hide-history-of-websites-you-visited

We search for lots of information on the internet. But it is not necessary that others know about this. Whenever you visit any website this information is captured and stored in your computer in the form of 'cache', 'cookie', 'history', and 'windows registry'. There is a danger due to this. Whoever uses the same computer after you have used can find out which websites you have been visiting. If you have a personal computer that no one else will ever use, then you don't have to worry much about this. But if your home or office computer is shared then you better clear this history. In this tutorial let us see how to completely remove the recently visited websites from your computer.

 

  1. Cache Folder

      Every time you visit a website, every browser has the functionality to store the images, websites, urls etc in your hard disk somewhere in the temporary folders. This is useful to save bandwidth. When you visit the same website again, instead of downloading all the images again, the browser will retrieve them from the temporary folders from your hard disks and therefore increasing the speed and saving internet bandwidth. So when you finish browsing you can clear these temporary folders. This temporary folder is usually referred to as Cache. The exact location of this folder will differ based on the browser you are using. For instance if you use Internet explorer then this cache is located in the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder under your c:\Windows folder.

      You can either delete from this folder or you can delete it from your browser. Goto Tools-> Internet Options. Under the General tab click 'Delete Files' button.

 

2. History

     All the browsers also store the urls of every website you visit. This is used to show the address of the site on the 'Address Bar' when you start typing the first few letters of the web sited address; the browser will take from the history and prompt you for the full address. This makes your job easier so that you need not type the full address every time. But if you want to hide the sites you visit then you have to remove this history also. Internet explorer stores this history in a folder called 'History' under c:\Windows folder.

      Or you can delete history from your browser. Goto Tools-> Internet Options. Select the 'General' tab and click on 'Clear History' button. In the confirmation dialog box select 'OK'. This will clear your history.

3. Cookies

      Whenever you visit websites, some information about you and some information about that website are stored in your computer's hard disk. When you visit the same site again, the information stored in this cookie file will be read to identify you. This is especially useful for sites that can personalize the site for you and displays messages such as 'welcome your name' etc. But this cookie also stores the name of the site you visit so you should also delete these cookies if you want to hide the sites you visited.

      To delete cookies, go to Tools->Internet Options. And click on 'Delete Cookies' button. Or you can choose the security tab and click on 'Custom Level' button to disable or enable cookies.

4. Registry

      Another place in which the websites you visited are stored is the windows registry. It is not advisable to modify registries if you are not sure how to use them. Only those who are confident and willing to take risk should touch the registry. Click on 'Start->Run' and type 'regedit' and press enter. The windows registry will open. Now click on 'Edit->find' and type 'URL History'. In the right hand side you can see a list of website addresses that you visited. You can select them one by one and delete them. Programs, viruses and hackers.

Source: - http://www.allpctips.com/internet/hide-history-of-websites-you-visited.htm

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How To Trace An Email

What is an email header?

Each email you receive comes with headers. The headers contain information about the routing of the email and the originating IP of the email. Not all emails you receive can be traced back to the originating point and depending on how you send emails determines whether or not they can trace the email back to you. The headers don't contain any personal information. At most, you can get the originating IP and the computer name that sent the email. The originating IP can be looked up to determine from where the email was sent. IP address location information DOES NOT contain your street address or phone number. It will most likely determine the city and the ISP the sender used.

How do I get the email header?

Each email program will vary as to how you get to the email options. I'll cover the basics...the rest is up to you.

• Outlook

Right click the email while it's in the inbox and choose Message Options. A window will open with the headers in the bottom of the window.

• Windows Live Mail

Right click the email while it's in the inbox, choose Properties, then click the Details tab.

• GMail

Open the email. In the upper right corner of the email you'll see the word Reply with a little down arrow to the right. Click the down arrow and choose Show Original.

• Hotmail

Right click the email in the inbox and choose View Message Source.

• Yahoo!

Right click the email in the inbox and choose View Full Headers.

You can see that no matter the email program, the headers are usually just a right click away.

I've got the header, now what?

Usually the first IP listed is where the email originated. There are exceptions to this. You'll have to look at the information logically to deduce the originating IP.

Can any email be traced?

Yes and No. For example, someone who sends an email to your hotmail account shows in the X-Originating IP section of the headers. However, someone who sends you an email from GMail can ONLY be traced back to the GMail servers.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/how-to-trace-an-email.asp

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Router Support

A lot of users in the What Is My IP Forum will ask us for help with their router. Unless it's one we specifically own, our help will be limited. The links below are to provide users a way to find their users manual on their Routers Manufacturer's site. If you've still got questions, you can ask them in the Router Configuration Forum.

• Belkin
• Buffalo
• D-Link
• Linksys
• NetGear

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/router-support.asp

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What Is MAC Cloning?

