Tag Archives: information
What is Adware?
The word Adware is short for Advertising-Supported Software. This term describes any software which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer, after the software has been installed on it.
It is usually included with other software which one can download from the Internet – especially software that you can download for “free”. The price you pay is having the adware installed on your computer. When you run the program that you downloaded for “free” from the Internet, it will usually automatically cause adds to pop up on your screen thereafter.
Adware software is integrated into, or combined with, another program. The person or company who is making the free program available is usually paid for including adware in his program. This is one of the ways that some programmers make a living or cover the cost of writing “free” programs.
Sometimes Adware takes the form of spyware, keeping track of what you do on your computer, and which pages you visit on the web. This information is automatically sent over the Internet to the company which runs the adware. The data is then used in order to target you with specific advertisements, or is sometimes resold to other companies. This is can be done entirely without your knowledge. Should you, however, complain about this, you would most likely be referred to some fine print in the license agreement which you accepted when you installed the “free” program.
Some Adware can interfere with the functions of other programs running on your computer, in order to force you to visit a particular web site. If you find yourself being automatically sent to a certain website, you can be fairly certain that you have some form of adware running on your computer.
These days it can be hard to separate out “Adware” from “Spyware” and “Malware;” especially since many programs might do all of these things at the same time. For example, if you install “adware” knowingly or unknowingly on a computer, and agree to a tracking feature, the “adware” becomes “spyware” as it is now also keeping track of what you do and sending the information somewhere. If someone else visits or contacts your computer, this will also be recorded and his information is then passed on as well.
Some Adware is not classified as Spyware because, somewhere in the user agreement it says that “third-party software will be included that may collect and may report on computer use.” As the company has included this statement in the “Terms of Use,” it is now no longer Spyware but simply Adware, as they are not “secretly” collecting and tracking your information.
But really… how many people actually fully read the Terms of Use?
Another circumstance to take into account is the case when there are more than one person using the computer. In the case of a family computer, your kids might download a simple “free game,” and unaware of all the facts, automatically agree to have Adware installed. All you see is the kids playing a new game. You might even be happy as it didn’t cost you dime this time. However the “free game” is most likely not all that was downloaded.
A few names of well-known Adware programs are as follows:
- 180 Solutions
- 180SearchAssistant
- Zango
- Bonzi Buddy
- BlockChecker
- ClipGenie
- Comet Cursor
- Cydoor
- Direct Revenue
- Ebates MoneyMaker
- ErrorSafe
- Gator
- Hotbar
- Mirar Toolbar
- Smiley Central
- WeatherBug
This list is by no means complete and serves only to give some examples. There are also programs that detect and remove adware. These programs are designed specifically to detect spyware and adware. They and will not detect or remove viruses. Some of these products are available for free on the Internet. Anti-Adware or Anti-Spyware programs are not Antivirus programs. This is a different subject entirely. A virus is a malicious program which is spread from one computer to the other. It harms your computer, erases your data, keeps your system from running correctly, or does other damage.
A virus can also spy on you like spyware does – for example, by recording your credit card information and sending the data to someone else by email. But the terms adware or spyware usually refer to software which does only that spies on you, sends you advertisements, and steals your data; with or without your consent. Most Anti-virus programs also detect Adware and Spyware. But if you are very active online it is a good idea to have several different anti-adware and anti-spyware programs installed. Different programs detect different types of spyware and adware. By scanning your computer with more than one program, you can do a more thorough clean-up.
MDF corruption and its recovery
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database which stores and retrieves data as per the need of other software applications. This software allows the access of various application programs either running on the same computer or on another across the same network. It is relational webhosting database which stores website information like blog posts or user information. It is one of the most popular databases on Windows servers and is highly suitable for several business purposes.
MS SQL stores all the data and information in MDF file format which holds the relevant data of user information and website details. These files contain all important data of any organization and perform various critical operations. It becomes very disgusting if these MDF files get corrupted or damaged somehow. As every software has the tendency to get corrupted or damaged, these MDF files never let any assurance not to corrupt. In the case of SQL corruption, the users need not to be worried as there are such tools available which can perform MS SQL recovery very efficiently.
