How To Find Your Computer’s IP Address

What is an IP address?

An IP address or better known as Internet Protocol address is nothing but a numerical label assigned to any computer or mobile device which is participating in a computer network using the Internet protocol for communication. Whenever you connect your PC or mobile to any network connection, it is assigned a unique IP address which is required for the device so that it can open web pages, send emails, participate in IM chats and so on.

Quite recently we wrote how you can find the location of an IP address using a desktop tool called IP locator. The tool shows you how you can trace the location of any internet address on a Google Map. But what about finding the IP address of your computer or when you need to know the IP address of your internet connection ?

Knowing your computer’s IP address is very simple indeed, just follow the simple steps mentioned below:

1. Click Windows start menu and type “cmd” (without quotes) in the search box. Right click the command prompt icon and choose “Run as administrator”. If you are running older versions of Windows such as Windows XP, you can open the command prompt from “Start> Run”

2. When the command prompt window appears, type the following command and hit the return key

netstat -n (donot ignore the space)

3. You will see the following results and the IP address will be shown as depicted below:

4.You will see a list of all active connections and their addresses, distributed in 4 columns.

5. The local address field shows your IP number while the foreign address column shows the IP addresses of the computer to which you are connected to or communicating with. This can include the persons with whom you are sharing Instant messages, talking over VOIP or maybe sending files etc.

6. In the same way, open command prompt, type “ipconfig” (without quotes) and hit the return key. You will see the following results:

The above command will tell you the masked IP and local IP of your computer.

Alternatively, you can also try this website called whatsmyipaddress.com, when ever you visit the website you will be shown the active IP address of your computer on the homepage itself.

Note: You may see different IP addresses after successive visits, this is perfectly normal because your internet connection settings is set to choose a dynamic IP address whenever it connects to the internet. The site also shows the most probable geographical location of the IP address as shown below:

Easiest way to find IP address: If you ask me, I do not use any of the above techniques. I use my Gmail account itself. Here is how it works:

Whenever I log into my Gmail account, I can see the last login Time of Gmail and the IP address from where my Gmail account was accessed. Hence, this is another good way to find a computer’s IP address, without having to remember any command or use any third party website

Facebook Login Problems – When You Can’t Login To Facebook ?

There are situations when you have faced Facebook login problems. The login page appears, you type in the username and password of your Facebook account and hit the “Sign In” button. After that, the page turns white and loads forever

You are either not able to access the Facebook login page or the Facebook homepage never loads completely. What should you do in such situations ?

Here is a step by step guide which will solve Facebook login problems on your side and you can be rest assured that you are able to login to your Facebook account and comunicate with friends, chat with your Facebook contacts.

Check Whether Facebook is Down For Everyone or Just You

Go to Downforeveryoneorjustme.com and enter Facebook.com in the text box. Using this site you will be able to know whetherFacebook.com is down for everyone else or is it just you who is unable to access the Facebook login page.

If it’s shown that Facebook.com is down for everyone, there is nothing you can do here. May be the developers are updating someting or Facebook servers are on scheduled maintainence. Wait for some time till the updates are rolled out and try again after half an hour or so.

If it’s shown that Facebook.com is down for only you while everyone else is able to use Facebook normally, you have to check your computer’s network preferences, Firewall and Windows’s host file.

Check Your Computer’s Host File Or Parental Controls

The Host file of Windows can be used to block specific websites from opening in your computer. If you share your computer with other family members, colleagues or friends, chances are that some of them is playing pranks or tricks with you. It might occur that one of the shared users has intentionally blocked Facebook.com login page using Windows host file or Windows 7 Parental controls.

Open Windows explorer and go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc. Double click the “Hosts” file and open it with Notepad. You will see something like the following:

If you find an entry as shown below, you will not be able to access Facebook login page. Delete the above lines, save the hosts file and refresh the Facebook login page to see whether you are able to get through.

How to Update Facebook Status Messages from Google Talk

You cannot Update your facebook status messages from Google Talk because facebook still doesnt suports this feature. However there are neat workarounds that can be used to post your Facebook status messages from google talk Itself.

