UK rethinks awful opt-in web porn filter, comes up with a marginally better idea

After giving consideration to an opt-in Internet content filter, where users would have to request access to adult material, the UK government may announce an active choice system instead before the end of this month.

The debate over whether Internet service providers should be automatically blocking adult content on the Web in the UK continues, however this weekend, news of a slightly tweaked plan has broken.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be pushing forward with a new set of proposals, which veer away from the opt-in schemes from before — where the filter would be active unless you asked for it to be switched off — to a slightly more sensible opt-out system.

Referred to as active choice, the idea is that anyone who buys a new computer or signs-up with a new ISP will be asked whether children will have access to the computer. If the answer is yes, users will be guided through the installation of a filter, before answering a series of questions to set its sensitivity.

To stop cheeky under-18s from bypassing the filter before installation, unnamed measures will be implemented to confirm the person’s age from the start. The proposal may be announced before December.

Filters for the technically naive

Details on the new filter come from a report published by the Daily Mail, a UK newspaper with a poor reputation which has been pushing its own Block Online Porn campaign for a while, despite publishing questionable content itself on a regular basis.

It cites studies that say one in three children under the age of 10 have viewed pornographic material online, while four out of five aged between 14 and 16 do so on a regular basis.

While the new plans go against the blanket op-out schemes previously being considered, the Daily Mail is still claiming this as a victory, despite the system being nowhere near as restrictive as it wanted.

Internet filters appeal to the technically naive, but there’s no guarantee they’ll work. One of the reasons a filter is being considered is to assist parents with no knowledge of computers or the Internet (and obviously, no wish to learn) help stop their children accessing adult content. Except filters are easily avoidable by those with a modicum of know-how, i.e. the kids.

Filters are often ineffectual

There are also problems with filters not only blocking the wrong content, but failing to block that which it’s supposed to. For example, last year a well-known adult video website still appeared to users behind TalkTalk’s HomeSafe filter, as the message the site had been blocked only appeared in a box usually reserved for an advert.

TalkTalk is still the only major ISP in the UK to provide a cross-platform Internet filter, although Sky and Virgin Media have both agreed in principle to implement the government’s plans in the future, should they become mandatory. For now though, both let users choose what can be viewed online in the privacy of their own homes.

It’s becoming increasingly likely that a government enforced filter will be introduced in the UK in the future. While worrying, if one really must be introduced, this latest version is the least insidious discussed so far.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Online ad revenues to skyrocket in five years time

The online ad market is growing by leaps and bounds, according a new report that predicts it to reach $143 billion worldwide in the next five years.

International spending on Internet advertising is expected to rise by almost 50 percent over the next five years, according to a new report from a team of analysts tracking the global online ad market. The report, issued today by research and analytics firm Digital TV Research and entitled Online Advertising Forecasts, predicts that ad spending online will reach $143 billion dollars in 2017.

That figure is a significant rise over the anticipated figure for 2012 – $92 billion – and more than double the amount spent on Internet advertising just two years ago, which amounted to $66 billion. According to Digital TV Research, what’s driving the increased rate of growth is the changing demographics of the Internet itself; simply, the more people that get online, the more important online advertising will become. Specifically, the report says, the growth of broadband Internet worldwide plays an important role: By 2017, the number of homes expected to have broadband Internet access is estimated at 745 million across 40 countries (The report covers only 40 countries), which represents almost half (49.2 percent) of total households in those countries. In comparison, those figures for 2010 were 473 million, or 33.5 percent of total households.

The report goes on to estimate that, despite the overall leap in spending, individual cost-per-household won’t dramatically increase; author Simon Murray suggests that it may rise as little as $26 per broadband household, from 2010′s $139 per household to somewhere in the region of $165 per household.

Overall, America will continue to lead the way in Internet ad spending. Its ad spending is expected to increase by more than double by 2017, from the 2010 figure of $26 billion to $58 billion in five years’ time; overall, however, its share of the international online advertising revenue pie is anticipated to stay the same between the two periods, at 40 percent. The United Kingdom is also expected to remain in second place in the global spend table when it comes to online advertising, with its spending reaching an estimated $11.7 billion by 2017. China is expected to overtake Japan for third place at some point in 2014, with its ad revenues projected to grow from the 2010 figure of $2,600 million to $10,808 in 2017.

These figures, however, only tell part of the story – As Digital TV Research admits, the report offers numbers “for advertising expenditure via fixed broadband, and therefore do[es] not include mobile advertising.” That may skew thinking, as mobile ad spending is itself is growing significantly. Estimates from eMarketer earlier this year projected US mobile ad spending to almost double in 2012 compared with 2011 ($2.4 billion compared with $1.23 billion in the previous year), with the trend expected to continue as smartphones become more and more accepted as “the norm” by the mass market of users. Admittedly, $2.4 billion is a long way down from $92 billion, but nonetheless: An almost 100 percent increase year-on-year? That’s got to be worth paying attention to.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Samsung SSD commercial featuring Overly Attached Girlfriend gets over 1 million views

Making solid-state drives sound interesting is an advertiser's Everest. However, Samsung's latest ad for its SSD 840 series made us chuckle thanks to Internet star Laina Walker, the Overly Attached Girlfriend.

Solid-state drives (SSD): they’re tough, fast, silent … and inherently difficult to advertise. While you’d want them in your computer, they’re not exactly the feature-rich eye candy you’d want to ogle over on your screen. So when Samsung launched its SSD 840 line, the company decided the best way to drum up publicity for a boring product is to release a hilariously creepy viral video starring Laina Walker, otherwise known as Overly Attached Girlfriend. And lo and behold, the ad has over 1 million views on YouTube.

