Conficker has got a bag full of wonders

Now first of all what is this conficker?
Conficker is a worm that is specifically targeted at windows users(another reason why you should switch to Linux). It spreads by exploiting a vulnerability in the network stack implementation of Windows operating systems ranging from XP to newly launched Windows 7 beta. It is also known as downup and downadup. It so good(or bad) that leading Anti virus companies have formed teams to see if they can find some cure for it.

What it does?
Researchers are still working to find all its "features" but here are few that are most important:

• Disables access to all anti virus sites.
• Disables windows update
• causes congestion is LANs
• Disables Microsoft services like BITS and error reporting
• researches have just recently found that it also installs fake anti virus software for just $50.

How it propagates?
After infecting a PC using vulnerability mentioned above it attaches itself to system start up. Then the worm (one of its variant to be specific) generates a list of 250 domain names across five top level domain names and tries to connect with those hosts to check for any available "Updates"(cool,innit?). Its different variants use different number of hosts and tlds.
Some of its variants attach themselves with removable media so as to infect new machines.The worm is spreading so fast that right now there are around 10 million computers infected with it.

How to find if you are infected?
Just check if your PC shows any of above symptoms. For example if you can connect to anti virus sites using proxies but are unable to do so directly then you are infected.

How to remove?
The worm disables system restore so it is of no use. It also terminates anti virus related processes and hence that gets eliminated as well. Use updated versions of Bitdefender of McAfee to remove this worm. Also download and install the emergency patch issued by Microsoft from here. Another suggestion is to disable AutoRun option. Another(really important) suggestion is to turn off the Administrative shares. The worm can remotely execute on your PC if these shares are enabled.

PS: Microsoft is offering $250,000 if you can only find out who released this worm. Well..........

PPS: If you want Computer security products for free then check this out.

Keywords: Free anti virus software, Conficker, downaddup, downup virus, anti virus sites blocked, Anti virus sites not accessible, sites not opening

Choose your hosting solution with web hosting choice

In good old days when internet was invented it was only used for academic purposes. But within last few years due to technological advancements and price reduction(mainly) internet use has grown like million folds. So it is not really surprising when people launch their personal websites just for the fun of it.
The first step while launching a website be it a personal or full of some ecommerce stuff is to find a good hosting solution. As you all know every website has a page called "Home" and it is related to your actual home in every sense of the word. It is your home on the internet. So while buying some place to build this home you need to take a few things into account. Things like security, space, bandwidth make a real impact on your websites success. Now while buying/building your actual home you(we all do) take advise from someone who has more experience and knowledge about it. The same is applicable to your online home as well. There are so many web hosting solutions available that it is really impossible for a novice to choose the best one. This is exactly what you need the expertise of Web Hosting Choice for. Web Hosting Choice is for all of the people who want to launch their websites. They provide a free for all research guide to help users choose the right web host for their personal or business website. On their homepage they have provided a comparison of top ten web hosting solutions. You can also read the reviews about each and every one of the providers.An in depth comparison chart is provided that makes it easier to compare one provider with another.If you just a beginner and don't want to spend too much money then you can use the cheap web hosting link. You can easily get answers to all your hosting related questions in the faqs section which is really cool because armed with that much knowledge you can easily find the best web host for you.

Keywords: Web hosting, ecommerce web hosting,

Windows 7 will allow downgrade to XP

Just like the saying "once bitten is twice shy" , Microsoft seems to have learned few lessons from the Vista catastrophe. When Microsoft announced its new operating system all attention was focused on designing something that will be light weight and will run on most of the computers with any expensive upgrade.
Even though Vista was better than XP in many ways like security(remember UAC? it was the best but most ill-implemented feature) , looks etc. it needed far more sophisticated hardware to show its capabilities. Because of these problems and negative publicity the most popular feature of Vista turned out to be the Downgrade option. Many computer vendors like Dell sold Pre-downgraded machines as Microsoft had already stopped selling XP. With Windows 7 also Microsoft has made the same promises and although one look at beta version(i know there is still long way to go) is sufficient to say that this time Microsoft is really serious, it is planning to offer the infamous downgrade option with Windows 7 as well.
Presumably with Windows 7 ultimate and Business version the downgrade rights will be attached allowing the customers to downgrade not only to Vista(?) but to XP as well. In Windows 7 Microsoft is expanding the Downgrade rights program to allow PC makers to ship downgraded machines based on anticipated demand for those systems.

Keywords: Windows 7 downgrade

AMD releases ATI Radeon HD 4890

AMD has released its latest graphics card ATI Redaon HD 4890. It comes with an 850 MHz core clock, memory clock at 975 MHz, 1 GB of GDDR5 memory and a maximum board power of 190 watts on a 55nm process technology, with an idle power consumption down 30% to 60 watts.
The full list of features is given below. It is expected to cost around $250 just like NVDIA GeForce GTX 275.

