HTTP Status codes explained

Different Types of HTTP Status Codes

What is an HTTP status code and why should you care about them, if you have a website or a blog?

Whenever you enter the address of a webpage in your browser’s address bar, the browser requests data from the server where the page is originally hosted. The web server returns the data but before the browser receives and renders the data at the clients end, an HTTP header is returned by the web server that has the status code of the given page.

In general, HTTP status codes are not meant for human visitors but both desktop and mobile browsers use this information to know more about the present condition of the webpage in question. If the page is in a healthy state, the HTTP status code returned should be a 200 OK. If the page has been moved to a new address, the HTTP status code should be 301 and so on.

There are lots of different HTTP status codes in place and the following table should explain what are the different types of HTTP header responses and their purpose in brief detail:

HTTP Status code	Type	Description	Link Juice
Redirected
300	Redirection	The server is waiting for an action from the user so that it can fetch a new resource	Depends
301*	Redirected	The old page has permanently moved to a new web address	Carried
302	Redirected	The old page has temporary moved to a new location but the user should continue using the old URL later	Not carried
303	Conditional redirection	The user is requested to do some action (GET request) so that the current page may redirect to another resource. The GET request
is conditional.	Not carried
304	Conditional redirection	The user has performed some action (conditional GET request) but the current page was not modified.	Not carried
305	Redirected	The user can only access the requested page using a proxy.	Not carried
306	Redirected	The server is fetching the page from another location but it will soon fetch the page from its older source. This status code is rarely used over a 302.	Not carried
Successful
200 **	Success	The server has processed the webpage correctly.	Carried
201	Success	The server has processed the requested page and created a new page or resource during the request.	Depends
202	Partial success	The server has received the request for the webpage and is currently processing it.	Carried
203	Partial success	The server has received the request for the webpage and it is waiting for a resource from another page.	Carried
204	Partial success	The server processed the request for the webpage but no content has been returned due to an error.	Carried
205	Partial success	Same as 204 but this time the server is waiting for the user to complete a specific action.	Carried
206	partial Success	The server received a partial GET request from the user.	Carried
Request Errors
400	Fail	Wrong syntax sent by the user	Not carried
401	Authentication required	The page is behind a login and/or requires an authentication from the user.	Not carried
403 ***	Forbidden	The server denied the request.	Not carried
404	Page does not exist	The requested page is not found on the server.	Not carried
405	Not allowed	The server is not allowing any request to the page for this user.	Not carried
406	Not allowed	The server can’t respond to the request at this time.	Not carried
407	Proxy required	The resource must be requested via a proxy.	Not carried
408	Timed out	The server timed out performing the request.	Not carried
409	Conflict	The user’s action has given rise to a conflict of resource.	Not carried
410 #	Permanently removed	The page has been permanently removed from the server.	Not carried
Server Errors
500	Internal Server error	The server is facing issues with some internal configuration and thus unable to fulfill the request at this time	Not carried
501	Not recognized	The server is not equipped to understand the type of request sent	Not carried
502	Bad gateway	While fulfilling the current request, the server received an incorrect response from its upstream server	Not carried
503	Server not available	The server is facing downtime or is currently unavailable	Not carried
504	Gateway timeout	The server is acting as a gateway or a proxy server to another resource and didnt received a timely request from the user	Not carried
505	Server does not support protocol	The server is not configured to support the HTTP protocol version that is used in the request	Not carried

* This is the only way to tell search engines that your old page has moved to a new location and the newer URL should be re-crawled and re-indexed. Only this server header preserves link juice and Google Pagerank but remember that if the page is part of a redirect chain, a considerable portion of the PR may be lost overtime.

** This should be normally the HTTP status code returned by a webpage if it’s static in nature and needs no GET request from the user.

*** If any of your pages return a 403 HTTP status code, it means that your web server denied the request of the page to Googlebot and human visitors. A possible case is when your web host is facing downtimes or it is blocking spiders and search bots from accessing some parts of your website, so you should be careful about it.

# This is similar to a 404 error but the standard practice is to 301 redirect the missing page to it’s newer location. If the page has no new location, it is recommended to return a 410. If you have temporarily removed the page from the server, use a 503 instead.

Boost Weak Cell Service at Home: Your Options

Boost Weak Cell Service at Home: Your Options

Even the best wireless networks often can't deliver a consistent signal inside your house. Femtocells and repeaters will usually help, but they'll cost you.

The problem is familiar to many cell phone users: When you're indoors, even within your carrier's coverage area, the network's signal sometimes simply isn't strong enough to support voice calls or data services. With so many consumers ditching their landlines for cell phones, poor reception at home is no longer acceptable. Fortunately, a slew of products now address the problem, though they don't come cheap.

Ssignal-boosting products generally fall into one of two categories: femtocells or signal repeaters. Both types of equipment can deliver strong signals within buildings, but they work in fundamentally different ways.

Femtocells act as miniature cell phone towers that connect to a home network router and use your wired broadband connection to move voice calls and data services to and from your carrier's network. Femtocells don't rely on the carrier's towers at all, but because they use technology that can direct data and calls back to the carrier networks over the Internet, most of them are sold by the carriers themselves.

Repeaters and boosters, on the other hand, amplify and rebroadcast cell tower signals. Since they don't require carrier support, they tend to be manufactured and sold by third parties such as Wi-Ex (under the brand name ZBoost) and Wilson Electronics.
Understanding Femtocells

While repeaters have been around for several years, femtocells are relative newcomers to the mobile scene. Of the four major U.S. carriers, two--Sprint and Verizon--have been selling femtocells (under the brand names Airave and Network Extender, respectively) for the past few years; AT&T introduced its 3G MicroCell femtocell last year.

The first Sprint and Verizon Wireless femtocells supported only voice calls, but current models support high-speed data as well as voice. Sprint charges $130 for its Airave access point (with a two-year service plan); there's no additional charge for using Airave to enhance coverage with an existing plan, but Sprint does offer a $25-a-month unlimited calling plan for Airave calls--which might appeal to anyone who is considering dropping landline voice service. Current Airave access points support EvDO Rev. A 3G data speeds and up to six simultaneous calls.

Verizon Wireless charges $250 for its Network Extender, which also supports 3G data, and the carrier imposes no monthly service fee. AT&T sells the MicroCell for $150, also with no mandatory service fee; it also offer an optional $20-a-month unlimited calling plan, plus price breaks for customers who sign up for the company's DSL service.

The Beauty of the Femtocell

AT&T's 3G MicroCell, made by Cisco.

Femtocells appeal to consumers and carriers on several levels. Consumers like them because they provide immediate five-bar coverage across an area of up to 2500 square feet, regardless of how far you are from a cell phone tower. A strong signal typically means better voice quality, fewer dropped calls, and faster data speeds. Good signals also improve a phone's battery life, since its radios don't have to work as hard.

Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate within a licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network via residential DSL or cable broadband connections.

Another benefit: You can configure the femtocell to recognize and prioritize the phones you authorize, so neighbors can't mooch off your service at your expense. Interestingly, Verizon Wireless's FAQ for its Network Extender says that, though you can prioritize up to 50 Verizon Wireless numbers, the device will remain available to all Verizon Wireless subscribers within range when priority numbers aren't using it.

