Inspired Digitally

Website Security

March 20th, 2012

Website Security

Day by day there are lots of website launching for personal, business, and other purposes. These websites should make sure that all information that they request from the users in it are safe. There are lots of hackers constantly looking for ways to take advantage of someone else’s information. There is no miracle cure for protecting from everything, but there are definitely a few things you can do to make sure better website security.

It is important, during website development, that all possible security threats be considered to ensure adequate protection of the Website security as well as end users. Here am going to discuss some points which you need to keep in mind for the safety of your website.

Using latest versions of applications and scripts: We cannot say that software created by people are perfect. Hackers always find out a backdoor to enter your software or account. Programmers always try to close that backdoor and update the software. So, whenever a new version is available, use that version of application or script. ActiveX controls are small programs that work over the web with Internet Explorer. They bring enhanced functionality to web pages. ActiveX controls can be used for such tasks as displaying animation, viewing certain kinds of files and gathering information. Common uses of ActiveX controls include dialog boxes, list boxes and command buttons.

Using strong passwords: For the security of our accounts we always use passwords. While choosing password always follow the rules which can increase your password strength. Please dont keep passwords with any meaning in them. Use long passwords. Use letters, numbers and special characters. The less logic there is in your password the harder it is to guess it. Also, never keep your password saved in any of the files on your computer. It is easier to hack your computer if it is not firewall protected.

Cover your content: I have seen several times that most web hosts have their web server’s setup in such a way that it has no index file. In this case it will show the list of folders and files existing inside the location. This can be used by hackers. So, always put at least an empty index file into every directory inside your public_html folder. Another idea is to protect the directory using password. Control panel has got option for this. It can also be done using .htaccess file inside the directory. This all will make the hacking task much harder for the hackers.

High Level Filename Obfuscation: As an additional level of security all of the filenames stored on the server can be made completely unrecognizable. Instead of meaningful filenames they can be listed as a totally random set of characters and numbers. In this case hackers will find impossible to make sense of the files.

Forced SSL Transfer: The best way to protect your data is to transfer the data over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). SSL encrypts the data so the data is absolutely useless to anyone who goes through the effort of capturing it.

Therefore, while creating websites be aware of the security attacks that can occur. Take the measures to prevent it, otherwise it can affect your company or reputation.

Secure Your Smart Phone In 5 Ways

May 10th, 2012

Secure Your Smart Phone In 5 Ways

As you are aware of the fact that this is the age of Smartphones, Phones that are becoming very smart, The estimate increase in the users of smartphones are very high each year. The wide spread use and acceptance has made Smart phones a winner. As you are aware of the fact that Smartphones are always designed to search for incoming connections, be it in the way of Wi-fi, Bluetooth, etc. The ugly fact is that our phones are out open in the air, making it one of the most vulnerable object that we carry. Many of us are not aware that we are at risk with our smartphones, the risk that is far more dangerous with PC and other stuffs.

One of the reasons smartphone users are more vulnerable is the profusion of apps that they download on their phones, most of which store personal data, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, e-mail IDs, pin numbers and location data, in the phone’s internal memory. Not all the data is encrypted since the storage is offline. Another problem is that most people keep information about their bank accounts and plastic cards on their phones so that these can be easily accessed when required.

But taking these into considerations we cannot stop using our Smartphones, but we can become more security concerned with our beautiful devices. Lets see how we can be more secured with our smartphones.

1. Bluetooth

Bluetooth should be switched off only when they are needed by you, do not turn the Bluetooth of your smartphone “ON” always. There are programs that could access your devices files through your Bluetooth connection, they are able to take any of the files that are kept in your phone without your knowledge.

2. Password Protect your smartphones

As you would be aware that every phone has two types of password protection, one would be for the SIM and the other for the phone itself. There are image type and normal code lock type passwords that are being used, make sure that you set them it would prevent others from accessing your data when you are not around your phone. Remember to use strong passwords with alphabets, numbers, and special characters.

You must never share your password with anyone and, more importantly, change it periodically. Use different passwords for all your accounts. Do not use the same user name and password to log in to an app, your e-mail and your Net banking account.

