Secure Search - Yahoo with McAfee

McAfee and Yahoo have launched a partnership to create safer Web searching. The beta SearchScan, built on McAfee's SiteAdvisor, alerts Yahoo Search users to potentially risky sites. Yahoo was motivated to work with McAfee: A McAfee report last year indicated that Yahoo Search had the highest percentage of risky search results.

Web searching can expose users to a whole range of malicious sites, so Yahoo is now teaming up with security vendor McAfee to make its search experience more secure for users.

On Tuesday, the two companies announced a partnership that they said will "deliver a safer Web-search experience" through the beta launch of a new SearchScan feature. Built on McAfee's SiteAdvisor technology, SearchScan alerts Yahoo Search users when they're visiting risky sites.

More Than Neighborhood Crime Those suspect sites could be hiding spyware, adware or other software that is less than friendly to your PC. SearchScan also knows about sites with bad e-mail practices, such as ones that send out spam.

Suspected risky sites show up with a red warning sign and text in the search-results page, thus cautioning users with a visual indicator. For instance, a risky site would receive the warning sign -- a red triangle -- under it, as well as red text that reads: "Warning: Dangerous Downloads, Unsolicited E-mails."

The SearchScan beta is available to users of Yahoo Search in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Spain. The Yahoo-McAfee arrangement is a global agreement to work together on other fronts as well, such as bringing Yahoo Search to McAfee users.

Risky browsing resulting from search engines is a concern for 65 percent of Americans online, according to Yahoo -- even more than neighborhood crime, getting a wallet stolen, or an e-mail-based scam. As an online safety issue, it is second in importance only to children's safety on the Net.

According to McAfee Vice President Tim Dowling, "Research indicates four out of five Web site visits start with a search," and that SearchScan's new, advance warning can be one of the strongest weapons against online threats.

Cited as Worst by McAfee McAfee said that its SiteAdvisor technology has been downloaded more than 135 million times, and that it tests and rates on an ongoing basis "nearly every trafficked site" for several areas, including browser exploits, phishing, excessive pop-ups, spam, spyware, adware and more.

Yahoo's new advisory warning follows in the footsteps of Google, which has been tagging risky search results since last year.

Yahoo has an interest in working with McAfee technology, not only to improve its users' Web-surfing security, but to improve its own security rating. In May of last year, a McAfee report indicated that Yahoo's search engine had the highest percentage of risky search results. AOL had the safest results.

The report also indicated that about 4 percent of all search results linked to risky Web sites -- which, at least, was an improvement from the 5 percent it indicated in the previous year's report.

POP verses IMAP

you access Gmail via a phone or email client using POP, you may be frustrated by the fact that any action you take, such as reading, sorting or deleting, doesn't sync with your Gmail account. You may have read and sorted all your new mail on your phone, for example, but when you log back in to Gmail using a browser, you're presented with a full inbox of unread messages that you have to re-read and re-organize. What you may not realize is that you have another option that solves these problems: IMAP.

It can be a little confusing to learn about different ways to get email on your phone or in an email client such as Thunderbird or Outlook, but this breakdown of the key differences between POP and IMAP should help you decide which way to go.

There are two ways your devices and clients can communicate with Gmail:

1. A one-way communication path (POP). Your device asks us for data and pulls it from our servers -- but that's it. Things you do on your device have no effect on the server. If you read a message on your phone, then log in to Gmail, you will see that same message marked as unread. It may start to feel like Groundhog Day.

2. A two-way communication path (IMAP). Unlike with POP, your devices talk back to our servers and sync your changes automatically with IMAP. When you sign in to your Gmail account in a web browser, actions you've taken on your email client or mobile device (like putting a message in a 'work' folder) will also appear in Gmail (your message will already have a 'work' label on it). This all happens automatically once you set up IMAP, so you don't have to read or sort all your mail twice. This is really helpful when accessing Gmail from multiple devices.

Here's a quick rundown of the key differences between IMAP and POP:

Silverlight from Microsoft

It's been noticed that Microsoft is compelling the visitors to install its new Silverlight program snippet in every visiting PC for free.

