Showing posts with label tips and tricks. Show all posts

Monday, June 13, 2011

10 Amazing Torrent Sites

If you’re looking for high speed downloads, you might want to check out Usenet.

For your consideration

3. ThePirateBay (update: 25 Pirate Bay alternatives)

Alexa Rank: 427

4. Demonoid (private)

Alexa Rank: 470

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Online Social Networking - Advantages And Disadvantages

Do you remember a time when you spoke to a complete stranger and then through conversation came to know that you both knew a common person? At which time either of you would exclaim "Oh! It's a small world!".
Well I am sure you will agree with me when I say that today it is indeed a small world, thanks to social networking through the internet. Of course the internet itself had made the world a very small place a long time ago but at that time we were still connecting with other human beings through the telephone or meeting them in person. Once the online social networking bug bit us there was no looking back! Today I can connect with anyone who shares a common interest with me sitting on my chair, in the comfort of my home through the myriad of social networking websites that we have, Facebook,Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr etc.

Boon Factors

So let us see what are the "Wows!" of social networking.

Wows!

Excellent way to keep in touch with friends and family.You can also make friends with people halfway around the world without ever having to meet up for a cup of coffee or a drink!

Today almost all employers search for potential candidates through professional networking websites.They prefer it if you have an online profile so that they can go through it and get an insight into your past career, the type of connections you have, what your past co workers and managers have to say about you etc. For example, LinkedIn has a recommendation section where you can ask your past co workers or managers to recommend your work. A recruiter going through your profile would be interested in reading these recommendations to get a better notion as to how suitable you are for the job at hand.

Recently I read this article in a travel magazine about how this guy traveled through Miami, Florida using Twitter on his cellphone. Whenever he wanted some information on what to do, where to eat etc he would tweet and promptly get a reply from someone eating at that restaurant right at that moment! Now that's what you call receiving first hand information!

Travel has never been this easy, thanks to social networking. While you are making your itinerary you can visit any of the photo sharing sites like Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish etc to see what your place of visit would look like or just go to YouTube and see a video.

I would not restrict social networking to Facebook,Twitter or LinkedIn. What I am doing on HubPages is also a form of social networking. I am sharing my thoughts with everyone, people who read them are sharing their opinions through their comments, I am in turn also reading others' hubs and sharing my opinions with them.
This is almost like the food chain! I am just a small spider somewhere in the world wide web trying to share my thoughts with millions of other spiders elsewhere in the web. And at the same time I am trying to gain monetary benefits from all my networking activity.
=================================================================

Bane Reasons

But it's not all rosy out there. There are some ill effects.

Boos...

Some people take advantage of the anonymity the internet can provide and resort to writing about or uploading unnecessary content (for example pornography). But I am glad that websites like HubPages or YouTube keep the filth out. Else it would be a menace for people who are actually interested in sharing knowledge. And sites like Facebook have enough privacy settings to keep out the unwanted stuff.

How much you want to reveal about yourself on the internet is finally up to you and I would advise you to check the sanctity of any website before you go ahead and divulge all your details. Also you must be very careful about any photographs that you upload of yourself on the internet, I don't think I have to tell you about photo morphing.

Try not to be too vocal about what you don't like about your job, your boss or your colleagues on social networking sites. Certainly doesn't help you in any way! On the contrary it could land you in a lot of trouble.

Try to keep all wall posts, tweets, blogs, discussions more general with a view to share information with others only. On a public forum or website avoid making racist comments, jokes etc.

Online social networking is very popular among teenagers today and I have read about many criminal incidents which have occurred due to overexposed networking. We should avoid contacting strangers on websites like Facebook where most of us share a lot of intimate information between friends and family.

To sum it up, I would say that take advantage of all that online social networking has to offer but be careful while using it.

20 Ways for how to Get Followers on Twitter

Twitter is a really powerful tool for online social networking, promoting your online work and getting to know people in the web world around you. To maximize your use of Twitter, you want to gain followers on the site. The more people that you have following you there, the more likely it is that they will see what you’re doing and be interested in your work around the web. There are many different things that you can do to increase the number of people who follow you on Twitter. Here’s a look at the twenty things that you should do first to get more Twitter followers:

1. Use Twitter’s tools for finding and adding your existing contacts. If you follow them, they’ll likely follow you. Don’t stop there, however. Follow up with an email to each of those people letting them know why you really hope that they’ll follow you on Twitter. This follow-through increases the number of followers that you’ll get.