MAC cloning can only be done at your router providing it has those capabilities. Most ISPs assign their IPs based on the MAC address in your equipment. If the MAC address of your router is 00-11-22-33-44-55 and you connect to your ISP, the DHCP server records your MAC and assigns an IP. If you disconnect from the ISP, you lose your IP address. The next time you connect, the DHCP server sees your MAC, looks to see if it has assigned an IP address to you before. If it has and the lease time has not expired, it will most likely give you the same IP address you had before disconnecting. Why clone a MAC address? New MAC address most likely equals new IP. How to clone your MAC and if your router has this feature is dependent on the router itself. You’ll need to find the instructions on the manufacturer’s website. Check out our Router Support page to get started.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-mac-cloning.asp

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What is a MAC address?

A MAC address is a physical hardware address assigned to each device that has the capability of connecting to a network. The internet is nothing more than a large network. The MAC address is something that is assigned in the chip on the device and is not something the user can change.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source:http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-a-mac-address.asp

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UNIX IP Commands

Display Current Config for all NIC's: ifconfig

Display Current Config for dc0: ifconfig dc0

Assign multiple IP's: ifconfig dc0:0 192.168.1.2

Assign second IP: ifconfig dc0:1 192.168.1.3

Disable network card: ifconfig dc0 down

Enable network card: ifconfig dc0 up

Assign IP/Subnet: ifconfig dc0 inet 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

Assign Gateway: route delete default && route add default 192.168.1.1

You MUST be at the ROOT user to make/save any changes. You will need to save your changes in the /etc/rc.conf file. Network cards are referred to as dc0, dc1, dc2, etc based on their position on the PCI bus.

Special thanks to Romanov Sergey Vladimirovich from Moscow for the UNIX command.

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/unix-ip-commands.asp

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Linux IP Commands

Display Current Config for all NIC's: ifconfig

Display Current Config for eth0: ifconfig eth0

Assign IP: ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2

Ping: ping -c 3 192.168.1.1

Assign multiple IP's: ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.1.2

Assign second IP: ifconfig eth0:1 192.168.1.3

Disable network card: ifconfig eth0 down

Enable network card: ifconfig eth0 up

View current routing table: route "or" route -n

View arp cache: arp "or" arp -n

Assign IP/Subnet: ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

Assign Default Gateway: route add default gw 192.168.1.1

Trace Route: traceroute www.whatismyip.com

Trace Path: tracepath www.whatismyip.com

DNS Test: host www.whatismyip.com

Advanced DNS Test: dig www.whatismyip.com

Reverse Lookup: host 66.11.119.69

Advanced Reverse Lookup: dig -x 66.11.119.69

You MUST be at the ROOT user to make/save any changes. Linux users, your distribution will determine the location of your network config file which will need to be updated and saved in order for the changes to remain in effect after rebooting. Network cards are referred to as eth0, eth1, eth2, etc based on their position on the PCI bus.

Special thanks to Gergely for the Linux commands!

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/linux-ip-commands.asp

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DOS / Windows IP Commands

Display Connection Configuration: ipconfig /all

Display DNS Cache Info: ipconfig /displaydns

Clear DNS Cache: ipconfig /flushdns

Release All IP Address Connections: ipconfig /release

Renew All IP Address Connections: ipconfig /renew

Re-Register the DNS connections: ipconfig /registerdns

Change/Modify DHCP Class ID: ipconfig /setclassid

Network Connections: control netconnections

Network Setup Wizard: netsetup.cpl

Test Connectivity: ping www.whatismyip.com

Trace IP address Route: tracert

Displays the TCP/IP protocol sessions: netstat

Display Local Route: route

Display Resolved MAC Addresses: arp

Display Name of Computer Currently on: hostname

Display DHCP Class Information: ipconfig /showclassid

- JMD COMPUTER INDIA

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/dos-windows-ip-commands.asp

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What Is DHCP?

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

In simple terms, DHCP determines if your IP is static or dynamic.

DHCP is controlled by a DHCP server. Your router can be a DHCP server...and if you're on a home network, it most likely is your DHCP server.

I know this might be confusing because the word dynamic is in the term, but just because you have DHCP enabled on your computer doesn't mean you can't be assigned a static IP. DHCP enabled on your computer simply means you're letting a DHCP server assign its IP. Having it enabled DOES NOT mean it's a DHCP server.

A true DHCP server (not your Linksys router) gives the LAN Admin a ton of control with IP assigning.

Ever print to a network printer? Ever wonder how that printer keeps its network assignment? Probably through DHCP. Each network device has a MAC address. You can assign a static IP at the DHCP server to a specific MAC address. This allows the network printer to always get the same IP even after it reboots and without assigning the IP at the printer. If you print the network configuration at the printer, it will probably tell you that DHCP is enabled and no static IP is assigned. That's because the IP assignment is handled at the DHCP server.

Your ISP has a DHCP server. They can assign IPs by modem MAC addresses. When your modem comes online, it communicates to the network indicating it is looking for an IP address. The DHCP server listens to this communication and starts talking to the modem. The modem then transmits its MAC address to the DHCP server. At that point, either an IP has been reserved for the modem or one is assigned at that time. Hence cloning your MAC address to get a new IP from your ISP.