Update Facebook Status messages from Google talk using Third party Applications

Update facebook Status Messages from Ping.fm

This is the Most popular solution netizens use to update the status messages of maximum social networking sites in One go. Justsign up for an account at Ping.fm and connect your Google Talk account and Facebook profile. Whenever you change your status message in Google talk the same message is posted in your facebook  profile.

Update Facebook Status From Google talk Using Your Twitter Account

If you are active on Both Facebook and Twitter then the easiest way to update your Facebook status messages from google talk is to connect your Facebook and twitter accounts and use google talk to post messages to twitter. Following are the steps involved :

1.Sign up for an account at   Tweet.im and connect both Your twitter and Google talk accounts. After Your accounts are connected you can receive as well as Send tweets as Instant messages.

2 . Add This Facebook application To Connect Your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Remember to click  on “Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status”.

You are done.Whenever You send a Message from Google talk to Tweet.im the message is shown as a Tweet in your twitter account. And almost instantly the Facebook application pulls the same tweet  and puts it in The Facebook status Message. So apparently You have Updated your facebook profile from Google talk !

If You prefer the Browser based G talk Then you can tweet by adding an entire Twitter Gadget in Your Gmail account. Thus No need To sign Up for a Tweet.im  account.

A serious disadvantage : The above two methods are real easy But  there is a serious disadvantage. The same messages gets repeated in all Your Social Networking profiles which doesn’t look good. For example : If you are on Twitter, facebook, Friendfeed etc the same message is replicated over at all places.

How to Update Facebook Status Messages from google talk Without using any Third party Tool

The Google talk Sync Facebook application  allows you to update your Facebook status from the Google Talk status line. Just change Your G talk Status and Your facebook status is updated.

The following Method Connects your Google talk account and facebook account without requiring you to sign Up at other Social Networking Sites like Twitter or Ping.fm. Following are the Steps Involved :

1. Add This facebook application in Your Facebook profile.

2. Go here and create a G talk Badge for your profile.

3. Remember to check on The checkbox “ Show Your Status Message “ In The G talk Badge you are creating.After that click “Update Badge”

4. Copy The code That You are provided and place the code In The Facebook application Box page as shown below

5.Enter an optional “Prefix” So you could set your prefix to “is”, and then “working” in Google would end up as “is working” on Facebook. “Is” or “says: ” are good options.

6. Grant the Facebook application permission  to Sync Messages to Update your Facebook status. Otherwise it won’t work.

Okay all The geeky parts are Over. Now sign In to Google talk and after That save Your facebook App. You should see Your G talk status online in the facebook app.

Now  Change your Google talk Status Message and You should see the facebook status Updating straight away.

This method doesn’t require you to sign up anywhere else and just connect your facebook and google talk accounts. All Your other social network profiles are not affected.

Do you Know any Simpler Method To update Facebook status from Google  talk  ? Did the above procedure worked for you ? I would love to Hear from you. Please feel free to Post Your Ideas as Comments.

How To Setup Facebook Login Alerts – Know When Your Facebook Account Gets Hacked

There are so many situations when other users might get access to your Facebook account; without your consent or even without your wildest imagination. Let’s say you were browsing Facebook on a shared computer and someone managed to trace your Facebook login cookie using malicious add-ons like Firesheep. We have earlier covered a detailed guide on using an HTTPS connection to protect your login information from malicious add-ons e.g Firesheep, so you should be very careful on apublic Wi-Fi connection that’s not completely secured.

The method is called “sniffing” and the person who uses malicious scripts to gain unauthorized access may sniff login data, cookies on a not so secured network connection.

Another possible scenario is when you suddenly find that someone else has updated your Facebook wall with spam messages or vulgar pictures. The reason – you forgot to log out from the public computer in which you were using Facebook and the next user using the same computer got unauthorized access to your Facebook account. He browsed through your Facebook profile and maybe deleted some of your old pictures and photo albums.

