Virus threats in computer

The virus attacks on computer have been there since long time and most of us have faced it at some point of time. Starting with the basic definition a virus in computers can be a program or programming code that replicates by being copied to computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on an external drive or CD. The immediate source is downloaded file you've received is usually unaware that it contains a virus.

The common symptoms of a computer infected by virus are mainly seen by reduced performance; unknown operations working in the back ground, task manager do not work properly, cases of computer as well as operating system crashes increase significantly. The symptoms depend upon the sources code of the attacking virus. The performance is greatly reduced. Many operations which are unknown to the user run in the computer, windows task manager is disabled .Disk space gets reduced suddenly. Many other unwanted messages are displayed.

Though there are hundreds of antivirus software available but most of them are either paid antivirus or only their trial versions are available. Of all the antivirus we have tried, we found that Norton internet security 2010 in paid version and AVG and Panda antivirus are best free versions on the basis of their capability to clean up the system and the load it puts on computer.

Types of antivirus includes cloud antivirus which is able to send programs or documents to a network cloud where it uses multiple antivirus Or we can put in Network Firewalls which prevent unknown programs and Internet processes from accessing the system protected. However, they are not antivirus systems as such and thus make no attempt to identify or remove anything. Other options include Online Scanning and editing registry.

However, antivirus decreases system’s performance and operational speed.

In subsequent years major threat will be from network viruses. It is now only in the earliest state of developments. This type of virus make their first faint attempts to spread their code by themselves via Microsoft Mail and using FTP, but the best is yet to come.

Virus threats in computers

The virus attacks on computer have been there since long time and most of us have faced it at some point of time. Starting with the basic definition a virus in computers can be a program or programming code that replicates by being copied to computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on an external drive or CD. The immediate source is downloaded file you've received is usually unaware that it contains a virus.

The common symptoms of a computer infected by virus are mainly seen by reduced performance; unknown operations working in the back ground, task manager do not work properly, cases of computer as well as operating system crashes increase significantly. The symptoms depend upon the sources code of the attacking virus. The performance is greatly reduced. Many operations which are unknown to the user run in the computer, windows task manager is disabled .Disk space gets reduced suddenly. Many other unwanted messages are displayed.

 

Though there are hundreds of antivirus software available but most of them are either paid antivirus or only their trial versions are available. Of all the antivirus we have tried, we found that Norton internet security 2010 in paid version and AVG and Panda antivirus are best free versions on the basis of their capability to clean up the system and the load it puts on computer.

 

Types of antivirus includes cloud antivirus which is able to send programs or documents to a network cloud where it uses multiple antivirus Or we can put in Network Firewalls which prevent unknown programs and Internet processes from accessing the system protected. However, they are not antivirus systems as such and thus make no attempt to identify or remove anything. Other options include Online Scanning and editing registry.

 

However, antivirus decreases system's performance and operational speed.

 

In subsequent years major threat will be from network viruses. It is now only in the earliest state of developments. This type of virus make their first faint attempts to spread their code by themselves via Microsoft Mail and using FTP, but the best is yet to come.

Leading the lab session... my experience..

well, we finally got an oppurtinity to lead a lab session. and now, with full conviction i can say that teaching is not (Capitalised) easy.

I could go rambling on about the problems we faced but if you really are reading this i assume you're not expecting a complaint letter... lol..

My part in the lab was pretty elaborate and since the students were more interested in ''just watching the demo" i gave the demo and tried to make it as clear as it could be. This was made easier by the fact that i was covering windows utilities like Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter which everyone was familiar with. Also i had to cover Prezi which is pretty easy to use and really amazing in fact. So all i would wanna say is that though my part was not so complicated but due to Diwali and the subsequent quagmire it caused in our coordination it did prove somewhat a task to gather enough knowledge that is needed to lead a lab session resulting in our last minute preparations.

The thing is that we DID lead the lab session thanks to Dr. Amarjeet sir for providing this opportunity.

Mithil Gupta

2010049

Data Compression and a few Software involved....