Routers and DHCP - Under the General Setup or LAN Setup tab in your router, you'll see a settings option for DHCP. You can control how many IPs are assigned or to enable/disable the DHCP server portion of the router. If you disable it, you'll have to statically assign IPs to each computer, or have a DHCP server or your network. This goes for wired and wireless. Any connection on your network has an IP address.

There's a lot more to DHCP than this, but this is a basic explanation.

- JMD Computer India

Source:- http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-dhcp.asp

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IP Address Management

What is IP Address Management or IPAM?

By breaking down and assigning your internal IP block into segments allows faster troubleshooting when monitoring the network and seeing an erratic IP. Because you’ve segmented the IPs out, you’ll know exactly which segment it’s coming from and can narrow down finding it faster.

Why manage IPs?

Easily track when network monitor software shows errors. If you’re logged on locally to a User’s computer and you’re mapping batch file didn’t run and you need to get a file from one of your servers you don’t have to know the server name, you can simply type \\192.168.1.x to get access to the server you’re needing the file from.

In the scenario I explain below, we’ll have 1 External IP, 5 servers ((Static) 1 handles DHCP (2k3)), 10 printers (Static), 200 wired PCs/users (DHCP).


There are several different ways to set up exact scenarios. This scenario will explain IP Address Management (IPAM) for a small network using my experience and knowledge.


For ease of use, we’re going to say that this is in a brand new facility where no IPs have been assigned and you, as the LAN Admin, have just been told your internet connection is in place and ready to use (this is where the single external IP comes from).


You already know how many devices will be connected to your network in the beginning so it’s now time to lay out a plan. Since most everyone is familiar with the 192.168.1.x IPs, I’ll stick with those. Technically, your first IP is 192.168.1.0 and your last is 192.168.1.255 which gives you 256 IPs. I don’t know of anyone that uses 192.168.1.0. Since we’re human, the first number to us is 1. To a computer, the first number is 0. I don’t think .255 is useable so really, you have 254 IPs available. Your 5 servers should get your first 5 IP addresses and assign them statically even though you can control static assignment in DHCP. You don’t want there to be any chance of these servers losing their IP addresses so you don’t want them to depend on DHCP for IP assignment.


Server 1 also happens to be your DHCP server: 192.168.1.1
Server 2: 192.168.1.2
Server 3: 192.168.1.3
Server 4: 192.168.1.4
Server 5: 192.168.1.5


You have to account for growth so leave .6 through .9 open for future servers whether they’re physical or virtual, they’ll need an IP.


You have 10 printers that will be used by multiple users. IPs in the next segment of the block can be statically assigned at the printer or via the DHCP server…your choice. Every office has a “main” printer/copier/fax. Give it 192.168.1.10. If you think far enough in advance and know that Group 1 will use printer 1 then assign printer 1 192.168.10.11, printer 2 for Group 2 would get 192.168.10.12, etc. all the way through .19. In my experience, if there’s any one piece of equipment you’ll add to your network more than any other, it’ll be a printer. Somebody in one of those groups will get tired of walking 15 feet to the printer and suck up to the boss to get their own printer. Then, people within 5 feet of that person will want to share with them so they don’t have to walk 15 feet to get their stuff either. So that printer will need to be on the network vs. just connected directly to the complainers PC and shared. Lucky you. By the way, remember at the beginning I said this was a brand new facility….hopefully, the people that ran the network drops put in 2 cables at each requested location. Otherwise, you’ll either need to run a cable or take the easy way out and install a 5 port switch. Trust me when I say leave plenty of IPs open for future printers. I would assign .10 through .29 for printers. This gives you 20 IPs for printers so you’ll have 10 IPs free after installing the initial 10 printers.


Finally, we have 200 PCs that will all be hardwired to the LAN and will each need an IP. Starting at .30 going through and including .254 gives you 225 IPs. I’d start my scope in DHCP at .40 through .254. That gives you 215 IPs for users (15 extra) and that also leaves 10 IPs open at the lower range (.30 through .39) for device growth. One thing I didn’t mention yet was managed switches. They’ll need IPs. You can do those at the high end of the spectrum so they’re “out of the way”. Maybe assign them .254, .253, .252, etc. depending on how many you have.


IPAM can get pretty deep especially if you’re dealing with 100’s of PCs and devices. This is where subnetting comes in. I’ll go into further detail in another article, but just for gee whiz this is the tip of the iceberg on subnetting:


For example, 192.168.1.1 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 is not on the same network as 192.168.2.1 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 even though they both might be in the same building. However, if you change the third octet in the subnet to 0 like this 255.255.0.0 now 192.168.1.1 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0 and 192.168.2.1 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0 are on the same network. The 255 is sort of a true/false in simple terms, but can get pretty complex if you’re trying to keep networks separate. I’m not a subnet guru by any means, but if you Google subnet calculator you can get a pretty good appreciation for its complexity.

