There are several occasions where you will be at a public terminal, and require access to a particular website that is blocked for some reason or another. How to bypass these restrictions is a very common question, and will be covered here.
Lets pretend for a moment that the Internet is made up of 26 websites, A-Z. The web filter blocks your browser from accessing sites X-Z, but not sites A-W. Simply make the browser think you’re going to A-W. There are a variety of ways to do this:
Proxy Servers:
This is a list of http proxies. These sites may not be up forever, so you may need to search for “free http proxy” or “public proxy servers” or other similar terms.
Proxy server lists:
http://www.aliveproxy.com
http://www.multiproxy.org
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/index.html
http://www.tehbox.com/proxy
http://www.proxz.com
http://www.proxy4free.com/index.html
http://free-proxies.com
Now that you have a list of proxies, you would open IE (internet explorer) and click on Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings > Advanced. Enter the address and port of one of the servers from the list in the proper area (http) and make sure the “use a proxy server for your LAN” option is selected. Remember to replace the proxy and port at your terminal to the original when you're done.
*Note: Some proxies listed may not work, and this method may decrease your surfing speed. By trying various entries, you’ll find one that works, or works faster.
The infamous translation trick:
Go to a web page translation site and use their services to “translate a page to English” thus accessing the blocked page through their trusted site.
You’ll notice that several translation sites are blocked, but by using less popular ones, this method can still be effective. Here is a list of some translation services. Again, these sites may not be up forever, so you may need to search for them.
http://babelfish.altavista.com
http://world.altavista.com
http://translation.langenberg.com
http://freetranslation.com/web.htm
Url Scripting:
Url scripting is the easiest method. It works on a select few web filters and is based on the same principal as the translation trick. By typing an address like “www.yahoo.com@www.restricted_site.com" the filter will not go into effect as it recognizes the trusted site (in this case yahoo.com)
Other tricks:
Simply open the command prompt and type:
Ping restricted.com
restricted.com obviously being the restricted site
At this point you can take down the IP address (ex. 216.109.124.73) and enter it into the browser. If access to the command prompt is also restricted, see “How to bypass restrictions to get to the command prompt.” If this article has been taken from information leak, then know that it involves anything from opening the browser, selecting view > source, then saving it as X.bat and opening it to opening a folder or browser and typing in the location of cmd.exe depending on the OS. I will not go into further, as this a completely different topic.
Use https://restrictedsite.com as referring to it as a secured site may confuse the filter.
Note: These are ancient methods that many new filters defend against, but still may be applicable in your situation. If not, a little history never hurt anyone.
Web based Proxies:
Another one of the easier, yet effective methods include web based proxies. These are simple in the fact that you just enter the restricted address and surf! Some of these have some restrictions, like daily usage limits, etc but you can also use another proxy (perhaps one that sucks, like a text only) to bypass their restrictions as well. Here is a list of some:
http://proxify.com
http://www.anonymizer.com/index.cgi
http://www.guardster.com/
http://anonymouse.ws/anonwww.html
http://www.the-cloak.com/login.html
https://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf
http://www.anonymizer.ru
https://nadaily.com/cgi-bin/nph-proxyb.cgi
http://www.userbeam.de/cgi-bin/nph-userbeam.cgi
http://www.free2.surffreedom.com/nph-free.cgi
Proxy Programs:
There are many proxy programs that allow you to surf anonymously that are more or less based on the same topics we’ve covered here. I’ve added them just to cover the topic thoroughly:
http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/28480.html
http://www.inetprivacy.com/a4proxy/anonymous-grc.htm
http://www.orangatango.com/home/index.ie.html
http://www.steganos.com
http://www.anonymization.net (toolbar that requires admin rights to install)
Making your own CGI proxy server:
Making your own proxy server may come in handy, but I personally find that simply uploading a txt file/w a list of proxies to a free host makes for a much easier and headache free solution. If you don’t know PERL, there is code out there to help you set it up. Check out these sites for more info:
http://httpbridge.sourceforge.net
http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy
http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/open-source-personal-proxy-servers-written-in-java/view
Admin Access:
When all else fails, you can simply take over the PC and alter or delete the damn filter. This method varies according to the OS (operating system) you are dealing with. Please see “Hacking Windows NT/2k/XP” on www.informationleak.com for more information. I will go as far as to say it can involve booting the PC in another OS, copying the SAM file and cracking it using a program like saminside or LC5 rather than start a whole new topic within this one.
There are obviously more ways to bypass filters than this, and I plan to update this article eventually. For the time being, Ive included quite a few methods for you to use either individually or in conjunction with each other.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. Carpe system.
Tracing IP address of anybody
Social Engineering always gets your further
NOTE: This tutorial is still in the works, but I felt that I wouldn't beable to contain myself if I didn't let the already completed information out -xyr0x
Table of context
1A: Disclaimer
1B: Introduction
2A: Tools of the trade
2B: What to look for
2C: To be continued...
3A: Last words
Using the tools Correctly
1A Disclaimer:
Tracing somebodies IP isn't illegal. However ISP(s) restrict to the best of their ability to allow their costumers private information from being obtain, i.e address, phone number, emails etc. For this information you'll be learning how to obtain, and therefor if you abuse this information and harrass, play pranks, etc... and get caught, I cannot, and will not be held responsible in any way.
1B: Introduction:
IP Tracing and identifying has been around for quite some time now, since the day of the earliest hackers -- criminal hackers that is, to identify their movement and to enable authorities apprehend them. I haven't seen, nor read a tutorial on how to teach, or publicate how simple this is, even though you watch the news, etc etc... and it's all bloated and looks technical, when it's not. I'm going to be giving you two methods, which really it seems to me, there are only two methods that you'll want to know. These are, how to Identify a Router. For example, let's say you have a wireless network card, and you want to identify the source of it, with an online Map. That'll be one, and the other one is stripping apart an IP Address. As for Remote IP, that you stole from somebody online while sending them a file, and doing a netstat -n manuever. Imagine all of the fun and possibilities you could have. Calling up their phone, billing stuff to their phone, knowing their name, and address, etc. Sounds fun doesn't it? I bet it does.
2A: Tools of the Trade:
In this chapter, I'm going to assert to you which tools we will be needing. We're going to need NeoTrace Pro, Understand what Lattitude and Longitude is for, Logic, Google Maps and, everything else is in your own discretion, as far as being Master detective, stalker enthused, etc.
2B: What to look for:
In this chapter, I'm going to assert to you for what you're going to be looking for, to help you determine and understand, so you don't mess up, and play guess who? with the Nodular display case. Now. I'm going to break this into two segments. One for Router identification, and how to locate using Lattitude, and Longitude mapping. For the newbies who don't know what that is, that's how the globe is mapped out, as for Location range. For each Lattitude, and each Longitude parameter, consists of a virtual box on any comprehensive mapping device, or map. It's also how the pirates of the early 19th century mapped their treasure and sunken ships so that they could find them for salvage, or simply just to explain. I'm not a pirate* nor a historian so I'm just using the best of my logic to guess. So if I'm wrong on the pirate crap, just shut up, and ignore that.
Alright. So if you're using a Wireless network card, e.g Linksys Wireless-G/N/B PCI adapter, you might just learn something new, and this also goes for the readers who're using a Router, and have fallen victimized to this breach. However I'm not going to disclose any security issues on how to prevent that, that's simply in your Configuration Manual. Don't use WEP/WEP2/WPA. They are weak.
Ok, so have we got NeoTrace Pro installed? If yes, than continue reading. Now, statistically speaking, for each Node, there is a base. i.e 191.168.*.* 10.*.*.* and so forth. Every router or DSL/Cable modem which supports WIFI (Wireless Connectivity) will be assigned to a Default Gateway -- they're usually assigned in this nature. Are you getting me here? You'll need to know this. The most widespread default gateway address on a specified router/modem will be like the following: 192.168.1.1 or, 192.168.0.1, why these gateway address' vary is simply depending on if it's being routed by more than one router to connect more than one modem, or simple for other objections. But those are the most usual gateway address'. Ok, so we're connected to a Gateway, and we want to determine where it's comming from now.
Boot up NeoTrace Pro, and then go to www.whatismyip.com This will return your Remote IP, since you're not Physically connected to the router source, you won't get an IP that looks like, 192.168.1.6 for say. Once you've obtaind your IP, put that into NeoTrace Pro. Now we're going to click, Trace. When it's done, click on " NODE VIEW Tab" and select "Node View" -- this will identify what all nodes it pinged to interpret where it's being connected at, with who and so forth. Now you're going to see like the ISP, other connected computers on the router, and the gateway. The gateway ignore the gateway, and look for a node, which is declaring your remote IP in a format such as the following example: 62-12-44-63.myisp.comcast.net. Once you've located that, click on it. Now transfer your attention to the right window pane in NeoTrace. Do you see your information? You'll want to focus on the "Location:" information. It'll have your City where the ISP subscriber is getting their internet from, along with your North and West, Lattitude and Longitude. That'll display like this. Location: My City ISP (11.111N, 11.111W) or it could be south, S, or east, E... Now write the Lattitde and Longitude down. Now remove all of the special characters, like your Hyphens, Coma's and just keep it like the following example: 11.111N 11.111W. Now goto maps.google.com and paste that into the search field, click go, and it'll bring up where you're connecting to. I know alot to read, but wasn't it fun to learn straight forward?
2C: Remote IP comprehensive indentification, is ...To be continued.
3A: Last words:
I'd like to dedicate this tutorial to all of the wardriving addicts and WEP/Network gurus, and it's crackers/security administrators. And for the people who learn't something from this, that it's fun to understand where you are, even if you're in cyberspace
NOTE: This tutorial is still in the works, but I felt that I wouldn't beable to contain myself if I didn't let the already completed information out -xyr0x
Table of context
1A: Disclaimer
1B: Introduction
2A: Tools of the trade
2B: What to look for
2C: To be continued...
3A: Last words
Using the tools Correctly
1A Disclaimer:
Tracing somebodies IP isn't illegal. However ISP(s) restrict to the best of their ability to allow their costumers private information from being obtain, i.e address, phone number, emails etc. For this information you'll be learning how to obtain, and therefor if you abuse this information and harrass, play pranks, etc... and get caught, I cannot, and will not be held responsible in any way.
1B: Introduction:
IP Tracing and identifying has been around for quite some time now, since the day of the earliest hackers -- criminal hackers that is, to identify their movement and to enable authorities apprehend them. I haven't seen, nor read a tutorial on how to teach, or publicate how simple this is, even though you watch the news, etc etc... and it's all bloated and looks technical, when it's not. I'm going to be giving you two methods, which really it seems to me, there are only two methods that you'll want to know. These are, how to Identify a Router. For example, let's say you have a wireless network card, and you want to identify the source of it, with an online Map. That'll be one, and the other one is stripping apart an IP Address. As for Remote IP, that you stole from somebody online while sending them a file, and doing a netstat -n manuever. Imagine all of the fun and possibilities you could have. Calling up their phone, billing stuff to their phone, knowing their name, and address, etc. Sounds fun doesn't it? I bet it does.
2A: Tools of the Trade:
In this chapter, I'm going to assert to you which tools we will be needing. We're going to need NeoTrace Pro, Understand what Lattitude and Longitude is for, Logic, Google Maps and, everything else is in your own discretion, as far as being Master detective, stalker enthused, etc.
2B: What to look for:
In this chapter, I'm going to assert to you for what you're going to be looking for, to help you determine and understand, so you don't mess up, and play guess who? with the Nodular display case. Now. I'm going to break this into two segments. One for Router identification, and how to locate using Lattitude, and Longitude mapping. For the newbies who don't know what that is, that's how the globe is mapped out, as for Location range. For each Lattitude, and each Longitude parameter, consists of a virtual box on any comprehensive mapping device, or map. It's also how the pirates of the early 19th century mapped their treasure and sunken ships so that they could find them for salvage, or simply just to explain. I'm not a pirate* nor a historian so I'm just using the best of my logic to guess. So if I'm wrong on the pirate crap, just shut up, and ignore that.
Alright. So if you're using a Wireless network card, e.g Linksys Wireless-G/N/B PCI adapter, you might just learn something new, and this also goes for the readers who're using a Router, and have fallen victimized to this breach. However I'm not going to disclose any security issues on how to prevent that, that's simply in your Configuration Manual. Don't use WEP/WEP2/WPA. They are weak.
Ok, so have we got NeoTrace Pro installed? If yes, than continue reading. Now, statistically speaking, for each Node, there is a base. i.e 191.168.*.* 10.*.*.* and so forth. Every router or DSL/Cable modem which supports WIFI (Wireless Connectivity) will be assigned to a Default Gateway -- they're usually assigned in this nature. Are you getting me here? You'll need to know this. The most widespread default gateway address on a specified router/modem will be like the following: 192.168.1.1 or, 192.168.0.1, why these gateway address' vary is simply depending on if it's being routed by more than one router to connect more than one modem, or simple for other objections. But those are the most usual gateway address'. Ok, so we're connected to a Gateway, and we want to determine where it's comming from now.