“Hey, it’s me your computer,” the ditty begins, as Walker’s large, Stepford-Wife-like eyes hold you captive with their unblinking stare. Walker, known for the funny yet slightly unsettling Overly Attached Girlfriend Internet meme, takes on the role of a wayward computer, threatening you to get her a Samsung SSD if you don’t want to lose your files or have sensitive data leaked. “There’s tons I stopped from getting out: passwords, credit cards, bank account. These days, I’m so clumsy, I need your love to calm me,” she sings in part of lyrics.

But all creepiness aside, the Samsung SSD 840 Pro series is designed for use by IT professionals, heavy computer users, and serious gamers. They’re slightly more expensive than the regular SSD 840 products, which are meant for everyone else who just wants an SSD. Both the Pro and regular options feature super-fast load and read speeds – the Pro more so than the regular variant. The Samsung SSD 840 Pro series is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB configurations, with prices starting at $189.99. The regular SSD 840 series is available in 120GB, 250GB, and 500GB configurations, with prices starting at $139.99. 

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Australia backs down on Internet porn filter plan, while Egypt pushes ahead

Australia has decided against introducing a mandatory, all-encompassing Internet porn filter, while in Egypt, the government has taken the opposite decision and will introduce just such a scheme soon.

Filtering the Internet to stop potentially harmful or illegal material from reaching the general population is a controversial subject, and one that has received considerable attention this year after the UK appeared to be edging ever closer to implementing such a scheme.

Other countries have been considering filtering Internet content too, and it so happens that today, Australia has decided not to go ahead with a mandatory filter, while Egypt has done the complete opposite.

We’ll start in Australia, where an all-encompassing Internet filter was put forward in 2007, but the plan stagnated for several years. Today, Australia’s Communications Minister has announced the government will no longer pursue its “mandatory filtering legislation,” but will instead use a list created by Interpol to block the worst offenders.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the major Internet providers have agreed to this, and it will see 90-percent of Internet subscribers without access to those sites featured by Interpol. Initially, the mandatory filter would have blocked sites with illegal sexual practices, sexual violence, drug use and those which “advocated terrorist activity.” The communications regulator would have also populated the list with sites about which it had received complaints.

Of course, not everyone is happy about the decision. A spokesperson for the Australian Christian Lobby said an Internet filter was needed to “protect our children from forming unhealthy attitudes towards women and sex.”

Egypt backs Web filter scheme

On that note, we’ll turn our attention to Egypt, where it’s a very different story. Following a series of demonstrations from a group by the name of Pure Net, the government has ordered a filter be introduced to ban pornographic websites. Like Australia, such a scheme had been proposed several years ago, but never enacted until now.

It’s estimated that introducing such a wide-ranging filter will cost $16.5 million, which according to one member of the Egyptian parliament is “worth the price,” as “no matter how much it costs, the moral value of this will be much more significant.” A strong supporter of the filter, he also says pornographic sites “deteriorate moral values and youth, promote a criminal culture and lead to unproductivity (sic), drugs and theft.”

The question of who will define what’s pornographic or obscene has yet to be answered, and many fear it will result in non-harmful sites also being blocked.

Other countries will no doubt be observing the response, and success, of both Australia and Egypt’s Web filtering plans. In the UK, nothing has been heard about the scheme since the end of a 10-week consultation in September.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Megaupload Faces Mega Problems Before Relaunch

Kim Dotcom leaves court in New Zealand. Michael Bradley/AFP/Getty Images.

What do you do when your once-thriving Internet company has the U.S. Justice Department breathing down your neck?

You relocate your site from the states to West Africa, naturally.

That’s exactly what the founder of Megaupload did when U.S. Feds shut down the popular site in January, charging that engaged in piracy — providing copyrighted material for free.

The seven-year-old website was once a well-known file sharing site with close to 150 million registered users, including Kim Kardashian, Diddy, and other high-profile celebs. In terms of megabytes transmitted, Megaupload accounted for about 4 percent of total Internet use.

Megaupload no longer has a .com domain in the U.S., but it continues to be involved in criminal court proceedings in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year, a federal indictment charged that Megaupload, along with a shell company linked to it, caused an estimated half-billion dollars in copyright losses to others and made an estimated $175 million in proceeds.

Despite those allegations, Megaupload is pressing forward with the online file-sharing concept. Megaupload founder and New Zealand entrepreneur Kim Schmitz, who has been charged in the U.S. with fraud and money laundering, has appeared in photos online showing his opulent lifestyle. The indictment listed a Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, numbers electronic items, artwork, and televisions among his possessions.

Schmitz — better known as Kim Dotcom — has now announced he will launch a brand-new site called Me.ga that would supersede Megaupload in both speed and storage space while giving users direct control and responsibility over their files. Me.ga would go live at the beginning of the new year. Two months later, the German-born Schmitz will face a scheduled extradition hearing to the U.S.

Me.ga will live under the domain .ga, which is used in Gabon, the country on the west coast of Central Africa.

Kim Dotcom believes this move will allow the new site to thrive because it will not be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. and therefore protected from legal action in the states.

“It’s a little bit like a nightmare, I would say, unexpected, horrifying for my family,” Kim Dotcom revealed in an interview on Campbell Live, a current affairs program hosted by John Campbell based out of New Zealand.

“My wife is pregnant with twins has nightmares and is feeling miserable and I’m facing a very interesting situation.”

Interesting might be an understatement. Kim Dotcom’s new site may be blocked even before its 2013 launch.

Gabon Communications Minister Blaise Louembe suspended Me.ga, according to Business Insider, saying the site cannot “serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people.”

Shortly after the announcement, Kim Dotcom tweeted he already had plans to find another domain. A statement from his attorney Ira Rothken proclaims his innocence.

“It sounds like a lack of net neutrality in Gabon,” said the statement. “We’re just going to use a different domain.”

When Campbell asked whether he used the business to make a profit for himself, Kim Dotcom replied those claims were “complete nonsense.”

“I’m an innovator, I create software, I create solutions. I create a website that is popular and that people want to use.”

