Changing the icon of your Hard Drive...

Steps :-

1) Select an image

2) Convert it into .ico (128 X 128) format using softwares like ToyCon or goto converticon.com

3) Save the image as gimp.ico into the folder whose icon you want to change.You can save the image using any name. Here, I am saving it as gimp.ico

4) Then in that drive create a text document  and write the following into it     

        [AutoRun]            

        ICON=gimp.ico

5) Save it as autorun.inf

6) Then restart your computer, and wohooo... look..icon changed

SCREENSHOTS-

1.  INF file along with image file saved in drive C.

2. Changes Done

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A cookie which cannot be eaten...

• A cookie is some information that a Web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time. More technically, it is some information for future use that is stored by the server on the client side.
  

  
  

• If a user requests a page from some site and the site sends not just a page, but also a cookie containing the date and time, then, when the user's browser gets the page, the browser also gets the cookie, which it stores in a folder on the user's hard disk.
  

  
  

• Later, if user requests a page from the same site again, and when the user enters the URL, the browser looks on the local hard disk for a cookie associated with the URL which user typed. If the cookie exists, the browser sends the cookie to requested site along with the requested page . In this way, the site will make use of cookie, and also tell when the user last visited the site. 
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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WORMs....

• A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. Often, it uses a computer network to spread itself

• Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program

• Worms cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer

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INTERNET BOTS..

• Several companies (Yahoo!, Microsoft, etc.) offer free email services. Few years ago, most of these services suffered from a specific type of attack: "bots" that would sign up for thousands of email accounts every minute 

• The solution to this problem was to use CAPTCHAs to ensure that only humans obtain free accounts. In general, free services should be protected with a CAPTCHA in order to prevent abuse by automated programs

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CAPTCHA..why to use it?

• The term CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

• CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against spammers by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot

•  In order to make the images resistant to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) the letters and numbers have been curved and compressed

• The process usually involves a computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to grade. These tests are designed to be easy for a computer to generate, but difficult for a computer to solve, so that if a correct solution is received, it can be presumed to have been entered by a human

• It is a Software designed to translate handwritten images/text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text

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Basic idea of Virtual memory..

• With virtual memory, the computer can look for areas of RAM that have not been used recently and copy them onto the hard disk. This frees up space in RAM to load the new application

• The area of the hard disk that stores the RAM image is called a page file. It holds pages of RAM on the hard disk, and the operating system moves data back and forth between the page file and RAM

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what are CC and BCC in the e-mails..?

• cc - carbon copy
• bcc - blind carbon copy

• Suppose, there are 3 misters = Mr.A, Mr.B, Mr.C

---]] Taking CC into consideration:-

• One day, Mr.A sends one email to Mr.B and writes the name of Mr.C in 'cc' field of the compose message box.

• Now, Mr.B will be able to see that Mr.C has also got the copy of the email sent by Mr.A

---]] Taking BCC into consideration:-

• One day again, Mr.A sends one email to Mr.B and but writes the name of Mr.C in 'bcc' field of the compose message box.

• Now, Mr.B will not be able to see that Mr.C has also got the copy of the email sent by Mr.A. 

---]] So, this way you can send messages. 'CC' field is similar to 'TO' field of compose message box.

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Sleep v/s Hibernate..

• Sleep, (also called Suspend) saves the information into your computer’s RAM and uses a small amount of power to keep the RAM and some system components active to allow you to quickly resume where you were

• Hibernate, on the other hand, saves the information to your hard drive then shuts down your computer. This uses the least power, but takes longer to start back up

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Does Folders take any space..?

• Folders (not the contents inside them) themselves hardly take any space on the hard drive. This is because the folders are really just pointers to files and other folders, telling the computer where the files or other folders are located.

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How to install a driver..?

