How to Boost Your Broadband Speed

Here are 10 very simple tips to increase broadband speeds and links to several useful tools.

1. Test Your TV
Apart from TV there are other electrical equipment that can cause interference.

2. Avoid Extension Wiring - longer wire has poorer signals

3. Tweak your Wifi -
NetStumbler software (www.netstumbler.com/downloads) - use to which WiFi channels your neighbours are using.

4. Get Diagnosed - get help from your ISP.

5. Sort your system
Use unblocka (www.unblocka.com) to tune your settings to improve speed.

6. Keep your router up to date

7. Fine Tune MTU settings
MTU is one of the modem settings that can be changed. It controls the packet size of transmission. To identify issues with MTU - see www.pcauthority.com.au/links/129broad1. A guide on how to adjust MTU is found in www.dslreports.com/tweaks/MTU . Also the Speed Guide TCP Optimizer (www.speedguide.net/downloads.php) will identify the optimal MTU.

8. Ask for Interleaving
If you cannot solve your interference problems, you may be able to ask your ISP to switch on interleaving to improve performance. This essentially chops the packet into smaller pieces and has better error correction. This improve stability but may increase or decrease speed.

9. Replace your filters
A guide to test filters can be found at: www.pcauthority.com.au/links/129broad2

The technical details of what the inside of a filter looks like can be found in (www.adslnation.com/support/filters.php)

10. Watch out for AR7 routers
Routers with the AR7 chipset is known to have a fault so may cause connection to drop out. To find a list of router models containing this chipset, go to www.linux-mips.org/wiki/AR7
Firmware updates for some routers to correct this issue may be listed in www.pcauthority.com.au/links/129broad3

Security - Manage Privacy with Google

Google is implementing significant changes to its privacy policy from 1 March 2012. Most users would have received notification of this.

Here's a news article discussing it:

If you use Google, you may want to read this
Stephen Hutcheon, February 29, 2012 - 7:33AM
How your web history page should look after you've clicked "remove".
Opinion: Australia absent in Google privacy feud
"Today is your last chance to adjust your Google privacy settings ahead of a major change to the way Google collects and collates data about you, its users.
From March 1, the company will begin to aggregate all the information it acquires about its users who are logged in to Google services into a single, unified pool of data."


Here is a list of tools on Google's page to help address privacy concerns:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/tools.html


Here are a few interesting items:

1. Use Google Search in Encrypted form:   https://encrypted.google.com

2. Block Third party cookies and site Data.
For Chrome Browser:
a. Go to Options - Under the Botnet - click Content Settings - select "Block third-party cookies and site data".
b. On the same page, click on Manage Exceptions, to create a white list of trusted sites where cookies are allowed.
c. On the same page, click All Cookies and Site Data, and check which cookies are stored.

3. Instructions on how to transfer content in and out of Google products such as Google Docs and more:
http://www.dataliberation.org/

Tips: Windows Shortcuts

Windows Shortcut Keys
F2 - rename a file
F3 - Find - opens up a dialog to search for word.
F6 - Go to Address Bar in most browsers
Shift + Right-Click - displays the context menu
Windows + B - select the first app in the task bar
Windows + E - opens Windows Explorer
Windows + F - opens the Windows file search window
Windows + L - locks your Windows immediately 
Windows + M - clears the desktop, ie. minimizes all windows
Windows + R - opens the Run dialog
Windows + F1 - opens help for Windows
Windows + Tab - Switch between programs. Add the Shift key to go backwards
Windows + Pause/Break - Opens the System Properties dialog
Shift + Delete - to delete a file permanently
Ctrl + Drag - copy or moving files
Ctrl + Enter - In a browser, type the name of the website without www and com, then press these keys to go to the website
Alt + Esc - put this window to the back of the list
Alt + Ctrl + Fullstop - turn a fullstop into ellipsis.
Alt + F4 - Exits the current application, or exit Windows if there is no opened application
Alt + PrntScrn - Screen capture just the current window, not the whole desktop

How to Program

The following section discusses the use of Linux/Unix as a programming environment. Below is a list of some tools. More details are covered in the linked article.

