Computer tip a day

Resolve the hostname in ping command

2014-12-23T00:54:00.002+05:30

In Linux, we use the "ping" command to ping the hostname or the IP address directly. But what if you wanted to know the hostname of the system when you ping using the IP address? This would be very useful in resolving the IP to hostname while debugging in a local network.

$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=40.4 ms

Just use an additional '.' at the end of the IP to resolve it to hostname.

$ ping 8.8.8.8.
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=25.0 ms
64 bytes from google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=36.9 ms

URL Magic - Rare IP address notations

2014-11-20T23:48:00.000+05:30

URL (Uniform Resource Locator). We might have heard in this WWW era. Forgetting the intricate details of its implementation, an URL simply means a web address. The RFC of the URI can be found here. This post is just about its rare formats. (For details, refer to the section 7.4 in the RFC)

Rare formats
These rare formats are just for fun. This is not widely used because, it's hard for people to remember and you have to decode it everytime. Nevertheless, this is a good way to hide bookmarks or you can use it as prank with your friends.

Hexadecimal and octal notation
Get the IP address of your favorite website by pinging it. Convert each octet into different format. Paste it in the URL area of the browser. It would still work.
For instance, pinging google.com gives this IP 173.194.113.168 for me. This is the cryptic notation of the same IP. This would still work. :-)

http://0xad.0xc2.0161.168

How about this?

http://0XADC271A8
http://2915201448

The above are 32-bit representation of the IP addresses. Every octet is just represented in its hexadecimal form. In the second format the hexadecimal number is converted to an Integer.

Another notation is that the IP address is split into two parts.

http://0xad.0xC271A8

In the above, the first octet is interpreted as it is and the rest are just coalesced into one.

It's really fun to know about this. Start fooling your friends ;-)

Indian internet censorship

2012-05-05T11:00:00.001+05:30

Very recently Reliance made a move smooching with the Department of Telecom to block access to some sites like thepiratebay.org and pastebin.com.
The block is originating from Reliance antiabuse helpdesk with a static ip: 115.248.224.100. This might vary with 115.248.x.x as they might have some other servers for this blockage.

The highlight is they've blocked vimeo.com, but not youtube.com. These ambani assholes have a team playing in the gamble(IPL). Youtube with courtesy and some shit load of money from the gamblers are broadcasting it. May be the ambani's don't want to block that and would have bribed Department of Telecom? Hey come on!, Everything in India can be negotiated. After all its money.

Reliance netconnect frequent disconnect solution

2012-03-19T23:49:00.000+05:30

Recently I bought a Reliance netconnect+ despite the fact that it sucks. I noticed the strange behavior which made the connection to interrupt very frequently when it is idle. The only trick that came to my mind is ping.
Ok, enough of preening about my achievement. Lets make this work.

1. Press "win + r" key to open the "Run.." dialog box
2. Type "cmd" and press enter. (without the quotes). This opens up the command prompt.
3. ping -t google.com -l 1
Copy the above and paste it and press enter. This will start pinging the server so as to keep the connections always active. The above command sends a meager number of bytes, i.e., "only one". So don't worry about this eating up your bandwidth.

Though this didn't solve the problem 100%, it will atleast stop you from shouting "WTF is this?".
I'm yet to find a graceful way of doing the above, i.e., automating it with scripts. With an initial try it shooted up my cpu % to 20. I'm yet to figure out what is causing it by shouting at my windows 7 laptop, "WTF is cpu % figures?". I am quite happy that I'm not shouting about the Reliance netconnect+ anymore.

Is google+ a privacy threat?

2012-01-23T19:42:00.000+05:30

Google is working on a feature which enables users in your circles to see what you have seen.
See the below video

Share your comments!

