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.

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

No Time For Typing Classes ? Learn Professional Typing At Home

Anytime we do something on our PC we need to type. Be it coding or writing or simply chatting. Unfortunately, most of us adopt “Find and Hit” method to type which maybe convenient but, we can never achieve the max typing speed. Letter Chase is a free tool that will provide pro-tutorials for learning “Blindfold” typing method. This tool provides three levels (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) of training, each including multiple exercises.

1. Download Letter Chase and install it on your PC. After it is installed, start the tool.

2. If you are a first time user you have to create a new user. This will ensure that you are not skipping any level before accessing the immediate next (or any other exercise, meant to be taken in the next level).

3. Now go to “Beginner Drills” and select any exercise under it. The practices are meant to be taken from top to bottom. I’ll be selecting “Home Row Only”.

4. Now press spacebar to start the lesson. You will find visual help as you go through the practice session.

5. After you have finished the lesson you will be shown your performance stats in Numerical and Graphical format.

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.

Auto-Restart Your PC after a Power Failure And Logon To A Specific Windows User Account Automatically

Here is a step by step tutorial that will explain how you can start your PC automatically after an accidental power failure and logon to a specific user account by editing your registry and system properties.

Setup Your BIOS

First of all, you need to setup your BIOS configuration to ensure that the PC starts up automatically in case of an accidental power failure. To do that, go to your BIOS and then to the Power settings and make the relevant changes. Once you have successfully changed the value , please exit saving changes. If you are not sure how to edit BIOS consult somebody who can.

Edit Start-Up and Recovery Settings

Open Start, right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced System Settings from the left side. In theSystem Properties dialog press the Settings button for Startup and Recovery.

1. CHOOSE DEFAULT OPERATING SYSTEM:

In case you have multiple operating systems installed, choose the operating system you wish to use for the automatic startup. Use the dropdown list to choose the OS.

2. EDIT TIME COUNTDOWN DURING BOOT:

Next thing you have to do is choose the countdown down until the default operating system starts booting automatically. Change the time in the section Time to display the list of operating systems. Choose any time that you prefer.

Edit Registry To Automate The Logon For A Specific Account

Now using registry you have to enter the username and password of the specific user account you wish to boot automatically. Open Run (Windows Key + R), type regedit and hit Return to start Registry Editor.

NOTE: Editing Registry can go wrong if not handled properly, hence its always advised to backup Windows registry before editing it. You can restore the backup if anything goes wrong.

Now in the Registry Editor go to,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Now follow the steps below to edit the registry keys mentioned there.

1. Choose the Default Username:

Locate the key DefaultUserName. If its not there, create it a new string value and name it DefaultUserName.

Now double click the entry to edit the string. Enter the username you wish to automatically logon.

2. Choose Password for Default Account:

In a similar way create and edit DefaultPassword entry and enter the password for the Windows user account you chose in the previous step.

3. Enable Auto Logon:

Now that you have entered the username and password, activate the auto-logon.  Find the key AutoAdminLogon or create one if its not there. Double click the entry and enter the value 1.

That is all. But if you wish to have an option for logging in using another user account, create another key ForceAutoLogon. Edit its value to 1. To use this press and hold the left SHIFT key when Windows starts. This will allow you to use another user account.

Once everything is done, close the registry editor and restart your PC for checking. Let us know if the tweak had helped you or not. And please state the reason why you wish to auto start your PC.

Add Shutdown and Restart Buttons On Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

Windows 8 has no classic start menu and thus, there is no easy way to shutdown or restart your computer the classical way. Of course there is a keyboard shortcut for that but novice users often do not remember these shortcuts and want easy ways to turn off the computer or restart it, using only their mouse. Honestly, I never use keyboard shortcuts myself because I am habituated in using the “Start” menu to shutdown or restart my computer.

When I finished installing Windows 8 on my laptop, I could not figure out where the restart and shutdown button has disappeared. I knew that Windows 8 won’t have the start menu and I was prepared for the change. But at the same time, I thought that there must be an easy way to shutdown the computer, other than hitting Alt + F4, choosing the dropdown menu and choose restart, which is very daunting.

Here are some easy ways to create Shutdown and Restart buttons on Windows 8 Metro start screen,

The Default Shutdown Button in Windows 8 – Power

Before you create a custom restart and shutdown button or tile in Windows 8, let me tell you the default way.

1. Press Win + I and Windows 8 will open up the system menu from the right side of the screen

2. There you will see a power button, left click it once and you are shown options to shutdown, hibernate or restart your computer. Pretty easy but if you are like me and unaware of the keyboard shortcut in the first place, it will seem impossible to find this option.

Create A Custom Shutdown And Restart Button In Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

To create dedicated shutdown and restart buttons in Windows 8, follow these steps:

1. Right click on an empty area in the desktop, choose “New>Shortcut” and enter the value as C:\windows\system32\shutdown /s /t 0. This will create a simple system shutdown shortcut on your desktop, double clicking which will forcibly close all running programs and shut down Windows 8.

2. To make the icon more visually appealing, it makes sense to associate a shutdown image to the icon. To do this, right click the icon, choose properties, switch to the “shortcut” tab and hit the “change icon” button.

Next, choose the red “Turn Off computer” icon (or any other icon you would like) and hit “OK”.

3. Move this shortcut to this location: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

That will be all, now you should see the custom shutdown tile on Windows 8 Metro start screen . Drag the icon and place it on a suitable location on the Metro UI, I would prefer the top right corner.