This brings us to a big reason why wireless providers like femtocells: They offload some of the expense that the carriers might otherwise incur in order to expand network capacity and/or coverage. Femtocells also help retain customers in locations where carriers can't significantly improve reception on their own (such as basements, suburbs that don't want new cell towers, locales with difficult topography such as steep hills and valleys, and skyscrapers with thick walls). In fact, forum posts indicate that Sprint has occasionally given customers Airave units to keep them from switching to another carrier.


Femtocell Weaknesses

Price aside, femtocells have some limitations. For one thing, you can use a femtocell only at the address where it is registered. To enforce that restriction, the FCC stipulates that all femtocells must be equipped with GPS receivers, and that they either must be placed close enough to a window to receive GPS signals directly or must be connected to a GPS antenna that can pick up the signals.

David Nowicki, marketing vice president for femtocell vendor Airvana and for the Femto Forum trade association, says that the FCC imposed the location restriction to enable carriers to track the femtocell's position and disable its operation in areas where the carrier doesn't own the frequencies that the femtocell supports and where, consequently, using the femtocell might interfere with another carrier's network. Even so, forum posts suggest that femtocells sometimes hurt neighbors' regular network reception when deployed in close proximity.

Then again, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that femtocells are aware of their location. That, coupled with the device's ability to recognize when an authorized phone is nearby, could enable carriers to offer customers additional services that go beyond improving reception, including 911 services.

Network handoff issues are another concern. You can start a call on femtocell service and then hand it off to the regular network as you leave the femtocell's coverage area (assuming that the nearest cell tower is close enough). But calls initiated on the regular network can't be handed off to a femtocell.

And finally, critics complain about having to pay for a service that essentially deliver what the wireless network is supposed to have provided all along. "It's a fair point," Nowicki concedes. But carrier spokespeople say that no carrier can provide coverage in all locations of its service area. Verizon Wireless spokesperson Thomas Pica describes the Network Extender as a "niche product," given that the vast majority of Verizon customers don't need one because of the carrier's robust network.

What about the broadband ISP that now gets to carry the wireless carrier's traffic? Nowicki says that the bandwidth consumption of mobile devices is tiny compared to that of most home and office networks. For that reason, femtocells don't impose a significant burden on the ISP, which in some cases is run by the same company as the mobile carrier anyway.
T-Mobile’s Approach

T-Mobile has taken a different approach to improving weak cell signals. Phones that support Wi-Fi Calling use UMA (Unified Mobile Access) technology to route calls over Wi-Fi hotspots. T-Mobile notes that this helps with calls made through any hotspot that its phones can access, and not just at a single location (which is the case with femtocells). However, T-Mobile's Android phones can't hand off calls made using Wi-Fi hotspots to T-Mobile's cellular network; other phones that support Wi-Fi Calling can. T-Mobile has no announced plans to introduce femtocells, but a spokesperson says that the carrier continues to review customer equipment options for improving coverage.


Repeaters and Boosters

Repeaters (also called "boosters")--the other class of products designed to improve poor cell reception--depend on at least a weak cell tower signal to amplify and rebroadcast. They work with specific frequencies, independent of carrier; some support more than one frequency. On the frequencies they support, repeaters improve both voice calls and data speeds.




Many repeaters have multiple parts, starting with an antenna that you place as close as possible to the strongest cell tower signal--typically, near a window or even outdoors. The antenna transmits signals over a cable connected to an amplifier, which boosts the signal and retransmits it indoors. In some cases, the amplifier and indoor antenna are integrated; in others, the amplifier hooks up to a separate, centrally located indoor antenna in the home or office. The area of coverage depends on the strength of the amplifier and of the signal being amplified.

Unlike femtocells, repeaters can't be configured to recognize specific phones. Consequently, the amplified signals benefit any mobile device within range that operates on the supported frequencies--though obviously the owner's devices are more likely to benefit than a neighbor's devices located farther away from the indoor antenna. It's up to you (with the help of your reseller) to ensure that your repeater kit amplifies the frequency or frequencies that your carrier uses in your area. You can get help in choosing the right repeater kit from specialty retailers such as wpsantennas.com or RepeaterStore.
Repeaters Don’t Come Cheap

Repeater kits can be more expensive than femtocells. Pricing depends on how large an area you want to cover. Wi-Ex's ZBoost line includes SoHo products that range in price from $169 to $399, and you can spend up to $600 for kits that cover areas larger than 2500 feet--the maximum handled by femtocells. On the other hand, Wi-Ex marketing vice president Sharon Cupett notes, there are no monthly fees for repeaters--and of course, no broadband service is involved.

Though repeaters rebroadcast over carrier-owned frequencies, they are legal if they don't interfere with cell tower signals (which is why repeater signals have limited strength). One way to avoid problems is to look for FCC-certified repeaters; some are still awaiting approval, however. Check with the reseller.
Repeater vs. Femtocell

Should you get a repeater or a femtocell? Generally, femtocells are a good match for cell phone customers with broadband service who don't want to pay $300 or more for equivalent repeater coverage and who want to avoid many of the antenna-positioning hassles that repeaters entail. You do need a GPS signal, but those are available pretty much everywhere. Cell tower sites with signals that repeaters can work with are probably less common. But if your carrier doesn't offer a femtocell, a repeater may be the only way to improve your indoor coverage.

5 Discoveries In The Apple iOS 4.3 Beta

5 Discoveries In The Apple iOS 4.3 BetaApple isn't wasting any time getting to work this January after bringing the iPhone to Verizon earlier this week. The company released the first beta version of iOS 4.3 for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple TV two days ago. The new version of iOS promises all kinds of new features such as AirPlay support for third-party applications, four- and five-finger multitouch gestures and the return of the iPad's screen orientation lock switch.

But that's not all. Developers and bloggers have been hard at work overnight teasing out all kinds of new features and digging up fresh rumors about iOS 4.3. The new iOS hints at new iPads and iPhones, the end of the iPhone 3G, a mobile hotspot feature for all and the end of the home button. Here's a look at the top five rumors, guesses and speculation surrounding iOS 4.3 Beta.

New iToys
Deep in iOS 4.3 beta's code are purported references to two new iPhone models and three new iPads, according to Engadget. That's five new iToys for 2011, although we're most likely talking about two new devices. The gadget blog posits, and I'd have to concur, that these are most likely references to GSM and CDMA versions of a new iPhone, as well as CDMA, GSM and Wi-Fi only versions of a new iPad.

Goodbye iPhone 3G?
The next iOS release appears to dump software updates for the iPhone 3G and the second-generation iPod Touch, according to MacStories. Apple's Developer site typically lists different beta versions of iOS that are specific to each iOS device. The lists currently in Apple's developer center for iOS 4.3 leave both the iPhone 3G and the older iPod Touch out. This is not that surprising since AT&T dropped sales of the iPhone 3G once the iPhone 4 was released. Apple also dumped software support for the original iPhone with the iOS 4 release in June. If the iPhone 3G is getting cut now, how soon until iPhone 3GS owners are cut out of iOS updates?

