Safe from physical harm

If you want to keep yourself safe, then you you must adapt right computing practices.

Due to the increasing dependence on technology, there has also been created so many technology-related health problems.

Computer usage is one of the biggest health problems of modern life. Some computer related problems are Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) due to the typing at odd angles without a break, Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) due to sitting for long periods without moving, backache due to bad posture, eyestrain from staring at a monitor screen for long and stress due to a combination of the above reasons and work-related pressures.

But it is not difficult to beat these problems. Just follow few simple steps.

• You must start by taking regular breaks between long hours of working or you can install such programs that blank out your screen at regular intervals to remind you to take that much needed break.
• Use a comfortable chair that suits you and is good for sitting in for long hours.
• When you use a laptop, keep moving into different position after every hour by this, by this you can prevent muscle cramps.
• Do not read more serious diseases like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and Epicondylitis which affect the nerves.
• Epicondylitis, alsocalled ‘tennis elbow’ can be due to repetitive action or rotating the forearm while typing or using the mouse. Use the right method to type and use the mouse or you can try and learn to use it with both hands.
• Long hours working can give you lower back pain and pain in the shoulders/ neck. This happens when the monitor is not at the right height. It should always be at eye level or below it.
• Eye fatigue, headache and stress can be kept away by regular medical examination and using anti-glare glasses for looking at the monitor screen.

Such kind of problems may affect your life so it is very important to keep yourself stress free, improve your working habits, and keep you healthy.

Tips for online safety

It is used to think many parents that it’s great if their kids spend a lot of time on the computer or Internet. And it will be safer for the child to be at home this way. But it is not true, and you need to know a few things about online safety. Here are some tips to help for you.

You should know

• The Internet is a vast place of information. If you look in the right places, you can find anything you need to know. Remember this always for your child who access the Net and the amazing info online.
• Along with the good things, there are so many bad things out there, which could enter to your child’s email inbox, chat groups and social networking sites.
• Your child will be eager to visit sites which you would not want her to go to. She would want to find out what they mean, and this could lead her to adult rated content.
• There are so many software and games available for free of cost, which your child will want to install on your PC. There are peer-to-peer networks for opening your computer, and use files from other computers. This is a good way for viruses, Trojan, spyware to come in to your computer.
• If your child has been using your credit card, some online games or shopping site can take extra money for bills which you might not like paying up at all.
• To be safe you must opt an unlimited download account from your ISPs. Otherwise, it will not good for you.
• Install such a program which will allow your child to browse safe sites.

You need to tell your child

• If your child meets anything which is uncomfortable for him, you must know immediately.
• Give your email ID to only her close friends, and never disclose the password to any of her friends.
• Be very selective about the people you add to your list on social networking sites, but the aim is not to make a friends list so long.
• Avoid talking to strangers on the Net, and never give out any details, address, etc to anyone.
• Avoid meeting friends, who has made with online.
• Internet is great so go out and use too.

Steps to a Faster Broadband Connection

If you’re paying much more for high-speed Internet service, and not getting the performance you expect. Follow these guidelines to boost your broadband speed, and keep your connection running smoothly.

1. Test Your Connection Speed
Before you start using, get a baseline reading of your downstream and upstream connection speeds at Speedtest.net. Measure the speeds at different times of day, especially during the hours when you use the connection most frequently and at least once after midnight or 1:00 AM.

2. Update Your Firmware or Get a New Modem
If your cable /or DSL modem is more than a couple of years old, ask your ISP for a change. The latest cable modems meet the DOCSIS 2.0 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard. If you have a 1.1 modem and a high-throughput plan, you’ll likely experience a large speed increase just by swapping modems. Even with a brand-new modem, make sure that you have the latest firmware installed.

Cable providers such as Comcast usually push new firmware to modems, so there’s no need for most cable modem users to perform upgrades themselves. To update your DSL modem, you’ll have to connect to its Web interface, which means that you’ll need to know the IP address of the modem on your local network. This information should be in your user manual; alternatively, you can find default settings for most modems on the Internet. Enter this address into your browser and the Web interface should come up, and check the firmware number on the status page and see whether a newer version of the firmware is available on the manufacturer’s site. If it is, download this more recent firmware to your PC and then find and run the firmware update procedure from the modem’s browser utility. Reboot, rerun Speedtest and see whether your data is traveling faster. Besides boosting transfer speeds, using a new modem or updated firmware can solve a host of nagging connection issues, such as intermittent dropouts.

3. Check Your Modem Parameters
While you’re updating the firmware, check the maximum allowed speeds (both downstream and up) should match your service plan. If they don’t, your ISP didn’t set your service up properly. Give your ISP a call and ask it to fix the setup remotely. And, look for signal-to-noise ratio or SN margin and line attenuation, both measured in dB. The lower the signal-to-noise ratio, the more interference you have and the greater the number of packets that will need to be re-sent because they didn’t come through the first time.

