Prajish’s Blog – Something to Share…

August 2, 2007

Yahoo tracker – Track the Online/Offline status of your Yahoo Buddy

Filed under: Internet — Tags: , , , , — Prajish S @ 1:47 PM

Note: This site no longer exists. I couldn’t digg it out. If anyone finds it, please report here..

Here is a cool site which allows you to monitor the Online/Offline status of any yahoo user.
http://www.yahootracker.com
Its completely free and you need not provide your yahoo id to get the details.

Yahoo tracker is a web based service that allows you to track online/offline status of your yahoo buddies. You can track even those who are not in your messenger list, your yahoo tracker account is in no way connected to your own yahoo id. There is currently no such tool which tells you whether someone is spying on you using this service or not. The service tracks the online/offline activity of Yahoo messenger user in previous 24 hours, and you can track 12 yahoo users with one account. Data updates after every 10 minutes. Yahoo messenger users will be considered as online even if they are invisible to any number of people (not everyone). Being “on sms” and “on mobile” will also be considerd as online. The Service is being provided only for educational purposes, to let the users know about some of the yahoo loopholes.

May 28, 2007

HowTo : HTML Signature in Gmail?

Filed under: Internet, Tricks — Tags: , , , , , — Prajish S @ 12:15 PM

Now Firefox users can use HTML signature in there Gmail Account.Firefox is one of the safest, fastest and reliable web browser. It supports addons/extensions which makes the browsing experience more effective.
Using one of the addon, known as Better Gmail one can have HTML signatures in Gmail.

Better Gmail, a comprehensive suite of Gmail enhancements, including skins, saved searches, keyboard macros, secure access, attachment icons, attachment reminders, label colors, HTML signatures and more.

Click here to Download Better Gmail – Firefox may prevent you from installing the addon from this site. So right click on the link and say Save link as to save the addon to your PC. Or else goto https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4866 for downloading the addon

Installation instructions

  • Drag and drop the .xpi file to the firefox window.
  • After the installation, restart the firefox to enable the addon.
  • Open the Firefox Tools->Addons-> better gmail -> Preferences -> Enable the HTML signature by clicking on the check box opposite to the Floating Signature
  • Next step is to setup a signature in GMAIL. Goto settings in GMAIL -> Use Signature and check Allow HTML in Signature.
  • Next step is to create HTML Signature. If you are familiar with HTML tags then it is easy to make a signature. Or else use some webpage creator/editor to create the signature.

Method from a fellow blogger.

May 24, 2007

Tips to Keep your computer Clean, Neat and Fast

Filed under: Uncategorized — Prajish S @ 1:04 PM

Hi All,
This I got this piece of text from Internet while I was searching for an Anti-Adware software. I felt this one is good. so sharing with you too…..

Here’s the deal, my way.
by Brianstech – 3/23/07 7:28 PM

In reply to: How to Remove Malware, et al, like the computer repair shops

I’m one of those who makes decent money fixing people’s computers. I’m an independent, someone who has gained many clients through my years of knowledge, buying and selling, building, networking, and repairs.

Do you want to know how I keep my own computers running well?

1. I use a hardware router, Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, it doesn’t matter. And I don’t use extreme security settings.

2. I use Firefox as my browser. Maybe once every few months I’ll use Internet Explorer to achieve something I can’t with Firefox, and that’s usually for experimental purposes. A few years back I got fed up with all the crap invading my computer EVERY FEW MINUTES with IE. Switched to Firefox, and the whole internet world opened its arms to me. I never looked back.

I CANNOT use Firefox without some enhancements. They’re called extensions. NoScript is the most important, it won’t allow a single site to run scripts (including bad ones) without your approval. Next is Adblock Plus, something that speeds loading times with every click as it blocks all those “leecher” ads from loading. I compliment that with AdBlock FiltersetG Updater.

Go to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ to learn all about it.

Also, I always install SpywareBlaster. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it helps keep the bad guys out. That’s always good.

3. CCleaner. It’s a simple small free program I couldn’t live without. It takes mere seconds to eliminate all my internet history, cookies and cache. Not to mention emptying the Recycle Bin, and it even has a simple Registry cleaner.

CCleaner is not a security program, it qualifies as a utility. But it makes all my security scanning programs almost completely worthless. I know, I’ve tested it too many times. After a week or so of internet usage I’ve run Spybot or AdAware to see they would find the usual list of benign cookies. Running CCleaner first makes AdAware, Spyboy S&D, Ewido, and even Doctor Alex a waste of my time. They all find nothing, for about 2 years now.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

4. Background programs. I DO NOT ALLOW programs to load and run with Windows. Install your camera software, scanner software, TV tuner software, DVD media player, sound card and mixer, Itunes, it doesn’t stop. They all want to be in your face every minute you are on your computer. And they are constantly hovering, waiting for you to request their services, at the cost of your time and RAM. Why do they do this? Obviously it’s greed.

So you shut them down. And still they occupy CPU cycles while they constantly seek updates because you didn’t STOP that also!