ATI Radeon HD 4890 specs:

• 956 million transistors on 55nm fabrication process
• PCI Express 2.0 x16 bus interface
• 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface
• Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
• Shader Model 4.1
• Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture
• 800 stream processing units
  

+ Dynamic load balancing and resource allocation for vertex, geometry, and pixel haders
+ Common instruction set and texture unit access supported for all types of shaders
+ Dedicated branch execution units and texture address processors

• Dynamic Geometry Acceleration

o High performance vertex cache
o Programmable tessellation unit
o Accelerated geometry shader path for geometry amplification
o Memory read/write cache for improved stream output performance

• OpenGL 3.0 supportATI Avivo HD Video and Display Platform
  

o Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC, VC-1, and MPEG-2 video formats
+ High definition (HD) playback of Blu-ray and HD DVD video
o Hardware DivX and MPEG-1 video decode acceleration
o ATI Avivo Video Post Processor
o Two independent display controllers
o Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
+ Each supports 18, 24, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
+ Each includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content
o Two integrated 400 MHz 30-bit RAMDACs
+ Each supports analog displays connected by VGA at all resolutions up to 2048x1536
o DisplayPort output support
+ 24 and 30 bit displays at all resolutions up to 2560x1600
o HDMI output support
+ All display resolutions up to 1920x1080
+ Integrated HD audio controller with support for stereo and multi-channel (up to 7.1) audio formats, including AC-3, AAC, DTS5, enabling a plug-and-play audio solution over HDMI
o Integrated AMD Xilleon HDTV encoder
+ Provides high quality analog TV output (component/S-video/composite)
+ Supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions
+ Underscan and overscan compensation
o Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
o VGA mode support on all display outputs

• ATI PowerPlay Technology

o Advanced power management technology for optimal performance and power savings
o Performance-on-Demand
+ Constantly monitors GPU activity, dynamically adjusting clocks and voltage based on user scenario

• ATI CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology

Requirements:

• PCI Express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
  
• 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)
• And of course at least $250

Keywords: ATI radeon HD 4890

Keep your PC secure for ......FREE

Because of the worldwide acceptance of Windows operating systems, thousands-actually the number is far bigger than that- of viruses ,spywares and many other malicious programs have been released on the internet targeting windows user. These viruses and spywares pose a serious threat to user's data security as well as computer's functionality. As Windows is not that secure when left on its own- but don't blame poor Microsoft programmers coz even if the Redmond based company had thousands of programmers only for making Windows secure there are millions of kids out there trying to break it down- you must take a certain precautions so as to make at least an illusion of being safe and secure.

To achieve this goal you either have to invest in some commercial security solution or read on.

So now if you are still reading then I'd give a few tips so that you can secure your PC against most of the threats.

Step #1: Keep the operating system updated.

There is absolutely nothing that is more important than keeping your Windows updated as frequently as possible. My advise to you is keep "Automatic updates" on. With this your Windows installation will be updated automatically whenever you are online.

If for whatever reasons you have turned automatic updates off then follow these steps:

• Open Microsoft Windows Update page at http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/

• Scan the PC using "Scan for updates" link to find out what critical updates and security fixes are missing.
  

• Select, download, and install a selection of updates, especially any Critical Updates.
  

• Restart the PC after finished(If asked).
  

It takes time so wait.

Step #2: Download, install, and run some good anti spyware tool to get rid of all spyware.

Spyware is any software that is installed on your PC and tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware generally can

• what web pages you are visiting and send these information to advertising companies. This kind of spyware is commonly called adware.
  

• It can also record all your keystroke and send them to some remote computer without your knowledge. So obviously your passwords and bank account numbers are not safe with these beauties around.

Note: Even though WGA satisfies most of above definitions it is not a spyware.

Following are few good and free antispywares available for download use any one of these to keep your PC spyware free.

• Windows defender. If you are a vista user you don't need to download this.

• Spybot -search and destroy.

• Ad-Aware

• Hijack this.
  

Step #3: Download and install a good Personal Firewall.

• Zone alarm
  

• comodo

• PC Tools firewall plus

Step #4: Use a good anti-virus software

• Even though Kaspersky is not free i'd like to recommend it here. This is the best antivirus software currently available. Download 30 day trial from here.

• AVG

• Avast!

• PC tools
  

Step #5: Install password management software

We all need passwords for like everything , you should use different passwords for each account. But remembering all these passwords is no less troublesome than forgetting them all at once. So passwords should be stored at some location which is both safe and easy to access. Thats where password managers come in.

• KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).
  

Download keepass here.

• RoboForm is a password management software with Artificial Intelligence built in that can automatically fill online forms for you.
  

• Keywallet

But as the saying goes "the chain is only as strong as its weakest link" all these security measures only work if the weakest link i.e you are careful. Do not click on anything that says you have won a 3 day free membership of some website or a $1000000 prize from some lottery you never bought. Also do not send your confidential personal information to anybody you are not really familiar with.