Boot up NeoTrace Pro, and then go to www.whatismyip.com This will return your Remote IP, since you're not Physically connected to the router source, you won't get an IP that looks like, 192.168.1.6 for say. Once you've obtaind your IP, put that into NeoTrace Pro. Now we're going to click, Trace. When it's done, click on " NODE VIEW Tab" and select "Node View" -- this will identify what all nodes it pinged to interpret where it's being connected at, with who and so forth. Now you're going to see like the ISP, other connected computers on the router, and the gateway. The gateway ignore the gateway, and look for a node, which is declaring your remote IP in a format such as the following example: 62-12-44-63.myisp.comcast.net. Once you've located that, click on it. Now transfer your attention to the right window pane in NeoTrace. Do you see your information? You'll want to focus on the "Location:" information. It'll have your City where the ISP subscriber is getting their internet from, along with your North and West, Lattitude and Longitude. That'll display like this. Location: My City ISP (11.111N, 11.111W) or it could be south, S, or east, E... Now write the Lattitde and Longitude down. Now remove all of the special characters, like your Hyphens, Coma's and just keep it like the following example: 11.111N 11.111W. Now goto maps.google.com and paste that into the search field, click go, and it'll bring up where you're connecting to. I know alot to read, but wasn't it fun to learn straight forward?
2C: Remote IP comprehensive indentification, is ...To be continued.
3A: Last words:
I'd like to dedicate this tutorial to all of the wardriving addicts and WEP/Network gurus, and it's crackers/security administrators. And for the people who learn't something from this, that it's fun to understand where you are, even if you're in cyberspace
Encrypting instant messaging conversations
Whenever you talk online with your instant messaging (IM) client of choice, your conversations can be, and in all probability are, recorded, monitored, and read. Any data which travels over a network can be viewed using programs known as packet sniffers, with some specially crafted programs, such as IM Sniffer or AIM Sniff, designed exclusively to capture IM communications. No matter how pathetically dull your treacherous life is, chances are someone is bored enough to fuck with it.
What will soon follow is a list of various programs and plugins which you can use with most standard IM clients to encrypt your conversations. The focus will be predominantly on Windows systems (though the tools discussed are often available for other platforms as well), and will also only cover free (as in beer) software, as there’s no need to pay when there are plenty of gratis alternatives (if, however, a time does come when the below mentioned tools stop being free, there’s a textfile on finding serial numbers here: www.dizzy.ws/serials.htm).
Nota Bene: Always encrypt your conversations (even the seemingly innocuous ones) and always keep regenerating (changing) your encryption keys. The reason for the former is that, unless you are intentionally spreading disinformation which you plan on the sniffers seeing, whatever data you consider to be unimportant can be used to compile a profile of you and your activities, which can in turn be used to gain insight into life habits, password choices or those fun password reminder questions, and so forth. The reason for the latter is that the longer you use the same key to encrypt your conversations, the more data and time the attacker has to spend on trying to crack your encryption. Change your key once every hour, every day, every week, or every chat session. The choice is yours, just remember that the longer you use the same key, the more vulnerable you become. Regenerating your key is also easier to do with some of the programs below than with others, while some even regenerate the key for you.
Now then, with no particular order in mind, on with the list!
Name: Gaim-Encryption (http://gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net/)
Key Strength: 512 to 4096 bit RSA keys.
Works With: Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/)
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/*nix
Protocols Supported: AIM, Jabber, ICQ, [unconfirmed], YIM [unconfirmed], MSN [unconfirmed], Gadu-Gadu [unconfirmed], GroupWise [unconfirmed], Napster [unconfirmed], SILC [unconfirmed], IRC [not supported (while Gaim does act as a primitive IRC client, the Gaim-Encryption plugin does not work with Gaim IRC, see below for IRC encryption options)]
Installation Example: Download and install Gaim. Download the Gaim-Encryption plugin and run the installer. Run Gaim. Click on Preferences and go down to Plugins on the left-hand side. Find ‘Gaim-Encryption’ listed on the right, and check the accompanying checkbox. Restart Gaim. Go back to Preferences, and this time you should see ‘Gaim-Encryption’ listed under Plugins on the left-hand side. Select ‘Gaim-Encryption’ and in the Config tab on the right make sure that ‘accept conflicting keys automatically’ is unchecked, and ‘automatically encrypt if buddy has plugin’, ‘broadcast encryption capability’ are both checked. Checking the remaining ‘accept key automatically if no key on file’ box is optional.
Next, click on the Local Keys tab and select your key. If you don’t see any keys listed there, you will first need to start an encrypted conversation with someone else who is using the Gaim-Encryption plugin. Once the conversation has been started, go back to the Local Keys tab and select your key. Click on Regenerate Key and in the Generate Keys pop-up type in 4096 (the maximum key strength the GE plugin supports at the time of this writing) instead of the 1024 value listed in the Key Size field, and hit OK. On slower machines it will appear as if Gaim has frozen on the ‘generating RSA key pair…’ screen. This is normal, and therefore you should not attempt to restart Gaim, just give it a few minutes. The person with whom you first initiated the conversation should also be regenerating zir key. Once your key has been successfully regenerated, click on the Trusted Buddy Keys and the Recent Buddy Keys tabs and delete the existing 1024 bit keys from your list.
Finally, restart Gaim and reinitiate your conversation. Both the Tx and Rx locks in the IM window should now be red (you may also see a confirmation dialogue pop up, which asks whether you want to accept the key once or accept it and save it, or reject it. Ideally, you should Accept Once). Now go back to the Recent/Trusted Buddy Keys tabs and make sure that the key now stored there for your chat partner is 4096 bits.
Assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key Fingerprint to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner, and then hit Close to exit out of the Preferences menu. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations. Note: if when messaging your chat partner the locks in the IM window do not turn red, make sure you both have the ‘automatically encrypt if buddy has plugin’ and ‘broadcast encryption capability’ options checked in the Config tab, and try clicking on the lock icons.
Name: Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging (http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/)
Key Strength: ???
(some sort of Diffe-Hellman protocol?)
[The description of the OTR protocol is available here: http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/Protocol-v2-3.0.0.html.
It is complex and convoluted, so I was unable to figure out what the key strength is, if you do, however, then let me know!]
Works With: Gaim, Adium, Miranda IM [unconfirmed], iChat [unconfirmed], Trillian [unconfirmed], vanilla AIM client [unconfirmed] [note: with iChat, Trillian, and the vanilla AIM client, OTR works using the OTR proxy program which I couldn’t get to work, however, Gaim, Adium, and Miranda IM use an easier to implement OTR plugin which doesn’t require the proxy tool]
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Mac (OS X)/*nix [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: AIM; in theory, most other protocols the aforementioned programs support should work as well (i.e. YIM, MSN, etc, though I haven’t tested them. Oh, and IRC which Gaim/Trillian/others support is also not encrypted, so, once again, see below for IRC encryption options).
Installation Example: Download the OTR plugin for Gaim and run the installer. Run Gaim. Click on Preferences and go down to Plugins on the left-hand side. Find ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ listed on the right, and check the accompanying checkbox. Restart Gaim. Go back to Preferences, and this time you should see ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ listed under Plugins on the left-hand side. Select ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ and click on the Config tab. Be sure that the ‘Enable private messaging’ and ‘Automatically initiate private messaging’ fields are checked.
You can now initiate the IM conversation with your chat partner. Once the conversation has been initiated, and assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key Fingerprint to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner. After the fingerprint is confirmed, go back to the Known fingerprints tab and, selecting the screenname of the chat partner whose fingerprint you have just confirmed, select Verify fingerprint and hit Close to exit out of the Preferences menu. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SecureIM (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/)
Key Strength: 128-bit Blowfish keys
Works With: Trillian
Operating Systems Supported: Windows
Protocols Supported: AIM/ICQ
Installation Example: Download and install Trillian. Run Trillian and, clicking on the globe on the bottom left (or right-clicking on the Trillian icon in the taskbar and then going to Options), click on Preferences. Go down to AIM and/or ICQ under Chatting Services on the left-hand side, then select Misc. In the SecureIM section, be sure to check both ‘Activate SecureIM Capabilities’ and ‘When possible, make a best effort to automatically maintain a SecureIM session with my contacts.’ You’ll need to do this for both AIM and ICQ if you plan on using both protocols. Hit Apply and then OK to exit out of the Preferences menu.
You can now initiate the IM conversation with your chat partner. The locks in your IM window should turn red. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SSL Certificates (Available from syLIkc.NET: http://secure.sylikc.net:8080/self_signed/
and Thawte: http://www.thawte.com/secure-email/personal-email-certificates/index.html)
[IMPORTANT:: www.aimencrypt.com also offers certificates, or rather just one same certificate for everybody, which in turn means that anyone can decrypt your conversations. In other words: Do not use AimEncrypt!]
Key Strength: 128-bit keys
Works With: AIM; and possibly other IM clients which allow importation of SSL certificates [such as?—know of one? Then email me about it!]
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Mac[unconfirmed]/*nix [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: AIM; (same as Works With)
Installation Example: pr0to has written a great tutorial on generating/installing a Thawte-issued certificate: http://www.rorta.net/index.php?page=aimcrypt, and the sylikc.net import instructions are here: http://secure.sylikc.net:8080/self_signed/aim.php. After generating/importing the certificate, you should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SimpLite (http://www.secway.fr/us/products/all.php)
Key Strength: 1024 to 2048 bit RSA keys
Works With: Gaim, Trillian, and the following vanilla clients: AIM, ICQ, MSN, YIM, Jabber
Operating Systems Supported: Windows
Protocols Supported: AIM, ICQ, MSN, YIM, Jabber [unconfirmed]
Installation Example: Download and install SimpLite for your particular protocol (note that each protocol has a separate SimpLite program that you need to download). Run your particular flavour(s) of SimpLite and the Keys Generation Wizard should pop up. If it doesn’t, click on Keys in the menu and go down to Generate key pair. Follow the instructions and after a few steps you should have your key.
Run your supported chat program of choice, making sure that SimpLite is still running in the background. After sending a message to your chat partner, you should see your partner’s key show up in the SimpLite program, and your conversations should be under the Green authenticated/encrypted arrows.
Assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key ID to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: FiSH (http://fish.sekure.us/)
Key Strength: 1080 bit Diffie-Hellman keys
Works With: mIRC, irssi, xchat
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/*nix/Mac (OS X) [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: IRC
Installation Example: Download the latest FiSH archive and extract the contents into your mIRC directory (wherever mirc.exe is located). Run mIRC and type ‘/load -rs1 FiSH.mrc’ (sans quotes). Close mIRC. Run the patch executable that matches your version of mIRC (click on Help, then About (or just click on that yellow icon on the far right of your toolbar) in mIRC to find out your version number).
When you extracted all of the files into your mIRC directory, you should have extracted a file called blow.ini-EXAMPLE. Open this file in Notepad and copy all of the contents. Close this file and open a blank Notepad window. Paste the contents and save the file as blow.ini (being sure to select ‘All Files’ from the Save As menu). You just did this so that you have a nice clean backup copy of the ini file in case you completely screw up this copy. For detailed information regarding setting up the blow.ini file, read the FiSH.txt file included in the FiSH archive you downloaded. However, a bare bones blow.ini file will look something like this:
[FiSH]
process_incoming=1
process_outgoing=1
plain_prefix="+p "
[#RORTA]
key=d8SfskY0riaqsfd19ks220dUtQZmKdeWrp8ksfdLjsoig49dp7G
encrypt_topic=1
The first two lines mean that FiSH will drecrypt all incoming messages and encrypt all outgoing messages, respectively. The plain_prefix line says that all messages you send that start with ‘+p ’ (note the trailing space) will be sent as plaintext (unencrypted). The next line is the name of the channel you want to encrypt (you can add more channels below, following the same format). The key value is the encryption key for your channel, be sure to make it difficult to guess by using a long string of mixed-case letters and numbers. The encrypt_topic line asks if you want to encrypt the topic in the channel (1 for yes, 0 for no).
As the FiSH.txt file rightly points out, exchanging channel key information in plaintext is a security risk. Thus, you should ideally tell other members of your channel the channel encryption key only through an IM window that has been encrypted using one of the aforementioned methods.
To encrypt private messages, either double-click on the user’s name to open up a private message window or message the user manually (/msg username moo!) and wait for a reply to get a PM window open (if you two aren’t in the same channel). Then right-click in the PM window and go to FiSH-->Auto-KeyXchange-->Enable, and then either close/reopen the PM window or/and click on DH 1080 KeyXchange (which is also in the PM right-click window under FiSH). You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Nota Bene I: The FiSH encryption key is not the same thing as the channel key (mode +k). Naturally, your channel should also be set to modes +sk to further protect the conversation. First, type /mode #channelname +s (this prevents the channel from showing up in either /whois or /list), followed by /mode #channelname +k yourchannelkey. Your channel key should be different from your FiSH key, and merely means that no one can join the channel without knowing this key (to join the channel type /join #channelname yourchannelkey), whereas the FiSH key means that no one can read the conversation, irrespective of whether or not they can join the channel or not (network administrators can monitor all traffic on their server, even if they’re not in the channel with you).
Nota Bene II: You can further secure your IRC connection by using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) (assuming both your client and the particular IRC network support it).
If you are using the latest version of mIRC (6.14+), instructions for setting up SSL are available here: http://www.mirc.co.uk/ssl.html (the needed DLLs can be downloaded here: http://remus.oru.se/tsub/mirc-ssl/mirc-ssl.zip, or extracted from the OpenSSL installer linked to on the abovementioned mIRC site). Once you install the necessary DLLs, type //echo $sslready and you should get a reply of ‘$true.’ To connect to an SSL server you can use the -e switch before the server address or/and a plus sign (+) before the port number, for instance: /server -e irc.rizon.net +9999.