Death To The Home Button?
Apple appears to have reignited its war on physical buttons in iOS 4.3. The company will reportedly do away with the home button on the iPad in favor of four- and five-finger multitouch gestures, according to Boy Genius Report.

The new multi-finger gestures are included in iOS 4.3 as a preview so it's unclear if they will make it into the final version of iOS 4.3. The new gestures let you swipe up to see the multitasking bar, swipe left or right to switch between open apps and pinch to go back to the home screen.

There's no word on whether the home button's wake function will be replaced by a gesture or if you'll have to rely exclusively on the iPad's sleep/wake button at the top of the device. Personally, I'm hoping for a knock-to-wake gesture. It's not clear if the so-called iPad 2 expected in 2011 would lose its home button or if the rumored home button drop is planned for a later iteration of Apple's tablet. Although BGR says both the iPad and maybe even the iPhone could lose their home buttons this year.

Hardware Rotation Lock
If you were sad to see the iPad's screen orientation lock switch become a mute button in iOS 4.2, it looks like your prayers for the return of the screen lock have been answered. The Settings application in iOS 4.3 has an option to make your iPad's side switch a mute button or a screen orientation lock, according to MacStories.

Hot Hotspot
The mobile hotspot option that debuted in Verizon's CDMA-based iPhone is coming to all iPhone users with iOS 4.3, according to BGR. The feature allows up to five devices at once to use your iPhone's 3G Internet access. But this new feature will probably be added at the mobile service provider's discretion.

One thing that hasn't appeared in iOS 4.3 beta, or remains undiscovered, was any mention of an in-app subscription model for newspapers and magazines. We'll have to see if that feature shows up in a later beta of iOS 4.3.

UPDATE: 9-to-5 Mac made another discovery in iOS 4.3 that appears to be references to the next iPad's highly rumored front- and rear-facing cameras. The gadget blog found four files referencing the camera, and images of what the camera shutter effect will look like on the iPad screen. The images were 1024-by-768, which suggests the next iPad may have the same resolution display as the current model.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta: UI Smackdown

Internet Explorer 9 Beta: UI Smackdown

Internet Explorer 9's beta release is the first public appearance for the aging browser after a major facelift, and boy, is the change dramatic.



The most popular browser on the market now looks quite similar to its nearest competitors--Firefox and Chrome--dropping all clutter from its interface and slimming down to just a unified search and URL bar and a few simple menu buttons. In short, Internet Explorer 9 looks great in its new skin, but how does it measure up to Firefox 4 and Chrome? Let's take a closer look:

Measurements
As you can see in the comparison screenshot (click to view), Internet Explorer 9 destroys Firefox in using vertical space, thanks to its clever placement of tabs (more on that shortly). IE 9 runs neck-and-neck with Chrome, but only if you hide Chrome's bookmarks bar. Because there's no other easy way to access Chrome bookmarks without opening a new tab--IE 9 has a dedicated button for viewing your favorites --I'd say Microsoft is the winner on room to browse.

Tab Placement
The biggest distinction between IE9, Chrome, and Firefox is how they position their tabs. Firefox's are above the address bar, and Chrome's are at the window's highest point, which I think is the ideal placement for fast access (you can push the mouse up to the top of the screen, while the other browsers make you land on a narrow strip). Still, I like Microsoft placed the tabs next to the search and URL bar (Zoom in on image). In practice this arrangement is not as claustrophobic as I imagined it would be, but it has one annoying flaw: The "X" button for closing tabs doesn't appear unless the tab is in focus, adding an extra step when you're trying to clear out unwanted pages.


Over the years, I've grown to love Chrome's single bar for addresses and searches, so I'm glad to see IE 9 adopt the omnibar (which Microsoft calls the One Box), with one big improvement: The right edge of the bar holds a drop-down menu that shows recent history and favorites (see image), plus a selection of search engines. Want to switch your default search engine from Bing to Google? All it takes is two clicks. (Yes, I'm aware Firefox has an omnibar add-on, but I can't test it until add-ons become available for Firefox 4.)

Menus

Both Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 have two menu buttons--one for bookmarks, and one for settings and functions like printing. I wish Chrome also had a bookmarks button to reduce the need for a dedicated bar. My vote goes to IE9 here, because the settings and bookmarks buttons are right next to each other, making for a cleaner interface than Firefox 4's scattered arrangement.

The Legacy

People who prefer Firefox's old interface will be happy to know they can essentially bring it back version 4 by clicking "Menu Bar" under settings. Internet Explorer users will have to adapt. Chrome's interface tweaks have been more subtle, but they're not customizable either.

IE9 not only catches up with its competitors, but improves in several areas. Obviously, there's a lot more to the browser wars than user interface--hardware acceleration, for example, will be a big draw for IE9--but look and feel are what you deal with the most in day-to-day browsing. IE 9 is still in beta, so its interface may change slightly before it's finalized, but Microsoft is off to a very good start.

Mobile phone images lets strangers know exactly where you are.

The geotagging data contained in many mobile phone images lets strangers know exactly where you are.
What Your Digital Photos Reveal About You

The moment is special: Your kid just learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. So you fire up your iPhone's camera, snap a photograph, upload the image to TwitPic, and share the evidence of your child's triumph via Twitter.

When you post the picture, a subset of the 75 million Twitter users will know the exact location of you and your child. Digital photos automatically store a wealth of information--known as EXIF data--produced by the camera. Most of the data is harmless, but as Mayhemic Labs' Ben Jackson noted at the Next HOPE security conference in New York last July, about 3 percent of all photos posted on Twitter contain location data, and that figure is growing. Anyone on the Web who can read the data knows where the photographer was standing. And arguably this is a gross invasion of personal privacy.

EXIF Data and Geotagging
Created by the Japan Electronic Industries Development Association (JEIDA), the Exchangeable Image File format (EXIF) specification adds metadata to common JPG and TIFF image files. Along with a thumbnail image of the photo, EXIF data stores details about aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO settings, some of which can help a printer do a better job of color-matching the final printed image. There's also room for other information, such as the camera's make, model, and registration number, and in some cases, location data.

Geotagging is the process of storing latitude and longitude data inside an image's EXIF data. This information mates the image with a photographer's specific geographic location, which mapping services such as Google Earth can then chart.

For older digital cameras, adding location data to an image requires complicated peripherals: You must attach a cable to the camera to communicate with a GPS receiver, such as a stand-alone navigation device or a mobile phone. But many newer digital cameras and mobile phone cameras have built-in GPS receivers. The geotagging features in these newer devices are integrated and seamless, and your EXIF files may store latitude, longitude, time (in the form of Coordinated Universal Time or UTC readings), and and even altitude data (which can be helpful for reconstructing a family vacation on a map). With the explosion of smartphones today, Jackson is seeing an increasing number of geotagged images posted to the Web.

ICanStalkU.com
To highlight geotagging-related privacy issues, Jackson and Larry Pesce, a colleague, adopted the Twitter username ICanStalkU to respond to tweeters who posted geotagged images. Twitter shut down the account but let Jackson back in after he argued for the need to educate users. He has also started a Web site called ICanStalkU.com to get his message out.