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/ip-address-management.asp

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What Is An IP Address?

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address):

This number is an exclusive number all information technology devices (printers, routers, modems, et al) use which identifies and allows them the ability to communicate with each other on a computer network. There is a standard of communication which is called an Internet Protocol standard (IP). In laymans terms it is the same as your home address. In order for you to receive snail mail at home the sending party must have your correct mailing address (IP address) in your town (network) or you do not receive bills, pizza coupons or your tax refund. The same is true for all equipment on the internet. Without this specific address, information cannot be received. IP addresses may either be assigned permanently for an Email server/Business server or a permanent home resident or temporarily, from a pool of available addresses (first come first serve) from your Internet Service Provider. A permanent number may not be available in all areas and may cost extra so be sure to ask your ISP.

Domain Name System (DNS): This allows the IP address to be translated to words. It is much easier for us to remember a word than a series of numbers. The same is true for email addresses.

For example, it is much easier for you to remember a web address name such as whatismyip.com than it is to remember 192.168.1.1 or in the case of email it is much easier to remember email@somedomain.com than email@192.168.1.1

Dynamic IP Address: An IP address that is not static and could change at any time. This IP address is issued to you from a pool of IP addresses allocated by your ISP or DHCP Server. This is for a large number of customers that do not require the same IP Address all the time for a variety of reasons. Your computer will automatically get this number as it logs on to the network and saves you the trouble of having to know details regarding the specific network configurations. This number can be assigned to anyone using a dial-up connection, Wireless and High Speed Internet connections. If you need to run your own email server or web server, it would be best to have a static IP.

Static IP Address: An IP address that is fixed and never changes. This is in contrast to a dynamic IP address which may change at any time. Most ISP's a single static IP or a block of static IP's for a few extra bucks a month.

IP version 4: Currently used by most network devices. However, with more and more computers accessing the internet, IPv4 addresses are running out quickly. Just like in a city, addresses have to be created for new neighborhoods but, if your neighborhood gets too large, you will have to come up with an entire new pool of addresses. IPv4 is limited to 4,294,967,296 addresses.

IP version 5: This is an experimental protocol for UNIX based systems. In keeping with standard UNIX (a computer Operating System) release conventions, all odd-numbered versions are considered experimental. It was never intended to be used by the general public.

IP version 6: The replacement for the aging IPv4. The estimated number of unique addresses for IPv6 is 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 or 2^128.

The old and current standard of addresses was this: 192.168.100.100 the new way can be written different ways but means the same and are all valid:

* 1080:0000:0000:0000:0000:0034:0000:417A

* 1080:0:0:0:0:34:0:417A

* 1080::34:0:417A

Source: http://www.whatismyip.com/faq/what-is-an-ip-address.asp

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multimedia presentation using power point

How to create effective multimedia presentation using power point?

To present one's ideas across clearly, most of us us Microsoft Office Power Point. MS Powerpoint is a great application to create and do stylish and informative presentations. These days, people are using power point to include video clips and audio clips to create a multimedia presentation. Here are some tips on how to use video clips and create a power point presentation.

1. The size of the video
   After inserting video files into presentations the size of the presentation file (.ppt) becomes too big. Therefore to run this presentation a powerful computer with more system memory is required. Due to this reason, some do not show the video clip on 'full screen'. Instead they use a smaller screen for the video. For example in a 640 x 480 resolution monitor a 320 x 240 size video clip will be smaller when viewed. Therefore it is best to keep the size of the video as 640 x 480. A video with this size (640x480) will appear clear on all monitors with different resolutions such as 640x480, 800 x 600, 1024x768, 1280x1024.
2. Compression
   Most of the people choose the MPEG 2 video compression format. However, Microsoft's Widows Media Video (WMV) and Real Network's Real Video compression methods are also pretty good.
   
   Between Widows media video and Real video which is better? Which takes the least CPU time and processing power? Even an average computer can run Windows media video files and hence most of them choose windows media video. Moreover this WMV format is most suitable for Powerpoint. Hence I suggest to use the MWV format for compression for use in power piont.
3. Book marking a scene or a frame in a video
   If you are going to insert a very big video into the power point presentation it is better to use the software Windows Media Encoder File Editor. When you download the windows media encoder, this file editor is also downloaded together with this software. Using this software you can bookmark important scenes in the video. The presenter can jump to any book marked scene in the video while doing the presentation.
   
4. How to Insert a video inside the presentation
   There are three ways how you can insert video into a powerpoint presentation. Let us see which method is the best.
   
   1. Insert Movies and Sounds is the mostly used method. A window will be shown within the slide where you can insert the video and play it by clicking on the window.
   
   2. Insert Object is another method where you can insert the Windows media player as the object. Once you have inserted the media player object right click on this object and choose 'properties'. In the properties window you can show the media controls and in the 'Custom' button you can browse and select the video file stored in your hard disk. This insert object method is the best to show media controls such as Volume control, slider bar, zoom in, zoom out, full screen etc.
   
