Useful and FREE online tools for DNS and Network Troubleshooting

When troubleshooting network or DNS problems related to your website, server or other online services, it can be very useful to have access to online tools that can help you narrow down the problems. W3dt.net's useful online tools can help you with this, most of all they are free.W3dt.net (short for World Wide Web Domain Tools) is an online Network Troubleshooting site dedicated to providing relevant real-time data regarding networks, websites & other technical resources.
Although you can perform some of the tasks w3dt provide from your computer (such as nslookup/dig, ping, traceroute etc..) it can often be useful to able to perform these tasks from different locations to verify the consistency of your Network/Domain and it's behaviour and settings.

Firstly let's note that there are several other Network/Domain Troubleshooting websites around, but w3dt.net has proven to be one of the more satisfactory sites due to it's vast amount of tools & utilities that are all free of charge. Because of this we will be reviewing some of the functionality of the site and what it has to offer.

The site currently has five categories of functionality (and growing) to help you trouble-shoot your Network/Domain:

* Network Tools / Internet Tools
* Web / HTTP Tools
* Ping Tools
* Database Lookup Tools
* General Tools

Network Tools / Internet Tools
These tools are generally the most frequently used tools on the website and contain some of the following features:
DNS Lookup's, Port Scanning, Trace Route's, ARBL Checking (Blacklist / Whitelist Checking), Maximum Transmission Unit Determination, IP Lookups, NetBIOS Scanning plus more.
You can run some of these tasks from your desktop computer but w3dt offers the assurance of real-time results without any interception of data.
For example, a Port Scan from your desktop computer running on a home internet connection will often fail, due to ISP Policy's, proxy filtering, etc…

Web / HTTP Tools
Web / HTTP Tools can be used to test your Domain in real-time and return the most relevant results. Tools such as:
HTTP Header Retrievals, Plain Text Website Conversion, URL/Base64 Encoding & Decoding can be used to help debug your website.
Dave Nedved from w3dt.net also states that other tools such as HTML Validation & Checking is planned for the not to distant future.

Ping Tools
This category basically speaks for itself, w3dt.net has dedicated a whole category for pinging and ping testing. Using this category you can run your own ping tests on any IP/Domain, including http websites, and the ability to ping IP's/Services on open TCP Ports.

Database Lookup Tools
W3dt.net hosts several large databases, such as RFC Lookups, WHOIS Lookups (on almost all domains on the internet), Abuse Contact Lookups, and most impressively (In my opinion, the biggest feature on the site) the DNL (Short for Domain Name Listing). Basically the DNL is a massive online database of every top level domain hosted on the internet. W3dt runs a query program codenamed "Project Cyberdawn" which spiders through the internet collecting information about every .tld (Top Level Domain) on the internet. Currently the DNL contains over 92 million domains, there is a good chance your domain & information about it will be in the database also.

General Tools
Most of the general tools listed on w3dt.net are used by I.T. gurus & technicians… tools such as IP Conversion, Hash Testing, and Random Character / Password Generation can be found here. For instance these tools are great if your a programmer or web developer, and you wish to see all possible 38 hashes for the query 'dog' and use them to query against your database.

Hide or Masks your IP address by Invisible Browsing

Hello Friends, All of you know about proxies or masking of your IP address or continuously change your IP address while browsing. There are many things, Tools, Softwares available in market but today I am revealing a tool for invisible browsing which have ultimate features for masking, Hiding or changing your IP address while browsing called invisible Browsing Tool. By this tool you can hide, change or masks your IP address. This tool letting you surfs anonymously preventing your IP or other information to be collected without your permission. It is very efficient in erasing all your online tracks and it is very good Internet Explorer Privacy Solution.
This tool change your IP address anytime by route your internet traffic through server around the world. All proxies are tested in advance providing a high speed anonymous Internet connection.

Some features of advance invisible browsing are Masks, Hides Your IP Address, Automatic/Manual Mode, Blocks Invasive Code (JavaScript), Browser Cleaner, Blocks Potentially Harmful Code (ActiveX), Auto Change Proxy, Proxy Driver.

