Turns out, you are better off logging out all accounts even at home.

I recently read somewhere that the Internet Explorer 8 is getting ready to protect users from clickjacking attacks. A little digging, and I found a lot of literature on this subtle attack called CSRF that is being dubbed “the sleeping giant” of web vulnerabilities.

Cross-site Request Forgery
Suppose Alice closed her bank page without logging out and that the session is still alive. Now she opens an apparently harmless webpage but with a tiny obscure image referring to a “post” page of bank. That is, the page that is executed after the confirmation, the page where the actual transaction takes place.

While Alice is going through that apparently harmless webpage, a transaction is being executed on her behalf.

This kind of attack where a part of one site cross-refers a different site is cross-site request forgery.

Now, the above explanation is a very simplified version. In reality, bank sessions are more secure, but the CSRF done is equivalently more subtle and cunning. It is a good thing that most banks expire sessions automatically after a few minutes of idleness.

Clickjacking
ClickJacking is a term which encompasses multiple techniques that can be used to trick the user into unwittingly clicking an obscured or hidden web element, usually resulting in an unwanted transaction.

Read more about Clickjacking, about what IE8 is doing to defend users against Clickjacking, and about the CSRF.

One way to be on guard is to use different browsers or browser profiles for normal browsing activity and activity where logins are necessary.

Post from: EveryJoe

Why Log Off Your Accounts?

Physical Address: Also called the Media Access Control address, is a serial number that can uniquely identify your ethernet card or wireless adapter.

IP Address: An Internet Protocol address is assigned by your LAN provider(say, a modem at homes) to each of the systems connected to a network through the provider.

Subnet Mask: When there are multiple systems connected to a network, the network is divided into subnetworks to avoid interference (traffic), and routers manage the overall traffic. In a manner of speaking, the subnets can be differentiated by the subnet masks.

Default Gateway: As the name suggests, this is the (IP) address of the node that allows access to a different network. Say your modem connects to the Internet, and your PC connects to the modem. The modem acts as the gateway for your PC to the Internet.

DHCP Server: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol can be used by systems to obtain configuration information to connect to a network without any manual intervention. e.g. You usually don’t configure any network information on your home PC. You say “Obtain an IP address automatically” and leave it at that, and this allows multiple systems to connect to the same network without each system being designated a set of hard-written network configuration details. The DHCP Server handles this.

DNS Server: A Domain Name System server stores all the domain names and corresponding IP addresses. When you type a URL in your browser address bar, the DNS Server translates the domain name into an understandable format (IP) before the requested details can be fetched from the website you wish.

WINS Server: You may look at Windows Internet Name Service as Microsoft’s version of DNS. There are differences, but the final result to the end user is more or less the same. And either of DNS and WINS servers suffice.

Newbies, you mostly know the tiny network icons in your system tray. Click on the icon that represents the network through which you are connected to the Internet. Go to the “Support” tab, click on “Details” and you will see the “Network Connection Details” I have mentioned above.

Post from: EveryJoe

Network Connection Details

A quick survey using Google tells us that there are nearly a million results for laptop hard disk, about a half million each for laptop hard disk recovery and laptop hard disk replacement, and a quarter million for laptop hard disk failure.

Let us look into mechanical hard disk failures as there are recovery tools which can very well work in case of other kinds of failures.

One obvious reason why a hard disk might mechanically fail is when it is dropped off a height. Despite what stress tests assure you, laptops are only as proportionally safe as humans when it comes to jumping off heights. While we might be able to walk again, they might not always be able to run.

One non-obvious reason why a hard disk might mechanically fail is when you take it for a walk. Laptop is a portable device, so you hold it and walk from the kitchen (it shouldn’t even have been there) to the TV room, or worse, from your office to your home. I do it all the time. Only I suspend the laptop, if not shut it down.

Hard disks as the “disk” suggests are mechanical devices. When you walk a hard disk while it is running (while I/Os are being performed), you put it in a pickle, like you would yourself find when you were to drink while running.

The large momentum you give it while walking can conflict with its own momentum at a time when its head is trying to read or write to a sector, and this can cause mechanical failure.

So.

Don’t walk the laptop.

Not when it is running. Shut down or at least suspend all activity before doing that.

Post from: EveryJoe

Do Not Walk the Laptop

Image via Wikipedia

A friend was trying to clean up his old Apple Mac computer. His hard drive was getting low on space (he only had a 20GB drive) so he went through to see what was taking up so much space. He happened upon the “System” directory. He knew that he have never used that directory before and he had also never saved anything into it. After a quick Google search on what the “System” folder was he decided is what not useful. How he could have came to the conclusion that is wasn’t helpful is beyond me. Needless to say, a reformat was in order.

