Secure Windows XP With Avast Antiviru

Avast Free Antiviurs

I have been using Avast Anti-virus for almost three years now. I am using the Free version of avast. Before installing anti-virus on my system it was constantly infected by virus. I used to format the Windows and reinstall it. Before Avast i tried other products. Symantec's nortan Anti-virus was heavy. It will eat away your system resources and the system will hang. AVG antivirus was not very effective.

Avast is good in many things. I won't allow a virus inside the system. It can be easily and automatically updated using internet. Just connect to the internet. Avast will update the virus definitions automatically. When a program update is available it will inform it. It is also free for life. You just have to register and get a registration key. Registration is free at avast website. Just put the registration key using the avast interface. The registration is valid for one year. After one year you have renew your registration.

One of the drawbacks is that the free version does not clean the infected files. It can quarantine the infected file or delete the file. I don't know whether the professional edition can clean the file. Another problem is with Autorun virus in removable disks. It will constantly show popup message for some kind of autorun viruses.
 Otherwise avast is good. I am running an internet cafe and i use avast free on all my systems. I am relieved from formatting hard drive when virus attacks.

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Not able to access Network

Why am i not able to access network?

Today i encountered a weird problem. One of my client have two computers running Windows XP Professional. He access internet using DATA CARD (BSNL EVDO). He wanted to use the same connection with another computer. So he asked me to network. What should i do? Internet connection sharing came to my rescue. I just opened the Network connection, selected the dial-up connection opened Advanced properties tab and tick the box for sharing.

It should automatically change the LAN IP to 192.168.0.1. but it did not happen. So i manually changed the IP address to 192.168.0.1. In the second computer i put the address 192.168.0.2. But still i can't access the first computer from second.

After several attempts and restarts i checked the services (Control panel->Administrative Tools->Services). If found that DHCP client and Server services were not running. I started them manually. Now the networking works smoothly. File sharing was working. Internet also works. But those two services did not start automatically.

Every time windows starts starting those services is not good. So i decided to create ms-dos batch file and put the net start command to start those services. The syntax is very simple NET START SerivceName

Service name can be found by right click -> Properties. For instance, the service name of DHCP client is 'dhcp'.

I created a batch file with those two service and put it in windows startup. Now the network works. I don't have to reformat the Windows. Reformatting is tedious with installation of device drivers, installing applications etc. My client wanted to avoid this. So this is the workaround.

The essential Windows services for networking are DHCP Client, DNS Client, Server. The functionality of these services are,

DHCP Client: Manages network configuration by registering and updating IP addresses and DNS names

DNS Client: Resolves and caches Domain Name System (DNS) names for your computer. If this service is stopped, your computer will not be able to resolve DNS names and locate Active Directory domain controllers. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

Server: Supports file, print, and named-pipe sharing over the network for your computer. If this service is stopped, these functions will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

Other services may be required for additional functionality, but the above mentioned services are essential bar-bones for basic networking with file sharing.

Error setting up Internet Connection Sharing

RPC server Not available

While setting up internet connection sharing in Windows XP you might get an error RPC server not available. The probable cause for this error is that your DHCP client service is not running.

The DHCP Client in windows Manages network configuration by registering and updating IP addresses and DNS names.

Open control panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and check whether DHCP Client service is started and running. If not running start the service.

This might solve the error RPC server not available while trying to share an Internet connection.

Internet Connection Sharing

How to Setup Internet Connection Sharing?

Windows XP allows you to share internet connection in one computer with many computers on the network. Like File and Printer Sharing You can share Dial-up/ppp internet connection. To do this go to control panel->Network connection. Right click the Dialup-PPP connection you want to share. Make sure it is disconnected. Go to properties.

In the properties dialog box go to Advanced Tab. You will find Internet Connection Sharing option. Tick the box with "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection".

If you want the connection to be established whenver other computers on the network tries to open a web page, tick, "Establish a dial-ip connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet"

There is another tick box. "Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection.

If there are more than one ethernet adapter on your computer you will be asked to select a Local area connection. Here you will select which ethernet adapter to be used for Connection sharing.

When you click ok you will get a message stating, "You Lan adapter will be set to the IP address 192.168.0.1. You might not get this message some times for some reason.

Now your system will act as DHCP host and assign IP address automatically to other computers on the network.

If your LAN adapter is not set to the IP address 192.168.0.1 you should manually set this by opening properties dialog box of lan connection and slecting TCP/IP properties.

You can use IPCONFIG command in the command prompt to check your IP Address subnet mask etc.

OK. Now Part 1 is over by enabling ICS in the host computer. Now you have to configure other computers to access the shared internet connection. To do this open net work connection on other computer. Go to TCP/IP Properties.

Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Click properties.

Select obtain an IP address automatically and select Obtain DNS server address automatically and click ok. Now your Host computer / gateway will automaically assign IP Addrss staring 192.168.0. If that does not happen something goes wrong. Try assigning IP Address manually. Click use the following IP Address and give 192.168.0.2. For third computer give 3 for fourth give 4 and so on. Subnet mask will be 255.255.255.0. Set Default gateway to 192.168.0.1 and click use the following DNS sever addresses and give preferred DNS server 192.168.0.1 and Alternate DNS server 192.168.0.1.


