March 29th, 2009

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How A Free Registry Error Scan May Keep Your Computer Healthy

by John McKlusky

Your registry is integral to the performance of your computer.

A free registry error scan can help to identify any problematic issues within your Windows registry, enabling you to remove invalid and/or unneeded registry files in order to provide ultimate gaming performance on your computer.

Games are one of the most graphically demanding programs that people regularly run on their personal computers.

Without proper upkeep of your registry, your gaming experience can often be disrupted by frequent bouts of screen freezing, error messages and even system crashes. And while many people may put this down to their graphics card not being good enough, it is frequently the case that a cluttered, disorganized Windows registry is the cause of these issues.

Pointing the finger at your graphics card when the problem lies in your registry is similar to attributing the poor performance of your car to the make and model when in fact, you have failed to maintain the vehicle through the correct servicing procedures.

It is therefore prudent to steadily maintain a clean, well-organized registry.

In order to do this, you must first perform a free registry error scan on your computer. This will allow you to identify all dead and invalid files left behind in your registry from previously uninstalled software.

Once this useless clutter has been identified, you will be given the opportunity to remove it thus providing your registry a thorough clean-up.

The scan itself takes just 2 minutes to perform and you can start to see and feel the benefit of having a cleaner registry immediately after the clean-up. Your games will run faster, encounter little or no errors, and you can avoid the cost and time spent installing a new graphics card in your computer.

Why spend hundreds of dollars on a new graphics card when you can experience exactly the same benefits from an inexpensive registry cleaner?

A free registry error scan will display exactly what the cause of your gaming issues are, allowing you to determine whether or not it is worthwhile to give your Windows registry a thorough clean-up.

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Written by John McKlusky on March 29th, 2009 with no comments.
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Computer Infos - The Buzz About P2P Computer Systems

by Rene Hagen

Anyone with a computer and access to the Internet has probably heard all about Peer-to-Peer systems or P2P. The buzz about P2P computer systems is that these systems take advantage of a network of individuals all connected by their computer systems online and sharing information as a group. By having the same form of P2P software loaded onto the computer systems, the network of users can easily pass along many forms of electronic files such as music, software and video format files.

The network of users can be small, comprising only a few individuals or very large, with groups of computer users in the millions. The software that is required to be able to access the P2P systems of other users are generally offered for free though these free programs may have advertisements that occasionally pop-up in return for the free software.

Each individual computer user in this form of network acts as a peer to the other users and they all share files equally. By having no central file server, the users in the network are free to share whatever files they like. When we talk about the buzz of P2P computer systems, what we are really talking about is the way that many computer users have embraced this aspect of being connected to the Internet and to millions of other users. When once, these users were satisfied with having a few songs downloaded off the Internet, they now have many thousands of them downloaded and in their hard drives or MP3 players. The feeding frenzy is growing every day and there seems to be no end in sight to the amount of downloading of files on P2P systems. Many magazines and online zines report on the buzz about P2P computer systems in almost every issue of their publications. That is because it is a very popular topic among many computer users.

The buzz about P2P computer systems seems to be centered on the widespread usage of the many downloading programs out there that allow many computer users sharing a network to upload and download files among the hard drives of the network. The ability of these P2P software programs to allow users to download and share whatever files they want while remaining virtually anonymous is the main reason they are so popular. These software programs allow a user the option of allowing other users to download files from their own hard drive or to limit the downloads to certain folders, or to not allow downloading at all.

The way these programs are set up is that if you share your files with others, you can more easily download files from the network. By not allowing others to download from you, your ability to get files from the network may be limited to a few files or a very slow download speed.

Some of the buzz about P2P Computer systems concerns security of the network and the computer users that use the software programs to access apiece other?s computer hard drives. The ability of some unscrupulous users to upload viruses and other attacks to the network of users is always there, but many people have become very adept at spotting this form of attack in the files they download from a system. By simply getting in the usage of scanning all downloaded files with a reputable virus program before opening, the chances of downloading a virus file into your hard drive become much smaller.

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Written by Rene Hagen on March 29th, 2009 with no comments.
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Firewalls

by Stephen Grisham Sr.

What is the Function of a Firewall?

Firewalls are essential for regulating the security of networks. The purpose of a firewall is to intercept and regulate traffic flow among networks possessing varying degrees of reputability. It is a component of the network protection of a group, and it regulates the security terms of a network. They are capable of proficiency in logging inter-network actions, and minimizing how vulnerable a network is to attack. When groups are linked to the internet with no firewall, each host on the private network is able to get direct accessibility to all of the internet content. In other words, every host located on the Internet can attack every host on your private network if there is no firewall.

What is a Firewall Incapable of Doing?

Firewalls can’t always detect malicious data. For the most part they cannot offer any protection against an attack from inside, although they may log network activity should the criminal use the Internet gateway. A connection that doesn’t go through a firewall cannot be protected by a firewall. To put it another way, if you connect directly to the internet via modem, there is no way the network firewall can protect you. Some firewalls cannot protect from viruses. Firewalls also cannot totally protect against previously unknown attacks; while a simple firewall provides little protection against computer viruses.

Authentication of a network user

All that user authentication implies is a means of establishing as valid or verifying the claimed identity. Usernames and passwords furnish this verification, however this is not very powerful user authentication. If a connection is not private, like an Internet hook-up that lacks encryption, usernames and passwords may be duplicated and replayed. Strength in terms of user authentication necessitates the utilization of encryption, like SSL certificates. These certificates stop ‘replay attacks’ from occurring, for instance when a username and password are obtained and ‘replayed’ for purposes of admittance or accessibility.

Encryption from Firewall to Firewall

Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is the term most often used for an encrypted connection. Privacy is achieved by using encoded inputs. Of course, it isn’t really private. The private communication is carried by a public network such as the Internet. VPNs were in use before firewalls, but as the technology has grown, VPNs have come into play more. A VPN option is expected by most people when dealing with a firewall vendor.

Additional Purposes of Firewalls

* They are used often for content screening devices. Virus scanning is a possible addition to a firewall in this area. This is really a waste of resources, though, because virus scanning still must be performed on each individual station. The reason for this is that data may be introduced to the desktops from paths other than through the firewall. For example, individual users may bring in removable disks.

* URL screening: Adding content screening and controlled access to the World Wide Web seem to be logical steps to take where firewalls are concerned.

- To restrict the size of network space that any single user can occupy, or restrict the amount of the network’s bandwidth that may be utilized for given purposes.

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Written by Stephen Grisham Sr. on March 29th, 2009 with no comments.
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