Consult the readme files of other clients for information on their SSL implementation capabilities. For instance, if you are using xchat on *nix, install the OpenSSL libraries (www.openssl.org) and then when connecting to the particular IRC server with SSL support add a plus sign before the port, e.g. /server irc.rizon.net +9999.
Some networks also let you set certain modes for the channel (for example, +S on Rizon), which require SSL to be enabled in order to join the channel (ask in #help or browse the network’s website to find out if SSL servers and SSL-Only channel modes are supported).
Nota Bene III: The great thing about IRC encryption is that you can encrypt entire channels, and thus have secure conversations between groups of more than two partners (something which, as far as I know, is not possible with any of the other aforementioned encryption tools), so appreciate it and enjoy it! :)
Caveats & Miscellanea
As you have doubtless noticed, there’s a plethora of encryption plugins, with various levels of key strength. The Gaim-Encryption plugin provides by far the strongest key pair (at 4096 bits), however, it doesn’t fly well on Macs. Therefore a feasible scenario may have one user running Adium on a Mac, while another runs Gaim on Windows, with both using the OTR plugin. Keep your options open, and always use the strongest key pair possible (combine malleability with security!).
There is no such thing as ‘perfect security.’ When I have repeatedly stated that ‘you should now be ready to engage in secure conversations’ don’t come crying when your key is compromised due to poor key handling on your part (insecure storage of keys, infrequent regenerations, etc.). In other words: don’t get sloppy, you lazy sack of shit (this is a note to self as much as it is general advice ;)).
On the subject of log files: many IM clients have the option to store logfiles of your conversations (and in many clients this option is enabled by default!—so be sure to scan the preferences/settings areas of your clients to disable logging). Logs are often (read: almost always) stored in plaintext, even when you use the various encryption plugins! Therefore if you do decide to enable logging, be sure to encrypt the logfiles themselves (info on encrypting data will be presented in a future segment of this Underground Security Paper series).
You’ve probably noticed that various clients/protocols/OSes have the ‘[unconfirmed]’ label after them. This is simply due to the fact that I haven’t yet tested the particular encryption tool on those protocols/systems. If you have, please let me know so I can update the information in subsequent versions of this textfile!
Finally, note that the ‘installation examples’ are just that: examples. As stated at the outset of this textfile, the focus has been on Windows and therefore the examples lean towards Windows scenarios. (Don’t take them too literally).
What will soon follow is a list of various programs and plugins which you can use with most standard IM clients to encrypt your conversations. The focus will be predominantly on Windows systems (though the tools discussed are often available for other platforms as well), and will also only cover free (as in beer) software, as there’s no need to pay when there are plenty of gratis alternatives (if, however, a time does come when the below mentioned tools stop being free, there’s a textfile on finding serial numbers here: www.dizzy.ws/serials.htm).
Nota Bene: Always encrypt your conversations (even the seemingly innocuous ones) and always keep regenerating (changing) your encryption keys. The reason for the former is that, unless you are intentionally spreading disinformation which you plan on the sniffers seeing, whatever data you consider to be unimportant can be used to compile a profile of you and your activities, which can in turn be used to gain insight into life habits, password choices or those fun password reminder questions, and so forth. The reason for the latter is that the longer you use the same key to encrypt your conversations, the more data and time the attacker has to spend on trying to crack your encryption. Change your key once every hour, every day, every week, or every chat session. The choice is yours, just remember that the longer you use the same key, the more vulnerable you become. Regenerating your key is also easier to do with some of the programs below than with others, while some even regenerate the key for you.
Now then, with no particular order in mind, on with the list!
Name: Gaim-Encryption (http://gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net/)
Key Strength: 512 to 4096 bit RSA keys.
Works With: Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/)
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/*nix
Protocols Supported: AIM, Jabber, ICQ, [unconfirmed], YIM [unconfirmed], MSN [unconfirmed], Gadu-Gadu [unconfirmed], GroupWise [unconfirmed], Napster [unconfirmed], SILC [unconfirmed], IRC [not supported (while Gaim does act as a primitive IRC client, the Gaim-Encryption plugin does not work with Gaim IRC, see below for IRC encryption options)]
Installation Example: Download and install Gaim. Download the Gaim-Encryption plugin and run the installer. Run Gaim. Click on Preferences and go down to Plugins on the left-hand side. Find ‘Gaim-Encryption’ listed on the right, and check the accompanying checkbox. Restart Gaim. Go back to Preferences, and this time you should see ‘Gaim-Encryption’ listed under Plugins on the left-hand side. Select ‘Gaim-Encryption’ and in the Config tab on the right make sure that ‘accept conflicting keys automatically’ is unchecked, and ‘automatically encrypt if buddy has plugin’, ‘broadcast encryption capability’ are both checked. Checking the remaining ‘accept key automatically if no key on file’ box is optional.
Next, click on the Local Keys tab and select your key. If you don’t see any keys listed there, you will first need to start an encrypted conversation with someone else who is using the Gaim-Encryption plugin. Once the conversation has been started, go back to the Local Keys tab and select your key. Click on Regenerate Key and in the Generate Keys pop-up type in 4096 (the maximum key strength the GE plugin supports at the time of this writing) instead of the 1024 value listed in the Key Size field, and hit OK. On slower machines it will appear as if Gaim has frozen on the ‘generating RSA key pair…’ screen. This is normal, and therefore you should not attempt to restart Gaim, just give it a few minutes. The person with whom you first initiated the conversation should also be regenerating zir key. Once your key has been successfully regenerated, click on the Trusted Buddy Keys and the Recent Buddy Keys tabs and delete the existing 1024 bit keys from your list.
Finally, restart Gaim and reinitiate your conversation. Both the Tx and Rx locks in the IM window should now be red (you may also see a confirmation dialogue pop up, which asks whether you want to accept the key once or accept it and save it, or reject it. Ideally, you should Accept Once). Now go back to the Recent/Trusted Buddy Keys tabs and make sure that the key now stored there for your chat partner is 4096 bits.
Assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key Fingerprint to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner, and then hit Close to exit out of the Preferences menu. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations. Note: if when messaging your chat partner the locks in the IM window do not turn red, make sure you both have the ‘automatically encrypt if buddy has plugin’ and ‘broadcast encryption capability’ options checked in the Config tab, and try clicking on the lock icons.
Name: Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging (http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/)
Key Strength: ???
(some sort of Diffe-Hellman protocol?)
[The description of the OTR protocol is available here: http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/Protocol-v2-3.0.0.html.
It is complex and convoluted, so I was unable to figure out what the key strength is, if you do, however, then let me know!]
Works With: Gaim, Adium, Miranda IM [unconfirmed], iChat [unconfirmed], Trillian [unconfirmed], vanilla AIM client [unconfirmed] [note: with iChat, Trillian, and the vanilla AIM client, OTR works using the OTR proxy program which I couldn’t get to work, however, Gaim, Adium, and Miranda IM use an easier to implement OTR plugin which doesn’t require the proxy tool]
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Mac (OS X)/*nix [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: AIM; in theory, most other protocols the aforementioned programs support should work as well (i.e. YIM, MSN, etc, though I haven’t tested them. Oh, and IRC which Gaim/Trillian/others support is also not encrypted, so, once again, see below for IRC encryption options).
Installation Example: Download the OTR plugin for Gaim and run the installer. Run Gaim. Click on Preferences and go down to Plugins on the left-hand side. Find ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ listed on the right, and check the accompanying checkbox. Restart Gaim. Go back to Preferences, and this time you should see ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ listed under Plugins on the left-hand side. Select ‘Off-the-Record messaging’ and click on the Config tab. Be sure that the ‘Enable private messaging’ and ‘Automatically initiate private messaging’ fields are checked.
You can now initiate the IM conversation with your chat partner. Once the conversation has been initiated, and assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key Fingerprint to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner. After the fingerprint is confirmed, go back to the Known fingerprints tab and, selecting the screenname of the chat partner whose fingerprint you have just confirmed, select Verify fingerprint and hit Close to exit out of the Preferences menu. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SecureIM (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/)
Key Strength: 128-bit Blowfish keys
Works With: Trillian
Operating Systems Supported: Windows
Protocols Supported: AIM/ICQ
Installation Example: Download and install Trillian. Run Trillian and, clicking on the globe on the bottom left (or right-clicking on the Trillian icon in the taskbar and then going to Options), click on Preferences. Go down to AIM and/or ICQ under Chatting Services on the left-hand side, then select Misc. In the SecureIM section, be sure to check both ‘Activate SecureIM Capabilities’ and ‘When possible, make a best effort to automatically maintain a SecureIM session with my contacts.’ You’ll need to do this for both AIM and ICQ if you plan on using both protocols. Hit Apply and then OK to exit out of the Preferences menu.
You can now initiate the IM conversation with your chat partner. The locks in your IM window should turn red. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SSL Certificates (Available from syLIkc.NET: http://secure.sylikc.net:8080/self_signed/
and Thawte: http://www.thawte.com/secure-email/personal-email-certificates/index.html)
[IMPORTANT:: www.aimencrypt.com also offers certificates, or rather just one same certificate for everybody, which in turn means that anyone can decrypt your conversations. In other words: Do not use AimEncrypt!]
Key Strength: 128-bit keys
Works With: AIM; and possibly other IM clients which allow importation of SSL certificates [such as?—know of one? Then email me about it!]
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/Mac[unconfirmed]/*nix [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: AIM; (same as Works With)
Installation Example: pr0to has written a great tutorial on generating/installing a Thawte-issued certificate: http://www.rorta.net/index.php?page=aimcrypt, and the sylikc.net import instructions are here: http://secure.sylikc.net:8080/self_signed/aim.php. After generating/importing the certificate, you should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: SimpLite (http://www.secway.fr/us/products/all.php)
Key Strength: 1024 to 2048 bit RSA keys
Works With: Gaim, Trillian, and the following vanilla clients: AIM, ICQ, MSN, YIM, Jabber
Operating Systems Supported: Windows
Protocols Supported: AIM, ICQ, MSN, YIM, Jabber [unconfirmed]
Installation Example: Download and install SimpLite for your particular protocol (note that each protocol has a separate SimpLite program that you need to download). Run your particular flavour(s) of SimpLite and the Keys Generation Wizard should pop up. If it doesn’t, click on Keys in the menu and go down to Generate key pair. Follow the instructions and after a few steps you should have your key.
Run your supported chat program of choice, making sure that SimpLite is still running in the background. After sending a message to your chat partner, you should see your partner’s key show up in the SimpLite program, and your conversations should be under the Green authenticated/encrypted arrows.
Assuming you possess a secure email account and/or secure phone line, you should contact each other and confirm the Key ID to help ascertain the identity of your chat partner. You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Name: FiSH (http://fish.sekure.us/)
Key Strength: 1080 bit Diffie-Hellman keys
Works With: mIRC, irssi, xchat
Operating Systems Supported: Windows/*nix/Mac (OS X) [unconfirmed]
Protocols Supported: IRC
Installation Example: Download the latest FiSH archive and extract the contents into your mIRC directory (wherever mirc.exe is located). Run mIRC and type ‘/load -rs1 FiSH.mrc’ (sans quotes). Close mIRC. Run the patch executable that matches your version of mIRC (click on Help, then About (or just click on that yellow icon on the far right of your toolbar) in mIRC to find out your version number).
When you extracted all of the files into your mIRC directory, you should have extracted a file called blow.ini-EXAMPLE. Open this file in Notepad and copy all of the contents. Close this file and open a blank Notepad window. Paste the contents and save the file as blow.ini (being sure to select ‘All Files’ from the Save As menu). You just did this so that you have a nice clean backup copy of the ini file in case you completely screw up this copy. For detailed information regarding setting up the blow.ini file, read the FiSH.txt file included in the FiSH archive you downloaded. However, a bare bones blow.ini file will look something like this:
[FiSH]
process_incoming=1
process_outgoing=1
plain_prefix="+p "
[#RORTA]
key=d8SfskY0riaqsfd19ks220dUtQZmKdeWrp8ksfdLjsoig49dp7G
encrypt_topic=1
The first two lines mean that FiSH will drecrypt all incoming messages and encrypt all outgoing messages, respectively. The plain_prefix line says that all messages you send that start with ‘+p ’ (note the trailing space) will be sent as plaintext (unencrypted). The next line is the name of the channel you want to encrypt (you can add more channels below, following the same format). The key value is the encryption key for your channel, be sure to make it difficult to guess by using a long string of mixed-case letters and numbers. The encrypt_topic line asks if you want to encrypt the topic in the channel (1 for yes, 0 for no).
As the FiSH.txt file rightly points out, exchanging channel key information in plaintext is a security risk. Thus, you should ideally tell other members of your channel the channel encryption key only through an IM window that has been encrypted using one of the aforementioned methods.
To encrypt private messages, either double-click on the user’s name to open up a private message window or message the user manually (/msg username moo!) and wait for a reply to get a PM window open (if you two aren’t in the same channel). Then right-click in the PM window and go to FiSH-->Auto-KeyXchange-->Enable, and then either close/reopen the PM window or/and click on DH 1080 KeyXchange (which is also in the PM right-click window under FiSH). You should now be ready to engage in secure conversations.