The good thing regarding Facebook account settings is that he/she won’t be able to change the password without knowing the currently active password but nevertheless, it’s a major security risk.

Setup Login Alerts In Facebook – Get Notified When Someone Else Is Using Your Facebook Account

Setting up Login alerts in Facebook is a really neat idea and takes only a minute. Go to Facebook Account settings page and find “Set Up Login alerts” under the “Settings” tab. Then choose”Send me an email” whenever anyone else is using my Facebook account.

Facebook detects the IP address of your computer and tries to match it with the earlier IP addresses used to login to your Facebook account. If you use Facebook from your mobile or from the office computer, Facebook records the frequently used IP addresses of the devices being used with your Facebook account.

Whenever, there is a mismatch or whenever someone else is uses your Facebook account from a different IP address, you will get the login alert directly in your email address. If you get a login alert, the first thing you should be doing is login to your Facebook account from a secured connection and change the password.

Here is how the Facebook login alert email looks like:

As you can see, Facebook will immediately send a login alert whenever it finds that another suspicious IP address or device is using your Facebook account from a different location. Prior to this, you should register your own home or office computers and your mobile device because neglecting this will send login alerts whenever you use Facebook from the office or home or on the go (mobile).

View The Locations And Devices From Where Your Facebook Account Was last Used

To know which devices, browsers or operating systems were being used to access your Facebook account, go to the “Account security page“. Here is how the recent Facebook activity logs will look like:

The location is an approximate location, in my case, the country detected was correct but the city wasn’t. However, Facebook lets you end the activity of a specific location or device which is currently active, all you have to do is click on “End Activity” link placed just beside the last accessed location.

Hence, you should always choose to receive email and SMS alerts in your mobile, if you are really concerned about the security of Your Facebook account and want to protect it from hackers and malicious phishing attempts.

Link Multiple Gmail accounts and check email at One place

If you have Multiple email addresses to check then managing emails can be really tiring. Every now and then you need to check all your email accounts for new mail. Here is How You can connect all Your Gmail accounts and check all your emails at one place.

Let us Suppose You have 3 email accounts One is primary and the rest of them are secondary. You want to forward all Your emails from Your secondary email accounts in the primary account and read them at one place. Here is How you do it :

Add a Secondary email Address in your primary mail account

1.Open Your primary email account  and click settings from the Top right corner of the Screen.

2.On the Accounts tab  select Add another Email Address. A Pop Up Window Will Open asking you the email address that you want to add in your primary account.

3. Fill In the Secondary email address and click Next Step. Then click Send Verification and Close the pop up window.

A verification mail will be sent to the secondary email address. Open your Secondary email address and click the verification Link. The verification part is over.

Related : How To Back Up Emails and Read offline

Forward Your Incoming mail from Secondary account

Now you need to Log in to your secondary email address and Forward all Incoming mail  to your primary email address. Follow the Instructions Below.

Click settings and  select Forwarding and IMAP. Enter your primary Email  address as shown.

You can choose to Keep the copy of the email In the secondary email Inbox or you can archive it. If you get a large amount of emails then it is recommended to filter The emails and label them.

After you have added your primary email address for forwarding click save changes and The forwarding part is over

Create a label and a Filter In your primary Mail account

Now Your primary email account is configured to receive the emails from secondary email account. So You may start to get  a large Number of emails in your primary email address. To manage the emails it is recommended to Create a Filter in your primary email account.

1. Open your Primary email account . Click Settings select the Tab Labels and create a New label. Name it “Secondary” or something like that so that you can remember from which email account these mails are coming.

2.Now Click The Filters Tab and select Create a New Filter. Type your secondary email address in to To: field.

3. Click Next Step and Select “Apply the label”. pick the label that you created In the earlier step.

4. All set. Click create Filter.

Now emails from your secondary email account will be sent to your primary email account and automatically will be inserted into the label that you created.The Filters will make sure that The emails are kept separate and Your inbox is uncluttered. You can check Your settings By sending a Test mail from any email account to your secondary email address.