ICanStalkU uses a Perl script to scrape some 20,000 images each day off of MobyPicture, SexyPeek, Twitter, and Yfrog. The site then reposts the pictures with messages like "I am currently nearby..." and supplies the street address, latitude and longitude data, city, and state (if these are known). Each ICanStalkU entry also shows the location mapped on Google, the original tweet, and the original photo.

Another site, PleaseRobMe.com (now shut down), used data from Foursquare and Twitter to emphasize the abundance of personal data being posted online. The researchers behind the project--Frank Groeneveld, Barry Borsboom, and Boy van Amstel--say that they're reviewing feedback they've already received be­­fore continuing with the project.

In his New HOPE security conference presentation, Jackson detailed how he found personal details about a man in a photo. Using accompanying geotagging data, Jackson located the man's house on Google Earth. Then he found a name associated with the house where the photo was taken, leading him to a Facebook account that yielded a birth date, marriage status, and friends. A second username listed on the Facebook page led to a second Twitter account, and so forth. The point here is that once you start pulling on the thread of information contained in a geotagged image, a single photo can reveal a whole trove of personal data--far more than you might think.

Some people say they don't mind sharing their real-time location data with total strangers. But others dislike the idea that strangers can know where they are at any given time. Fortunately, smartphones and cameras let you turn off the photo geotagging feature.

Phone-Specific Remedies
On an iPhone, you can block geotagging by disabling all geolocation apps, such as Foursquare. To do so, go to Settings, General, and toggle the Location Services settings to Off. In iOS 4, you can disable location services for specific apps (off for the Camera app, but on for Yelp, for instance). If you don't use iOS 4, instead of turning off Location Services for the entire phone, you can reset the Location Warnings. Go to Settings, tap Reset, and select Reset Location Warnings. Start the camera, and answer No to the ‘Ask on first use...' question. You can then allow or disallow individual apps the next time you open them.

On Android phones, turning off GPS will break all location-based apps on the phone. Instead, start the Camera application, and under Location and Security in the menu on the left side, disable GPS. To check your work, open the Camera app and pull out the left side menu. ‘Store Location' should be disabled.

For the RIM Blackberry, disabling the feature within the camera is easy. Press the Menu key, select Disable GPS, and select Yes to confirm the change

5 tips for using Priority Inbox

5 tips for using Priority Inbox

It’s been a week since we launched Priority Inbox, and now that you've hopefully had a chance to try it out, we wanted to share some tips to help you manage your email more efficiently. Here are five ways you can make Priority Inbox work even better for you:

1. Customize your sections
By default, Priority Inbox has three sections: "Important and Unread," "Starred" and "Everything Else.” But that doesn't mean you have to leave them that way. You can make a section show messages from a particular label (like your “Action” or “To-do” label), add a fourth section, or change the maximum size of any section. Visit the Priority Inbox tab under Settings to customize your sections, or do it right from the inline menus.



2. Train the system
If Gmail makes a mistake, you can help it learn to better categorize your messages. Select the misclassified message, then use the importance buttons at the top of your inbox to correctly mark it as important or not important.


For those of you who can't live without keyboard shortcuts, don’t worry, you can use the "+" and "-" keys to adjust importance as well.

3. See the best of your filtered messages
You can set up Priority Inbox to show you not just the best of your inbox, but also the best of messages you filter out of your inbox and might otherwise miss. Just change your Priority Inbox settings to “Override filters” and Gmail will surface any important messages that would otherwise skip your inbox.


With this option turned on, you can use filters to archive more aggressively and worry less about missing an important message.

4. Use filters to guarantee certain messages get marked important (or not)
If you read and reply to a lot of messages from your mom, Gmail should automatically put incoming messages from her in the “Important and unread” section. But if you want to be 100% sure that all messages from your mom (or your boss, boyfriend, client, landlord, etc.) are marked important, you can create a filter for messages from that sender and select “Always mark as important.” Similarly, if you regularly read messages from your favorite magazine, they should automatically get marked as important. If you’d rather they end up in the “Everything else” section, you can create a filter to never mark them as important.

5. Archive unimportant messages quickly
One of the features that can help make you more efficient is the ability to archive all of the visible messages in the "Everything Else" section at once. Just click on the down arrow next to "Everything Else" and select the "Archive all visible items" option. If you want to be able to archive even more messages at once, you can increase the maximum number of messages that show in that section from the same drop-down.

Google Adds Analytics Support to Chrome Extensions

Google Adds Analytics Support to Chrome Extensions

If you have a Google Chrome extension, this news might interest you greatly. Google announced today that it has added support for Google Analytics to the Chrome Extension Gallery.
The move, Google says, will "help you better understand how many people visit your extension pages, where they're coming from and more."

Users can specify a Google Analytics profile for each extension. This will start tracking the extension's page in GA like it was its own site.



"You can also use Google Analytics to track the usage of your extension once it’s installed," says Google software engineer Qian Huang. "Check out this tutorial that explains how to integrate Google Analytics such that you can analyze how users interact with the features of your extensions."

Browser extensions can be a good way to keep customers engaged with your business, and being able to track that will no doubt help tremendously.

The battle of the Web browsers

The Best Web Browser

Not too long ago the job of a Web browser was simple: Get the text from the Internet and pour it into the window. If a tag like comes along, change the font. Now the challenges are greater because the browser is becoming the home for almost everything we do. Do you have documents to edit? There's a website for that. Did you miss a television show? There's a website for that. Do you want to announce your engagement? There's a website for that too. The Web browser handles all of that and more.

Choosing a best browser is an impossible job. On one hand, the programs are as close to commodities as there are in the computer industry. The core standards are pretty solid and the job of rendering the document is well understood. Most differences can be smoothed over when the Web designers use cross-platform libraries like jQuery. Many websites look the same in all of the major browsers, a testament to the hard work of the developers and their desire to get their information out to the largest audience.

On the other hand, there's a lot of competition, and some very smart people are working hard to produce very clever new innovations. Yes, some of the so-called innovations are trivial, but if you're going so spend all day with a piece of software, it makes sense to be picky. While you may not care if someone moves a button from the left to the right, other users do -- and the discussion forums are filled with debate.

It may be impossible to be rational about many of the cosmetic issues, like the placement of buttons or the location of the tabs. These are intensely personal decisions, and the look and feel can often be changed with add-ons. There's not much point debating these issues.

The technical details can also be a bit personal and political, but they have bigger implications for developers and consumers everywhere. You may or may not like Adobe Flash, but the support or lack of support is important for all of us. Careers of Flash developers and the fate of projects they build will rise and fall on these issues. And Flash is just the beginning -- all of the browsers are rolling out various combinations of new features, but developers can't begin to use them until there's a stable platform with wide enough adoption. The control of the living room screen is worth billions of dollars, and the success or failure of the browser's video delivery mechanism will determine who may or may not have control over that shimmering rectangle and the zombie eyes glued to it.

Choosing a Web browser is made even harder because solid numbers are often preludes to debate. Some people complain when their browsers suck up every spare byte of memory. Others want their browsers to respond immediately. In many cases there's a trade-off because the programmers gain speed by filling up the memory and pre-computing and pre-compiling every part of the Web page. You can have small or you can have fast, but you can't have both.