Nota Bene I: The FiSH encryption key is not the same thing as the channel key (mode +k). Naturally, your channel should also be set to modes +sk to further protect the conversation. First, type /mode #channelname +s (this prevents the channel from showing up in either /whois or /list), followed by /mode #channelname +k yourchannelkey. Your channel key should be different from your FiSH key, and merely means that no one can join the channel without knowing this key (to join the channel type /join #channelname yourchannelkey), whereas the FiSH key means that no one can read the conversation, irrespective of whether or not they can join the channel or not (network administrators can monitor all traffic on their server, even if they’re not in the channel with you).
Nota Bene II: You can further secure your IRC connection by using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) (assuming both your client and the particular IRC network support it).
If you are using the latest version of mIRC (6.14+), instructions for setting up SSL are available here: http://www.mirc.co.uk/ssl.html (the needed DLLs can be downloaded here: http://remus.oru.se/tsub/mirc-ssl/mirc-ssl.zip, or extracted from the OpenSSL installer linked to on the abovementioned mIRC site). Once you install the necessary DLLs, type //echo $sslready and you should get a reply of ‘$true.’ To connect to an SSL server you can use the -e switch before the server address or/and a plus sign (+) before the port number, for instance: /server -e irc.rizon.net +9999.
Consult the readme files of other clients for information on their SSL implementation capabilities. For instance, if you are using xchat on *nix, install the OpenSSL libraries (www.openssl.org) and then when connecting to the particular IRC server with SSL support add a plus sign before the port, e.g. /server irc.rizon.net +9999.
Some networks also let you set certain modes for the channel (for example, +S on Rizon), which require SSL to be enabled in order to join the channel (ask in #help or browse the network’s website to find out if SSL servers and SSL-Only channel modes are supported).
Nota Bene III: The great thing about IRC encryption is that you can encrypt entire channels, and thus have secure conversations between groups of more than two partners (something which, as far as I know, is not possible with any of the other aforementioned encryption tools), so appreciate it and enjoy it! :)
Caveats & Miscellanea
As you have doubtless noticed, there’s a plethora of encryption plugins, with various levels of key strength. The Gaim-Encryption plugin provides by far the strongest key pair (at 4096 bits), however, it doesn’t fly well on Macs. Therefore a feasible scenario may have one user running Adium on a Mac, while another runs Gaim on Windows, with both using the OTR plugin. Keep your options open, and always use the strongest key pair possible (combine malleability with security!).
There is no such thing as ‘perfect security.’ When I have repeatedly stated that ‘you should now be ready to engage in secure conversations’ don’t come crying when your key is compromised due to poor key handling on your part (insecure storage of keys, infrequent regenerations, etc.). In other words: don’t get sloppy, you lazy sack of shit (this is a note to self as much as it is general advice ;)).
On the subject of log files: many IM clients have the option to store logfiles of your conversations (and in many clients this option is enabled by default!—so be sure to scan the preferences/settings areas of your clients to disable logging). Logs are often (read: almost always) stored in plaintext, even when you use the various encryption plugins! Therefore if you do decide to enable logging, be sure to encrypt the logfiles themselves (info on encrypting data will be presented in a future segment of this Underground Security Paper series).
You’ve probably noticed that various clients/protocols/OSes have the ‘[unconfirmed]’ label after them. This is simply due to the fact that I haven’t yet tested the particular encryption tool on those protocols/systems. If you have, please let me know so I can update the information in subsequent versions of this textfile!
Finally, note that the ‘installation examples’ are just that: examples. As stated at the outset of this textfile, the focus has been on Windows and therefore the examples lean towards Windows scenarios. (Don’t take them too literally).
Guide to customise win xp
Table of Contents
1. Desktop Customization
a.Wallpaper/Style
b.Files/Folders
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
a.Styles and Options
3. Conclusion
Microsoft Windows is thought to be run on 90 to 95 percent of personal computers around the world. There are an estimated 300 million PCs being sold each and every single year, and with so many operating systems available, the most widely used, Windows has obtained the right for being the most largest operating system company ever. Alot of this is due in part to the domination of MS-DOS on the early day PC compatible computers such as IBM-PC clones for an example. Also because it is the one operating system where most primary types of software are supported. And then of course we have other OS's such as Macintosh, and of course the ever so popular Linux. It was predicted two years ago that the Linux market share would overpower Macintosh's market share sometime in 2005. It hasn't looked that way. While these other two operating systems are great, look cool, and are basically almost virus free, they are complicated to use, especially for the Window lovers alike. Now, every user of any operating system wants nothing but customization, customization, and more customization. And maybe you are a Windows user saying to yourself "Gee, I wish I could have my Windows XP look really cool! But I don't know how..". Well, no need to spend countless time searching over Google or Yahoo!, your guide to customizing the very basic features of Windows has finally arrived! The tutorial below will teach you step-by-step how to customize Windows so you'll never be looking at the same old colors ever again! There is a wide range of editing and modifcations out there, so lets go customize!
1. Desktop Customization
Here I am going to start out first with some Desktop modifications.
First we will begin with the very basic customization for the desktop EVERY Windows user should know how to do, change the wallpaper. And if you don't know, don't sweat it! I'll tech you in our first part of the tutorial below. Just keep reading, remember "Patience is the key to success" even though I'm the wrong person to be telling anyone that, it is true. Okay enough of my talking, lets get to customizing!
1a. Wallpaper/Style
Right click on your Desktop background and select "Properties". Once here you will see multiple options. First you will see multiple Tabs on the top, but we'll get to those in just a bit. First things first, what your looking at currently are the "Themes" for Windows XP. Depending on what you've done before, "My Current Theme" should be selected already... but if it is not, then "Windows XP" should be selected. Anyway, click the little black arrow next to it and you will see a drop down box. On this drop down box are multiple themes. The first one "My Current Theme" is for when you select a theme, but of course you wont be doing that until you are finished reading this tutorial! Okay and then you have the basic "Windows XP" theme, and then "Windows Classic" which will actually set it back to looking like Windows 95/98(oh, the horror!!). Then you have "More Themes online..." which just brings you to a part of Microsoft's website where they want you to buy a theme package, then there is "Browse..." this is for when you actually get around to making a theme, then decide to Save it(hence the "Save As..." button you see). Okay, lets move onto the next tab shall we? Click the "Desktop" tab to proceed.
Alright, here we are now at the "Desktop" tab. This is a very easy part of customizing and is where the main Wallpaper editing comes into play, everything just about speaks for itself here. But I'll guide you through anyway. First you should notice a clickable "Browse..." button, use this button to browse through you hard drive for your own custom pictures you wish to use as wallpaper. But first I recommend you choose a background that is already loaded so you can get the feel for everything. So lets choose an already loaded wallpaper, lets start with the picture named "Ascent" so scroll around on this same tab and click on "Ascent". The great part of all of this is you can preview how everything looks before you make a final decision! Okay so now click "Apply" and your whole computer screen will slowly fade into gray for about 10 seconds or so, then it will return with your new wallpaper! See, now that wasn't so difficult...was it? Take you time having fun and playing around with the other wallpapers you see. Now click the little black arrow you see under "Position", you should now see a drop down box with only a couple of options. These options being "Center", "Tile", and "Stretch". As an advanced notice I'll let you know now that most users choose "Stretch" just because it looks better, but this is your desktop... feel free to choose anything you want! Okay, so basically the "Center" option centers your wallpaper leaving space around it, "Tile" creates multiple wallpapers and makes them into a pattern like technique, hence the name "Tile". Now the last one option which is "Stretch" is pretty self-explanatory, it stretches the wallpaper out so it covers your entire screen. And now click the black arrow under "color" this is basically pointless unless you either have a blank desktop or are centering your wallpapers, if any case read on, if not skip this part. Once you click the arrow a drop down box with different colors will appear, click the one to your liking or create your own color by clicking "Other...". Okay we're finished with this tab, click "Screen Saver" on the top to continue on.
Here you will select your Screen Saver. First click the drop down box under where it says "Screen saver" you will see multiple options for different type of screen savers. Choose one and click "Preview" to see whether or not you like it. You also click the "Settings" button to change different features and modify the screen saver around a bit, I cannot cover this area because there are settings with almost every screen saver, the customization is totally up to you. Underneath you will see something that should have a number on it, it should say "10" but if it doesnt, it will have some sort of number. This number indicates how many minutes your computer will sit idle until the screen saver activates, select however many minutes you decide to. Next to that there is a little checkbox next to where it should say "One resume, password protect" this option speaks for itself. Mainly what this is for is if you check this box that means whenever you try to turn the screen saver off and return to your computer, it will ask you for a password, if you decide you don't want this, do NOT check the box, if you do, check the box and choose a password when you Apply. Click the "Appearance" tab to continue.
This is the most customization here, and if you decide to edit the window colors, it is time consuming for first timers, so be aware. You will see three different drop down menus. "Windows and buttons:" "Color scheme:" and "Font size:" should all be there. Lets begin with "Windows and buttons:" first. Click the black arrow and you can see there are two options, the first one is "Windows XP Style" this is the default style and if you want to change how everything looks in this style, leave it be. The second style is "Windows Classic style" this is to make only the windows look like the style from Windows 95/98, if you want to edit them with this style select it, if not then leave the "Windows XP style" selected.
=Read below if you selected "Windows XP style". If you chose "Windows Classic style" then skip this section and continue onto the next=
Under this should be "Color scheme:" click the drop down box and there should be a few options, first there will be "Default (blue)" this is the one you probably already have. Then there is "Olive Green" select this and it will show a mini preview in the tab of what it looks like, neat huh? The next one is "Silver" this one if one of my favorite, choose whichever one you want. next is "Font size:" click the drop down box and you will then see here "Normal" "Large Fonts" and "Extra Large Fonts". This is an especially good feature for the elderly or anyone who has trouble seeing small font.
=Below are the options for "Windows Classic style"=
Under the "Windows and buttons:" option. Under "Color Scheme:" you will find at least about twenty or so options, each one changes the color so go ahead, click each one and watch the preview change. Under "Font size:" you will see "Normal" "Extra Large" and "Large". I noticed when you change to certain color schemes only "Normal" is available under "Font size:".
Now this section is not only for Windows XP style or the Classic style, it is for all. Click the "Effects..." button. First you will see two check boxes, click the drop down box on the top that says "Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips:" there should be "Scroll Effect" and "Fade Effect". "Scroll Effect" is for when you click boxes, for example click Start>All Programs and highlight items where boxes comes out, the "Scroll Effect" makes it roll out otherwise the "Fade Effect" just makes it fade and appear. The other checkbox saying "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" is underneath, click the drop down box and you'll se the two options which are "Standard" and "Clear Type". "Clear Type" is what its already on, "Standard" makes the text look a little odd, almost how if you don't choose the "Anti-Alias" feature and most photo editing software. Below are four check boxes, I'll read them off to you "Use large icons" which is if you want your icons to be larger, "Show shadows under menus" this is if you want the shadow to show under the menus, "Show windows contents while dragging" this was the style for Windows 95/98 which is where when you drag a window it will not show the contents but only the out gray line of the window instead, "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" this is where the underlined letters for the keyboard navigation will be totally hidden until you hit the Alt key. Or in other terms, for example, open up Notepad. Do you notice the options on top saying "File Edit Formation View Help"? One of the letters in each of those will be underlined if you check this, basically this doesnt really serve a purpose. Now click the "Advanced" button. Under here are an array of tons and tons of features. From editing the color of the windows, editing the type of style, the style color, the list goes on and on and on. I simply cannot tell you about EVERYTHING under here, because this tutorial would last forever. So this is the section I like to call -Do-it-yourself- where basically you figure it out, it gives you a chance to learn, figuring things out, and you'll get a sense of achievement knowing you've done it all by yourself. So, this is the time consuming part I was speaking of, edit some options, change some colors, and preview. You'll figure out sooner or later what changes what and you'll be able to do it all by yourself. Okay! Click the "Settings" tab and we'll be on our way for this part!
This is yet again another slef-explanatory section. You've basically have here a complete layout of Screen and graphic resolutions. If you are satisfied with your current resolution and such, skip this part otherwise keep on reading. Mainly first you have something that will say "Display:" and under it will be your type of monitor, mine says "Plug and Play Monitor on Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" and that is what yours might possibly say too if you do not have a graphics card. Okay continue on below where we have the "Screen Resolution" and the little bar/arrow you can move from the left to the right to change your resolution. I have mine set to 1024 by 768 pixels which is a reasonably good resolution and is what most PC users have theirs on. But of course change it to you hearts content. To the right we have "Color quality" I recommend putting it on "Highest (32 bit)" but that is just me, feel free to change it to whatever you wish to have. The button below that says "Troubleshoot..." does nothing more than bring you to a Help and Support center to try and troubleshoot any issues or problems your having. Clicking on "Advanced" would not be a smart choice for first timers since this part is a bit too complex for the normal computer user. But it basically tells you your Monitor, Adapter and others functions, there is not too much customization to do in here though fortunately. You have finished this part of the section already? You're a faster learner than I thought! Okay, continue on down below for more.
1b. Files/Folders
I believe in a few things. Not only do I believe in how your computer, especially Windows, should always be organized to look nice, neat, and have a very comfortable feeling about it. Not only do I believe in that the fact of organization, usage and finding ability, but looking good while doing it! That is why this small sub-section will be all about customizing your folders and files so they stand out and laugh at the rest. So let's get started!