   3. Action Button. The above two methods are not suitable to show real video and quick time videos inside the power point presentation. But if you have only real video or quick time format video then you can use the 'Action Button' option from the 'Slide Show' menu. Using the action button option you can run any windows applications from within the presentation. So using this option you can choose real video or the quicktime player. If you click the action button the player will be started and the video will run.

Source:- http://www.allpctips.com/software/howto-create-multimedia-powerpoint-presentation.htm

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what is application software and Operating system

what is an Operating system?

To run the installed programs in your computer, to manage the system memory, to manage the file structure in your harddisk, to identify the file extensions and application types and use them accordingly, an operating system is required. Without this operating system, no computer can work. Some of the populare operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux and Solaris.

What is an Application software?

An application written to solve a specific need or requirement is an application software. This can be further classified into customized application software and generic application software. Some example of a generic application software are MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia freehand etc. Customized application software are applications developed for a particular company to suit their workflow and automate their processes. There are many software development companies that develop this type of applications.

Source:- http://www.allpctips.com/software/applicationsoftware-operatingsystem.htm

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Imaging software equivalent to Photoshop

Is there a free Imaging software equivalent to Photoshop? What is GIMP?

For handling images in computers most of us use Adobe Photoshop. There is no doubt that Photoshop gives unlimited features for creating and handling images. Printing works, Banners and magazine designs all need images. Photoshop is widely used for all these. But Adobe photoshop is not free. It is illegal to use pirated copies of the software. However a free software is available which can do most of the things photoshop can do. It is called GIMP.

GNU Image Manipulation Program is the full form of GIMP. This is a very popular free open source software that runs on many operating systems and can create, edit and manipulate images much like photoshop. You can download this GIMP software freely from http://www.gimp.org for Windows, Linux, Mac Os or Linux Os.

Do not just download the software from the above website. You can also get details from there about how to install, how to use GIMP from this website.

What is GIMP?

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Some call it as General Image Manipulation Program.

To draw images, to handle images, to enhance images GIMP is very useful. Almost everything you do in Photoshop can be done using GIMP. And it is Free. Free software foundation has released this software under the GNU (General Public Licence). Therefore you can even view the source code of this software freely. You can also copy this software and distribute it freely.

How to install GIMP?

If you want the full source code of GIMP and want to compile it yourself then goto www.gimp.org and download the appropriate file for your operating system. Then install it on your computer. Instead if you want the pre-built binary packages of GIMP, download the latest installer from http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net . (recommended) In Windows, installation is very easy by running the executable file. Let us see how to install GIMP in linux. Give this command in your computer.

tar-zxvfgimp-2.0.1.trar.gz

Now the compressed files will be extracted. Now goto the extracted folder and give the following three commands.

/ Configure

make

make uninstall

What are the features available in GIMP?

There are many tools available in GIMP. Paintbrush, airbrush, ctone, blur, sharpen are tools related to painting. There are tools to handle text too. Other tools to change images such as rotation, scaling, flipping, sheearing are also available. Selection tools such as square, oval or freehand tools are available. GIMP can handle image formats such as Tiff, Gif, Jpeg, Bmp, PPm image formats. You can convert images from one format to another format. Other tools such as layers, transparency and scripts are also available.

You can create images according to your imagination. You can get tools from the menu bar or right click and choose from the shortcut menu.

You can convert the created image to CMYK format to print. Colour mixer is another important feature.

As noted above, GIMP has many features as in Adobe photoshop and is freely available. However, GIMP is inferior it photoshop in some ways in terms of quality and power.

Source:- http://www.allpctips.com/software/What-is-GIMP.htm

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What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system that is now gaining popularity and competing against the Operating System giant, Microsoft. In 1993, a student in Finland, Linus Torralds, created Linux. Both home PCs as well as network Computers need an Operating System to function. Both home users and companies spend millions of dollars in purching these operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Unix. How nice it will be if we can get a free Operating System. Well, Linux is a free open source Operating System that anybody, home user or companies can download and use it freely.

Linux is based on the Unix operating system. Linux solves all your needs. You can linux in a single computer or in a networked enviroment where there are thousands of computers.
But home users still have many doubts and questions about Linux. In this section we will see some of the frequently asked questions about linux.

There are many advertisements selling Linux. Isn't Linux Free?

Linux is totally FREE. You can download Linux from Internet. But if your internet connection is slow, then it may take several hours or even days to download linux and its related applications using your dial-up connection. Just calculate the phone charges and the internet connection charges for this time. If you have a high speed broadband then you will find no problem to download linux from the internet directly.

But to solve the issue for 'dial-up' users many companies download linux and copy it into CDs and sell them. The cost of the CD disk, the cost for sending the CD to your house, and for the service they provide, these companies may charge a meagre amount for the Linux CD. But if you directly download from Internet, it is totally free.

