Bring dead torrents to life

Service Name: btReAnnounceR
License: Free
OS: N/A
Rating: * * * * * (5 out of 5 stars)
Download Size: N/A

Let me start by saying that avid torrent fans are going to love this.

Usually when you are looking for older stuff to download via torrents, you encounter very low download speeds. This is usually because users have stopped sharing these torrents a long time ago.

I used to give up on such torrents, until I found a cool cure for this. What happens is that the torrent creator may upload his torrent on multiple torrent hosting websites. Or other users might upload a free torrent on other hosting websites. And every hosting website has its own "tracker" which keeps track of seeders and leachers for particular torrents.

We usually get torrents from only one hosting website, which limit us to one or two trackers. And when we see only one or two seeders for that torrent, we abstain from downloading it because low number of seeders equals low speed. And downloading torrents at low speeds can be very frustrating.

The good news is that you can now search the existence of a particular torrent on multiple hosting websites. In other words, you can search for more trackers for a particular torrent. More trackers mean your chances of finding more seeders increase considerably.

This searching capability is brought to you by a free service hosted at BTreannouncer.net. There are three simple steps to follow:

1. Go to the web page and upload your torrent file for which you would like to search more trackers,


2. The resulting web page lists "New trackers" if found. Select all the trackers and click the "ReAnnounce" button,


3. Download the reannounced torrent from the page that is loaded from the link under the heading "Download ReAnnounced Torrent...:".

Use this newly downloaded torrent file as you would any other torrent file. This file will include all the new trackers that you selected.

I have found this service to have increased my speeds at times from 10KB/s to 70KB/s, and sometimes even more. I have added this website to my Favourites and I surely reannounce unpopular torrents every time.

Software Review: AutoRuns for Windows

Software Name: AutoRuns for Windows
License: Free
OS: Win XP
Rating: * * * * * (5 out of 5 stars)
Download File Size: Less than 1 MB
Download Now!

Since my early days as a computer user, I have tried to keep a close check on the programs that are loaded into computer's memory. They may include programs that startup when I logon to my Windows, various device drivers or even the Windows services. In order to control which program loads and which doesn't, I had to learn what each program did. If the program was essential, I would allow it, otherwise the program need not use up my computer's precious resources.

Finding these auto-loading programs was the hard part. In Windows, auto-loading of such programs is handled from various different locations. Some of these locations are easy to find, while others would have you baffled. Say, for example, if a spyware were to make its home in your computer, it would probably make its autorun entry quite hard to find.

"AutoRuns for Windows" seemingly took care of all my problems. This program exhaustivly lists every possible auto-start locations, and gives you a choice to either disable/enable the autorun entry for future startups, or delete the entry, in which case you won't be able to re-enable it.

I should warn newbie users to tread lightly with this program. First learn what a file does before disabling its auto startup. Avoid deleting entries unless you are 100% positive that it is a malcious program. Other than these, enjoy a better computing experience.

The software is available for download from Microsoft's website. Find more functions that this software has to offer by following the Download Now! link above.

Software Review: TrueCrypt

Software Name: TrueCrypt
License: Free
OS: Win 2000/XP/Vista,
Linux Open Suse (x86, x64)/Ubuntu (x86, x64),
Mac OS X 10.4/10.5
Rating: * * * * * (4 out of 5 stars)
Download File Size: 2.52 MB
Download Now!

Most of us have personal data on our computers that we would like to keep private. There are many ways to achieve this goal. Microsoft Windows XP allows you to keep your 'My Documents' private so that only you can access the files when you login. There is a downside to this. Say your OS gets corrupted and you are unable to login. You can try to boot your computer from other sources such as bootable CDs and browse through data on your drives. But this still won't allow you to access your 'My Documents' folder. You have to go through the ordeal of repairing your Windows just to access those files.

Creating WinRAR archives with password protection is also another option. But with large data, it can be cumbersome to extract or add files to the archive.

