India starts blocking file storage websites in a move against piracy

India starts blocking file storage websites in a move against piracy

File storage websites such as Megaupload, Putlocker, Rapidshare are being blocked in India.

A thread started on a popular online forum focused on developments in Indian broadband has furious and surprised users sharing a list of websites blocked by their Internet service providers. Going through the thread and my Twitter interactions, India’s Department of Telecommunication is behind the block.

Some users say they are not able to browse the file uploading websites, others say they can access and download content. A screenshot shared by Sunny Chahal on Twitter confirms that the block is in effect. Some other users are seeing the same notice. The error message:

Users of popular Internet Service Providers MTNL, BSNL and Airtel have confirmed seeing the same error while visiting some or all of the following websites:

Megaupload.com
Mediafire.com
Megavideo.com
VideoBB.com
Novamov.com
Movshare.net
Rapidshare.com
Putlocker.com
Hotfile.com
Fileserve.com
Filesonic.com
Filesonic.in
Depositfiles.com
Wupload.com

The decision behind banning the websites looks like piracy. Most of these websites are widely used to share content production houses and record labels would want users to pay for. Users are comparing the ban to Internet rules in China. The Department of Homeland Security in the US also made definitive moves against piracy by seizing domains of websites hosting pirated content.

As of now there is no official word from the DoT, the story will be updated as we get more information.

Update: Reliance BIG Pictures obtained a court order to get the sites banned. Users are reporting that most of these websites are now working.

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.

How to fix everything: the ultimate guide to fixing technology

How to fix everything: the ultimate guide to fixing technology

How to troubleshoot and fix your most common gadget issues

PCs, printers, smartphones, cameras, networks - your stuff will inevitably stop working. Here's how to troubleshoot and fix your most common tech issues.

We love our technology, but if there's one guarantee when it comes to PCs, phones, cameras and other gadgets – its that at some point in its lifespan you'll encounter a problem with it.

Your PC will crash, your camera will break, your network will fail, and your printer will chew up paper.

Before you spend valuable time and money waiting for tech support or paying for a professional technician, read our handy guide to basic repairs for your PC, home network, printer, digital camera, and smartphone.
How to fix your PC

Considering how many different software and hardware components need to work correctly for a modern PC to turn on, it's a small wonder that they work as well as they do.

We can't give you a cure for all of your computer ills, but we can provide a guide to getting out of the most common PC disasters.

Here are some useful strategies.

If your PC won't turn on
Try plugging it into a different outlet or power strip; if it's a laptop, try a different battery and power adaptor, if you have another one handy.

For desktops, make sure that all your internal plugs and cards are properly seated; graphics card, RAM, everything.

If none of this helps, it's probably a problem with your motherboard or power supply, and unless you've got spare parts handy, you're probably best off calling the manufacturer's tech support line.

If your PC turns on, but won't successfully boot into Windows
First, start booting up, and press F8 repeatedly during the boot process.

This may allow you to access a menu that lets you select different boot options with your keyboard, one of which is 'Safe Mode'.

Select Safe Mode, uninstall the last thing you installed, update all your drivers (if you need to download new ones, you may need to select the 'Safe Mode With Networking' option instead), and open up the System Restore app (Start Menu, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore) to roll back to an earlier point when your PC could successfully start up.

If you hear a series of beeps on startup, you might have a motherboard-level problem.

Safe Mode not working? Your hard drive might be failing.

Get your rescue drive or manufacturer recovery discs, boot up from it, and save whatever data you haven't backed up.

Then run your disk diagnostic app - you can always run Check Disk, which is built into Windows, by right-clicking your hard drive, selecting Properties, clicking the Tools tab and selecting Check now... under the 'Error Checking' tab.

There's no cure for bad sector - you'll have to replace the drive.

If you hear your PC emitting a set of beeps during the startup process, it's most likely your BIOS trying to tell you that you have a motherboard-level problem with your PC - your processor fan might be unplugged, for example, or your power supply might not be working.

The beep patterns aren't standard, so you'll have to get on a different PC and check out your BIOS manufacturer's website to figure out what's wrong.

Asus O' Play HD2 Media Player

Asus O' Play HD2 Media Player
World first USB 3 Media player to transfer files at an ultra-fast speeds, Incorporates into local networks, and even works as a jukebox, with on demand browsing of stored music files.

Description

* O!Play HD2 – World’s First USB3.0 HD Media Player
* USB3.0 PC Link for rapid file transfer up to 10X faster than USB2.0
* File copying and streaming is much more speedy
o Install 3.5”HDD inside and O!PLAY HD2 could be a big
o mobile hard driver . You can transfer media from
o USB3.0 PC to O!PLAY HD2 at the highest speed.
o It’s up to 10 times faster than USB2.0!
* 3.5”HDD Storage Capacity with NAS Support
* NAS: Network-Attached Storage

o O!Play is the most thoughtful media center with server functionality
for iTunes, Samba ,FTP and BitTorrent for fast local network files
access and management without hassles. You will be able to store
and share your cherished content with family and friends.

