How to Know if Your Computer Has Been Tracked

There is no surefire way to know if your computer is being hacked or rootkitted by some cracker out there, short of keeping it cleanroom by never, ever connecting it to the Internet. However, there are many ways to distinctly reduce the chances of it being compromised.

Steps

1. Go into control panel, and choose add/remove programs. Uninstall any antivirus software you have currently installed (obviously, if you have antivirus software which you are happy with, then leave it installed). This is to avoid antivirus clashes which may render your computer unusable.
2. Secure your computer. If you already have a full antivirus suite, that is up to date and includes all of the following three components, then skip to step 8. Otherwise, for your computer to be secure you will need to download all of the following which you do not already have;
   • Install an antivirus scanner with real-time and heuristic scanning; Comodo BoClean and AVG Free work.
   • Install an anti-spyware scanner; HijackThis and Spybot S&D work.
3. Install a firewall to replace the weak windows firewall; ZoneAlarm works great.
4. Consider using intrusion detection software.
5. Install all of the required programs. Connect your computer to the Internet again, and allow them to update fully.
6. Run the antivirus scanner and anti-spyware scanners. If anyone has hacked your computer, the malware should be detected, and hopefully the software can remove it. Now your computer should be secure
7. Make sure to update your software frequently, at least once a week and you should be able to prevent nearly all attacks on your computer, provided you use your computer in a sensible manner.

Tips

• Use an alternative browser. Using Firefox or Opera as your web browser (or any browser other than Internet Explorer, which is infamously known as "Internet Exploder" because of its common malfunctions and vunerabilty to viruses) would result being targeted much less by viruses, as many are directed at Internet Explorer.

Warnings

• Never install something you have downloaded without fully reading the license agreement. Many newer malware programs are effectively legal as they are hidden or packaged with the desirable software and have a license agreement detailing their effects. If you see anything dubious in the license agreement, don't install. Pay attention to the "Agree" boxes when installing software. Blindly agreeing to everything presented can make cleaning out "added bonus" applications difficult, when it could have been much easier to "decline" when installing instead.
• Don't go to dodgy websites. If you search on google for something, and the description for one of the sites has a lengthy list of irrelevant and unconnected words in it, it's probably a sham site.
• Don't install activeX controls from a site you don't trust.
• Don't open E-mail "attachments" unless you have spoken to the trusted sender and they have verified that they included the attachment. Just because an E-mail originates from a friend, does not mean his / her computer hasn't been infected. The virus can spread by sending itself to everyone in the E-mail program contact list, often without the owner even knowing it is happening.
• Don't run applications or copy content from disks, thumbdrives, CDs, etc. that have been provided by others (including friends); or belong to you if they have previously been connected to another computer, unless scanned with your anti-virus program first. If an infected computer has accessed the data on the media, the data is likely to be infected as well.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Avoid False Information on the Internet

Using the internet to make decisions can be risky. To avoid these follow these simple steps:

Steps

1. Use "common" sense. This simple tool will allow you to filter information that is not correct from the correct.
2. Cross-check. Reading from more one source allows for the correction of mistakes, errors and malicious intent.
3. Go to the source. Using a real library, real people and your legs can be positive steps in gathering information that is free from errors.

Tips

• Face value is never face value. The only facts you should accept at face value are ones you have requested and paid for, i.e., an education. That said, check the teacher or professor's source. You'd be surprised how many are incompetent or have their facts clouded by a conflicting agenda.

Warnings

• Media outlets should be treated with the same caution.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Add Google AdSense to Feedburner

Finally, Google has fully integrated Feedburner as one of their services. Google Adsense has merged Feedburner into its arsenal also.

Steps

1. Sign-up for a Google Adsense account.

• If a publisher already has a Google Adsense account, he/she simply needs to log into it.
• On your reports overview page under the “Adsense for Mobile Content” line, you will notice “Adsense for Feeds”, click the “Get Started” link.
• The “Get Started” page will look similar to the “Activate FeedBurner Ad Network and/or Google AdSense for Content” feedburner.com page discussed above.
• Near the bottom of the page, you will see an inviting link to gaining help and support for migrating your feed into adsense….or, visa versa.
• The process is quite 20th century-like from here on out, because the publisher must then email, adsense-support-aff@google.com his/her Feedburner account username, and Google Account email address used to sign in to Adsense.
• Google will respond via email with a lovely note similar to the following:
  • “Hello FabulousAndTechfilled.com,
  • Success!
  • Effective immediately, you can access your feeds by signing into your Google Account when you visit http://feedburner.google.com. You will no longer be able to sign in to feedburner.com, but that's okay: from now on, there is no reason to do so.

2.All of your feeds have been moved into this new account, and an initial batch of your most recent 30 days' traffic stats has been loaded up. (Your entire stats history, should it go beyond the last 30 days, will be added at a future date.)

