Computer gaming has changed enormously of course from the early 1980’s to the present. The technical changes in both the games themselves, and the platforms the games run on, would have seemed like science fiction viewed from the perspective of the early days.

Online gaming has effectively opened up a whole new world of computer gaming, both literally and figuratively, and has changed the face and the complexities of computer gaming.

Played over the internet, online games allow gamers to become part of a virtual world, consisting of literally millions of players who form online communities with all the associated social aspects of real world communities; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Just as there are crooks and cyber criminals in a real world community, these same type of characters also inhabit the virtual worlds of internet gaming.

You might wonder why virtual reality would mimic real life so closely that it would include virtual criminals. The answer is very simple – money, and lots of it.

In many virtual worlds, virtual currencies are used to purchase virtual possessions. You may be surprised to learn that these virtual possessions have real world value, in real world cash, and as in real life; a market exists for stolen goods in these other worlds.

The first step cyber criminals employ in stripping gamers of their virtual possessions (remember, real world cash), is password theft – an activity that has increased dramatically recently.

Stolen passwords for games such as World of Warcraft and Lineage, are particularly valuable, since in these games it is common for less skilled gamers to buy/pay for the virtual possessions they have been unable to acquire through skilled game play.

Increasingly, the theft of passwords relies on specially designed malware, whose function is to steal online gaming passwords, allowing crooks access to gamers virtual possessions so that these possessions, just as in real life, can be sold.

Explaining just how this works Greg Hoglund, CEO of HBGary, developers of advanced software security technologies says,

“Once a criminal learns a gamer’s username and password, he can log into the game and sell the victim’s virtual possessions for virtual gold coins. Those coins are then handed to another character in the game who sells the gold for real-world dollars at an online exchange such as IGE. IGE operates a network that deals with the legitimate buying and selling of virtual currencies and assets on the internet.

Video gaming companies are now fighting back through the use of authenticators. An authenticator is an electronic device which generates a unique, one-time use password which combined with the user’s regular password provides an increased security level against malicious attacks, including keyloggers and Trojans.

Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind such popular games as World of Warcraft, Lineage, Diablo and StarCraft sells an authenticator for $6.50 USD through the Blizzard online store.

So, if you are one of the millions of virtual gamers, purchasing an authenticator to help protect your virtual assets, it seems to me, is vital.

If you’re interested in FREE online gaming then check out an excellent article by Simon, one of my fellow writers here on Makeuseof.com – Top Five Free Online Shooter Games.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Steal Your Friends Passwords and Software Licenses! (32)
• Rakion, Another Great Free MMO Game! (5)
• Quake Live – Free Online Shooting Game in Your Browser (22)
• MUO Games – Archlord: A Free Jawdropping MMORPG (0)
• GunBound – Multiplayer Worms-like Shooting Game (7)

We all know that the purpose of computer passwords is to protect personal information that you’ve stored on your computer, and in your online accounts.

With access to your passwords, cyber-criminals (they come in all shapes, sizes and flavors – so don’t be fooled), can and will, steal your identity and without a doubt severely compromise your financial security. Stolen passwords have the potential to cause serious havoc in your life.

There are numerous ways of course that a password, or software license key, can be stolen. Popular methods employed by cyber criminals include, but are not limited to:

Email scams:

Email scams work because the cyber-crooks responsible use social engineering as the hook; in other words they exploit our curiosity to start the process of infecting unaware computer users’ machines

Search engine redirection:

Cyber-crooks continue to be unrelenting in their chase to infect web search results, seeding malicious websites among the top results returned by these engines. Malware, including password stealers can be installed on a computer simply by visiting a site.

Drive-by downloads:

Drive-by downloads are not new; they’ve been lurking around for years it seems, but they’ve become much more common recently. They are crafted to automatically download and install malware including password stealers on your computer without your knowledge.

Now, added to the burden we already carry in protecting our computers, our private personal information, and our confidential financial information, we now have to be careful, and perhaps even suspicious of our friends, or for that matter anyone, who inserts a USB drive including MP3 players into a USB port on our computer.

