Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever.
But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here’s what you need to do.
1. Enable pipelining
Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times. To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8.
Keep in mind that some servers don’t support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems.
2. Render quickly
Large, complex web pages can take a while to download. Firefox doesn’t want to keep you waiting, so by default will display what it’s received so far every 0.12 seconds (the “content notify interval”). While this helps the browser feel snappy, frequent redraws increase the total page load time, so a longer content notify interval will improve performance.
Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) somewhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.notify.interval as your preference name, click OK, enter 500000 (that’s five hundred thousand, not fifty thousand) and click OK again.
Right-click again in the window and select New > Boolean. This time create a value called content.notify.ontimer and set it to True to finish the job.
3. Faster loading
If you haven’t moved your mouse or touched the keyboard for 0.75 seconds (the content switch threshold) then Firefox enters a low frequency interrupt mode, which means its interface becomes less responsive but your page loads more quickly. Reducing the content switch threshold can improve performance, then, and it only takes a moment.
Type about:config and press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Integer. Type content.switch.threshold, click OK, enter 250000 (a quarter of a second) and click OK to finish.
4. No interruptions
You can take the last step even further by telling Firefox to ignore user interface events altogether until the current page has been downloaded. This is a little drastic as Firefox could remain unresponsive for quite some time, but try this and see how it works for you.
Type about:config, press [Enter], right-click in the window and select New > Boolean. Type content.interrupt.parsing, click OK, set the value to False and click OK.
5. Block Flash
Intrusive Flash animations are everywhere, popping up over the content you actually want to read and slowing down your browsing. Fortunately there’s a very easy solution. Install the Flashblock extension (flashblock.mozdev.org) and it’ll block all Flash applets from loading, so web pages will display much more quickly. And if you discover some Flash content that isn’t entirely useless, just click its placeholder to download and view the applet as normal.
6. Increase the cache size
As you browse the web so Firefox stores site images and scripts in a local memory cache, where they can be speedily retrieved if you revisit the same page. If you have plenty of RAM (2 GB of more), leave Firefox running all the time and regularly return to pages then you can improve performance by increasing this cache size. Type about:config and press [Enter], then right-click anywhere in the window and select New > Integer. Type browser.cache.memory.capacity, click OK, enter 65536 and click OK, then restart your browser to get the new, larger cache.
7. Enable TraceMonkey
TraceMonkey is a new Firefox feature that converts slow Javascript into super-speedy x86 code, and so lets it run some functions anything up to 20 times faster than the current version. It’s still buggy so isn’t available in the regular Firefox download yet, but if you’re willing to risk the odd crash or two then there’s an easy way to try it out.
Install the latest nightly build (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/), launch it, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type JIT in the filter box, then double-click javascript.options.jit.chrome and javascript.options.jit.content to change their values to true, and that’s it – you’re running the fastest Firefox Javascript engine ever.
8. Compress data
If you’ve a slow internet connection then it may feel like you’ll never get Firefox to perform properly, but that’s not necessarily true. Install toonel.net (toonel.net) and this clever Java applet will re-route your web traffic through its own server, compressing it at the same time, so there’s much less to download. And it can even compress JPEGs by allowing you to reduce their quality. This all helps to cut your data transfer, useful if you’re on a limited 1 GB-per-month account, and can at best double your browsing performance.
8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast
How to check Antivirus Working Properly
OK, follow my instruction below:
- Open Notepad, then copy and paste this code
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H* - Text which paste must be in horizontal
- Save As your notepad with extention.com and the name up to you, eg:antiviruscheck.com
- if some time after you save file and your antvirus direct detect, so your antivirus is working properly
Do not be afraid to file we created earlier will not infect your computer even if detected by the anti-virus.
Text Code What I write above is the standard text used by the developers in particular By Anti Virus EICAR (European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research).
EICAR itself is the focal agency in the field of viruses and they create a standardization of the antiviral.
These standards are used to see the reaction when the antivirus detects the file created by the EICAR text file we created earlier with the notepad.