3.To repeat: visit http://feedburner.google.com from this point forward to view and manage your feeds.

• If you want to use AdSense for feeds, you may now do so. Visit http://www.google.com/adsense and click "AdSense for Feeds" under the Get Ads section to get started.
• Sincerely,
• The Google AdSense Team”

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Add Google Analytics to Blogger

Do you know which websites refer the most visitors to your site? Or the most common keywords used to find your site? Google Analytics can provide the valuable answers to these questions, and many more.

Steps

1. Open a Gmail account if you don’t already have one.
2. Create a Google Analytics Account.
3. Click on: 'Add Website Profile.' Installing Google Analytics does not require knowledge of HTML, but there is a piece of HTML code that must be copied onto your blog.
4. In the box, enter your URL. (For example: www.yourwebsite.com or yourblog.blogspt.com.)
5. Set your Country and Time zone, and hit Continue.
6. Highlight the tracking code displayed in the large box and 'Copy'.
7. Sign into Blogger. Click on the 'Layout' Tab, then click on 'Edit HTML'
8. Click on 'Download Full Template' to back up your template onto your computer. It's always a good idea to back up your template before you make any changes.
9. Scroll down to the bottom and paste the tracking code just before the closing 'body' tag.
10. Press 'Save Template' to save the changes.
11. Back in Google Analytics, click on 'Check Status' or 'Verify Tracking Code' under the Status column. Once your tracking code has been verified, the status will change to: 'Receiving Data.'

Tips

• Installing Google Analytics is a huge step towards taking control of your online marketing. It will open your eyes to valuable information about your website visitors and display the data in an easy to read, easy to understand format. Over time you will see trends that you could not have discovered any other way.
• The longer you have have Google Analytics installed, the more interesting and valuable the data will be.
• To remind yourself what the code you have added to the template is for, add a comment above it like this

Warnings

• It will take about 24 hours or so after you install Google Analytics before you start seeing any data. Check back the next day to familiarize yourself the various reports.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Preserve Your Privacy in an Internet Cafe

This how-to will tell you about preserving privacy in an internet cafe, especially on your computer.

Steps

1. Use Tor.
2. When logging in to webmail such as Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo Mail on a public computer; look for any check boxes that say "Remember my password" or "Remember my email address." Make sure they are UNCHECKED.
3. Because the security status of a public computer is unknown, it may be infected with keystroke logging spyware for example, never log into any site that manages your sensitive or financial information such as your stock broker site.
4. Many browsers will offer to store your user name and password when you log in, be sure not to allow it.
5. Make sure that you log out of every site you've logged in to. This can include web browsers, instant messaging clients and ftp sites.
6. Clear the browser history and cache when you are finished using the computer. In Firefox, go to the Tools menu at the top and choose "Clear Private Data." In Internet Explorer go the Tools menu at the top and choose "Delete Browsing History."
7. Be certain that when you leave the computer you have deleted everything you saved to the desktop. If you scanned in an image, saved pictures from your vacation or edited your resume make sure you permanently delete all personal files from the computer.
8. Never borrow a neighbor's free WiFi connection. Your neighbor might be running a packet sniffer and intercepting your network traffic.
9. Do not open email attachments with a .exe file extension or coming from someone you don't know.
10. Store personal data on a USB flash drive using FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer to secure it.

Tips

• If you're in a public cafe, ask the barista to verify that you have deleted all personal data from the computer.
• If you don't want other customers in the cafe to see what you are doing, ask for a computer near the back or make sure the computers near yours are unoccupied.
• It's also possible to download a web browser to install on a flash drive. Versions of Mozilla can be downloaded from http://www.lupopensuite.com/ which leaves all the temporary files on the flash drive and not on the cafe's computer.
• Using a live boot CD will help preserve your privacy on a computer, use a search engine to find a list of live boot CDs, booting from a live CD will leave no trace of your activities.

Warnings

• Never post any personal information in a public place like Myspace, Facebook or Craigslist.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Know if You've Been Hacked

There are many ways to find out if your hacked but some ways hackers get in are surprising.

Symptoms of being hacked are

 *If programs and files wont work or open
*Deleted files that you didnt delete
*Password changes
*You find information on the net, that you haven't let out.
*You find some program that shouldn't exist on your system
*Your computer is connecting to the net frequently while you are not doing anything.
*The contents of files change and you didn't change it

Steps

1. If suspected that the hacker is still in the computer, IMMEDIATELY disconnect from the Internet.
2. Check if there aren't any "new programs" (eg. Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, etc.)OR if programs and files won't work or open.
3. Do a sweep of your computer with a Anti-virus/spyware scanner you trust. It is stressed on what you trust(eg.AVG Free edition, Avira AntiVir)
4. If that turns up Nada, backup IMPORTANT files and do a system restore and update the computer.

