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PC Guides

Sound Card: This Is How Computers Convert 1s And 0s To Sound

This is a well known fact that the entire functioning of computers revolves around 1s and 0s. Then, did you ever wonder how such a device is able to produce sound energy? How the music with different beats and levels is being obtained from the speakers? Well then, if that’s the question in your mind, then today you’ll find the answer right here i.e. about how your computers produce music.

Sound Card: This Is How Computers Convert 1s And 0s To Sound

Nature Of Sound Waves:

You must be familiar with the fact that sound waves are analog in nature. Usually sound travels from one place to another due to collision of energized particles with the others and so on. Due to these collisions, with distance the energy dies out. This is what you must have learnt long ago when you went to school.

But a computer is incapable of directly producing such vibrations from its digital data. So just like a processor, RAM and the other components have their fixed tasks, a sound card is the one which deals with such energy translations.

 

The Role Of Sound Card:

In a computer, each of the components communicates with each other digitally. Similar to a Graphic Card, a Sound Card converts the digital sound information into the human-perceivable sound waves (i.e. waves of frequencies 20-20000 Hertz).

The most important components in a Sound Card among the rest are:

  • A digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which helps convert the binary information into analog sound signal.
  • An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to record the analog sound inputs and storing them as digital sound.
  • The connection interface which keeps the sound card attached to the motherboard, mostly a Peripheral Component Interface (PCI).
  • The various connectors to enable users to connect Mic or Headphones to the computer.
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PC Guides

This Is Why Computers Use The SMPS Unit

A computer is a combination of several electronic devices (Hard Disk, Optical Drive, CPU etc) each of which, have their specific operating voltages and currents. For all of them to work together, they are to be fed with constant desired voltages without much deviation.

Any Power Supply Unit (PSU) is expected to deliver a regulated output voltage to the load, using the poorly regulated input voltage available at the wall outlet. In case of electronic circuits, this regulated voltage needs to be a stabilized low-voltage DC. This can be achieved by any of the two types of PSUs: Linear PSU or Switch-mode PSU (SMPS).

 

SMPS: Switch mode power supply unit

 

Switch-Mode Power Supply (SMPS):

In computers, we work with the Switch-Mode Power Supply Units (SMPS). The particular reason, SMPS are only used is that they are far more efficient than the rest. SMPS Unit has lesser electronic components comparatively and they perform the chopping process (switching between voltage levels) at high frequencies.

Hence there is low power dissipation due to which we get higher efficiency (up to 80%). The other advantage is that an SMPS Unit is very light-weight and economical compared to the rest and is available in different form factors.

 

The Internal Circuitry:

The internal circuitry of the SMPS has components which work at high frequencies mounted on a PCB. Each of them is designed to meet the specified output voltage levels. These include the rectifier section (steps down the input AC voltage), the filter section (completely removes all the AC voltage components) and then the MOSFET. The MOSFET forms the most important part of the SMPS Unit.

A MOSFET is controlled by an Integrated Circuit which decides the duty cycle (the ON time compared to total ON and OFF time) of the MOSFET. Hence different output voltages are produced and can be effectively distributed among various components.

 

Output Voltages:

Now that you have understood how a switch mode power supply unit is capable of producing many levels of output voltages, let’s take a look at the most common among them:

+5 Volts: In any standard computer, the +5 volts DC output wires are red in color. This voltage is used to drive motors present in drives of form factors 2.5 inch and 3.5 inches. This is a very basic supply voltage to many electronic circuits.

Also a 5 Volts green wiring is used to connect the power button to the rest of the circuitry.

 

+12 Volts: A +12 Volts DC supply is carried out by the yellow wires that come with your SMPS unit. Such high supply is generally used by the cooling systems and cooling fans of the computer. Also, this supply may be used to drive motors which can’t run on a +5V DC Supply.

 

-12 Volts: This Supply voltage collected from the blue wires was once used in the ISA bus slots (pin B7). Now mostly the work which was carried out earlier by a -12 volts supply, is being taken care of by the +/- 5 Volt supply.

 

+ 3.3 Volts: The +3.3 Volts orange line is the most basic supply line. This is so because; most of the CPUs and RAM use 3.3 volts. The PCI Bus is powered with this supply voltage and hence any components attached to it use this voltage line. In addition, a 3.3 Volts line powers up the motherboard and is used to compensate any line losses since every device needs a constant supply voltage.

