SpywareBlaster- Pictorial

Hello my friends. Two days back I have asked done of my very good friends of another forum, to kindly review the pictorials I post here. She is generally very busy with her online and off line work, but still squeezed out some time to give me a great review, and also gave me the idea about what should I bring next (Thank you....). This time I am presenting to you a Pictorial about another security software which has been a part of my system for more than two years and it is an essential addition for anyone who even spends the minimum possible time on the net.

Name: SpywareBlaster.

Latest version: 3.5.1

Homepage: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Download: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html

Purpose:

To stop the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software.

To block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.

To restrict the malacious actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.

System Requirements: Windows

Price: Free for following categories- Individuals (non commercial and educational usage) and for other Educational and Charitable institutions. For detailed information please visit: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbfreewareguidelines.html

How to Read this Pictorial: This Pictorial is divided in to three broad sections-

1. Download the software installer.
2. Installation of the software.
3. Configuration and use of the software.

You may jump to the respective section if you so desire.

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SECTION A (Download)

Step 1: The first thing that we need to do is to go to the homepage. I have used Firefox throughout, and I urge all my visitors to do so (you may get the download link at the left side of my blog). You should see the following page in your browser.


Look carefully at the name of the company, program name and the software logo. SpywareBlaster is rather a common name, so a Google search may show you thousands of very nearly matching names. So you need to check these two in case you do not visit the site directly from my blog. If you have assured yourself that you are at the right place hit on the "Download SpywareBlaster 3.5.1" link.

Step 2: As you hot on the above link you will reach the download page as below:

This page shows you all the third party servers where the installer is available. Choose any link from these four and click on that. I chose the first link.

Step 3: I chose the first link and I reached the download.com's download page.

If you followed my footsteps you will be here too. Hit the green, animated "Download Now" button.

Step 4: Depending on your connection speed, the page will refresh itself and a confirmation window will be opened by your browser (this may vary according to your browser's settings).



See the confirmation window is showing you the installer name. Just hit "Save File" button and the download will progress automatically. If your settings allow you to choose the location for the saved file, then I would suggest that save it on the Desktop. That will be easy to locate. It is a very small installer, so even if you are on a 56kbps dial up connection, it should not take much time.

SECTION B (Installation)

Step 5: Locate the installer file saved on the desktop (or where ever else that you chose).



Step 6: Double click on the installer to get the following window:

Just hot "Next" to continue.

Step 7: See the following window

Accept the license agreement and hit "Next".

Step 8: At this step you get to know about the location for installation of the software:

If you accept the default location, just hit "Next" and go to Step 9. If you decide to choose some other location for the installation, just click on the "Browse" button.

Step 8/1: If you have hit the "Browse" button you get the following:

You can choose the location of your choice from the above window, or you may directly type it in the top field where the default location is being shown. Once you are done, hit "OK" and you will be back in the window of Step 8, but this time showing your choice in the 'Installation Location' field. Hit "Next" at the step 8 screen to continue.

Step 9: Now you can see this window.

Leave the check mark unchanged and hit the "Next" button...

Step 10:
This is the review of your final installation related settings. If you are still in a mood for changing anything, just hit the "Back" button and change whatever you like. Otherwise, just click on "Install".

Step 11:
Just let the installation complete. The 'progress bar' will touch the end and you get a screen as the one in the next step. I do not suggest that you should hit the "cancel" button to stop the installation at this step.

Step 12: Hooray!!! Installation completed successfully.

I suggest that you leave the check mark so that this program launches itself as soon as you click "Finish". If you for some reason can not do that, just clear the check box and hit "Finish". Later, you can launch the program from Start Menu or double clicking the icon on the desktop. Either way, you need to press "Finish" now.

This concludes the Section B of this Pictorial.

SECTION C (Configuration and Use)

Step 13: As soon as you press "Finish in the previous step, SpyawreBlaster launches itself.