If automatic IP assignment is not working your host computer also is not assigned automatic IP. In the host computer set TCPIP address to 192.168.0.1

This is the basics of Internet connection Sharing in Windows XP Computer. There might be errors/warnings during these setups. We will discuss them later.

Add Applications to Startup

How run an application at startup?

WindowsXP offers a sophisticated way to run program at system start-up. In the old days of windows 98 we use Autoexec.BAT, a batch file with MS-DOS commands to run a program at startup. windows XP said good-bye to AUTOEXEC.BAT and offers registry entry for start-ups. You can use msconfig.exe utility to add a startup entry.

Goto Start -> Run -> Type msconfig and press enter.

In the system Configuration Utility Window there is a tab named 'Startup'. In this tab three columns named Startup Item, Command and location is available. The startup item is the name of the application that run on startup. Command is the file name and path of the application.

System Configuration Utility does not have an option to add start up item. Typically Setup programs for an application will create a registry entry to add a program in system startup. The entry can be per user or per computer. User specific entry will go into HKEY_CURRENT_USER of the Registry. System wide entry will go into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key.


Now, how to a start-up applicatino using system registry.

Goto Start -> Run -> type regedit and press enter.

The registry editor will open. If you want to add a startup program for the current user goto HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Run

On the right side panel there are three columns Name, Type and Data. Right click on empty space and Select New -> String Value. Change 'New Value #1' to test. Double click it. In value data type c:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE. This will make Notepad application to run each time the current user logs into the system. You can specify any applicaion that you want to run at start-up. Click OK and close registry editor.

If you want to make a startup entry for all users on the computer you have to add the entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE part of the registry.

go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion

There are two folders Run and RunOnce.

If you want the startup program to run every time the users logsin create it under Run. Otherwise if you want the program to run only once when the windows starts add the entry under RunOnce. Thats it!

How to Create Disk Partition?

Disk management in XP

Windows XP provides a comprehensive disk management tool to create partitions in the Hard Disk Drive. You can create new partitions, delete existing partitions, change drive letters etc using the disk management tool.

In the old days of Windows 98 one would use FDISK, a DOS based Disk partition tool to create Partition both FAT and FAT32. FDISK does not support NTFS partitions. Before installing Windows 98 you have to partition and format the hard drive. Windows 98 setup does not have option to create partition and format the hard drive. You will typically use FDISK before installing Windows 98.

Windows XP changed all these by providing built-in partition tool. When setting up Windows XP you will asked to select a partition to install Windows. For new Disk with no partition you can create a partition from within the setup. You can enter the amount of disk space in MB and format the disk (both Normal / Quick format). If you did not create all the partition while installing (just C: is created) you can create other partitions once XP is installed and started.

To do this go to control panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management

You can find Disk Management option.

Primary partition is shown in violet color
Extended partition is shown in Green Color
Logical drive is shown in blue color

You can right click and carry out the desired action. Creation of extended partition, Creation of Logical drives, Changing drive letters etc.

Hibernation - How to Hibernate

What is Hibernating in Windows XP?

Hibernation is a power management feature introduced in Windows XP. Windows 98 does not have hibernate option. Using hibernation you turn off your PC without closing programs and shutting down the computer. When you shutdown / turn off your computer, all open programs and data will be closed and while restarting, a fresh session will be opened. In contrast while using hibernation in windows XP all open programs / applications will be saved to hard disk and computer is turned off. While turning on the computer the system will resume all previous applications. In other words, while hibernating the data in the memory (RAM) will be saved in Hard Drive as files.

To support hibernation your system should be ACPI Compliant, nowadays almost all computers are ACPI compliant. Hibernation is not standby in which the is running but display and hard drive is turned off.

To manually put your computer into hibernation:

Open Power Options in Control Panel. Click the Hibernate tab, and then select the Enable hibernate support check box. If the Hibernate tab is not available, your computer does not support this feature. Click OK to close the Power Options dialog box. Click Start, and then click Shut Down. In the What do you want the computer to do drop-down list, click Hibernate.

When you put your computer into hibernation, everything in computer memory is saved on your hard disk. When you turn the computer back on, all programs and documents that were open when you turned the computer off are restored on the desktop.
To put your computer into hibernation, you must have a computer whose components and BIOS support this option.

To hibernate, when you press the power button on your computer, in the Advanced tab of Power Options, slect hibernate in the combobox for, When i press the power button on my computer. Now if you press the power button on your computer, the system will hibernate. Alternatively you can go to start menu -> Turn off Computer. Turn off computer Dialog box will appear. Three buttons Stand by, Turn off, Restart will appear. Now press the Shift button on the keyboard. Stand by will change to Hibernate.


Note: Disk space required for Hibernation change from system to system.