Now I am not a Mac guy at heart. I don’t have an iPhone and my iPod is probably 27 generations behind but I know enough about the system that the “System” directory is necessary. I mean, would you touch your “Windows” directory on a PC? If you would, listen up now — DON’T DO IT! Within the top 5 Google responses for this search were:

• System Folder – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• In Mac OS, what is the System Folder? – Knowledge Base
• Bombich.com: Recovering from a Blinking “?”
• Mac OS 9 – The Basics of the System Folder

All of these clearly explain what it is and what it does. They are written in fairly plain English so I expect most people should understand it. The next time you feel like cleaning house, check Google and listen to what it has to tell you. It’s most definitely smarter than your average IT guy.

Post from: EveryJoe

File names can mean something. That’s why I Google it.

Don’t lie to me when you need help with your computer. I don’t judge you if your PC messes up, these things happen but don’t think to lie your way out of it. I need to know what you were doing when the problems happened. If you spilled a coke on your laptop tell me, we all make mistakes.

Now, we have all come across the issue of lying about silly things — more often than not it was back when we were still in diapers but there is an upward trend of telling little white lies about mishaps happening at the work place. Take for example, a Blackberry administrator and his lovely end-user.

One day, Miss I love my Blackberry and would never do anything to harm it (Ilmyb for short), comes up and exclaims that her device stopped working last night. Being the smart IT person that this gentleman was, he examined the device, took the battery out and noticed that it was a bit damp inside. This was a tip off that the device most likely did not just “stop working”, something happened to it.

Fast forward 5 minutes later, the conversation turns to Miss Ilmyb saying, “the device may have become a little wet but that was not when it stopped working.” Feeling a bit underwhelmed, the IT guy took the device and decided to take a look at it later. To his surprise, the inside of the device was covered in orange juice. After cleaning the entire device out with alcohol and sealing it back together (which voids the warranty), VOILA, it worked. Miss Ilmyb finally fessed up to her child spilling orange juice all over the table and it may have gotten into the device.

In the end, the truth came out and the only thing that came out of this was an untrustworthy relationship between the nice ‘ol IT guy and the lady for the next time an issue came up. So please, be kind and be honest. The problems get fixed much faster and we all thank you for it.

Post from: EveryJoe

Lying never got you anywhere

If something does break and there are error messages that come up, WRITE THEM DOWN. I can’t stress this enough, those error messages appear for a reason and usually indicate the problem. If you can’t duplicate the issue then it’s not an issue anymore.

To explain this a little clearer, lets break this apart into easier to digest chunks.

1. When an error message pops up on the screen, it means there is a problem. No, the computer does not spit them out for no apparent reason and no they are not there to amuse and excite (although many of them are quite amusing.
2. Write them down should be a no brainer but so many people click OK without even thinking or reading what the message said. As in the first step above, these messages pop up for a reason. Make sure you keep a copy of them (a screen shot would be best) in a form that someone else will be able to understand. Read: Write out the full error, not just “Microsoft Word said error.”
3. Finally, if you can’t reproduce it, it’s not an issue anymore is not always true. Many times issues that can’t be reproduced are not gone, they are just sleeping. Think of it like when your dog finally takes a break from chewing up your couch. It’s not that he won’t chew anymore, it’s that he’s too tired to eat another cushion. But take heed, follow steps one and two so that you will save your cushions and your couch.

To many people ignore the warnings that are staring them in the face. If your computer starts to act up, spits out funny messages or down right BSODs, stop and open a ticket, call your nearest nerd-tech guy or simply go out for a smoke break. You’ll thank me later, I can guarantee it.

Post from: EveryJoe

For the love of all that is helpful, write it down

View the video via PC World

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Resurrect a Crashed Hard Drive

Now we’ve compiled a list of ten tips, many of which we refer to every single time we contact a tech support flack. It doesn’t matter the reason: whether our cable Internet service is down; a hard drive won’t spin up; a laptop stops working after 20 minutes, religiously; or we need a replacement cooling fan for the one that doesn’t go anymore.

We suggest you work these tips into your own personal strategy, too.

Tip 1: Be Prepared
Before you make contact, you should know exactly what you hope to accomplish by contacting tech support. Do you need a replacement part? Do you need actual help getting something to work? Knowing what you want beforehand will make the encounter much easier.

