Tips for preventing your laptop from getting stolen.

Laptop theft is one of the fastest growing problems in this age of Information Technology and Security. Who can forget the nightmare scenario that occurred at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs around 2006 May?
A department analyst loaded a file onto his laptop and took it home for the night, where burglars promptly walked off with it — along with identifying information on 26.5 million veterans. While the laptop was eventually retrieved, most are not.

I derive the motivation for this post from such incidents. In this post, lets learn about a few basic tips which can certainly prevent your laptop from getting stolen.

1. Visual deterrents – A laptop in the office environment should be secured with a lock or put into a secure locker when not in use. An opportunistic burglar could be put off by a lock as they have only a small window of time to get out before they are discovered.

2. Don’t make it obvious you are carrying a laptop – Rather that a tell-tale laptop bag, laptops should be carried in inconspicuous bags, such as backpacks or tote bags.

3. Avoid leaving laptops unattended – Lock them in cupboards or other secure facilities when not being used. If they must be left in a car, they should be covered up or locked in the boot.

4. Discourage theft by publicising the use of security products such as asset tracking software – If thieves think that they might be caught, they will be less likely to take it in the first place.

5. Add identification to your laptop – For example, adding barcodes or engraving details onto the device will act as a deterrent. Thieves usually steal laptops to immediately sell them on. Obvious identification makes it a less desirable target.

6. When flying, never check your laptop in as luggage – Laptops should be taken onto a plane as hand luggage. Be aware of thieves swapping briefcases coming out of the x-ray machine at security.

Also read: [How-To] Disable Simple File Sharing on Windows XP

[How-To] Recover lost Outlook PST Password

[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

Source: Astalavista

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Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Get Serial numbers for your favorite softwares

Earlier i wrote about a simple Google trick which can let you get Serials and product keys of the various softwares. Today, lets see a website which can also help you get the same.

YouSerials is one such website using which you can gain access to the repository of 54000+ serials of various softwares. The website also has some interesting features like Recently Added, Top Serials and Just Added.

To search serials for your favorite software, follow the steps below

1.) Point your browser to www.youserials.com

2.) Enter the name of the software in the search box.

3.) Press on Search.
4.) The list displayed contains serials for your favorite software.

Kindly note that i haven’t tested this website and do not take the authority of its hit ratio.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] Automating data backup in Windows

Data Backup is a crucial step towards a risk free and Healthy PC. However, the task of backing up the data manually is quite a boring job. The good news is that you can automate the data backup process in windows by following the steps mentioned in this post.

Make it a habit to backup your data. The best strategy for backing up your data is to do a full image backup, create an incremental backup every day and create a new full-image backup once a week.

1.) In your Windows machine, Click on Start->All Programs ->Accessories->System Tools-> Backup.

2.) Click on Next. The screen then asks you for an input, select “Backup Files and Settings” and click on Next.

3.) The next screen asks for your decision, “What do you want to Backup”. Based on your choice, you can choose an optimal option. I usually choose ” My Documents and Settings”. Once selected, click on Next.

4.) The next screen asks for Backup Type ( Preselected as File), Destination and name for the backup. Select a location where you wish to save the backup file. Its always safe to have the backup in a different device. Click on Next.

5.) In the screen which follows, clicking on Finish, starts the backup immediately, however, if you click on Advanced and click Next, you get a screen asking for ” When do you want to run the backup?”, Click Later, enter the start date and click on Set Schedule to enter the information into the Scheduler. The scheduler then runs the task as per the schedule.

This above mentioned process shall backup your data into a .bkf file with a name as mentioned by you. You can then use the same utility to restore the data back in case of need. Remember to select the option ” Restore Files and Settings”.

Also read: [How-To] Disable Simple File Sharing on Windows XP

[How-To] Recover lost Outlook PST Password

[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

How does a DNS work?

I earlier wrote about OpenDns and how it can help you stay ahead while making a dns query. But interestingly, i met someone recently who quite didn’t understand the whole DNS and the resolution thing, for him and for all those of you who might be interested, this is the post.

Have you ever thought about how the website address you type in the browser address bar gets resolved to the IP address. This post describes the way Domain Name Servers resolve the web address to IP Address.

When you enter the address of a website into your web browser, the browser tries to identify the IP address of the server hosting this website. Follow the steps below to identify what happens behind the scenes.

1.) The user enters the web address for Technofriends (www.technofriends.in) ( URL –> Universal resource locater) in the browser’s address bar.

2.) The browser then contacts the local nameserver ( usually assigned in the IPCONFIG) and asks for the IP address of the webserver.

3.) If the local nameserver has this information in its cache, it passes this on to the client browser. If not, it sends back the reference to the Root DNS Servers.

4.) The client browser then gets in touch with the ROOT DNS Server and asks for the IP address of http://www.technofriends.in . The Root DNS server, then gives back a reference for .in DNS servers.

5.) The client then gets in touch with the .IN DNS servers for the IP of http://www.technofriends.in

6.) The .IN Server then returns a reference to the name server of TECHNOFRIENDS.IN

7.) Client then contacts the TECHNOFRIENDS.IN nameserver to get the IP of http://www.technofriends.in.

8.) The TECHNOFRIENDS.IN nameserver returns the IP Address of http://www.technofriends.in.

9.) Client browser then connects to the IP Address and gets the content.

You can get the DNS resolution steps of the website using DIG in Unix or NSLOOKUP in windows. You might even try out the web based dig tool available here.

Also read: What’s your IP Address?

Open DNS: A big DNS Cache

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

[How-To] View Webcontent without Passwords

Often while surfing the web for some particular content, we land up at websites which require us to register in order to view the requested content. This post will help you get a handle to an interesting service which helps you get rid of this problem.

BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times). BugMeNot.com has a repository of login information for 194153 websites.

In order to access webcontent without registering with the website follow the steps below

1.) Point the URL of your browser to http://www.bugmenot.com

2.) In the Input box, enter the name of the URL for which you wish to get the login information.

3.) Press the Get Logins button to get the list of Login and Password information for the website.

4.) Make a note of a username and password combination with high success percentage score and use it to log on to the website in question. The chances of your being able to login to the website shall be pretty high this ways.

Happy Surfing!!!

Also read: [How-To] Disable Simple File Sharing on Windows XP

[How-To] Recover lost Outlook PST Password

[How-To]Bypassing Passwords in Windows

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav