All PC Tips

In most places, many people use the same computer. Especially in a home, many family members use the same computer. In such a scenario, the emails sent to one person can be easily read by other persons using the same computer. In such cases, is it possible to create individual inboxes for each member and secure it with a password, so that each one can access only their email inbox.

Yes, it is possible. MS Outlook makes it possible for you. In MS Outlook you can create your own message folders, contacts for each one separately. You can create these for each individual users and make it secure by protecting these folders with password so that each person can see only their folder. Just follow these steps to protect your email inbox with password.

1. First of all you need to create a new Identity. Select ‘File->Identities->Add New Identity’ option. Here you create a new user with a ‘user name’. Also select the ‘Require a password’ option and key in the ‘password’. Remember this username and password for future use.
2. Now, it will prompt and ask whether you want to register this new user and log in, click on ‘Yes’ and enter all your personal details in the following screen. Now you have created yourself as the new user and you have protected your inbox with your password.
3. Likewise, you can create identities for each member of the family.
4. After creating many identities, each user can see their protected inbox by choosing ‘File->Switch identities’ and key in their username and password to see their inbox.

Similarly Netscape Mail version 7 has this multi user feature. But it is not protected using password.

If you use web mails such as yahoo, gmail or hotmail then you do not have to worry, since you can only view your emails by logging in each time.

To keep computer files, internet connections and other resources just to ourselves, we use passwords. Some people use the same password for everything. This is a very bad practice. Because if someone comes to know about this password then they will get access to all your resources. There fore it is essential to have different passwords for different purposes. But this poses another problem. It becomes very difficult to remember all these passwords. Some write these passwords in their diary or write on a small paper and keep it on their table. This too is a bad practice. Because it is easy for other people to get hold of this information when you are not around.

If you could keep all your password in a database and then encrypt this database and protect it with a password then all your passwords will be safe. Then you just need to remember this one password, so even if you forget other passwords you can still use this password to open the database and check the password.

You can use a free password management software such as ‘Password Safe‘. You can download password safe from http://sourceforge.net and install it in your computer. Then you will never have to remember many passwords.

To create a master password

When you open Password safe for the first time it will ask you for the ‘Safe combination’ which is nothing but the master password for your password database. The safe combination password should be long and contain both numbers and alphabets so that it is difficult to guess. If you give a simple and easy to guess password then password safe will warn you. Now key in the same password again in the ‘Verify’ box and click on ‘OK’.

To add passwords to Password Safe

Click on the ‘Add Entry’ button in Password Safe. In the new dialog box give ‘group name’ (optional) and the title name and then key in your username and password. In the ‘Notes’ section write anything you want to write about the account. Now click on ‘OK’ to add this information to password safe.

As mentioned in the above paragraph add all your passwords one by one. When you close password safe program it will ask you where you want to save this password database in your hard disk. This is only for the first time.

To retrieve the password

If you forgot the password for any file or program and you want to retrive the password from password safe then password safe will first ask you for the ‘master password’. After you give the master password the database will open.

Then click on the ‘title’ for which you want to know the password. Now click on the ‘Copy password to clipboard’ button. Now the password will be copied to the clip board. You can use Ctrl + V to paste it anywhere you want.

When you exit the password safe program, it will automatically clear the password from the clipboard for security reasons.

You can also edit the password if you want.

You can give a password to your screen saver and make it active whenever your computer boots up. Those who do not know the password cannot enter your computer. Let us see how you can protect your computer from unwanted users accessing your computer.

To create Screen Save with Password

Right click on the blank space of your desktop and select ‘Properties’. In the new dialog box, click on the ‘Screen Saver’ tab. Select any screen saver of your choice. For example let us assume you chose ’3D Flying Objects’.

Now click on the ‘Password Protected’ check box and select it. Then click on the ‘Change’ button. In the new dialog box that opens key in your password.The effectiveness of the protection depends on your password, therefore select a password that is not easy to guess but is easy for you to remember. It is better to keep a password lengthy. Confirm your password by typing again and click on the ‘OK’ button.

You will see the ‘The password has been successfully changed’ information. Click ‘OK’ and close that box. Then finally click on the ‘OK’ button and close the ‘Properties’ dialog box.

To bring the Screen save shortcut to the desktop

The screen saver will only take effect only when your computer is idle for a specified time without any activity. What if you leave your computer and before the screen saver takes effect somebody else stars using your computer. To prevent this from happening you can create a shortcut to your screen saver and activate it whenever you leave your computer.

To create shortcut to the screen saver in the desktopn right click on the blank space of your computer and click ‘New Shortcut’. You will now see the ‘Create Shortcut’ dialog box, click on ‘Browse’ button and select teh screen saver execution file which can be found at c:/windows/system folder. In the ‘File of type’ drop down list choose ‘All Files’. Now in the list of files, scroll and look for the screen saver file (for eg. 3d flying objects) and double click on it. Then click on the ‘Next’ button then give a suitable name for your shortcut and then click on ‘Finish’ button.

Now the shorcut is visible on the shortcut. Whenever you leave your computer just double click this screen saver shortcut and activate your screen saver. Now if anyone wants to use it, when they move the mouse or click any button on the keyboard, the screen saver will prompt for the password. Since he will not know your password he cannot enter your computer.

To add screen saver shortcut to the windows ‘startup folder’

You may know that the programs inside the starup folder will automatically start when you boot your computer. Now you should bring the desktop screen saver shortcut to this startup folder. The reason is, after you shut down your computer if someone tries to start your computer without your knowledge then the screen saver will automatically prompt for the password.

Start your Windows Explorer. Choose the C:/windows folder and look for the ‘Desktop’ folder. Inside this desktop folder look for the short cut that you created. If the files are not visible then click on the ‘View-Folder Options’ menu, select the ‘View’ tab and select ‘Show all files’ option and click ‘OK’ button. In the file list selct the ’3dfo’ shortcut and copy it (Ctrl + C).