Download Link : http://rapidshare.com/files/128422507/InvisebleBrowsing.rar

Some cool Mozilla Firefox Tricks and Tips

Hello Friends , Here I am writing some cool Firefox tricks which are very helpful in using Mozilla Firefox. As we know Mozilla Firefox is the Best and very good browser with extensions, add-ons, Language Packs, Plug ins and themes and many new things by which you can execute JavaScript. Mozilla Firefox also has other features like Tabbed browsing, Pop up blocking, Cookie Manager, Download Manager, pause downloads, JavaScript Console, JavaScript Debugger, Select text and perform search, View Selection Source, Cross-platform, Display icons in tabs and address bar, HTTP Pipe lining, XML Base, CSS generated content, CSS2 selectors, Caret Browsing etc. Below are some tricks and tips by which you can use Mozilla Firefox easily.

1. Here is the Keyboard shortcuts.
- Space bar (page down)
- Ctrl+K (go to search box)
- Alt-N (find next)
- Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
- Ctrl+= (increase text size)
- Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
- F5 (reload)
- Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
- Ctrl-W (close tab)
- Alt-Home (go to home page)
- Ctrl+F (find)
- Shift-Spacebar (page up)
- Ctrl+T (new tab)

2. Sometimes in hurry by mistake you click on close button of Firefox tabs. But In Mozilla Firefox you can remove or move close tab button by about:config. Type about:config in address bar then search for browser.tabs.closeButton in search bar. When you find it double click on it. It will show you a prompt with by default value 1. You can change it to different values for different behaviors.
- Enter 0 to display a close button on the active tab only.
- Enter 1 (default Value) to display close button to all tabs.
- Enter 2 to don't display any close buttons.
- Enter 3 to display single close button at the end of the tab bar.

3. Now we know Mozilla Firefox have giving feature of multiple tabs , so sometimes it is very hard to handle multiple tabs with mouse, so you can also handle tabs by keyboard. Below are some tips to handle tabs by keyboard.
- Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
- Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
- Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

4. Here is the Mouse shortcuts for Mozilla Firefox.
- Middle click on link (opens in new tab)
- Shift-scroll down (previous page)
- Shift-scroll up (next page)
- Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)
- Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)
- Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

5. about:config : This is a feature of Mozilla which lists aaplication and configuration setting of Mozilla. You can Get all settings configuration of your Mozilla by enter about:config in your address bar of Mozilla.

6. If you want to spped up your Mozilla Firefox then
- Type about:config into the address bar and hit return. Type network. http in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
- Set network.http.pipelining to true
- Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true
- Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.

Hello Friends,We all know the invisible mode of yahoo messenger but if you want to know that who is in invisible mode and also if you want to know orignal id of Yahoo messenger profile then Here is the Website that helps you find if a particular user is online, offline or invisible and also orignal id of Yahoo.
I remind below is the the link for website you don't have to download any software for this,Just enter id and then press enter it will show current status of user.

link: www.invisible-scanner.com

and the new thing in this site (Which is very important) is that Main Yahoo ID checker!!!!

We know that we can create 7 profile id in a main Yahoo id , By which anyone can chat with you by 7 ids and make you fool (If you don't know how to make seven id in yahoo, Post me a comment i will tell you) , So by this site you can check Real/main id of yahoo.

Other thing is that by this site you can check multiple id's status.For this just click on Multi-Check and then type you yahooid1,yahooid2,yahooid3..

and the last one is that display Image,means it catch image of yahoo id.Just click on top Display Image Catcher and then enter Yahoo id.

Problem : Sometimes this site not working (Because of server load) so you can use other site

link: http://www.4invisible.com/

But this site doesn't have any other features , it only show Status (Online , Offline or Invisible).

What’s Next after Windows Vista?

