Recover deleted partitions with TESTDISK

TestDisk is OpenSource software and is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

TestDisk is powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

I recommend you to read and know what testdisk can do or for the impatient, jump to Step by step instructions to recover the partition

TestDisk can

• Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
• Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
• Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
• Fix FAT tables
• Rebuild NTFS boot sector
• Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
• Fix MFT using MFT mirror
• Locate ext2/ext3/ext4 Backup SuperBlock
• Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
• Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

Operating systems

TestDisk can run under

• DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),
• Windows (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Windows 7 (x86 & x64),
• Linux,
• FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
• SunOS and
• MacOS X

TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems:

• BeFS ( BeOS )
• BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
• CramFS, Compressed File System
• DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
• Windows exFAT
• HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
• JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
• Linux ext2, ext3 and ext4
• Linux LUKS encrypted partition
• Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2
• RAID 1: mirroring
• RAID 4: striped array with parity device
• RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
• RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
• Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
• LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
• Mac partition map
• Novell Storage Services NSS
• NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
• ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
• Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
• Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
• XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

Next Step : Step by step instructions 

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Check & compare MD5 sum of files to verify them

Have you ever downloaded a file from somewhere on the web and seen details of an MD5 check sum associated with it? And have you then wondered what on earth it means and what you're supposed to do with it?

Well, very briefly, the MD5 algorithm takes a file and calculates a unique check sum value for that file. If you have the check sum value (as posted on the website you got the file from, say), you can then test a copy of the file to ensure that the copy is not corrupt. You do this by applying the MD5 algorithm to your copy of the file and comparing the result with the original check sum. If they match, you can be pretty sure that your copy is valid. If they don't well, throw away the file and go and get a new copy.

Anyway, winMd5Sum is a neat little application from Nullriver Software that let's you calculate MD5 sum values. And as applications go, the interface couldn't be any simpler to use:

Just enter the path to the file you want to calculate an MD5 sum for and then click Calculate. Use cut and paste to enter the original MD5 sum – as provided by the file's creator – and then click Compare. winMd5Sum will tell you whether or not the check sums match!

There's not much to this application as you can see. However, it is so easy to use and so useful that it is a must have utility – especially as it is free!

MD5SUM explained

In cryptography, MD5 (Message-Digest algorithm 5) is a widely used cryptographic hash function with a 128-bit hash value. Specified in RFC 1321, MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications, and is also commonly used to check the integrity of files. However, it has been shown that MD5 is not collision resistant; as such, MD5 is not suitable for applications like SSL certificates or digital signatures that rely on this property. An MD5 hash is typically expressed as a 32-digit hexadecimal number

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How to setup Google DNS on Windows 7 and Windows XP

What is a DNS server?

DNS stuff can get pretty complicated, and I don’t want to go into details, so I’ll just give you a general idea. A DNS server is like a phone book. If you want to call someone using your phone, you may need to look up their phone number. Every website on the net has a 12 digit number (IP Address) that your PC needs to know in order to contact it. When you type a website name into a browser, your PC queries it’s assigned DNS server (the phone book), the DNS server reports the IP address (the phone number) back to your PC, and the PC initiates a connection with the site you requested. This all happens automatically and you really don’t need to know about DNS to use it. Most people are using a private DNS server that’s assigned by their Internet Service Provider, however, there are many open (public) DNS servers out there that anyone can use. Google’s new DNS server is only one among thousands.

Why would you want to use Google’s Public DNS?

Google DNS service is faster, more secure and fairly private. Personally, I prefer OpenDNS, but that’s a topic for another time.

And now – on to the “How to” portion to setup google public DNS in xp and Win 7

Set up Google Public DNS on Windows XP

1. Print this out if you are concerned that you won’t remember the details. You could lose your internet connection if something doesn’t go well. You can reverse any changes you make here by following these steps.

2. Open up the Control Panel and click “Network and Internet Connections”.

2. Then click “Network Connections”.

4. Select your active internet connection and right click on it.

5. Select the TCP/IP service in the list and then click on the Properties button.

6. Look for the DNS section. If there are already numbers listed in there, be sure to write them down so that you can put things back the way they were if Google’s DNS doesn’t work out for you. If the “obtain automatically” button is filled, select the “use the following” button. Then enter in these two numbers – ( 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ) – into the DNS section as shown. Click OK to finish up.

7. Open command prompt and run command "ipconfig/flushDNS" as shown in screenshot

8. Clear your browsers cache

9. Open up your web browser and surf around awhile. If you aren’t getting anywhere, try a reboot.

Set up Google Public DNS on Windows 7

1. Print this out if you are concerned that you won’t remember the details. You could lose your internet connection if something doesn’t go well. You can reverse any changes you make here by following these steps.