    Though the project seemed easy, but we were in a dilemma as to what we should cover in our project as we thought everyone is already aware of data compression and can use archives without the need of our demos.

    But, we suddenly had this idea of comparing different softwares and look at new features that these softwares provide. These included:

• Brief description of the tools used- WinRAR , BitZipper , 7-zip
• Backup
• Batch tool
• Making SFX files
• Securing archives with passwords

I and my partners Jyotika and Shruti then took up 3 different software after going through features of many archives. After choosing 3 such software, we used to literally argue that whose archive was the best. And while debating we actually did a lot of comparisons, came up with new features that we had never heard of.

(Jyotika n Shruti ended up teasing me because we concluded that BitZipper had lost the race);-)

Practical stuff was interesting. The main challenge was to sit for hours after college and compile our search to make one SINGLE presentation!

But, we eventually succeeded in finishing the presentation in time.

Though our coordination during presentation wasn’t up to the mark (due to lack of time, we couldn’t rehearse it that well with the projector), but still I feel that our presentation was good. All of us had worked equally on it, were well aware of everything present in the slides and answered all the questions that we were asked in class.

I’d like to thank Jyotika Dora and Shruti Kapur who are equally responsible for the success of this project. I’m proud to have such hard working partners who obeyed all my instructions, are intelligent and didn't mind when I screamed at them.:)

Thank You Sir for providing us with an opportunity to learn to work as a team and gain knowledge at the same time!

Leading The Lab... :)

I should first apologize for posting my blog late as i led the 9 th lab session and this week is the i think 12 week so i am 3 weeks late. :(

I led my lab with Sakshi and she had informed me about leading the lab session just 2 days before the training session, so i had to rush directly from the airport.

I personally thought that the topics that were chosen for the 9th lab session were pretty interesting, and it was a nice experience learning them during the training session. Now moving on to whatever was covered during the labs.

First topic was Data recovery from mistakenly deleted files the tool that was to be used for data recovery was 'PC inspector' which is quite handy tool as far as the data recovery from PD's is concerned, it took some time as the software had to be provided by PD's to everyone personally also doubts on the topic and the whole concept of data recovery were almost endless.

Next topic that we got training for was Shredding in ubuntu this was another topic that was pretty interesting and discussed during the training and the lab because when we got to know that there are numerous softwares that work on recovering even the shredded files there was a discussion on how actually might the data be stored on the memory devices that we have.

Next came LateX this was the only one topic that we all found a little boring (no offence :))

because it was a totally new language and some programming had to be done in it, the syntax had to be referred again and again as it was a new language and we hadn't yet got the hang of it.But i also found it quite interesting as it was one interface in which we could create the text documents of different formats under one software.

Next was Web crawling this was another interesting topic as the idea of having a backup of the whole website in your PC without doing much was nice, also it would extract the information that you ask for during the crawling and you can just refer to it whenever you want to even when you are offline. One bad point web crawlers banned on google :( and many people wanted to try out using the web crawlers on google.

last topic that was covered in the lab was backing up data this was pretty easy and useful topic, there is already an inbuilt utility provided by the Microsoft people on our windows, so many students had already explored it on their own and the remaining found it pretty easy to understand and use.

This was my first attempt at teaching a group of people something and it was not that easy, the experience was worthwhile and different, and i am glad that i had the opportunity to experience something different :):)

Displax : The Multi-Touch Film

With technology progressing day by day, now we have a new addition every day. Recently DISPLAX, a portugal based company has started mrketing about there latest futuristic project i.e. Multitouch screen.It can be applied on any non-metal surface.

DISPLAX multitouch technology converts any non-conducting surface into an interactive multitouch surface.

The skin is actually made up of thinner than paper polymer film.

It can be stuck on or below a glass,plastic or wood with a thickness under 15mm, So that it can now respond to touch and airflow.

It can detect upto 16 fingers simultaneously on a 50 inch screen.

Can be as small as 35 cm and as long as 3v meters in diagonal and thinner than paper(100 microns)

Can be applied on transparent surface also and it doesnot hinder the display also.

It can detect air-movement by measuring the intensity and direction of air flow.