It's Windows Vienna

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb, then Vienna) is a future version of Microsoft Windows . It is expected to be the successor to Windows Vista . Microsoft has confirmed that the planned development time frame is at least three years, putting the release date around 2010. On July 20 , 2007 , Microsoft confirmed that Windows 7 is "the internal name for the next version of the Windows Client OS".
Microsoft has refrained from discussing the details about Windows 7 publicly as they focus on the release and marketing of Windows Vista,though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged at developer conferences such as Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in 2006 .

On February 9 , 2007 , Microsoft's Ben Fathi claimed that the focus on the operating system was still being worked out, and could merely hint at some possibilities:
"We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it's hypervisors . I don't know what it is" [...] "Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers.
"
Bill Gates , in an interview with Newsweek , also suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric." When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said: " That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices . Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline. "

Other features

Another feature mentioned by Bill Gates is "a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in." The implications of this could be as simple as a "complete as you type" function as found in most modern search engines, (e.g. Google Suggest ) or as complex as being able to give verbal commands to the PC without any concern for syntax.

Availability

The client versions of Windows 7 will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.Server versions of Windows 7, however, will be exclusively 64-bit.

Netbios Hacking Guide

THIS NETBIOS HACKING GUIDE WILL TELL YOU ABOUT HACKING REMOTE COMPUTER AND GAINING ACCESS TO IT'S HARD-DISK OR PRINTER.NETBIOS IS THE EASIEST WAY TO HACK A REMOTE COMPUTER.

STEP-BY-STEP HACKING PROCEDURE THROUGH NETBIOS

1.Open command prompt

2. In the command prompt use the "net view" command
( OR YOU CAN ALSO USE "NB Scanner" OPTION IN " IP-TOOLS " SOFTWARE BY ENTERING RANGE OF IP ADDRESSS.BY THIS METHOD YOU CAN SCAN NUMBER OF COMPUTERS AT A TIME).

Example: C:\>net view \\219.64.55.112

The above is an example for operation using command prompt."net view" is one of the netbios command to view the shared resources of the remote computer.Here "219.64.55.112″ is an IP address of remote computer that is to be hacked.You have to substitute a vlaid IP address in it's place.If succeeded a list of HARD-DISK DRIVES & PRINTERS are shown.If not an error message is displayed. So repeat the procedure 2

3. After succeeding, use the "net use" command in the command prompt.The "net use" is another netbios command which makes it possible to hack remote drives or printers.

Example-1:
C:\>net use D: \\219.64.55.112\F
Example-2:
C:\>net use G: \\219.64.55.112\SharedDocs
Example-3:
C:\>net use I: \\219.64.55.112\Myprint

NOTE: In Examples 1,2 & 3, D:,G: & I: are the Network Drive Names that are to be created on your computer to access remote computer's hard-disk.

NOTE: GIVE DRIVE NAMES THAT ARE NOT USED BY ANY OTHER DRIVES INCLUDING HARD-DISK DRIVES,FLOPPY DRIVES AND ROM-DRIVES ON YOUR COMPUTER.THAT IS IF YOU HAVE C: & D: AS HARD DIRVES, A: AS FLOPPY DIVE AND E: AS CD-DRIVE, GIVE F: AS YOUR SHARED DRIVE IN THE COMMAND PROMPT

F:,"SharedDocs" are the names of remote computer's hard-disk's drives that you want to hack. "Myprint" is the name of remote computer's printer.These are displayed after giving "net use" command. "219.64.55.112″ is the IP address of remote computer that you want to hack.

4. After succeeding your computer will give a message that "The command completed sucessfully". Once you get the above message you are only one step away from hacking the computer.

Now open "My Computer" you will see a new "Hard-Disk drive"(Shared) with the specified name.You can open it and access remote computer's Hard-Drive.You can copy files,music,folders etc. from victim's hard-drive.You can delete/modify data on victim's hard-drive only if WRITE-ACCESS is enabled on victim's system.You can access files\folders quickly through "Command Prompt".