I use my digital camera about once every few months, my scanner even less. Why do they embed their software up my operating system’s wahoo?

STOP THEM.

5. Email. Not much to say, I simply DON’T allow HTML to get through all three accounts. All my email accounts are set up for “text only”, so the crooks can’t can’t infest my computer as easily. I also take the time to block the address or domain of every spammer, and only get about 2 unwarranted emails a year. I’m very serious.

And my life will never be changed by ANYTHING I read in an email. It’s email for gosh sakes! When I read “Your Paypal account has been accessed by a third party”, I laughed. I logged onto Paypal to see it was only a scammer’s attempt to get me to react through clicking their link to provide them with my account information. THERE ISN’T A SINGLE EMAIL THAT WOULD EVER RAISE MY BLOOD PRESSURE!! Nowadays they can install scary stuff in your PC as soon as you open their email, unless you use “text only”.

I almost wish they would still try, but it’s been over 2 years since the last scam emails.

THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP.

I don’t use an antivirus although I wouldn’t recommend that to all common users.

And I download through torrents (filesharing) while surfing Russian Porno sites. I’m a registered hacker on a few gamer sites. Sometimes I go down those dark internet alleys looking for trouble, and I always find nothing.

I’m also an established member of eBay, almost 5 years of buying and selling on 2 accounts. Established means I’m also an active member of their communities, the Answer Center and different Groups.

Malware Alarm

Filed under: Uncategorized — Prajish S @ 12:35 PM

Description of Malware Alarm

Malware Alarm is a Trojan disguised as an anti-spyware application. It installs stealthily onto a user’s system, uses aggressive advertising, and produces false positives that may goad the user into purchasing the application.

Recommendation for Malware Alarm
It is highly recommended that this application be removed from the system.

Trusted: No
Trojan: Yes
Chronic: No
Adware: No
Carrier: No
Browser Hijacker: No
Dialer: No
Commercial Keylogger: No
Remote Administration Tool: No
Suspected: No

Company Name: NA
Platforms Affected:
Methods of Distribution: Downloadable from its site
Variants/Versions:
Release Date: NA

How to Remove MalwareAlarm?

You wont be able to uninstall this trojan. Or delete it. So for removing this do the following

  • Open Task manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc
  • Kill the process named MalwareAlarm
  • Goto C:\Program Files and delete the Folder MalwareAlarm
  • Delete the start menu entries by going to start->All Programs->MalwareAlarm
  • Next in Run type “regedit” and search for “MalwareAlarm” and remove all the entries

May 22, 2007

How to help prevent SSH attacks…

Filed under: Uncategorized — Prajish S @ 11:11 AM

Im not a huge Linux Expert but i have enough knowledge to run and secure a server.

I was given some instructions on what to do to prevent this from happening so i’m going to share them here to help others secure their SSH and reduce the possibility of one of these bots (or humans) accessing your server via root.

Install Brute Force Detection (BFD)

This nifty tool will basically detect and help prevent people and bots trying to access your server by entering a list of random passwords – it will ban and block the IP’s that attempt to brute force your server.

To install BFD you must first install the APF firewall – instructions on doing so can be found over at webhostgear dot com

Once you have installed APF you may install BFD:

Step 1: Login to your server as “root”

Step 2: Download the latest release of BFD

wget http://www.rfxnetworks.com/downloads/bfd-current.tar.gz

Step 3:
Un-Tar the archive

tar -xvzf bfd-current.tar.gz

Step 4:
Move to the newly created BFD directory

cd bfd-0.X

Step 5:
Run the installation utility, once installed it will give you a completion message.

./install.sh

Step 6:
Edit the config file

nano /usr/local/bfd/conf.bfd

Change This:

ALERT_USR=”0″

To This:

ALERT_USR=”1″

and This:

EMAIL_USR=”root”

To This:

EMAIL_USR=”you@yourdomain.com”

Step 7:
Now to prevent getting locked out, its best that you edit the ignore list, this is a list of IP’s that wont be affected by the BFD system.

nano /usr/local/bfd/ignore.hosts

Add your IP to the list, e.g:

123.12.123.1

Step 8:
You can now start BFD by running the following command as root:

/usr/local/sbin/bfd -s

The install of BFD is now complete. Time for the next item on the security list…

Moving SSH To A New Port

As silly as this may sound, moving SSH is actually one of the better methods of helping to stop unauthorized access. Moving the port will give the impression that the server is either non-functional or does not have SSH setup.

If you have APF installed, make sure to add the new port to the list of open ports before applying the below modifications – failure to do so could leave you locked out of your system.

Step 1: Pick yourself a port number (higher 4 digit numbers are usually better as they are less likely to already be in use). E.g. 8470

Step 2:Here we will open up the SSH config file, at the top of the file is the current port number (22), you can just change this to the new one:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Step 3:
Restart the SSH server

/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd restart

Step 4:
Login with the new port number!
If using putty the port number defaults to 22 however you can change this when entering the server IP.

Step 5: If everything is working, you can now edit your APF config and close off port 22 as its no longer needed!

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