Check for New Emails of Multiple Gmail Accounts from Desktop

If you maintain multiple email accounts and want to quickly check for new mail without any logins, Gmailnotifier would be immensely useful. It can give sound and tray notifications at your desktop when you receive new emails at your Gmail or Google apps account.

This little utility can check up to 5 Gmail or Google apps account for new emails and if you have a new mail, it gives you desktop alerts. The alerts include pop up notifications as well as a custom sound alert.

You can read email headers and the body of the message right from the Gmail notifier window itself. Other features include : Deleting a message, marking it as read etc.

The only thing : You can’t reply to an email using Gmail notifier.

Gmailnotifier works with Windows Xp, Vista and Windows 7.

There can be some typical cases of email management from desktop in case you have multiple email accounts :

1. I have multiple Gmail and google Apps account. How do i get new mail notifications from desktop ?

A :  Use the Gmailnotifier tool to get instant desktop notifications of newer emails.

2. I want to get new mail notifications as Rss Feeds ( e.g Google reader, Feeddemon). Is that Possible ?

A : Yes, you can get email notifications as Rss feeds in your preferred news reader. 

3. I want to get desktop alerts for newer mails and want to reply to a message without opening the browser. I don’t like using Outlook or Thunderbird or any other email clients. Is there any alternative ?

A : Try Digsby. It is way more than just email. You get desktop notifications of new mails and can reply to a message from desktop itself. It also includes IM, Facebook, Twitter etc. Read the detailed guide on using digsby.

4. I use Google talk all day long and want to get Email notifications for Multiple email accounts.

A : You always have Google talk IM running and wished if that can act for newer mail notifications for multiple email accounts. To do that, you need to link multiple Gmail or Google apps accounts and receive all the emails in one email account. Now sign in to Google talk with this email account and you can receive desktop notifications of multiple email accounts.

5. I want a complete desktop tool for managing multiple email accounts. What’s the best tool available ?

A : If you want a complete desktop tool to manage multiple email accounts and also want to read emails while you are offline, useMicrosoft outlook and add all your Gmail or google apps accounts.

Which desktop tools you use to get desktop notifications of newer mails? Reply us

Google Introduces Voice Search On Desktop: The Things You Should Know

Imagine a situation when you just can’t remember the spelling of a particular word or phrase. You want to find more information about the subject from search engines but you are unable to type it correctly or even pronounce it.

In the worst case, you don’t even know what that specific word means. Or it may even happen that your entire query contains 13 words which is too laborious to type.

The answer is finally here: search on Google.com with your voice.

Google has finally announced that they will be rolling out Google voice search to users who are surfing Google.com from their desktop computers. Although Google voice search is already available for Android mobile and tablet devices, Google wants to make sure that a large portion of their user base who surf Google from desktop, can also make use of this amazing voice search technology.

Just plug in that Microphone and speak out the words of your Query. And the best part here is that Google voice search from desktop will be supported on all browsers in coming months and it isn’t an ever lasting browser specific feature built only for Google Chrome.

How Google Voice Search Works

Google voice search for desktop computers works exactly the same as voice search for mobile does. In fact, there is a chrome extension which can be used to perform voice search on Google.com using the inbuilt or attached microphone of their desktop or laptop computers. It looks like Google wants to provide this feature to all users, but how far it will go remains a big question.

Using Google voice search from your desktop computer is fairly easy. Plug in that microphone, go to Google.com (from Google Chrome as of now) and hit the small “mic” icon on the search box. Next, speak out your search query or phrase and wait until Google is able to recognize the words you just said.

If your pronunciation is fairly clean, Google should pick it up and throw the words into the search box. No more rigorous typing over and over again

The following video screencast shows Google voice search in action:

When Is Google Voice Search Useful?

Google voice search is especially useful for long queries. Example: “How to do this and this and find this and this on this place”. Novice users have very less typing speed and if your mom can hardly remember all the keys of your computer’s keyboard, do her a favor and let her speak into the Google search box without having to type anything at all.