3. Accept Only Secure Connections

Make sure that you accept only secure Wi-Fi and other connections. Avoid using your bank transactions, and other important works if you are connected through a public wi-fi hotspot. These are vulnerable to attacks with spyware, malware and viruses, which can access and steal information from your phone.Use good antivirus software that are in the market, if your phone manufacture recommends one make sure that you have it on your smartphone and also its updated.

4. Back – Up Your Data

All of the smartphones have this option and you should carry them out as often as you like. If you are really transmitting a large amount of data to your phone then a weekly update would be nice, if lesser once in 2 weeks would go well. Depending on your use you can decide the frequency of the update.

5. Pay for your Apps

If you have very critical information that are stored with your phone, make sure that you do not take risk by using the free versions of the security software that are available. Make sure that you buy the paid version. It would make sure that you are safe from any possible attacks.

How to Create Google chrome profiles

April 30th, 2012

How to Create Google Chrome Profiles

Google Chrome by default doesn’t have the ability to have separate user profiles. It is nice to have this when you are sharing the computer with family members. Do you want to keep your bookmarks, themes, and settings separate from everyone else’s? Google Chrome does include support for user profiles now. You can create separate profiles for family members and then their bookmarks, passwords, themes and other Chrome settings won’t be visible to anyone else. If you install any app also it won’t be visible to the other users. Follow the steps below to create your own Google chrome profiles.

Step 1: Launch Google Chrome and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Del to clear your entire web browsing history.

Step 2: Open Windows Explorer and switch to Chrome’s User Data folder which is available at:

For Windows 7 and Windows Vista

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data

For Windows XP

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data

Step 3: While inside Windows Explorer, select the sub-folder called “default” and make a copy of that folder inside the same “User Data” folder of Chrome. Rename that new folder copy to, say, Your_Name .

Step 4: Now reset this new “Your_Name” profile in Chrome to the factory defaults. Open “Command Prompt”, use the “cd” command to switch to the Chrome Application folder where it is installed and run the following command:

chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Your_Name” -first-run

Step 5: Your new user profile in Chrome is ready for use. To run Google Chrome using this profile instead of the default profile, let’s create a shortcut. Right click anywhere on the desktop, choose New -> Shortcut and type the following in the location box:

For Windows 7 and Vista:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Your_Name”

For Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –user-data-dir=”..\User Data\Your_Name”

You are set with your Google chrome profiles , Now your web history, bookmarks, cookies, and search terms won’t be visible to anyone else in the family.

How to Connect Laptop to Tv?

April 20th, 2012

How to Connect Laptop to Tv?

Do you want your favorite videos on YouTube or other on your large TV screen? Have you ever thought of How to Connect Laptop to Tv? and watch programs on your TV with your family? There are many times when I would like to share pictures, video, or games from my laptop or PC with my friends and family. With a simple connection from your laptop to TV you can enjoy this. Today here am going to tell you how to Connect Laptop to Tv. It is possible to display the contents of your computer screen on TV. The picture quality would be less and the text will not be readable.

What you want first is a video cable for connection. Most computers have a s-video port that can be connected to the s-video input of your television screen using a s-video cable. If you want better picture quality use standard VGA ports. Most laptops offer a VGA output, ostensibly to hook up to a monitor, but it can also be used to connect to a suitable TV too. Once your cable is connected, select the correct input on your TV — just as you would when using your DVD or Blu-ray player.

Open “display settings” in your computer and activate output to the TV screen.

Take your TV remote and switch to “external inputs” from the menu. You will need to change the default “Video 1″ to a different selection which may be “HDMI 1″ or “Video 2″ depending on how you have made the connection.

Don’t forget to connect the cable to the TV before turning on the computer. Sometimes it may fail to recognize it, so it is better to connect it before. Also, change the screen resolution of your TV using the display settings else the picture may seem distorted.

Following the steps above will have you Connect Laptop to Tv.

