A step by step narration about the evolution of Internet

Ever wondered how the Internet evolved? I'm sure the answer is yes, almost all of us at some point of time wanted to know this. This 8 minutes and 10 seconds long video will roughly reply all your queries you ever came across, regarding the evolution of Internet.

Microsoft offers a simple online tool to help evaluate the functionality of routers.

The Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool checks your Internet router to see if it supports certain technologies. You can use this tool on a PC running either the Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system. If you're planning to run Windows Vista, this tool can verify whether your existing Internet router supports advanced features, such as improved download speeds and face-to-face collaboration using Windows Meeting Space.

The tool is intended to be run from a home network behind a home Internet (NAT) router. Running this tool from behind a corporate firewall or on operating systems other than those specified above won't produce accurate results. This tool requires administrator privileges to run.

The tests can require up to 10 minutes to complete and do not make any permanent changes to your router. For the most accurate results, your computer should be connected directly to your Internet router, using a wired connection.

Note Although it is unlikely, testing might interrupt your Internet connectivity or cause your router to stop responding. If you require uninterrupted Internet access at this time (for example, if you are in the middle of downloading a large file, bidding on a time-sensitive Internet auction, or playing an online game), you should wait and do this testing at another time

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx

http://blogs.technet.com/rp/archive/2009/02/21/internet-connectivity-evaluation-tool.aspx

Cable or DSL broadband Speed Test

My Results

If you want to check you Cable or DSL broadband Internet connection go visit Speed.io.

Check your own speed.

Comcast limits customers to 250 gigs a month

Image via WikipediaStarting October 1, broadband provider Comcast will begin officially capping consumer use at 250 gigs a month, according to the company's recently-updated Frequently Asked Questions about Excessive Use.

If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance (CSA) group to notify them of excessive use.

Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.

I will have to ask my son John how many Gigs a month he uses as a Comcast subscriber. He is in the Navy and when he is on base here in the States he uses his computer for, Internet, E-Mail, Online gaming, TV and Movies, and even phone calls with Skype.

Read more about Comcast’s decision to cap monthly broadband usage at 250GB and why it is being decried as the end of the Internet as we know it here at Techcrunch. Also take a look at what they have to say over at gHacks.

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Internet Speedtest

I just did a little internet Speedtest this morning and am very happy with the results from Cableone. Check out your speed and see what you get.

Over 1 million viruses, worms, and trojans on the loose

The Internet is a very scary place. I'm talking about malware, like viruses, worms, and trojans. According to security company Symantec, the amount of malware on the internet has reached an all-time high, with over 1 million malicious programs in circulation.

A surpisingly large number of those threats were developed in the last year, with 711,912 new pieces of malware coming out in 2007 compared with 125,243 in 2006, an increase of 468 percent bringing the total number of malicious code threats detected by Symantec to 1,122,311 as of the end of 2007.

The good news for Internet users is that most of these applications are variations of older threats, which means if your anti-virus software is up to date, you should be relatively safe.

Saboteurs may have been responsible for undersea cable cuts

New information from the UN agency tasked with repairing the undersea cable cuts of early February has reported that they can't rule out sabotage at this point of time. Of the five cuts, only one has been ruled an accidental failure — the cause of the other four is still unknown. I guess this blows my theory that Godzilla was responsible.

You can read the entire article here.

Relocate the "Temporary Internet Files" folder to a different drive

If you have a second hard drive and want to move the Temporary Internet Files to it instead of your C: drive just follow these directions.


Relocate the "Temporary Internet Files" folder to a different drive

To redirect the Temporary Internet Files location to a different drive, follow these steps:

1 Save and close all running applications

2 Create a folder in the destination drive (say F:\TIF)

3 Click Start, Run and type CONTROL INETCPL.CPL

4 In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings

5 Click Move Folder button and browse to the target folder

6 Click OK

7 Click Yes, when you see the prompt

"Windows will log you off to finish moving Temporary Internet Files. Do you want to continue ?"

Windows will now copy all the Cookies, temporary internet files to the destination folder and log you off. Log back in for the changes to take effect.


To accomplish this via the registry, alter the Shell Folders path for TIF

The above method is effective as it copies the contents of the current Temporary Internet Files folder to the new location. Whereas, relocating the Temporary Internet Files shell folders path via the registry does not copy the existing content to the new location.

Open Registry Editor by typing REGEDIT in Start, Run dialog

Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software Microsoft \ Windows CurrentVersion \ Explorer User Shell Folders

In the right-pane, double-click the value named Cache and set it's data to the new TIF folder
(F:\Temporary Internet Files)

Similarly, make the changes in this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software Microsoft \ Windows CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Shell Folders

Close Registry Editor and log off. Login back for the changes to take effect. The TIF will be stored in the new location which you defined. The old TIF files can be deleted manually by navigating to this folder from Start, Run dialog: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

Access your Macromedia Flash player settings

This is a re-post of a post I did two years ago but it is still relevant.