Steps:-

1. Hold windows Key and then press Pause button.System properties will open.
2. Go to hardware>Device Manager.
3. A list of drivers will open. Check in which drivers a yellow question mark or some yellow colored indication will be given. This indication means that either the driver is not their or it is outdated.
4. Search the name of that driver along with OS and computer name….Here its Lenovo r61.
5. A link for Lenovo drivers will open and then download that driver from the website.
6. Store the setup file with the name which is easy to recognise the driver. Like driver names are always of like a key….7ck232…..so replace it with some name like  video,audio,Ethernet. So that in future you can find them easily.
7. Store it in c:/>windows>system. You can store them anywhere but I store them in this location.
8. Now install the downloaded driver by double clicking on them and store the installed file in the -  c:\windows\..blabla….location.
9. Now again go to that particular driver in the device manager i.e                                                            driver_name> right-click > properties> driver> update driver
10. A window will pop up. Select – install from specific location.
11. Browse the installed file from the location chosen in step 7.
12. Sometimes for ex: Ethernet….you have a location…  C:\Drivers\Win\ETHERNET….where your installed file is present. But when you will browse this file in step 11 in the ETHERENT…many sub categories will be present like WINNT, WIN2000, WINXP. These files represent the OS. Each of these file have the Ethernet installed file. So as I am having XP, I will choose WINXP>IA32 (IA32 is my main installed file.    
13. Click Next....then done.

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What is the concept behind torrents..?

• A torrent also known as 'bittorrents’ coordinates the P2P transfer of files. A user playing the role of file-provider makes a file available to the network. 

• This first user's file is called a seed and its availability on the network allows other users, called peers, to connect and begin to download the seed file. 

• As new peers connect to the network and request the same file, their computer receives a different piece of the data from the seed. Once multiple peers have multiple pieces of the seed, BitTorrent allows each to become a source for that portion of the file. 

• The effect of this is to relieve the initial user, distributing the file among the seed and many peers. After the file is downloaded by a given peer, the peer also becomes an additional seed, helping the remaining peers to receive the entire file.

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Why does a folder name becomes blue..?

• It is a way of saving the Disc's space. If the folder or file is in blue, then it means the particular folder or file has been compressed to save the disc space. 

• This property  applied on your folder can be changed, but if the C drive is running short of memory then this option will help you to generate some more space. 

• Other wise you can change it easily by right clicking the folder, then go to

Folder ---|| Properties ---|| Advanced ---|| Uncheck the first box below compress or encrypt attributes---|| Save Changes

• You will get your folders in normal black color

• Similarly, the folder can be of a GREEN COLOR, if it has been encrypted. So, again we can check this property by the same technique described above.

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[21st March,2013]
What does Java Update means..?

• Java is language on which many softwares, web applications like Applets , games, etc. <br>run. So, why does this java update notification is popped up on my screen on regular basis ?

•  Basically, that notification tells us to update the features of already installed JAVA on our PC

• These new features provide different patches (a solution in a form of program to deal with viruses) for viruses. Many times it happens that websites demands for some plug-in from you, otherwise the site will not display the required content, so, those plug-ins sometimes are also installed through that JAVA update notification

• So, it is beneficial for us to keep updating the JAVA, installed in our computer 

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Error 734

 Error 734..

  " The PPP Link Control Protocol Was Terminated ” Error Message Occurs If You Try to Establish a Dial-Up Connection. This issue may occur if either of the following conditions are true:

       a)  Multi-link negotiation is turned on for the single-link connection      

       b) The dial-up connection security configuration is incorrectly configured

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What is a DATAGRAM in Networking...??

• Packets that goes through Datagram subnet are called datagrams. 

• Datagrams are independent packets having information about the sender, receiver & the message to be delivered.They take any route between the sender & receiver as there is no dedicated point-to-point channel established between them.

• Packets that goes through Virtual circuit subnet first establishes a channel and then all packets goes through that channel. These packets don’t have any information about the sender and the receiver.