Not to worry, TrueCrypt offers relief for you. With TrueCrypt you can create so-called containers or volumes which are encrypted (password protected as well). You can then copy your data in these containers (by mounting them first). These containers appear as ordinary files, which you can copy, move and rename as per your liking. When you want to access files and folders in these containers, you just have to mount them on a virtual drive through the TrueCrypt software. Unless mounted, the data in this file/container is inaccessible. Once mounted, it behaves as a drive to which you may copy files or delete them or do anything that you would like with the files and folders within the container. Once you are done accessing the container via the drive, just dismount the drive and the container again is just an ordinary file, with your latest changes. Your container is password protected so that only you are able to access the data within.

One true strength of TrueCrypt is the hidden container functionality. The purpose of this is to create a hidden container within a normal container discussed above. While creating these containers, you are asked to set separate passwords for the normal and the hidden container. While mounting your container, if you provide password for the normal container, the normal container is mounted and if you provide the password for the hidden container, the hidden container is mounted. If you are forced to reveal your password, you should give the password for the normal container and not the hidden one. According to the developers of TrueCrypt, no one can prove if there is a hidden container in the normal one.

It is a great software and quite fast. Your file can be mounted and dismounted in seconds. There is much more to the software than I have discussed in this article. You may read about more features and download this software from their official site: TrueCrypt. The interface is quite user-friendly, and there are wizards to guide you smoothly through the operations. User Guide is also included with the software, so you won't have any trouble getting started.

Windows XP: ClearType font smoothing

Once upon a time, paper-based material such as books, magazines or newspapers used to be our only source of reading and learning new things. But now, reading material for almost any topic on earth can be found in electronic format over the Internet. We are reading more and more text each day from our computer screens be it at work or home. But how much thought have we put into making this reading experience go easy on our eyes? I think most of us have not given it much thought.

There are many font smoothing and anti-aliasing techniques that can make your screen font smoother, more clear and in turn much easier to read. These techniques will by far enhance your digital reading experience.

Microsoft includes a font smoothing technique in its Windows XP known as ClearType. One way to enable it is through your display properties. But there is a better way through which you can fine tune the settings for ClearType as per your liking. Microsoft has included the fine tuning of ClearType in its Power Toys for some time now. Those of you who do not wish to install a software and still want to experience what ClearType has to offer can visit the Microsoft's Online ClearType Tuner. The online wizard will help you enable ClearType on your computer and fine tune by showing you samples of texts from which you can select whichever seems most clear to you. Try it, it has sure made my digital reading experience better.

Convert/Open MS Office 2007 file formats

With the launch of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft has introduced new file extensions for example "xlsx", "docx", etc. This has created a division in the people who are using the new version and the ones who still prefer MS Office 2003.

Personally, I still use MS Office 2003 because it uses less system resources. It is particularly a good idea to use this old version in laptops where it is very easy to run low on system resources. The question that arises now is what to do when someone sends you a file created in MS Office 2007. This thought was at the back of my mind and I knew eventually someone would send me these new extension files that I will not be able to open.

Thankfully, Microsoft has provided a solution for this with Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. You can visit this link on Microsoft's site and download the file.

This component (once installed and after the Microsoft's fashionable system restart) will register the new extensions on your system. Now you will be able to open the "xlsx", "docx", etc files in your MS Office 2003. It is a 27.5 MB download though. But in my opinion, it is worth the effort as sooner or later you are bound to encounter a file created in MS Office 2007. This component not only enables you to open the new file formats, but you will also be able to edit, save and create documents in new file formats using the MS Office versions older than 2007.

You can also opt for online file converters such as docx2doc.com or zamzar.com. You will have to upload your file on their site and they will convert it to the older version and email you the file. I, however, prefer the converter that installs on your system.

Software Review: Agent Ransack

Software Name: Agent Ransack

License: Free

OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/ XP SP2/2003/Vista

Rating: * * * * * (2 out of 5 stars)

Download File Size: Less than 1 MB

Download Now!