Now goto the Windows/startmenu/programs/startup folder. Now paste it here (Ctrl + V). Now close the windows explorer.

From now on when you boot your computer the screen saver will be activated and prompt for the password. Only if you key in the right password you can enter your computer.

If your friend is a bit clever then he may start your computer in ‘Safe Mode’ and enter your computer. Because in ‘Safe Mode’ it will not prompt for password. Then he can goto the start programs startup folder and delete the screen saver shortcut from that folder.

Now your screen saver will not be active anymore. So bringing the screen saver to start up folder is not a fool proof method. But not many people will go to that extent of starting in safe mode and then deleting the screen saver shotcurt. So you can still use this method.

We use internet for many purposes. In many websites we use different login names and passwords. For example, if you use any of the free web emails such as gmail, yahoo or hotmail then you will have to login with your login name and password before accessing your email inbox.

Similarly, if you use any commercial websites for internet shopping such as Amazon or eBay then you may have to use your credit card details before buying online. Only then can you buy online. If we lose credit card related information then we may lose money. If this information falls into the hands of hackers then we are seriously at danger of losing money. This hacker can then use your credit card details to buy anything.

Worse still, if someone uses your login name and password to login to a server and carries out any destructive activities then you will be blamed for that activity. Court trial or penalties or fine may make your life miserable.

The password, credit card details can be stolen from three places.

From your computer, when you type in your browser these key strokes can be captured

Or while this information packets are transmitted from your computer to the server. This is called ‘Wiretapping’. Hackers and crackers can easily accomplish this.

From the web server’s database. In this database, like your data, many people’s information will be stored. If the hacker gains access to these databases then he can get these data.

Of these, the first and the second method of stealing can be prevented by you. The third way of stealing from web server, is not in your hands and you can not do anything to prevent it. Let us see how you can prevent the first two methods of stealing.

The login name, password and credit card details that you type in your browser are sent as text via internet to the web servers. The hackers and crackers can easily read this text. They cannot read it if it is encrypted. This is where Secure Sockets Layers are used.

Whether the web server that you are connecting to, uses SSL to encrypt the data can be found from your browser. For example a ‘closed lock’ icon will be displayed in the status bar of your browser. If there is not clocl icon in the status bar then those websites do not use SSL and therefore not secure.

In your ‘Internet Explorer’ choose ‘Tools-Internet Options’. In this new dialog box select the ‘Advanced’ tab. Here, you will see many check boxes under the security section. 1. Use SSL 2.0. 2.Dont save encrypted pages to disk 3. warn if form submitted is being redirected 4. warn if changing between secure and not secure mode. 5. check for server certificated relocation 6. warn about invalid site certificates. See that all these six options are selected.

From now on, the browser will prompt your, whenever you enter/view websites whether that page is secure, and when you type any details, whether the data is encrypted or not.

In login pages, when you key in the first two or three letters of your username, Internet explorer will auto complete the username and password to make it easier for you. But this feature can be a problem if many people are using the same computer. Others may enter into your account just by typing the username and without even knowing your password. So it is better to ‘TURN OFF’, ‘Auto Complete’ feature. To do this, select ‘Tools-Internet Options’. Choose the ‘Content’ tab and click the ‘Auto complete’ button. Click on the ‘Clear passwords’ button and delete all the stored passwords. If the ‘Usernames and passwords on forms’ check box is selected then de select it.

Also clear all the cache files from your browser. To do this select ‘Tools-Internet Options’. Select the ‘General’ tab. In the ‘Temporary internet files’ section click the ‘Delete Files’ button. Now click on ‘Yes’ and ‘OK’.

Congratulations, now you have reduced the possibility of your passwords to be stolen.

Most of the internet websites make it compulsory to register and issue you with an username and a password to login to their website. We may have to remember many such username/passwords for different websites. When accessing these websites the computer will prompt and ask you whether you want to save these passwords for future use. If you say ‘yes’ then the password that you key in will be stored in your computer. The next time you visit this website and key in the first letter of your username, the computer will auto fill the username/password for you.

Another similar feature is ‘Remember password’. Some websites provide this link in their login page. If you select this option while logging in then the password will be stored in your computer and the subsequent visits to this website you need not remember the password.

But saving these passwords to you computer is not safe. Do you know that these passwords can be retrieved by hackers? Moreover many people may access the same computer and may kn ow your username. Therefore they may be able to login to those websites without knowing your password.

The password text box in these websites will just display ‘*’ instead of the actual password. But do you know that there are some softwares that can convert these * (stars) into the actual password?

For example ‘See Password‘ is a software that can do just this. You can download this software at www.seepassword.com.  When you are not around, someone could install this software in your computer. And if they goto the website’s login page and key in your username the computer will auto fill the username and password. Password will be displayed as many ****. If this someone then shows the ‘See password’ icon on top of the ****s the software will clearly show the clear password.

If you are not willing to buy ‘See Password’ software for $19.99 then you can use the ‘View Passwords‘ free java software. You can download this software fromwww.squarefree.com

How to hide the passwords?

1. There is no way you can hide the passwords. There are many tools available that can easily look into your computer and retrieve the saved passwords. Therefore the best way to safeguard your passwords is not to store them on your computer. You have to remember them in you head. And as far as possible do not use the ‘remember password’ or ‘remember me’ options in websites if your computer is shared by many others.
2. If you have already saved the passwords in your computer try to clear them. It is best to clear the passwords from your internet explorer options under the ‘Content’ tab and ‘Auto complete’ option.
3. If you are an outlook user and your computer is shared then do not save passwords for your email accounts so that whenever you start outlook it will prompt for the password.