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Hardware Requirements for Internet PC

April 27th, 2012
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Can someone give me an idea of what the minimum hardware requirements
are for a PC that will be used mostly for internet, as well as playing
DVDs? (I have a 900Mhz, 512mb XP system).

I ask because the system I’ve been using gets progressively more
sluggish after a reformat and re-install. There seems to be a lot of
background operations going on that I cannot find.

I alternate between installing Avast! and AVG after routine XP re-
installs and I usually disable as much I can in “Start Up” for all the
good it does because after a while the boxes tend to get checked again
anyway.

The sluggishness now occurs immediately after a new XP install, so it
is not malware. It seems that that problem may be that the increasing
complexity of software that I’ve been using for years may be the
culprit. (Not that I install much software).

I do have issues with jerky video at Youtube, and even worse issues
with loading pages at Photobucket, but that may be my connection.
(Even though I’m told by Verizon that there isn’t a problem). But the
biggest problem involves random freezing of my cursor, freezing with
switching between tabs, freezing when typing, etc. Every operation I
perform with the mouse or keyboard can randomly get hung up,
necessitating a waiting period. At worse I have to reboot. Sometimes
going as far as having to pull the plug out the back of the PC case
because the pc case on/off button will not work. (“Ctrl+Alt+Del”
doesn’t work at all on my system).

Source:http://us.generation-nt.com/hardware-requirements-internet-pc-help-207248431.html

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Internet Providers Agree to Fight ‘Zombie’ Computer Networks

March 23rd, 2012
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Every month, about four million computers turn into zombies, according to researchers.

Unbeknownst to their owners, who have accidentally clicked on a malicious link or file, the infected computers get recruited to join botnets — or global networks of remote-controlled PCs that cyber criminals use to crash websites, swipe passwords or steal consumer financial data.

Experts say botnets have become a serious threat to the digital economy. And now, Internet service providers are joining the fight to destroy them.

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission announced commitments from most of the nation’s big Internet service providers to adhere to a voluntary “code of conduct” to fight botnets. The code calls on the providers to detect whether customers’ computers have become robots — or “bots” — and notify and help customers whose computers are infected.

“If you own a PC, you’ll be significantly better protected against your computer being taken over by a bad actor who could destroy your private files or steal your personal information,” FCC Chair Julius Genachowski said Thursday, as he announced the “code of conduct” suggested by a federal advisory group known as the Communications, Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC).

Thousands of botnets have taken over millions of computers around the world. One of the largest botnets infected as many as 12.7 million computers in more than 190 countries. But innocent computer owners are often unaware that their PCs are performing automated tasks that help cyber criminals. Some may notice their computer being unusually slow or crashing frequently, but those problems might also be caused by unrelated hardware of software issues, according to the Microsoft Safety and Security Center.

Internet service providers are uniquely positioned to spot botnets and other cyber threats on their networks in the early stages, experts say.

On Thursday, the FCC said that AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, Time Warner and Verizon all agreed to follow the recommendations made by CSRIC, which addressed not only fighting botnets but also two other major cybersecurity risks: domain name fraud and IP hijacking.

To help users surf the web, the Internet relies on a digital phone book known as the Domain Name System, or DNS, that turns the long string of numbers in an IP address into an easy-to-remember URL. Domain name fraud occurs when hackers scramble the identifying information of a website so users are misdirected to a nearly-identical but fraudulent website, where they are duped into providing their financial or other personal information. On Thursday, Internet providers agreed to adopt security protocols, known as Domain Name System Security Extensions, which help prevent domain name fraud by allowing Internet users to verify the authenticity of websites they visit.

The companies also agreed to adopt standards to validate Internet routing information and prevent “IP hijacking,” which occurs when hackers misdirect Internet traffic to an insecure website in order to eavesdrop on Internet users’ communications and steal or change data. In 2010, 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic was diverted through Chinese servers for about 18 minutes, according to a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

On Thursday, Genachowski called the recommendations “a blueprint for addressing some of the biggest threats to our digital economy.”

He added, “Implementing these recommendations will reduce the risks of cyber crimes that cost U.S. businesses and consumers billions of dollars every year and will enhance the security of this platform that is increasingly integrated into every aspect of our economy and society.”

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/internet-providers-botnets_n_1372837.html

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Computer hackers reveal plans to send internet into space

January 11th, 2012
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The Hackerspace Global Grid (HGG) is a proposed network of stations on Earth to ensure communication with satellites in orbit. It is part of an ambitious attempt to not only establish the internet in space but also to put a hacker on the Moon by 2034.

The resulting web connection would be used by hundreds of hackerspaces – labs made up of technology and computer devotees – around the world.
US hacker Nick Farr originally issued the challenge. If it works, he believes the project could lead to ‘an internet free from censorship’.
Many hackers, as well as technology giants such as Google and Twitter, are opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) currently going through US Congress.
And just last week, the Spanish government approved its own anti-piracy law that could see internet service providers blocking certain websites.
‘Our idea was to just say: it’s absolutely possible to defeat internet censorship, defeat a militaristic approach to space and get on the Moon,’ said Mr Farr.
‘HGG is an important first step towards putting the internet in space. To do that, we need to track what’s up there and learn how to communicate with it all.’
Mr Farr, who estimates HGG could cost about £20,000, said: ‘We have the resources to put a free, uncensorable internet in space for everyone around the world to use with low-cost hardware.

The plans to put the Internet into space are complex and ambitious
‘It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do it, and we’re working on that. ‘Once that’s done, we’ll put a hacker in orbit. And once that’s done, we’ll put a hacker on the Moon.’

The team behind HGG is from the shackspace hackerspace in Stuttgart. One of their members, known only as ‘hadez’, told Metro that their plan was to make satellite-based communication available ‘for all of mankind’.

The first step to achieving this will be to set up about 1,000 ‘ground stations’ all over the world in hackers’ gardens or balconies.
They would use existing equipment such as HAM (amateur) radio satellites that work with a worldwide ‘supercomputer’, known as Constellation.
So far, 200 volunteers have signed up to help the project by either building their own ground station or purchasing one – complete with antenna – for about €100 (£82).
Before that stage, four prototype ground stations will be ready for testing by the summer.

Those behind HGG stress the project is not political.

‘HGG’s aim is to provide the core infrastructure,’ said hadez. ‘Fighting censorship and Sopa-related issues is on the horizon but will most likely be handled by other teams inside the hacker community.’

Graeme Batsman, director of British IT security company Data Defender, said the space project was ‘taking privacy activism to the extreme’. He added: ‘To call them hackers is a little harsh – they are more like a group of scientists.

‘The US will not like this. They love to be able to monitor their citizens and companies so I bet there will be some bill against this or an undercover mission to stop it.’

However, Andreas Hornig, head of Constellation, is not concerned about potentially being shut down by a government, saying there would be ‘no need’.
Instead, he insisted the project would simply give everyone the chance to ‘get involved with a grassroots space programme’.
Mr Hornig added: ‘I want to sleep well at night and my intention is to conform with all the current laws.’

Source:http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/886911-computer-hackers-reveal-plans-to-send-internet-into-space

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Tablet market to remain small till better internet services: Lenovo

December 27th, 2011
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Chinese laptop computer maker- Lenovo is planning to expand its branded retail outlets in India from around 750 now to 1000 by March, said the Indian arm’s managing director. The company may even double that number in the next year or two, because “it is a booming market, with regions that are still un-penetrated,” said Amar Babu.

Yet, the company will not compete on pricing with its operators and use existing distribution agreements to reach its retail stores rather than setting something on its own, he said. “The Indian region is so large, that the objective of the retail store is purely for brand presence in Tier III and Tier IV cities and service; not as much for first point of retail.”

Lenovo acquired its computer manufacturing business from US-major IBM in 2005. Thereafter the brand took a beating, although the IBM Thinkpad brand, that Lenovo has retained, was fairly entrenched. The company has recovered since then.

Lenovo earlier this year launched two tablet devices in the Indian market. Babu said one is designed to address the enterprise need, and although it is a little heavier it can better handle e-mail, documents, and presentations. For such users the company is also planning to launch a computer with a swivel touch screen. The other tablet is a consumer device, that despite the hype is less in demand for the moment, he said.