“USBThief” is a free hacking application – available for download on virtually every torrent download site that I’ve investigated – which can be installed on a USB flash drive, or even an iPod, or other MP3 player. I haven’t tried to install this on a Digital Camera, but I suspect (with some modification), that it can be done. Consider how often a friend, or family member, has connected any one of these peripherals to your machine.

USBThief has been designed and crafted with only one purpose in mind, and that is to steal both the passwords, and software keys, on the duped party’s computer.

There is no requirement that the culprit be a seasoned hacker – all that’s needed is that an ethically challenged individual download the program; decompress the archive and put all the files located in the folder “USBThief” onto a USB drive.

After connecting and removing the tweaked USB drive from the victim’s computer, the cyber-criminal simply views the dump folder to view the captured information.

This article is not meant to produce paranoia, or to make you suspicious of either your family, or your friends, but so that you are aware of the ever increasing challenges we all face in protecting valuable information in a world that threatens us, at every turn it seems.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Keeping Under the Radar and Securing Your PC Files (21)
• Using Keepass to Secure Your Online Accounts (19)
• Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Boot Your Windows PC (52)
• Quick Tip: How To Add Password to Word Documents (9)
• Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password (24)

I’ve not had to remove Uncle Bob (who’s now out of favor with the family), or my ex-girlfriend from any photos, but that may well be because I’ve not had the time, the patience, or the appropriate software that made it easy to do the job.

PhotoShop of course, is a terrific software for all sorts of photo manipulation, including removing unwanted objects from photos. The downside with PhotoShop is the learning curve is particularly steep. As well, PhotoShop is definitely at the upper end of the price range for software, and probably out of reach of the average user.

Recently I came across a great little (1.5MB), free Windows application that may just change my mind on getting rid of Uncle Bob. PhotoWipe, developed by Hanov Solutions, is a basic photo editing tool that makes it easy to get rid of unwanted elements from photos.

Using PhotoWipe doesn’t require that the user learn a complicated process.

All you need to do is:

• Open the image to be worked on.
• Paint over the parts to be removed black, (Uncle Bob for example), using one of the brushes which are available in a number of sizes.
• If you make a mistake you can use the eraser tool to correct your error.
• Use the built in preview viewer to check your work.
• Save your new file.

Take a look at the bars in the cage before, and after, applying the removal effect.

PhotoWipe does a good job when removing, or repairing, minor elements within a photo, so don’t expect miracles. Even so, it should be part of every amateur photographer’s image editing toolbox.

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• 3 Easy Ways To Add Borders To Your Photos (20)
• Stitch Panoramic Photos Together with CleVR (21)
• How To Tell If A JPG Image Has Been Photoshopped (Windows) (1)
• How to Make Items or People Stand out in Black & White Photos (25)
• Fotographix- Portable, Multiple-Layered Image Editor [Win] (5)

Most importantly, from within Task Manager you have the option of selectively killing processes. But how do you determine which processes are safe to kill based on the limited information Task Manager provides?

If you’re a skilled computer user it’s probable you’re aware of every process running in the background, the application or service that is responsible for launching it, and the function it performs. Better yet, you probably have the know-how to selectively kill processes to optimize memory use and trim your machine for maximum performance.

But what if you’re a novice or casual computer user? Where can you get the information on running processes so that you can make an accurate assessment on whether to kill a process or not?

Fortunately, there are a number of free tools available that will help any computer user, novice or not, to determine which process/processes can be safely shut down.

One such free tool is ProcessQuickLink 2, a small application (413 KB), from Uniblue Systems, the company which provides the free indispensable process listing database Process Library, to the computing community.

After downloading and installing ProcessQuickLink 2 the latest process information will be available to you directly through Windows Task Manager. Simply click on the Icon next to the process you are querying, which will now be visible in Task Manager’s process tab, and the ProcessLibrary.com website will be accessed where the essential information on the selected process can be viewed. The information provided is extensive enough to allow you to make an educated decision on the process.

If you’ve always wondered just what all those processes running in the background on your computer are up to, this cool little application will give you all the information you need.

Quick facts:

Instant one click access to process descriptions and advice through the Task Manager
Quickly and easily search 9000+ entries in processlibrary.com database
New process descriptions are added on a weekly basis

System Requirements:

Windows 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista
Internet connection and an Internet browser.

