Marco's Bistro

Best Free Antivirus Software

2009-04-02T10:19:00.003+01:00

Do you need a Good free! Antivirus soloution for your PC, then below I have posted 3 of the best you can get your hands on.

Avira AntiVir Personal Free Edition

AVG Antivirus Free Edition

Avast Home Edtion Free

How to Print what you like

2008-10-10T10:49:00.005+01:00

We all get it, you just found a really great site with some excellent information on the page, and you want to print certain parts, without having all those Adverts taking over your color cartridge juice.

well enter http://printwhatyoulike.com/

here you will be able to edit the page of your choice and remove and unwanted items on the page such as images and background.

very handy tool to save on waisted paper and ink.

Virtualbox - run one operating system inside another

2008-09-24T12:33:00.001+01:00

If your new to Virtualization, or have ever wondered, ' I wish I could run another type of Operating system on top of the one I already use now' then Virtualbox is just what you need!.

Virtualbox will allow you the freedom to run say Windows Vista on top of Windows XP, or maybe you want to try out a Linux Distribution say OpenSuse or Fedora on top of Ubuntu or maybe Windows XP?, the choices are endless, and the benefits are great!

When ever a new Linux Distro is released I like the look of, I just have to try it out, and what better to do it with than with Virtualbox, I just setup a new virtual harddrive and bang! there you go I'm booting a totally different Os on my host machine. This lets me fiddle with configurations try out new features and learn the system, without messing up or destroying my Host Machine settings.

Its a great way to experience a Different Operating system, especially if your new to Linux and simply have been wanting to try it out for ages.

Get yourself a copy now from here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Note: I hope to do a post about installing a simple system soon for those who aren't to sure.

How to make google mail even more secure

2008-09-23T15:21:00.005+01:00

When you use google mail its comes up with https:// secure connection when u log in, but did you notice that while it loads up your inbox that connection defaults back to http:// unsecure connection.

thats because your are using the url address http://mail.google.com/

how about next time you type into the address bar https://mail.google.com/

this will now stay on secure connection whilst logging in and loading your inbox, great if you are connecting in public hotspots.

alternatively follow these steps for 'always use https'

To enable this feature in Gmail:

Sign in to Gmail.
Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
Set 'Browser Connection' to 'Always use https.'
Click Save Changes.
Reload Gmail.

Please note that selecting 'Always use https' will prevent you from accessing Gmail via HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

every little helps ;o).

How to make firefox browser a little more private

2008-09-23T14:47:00.009+01:00

A couple of simple easy to do tips, first one is too stop that Awsome bar showing all of your previous history. Example someone else uses your computer and yes thats right everytime they use that awsome bar for typing in URL addresses they might just see what browsing history you may have, this wont stop bookmarks from showing though, this may not be so good privacy for some users.

open a new tab (ctrl + T) type in the URL bar about:config , click "ill be careful, i promise", then type in the filter bar 'browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped' then double click to make it 'true', clear all history (usually ctrl + shift + delete - aslong as all options were selected in preferences) close and restart firefox.

second is to get that https:// icon a little more noticable, i like to do this as i find the default a little small and when im using secure connections i like it to be shown a little clearer for me to see.

same as above type into the 'about:config' page filter bar 'browser.identity.ssl_domain_display'
double click to modify and change the value to '1 or 2', this will now give you a longer blue/green bar when using https:// secure connections, see picture.

options are 0,1,2, the default is 0 or you can use 1 or 2, 2 seems to fit text in nicely so i use that.

How to control Services on Windows XP

2008-09-22T12:02:00.006+01:00

Sometimes you want to be able to disable/start running services because they are no longer needed or are using up resources or you need to use them such as SSH (secure shell).

there is two ways of controlling services on Windows XP,

first way is the "GUI" way, open Run box (Windows Key + R or Start > Run) and type 'services.msc'

this will open the services utility and from here u can select what service you need and double click or right click > properties will give you the options of startup type disabled = wont start at boot, manual = will start when you select the application/program to start (clicking on) or Automatic = will always start with boot up. Also wether to start, stop or refresh the service etc immeditately.

The Second way is the 'command line' way open up a command prompt (Windows Key + R or Start > Run) and type 'cmd', then type 'net start' this will show you all running services at present to stop a service type 'net stop (service name)'.

Note: again be careful as this may start /stop some unwanted behaviour, always makes sure you know what the service is your are changing.

How to msconfig on Windows XP

2008-09-22T11:50:00.005+01:00

The system configuration Utility is a useful hidden tool that comes with Windows.

msconfig will be able to let you configure different aspects of your computer such as how your computer starts up, what services and startup programs are allowed and an easy way to get to most of the useful tools built into Windows.

open a Run command box (Windows Key + R or Start > Run) and type 'msconfig' this will now open the utility and you can check/uncheck unwanted items or options,

It's better practice to control the services from the services.msc utility, see here.

once you reboot after making changes, you will see a notification dialog box pop up at the starting of Windows, it just lets you know that you have made changes to your msconfig utility and by ticking the option "Don't show this message or launch the system configuration utility when Windows starts:" will prevent it next time.

Note: be careful its advise to do some reading on net about this program before making adjustments as you may disable something you need for the computer to run.

How to check socket / IP port connections on Windows XP

2008-09-22T11:11:00.006+01:00

A really useful networking command, if you want to see what connections are being made in/out of your computer and what ports they are using,

Open a command prompt either by Windows Key + R or Start > Run, then type 'cmd',

at command line type 'netstat' this will show socket connections.

example: netstat -a

type 'netstat /?' for help and options

my favourites are;

netstat -a
netstat -an
netstat -ano
netstat -b
netstat -bn
netstat -ab
netstat -abn
netstat -abv

press Ctrl + C to quit command.

How to Traceroute packets to an IP address on Windows XP

2008-09-21T17:29:00.004+01:00

Simple networking trick to find the packets path to a given IP address or Hostname that your specify,

open a command prompt either by Windows Key + R or Start > Run, and type 'cmd',

at the command line type 'tracert' followed by destination address or Hostname,

this will show the route the packets take over a maxium of 30 hops to there destination, helpful when troubleshooting network problems or finding routers etc.

example: tracert www.google.com

use 'tracert /?' for help and options

How to ping another host (machine) on Windows XP

2008-09-21T17:16:00.008+01:00

This is a simple networking trick to find out if another host is alive on your network or perhaps across the Web,

Open a command prompt by either Windows Key + R or Start > Run, then type 'cmd'

once at the command prompt type 'ping' then the hosts IP address your are trying to check,

example: ping 192.168.1.1 or ping localhost (127.0.0.1 ) to test your own machine,

if it works sucessfully your should see a packages sent message and details.

type 'ping /?' for help and more options such as '-n 10' number of requests you wish to send.

How to find your IP address on Windows XP

2008-09-21T17:01:00.007+01:00

This is a very simple networking trick, if you are not familar with what your IP address is then this is a quick easy way of finding it !

Press Windows Key + R (or Start > Run ) then Type 'cmd' (without the quotes) to bring up the command prompt,

then type 'ipconfig /all' ,

this should now show you all your IP configuration results that u will need to know for basic networking,

Note: This only works if you aren't on a local network, or you use a straight modem connection without NAT (network address translation), a Router with NAT would be giving your local (internal ip address) and not your external address thats shown on the Internet. If your IP Address shows that it is in the ranges "10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255", then this is your local (internal) IP address. Your external address which is normally assigned to you by your ISP (internet service provider) can be found by checking an online site thats checks for IP information. try http://www.ip-adress.com/ or http://geotool.servehttp.com/

type 'exit' to close the command line window.