Another great use of voice search is when you don’t remember the exact spelling of a recipe, place, book, person or other “things”. You know how it is pronounced but you don’t know the letters in proper sequence. In those situations, the voice search can be a lifesaver.

The following video shows how Google voice search works inside Google Chrome:

Google voice Search On Desktop: Dem Video From Google Inside Search Event [14th June 2011]

The following video is from Google’s Inside search event help on 14th June, 2011. The video below shows a brief preview on how accurately Google can process voice queries and return results within a couple of seconds:

Google engineer says that as we hear more and more “voice searches” from various parts of the globe, our technology will get better and better. Voice search for Google is here to stay and overtime, users will find new and better ways to use Google.com to find information. As an example, Google might combine Google translate with Google’s speech recognition technology and offer better translations or enrich their existing translation inventory.

Google Introduces Live Blogging Tool For Its I/O Event

The forthcoming Google I/O event is just a day away and some major announcements are awaited. Some of the most speculated items are the Nexus tablet, the next Android variant, Google Play improvements, Google+ API and even some extras like the revolutionary Google Glasses and Google Drive, the new kid in the cloud. Although we have to wait for the real thing to happen until Wednesday when the event goes live. Now if you are a blogger in this space and are most likely to live blog the event, Google has some help to offer.

Since Google+ is Google’s much professed social layer around all of its services, the new tool will help bloggers take advantage of that while writing out the keynotes to their readers. The idea is to get the word out and do it the Google way.

1. Go to the official page for the live blogging tool.

2. Using the Customize my gadget button, start configuring the gadget for your blog.

All set you will get an iframe code to embed in your blog. Once done you will be able to voice your thoughts about the Google I/O on Google+ and the posts(they need to be public) will be fetched to your widget for your readers to consume. The key elements in the widget are live video stream for the keynote announcements, live text based updates from the keynotes, a stream of your publicly shared posts on Google+.

Here’s an example of what you can expect from the widget:

Although this is a definite help for those who really choose to be social and at the same time voice their opinions on their blog. The tool is expected to work exclusively for the Google event. Although, Google has proposed that you can use the tool for other non-Google events although the video section might not be relevant. The ambiguity in the statement sparks the confusion whether the tool will at all be of any use for other live events. In any case, Google+ will enjoy a enthusiastic response if the bloggers actually use it. Metaphorically speaking, there’s no better way to beat your own drums. Strategically, it’s brilliant.

How to Automatically Unfollow Twitter Followers Who Are not Following You

You can quickly narrow down your Twitter Following list with some free tools. These tools help you to bulk unfollow Twitter followers who are not following you.

Buzzom: The simplest service I have seen for bulk unfollowing people on Twitter. You do not need to set up an account or register and neither you need to download any software or browser extension to avail the service.

Just visit the homepage and enter your Twitter username. Hit the “Flush” button and the website will scan your followers list. It will sort out those people whom you are following but they aren’t following you back.

You can select to remove specific followers or you can flush all of them with a click. This website can also be used to automatically follow those who are following you. With the “Grow” button you can increase your twitter followers by following new people. In brief, this tool is a real time saver at times, especially when you would want to quickly unfollow Twitter followers in bulk.

How To Share Internet Over Wireless In Windows 7 and Vista

Some days back Amit and me faced quite a problem sharing Internet via wireless. We got caught due to some unknown anomalies due to different OS we used.(I use Windows 7 while Amit is still on Windows Vista). Hence we had to figure out a way toconvert one of our laptops into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Now that we had fixed it properly here is a detailed documentation of the steps that helped us troubleshoot the problem.

Windows 7 and Vista has a very easy to use Network Configuring Wizard. Follow the steps as mentioned below to create a wireless connection over which you can share Internet Connection with other computers on the same network.