Tips

• The best method is to prevent it before hand
• Backup important files (eg.Family pictures,Documents,e.t.c) onto a encrypted USB drive and store it in a vault
• To keep the Operating system use a backup program

Warnings

• If left unchecked, the computer could become completely useless, and you might have to reinstall the operating system or buy a new computer.
• Worse yet, your computer could be turned into a zombie that the hacker may use to attack other computers/networks and commit illegal activities.
• If programs and files won't work or open, you are looking at a light show or a electronic picture, the computer will need a new operating system or a restore if the hacker didn't mess with the backups.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Change your IP Address (Windows)

No matter what your reason, changing your IP address is quick and easy.

Steps

Windows XP

1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen.
2. Click on "Run".
3. Type in "command" and hit Okay. You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.
4. Type "ipconfig /release" and hit "Enter". This will disable your internet connection. To undo it, type "ipconfig /renew".
5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt.
6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop.
7. Click on "Properties". You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.
8. Right-click on "Local Area Connection" and click "Properties".
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab.
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab.
11. Create an IP address. (It doesn't matter what it is.)
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Click the "Ok" button.
14. Click the "Ok" button. You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.
15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings.
17. Select "Obtain an IP address automatically".
18. Click the "Ok" button.
19. Click the "Ok" button.
20. You now have a new IP address

Warnings

• This will only work if both your computer, and the network it is directly connected to, use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). If you are using a router, and DHCP is enabled, the steps above will only affect the IP address your computer is using on the Local Area Network (LAN) between your computer and the first router "en route" to the Internet. To change the public IP you are using to connect to your service provider, you must instead change the IP address used by last IP address using (OSI Layer 3) device seperating the Internet from your computer.
• Manually assigning your IP address is also possible, but you run a very high risk of your ISP(Internet Service Provider) banning you from connecting to the internet. To manually change your IP, follow the steps above for your Operating System. In step 9 or 10, depending on your O/S, enter an IP similar to the one displayed in the command prompt window. For example, if the IP displayed in the command prompt window is 75.1.2.3, change yours to 75.1.2.4. You’ll also need to manually enter the Subnet, Gateway and DNS Server IP addresses as well. If the new IP you give your computer doesn’t work, chances are someone else on the ISP network has already been assigned that IP. You’ll need to move on to the next one and keep trying until you find an open one. However, some ISPs match up your MAC or modem data to the IP that’s been assigned. If those 2 things don’t match up, you won’t be able to connect no matter what. If your router gets the IP and not your computer, you’ll need to http in to your routers interface and manually assign the IP there. It’s pretty much the same method as assigning the IP to your computer. The method that varies is how you reach your router's interface. You can get those instructions from your manufacturer’s website.

Source: www.wikihow.com

How to Ping an IP Address

The PING command is used to test the connection and latency between two network connections. These connections can be either in a local area network or a wide area network or the internet as a whole. The PING command sends packets of information to a specified IP Address and then measures the time it takes to get a response from the specified computer or device.

Steps

Windows XP or Vista

1. Open the command window by clicking START, then RUN. Type CMD, and hit Enter or click OK.
2. Type "ping" in the Command Window.
3. Hit the space bar once.
4. Type the IP or website address that you want to ping. For example, if you want to ping eBay, type "www.ebay.com" after the space. If you want to ping your Router, it might be "192.168.1.1"
5. Hit "Enter." If the website is up and actively responding, you receive replies back from the server that you pinged with the following information:
   • The IP address
   • The number of Bytes sent
   • The time it took in milliseconds
   • The TTL is Time to Live (This indicated the number of "hops" back from the computer pinged from that computers initial TTL value.)
6. Analyze the information. The lower the round trip number in milliseconds, the better. The higher the round trip number in milliseconds, the higher the latency, which may indicate a network problem between your computer and the server you pinged.

Tips

• You can also run a remote PING^[1]. This allows you to ping an IP address or computer from a computer other than yours to see if the problem may be associated with your local connection rather than the IP Address you are trying to connect to.
• There are a number of options when running PING to give different results and outcomes. Type them after the IP address. **-c Count. Send count packets and then stop. The other way to stop is type CNTL-C. This option is convenient for scripts that periodically check network behavior.
• -f Flood ping. Send packets as fast as the receiving host can handle them, at least one hundred per second. This is most useful to stress a production network being tested during its down-time. Fast machines with fast Ethernet interfaces (like SPARCs) can basically shutdown a network with flood ping, so use this with caution.
• -l Preload. Send preload packets as fast as possible, then fall into a normal mode of behavior. Good for finding out how many packets your routers can quickly handle, which is in turn good for diagnosing problems that only appear with large TCP window sizes.
• -n Numeric output only. Use this when, in addition to everything else, you've got nameserver problems and ping is hanging trying to give you a nice symbolic name for the IP addresses. When pinging locally, the -n option is used specify a number of repeats. 'ping ^[2]

^Source: www.wikihow.com

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