What is MD5 Hash ?

 

MD5 Hash Algorithm

In this article, I will tell you about MD5 Hash algorithm.It is a very useful technique for keeping things secret and safe.However it is old but is still very useful.

 So what is this MD5?
       MD5 stands for Message Digest algorithm 5.It is widely used for security purposes and keeping things secret or hidden.It was designed be Ron Rivest in 1991 to replace MD4, another older algorithm.MD5 was an improved version of it.MD5 is a hash generating cryptographic algorithm.

How does it works?

It takes some data as input, the data may be text or binary, and then it generates a fixed length hash value.The input can be of any length but the output will always be of a fixed length.The fixed length is 32 digit hex hash.A diagram will explain it all.

As you see that it doesn't matters how long the input is the output hash will always be 32 digit in hexadecimal.
 Uses of MD5 Hash 
 The hash is very useful for security purposes.For example if you download file from the Internet, or a backup of the data you have created on a server, the file may not be the original one.It could have been tampered by viruses or some bytes might have been missed during the download.
      To check whether you have got the original file you can create the MD5 hash of the original file and save it somewhere.After a long time you would need your backup files, after downloading the files you can create MD5 hash and match it with the original files hash.If it gets matched, then the file is not broken or damaged by any means, if it doesn't the the file will be corrupted.

How to create MD5 Hash of a file?
For Windows, you can use this utility, MD5 summer.Well it works good, but I have another utility which does the job even better.The name is Hash tab.It integrates itself into the properties menu and create a tab File Hashes. It shows different Hashes with different algorithms such as CRC32, MD-5, SHA-1. So you can check the hash and write it somewhere, then make a backup of that file, and when you need it you check its hash and compare it with the original hash value, then you know that it is all good or maybe corrupted.


For Unix you can use the command, md5sum:

for example,
md5 myfiles.rar


you can replace myfiles.rar with the name of your file.


How to create MD5 HASH of text?

Well if you want to send someone a secret message you can take advantage of MD5.Just use this website to generate the MD5 hash of the text you want.Then send it to anybody you want, and then he can convert it back using any MD5 decryptor such as this one.


Nowadays MD5 is replaced by SHA-0, SHA-1 and SHA-2 and also SHA-3 algorithms.Many  algorithms such as CRC32 are also used.

How to break Windows Password?

Note: This article is only for educational purposes .Any mistake might end up in a bad behavior.Do it at your own risk.You, yourself will be responsible for any damage done.

How to Break\Bypass Windows Password?

In this article I will show you how you can break a windows password in case you have forgotten it, or whatever.
     All you need is a an application known as 'Windows Password & Reg editor', and some other stuff listed below:

1. The software 'Win7 Password&Reg editor'.
2. An empty CD ( and a CD-Writer), or
3. A USB flash drive.

So now I will discuss about the features of this software.

• It can easily manage your password.
• You can edit your password.
• You can delete your password
• You can edit or delete it even without knowing the old password.
• You don't have to be logged in to this.
• It has a command line UI ( User Interface ).
• It supports all versions of Windows, I mean from Windows NT to 8 and maybe it will support later versions.

No need to worry that it has a command line UI, step-by-step procedure is given below.

So, How does it works?, some background information!
 Microsoft's operating system, Windows stores its user's information ( which includes password and some other stuff ) in a file called 'SAM', which does not means 'Surface-to-Air Missiles", it stand for Security Accounts Manager.It is located in \WINDOWS\system32\config\.It is not easily accessible and editable.

OK, now for the procedure.

Procedure

1.) The first step is not easy but not much hard, actually standard users may not understand it.You need to make a bootable CD or USB.
          The software does not changes whether you use a USB or CD, but what I want to tell is that not much computer's BIOS supports booting from a USB drive, but approximately all of them support CD boot.

• Download the software here.
• A zip file will be downloaded.Extract it.
• In the extracted folder, you will get an ISO file named 'cd110511.iso'.
• For CD just simply burn it , for USB extract it and copy all files (not folder) to your USB drive and follow the next step only for USB.
• Open command prompt (cmd.exe).Type the following:

                   h:\syslinux.exe -ma h:
Note: Replace h with your USB\CD's drive letter.
After all that, now your USB\CD is ready for boot process.

2.) Now its time for the boot process.

