Another Day With My PC

More and more people are getting hooked on Internet Relay Chats (IRC) and Instant Messengers (IM). The reason is not that surprising. Many find the Internet as a very convenient tool for communication and socialization. Some chat with friends that they’ve already known for a long time, while others browse through the list in search for new acquaintances.

While there’s nothing wrong in making new friends on the Internet, the danger involved in getting to know somebody in cyberspace is a bit higher than meeting somebody in person. The physical dangers may be absent in e-dates or e-meetings, but the peril is still as grave and as real when done virtually.

Part of the problem in getting to know somebody from the Internet is that you have no way of knowing whether what the person is saying about himself are actually true. You can’t entirely trust a person that you haven’t seen. Who knows, he might be misrepresenting himself the whole time.

Be very careful in giving personal details to persons that you’ve only met in chat. Double your guard when he’s sending you questionable files. It’s possible that such file might be a phishing tool or something that might corrupt your Windows registry or other important system components.

It seems that anything that could access the Internet or has a computer processor could be used to hack or crack passwords.

A research study conducted by Nick Breese revealed that a seemingly harmless electronic gadget such as the PlayStation 3 could be used to crack passwords. The project has also shown that breaking into sites or accounts padlocked by passwords could be done faster in Sony’s gaming console.

Some might question the use of the study. There are people in the IT industry which deplores the release of such reports as it might encourage others to try the pernicious act or trade. Their fears may seem founded, especially since many curious minds are just in their early 20s. It should be noted that a good number of those who own gaming consoles belong to the said age bracket.

While security freaks like me abhor the publication of such studies, many also treat it as a challenge to put more cement on their PCs’ defenses. There’s really no excuse anymore to dispense with critical security suites and system tools, such as McAfee’s Virus Scan and RegCure. Your PC won’t last long, or at least you’re sanity won’t, when dozens of unwanted malware starts taking control of your system.

Who would’ve thought that the PC would become an ordinary but necessary household item. Back in the 80s, having one is either a sign of opulence or an indication that the owner has a Nostradamus-like perception as to the future value or use of the computer.

Today, everybody has one. It has become so commonplace that leaving home without it is like going to the office or school with no underpants on. Its use has transcended from a data-storing equipment to something that can be used for anything.

Unfortunately, some still find computers esoteric. I’m not just talking about people in their 50’s and 60’s here. Believe it or not, there are some belonging to age brackets below those of our parents’ who still don’t know what Ctrl-Alt-Del is for.

The computer is fast becoming indispensable. It cannot be ignored. Although society won’t be run by it anytime soon, computers would surely be used and heavily relied on to assist man in his everyday needs and activities.

News has been lurking around the IT community about the release of a reliable test result on Windows XP SP3 which could further extend the lifespan of Vista’s predecessor. XP users will definitely be elated by the report since that would mean a few years more of mileage for their aging, but still reliable, operating system.

Many are still wondering why Microsoft is still constantly changing the oxygen tank of its most successful OS. Indeed, giving XP more than nine lives would certainly scratch Vista’s chances of dominating the OS market by 2008. Instead of competing with Mac’s OS X, Vista is in a precarious situation wherein it finds itself competing with another product that comes from its own creator.

The reputation of Vista as a very demanding OS is deterring millions of PC users from overwriting their old operating system with Microsoft’s new one. This should serve as a lesson for Redmond and Mac to make sure that their next OS would not unduly tax even entry-level processors.

Many Netizens are trumpeting the fact that many Web-based services are now being offered for free. Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft are at the forefront in providing freebies on the Internet. The most notable of the services that these three giants are providing millions of people with is e-mail addresses.

How Do They Survive?

One might wonder as to what is the catch on all these costless offerings. Surely the companies that offer free cyber “spaces” or virtual mailboxes are spending millions just to keep the accounts up and running. So what do they get in return?

Many e-mail hosts explain that they try to recoup their costs in sponsoring the e-mail accounts by attracting advertisers to their sites. Indeed, ads are very familiar sights on the pages of companies offering free Web services. Some ads may seem benign, appearing as very small and negligible icons. Others can be very evident, such as a banner appearing at the heading of the e-mail page.

Date With Disaster

Web sites for dating and socializing are also mainly offered for free. The most popular of such services include MySpace, Multiply, and Friendster. Millions sign up for accounts on these Web services. Again, the costs of maintaining these sites are financed through earnings from advertisements.

e-mail accounts and social sites are just a few of the many Web services that are being offered without any monetary consideration. While the big names in the industry dominate the market, there are small or not-so-known companies that offer Web-based services that one should be wary about.

It should be noted that when opening an e-mail, dating, and other Web-based accounts, one must provide sensitive details about himself or herself. You might think that giving out your middle name, surname, or birth date is inconsequential or harmless. Indeed, questions asking for the said facts or details are already staples in almost all application forms. However, these details are also the ones that you use in financial and other important transactions. These details can be collated and later on used to the detriment of its owner.

Not Fine

Identity theft or the use of personal information is usually involuntary. These data are usually taken cunningly through scams. However, there are times when these are taken with consent.

Whenever you sign up for Web-based services, you enter into a contract with the provider. As with ordinary contacts, electronic ones are usually written in fine print. Be very cautious when agreeing to the terms and conditions of the service. Many do not read the provisions of the contract as they are often voluminous and littered with terms that only law degree-holders could understand. Among the most dangerous provision therein is the one which allows the provider to use and share the personal information that you’ve provided on the application form.