There are two main steps

1. Configuring the Wireless Network in the host(one that has/shares the internet connection).

2. Connecting the Client(one that uses the shared Internet from Host) to the wireless network.

Configuring the Wireless Network in the Host Computer

Share Internet Connection Via Wireless in Windows 7

1. Open “Network And Sharing Center”. Go to Control Panel > View Network Status And Tasks.

2. Move down in the window and click on the “Setup a new connection or network”.

3. Scroll down and you will get an option “Set up a wireless ad-hoc (computer-to-computer) network”. Select it and press Next. In the next window proceed pressing Next.

4. Now name your new network anything that seems meaningful to you. Choose the “Security Type” as WEP and put a password for the network. Do not forget to select the bottommost checkbox that says, “Save this network”.

5(i). Wait as the network is set up. As the network is created proceed by clicking the Close button.

5(ii). You will be asked to assign the newly created network a location type. I have made it Public for easy access.

6. Open the Network And Sharing Center again. In the left pane click the Change adapter settings.

7. The resulting window will have all the networks on your PC listed. Choose the network which you use to connect the Internet. Right click on it and select Properties.

8. Go to the “Sharing” (last) tab and then check the option “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection”. In the “Home Networking Connection”  dropdown select “Wireless Network Connection”.

9. In order to configure the ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) Settings, click the “Settings” button and then select all the options and press Ok.

10. Well that’s all, you can now connect to the internet and share the internet connection over the wireless network.

Share Internet Connection Via Wireless in Vista

1. Open “Network And Sharing Center”. Go to Control Panel > View Network Status And Tasks.

2. Click on the “Setup a new connection or network” in the left pane.

3. Follow steps 3, 4 and 5 as mentioned in the previous section.

4. Open the Network And Sharing Center again. In the left pane click the “Manage Network Connections”.

5. Now follow the steps 7 – 10 as detailed above in the Windows 7 section.

Connecting the Client with Host

For Windows 7

1. Turn on your Wireless. Click on the Network icon in the Windows notification area and connect to the available Wireless network.

2. You will need to enter the password that was assigned to the network.

For Windows Vista

1. Turn on your Wireless.

2. Right click on the network icon the notification area and select “Connect to a network”.

3. Click on the Wireless network and press Connect. That’s all. You can now browse the internet. You will need to enter the password that was assigned to the network.

FOOTNOTE : I personally use Lenovo Ideapad Y330. If you own a Lenovo here are some simple troubleshoots that may help you set up your Wireless Network

1. The Broadcom Wireless Drivers that are supplied with the model may cause some anomalies like no options for ad-hoc connection is there in the New connection Wizard. To solve this, you can try the Intel Wireless Drivers which can be found here atLenovo Driver Download page.

2. It may happen that the Wireless gets turned off and hence you are unable to set up a Wireless network. Try the Function key (fn) + F5 to turn it on.

3. If you are unable to configure a Wireless network even after using all the above mentioned techniques, there is also a possibility that you may need to turn on the Wireless from your BIOS(if there’s a option for it). If you are not good at configuring BIOS, look out for some helping hand.

That is all for now, if you are still experiencing problems feel free to ask via comments. And if the problem gets solved, a thank you note will surely be appreciated :).

Get Read Receipts of Sent Email In Gmail For Google Apps Business Accounts

Read receipts of email messages becomes very necessary on several occasions.

Imagine yourself as an executive of a company who has to send a lot of email to employees every single day. Since you are starting a conversation, you might want to know whether the other person has read the email message or not. Some people might read your message but how do you know whether the recipient has received and read your email message or whether your email landed in his spam folder? If the receiver never sends back an acknowledgement email, it is impossible to know whether the recipient has really opened your message and have read it.

Keeping track of sent emails in Gmail is not so easy, since you have to separately follow up email messages for each and every member and wait for a reply from the other side. If the recipient sends an acknowledgement email, it is confirmed that the receiver did actually opened the email message which you sent. But if the receiver never sends a reply, you have to ping him again and again. Scheduling all those followup emails in Gmail seems to be a workaround but then again, it’s manual and very difficult to manage.