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Domain Privacy Options: Free or Premium

In recent years, purchasing an Internet domain and launching a website have become incredibly easy and affordable, even for people who aren’t computer experts. With just a few clicks, anyone can reserve a URL and purchase hosting for their site; this is usually inexpensive, particularly for savvy shoppers who take advantage of a godaddy promo code or other discount during checkout.

Despite this, some parts of the domain registration process, including decisions about domain privacy, may still seem a little mysterious to neophytes. This article explains the distinction between free privacy options and premium “who is” privacy controls sold by firms such as GoDaddy.com.

Domain registrars are legally obligated to collect personal information about their customers, and to make that information publicly available in databases called “WHOIS” directories. Many people, however, are reluctant to provide this information due to concerns that it will be harvested by identity thieves, scammers and other unscrupulous individuals. Consequently, many prefer to pay an extra fee for “private registration”, by which their chosen domain registrar is given legal ownership of the domain. It is therefore the registrar’s information that’s listed in the WHOIS directory, rather than details about the individual controlling the domain.

Paid domain privacy options usually cost around $10 per year; many companies offer discounts to customers who purchase privacy for several years at a time. Others waive the fee entirely if the customer also purchases or transfers several domains at once. There are also free domain privacy services that claim to provide similar protection, and many people are confused about which type of privacy protection is right for them.

There is no single answer. Do a little research and try to answer this question: does the company providing the privacy protection sell its customers’ contact information to other organizations? Many people are horrified to learn that domain privacy providers list their own information on a site’s WHOIS record, but will sell their clients’ REAL information to other businesses!

Remember that domain privacy firms DO collect your personal information because they’re legally required to do so; however, they are NOT obligated to divulge this information unless compelled by a court order. Some companies are fiercely protective of their customers’ privacy, but others will divulge the true WHOIS information with only a little outside pressure. Investigating this will help you choose wisely.

It’s important to understand that there are also several “do-it-yourself” privacy options for domain owners who don’t want to pay for a private WHOIS listing. Individuals concerned about releasing their name and home address may elect to rent a P.O. Box and register their domains using that contact information. The WHOIS database lists a contact email address for each domain owner; many don’t wish to reveal this information because they don’t want to offer their email up to potential spammers and phishers. The solution to this is simple; set up a separate email address for the WHOIS listing. You can even have the incoming messages forwarded to your regular email inbox, eliminating the need to log into multiple accounts every day.

BIO: Daria Cortese is a freelance writer and technology enthusiast who lives near Philadelphia with her husband and five cats.

Tags: Domain Privacy, Free Domains, Premium Domains

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Top 5 Tips on How to Secure your Computer

Let’s get one thing straight before we start- The internet can be a spooky place. There are viruses potentially around every corner and nothing to give you a heads up about them other than experience. So before we go any further on how to protect your computer from the nasty little buggers, let’s get right on that experience!

Tip One:
First off, common sense. Common sense may prove to be your greatest ally when battling the baddies of the internet and the viruses they may throw your way. If you find anything fishy or overall just… not “right” looking, it’s probably best to look away and avoid it at all cost. Remember: The first step to getting a virus relies heavily on you, the person in control. A virus won’t knock on the door to let you know it’s coming in, but it will surely wait on the front porch for you to open it before slipping in unnoticed.

Tip Two:
Now, that’s enough for cheesy metaphors. You want to know how to secure your computer! Chances are you know about anti-virus software. Anti-virus software is a must have when browsing the web, even when you’re searching trusted websites. Viruses and worms have no bounds and can infiltrate just about any corner of the internet, so keep this in mind. Most anti-virus software is cheap and reliable. You can find hard copies of it all over the internet, or if you’d rather get a look see in person before you buy, you can always check your local pharmacy – PC world or Wal-Mart. They always have anti-virus software.

Tip Three:
No shady sites! Shady sites are as follows: They won’t have standard URLs (this is the address of the website at the top of the web page) meaning that they often won’t have “.com” or “.net” after them. These are always good places to avoid unless you are absolutely sure that you can trust the website in question.

Tip Four:
Scammers! Scams are abundant throughout the web. If someone you don’t know contacts you via email or perhaps social networking site asking you for personal information or insisting that you know them, do a little research and NEVER give your personal information to anyone on the internet unless you are shopping and see the green “https” lettering before the URL address. The internet is full of hooligans who will do anything to get what they want.

Tip Five:
Pop ups. Ignore pop ups. Pop ups are classified as follows: They pop up! And then they inform you (usually) of some sweepstakes that you’ve one, one that you’ve never entered to begin with, or how you’re the lucky visitor- Ridiculous! Never click a pop up advertisements for any reason. Not all ads are bad, but chances are that you’re not going to come out unscathed when clicking one of the ones implying you’re a winner.

Now take these five tips to heart and get out there brave internet warrior! Set up your anti-virus software and practice these steps so that no one may harm you or your computer.

Tags: Computer Security, Software Security

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Kim Dotcom’s Me.ga already shut down

The Internet's Robin Hood, Kim Dotcom, just can't catch a break: Less than a week after announcing the domain of his forthcoming cloud-storage service, Me.ga, the government of Gabon, which controls the .ga domain, has shut him down.

Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after renegade Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom announced that Megaupload would relaunch as a cloud-storage service under the Me.ga domain early next year, the URL has been shutdown, reports AFP. The government of Gabon, which is home to the .ga country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), says it does not want to serve as host to Dotcom’s copyright-ignoring ways.

“I have instructed my departments… to immediately suspend the site www.me.ga,” Gabon Communication Minister Blaise Louembe is quoted as saying. He added that the Gabonese government wants to “protect intellectual property rights” and “fight cyber crime effectively,” and does not want Gabon to be “used by unscrupulous people.”

Dotcom, a resident of New Zealand, has been charged by U.S. law enforcement with criminal copyright infringement and other alleged crimes, but remains free on bail while awaiting legal proceedings.