Insert your USB or CD into your computer and then restart it.If it asks automatically to boot from CD\DVD or USB then press any key to continue, or it may even boot without even asking.If it does not asks or boots automatically, go to your BIOS settings and then boot from CD\DVD.As I told earlier not much computers support USB boot.

3.) The first screen will be as below:

Press 'enter' to continue.

4.) In the next screen it will ask you to select the drive in which the Windows is installed.

The drives will be listed with numbers, the name will not be displayed ( C:\ or D:\) you may remember the size of it in MB.Type the number and press 'enter'.If it finds the Windows in it, it will display a success message.It will automatically detect the 'config' folder but will ask for confirmation so if it already written then just press 'enter' otherwise type WINDOWS\system32\config.

5.) After that it will give you a list of account name on the Windows.Type the name of the account you want the password to be removed.After typing it press 'enter' key.


6.) When you press enter key, it will load the SAM file and will ask you that which operation you want to apply on it.Press '1' to edit user data and then press 'enter'.

7.) Now it will display a user edit menu.So if you just want to clear the password, press '1'.If you want to edit\change password press '2', it won't ask for the old password, so you just need to enter the new one.I'm going for clear password.

8.) Now it will display a message which will say 'Password cleared'. Now to exit editing press exclamation mark key '!' to quit editing. Now you will be transfered to user edit menu again. Press 'q' to exit.

9.) Now it will ask you to save the configuration\changes you have made. Press 'y' to save else press 'n'. I'm saving it so I can complete the tutorial. The message will be "Step 4: Writing back changes" , so don't get confused.

10.) Now if anything that you missed, you can do it again, press 'y' for it. Or if your editing has completed press 'n'. Now finally end this session by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. Take out the CD\USB, because it is going to restart. Now you will see a change and that is the password is gone( If you have done everything accurately).

Hope you find it useful! And please leave your comments if you like it!.

How to Block advertisements on web?

Block ads with different methods!

Advertisements are a big source of revenue for many websites.But they can be very annoying especially flash ads and pop-ups.So in this article we discuss about how to block advertisement on different browsers such as Firefox, Google chrome, Opera, and Internet explorer.In this article we will use different techniques such as changing setting, using some tweaks, and using some plugins.

                    So what are ads?.An Ad is a form of advertisement on World Wide Web, it is supposed to attract visitors to another website.
      
 There are various types of ads, some of them are:
1) Search engine result page: Ads related to search results are displayed near the results to confuse the user.
2) Floating ads: An Ad which floats or moves here and there across the screen of the user.
3) Expanding ads: An Ad which may change its size or may change the contents of the web page.
4) Polite ads: A technique by which a large ad will be downloaded into smaller pieces.
5) Wallpaper ads: An Ad which changes the background of the page.
6) Trick banner: An Ad that looks like a dialogue box with some buttons, it works by deceiving the user by showing him some kind of error message or like someone is calling him.
7) Pop-up: One of the most annoying one, a new window open in front of the current one displaying an ad.
8) Video ad: An Ad is displayed before the video or during the video is played.
9) Map ads: A piece of text or image which is linked to another site, is displayed over a location in an electronic map such as Google maps or Bing maps.
10) Mobile ads: An SMS sent to a mobile.
11) Superstitial or Flash ads: An animated Flash video or images on a web page similar to TV ads.
  
        OK, to block these ads you may follow the below methods/techniques.

NOTE: The below methods may not block all types of ads listed above.

Contents:

1) Internet Explorer.
2) Opera.
3) Chrome.
4) Firefox.
5) For all web browsers installed( hosts ).

1. Internet Explorer.

Blocking ads on Internet explorer is kind of a complex, but don't worry its not too much complicated.
It is complex because it has no easy to use and free plugins that make it easy to block ads.
      The only good known plugin for Internet explorer in Adblock pro , but it costs $19.95.
So lets move forward.But still it has 2 more plugins that work quit well.

IE7 PRO

             IE7 PRO is a plugin for Internet explorer that works also on 1E8, and 9.It adds a load of features to Internet explorer and one of them is ad blocking.You can download it from the official website, and also check its other features.After installing IE7 Pro you need to manually activate the adblocking feature, because it is disabled by default.Now I just want to give a warning that during the installation of IE7pro, a third party program prompts for its installation, so don't accidentally install it.

I personally don't recommend this, because it is complicated and not much good at blocking ads.