Okay first things first, if you do not know already then learn how to create a new folder by right clicking on your Desktop background and highlight "New" and then click "Folder" to create a new folder. When you make a new folder it will have the default picture which is that little yellow folder, but that is old school....lets get something that looks a bit better. Right click on your folder and select "Properties". Once here you will see a few things, first on top you will see all of the basic statistics such as the size of the folder, the name, where its located, how many files it contains, etc. Under all of this are a couple of options. You will see two options next to Attributes, these are "Read-Only" and "Hidden". The check box that reads "Read-Only" means that when you have the box next to it checked it causes all of the files under the folder to be "Read-Only" which means they cannot be deleted or changed, un checking this box turns off this feature. Now the next option "Hidden" causes this folder to be hidden. Great for hiding things temporarily if you do not want someone else to access it. Of course it will only actually become hidden once you go into Windows Explorer and click select to hide files and folders that are specified to be hidden. To do this click Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer, now once Windows Explorer loads click "Tools" on the top next to Help. Under "Tools" click "Folder Options..." once under here click the "View" tab at the top, you should now see some settings in the middle. Look for something that says "Hidden files and folders" under this click "Do not show hidden files or folders" to hide everything that you selected to hide. Not, click "Show hidden files and folders" to show everything that you've select to hide. Once finished click OK and exit out of Windows Explorer. Now lets get back to the folder options. Now back to the two options, next to them is a button that says "Advanced..." click it, you should see a window pop-up now that has a few options which are "Folder is ready for archiving" which specifies whether or not the folder will be archived. Many programs use this feature which files and/or folders are backed up. My recommendation is that you make sure this is checked for every folder that contains any crucial or important data. Now the next option "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder" and this option specifies whether the contents of the folder should be indexed for faster searching, once the folder is indexed you can search within the folder as well as search for properties, such as time and date, or attributes of the file or folder. Okay and the next option you see is "Compress contents to save disk space". Specifies whether the file or folder is compressed. The contents of compressed folders are not automatically compressed unless you elect to compress them when prompted. Also a side note for more advanced users, when you compress a file or folder they cannot be encrypted. Alright select whatever option you want and click OK to continue. Now on the top of the screen you may edit the name of your folder if you wish, otherwise we can do it an easier way later.
The next tab "Sharing" does not relate to customizing, so I am going to skip this. Besides, if you don't have a Router this tab is useless to you. Click the "Customize" tab to continue.
Alright here we are on the final tab of Desktop customizing. This is the fun part, nothing too hard here to relax. Now on the top we have a little drop down box(Remember those? You dealt with alot of them in the Wallpaper section) which should say "Documents (for any file type). now before you start clicking like crazy and having fun allow me to explain what this is for. This allow you to select a folder template, folder templates apply specific features to your folder, such as specialized task links and options for working with pictures or music. I recommend just putting it on "Documents (for any file type" and keeping it that way, unless you are 100% positive you will only have videos in this folder, or pictures or perhaps music, and if you are select the right type that fits you. "Also apply for this template to all sub folders" this applies the same template to all folders you make in this folder in the future. Now below is a section that you will probably be passing on this tutorial. Mainly because this feature you see here is only for sub folders and has nothing to do with a new folder you are creating on the desktop. But you might as well learn now anyway. This ONLY works for sub folders and ONLY works when you are in thumbnails view. To go into thumbnails view, go into a folder and click the little box next to where it says "Folders" it should have a small black arrow next to it, click the arrow and click "Thumbnails", or you can click "View" on the top of the windows and select "Tumbnails" instead, whatever is easier. Anyway back to the option. There are two buttons "Choose Picture..." and "Restore Default". The "Choose Picture..." button is for you to choose a picture which will be visible on a subfolder, this option is supposed to be for reminding you the contents of which the folder contains. For example, you have a subfolder that has pictures of guns in it, so you select the "Choose Picture..." button and find a picture of a gun which will display on the subfolder, so you'll see a picture of a gun and say to yourself "Oh, that folders has pictures of guns in it.". The "Restore Default" button is self-explanatory, it just resets whatever picture you put on the subfolder back to the default. Now below these two buttons is the fun part, click on the "Change Icon..." button and lets get cracking! :) You should now see a window pop-up with a whole bunch of different pictures in it. What you are looking at here is the section of pictures that you can change your folder to. It is actually one of my favorite features. So as you scroll from left to right go ahead and daze at the beautiful pictures and go "Oooo" and "Ahhhhhh". Alright but onto a more serious note, you have a button on top "Browse..." what this is is where you click to import your own personalized pictures to use for your folder. I have not used this before, so go ahead and see what types of formats it accepts. Then you have your basic "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and we all know what those do, and then you have "Restore Defaults" which does just that, restores your picture back to the default. Alright, we're finished with this sub-section! Find the pictures you want, click "OK" and read on.
Now, right click on a file and select "Properties" and lets continue. Here you see almost the same exact thing you saw when you clicked a folder and selected Properties. Here you have the same thing, size of file, when it was created, etc. etc. Click the "Summary" tab on the top, here you can edit the Title and Subject of certain files. If it is a Music file like an mp3 this might be needed. For example say you have the song "My Sacrifice" by Creed, you would put in the title "My Sacrifice" and "Creed" in the Author section. It isn't anything great, but just a small feature. When you've inputted what you want, click "OK". Here you are at your desktop...over looking your awesome looking folders and your cool looking desktop, but now what? Well you can simply move your files and folders around, yes, do that! Click and drag things around to get used to it. Okay, that is enough, if you right click on a File or Folder you have your usual options, "Rename", "Delete", "Properties" and so forth, not much explaining needs to be done here.
Okay open Windows Explorer once more and click "Tools" then "Folder Options..." once again. A tab "General" should open with three different options containing various check dots. The first named "Tasks" will be the first option you will notice, under it are two options: "Show common tasks in folder" and "Use Windows classic folders". If you select "Show common tasks in folders" this specifies that hyperlinks to common folder tasks and other places on your computer are displayed in folders. This will show on the left pane of the folder Window. "Use Windows classic folders" specifies that folder contents are shown like Window classic folders, which means that folder contents will not operate or look like Web Pages. The "Browse Folders" section should be right below which will show "Open each folder in the same window" and "Open each folder in its own window". These are self-explanatory if you know what you're doing, the first option is so that when you are browsing folders that each time you browse or open a new folder it will open up in a new window, that is if you select the first option. The second option is so new folders will open up in their own new window, the other windows from before browsed folders will still be visible. I suppose the second option is useful if you need to open up various windows with different content and do not want to close the others out. "Click items as follows" is next and if you select "Single-click to open an item (point to select)" then any type of file or folder will open on a single click without double clicking. Read on.
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
So you've gotten this far already? Well now that you have, you should know that my tutorials are not BS in the fact that I can teach you the right way so that you will learn. Let that be a remembrance for all of my future tutorials. I'm glad you have the motivation to read all of this, it shows how us computer users today at whatever age, young or old, and whatever experience or knowledge, beginner or expert, we can all learn something new, and that we all have great motivation to succeed. Now lets carry on.
2a. Styles and Options
Right click on your start button and hit "Properties". Once here a window will pop-up called "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and from here you can do a variety of different modifications. You should already be looking at the "Start Menu" tab, below are two circles, one is dotted, next to each of them they have two options... "Start menu" and "Classic Start menu" click on the dot next to the corresponding feature and you will get a slight preview in the window above them, select whichever one you want and click the "Customize..." button next to it.
=The below instructions are for the "Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Classic Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Alright you should see another window pop-up entitled "Customize Start Menu" under here the first thing you should see are two little pictures of a desktop computer. One will say "Large icons" and the other will say "Small icons", normally "Large icons" is already selected, if not, I recommend it... also of course differs depending on what type of resolution you have set. Under this you will see a small box with a number in it, this specifies the maximum amount of programs to display on the start menu. Under this is a button called "Clear List" I actually suggest clicking this every week or so, it basically clears the start menu cache of all stored programs that were recently used. Under this are two drop down boxes, and two check boxes. This is what it shows above the recently opened programs on the start menu for easy access to your internet browser and email client. If you want these, check the box next to "Internet" to display the easy access feature for your browser. Now next to this select the drop down box and click on the browser you want to display for easy accessibility. Check the box next to "E-mail" which is under "Internet" to enable the easy access feature for E-Mail. Now click the drop down box next to this and select the email client of your choice to be displayed for easy access, Outlook Express is selected by default. Click the "Advanced" tab to continue. Now as you take a look you will then notice at first a large scrollable box, but we will get to that a bit later. The two check boxes at the top read" Open submenus when I pause on them with my mouse" this is for when you click Start>All Programs and you see certain things with black arrows next to them that will open up with more features, this is for when you just highlight them(or pause over them) with your mouse, it opens a new box to display more. This is checked by default. "Highlight newly installed programs" will be the next thing available you should see. What this does is it highlights new programs you've installed. For a clearer example, say you just installed AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM for short, if you click Start>All Programs you will see "AOL Instant Messenger" and since you just installed it hypothetically speaking, it will be highlighted in yellow. This is checked by default but you may turn it off if you wish. Under this you see that big scrollable box again, lets get to this. What this is is it modifies part of the Start menu features. The first option should say "Control Panel" and under it should say "Display as a link", "Display as a menu" and "Don't display this item". Control Panel which is located when you click "Start" is already by default a link, you may edit it to change it to a menu if you want. Then there is "Enable dragging and dropping" I do not know why anyone would want to turn this off, but if you want to uncheck the box next to it. "Favorites menu" is next. This specifies whether to add the "Favorites menu" to the Start menu. "Help and Support" this specifies whether to add the "Help and Support" link under the Start menu, I recommend keeping this checked. Under all of these you will see different things like "My Computer" and "My Music" just to name a few. Checking options under them mean the same thing as I explained above about the Control Panel, except for whatever it enables the feature for the corresponding option(ex. My Computer, My Music, My Documents, etc.). Under this big scrollable windows is a button that says "Clear List" much like the one we saw on the "General" tab window. Clicking the button will delete the shortcuts to documents displayed in "My Recent Documents" folder, which sometimes will be located under the Start menu. Please note this DOES NOT delete the documents from the computer entirely, just the history of you opening them up. I recommend doing this every so often, at the end of this tutorial I will give you some links to programs that will do this for you. The check box next to this on the left says "List my most recently opened documents", select this box to have Windows display the "My Recent Documents" folder on the Start menu. When you're finished selecting all of your options click OK.
=The below instructions are for the "Classic Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Select the dot next to "Classic Start menu" then click the "Customize..." button to the right of it and read on. You will see "Add...", "Remove...", "Advanced", "Sort" and "Clear". I will explain one-by-one what each of these represent. The "Add..." button is to add a shortcut to the start menu or the Programs menu. If you decide to Add something click the button and you will see a "Browse..." button where you may browse for folders. Click the "Remove..." button to remove a shortcut from the start menu or the Programs menu. When you click "Advanced" this will launch Windows explorer. You can use this to add items or remove items from the start menu. It should at first bring up a small folder named "Programs" that you can modify(it looks kind of like a cache of some sort once you open it). "Sort" is for that when you click it it rearranges the items on the Programs menu so they are displayed in the default order. "Clear" removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web sites from the Documents menu. You should also do this frequently. Now below you have a few things you can do. They are all self-explanatory, "Display Administrative Tools" will do just that, display administrative tools. That is the one great things about Windows(the only one I can think of:P), they make the customizing pretty easy to understand. Whatever you do, I recommend keeping "Enable dragging and dropping" checked. Without this, it makes every job you do that much harder. When you're done click OK to proceed.
Okay, you're back at the Start menu customizing screen, click the "Taskbar" tab. "Lock the taskbar" should appear first on the list. Checking the check box next to this option locks the taskbar at its current position on the desktop so that it cannot be moved to a new location and also locks the size and position of any toolbar displayed on the taskbar so that it cannot be changed. If you want this option check the box next to it, if not then uncheck it. "Auto-hide the taskbar" will basically just hide the taskbar. To redisplay the taskbar, point to the area of your screen where the taskbar is located. If you want to be sure that your taskbar will be visible whenever you decide to point to it, make sure the box next to "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" below is checked, and that the box next to "Auto-hide the taskbar" is also checked. "Group similar taskbar buttons" will be below. If the taskbar becomes so crowded with buttons that the width of the buttons shrink beyond a certain width, then they will all be collapsed into a single button. For example, say you have 4 Internet explorers up, each with a different website, and you also have outlook express, notepad, paint, and maybe an anti virus running, then those 4 internet explorers will be collapsed to create only one button on the taskbar rather than 4. You would click this one button and it will bring up an option for you to select which out of the four you wish to choose. "Show Quick Launch" is just glaring at you, I'll explain what it is. Checking the box next to this will enable the "Quick Launch" feature that displays on the taskbar next to the "Start" button. The Quick Launch is a customizable toolbar with different icons representing different programs. Say if you had a toolbar with the little "e" on it(which stands for Internet Explorer), when you click it you would launch internet explorer. This is mainly for quick accessibility to your favorite programs. The option below "Show the clock" is obvious, un checking this will disable the clock on the lower right of your computer screen, keeping it checked keeps it enabled. "Hide inactive icons" below is an option that keeps the taskbar notification area from displaying unused items. I am speaking in particularly more of the area to the left of the clock. Click the "Customize..." button to the right if you selected this option. Otherwise, skip this part. This lets you specify the behavior of an icon in the taskbar notification area. You may choose what programs you want to hide, show, or hide when they are inactive. For example, look to the lower right next to the clock, perhaps if you have "AIM" running you'd see a little icon next to the clock showing it(if you don't see one, try click the arrow that points to the left), well if you look on the menu here you see multiple programs such as "Java(TM) 2 Platform" or "AIM". Click to the right of them and you will receive a drop down box with three options. One of those three options are "Hide when inactive" another one is "Always hide" and the final option is "Always show". Clicking "Hide when inactive" hides the specified program when it becomes inactive. "Always show" will always show the specified program even when it becomes inactive. The "Always hide" will hide the specified program at all times, whether or not it is active or inactive. The "Restore Defaults" button will restore all of the options to its default settings. Once you're finished click OK, hit Apply at the next screen and click OK.