Often, the bloat isn't the fault of the browsers themselves, but the Web designers who lard up the site with endless AJAX calls and slick morphing features. Some users may blame the browser when they have 80-odd tabs opened to pages that are issuing AJAX calls left and right. The poor browser has to try to keep them all ready in case someone wants to see any of those tabs immediately.

Choosing among Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari is not simple. All are perfectly good choices, but one may be slightly better for certain users than others. Sophisticated users, including developers, may want a browser that supports the latest standards, while casual users may want to avoid the cutting edge for simplicity and stability. Others may have a favorite plug-in they can't live without. Some users may want to choose based on the location of the buttons. The choices are close enough that this could be fair if you really care about your interface.


The battle of the Web browsers: Google Chrome 5.0

It's easy for a programmer to be enthusiastic about Google's Chrome because Google has been emphasizing some of the things that programmers love. Chrome sticks each Web page in a completely separate process, which you can see by opening up Windows Task Manager. If some Web programmer creates an infinite loop or a bad AJAX call in a Web page, Chrome isolates the trouble. Your other pages can keep on running. This isolation isn't perfect, though, because Chrome users have still experienced crashes.

The good news is that Chrome is among the fastest current browsers, at least when using long-running JavaScript loops as benchmarks. It also offers good support of the HTML5 standards and will continue to push them, at least in spirit.

There is some confusion afoot, though, because in addition to backing HTML5, Google is also embracing Adobe Flash. Google is supporting Flash by including it in the Android OS, and reports claim future versions of Chrome will sport their own, well-tuned version of the Flash plug-in, an approach that will probably do even more to fix crashes and annoying bugs. The developers won't be able to point at each other across the moat and blame the other side.

Google also encourages plug-ins, and the collection for Chrome is growing quickly. Chrome's plug-in architecture is much simpler than Firefox's because it only lets coders write in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is typically more than adequate, and many Firefox developers port their creations to Chrome with little extra work.

If there's one complaint about Chrome, it's that it remains a relatively small presence; thus, Web developers usually get around to testing their work on Chrome only after trying IE, Firefox, and Safari first. Just the other day, one of Facebook's AJAX calls failed on Chrome but worked when I tried the same button on IE. Chrome offers nice developer tools, though, and I suspect that the Web development gap will slowly disappear.

If that's not enough for you, Chrome is also the one and only component of the Chromium OS. When the operating system boots, it starts up Chrome, then it's nothing but HTML for your machine. It's a very lightweight vision of the future.

Best for: People who want to juggle many windows filled with code that crashes every so often.

Worst for: People who get upset when a website breaks because the developer tested the site on IE only.


The battle of the Web browsers: Firefox 4.0 beta

The old Netscape died years ago, but somehow it begat the Firefox browser that gave us many of the innovations being copied by IE and others. The project found a nice source of revenue by routing search requests to Google, and this supported much of the work of the last few years.

No one knows how stable this source of revenue will be in the future. Google leapfrogged Firefox by building a browser of its own, in part to fix the headaches caused by malfunctioning plug-ins like Flash. Firefox is now offering its own "crash protection," which restarts plug-ins when they stop delivering. Firefox handles this internally, though, because the browser still runs most of the work in one process. Chrome relies more on the operating system by sticking each page in different OS processes, an approach that the Mozilla group will probably eventually come around to using.

One of the strengths of Firefox continues to be the large collection of extensions and plug-ins. These can all be written in a mixture of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, something that makes them a bit easier for the average Web developer to tackle. (In contrast, Microsoft's add-ons can be written in C++.)

Firefox add-ons like Greasemonkey make it even easier to write simple scripts that meddle with the DOM of incoming data, a nice playpen for creating your own quick add-ons. Firefox's model is pretty sophisticated too. While many widgets and extensions in the world are limited to JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, Firefox offers serious programmers more control with XUL. Is it necessary? I'm not sure, but it certainly makes it possible to create more sophisticated applications.

Firefox has not offered the fastest JavaScript performance on the computation-heavy JavaScript benchmarks, but that may not be important for most users. The speed of rendering and the responsiveness of the Internet connection are probably much more important to average browsing. Nevertheless, the Mozilla developers say a new JavaScript engine will be arriving in the fall.

Best for: People who enjoy the wide-open collection of extensions.

Worst for: People who write long-running scientific simulations in JavaScript.


The battle of the Web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 beta

The days when practically everyone used Internet Explorer are long gone, but the browser continues to dominate, thanks to the fact that it may or may not be integrated with the Windows operating system, depending upon the political winds. Microsoft noticed the erosion from total world domination several years ago and is now rapidly adopting some of the best features from the alternatives. Tabs were added some time ago, and Internet Explorer add-ons are now plentiful enough to form a gallery. Many of the innovations that began with Firefox and Opera are now available with IE8.

Some of Microsoft's claims may strike you as a bit funny. The company notes on a checklist that IE8 supports "Web standards," then points out it supports only CSS 2.1 because it's more common than the newer CSS 3.0. Well, yes, and CSS 2.1 will remain more customary until IE officially adopts it because most Web developers will want to avoid heavy use of any feature that doesn't work on one of the most ubiquitous browsers.

But if Microsoft isn't on the cutting edge of the new standards collectively called HTML5, it's pushing its own features. IE8 helps people "browse safely," a worthy goal that it pursues by offering more and better ways to check the provenance of the information. I'm not sure whether it's possible to actually attach a number to this protection -- Microsoft claims that IE is "5 times better than Chrome" and "2.9 times better than Firefox in protecting against malicious malware." The company claims IE can do a better job of catching fake URLs and URLs that lead to sites pretending to be something they're not. Whether or not this can be quantified, it's a promising path to take because the provenance of information is a big, big challenge for the Internet.

This focus, however, is coming after a long series of security holes in either IE or the add-ons given too much power by IE. Any search engine can help you find stories about hundreds of vulnerabilities found and patched. The root of all of these troubles seems to come when IE is a bit too generous to plug-in packages. This is almost certainly a deep failure of a strategy to let developers add many features that work very well with Windows and not other systems. ActiveX controls, for instance, offer nice performance through deep integration with the operating system, so they help cement IE and Windows' position. The only problem is that this deep integration has produced many, many vulnerabilities over the years, and it's not clear that Microsoft has finally stopped them all.

I'm personally torn about the approach Microsoft has taken. While this deep integration has opened up many opportunities, it has also created problems beyond the security dangers. Add-on developers have access to the registry and other weird corners of the operating system, a big difference from the simpler sandboxes used by the other browsers. I'm sure some Web-based game developers appreciate this speed, but I think a simpler model would have been easier on everyone.

IE9 now offers many of the features that drew me to other browsers. There's a nicer developer tool for debugging JavaScript, and the speed is catching up to the others. The collection of IE add-ons is large and markedly different in style from those for other browsers. Many come from merchants who offer to help make it easier to search their catalogs, spy good deals, and of course spend money. There are so many toolbars that it's easy to build a browser with a fat header and a tiny spot for real content.

In the end, IE's greatest strength may continue to be its fading dominance. Web developers may skip testing on Safari or Opera, but they know that the boss or the boss's boss is probably using the default browser shipped with the computer. Despite the prevalence of good cross-platform libraries, I continue to find Web pages that only work on IE. This is the kind of feedback loop that reinforces dominance.