Download at:

Uniblue Systems

Do you have a favourite Windows Task Manager program?

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• WinHack – How to Change the Windows Start Button (Win XP) (20)
• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)
• Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler (9)
• Untangle your computer with Unlocker (8)
• Unfreeze Your Windows Computer With AntiFreeze (9)

Mark’s experience however brought to mind a number of spam email attacks that include false warnings, including death threats, in order to deceive the recipient into falling for a scam, a phishing attack or installing malware.

A spam campaign that was active towards the end of 2007, and still continues, comes in the form of an e-mail allegedly from a private investigator hired to investigate the recipient. This is a private investigator with a heart, it seems, since the email recipient is advised that their telephone is being monitored and that it will be revealed who planned this surveillance, in a follow-up e-mail.

As a sign of good faith by the private investigator, a password-protected compressed file is attached to the message that allegedly contains a recording of the victim’s telephone conversations. In reality however, this password-protected compressed file is designed to defeat anti-malware applications running on the victim’s computer.

The file actually contains malware in the form of a Trojan horse, Trojan.Peacomm.D, which most of us know as the “Storm” Trojan. This malware is designed to gather system information and email addresses from a compromised computer. As well, this Trojan can infect legitimate system drivers, and variants can insert components into legitimate processes such as ‘Explorer.exe’ and ‘Services.exe’. (For more info regarding what Windows system processes should, and should not be running on your Windows computer see ProcessLibrary.)

Cyber criminals, being what they are, have improved upon this scheme by developing a variant of this email scam – the Hitman email. These fear-provoking emails contain a threat that the recipient will be murdered by a hired hitman. Fortunately for the intended victim, there is a way out of this predicament however; if the recipient will agree to pay a substantial sum of money to the hitman the contract will be cancelled.

These hitman emails are not a new occurrence since they have been circulating on the internet since early 2007. These frightening emails seem to be aimed primarily at a select group of professional high earners, such as doctors, lawyers, and business owners; those who are most likely to be in a position to pay the large sums of money demanded in the email.

Although there are many variations of this email, here is one example:

Good Day,

I want you to read this message very crefully, and keep the secret with you till further notice, You have no need of knowing who i am, where am from,till i make out a space for us to see, i have being paid $50,000.00 in adbance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer,its one i believe you call a friend,i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation.

Do not contact the police or F.B.I or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do i will know, and might be pushed to do what i have being paid to do,beside this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.

Now listen,i will arrange for us to see face to face but before that i need the amount of $80,000.00 and you will have nothing to be afraid of.I will be coming to see you in your office or home dtermine where you wish we meet,do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation,my employer is in my control now,

You will need to pay $20,000.00 to the account i will provide for you, before we will set our first meeting,after you have make the first advance payment to the account,i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court(if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later.

You don’t need my phone contact for now till am assured you are ready to comply good.

Lucky You.

Like all email scams these emails, which contain many grammatical and spelling errors, are generally sent to a large number of people within the targeted group in the expectation (usually justified), that some will respond. Compounding the issue further, the cyber criminals may try to collect personal information from the victim in an attempt at identity theft.

Keeping in mind that email scams are sent out in bulk it’s reasonable to assume, if you should receive such an email, you are not in any danger of being murdered by a hired killer. Obviously the attempt at extortion is genuine, but the threat against your life is not.

Internet security experts always advise, if you receive unsolicited email messages, you should not reply or respond in any way, but instead simply delete the message from your inbox. In the case of this particular email scam, law enforcement officials repeat that advice; that you do NOT respond.

However, in the event you receive a threatening email that includes significant personal information that is specific to you, to ensure your safety, it would be prudent to report this to your local police department.

As an added precaution, if you believe you are the victim of a potential scam visit Scambusters.org a great site that will help keep you up to date on the latest scams circulating on the internet.

From the Scambusters.org web site:

Don’t Get Scammed!

Many scammers are very cunning, so being smart is NOT enough to protect yourself. Every day smart subscribers thank us saying they would have been scammed if they didn’t subscribe to ScamBusters. Don’t take a chance. Subscribe FREE to ScamBusters, a public service and the #1 publication on internet fraud.