NOTE: If Remote Computer's Firewall Is Enabled Your Computer Will Not Succeed In Gaining Accesss To Remote Computer(An Error Message Is Displayed).So Repeat The Procedure 2,3.

HAPPY NETBOS HACKING!!

Modifying the Vista Operating System Boot

You can use several different tricks to shave a few more seconds off the boot time. For example, you can reduce Timeout values and slim down the system to get rid of all the extra features and services that you do not use or need. Check out the following ways to do so.

Windows Boot Manager

If you have more than one operating system installed on your computer, you'll have to deal with the Windows Boot Manager installed by Windows Vista. By default, the Windows Boot Manager gives you 30 seconds to select an operating system before it reverts to the default operating system. The only way not to wait 30 seconds is to select the operating system you want to use right away. If you use one operating system the majority of your time, you will definitely save time if you set that operating system as the default and lower the Timeout value to 1 or 2 seconds. That way, you will not have to select an operating system every time you turn on your system or wait 30 seconds before your computer actually starts to load the operating system.

Tip
Before you make any changes to the Windows Boot Manager (WBM), it is a good idea to back it up using the Boot Configuration Data Editor (bcdedit.exe) so that you can easily revert back to an earlier version should you have any problems. At a command prompt running under an administrator account, type bcdedit /export "C:\Backup File". This will save the WBM to a file that you can use to import using the /import flag.

Lowering OS Timeout values

As mentioned earlier, if you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer and the Windows Boot Manager is installed, the default selection timeout is often way too high. It is much better to set a lower timeout so that if you do not make a selection, it quickly reverts to the default OS, making your boot time much faster.
Changing the Timeout value is simple with the System Configuration utility. Follow the steps here to use the System Configuration utility to lower the OS Timeout value:

1. Click the Start button, type msconfig in the Search box, and press Enter.
2. When the System Configuration utility loads, click the Boot tab.
3. Locate the Timeout box and replace 30 with a much lower value. I recommend you use between 2 and 5. I use 2 because that gives me just the right amount of time to press a key on my keyboard when the Windows Boot Manager is displayed on the screen.
4. After the value has been updated, click OK to exit.

Now that the Timeout value has been updated, the Boot menu will no longer increase your system startup time. Even though this is a simple tip, it really helps a lot on systems that have multiple operating systems installed. Now let's look at setting the default operating system on the Windows Boot Manager.

Setting the default OS

In the preceding section, I set a new Timeout value that will cut down on the amount of time that is wasted before the operating system starts to load. That works great when your primary operating system is the default; but if it is not, you must remember to press a key at the right moment on every single boot. There is a much better way to handle the situation. Just make your primary operating system the default operating system in the Windows Boot Manager. This will allow you to benefit from the lower Timeout value and speed up the overall boot time.

Setting the default operating system is a little more difficult because you need to use the command-line Boot Configuration Editor, bcdedit.exe. The Boot Configuration Editor is part of Windows Vista, but it requires an account with administrative rights to run. Even if you are logged in with an account that has administrator rights but have user account control enabled, by default the tool will not run as administrator. Follow these steps to use the Boot Configuration Editor to set the default operating system:

1. Click the Start button and navigate through All Programs and Accessories.
2. Locate the Command Prompt shortcut and right-click it to bring up the context menu.
3. Select Run as administrator from the context menu.
4. When the command prompt has loaded, you are ready to use the bcdedit.exe command. First, you need to get the ID of the operating system that you want to set as the default. To do this, type bcdedit /enum all in the open command prompt window. Scroll through the list of different entries and look for the one with the description matching "Microsoft Windows" for Windows Vista.
5. After you have found the correct entry, note its identifier. That is used in the next step.
6. While still at the command prompt, run bcdedit /default (entry identifier). For example, I ran bcdedit /default {}.

The default operating system on the Window Boot Manager is now set. The next time you reboot, your changes will be in use.
Tip
The Boot Configuration Editor is a powerful utility that you can also use to change many other settings of the Windows Boot Manager. Experiment with bcdedit.exe by running bcdedit /? from command prompt. This will show you all the other available options and flags that you can use with the Boot Configuration Editor.