Most of us have used the Windows file search when trying to search for a particular file on our computer. If you have a lot of data, then it could take a while to go through it all. For this, Microsoft offers its Indexing Service. A few of you might have read this term but do not know exactly what it is.

There are a few advantages to using Microsoft Indexing Service, but the downside outweigh its advantages. Let's first understand what Microsoft Indexing Service does. It scans your disks and builds indexes in a database for some properties of the files. So when you search for a file name, these indexes are searched first. Searching the indexes is a little faster than going through the files, so you get your results a little faster. The difference in using the Microsoft Indexing Service is not that significant, so you will not feel a major difference. The disadvantage to using the Microsoft Indexing Service is that it hogs a lot of system memory. Sure the index building process is only active when the system is idle, but when you get back to work again you find your computer performing considerably slower and less responsive than you left it. Frankly speaking, it is not worth using the Microsoft Indexing Service as it only slows down your computer without providing any significant difference in searching speed. For the sake of keeping this article about the software review, we will discuss disabling the Indexing Service in a separate article.

With the Indexing Service out of the picture, let us now have a look at Microsoft's default search tool. Many users across the globe refer to it as a bloatware, meaning that it is slow and uses a lot of unnecessary memory. It also does not provide an option to include individual drives when searching for files in more than one drive. For example, you have 6 drives, and you want to search for a file in only 2 drives. The Windows search does not allow this feature; you can either search a single drive or search all of your 6 drives. This wastes a lot of your valuable time.

The solution to your file-searching problems might be a third party software Agent Ransack. There are many advantages to using Agent Ransack over your legacy Windows search. Agent Ransack:

• is a very light-weight application
• returns your search results much faster
• installs right-click context menus so that any directory can be searched directly from the file manager
• allows for including individual drives (e.g. 2 out of 6 drives) when searching multiple drives
• allows you to save your frequent search criteria
• previews the contents of the searched files in a pane so that you do not have to separately open each file
• supported Operating systems include Win 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/ XP SP2/2003/Vista

There are also a few cons to the software that I have experienced.

• It does not allow free-text entry for search criteria (you have to use wild cards such as * and ? or regular expressions). While this provides for more precise searching, but may be difficult to use for novices,
• It does not provide an option to change or set program's default settings,
• Does not provide an option to 'Open Containing Folder'.

Despite its cons, Agent Ransack is a freeware. If the features appeal to you, then try it out by downloading from the following link: Agent Ransack.

Forming a small network at home (PART IV)

This is the last in series of this article. Up till now we have relied on either manual settings or the DSL modem's ability to act as a DHCP server. If you do not have a DSL, or for that matter if your DSL modem does not have the capability to become a DHCP, then you are stuck with assigning the configuration manually. And like me if you plug-in your laptop at work and at your home, you will be changing your network parameters back and forth, which can be a pain sometimes. DHCP significantly reduces the system administration load.

Thankfully enough, Microsoft has provided a small DHCP service in Microsoft Windows XP Professional/Home Editions, that lets you set up a very simple DHCP server. Now this DHCP service may not be very configurable, but it caters to the basic necessity, and that is all we want at this point in time.

Revising DHCP basics
At this point we need to revise what we talked about DHCP. DHCP is simply a protocol through which IPs on a network are managed. A DHCP server is a computer that manages the assignment of IPs over a particular network. Say, if a new computer joins a network which has a designated DHCP server, then it is the DHCP server's responsibility to assign the new computer with IP configuration. The computer being assigned the IP will become a DHCP client. There should be only one DHCP server over a network but there can be multiple DHCP clients. Furthermore, a DHCP server and a DHCP client cannot be the same machine.

How does it work? When a DHCP client joins a network, it broadcasts a request to all machines on that network for IP configurations. Only the DHCP server responds to that request and it leases an IP address to the new computer along with assigning other network configurations. The validity period for this lease depends on the DHCP server being used. Some DHCP servers also give an option to reserve IP addresses against MAC (Media Access Control) addresses.