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Top 5 Current Email Scams You Should Know About (26)
• Online Resources To Battle Frauds, Urban Legends & Spam (9)
• How To Deal with Spam and Report Email Scams in The U.S. (5)
• Facebook Impostors – Tips For Your Profile To Stay Safe From Scammers (8)
• 2 Websites to Verify Urban Legends and Email Scams (6)

Currently my home system is running the following freeware: Zone Alarm (3′rd most popular firewall among MakeUseOf readers), WinPatrol (system monitor), Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus, ThreatFire 3 (blocks zero-day attacks heuristically), SnoopFree Privacy Shield (anti-keylogger) and Spyware Terminator (spyware protection/removal). This is my minimum safety configuration; depending on circumstances, in addition, I will also use Sandboxie (a free sand box application).

As you can see, Spyware Terminator is my current application of choice in the spyware protection/removal category. Having tested virtually all of the major anti-spyware apps over the last year or more, I’ve settled, for now, on Spyware Terminator.

A simple to use interface makes this program easy to setup, customize and run, for both less experienced and expert users alike.

Spyware Terminator provides strong active protection against known and unknown threats. If anything, I find it perhaps a little overly aggressive. On the other hand, better this than the alternative.

The program rates very highly in offering protection against spyware, adware, Trojans, key-loggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats. The scan behavior can be customized based on your level of experience; ranging from automatic interception for the less experienced user, to manual potential threat control for the more experienced user.

A definite plus is the program’s ability to schedule spyware scans on a daily or a weekly basis to ensure your computer’s continuing integrity. When set to download updates automatically, Spyware Terminator will check for, download and install new updates, keeping all files current with minimal user input. Optionally, you can choose to update manually.

Included with Spyware Terminator is Open Source ClamWin anti-virus, a reasonably effective anti-virus solution. My personal choice however has been to disengage this side of the package and to run Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus instead.

Quick Facts about Spyware Terminator

Real-time protection
Spyware removal
Automatic updates
Scheduled scans
On demand fast scan
On demand full scan
On demand customized scan
On Boot file remover
Context menu scan option
AntiVirus integration
Free support
Multilanguage support

System Requirements:

Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista

As we all know however, there is no one anti-malware tool that is likely to identify and remove all of the millions of rogue malware that infest the cyber world. So to ensure maximum safety, if that’s even possible, it’s important to have layered defenses in the ongoing fight against malware.

An excellent choice, as a secondary line of defense, is Spyware Doctor Starter Edition from PC Tools. This free version of the award winning program, with its easy to use interface, is used by millions of people worldwide to protect their computers; it’s reported there are a million+ additional downloads every week.

File protection is the only real time protection that operates in the free version and unfortunately, this level of real-time protection is inadequate in the current internet environment.

I would not recommend then, that you use this free version of Spyware Doctor as a stand alone security application because it simply will not offer you adequate protection. Instead, use it only as an on-demand scanner.

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Rogue Software Lies – Hang Onto Your Money! (18)
• TrendMicro – Free Online Spyware Removal Tool (5)
• Stop & Delete Spyware With Malwarebytes [Windows] (29)
• SpywareBlaster Can Stop Spyware Before It Starts [Win] (7)
• RU Botted – Watches your System for bot-related Activities (13)

So what are hardworking cyber crooks to do then, since it has become more difficult for them to overcome your more reliable Internet security defenses? How are they going to continue to rake in their dirty money? Well, how about using social engineering to convince you to download and install a malware package voluntarily?

Fear, a great social engineering motivator is the latest weapon being used against unsuspecting/inexperienced Internet users to convince them to download “rogue security software”. Without a doubt there is an epidemic of rogue security software on the Internet at the moment; and much of it is using social engineering to convince users’ to download an unsafe product.

So there you are surfing the net when suddenly you find this popup on your screen: “System Alert! System has detected a number of active spyware applications that may impact the performance of your computer. Click the icon to get rid of unwanted spyware by downloading an up-to-date anti-spyware solution”.

Using fear as the motivator, this type of popup announcement becomes a very powerful motivator.