What is Redhat, SuSe?

These are names of companies that market and sell Linux. The heart of the Linux OS is its Kernel. These companies add many utilities and applications based on this kernel and sell it. There are many such companies such as RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSe etc. The linux offered by these companies are called Linux Distributions or simply 'Distros'. The Kernel in all these Distros will be the same. But the utilities and applications may be different in different distros.

Can I copy the linux CD from my friend and install it in my computer?

By all means, Yes. You can make as many copies of the Linux CD of your friend. It is legal.

Is it very difficult to use Linux?

If you learn and know the linux commands then it is easy to operate your computer. The Character User Interface in Linux requires you to know and remember the commands. But using the 'Graphical User Interface' of Linux, anybody can use Linux without the need to learn and remember the commands. You can use desktop environments such as 'Gnome' or 'Kde' to get the graphical user interface. This GUI environment will be similar to the Windows environment.

Do all hardware work with Linux?

Some old hardware may not work with linux. But all the recent and new hardware works well in linux. A common hardware problem is with the 'winmodem'. If you are using this type of internal winmodem, then you may have to buy the latest modem.

Are there applications for Linux? Are they free?

There are plenty of applications for linux. Most of them are free. Open Office, GIMP, Real Player, MTV, Doom are some examples.

I do not want to stop using Windows. Can I still use Linux?

Yes you can. This is called Dual booting or Multibooting. You can install linux in a separate partition. Whenever you boot, you can select whether you want to boot from windows or linux.

Source:- http://www.allpctips.com/software/what_is_linux.htm

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What is Multibooting?

Multibooting is the ability to install and use more than one Operating System in the same computer.

Generally most of us use just one operating system in our computers such as Windows or Linux. But there are people who install and use more than one operating systems in their computers. Some of the people who do this are:

• Computer students
• Computer teachers
• Programmers and developers who would like to test, how their application will behave in different operating systems
• Testers

Such users who have installed more than one operating systems in their computers will see a menu with a list of operating systems that they have installed. They can choose the operating system with which they want to boot from the list. Likewise they have switch between different OS by rebooting and selecting the OS. This is called multibooting.

How to install more than one Operating Systems in one computer?

1. Disk Partitioning

If your computer has two hard disks and they are not partitioned then you can two different Operating Systems on each of this hard disks. If you have only one hard disk and it is partitioned then you can install different OS on each of these partitions. Each OS needs to have a separate partition.

You can use FDISK to partition the harddisk in windows. This is not an easy tool to use. While partitioning, the data in the harddisk will be lost. Therefore you need to backup the data before partitioning.

If you are not so sure about using this command, there are other more user friendly applications available for partitioning. 'Nortan Partition Magic' is one such tool. You can get this tool, This is not a free tool. 'Ranish partition manager' is a free tool but it is a bit difficult to use.

If you like to use windows and linux in your computer, then install Windows first and partition your hard disk and then install Linux in the other partition.

2. Virtual Machine (VM)

Those who want to use multiple OS in their computers can use Virtual Machines. VM is now very popular. By the use of software, VM creates a Virtual environment for different OS. You have installed many applications in your computer. VM is another application. To switch between one OS to another, run the VM application first and then switch to the other OS. Then the VM will generate a virtual environment for the other OS. The other OS will then think that it is using the computer entirely by itself.

Using the Multibooting method only one OS can be run at a time. The selection is done while booting.

Using VM, more than one OS can run simultaneously. Each OS will run without knowing the existence of the other OS. But this will reduce the computer speed and performance. Some of the popular VM are Microsoft Virtual PC (www.microsoft.com) and VMware Workstation (www.vmware.com)

3. Emulators

Sometimes you may not need the full fledged OS. But you may want to use a specific feature of an OS. For instance you may not want the full 'Linux' OS but you want the base shell of Linux to run linux based applications on your computer.

In Windows, you may want to see the look and feel of 'Linux' and you want to run 'Linux' commands on the windows OS. For this there are emulators available for different OS.

For example, you can use Cygwin which is a free tool to emulate the Unix OS under windows. You can download this tool from (www.cygwin.com).

Source: - http://www.allpctips.com/software/whatis-multibooting.htm

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Tutorial to Hide visited websites from others

We search for lots of information on the internet. But it is not necessary that others know about this. Whenever you visit any website this information is captured and stored in your computer in the form of 'cache', 'cookie', 'history', and 'windows registry'. There is a danger due to this. Whoever uses the same computer after you have used can find out which websites you have been visiting. If you have a personal computer that no one else will ever use, then you don't have to worry much about this. But if your home or office computer is shared then you better clear this history. In this tutorial let us see how to completely remove the recently visited websites from your computer.