* Seamless Entertainment with DLNA
* DLNA : Digital Living Network Alliance

o Using O!Play HD2 as a client, you can display images, or play music or
video files that are stored on a device with DLNA Media Server
functionality over a network. Streaming media around the home might
require less and less effort with DLNA.

* Watch the Wonders of Digital Content with O!Play HD2
o Internet Radio, Weather ,Stock ,Picasa, Flickr
o HD2 lets you browse 20000 Internet radio Stations,
o Worldwide Stock inquiry , Internet photo sharing sites,
o Flickr ,Picasa, and weather updates directly to your O!Play HD2.
* Impressive TrueHD 7.1 Channel Aural Enjoyment
o Dolby TrueHD Decode and Pass Through Support
o Real HD Quality for both Video and Audio !
o Dolby TrueHD digital surround sound will be handled to
o take full advantage of Blu-ray Disc quality and
o with 7.1 channel audio output for theater-like enjoyment.
* Conveniently use your iPhone® as a remote

o iPhone®

* Cross Platform

o Control O!Play HD2 from your iPhone ®!

* Full HD 1080p & Comprehensive Formats Support (ISO,RMVB…)

o O!Play HD2 takes the trend to bring new HD experience to viewers in the living room. Users do not have to worry about the compatibilities of file formats. It also supports BD ISO,MKV,RMVB,H.264 …etc.

Specification
Items	Description
Supported Video formats	MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, RM/RMVB
Supported Video file extension	MP4, MOV, Xvid, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, FLV,
	TS, M2TS, DAT, MPG, VOB, MTS, ISO, IFO,
	TP,TRP,M1V,M2V,M4V
Supported Audio formats	MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, WAV, FLAC, AIFF,
	Dolby Digital AC3, DTS Digital Surround,
	Dolby True HD, ID3Tag,Dolby TrueHD,
	PCM/LPCM
Supported Image formats	JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
Supported sub-title formats	SRT, SUB, SMI, SSA, TXT
File Systems	FAT16/32, NTFS, HFS /HFS+, EXT3
Outputs	Composite audio-video (AV) port
	Component port
	Optical digital audio port
	Coaxial digital audio port
	HDMI 1.3 port
Inputs	Power (DC) input
	2 x USB 2.0 port
	1 x USB 3.0 PC Link port
	USB/eSATA combo port
	Card readers CF, SD+MMC, MS+MS Duo
	RJ-45 LAN Port(10/100Mbps)
Dimensions	W x D x H:
	230.0mm x 178.0mm x 60.5mm
	Weight: 720g
Power Source	12Vdc, 3A
Power Consumption	10W
Operating Temperature	5˚C (41˚F) – 35˚C (95˚F)

Intel Showcases New Atom Chips, Opens App Store

Intel Showcases New Atom Chips, Opens App Store

Intel kicked off the second day of its developers conference by officially launching its app store and rolling out new Atom processors.

The chip maker's AppUp center, which went into beta early this year, went live today, Renee James, an Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group, said during the morning's first keynote at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco today.
Related News

* Intel to Launch its Sandy Bridge Processor in 2011
* New Intel laptop CPUs will play Blu-ray 3D
* AMD Reveals Bobcat and Bulldozer Processor Designs
* Intel Launches Faster Dual-Core Atom Netbook Processor
* Intel Launches Six Core i7-970 Processor, Drops i7-870 Price

The AppUp center is a consumer-centric store that focuses on free and paid apps for entertainment, productivity, networking and gaming. The apps are optimized for netbooks in terms of screen size and mobility, according to Intel.

Intel also launched a new Atom chip that was formerly known as Groveland. Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's architecture group, took the wraps off the Atom CE4200, which is designed for smart TVs.

After that, Davis also unveiled the Intel Processor E600, which was formerly known as Tunnel Creek. The E600 is designed to be embedded in things like smart grids and in-car entertainment and information systems.

"The Internet has become a rich environment for us to work and play in but it's only the beginning in terms of hand-held devices, consumer electronics and embedded applications," said Davis. "Atom opens up a whole new universe of applications.... Picture treadmills that connect to the Internet so you can watch that TV show you missed last week, or it can stream your favorite Internet radio station."

Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said Intel is making some smart decisions by moving further into the small device and embedded markets. The chips announced today may not be revolutionary, but they do mark advances in the market, according to Olds.

"This is an important market for Intel," he added. "Although the prices per chip are very low, the volumes are absolutely huge. If Intel can, through pricing and performance, position their processors as standards for set top boxes alone, the sales, in terms of units, would be massive. Intel doesn't want to see this market go to ARM processors or another design, so they're going all out with their Atom processor to land design wins."