Renaming Win XP Start Menu Button

This guide will show you how to edit/rename the Windows XP start menu button.Are you bored of having the name "start"? If so now you can rename your start menu button to give the name of your choice

STEP 1:BYPASSING WINDOWS FILE PROTECTION /strong

1.Launch My Computer,click tools,folder options,then view

2.Select show all hidden files and folders option and uncheck the option hide protected operating system files,unckeck hide extention for known file types

3.Open

C:\windows\system32\restore,select the file filelist.xml

,right click it go to properties and uncheck read-only

4.Open it(filelist.xml) with notepad

5.Add the

line /recrec%systemroot%\explorer.exe//rec/rec as shown below exclude/exclude /rec%systemroot%\explorer.exe//rec /rec/rec rec%windir%\system.ini//rec /rec/rec rec%windir%\tasks\desktop.ini//rec /rec rec%windir%\win.ini//rec /rec/rec rec*:\AUTOEXEC.BAT/rec //rec /recrec*:\CONFIG.MSI//rec /rec/rec rec*:\CONFIG.SYS/rec //rec

6.Save the file

7.Open

C:\windows\system32\dllcache,you will find a backup copy of explorer.exe.

Rename it to explorer.bak. strong

STEP 2:CHANGING THE NAME OF START BUTTON /strong 1.Open Resource Hacker,open

C:\windows\explorer.exe

2.Expand string,expand 37,click on 1033 3.On right side raname "start" to anything you want EG."anything" and press compile script 4.Repeat the same procedure for string,38,1033 5.Save changes in file menu(if error occurs close explorer.exe and repeat sub-step 3 amp; 4 6.Press ctrl+alt+del in processes tab of task manager endtask explorer.exe 7.Again in new task open

C:\windows\explorer.exe

you will see that start menu is renamed

8.Close task manager and ENJOY!!!

Web Proxies

In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server provides the resource by connecting to the specified server and requesting the service on behalf of the client. A proxy server may optionally alter the client's request or the server's response, and sometimes it may serve the request without contacting the specified server. In this case, it would 'cache' the first request to the remote server, so it could save the information for later, and make everything as fast as possible.br /A proxy server that passes all requests and replies unmodified is usually called a gateway or sometimes tunneling proxy.br /A proxy server can be placed in the user's local computer or at specific key points between the user and the destination servers or the Internet

What are IP Addresses

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that certain electronic devices currently use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)-in simpler terms, a computer address. Any participating network device-including routers, switches, computers, infrastructure servers (e.g., NTP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, etc.), printers, Internet fax machines, and some telephones-can have its own address that is unique within the scope of the specific network. Some IP addresses are intended to be unique within the scope of the global Internet, while others need to be unique only within the scope of an enterprise.br /The IP address acts as a locator for one IP device to find another and interact with it. It is not intended, however, to act as an identifier that always uniquely identifies a particular device. In current practice, an IP address is less likely to be an identifier, due to technologies such as Dynamic assignment and Network address translation

C Program to Get the Current System Date

This program will get or read the current system date from the system.It displays Year,Month and Day.

#include <dos.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
struct date d;
getdate(&d);
printf("The current year is: %d\n", d.da_year);
printf("The current day is: %d\n", d.da_day);
printf("The current month is: %d\n", d.da_mon);
return 0;
}

C Program to Get the Current System Time

This program reads the current system time and displays it in the form HH:MM:SS

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dos.h>

int main(void)
{
struct time t;
gettime(&t);
printf("The current time is: %2d:%02d:%02d\n", t.ti_hour, t.ti_min, t.ti_sec); return 0;
}

C Program to Generate Random Numbers

This is a simple program to generate random numbers.This logic can be used to build a Lotto program or a program to pick Lucky number and so on.Here's the program

