Tag Archives | security

Build Your Own Awesome Apps Installer

Nov/02 in Desktop Apps, Online Apps

Grab Only the Software You Want!

Ninite makes installing a plethora of new applications really simple. With Windows 7 coming out, or those who feeling the urge to clean out Vista or Windows XP, we are all looking at simpler ways to install a lot of great programs out there.  That is what Ninite is all about. 

All you have to do is visit their web site, click the check marks for the programs you want to bundle together, start the customized installer, and presto – you are done.  They only install the programs you want (no hidden toolbars or spyware).  Heck, they don’t even install their own program – they only install the programs you want and need. 

Ninite definitely offers a cool way to grab your own bundle of software solutions to install.  For more assistance on how to get up and running with your own customized install, check out these articles from Simple Help and the How-to Geek. (also big thanks to Todd for showing my this great free service!)

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Is Your Domain Registration Really Anonymous?

Nov/01 in Hot Web Topics

Stealing WhoIs InfoIt is pretty easy to get private domain name protection on your domain name through your domain name register. This way you can hide your personal contact information from the public. One really haunting trend though I have seen on a lot of web sites is copying the whois information on domains to display on other web sites.

One service that does this is AboutUs.org.

I found out about this the other day by using DomainTools.com to do a whois lookup. I was checking to see if a domain name my friend registered was privatized and it was in the who is search but About Us still had the information listed. How sneaky!

Another offender is Alexa.com. I really hope this does not become a trend. The whois domain name search is already a big enough problem as it is – we don’t need even more places to check to make sure our private domain name information isn’t being shared with the public at large.

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Dropped from Google

Jul/03 in Hot Web Topics, Personal

Yeah a few web sites of mine have been dropped from Google, Yahoo, MSN and more thanks to a really stupid mistake of mine and some scum sucking leech of a webmaster. Let today be the official do not leave your .htaccess file chmoded to something writable day. That’s what I did and I paid for it.

Dropped/Replaced from and on Google Search Results

Looks like the guy at thefirefox.net got in there and was directing traffic from the search engine crawlers from me to him. Now both Firefox Facts and the Web Hosting Show are still in Google and the others, but show up in none of the results.

I have reported these guys at thefirefox.net to Google, their web host, their domain name register and to Mozilla but have yet to hear anything about it. Looks like a web site setup to trick people into thinking they are Mozilla so they can get their hands on much AdSense click-through cash when you download it with the Google toolbar.

What action has been taken thus far? Nada. Nothing. Big Goose Egg.. but if I hear from one of them I’ll be sure to post it here and let you all know.

I have done my begging at the holy search engine alter with Google – and now I guess the wait begins to see how long I will be out of the search engine results.

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Selling My Soul | Web Hosting Talk

Oct/01 in Web Hosting

mitchsoldout.jpgDid Mitch sell out?

Yes, I did get another job and I am now working once again inside of the Web hosting industry, but I wouldn’t call myself a sell out.

I would call myself employed. Don’t worry though, nothing will be changing here – and just to prove it to you the Web Hosting Show is now on the air.

Make sure you check it out then send me your feedback at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

Download the MP3! | Read the Show Notes! | Subscribe via RSS!

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TrackMeNot

Aug/29 in Online Apps

With all this talk about your privacy being attacked and people snooping on what you have been searching about, you are bound to feel a little paranoid. You might be watching over your shoulder as you type. You might be turning the lights out before you get Online. How can you protect yourself from being tracked in your searches though? If you use Firefox, you need the TrackMeNot extension.

Here is what the developer of the extension has to say about it.

TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. It hides users’ actual search trails in a cloud of ‘ghost’ queries, significantly increasing the difficulty of aggregating such data into accurate or identifying user profiles. TrackMeNot integrates into the Firefox ‘Tools’ menu and includes a variety of user-configurable options.

With how the world is going these days, I might also be inclined to ask the Firefox folks to put this feature into the next version of Firefox by default. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view.

This Firefox extension is for versions 1.5 and up of the browser. To pick up your copy all you need to do is download it via the Mozilla Add-ons Web site.

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