bit confusing to many Network+ certification exam candidates, it’s the concept of ports and sockets. Well, it was confusing to me when I got started with computer certifications! Let’s take a look at ports and sockets, and why we need them in the first place.

Past Network+ exam tutorials have focused on how two PCs start communicating, but what we’ve got to keep in mind is that host PCs may and probably will have several different kinds of communications going on at the same time. A single PC may be sending email, receiving a Telnet request, and accessing the Internet at the same time. These conversations have to kept separate.. but how?

Through the use of ports, that’s how. Each potential type of conversation a host can have is preassigned a port number, and these port numbers allow different types of communications to take place over the same physical cable by keeping them logically separated.

Let’s go back to that PC we were talking about. If the PC is using SMTP for email communications, it will use port 25. At the same time, the host will be using port 23 for Telnet and port 80 to access the web via HTTP. The same physical cable is in use, but the communications are kept logically separate by use of port numbers.

A socket is simply the host’s IP address followed by a colon and the port number in use. If the previously mentioned host had an IP address of 10.1.1.1, the socket number for SMTP would be 10.1.1.1:25, 10.1.1.1:23 for Telnet, and 10.1.1.1:80 for HTTP.

The range of port numbers is quite large - 0 through 65,535 - and the 0 - 1023 range is known as the well-known port numbers. Don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize all of them! As you gain more and more experience with networks, you’ll be surprised how many of these you remember without even thinking about it. In the meantime, for both your Network+ and CCNA exams as well as working with real-world networks, it’s a good idea to know this list of often-used ports.

File Transfer Protocol uses both ports 20 and 21.

Telnet uses port 23.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) uses port 25.

Domain Name Service (DNS) uses port 53.

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) uses port 80, while the secure version of HTTP, HTTPS, uses port 443.

Believe me, this is just a very short beginning list of port numbers you’ll need to know to pass the Network+ exam. If you’re familiar with these protocols, that’s great - and if you’re not, just look for upcoming Network+ exam tutorials!

The perfect machine, for game play, video editing, or whatever use you have in mind, can come only when all the major and minor parts have been carefully selected. It is a union of chips, circuits, and drives that are exactly right together.

Often, this cannot be had from the major computer manufacturers. If you want such a machine, you may have to build it yourself.

Why is this perfect union so hard to find? One answer lies in the demands of mass production. Perhaps the best illustration I can give has to do with motherboards.

A large manufacturer has the advantage of buying parts in quantity, thereby getting them at a reduced price. They may buy thousands of a certain motherboard, using them as the platform for several different PCs.

This sort of standardization has great advantages on the production line. Using the same board for different models means fewer setups, easier stocking by material handlers, and the increased speed that comes from having everything fit together exactly the same way every time.

All of this is good for the production process, but do you really want the same motherboard for a home PC, and a video editor that will cut an hour long documentary? I don’t think so.

As with the motherboard, manufacturers buy CPUs in quantity to keep costs down. Most will buy either Intel or AMD, but not both. Each brand has its good points, each with models that excel at different tasks. However, there are some jobs I prefer an AMD for, and others that are best done with Intel chips. Few manufacturers give you a choice. If they do, it will not be across their entire catalog.

Graphics cards are often a source of disappointment for gamers. How many of you have bought a PC, and then, within the first month gone out and bought a different graphics card? The card in the machine was top of the line when the machine was being designed. Of course, by the time it came on the market a year had elapsed.

The solution for all this was touched on earlier. Build your own computer. Plan it, selecting the parts you want. Get exactly the computer you need, designed specifically for the job. It isn’t hard to do, and it’s worth the time and effort to get the perfect machine.