Dotcom says that Gabon’s blockage of the Me.ga domain is the result of pressure from the U.S. government, which provides aide to Gabon, and has major investments in the country’s primary industry: oil. He also blames Vivendi, a French media and telecommunications giant, for Me.ga’s short lifespan.

“The reach of the US & Vivendi: Gabon Minister announced Me.ga domain will be suspended,” tweeted Dotcom. “Calls cloud storage site cyber crime.”

But Dotcom remains optimistic, telling supporters in a subsequent tweet: “Don’t Worry. We have an alternative domain. This just demonstrates the bad faith witch hunt the US government is on.”

The plan to launch Dotcom’s cloud-storage service at the Me.ga domain was not simply a clever marketing play. In order to avoid subjecting his new service to the same fate as Megaupload, Dotcom must steer clear of any URLs that end in .com, .net, .cc, .tv, .name, or .org. The reason being, these domains are all under the control of Verisign, the Virginia-based company that has a no-bid U.S. government contract as the sole distributor of these TLDs, which means they can be seized by U.S. law enforcement. (And they often are.) The .ga domain is not under U.S. jurisdiction – at least not in any official sense.

So now, Dotcom must ensure that whatever “alternative domain” he has waiting in the wings won’t also be shut down by the government that serves as its host. The new cloud-storage service is still expected to launch on January 20, one year after the seizure of Megaupload.

In an odd turn of events, the Me.ga domain – which is currently contains no content – has reportedly been seized by a group of hackers, who say they are the “true pirates,” as opposed to Dotcom, who they believe is simply a greedy businessman.

“We’re pure in a diogenist way, we’re the true pirates, the true anarchists,” one of the hackers, “Omega,” told TorrentFreak. “Kim Dotcom is only taking advantage of us all, he is a megalomaniac with lawyers here to take advantage of us all, the nobodies, the artists he wants to profit from.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How To Keep your Online Accounts Safe and Secure

If you’ve just started an Internet business, or love being online for long hours, you’ll have to keep track of lots of different accounts on many websites. They might be social networking sites, instant messengers, forums, membership sites, or resources sites. Managing all these online accounts can be very difficult unless you possess a very sharp memory. You should never register all your online accounts with the same username or password. This is one of the best ways to keep your online accounts safe because if anybody finds out your login or password, they can hijack most of your online accounts. You should use different login and password for each of your account.

How to create a safe password?

You should use random characters for your passwords, but if you are unable to remember them, you can use password manager. It is not a good idea to let your browser remember all your passwords because hackers can hack your OS and get your usernames and passwords. Aside from that, if something worse happens to your PC, you can lose them forever.

Use password managers 

You can use password managers as they are not only safe, but can also help you in coming up with random passwords for use, and will remember them for future use. Best of all, they are safe, as all your data is encrypted and even if some hacker is able to log into your computer, they won’t be able to access your confidential data. You can also make a file with all your passwords, and store it elsewhere for safety. Some password managers even allow users to synchronize their data with their secure online servers. This helps you in accessing your passwords even when you are working on a different computer. In any case, you should avoid writing your usernames and password somewhere on paper. This can be risky because anybody can read the information if you fail to keep it safely. One Password manager I can recommend is Roboform, there are several others that are equally as good

Beware of phishing scams!

There are many websites on the Internet that have been made to steal personal information and data stored on computers. This is done using cookies and viruses. Some sites are designed exactly like other famous websites where you have accounts. For instance, PayPal constantly reminds its users that it never asks for usernames and passwords from its users. Yet, you may sometimes get emails that appears to have been sent by PayPal, which says that your account may have been compromised and that you should immediately change your password by clicking on the link and log into your PayPal account. This is called phishing scam that is designed by a con to get your personal details.

You should never share any of your personal information on any site that you are not sure of. Although most of the websites are run by hardworking and honest people, but you are not sure of the ways they handle your personal information. Therefore, if you don’t know much about them, and how they will handle your personal details, you should not share any with them. When searching for some products, services or information, use only one search engine, such as Google. If Google finds any dubious website, it will warn you beforehand on its search result page. Lastly, you should never respond to strange emails that come from sources you do not know. You should never click on links in these emails.

Tags: Internet Account Safety, Internet Account Security, Online Account Safety, Online Account Security

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How To Convert PDF to Word

One of the most common ways to convert a PDF file into a word processor file is through free services on the internet. There are many websites which offer free conversions from a PDF file to word processor file, and they also offer backwards conversions. These websites offer professional services and fast download speeds for your files.

Many users would think that this would compromise the security of their files, however they do not steal or read any of your converted files. Many often regard these free online services as safe and helpful, which is why they remain popular and in service even today. These websites also offer online services which allow you to download a program to convert PDF files to word processor documents, and they also offer services which convert other files in case a situation like that arises.7

One cool and easy way to convert your PDF files to word is by sending it to Adobe, the developers of Adobe PDF, all you have to do is to send the Adobe PDF as a MIME attachment in an e-mail message to Adobe:

If you wish to convert your files to plain text, e- mail the PDF file to pdf2txt@adobe.com
If you wish to convert to HTML, e-mail the file to pdf2html@adobe.com

All converted Adobe PDF documents will be sent back to the sender as MIME attachments

A more complicated method to converting a PDF file to a word processor file is to simply rewrite it. Many users of PDF programs and word often try to avoid this method, as it is very time consuming and can often take hours to complete. Another reason why this method isn’t conventional is simply because you will have to switch between the PDF file and the word processor file in order to type it out. Once again this method consumes too much time, and many people looking to convert their files simply resort to using the free online services mentioned above.

Though if you can type fairly fast and don’t mind switching between the files constantly, then this method can be an easy way to convert a PDF to a word file. A simple way to fix switching between pages over and over is to simply turn each page into a window, and place them next to each other on your monitor. This will allow you to see both pages at the same type, making typing it more efficient. Many new operating systems these days offer a window minimization function which allows you to create multiple windows at once to increase work and visual output. Taking advantage of your computer’s systems can help you convert a PDF file to a wordprocessor file manually. Using this method is much safer and more secure than any other method.

