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.