Would you like to have your favorite programs within reach easily? No more searching around for your programs, Windows XP(All Versions) allows you to easily make them accessible right when you click the Start menu! To do this select your favorite file or program by right clicking on it and selecting "Pin to Start Menu". Now if you click the Start menu you will notice that not only will you have your favorite Internet Browser and Email Application available on the top but you will have whatever file/program you pinned. A very unique option indeed, and is worth playing around with. To take a pinned item off the Start menu just right click it again and select "Unpin from Start Menu" and that will remove it.
Conclusion
This guide is completely noobish. There are many many things in Windows to customizing that I have not listed or mentioned. I might in the future revise this and make a follow up tutorial to cover some of these things, but for now you have this, smile. On a serious note, use Google if you don't understand something. I cannot stress this enough, it has been said many times before but I'm willing to say it again, use Google and find things on your own otherwise you'll never get anywhere if you're always relying on others to give you hand outs. Of course asking is a great thing, just don't over use it. ;)
Now for those Windows programs I mentioned in the above articles. There are many Window cleaning/optimizing programs out there. I will list the two that I use, a paid one and a free one.
CCleaner(Crap Cleaner)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Webroots Window Washer
http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/windowwasher/
Also on another note, please keep in mind that when you are customizing Windows and want particular items in a certain location that dragging and dropping is your best friend. Use it, use it again and overuse it. It's a very key feature to fully customizing most things Windows. So until next time, I hope you enjoyed the article and hope you learned alot. Please look for possible follow ups to this and also on all of my future articles.
1. Desktop Customization
a.Wallpaper/Style
b.Files/Folders
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
a.Styles and Options
3. Conclusion
Microsoft Windows is thought to be run on 90 to 95 percent of personal computers around the world. There are an estimated 300 million PCs being sold each and every single year, and with so many operating systems available, the most widely used, Windows has obtained the right for being the most largest operating system company ever. Alot of this is due in part to the domination of MS-DOS on the early day PC compatible computers such as IBM-PC clones for an example. Also because it is the one operating system where most primary types of software are supported. And then of course we have other OS's such as Macintosh, and of course the ever so popular Linux. It was predicted two years ago that the Linux market share would overpower Macintosh's market share sometime in 2005. It hasn't looked that way. While these other two operating systems are great, look cool, and are basically almost virus free, they are complicated to use, especially for the Window lovers alike. Now, every user of any operating system wants nothing but customization, customization, and more customization. And maybe you are a Windows user saying to yourself "Gee, I wish I could have my Windows XP look really cool! But I don't know how..". Well, no need to spend countless time searching over Google or Yahoo!, your guide to customizing the very basic features of Windows has finally arrived! The tutorial below will teach you step-by-step how to customize Windows so you'll never be looking at the same old colors ever again! There is a wide range of editing and modifcations out there, so lets go customize!
1. Desktop Customization
Here I am going to start out first with some Desktop modifications.
First we will begin with the very basic customization for the desktop EVERY Windows user should know how to do, change the wallpaper. And if you don't know, don't sweat it! I'll tech you in our first part of the tutorial below. Just keep reading, remember "Patience is the key to success" even though I'm the wrong person to be telling anyone that, it is true. Okay enough of my talking, lets get to customizing!
1a. Wallpaper/Style
Right click on your Desktop background and select "Properties". Once here you will see multiple options. First you will see multiple Tabs on the top, but we'll get to those in just a bit. First things first, what your looking at currently are the "Themes" for Windows XP. Depending on what you've done before, "My Current Theme" should be selected already... but if it is not, then "Windows XP" should be selected. Anyway, click the little black arrow next to it and you will see a drop down box. On this drop down box are multiple themes. The first one "My Current Theme" is for when you select a theme, but of course you wont be doing that until you are finished reading this tutorial! Okay and then you have the basic "Windows XP" theme, and then "Windows Classic" which will actually set it back to looking like Windows 95/98(oh, the horror!!). Then you have "More Themes online..." which just brings you to a part of Microsoft's website where they want you to buy a theme package, then there is "Browse..." this is for when you actually get around to making a theme, then decide to Save it(hence the "Save As..." button you see). Okay, lets move onto the next tab shall we? Click the "Desktop" tab to proceed.
Alright, here we are now at the "Desktop" tab. This is a very easy part of customizing and is where the main Wallpaper editing comes into play, everything just about speaks for itself here. But I'll guide you through anyway. First you should notice a clickable "Browse..." button, use this button to browse through you hard drive for your own custom pictures you wish to use as wallpaper. But first I recommend you choose a background that is already loaded so you can get the feel for everything. So lets choose an already loaded wallpaper, lets start with the picture named "Ascent" so scroll around on this same tab and click on "Ascent". The great part of all of this is you can preview how everything looks before you make a final decision! Okay so now click "Apply" and your whole computer screen will slowly fade into gray for about 10 seconds or so, then it will return with your new wallpaper! See, now that wasn't so difficult...was it? Take you time having fun and playing around with the other wallpapers you see. Now click the little black arrow you see under "Position", you should now see a drop down box with only a couple of options. These options being "Center", "Tile", and "Stretch". As an advanced notice I'll let you know now that most users choose "Stretch" just because it looks better, but this is your desktop... feel free to choose anything you want! Okay, so basically the "Center" option centers your wallpaper leaving space around it, "Tile" creates multiple wallpapers and makes them into a pattern like technique, hence the name "Tile". Now the last one option which is "Stretch" is pretty self-explanatory, it stretches the wallpaper out so it covers your entire screen. And now click the black arrow under "color" this is basically pointless unless you either have a blank desktop or are centering your wallpapers, if any case read on, if not skip this part. Once you click the arrow a drop down box with different colors will appear, click the one to your liking or create your own color by clicking "Other...". Okay we're finished with this tab, click "Screen Saver" on the top to continue on.
Here you will select your Screen Saver. First click the drop down box under where it says "Screen saver" you will see multiple options for different type of screen savers. Choose one and click "Preview" to see whether or not you like it. You also click the "Settings" button to change different features and modify the screen saver around a bit, I cannot cover this area because there are settings with almost every screen saver, the customization is totally up to you. Underneath you will see something that should have a number on it, it should say "10" but if it doesnt, it will have some sort of number. This number indicates how many minutes your computer will sit idle until the screen saver activates, select however many minutes you decide to. Next to that there is a little checkbox next to where it should say "One resume, password protect" this option speaks for itself. Mainly what this is for is if you check this box that means whenever you try to turn the screen saver off and return to your computer, it will ask you for a password, if you decide you don't want this, do NOT check the box, if you do, check the box and choose a password when you Apply. Click the "Appearance" tab to continue.
This is the most customization here, and if you decide to edit the window colors, it is time consuming for first timers, so be aware. You will see three different drop down menus. "Windows and buttons:" "Color scheme:" and "Font size:" should all be there. Lets begin with "Windows and buttons:" first. Click the black arrow and you can see there are two options, the first one is "Windows XP Style" this is the default style and if you want to change how everything looks in this style, leave it be. The second style is "Windows Classic style" this is to make only the windows look like the style from Windows 95/98, if you want to edit them with this style select it, if not then leave the "Windows XP style" selected.
=Read below if you selected "Windows XP style". If you chose "Windows Classic style" then skip this section and continue onto the next=
Under this should be "Color scheme:" click the drop down box and there should be a few options, first there will be "Default (blue)" this is the one you probably already have. Then there is "Olive Green" select this and it will show a mini preview in the tab of what it looks like, neat huh? The next one is "Silver" this one if one of my favorite, choose whichever one you want. next is "Font size:" click the drop down box and you will then see here "Normal" "Large Fonts" and "Extra Large Fonts". This is an especially good feature for the elderly or anyone who has trouble seeing small font.
=Below are the options for "Windows Classic style"=
Under the "Windows and buttons:" option. Under "Color Scheme:" you will find at least about twenty or so options, each one changes the color so go ahead, click each one and watch the preview change. Under "Font size:" you will see "Normal" "Extra Large" and "Large". I noticed when you change to certain color schemes only "Normal" is available under "Font size:".
Now this section is not only for Windows XP style or the Classic style, it is for all. Click the "Effects..." button. First you will see two check boxes, click the drop down box on the top that says "Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips:" there should be "Scroll Effect" and "Fade Effect". "Scroll Effect" is for when you click boxes, for example click Start>All Programs and highlight items where boxes comes out, the "Scroll Effect" makes it roll out otherwise the "Fade Effect" just makes it fade and appear. The other checkbox saying "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" is underneath, click the drop down box and you'll se the two options which are "Standard" and "Clear Type". "Clear Type" is what its already on, "Standard" makes the text look a little odd, almost how if you don't choose the "Anti-Alias" feature and most photo editing software. Below are four check boxes, I'll read them off to you "Use large icons" which is if you want your icons to be larger, "Show shadows under menus" this is if you want the shadow to show under the menus, "Show windows contents while dragging" this was the style for Windows 95/98 which is where when you drag a window it will not show the contents but only the out gray line of the window instead, "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" this is where the underlined letters for the keyboard navigation will be totally hidden until you hit the Alt key. Or in other terms, for example, open up Notepad. Do you notice the options on top saying "File Edit Formation View Help"? One of the letters in each of those will be underlined if you check this, basically this doesnt really serve a purpose. Now click the "Advanced" button. Under here are an array of tons and tons of features. From editing the color of the windows, editing the type of style, the style color, the list goes on and on and on. I simply cannot tell you about EVERYTHING under here, because this tutorial would last forever. So this is the section I like to call -Do-it-yourself- where basically you figure it out, it gives you a chance to learn, figuring things out, and you'll get a sense of achievement knowing you've done it all by yourself. So, this is the time consuming part I was speaking of, edit some options, change some colors, and preview. You'll figure out sooner or later what changes what and you'll be able to do it all by yourself. Okay! Click the "Settings" tab and we'll be on our way for this part!
This is yet again another slef-explanatory section. You've basically have here a complete layout of Screen and graphic resolutions. If you are satisfied with your current resolution and such, skip this part otherwise keep on reading. Mainly first you have something that will say "Display:" and under it will be your type of monitor, mine says "Plug and Play Monitor on Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" and that is what yours might possibly say too if you do not have a graphics card. Okay continue on below where we have the "Screen Resolution" and the little bar/arrow you can move from the left to the right to change your resolution. I have mine set to 1024 by 768 pixels which is a reasonably good resolution and is what most PC users have theirs on. But of course change it to you hearts content. To the right we have "Color quality" I recommend putting it on "Highest (32 bit)" but that is just me, feel free to change it to whatever you wish to have. The button below that says "Troubleshoot..." does nothing more than bring you to a Help and Support center to try and troubleshoot any issues or problems your having. Clicking on "Advanced" would not be a smart choice for first timers since this part is a bit too complex for the normal computer user. But it basically tells you your Monitor, Adapter and others functions, there is not too much customization to do in here though fortunately. You have finished this part of the section already? You're a faster learner than I thought! Okay, continue on down below for more.
1b. Files/Folders
I believe in a few things. Not only do I believe in how your computer, especially Windows, should always be organized to look nice, neat, and have a very comfortable feeling about it. Not only do I believe in that the fact of organization, usage and finding ability, but looking good while doing it! That is why this small sub-section will be all about customizing your folders and files so they stand out and laugh at the rest. So let's get started!
Okay first things first, if you do not know already then learn how to create a new folder by right clicking on your Desktop background and highlight "New" and then click "Folder" to create a new folder. When you make a new folder it will have the default picture which is that little yellow folder, but that is old school....lets get something that looks a bit better. Right click on your folder and select "Properties". Once here you will see a few things, first on top you will see all of the basic statistics such as the size of the folder, the name, where its located, how many files it contains, etc. Under all of this are a couple of options. You will see two options next to Attributes, these are "Read-Only" and "Hidden". The check box that reads "Read-Only" means that when you have the box next to it checked it causes all of the files under the folder to be "Read-Only" which means they cannot be deleted or changed, un checking this box turns off this feature. Now the next option "Hidden" causes this folder to be hidden. Great for hiding things temporarily if you do not want someone else to access it. Of course it will only actually become hidden once you go into Windows Explorer and click select to hide files and folders that are specified to be hidden. To do this click Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer, now once Windows Explorer loads click "Tools" on the top next to Help. Under "Tools" click "Folder Options..." once under here click the "View" tab at the top, you should now see some settings in the middle. Look for something that says "Hidden files and folders" under this click "Do not show hidden files or folders" to hide everything that you selected to hide. Not, click "Show hidden files and folders" to show everything that you've select to hide. Once finished click OK and exit out of Windows Explorer. Now lets get back to the folder options. Now back to the two options, next to them is a button that says "Advanced..." click it, you should see a window pop-up now that has a few options which are "Folder is ready for archiving" which specifies whether or not the folder will be archived. Many programs use this feature which files and/or folders are backed up. My recommendation is that you make sure this is checked for every folder that contains any crucial or important data. Now the next option "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder" and this option specifies whether the contents of the folder should be indexed for faster searching, once the folder is indexed you can search within the folder as well as search for properties, such as time and date, or attributes of the file or folder. Okay and the next option you see is "Compress contents to save disk space". Specifies whether the file or folder is compressed. The contents of compressed folders are not automatically compressed unless you elect to compress them when prompted. Also a side note for more advanced users, when you compress a file or folder they cannot be encrypted. Alright select whatever option you want and click OK to continue. Now on the top of the screen you may edit the name of your folder if you wish, otherwise we can do it an easier way later.