Tags: PDF to Word, PDF2Word, Word to PDF, Word2PDF

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How to Fix your Slow Internet Connection

How to Fix a Slow Internet Connection 

If your internet connection is slower than you would like it to be, some of these tips and tricks may help you speed it up to a more satisfying point. There are many things that can slow down an internet connection and we will troubleshoot some of the most common problems that cause a slow connection below.

Your Computer Is Bogged Down

Often times the problem isn’t the internet connection itself but the computer its running on. A computer that is running under optimum performance because of viruses, too many programs running, or limited virtual memory or hard drive space will make an internet connection seem slow because web pages don’t appear to load quickly. The problem in this case is the slow computer making everything run slower your internet connection included, if this is the case you might want to start by checking up your internet speed

Check Your Internet Connection Speed

One way to check your internet connection is by hovering your mouse pointer over the internet connection icon in the bottom right hand corner of your laptop or desktop. You can click on the icon, a pop up window will display your internet connection, the next thing to do will be to click the icon to launch the Properties window.

You can equally test your internet speed at Speedtest.net

Utility Programs such as TuneUp can also help boost your internet speed

Although your computer can actually handle a number of processes at once but shutting down any unnecessary programs, clearing out your temporary internet files and cookies, and running a good anti virus software to clear out any malicious programs. In some cases a computer may ever need a full reformatting. Once you have your computer working at full speed again there is a good chance your connection will enjoy a significant boost as well.

If your computer is slow or not connecting at all, one of the first things you might want to do is:

Unplug

You might want to unplug your router and modem internet cables for about 5 to 6 minutes. This approach can sometimes help improve your internet connection problems, you might also want to check your modem or router hardware to make sure that everything is ok, use of bad cables can significantly reduce your connection speed

Reduce Your Web Cache

You may have to consider reducing your web cache to speed up your slow internet connection, this will involve a little bit of tweaking in your internet options. To do this, follow the instructions below:

Click Start >> Click Control Panel >> Double Click Internet Options >> Click Settings under Browsing History

The idea here is to reduce your web cache and make it as small as possible. The lesser your temporary files, the lesser the data that your computer needs to search through.

What are Other things that causes Your internet Connection To Slow and What Can You Do About Them?

Someone is Leaching Off of Your Connection 

If you are using a wireless internet connection and your speed isn’t what it should be then you may have someone pirating your bandwidth. If you have no security or weak security there is a very good chance this is happening even if you haven’t noticed a drop in your connection speed.

To see if this is the problem or stop it from happening you need to make some changes to your security settings for your wireless network. If you don’t have a password add one, and if you do have a password change it to something new. If you only have a WEP encryption you may want to update it to something stronger like WPA. Once you change your password any unauthorized users should be locked out at least temporarily and you should see an increase in internet speed immediately.

You Are Not Paying For Enough Bandwidth 

Sometimes people just don’t understand what different bandwidth speeds offer. If your computer is clear of viruses and running at full speed and you have no unwanted leachers on your wireless network but your connection is still to slow for your liking, then you may just need to pay for a higher bandwidth limit from your provider.

Most providers offer different tiers of bandwidth levels. If you crave for a faster connection contact your provider and have your contract upgraded to a faster connection for a larger monthly fee. If this is the problem with your connection, there really isn’t anything you can do other than accept the fact that you have to pay more for a faster internet connection.

Tags: Internet Connection, Internet Speed

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How To Easily Share Large Files over the Internet

In this modern day and age, the Internet can do just about anything you need it to do. Probably one of the most useful and powerful capabilities that the Internet has today is the ability to share large chunks of information. Online file sharing is occurring more and more every day, the web of today has given people the ability to transfer very large files over the Internet.  Thousands, if not millions, of internet users send files every day to their family, friends, colleagues or employers. Email now allow bigger files to be transferred, but there are still some very great limitations to this.

It is usually not of any complexity or hassle when you are sending text files over cyberspace, yet as cameras and camcorders engage through a megapixel race, some files and documents may be attached with pictures that make the document quite large in terms of MB consumed. For users who aren’t really experienced and savvy when it comes to using the computer, much less the Internet, here is a step-by-step guide on how to share large chunks of data online.

One of the simplest means is to upload documents to your existing site. I do this all the time, the process is impeccable when it comes to sharing files with images attached to them. After the document is posted. The receiver of the file will need to have the correct software program installed in his home PC to open the document you sent. To save the file, simply right click on the Windows tab and select Save As. Sadly, this technique is not compatible with video or MP3 – formatted documents, since such files initiate an electronic reaction from a media player.

Another simple technique is to utilize FTP or File Transfer Protocol. The process is quite simple, pretty fast and easy to setup. You will log in to a website with a username and password, and then upload a document or two. Send an email to your preferred receiver with the website link, sometimes passwords can be setup, but aside from this there isn’t a lot to configure on these FTP setups. The receiver will then log in and transfer the documents to his/her own home PC or simply download using the link provided. For Windows OS, this can be as effortless as running the document on the site, then opening the destination on the PC and then dragging -and-dropping back and forth, you can use a utility called Filezilla or Cute FTP, I prefer Filezilla because it’s free, CuteFTP is not free but they will give you 30days free trial

Another way to get large files shared over the Internet is through splitting them up inside of a zip file. Zip files allow users to split files up into many different file sizes. There are lots of file hosting services, but many of them have limitations on size for free users. That is why you might want to break up the size of these files. Winzip is a good application for breaking up files compressing or zipping them, not only does winzip allow you to zip and unzip files but it also has the ability to give your files banking-level AES encryption

Another possible strategy for sending large files through the web is through a website known as Send This File.com. Subscriptions are necessary, yet standard plans are complimentary. Paid subscribers have faster upload and download capabilities, however. You simply upload your document to a database. An email will then be forwarded to your receiver. If he/she is also subscribed to the services of Send This File.com, he/she will simply have to log in, and then download the document from there. So far, people who’ve used the services of this particular website have not yet encountered any specific limits on how many documents they can send in a particular time frame or limits on how large one file can be.