For example, if you turned on your PC and your hard drive makes an ugly, clunking, clattering noise, you can be pretty sure it’s dead. Troubleshoot it beforehand; toss it in the freezer for a couple hours and see if that temporarily cures it. If it does, get your data off of it and wait for it to fail again before you call.

When you know what you want—say, a replacement hard drive—spend the entire encounter centering on getting what you need. Don’t allow the tech support rep to steer you off subject with questions that don’t pertain to your situation (such as, what type of optical drive you have, or whether there are any USB peripherals plugged in).

If you’re replacing a part, ask that the company cross-ship. In other words, the company might ship a replacement part to you before it receives your defective part. Sometimes they need a credit card number for “collateral” when a cross-shipment is requested. Keep an eye on that account and make sure they don’t charge it if you ship the item to them on time.

No matter what the situation, be prepared. Write down a list of questions you have for the tech support rep before you get in charge. Do Web research and see if anyone else has encountered your problem, and if there’s a known solution. Try, in essence, to know as much about the problem as you possibly can before you contact the company.

Tip 2: Decide How to Get in Touch
Sometimes, you’ll need help right away. Other times, you can wait. It’s really up to you.

Most companies provide tech support through both email and the phone. Note any charges for either method, and take into account any long distance phone fees. A third way some companies offer is Web chat; that can be useful, too.

Which is right for you depends on your situation. Obviously, if the RAID array in your small business’s only computer is dying and you’re losing virtually all of the accounts billable data, you should make a phone call. Alternately, if the power supply on the rear of the PC chassis has started to make an annoying, but rather quiet, buzzing sound, you can probably get away with an emailed request. Assess your situation and do what you need to do.

Post from: EveryJoe

Top Tips for Tech Support Success

Perhaps your RAM is dead, and causing the system to hang. When you start your computer, it checks for all (present) hardware, and if something fails (like my IDE drive), it either freezes, or it gives an error message.

Maybe you could try clearing the cmos , or replace your RAM stick, just to see if that does the trick. You can also try see if you can boot the computer up with a live cd (windows, linux).”

Also, check if your power supply is functioning properly, i had one of my PC’s go down a couple of weeks ago due to an old/faulty powersupply. If you’re feeling adventurous, open up your pc then detach then secure all cables plus your ram modules. If you experience beeping sounds when booting, check out pchell’s guide to beep codes.

Post from: EveryJoe

PC not booting?

The email box is open at maryb5media[at] gmail [dot] com. If you have a technical question about Windows XP, no matter what level, send the question in. Keep it concise and limited to one question. You can send in more than one email, but each email should be short, to the point… You may also ask your tech question in comments. [Ask a Tech series, inaugurated by Aaron Brazell]

Question: The case of the disappearing icons: Jason Bean, writes: “I’ve got some icons that are missing from my Start Menu and Quick Launch Menu. I’ve refreshed, deleted and removed, refreshed, added, new, etc, etc. and still can’t get anything to work… ” Jason is the editor of b5media Blogs: www.office12watch.com | www.microsoftweblog.com | www.emergingearth.com | www.uncovertheinternet.com | www.idolstalker.com | www.christianmusicfan.com | www.csifanatic.com Icon is missing from start menu…

Answer: Jason, I suspect your icon ‘cache’ has been corrupted. This happens from time to time and is not troublesome, but it’s annoying, isn’t it. (if you uninstalled or deleted programs, these missing icons may also be the debris of an incomplete install. I’ve had this happen when I uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it in a different directory.)

To fix icon corruption, I’d recommend that you ‘rebuild’ your icons. One way to do that is to download a free Microsoft program: Tweak UI, a subset of the Tweak UI Power Toys, TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe from Microsoft:Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Microsoft’s disclaimer: “[Powertoys] are not part of Windows and are not supported by Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about PowerToys. PowerToys are for Windows XP only.” After you install Tweak UI, run it and choose ‘repair‘ Click the “Repair” link, then in the right pane of Tweak UI, click on the pull-down and choose “Rebuild Icons”. Click “Repair Now”, then “OK” to close the dialog box.

Happily, this answer resolved Jason’s missing icons. However, occasionally, this answer doesn’t work. To force XP to rebuild desktop icons, other fixes may apply:

Got an XP tech question you need help with? Please send it in! Also try my best tech tip ever! Hint: Google is your unpaid and ever cheerful, reliable tech support.

Technorati Tags: ask a tech, rebuild icons, Tweak UI, corrupted icon cache, powered by performancing firefox

Post from: EveryJoe

Ask a tech series: how to rebuild missing desktop icons