5 rules to Protecting Information on your Laptop

Business laptops are a treasure for every hacker or corporate spy. The average corporate laptop is full of business email, confidential documents and more often then not, the user of the laptop has the same passwords on the laptop as on his corporate application and e-mail.

Here is a truly bizarre example of what could happen: Lifetime of FREE BEER for Laptop
Private laptops are also very interesting (especially those of celebrities)

And yet, the security awareness of the owners of laptops is somewhat lacking. So here are 5 simple rules that can help you keep your laptop safe:

1. Do not leave a laptop unattended in areas accessible by the general public - Leaving a laptop anywhere where it can be seen and picked up by another person is a very bad idea. This includes the table in your favorite cafe, the company cafeteria, airport lounge or waiting room, even an unlocked office where there is a possibility for an untrusted person to walk in.
2. If you must leave your laptop, secure it - In the unlikely case where you must leave your laptop, make sure it is very difficult for someone to steal it. Either place it in a cabinet (preferably locked) or use a Kensington Lock to bind your laptop to something difficult to move (office furniture, central heating pipes).
3. Carry your laptop in an inconspicuous bag - Avoid manufacturer branded laptop cases, since they scream "there is a laptop in here". Simply, invest $30-$40 in a simple unmarked document bag which has a laptop compartment. NOTE:DO NOT go overboard and buy a designer bag costing as much as the laptop, since then the bag itself will be a target for theft.
4. Do not leave a laptop in a visible place in your car - A lot of petty criminals can see an excellent opportunity to steal any kind of bag left on a seat of a parked vehicle. Ideally, never leave your laptop in the car. If it must be left, place it in the trunk of the car, and check that you have locked the car and fully closed all windows.
5. Encrypt the entire hard drive - if all else fails, the value of the information within the laptop is usually much greater then the value of the hardware. Encrypting the entire hard drive will make much more difficult for the thief to extract the valuable information, and can prolong the extraction time to a point when the extracted information will be useless. Encrypting the entire hard drive will cause performance reduction of the disk subsystem, but this is always acceptable when compared to the protection it offers, even for home users. There are several products which can perform full drive encryption like Windows Vista BitLocker, a free TrueCrypt software, and several commercial add-on packages. NOTE: Do not try encrypting only part of the hard drive or certain files. This will not add too much security, since the attacker has an entire computer full of data to search for clues to your decryption password.

Further reading

Vista BitLocker at Microsoft

TrueCrypt portal

Comparison of Disk Encryption Software at Wikipedia

A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed

Firefox users take note: You need to do this. Now. As in, this instant. More savvy users are probably already familiar with editing Firefox’s configuration file but whether you’re a computer rookie or a seasoned veteran, Gnoted has issued a handful of tweaks that really get Firefox cooking. As much as we all love the fox, it can get a bit slow on occasion - especially if you’re like us and have 35 open tabs spread across four windows at any given time. By tweaking the way Firefox handles some caching functions, you can dramatically improve page load speed and even prevent Firefox from hogging your system resources while minimized. If you don’t currently have any experience playing with your configuration file, don’t be scared. Just follow the simple instructions, take your time and if you want a security blanket to squeeze, jot down each setting before you change it so you can always restore the default configuration if need be. So without further ado, hit the jump and get tweaking - just remember to restart Firefox when you’re done.

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache feature

1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed at Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

Thanks...

The "Undervolting" Guide

What is Undervolting?

Undervolting is a process which reduces the excess "voltage" given to the CPU using a software. This is widely used as a cooling solution and in my opinion more effective than any other cooling solution available (thermal paste, cooling pad, etc) at NO cost. Results can vary from 5c up to 30c drop in temperature, most will achieve an average of 10c.

Undervolting will NOT compromise performance at all. Underclocking and Overclocking (clock speeds) is whats responsible in regards to performance. Benchmarks will also prove that performance remains the same. Most beginners usually think and assume undervolting will sacrifice performance but they are wrong.

So you’re probably wondering how this works out and why Intel/AMD didn’t do this before hand..WHY? HOW?

Not all processor chips are built equally. Each individual processor have different voltage tolerances. Instead of Intel tuning each chip's voltage individually for the lowest voltage possible and risking instability, they made a fully stable standard voltage for all chips to run on. The problem is this standard factory voltage they put is quite high. Undervolting takes advantage of this by reducing it to the right amount.

This is also why some people can undervolt more than others even with the exact same model processor. It’s like the same concept for overclocking, some can go higher, some cant. Unlike overclocking, Undervolting will not void your warranty or damage your hardware.

Bottom line is.. There is no catch to undervolting.