Introduction to SendThisFile from SendThisFile on Vimeo.

Lastly, use peer – to – peer document sharing programs like BitTorrent which uses a far more sophisticated system in terms of transferring documents.

There are actually a number of ways to achieve results here but users really have to decide on the speed and level of difficulty before they choose a method. Some people would prefer to set up their own website. This can be something that takes money except if you have one already. Lots of the file sharing sites are free, however One thing that folks have to realize with this method is that the end users that receive the file must know about zip files or have programs like Winzip or Winrar. If they don’t have a zip program they cannot extract the file.

Tags: File Sharing

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How To Watch Online Videos on your PC without Interruption

There are so many ways that a video you are watching on your PC can be interrupted. First of all, if you are streaming a video from the internet there is a good chance that it will be interrupted by the buffering message.

If you are running on a slow network, unfortunately there’s nothing you can do to get rid of it immediately order than to simply allow the video some time to load. If you are watching a long video, then you might want to pause it for 5 minutes before you start watching. This will allow it to load enough toe ensure seamless playback for the rest of the video.

Another way that videos can be interrupted is via the PC’s screen saver. This can be an annoying interruption as you have to move the mouse to end the screen saver. To get rid of this, simply ensure that you have turned off the computer’s screen saver. In a related note, sometimes a laptop’s screen can go blank if the computer perceives that you have not been using it. To avoid this, ensure that your display settings do not permit the display to turn off at any time.

There are some media players, such as VLC and Windows Media Player, that can actually disable a screen saver while playing a video in full screen mode. This can be done through the media player’s settings. This is useful because it allows your regular screen saver settings to remain in effect. Sometimes having too many applications can also be a problem. These days there are apps and widgets for everything. There are Gmail widgets that pop up every time you have a new email and others that give you breaking news. You might want to close these, other wise they will be regularly popping up on the sides of your screen. In addition to this, you might want to log out of programs such as Skype or MSN Messenger.

If these are open, any new messages will make a sound and/or pop up on the screen. You can either close these programs manually, or install a utility such as CloseAll. CloseAll is actually very useful, because it automatically closes all the apps you choose in one go, instead of you having to do it one by one. Adding a simple line to the command line “CloseAll.exe-x = “explorer.exe | firefox.exe | outlook.exe | dropbox.exe” can allow you to close all of those applications.

Flickr image courtesy of Î±nnα

A neater alternative to CloseAll is SmartClose. This program allows you to choose the programs you want to shut while watching a video (or at any point). In addition to this, it will also turn them back on when you ask it to. All of these steps are important as you do not want interruptions when you are enjoying a movie or tv show on your PC.

Tags: Online Videos, Videos on PC

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

How to Block Adult Websites From Kids

While it has tons of advantages, the internet can turn out to be a nightmare, especially for parents. There are many educational sites for your children on the web, but on the other hand, inappropriate sites are also everywhere. This in turn makes the internet very unsafe for children.

There are a number of things that you can do in such situations. You’ll require website-blocking applications and the web addresses of the inappropriate sites. Of course, these requirements will only be meaningful when you have an active internet service, a computer, and an internet browser.

The first step involves keeping an eye on the history files of your internet browser. History files usually list all the sites that have been visited over a certain period. Details such as the date a site was visited and the web address of the site are provided. This will give you a clear picture of which sites you deem inappropriate. You can find the history files by clicking the history tab on your internet browser.

Once you’ve taken note of the inappropriate sites, you’ll need to change your privacy settings.

Step 1: Open your internet explorer

Step 2: Once in the Menu Bar, You need to click Tools → Internet Options → Content.

Step 3: Once you are in the Content Advisor box, click Enable, Click the Approve sites Tab and Enter the addresses of the website, then Click never and then ok

The next step is to make sure that you select Users can see websites that have no ratings, enter an easy-to-remember password. and Click OK to easily surf the web

Though this method will partly block the sites that your child has been visiting that you are aware of, it won’t block him/her from visiting new inappropriate sites. You’ll thus be required to take more measures.

A website-blocking application has the ability to automatically determine the website that someone is trying to access through a computer. If the website is blacklisted, it can’t be viewed by your child. Additionally, website-blocking software can also anonymously track which sites your child has been visiting. Better yet, you have the option of setting your own security levels. This can thus be quite useful when you have children of different ages.

Though website-blocking software can be quite efficient, they squeeze unnecessary additional costs from your pocket. Finding the right Internet Service Provider can save you all this trouble. There are some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that have high –tech website-blocking applications which filter out inappropriate content. The best thing about them is that you need not worry about knowing all the inappropriate sites so that you can add them to a “blocked sites” list. More often, these ISPs dedicate some of their workers to manually visit the unknown sites that have been viewed by your child and block the sites if any inappropriate content is found.

Because the internet has several loopholes, all these methods won’t guarantee you that your child won’t visit inappropriate sites. Blocking inappropriate content from your children doesn’t always rely on getting expensive website-blocking software and getting your internet service from reliable ISPs. Sometimes, talking to your children about the downside of inappropriate content is all that you need to do. Moreover, you can place the computer in a more open location where any attempt to view inappropriate content will always be hampered.

Tags: Adult Site Blocking, Adult Sites, Adult Websites, Website Blocking

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Now the old can find love, via My Lovely Parent

Welcome to the New Frontier of Internet Dating: Setting your mothers and fathers up with new boyfriends and girlfriends through the brand-new site My Lovely Parent.

