20 things you didn't know about XP

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type ' gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care – some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exeuser32.dll, LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- justdouble click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad orEdit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at thecommand line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat.To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/ControlPanel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to haveadministrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder whenbrowser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ControlPanel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder youcan arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2006 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2007.

Enhanced Google™ Search

Google is clearly the best general-purpose search engine on the Web (seewww.pcmag.com/searchenginesBut most people don't use it to its best advantage. Do you just plug in a keyword or two and hope for the best? That may be the quickest way to search, but with more than 3 billion pages in Google's index, it's still a struggle to pare results to a manageable number.But Google is an remarkably powerful tool that can ease and enhance your Internet exploration. Google's search options go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and even its own programmers. Let's look at some of Google's lesser-known options.Syntax Search TricksUsing a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or characteristics of Web pages. Google has a fairly complete list of its syntax elements atwww.google.com/help/operators.html. Here are some advanced operators that can help narrow down your search results.Intitle: at the beginning of a query word or phrase (intitle:"Three Blind Mice") restricts your search results to just the titles of Web pages.Intext: does the opposite of intitle:, searching only the body text, ignoring titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is perfect when what you're searching for might commonly appear in URLs. If you're looking for the term HTML, for example, and you don't want to get results such aswww.mysite.com/index.html, you can enter intext:html.Link: lets you see which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you're interested in. For example, try typing inlink:http://www.pcmag.comTry using site: (which restricts results to top-level domains) with intitle: to find certain types of pages. For example, get scholarly pages about Mark Twain by searching for intitle:"Mark Twain"site:edu. Experiment with mixing various elements; you'll develop several strategies for finding the stuff you want more effectively. The site: command is very helpful as an alternative to the mediocre search engines built into many sites.Swiss Army GoogleGoogle has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature(www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra fun, try the query "Answer to life the universe and everything."Let Google help you figure out whether you've got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try "thre blund mise") and Google may suggest a proper spelling. This doesn't always succeed; it works best when the word you're searching for can be found in a dictionary. Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you're searching for "three blind mice," underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for "three blind mice.") You'll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.Suppose you want to contact someone and don't have his phone number handy. Google can help you with that, too. Just enter a name, city, and state. (The city is optional, but you must enter a state.) If a phone number matches the listing, you'll see it at the top of the search results along with a map link to the address. If you'd rather restrict your results, use rphonebook: for residential listings or bphonebook: for business listings. If you'd rather use a search form for business phone listings, try Yellow Search(www.buzztoolbox.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).Extended GooglingGoogle offers several services that give you a head start in focusing your search. Google Groups(http://groups.google.com)indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on Usenet. Google even helps you with your shopping via two tools: FroogleCODE(http://froogle.google.com),which indexes products from online stores, and Google CatalogsCODE(http://catalogs.google.com),which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the surface. You can get a complete list of Google's tools and services atwww.google.com/options/index.htmlYou're probably used to using Google in your browser. But have you ever thought of using Google outside your browser?Google Alert(www.googlealert.com)monitors your search terms and e-mails you information about new additions to Google's Web index. (Google Alert is not affiliated with Google; it uses Google's Web services API to perform its searches.) If you're more interested in news stories than general Web content, check out the beta version of Google News Alerts(www.google.com/newsalerts).This service (which is affiliated with Google) will monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail address and send you information about news stories that match your query. (Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax elements with Google News to limit the number of alerts you get.)Google on the telephone? Yup. This service is brought to you by the folks at Google Labs(http://labs.google.com),a place for experimental Google ideas and features (which may come and go, so what's there at this writing might not be there when you decide to check it out). With Google Voice Search(http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html),you dial the Voice Search phone number, speak your keywords, and then click on the indicated link. Every time you say a new search term, the results page will refresh with your new query (you must have JavaScript enabled for this to work). Remember, this service is still in an experimental phase, so don't expect 100 percent success.In 2002, Google released the Google API (application programming interface), a way for programmers to access Google's search engine results without violating the Google Terms of Service. A lot of people have created useful (and occasionally not-so-useful but interesting) applications not available from Google itself, such as Google Alert. For many applications, you'll need an API key, which is available free fromCODEwww.google.com/apis. See the figures for two more examples, and visitwww.pcmag.com/solutionsfor more.Thanks to its many different search properties, Google goes far beyond a regular search engine. Give the tricks in this article a try. You'll be amazed at how many different ways Google can improve your Internet searching.Online Extra: More Google TipsHere are a few more clever ways to tweak your Google searches.Search Within a TimeframeDaterange: (start date–end date). You can restrict your searches to pages that were indexed within a certain time period. Daterange: searches by when Google indexed a page, not when the page itself was created. This operator can help you ensure that results will have fresh content (by using recent dates), or you can use it to avoid a topic's current-news blizzard and concentrate only on older results. Daterange: is actually more useful if you go elsewhere to take advantage of it, because daterange: requires Julian dates, not standard Gregorian dates. You can find converters on the Web (such asCODEhttp://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.htmlexcl.gif No Active Links, Read the Rules - Edit by Ninja excl.gif), but an easier way is to do a Google daterange: search by filling in a form atwww.researchbuzz.com/toolbox/goofresh.shtml or www.faganfinder.com/engines/google.shtml. If one special syntax element is good, two must be better, right? Sometimes. Though some operators can't be mixed (you can't use the link: operator with anything else) many can be, quickly narrowing your results to a less overwhelming number.More Google API ApplicationsStaggernation.com offers three tools based on the Google API. The Google API Web Search by Host (GAWSH) lists the Web hosts of the results for a given query(www.staggernation.com/gawsh/).When you click on the triangle next to each host, you get a list of results for that host. The Google API Relation Browsing Outliner (GARBO) is a little more complicated: You enter a URL and choose whether you want pages that related to the URL or linked to the URL(www.staggernation.com/garbo/).Click on the triangle next to an URL to get a list of pages linked or related to that particular URL. CapeMail is an e-mail search application that allows you to send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with the text of your query in the subject line and get the first ten results for that query back. Maybe it's not something you'd do every day, but if your cell phone does e-mail and doesn't do Web browsing, this is a very handy address to know.