Would you click on the icon?

Briefly, rogue security software is software that uses malware or malicious tools to advertise or install itself. Often, after installation on a system, an attempt is made to force users to pay for removal of nonexistent spyware through the purchase of the “full” version of the bogus software, based on the false malware positives generated by the application. Of course, since it is rogue software, it cannot detect or remove malware.

Worst, in many cases rogue software has the potential to gather private and personal information from an infected machine. This could include passwords, credit card details, and other sensitive information.

Generally, reputable anti-spyware software is capable of detecting rogue software if it attempts to install, or on a malware scan. But this is not always the case. Anti-malware programs that rely on a definition database can be behind the curve in recognizing the newest threats.

A good partial solution to this problem is to ensure you have installed, and are running, an anti-malware application such as ThreatFire 3, free from PC Tools. This type of program operates using heuristics, or behavioral analysis to identify newer threats.

Also, Malwarebytes, a reliable anti-malware company has created a free application to help keep you safe and secure.

An absolute must is making sure that the security application you are considering installing is recognized as legitimate by industry experts. An excellent web site that will keep you in the loop, and advise you what products work and have a deserved reputation for quality performance is Spyware Warrior.

A further resource worth noting is the Bleeping Computer web site, where help is available for many computer related problems, including the removal of rogue software.

Listed below are some of the most aggressive rogue security applications currently flooding the Internet. These are the ones to look out for:

IE AntiVirus

A clone of MalwareBell, FilesSecure and IEDefender was specifically developed to mislead unaware computer users’ into downloading and paying for the “full” version of this bogus software, based on the false malware positives generated by the application.

Even if you are tricked into paying for the “full” version, nothing, not even the false warnings will be cleaned from your computer.

XP Antivirus 2008

Once installed, it continues to run as a background process, incessantly reporting those fake or false malware detection warnings discussed earlier, if the full program fee is not paid.

To really try your patience, this rogue security software cannot be uninstalled using the Windows Add/Remove Programs tool.

Advanced XP Fixer

(a clone of WinIFixer), is rogue anti-spyware software from Bakasoftware (Bakasoftware.com), which also operates under the name Pandora Software, that tricks users into installing the program and attempts to convince the user that the computer has been infected.

Reportedly, Advanced XP Fixer can also be installed through Internet browser exploits, or by means of the Zlob or Vundo.Trojans.

When the program runs, a warning message appears indicating that the computer has been infected by malware. Subsequently, a screensaver launches which shows cockroaches eating the desktop.

PCAntiSpyware

is capable of hijacking the desktop, after it infects a computer, by way of web browser security holes. It can also be inserted onto a machine by a number of Trojan downloaders.

AntiSpywareMaster attempts to convince victims to spend $30 – $50 to remove false positives that this program is designed to install on your machine.

What you can do to reduce the chances of infecting your system with rogue security software:

1. Be careful in downloading freeware or shareware programs. Spyware is occasionally concealed in these programs. Download this type of program only through reputable web sites such as Download.com, or sites that you know to be safe.
2. Consider carefully the inherent risks attached to peer-to-peer (P2P), or file sharing applications.
3. Install an Internet Browser add-on that provides protection against questionable or unsafe websites. My personal favorite is Web of Trust, an Internet Explorer/FireFox add-on that offers substantial protection against questionable or unsafe websites.
4. Do not click on unsolicited invitations to download software of any kind.

Additional precautions you can take to protect your computer system:

1. When you are surfing the web: Stop. Think. Click
2. Don’t open unknown email attachments
3. Don’t run programs of unknown origin
4. Disable hidden filename extensions
5. Keep all applications (including your operating system) patched
6. Turn off your computer or disconnect from the network when not in use
7. Disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX if possible
8. Disable scripting features in email programs
9. Make regular backups of critical data
10. Make a boot disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised
11. Turn off file and printer sharing on the computer.
12. Install a personal firewall on the computer.
13. Install anti-virus/anti-spyware software and ensure it is configured to automatically update when you are connected to the Internet
14. Ensure the anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Spyware Terminator – Free Real-time Spyware Protection (19)
• TrendMicro – Free Online Spyware Removal Tool (5)
• RU Botted – Watches your System for bot-related Activities (13)
• Get Geeky and Fix your PC with HijackThis (12)
• Free App to Remove a Plethora of FAKE Antivirus Software (31)

According to Panda Labs, Panda Security’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, every single day in 2007, it received and analyzed more than 3,000 new strains of malware, an increase of 800% over 2006 . Malware epidemic anyone?