It has an array of nanowiress embedded in the film which recognizes your digits or pointed breadth, and it then passes information along to a microcontroller and software suite that transforms the inputs into reactions on your system.

Each time a finger is placed on the screen or a user blows onto the surface, a small electrical disturbance is detected allowing the micro-processor controller to pinpoint the movement or direction to the air flow.

Hardware that it contains is Multitouch controller and nanowired polymer film.

In softwares it has firmwares,softwares and control panel.

It's light weight (300g). Hence easily portable and easy to install.

It's very durable too.

After all this one can easily think of the changes and add ons this technology can bring to today's world.

Imagine a shop fully touch screen showing you displays and menus to buy items and also displaying advertisements.

It can be helpful in the field of telecoms etc.

The company says that the technology will also be available for LCD manufacturers, audiovisual integrators and gaming platforms.

This technology will be another big break through. Eagerly waiting for it.

Might get launched in the latter half of 2011.

What are your views on this new technology?

Infinite USB Memory Device(IUM)- The next generation Flash Drive

How many times have you been in the situation where you want to give your friend a bunch of files but your flash drive wasn’t large enough, it was reaching its storage limit or you kept confidential information on it that you didn’t want anyone else to see? You would either have to sort through the flash drive's contents deciding what to delete and what not to or you would have to use the drive back-and-forth several times to transfer all the files to some other storage device.

These days are gone because Infinitec has come up with a flash drive having infinite storage. The IUM does not actually store any content on the drive itself. Instead, it uses your laptop’s WiFi signal for connectivity and leverages your laptop’s storage capabilities as its own. The IUM allows you to share your entire hard drive as well as any servers, external hard drives or other storage space that your laptop can access. Ultimately, the more storage space that your laptop has access to, the larger the memory of the IUM will appear to be.

The first thing you need to do is to pair it with your laptop.The IUM pairs uniquely to a single laptop and this laptop becomes the host of the IUM. The pairing process is designed to uniquely identify your IUM from others that may be around. Your IUM will only work with your laptop while other IUMs will only work with their owners’ laptops. By pairing each IUM with a unique host laptop, you and your colleagues can all use your IUMs simultaneously without having any incompatibility or interconnection issues. You can select the data that you want to share on your IUM.

The data in IUM is highly secured because even if your IUM is lost or stolen, none of your files will be gone with it, as the IUM doesn’t store any content on itself. Your data will always be protected because it never actually leaves your PC.

Now you can use IUM as it performs functions similar to USB flash drives. There is no need to install software or download drivers. It is truly a plug and play device that is recognized by all operating systems.

The IUM is compatible with all major gaming consoles such as PlayStation3, Xbox360, etc. The IUM can be used to stream movies on DVD player, media player or latest generation TV by plugging into the USB port.

Tools for Video Editing

"Tools for Video Editing"

The topic itself is very interesting to hear. That you can actually make changes to the videos the way you want to. This is the main thing that motivated us for doing this project. We can add or remove or customize video the way we want to.To make the videos work our style.

The first task for us was to select some good and easy to use video editing softwares. Before going on to it, there are some goals that we need to achieve while doing video editing.

:- Removing unwanted footage

:- Selecting usefull footage

:- Create a flow

:- Adding graphics, effects,music,etc.

Depending on these goals, we short-listed 4 softwares:-

Windows Movie Maker

VideoPad

CyberLink Power Director 8.0

Magic Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus

Using these softwares you can easily split a video, ad effects, transitions and music to it and much more.

You can download these from the links below:-

http://download.cnet.com/VideoPad-Pro-Video-Editor/3000-13631_4-10906278.html

http://en.softonic.com/s/windows-movie-maker-7

http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/trials/index_en_US.html

http://download.cnet.com/Magix-Movie-Edit-Pro/3000-13631_4-10476357.html

So, now you can explore the softwares and create your own videos.

If you want to read further about, What is Video Editing then you can refer to the links given below :

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/

During the span of this project, we faced a lot of challenges also, like software compatibility with system, video format compatibility, compressors,etc

But, its not that difficult you just need to check your specifications correctly before going for a download.