To create a similar restart button or tile, follow the above steps and use the value as C:\windows\system32\shutdown /r /t 0.

Here is a brief screencast which shows how to create the shutdown and restart tiles in Windows 8. Enjoy!

If manually creating the above tiles seems too much of a task, there is another easier approach. Download this vbs script fromDigital Inspiration, save the file and double click it to create the various buttons, right on your Windows 8 start screen. Here is how the above mentioned VBS script works:

Remove Empty Folders and Broken Shortcuts From Windows Start Menu With Start Menu Cleaner

When you install new programs in Windows, a start menu entry is automatically created. The Windows start menu entry is very useful at times, you can simply type the name of program in the search box, hit Enter and then click the program icon to launch it.

But as you continue to install more and more programs and software applications, the size of the Start menu gets bigger and bigger. Uninstalling and removing some programs may or may not delete the start menu entry which may leave your Windows start menu very cluttered.

This results in broken shortcuts and empty folders in start menu, you can remove these shortcuts manually or use Start menu cleaner as a smart alternative.

Start menu cleaner is a free portable application for Windows which lets you delete empty start menu folders and shortcuts. All you have to do is select the desired option from the program preferences and hit Start.

The program can detect empty start menu folders and delete them permanently or to the recycle bin. You can also use the tool to scan your desktop and delete the broken shortcuts. Any shortcut pointing to a network folder or a removable drive can be excluded, which is nice if you want to keep some shortcuts safe.

If you want to remove entries from the Windows right click context menu, read this guide on how to remove useless entries from Windows right click context menu.

The program works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and we tested the program on Windows7.

Remove Empty Folders Or Junk Directories From Your Computer

Do you have a whole bunch of empty folders and “no file directories” on your computer which you want to get rid off ? There can be situations when your computer might have abundant folders containing no files and you want an easy and fast way to delete all empty folders from your computer’s hard drive.

There are command line tricks to delete empty folders from a Windows partition or remove empty subfolders from a specific parent folder. But if you are no geek and need a one click solution to remove all empty folders from your computer, try RED

RED (stands for Remove empty directories) is a simple yet useful freeware for Windows which scans your entire computer for empty folders and lets you delete all of them with one click. You can specify a parent directory, a hard disk partition, an external hard drive and the program can run a quick check to find  and filter the folders with the following attributes:

• Filter hidden folders from a specific parent folder, disk partition or parent folder.
• Filter folders that contain no files
• Filter folders  that are locked
• Filter folders that contain autorun files like *.inf, thumbs.db and other junk files.

Running a thorough scan and removing the empty folders from Windows7 is easily achieved through the “Delete Folders” button. Nice !

So the next time your computer is hit by a virus, trojan and there are a thousand empty folders lying randomly over your hard drive, spare yourself from deleting each and every folder manually and use this tool. Handy !

RED is a free download, works with Windows Xp, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Find Out Which Files And Folders Are Consuming Large Disk Space On Your System

Which files and folders are consuming a fair amount of disk space in your system ? How do you find out which type of files e.g .DAT, .PDF or .MPEG are consuming maximum hard drive space on any of your computer’s hard drive ?

Regardless of the size, your computer’s hard drive fills up with a lot of junk files and folders as time passes. From photos, thumbnails, expired backups, temporary files, videos, torrents, movies or other system files – it becomes really impossible to find out what is causing such a huge amount of disk space on the system. You might be running on low disk space and want torecover hard drive space but the first step is to turn on the detective hat and find the big folders, subfolders or empty directories.

Another point is that in some situations you might want to filter file types according to sizes and it’s type and bulk delete files from a specific folder without having to inspect each file manually.

This is when JDiskReport proves to be useful.

It’s a free program for Windows, MAC OSX or Linux which can be used to run a thorough scan of your computer’s hard drive and filter out the folders and file types which are consuming the maximum amount of hard drive space. This is extremely useful for you as well as shared users of the same computer, who normally have hard drive space limits imposed, thanks to Windows disk quota management.

You can choose to run a complete scan of all the hard drives or scan only specific folders e.g “My Documents”, “Downloads” and so on.

Iran the check on my Windows 7 computer’s C drive and the results were quite impressive. The tool creates different pie charts to represent the files and folders consuming a fair amount of disk space on the system drive. I found that I was using a lot of unnecessary program files which were installed months earlier and I never cared to uninstall them.

Clicking a particular segment within the tool will break the chart into it’s subordinate folders.

Example: If you want to find out which folders under the “Program Files” folder are consuming the maximum space, simply click the “program files” segment, and the tool will create a sub chart as shown below:

The tool also shows charts, size distribution, date of last modification and detailed statistics of the files and subfolders contained in the folder you inspected. This is quite handy when you want to figure out unnecessary directories and remove empty folders in bulk.

Sure, there is always Windows disk cleanup but I would recommend running the disk report tool for Windows first and then use disk clean up to remove junk files from your system. Two reasons why I say so:

1. First, you will have a basic idea what’s lying in your hard drive and more importantly, where are the junk files located. So you know exactly what to delete and from which directory, this will prevent you from deleting important system files or backups which you may need at a later point of time.

2. Second, running the reporting tool will give a brief rundown of the files you interact most often. This way, you get to know about your usage habits are and which files are downloaded or saved without any reason.

Here are some screenshots of JDiskReport:

Showing File type distributions

Size Distribution of Files and folders within a particular drive or Parent folder

As it turns out, JDiskReport tool is one of the best ways to find the source folders who have large files placed within them. You can save a scan report for later use, back it up or print it on paper for more hard core analysis.