2. Open up the Control Panel, then select “Network and Internet”.

3. Select “Network and Sharing Center”.

4. Select “Change adapter settings”.

5. Right click on your current internet connection and choose “Properties”.

6. Select the “TCP/IPv4” service in the list, then click the “Properties” button.

7. Look for the DNS section. If there are already numbers listed in there, be sure to write them down so that you can put things back the way they were if Google’s DNS doesn’t work out for you. If the “obtain automatically” button is filled, select the “use the following” button. Then enter in these two numbers – ( 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 ) – into the DNS section as shown. Click OK to finish up.

8. Open command prompt and run command "ipconfig/flushDNS" as shown in screenshot

9. Clear your browsers cache


10. Open up your web browser and surf around awhile. If you aren’t getting anywhere, try a reboot.

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Changing DNS settings in one click with DNS jumper v1.0.4

If you don’t know what a DNS is, or how to access your DNS settings, I recommend that you read an article : How to setup Google DNS on Windows 7 and Windows XP

If you already know what DNS is, then you might get a real kick out of DNS Jumper.

DNS Jumper is a freeware, portable and small application that aids the user by providing a one-click system to change DNS servers. The application displays a list of DNS servers that can be activated with the click of the mouse button. Available DNS server range from Google DNS over Open DNS to Ultra DNS, Level 3, Open NIC to the default DNS server of the system.

Here’s what it looks like:

New version of dns jumper is stable , flexible , and has more function , the most important is ; dns jumper is no longer beta (v1.0.4 is first stable release) , v1.0.4 has no problem with x64 architecture

What’s new: 
1. [ Fixed ] – Antivirus “False Positive” Problems (No UPX and No more False Positive)
2. [ Fixed ] – Doesn’t work on some Vista / windows 7
3. [ Fixed ] – Doesn’t work on some x64 systems
4. [ Fixed ] – Doesn’t work on PE (Preinstalled) Environment
5. [ Fixed ] – Doesn’t recognise some Wlan Cards
6. Update function added (Press i - info button and then press Update check button)

7. Backup and restore added (if Dns jumper v1.0.4 First time run, Automatically back up your dns settings) , if you want to restore your settings select Restore (under choose a free DNS Service) and Press apply button

8. Languages preinstalled
9. fastest DNS – a bit improved
10. More Dns (17 to 32) 15 new
11. No problem with USB modems (till now)
12. cmd suport added such as

13. if dns jumper doesn’t recognise your Network card (very rare) can still change dns server settings (choose all Network Cards and press Apply dns button)
14. German Language added
15. a few minor visual changes

- you can add your own language (just edit DnsJumper.ini )
- You can add or delete your own Dns server
- You can cusotmize Dns manually
- You can clear/ flush Dns cache with one click
- Program tests dns ip`s and measure the reaction time
- Fastest dns button test dns reaction times and write the Best one

CRC32: 4703E887
MD5: 35E94061CA67104D2B01EFF076384384
SHA-1: 50F16FEED61CB948360BC81974DE57579023FB81

After downloading, unpack the file and check the MD5 Hash of the file. I recommend you to read this article on How to check and compare MD5 sum of files to verify them. 


Changing DNS servers is therefor a breeze with DNS Jumper

Source and credit : http://www.sordum.com/?p=4573

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How To Speed Up Torrents with Low Seeders

Here’s a ridiculously easy tip to squeeze out as many users as you can on a dead or dying torrent. It’s particularly handy when a torrent stops near the end, and/or the seed count is listed as zero. Having said that, I’ve also noticed that it helps to increase download speeds from healthy torrents, as well.

NOTE: Do not attempt this trick with private torrents - it possibly might get you banned from the tracker. Use this tip with torrents you find at Isohunt, TPB, Vertor, KickAssTorrents, etc.

How it works:

Simple. Just copy/paste the list of public trackers into your torrent’s tracker list.

http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce

http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce

http://tracker.ilibr.org:6969/announce

udp://tracker.publicbt.com:80/announce

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80/announce

udp://tracker.ilibr.org:6969/announce

http://nemesis.1337x.org/announce

http://genesis.1337x.org:1337/announce

http://exodus.1337x.org/announce

http://fr33dom.h33t.com:3310/announce

http://www.h33t.com:3310/announce

http://denis.stalker.h3q.com:6969/announce

http://tracker.torrent.to:2710/announce

http://bt.rghost.net/announce

http://pow7.com:80/announce

http://tracker.ex.ua:80/announce

http://tracker.torrentbay.to:6969/announce

http://bt1.the9.com:6969/announce

http://bt6.the9.com:6969/announce

http://linuxoid.in:4443/announce

http://tracker.torrentbox.com:2710/announce

http://mixfiend.com:6969/announce

http://sombarato.org:6969/announce

http://dl.viewcave.com:4425/announce

http://tracker.hdbbt.com:6969/announce

http://3dfreedom.ru:6969/announce

http://bt.rutor.org:2710/announce

http://opensharing.org:2710/announce

http://umunu.com:1984/announce

Applying the trackers to uTorrent:

In particular, this is a ‘µTorrent-compatible’ list, so that’s where I’ll show the example.