Best for: People who don't care or don't want to care. IE is still the most likely to work with most websites.

Worst for: People who worry about browser-based attacks and those who want to try the latest HTML5.


The battle of the Web browsers: Opera 10.60

For a long time, Opera's main selling point was raw speed. The company was proud of how its browser rendered a page faster than any other. This domination continues. Opera version 10.60 on Windows got the fastest results in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks of any of the browsers I tested. All of the browser developers are reporting big gains in SunSpider and similar benchmarks, but Opera still seems to be leading.

I'm not sure if this is a critical point for users because the main bottleneck seems to be the speed of the Internet itself. However, JavaScript execution speed may become more important when people start using their browsers to do large amounts of data manipulation and raw computation. The SunSpider benchmark includes many computationally complex operations, like AES encryption and searching for prime numbers with a sieve. Still, much of the work handled by JavaScript today is rendering some XML data or changing some background color.

Opera the company, though, is not focused strictly on the browser. It continues to offer smart, out-of-the-box software that rethinks the current model. Opera Turbo, for instance, is a layer of proxy servers on fast Internet lines. Opera Turbo will fetch the pages for you, then compress them to save bandwidth. This may not be a big win for people with fast lines to their desk, but it should be valuable to mobile browsers with slower network connections and -- this is important -- tight limits on the amount of data that can be consumed each month.

Another neat solution is Opera's widgets, little Web applications that run on your Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop. I'm not sure I would go so far as to call them "native applications," as some documentation does, because the widgets are written in Web languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and run in some Opera sandbox. But somewhere in the stack there's some x86 code, right? These are structurally pretty similar to the widgets that are part of Mac OS X. Opera also has a few tools that make it relatively easy for anyone with a hint of programming ability to create a widget.

Indeed, it's almost unfair to focus too much on the desktop version of Opera browser because the company is tightly connected with the mobile market. It continues to innovate and surprise me more than any of the other teams.

Best for: Raw speed and innovation.

Worst for: People who can't imagine straying from the pack.


The battle of the Web browsers: Apple Safari 5.0

Apple took the old Konqueror browser from the Linux world and injected a large amount of development talent to produce a very nice browser for Mac and Windows. Safari's WebKit engine is also the heart of the browsers in the iPhone and the iPad.

Safari is a very good option. The speed is competitive, the controls are simple yet comprehensive, and the developer tools are nice. Apple is just opening up an extensions gallery to the general public, and some developers have already ported popular extensions from Chrome and Firefox. There's nothing missing from Safari that a user might want, but on the other hand there's little to make Safari unique or irresistible.

The biggest interest in Safari on the desktop may come from the Web developers who want to target the iOS world of the iPhone and iPad. Creating customized Web pages is simple to do with a few extra tags, and the result often runs like a native app developed for the platform. Plus, Safari isn't the only browser built on WebKit. Google also uses the WebKit rendering engine for its Android phones, and the iOS and Android browsers behave similarly in many but not all cases. When RIM's BlackBerry team releases its own WebKit browser, WebKit's dominance of the mobile Web will be even greater.

Apple is pushing HTML5 as part of its skirmish with Adobe over Flash. Safari already offers many of the most important HTML5 features, and it will almost certainly get more of them quickly.

Best for: Web developers who want to support WebKit phones.

Worst for: Lovers of extensions and add-ons.
The battle of the Web browsers: Apple Safari 5.0



Source : PCW

Reviews : Intel Nehalem-EX 8 core cpu

Reviews : Intel Nehalem-EX 8 core cpu

Intel has recently announced its next-generation server processor, currently code-named Nehalem-EX. As its name suggests, the Nehalem-EX is based on the Nehalem micro architecture which debuted with the Xeon 5500 and Core i7 series processors. The Nehalem-EX series however, will be decidedly more high-end in terms of specifications and performance. The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance.


Xeon 5500 is the name that identifies the first family of Intel cpu for server systems to 2 Socket-based Nehalem architecture, marketed from the end of March, at the present time was not yet specified a name for Nehalem-cpu EX, designed to take the place of the cpu Xeon 7400, but according to leaked information from the manufacturer left the U.S. should be an evolution of the brand Xeon 7x00. In production later this year, the Nehalem-EX processor will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24Mb of cache. Its performance increase will be dramatic, posting the highest-ever jump from a previous generation processor.

In addition, Nehalem-EX will also sport features carried over from the Itanium line, like Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery.

Features:

Following are the basic features of the Nehalem-EX cpu. see in detail how Intel has brought forward today:

* Architecture of native 8-core, is almost same as the solutions for Intel Nehalem architecture quad core;
* 24 Mbytes of cache, Intel does not specify how this cache is shared between L1, L2 and L3 on the processor, but we tend to assume that the L1 and L2 cache, which remained unchanged compared to the solutions Nehalem quad core, with a significant increase in L3 cache size;
* 2.3 billion transistors integrated in the processor, the cache 24 Mbytes total impact significantly on the amount of transistors integrated into the processor. By comparison with the Nehalem quad core cpu supplies little more than 730 million transistors;
* The other solutions would be Nehalem HyperThreading technology (for each physical core are 2 threads in parallel) and Turbo Boost (processor independently increases the clock frequency, speaking on the multiplier, if the temperature of operation will not create malfunctions);
* For each processor there are 4 link QPI, with which you can configure systems multisocket from 2 up to 8;
* Each processor can handle up to 16 memory slots for DDR3 modules through the integration of buffer memory on the motherboard;
* The integrated memory controller is DDR3-type, was not specified what the maximum clock frequency of memory supported, depending on the number of memory modules installed in each socket and if it was implemented a controller-type triple channel.


It is been clear that Intel is involved in all these processors while maintaining the architectural features of the Nehalem processors for desktop systems, which belong to the Core i7 series on the market from November 2008, and the Xeon 5500 for systems up to 2 Socket tabled last month of March.

Multisocket Architecture

Integrated innovations aim to make these processors more compatible with systems of high power processing. According to Intel, the Nehalem-EX will offer up to nine times the memory bandwidth of the previous-generation Intel Xeon 7400 platform with up to double the memory capacity through the use of 16 memory slots per processor socket. The processors will also offer four high-bandwidth QuickPath Interconnect links per CPU to provide significant scalability, from large-memory two-socket systems through eight-socket systems capable of processing 128 threads simultaneously. The overlap with the solutions Xeon 5500 in terms of number of Socket is justified by the presence of a 8 core Nehalem-EX processor, capable of 16 simultaneous threads in parallel, compared with 4 of the current versions of the Xeon processor 5500 (8 parallel threads thanks HyperThreading technology).

Another substantial difference between systems Xeon 5500 and Nehalem-EX for the same socket is provided by the maximum number of memory modules for use with processors Nehalem-EX, you can populate the system with 32 slots for DDR3 modules, a figure very high in absolute but may prove to be useful in applications demanding in terms of allocation of physical memory. Whereas current Xeon 5500 series processors feature four execution cores per CPU with support for up to eight threads through Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology, the Nehalem-EX series will be outfitted with up to eight execution cores per chip with support for up to sixteen threads, and 24MB of cache.