How To Download Youtube 100% Perfect Working
Ebook How To Create Mobile Game
Creating Mobile Games: Using Java™ ME Platform to Put the Fun into Your Mobile Device and Cell Phone is a practical build-it-yourself mobile Java games book with lots of complete working code and advice:
Shows you how to create a basic game and make it a professional one (by adding a pro look-and-feel by writing your own menus or using the open source J2ME Polish, and enabling marketing/billing from your own web site)Demonstrates Wireless Messaging and other optional APIs (using SMS, PIM, File Connection, Bluetooth, and so forth in a multiplayer game)Covers the new MIDP3
What you’ll learn
Start using the MIDP2 and MIDP3 in the newly open sourced Java ME Games API.Add a truly professional look-and-feel to your Java ME games.Use threads, tones, and other media.Store and retrieve data and enable networking.Create advanced interactive messaging with optional APIs for multiplayer gaming.Explore a complete business model for independent developers (distributing their own games) as well as for larger companies.
Who is this book for?
Software engineers with some knowledge of Java who would like to switch to MicroEdition programming, particularly games.
DOWNLOAD HERE
How to Avoid Duplicate Content in Blogspot
"Google, in doing so, also penalizes websites that have different URLs pointing to the same page."
Legitimate Blogs Are Penalized Too
For example, you started a new blog with Blogger.com. You made 3 posts, one everyday. Your main page http://yourblog.blogspot.com lists 3 posts, which is identical to the archive, http://yourblog.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html, showing the same 3 posts.
To the search engine, this is duplicate content. One of the URLs will be "supplementaled" or worse, delisted from the search engine database.
Blogger Archive Option
To prevent this from happening to your blog. Do you activate the Archive option when you first started the blog. Wait till you've written for more than 1 or 2 months.
The following screen shot shows you how to set Archive Frequency to No Archive
How To Protect Your Computer From Hackers, Spyware and Viruses
This post has been inspired by the situation of one of my cousin’s computers in India. I recently made a trip there and since I’m in the IT field, she asked me to take a look at her computer since it was acting “funny”. The “funny” act was that the computer would automatically restart whenever you tried to install ANY software onto it or download any program from the Internet. First thing I noticed was that there was no anti-virus software installed on the computer, so my first goal was to install AVG anti-virus and check for viruses. But of course, the virus that was already on the computer would not let me install or download anything! Smart virus! To make a long story short (and I mean a LONG story), there were 2256 viruses on the computer and 110 instances of spyware. I have never even heard of such a ludicrous number of viruses on a computer before!
Most of the viruses on the computer were hidden in files that had been downloaded off the Internet: songs, videos, and movies. I was amazingly surprised that the computer lasted for 2 years with that many viruses! So I gave my dear cousin a serious lesson in how to protect her computer from the dangers of the Internet and I will go through them here for anyone else who might be interested!
This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment and I’ll add them on!
1. Install Anti-Virus Software - This should not even have to be listed, if you don’t have anti-virus software installed, you’re asking for trouble! And if your reason for not installing anti-virus software is because it’s too expensive, then that can reason can be shot down because there are several free anti-virus programs out there that are considered better than commercial software packages. Here are two of the most popular ones:
AVG Anti-Virus – Very good and completely free.
Avast Anti-Virus – Almost on par with AVG.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus – Not free, but one of the best detection rates.
2. Update All Software - Installing an anti-virus program by itself is not enough. There are hundreds of new threats that are found daily and the anti-virus programs release updates regularly to combat the new threats. Make sure you anti-virus program is set to update automatically so that you don’t have to rely on your memory to do it. Also, this goes for all the software on your computer. The most important software to keep up to date is your Windows operating system. It is essential to have Automatic Updates turned on and set to download and install updates automatically.
3. Install only Trusted Software - If you’re not sure what a piece of software does from it’s name, then don’t install it. Also, don’t install anything you didn’t intend to install in the first place. Sometimes programs will ask you to install other programs during the install of the first application. Be careful of that because it’s usually spyware. Install software from big names sites only, such as Microsoft or Adobe.
4. Avoid P2P File Sharing Software – If used with great caution, P2P software is quite useful for movies, songs and software, but if you’re not very technically savvy, you might end up downloading a song that has a keystroke logger attached to it that will send anything you type to some other computer over the Internet. It’s almost impossible to tell that this is occurring unless your anti-virus or anti-spyware programs pick it up in their scans.
5. Delete Unknown Emails – If you receive emails from random people’s names, do not bother to open the email, just delete it. If you have any doubts after reading the name and the subject, it’s probably not someone you know. Never download or open attachments unless you are sure it’s from someone you know. Give the person a call quickly and ask them if you’re not sure. Most large companies that you create online accounts with will not send you attachments unless you specifically ask for them through their web site. Also, be wary of any emails from sites pretending to be banks, auction sites, etc asking for you to verify bank account info or address info. No bank ever does that.