But as discussed before, the DHCP service provided with Microsoft Windows XP is a very basic one and it does not provide us features such as customizing the lease validity period and reservation of IPs.

Setup a DHCP server
To setup a DHCP server on Microsoft Windows XP, you need to allow Internet Connection Sharing on a connection other than your Local Area Connection (through which you access your home network). If you have a modem installed, then your task will become much simpler. If not, then you will have to setup a Loopback network adapter, which is a discussion for another article. The procedure for allowing Internet Connection Sharing on either the Loopback network adapter or the Dialup connection is the same.

To setup a DHCP server, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Network Connections,
   
   
   
2. Right-click on your Dial-up connection or your Loopback connection and click on 'Properties',
   
   
   
3. In the 'Advanced' tab, check the box labelled 'Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet Connection'. Keep other boxes unchecked,
   
   
   
4. In the combo-box labelled 'Home networking connection:', select 'Local Area Connection',
   
   
   
5. Click OK,
   
6. Windows will pop-up a dialog box to inform you that it is assigning a manual IP to the computer and so on. Click OK on that as well.

NOTE: I feel obligated to highlight one very obvious yet important fact here. The Operating System on the DHCP server must be running before you connect or start other computers. This must always be the case. This is because the DHCP clients will only try to automatically attain an IP either when the Operating System starts or when the network cable is plugged in. There are other conditions and remedies to this, but for the sake of keeping this article clutter free, we will discuss that in a future article.

Setup a DHCP client
Now that a computer on your network has a designated DHCP server, you need to configure all other machines on the network as DHCP clients. We've already discussed how to do this in the previous part of this article. You can go to the article Forming a small network at home (PART III) and move to the heading "Setup your computer as a DHCP client".

Forming a small network at home (PART III)

In this part of the article we will discuss how the computers in your network need to be configured if your DSL router is acting as a DHCP server.

Your DSL router acting as a DHCP server
Some of you might be using internet through a DSL service at your local area. For the most of you, the DSL connection might be configured for a single computer at your home. In such a case your computer is most probably configured with manual settings for internet and would not cater to any more computers if you wished to add any.

If your DSL router was configured as a DHCP server, then your network will become much more scalable. You can add as many computers to your network as your network switch allows, without the hassle of configuring the new computer each time it is added. For example, whenever I want to bring my work notebook on my home network all I have to do is plug-in the LAN cable into my notebook, and the DSL router automatically assigns the network configuration to my notebook. This way, I do not have the hassle of entering the configuration into my notebook everytime I need to connect it to my home network.

As every DSL router/modem has a different interface for configuration, we won't go into the detail of configuring the DSL routers/modems. You can, however, request your Internet Service Provider to make this configuration for you.

Setup your computer as a DHCP client
For your computer to accept the network configuration automatically from the DHCP server, you need to make it a DHCP client. A DHCP client is simply a computer that accepts network configuration from a DHCP server. To make your computer a DHCP client, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Network Connections,




2. Right-click 'Local Area Network' and click on 'Properties',




3. In the dialog window that opens, double-click 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)', as shown below:
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now, in the dialog window select 'Obtain an IP address automatically' and 'Obtain DNS server address automatically' radio buttons, as shown below:
   
   
   
   
5. Click OK on all open dialog windows.

These steps essentially set your computer to accept settings automatically from a DHCP server. Now, no matter which network you plug-in your computer, if it has a DHCP server on it, your computer will be automatically assigned network configuration to communicate over that network.

Using the Ping command

The ping command lets you verify whether another network node is reachable. It can also be used to determine the quality of the link between the computers. Let's see how to work with this command.

Running the Ping command
On a computer which is connected to a network, do the following:

1. Start > Run...,
2. Type in cmd and click OK,
3. On the command prompt, enter the command ping 192.168.0.2 and press Enter OR,
4. Enter the command ping computerName and press Enter, where computerName is the name of the remote computer.
   NOTE: Here, it is important to understand that in the ping command you should use the IP or computer name of the remote computer.