1)***Checking Max temps before Undervolt***

Firstly, We need to find out how hot your CPU gets when under load to compare what undervolting can achieve.

i) Open HWmonitor. It will show the CPU/GPU/HDD's maximum, minimum and current temps. Today we are only going to be looking at the CPU core temps. I recommend using HWmonitor because its one of the best temp programs and its accurate but others will work too.

ii) Run ORTHOS CPU Loader. This handy program will simulate full cpu load for both cores.

iii) Click on the Start button and let it run for 10mins. Watch the temps shoot up to about 70-90c.

iv) Once its done stressing the CPU for 10mins, stop the program and record the maximum temp.

-I managed to get a scorching temperature of 79c.
This all download here..
download

2) ***Installing and setting up RMclock***

Note: Vista x64 users will need to download the signed 64bit drivers down below to make RMclock work.

i) Unzip/Install RMclock into your notebook

ii) Run RMclock

iii) Click on the "Advanced CPU Settings" tab. The latest version of RMclock should automatically detect your CPU. If it doesn’t then click on the "Mobile" radio button near the bottom and tick "Apply these settings at startup". Now hit the Apply button

*AMD users need to tick P-State Transistors for a better undervolt




If it asks you to restart the program, do so. After it has restarted go to the "CPU info" tab. Double check its showing the correct processor you have. On this page you will also see alot of digits moving up and down about your CPU.

3)***Setting up Profile***

i) Double click on the Profile tab then click on "Performance on Demand" sub-profile.

- Tick "Use P-State Transitions" for both AC Power and Battery
- Tick all the index boxes possible, Make sure to scroll down and click the others
- Click Apply when all done.



Now we head back to the Main Profile page....

ii) Change the current profile in the drop down box to "Performance on Demand" for both AC Power and Battery

-Make sure all the index boxes are ticked. If you have SuperLFM or IDA i suggest leaving this out for the meantime. See down below later on for what these features do.

iii) Untick "Auto Adjust intermediate-states VID" near the bottom and hit the Default button. Your factory voltages should now show up. Click Apply.

4) ***Undervolting***

In the main profile page, you will see different multipliers and voltages. What are multipliers?

Multipliers are incorporated with Intel SpeedStep Technology (see down below for full definition). Instead of the CPU running at full power all the time, multipliers are used to dynamically lower the clock speeds to make the CPU run more efficiently.

The more CPU power you need, the higher the multiplier your CPU will use. The higher the multiplier, the higher the corresponding clock speed will be. The higher the clockspeed, the more voltage it requires to run (vice versa)

i) First, We are going to start lowering the highest multiplier's voltage which is the 11x multiplier for me.

-Most people should be able to lower it by at least .100v to begin with the initial testing then slowly decreasing it from there on

ii) Always click Apply so the new voltage can take effect then do the stability test below. Keep doing this everytime you lower the voltage

5) ***Testing Stability*** (make sure all work is saved!)

i) Open ORTHOS and HWMonitor again. (we will now see how much cooler it is)
ii) Go to the "CPU info" tab of RMclock (you can also watch the temps and stats here).
iii) Set the test type to "Small FFTs - stress cpu" to concentrate the test to the cpu.
iv) Run ORTHOS stress test for 45mins or more

- If it doesn’t crash when the stability test is done then you can go lower. I suggest lowering by .025v at a time till it BSOD or gives a warning error.

*If you get a bluescreen - then you have reached your limit and the voltage is too low. Once it restarts from the BSOD, it should revert to the last stable voltages. Keep a record of the good/bad voltages on paper.

*If you get a warning or hardware error from ORTHOS - Your voltage is also too low. Raise your voltage and try again.

-Once you have found your unstable voltage, i suggest raising the voltage up by 2 steps. This will put a safe margin away from your unstable voltage to ensure stability

**Its normal to get a BSOD or error at some point so dont freak out. It wont do any hardware damage.

**Most people are able to achieve .150v to .250v less than their default voltages for the highest multiplier. Again, it all depends on your processors tolerances.

6) ***Results***
After several changes and stability tests i was able to lower it to 1.100v that’s .150 volts less than my standard voltage (1.250v). My undervolt isn’t as great compared to how low others can achieve but it has made a significant difference.

My max temps before undervolting was a scorching 79c now it is only 67c! That’s a big 12c shaved off at the cost of nothing.

I cannot accurately calculate how much extra battery life this will give cause of too many variables. I can only estimate about 15-25mins by perception as i havent got proper benchmarking programs and monitors. From what other users have posted, they saw an average of 10watt difference which should reduce the strain on your hot power adapters.

When you have found your optimum voltage settings, I suggest doing a further 3 hour stress test (when you have spare time) to make sure it is 100% stable.

Once you have made sure this voltage stable, you can now choose to make these settings run at startup:

Go to the Main Profile page > On the drop down box for startup choose "Performance on Demand" > Hit Apply

Now go to Settings page > Tick "Start Minimized in Windows Tray" and "Run at windows startup" > Hit Apply

To show your CPU temps in the Taskbar/System Tray > Right click the RMclock wheel icon and click "Show CPU Temperature"

TA-DA! Enjoy! Watch your notebook run significantly cooler