It shows you a "getting started" tutorial. As you are following mine, you do not need this. Just hit the "x" button at the right hand, top corner to close this window. In case the "x" button does not work (didn't work in my case), just hit "next" twice to complete this tutorial and get the "Main Program Window".


Step 14: I hope that now you can see the following main program window.


Look at the upper right corner of the window. Click on each link one at a time to enable protection for IE, Firefox and Restricted Site Behavior. One example is shown below. As you click on the "Click here to enable protection" beside Internet Explorer, you shall get the following window:

Put check marks in both the boxes and SpywareBlaster will enable protection for all the items currently present in its Database. You can also enable protection selectively by clicking the check boxes beside individual items. Then you need to click the radio button "Protect Against Checked Items". But I highly discourage you to this. Enable all the protection available for your own safety. Now click on the "Protection" at the top left corner to get back the main program screen as the first image of this step.

Now follow similar path to enable protection for other two items.

Step 15: When you have downloaded and installed SpywareBlaster it contained a database which is generally an old one. As you can see in the following window, the installer downloaded on 26/09/2007 came preloaded with 01/01/2006 database. So its pretty old.

Hence we need to update the database immediately. To do that, you need to be connected with the internet. If you are, then click on the "Update" at the bottom left pane of the Program Window. You get the following screen.


In this screen, hit the radio button "Check on Updates" and SpywareBlaster will connect to its database to see if any newer update is available.

Step 16: As the update process finishes, you get the following screen.

In this case if the Updates are available it will be displayed here otherwise you will be notified that your SpywareBlaster database is up to date. Hit on the "Back" button to get the main "Update Window" back again.

Step 17: For all the first timers SpywareBlaster will surely find update. Hence we have little more left to do. So carry on...

From this window, click on the "Protection" on the upper left pane of the program window.

Step 18: As you do as above, you get the main program window back. Look at the highlighted portion of the following screen shot.

You can find two links under "Quick Tasks". Hit on the first one and all the items in the new protection database including the old ones will be activated.
As you have come this far, you are now capable enough to get the latest download just using the "Download Latest Protection Updates" link. In future you can do these two main functions of SpywareBlaster from here. There is one more option, that is 'disable all protections', but you should never do that, unless you are on a suicide mission on the net.

Step 19: Now look at the highlighted portion of the following screen shot below...

You can see that the program is informing you that all the protection items are enabled, that is "0 items disabled". This is what your program should inform you always. Now you are assured that you are protected against browser based attacks.

Step 20:
We are at the end of our Pictorial. Nothing more to do. Just click on the "x" button to close the program.
The best thing about SpywareBlaster is that you do not need to keep it running to use its protection, so there is no precious resources consumed by this program.


Remember: SpywareBlaster is not a replacement for standard AntiVirus or other real time guards like firewall. It is an add on protective protective program which tries to thwart attack even before it reaches your system.

If you have liked this, please do not forget to sign my guest book. You can also request Pictorials for specific softwares, but those should preferably be free ones.

Netcraft Toolbar Pictorial Guide

One of my friend at Mozillazine pointed out that GralicWrap does not work for our beloved Firefox. S0 I decided to post here another Pictorial guide of an Anti Phishing utility which works for both IE and Firefox.

Homepage/ Download: http://toolbar.netcraft.com

System Requirement: It should work in any OS as long as that supports Firefox.

Purpose: Anti Phishing. It integrates itself to the browser as a Tool bar and displays the site information.

Step 1: Go to the home page url with your Firefox browser. You should see a page like the following image. Choose "Toolbar> Download the Netcraft Toolbar" option. You should see the next image then.

Step 2: In this page, click on the radio button labeled "Firefox 1.1 orLater".

Step 3: In this screen you will be cautioned by the site that Firefox may block the site's attempt to install the extension. Click "OK" to continue.

Step 4: At this step you should be informed by the Firefox that an extension installation attempt is stopped and you need to edit the settings to allow this site to install the extension. If you do not get this notification, continue to the Step 6, otherwise read on. Click on the "Edit Option" button as shown below to get the new window as shown in the next step.