Vigilance

Nothing good is for free. More often than not, there’s always a catch. Some conditions may be benign, such as allowing advertisers to post their banners on your e-mail account. However, there are also risks. You might inadvertently allow somebody on the Net to use your personal details for purposes that could be very damaging to you or to others. Prudence is a virtue that one must have not only in the real world, but also in the virtual one.

I thought I’ve outgrown my propensity to be absorbed in online chats. Back in my high school days, I was severely addicted to it. Many of us who got hooked on it can’t be totally blamed for spending half of our day chatting with somebody who we don’t even know.

The lure or thought of being able to talk with somebody who’s halfway across the globe is understandingly exciting. For those whose social circle just extends to the radius of the classroom, being able to extend it to Moscow or Sydney is a very thrilling prospect.

IRCs and IMs are not that wonderful when misused, though. Many frauds have already been committed in the chat rooms. There are some who even lost their lives by trusting the face behind the chat nickname. As with all things, be very careful when being drawn to somebody who you just met online. Be very wary on the claims that he’s making. Be also skeptical when he’s sending you something on your e-mail, especially if the attachment is dubious. Have the file scanned. While you’re on it, have him checked, too.

Despite the fact that Windows Vista is just a quarter of a year away from celebrating its first anniversary, many IT experts and analysts still insist that there are no compelling reasons yet for people to embrace it. Even Microsoft would seem to suggest the same, having announced a few months ago that it is extending support for Windows XP.

While many are still using XP, products that are specially made for Vista are exponentially increasing. While many of those would also be able to function under the old OS, the former’s manufacturers will most likely insist on using Vista to avoid compatibility problems.

The Irony

Several months ago, compatibility problems usually refer to situations wherein hardware or software could not run under Vista. Aside from being expensive and a resource-hog, one of the main reasons why many opted to sport a wait-and-see attitude on the new OS is due to compatibility dilemmas.

This problem that separates XP and Vista still exists, albeit differently. The fortunes of the two operating systems have already been reversed. When one talks about compatibility problems today, they most probably refer to the apprehensions or consequences of installing a Vista-marked program or peripheral on a PC that runs on XP.

Interpreters

The success of Windows Vista could be attributed to the availability of various drivers that allow software or hardware which antedates the said OS to be able to function on it. Many people dared to make the early shift due to assurances that Vista drivers are already abundant even before the release of XP’s successor.

By analogy, it could also be contended that the survival of XP could or would be brought about by the availability of drivers that will allow Vista-labeled products to work on old operating systems. Indeed, the fortunes of XP and Vista have been stirred. It would not be surprising if Vista driver providers, such as RadarSync, would soon offer XP drivers.

Customer Support

Even if Vista applications and hardware could run on XP, problems would most likely still arise in the future. Customer service agents are now gradually being trained to troubleshoot problems under the setting of the new operating system. Hence, it would not be far fetched for troubleshooting problems to pop up due to the differences in the functions or options between XP and Vista. Solving the dilemma is not as simple as correlating the procedures or finding the Vista option’s counterpart in XP. Take note that Vista has many features that its predecessor does not have.

Magazines and Journals

XP users will not find solace in IT publications, either. Go to a bookstore and try to go through recent PC magazines or manuals and you will be rudely awaken to the fact that 95% of all OS articles are about Vista. Every sign now seems to point to XP’s successor. The shift is inevitable. Even die-hard XP fans know that. The only thing that’s uncertain is the ripe date to take the plunge. But believe me, it’s not that far away.

With the advent of notebooks and other electronic gadgets that could access the Internet, teleporting oneself through a lone DSL cable in your home is anything but practical anymore. With mobile phones and digital cameras now being able to get the user online, chances are is that every member of the family will be needing broadband access.

Having more than one DSL subscription would be impractical. The solution to this dilemma is a wireless router. However, a major drawback to wireless Internet is security. For those who already have one at home, you may want to reconfigure or upgrade your router’s security settings in order to ward off potential attacks or intrusions in your network.

Many wireless router users are still using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) in securing their networks. However, this has already been breached and branded by security experts as outdated. The one that should be used today is WPA or Wi-Fi Protected Access. If you’re planning on setting up a wireless network in your place, make sure that the necessary update has already been installed in the component that you’re going to buy. This would save you from being infected by various forms of malware that hackers are introducing on the Internet and even on local networks.

Installing applications, including operating systems, was a very daunting task before optical disks came along. I remember juggling around 14 floppy disks when I installed a 60MB game 15 years ago. Not surprisingly, software came in big boxes at that time. You could just imagine the shelf space that those programs take up. Some even rival that of bookstores!

Of course, installation dilemmas are already a thing of the past, as in Windows 95 past. You could now load gigabytes of data by just popping in a single DVD installer. Many software companies are even dispensing the disk altogether by providing the files online, enabling users to just download it.

Things are getting a lot more complicated, especially in the IT industry. Fortunately, there are still a number of things that are not getting too esoteric for those who want an uncomplicated life, be it the virtual or the real one.

Before you attribute slow browsing to a virus or spyware, there are a couple of things that you have to consider first. It’s very easy to blame it all on malware. However, you might be wasting your time scanning your entire hard drive for something that may not even be there.

Your ISP may claim that it’s making a 1mbps room for you, but more often than not, their claims are not exactly a hundred percent true or accurate. There are a number of reasons why this is so. First, your ISP may actually be cheating on you. Second, your DSL cable or modem may not be of a good kind. Third, your PC or software may already be obsolete and cannot recognize the new innovations that your ISP is using in providing you with high speed Internet access.

There are many tools or software that you could easily download on the Internet in order to determine the actual bandwidth that you’re receiving from your ISP. Check www.cnet.com for one.