Of particular concern is the installation of malware based on social engineering, which seems poised for a major increase in activity; an opportunity created with the boost in user participation on MySpace, FaceBook, and other social networking sites.

More and more, cyber crooks are using malware to infect computers with the objective of turning the infected machines into zombies, which working together with other infected machines, operate as a powerful networked computer system.

Many computer security analysts are now convinced malware, phishing attacks and other cyber crimes from these powerful botnets can be expected to increase in frequency.

Statistics on the number of botnets are difficult to come by, but according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, there are at least 1 million botnetted computers in the U.S. Worst, some security companies estimate that currently there are as many as 10 million botnetted machines worldwide. Indeed, some researchers believe that this may just be the part of the iceberg that we can see above the waterline.

For your own benefit it’s obviously important to keep your computer from becoming infected and becoming a part of this problem. Perhaps it’s less obvious that we all share a responsibility to help protect other computer users on the Internet from becoming infected. The way to do that is to ensure that you are part of the solution; not part of the problem created by running an insecure machine, or by engaging in unsafe surfing practices.

In effect then, it’s up to individuals to keep up as best they can; which means installing as many levels of functional protection as possible.

Trend Micro, a leader in Internet content security, has released a beta of RUBotted, a small program that watches for incoming bot-related traffic which is worth considering adding to your security toolbox.

The following program description has been obtained from TrendSecure.

Trend Micro RUBotted (Beta) is a small program that runs on your computer, watching for bot-related activities. RUBotted intelligently monitors your computer’s system behavior for activities that are potentially harmful to both your computer and other people’s computers.

RUBotted monitors for remote command and control (C&C) commands sent from a bot-herder to control your computer. Additionally, RUBotted watches for an array of potentially malicious bot-related activities, including mass mailing – a common activity performed by a bot-infected computer.

RUBotted co-exists with your existing AV software, providing advanced bot specific behavior monitoring. RUBotted does not rely on frequent, network intensive updates to ensure your computer’s continued protection.

Operating Systems:

Windows 2000 Professional (Latest Service Pack Installed)
Windows XP Professional or Home Edition (Latest Service Pack Installed)
Windows 2003 Server (Latest Service Pack Installed)
Windows Vista (32 Bit with Latest Service Pack Installed)

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Get Geeky and Fix your PC with HijackThis (12)
• Trustware Bufferzone Has Your Browser’s Back (31)
• The Cut Out and Keep Guide to Essential Software Programs (25)
• Spyware Terminator – Free Real-time Spyware Protection (19)
• Rogue Software Lies – Hang Onto Your Money! (18)

As a long term file storage medium, CD/DVD’s are, in effect, all-purpose, durable and generally inexpensive. The difficulty in relying on this storage medium however is they aren’t always as reliable as we sometimes seem to think.

An internet friend, a very competent Techno Geek – was telling me just this week, “an older system of mine decided that it would not boot into Windows (XP), and then—with a determination that would make a Missouri mule proud—resisted all resuscitation efforts. No problem (I said to myself.. it was still early in the day). I’ll just re-mount a “ghost image” backup from the DVD’s I made last week.”

He went on to say “one of the 4 DVD’s was “corrupted”. As in “unreadable”. As in…that backup is totally useless to me. Four wasted discs. Caught me a little off guard, too….I pay extra to buy the best blanks, and the company to which I am alluding has never given me a “bad burn” before.”

So you’re not alone in turning what you may consider to be, unusable/unreadable CD/DVD’s into expensive coasters. But there is a solution that can help you to recover damaged data that you may have considered unrecoverable. Stepping into the picture is CD Recovery Toolbox, a free CD/DVD file recovery tool.

