Find a Faster DNS Server with Namebench

One way to speed up your Internet browsing experience is using a faster DNS server. Today we take a look at Namebench, which will compare your current DNS server against others out there, and help you find a faster one.

Namebench
Download the file and run the executable (link below).
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/list

Namebench starts up and will include the current DNS server you have configured on your system. In this example we’re behind a router and using the DNS server from the ISP. Include the global DNS providers and the best available regional DNS server, then start the Benchmark.

The test starts to run and you’ll see the queries it’s running through. The benchmark takes about 5-10 minutes to complete.

After it’s complete you’ll get a report of the results. Based on its findings, it will show you what DNS server is fastest for your system.

It also displays different types of graphs so you can get a better feel for the different results.

You can export the results to a .csv file as well so you can present the results in Excel.

Conclusion
This is a free project that is in continuing development, so results might not be perfect, and there may be more features added in the future. If you’re looking for a method to help find a faster DNS server for your system, Namebench is a cool free utility to help you out.
If you’re looking for a public DNS server that is customizable and includes filters, you might want to check out our article on helping to protect your kids from questionable content using OpenDNS. You can also check out how to speed up your web browsing with Google Public DNS.

How-to Geek, H. (2010, May 1). Find a faster dns server with namebench.
Retrieved from http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16372/find-a-faster-dns-server-with-namebench/

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Connect e-mail from your Windows Live Hotmail into Outlook

Outlook Hotmail Connector provides a free solution for managing your Windows Live Hotmail e-mail, calendar, and contacts from within Outlook 2003, and 2010 free of charge.
Download Free Tool Here


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Favorites is missing in Outlook 2010 navigation pane

Favorites folder is missing in Outlook? Try this:


Start -> Run; "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\outlook.exe" /resetnavpane


What it does:


/resetnavpane


Clears and regenerates the Navigation Pane for the current profile. Removes all Shortcuts and Favorite Folders. Has the same effect as deleting profilename.xml in your user directory.


http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/commandlines.htm



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Mac with Paralles Vista Printer Access Denied

I recently had a client's MAC with Parallels running Vista crash, bad hard drive. I did not originally set this up but have learn what a nightmare this can be.

The Mac tech replaced the drive and restored from the Time Machine, which is a back program. What sucks is if you get a backup with a corrupt VM then you have to recreate and do again till you get a good one. You can't just pull data from the Parallels VM as it is encapsulated. So I set out to do a repair on anything that was not working. Found issue with:
Printer Name "ACCESS DENIED". Found that the Mac shares had to be taken out and re shared. Now we can see the machine and shares but still no access, removed the printers, ran Bonjour it was corrupt, reinstalled that and ran, wallah, printing again.

Get into Quickbooks and find another problem. When you press the print icon it does nothing. Had to do a search for the QBPRINT.QBP, rename to QBPRINT.OLD and start Quickbooks again. Wallah, printing from Quickbooks again.

MAC is a great product and I like Windows, but it just doesn't pay to go both ways, :-p

Computer Repair Lakeland, FL

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Monitoring and controlling Web access

The World Wide Web is a wonderful source of information that can be useful to employees in doing their jobs. But it also has the potential to be a big source of trouble when employees visit the wrong sites from company computers. Some of the possibilities are obvious:

• If pornographic sites are displayed on company computers or the images are downloaded and subsequently viewed by other employees, the company could be subjected to a sexual harassment lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for creating a "hostile work environment."

• If child pornography is viewed or downloaded to company computers, this could result in a criminal investigation and seizure of the computers in question, as well as arrest of one or more persons and negative news media attention for the company.

• Many questionable sites, including porn sites, music download sites, hacker sites and "warez" (illegal software) sites, contain active content that can download viruses or other malicious software to the user’s computer with his/her knowledge. Viruses that are downloaded this way can be spread throughout the company network or even beyond the local network, or the system can become an entry point for attacks on the network or be taken over to act as a "zombie" to be used in attacks on other networks.
These are only a few of the dangers presented by uncontrolled access to the Web. But how can you address the problem without taking away Web access completely? Here are some solutions:

• Many firewalls have the capability of monitoring users’ Web access, so that you can see who visited what sites, and when.

• Web content filtering software, such as Websense (www.websense.com) and SurfControl (www.surfcontrol.com) can block Web sites based on lists of reported offensive sites in many categories, by IP address/domain name, or by keywords.

• Browsers can be configured not to allow download of executables, to block Active X, Java and other active technologies, to help prevent "drive-by downloads" from sites that may not be blocked by filtering software. Administrators can use Group Policy on Windows machines to apply browser security settings and prevent users from changing those settings.

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www.MyComputerGirl.com

863-521-1079

      

Online Classes sponsored by HP:


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Computer Repair Lakeland, FL

www.MyComputerGirl.com

863-521-1079