There are some useful email tracking services available, but here is some good news for Google apps users who are using Google apps for business or Google apps for government domains.

Get Read receipts Of Gmail Mail – Know whether the recipient received your message

Google has just rolled out support for email tracking in Gmail by allowing Google Apps users to choose whether they want to add a read receipt option to the email messages they send from their Google apps email inbox.

This feature is only available for Google apps users who are on the business or government domain, so regular Google apps and Gmail users have to wait till Google rolls out this feature for everyone.

1. To activate read receipts of Gmail mails, login to your Google apps administration area as a domain administrator. If you are not the domain administrator for the Google Apps account, ask your domain administrator to read the following steps.

2. After logging in to your Google apps domain management console, go to settings and select the “Email” option from the left panel.

3. Go to the email read receipts section and specify the list of senders who can request a read receipt of sent email in Gmail. You can also select all users to be able to send and receive read receipts or acknowledgement email from participants.

Note that the read receipts of sent email in your Google apps or Gmail account will also work for external Gmail addresses or addresses that are outside your domain (e.g someone@yahoo.com).

4. Now that you have enabled read received of sent email in Gmail, compose a new message and you should see the option “Request read receipt” as shown below:

Select that option and send your email. You are done.

Now when the recipient opens your email message which had a “request read receipt” option checked, he will get a notification that the sender has requested an acknowledgement response from him. Here is how the notification works:

If the recipient choses to send a receipt, you will get a confirmation email in the same message thread. This will verify that the receiver has read your message.

I am not sure what will be the result when the receiver choses “Not now” option and denies to send the read receipt. Will he get an automatic notification after some time or will he get the notification whenever he receives a new message from your email address? Digital Inspiration has some more insights on how read receipts in Gmail work.

Alternative Ways to Get Read receipts In Gmail And Regular Google Apps Accounts

The downside here is that the read receipts feature do not work in Gmail and regular Google Apps accounts, so here are some more ways to track whether the receiver has read your message or not.

1. Create an account with Spypig.com . The site lets anyone find out whether an email was read or not, all you have to do is insert a tracking image anywhere within the body of your email message.

Whenever the receiver opens your email message that has the tracking image embedded within it, you will get an automatic confirmation email from Spypig that the recipient opened your message on this date and time. This is extremely useful and works with Gmail, Google Apps, Windows live, Yahoo and any web mail provider.

Spypig works only with HTML and rich text messages, so this won’t work if the receiver has disabled loading external images from third-party sites. That’s because if the embedded tracking image never loads in the browser, Spypig wont be able to track whether the recipient opened the email message or ignored it.

2. Another way to know whether your friend opened your email is to use a URL shortener. Go to Bit.ly or Goo.gl and create an account with any of these services. Once you have created an account, shorten a sample URL and remember to enable click tracking for the shortened URL you just created.

Now all you have to do is add this shortened URL to the body of the message which you want to track and if the reader clicks that short URL, you would know whether the other person opened your email message or not. There is a chance that he might read your email but ignore your shortened hyperlink so be sure to add something attractive which would entice the user to click that link.

None of the above two methods are full proof but they work most of the time.

Download All the Videos of a YouTube Playlist – Desktop Tool

While browsing Youtube sometimes you may come across some really wonderful videos merged in a playlist.There can be a large number of videos in the playlist and you would like to download an entire Youtube video playlist in your computer.

Here is a nice desktop tool that can download entire video playlists as well as individual Youtube videos in your computer in MP4, AVI and FLV format. You have to just paste the playlist  Url and it will auto fetch all the videos in the playlist and save the videos in your computer in the format you want. 

Here are the complete steps involved to download an entire YouTube video playlist  :

1. First Download and Install FreeYoutubeDownload.

2. Run the application and just paste the playlist url.

3. Select the folder where you would want to download the videos and hit the download button. All the videos in the playlist will be fetched one by one and then downloaded in your computer.

The best thing about this free utility is that you can select the file formats (AVI, FLV and MP4).The only downside is that you cannot resume your download if you quit in the middle.