As the world has gotten more used to the idea of the Internet, the once social stigma that surrounded the idea of online dating has, thankfully, given way to an acceptance that meeting someone online is just as respectable, random and ridiculous as meeting someone in any real-life scenario. But with that barrier out of the way, whole new quandaries rear their ugly heads. For example: If the dating scene moves online, how are your parents – who may not necessarily be the most technically-adept people in the world, bless their wrinkled hearts – supposed to find love? Don’t worry, concerned youngster: Help is on the way in the form of the only-slightly-creepy My Lovely Parent.

What My Lovely Parent is, is a website that lets adult children in seven countries set their elderly relatives – That’s right; despite the name of the site, it’s not just for parents; uncles, aunts, step-parents or simply older friends who apparently have no problem being essentially pimped out by the young folk in their lives – up on dates with other older gentlemen and ladies who allow their younger relatives and friends to organize their social lives for them.

The site is the brainchild of Matt Connolly, who says that he came up with the idea after his mother asked him to find her a “knight in shining armor.” He didn’t just create the site out of the good of his heart, however; he says that the over-55 demographic is the fastest growing market in online dating currently, with over 20 million adults aged 50 and above in the US alone. The way that the site works is that the younger person creates a profile for the old person of their choice, and then looks online to find someone that they consider a good match for their dear mother/father/whatever. To hear Connolly explain the concept, however, romantic interests get odder as people get older. As he told the Guardian newspaper in the UK, “I can have a look at all the handsome chaps who live nearby who are into dog-walking and have great big beards, whatever it is, and if I see somebody lovely, I am able to then view his profile and recommend him to my mum.”

Once the match has been made, it’s up to the aged users to share what happens next with their offspring; messages between prospective partners can be set to private settings to avert the gaze of the youth, or made public. Essentially, it’s an easier-than-normal-to-use site that opens up Internet dating to a different audience… but is it one that Connolly is going to share with his own mother? “”All I can say, is I’m going to be putting her on there straightaway,” he says. “Whether she decides to carry on that journey – let’s hope she does, cause I think it’s going to be a great place – but that falls down to her.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Top 25 Worst Passwords Revealed

Many passwords are easy prey for hackers

The website SplashData recently released its list of the most popular Internet passwords for 2012. Because these passwords are the most common, they’re also the most vulnerable when it comes to digital security.

Topping the list was “password,” which was also the most popular password in 2011 — “123456″ was runner-up, followed by the slightly more inventive “12345678.”

Other inspired entries included “qwerty,” “monkey,” “111111″ and “password1.” Here are the top 10 passwords and their positions relative to the 2011 rankings. The full list is available here.

1. password (Unchanged)
2, 123456 (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
4. abc123 (Up 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. monkey (Unchanged)
7. letmein (Up 1)
8. dragon (Up 2)
9. 111111 (Up 3)
10. baseball (Up 1)

SplashData, a Los Gatos, Calif., company that  provides apps for passwords, digital photos and more,  compiled the rankings  from examining millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.

High-profile websites that fell victim to such hacking last year included Yahoo, eHarmony and LinkedIn.

“Even though each year hacking tools get more sophisticated, thieves still tend to prefer easy targets,” said SplashData CEO Morgan Slain in a statement. “Just a little bit more effort in choosing better passwords will go a long way toward making you safer online.”

To ensure digital security, SplashData recommends  such precautions as adding numerals and underscores to passwords,  and selecting different passwords for different websites.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

How Can I Block Websites in Mozilla Firefox?

A lot of people have been working on the problem of blocking websites since the dawn of the internet era. There are a few ways to go about this, and people have spent an equally long time finding countermeasures. You can either go with a site-by-site basis, or a bulk package that is preconfigured to block common bad sites. There are ways to go about either, and they can be combined with ease.

The single most common website blocker is Adblock Plus. Adblock, a plugin available for most browsers, is primarily designed to block ads. It is one of the most popular methods out there, and you can black list entire sites rather than just the ad sections. Adblock is not the best choice to block entire sites, but you can use it that way. Its main advantage is that you can have great control, like blocking access to sites or sections of sites on some pages but not others.

Webpage visited With Adblock Plus off

Webpage visited with Adblock Plus on

Flickr images courtesy of guido_cc

Another simple easy way to block sites is with another plug-in, Blocksite. Figuring out how to use Blocksite is much easier than with Adblock, Although Adblock is far more popular. Blocksite does one thing and one thing only, it lets you create a black or white list to filter what sites you can use. This will even prevent you from clicking on links to those sites in the links. A blacklist simply prevents you from using sites included in the list, and is the most popular blocking method. A whitelist is more severe, you can only use the sites in the whitelist if you make one. This option is best if you only want to visit a handful of sites and are fine with manually adding exceptions. To see how to use the plug-in, you enter the preferences, and select the main options such as, blacklist or whitelist, and enabled. Then, click “add” to add a website. The filter list supports the “*” symbol, which is a wild card. It means anything can go there of any length, adding “*.com” would filter every .com site on the internet.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Images made available by Wips.com s.r.o. via mozilla

The last resort to make absolutely certain that your computer will never go to a particular website is to modify your “hosts” file. This is not recommended, as it is complicated. If you forget how to do it, you’ll have a hard time figuring out what change later. If you want to do it, the change will mean that no program can go to that website domain name.

In your windows directory, usually at c:windowssystem32driversetc , you will find a file called “hosts”. Open this file with notepad. It will give you instructions on how to add a website. Add the site you wish to block and set the number to, 127.0.0.1, which tells the computer that you are the website. This will prevent it from leaving your machine.

As a final note, this does not filter the site’s IP address, something even more advanced. If you get that far in you might need an expert.

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Website Blocking

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Liberal Democrats More Likely to Hit ‘Like’ Than Conservative Republicans, Says Pew Report

Image credit: Twitter

Does your political leaning say anything about how you use Facebook‘s “Like” button or social media in general? It could. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has found, among other things, that liberal Democrats are more likely to hit the “Like” button than conservative Republicans.