Depending on the type of network, packets may be referred to by another name:

• In physical layer the actual data is in "bits" i.e. 0 and 1

• When it reaches to data link layer or Layer 2 it becomes "frame" with source and destination MAC address getting added

• When it reaches the third layer or the networking layer it becomes a "packet" with source and destination IP address attached to it

• Finally it become "segment" at Layer 4 or TCP/IP layer. Basically "segment" term is used for TCP connections and "datagrams" for UDP

• So what about other layers like : session, presentation and application ? In these layers the data is termed as "PDU" or "protocol data unit"

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IPV4 VS IPV6..

IPV - 4	IPV - 6
Addresses are of 32 bits	Addresses are of 128 bits
IPSec is optional and can be supported externally	IPSec support is not optional
4th version of Internet Protocol	6th version of Internet Protocol
Format of IPv4 is 0.0.0.0	Format of IPv6 is 0.0.0.0.0.0
IPv4 are manually worked and with DHCP as an additional options	IPv6 can be handled automatically and does not require manual automation or with DHCP
Headers have checksum by providing options	Headers do not have checksum

• Internet users are increasing drastically .So IPV - 4 is not enough to provide IPs to all hence IPV - 6  was adopted.

• As IPV - 6 uses IP - Sec compulsorily, it provides security to each and every packet hence it is more secured then IPV - 4.

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What is a Checksum..?

• A simple error-detection scheme (some formula) in which each transmitted message is accompanied by a numerical value based on the number of bits in the message. The receiving station then applies the same formula to the message and checks to make sure the accompanying numerical value is the same. If not, the receiver can assume that the message has been garbled.

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Logical memory & Physical memory..??

• Say an application needs something to be computed by the CPU 

• That application says to the CPU, "I'm going to send you 500 pieces of data, so I need a space in the memory that is 500 pieces of data big." So the CPU takes a look at the memory 

• Initially there is room for 10,000 pieces of data, but because there are other processes already running the first 1 - 2,000 pieces are already taken up. The CPU says to himself from piece 2,000 to 2,500 is were all new data is going to go

 

• The physical memory is the address from 2,000 to 2,500

• Now the application doesn't realize that there are other processes that the CPU is taking care of. All it sees is the data 1- 500 pieces stored in the memory. This is logical memory

 

• When the application wants to run a piece of data of the 1-500, its says to the CPU run the piece 130. In reality 130 is not even a space in the memory that the CPU has set out for the application 

• Because remember it was originally 2,000-2500 that was set aside for the application. Piece 130 according to the applications logical memory is in reality piece 2130 in the physical memory

• So when the CPU is receiving instructions from the application it has to translate the logical memory in to the physical memory and then back into the logical when replying to the application

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Why defragmentation of drives is necessary..?

[21st Feb,2013]

• Defragmentation reduces Fragmentation in memory.

• To understand why defragmentation (or defrag) is necessary, let’s go over how a hard drive stores files.

• Our hard drive is made up of sectors and blocks. When a document, picture or some file wants to get saved on your hard drive, the drive needs to find enough space to put it.

• To make most efficient use of the space on your hard drive (and allow you to easily delete/move files), the hard drive breaks up the files into little pieces and stores them where there is available space on the drive. 

• The result of this is a file that may exist as a single, but pieces of it may be in 3 different parts of the hard drive.

• When you go to open the picture the hard drive knows to look in those 3 separate areas to get the complete file.

So why do you need to defragment if the hard drive knows where to look? 

Basically 2 Reasons :- 

Speed: 

• Every time the hard drive needs to move the read head (a small needle kind of thing like in gramophone) to a new location it takes a certain amount of time to move. If the file is in one single area of the hard drive, the head only needs to move once to read the file. If the file is contained in 3 different places, the head needs to move 3 times to get the same file, making the time it takes to load longer.

Wear-and-tear: 

• As a mechanical device, your hard drive read head moves a lot as it accesses files. Limiting the amount of times it has to move is going to increase the drives lifespan.

• By defragmenting the hard drive all the files that can be lined up together are moved so that the hard drive reads files faster, has less movement needed, and lasts longer.

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