6. Do not click on Ads - Avoid clicking on ads if you can. Especially those ads where something is flying around and if you shoot the duck, you win some prize! Ads have become more sophisticated in that they try to make the ad interactive so that you’ll be tempted to play it like a game.
7. Run Virus Scans Regularly – If you’re not in the mood to scan every day, at least run a scan once a week. Actually, setup a schedule for your computer in your anti-virus software to run a scan late at night or whenever you don’t use your computer and that way you won’t be bothered with a slow computer.
8. Be careful what you attach to your computer – This is a more common way to transfer viruses than you might think. Everyone now has a USB flash stick that they carry around on their key chains, ready to snap into any computer. But who knows what your viruses are on your friends computers and what accidentally got transferred to their USB stick. A lot of virus programs will auto launch right when the USB stick is put into the computer, so you don’t even have to open or download any of the files to be infected.
9. Avoid Shady Web Sites – If you need to look at porn, then make sure you do it in a virtual environment. You are DEFINITELY going to get some virus or spyware if you browse porn sites on your computer. Virtualization basically allows you to run programs like Internet Explorer in a virtual environment that does not effect your current operating system. If you want to find out more, search for “Virtual PC” or “VM Ware” in Google. Otherwise, simply avoid going to shady web sites!
10. Turn On or Install a Firewall - If you’re running Windows XP, make sure Windows Firewall is turned on. A firewall prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer by limiting the number of ports that are open to the public. Also, when buying a wireless router, make sure it has a built in firewall. Having a software and hardware firewall is better than just having one or the other.
11. Secure Your Wireless Network – Most wireless routers are set to no security when you install them. Be sure to log into the router and at least set the basic security that requires a password. There are stronger encryption options, but if you don’t understand those, then simply set a password on the router, otherwise anyone can connect to your home network and access everything.
12. Use a Complex Password for Login – This means that you should already have a password to login to your computer. Not having a password at all is not a good idea. Create a password for all user accounts and make sure it’s complex. Complex means it should have numbers, upper case characters, lower case characters, and symbols. This makes it way more difficult for a hacker to get into your computer.
Tips Repair Memory, 90% working
This is tips how to repair memory not function
- Clean the memory by way of rubbing memory pins with the purpose of cleaning cloth, may also give a little thinners to clean the dust, and friction with the cloth will also be fishing the ions on the memory pins to stimulation more active conductor.
- Point Avometer the Ohm scale (scale to measure barriers), may be in the position of free 1K, 10K, 100K ...
- Take the needle negative (-) Avometer (black cable) and then stick to one pin / leg memory, and the needle positive (red wire) friction on the set of legs IC / chipset memory, if memory IC has 8 pieces such as the friction needle (+) into the legs of these ICs 8.
- Done .... Please try to install it on the memory slot on the Mainboard ....!
Problem solve if sound start windows and shutdown windows not hearing
How To Problem solve if sound start windows and shutdown windows not hearing
- Make sure the sound driver is installed with good
- Click start--> Run--> Type mmsys.cpl and the tab sound choose windows default then browse sound that you want to be sound windows
- If still problem-->Click start-->Run-->Type services.msc and look and make sure the windows audio started automatic
- If still Problem-->Click Start-->Run-->Type Regedit-->HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control_Panel\Sound-->look for beep and make sure value data is YES
Read More..
Create Read More Blogspot / Blogger
This tips is How to create readmore in blogspot, if you want to create readmore on wordpress see here :
- login into your blogger account www.blogger.com
- Click Layout-->Click Edit Html
- Give Check arrow on Expand widget template
- find text code </b:skin> then copy the following text
underneath - Find Text Code <p><data:post.body/></p>, then copy this
code underneath - Start to Post-->Add this code under your short article that you want to post
<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>
Before added code and After added code
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url'> Read More..</a>
</b:if>
<span class="fullpost">
and posting you full article under code <span class="fullpost">
and close finished article with code </span>
look image this below for more
Read More..
Create Blog on Blogger or Blogspot
This Below is Step by step Create a Blog with Blogger or Blogspot, but if you want to create a blog with Wordpress see here,
- Visit www.blogger.com
- Click "Create Your Blog Now"
- Types your email address and your password. In box Display Name, type your name that you want to appear in your blog. Must not real name
- Choose blog name for your blog and type in Blog Tittle
- Choose Template That You Like.