Specifically, 52 percent of liberal Democrats have “liked” a post to promote material related to politics, while 42 percent of conservative Republicans have done so. Pew also found that 38 percent of the social media-using population has used the “like” function to promote political issues.

Democrats are also more likely to encourage people to vote on social media. Forty-two percent have done so, compared to the 36 percent of Republicans.

In other areas of social media use, though, it appears that Democrats and Republicans aren’t all that different. For instance, Pew said 42 percent of liberal Democrats and 41 percent of conservative Republicans who use social media have posted their own thoughts or comments on social media sites.

Pew said 39 percent of Republican social media users repost political content from others, while 34 percent of Democrat social media users do so.

“There is a mixed picture along party lines. One party doesn’t have an obvious social media edge. The biggest driver here is whether you are interested in politics in the first place. If you talk about it with friends, you are going to use the social tools to talk politics,” Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center, told ABC News.

Kay Lehman Schlozman, a professor of political science at Boston College and co-author of the survey, said, “I would not hyper-analyze the differences. What is clear is that the liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are more active than moderates or independents because they care so much more about politics.”

Beyond partisanship, the rise in usage is certainly the major takeaway. The report found that 66 percent of the social media users use services like Twitter or Facebook to engage in some form of political discussion. According to Pew, that amounts to 39 percent of all American adults.

The results of the report were based on a survey of a national sample of 2,253 adults (18 or older). It is important to note that the survey was conducted between July and August and that some of these patterns may have changed as the election season has progressed.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

‘We can hear you having sex’: Messages to neighbors via Wi-Fi network names a growing trend, report says

An increasing number of computer users setting up Wi-Fi in their homes are reportedly sending out messages to annoying neighbors via their wireless network names.

The creation of the Internet has meant that the options are now vast for those people who’d rather not use their vocal cords to communicate with another person, preferring instead to engage in more indirect methods of communication – they can, for example, send an email, an instant message, an SMS, or a text. Communicating through the name of your wireless network can also be added to the list, a method which is a fast-growing trend, according to a BBC report on the subject.

When someone sets up a wireless network at home, they’re prompted to give it a name so it can be easily identified. That name will be seen by anyone within range who searches for a wireless network using a computer or mobile device.

In most cases, these names are nothing out of the ordinary, something like “Bob1” or “mycomputer123”. However, recently more and more people are using their network names to send out messages to neighbors.

According to the BBC, many of the names relate to noisy neighbor issues. “Stop wearing heels”, “Stop slamming the door” and simply “shut up” are listed as examples. Perhaps these are the work of desperate people for whom a polite face-to-face request failed, or maybe they simply tremble at the thought of direct confrontation with their noisy neighbor.

Sex, or noisy sex, is also the subject of some network names. “We can hear you having sex” is a common one, while “Stop having so much sex” is also listed.

Naming networks in this manner is the digital equivalent of sticking an anonymous note into the mailbox of whoever’s causing offense, except that this way the offender won’t necessarily know it’s him or her being targeted (unless the network name includes a house or apartment number – or even the person’s name). Also, the offender needs to be fiddling about with their wireless settings in order to see the list of nearby networks, something they most likely don’t often do.

So, no, it certainly won’t ever be the most effective form of communication, though for many it is, one assumes, a bit of fun and an additional way of trying to get their message across.

Seen any interesting network names in your neighborhood recently? Got a good one yourself?

[Image: Pavel Ignatov / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Adult Swim launches Thing X to compete for Internet comedy supremacy

If you liked the Onion, but wished that it satirized the Internet in the same way that it satirized the news media, you may be very, very interested in new start-up Thing X.

Not content with creating the latest viral video sensation in the form of The Greatest Event in Television History, Cartoon Network’s late-night offshoot Adult Swim has taken another step towards dominating the Internet comedy scene with the creation of a new website, Thing X.

According to the announcement of the site’s launch, “Thing X uses the conceptual launch point of a click-hungry web portal to satirize everything on the Internet through exclusive videos, columns, interviews, reviews, e-mails, blurbs, bleeps, cybersnips, and podcasts.” If you’re wondering what that actually means in non-corporate PR-speak, perhaps the website itself can help put things in some perspective:

As the site’s creative director, Joe Randazzo, explains, “Each month, the site will explore one central, human theme, through a series of video, polls, incantations, recipes, quizzes, and… blogs, or whatever.” So, that’s much clearer, then.

Perhaps the site’s own “About” page will offer more clarity: “Thing X, Inc. strives to provide an unparalleled digital experience – not through a monstrous, semi-organic web-based intelligence that will exploit users’ clicks and page views to gradually enslave them,” it reads, “but by providing the best content from every square micrometer of the Internet, every single day.” So that’s… good, I think?

All of this sounds somewhat Onion-esque, it has to be said. Turns out, there’s a really, really good reason for that: Thing X is essentially made up of Onion writers. Randazzo is a former editor for the site, and he’s joined by senior writers and editors from The Onion, as well as the site’s former digital product manager. Despite this, the announcement from Adult Swim of the site’s launch would rather play it up as something brand new and completely original, with Randazzo calling Thing X “a unique opportunity for us to create something totally new and original that is very much a product of the digital age.” That sounds like the kind of sarcastic comment he makes on the site, but apparently he means it this time, adding that “the content we’re making for Thing X is kind of insane. It’s going to be unlike anything else out there.” Well, aside from The Onion, of course.

Outside of Onion alums, the site will also feature contributions in future from Adult Swim regulars including Gregg Turkington, Aqua Teen Hunger Force‘s Dave Willis and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!‘s Tim Heidecker. It may not necessarily have the immediate appeal of The Greatest Event or even some of Adult Swim’s regular programming – Ah, Venture Bros, it’s been far, far too long since we’ve enjoyed your concise pop cultural cruelty – and it may be a little too hard to separate the fictional desperation for clicks from the reality, but still: One to watch in future, I suspect.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com