SIMPLE ADBLOCK

        Simple ad block is the second known plug-in for IE that does a little good job.As its name suggests that it is very simple to use , on the other hand there is not much users can do to block/unblock specific ads.
                       It requires only two inputs from the user.
You can download it from the official site.

2. Opera.

          Blocking ads on Opera is just as complicated as on Internet Explorer, or I should say that it was complicated because now after the release Opera 11 , more and more new plug-ins are being introduced for Opera that makes it more easy to block ads.

  Opera adblock

                                     is one such add-on that makes it very easy to block ads, and it is also very easy to install and use, all you need to do is to go to Opera add-on site and install it.Here you go.

It may be easy to block ads with it, but it ain't easy to unblock them.

To unblock ads follow the instructions:

1. Right click on the website, on which the ads are to be unblocked.
2. Click on Edit site preferences.
3. Move to Content tab.
4. If checked then Uncheck Enable content blocking.
5. You have to do it for every website, manually.

3. Google Chrome.

Blocking ads in Google chrome is very very easy, as easy as pie.All you need to do is just install a plugin and get started with it.The plugin, I'm talking about is called Adblock.

AdBlock

You can download it here for chrome.It is also available for Safari and Opera. Adblock is just easy to install and setup, and its even more easier to use as it requires nearly zero guidance from you.

   It has many other great features:

•  Users can manually block an ad that was missed by Adblock, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+K.
• Users can exclude websites from being blocked , by pressing Ctrl+Shift+L.

4. Firefox.

 Blocking ads in Firefox is easiest then from any other browsers . Firefox has the best of the best plugins in their collection, not only for adblocking but also for many other purposes.

To block ads on Firefox, you just need to use only one plugin.And the name of that plugin is Adblock plus.

AdBlock Plus

Download it here.After installing it on Firefox, Just click on the ad you want to block and its all done.

Unless you unblock the ad manually it will never show its face again.And a little red button will appear on a bar called Ad-on bar, you can manage AdBlock plus there.It will be easy to block/unblock ads with it.

5. For all Web-browsers installed(Win Hosts).

This is my favourite method of ad-blocking. Many people are unaware of this useful file. To understand this method, first you need to understand whats is hosts file and how it works?.The hosts file is a file used by many operating systems to map host names to IP addresses, it is an important file of an OS's Internet protocol.

Here is a preview of hosts file.

Here it is how it works?.The hosts file by default has no extension assigned to it.So you need to open it with Notepad or some other text processing software.The hosts file is loaded into the computer's memory at start up.Windows checks for the entries to web pages.The 127.0.0.1 is considered as your computer's address, so when an entry(listed in hosts) is requested from a browser your Windows thinks that 127.0.0.1 is the address of the entry and is located somewhere in your computer( actually it is not ).So the entry is skipped.The entry could be a website domain such as www.yahoo.com, or www. microsoft.com.By default no such domain is listed in it.
OK, to block ads you need to modify it.You can also block any undesired web pages with it.The procedure is as below.

Procedure:

1) Press Enter key and go to next line.

2) Type the address of your computer that is 127.0.0.1.
3) Give a space.
4) Enter the domain you want to block such as www.anywebsite.com . Or for an ad enter its domain like ad.doubleclick.net.
5) If the domain is not being blocked try it like this, first type it with 'www' and then without 'www'.
      127.0.0.1 www.msn.com
      127.0.0.1 msn.com
6) Close and save it.Restart your browser.

There are billions of ad server, so you need a well organised host file, MVPS hosts file is well known.All you need to do is to(1) download it, or you can use this a better version by Nightmare INC, download it here (2)extract the 'HOSTS' file, no need to look at other files.(3)Replace it with the original hosts file and you are done.Hey! I almost forgot to tell that where the hosts file is located.OK for Windows xp/vista/7 it is located at the address C:\WINDOWS\system 32\drivers\etc\hosts, as I told earlier that it has no extension so open it with notepad.
          For a detail of where the hosts file is located in different OSs see Wikipedia's page here.

It is also important to note that a hosts file is very Important part of on OS especially for security purposes, I mean a virus or worm may modify it.I hope you like it!.

     

  "Without ads, Internet won't be a sea of crap it is these days!"

Note: This article is only for educational purposes .Any mistake might end up in a bad behavior.Do it at your own risk.You, yourself will be responsible for any damage done.

If you like this article then please leave your comments!.