Overall it was a nice experience to work together on this project together.

We learned lot about file formats, and video editing and format compatibility from this project.

It was really fun doing this project.

Ayushi Goyal(2010025)

Ayushi Aggarwal(2010026)

Ruchika Koli(2010070)

Our Project - tools and much more

Two weeks have passed since our project presentation and this blog allows me another opportunity to share more about our project with my SM2010 classmates.

Starting off with a bit of description about our project “Creating your own website”. It had three major components:

Creating a website

Setting up your server

Different tools used

Now everyone has seen a website but when it comes to ‘creating’ your website we get perturbed by the technical things such as server, domain, etc. so we decided to solve this very puzzle through our project and make it simpler for all those interested in creating a website.

Now we were clear on the point that by the end of the project we would have made a fully functional website “KnowYourPC”. This was to serve a dual purpose. On the one hand we were able to implement whatever we had learned and also made a website that included everything we knew about a PC.

So how does a website work?

A website has a domain which is nothing more than just a name. A server is a software/hardware system for running services.

Setting up a server is a very easy job. There is an amazing tool available in the market called as 'XAMPP' which is used for specifically this purpose. You can download the software from <www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html>. Now why did we select this tool only? That is simply because it is very useful and has many advantages. Firstly it is Open source software. So that means anybody can use it, change it, and modify it. Secondly it is Cross-platform. This means that it the available for all operating systems. Lastly, it has one step installation and is very easy to use. So on the whole; it served our purpose quite well.

Coming on to tools, there are several tools available to make a website. So after a bit of searching we narrowed down to 4 tools: Joomla, Wordpress, GoogleSites and iWeb. Having tried out all the tools we came to the conclusion that Wordpress was a really useful tool and suited our needs. Joomla although very powerful is initially a bit difficult to learn. iWeb and GoogleSites are simple tools that are a bit limited in their functionality.

After all this came the day of the presentation. We were nervous (that’s very natural) It was amazing because of the positive vibes from the entire audienceJ. Thank you guys.

During the course of the project we faced many challenges ranging from going home late at night, trying out all tools and finalizing the content.

But overall making this project was a really good experience. We had a lot of fun while making the project. We really got good support from all the classmates with respect to a positive response to a small survey carried out to finalize the content of our website. Really want to extend our heartiest thanks to Kshitiz Bakshi, Ayushi Goyal, Purujit Negi, Akansha Sharma for their continuous encouragement and support throughout.

Amarjeet Sir, we want to thank you for giving us this amazing opportunity to learn so much more and for his inputs from time to time because it was he who suggested that we make a proper website on the PC.

Apoorv Narang 10019

Karan Kalra 10035

Utkarsha Bhardwaj 10093

Lab Leading: An experience

It was quite fun leading the lab. I thought it might be very troublesome teaching to all my group mates, but it turned out rather positive. Everyone had the patience and the eagerness to learn ,which was great to see. Interacting with all the students was fun, and a new experience. These are my two bits. I hope I get to have such an experience again.

Have a good day!

SHORTCUT FOR MAKING FOLDER

The credit for this small blog goes to saurabh. Making a new folder is quite a troublesome task(personal view). Yesterday saurabh asked me the shortcut to make new folders(neither saurabh nor me like making new folders with touchpad mouse right click). I did not know it. I searched for it and found -

shift+ctrl+N

there is one more command which requires use of multiple fingers at the same time-
alt,F,W,F (all these keys should be pressed together)

Comparison of Different Wireless Interface - 802.11 a/b/g/n

IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for carrying out WLAN communication. Simply put, IEEE 802.11 specifies the way and means by which we can communicate on wireless networks. These usually operate at frequency bands of 2.4, 3.6 and 5.0 GHz. these standards are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee.