#include<stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(void)
{
int i;
time_t t;
srand((unsigned) time(&t));
printf("Ten random numbers from 0 to 99\n\n");
for(i=0; i<10;i++)
printf("%d\n",rand()%100);
}

OR

If it necessary to generate a number between 0 and (num-1) then this program meets the ideal solution

#include<stdio.h>

#include<stdlib.h>

#include<time.h>

/* prints a random number in the range 0 to 99 */

int main(void)

{

randomize();

printf("Random number in the 0-99 range: %d\n", random (100));

return 0;

}

Hacking Windows Administrator Password

This article introduce very simple way to hack Administrator Password on Win XP System.This tutorial tells you how to break administrator password and gain access to admin account.Also if you need to crack/reveal the password you find the steps here to accomplish that also.

First of all let us have a close look at the Security flaws/Loopholes in Win XP

Microsoft stores all Security Information in many files but the main file is the SAM file (Security Accounts Manager)! this file contain security information about users(mainly Password).You can explore the SAM file here in this folder

$windows\system32\config

SAM is the file which contains the passwords in the form of a HASH.A HASH is a mathematically irreversible form of encryption,so that theres no way of decrypting the password back .Also there's a file called SECURITY that contains a list of all users in the system & their related information

We will Not be able To copy them Under XP since it doesn't support any attempt to copy this file.

The Idea Behind Cracking the password

The Idea is simple I will explain it manually and it can also be programmed.Here's the idea..

The SAM contain's a Security Information(password/s), so I have created a Free Windows XP SP2 Logon account (Administrator Account without password) that means when windows Launch it Will enter directly to the system without asking about any password.So, this SAM file contain's an open password(no password).This SAM file is available for download for your further use in breaking the password of the system.

So, the idea here is to replace the SAM file of victim's computer(which contain's password) with the SAM file which contains no password.When this is done the password of the victim's account is erased and it let's anyone to login to the computer as if there is no password set by admin.

But this SAM file cannot be manipulated(copy/rename/replace/delete) when the operating system is running.So here are some of the ideas to replace this SAM file.

1.If there are two OS installed on the computer we can boot from other OS and replace the SAM file located at

$:\windows\system32\config

2.If there is only a single OS then use the tool NTFS4DOS to access the location of the SAM and SECURITY files from the boot command prompt.

NTFS4DOS creates a bootable floppy disk.You can use this floppy to access the NTFS drives by booting the system and mounting it to DOS.

Here are the steps to be followed to break the password.

1- Download My SAM file which I have Included in Downloads

2- Go to the target Machine , and try to Access it by Booting from the floppy created by NTFS4DOS or by other OS(incase you have two OS installed)

3- After Getting Access to the Boot Command prompt c:> Go to the config folder

$windir$\system32\config

And Copy the SAM File and SYSTEM File(we will need it later) To other any folder, Then replace the original SAM file(In $windows$\system32\config) with the SAM file i have provided

5- Reboot and Make windows enter Normally

6- Yeah, Now you can directly enter the system without any password. ie:The PW is broken!.

Now you have broken the system administrator password and you can directly enter system.Now one phase of the password hack is over.If you need to know/crack the admin password then you can use the two files SAM & SECURITY that you have copied in the above STEP-3(This step is optional).It is done as follows.

Download any of the following Password crackers

1.LC4 (Lophtcrack).New version is LC5

OR

2.SAMINSIDE

LC5 is better according to me

You can also contact me using the Contact Form for those two tools if you don't find it.

Once you have either of the two password cracking tools,you can load the SAM & SECURITY files and start the cracking process.This process may take a long time since it is Bruteforce method depending on the size of the password.