There are various predictable and unpredictable causes that affect the MS SQL database and make the MDF files corrupted resulting in a situation of data loss. The reasons that cause SQL damage are summarized below:
1.Corrupted/deleted LDF log file
2.I/O errors
3.Corruption in the MDF file of SQL database Server
4.SQL Database in “suspected” mode
5.Deletion of items (like tables, system objects, records etc)
6.Virus attack or power failure
7.Bad sector in storage media
8.Maximization of the storage space of SQL database
When there is a corruption in the MDF files, users face numerous errors while opening the database. Some common error messages are easily encountered when a corrupted/ damaged MS SQL file is opened. Some errors can appear prompting on your screen. Some of these are:
1.Server can’t find the requested database table
2.The process could not execute ‘sp_replcmds’ on server
3.The file *.mdf is missing and needs to restore
4.Internal error. buffer provided to read column value is too small
5.Table Corrupt
6.File: , line=466 Failed Assertion = ‘0’
7.Table error: Object ID 0, index ID 0, and page ID (1:105). The PageId in the page header = (0:0)
8.Conflict occurred in databasedb_name, table ‘table_name’, column ‘column_name’
Once your MS SQL database corrupts, you need to search an effective software utility that can recover the MDF files and retrieve data from the corrupt/ damaged database. The MS SQL recovery software should be capable of recovering all lost/ damaged tables, triggers, stored procedures, data structures like primary keys, indices, unique keys, foreign keys, predefined defaults and other user data types. Further, the repair tool must possess some powerful algorithms which maintain the data integrity and never change the original format of the data.
What is Adware?
The word Adware is short for Advertising-Supported Software. This term describes any software which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer, after the software has been installed on it.
It is usually included with other software which one can download from the Internet – especially software that you can download for “free”. The price you pay is having the adware installed on your computer. When you run the program that you downloaded for “free” from the Internet, it will usually automatically cause adds to pop up on your screen thereafter.
Adware software is integrated into, or combined with, another program. The person or company who is making the free program available is usually paid for including adware in his program. This is one of the ways that some programmers make a living or cover the cost of writing “free” programs.
Sometimes Adware takes the form of spyware, keeping track of what you do on your computer, and which pages you visit on the web. This information is automatically sent over the Internet to the company which runs the adware. The data is then used in order to target you with specific advertisements, or is sometimes resold to other companies. This is can be done entirely without your knowledge. Should you, however, complain about this, you would most likely be referred to some fine print in the license agreement which you accepted when you installed the “free” program.
Some Adware can interfere with the functions of other programs running on your computer, in order to force you to visit a particular web site. If you find yourself being automatically sent to a certain website, you can be fairly certain that you have some form of adware running on your computer.
These days it can be hard to separate out “Adware” from “Spyware” and “Malware;” especially since many programs might do all of these things at the same time. For example, if you install “adware” knowingly or unknowingly on a computer, and agree to a tracking feature, the “adware” becomes “spyware” as it is now also keeping track of what you do and sending the information somewhere. If someone else visits or contacts your computer, this will also be recorded and his information is then passed on as well.
Some Adware is not classified as Spyware because, somewhere in the user agreement it says that “third-party software will be included that may collect and may report on computer use.” As the company has included this statement in the “Terms of Use,” it is now no longer Spyware but simply Adware, as they are not “secretly” collecting and tracking your information.
But really… how many people actually fully read the Terms of Use?
Another circumstance to take into account is the case when there are more than one person using the computer. In the case of a family computer, your kids might download a simple “free game,” and unaware of all the facts, automatically agree to have Adware installed. All you see is the kids playing a new game. You might even be happy as it didn’t cost you dime this time. However the “free game” is most likely not all that was downloaded.
A few names of well-known Adware programs are as follows:
- 180 Solutions
- 180SearchAssistant
- Zango
- Bonzi Buddy
- BlockChecker
- ClipGenie
- Comet Cursor
- Cydoor
- Direct Revenue
- Ebates MoneyMaker
- ErrorSafe
- Gator
- Hotbar
- Mirar Toolbar
- Smiley Central
- WeatherBug
This list is by no means complete and serves only to give some examples. There are also programs that detect and remove adware. These programs are designed specifically to detect spyware and adware. They and will not detect or remove viruses. Some of these products are available for free on the Internet. Anti-Adware or Anti-Spyware programs are not Antivirus programs. This is a different subject entirely. A virus is a malicious program which is spread from one computer to the other. It harms your computer, erases your data, keeps your system from running correctly, or does other damage.
A virus can also spy on you like spyware does – for example, by recording your credit card information and sending the data to someone else by email. But the terms adware or spyware usually refer to software which does only that spies on you, sends you advertisements, and steals your data; with or without your consent. Most Anti-virus programs also detect Adware and Spyware. But if you are very active online it is a good idea to have several different anti-adware and anti-spyware programs installed. Different programs detect different types of spyware and adware. By scanning your computer with more than one program, you can do a more thorough clean-up.