The next tab "Sharing" does not relate to customizing, so I am going to skip this. Besides, if you don't have a Router this tab is useless to you. Click the "Customize" tab to continue.
Alright here we are on the final tab of Desktop customizing. This is the fun part, nothing too hard here to relax. Now on the top we have a little drop down box(Remember those? You dealt with alot of them in the Wallpaper section) which should say "Documents (for any file type). now before you start clicking like crazy and having fun allow me to explain what this is for. This allow you to select a folder template, folder templates apply specific features to your folder, such as specialized task links and options for working with pictures or music. I recommend just putting it on "Documents (for any file type" and keeping it that way, unless you are 100% positive you will only have videos in this folder, or pictures or perhaps music, and if you are select the right type that fits you. "Also apply for this template to all sub folders" this applies the same template to all folders you make in this folder in the future. Now below is a section that you will probably be passing on this tutorial. Mainly because this feature you see here is only for sub folders and has nothing to do with a new folder you are creating on the desktop. But you might as well learn now anyway. This ONLY works for sub folders and ONLY works when you are in thumbnails view. To go into thumbnails view, go into a folder and click the little box next to where it says "Folders" it should have a small black arrow next to it, click the arrow and click "Thumbnails", or you can click "View" on the top of the windows and select "Tumbnails" instead, whatever is easier. Anyway back to the option. There are two buttons "Choose Picture..." and "Restore Default". The "Choose Picture..." button is for you to choose a picture which will be visible on a subfolder, this option is supposed to be for reminding you the contents of which the folder contains. For example, you have a subfolder that has pictures of guns in it, so you select the "Choose Picture..." button and find a picture of a gun which will display on the subfolder, so you'll see a picture of a gun and say to yourself "Oh, that folders has pictures of guns in it.". The "Restore Default" button is self-explanatory, it just resets whatever picture you put on the subfolder back to the default. Now below these two buttons is the fun part, click on the "Change Icon..." button and lets get cracking! :) You should now see a window pop-up with a whole bunch of different pictures in it. What you are looking at here is the section of pictures that you can change your folder to. It is actually one of my favorite features. So as you scroll from left to right go ahead and daze at the beautiful pictures and go "Oooo" and "Ahhhhhh". Alright but onto a more serious note, you have a button on top "Browse..." what this is is where you click to import your own personalized pictures to use for your folder. I have not used this before, so go ahead and see what types of formats it accepts. Then you have your basic "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and we all know what those do, and then you have "Restore Defaults" which does just that, restores your picture back to the default. Alright, we're finished with this sub-section! Find the pictures you want, click "OK" and read on.
Now, right click on a file and select "Properties" and lets continue. Here you see almost the same exact thing you saw when you clicked a folder and selected Properties. Here you have the same thing, size of file, when it was created, etc. etc. Click the "Summary" tab on the top, here you can edit the Title and Subject of certain files. If it is a Music file like an mp3 this might be needed. For example say you have the song "My Sacrifice" by Creed, you would put in the title "My Sacrifice" and "Creed" in the Author section. It isn't anything great, but just a small feature. When you've inputted what you want, click "OK". Here you are at your desktop...over looking your awesome looking folders and your cool looking desktop, but now what? Well you can simply move your files and folders around, yes, do that! Click and drag things around to get used to it. Okay, that is enough, if you right click on a File or Folder you have your usual options, "Rename", "Delete", "Properties" and so forth, not much explaining needs to be done here.
Okay open Windows Explorer once more and click "Tools" then "Folder Options..." once again. A tab "General" should open with three different options containing various check dots. The first named "Tasks" will be the first option you will notice, under it are two options: "Show common tasks in folder" and "Use Windows classic folders". If you select "Show common tasks in folders" this specifies that hyperlinks to common folder tasks and other places on your computer are displayed in folders. This will show on the left pane of the folder Window. "Use Windows classic folders" specifies that folder contents are shown like Window classic folders, which means that folder contents will not operate or look like Web Pages. The "Browse Folders" section should be right below which will show "Open each folder in the same window" and "Open each folder in its own window". These are self-explanatory if you know what you're doing, the first option is so that when you are browsing folders that each time you browse or open a new folder it will open up in a new window, that is if you select the first option. The second option is so new folders will open up in their own new window, the other windows from before browsed folders will still be visible. I suppose the second option is useful if you need to open up various windows with different content and do not want to close the others out. "Click items as follows" is next and if you select "Single-click to open an item (point to select)" then any type of file or folder will open on a single click without double clicking. Read on.
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
So you've gotten this far already? Well now that you have, you should know that my tutorials are not BS in the fact that I can teach you the right way so that you will learn. Let that be a remembrance for all of my future tutorials. I'm glad you have the motivation to read all of this, it shows how us computer users today at whatever age, young or old, and whatever experience or knowledge, beginner or expert, we can all learn something new, and that we all have great motivation to succeed. Now lets carry on.
2a. Styles and Options
Right click on your start button and hit "Properties". Once here a window will pop-up called "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and from here you can do a variety of different modifications. You should already be looking at the "Start Menu" tab, below are two circles, one is dotted, next to each of them they have two options... "Start menu" and "Classic Start menu" click on the dot next to the corresponding feature and you will get a slight preview in the window above them, select whichever one you want and click the "Customize..." button next to it.
=The below instructions are for the "Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Classic Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Alright you should see another window pop-up entitled "Customize Start Menu" under here the first thing you should see are two little pictures of a desktop computer. One will say "Large icons" and the other will say "Small icons", normally "Large icons" is already selected, if not, I recommend it... also of course differs depending on what type of resolution you have set. Under this you will see a small box with a number in it, this specifies the maximum amount of programs to display on the start menu. Under this is a button called "Clear List" I actually suggest clicking this every week or so, it basically clears the start menu cache of all stored programs that were recently used. Under this are two drop down boxes, and two check boxes. This is what it shows above the recently opened programs on the start menu for easy access to your internet browser and email client. If you want these, check the box next to "Internet" to display the easy access feature for your browser. Now next to this select the drop down box and click on the browser you want to display for easy accessibility. Check the box next to "E-mail" which is under "Internet" to enable the easy access feature for E-Mail. Now click the drop down box next to this and select the email client of your choice to be displayed for easy access, Outlook Express is selected by default. Click the "Advanced" tab to continue. Now as you take a look you will then notice at first a large scrollable box, but we will get to that a bit later. The two check boxes at the top read" Open submenus when I pause on them with my mouse" this is for when you click Start>All Programs and you see certain things with black arrows next to them that will open up with more features, this is for when you just highlight them(or pause over them) with your mouse, it opens a new box to display more. This is checked by default. "Highlight newly installed programs" will be the next thing available you should see. What this does is it highlights new programs you've installed. For a clearer example, say you just installed AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM for short, if you click Start>All Programs you will see "AOL Instant Messenger" and since you just installed it hypothetically speaking, it will be highlighted in yellow. This is checked by default but you may turn it off if you wish. Under this you see that big scrollable box again, lets get to this. What this is is it modifies part of the Start menu features. The first option should say "Control Panel" and under it should say "Display as a link", "Display as a menu" and "Don't display this item". Control Panel which is located when you click "Start" is already by default a link, you may edit it to change it to a menu if you want. Then there is "Enable dragging and dropping" I do not know why anyone would want to turn this off, but if you want to uncheck the box next to it. "Favorites menu" is next. This specifies whether to add the "Favorites menu" to the Start menu. "Help and Support" this specifies whether to add the "Help and Support" link under the Start menu, I recommend keeping this checked. Under all of these you will see different things like "My Computer" and "My Music" just to name a few. Checking options under them mean the same thing as I explained above about the Control Panel, except for whatever it enables the feature for the corresponding option(ex. My Computer, My Music, My Documents, etc.). Under this big scrollable windows is a button that says "Clear List" much like the one we saw on the "General" tab window. Clicking the button will delete the shortcuts to documents displayed in "My Recent Documents" folder, which sometimes will be located under the Start menu. Please note this DOES NOT delete the documents from the computer entirely, just the history of you opening them up. I recommend doing this every so often, at the end of this tutorial I will give you some links to programs that will do this for you. The check box next to this on the left says "List my most recently opened documents", select this box to have Windows display the "My Recent Documents" folder on the Start menu. When you're finished selecting all of your options click OK.
=The below instructions are for the "Classic Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Select the dot next to "Classic Start menu" then click the "Customize..." button to the right of it and read on. You will see "Add...", "Remove...", "Advanced", "Sort" and "Clear". I will explain one-by-one what each of these represent. The "Add..." button is to add a shortcut to the start menu or the Programs menu. If you decide to Add something click the button and you will see a "Browse..." button where you may browse for folders. Click the "Remove..." button to remove a shortcut from the start menu or the Programs menu. When you click "Advanced" this will launch Windows explorer. You can use this to add items or remove items from the start menu. It should at first bring up a small folder named "Programs" that you can modify(it looks kind of like a cache of some sort once you open it). "Sort" is for that when you click it it rearranges the items on the Programs menu so they are displayed in the default order. "Clear" removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web sites from the Documents menu. You should also do this frequently. Now below you have a few things you can do. They are all self-explanatory, "Display Administrative Tools" will do just that, display administrative tools. That is the one great things about Windows(the only one I can think of:P), they make the customizing pretty easy to understand. Whatever you do, I recommend keeping "Enable dragging and dropping" checked. Without this, it makes every job you do that much harder. When you're done click OK to proceed.
Okay, you're back at the Start menu customizing screen, click the "Taskbar" tab. "Lock the taskbar" should appear first on the list. Checking the check box next to this option locks the taskbar at its current position on the desktop so that it cannot be moved to a new location and also locks the size and position of any toolbar displayed on the taskbar so that it cannot be changed. If you want this option check the box next to it, if not then uncheck it. "Auto-hide the taskbar" will basically just hide the taskbar. To redisplay the taskbar, point to the area of your screen where the taskbar is located. If you want to be sure that your taskbar will be visible whenever you decide to point to it, make sure the box next to "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" below is checked, and that the box next to "Auto-hide the taskbar" is also checked. "Group similar taskbar buttons" will be below. If the taskbar becomes so crowded with buttons that the width of the buttons shrink beyond a certain width, then they will all be collapsed into a single button. For example, say you have 4 Internet explorers up, each with a different website, and you also have outlook express, notepad, paint, and maybe an anti virus running, then those 4 internet explorers will be collapsed to create only one button on the taskbar rather than 4. You would click this one button and it will bring up an option for you to select which out of the four you wish to choose. "Show Quick Launch" is just glaring at you, I'll explain what it is. Checking the box next to this will enable the "Quick Launch" feature that displays on the taskbar next to the "Start" button. The Quick Launch is a customizable toolbar with different icons representing different programs. Say if you had a toolbar with the little "e" on it(which stands for Internet Explorer), when you click it you would launch internet explorer. This is mainly for quick accessibility to your favorite programs. The option below "Show the clock" is obvious, un checking this will disable the clock on the lower right of your computer screen, keeping it checked keeps it enabled. "Hide inactive icons" below is an option that keeps the taskbar notification area from displaying unused items. I am speaking in particularly more of the area to the left of the clock. Click the "Customize..." button to the right if you selected this option. Otherwise, skip this part. This lets you specify the behavior of an icon in the taskbar notification area. You may choose what programs you want to hide, show, or hide when they are inactive. For example, look to the lower right next to the clock, perhaps if you have "AIM" running you'd see a little icon next to the clock showing it(if you don't see one, try click the arrow that points to the left), well if you look on the menu here you see multiple programs such as "Java(TM) 2 Platform" or "AIM". Click to the right of them and you will receive a drop down box with three options. One of those three options are "Hide when inactive" another one is "Always hide" and the final option is "Always show". Clicking "Hide when inactive" hides the specified program when it becomes inactive. "Always show" will always show the specified program even when it becomes inactive. The "Always hide" will hide the specified program at all times, whether or not it is active or inactive. The "Restore Defaults" button will restore all of the options to its default settings. Once you're finished click OK, hit Apply at the next screen and click OK.
Would you like to have your favorite programs within reach easily? No more searching around for your programs, Windows XP(All Versions) allows you to easily make them accessible right when you click the Start menu! To do this select your favorite file or program by right clicking on it and selecting "Pin to Start Menu". Now if you click the Start menu you will notice that not only will you have your favorite Internet Browser and Email Application available on the top but you will have whatever file/program you pinned. A very unique option indeed, and is worth playing around with. To take a pinned item off the Start menu just right click it again and select "Unpin from Start Menu" and that will remove it.
