It was hell.

I don’t know how the gameplay was – I never got to that part. I was playing at about 60 seconds per frame and my flashlight wasn’t working. 50 Euros ($72) washed down the drain. If only I would’ve known!

If only people would’ve invented a way to compare the strength of your computer with game requirements and tell user whether his computer can play that game…Wait, they have! Meet ‘Can You Run it?‘, an online tool to check if your PC is up for the job.

‘ Can You Run it?’ uses System Requirements Lab, which weighs hardware specifications from the user’s computer against certain minimum and recommended values.

System Requirement Lab is used on many big websites, like nVidia, GameSpy, Activistion, EA, and others alike.

Can You Run it?

We’ll run you through an example of the CYRI test, using my PC and a copy of Crysis. I’ve already completed the game, so I know it runs perfectly fine, although I’m not able to maximize the video settings.

1. Select Your Game

Select your game from the drop-down menu on the main page. If you can’t find your game, your best option is to perform a Google search for the game’s specifications.

2. Installation

The title is misleading. You’ll have to give Java permission to run the program and upload your computer specs. Don’t worry, the nice people at ‘Can You Run it?’ promise absolute anonymity.

Hereafter, ‘Can You Run it?’ will analyze your data. Just give it a moment.

3. Interpretation

After analyzing, ‘Can You Run it?’ feeds you three things. First, an overall analysis, where it tells you in simple terms if you can or cannot run the game.

Please note that although my computer barely approaches the middle between the Minimum and Recommended marks, I was able to complete the game without any noticable framedrops and with stunning, although not maxed out graphics.

Next, two comparable pages. On the first page, ‘Can You Run it?’ compares your specifications to the minimum requirements, on the second one to the recommended requirements.

‘Can You Run it?’ looks at the following things:

• CPU type and speed
• System RAM
• Operating System
• Video Card and Driver
• DirectX Version
• Sound Card and Driver
• Free Disk Space
• DVD

These components all get rated on a six degree scale, and you’ll be provided with information and tips.

On the subjects where you score below the minimum or recommended specs, ‘Can You Run it?’ provides you with some improvement advice, such as what graphics card they advise you to get, or where you can get your driver updated. Basically, ‘Can You Run it?’ not only helps you summarize the problems at hand, but also points you in the right direction for fixing them.

If I had this site a few years ago, I wouldn’t have made the mistake of buying that game. Also, I wouldn’t have made the stupid mistake of buying a new video card that STILL didn’t support the game. God, that was embarrassing!

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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

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