Most people don't realize how much information their computer stores about what they do on the internet.

Here is a link to access your Macromedia Flash player settings. You can go here to Clean up your Flash sites. This takes you to the Settings manager. It is the actual Settings Manager not an image. If you click Delete All Sites, all websites are removed from your list of visited websites. Any information a website may have stored on your computer is erased.

In this panel, you can change storage settings for a website or delete the website so that, if you visit it again, it will use your global settings instead of any individual settings you may have set. You can also delete all sites, which erases any information that may have already been stored on your computer.

AT&T Broadband Customers Get Free Hotspot Wi-Fi

AT&T is throwing a bone to its broadband service customers by offering free access to every AT&T hotspot across the country. This gives the roughly 10 million AT&T broadband subscribers access to more than 10,000 of AT&T's public Wi-Fi hotspots. In order to take advantage of this offer you have to subscribe to their 1.5 meg service.

Read the rest at PC World.

Disturbing Poll: One in Ten OK with Net Access Brain Implant

Here is a disturbing thought, 11 percent of Americans say they would be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet, according to poll released Wednesday.

read more | digg story

Entire Internet Crashes

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash



Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

With the fall television schedule in full swing, many of us are back in the habit of plopping down in front of the tube at night to catch the latest installment of your favorite show when it's scheduled to air. That means clearing your schedule to watch the show and then sitting in front of the TV for a whole hour just for 43 minutes' worth of programming. You can watch the three big networks at their sites.

ABC Full Episode Player

NBC Video Rewind

CBS Innertube

Go on over to Lifehacker to read the rest.

read more | digg story

Another phone call

My son John called again last night, his laptop is fine. It works great. John also got a remote control for his computer that he didn't order so that was nice. He ordered internet through comcast cable and they are supposed to come out either this weekend or next weekend at the latest. He managed to get online last night through the Navy's internet on base but it was too slow for him, he was connected at 32kbps LOL Really slow. When he gets comcast he will have 6 meg download. I mailed a box of his stuff out to him Monday and he should get that today UPS so he will have most of his software and his flash drive and such. I know he will be happy to get that. He said that as soon as he can he will sinc his Laptop and his cell phone and send several more pictures that he has.

John also said that after he did so well on the radar test yesterday he got to help teach some of the classes and he is in the running for the "Best of The Best" again this week. That's about all the news from here... Hope you have a Great Day.

Free Software that I like

Free Software:

AVG free Antivirus

Windows Live Messenger

SMPlayer It's better than VLC media player and Media Player Classic. It's able to play the most known video & audio formats without the need of external codecs.

OpenOffice free office suite

GIMP GNU image manipulation program ( Like Adobe Photoshop, but Free )

Foobar2000 Great Free Media Player ( I like this better than Winamp, Itunes, and Windows Media Player )

Opera ( Probably the best Web Browser )

Firefox ( Another great Web Browser )

smartftp, the free secure FTP client for Windows

CCleaner CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool.

Linux Operating System ( Ready to dump windows? )

30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

If that's not enough to get you started go to The Free Software Foundation ( Tons of Great Stuff Here )

Storm worm hits Bolgger

The Sunbelt Blog has a good post about the Storm Worm "Storm worm hits Bolgger" this is definitely a good read. Be careful what you click on people.

Go here to read their post.


UPDATE: Read "Bloggers battered by viral storm" from BBC News

Legal Music Streaming Site Launches In France

The French website Deezer.com has struck a deal with the SACEM (the French equivalent to the RIAA) and is now legally providing Internet users around the world with more than 100,000 full songs, streamed on demand and without restrictions. The site, formerly named Blogmuzik.net, had had to close down last March under pressure from the recording industry.

Storm Worm now with a YouTube look

The Zhelatin worm is a fairly serious plague on the Internet right now, you may have seen it recently in its most pervasive form, an email offering a “free greeting card”. (It’s often loosely referred to as the “storm worm”, since it’s an evolution of the worm that occurred earlier this year, which spammed users with the malware attached as a file, to emails about a storm in Europe. Now, instead of an attachment, it simply tries to get users to a website through spammed emails. The website attempts to install the malware through exploits.)

The latest tactic tries to trick the user into believing they’re downloading a YouTube video. F-Secure has a write-up here. They also have a good video here.

Google Patches Blogger, Adds Video Support

Google Inc.'s Blogger team this week solved a technical problem with the blog publishing and hosting service and introduced a new feature that gives publishers the ability to upload videos to their sites.

An undetermined number of Blogger publishers had trouble performing various editing and posting operations on Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday the problem had been solved.

Read more here at Yahoo News

Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users

But they refuse to tell anyone how much is too much. Just don't cross the invisible line, users told.

Read more here.