Google transliterate in your desktop

2012-01-22T19:38:00.000+05:30

Easy way to type your local languages on your desktop.
1) Download this
http://www.google.com/ime/transliteration/
2) Install it.
3) Press alt+shift to switch between languages

Pros:
Using this you can type your native language in any application. (say word, notepad++ etc)
No internet connection required
Inbuilt dictionary available

Cons:
Works only on Windows

Unfuddle with git

2012-01-21T16:40:00.001+05:30

Some projects involve portions or full of proprietary code.
If so, wanted to share your sources and collaborate with a developer online?
You can use unfuddle.com. It is easy to create an account. You can either use SVN or git as your version control system. Both free and paid accounts are available for use. Once registered, you'll get a personalized name such as 'example.unfuddle.com'

Disclaimer: In free version, there is no SSL security. So, if you are so much concerned about the security, stop using it for your code. But you can always give a try to see how it is.

Download Youtube videos in chrome

2012-01-16T08:30:00.000+05:30

Wanted to download youtube videos without installing any software or script? Then read ahead.
You don't need to install any software to download videos from youtube whenever you use Google chrome.
1) Create a shortcut in desktop and make it point to this directory

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
The above is in the case of Windows 7, in windows XP it will differ.

2) Whenever you see videos, let the video gets buffered. Then goto the above folder and lookout for files starting with f_xyzxyz. You can easily locate the video files by arranging the files according to either 'size' of by 'date modified'.
3) open VLC media player. Drag the file directly into VLC. If you've found the video you are looking for, copy it to the desired location and rename it with extension(.flv)

Hope you find it useful.

Losing data due to Shift+Delete?

2012-01-15T21:58:00.000+05:30

Many people have the habit of using 'shift + del' very often (atleast I do). So, I wanted to figure out a way so as to prevent shift + del happening in the background. Autohotkey came again to rescue me.
Here are the steps.

1) Install latest version of Autohotkey
2) Create a new text file somewhere in your Desktop.
3) Rename it to my_script.ahk
4) Open the file using any text editor and paste the below content into it.

+Del::Send {Delete}

In the above '+' denotes shift. So, what the script means to autohotkey is that, whenever user presses shift + del, send just del to the process and not shift + del.

5) Make a shortcut to the above created file.
6) Copy that shortcut to your startup folder.

When the system is restarted, you can enjoy using shift + del, and still see the files in Recycle bin.

Disclaimer: Please note that moving files frequently to recycle bin and not cleaning it up often can make the bin full and you lose your deleted data, as windows may not push data to recycle bin and delete it directly.

Always on top option in windows

2012-01-15T20:28:00.001+05:30

Everyone would have been quite accustomed to the "Always on top" option in GNU/Linux. In windows, there are no out-of-the box ways to do it. However, you can easily achieve that in a few steps.
1) Install latest version of Autohotkey
2) Create a new text file somewhere in your Desktop.
3) Rename it to my_script.ahk
4) Open the file using any text editor and paste the below content into it.

^space::WinSet AlwaysOnTop, , A

5) Make a shortcut to the above created file.
6) Copy that shortcut to your startup folder.

Once you restart your system, you can use the shortcut 'ctrl + space' to make the current window 'Always on top'. I found it very useful when you are using calculators and command prompt. You can stop annoying now, because you don't need to use 'alt + tab' that often.

Re entry

2012-01-08T20:29:00.002+05:30

Planning to start writing again. Lets see how much time I get to devote to this site.

Save images from orkut profile

2010-05-09T17:07:00.004+05:30

Nowadays orkut has blocked the right click in a person's album, in order to prevent others from saving the photos. But I believe the statement, "Nothing is impossible" :)
There are many ways to save those photos. But the easiest of all is drag the photo to a new tab. Then right click on it to save the photo to your hard disk. I don't know whether orkut blocked the right click feature as a measure for privacy in the profile. I don't think so. Do you?
PS:
Other ways to do it is to take a screenshot and crop the image u need. Or u can copy the whole web page or copy the photo using Ctrl+c and paste it in word and save it from there.