DoS in mobiles

Vulnerability Advisory
================

Remote SMS/MMS Denial of Service - "Curse Of Silence"
for Nokia S60 phones

URL
===
https://berlin.ccc.de/~tobias/cos/s60-curse-of-silence-advisory.txt

Video
====

https://berlin.ccc.de/~tobias/cos/s60-curse-of-silence-demo.avi


Affected Products
=============

All Nokia Series60 2.6, 2.8, 3.0, 3.1 devices, see detailed list at
the end of the document.

Requirements to Execute Attack
=======================

- MSISDN of the target
- mobile phone contract that allows sending of SMS messages
- (almost) any Nokia phone (or some other means of sending SMS
messages with TP-PID set to "Internet Electronic Mail")

Risk Level
========

Medium (for S60 2.8 and 3.1 devices): Target will not be able to
receive any SMS or MMS messages while the attack is ongoing. After
that, only very limited message receiving is possible until the device
is Factory Resetted

High (for S60 2.6 and 3.0 devices): Target will not be able to receive
any SMS or MMS messages until the device is Factory Resetted

Summary
=======

Emails can be sent via SMS by setting the messages Protocol Identifier
to "Internet Electronic Mail" and formatting the message like this:
<email-address><space><message body>

If such messages contain an <email-address> with more than 32
characters, S60 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 and 3.1 devices are not able to receive
other SMS or MMS messages anymore. 2.6 and 3.0 devices lock up after
only one message, 2.8 and 3.1 devices after 11 messages.

Details
=====

3GPP TS 23.040 specifies a method for sending emails via SMS in
section 3.8 ("SMS and Internet Electronic Mail interworking"). In its
most basic form, such a SMS message starts with the from- (MT-SMS) or
to-email-address (MO-SMS), followed by a space character, and then the
message body. The TP-Procotol-Identifier of the SMS message has to be
set to "Internet Electronic Mail" (value: 50 / 0x32).

It is not specified how such a message should be displayed when
received by the phone. Before S60 2.6, Series60 devices displayed such
messages exactly as they were sent. Starting with S60 2.6, when the
part of the message that should contain the from-address looks
anything like an email address (i.e. it contains an "@" somewhere),
this address is then displayed as the message sender instead of the
usually shown TP-Originating-Address.

If this email address is longer than 32 characters, Series60 2.6, 2.8,
3.0 and 3.1 devices fail to display the message or give any indication
on the user interface that such a message has been received. They do,
however, signal to the SMSC that they received the message by sending
an RP-ACK.

Devices running S60 2.6 or 3.0 will not be able to receive any other
SMS message after that. The user interface does not give any
indication of this situation. The only action to remedy this situation
seems to be a Factory Reset of the device (by entering "*#7370#").

Devices running S60 2.8 or 3.1 react a little different: They do not
lock up until they received at least 11 SMS-email messages with an
email address that is longer than 32 characters. The device will not
be able to receive any other SMS message after that - upon receiving
the next message, the phone will just display a warning that there is
not enough memory to receive further messages and that data should be
deleted first. This message is even displayed on an otherwise
completely "empty" device.