Identifying typical output behaviors of the Ping command
If the output of the ping command is something like:

Pinging 192.168.0.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.2: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.2: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=128
...

then it means that the remote computer with the given IP is alive as it is replying to our ping command.

If the output of the ping command looks something like:

Pinging 192.168.0.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.2: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

then there is a problem connecting to the remote computer with the given IP. This could occur for several bunch of reasons:

• one of the network cables could be unplugged,
• the remote computer might not be powered up,
• the remote computer may have a firewall that could be preventing communication,
• one of the network cables could be faulty or damaged,
• the remote computer may not have the IP configuration compatible with your computer,
• etc.

For guidance in setting up your network, refer to the article Forming a small network at home (Part II).

There are several other options you can use with the ping command. To list more optionsfor the ping command, enter ping /? at the command prompt.

Forming a small network at home (PART II)

Setting parameters manually on all computers
In this article I will discuss how to form a small network at home with two computers and a network switch/hub. For this article we will configure the TCP/IP settings manually. The ingredients needed here are discussed in the PART I of this article.

A. Connecting the computers physically:
First of all power up both your computers and your network switch. Now plug in one end of your patch cord (straight network cable) in the computer's LAN card port and the second end of the patch cord in any port of your network switch. Do the same with the second computer. The two computers are now physically connected.
NOTE: please remember to use a straight network cable that has been tested properly with a cable tester.

B. Configuring the TCP/IP settings:
On your first computer, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Network Connections,
2. Right click 'Local Area Connection' and select Properties,
3. In the Properties window, double click 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)',
4. Here, select 'Use the following IP address' radio button,
5. For IP address provide IP 192.168.0.1,
6. For Subnet mask provide 255.255.255.0,
7. Leave rest of the fields blank for now,
8. Click OK until you exit both dialog windows.

Now repeat the above steps 1 through 8 for the second computer, with the exception of providing the IP 192.168.0.2 in step 5.

C. Configure Windows Firewall
If you haven't tampered with the Windows Firewall up till now, then chances are that it is enabled. Your Windows XP Firewall will block any connections keeping the ports closed unless you add an exception. Here, we want Windows to allow file sharing, so we will add this type of communication as an exception.

On all computers, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Network Connections,
2. Right click 'Local Area Connection' and select Properties,
3. In the 'Advanced' tab click the settings button under Windows Firewall,
4. In the 'General' tab, 'On (recommended)' is probably selected. If not, select it,
5. In the same tab, uncheck 'Don't allow exceptions', as shown in the image above,
6. In the 'Exceptions' tab, find 'File and Printer Sharing' under 'Programs and Services' heading and check it,
7. Now click on the 'Edit...' button,
8. Click on the 'Change Scope' button,
9. In the 'Change Scope' dialog window select 'My network (subnet) only'. This will ensure that this type of communication is only allowed for your network,
10. Click OK on all open dialog windows and exit.

Congratulations, you have just configured your first network.

D. Verify if both computers are connected
The previously discussed 'ping' command can be used to verify if there is a connection between both the computers. For help using the ping command, please refer to the article: Using the Ping command.


Related articles on this blog

1. Forming a small network at home (PART I),
2. Forming a small network at home (PART III),
3. Forming a small network at home (PART IV),
4. Changing Network Authentication Mode,
5. Using the Ping command.

Forming a small network at home (PART I)

Covering the basics
Before I had built my first network I used to think it would be an overwhelming task to build a network from scratch. In time I have come to know better. I was planning on getting DSL at home and I had more than one computer and I wanted to share the Internet on all of them.

There are several ways you may form a network. A simple and effective network topology for your home would be a star network. In this type of network there is a central switch/hub which links the computers together. You will also need to decide how your network parameters are propagated to all the computers in your network. I will describe three ways in my articles:

• PART I - Covering the basics
• PART II - Setting parameters manually on all computers
• PART III - Your DSL router acting as a DHCP server
• PART IV - Setting up your own DHCP server

Here, it is important to know what DHCP is. DHCP stands for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol" and is used by networked devices to obtain parameters necessary to operate properly in a particular network. These parameters include the gateway, DNS, IP address, subnet mask, etc. A DHCP server is a computer on your network which is delegated to assign IP parameters to computers joining your network.

