Malwarebytes Antimalware - Review

Malwarebytes antimalware is a relatively new antimalware product to the market. I try not to let the name put me off! At just a 1.8 MB download, Malwarebytes antimalware should download in a matter of seconds. Installing the application is a painless and quick procedure. Once the application is installed one is presented with an opportunity to update the program with the latest definitions ensuring that the program is 100% up to date to start. This is a great feature.

Malwarebytes antimalware has 2 scanning modes: Quick or full Scan. Quick scan will scan the registry, memory and the common locations for spyware such as user profile folders, whilst the full comprehensive scan takes longer as it checks all locations. Upgrading to the paid version for $24.95 will unlock the real-time protection module ensuring that every file executed is checked.

The application is advertised as lightweight and is indeed light on resources ensuring that scanning is fast. Updating happens every 2 days or so and thankfully the user has the option to manually update at any time from one of three servers. The application is supported on Windows 2000, XP and Vista (hurray!). A great feature of this application is that it has the ability to perform full scans for all drives on the computer. The quarantine section holds removed threats so that they can be restored easily if required. Also the context menu integration allows users to right click on files and scan on demand.

Malwarebytes antimalware is a another great tool to add to your arsenal of antimalware products. Its easy installation and user interface means that the program should be easily used by even the most novice users.


Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.

VNC - alternative to remote desktop

Having recently posted about Remote Desktop I reckon its time to mention an alternative.
TightVNC is a advanced version of VNC (Virtual Network Computing). In a nutshell it does exactly what remote desktop allows you to (Connect remotely to other machines) plus more! For more info check this out

What is involved in setting it up?

(1) Download the program from the TightVNC website
(2) Run the installer on the machine you want to connect to (choose TightVNC Server). Make sure to tick the boxes to enable and start the VNC services, and when you are prompted to enter a default password, do so, as VNC will not work until you have done so.
(3) Run the installer on any machine you want to use to connect to the server (choose TightVNC Viewer)

Things to note: VNC does not add exceptions to Windows firewall so you will need to add port 5900 to the exceptions list. If you have any third party firewalls you will have to do the same.

What are the advantages of TightVNC over normal remote desktop?

(1) It does not blank the server screen. This is very useful if you are helping someone on the other end because they can see what you are doing. You can blank the screen if you wish.
(2) It allows you to transfer files directly between client and server.


This is a very brief overview of TightVNC. Give it a go yourself.


Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.

How to find do follow links

One way of promoting a website and increasing pagerank for your site is to get your site linked on other sites.

2 common ways of doing so are:

(A) Registering with a forum (preferably about a topic related to your website) and creating a link to your site in your signature. This way, everytime that you post on the forum a link is generated to your site.

(B) Commenting of other peoples blogs.

There has been a huge increase in the spamming of forums and blogs and one way that webmasters are trying to stop this is by adding a "no follow" value to any external links placed on their sites. This value tells the search engine spiders not to follow the link you place on a site. This means that you do not gain any page rank or value from the link (although you may get a little traffic from users who choose to click on the link)

Note: There is not a value called "do follow". However the term "do follow" is commonly used to describe a link that does NOT have a "no follow" value.

It is my opinion that if blog comments and forum signatures are properly moderated then there is no need to use "no follow" values. (www.boards.ie is an example of an excellently moderated and managed forum - check it out)

One way of checking whether a site is "no follow" is to view the source code. However this can be time consuming and tedious. If you are actively seeking forums and blogs where links are "do follow" I advise that you install the firefox add-on called "Nodo Follow"

This small add on can be easily activated by right clicking on a webpage and choosing "NodoFollow" No follow and do follow links are identified using different colours.

This tool is an excellent way of quickly finding out whether you can gain some link juice from a high PR site. Enjoy :)

Please Note: When posting on forums and blogs to place your link, please engage with the topic in hand and add to the topic. Spam sucks.


Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.

How to set up remote desktop on XP

Following a previous post on a remote desktop issue I was having, I have decided to put up a post on how to set up remote desktop.

First of all - How to enable Remote Desktop on the host computer (the computer you wish to connect to)
To use Remote Desktop, you need WinXP Professional rather than Home edition. To enable remote access right-click on My Computer in the start menu and choose properties. Choose the "Remote Tab" and tick the box next to "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" Under this you have the option to choose which users can connect remotely - Remember though that User accounts wishing to connect remotely must be User accounts with a password enabled.

Now that the host allows incoming remote connections we must ensure that the client computer can connect to the host. In order to connect to an XP professional computer remotely the client computer must have the remote desktop connection client software installed. This is installed by default on most windows computers - however if you find yourself in a situation where you do not have the client software installed you will find the setup file called MSRDPCLI.exe on your windows XP CD in the folders \support\tools.

Ok now that our host and clients are set up how do we connect? You will find the remote connection software in the accessories folder of the all programs list. To specify the computer you wish to connect to you can simply types in the computer name or the I.P. address of the computer. You have to enter the Username and Password of a user that you set up with permissions to access remotely as discussed earlier.

Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.

Because of a protocol error detected at the client (code 0x1104), this session will be disconnected. Please try connecting to the remote computer agai

"Because of a protocol error detected at the client (code 0x1104), this session will be disconnected. Please try connecting to the remote computer again"

I have decided to post a blog about this error message because I recently came across this error message on a network I was working on and when I went to research it I could not find any fixes out there. Perhaps this brief post my be of help to some one.

From what I can make out it seems that another program is using the same port that remote desktop wants to use (port 3389). In my case it was VNC viewer. End the other process and voila.


Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.

How to speed up a slow PC

Here is some information on one of the ways you can speed up your PC.

When you turn on your computer there are a number of programs that start automatically. Some are important such as your antivirus and firewall. However others, like MSN Messenger, are not important. When a number of these unnecessary programs start automatically, it has a negative effect on the performance of your computer. So lets have a look at how we stop these programs for starting automatically. Of course, If we want to use these programs we can just start them from the All Programs list.

The Microsoft System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG)

The microsoft system configuration utility is a great tool for disabling hidden programs that automatically start when you turn on your computer. To start the utility, click on Start button, then click on Run, then type in MSCONFIG and press enter.

After a moment a small window should pop up. Click on the Start Up Tab. This shows a list of the programs that automatically start when you turn on your machine. It can sometimes be difficult to understand what programs are listed on the Startup tab. Some, such as MSN Messenger are easy to identify, but there are others such as NBHGUI that can be difficult to recognise or decide whether it is important to leave running.

To get more information about a particular listing, expand the width of the Command column enough and you'll see the start-up command that the program issues, including its location, such as C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\InCD\NBHGUI.exe. The directory location should be another hint to help you know the name of the program. In this case it is a Nero 7 file and this can be disabled.

It you are unsure whether to stop a process you could enter the name of the file into google and see what the process is actually for. When stopping programs from running, it is probably best practice to stop each, one at a time rather than stopping them in groups. This way, you are making sure that you are not causing any system problems by stopping them. So stop one, then restart your computer. If it runs fine, then stop another and restart.

So that's it. Give it a go and see what is running unnecessarily in the background slowing down your PC. Remember to write the names of the files you stop so that you can undo anything if it causes problems.

For more tips you could check out our website


Was this post of help or interest to you? Post a comment below and let us know.