“Tablet sales are largely happening in the metro cities, and the models being sold are at the Rs 40,000 price point, rather than the cheaper ones; because the buyer profile is such.”

The global uptake of Apple’s iPad and similar tablet devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab has also spread virally into the Indian media. If advertising is anything to go by, tablet devices have inundated the market at prices starting at Rs 12,999 for a Reliance Communications’ branded one.

Babu said India is still some time away from becoming a nation of ingrained tablet users. “This is only an additional screen for people using computing on the move. At home most still prefer desktop computers.” Besides, the chief mode of sharing media remains CD drives and USB storage devices in India until wireless networks and Internet service providers can offer seamless high speed data services across the country. “The preferred first computer device remains the desktop or at best has moved to the laptop,” Babu said.

Babu said, over the medium term, read two-to-five years, the company hopes to ramp up India revenue to 10% of its global revenue. At present, Lenovo India contributes around 3% to the global revenue. “The management will continue investing in India and we are very upbeat about the future growth potential of India’s PC market” said Babu.

Yet, nearly 60% of the India revenue even at that stage is likely to be from laptops sold to enterprises, he said. Of the remaining 30% would be from desktops and the only 10% from tablets and other devices.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/tablet-market-to-remain-small-till-better-internet-services-lenovo/articleshow/11255888.cms

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The Inherent Advantages of Windows on x86 and x64 Tablets

November 17th, 2011
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The biggest disadvantage of running Windows 7 on a tablet computer is the battery life of the devices. This isn’t the fault of Windows but is the fault of the hardware its designed to run on. Existing Intel and AMD chips will run out when running Windows 7 for around 4.5 hours. The arrival of Windows 8 running on ARM designed chips will extend this, we presume, to seven hours or more and bring Windows tablets in line with the battery life you would expect from an Android tablet or the iPad.

But what about the benefits of running Windows 8 on an Intel or AMD-powered tablet? While the masses might flock to the new ARM tablets, I believe there is a very strong case to be made to buy yourself a Windows tablet using existing hardware, and get it before Windows 8 is released. Let me explain.

Windows on x86 and x64 hardware has many advantages that the new ARM version will likely never have. The most obvious of these is the ability to run full desktop applications, and having used the Samsung Series 7, which is the demo tablet Microsoft gave away at the BUILD conference where they unveiled Windows, and having used Windows 7 on another quad core tablet, I can say that this is actually a far better experience than you might expect.

The additional benefits though come in the form of support for additional hardware. This includes printers, TV tuners and much more besides. I have two tablets, an HP TouchPad which gets the general lounging on the sofa use, and a Windows tablet. What I can do with the Windows tablet that I could never do with the TouchPAd is place it in a charging dock with a USB TV tuner plugged in the back and use it as a bedside television.

At the moment the success of a tablet rests solely on the quantity and quality of the apps available for it, and I find this disappointing. It means that tablets are essentially very limited in functionality. With full support for all the hardware available for a standard PC you can greatly expand the usefulness of the device, and get much more for your money; let’s face it tablet’s still aren’t cheap.

The downside with this is that when Windows 8 becomes available, all the tablet manufacturers and PC manufacturers will be wanting to create machines using ARM chips. This will make them power efficient, slightly cheaper and better for consumers. Those companies will at the very least scale back the models they provide that run on existing x86 and x64 architecture and may even cease production of such models completely.

At the moment there are some excellent Windows 7 tablets available (I even have one to give away this week) but you might want to think about buying one before WIndows 8 launches if you want to be able to harness the full software and hardware potential of a PC with the device. If you don’t buy one now, you might find you simply can’t in less than a year.

Source:http://www.windows8news.com/2011/11/16/inherent-advantages-windows-tablets/

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Internet Architects Warn of Risks in Ultrafast Networks

November 14th, 2011
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If nothing else, Arista Networks proves that two people can make more than $1 billion each building the Internet and still be worried about its reliability.

David Cheriton, a computer science professor at Stanford known for his skills in software design, and Andreas Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, have committed $100 million of their money, and spent half that, to shake up the business of connecting computers in the Internet’s big computing centers.