 

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PC Hacks Security Web Guides

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

Today Internet is a tool that is almost mandatory. It also presents an opportunity to hackers for taking advantage of the ignorance of users. Due to which large sums of computers are effected simply by launching virus into a network in order to steal information. To prevent this, we have many software that help us to protect our information known as antivirus and firewall, but this time we are going to use the Google translation tool to browse anonymously and avoid being tracked.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

Google Translate is a tool with two uses. One is well known that is for which it was created, to translate between different languages ( both words and / or phrases ). The second use is for safe navigation , it is a useful tool for when you don’t want to be reached and ensures a safe browsing session. It may also be useful in accessing the pages that are restricted by location. Now as we are going to use Google translate as our Proxy server, we need to know what actually a proxy is ? , Roughly we can say that proxy server acts as a mediator between the server that hosts the web and the thing we are searching. A quick example is given below :

Connecting without a web proxy  : Computer > Server that hosts the web

Connection web proxy                   : Computer > Proxy Server > Server that hosts the web

Does Really Using The Google Translate As Your Proxy Server Hides Your Navigation ?

 

To show its operation, we are going to consider a website that is used for getting our public IP address. Now we are going to perform this operation with and without proxy.

To begin just move on to Google Translate and paste or write the website that you want to access via proxy.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

Then click on the link displayed in the translated section , which is the link to the website in a hidden mode ( Hidden navigation ). Now you can see in the below image that it shows the IP address of the Google, as we just used the google server for our navigation.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

In this below image you can see that the IP address had been changed as we are navigating without any proxy. This is the actual  public IP address of the computer.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

Now let’s try the IP localization, proceed the same way to explore IP, this website also gives the information related to the ISP ( internet service provider ) and the present location of the IP address.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

As you see in the above image, it is giving the location and the ISP that are not ours. As  we are using Google proxy ( That is the location of google server ). Now in the below image we can see that its showing the actual location and ISP of ours this is because in the above case we have hidden our navigation by using proxy.

How To Use Google As Your Proxy Server For Secure Navigation

In short, we have a free tool that offers the possibility of anonymity on the Internet . It is also an easy fast to use tool. It also has the advantage that we can use it from any device, browser and / or computer and the navigation is totally safe.

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PC Guides System Performance

Can I Increase The Power Of My Computer By Overclocking?

One of the most important changes that we can make in our computer to increase the potency is overclocking. Overclocking is a process to increase the frequency of processing of our microprocessor at higher levels than the default, i.e simply asking our microprocessor to work harder.

Before going into detail about this practice, we should note that the increase in microprocessor performance is not enabled on computers that are manufactured under one brand and specific model.

Since they come protected against this overclocking, this operation is mostly performed on computers that have been assembled by third-party equipment.

What Overclocking Is All About – Beginners Guide

Overclocking is making your computer’s hardware run much faster than what they are designed for by manufacturers. If you are thinking about it, you can actually do

Read More

We also recall that this practice without sufficient knowledge can cause hardware damage and possibly alter the factory settings of these elements, which will result in immediate loss of warranty. Therefore make these practices under your full responsibility.

What Exactly Is Overclocking?

Overclocking is mostly described as the method which aims to achieve a higher clock speed, which is always above the manufacturer’s specifications and their standard values. This practice has one goal i.e to achieve higher performance from the components for free.

Overclocking is a term used in computing which means literally on the clock, i.e the clock frequency increase, which will increase processing capacity. You can have a detailed look about this Overclocking in our previous article.

What are its Pros and Cons?

On the pro side, obviously we can increase the capacity of our microprocessor for free and without hardly having to make any adjustments, and it is also a fast process.

On the downside, firstly the warranty of the device is totally lost as you alter the default condition of the component and it will also have changes in its stability, heat gain and possible reduction in life.

In case you don’t want stuff like this to happen to your computer, you can always quit this idea.

How can you Overclock?

If you’ve already decided to do so, you should know that there are two ways to overclock your system. Both of them are pretty easy to implement, they are as follows.

Methods To Increase The Power Of Your Computer

Method 1:

Through the BIOS: This is the cleanest and the most optimal and the highly recommended way to Overclock.

You just only need to access the BIOS your computer and Move on to the reference voltages and frequencies section.

Be very careful while modifying the values, If you have given a value which is considered to be very large than the value that your components can handle then it may lead to the hardware damage.

How To Clear CMOS Memory To Fix PC Hardware Issues You Don’t Know About

Occasionally, we may find that our computer suffers hardware problems that we don’t understand and do not know how to solve but have you tried getting over the issue by clearing the CMOS memory?

Read More

You must be very clear about the information being shown in your BIOS and what you should change, one should definitely research before making the change.

Increase The Power Of Your Computer By Overclocking

Method 2:

Through software: There are far many applications in the market to modify the default values of your computer in order to overclock.

Such applications are compatible with most devices and their use is often simpler than the method of the BIOS.

This method requires your BIOS password to be disabled ( i.e your computer should not have any BIOS password), of course, it will run only in administrator mode.

The operation is pretty simple you just need to restart your computer after making the changes. One of the simplest applications for this action is ” ClockGen “, Which can be download for free at the end of the article.