1. Cache Folder
   
   Every time you visit a website, every browser has the functionality to store the images, websites, urls etc in your hard disk somewhere in the temporary folders. This is useful to save bandwidth. When you visit the same website again, instead of downloading all the images again, the browser will retrieve them from the temporary folders from your hard disks and therefore increasing the speed and saving internet bandwidth. So when you finish browsing you can clear these temporary folders. This temporary folder is usually referred to as Cache. The exact location of this folder will differ based on the browser you are using. For instance if you use Internet explorer then this cache is located in the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder under your c:\Windows folder.
   You can either delete from this folder or you can delete it from your browser. Goto Tools-> Internet Options. Under the General tab click 'Delete Files' button.
   

2. History
   
   All the browsers also store the urls of every website you visit. This is used to show the address of the site on the 'Address Bar' when you start typing the first few letters of the websited address, the browser will take from the history and prompt you for the full address. This makes your job easier so that you need not type the full address every time. But if you want to hide the sites you visit then you have to remove this history also. Internet explorer stores this history in a folder called 'History' under c:\Windows folder.
   
   Or you can delete history from your browser. Goto Tools-> Internet OPtions. Select the 'General' tab and click on 'Clear History' button. In the confirmation dialog box select 'OK'. This will clear your history.
   

3. Cookies
   
   Whenever you visit websites, some information about you and some information about that website is stored in your computer's hard disk. When you visit the same site again, the information stored in this cookie file will be read to identify you. This is especially useful for sites that can personlize the site for you and displays messages such as 'welcome your_name' etc. But this cookie also stores the name of the site you visit so you should also delete these cookies if you want to hide the sites you visited.
   
   To delete cookies, goto Tools->Internet Options. And click on 'Delete Cookies' button. Or you can choose the security tab and click on 'Custom Level' button to disable or enable cookies.
   

4. Registry
   
   Another place in which the websites you visited are stored is the windows registry. It is not advisible to modify registries if you are not sure how to use them. Only those who are confident and willing to take risk should touch the registry. Click on 'Start->Run' and type 'regedit' and press enter. The windows registry will open. Now click on 'Edit->find' and type 'URL History'. In the right hand side you can see a list of website addresses that you visited. You can select them one by one and delete them. programs, viruses and hackers.

Source: - http://www.allpctips.com/internet/hide-history-of-websites-you-visited.htm

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What is Web Promotion? Web Promotion tutorial

Consider you have created a personal website with some useful information for others to see. This website will be useful only if other people visit your website. How to make other people visit your site. This article discusses about how to promote your site.

How can you make your website address known to everybody. To your friends and relatives it is possible to tell your website address directly to them. You may even distribute notices in your town. But how to tell your website address to the whole world. This is where the Search Engines come in handy.

Almost everyone uses Search engines to search for information or products in the Internet. Then the search engine will display a list of website results based on the searched keyword. If your website is in this result returned by search engines then people will visit your website from around the world.

There are at present billions of websites today. In each website there will be atleast ten pages. Some websites will have many pages. So the website you create is just one of these so many websites.

Therefore when the search engine returns results, if your website is not listed in the first four pages of the results then chances of people visiting your site is less. So you have to create your site such that it appears in the first four pages of the search engine results. For this you need to optimize your website for search Engines. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). To learn SEO techniques, first you need to understand how search engines operator.

How does Search Engines identify and index your website.

Search engines use programs such as Spider, Web Crawlerm Robo, Bot etc for finding and indexing websites. These programs will keep searching for new websites and read the content of the pages in the websites and understand what these pages are about and index those pages accordingly.

It may take some time for the search engines to find your website. If you cannot wait for the search engines to find you then you can tell the search engines about your website and the search engines will send its spider program to crawl your site and index your pages based on their content.

Use of Meta tags in your web pages is one of the most easiest and effective method to tell search engines about your webpage and its content. Those who know HTML language will know about HTML Tags. If you are not familiar with thest tags then below are some tips on using meta tags in your web pages

How to use Meta tags?

The meta tags contain attributes such as 'Name', and 'Description'. The Name attribute can take values such as 'Description' or 'Keywords'. While the 'Description' attribute will have details about keywords and description.
Assume that you do Real estate business and you have created a webpage regarding this. The tips given below will explain how you can effectively use the Meta tags in your webpage.

<META NAME=Description Content="Singapore Flat Sales, Flat at Singapore in reasonable price, the best flat seller in Singapore, Most reliable Flat seller in Singapore, CDMA approved flats in Singapore, Individual Luxury Duplex Bungalows in Singapore, Luxury Type Independent House in Singapore, Uniquely Designed House in Singapore, Independent House designed by experienced Architect">

As you can see the description tag uses the most relevant keywords of your webpage and describes the content of the page for search engines to describe your webpage in search results and also for indexing.

<META NAME=Keywords Content='' Flats, Houses, Bungalows, Chennai''>

The keywords meta tag is to list the keywords in your webpage.
You can add your website for search engines to crawl your site. For this you need to submit your site details to search engines. Some of the most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. You can use the links given below to submit your website.

Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

Google: www.google.com/addurl.html

MSN: http://submit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

Other than search engines, you can also submit your site to directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo directory. You can visit www.dmoz.org to list your site under appropriate directory.

You can also generate money from your website. Now the easiest and hottest internet marketing method is by using google adsense.

 

Source: http://www.allpctips.com/internet/webpromotion-tutorial.htm

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Different types of Internet connection and their advantages and disadvantages.

Which Internet Connection plan to choose?

Internet has become part and parcel of our lives. Not only for individuals but even for a country's economic growth, scientific growth, organizations' success, Internet is very essential. The companies that offer these internet connections are called ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These ISPs offer many different internet connection plans. How to select the best connection plan for home use or for offices? The following tips will give you an overview of different types of internet connections, their advantages and disadvantages.

PSTN Dialup

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) dialup uses your phone connection to connect your computer to the internet. You need a modem, phone line and a computer for a PSTN dial up connection.

Advantages of PSTN dial up

1. This is the basic internet connection and all the ISPs provide this type of dial up.
2. To install PSTN dialup and to use it is very cheap and affordable.

Disadvantages of PSTN dial up

1. The speed of a typical PSTN modem is 56KBPS. Therefore the speed of the internet connection will be slower than this.
2. During the time you are connected to the internet, you have to pay the telephone charges.
3. While you are connected to the internet you cannot use your telephone to call anyone because you are using that phone line for connecting to the internet. You also will not receive any calls from outside during this time.

ISDN dialup

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) dialup uses a higher end digital telephone line to dial up. To use this type of connection you need ISDN telephone line, computer and a 'Terminal Adapter'.

Advantages of an ISDN dialup

1. While you are connected to internet using ISDN dialup connection you can use your ISDN phone to make phone calls simultaneously.
2. When you are making phone calls while connected to the internet then the speed of internet will be 64KBPS.
3. If you are using the ISDN phone line just for internet then the speed of internet will be 128KBPS.

Disadvantages of ISDN dialup

1. Not every place has ISDN connection.
2. Even if your place has this facility, it is expensive to get an ISDN dialup connection from your ISP.
3. Not all the ISPs provide ISDN dialup plan.

Leased Line Internet Plan

In both ISDN dialup and PSTN dialup you need to dial up from your computer before getting connected to the internet. And you close this connection when you no longer need internet connection. If you need a continuous connection 24 hours of the day and 7 days a week then you need a 'Leased Line' also known as 'dedicated line'. This type of permanent connection is called 'Always On'.

Advantages of Leased Line

1. You get 'Always on' connection 24 hours every day.
2. The speed of the internet ranges from 2.4 KBPS to 2G based on your subscription.

Disadvantages of Leased Line

1. The disadvantages of a leased line is that it is very expensive.
2. Since your computer is always connected to the internet your computer is exposed to many vulnerabilities such as viruses and spywares. So you may need to secure your computer using firewall and Antivirus software

DSL

1. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) also uses a normal PSTN phone line. But using DSL you can use both internet and phone simultaneously. Therefore many prefer DSL to PSTN dial up.

Advantages of DSL

1. The speed of DSL connection is fast. 64 KBPS, 512 KBPS, 1.5MBPS and higher speed can be achieved in DSL connections.
2. DSL also provides 'Always On' connection 24 hours a day always.
3. You can also use your phone while using internet

Disadvantages of DSL

1. More expensive
2. You need an ADSL modem to connect but the distance between this modem and your computer cannot be more than 18,000 feet.

Source: - http://www.allpctips.com/internet/adsl-leased-line-dialup-isdn-pstn-internet-connection.htm

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downloading files and programs from internet

How to download files and programs?
When you are browsing the internet, you stumble upon a program, shareware or freeware that you would like to download and install on your computer. Just follow these steps to do that.

1. First bring the cursor on top of the file or program that you wish to download. The arrow cursor will turn from 'arrow' to a 'hand'. Then click on that place.
2. Then, click on 'Save' or 'Save to disk'. You will be prompted to select the location in your computer harddisk where you would like to store this file. A good practice is to make a folder in your C drive with the name 'downloads' and then use this folder for all your downloaded files and programs. Otherwise, you can choose your desktop as the destination, so that when the download is finished you can easily locate the file from your desktop.
3. Now the file will start downloading. While it is being downloaded a small dialog box with the title 'Saving Location' will show the % of the file that is already downloaded. Once it is fully downloaded the dialog box will show 'Download completed'. You will also get a 'Beep' sound.
4. Once the download is complete, you can click on the 'open' button on the 'download competed' dialog box.
5. 4.1 If the file you downloaded is an .EXE (Executable) file then the application will install itself on the computer.
6. 4.1 If it is a .zip file then the WinZip program will open the file with its contents. In this case you can extract all these files to any of your local folders and then look for an .EXE program such as install.exe or setup.exe and double click on it install the application.
Source: http://www.allpctips.com/internet/downloadingprograms.htm

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