Tweak Gmail Priority Inbox to Include Filtered Messages

Tweak Gmail Priority Inbox to Include Filtered Messages

A couple weeks ago, Google took the wraps off Priority Inbox, a clever Gmail feature that helps separate the message wheat from the message chaff.

In a nutshell, it guesses (and learns) what mail is important to you and floats it to the top of your inbox, letting everything else settle to the bottom (or at least the middle).

Ah, but what about those messages that never land in your inbox, the ones for which you've created filters? By default, Priority Inbox gives them a miss.

But it doesn't have to be so. Here's how to tweak PI to include filtered mail:

1. Sign into your Gmail account, then click Settings.

2. Click the Priority Inbox tab.

3. In the "Filtered mail" area, enable Override filters.


4. Click Save Changes.

That's it! Now your Priority Inbox will include mail that's been filtered elsewhere.

Say, while we're on the subject, how are you liking Priority Inbox? Cool tool, or more hassle than it's worth?

Trojan Monitors Your Porn Surfing Habits, Threatens to Blackmail You

Trojan Monitors Your Porn Surfing Habits, Threatens to Blackmail You

In an era where online privacy seems like an oxymoron, is it so bad to have your browsing history publicly available? Or to pay less than $20 to have these details removed from the Internet?

Several Trojan horses spreading around the Internet these days spam your entire address book with bogus messages and attempt to delete your computer’s security software. But the Kenzero Trojan out of Japan goes further than pretending to be a legitimate program: Hackers behind the program not only post your browser history, favorites, illegally-downloaded porn, and clipboard content to a public Website, they demand payment of about $18 to remove the personal details of your browsing history.

Kenzero is a Trojan of the “ransomware” variety, where a malicious program masquerading as a game registration window takes your personal details then attempts to extort money out of you.

The Trojan then posts that you’ve been downloading illegal Hentai (explicit anime) games, and that instead of just being out $20, you’ll find that scammers have sold your credit card information to the highest bidder. How does Kenzero spread? Mostly via the Winny file-sharing network, which has approximately 200 million users).

Though if you’re illegaling downloading computer games, why would you give personal details to a pirated piece of software? It's food for thought. While you’re mulling that, there’s even a paper [PDF] on similar Japanese scams being presented at the upcoming Association for Computing Machinery Computer and Communications Security conference.

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

Review : D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router

D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router
Price: Rs 13,000

Summary

Wireless routers are generally seen as boring devices that only serve to provide signal coverage for Internet access throughout the house. But the latest "storage router" from D-Link is quite a big exception, and an exciting one at that. Those who live in geek-land will be glad to see that the DIR-685 offers plenty of opportunities for tweaking and making full-use of the router long after its initial setup.




Pros:

* Two USB ports for storage/print server
* Internal SATA 2.5-inch drive bay
* Wired Gigabit ports
* Wireless-N (802.11n)
* Built-in color LCD screen as photo frame and status info

Cons:

* Can get noisy with HDD installed
* Expensive, yet only 1 year warranty

The built-in 3.2-inch LCD screen in front is about as large as many mobile phone screens today.

Full Review

The D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router is quite the multi-functional device. It is only as small as other wireless routers, but it packs in a lot more than just Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet ports. In addition to the basic functionality of a networking device, you can also use it as a networked storage device (NAS or file server), print server (by sharing it out via USB), streaming media server, digital photo frame, RSS reader and as a digital weather-man.

This glossy black colored Wireless-N router with internal antenna looks stylish whether it is wall-mounted or stood on its stand. It is a high-end product and does not skimp on the feature-set, with 5 Ethernet ports, 2 USB ports, a SATA 2.5-inch HDD internal drive bay, built-in LCD screen and touch-buttons to control the LCD. Since you can see a detailed list of features on the "Specifications" tab of this review and the product's homepage"http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=DIR-685&print=1", we shall get into our observations and the real-world user experience right away.

Significant Features
Not only were the 4 LAN ports of the Gigabit type, but the WAN port (network uplink for internet or cascading network) was a Gigabit one too, thus being faster than the usual 100Mbps ports. The power cable had a switch in the middle, which you could use to switch on/off the router and that was a nice touch. Setting up the router was a cinch with its easy interface and help tips. All of the usual security standards and routing settings were present. The WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Standard) functionality was straight-forward with a touch button to be pressed for quick connection, and the small LCD screen provided status updates and hand-holding all the way. Considering that it has 3 possible storage options, storage settings were well provided for, with user access control, streaming media server support, and BitTorrent download manager. You can have it e-mail activity logs to an administrative mail address of your choice, you need to provide details of the outgoing mail server of course.