Increase The Power Of Your Computer By Overclocking

So, if at all you are thinking about modifying your computer to give it more power and speed, then you know what to do.

Softonic | ClockGen 

Categories
PC Guides Security Web Guides

What Is A Firewall And How It Works

Firewalls are that extra layer of security which helps in restricting intruders. It can either be a software firewall or a hardware firewall. They have this unique ability of protecting entire network from the external environment. In this article you will understand what is a firewall and how exactly their implementation will protect the security and integrity of a given network.

what is firewall and how it works

 

Firewall – A Security System

Firewall is a network security system that can be implemented as a hardware device or a software program. A firewall once it is setup effectively filters out all the traffic that flows into a given network (or even a single computer) from some other network, like the Internet. This filtration is done based on the set of rules given to the Firewall.

It means that the resources present in a particular network can now be accessed only by the traffic that is allowed in the policy. And all the other traffic is denied access.

This security system has become more and more necessary with the increasing attacks of intruders, malicious codes and hackers. And if this network is the size of the internet, these unprotected computers become easy prey to hackers. So, one needs to understand the importance of a firewall and select that type of firewall which perfectly suits them. But that’s another lesson for another day.

 

Rule–Set (or) Firewall Policy:

The functioning of a Firewall is completely dependent on its rule-set. Based on this rule-set the firewall either accepts or denies external traffic. Actually a rule-set is that technical coding a Firewall Administrator does so as to tell the Firewall how he wants it to function. Basically, any firewall has a default setting to reject all traffic and to this policy few modifications are done so as to allow only a defined group of traffic.

The Firewall Administrator hence should have the perfect idea of what all the traffic he wants to allow into the network. If you are using Windows you can modify the firewall rule-set using the firewall setting in your control panel. But we recommend you do so only after understanding all the consequences.

 

Firewall Rules:

Each of the technical statements of the rule-set can address two types of traffic i.e. inbound and outbound. The rules governing these are the inbound rule and outbound rule.

Inbound Rule:

Inbound rules are those which are used by the Firewall to filter the incoming traffic. Generally, each computer when on the internet gets assigned with an IP address. So a computer on the network can be converted as a web server by defining an inbound rule and made to accept traffic. The aforementioned is one application and the other being the ability to hold video conferences.

Outbound Rule:

Outbound rule blocks or explicitly allows all the traffic that is originating from the host network. For example, you can block traffic from the network from going to a particular IP Address, or the time of day and so on using the firewall. For example, you can block the messages going out from your instant messenger using the outbound rule.

 

The Bottom Line:

For every computer that goes online, firewall is a must. Like mentioned Windows by default blocks all inbound traffic and allows all outbound traffic but all of that can be changed as per your requirements.

Also See: The Blooming Of Web Application Firewalls

Categories
PC Hacks Security Web Guides

How To Protect Yourself From Phishing And Internet Frauds

One of the major concerns of any user accessing the Internet is the security of their data , both when it comes to documents stored in the cloud, and also the unauthorized access to email accounts. Particularly most of them are concerned about the security and integrity of their personal data.

We often hear or read news related to phishing , but really not everyone knows what this technique is , what consequences it can lead to and especially what to do in order to protect ourselves.

What is Phishing ?

Phishing is a method used by hackers around the world to impersonate any person or entity. In this method they try to earn your trust and thus ensure that you provide the data they need to make use of your bank cards and accounts.

It is important to understand that using this system, the scammer doesn’t directly steal your data, instead you will be the one who will deliver all data requested by the hacker, of course with absolute ignorance of the fact that you are being tricked.

How you may be victim of Phishing ?

One of the most common technique is to request your details via email; they pretend to be officers from some bank and thereby extract the required information from you. For instance, you may get an email which looks like it has been sent from an official source stating that your account will be canceled if you fail to submit the required information. This email will generally be full of colors and corporate logos everywhere in order to make you believe in their trickery. The arguments used may be different.

How To Protect Yourself From Phishing And Internet Frauds , How To Protect Yourself From Phishing And Internet Frauds

Another main methods in obtaining your data is by supplanting the official website of your bank and thereby insisting you to fill in your details and tries to earn your trust.

How can you protect yourselves from these scams?

The best method of protecting your bank details from falling into the wrong hands is to use common sense and especially distrust. No bank will ask your bank account details ( like account number and pin number ) in any case, there are no exceptions, they never ask in any form, whether by email, web browser or whatever. In case you have doubts about how to respond to a received email, then directly call to your bank’s help line center and get yours doubts cleared there and then, that too before providing any such details.

Our recommendations to prevent Internet fraud are :

=>If in doubt, ask your bank.

=>Remember that fraudulent emails you receive can be properly written without any spelling mistakes, with all the official logos but keep a note that no bank will request you for data by an email.