- Congratulations! Your blog is ready to use!
In box word verification. type the letters that shown in the top right, and do not forget to mark the I accept the Terms of Service after you read it. And then Click Continue.
In Blogger.com, the name of your blog will end with blogspot.com. Choose a name that you like and enter the blog address (URL).
Your blog address will be: Name_that_you_type.blogspot.com
You can also click on Check Availability to make sure the name you want is still available. If not, please choose another name.When you are finished, click Continue.
Don’t worry if you are not yet sure of your choice. You can changes your template at a later. when Finished Click Continue
Start to fill your blog with click Start Posting. Then see the results by clicking View Blog.
Do not be afraid, You can always remove your posting at any time and replace it with a new one.
Read More..
Tips How To The Care Laptop Battery Doesn't Explode
Insident laptop explode often happen, to prevent battery laptop doesn't explode and evoke loss, matters that must you look at as follows:
- If battery weak and if battery weak and the operation time decreases drastic, better you are direct buys new battery. don't tries to repair battery that broken to use again.
- Always sure, you using original battery from official seller, if original battery a lot explode, even less with imitation battery.
- Don’t recharge your battery more than 8 clock, recharge battery too long risk evoke explosion.
- If battery is full when recharge, choose just one, using electricity or battery when you want to using laptop.
- Use recharge that compatible with your battery, charger that not compatible will increase risk overheating.
- Don not place the laptop in very hot area, for example in car baggage or under blazing sun.
- Always follow the development news technology, for example in the site news online, usually if there are problem with laptop batteries, vendor laptop will do withdrawal a large scale. If f your laptop happens problematic, you can follow the procedures that have been determined. for example, exchange the battery.
Free PDF Converter
PDF (Portable Document Format) Is a format that made by Adobe System at year 1993 for exchange stationary digital document.
PDF format use for to presentation document 2 Dimension include text, font, vector graphic 2 dimension.
At Acrobat 3-D, PDF have also capability to read 3 Dimension.
If you has a file and need to be PDF format, you may be can try situs that provide”PDF Converter” in manner online this below:
1. Free PDF Convert ( http://freepdfconvert.com)
In use to convert file (Microsoft Office, open office, picture, graphic vector and other format) to PDF.
FreePDFConvert is tools PDF converter and creator document that interactive and fast
2. Express PDF (http://expresspdf.com)
Service of the converter that can use is
a. Convert web page to PDF
b. Convert Microsoft Word to PDF
c. Convert Microsoft Excel to PDF
3. PDF to Word ( http://pdftoword.com)
Result your PDF document to be sent via email
4. Primo Online ( https://online.primopdf.com)
Result your PDF document to be sent via email
5. Document and image to PDF ( http://pdfonline.com/convert-pdf)
Result your PDF document to be sent via email
6. Convert PDF to Word ( http://www.pdfonline.com/pdf2word/index.asp)
Result your PDF to Word converter not to be sent via email, but direct can be use.
7. Convert Web to PDF ( http://pdfonline.com/web2pdf/index.asp)
You can be add this PDF creator to your website or your blog, so visitor your web can be save and print webpage, but with PDF format. Read More..
How To Change Appearance Of Facebook
You are may be ever bored with appearance of facebook, obvious, layout of facebook can be change with appearance that we need, with utilize some service provider and mozilla Firefox browser
1. use application that provider by www.yontoo.com
*Use Mozilla Firefox Browser
*Open adrress http://www.yontoo.com/DownloadFFClient.aspx
*Choose start Install
*Install Add-Ons and then restart Mozilla firefox
*Login into your Facebook account
*Open http://apps.facebook.com/pagerage
*Install pagerage application in your facebook
*Choose appearance that you want
*finish and look
2. Use service provider by www.userstyles.org
*Use Mozilla Firefox Browser
*Open https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108
*Install Addons and restart your browser
*Login into your facebook account
*open http://userstyles.org/styles/site/facebook.com
*Choose facebook appearance that you want
*Click button “Load into stylish” then save
*Refresh your facebook page
*Finish and look your facebook appearance
Good Luck
Save Energy as Save Money
Save energy will save your money too. Now, Dirt Devil give us good solution for save energy. Dirt Devil has the best way to save energy. AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac use 70% less energy – making AccuCharge the first cordless cleaning technology to earn Energy Star approval. I'm sure you will decide using Dirt Devil, and you feel that a better way to save energy is use Dirt Devil AccuCharge.