NOTE: THE ABOVE METHOD IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR WINDOWS VISTA

C Program to Set/Change the Current System Time

This program can be used to set or change the system time

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dos.h>

int main(void)
{
struct time t;
gettime(&t);
printf("The current hour is: %d\n", t.ti_hour);
printf("The current min is: %d\n", t.ti_min);
printf("The current second is: %d\n", t.ti_sec);

/* Add one to the hour,minute & sec struct element and then call settime */

t.ti_hour++;
t.ti_min++;
t.ti_sec++;
settime(&t);
printf("The current hour is: %d\n", t.ti_hour);
printf("The current min is: %d\n", t.ti_min);
printf("The current second is: %d\n", t.ti_sec);
return 0;
}

C Program to Set/Change the Current System Date

This program can be used to set the system date or to change the current system date.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <process.h>
#include <dos.h>

int main(void)
{
struct date reset;
struct date save_date;
getdate(&save_date);
printf("Original date:\n");
system("date");
reset.da_year = 2001;
reset.da_day = 1;
reset.da_mon = 1;
setdate(&reset);
printf("Date after setting:\n");
system("date");
setdate(&save_date);
printf("Back to original date:\n");
system("date");
return 0;
}

Alienware Curved Monitors-The Next Technology?

A resolution of 2880×900. Dimensions equivalent to two 24″ widescreen monitors standing end-to-end. DLP rear projection on a curved screen, with OLED illumination. An insignificant .02ms response time.

Alienware's new curved monitor caused quite a stir when it was revealed here at CES. It seemed like the natural evolution of monitor technology had finally arrived. After all, the human eye is curved, so why shouldn't our monitors curve too? What a great idea.

So is it that great? Well, it's as quick as curved. Not that any of that means much right now, because this monitor has major problems.

One of the more intriguing technologies at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held this week is a 42-inch-long, curved monitor. Made by Alienware, the monitor is supposed to simulate peripheral vision. The sci-fi-like screen is aimed at gamers for a more immersive experience, although it might not be as suitable for design or text work.

If 42 inches is still not big enough for you, it's possible to put two of these monitors side-by-side for a dual monitor configuration.

Another issue is the image quality. While the picture seemed sharp, it lacked color depth, appearing altogether faded. And ultimately, I care far more about image quality than the shape of the box.

CES was dominated by another display technology-3D glasses. Yes, the technology that has moved from gimmick to money-maker in the movie industry is still being pushed on the PC. And though it has progressed since the 90s, 3D gaming monitors and glasses still haven't gotten to the point of usefulness. Every pair I tried left me disappointed and cross-eyed.

In the same way, I'm not sure this monitor is ready. It will surely be too expensive to even contemplate, requiring an even costlier PC to run a game at such a massive resolution. Beyond the obvious flaws that need to be addressed, it's just plain bulky-and while I wouldn't place the curving monitor into the realm of pure gimmick, in person, it only really qualifies as "neat."

If you want one anyway, I can't blame you. My shelves are full of neat, expensive, and obsolete technology too. Keep your eyes open late into this year.

Hack Zune 80GB Media Player- Add a 40/60/80 GB Hard Drive

Add A 40/60/80 GB Hard Drive

Start by removing the bottom dock port spacer with a razer or flathead screwdriver. Insert on one of the long ends and not in the middle of the dock. It should pop off easily. After the dock port spacer is removed you will now have access to both screws. Remove them. You should now be able to open the case.

When you are removing the case slowly work down the "crack" until it pops up. Do not pry the whole thing from one end. You should now be able to remove the battery and hard drive casing.

Remove the 4 screws holding the drive case on the board as well as the clip for the battery. Remove the battery. Now remove both clips for the clickwheel. Simply lift up on the brown parts with a flathead screwdiver or your fingernails if you have them. Now lift up on the hard drive and put the drive and casing above the top part of the Zune (by the headphone jack).

Remove the drive cable clip and remove the sticky tape off the label side of the drive. You should now be able to remove the hard drive to replace it. Now get your new 40/60/80GB drive and remove the metal plate label. You should be able to use your fingernail to pop the label side off of the drive. There are two sticker spots holding this on so it will not come off easily.

After the label plate is removed we can connect the new drive to the Zune. You do not need to re-use the hard drive cage when installing a 60/80GB drive because the drive is too large. If you are using a 40GB drive then you can use the exact set up as the 30GB drive.