=>You may not only receive a fraudulent email from a bank, it is possible that we may receive them from other platforms such as Ebay or even Facebook .

=>Check your bank accounts regularly and if in doubt about any concept contact your bank.

=>Enter your details only on pages that are marked as safe . You can identify a secure web page if it starts with https instead of http.

=>Protect your computer with a good antivirus that offers anti-spam and anti-phishing filters.

=>Never access any website through the links that are provided by an email , it is always recommended to type the web address directly into the browser as you may be taken to a page that has been supplanted.

Finally, we recommend that if you have already been a victim of such a scam, do not hesitate to notify the police. If you hold the tips explained to you, you can browse and carry out online shopping without any problems , through public and secure pages.

 

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PC Guides

This Is How Actually The USB OTG Flash Drive Works

Each and every peripheral today is provided to connect to computers through the USB (Universal Serial Bus).  Such is the level of revolution, USB technology has managed to bring in with its absolutely flawless features. An addition to that arsenal of features is the USB On-The-Go (OTG). Surely why wouldn’t one love to own a technology which could directly connect to printers and print the desired images without the involvement of the computer? That’s exactly what you can do now with the USB OTG Flash Drive technology.

The additional benefits are that, now you can carry with you a storage device which can talk to both your smart phone and any computer without any other external hardware support. Due to which transferring files between your computer and smart phones is much easier, plus you wouldn’t even have to depend on the cloud for this.

 

www.ncix.com , This Is How Actually The USB OTG Flash Drive Works

Image Courtesy By : Ncix

All The Reasons You Should Go For USB OTG Flash Drive :

#1 Expanded Smartphone Storage

USB OTG Flash Drive is a boon for all those smartphone users, which don’t have a memory card slot. The micro-USB connector this USB OTG carries can connect these devices to most of the smartphones. Users can hence use this additional storage on their mobile phones. Like already mentioned, the best part of this feature is that you no longer have to depend on the cloud services to back up the data on your mobile phones or computers.

#2 Targeted Host Capabilities

USB OTG Flash Drive can help you set communications between two USB peripherals. With the USB OTG each of the USB peripherals including your smartphones can interchangeably used as the host or slave. For instance, when you connect this USB OTG device to a mobile phone it can act as the host and read data present in this flash drive, while when connected to a computer it offers itself as a USB Mass Storage Device.

So is the case with a printer which prints based on the instructions from the computer acting as a slave and when the USB storage device is connected directly in absence of computer, it becomes the host and takes control over reading what’s present in the USB device and printing as per requirement. Hence direct connection between OTG Flash devices can also be established.

#3 Preserves Battery Life

It is very common fact that devices can get charged up using their USB ports. The extra benefit that a USB OTG Flash Drive is that it hold charge and thus can be specifically used as a charger while you are on the go. Still the application of the USB OTG Flash Drive is under development and you can be sure to have this update any time soon.

#4 The Compatibility

The employed USB 3.0 can be used on the USB 2.0 ports because of its backward compatibility. But with just the USB 2.0 transfer speeds. When it comes to smartphones, it is compatible to a wider range of devices including all the latest models.

#5 Better Than Wireless

There is no doubt in saying this technology is indeed much better than the wireless data transfer. The wireless technology tends to get a little too slow and creepy with increasing amounts of data to be transferred. But with an USB OTG Flash Drive you wouldn’t even have to be a tad concerned about it.

Categories
PC Guides System Performance

Easy Way To Monitor Your Computer Hardware In Detail

In OnlineCmag, we’ve recently discussed about the methods of monitoring your graphics card and also explained you the way to know all the parameters of your microprocessor and other hardware but these tools are designed to display information that is only for monitoring.

If you are interested in dealing with real-time data such as the temperature of your microprocessor or graphics card, operating speed of the fans and also in knowing their maximum and minimum values, you need a monitoring application and one of the simplest but complete one is the ” Hardware Monitor “. which can be downloaded at the end of this article.

HWMonitor – Simplest Way To Monitor Your Computer Hardware :

This application is really easy to use and interpret, it has only one main screen where all data related to your computer hardware is displayed, it will show the current value, minimum value and the maximum value reached for each and every component.

Easy Way To Monitor Your Computer Hardware In Detail , In OnlineCmag, we've recently discussed about the methods of monitoring your graphics card and also Explained you the way...  Monitor Your Computer Hardware , In OnlineCmag, we've recently discussed about the methods of monitoring your graphics card and also Explained you the way...  Monitor Your Computer Hardware

There is nothing more to explain about this application, it promises to be a hardware monitor system in real time for your Windows operating system and meets the expectations plus it is also free. So if you are interested in knowing everything about your computer hardware, then we recommend this tool for you.

Download | Hardware Monitor