2. Make an announcement on your other social networking sites that you’d like to be followed on Twitter. Let your Facebook and MySpace friends know where they can find you to follow you on Twitter. Don’t just make this announcement once either; update your Facebook status with this info every two or three weeks to keep getting people’s attention back to your Twitter. You can also post to Facebook from Twitter and it will show up on Facebook that you did that so people will know that you’re using Twitter.

3. Add your Twitter information to your email signature. Every time that you email anyone, they’ll see that they can follow you on Twitter.

4. Blog about your use of Twitter. Mention regularly in your blog or on your website that you are a Twitter user and be sure to link to your Twitter contact information.

5. Add the Twitter widget to your website. In addition to mentioning your Twitter use yourself, you can actually show others what you’re Twittering by adding the Twitter widget to your site or blog. This encourages readers to check out your activities on Twitter and therefore to follow you.

6. List yourself in Twitter directories. Directories like JustTweetIt and WeFollow are great places to provide others with information about who you are and how to follow you on Twitter.

7. Improve your page. You can customize Twitter with a better background, avatar and bio info. The better your page looks, the more likely it is that people who see that page will want to follow you.

8. Be active on the site. The best way to get followers is to follow other people and then respond regularly to the things that they post. The more active that you are on Twitter, the more people are going to want to follow you.
9. Be interesting on the site. Don’t just be active without saying anything. Post things that are actually interesting so that people will be interested by you.

10. Offer to guest post on the sites of big Twitter users. Find Twitter users who have a lot of followers. Check out their blogs. Offer to guest post on the blog in exchange for promotion of the post on Twitter. This increases attention to you on Twitter and creates more followers.

11. Write articles around the web and promote them on Twitter. There are many sites that you can write articles on (HubPages being one of them) so write a few about Twitter and link to your profile. (Here’s my Twitter information!)

12. Participate in forums and blog comments about Twitter. The more that you’re talking about Twitter, the more that you’re going to get attention from other people online who are using Twitter and who may want to follow you on the site.

13. Request support from your Twitter followers. Once you’ve established a bit of a following, Tweet that you’re looking for more followers and would love people to let their Twitter followers know where to find you. Some just might help you out.

14. Create some sort of contest related to Twitter. Make up your own creative contest on your website or Facebook page that ultimately leads to benefits to someone else for supporting you on Twitter. For example, you might giveaway something to the friend who refers the most people to follow you on Twitter.

15. Make a Twitter Landing Page. This is a tip from Problogger that basically says to replace your website home page with a Twitter landing page which informs people about your use of Twitter so that they can follow you. Then they can check out your website.

16. Add your Twitter URL to your business cards. Make sure all printed promotional materials that you have include a link to your Twitter profile.

17. Follow people often. Follow new people every single day. They may follow you back. Follow everyone who follows you. Their followers may follow you back.

18. Join Twitter Groups. There are online groups that are all about Twitter and if you join them then you’ll meet people who use the site and who want to friend other users on the site.

19. Go to TweetUps. These are in-person meetups of Twitter users that are springing up all over the country. Meet people in person, put a face to the name and then you can follow each other on Twitter with some real impact.

20. Get creative. The main thing is to do all that you can to keep thinking of new ways to drive traffic to your Twitter account so that you gain followers. The more creative you get, the more likely it is that you’ll see success on the site.

How to Get Paid Online

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Every day, you hear or read someone, so and so, have made some amount of money on the internet. You would think, hmmm…. I use the internet day and night, surely I can be one of them and I will certainly welcome any extra income on top of my current job. With a little bit of extra effort, I might be able to quit my full time job and concentrate on making money online! Well, to me, it doesn’t work like that. No doubt you can make money online but it requires a lot of commitment just like normal full time jobs.