Conclusion
This guide is completely noobish. There are many many things in Windows to customizing that I have not listed or mentioned. I might in the future revise this and make a follow up tutorial to cover some of these things, but for now you have this, smile. On a serious note, use Google if you don't understand something. I cannot stress this enough, it has been said many times before but I'm willing to say it again, use Google and find things on your own otherwise you'll never get anywhere if you're always relying on others to give you hand outs. Of course asking is a great thing, just don't over use it. ;)
Now for those Windows programs I mentioned in the above articles. There are many Window cleaning/optimizing programs out there. I will list the two that I use, a paid one and a free one.
CCleaner(Crap Cleaner)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Webroots Window Washer
http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/windowwasher/
Also on another note, please keep in mind that when you are customizing Windows and want particular items in a certain location that dragging and dropping is your best friend. Use it, use it again and overuse it. It's a very key feature to fully customizing most things Windows. So until next time, I hope you enjoyed the article and hope you learned alot. Please look for possible follow ups to this and also on all of my future articles.
Expaining SERVER
_-= Introduction =-_
Well it's been a while since I've cranked out a tutorial, so I thought it was time to get to it. During the last Spring Break I setup my first personal server (and would have had my second one up, but had some RAM issues...), and found that there really wasn't any guides out there to help people get started. Server's are dead useful, and in the following guide you'll learn how to setup your own dirt cheap.
_-= Up Front Q and A =-_
Q: What exactly is a server?
A: Simply put a server is a computer that hosts some sort of data, and makes it available for access across a LAN or the Internet.
Q: So what do I need in order to have a server?
A: You need the following things
- A high speed connection. (Cable/DSL or faster)
- Something to split your internet connection, such as router. (If you don't own a router, and you have a high speed connection I suggest you buy one off of http://newegg.com)
NOTE: you don't necessarily 'need' something to split your internet connection, but why would you only want a server to be the only thing that can get online?
Q: Isn't it really hard to setup a server?
A: No, not really. Provided you read this guide it should be relatively easy.
Q: Aren't servers really expensive?
A: No, you could pay for a hard core $1,000 server board, but actually you can build a server relatively cheap.
Q: Will my network speeds dramatically drop if I host a file?
A: No, probably not. It all depends on what you are hosting. For example if you decide it'll be fun to stream out video files, then yes that'll suck up your bandwidth. More or less though, you should be fine.
Q: Do I need an ultra fast computer to use as a server?
A: No, not at all. It's not so much the machine that is important, but the pipe that it's hooked to. As you'll read below, not much computing power is needed in order to maintain a server.
_-= Basic Requirements =-_
The following are the MINIMUM (according to my standards) requirements for a server.
- A CPU running at 233 MHz
- 64 Megs of RAM
- A Network Card (NIC)
- A 5 Gig Hard Drive (HDD)
- A 315 Watt PSU
I know now, that some of you are asking yourselves, "What about a video card or CD Drive?" Like I said before this is for a barebones server, you don't 'need' a CD Drive or Video Card. You would just borrow the CD Drive and Vide Card from your PC to install an OS, and to setup remote administration.
What I suggest, for a cheap server is the following.
- A 350 MHz Pentium II CPU
- 128 Megs of RAM
- A 10 Gig Hard Drive
- A decent NIC
- A 315 Watt PSU
- A cheap AGP Video Card (Unless the motherboard has onboard graphics.)
_-= Lets Shop =-_
There are actually two paths to travel when setting up a server. You either buy an older PC, or buy the parts to build one. Or if you just have an old PC gathering dust, then use that and move ahead to the 'Choosing an OS' section.
- If you want to just skip the whole building process and get a pre built PC, then I have one word for you. Optiplex. Yes, the little PC's who could the Dell Optiplex's. If you search ebay for 'Pentium II Optiplex', you'll find some stellar deals. I myself bought one for $20 and it came with a 4 Gig hard drive, onboard graphics, decent NIC, CD drive, 350 MHz Pentium II, and 64 Megs of RAM. (If you decide to do this, head on down to the 'Choosing an OS' section.)
- Now if you want to go the extra mile and be a man about this, then I suggest you purchase a few things off of ebay.
- 350Mhz Pentium II CPU: Costs on average $2
- A motherboard designed to use the above mentioned CPU.
NOTE: Make sure you buy a motherboard that comes with some RAM. You don't want to spend a ton of time trying to hunt down the proper RAM for it. (Trust me): Costs on average about $10
- A 315 Watt PSU: Costs about $10
- A Network Card: I've seen them as low as $5
- A 10 Gig Hard Drive: You can probably find them for about $15
- Optional: A cheap case. I suggest you just buy a refurbed one from http://newegg.com
_-= It's Building Time! =-_
Now once you've gathered your parts, hook them up. If you bought a case then take the wires with the jumpers on the ends, and attach them to their corresponding pins. You may have to do some Trial/Error work to find the right pins. However, if you decided to be cheap and skip out on buying a case, then find yourself a jumper. NOTE: If you are fresh out of jumpers go buy some from you local computer store. Now once you've got your jumper attach it to the two pins that you'd attach the leads from the Power switch of a case to. Again, you may need to use some Trial/Error work to find the right pins. (now the switch on the PSU will be the only switch for turning the machine off and on.) Another optional step, if you don't have case, is to design some sort of enclosure for the PC (You know to protect it.) Legos are always good for this. (Don't laugh, one of Google's first servers was housed in legos.)
_-= Choosing an OS =-_
Now, you have basically two choices.
- Windows: If you aren't to savvy to Linux and you don't want to learn, then I suggest you "buy" a copy of Win2k Server Edition.
- Linux: In reality, Linux is a much better choice for an OS. You can easily administrate over it via SSH, and of course everyone knows penguins are cooler than windows. I suggest you use Slackware if you are going to use Linux.
_-= Things to Host =-_
Well now that you've got a sexy new server, I bet you are looking for some cool things to do with it. So here are a few ideas for things to use it for.
- Web Page Hosting
- Internet Radio Station (Using shoutcast)
- Game Server
- File Server
- IRC Server
- SSH
_-= My Last Hoorah =-_
This section will cover the basics of forwarding ports. First thing is first, the most important thing you need to do now that you've setup your server, is to forward the proper ports to it. Now port forwarding can be tricky business, and there have been several guides written specifically on port forwarding. However, instead of giving you some general directions. So, head on over to http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm and find your router, and follow it's guide.
_-= Links and Resources =-_
- Ebay http://ebay.com/ : The best place to find hard to find stuff, it's cheap to boot.
- Newegg http://newegg.com/ : The best place to buy new and refurbed computer hardware. and the prices are awesome.
- Apache http://apache.org/ : The best HTTP server software out there. (Though any good Linux distro comes with it.)
- Slackware http://slackware.org/ : The home page for the Slackware Linux Distrobution.
- Shoutcast http://shoutcast.com/ : The home page for the shoutcast audio stream program.
- Guild FTP http://www.guildftpd.com/ : The best FTP Server Daemon for Windows.
- Google http://google.com/ : The best answer finder out there.
- Godaddy http://godaddy.com/ : The best place to get cheap domain names (I got mine for $10 a year.)
Well it's been a while since I've cranked out a tutorial, so I thought it was time to get to it. During the last Spring Break I setup my first personal server (and would have had my second one up, but had some RAM issues...), and found that there really wasn't any guides out there to help people get started. Server's are dead useful, and in the following guide you'll learn how to setup your own dirt cheap.
_-= Up Front Q and A =-_
Q: What exactly is a server?
A: Simply put a server is a computer that hosts some sort of data, and makes it available for access across a LAN or the Internet.
Q: So what do I need in order to have a server?
A: You need the following things
- A high speed connection. (Cable/DSL or faster)
- Something to split your internet connection, such as router. (If you don't own a router, and you have a high speed connection I suggest you buy one off of http://newegg.com)
NOTE: you don't necessarily 'need' something to split your internet connection, but why would you only want a server to be the only thing that can get online?
Q: Isn't it really hard to setup a server?
A: No, not really. Provided you read this guide it should be relatively easy.
Q: Aren't servers really expensive?
A: No, you could pay for a hard core $1,000 server board, but actually you can build a server relatively cheap.
Q: Will my network speeds dramatically drop if I host a file?
A: No, probably not. It all depends on what you are hosting. For example if you decide it'll be fun to stream out video files, then yes that'll suck up your bandwidth. More or less though, you should be fine.
Q: Do I need an ultra fast computer to use as a server?
A: No, not at all. It's not so much the machine that is important, but the pipe that it's hooked to. As you'll read below, not much computing power is needed in order to maintain a server.
_-= Basic Requirements =-_
The following are the MINIMUM (according to my standards) requirements for a server.
- A CPU running at 233 MHz
- 64 Megs of RAM
- A Network Card (NIC)
- A 5 Gig Hard Drive (HDD)
- A 315 Watt PSU
I know now, that some of you are asking yourselves, "What about a video card or CD Drive?" Like I said before this is for a barebones server, you don't 'need' a CD Drive or Video Card. You would just borrow the CD Drive and Vide Card from your PC to install an OS, and to setup remote administration.
What I suggest, for a cheap server is the following.
- A 350 MHz Pentium II CPU
- 128 Megs of RAM
- A 10 Gig Hard Drive
- A decent NIC
- A 315 Watt PSU
- A cheap AGP Video Card (Unless the motherboard has onboard graphics.)
_-= Lets Shop =-_
There are actually two paths to travel when setting up a server. You either buy an older PC, or buy the parts to build one. Or if you just have an old PC gathering dust, then use that and move ahead to the 'Choosing an OS' section.
- If you want to just skip the whole building process and get a pre built PC, then I have one word for you. Optiplex. Yes, the little PC's who could the Dell Optiplex's. If you search ebay for 'Pentium II Optiplex', you'll find some stellar deals. I myself bought one for $20 and it came with a 4 Gig hard drive, onboard graphics, decent NIC, CD drive, 350 MHz Pentium II, and 64 Megs of RAM. (If you decide to do this, head on down to the 'Choosing an OS' section.)
- Now if you want to go the extra mile and be a man about this, then I suggest you purchase a few things off of ebay.
- 350Mhz Pentium II CPU: Costs on average $2
- A motherboard designed to use the above mentioned CPU.
NOTE: Make sure you buy a motherboard that comes with some RAM. You don't want to spend a ton of time trying to hunt down the proper RAM for it. (Trust me): Costs on average about $10
- A 315 Watt PSU: Costs about $10
- A Network Card: I've seen them as low as $5
- A 10 Gig Hard Drive: You can probably find them for about $15
- Optional: A cheap case. I suggest you just buy a refurbed one from http://newegg.com
_-= It's Building Time! =-_
Now once you've gathered your parts, hook them up. If you bought a case then take the wires with the jumpers on the ends, and attach them to their corresponding pins. You may have to do some Trial/Error work to find the right pins. However, if you decided to be cheap and skip out on buying a case, then find yourself a jumper. NOTE: If you are fresh out of jumpers go buy some from you local computer store. Now once you've got your jumper attach it to the two pins that you'd attach the leads from the Power switch of a case to. Again, you may need to use some Trial/Error work to find the right pins. (now the switch on the PSU will be the only switch for turning the machine off and on.) Another optional step, if you don't have case, is to design some sort of enclosure for the PC (You know to protect it.) Legos are always good for this. (Don't laugh, one of Google's first servers was housed in legos.)
_-= Choosing an OS =-_
Now, you have basically two choices.
- Windows: If you aren't to savvy to Linux and you don't want to learn, then I suggest you "buy" a copy of Win2k Server Edition.
- Linux: In reality, Linux is a much better choice for an OS. You can easily administrate over it via SSH, and of course everyone knows penguins are cooler than windows. I suggest you use Slackware if you are going to use Linux.
_-= Things to Host =-_
Well now that you've got a sexy new server, I bet you are looking for some cool things to do with it. So here are a few ideas for things to use it for.
- Web Page Hosting
- Internet Radio Station (Using shoutcast)
- Game Server
- File Server
- IRC Server
- SSH
_-= My Last Hoorah =-_
This section will cover the basics of forwarding ports. First thing is first, the most important thing you need to do now that you've setup your server, is to forward the proper ports to it. Now port forwarding can be tricky business, and there have been several guides written specifically on port forwarding. However, instead of giving you some general directions. So, head on over to http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm and find your router, and follow it's guide.
_-= Links and Resources =-_
- Ebay http://ebay.com/ : The best place to find hard to find stuff, it's cheap to boot.
- Newegg http://newegg.com/ : The best place to buy new and refurbed computer hardware. and the prices are awesome.
- Apache http://apache.org/ : The best HTTP server software out there. (Though any good Linux distro comes with it.)
- Slackware http://slackware.org/ : The home page for the Slackware Linux Distrobution.
- Shoutcast http://shoutcast.com/ : The home page for the shoutcast audio stream program.
- Guild FTP http://www.guildftpd.com/ : The best FTP Server Daemon for Windows.
- Google http://google.com/ : The best answer finder out there.
- Godaddy http://godaddy.com/ : The best place to get cheap domain names (I got mine for $10 a year.)