4. Troubleshooting Line Quality
If your off-peak Speedtest numbers didn’t measure up to your plan’s specifications and if you found poor signal-to-noise or line attenuation numbers, it’s time to troubleshoot your wiring. Excessive noise may cause intermittent dropouts, too.

Your first task is to determine whether the signal is already degraded when it reaches your house or whether your own wiring is at fault. To test this, move your cable modem as close as you can to where the wire first splits. Retest and see if things improve. If they don’t, call your cable company. If your own wiring looks to be at fault, reduce the number of splits that occur before the wiring reaches your modem and/or replace the wire itself, which may be faulty. The ultimate solution for cable modems is to create a split directly after the junction box and then run a clean new cable directly to your modem, using the other split for all of your TVs.

If you still have too much noise, the best solution is to install a “DSL/POTS splitter” immediately after the phone box, where the wiring comes into the house, and then run a dedicated “homerun” wire straight to the modem. This arrangement will completely isolate your modem from the regular phone wiring — and the new wire should help, too.

5. Optimize Software Settings
Now that your cable or DSL line is as clean as you can make it, you’re ready to use your system and applications for maximum performance, too. For optimizing network performance parameters in Windows XP or Vista, we like TotalIdea Software’s Tweak-XP Pro Premium and TweakVI Premium to optimize without requiring you to understand Registry editing or hidden Windows settings. Pro version of Network Magic, an excellent network monitoring utility, includes optimization capabilities as well.

6. Accelerate Your Downloads
Frequent downloaders can save huge amounts of time by using a download manager like our favorite, FlashGet. FlashGet creates multiple simultaneous download links and then puts the file together afterward. All you do is click or drag download links to the FlashGet window; the program does the rest. It integrates with Internet Explorer and works with Firefox using a companion utility called FlashGot.

Guidelines for Laptop Security

As we know that maximum companies entrust their employees with confidential, sensitive data on laptops, so we have to learn how to keep this data safe. A laptop epitomizes convenient computer usage so you can carry it along, work on it anywhere and at any time,  and connect it to public wireless networks to communicate with others.

When people travel with their laptops outside office, others can access it; get stolen it. In this way many companies have lost sensitive information and confidential data. Using laptops on public wireless networks gives hackers a golden opportunity to break into not only the machine, but also into the corporate network to which the machine is connected. When a laptop with wireless capabilities is connected to a wired network, it can allow hackers to break into the wired network. Here are some basic tips to ensure that your laptop and the data on it don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Prevent physical access : If it is possible, you should avoid leaving your machine unattended when you’re outside office. You should also not let anybody use your machine, for however short a period of time, otherwise it is a co-worker who has legitimate reasons for doing so.

Guard against spyware : Spyware is the main cause of data theft from laptops and corporate networks that are accessed through infected laptops. You should avoid to install any peer-to-peer program or shareware on the laptop because these are known to spread spyware. At the time of downloading anything from the Internet, be sure to read the End User License Agreement carefully, ensuring that you are not downloading any spyware alongside. Avoid pirated software which is a way to get spyware on to your machine.

Take regular backups : It is most important to take regular backups of the work you do on the laptop because the risk of hacker attacks over wireless networks and even physical theft of the laptop is higher.

Use full-disk encryption : Many encryption utilities enable you to encrypt the data on your hard drive and even on USB pen drives. You must use encryption to ensure that even in the worst-case scenario of your laptop getting stolen, the thief cannot access your confidential data.

Use a firewall : Anti-virus, anti-spyware software and a firewall, are very essential to a laptop, because you may be connecting to the Internet via public hot spots, which make your laptop more vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Basic guidelines to Download

We show you how, and what you should do to download, so never downloaded programs before knowing it.

Download applications from the Internet that help simplify your task and installation process of the software you download could be different for different computers, operating systems or browsers, but you need to keep these five guidelines in mind.

1. Make a directory for downloads by right-clicking anywhere on the Windows desktop by this you can keep your desktop and hard drive mess-free, and grants easy access to all your downloads.

2. Search the software that you want on the Internet and download that. Normally all websites have a download link. After clicking on this link, a box pops up which gives you the option to Run, Save or Cancel the download. Click on the Save option and save the file in download folder on the desktop.

3. Maximum down loadable files from the Internet are compressed. This reduces the download time and keeps all the files related to the program like, help files and drivers, together in a single file. Unzip the file using a program like WinZip. “.EXE ” file is generally self-extracting file that is decompressed by double-clicking it. The installation of such files start automatically after which you can skip directly to step 5.

4. This step is installation. In unzipped files,you can check for the Install or Setup file. WinZip can also search the Install or Setup program contained in a ZIP file which creates a button, called Install in the WinZip button bar, by decompressing. Click this Install button, and follow the instructions as come up. During installation, the program will ask about the location where you want to install the software, and what program you want to add it to. Choose the default settings, on the basis of knowledge or have a personal preference. Create a desktop icon.

5. If your program installed and running, you don’t need no more downloaded compressed file.