When it’s Too Good to be True

Yes, it probably is! There are no easy ways to make money. If you are paid 10 dollars an hour for your normal job, don’t expect to get the same amount of money just by doing a few mouse clicks or typing a few words. Each and every day, I never fail to receive emails about earning money from home. They always started out by telling successful stories of people earning thousands of dollars just by working from home.
The truth is, those successful faces can be found modelling in some other types of advertising too. Once you clicked on the link, you are either installing spywares onto your PC or you are directed to a site asking you to pay a certain amount of money to get you started in this lucrative scheme. Couple of weeks later, you realise that you are cheated. It might be faster than that.

BLOGGING

I blog occasionally. I used to blog just about everything from personal life to technology stuffs. But now, I am just concentrating in making it as my personal blog while I write articles and reviews in websites like Hubpages. When blogging, it is important to focus on one topic. For example, if it is a technology blog, write things about technology and so on.
So, how can you make money from blogging? There are lots of successful people earning money through blogging. Sadly, I am not one of them. Hey, please don’t stop here! I do earn some money through keywords blogging as well as advertisement such as adsense. There are numerous sites like PayPerPost, SocialSpark and Payu2Blog which pay you to blog. A blog post can earn you from one dollar to anything that the advertisers are willing to pay. All you have to do is to blog about the advertisers with some keywords provided.

PayPerPost

I used to earn some good money from PayPerPost. Each of the paid post has to have an unpaid post in between. In order to get a job, you have to login to the site and you will see a list of available jobs with the number of available spaces. Unfortunately, I was kicked out a couple of years ago because my blog didn’t have a PageRank. I am not bothered to join again now that I have PageRank 2.

SocialSpark

This is a PayPerPost’s sister company. It works the same way as PayPerPost but in a community way. You can have friends, post comments, like and things like that. Advertisers sometimes offer some good amount of money for a single post. It doesn’t judge a blog by its PageRank but of course, the higher PageRank you have, the more opportunities you get.

Payu2Blog

I have been a loyal member for at least three years now. The staffs at Payu2Blog will assign assignments, so you have to login frequently to check. A normal assignment has a pay-out of five dollars for 60 words including a keyword provided. Occasionally, there are special assignments which mean more money per blog post.

MARKETING

Google Adsense

The good thing about Google Adsense is that it is global. You can use it anywhere, in your blog or Hubpages. More importantly, you need to have good amount of traffic in order for Adsense to work for you. In order to get free traffic fast or advertise your blog, it is easier if you join Entrecard and Adgitize. Both of them require you to add their widgets in your blog.

Entrecard

Entrecard works on the basis of Entrecard Credit (EC). When you visit a blog or website with Entrecard widget in them, you can click on their widgets and you earn one EC per unique click per blog. The blog or website owners will then know that you have clicked their widgets and they are most likely to do the same. Accumulated EC can be used to advertise on Entrecard blogs or websites that have Entrecard widgets on them.

Adgitize

This advertising site requires you to pay to generate some traffic to your website. However, you get to earn back your money if you are active Adgitizing. I used to pay $15 for a month of advertising and at the end of the month; Adgitize would send me some money based on my activities. Normally, I would get a little more than the $15 that I paid.
Join Adgitize.

SURVEY

Surveys can be fun and you couldn’t ask for more when you are paid to do survey. I have joined dozens of survey sites and most of them just don’t work for me. I am not saying that other survey websites are not good to join. It’s just that they do not have that many opportunities like the ones that I am about to list below.

ValuedOpinions

ValuedOpinions is one of the few survey panels that I would recommend. Each survey can go as low as 10 pence to any amount depending on the requirement as well as the time it will take to complete the survey. The highest amount of remuneration that I got for one survey is £4 while the highest amount that I have ever seen was £6. When your total amount hits £10, you are entitled to request vouchers for use in Tesco, Amazon, Topshop, Burton and many more.
Join ValuedOpinions.

IPSOS Panel

IPSOS Panel works on point’s basis. As usual, the longer the survey, the more points you get. You need to get at least 1400 points for you to be able to request for vouchers range from Leisure vouchers and Amazon as well as charity organisations.
Join IPSOS Panel.