The table given below compares the standards:

802.11 Protocol	Freq. (GHz)	Bandwidth (MHz)	Data rate per stream (Mbit/s)	Allowable MIMO streams	Approximate indoor range (m)	Approximate Outdoor range (m)
1997	2.4	20	1, 2	1	20	100
a	5 / 3.7	20	6 - 54	1	35/--	120 / 16,000
b	2.4	20	5.5 - 11	1	38	140
g	2.4	20	6 - 54	1	38	140
n	2.4 / 5	20 / 40	7.2 - 72.2 / 15 - 150	4	70	250

Without considering the 3.7 GHz 802.11a band (the use of which is highly restricted by the Federal Communications Commission), we can see that 802.11n is the clear winner in terms of both range and speed. Also, 802.11n has a 5 GHz version, which takes care of the microwave interference problem. However, because of its high cost and low availability (in India), we generally use 802.11g as an alternative.

The microwave problem: Since 802.11b and g both operate in the 2.4 GHz band, they may experience interference whenever devices using the same frequency are operated near them. To describe it simply, this frequency band is like a one-lane road, and can only allow one-way traffic. So, when we operate, say, a microwave in the vicinity, we have to allow the "data" being transmitted by the microwave to transmit before our own wireless connection can operate. The microwave problem can reduce speed by 70 - 80%.

It was a pleasure to do our project, as it helped explain the differences between the interfaces, and which would be most suitable for different conditions. We thoroughly enjoyed doing the project, and would like to thank Dr. Amarjeet Singh for providing us with this opportunity.

Amol Verma

Paritosh Mittal

Vinayak Chopra

Fifteen years of 'Exploring' the Internet

Ok so now just yesterday my grandpa wanted to use the net for booking his flight ticket and I opened up the Chrome browser for him. Instead he asked me to open up Internet Explorer. When I asked him the reason for him preferring IE, he told me that it allows him to surf the Web with minimum fuss. It seemed at that moment as if the long neglected icon of the Internet Explorer in my taskbar was indeed smiling at me. It was then that I realized that you may love it or hate it, but you simply cannot ignore it.

It’s been 15 years since Microsoft launched the IE; to be precise it was launched about a month after the launch of Windows95. With 60 percent of the world’s netizens using IE even after 15 years of its launch, it’s evident that its popularity refuses to die down. This despite the fact that its rivals like Google, Mozilla and Apple were offering better browsers.

Now a bit about its history and its different versions.

When IE first appeared in 1995, the main software that people used to browse websites was Netscape. Now IE’s first version was based on a browser of that period known as Mosaic. It did not come integrated with Windows. A very basic browser, it had a greyish background. The image below shows just how it used to look:

The main shift came with the Microsoft launching IE3 in 1996. The BlueE logo was also introduced. It supported cascading style sheets (CSS) and came with features like mail, news and an address book. It had support for GIF and JPEG files also. Also unlike Netscape, IE was free for all users. IE 4 was released in 1997 and was part of Windows 98 and had the tag line “the Web the way you want it”.

IE5 had new search and history features as well as support for bi-directional text. Bi-directional text is text containing text in both text directionalities, both right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). By the time IE6 released IE’s market share had grown to 90 percent. It was however at the same time that it was ridiculed for weak security and clunky surfing experience.

The launch of IE 7 was significant in the sense that tabbed browsing finally came to IE. It also included a separate search bar and support for RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

IE 8 had features like new tools such as Web Slices and Accelerator.

Agreed that IE was late off the mark in terms of features like tabbed browsing and add-ons, seen much earlier in other browsers. Also being the most popular browser made it more vulnerable to attack by hackers. This is not to say that other browsers don’t have such issues but any problem with IE tends to get highlighted.

This said , I feel that one can not deny the contribution that IE has made to the internet. And frankly had it not been for its so easy accessibility, the count of netizens in the world might not have been at the same level as they are today because it was the IE that allowed people to use the internet as easily or “without fuss” as my grandpa pointed today.

As a matter of fact while filling the IIIT-D form; it was with IE that it finally got downloadedJ. Not just IIIT-D, there are several websites that recommend us to view them in IE. Maybe slow off the mark, but it definitely has not stopped improving. And an old proverb that goes like this

" Slow and steady wins the race ".

Many happy returns of the web, IE