I show you the graphic to compare the energy consumption, with or without Dirt Devil.
After you see the graphic, you will startled with this comparison.
Read More..
How do I get additional memory?
The following will help allow your computer to load programs into memory more efficiently allowing you to have more memory for MS-DOS programs / games.
Ensure you have the following lines at the beginning of your config.sys file.
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
By placing the DOS=HIGH,UMB on the second line this can in some cases save memory because it is loading DOS into upper memory before loading the memory manager. Additionally the first and third line cannot be loaded into high memory because these lines are the memory managers.
Load all your devices in your config.sys and autoexec.bat into high memory.
How can I comment lines in batch or system files?
Remarking lines within the autoexec.bat or the config.sys allows you to temporarily or permanently prevent a line from loading each time you boot the computer. The method most commonly used is placing "REM " in front of the file you wish to skip.
REM PATH=C:\WINDOWS
If you are encountering issues with a line in the autoexec.bat it is highly recommended that you remark the line instead of removing it. This will prevent issues from arising if the line needs to be placed back into the appropriate file.
Free Tips Online
If you want visit free tips online blog i recommend you to visit www.jumatkliwon777.blogspot.com. The blog above give you the best useful informations about Internet marketing, seo, Health, insurance, financial solutions and general tips.Create Transparent Windows
Make any XP window transparent and control the amount of transparency for each.
One of the cooler new interface features of XP is the ability to use transparent or semitransparent windows, in which the background can show through the current window. But there's a problem with that feature: very few programs take advantage of transparency, and there is no way built into XP for you to make windows transparent. So, to a great extent, the feature is worthless.
However, a number of downloadable programs tap into that XP capability and let you make any window transparent. My favorite is Glass2K (http://www.chime.tv/products/glass2k.shtml), because it's small, it's simple, and above all, it's free. It doesn't muck around with your system by making Registry changes or installing .dlls. It's just run an executable file, and with it you can make any window transparent. When it's running, go to the window you want to make transparent, and press Ctrl-Shift and a number from 0 to 9. 9 makes the window the least transparent, 1 makes it the most transparent, and 0 sets it so that it's solid, with no transparency. You can also right-click on a window, and select the degree of transparency from the program's pop-up menu. The window will keep that degree of transparency as long as you run the program and keep the transparency setting. Figure 2-19 shows the results of making windows transparent with the program.
Trans-XP is another downloadable that lets you make windows transparent. It's shareware, and is free to try, but costs $14.95 if you decide to keep it. It's available from http://www.totalidea.com.
The downloadable version limits you to having only three transparent windows
Another similar program is Actual Transparent Windows. It's also shareware and is free to try, but it costs $19.95 if you decide to keep it. It's available from http://www.actualtools.com.
If you're looking for an all-in-one tool that lets you make countless interface tweaks, including making any window transparent, try Tweak-XP, from http://www.totalidea.com. In addition to giving you transparency, it lets you hide programs on the Start Menu, and create your own folder icons. It also offers a variety of optimization tools, as well as utilities such as a pop-up ad blocker, a Registry cleaner, Zip file repairer and much more. It's shareware and free to try, but you're expected to pay $29.95 if you keep using it.
There's one drawback to using transparent windows: it takes up processing power and RAM, so it may slow down your system. The fewer transparent windows you create, the less processing and RAM are used, so handle transparent windows with care.,
Detect Accidental Double Clicks (All Windows)
This setting is used to control whether explorer should attempt to automatically detect accidental double mouse clicks.
Open your registry and find the key below.
Create a new String value, or modify the existing value called 'UseDoubleClickTimer' using the settings below.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
Settings:
User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Advanced]
Name: UseDoubleClickTimer
Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Value: (1 = Enabled, 0 = Disabled)
Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.
Change Drive Name and Icon (All Windows)
This tweak allows you to change the name and icon shown in Explorer for a specific drive letter.
Open your registry and find the key below. If the key does not already exist then create it.
Within the main key create a new sub-key with a single letter representing the drive letter of the drive to be modified. (e.g. [HKEY...\DriveIcons\D])
Within the drive letter key create another sub-key called "DefaultIcon" (e.g. [HKEY...\DriveIcons\D\DefaultIcon]) and set the "(Default)" value to equal the fully qualified name of the icon file. If the file contains more that one icon follow it with a comma and the zero-based index of the icon (e.g. "c:\icons\myicons.dll,4").