Do you want your favorite videos on youtube or other on your large TV screen? Have you ever thought of connecting your pc and TV and watch programs on your TV with your family? There are many times when I would like to share pictures, video, or games from my laptop or PC with my friends and family. With a simple connection from your laptop to TV you can enjoy this. Today here am going to tell you how to connect your computer to a television set. It is possible to display the contents of your computer screen on TV, but it may not be of high picture quality and the text and all will not be very readable.

What you want first is a video cable for making the connection. Most computers have a s-video port that can be connected to the s-video input of your television screen using a s-video cable. If you want better picture quality use standard VGA ports. Most laptops offer a VGA output, ostensibly to hook up to a monitor, but it can also be used to connect to a suitable TV too. Once your cable is connected, select the correct input on your TV — just as you would when using your DVD or Blu-ray player.

Open “display settings” in your computer and activate output to the TV screen.

Take you TV remote and switch to “external inputs” from the menu. You will need to change the default “Video 1″ to a different selection which may be “HDMI 1″ or “Video 2″ depending on how you have made the connection.

Following the steps above will have you sharing media on your TV in no time.

3 Free “Golden apps” to track internet data usage on your Android

April 10th, 2012

3 Free “Golden apps” to track internet data usage on your Android

Many people don’t get notification about their end of internet data usage, whether it is monthly or it’s annually. Many people suffer from this problem, because as soon as internet pack expires the surfing or downloading will charge tremendously. But now it is easier for Android users to get notifications about the threshold of usage plans.

Android provides certain apps that help in getting instant alerts whenever the monthly usage of internet connection reaches a critical lower limit. Neglecting download and upload usage of internet will cost highly to the internet users. Following are three free tracking golden apps by Android.

1. 3G Watchdog

This is one of the popular apps used for tracking 3G internet usage of mobile internet service provider. This app specifies the monthly as well as weekly bandwidth usage limits. This app has “Always on” notification on the top left side, which helps in monitoring the 3G internet usage. It’s very much easy in tracking the internet usage in 3G watchdog. Just by creating new tracking profile on the day of recharge and activating the Alert feature user can check their data usage. The app gives notification about the internet usage according to user’s convenience. This app is free to download and ad free.

2. Opera Mobile

Opera mobile is one of the generic web browsers for the mobile devices. It is not a complete and full featured data usage tracking app by Android. However, nifty which is the new feature of Opera mobile helps user in finding usage of the last browsing session. Unlike other apps, Opera mobile won’t be able to track data download or upload usage, third party services and games hence it will not figure out the exact usage of internet. This app is best suited for the users who are out of 3G coverage and wants faster page loading in their mobile phone. Other features of Opera Mobile are compressing the web page, fetching a request URL and sending the mobile optimized copy to the user’s end.

3. Droidstats

In addition to tracking amount of data usage Droidstats also tracks number of messages sent or received and incoming and outgoing call minutes. Unlike 3G Watchdog, Droidstats is able to track the exact data usage by the Wi-Fi connection. The app helps in making clear comparison between data that was downloaded using home Wi-Fi connection and the data that was downloaded using mobile’s 3G internet connection. Another additional feature of Droidstats over other tracking apps is that this app exports the list of data usage into CSV file. This file helps user in comparing detailed log of data usage during last four months.

Above given are some specific apps by Android to track the internet data usage. All the above apps are free to download. The functionality of apps differs from each other. However, going for Droidstats is far better option than other two. Because Droidstats gives complete usage details with comparing each months usage using CSV files. Android also provides other apps for tracking data usage. However, above three are considered as the Golden apps for internet usage tracking by Android.

How To Get More Followers On Twitter

April 5th, 2012

How To Get More Followers On Twitter

Twitter is a wonderful social platform to enhance your personal or brand image. It is unique from other social networking sites. People look at your followers and make judgments, it’s only natural. So How To Get More Followers On Twitter ?

You can certainly increase your twitter followers but you need to take the right approach and apply the suitable techniques. Here are a few simple tips to help you boost your fan base at Twitter:

One thing you can do is target well known and respected figures. You can grab their attention and develop relationships with them. This will dramatically affect how many people become aware of your profile. After seeing your profile and if they like what you say, they will follow you.