MySurvey

MySurvey is another point base survey site. It used to be called LightSpeedPanel which was inactive for quite some time. MySurvey is the new name and you can claim a £3 PayPal for as low as 400 points. Needless to say, the more points you have, the more options you get.
Join MySurvey.

Finally…
There are many others ways to earn money online but it all down to the time that you have in a day. I am more inclined to focus on several main paying websites before moving on to find other similar websites. The pennies and pounds may not seem much but it’s nice to have some vouchers once a while to pay for groceries or gadgets or accessories that I fancy.

10 Golden Rules to Having Success with the Ladies

1. Confidence is key. Without confidence, you're doomed to fail at attracting women. If you don't have confidence in yourself, then fake it for a bit. After a while, you'll find that faking it won't be necessary anymore. Have faith in yourself, that's what confidence mean. Take time making decisions. Rash, impulsive decision making is seldom the right thing. Believe in yourself and your decisions. Stick by your guns.

2. Good looks are definitely helpful, but they aren't everything when it comes to seducing a woman. Men are visually-oriented creatures; they tend to be attracted to features like a nice body or a pretty face. Women, on the other hand, are stimulated more by words and actions. They're attracted to men who seem confident, strong, and independent. This is why rule #1 is so important.

3. Keep Fresh. Do your best to smell nice. Shower, wear deodorant, and make sure your clothes are clean. You might even want to try wearing TAG or AXE body spray. You won't get any girls if you smell like a gym sock (unless you're meeting women at the gym, in which case she'll probably be smelling like sweat too). Keep your breath smelling fresh. A lot of people have bad breath without even realizing it. Brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss, and keep a pack of breath mints in your pocket and pop one every few hours or after eating a meal.

4. Addendum to #3: Stay new. Get new clothes. Spend on yourself every now and then (see #9). Look different, often. Hair style, clothes and cologne can be easily changed. STAY FIT. Work out and get some hobbies. Keep your look up to date. Forget tattoos, piercing and looking metrosexual. Don't go drastic and give yourself and identity crisis, you are you, don't change that, just keep fit and look good.

Even if you are in a long-term gig, up keep yourself. I know first had, it is easy to get comfortable and let go in a relationship. That's why there are countless married, 40-something slobs out there. Don't be one of them.

5. Always seem to be less interested in her than she is in you. If a woman has even a vague interest in you, acting indifferent towards her will cause her to want you even more badly. Conversely, if you act like she's the center of your universe, she'll quickly lose interest in you.

6. Spend money, but not all of it on her. Buy drinks for yourself, your friends, and (occasionally) her. Being a big spender makes you more attractive to a woman, but if you spend all your money on her, you'll set yourself up to be a mark. Make sure to spend our yourself every now and then, especially if you saved money and feel like you earned it. Go ahead, you deserve it. Just don't get carried away and focus too much on material goods. They won't make you happy anyway.

7. Allow yourself to be seen with a woman at your side as much as possible. When women see you in the company of another woman, their natural competitiveness kicks in and they'll look at you differently than if you were alone. It lets them know that you're "dateable", and sometimes even causes them to think "What's he doing with her? I'm much better looking than she is!"

8. Side with her against others. If she starts talking about somebody she doesn't like, agree with her criticisms even if you've never met the individual she is verbally attacking.

9. Never pretend that you like something just because she likes it. If she likes American Idol and you can't stand it, don't conceal the fact that you think it's a stupid show. Sycophantic "yes men" are among the most useless people on the planet. You can watch it with her, every now and then, just as a reaffirmation as to why you think the show blows. But remember, your doing it because you are "open-minded". (*Note: That modem "catch-phrase" that people use to identify themselves is quite laughable. First of all, everyone thinks and processes information, thus no one is closed minded or they would be in a grave. Second, most people heard calling themselves open-minded, are often the largest products of current social conditions and are usually just band wagon jumpers. Vittorio Alfieri said, It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Ok enough of that, back to the topic at hand.)