As the Arista founders say, the promise of having access to mammoth amounts of data instantly, anywhere, is matched by the threat of catastrophe. People are creating more data and moving it ever faster on computer networks. The fast networks allow people to pour much more of civilization online, including not just Facebook posts and every book ever written, but all music, live video calls, and most of the information technology behind modern business, into a worldwide “cloud” of data centers. The networks are designed so it will always be available, via phone, tablet, personal computer or an increasing array of connected devices.

Statistics dictate that the vastly greater number of transactions among computers in a world 100 times faster than today will lead to a greater number of unpredictable accidents, with less time in between them. Already, Amazon’s cloud for businesses failed for several hours in April, when normal computer routines faltered and the system overloaded. Google’s cloud of e-mail and document collaboration software has been interrupted several times.

“We think of the Internet as always there. Just because we’ve become dependent on it, that doesn’t mean it’s true,” Mr. Cheriton says. Mr. Bechtolsheim says that because of the Internet’s complexity, the global network is impossible to design without bugs. Very dangerous bugs, as they describe them, capable of halting commerce, destroying financial information or enabling hostile attacks by foreign powers.

Both were among the first investors in Google, which made them billionaires, and, before that, they created and sold a company to the networking giant Cisco Systems for $220 million. Wealth and reputations as technology seers give their arguments about the risks of faster networks rare credibility.

More transactions also mean more system attacks. Even though he says there is no turning back on the online society, Mr. Cheriton worries most about security hazards. “I’ve made the claim that the Chinese military can take it down in 30 seconds, no one can prove me wrong,” he said. By building a new way to run networks in the cloud era, he says, “we have a path to having software that is more sophisticated, can be self-defending, and is able to detect more problems, quicker.”

The common connection among computer servers, one gigabit per second, is giving way to 10-gigabit connections, because of improvements in semiconductor design and software. Speeds of 40 gigabits, even 100 gigabits, are now used for specialty purposes like consolidating huge data streams among hundreds of thousands of computers across the globe, and that technology is headed into the mainstream. An engineering standard for a terabit per second, 1,000 gigabits, is expected in about seven years.

Arista, which is based here, was built with the 10-gigabit world in mind. It now has 250 employees, 167 of them engineers, building a fast data-routing switch that could isolate problems and fix them without ever shutting down the network. It is intended to run on inexpensive mass-produced chips. In terms of software and hardware, it was a big break from the way things had been done in networking for the last quarter-century.

“Companies like Cisco had to build their own specialty chips to work at high speed for the time,” Mr. Bechtolsheim said. Because of improvements in the quality and capability of the kind of chips used in computers, phones and cable television boxes, “we could build a network that is a lot more software-enabled, something that is a lot easier to defend and modify

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/arista-networks-founders-aim-to-alter-how-computers-connect.html

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Connected TV watched in 42m homes

October 19th, 2011
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Across the US and Europe, 42m homes are already accessing internet services through their TVs, market watcher Strategy Analytics reckons.

Given the rise of Netflix, Hulu and other such services, it’s no surprise to learn that the Americans are leading the move from broadcast television to IPTV.

SA spoke to 4800 punters over there and over here. Some 20 per cent of the US survey participants said they have watched internet content on their TV screens in the past month, but only ten per cent of Europeans had.

Ironically, the UK leads the way in internet-streamed catch-up content, thanks to BBC iPlayer. SA’s numbers suggest that while more TVs and set-top boxes are gaining iPlayer support, most of the service’s uses still watch it on a computer.

Speaking of hardware, US consumers tend to get internet content on theit tellies through their games consoles. Europeans prefer to connect up PCs, SA’s survey found.

Streaming content over a home network and internet-connected Blu-ray disc players are also significant in both territories, it added.

The usage of TVs that can connect directly to the internet over a home wireless network or a wired link was not mentioned, suggesting it’s still a minority interest. No great surprise, that – connected TVs are relatively new, and many folk have yet to feel the need to upgrade their current flat-panels.

Source:http://www.reghardware.com/2011/10/18/42m_us_and_european_homes_watch_internet_streamed_content_on_their_tv/

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