Make your site more reachable with wibiya

2010-02-02T16:46:00.007+05:30

Wibiya is a beta service offered to the users, which helps one in boosting their websites.

This toolbar is an all-in-one tool which has a lot of features.
Some of the services offered are

Search
Number of online users
Translator
Photo gallery
Testimonials
You tube vidoes
Games
Twitter and facebook integration
Live chat
RSS feed etc.

How to own yours
Goto the page http://www.wibiya.com/. You'll have an option "get it now". Create an account and select the theme. You ll have a variety of applications to choose from. Choose the one which fits ur site well.

It has a very customized 'Add it' option which helps u greatly in adding the toolbar to ur site. U can directly get ur code if u have the following type of sites.

Wordpress
Blogger
Typepad
Joomla CMS
Drupal CMS
Ning &
vBulletin

If your site doesn't fit in any of these u can choose the option "Install on webistes and other blog platforms"

Troubleshooting
You can troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
* Activate Toolbar After Page Load
This will be very much useful if ur site is down due to some issues. If u didn't select this ur site will be blank and the toolbar will be loaded. Or ur site may take a long time to load.

* JavaScript / Framework Conflict

* Flash Objects Overlay The Toolbar

This toolbar will be on the top wherever u scroll to the page. It is definitely worth a try if u own a blog or a website.

Hacking the hosts file in windows

2009-12-02T10:29:00.004+05:30

Many of us would have used a local webserver for designing websites or for previewing. This is where the 'localhost' comes. We always give http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 to tell the browser to take the files from the local webserver instead of going into the internet. How and where to change that name, if u wanted to make the localhost as .com or .net, whatever.
Just edit the file named hosts under the location
'C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts' (assuming C: is the drive where u installed windows)
A default hosts file will look like this


# Copyright (c) 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

change the last line to whatever name u like.
e.g


127.0.0.1    xyz.com

Use the name xyz.com instead of localhost while using the local webserver.

This file can also be used to block unwanted sites. U can put the sites here that u don't wish to see.
e.g


127.0.0.1    dont-see-this.com

How the above line works?
If you goto a particular url in the browser the OS will check the hosts file whether any specific address has been mapped to that site.If yes it will load that,if not it will fetch it from the web. If you give the above line in the hosts file, whenever u goto the site 'dont-see-this.com' it will point the browser to the address 127.0.0.1 which is your localhost.
(The above technique is used in 'spybot search and destroy' when u give the immunize option)
Happy hacking

Cracking MD5 hashes using rainbow tables

2009-05-12T17:13:00.002+05:30

This tutorial is for beginners on how to crack MD5 hashes using ur own rainbow tables.

[video] Remove autorun from ur flash drive

2009-04-11T18:55:00.001+05:30

The video is about removing the autorun virus, Which many antivirus programs cudn't remove it. U can do it manually after seeing the video. Pls post ur comments.

Disabling the Google new tab page

2009-03-31T15:19:00.004+05:30

After installing Google Toolbar, Whenever you press Ctrl+T or go for a new tab, a page will be displayed by it. (see the below picture)

To disable it, there are two ways. I will explain both.
First method
1. click the settings icon in the google toolbar .
2. In the web-browsing uncheck the option "Enable Google new tab page".
3. click save.

Second method (This works only in Firefox)
1. Type "about:config" in the URL
2. A page will appear asking for confirmation to proceed (Sometimes it will not ask, dont worry about that)
3. The configurations will be displayed.
4. Type "newtab" in the filter bar
5. It will show a string named "google.toolbar.newtab"
6. Double click that to set the value to false.

Behind the windows boot screen

2009-03-24T10:34:00.003+05:30

What's behind the booting process.
Are u very curious to know what windows is doing behind the boot screen.
There is a way to show it. But it wont show lots and lots of pages like Linux. It will show the things it does.