10. If you see an attractive woman that you'd like to talk to, don't think about it, JUST DO IT! Thinking about what to say will cause doubt and insecurity to creep in, which are two things that you absolutely do not need. Just walk up to her and start talking. I saw a web site that referred to this as "The 3 Second Rule", meaning that you should always act in 3 seconds or less, even if you don't know what to say. Hesitation equals failure.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

14 Basic Skills All Men Should Possess

In today’s modern world there are many things we take for granted, many things our fathers would have known how to do, and some others that might baffle them. Additionally, on average, Americans and European men are starting to get married older, meaning that there is now a need to be self-sufficient in things long-considered to be within the realm of the woman. Whether you’re out camping, or at home or work, there are some basic skills a man must possess. The following are fourteen of examples of these skills – if you don’t know them, you should learn them, or you may be caught unaware sooner than you think. If you can think of others, please leave them in the comments below.

Drive a Stick-Shift

Source

It’s a sad thought that more men, every day, are coming of age with absolutely no experience driving a stick-shift. To really add insult to injury, there are more men running around who don’t know how to drive a car period, but they’re beyond help if they’re that far gone. Driving stick is not a difficult thing to learn, and you don’t need to own a manual-transmission vehicle to acquire this skill. Have a friend teach you, hell, rent a car if you have to, it only takes a couple of hours to get the hang of it. At some point, just about everyone comes across a situation when they need to drive someone else’s car, and there’s a pretty decent chance that car will be stick. You’ll want at least a vague familiarity with it.

Hook up an Entertainment Center

Source
There is absolutely NO excuse for this one. It’s now 2009, TV’s with wires coming out the back of them haven’t been new or fangled for 20 years. The wires are color-coded, and even labelled with handy names like “input” and “output.” Here’s a hint, if something outputs, there’s an input somewhere waiting for it. With HDTV’s on the rise now, it’s even easier with HDMI plugs, since there’s only one cable. Your grandfather may get away with having the Geek Squad come out to the house to install his new TV, but you need to man up and handle your own business.

Fix a Toilet

Source
Everyone has a toilet, most houses even have more than one. They’re not new and they’re not that scary inside, either, yet somehow this all goes out the window the moment that flush handle stops making noises. Odds are, if you take the lid off the back of the toilet and peek in there, you’re going to immediately see what’s wrong. It’s not a complicated assembly, and if you really can’t figure out how the flapper works, the guy at Home Depot will be happy to take one and half minutes to explain it to you.

Navigate a Map and Use GPS

Source
There should never be any instance when a man is handed a map and says “I don’t know what I’m looking at here.” It may sound silly to some, but it happens every day. The culprit is usually the same guy who can’t drive. Roadmaps aren’t exactly of the difficulty level the Goonies had to deal with; they have clearly marked labels and landmarks, just like the road you’re on. The same goes for ditching the map and using a GPS device, which are built to be easy enough to operate one-handed and without looking. That’s their purpose, so you shouldn’t have a problem learning how to use one.

Change the Oil

Source
Granted, in a decade or so cars that even have oil to change will be much less common, but right now they’re the run of the mill and have been since your grandparents were toddlers. Every man should be able to, if needed, change the oil in his car, as well as swap the spark plugs and the air filter. These three things make up the bare minimum maintenance-skills trifecta for car-owners. The only exception to this rule would be if you grew up filthy rich, and only drove cars that required special garage tools and special knowledge and calibration. That’s probably not you.

Balance a Checkbook

Source
A man needs to be able to manage his money. That’s just a simple fact of life, a part of growing up, and a major factor in whether or not he spends his life alone and miserable. Now, while it’s true that money isn’t everything, it definitely matters quite a bit. A woman isn’t necessarily shallow if she doesn’t want to spend her life with a guy who can’t keep his bank account from over-drafting, she’s just got good sense.

Cook the Perfect Steak

Source
A timeless symbol of manhood, cooking the perfect steak is a long sought-after goal for any man who’s ever touched a grill. It’s just one of those things we all have to strive for in life. On top of that, it’s a great way to garner respect around the neighborhood, and it’s sure to get you a reputation as a good cook regardless of any actual cooking skills. The last thing you want is for your own wife or girlfriend to ask that you let your friend man the grill on the 4th of July. It should always be you.