The good thing about it is that it may bring some competition in the Internet's high-quality, cross-platform, cross-browser, media-enabled rich interactive applications developing business.

Presently there are few options in developing streaming applications which are both flexible & internet friendly, Silverlight will bring an option for the developers as well as the user to experience a different experience.

The offer from MS is that - With the ability to author content in Microsoft Expression Encoder and other third-party editing environments, Web designers maintain complete control of the user experience.

The plus point I saw is that it supports all browsers and platform, the rest has to be tested in the coming days. Keep watching for updates!

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Make phone calls at cheap rates through VoIP

There are number of reason to switch to VoIP technology for telephone service is cost reduction. From that base, VoIP is able to provide some compelling features which makes switching even more attractive.You can make cheaper calls from gulf countries to asian countries like India pakistan,bangladesh etc at cheap rate.

The Economics of VoIP
VoIP has become popular largely because of the cost advantages to consumers over traditional telepone networks. Most Americans pay a flat monthly fee for local telephone calls and a per-minute charge for long-distance calls.

VoIP calls can be placed across the Internet. Most Internet connections are charged using a flat monthly fee structure.

Using the Internet connection for both data traffic and voice calls can allow consumers to get rid of one monthly payment. In addition, VoIP plans do not charge a per-minute fee for long distance.

For International calling, the monetary savings to the consumer from switching to VoIP technology can be enormous.

VoIP Telephones
There are three methods of connecting to a VoIP network:

Using a VoIP telephone
Using a "normal" telephone with a VoIP adapter
Using a computer with speakers and a microphone
Types of VoIP Calls

VoIP telephone calls can be placed either to other VoIP devices, or to normal telephones on the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

Calls from a VoIP device to a PSTN device are commonly called PC to Phone calls calls, even though the VoIP device may not be a PC.

Calls from a VoIP device to another VoIP device are commonly called "PC-to-PC" calls, even though neither device may be a PC.

Free BSNL Numbers for Immediate Information!

	Dial the following numbers in case of Assistance/ Help without paying for it (from BSNL telephones) :
	Some of the services are available in select cities only. Please check the availability in your city. Services written in blue color are available on STD also.
	Services <>BSNL Number PSTN Call Center (for any queries related to landline telephone, ISDN etc. Also accessible from CellOne, Excel & Tarang phones) 1500 Kisan Call Center (for any queries related to agriculture) 1551 Police 100 Fire 101 Ambulance 102 Billing complaint center 166 / 1660-69 Trunk booking 1580 Trunk assistance 1581 STD complaints 1582 National Directory Enquiry (NDQ) Service 1583 International trunk booking 1586 International trunk enquiry 1587 International Trunk delay information 1588 Telex complaints 1589 Directory enquiry service 197 Telephone Complaint Booking 198 Emergency Relief Centre on National Highways 1033 Relief Commissioners of Central/State/Union territory 1070 Control room of District Collector/Magistrate 1077 Public Grievance Cell Telecom Circle HQs 1094 Public Grievance Cell Kolkata/Chennai 1095 Crime stopper cell of police in Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh & Mumbai 1090 Women crisis response 1091 Earth-quake Help line service 1092 Natural disaster control room 1096 AIDS help line service 1097 Children in difficulty/ Child Distress Service 1098 Catastrophe & Trauma service 1099 Free Phone Enquiry 1600 India Telephone Card Enquiry 1602 Billing Complaint Center (Interactive Voice Response System) 1671-73 Maritime Search and Rescue control room of coastal guard 1718 Blood bank information Service 1910 Dial a doctor 1911 Leased Circuits Fault Booking 1918 Eye bank information service 1919 Change number announcement (Hindi) 1951 Changed number announcement (English) 1952 Changed number announcement (Regional language) 1953 Changed number announcement (in case of shift) 1954 Sancharnet Internet Help desk service 1957 Leased Circuit Fault Booking (WTR) 1958

Indian Railway Ticket Reservation Through SMS

Indian Railway offers online railway reservation through www.irctc.co.in (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited) web site. IRCTC also offers rail reservation through mobiles using Speech recognition, GPRS and CDMA technologies available on various mobile Operators. IRCTC also introduced the simplest way to book your Railway ticket using just two SMS messages (Short Messaging Service). This service is introduced with the following mobile operators across the India.