Create another sub-key within the drive letter key called "DefaultLabel" (e.g. [HKEY...\DriveIcons\D\DefaultLabel]) and set it's "(Default)" value to equal the label for the drive letter (e.g. "My ZIP Drive").
For example: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Explorer
DriveIcons
D
DefaultIcon
(Default) = c:\icons\myicons.dll,4
DefaultLabel
(Default) = My ZIP Drive
You may need to restart Windows for the change to take effect, or press F5 to refresh My Computer.
Note: The "DefaultLabel" value only works with Windows 2000 and higher.
Settings:
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
DriveIcons]
Name: Default
Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.
Password Crackers
This chapter examines password crackers. Because these tools are of such significance in security, I will cover many different types, including those not expressly designed to crack Internet-related passwords
What Is a Password Cracker?
The term password cracker can be misinterpreted, so I want to define it here. A password cracker is any program that can decrypt passwords or otherwise disable password protection. A password cracker need not decrypt anything. In fact, most of them don't. Real encrypted passwords, as you will shortly learn, cannot be reverse-decrypted.
A more precise way to explain this is as follows: encrypted passwords cannot be decrypted. Most modern, technical encryption processes are now one-way (that is, there is no process to be executed in reverse that will reveal the password in plain text).
Instead, simulation tools are used, utilizing the same algorithm as the original password program. Through a comparative analysis, these tools try to match encrypted versions of the password to the original (this is explained a bit later in this chapter). Many so-called password crackers are nothing but brute-force engines--programs that try word after word, often at high speeds. These rely on the theory that eventually, you will encounter the right word or phrase. This theory has been proven to be sound, primarily due to the factor of human laziness. Humans simply do not take care to create strong passwords. However, this is not always the user's fault:
Users are rarely, if ever, educated as to what are wise choices for passwords. If a password is in the dictionary, it is extremely vulnerable to being cracked, and users are simply not coached as to "safe" choices for passwords. Of those users who are so educated, many think that simply because their password is not in /usr/dict/words, it is safe from detection. Many users also say that because they do not have private files online, they are not concerned with the security of their account, little realizing that by providing an entry point to the system they allow damage to be wrought on their entire system by a malicious cracker.1
The problem is a persistent one, despite the fact that password security education demands minimal resources. It is puzzling how such a critical security issue (which can easily be addressed) is often overlooked. The issue goes to the very core of security:
...exploiting ill-chosen and poorly-protected passwords is one of the most common attacks on system security used by crackers. Almost every multi-user system uses passwords to protect against unauthorized logons, but comparatively few installations use them properly. The problem is universal in nature, not system-specific; and the solutions are simple, inexpensive, and applicable to any computer, regardless of operating system or hardware. They can be understood by anyone, and it doesn't take an administrator or a systems programmer to implement them.2
In any event, I want to define even further the range of this chapter. For our purposes, people who provide registration passwords or CD keys are not password crackers, nor are they particularly relevant here. Individuals who copy common registration numbers and provide them over the Internet are pirates. I discuss these individuals (and yes, I point to some sites) at the end of this chapter. Nevertheless, these people (and the files they distribute, which often contain thousands of registration numbers) do not qualify as password crackers.
NOTE: These registration numbers and programs that circumvent password protection are often called cracks. A Usenet newsgroup has actually been devoted to providing such passwords and registration numbers. Not surprisingly, within this newsgroup, many registration numbers are routinely trafficked, and the software to which they apply is also often posted there. That newsgroup is appropriately called
The only exception to this rule is a program designed to subvert early implementations of the Microsoft CD key validation scheme (although the author of the source code did not intend that the program be used as a piracy tool). Some explanation is in order.
As part of its anti-piracy effort, Microsoft developed a method of consumer authentication that makes use of the CD key. When installing a Microsoft product for the first time, users are confronted by a dialog box that requests the CD key. This is a challenge to you; if you have a valid key, the software continues to install and all is well. If, however, you provide an invalid key, the installation routine exits on error, explaining that the CD key is invalid.
Several individuals examined the key validation scheme and concluded that it was poorly designed. One programmer, Donald Moore, determined that through the following procedure, a fictional key could be tested for authenticity. His formula is sound and basically involves these steps:
The number that you derive from this process is examined in decimal mode. If the number has no fractional part (there are no numeric values to the right of the decimal point), the key is valid. If the number contains a fractional part (there are numbers to the right of the decimal), the key is invalid. Moore then designed a small program that would automate this process.