Open µTorrent, and right-click on the suspiciously-slow torrent. Select "Properties…".

In the first window box, the "General" tab should be open, and there should already be a list of existing trackers (or perhaps just one). ‘Copy’ the list from above, and ‘paste’ them into the window.

You should now be left with what looks like this (see below) - be certain that there’s a blank space (line) between each tracker in the list. Click "OK" to save the changes. No need to restart uTorrent; if the torrent is already ’started’ (ie - active), it will automatically update and thus look for the new trackers.

If there are ANY public users on that torrent, you’ll be sure to find them.

TIPS:

• Publicly-accessible trackers come and go - some may appear down; others will time out, go temporarily offline, or outright disappear altogether. For these reasons there truly is no definitive list of working trackers at any given time. However, there are available resources you can refer to in order to stay updated, such as:

* - http://bitsnoop.com/trackers/ — Offers a current list of the top 500 most popular trackers. Note that many entries in the list are private and thus will not work in public torrents.

* - Check out the tracker list in popular new torrents — For example, at KickAssTorrents visitors can view the current list of online trackers in the torrents. To do this, simply ‘click into’ a torrent’s details page, then click the tab called ‘Locations’.

• When browsing torrents, try to use magnet links whenever possible (requires DHT=enabled). Most torrent indexers now support magnet links. After a torrent has been added, you may then manually add the list of trackers from above.

• In uTorrent, enable as many ‘connectability’ options as possible - such as DHT, UDP, Peer Exchange, Peer Discovery, Tracker Scrape and Encryption Enabled (refer to the screenshot of uTorrent 2.0.4 below).

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How to drive traffic by google image search?

In the search to find the best ways to promote or drive traffic to your site, Google Image Search is often overlooked. While ranking for terms in Google Image Search is unlikely to ever bring you massive amounts of traffic a la Digg or StumbleUpon, the steps to optimize your images for Google Image Search are extremely simple, and the traffic gains you do make more than make up for the effort. 

The first two steps are more SEO 'common sense' than anything else--they should always be performed in order to include extra keywords in your content so that you'll provide more context for your pages. In addition to being common sense for general SEO, they are an absolute necessity for good results in the Google Image Search.

Steps to Optimize Your Images for Google Image Search

1. Use Descriptive Filenames - A filename can present you with your first chance to include keywords in your images. Title the image with a word or short phrase which describes what is in the image. For example, rather than using a camera-assigned filename such as DSC05443.jpg, use a filename like barry-schwartz-chris-boggs-daron-babin-SES-chicago.jpg. Notice the way that I have used a dash (-) between the words in the title - this is commonly interpreted by Google as a space in the filename. This is the most search engine friendly way of labeling images.
2. Use the alt tag! - the alt tag in your image link code will allow you to include some more keywords describing your image. Additionally, the alt tag text will be displayed by Google Image Search in place of the filename in each search result. Therefore, use that as well when linking your code. Here is an example for the example image we are using: <img src="/images/barry-schwartz-chris-boggs-daron-babin-SES-chicago.jpg" alt="Barry Schwartz, Chris Boggs and Daron Babin at SES Chicago" />
3. Get Included in Google Image Labeler - The Google Image Labeler is a game in which you and a partner collaborate to write tags for images presented. You receive points when you both submit matching tags. The matching tags are then assigned to the images, and taken into consideration for the Google Image Search search results. In order to ensure that your images are included, access your Google Webmaster Central account, and go to the management page for your site. In the left hand bar, you will see an link which says ‘Enhanced Image Search’. Clicking this link will present you with the option to opt-in to the Enhanced Image Search features. This option signifies to Google that you are allowing them to use tools such as the Image Labeler to assist in the indexing of the images on your site.

These steps will help ensure that you can get your images ranking in the Google Image Search. As I said above, GIS is not likely to drive nearly as much traffic as many other means; at the same time, the steps to optimize for GIS are quite simple.


Source :  http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/using-google-image-search-to-drive-traffic-to-your-site

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How to update Dynamic IP changes to multiples services on DD-WRT opensource router?

The goal of this article to is update dynamic IP with multiple service providers from network router.

Multiple Service Providers :

• OpenDNS : We are using OpenDNS Basic on our network. It offers web content filtering, proxy / anonymizer blocking, whitelist / blacklist,  phishing protection, botnet protection, Two weeks detailed stat, typo correction, shortcuts and web based administration for free. In short - simple, safer and faster internet experience. 