After switching the phone off and on again, it has limited capability
for receiving SMS messages again: If it receives a SMS message that is
split up into several parts (3GPP TS 23.040, 9.2.3.24.1 Concatenated
Short Messages) it is only able to receive the first part and will
display the "not enough memory" warning again. After powercycling the
device again, it can then receive the second part. If there is a third
part, it has to be powercycled again, and so on.

Also, an attacker now just needs to send one more "Curse Of Silence"
message to lock the phone up again. By always sending yet another one
as soon as the status report for delivery of the previous message is
received, the attacker could completely prevent a target from
receiving any other SMS/MMS messages.

Only Factory Resetting the device will restore its full message
receiving capabilities. Note that, if a backup is made using Nokia
PC-Suite *after* being attacked, the blocking messages are also
backuped and will be sent to the device again when restoring the
backup after the Factory Reset.

Note that not being able to receive SMS messages also means not being
able to receive MMS messages, since they are signalled by sending an
SMS message to the device.

"Curse Of Silence" messages can be generated with any phone or
cellular modem that supports 3GPP TS 27.005 AT commands and with most
Nokia phones also directly from the user interface. For example, on
S60 devices, when in the message editor, the type of the message can
be switched to "E-mail" under "Options" -> "Sending options" ->
"Message sent as". The 6310i conveniently offers a "Write email" menu
entry in the messaging menu.

The simplest form of content for a Curse Of Silence would be something
like "123456789@123456789.1234567890123 " (the digits are used only to
illustrate the length of the "email address" of more than 32
characters). Note the space at the end of the message!

Workaround
=========
None known for the user side.
Until a firmware fix is available, network operators should filter
messages with TP-PID "Internet Electronic Mail" and an email address
of more than 32 characters or reset the TP-PID of these messages to 0.

Tobias Engel <tobias@ccc.de>
November 9, 2008

Many thanks to Frank Rieger for spending countless hours cutting and
editing the video.

Detailed List of Affected Products
========================

Tested on several S60 2.6, 3.0 and 3.1 devices. Since the vulnerable
component is a S60 base functionality, it seems safe to assume that
all devices with these OS versions are affected.

S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 (S60 3.1):
Nokia E90 Communicator
Nokia E71 Nokia E66 Nokia E51 Nokia N95 8GB Nokia N95
Nokia N82 Nokia N81 8GB Nokia N81 Nokia N76 Nokia 6290
Nokia 6124 classic Nokia 6121 classic Nokia 6120 classic
Nokia 6110 Navigator Nokia 5700 XpressMusic
S60 3rd Edition, initial release (S60 3.0):
Nokia E70 Nokia E65 Nokia E62 Nokia E61i Nokia E61 Nokia E60
Nokia E50 Nokia N93i Nokia N93 Nokia N92 Nokia N91 8GB Nokia N91
Nokia N80 Nokia N77 Nokia N73 Nokia N71 Nokia 5500 Nokia 3250
S60 2nd Edition, Feature Pack 3 (S60 2.8):
Nokia N90 Nokia N72 Nokia N70
S60 2nd Edition, Feature Pack 2 (S60 2.6):
Nokia 6682 Nokia 6681 Nokia 6680 Nokia 6630

Change History
===========
December 30, 2008:Removed auth details since they are no longer required
December 21, 2008:Corrected version numbers for S60 2nd Edition
December 13, 2008:S60 2.8 devices react like S60 3.1 devices, not like S60 2.6 or 3.0
devices

Free sms using reliance SMART(GSM Conn.)

For this tricks, you need an Exp Sim of Reliance.
Now on SMS SETTINGS
1>Service centre No:- +919863002222
2>Validity period:- Maximum
3>Message type:- Text
4>Reply path:- Off
5>Delivery report:- Off
Note:- Your balance Must be Zero......

Free BSNL GPRS

BSNL FREE GPRS:-
Just activate ur BSNL GPRS n use with this setting.
IP:10.100.3.2
APN:wapwest.cellone.in
Port:9201

Cool tricks for free messaging using BSNL prepaid

JUST DO THIS ND UR DONE....
SELECT IN-DOLPHIN NETWORK BY GOING TO MANUAL NETWORK SELECTION
CHANGE UR MESSAGE CENTRE NO TO +9194173999979
NOW STOP DELIVERY REPORT BY GOING TO MESSEGES SETTING NOW UR DONE..
NJOY THE PARTY.....
NOTE MES CENTRE NO IS OF 13 DIGIT INSTEAD OF DEFAULT 12 DIGIT

KERELA BSNL FREE MSG CENTRE NO.­- +919441099998