Swim the Breaststroke

Source
The need to be able to swim is one of basic survival. If you fall into a body of water, you need to be able to get back out, otherwise you’re a danger to yourself and others. You don’t need to be an Olympic-style swimmer, but you should at the very least be able to pull off a breaststroke if your life depended on it, and it might, you really never know. If the whole impending doom thing doesn’t sway you, then the fact that you look lame dog-paddling across the lake might.

Write Effectively

Source
Unless you plan on spending your entire life working construction, and not as the foreman, you’re going to have to write more than one paragraph at some point. When that time comes, you need to be able to string something together that’s both coherent, and correct. That means spelling, grammar, and proper punctuation, all things taught throughout high school. If, like most young men, you weren’t paying any attention during high school and now can’t write a paper to save your life, there are plenty of resources available on the Internet; take some time and rectify your mistakes before it’s too late.

Dress for the Occasion

Source
Jeans and a T-shirt are great, every guy needs to be comfortable, and nobody would fault a guy for wearing his favorite jeans to the store. That’s a far cry from going to a job interview, a wedding, or to a yacht party dressed like this. A man needs to have a presence and that means not looking like a drowned rat in unwashed clothes. You need to be able to dress yourself, and women will attest to this. It may be a little more expensive than the thrift store, but the payoff is ten-fold. If you lack fashion sense, and many men do, take a woman with you. There is no better shopping partner than a fashion-conscious woman.

Sew a Button

Source
Yes, you can run around asking every woman in sight if she can help you fix your broken button, but you’re going to look like a jerk. It’s pretty easy to fix a rogue button if you can get ahold of a needle and thread. All you need to do is thread the needle, and then start looping it through the button holes and fabric. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to keep the button on your clothes until you can replace them or find someone to do a professional job (like your mother). The last thing you want to do is to just walk around missing a button, that just looks ridiculous.

Do Laundry Properly

Source
Many men get away without the most rudimentary of laundry skills, but they’re the guys who only own one pair of Levi’s and three black T-shirts. Socks and underwear are always optional to these gentlemen and they live the perennial single life. A man needs to be able to take care of his clothes, and that includes sorting them to allow for color-bleed as well as fabric types. The dryer can also be a deal breaker- even when washing correctly, and you don’t want to end up with a shirt that fits a 10 year old. Learning this skill is actually a pretty involved, drawn-out process, but with enough trips to the laundromat, and enough stupid questions annoying the women that happen to be there, you can learn how to handle your clothes like a fashion expert- and maybe even get a date while you’re at it.

Handle Roadside Emergencies

Source
If you’re going to be out on the road, then you need to be able to handle a flat tire or jump a battery. Not knowing these two simple things can be just as bad as walking into the desert with no water. It’s also important that you be able to stop to help others who are stranded on the side of the road when they don’t know how to change their flat tire.

Build a Fire

Source
Much like swimming, this is a basic survival skill that mankind developed long ago. There is always the off-chance that you may need to spontaneously build a fire, and you should have at least some inkling of how to go about doing it if the need ever arises. You don’t need to become an expert fire-starter, but you should at the very least be aware of the various methods that exist. There is no shame in taking the easy way out; always having a lighter, or a book or box of matches on hand. Weatherproof matches in your glovebox are always a good idea, and flint-strikers are cheap and non-combustible alternatives as well. Man discovered fire, don’t be the guy who never learned how to use it.

How to stop your Gmail account being hacked

As has been widely reported, high profile users of Gmail – including US government officials, reporters and political activists – have had their email accounts hacked.
This wasn’t a sophisticated attack against Google’s systems, but rather a cleverly-crafted HTML email which pointed to a Gmail phishing page.

Victims would believe that they had been sent an attachment, click on the link, and be greeted by what appeared to be Gmail’s login screen. Before you knew it, your Gmail username and password could be in the hands of unauthorised parties.

So, what steps should you take to reduce the chances of your Gmail account being hacked?

1. Set up Two step verification

The hackers who broke into high profile Gmail accounts grabbed usernames and passwords. So, an obvious thing to do would be to make Gmail require an extra piece of information before allowing anybody to access your account.