• DynDNS : DynDNS service allows you to point a hostname (like myname.dyndns.org) to a dynamic IP address, so that when you type in myname.dyndns.org, it will always resolve to your IP address regardless of whether it changes.

Router : Netgear WNR-3500L flashed with dd-wrt (v24-sp2)

DD-WRT is a Linux based alternative OpenSource firmware suitable for a great variety
of WLAN routers and embedded systems. The main emphasis lies on providing the easiest possible handling while at the same time supporting a great number of functionalities within the framework of the respective hardware platform used. More articles on this to follow. 

DD-WRT uses inadyn client to update DDNS (Dynamic DNS) with any one service provider. But in our case we need to update multiple service providers simultaneously. To achieve this we make use of a third party service called DNS-O-Matic.

• DNS-O-Matic is a free service from OpenDNS and easy way to announce your dynamic IP changes to multiple services with a single update. Using DNS-O-Matic allows you to pick and choose what Dynamic DNS services you want to notify, all from one easy to use interface.

DD-WRT uses inadyn so the settings are:

DDNS Service: Custom
DYNDNS Server: updates.dnsomatic.com
Username: your username
Password: your password
Hostname: all.dnsomatic.com
URL: /nic/update?

Note on  DNS-O-Matic

1. Supports 29 service providers . More : https://www.dnsomatic.com/wiki/supportedservices
2. API tool for developers
3. Client software for Windows, MAC and Linux : https://www.dnsomatic.com/wiki/software 
4. Works with hardware supporting TOMATO and DD-WRT firmware.

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Promoting Your Blog

This is in no way a science or guarantee; it's simply a few suggestions with which many bloggers have found success.
Set your blog to Send Pings. When this setting is activated, your blog will be included in various "recently updated" lists on the web as well as other blog-related services.
Activate Your Navbar. Do this and you might start to see the effects right away! One of the features on the Blogger Navbar is a button called NextBlog - click it to visit the next Navbar-enabled blog.
Install Email This Post. If you use Email This Post on your blog, people will be able to forward your posts to friends. This may not have an immediate impact on your site stats but it enables others to publicize your blog for you.
Turn on Post Pages. By publishing every post as its very own web page with Post Pages, you ensure that your entries are way more link-able and more attractive to search engines.
Turn on your site feed. When people subscribe to your site feed in their newsreaders, they're very likely going to read your post.
Add your blog to Blogger's listings. When you add your blog to our listings it shows up in Nextblog, Recently Updated, and other places. It's like opting-in to traffic.
Write quality content and do it well. If your "style" is bad writing, worse grammar, no punctuation, and an ugly design, that might be okay for a niche crowd. But the idea here is to achieve mass appeal, so fix yourself up a bit.
Publish regular updates. Simple: the more you blog, the more traffic you'll get.
Think of your audience. A good way to build an audience is to speak to one in particular. When you keep your audience in mind, your writing gains focus. Focus goes a long way toward repeat visitors.
Keep search engines in mind. There are a few things you can do to make your blog more search engine friendly. Use post titles and post page archiving. This will automatically give each of your post pages an intelligent name based on the title of your post. Also, try to be descriptive when you blog. A well crafted post about something very specific can end up very near the top results of a search.
Keep your posts and paragraphs short. Strive for succinct posts that pump pertinent new information into the blogosphere and move on. Keep it short and sweet so visitors can pop in, read up, and click on.
Put your blog URL in your email signature. Think of how many forwarded emails you've seen in your day, and just imagine the possibilities.
Sumbit your address to blog search sites and directories. People look for blog content at Technorati every day, are you on their list? You should be. Submit your blog's url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex, Popdex, and any other site of that ilk you come across.
Link to other blogs. Links are the currency of the blogosphere and it takes money to make money so start linking.
Install a blogroll. It's a very simple yet effective social networking scheme and it has the same result as a simple link if not stronger: traffic! So if you don't have one yet, sign up for a blogroll and get that link-list going.
Be an active commenter. This is in the same vein as linking. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least. So if you feel inspired, leave a comment or two in your blog travels. It behooves you.
Enable Following on your blog. Following a is a great way to keep your friends updated on the latest activity on your blog. New blogs will have this blog feature enabled by default, but for older blogs you will have to enable it from the Layout | Page Elements tab.


Source : http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42377

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Always on Top: Keep Any Window Visible Always

 Let's say you are browsing the web in Firefox and simultaneously watching a video in Windows Movie Player or QuickTime. The problem is that if you switch to Firefox, the media player window moves to background and vice-versa.


If you would like to prevent that video clip from hiding even while you bring the browser to the foreground, you may download "Always on Top" – a free utility that will "stick" any program window to the foreground of your desktop with a simple keyboard shortcut. Some examples:

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