1. start->run
2. type "msconfig"
3. select "BOOT.INI" tab in the utility
4. check "/SOS" option
5. Click apply and restart.

Enjoy hacking the bootscreen

Disable opera from downloading torrent files automatically

2009-03-13T20:06:00.001+05:30

Opera browser is integrated with various features,such as inbuilt IRC chat room, bit torrent client etc.

So if an user wants to download the torrent file thro some other bittorrent client he cannot achieve it directly in opera. He/she cannot click the download torrent directly. They should use "save linked content as."

Inorder to disable the inbuilt bittorrent downloader permanently (U can always revert this) follow the steps,

1. Type "opera:config" in the address bar
2. Click on 'Bittorrent' from the listed options
3. Look for an option named "enable". uncheck it
4. Click save
5. Restart the browser

Freeze panes in a Excel sheet

2009-03-12T15:13:00.005+05:30

At time u may need to check the table's heading. But by default it will not be shown if u scroll down.
For that u need to freeze the panes.

Here I am giving the steps for Office 07.

1. Click on the row below the table heading or a row below the place where u want to freeze.

2. Goto view tab.

3. select freeze panes

4. In that select Freeze Panes.

U can also freeze a particular row or column.

The above is the original Sheet.

Below is the unfreezed one.

At last the use of freezing panes

Remove default header and footer from notepad

2009-03-09T17:02:00.002+05:30

While printing any document from notepad, It will automatically include the header as the file name and footer as the page number. At some times it may be annoying. U have to disable it every time while printing.

To disable it permanently u have to do a little trick in registry.
Follow these steps:
1. Start->run->regedit
2. Goto the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Notepad
3. In the right pane look for a key named "szHeader" and "szTrailer"
4. Double click on it and delete the default value contained in it and press ok.

Thats it, the header and footer will never be displayed while printing from notepad. If u want to restore it put the default value back into those keys.
default values are
szHeader - "&f"
szTrailer - "Page &p"

Happy printing.

Restore Windows' settings after a virus attack

2009-03-06T17:49:00.003+05:30

When viruses attacks ur system u'll be face problems in opening some windows programs, some of them are listed below.

Task manager - disabled
Registry editor - disabled
Command prompt - disabled
Run - disabled
Folder Options - disabled
Autorun on all Drives - enabled

To restore all these manually is tough, so we need a tool. U can also remove the virus using an antivirus. But will it restore the settings? not 100%. so we need to restore the settings first.

1.Download the tool given below and install it.
Smart virus removal tool

2.After installing open the tool.
3.It will be shown in the tray.
4.Double click the tray to open the main window.
5.Select "Restore windows Default Settings"
6. A dialog box will appear.
7. Check everthing in that and give "apply".
8.When u do this 3 or 4 times u can get rid of the restrictions imposed by the virus.

post ur comments.

Re enable task manager

2009-03-04T14:35:00.003+05:30

SSVICHOSST.EXE virus disables TASKmanager in a system. Some people can't be without task manager. Usually i'll start the taskmanager whenever i logon into my system inorder to close the unwanted processes running. There are many ways to get it back. I'll list out the wasier ways here.

1. If u re not familiar working with command prompt download any of the programs given below,
What is Running

Process monitor

Tune Up utilities

Remove the virus' process runnning in the system.( I can't exactly tell u which is a virus' process, cos there are more than 100 variants of a single virus. so each one will create a different file and it will make it run in the startup)

2. If u re familiar with command prompt read below.

goto command prompt
(start-> run -> cmd)

type "tasklist" (It will list out all the process running in the system)

Thats it. U have re enabled the task manager, but in a different form.

Enable help option in XP

2009-03-02T10:48:00.000+05:30

In ur computer, sometimes due to viruses U can’t find the Help option in the start menu.

There are many ways to make it work, But the easiest way is

start->run

type “hcp://” . If this doesn’t work, go to any browser and type this. U’ll get it.