If you want to gain followers do post tweets which are valuable and which are interesting for others. If you tweet occasionally it is ok, but don’t forget to make it interesting, your followers should not feel bored when they read your tweets. See what interests your followers. Use those interests by incorporating them in your own tweets and adding them to your Twitter page.

You should interact with your followers which may help you in increasing the twitter followers. If you interact with your followers by tweets or retweets regularly you can gain followers and it will also help in maintaining followers.

Put links to your Twitter profile everywhere. Let your Facebook and MySpace friends know where they can find you to follow you on Twitter. Add your Twitter information to your email signature. Link it on your blog, Facebook Fan Page, email signature, and everywhere else you have a presence online. Make sure all printed promotional materials that you have include a link to your Twitter profile.

You can customize Twitter with a better background, profile picture and info. The better your page looks, the more likely it is that people who see that page will want to follow you.

These are some methods by which you can increase the number of your followers. Just try and see the difference in number of your followers.

Best Internet Browser

March 30th, 2012

Best Internet Browser

A browser is software that allows you to view websites through HTTP by typing the addresses. It can understand the language that web pages which are written in, HTML, ASP, CGI, etc., and produces the output on your screen. All of you may be having your own favorite browser. The appearance of a site may be different from one browser to another. Lets see which browser would be called as the Best Internet Browser.

I am not going to tell you here which browser is the better or the best, or give an elaborate review of each one. The best browser, it depends on your taste, preferences and web habits. Each browser will do just fine for web surfing and offers all the necessary capabilities. The difference is mainly in the layout and additional features. You should try out all these browsers for a few weeks and see which one you like most. Almost all browsers are freely available, so you can test it and decide.

Different points are taken into consideration when choosing Best Internet Browser, so I’ve tried to focus on what I think are the most important.

Good standards: Best Internet Browser should use international standards. If it is so, the user can use a single browser to accomplish his everyday tasks.

Great performance: Fast browsing and use of less memory is equal to better performance. We all need a browser which can redirect us to a webpage faster. Sometimes we have to disable browser plug-in for its better performance. Some browsers allow this. No matter how much gigs of RAM your PC has, but still a handy browser which consumes less memory works better.

Better security: We always want our browsers protect us from hackers in internet. Best Internet Browser should make the ‘cookies’ more secure. Most of the time browser cookies are the ones who cause security issues. So, make sure the browser you use provides a better security features.

Better Plug-ins and Extensions: Plug-ins are very useful. Some plug-ins functions well in some browsers. Some are helpful when used in other browsers. So select accordingly.

Some browsers are only available to a certain operating system, or not available to one operating system. So, before choosing check this also.

Please keep these points while selecting a browser. I think this article will help you in selecting the Best Internet Browser.

Google Introduces Google Play

March 27th, 2012

Wondering What is Google Play ?

Google Play is a new digital content experience from Google where you can find your favorite music, movies, books, and Android apps and games. It’s your entertainment hub: you can access it from the web or from your Android device or even TV, and all your content is instantly available across all of these devices. Google Play is to bring together all your favorite content in one place that you can access across your devices. Specifically, digital content is fundamental to the mobile experience, so bringing all of this content together in one place for users makes the Android platform even more compelling. We’re also simplifying digital content for Google users – you can go to the Google Play website on your desktop and purchase and experience the latest movies, music and books. With Google Play, we’re giving you a simpler way to get your digital content.

When would Google Play be Live?

On the web, Google Play will be live today. On devices, it will take a few days for the Android Market app to update to the Google Play Store app. The music, books and movies apps will also receive an update today. Around the globe, Google Play will include Android apps and games. In countries where we have already launched music, books or movies, you will see those categories available in Google Play, too.

The types of Content that are available are :

Paid Apps: Available in these countries
Movies: Available in US, UK, Canada, and Japan
eBooks: Available in US, UK, Canada, and Australia
Music: Available in US

If you do not have an Android phone, you don’t need to have one to use the services. Google Play is available on any computer with a modern browser at play.google.com. On the web, you can browse and buy books, movies and music. You can read books on the Google Play web reader, listen to music on your computer or watch movies online. Your digital content is all stored in the cloud, so you can access from anywhere using your Google Account.