Step 5: In the following window click on "Allow" and then "Close" to get back the same window as in step 2. Repeat Step 2 and Step 3, but this time you will not be cautioned that the attempt of installation is blocked. Instead you shall get a window as in the next step.

Step 6: This is the last window of Firefox seeking your agreement about installation of the extension. Hit on "Install Now" radio button to start the installation process.

Step 7: Once the installation is over "Restart Firefox" to make the newly installed extension operational.

Step 8: Now you have Netcraft tool bar alive and kicking in your favorite Firefox browser window.

Step 9: Netcraft tool bar does not require any configuration to make it operational. Though there are three main components that you should know about. the first one is the "Risk Rating". This will tell you about Netcraft assessment about the authenticity of the site. If it is pretty high you need to check the other components to validate that it is a genuine site. Green Bar indicates the site's safety, Red Bar tells you to think. Longer the Red Bar, more you should worry.

Step 10: This component will help you to verify the site. Click on the "Site Report", and a new browser window will open with all sorts of detail. You can verify whether the site is the real one from this page by verifying the owner of the site, hosting company and for how long this site is operational. Generally phishing sites do not float long enough on the net, at most few months those remain operational.

Step 11: This tells you the rating of the site in terms of visit rank. Obviously "Rank" of the phishing sites will not be high as legitimate ones. You can visit this rank by the region also.

Step 12: This is the last step of this tutorial. You can access many other features of Netcraft tool bar using the drop down arrow beside the colored "Netcraft" logo and beside the "Services" button of the tool bar. Users can also visit for more advanced resources of this tool bar at their homepage. Though for general users like me this much should be sufficient.

Hope you all will be benefited with this, and please take some time to sign my guest book.

GralicWrap.com AntiPhising client

As I promised, I came across another new piece of software and here I am with its installation and operating tutorial. While it is designed for newbies, experienced users I don't think will require it. And what do u know...its with screen shots.

Homepage and Download Link: http://gralicwrap.com/WebDownloadClient.php

Type: anti phishing software.

System Requirements:

• Windows 95, 98, ME, XP Home, XP Pro, or 2000 Pro (No Linux version avaulable).
  
• 2 MB of available hard disk space
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later (does not seem to work for Firefox)
• 14.4 KBS or faster Internet connection

Purpose: All the inbuilt browser anti phishing protection works on the basis of a black and white list, which unfortunately is not very prompt in updating. As phishing sites do not continue to exists for a considerable length of time, a third party Anti phishing software is always helpful. And here comes GralicWrap to browser's rescue.

Step 1: Download the installer named GralicWrapClient Setup file from the above URL. It is in compressed format, use 7 zip to uncompress it to get the main installer. Double click on the installer to get the following screen. Click on "Next".....

Step 2: You get the following License Agreement screen, click on "I Agree" to continue...

Step 3: At this step decide where you want to install this program. The default is C:\Program Files\GralicWrap.com Client. If you want to change the location click on "Browse" button and see step 3/1, otherwise click "Next" and jump to Step 4.

Step 3/1: This step is necessary in case you want to change the default installation location. Clicking the "Browse" button in the above screen will open the following "sub-window". In that choose the Drive or Folder where you want to install this program and hiy "OK" radio button. The program will automatically create "GralicWrap.com Client" folder under your chosen location.

Step 4: Leave this screen as default and do not mind changing anything here. Hit "OK" to proceed.

Step 5: The program will be installed and you can see a progress screen as follows. Once the word "Completed" is displayed in the last line, click on "Next".

Step 6: This is the last installation screen, informing that the installation is over, so you just have to click "Finish" to formally end the process of installation...nothing else.

Step 7: Now we need to run the program. To do so: click on Start> All Programs > GralicWrap.com Client 1.06> GralicWrap.com Client

Step 8: After finishing the above step, you may not see anything. Just look for a small, red cat like icon in your system tray. Locate the icon and double click on it.