1. IDEA Cellular - Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi & NCR
2. MTNL /Delhi - Delhi & NCR
3. Reliance Infocomm - All circles
4. Other operators like BSNL, Hutch,MTNL-Mumbai and Tata Indicom will soon integration with Indian Railway for SMS booking.

How to Book Tickets using SMS

In order to book rail tickets using SMS, the following are a must:

• The user needs to be registered with www.irctc.co.in and opted to use the mobile reservation services.
• User should have created at least one "Passenger List" in his profile registered with IRCTC. This list will be used for the SMS booking process.
• The customer has to be registered for the Mobile Banking services of ICICI Bank (Other banks will be integrated soon)
• The user must have a mobile connection with any one of the operators listed above (more operators are also being added.)
• The entire process of "book ticket" can be done through two SMS messages, using IRCTC’s short code 7245

How to Register?

You need to sign up in www.irctc.co.in in order to avail this service. The User has to select "mobile booking" option in the profile / registration page to avail all types of Mobile Booking facilities including SMS booking. The user needs to input mobile number, mobile operator, and preferred payment option (At present ICICI Bank only). ICICI Bank will be charging Rs 10 for this service for each booking. You will need to be registered to the "Mobile Shopping Service" provided by ICICI Bank and enter the 'mShop Name' through SMS.

For more details please visit IRCTC Mobile Booking web page.

Service Provided Operators

RELIANCE

• PNR Alert Service on 7245
• Ticket Reservation through R-World( Payment through Credit Cards)
• SMS Booking on 7245

IDEA

• PNR Alert Service on 7245
• Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 456( Payment through Credit Cards)
• SMS Booking on 7245

MTNL Delhi

• PNR Alert Service on 7245
• SMS Booking on 7245

MTNL Mumbai

• PNR Alert Service on 7245

HUTCH

• PNR Alert Service on 7245
• Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 123( Payment through Credit Cards)
• GPRS Based Ticket Reservation( Payment through Credit Cards)

TATA INDICOM

• PNR Alert Service on 7245
• Voice Based Ticket Reservation on 12900( Payment through Credit Cards)

AIRTEL

• PNR Alert Service on 7245

Already registered users of www.irctc.co.in can use their existing user id and password to log in and transact through Hutch / Idea/ Tata Indicom / Reliance handsets

First time users can avail the registration facility offered by the mobile operator or visit www.irctc.co.in and use the normal registration form.

• Booking through Voice Based Process- Hutch, Idea and Tata Indicom
• Booking through CDMA phones - Reliance
• IRCTC Mobile Booking web page

How to Identify the Indian State / Union Territory / Metro a BSNL cellphone belong to?

I came across this table below to identify the home state (Indian) to which a a BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) cellphone belong to. For example, if the cell phone number is 9447100100, its first 4 digits are 9447, which belong to Kerala state as per the lookup table given below.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N)	9479, 9432
Andhra Pradesh (AP)	9473 , 9440, 9441
Assam	9478
Bihar	9475, 9431
Chennai	9470, 9444
Kolkata	9481
Gujrat	9457,9426
Haryana	9450, 9416
Himachal Pradesh (HP)	9451,9418
Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)	9452,9419
Karnataka	9471, 9448
Kerala	9472, 9447
Madhya Pradesh (MP)	9458,9425
Maharastra	9456, 9422
North East (NE) states	9477
Orissa	9476, 9437
Punjab	9453, 9417
Rajasthan	9459, 9414
Tamil Nadu (TN)	9480, 9443
Utter Pradesh (UP) East	9455, 9415
Utter Pradesh (UP( West	9454, 9412
West Begnal (WB)	9474, 9434

As of now, I do not have the similar kind of information for other mobile providers in India. I will publish it as soon as I get the information.

Hope this helps. Please post more BSNL numbers if I am missing any in this list.