Google provides a facility called “two step verification” to Gmail users, which provides that extra layer of security. It requires you to be able to access your mobile phone when you sign into your email account – as they will be sending you a magic “verification” number via SMS.
The advantage of this approach – which is similar to that done by many online banks – is that even if cybercriminals manage to steal your username and password, they won’t know what your magic number is because they don’t have your phone.
Google has made two step verification easy to set up.

Once you’re set up, the next time you try to log into Gmail you’ll be asked for your magic number after entering your username and password. Your mobile phone should receive an SMS text message from Google containing your verification number.
Mobile phone receives verification number

Mobile phone receives verification number

Let’s just hope the bad guys don’t have access to your mobile phone too..
Here’s a video from Google where they explain two step verification in greater detail:

You can also learn more about two step verification on Google’s website.

By the way, note that two step verification doesn’t mean that your Gmail can’tever be snooped on by remote hackers. They could, for instance, install spyware onto your computer which could monitor everything that appears on your screen. But it’s certainly a good additional level of security for your Gmail account, and one which will make life much more difficult for any cybercriminal who might be targeting you.

2. Check if your Gmail messages are being forwarded without your permission

Gmail gives you the ability to forward your emails to another email address. There are situations where this might be handy, of course, but it can also be used by hackers to secretly read the messages you receive.
Go into your Gmail account settings, and select the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.
If your emails are being forwarded to another address, then you will see something like the following:
Gmail forwarding

That’s fine if you authorised for your emails to be forwarded to that email address, but a bad thing if you didn’t.
If your messages are not being forwarded you will see a screen more like this:
Gmail forwarding

Hackers want to break into your account not just to see what email you’ve received up until their break-in. Ideally, they would like to have ongoing access to your email, even if you change your password or enable two step verification. That’s why it’s so important to check that no-one has sneakily asked for all of your email to be forwarded to them.

3. Where is your Gmail account being accessed from?

At the bottom of each webpage on Gmail, you’ll see some small print which describes your last account activity. This is available to help you spy if someone has been accessing your account at unusual times of day (for instance, when you haven’t been using your computer) or from a different location.

Clicking on the “Details” option will take you to a webpage describing the type of access and the IP address of the computer which logged your email account. Although some of this data may appear nerdy, it can be a helpful heads-up – especially if you spot a computer from another country has been accessing your email.
IP addresses of computers accessing Gmail account

IP addresses of computers accessing Gmail account

4. Choose a unique, hard-to-crack password

As we’ve explained before, you should never use the same username and password on multiple websites. It’s like having a skeleton key which opens every door – if they grab your password in one place they can try it in many other places.
Also, you should ensure that your password is not a dictionary word, and is suitably complex that it’s hard to break with a dictionary attack.
Here’s a video which explains how to choose a strong password, which is easy to remember but still hard to crack:

(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)
Don’t delay, be sensible and make your passwords more secure today
And once you’ve chosen a safer password – keep it safe! That means, don’t share it with anyone else and be very careful that you’re typing it into the realGmail login screen, not a phishing site.

5. Secure your computer

It should go without saying, but this list would be unfinished without it. You need to properly secure your computer with up-to-date anti-virus software, security patches and so forth. If you don’t, you’re risking hackers planting malicious code on your computer which could spy upon you and, of course, your email.
You always want to be certain that your computer is in a decent state of health before you log into a sensitive online account, such as your email or bank account. That’s one of the reasons why I would always be very nervous about using a computer in a cybercafe or hotel lobby. You simply don’t know what state the computer is in, and who might have been using it before.

6. Why are you using Gmail anyway?

Okay, I don’t really mean that. But I do mean, why are you storing sensitiveinformation in your Gmail account?
The news headlines claim that senior US political and military officials were being targeted by the hackers. Surely if they had confidential or sensitive data they shouldn’t have that in their webmail account? Shouldn’t that be on secure government and military systems instead?
Always think about the data you might be putting on your web email account – because if it’s only protected by a username and password that may actually be less security than your regular work email system provides.

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