Step 9: As you double click on this icon, a new window will open with three radio buttons, choose "configure" from those. As you click on "Configure" another 'sub-window' appears. In that ensure that first two boxes are checked. Leave the last two boxes blank. This will ensure that GW will start with windows and do not have to remember to run it during browsing. Hit "OK" and "Minimize" and it will keep running in your system tray. Remember to allow GW if your Firewall raises any notification. Now you are good to go...

You can access the configuration window by 'right-clicking' on the task bar icon. You may have access to the "Exit" button in the similar manner, in case you want to shut it down (This I do not recommend).

Hope you find it useful.

YPOPS! Having POP access for a non -POP Yahoo mail Account

Ok, I have decided to justice to my Blog...from now on whatever good thing I shall find out I am going to post that here (obviously after trying myself).

I suddenly stumbled upon a new piece of software called YPOPS!. It promises to provide me POP access for all my non POP Yahoo accounts. Now unless you have a regional account in Yahoo (like abcd@yahoo.co.in) you really can not have free smtp or pop access to your mail accounts. So gem like Mozilla Thunderbird remains to be hardly any use. Hence I got really curious and decided give it a shot. The download was pretty small for windows..a few hundred kbs of installer. And then I started to add accounts to my Thunderbird as per the instructions available at their site. At first I added only one to see whether it really works or not...and to my utter surprise I found that it works like a breeze. And icing on the cake is that you can use the outgoing smtp server in the same account. I got so impressed that I remain awake till 1:30 am in the morning to create and use all my ".com" yahoo accounts. So I can highly recommend this software to anyone who is still reading this. I suggest that you use Thunderbird as your Email client.

Just one word of caution: Remember to configure YPOPS! not to download all the mails at least after the first run, otherwise you shall have all the same mails downloaded again.

To sum up:

Pros:

1. It delivers what it promises- you really have POP access to your free Yahoo accounts.
2. It also provides you with SMTP access to your free accounts.
3. No Adware/Malware/Crapware is included- just clean.
4. Has a good support forum.
5. Clear instructions on how to configure almost all kinds of Emil clients.
6. Its FREE.
7. It also has a official Linux version for Ubuntu and for others the Source Code.
8. Still under Active Development.

Cons:

1. It does not work with new yahoo mail.
2. Wish it worked with Hotmail or Rediffmail too.

So you can clearly see that the pros outweighs cons quite easily, so I decided to go for it and forgo the jazzy interface of New Yahoo Mail (previously known as Yahoo Mail Beta). If you are with plese find tha links and instructions below.

Links:

Home Page: http://ypopsemail.com/index.php

Windows Installer:

http://dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/yahoopops/ypops-win-0.9.5.1.exe
http://dbeusee.home.comcast.net/ypops-win-0.9.5.1.exe

Ubuntu Linux Installer:

http://www.geocities.com/t_skariah/ypops/ypops-0.9.5.tgz

Uncompress this file to get the .deb installer.

Source code (in CVS)

http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=52835

Mail client configuration instructions:

http://ypopsemail.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=listarticles&secid=1

The Thunderbird Instructions are for older 1.7 version. I shall try to post here the new instructions for Thunderbird 2.0 with screen shots, but I don't think that before 2nd October it will be possible. So please come back to check then.

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Ubuntu Installation Instructions:

To install:

$ tar xvzf ypops-deb.tgz
$ sudo dpkg -i ypops_0.8.8-1_i386.deb

To uninstall:

$ sudo dpkg -r ypops

To start:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/ypops start

To stop:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/ypops stop

For auto start at boot:

$ cd /etc/rc2.d/
$ sudo ln -s ../init.d/ypops S99ypops
$ cd /etc/rc3.d/
$ sudo ln -s ../init.d/ypops S99ypops
$ cd /etc/rc5.d/
$ sudo ln -s ../init.d/ypops S99ypops

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So I hope it helps others as it has been helping me. If readers find this post useful please leave a comment.