The memory controller of Nehalem-EX processors Intel has also implemented some specific technologies for the integrity of data in the memory controller. Advanced RAS-MCA Recovery is the name of these technologies, which identify any errors generated by the processor, memory or logic input and output so that the error once occurred, can block the sending system.

Conclusion

The debut on Intel Nehalem-EX will only start in 2010. Highlight in the new structure of the server cpu Intel, an analogy with what AMD has anticipated for the future generations of its Opteron processor. For both companies there are two families of processors server: the first, Xeon 5500 on one side and the other Opteron 4000 series, for systems with 1 or 2 Socket. And for the second, with Nehalem-EX processors on one side and the other Opteron 6000, with capacity to be used in systems by up to 2 Socket 8 Socket.

RSA Data Loss Prevention Suite 7.0 - Review

RSA Data Loss Prevention Suite 7.0 - Review

Introduction

Acquired from Tablus in 2007, the RSA Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Suite (formerly the Tablus Content Loss Prevention Suite) is a multi-component platform that enables the Enterprise to both identify potentially sensitive corporate data and enforce centrally defined policies pertaining to that data, including remediation actions such as moving or quarantining the data or enforcement actions such as blocking the transmission of the data in E-mail communications or preventing it from being copied to a USB drive. The suite consists of three main components: RSA DLP Datacenter, RSA DLP Network, and RSA DLP Endpoint.

The RSA DLP Datacenter component (Windows 2000 Server/Server 2003) is targeted to server farms and data centers, and provides the ability to periodically (and incrementally) scan resources (including file shares, SAN/NAS storage, DBs, CMSs, etc.) for the existence of sensitive data, with policy-based remediation actions (including quarantine, delete, or move the data) automatically applied. Sensitive data is identified via detection algorithms that analyze keywords and patterns as well as their contextual placement, with provided pre-built detection templates offered for the identification of data related to regulatory requirements such as PCI, PII, HIPAA, GLBA, and SOX. Support is also provided for the customization of detection rules. Other features include centralized management and policy definition (more below), as well as workflow-enabled incident tracking, and alerting (E-mail, RSS, IM) to appropriate individuals.

The RSA DLP Suite comprises a comprehensive data loss prevention solution that enables customers to:

* Discover and protect sensitive data in the enterprise. Leverages common policies across the infrastructure to discover and protect sensitive data in the datacenter, on the network, and on endpoints

* Mitigate risk. Mitigates risk through identity aware policy based remediation and enforcement

* Reduce Total Cost of Ownership. Reduces TCO with industry leading scalability, automated protection of sensitive data, and most comprehensive policy library

* Simplify security operations. Streamlines the security operations process with incident handling and workflows, and by integrating the RSA DLP Suite with enVision
RSA DLP Datacenter

DLP Datacenter helps you locate sensitive data no matter where it resides in the datacenter – on file systems, databases, email systems and large SAN/NAS environments.


RSA DLP Network

DLP Network monitors and controls sensitive data leaving your network.


RSA DLP Endpoint

DLP Endpoint helps you discover, monitor and control sensitive information on endpoints such as laptops and desktops.


Microsoft AD RMS Integration

The integration of DLP Datacenter and DLP Endpoint Discover with Microsoft Active Directory Rights Management Services (RMS) helps you to automatically apply RMS protection to sensitive documents at rest discovered by RSA DLP.

New Enhancements to the RSA DLP Suite

The latest release of the RSA DLP Suite allows organizations to secure sensitive content in a way that saves time and streamlines processes for data security personnel. Sensitive data at rest can now be moved or quarantined automatically, reducing administrative costs, and end users can apply self-remediation for sensitive emails quarantined due to violations. In addition, the RSA DLP Suite is engineered to generate and send reports automatically to the appropriate personnel. These new automation enhancements can help reduce the time spent handling security incidents by up to 45 percent.

These new features also help organizations reduce risk by proactively locating and controlling data for even more sensitive data types and sources. Organizations will now be able to discover structured content in Oracle and SQL Server databases with native scanning and fingerprinting. The RSA DLP 7.0 Suite is also engineered to broaden protection of intellectual property with automated file fingerprinting functionality across all three modules of the DLP Suite: Datacenter, Network, and Endpoint. Additional enhancements also make the RSA DLP Suite the only data loss prevention offering that supports CATIA, a multi-platform commercial software suite used in the aerospace, automotive, and discrete manufacturing industries.
With 22 new policy templates, RSA also continues to provide one of the most comprehensive DLP policy and classification libraries in the industry. These new policies include support for North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) compliance along with additional coverage for policies that help protect personally identifiable data in Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and New Zealand. These new policies have been added to RSA’s already-robust database of more than 100 different policy templates. By leveraging RSA’s pre-built policy and classification library, customers can reduce risk by securing more types of sensitive data while reducing the costs associated with false positives, according to a recent study commissioned by RSA which found that RSA’s solution offers 27% higher accuracy in avoiding false positives over one of its main competitors.

Overall, the RSA DLP 7.0 Suite is engineered to deliver more than 68 enhancements in the areas of policy management and classification, remediation, database scanning, reporting and administration.
Milestones

Integration With The RSA enVision Platform Helps Simplify Security Operations

The RSA DLP 7.0 Suite is designed to integrate with the RSA enVision platform, RSA’s market-leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) offering which is designed for simplifying compliance, enhancing security operations and risk mitigation, and optimizing IT and network operations through the automated collection, analysis, alerting, auditing, reporting and storage of all logs. The integration streamlines the process of understanding security risk – through efficient correlation of security and DLP event logs, security analysts gain insight into the type and sensitivity of information involved in the incident and can quickly determine when and how to remediate it and assess what damage has been done. The integration also enables centralized management through the enVision technology of DLP events, simplifying security and compliance reporting. New enVision reports leverage events from the RSA DLP Suite to enable holistic data protection across information, identities, and infrastructure.


RSA DLP Suite Helps Microsoft Secure Data and Accelerate Compliance With Regulatory Requirements

One organization that has successfully leveraged the RSA DLP Suite is Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft uses the solution to enhance the security of sensitive data about employees, customers and intellectual property in thousands of its own managed file shares, endpoints and Microsoft® Office® SharePoint® sites.


Domino's Pizza Gains Increased Visibility and Awareness Into Data Protection Issues

Domino’s Pizza is the recognized pizza delivery leader in the United States. It must comply with a number of standards and regulations, along with protecting its brand image. Domino’s has used the RSA DLP Suite to scan data at rest to help ensure that it is in compliance with PCI, SOX, HIPAA, and other general guidelines around protecting personally identifiable information (PII).

Review- Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0

Review- Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0


Introduction

There are many mysteries in the world: why are we here? Why are you reading this article? Why is the earth round? Why do we live? Is there a God? Why is someone difficult? Thanks Avira is an added mystery: why is there a man with a mustache on the front of the box Avira Premium Security Suite 9?

Why have they done? Is the CEO? Is it someone from the Auerbach Foundation you five dollars to pay if you buy the suite? Is it just a random person? Or is your personal bodyguard you get for free if you buy the suite? Or is it simply Avira in person? What seems to me strange, I mean, had opted for an action shot of Bruce Willis with a car is a helicopter from the air or get my part of Steven Seagal while a few people to the afterlife helps.