Unix as IDE: Introduction
http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-ide/

File and project management   — ls, find, grep/ack, bash
Text editor and editing tools — vim, awk, sort, column
Compiler and/or interpreter   — gcc, perl
Build tools                   — make
Debugger                      — gdb, valgrind, ltrace, lsof, pmap
Version control               — diff, patch, svn, git


Some highly recognized books on programming:

The Little Schemer - Daniel P. Friedman
Mastering Algorithms with C - Kyle Loudon
C Programming Language (2nd Edition) - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie

How To Recover Missing Systray Icons

This is still Work In Progress, but here are a few sites about how to solve the Missing Icon In Systray Bug.

https://www.google.com.au/search?ix=hca&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22missing+icons%22+in+taskbar&oei=iCIzT4LLKsybiQey9vTrAQ

Google: "missing icons" in taskbar

http://winhlp.com/node/16

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic123221.html

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic42925.html

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-31257-how-to-recover-lost-missing-system-tray-icon

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-23085-restore-missing-icons-start-menu

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1034225301

Privacy - How To Cover Your Web Surfing Tracks and Internet Presence

When we go Web Surfing or Browsing the Internet with a web browser, we may think it looks like:

                Me  ->  Website

but in fact it is more like

               Me  ->  My Internet Service Provider (ISP)  ->  Website

When a web page appears on your computer, there is no magic - information is passed to and from Me, ISP and Website. Basically, anything about you that can be known, your IP (internet address), location, name you  sign up with, etc, can be obtained by ISP and Website and by others.


There are many valid and legal reasons why people would like to keep their privacy from their ISP and the Websites they visit. So there are ways to Not Reveal to your ISP which websites you visit, and Not Reveal to the Websites where your real location is.

Using VPN

Hotspot Shield - This software connects your computer via a VPN to the servers of HotSpot Shield which then visits the Websites. It looks like this:

               Me  --->           My  ISP              HotSpot Shield Servers -> Website
                              ----> VPN Tunnel ---->

So the Website thinks the visitor came from HotSpot Shield servers, instead of coming from you.
The ISP sees encrypted data and does not know which Website you are requesting to see.

Drawback: Theoretically your information is still known by HotSpot Shield servers. Well you have to trust someone in the end......

Other Ways

There are many other ways to cover your tracks. This site http://www.how-to-hide-ip.info/hide-ip-tools/ has a collection of tools that cover a variety of ways, such as:

• Tools on your PC for hiding IP
• Using Proxy in your Web Browser
• Proxy Sites
• Proxy Lists
• IP checking sites
• VPN services

Covering Web Browsing activities: using Tor www.torproject.org

For Smartphone, Mobile, Android systems: 

• Orbot - this is based on the Tor technology but available to Android on smartphones.

..... more to come.

How To Clean Up Windows

This article prevents some ideas of how to clean up your computer which has the Windows Operating System. The clean up here does to refer to any kind of virus or spyware removal. Instead, this article focuses on how to get rid of the junk that we or Windows itself accumulates on your computer throughout the years.

1. Scan using antivirus.
Although this article is not about removing virus but on the cleaning of junk files, one of the first step is to simply do a virus scan - just in case. Some useful articles are:
- using online virus scanners: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2008/07/antivirus-online-scan.html
- discounted antivirus software http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2012/01/security-software-discounts-and-special.html
- news on security http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/08/news-security.html
- how to secure your computer: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-secure-your-computer.html

2. Remove all unwanted programs.
Find a list of all your installed programs by going to Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs.
Decide which programs you do not need and uninstall them.
- some uninstaller software: http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/links-to-free-software.html

3. Find what is running in the background
Windows services are programs that run in the background after starting up themselves when the computer is switched on. Many will not tell you they are running. To find a list of these "services", go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services.
Find those services which you know is definitely not needed, whether they are from Windows or not. There is no clear way to identify which service you don't want - they will come from experience. Basically just look at the name of the services - a weird name does not mean it is not needed. Sometimes look for a service with a simple name which you definitely know is not required. Example: If your computer has no wireless connection, then look for service with the name wireless and Disable it.

4. Clean the Registry
WARNING: If anything goes wrong at this step, very often this will make your whole computer unable to start and you may lose everything.
This step should be done by experienced users only.
Some tools to check are: CCleaner and TweakNow RegCleaner. (see http://xtechnotes.blogspot.com/2011/07/links-to-free-software.html )

5. Are all your files compressed?
Some computers may have come out of the box, configured to compress all your files by default. In Windows Explorer, if your files has filenames appearing in colour, then it may be compressed. To switch off this option, in Windows Explorer, right click on the folder and select Properties. Then uncheck any box for compression, for that file, folder or the entire drive.

6. Check updates
Ensure all updates including Windows Update and other antivirus updates are up to date.

7. Avoid re-installing Windows
Only reinstall Windows as a very last resort.

8. Cleaning Temporary Files
Ref: http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/tutorials/article/72-keeping-your-system-partition-cleaned-up-on-a-schedule/

C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temp\*.*
c:\temp\*.*
c:\windows\kb*.log
c:\windows\temp\*.*

- delete windows update uninstall files
dir c:\windows\$nt*

- delete Internet Explorer update uninstall files
dir c:\windows\ie8updates






..... any more ideas are appreciated ....