You should cut the old drive pads to fit two of them on the new drive. Be careful not to use too much or your new drive will not fit. When putting everything back together be sure and use your old battery enclosure so the battery gets seated properly.

How to Block Websites ?

Some times it becomes necessary to block a few websites on our Computers for one or other reason.You can easily and effectivily block access to a website by adding it to your Windows HOSTS file.

1.Go to your HOSTS file which is located at:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC for Vista and XP
C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC for Win 2000
C:\WINDOWS for Windows 98 and ME

2. Open HOSTS with Notepad.

The default Windows HOSTS looks like this:
______________________

# Copyright © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a "#" symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
#
127.0.0.1 localhost
_____________________________

3. Directly under the line that says 127.0.0.1 Localhost, you will want to type:

127.0.0.1 name of the URL you want to block

For example to block the MySpace.com homepage (highly recommended!), simply type:

127.0.0.1 myspace.com
127.0.0.1 www.myspace.com

Other parts of MySpace could be blocked in a similar way:

127.0.0.1 search.myspace.com
127.0.0.1 profile.myspace.com
etc etc etc…

You may need to add sites with both with and without the "www.". Test after blocking to make sure you got it right.

You can add as many sites as you wish to block in this fashion. I, myself, have over 12000 undesireable and dangerous sites in my personal HOSTS file!

4. Close Notepad and answer "Yes" when prompted.

5. Reboot your computer and attempt to access your now blocked website. You should see a Cannot find server or DNS Error saying: "The page cannot be displayed".

----------

Some people suggest that you add a website that you wish to block by adding it to Internet Explorer's Restricted Zone. This does NOT totally block a site. It will only RESTRICT a site from certain actions such as using javascript, Active-X and Java etc.

Some people suggest that your add a website to the Internet Explorer 'Privacy' settings. This does not block a site. It only stops that site from using cookies.

Blu-ray Takes Lead in Hardware Sales of January

According to data from NPD, Warner Brothers' pre-CES announcement that it would back Blu-ray exclusively seems to have bolstered Blu-ray Disc player sales, and dramatically lowered HD DVD player sales. The data (disclosed by The Digital Bits), notes that in the week ending 1/5/08, Blu-ray Disc player sales were at 15,257 units, and HD DVD player sales were at 14,558 units.

Fast forward to after the Warner announcement. The week ending January 12 showed Blu-ray Disc had increased its lead by 42 percent, to 21,770 units sold. HD DVD sales plummeted by 88 percent, to just 1,758 units. This data would seem to support the fact that Warner's announcement was indeed the tipping point that would ultimately determine the winner of the format war.

And no wonder. With Warner's support, Blu-ray is now the format-of-choice of more than 70 percent of Hollywood's content producers.
Of course, in looking at those numbers, Blu-ray's commanding lead wasn't the only thing that sprang to mind. I couldn't help but notice that overall unit sales were actually down between those two weeks: 29,815 vs 23,528. Assuming, for a moment, that the first week sales weren't just spiked by people using up holiday gift cards, that 21 percent drop in sales makes me think one of two things: Either a significant number of HD DVD buyers were so sensitive to the price of a player that they just won't up the ante for the extra bucks that a Blu-ray player might require over HD DVD; or-the more likely scenario-a significant number of HD DVD buyers were purchasing the player primarily because it was an upconverting DVD player.

I'll be interested to see what the January disc (software) sales data ends up showing once the month is out. My suspicion: We'll see the Warner announcement had some impact there, as well (already, early 2008 Nielsen VideoScan sales, as reported by Home Media Magazine, show HD DVD represented just 15 percent of the high-def discs sold through January 13). I'll also be interested in seeing whether the sales ratio for players maintains in the ensuing weeks, or if that 88 percent dropoff was an anomaly. The player sales numbers will be all the more interesting since Toshiba instituted aggressive price cuts on all three of its players as of January 13.