For home users whose external IP address would keep changing, hosting a publicly accessible Internet server is made possible via support for Dynamic DNS updating services. In addition to the widely used DynDNS, it also supports D-Link's own DDNS service – note that this second option is not currently supported by other router brands or even by D-Link’s own lower-end ones – so stick to DynDNS if you are likely to change routers frequently. A “website filter” is offered, using which you can implement parental control – up to 25 sites can be listed on the filter, which you can then either whitelist (only allow these) or blacklist (only block these) as per your requirement. The “guest zone” and its controls of schedule, allowed clients and routing/isolation is mention-worthy. There is a “Schedule” configuration option, which is used to manage rules for "Internet Setup", "Wireless Setup", "Network Filter", "Guest Zone", "Firewall Settings" and "Website Filter".

Web UI
Logging in through the Web UI (web browser-based user interface) to administer the D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N router threw up interesting features. You can have CAPTCHA enabled even for Web UI login, which it terms as "graphical authentication", this could theoretically stave off brute-force bot/malware logins. A "System Check" option allows for checking to graphically view which wired Ethernet ports are physically connected, which helps while trouble-shooting connection problems. As usual, the settings could be exported/imported from a saved file, and the firmware was upgradable. A version 2.0 of the firmware was available with improvements for the router, so we promptly upgraded to the newer firmware downloaded off D-Link’s support section.

The Web UI is the one that allows for configuring settings/security, and we found this to be well organized. It uses a system of 4-way navigation. Main configuration sections are at a top navigation bar, sub-sections when you enter each of these show up on a left-hand pane, and the actual settings/options being configured show in the middle pane. The fourth pane is on the right-hand side, and calls itself "Helpful Hints". Unfortunately these "hints" are not as in-depth as expected and there is no context-sensitive help on a per-setting basis. The "hints" only offer the most basic information, of the sort that the user already knows (a person who’d pour Rs. 13k into this kind of a router rarely is a novice). Mercifully, the "Save Settings" button which you have to click after making changes in any section is quite responsive and quick in functionality (unlike some routers that take almost a minute each time you save settings to get back to a usable state, which can quickly get exasperating).

LCD and touch-buttons
The touch-based buttons on the front of the device were workable but unresponsive at times. So while there is a lot you can do directly with the router and its buttons, you’d try to avoid using the buttons after the novelty has faded off. The Framechannel service is the one that delivers internet content (weather forecast, RSS feed, photo sites) directly onto the router’s screen. The 3.2-inch LCD screen is about as large as many mobile phone screens today, and while watching photos on it is not optimal, the fact that it can be done at all is pretty good. Photos can be viewed from any of the connected storage devices, and you can configure the brightness/idle time of the screen. During idle time in-between uses, the screen displays a clock with time and date for the specified idle time, and then blanks out when it enters standby mode.

Performance
During tests, the D-Link DIR-685 WiFi router did not match the levels we saw with the Asus RT-N16, but still performed quite well. The range was good enough to cover a large home across three floors (router was in the intermediate floor) and yet have some range left to cover the lawn. The area (range) it did cover could see good speeds, never going below 65% signal strength (three bars out of five). What we have in the performance tab is the consistent performance averaged over a period of time. The speeds seen are all from real world testing, and include walls and floors (of a multi-storey building) placed in-between the wireless router and client. On flat open ground/surface with no objects to interfere in between and no walls, just a green field – we saw a maximum range of 27m for the wireless signal when no other devices were interfering.

Wrapping up
Besides the minor negatives already mentioned above, there were some other things to report. Firstly, at its price-level it is strange that the DIR-685 is not a dual-band router, it operates only over 2.4 GHz spectrum and not 5 GHz unlike other routers that sell at half its price. This means you have to keep watching out for interference and speed/signal strength drops. Secondly, the provided 2-pin Indian plug does not have grounding, so be careful with the metal parts of the 2 USB ports at the back, it is possible to receive a slight shock. Thirdly, the internal hard drive bay was a good idea but needs better implementation. The bay only supports 2.5-inch laptop internal HDDs, so we inserted a 500GB drive. But there was a problem with removing it, since the eject mechanism (a deep-push button at the back) could only do so much, and we had to use other tools to pull the HDD out. When the HDD is plugged in and gets warm (which is normal with a 24x7 device like a router), the router’s internal fan becomes very audible in the midst of silence. The router supports power conservation and can “suspend” the internal hard disk, but this is still something to keep in mind. D-Link offers a warranty of one year with this product, as against some other brands with a warranty period of 3 years.

Bottom Line

All said and done, this router turns in a respectable performance as a router, and the extra features are great for enthusiasts. Being able to fit all of that functionality in there and making it compact enough to facilitate carrying an internal HDD is not something to sneer at. If converging so much into a single device is the template for wireless routers in the future, the DIR-685 sure is a pioneer even if some of its features still need polishing. At the moment though, the high price and lack of dual-band operation is a deterrent and stands between it and an even better rating.


Source : PCW

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

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