The ingredients required to form a simple network are: two or more computers each with LAN cards installed, a network switch/hub, and patch cords equal to the number of computers in your network. Patch cords used here are straight network cables (which provide parallel connections at both ends).

The basic stuff you need to know here is what an IP address is and the use of the ping command. An IP address is like your home address and it identifies your computer uniquely over a network. The ping command uses the IP address to verify whether a network interface of a computer is accessible or not. I will elaborate on the use of the ping command as we go along.

I think we have covered enough basics to start forming the network now. We will start with setting a network with two computers and a network switch in PART II of this article.

Changing Network Authentication Mode

When I had completed installing the network at home, I tried to access the hidden folders on my bro's computer. I was presented with a prompt asking me to authenticate as a guest. The user name field was hard coded with "Guest" and was unchangable.

(For the context of this article I will refer to the machine sharing the folders as "remote computer". Also, this article has been written for Windows XP.)

Such a user prompt essentially stops you from accessing the hidden shared folders on the remote computer even if you know the login information. This is due to the reason that most computers do not have the guest account enabled, and the prompt forces you to authenticate as a guest. Of course all authentication attempts will fail if the guest account is disabled on the remote computer.

To change this authentication mode just follow these steps (on the remote computer).

1. Go to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.
   
2. A new window for Local Security Policy will open. There on the left pane, expand "Local Policies".
   
3. Inside Local Policies (still on the left pane), click on "Security Options".
   
4. On the right pane, find an entry named "Network Access: Sharing and security model for local accounts" and double click it.
   
5. In the dialog window that opens, select "Classic - local users authenticate as themselves" from the combo box.
   
6. Click on OK.

There you go. Now when you try to access the remote computer, you are presented with a prompt where you can enter both user name and password. Once you provide the correct login information, you will be able to access the hidden shared folders on the remote computer.

Hidden shared folders in Windows

Desktop Windows Operating Systems such as Windows XP, Windows 2000, etc. share the root of your hard disk drives by default. For example, if you have three partitions on your hard drive then your "C:\", "D:\" and "E:\" drives are shared by default. These shares are hidden, and they are not shown when you access a network computer by entering "\\computerName" in your "Run" dialog box. The reason for keeping them hidden is because these shares are meant for administrative purposes only. But there is a way to access these shares.

Before we start accessing these shares, let us first verify whether the roots of the partitions are shared. In your Windows Explorer, simply right click your drive name and select "Sharing and Security...". Here you will see that the share name is "C$". The magical character here is the "$". In fact, if you use this character while sharing other folders, those shares will be hidden as well. The catch is to use this character at the end of the share name, otherwise the share is not hidden.

Now let us proceed to accessing these hidden shares. The task is very simple. Just enter "\\computerName\C$" in your "Run" dialog box and the contents of the remote computer's "C:\" drive will be displayed. Same procedure goes for other shares that you have decided to keep hidden; instead of "C$", provide the share name for the particular shared folder (including the character $).

We have left out one intermediate step though. When you type in "\\computerName\C$", Windows will prompt for authentication. Here you must enter the Windows login information (username and password) of the remote machine. Remember what we discussed a few moments ago? These shares are meant for administrative purposes only. Therefore, only the credentials having administrative privileges on the remote computer will be able to access these hidden shares.

Now you know how to access hidden shared folders on a machine and how to keep your shares hidden. But, even if you know the username and password for an administrative account of the remote computer, there is still a quirk in default configuration of Windows that will hinder with your goal. But that is a topic for our next discussion.

Hello Folks

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my Blog. I will be posting solutions to problems that I face with my Operating System or applications. Hope they will be helpful to you guys as well.