This small free application was designed to recover damaged files on CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray disks. It can recover files that have been lost as a result of physical damage to the disk (scratches, chips, and so on), or as a result of a bad or inaccurate recording.

The program scans damaged CD and DVD disks and produces a listing of files and folders on the media which it can recover. Be aware however that, depending on the degree of damage, there may be files that the application cannot recover.

In testing this product’s file recovery ability on a severely scratched and chipped disk, I’m happy to say that it recovered 934 files out of a total of 936, that Windows could not read, and it did this in less than 2 minutes.

Data recovery is generally a complex process but even beginners will have an easy time with this application based on it’s step-by step wizard, which makes the use of the tool very simple and convenient.

Quick facts:

• Recovers files/folders from CD and DVD’s
• Recovers files larger than 4 GB
• Detects lack of free space on the designated storage hard drive

Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2K/XP/2K3/Vista

Do you know of any similar programs that you use to rescue files from scratched and damaged disks? Share your recommendations in the comments!

(By) Bill Mullins is a Blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his Blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• How To Repair Damaged CD’s Or DVD’s & Recover Data (25)
• Geeks Weigh In: Can You Fix A Scratched CD With Toothpaste? (25)
• Put your Life On a USB Stick [Linux] (8)
• How To Read Scratched CDs or DVDs In Windows (16)
• Virtualization-Free In-Windows Linux Installation (15)

I use this utility as a test, to ensure that the anti-malware tools and firewall running on my systems are functioning correctly, and that there are no open outgoing connections to the internet that I am not aware of.

How to use Netstat:

You should close all open programs before you begin the following process, if you are unsure which ports/connections are normally open while you are connected to the internet. On the other hand, if you are familiar with the ports/connections that are normally open, there is no need to close programs.

There are a number of methods that will take you to a command prompt, but the following works well.

Click Start>Run>type “cmd” – without the quotes>click OK> this will open a command box.

From the command prompt, type Netstat –a (be sure to leave a space), to display all connections and listening ports.

You can obtain additional information by using the following switches.

Type netstat -r to display the contents of the IP routing table and any persistent routes.

The -n switch tells Netstat not to convert addresses and port numbers to names, which speeds up execution.

The netstat -s option shows all protocol statistics.

The netstat-p option can be used to show statistics for a specific protocol or together with the -s option to show connections only for the protocol specified.

The -e switch displays interface statistics.

Running Netstat occasionally is a prudent move, since it allows you to double check which applications are connecting to the internet.

If you find there are application connections to the internet, or open ports that you are unfamiliar with, a Google search should provide answers. A very good source of information is Steve Gibson’s website, Shields Up, where you can test all the ports on your machine, as well as testing the efficiency of your firewall. Take the firewall test; you may be surprised at the results! If your Firewall fails, get yourself a better one here.

If you are unfamiliar with, or uncomfortable with using the command structure, there are a number of free real-time port analyzers available for download.

(1) Process and Port Analyzer is a real time process, port and network connections analyzer which will allow you to find which processes are using which ports. A good little utility that does what it says it will do.

Quick Facts:

• View currently running processes along with the full path and file which started it
• View the active TCP Listeners and the processes using them
• View the active TCP and UDP connections along with Process ID
• Double click on a process to view the list of DLL’s

(2) CurrPorts allows you to view a list of ports that are currently in use, and the application that is using it. You can close a selected connection and also terminate the process using it. As well, you can export all, or selected items to an HTML or text report. Additional information includes the local port name, local/remote IP address, highlighted status changes and more.

Quick Facts:

• View current active ports and there starting applications
• Close selected connections and processes
• Save a text/ HTML report
• Info on local port name, local/remote IP address, highlighted status changes

(By) Bill Mullins is a blogger who writes on Internet Security, System Tools, Free Software, and provides downloads links. Check out his blog at Tech Thoughts

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• MUO Polls : Do you have a Spyware Removal Program? Which one? (28)
• TrendMicro – Free Online Spyware Removal Tool (5)
• Stop & Delete Spyware With Malwarebytes [Windows] (29)
• SpywareBlaster Can Stop Spyware Before It Starts [Win] (7)
• Spyware Terminator – Free Real-time Spyware Protection (19)