Well, unfortunately the answer is a mystery to me, so I will be writing as useful. Avira is known that free virus scanner called AntiVirus that it offers. This free scanner misses, however, important features such as spyware protection, rapid updates and protection against malicious websites. Functions that are present in the premium version of AntiVirus 9 which of course costs money.


This review is not the virus scanner from Avira, but the security suite by the company. Because yes, that the company indeed. The suite includes a virus scanner, firewall, parental control, spam and phishing protection and a back-up Avira is a German company and therefore known in Europe and a lot less in the United States. The scanning engine has already been awarded, the name Luke File Walker and used by, inter alia, Webroot and Ashampoo. In other words, the virus is one of the better.

How well the scanner can also detect malware, there is a delicate point, namely the removal of malware. In a test conducted by the Anti-Malware Test Lab in early 2008 shows that the scanner gets poor results when it comes to resolving infections. Anyway, a new version, including new opportunities. Let me therefore quickly start the real review of Avira Premium Security Suite 9.

Installation & interface

From Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0 is not a Dutch or a Dutch website. That is quite a bit unfortunate. Fortunately, most Dutch people still a little English, so the downloading of the download file of 33 MB is still possible.

After downloading and unzipping the downloaded files start the installation. During installation it is possible to install components and the program must be installed Avira which to choose. Once the minute needed to move files, create and delete, complete, start the configuration wizard.

In this wizard, the basic functions configured and you should indicate whether the heuristic engine AHEAD should be used and whether the installation after a scan to be performed. Ok, the same product as updated and what is wrong with recognized safe programs to be done. Then the PC restarts are.

After the restart I always measure the performance of the PC. In terms of RAM use the product about 40 MB, but in terms of boot speed and delay the product is improved compared with version 8.2. The startup time is only five seconds delayed. A very nice score, seen some suites for up to a minute delay can make.

Converting file without scanning with only three seconds prolonged. This scan takes to convert a file twelve seconds. The suite of Avira is not Pass Mark examined. A comprehensive overview of the performance I can not give.

Interface

The main window of the suite give states back of the main components, as well as the status of your license and the status of the full computer scan, or completed or not. On the left are some tabs that provide access to some components and institutions. Moreover, in the menu bar a few options.


The settings window Avira Premium Security Suite has two modes: a beginner and expert mode. In the beginner mode, there are barely exists, so even the settings of the Mail Guard not be changed. That is pretty limited. Is it on expert mode, then open a window full of opportunities and it is possible just about everything to fit. But there is also known for Avira. Standard are the optimal settings of application, so if you do not understand an option, it is not very serious.



Antivirus & Firewall

The virus scanner from Avira Premium Security Suite is one of the best in the market. Since 2005 he has only once not VB100% award achieved and the time the award was not achieved, was that because of false positives. The product does not participate in testing of ICSA Labs, but to those of West Coast Labs where only certified for detection, not for removal of malware.

Also at AV-Comparatives, the scanner right from the bus. The test of on-demand detection takes the Advanced AntiVirus + score. Proactive protection also scores well and has an Advanced rating, with many false positives. Virus Scans, and also back-ups and updates can be scheduled by the Scheduler Administration menu bar. Using a wizard, the time or event, scan location, and other options are set as the display mode of the scan and the PC after the task should be completed.

In a scan of the Tech Zine test drive does Avira Premium Security Suite 6 minute and 16 seconds. By that time, Avira is the second fastest. The fastest is the Panda scan in five minutes and seven seconds was able to finish. The update speed of Avira is also average. The company does a day about 8 updates out the door. This to Symantec, for example, in terms of updates is an exception and that nearly 250 updates per day picks. Other manufacturers keep the virus under fifty updates a day on average thirty.

If you know a virus from the internet download, Avira gives you three options: deny access, the file or ignore the file in quarantine. The report itself is very clear and that is very good. Like the option to users allowing them to choose.


During a scan, the time needed to file to be significantly extended, by eighteen seconds. It is quite difficult during a system scan your computer, because this intensively with scanning.


Firewall

Although the top antivirus component is the firewall not. The firewall is as expected, all ports of the PC invisible, a standard which almost every firewall succeed. Moreover, closing ports well to these 'test' to succeed. The first problem is that the firewall only a limited database of good and malicious programs, so that regular reports will appear to ask whether a particular program may connect to the Internet. If a program is Avira signature, it will in the notification option Allow be suggested. It should be noted that these reports are very clear.

In the field of protection against leak tests late Avira to be desired. In a test of Matousec (70 pieces) knew only a score of 11 percent to achieve a Level 2 rating benefits. Not very good, especially when you consider that there are about ten levels. Incidentally, the firewall also a game mode. You can go through the taskbar icon. Once enabled applications are unknown temporarily automatically granted access to the Internet. This ensures that you can decent game, a feature also present in, for example, McAfee and BitDefender suite.


Antispam & more

The spam protection add one of the few no toolbar to the mail client, therefore, also makes no automatic rules to move spam to. You must set yourself messages with [spam] and [phishing] in the title to be redirected to a special folder or, if you wish, just once in the trash can be thrown. So you have to do anything to make the spam filter to talk to. When I filter once had been working, it was time to make a lot of spam on release. In total downloaded Outlook Express e-mails about three thousand ten percent spam. In the testset mails are both newsletters as personal messages.

The results were disappointing. As many as one third of all spam ended up in the inbox. Not a good score. Moreover, marked the approximately ten percent of legitimate mail as spam. Also striking was that the download of mail with the spam component is significantly slower.

Back-up

In addition to parental supervision Avira also back file. This feature is only introduced and therefore not yet very extensive. By default, the backup uptool three sections: documents, music and images. As all files in the My Documents folders etc.It is also possible to select folders and files.

Files are simply copied to the backup location, and not archived or something similar. And as you may expect in the second back-up of the same location only modified files are copied again and thus overwritten. Through the plan option Avira is possible to backup job schedule. A useful function in that plan is that the backup can start as a USB stick. It is also possible back-ups to be carried out after a certain number of days, hours or minutes.

The parental control - IBM online database and can block websites in many different categories. Also added links can be banned and it is possible to capture events. This log is not showing the user tried to visit the website. To prevent users simply turn off the parental control, the General Manager while in a password for the control center setting. Otherwise, everyone has his or her web filter off.

Conclusion

Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0 is a nice suite. In terms of virus detection to know about, but the rest of the suite protects only modestly. The spam filter allows much spam, the firewall is not resistant to leaks and test the backup upfunctional is not very extensive. Throw another in that suite in English and you know what time it is.

What then is a positive point is that Avira has little influence on the performance of the PC, that it is in the detail, and that parental supervision is present, albeit limited. And so I reach at the conclusion of this review: Avira Premium Security Suite is the most suitable for the power user who wants full control over its program. But honestly, if you're smart, you get anti virus Premium and throw you a free Zone Alarm or any other free firewall, whether you just get ESET Smart Security 4.0.

Plus Points

* Good virus scanner.
* Little impact on performance.
* Parental Controls & Backup upload.


Downsides

* English.
* Excessive firewall.
* Moderate spamfilter.
* Back-up and parental control is limited.

Source : techarena