How to Track Your Internet Bandwidth Usage in Android, iPhone & PC

Did you ever try to track your Internet bandwidth usage? Yes, i am talking about the 3G, 2G network traffic which is being consumed in your mobile phones and computers. Technically, this term is calledcounting network traffic. Read more to know about network trafficand learn how to track it. You might have always thought of these kinds of services where they can track your network traffic and keep you in the limit of a broadband connection usage. This problem is more seen in people who use a limited Internet connection plan. We always search on how to track the data which has been consumed so far? We usually have a limited Internet pack in 3G dongles, 2G Dongles, Mobile Internet and few other Home based Internet providers. Mostly, people prefer a unlimited Internet plan to get more benefits in downloading the data. But 90% of us don’t know a simple fact that even a unlimited broadband plan will have a download limit. ISP’s like BEAM, TATA, Airtel, Reliance or any other will follow these same strategies to fill their pockets.

For example, BEAM cable provides 10MBS Plan for just Rs 1000/- and say it’s an Unlimited Internet connection plan. Did you ever ask them that, is this 10MBPS bandwidth limited to a particular data range? If not, their answer would be yes. As BEAM degrades the 10MBPS speed to 2MBPS after 30GB of data download. Not only BEAM, even Tata and other ISP’s follow the same strategy. So, now you might be thinking, how do i know the amount of data I am spending every day. And how much more is still left to utilize? To answer your queries, we are writing this article on how to track your consumed broadband usage. At the end of the article, you can perfectly know the amount of data consumed in your Internet broadband plans..

You might be observed many times that, Even though you are not using the Internet connection in your mobile or on PC, you will continuously see a increase in broadband usage and end up with data download limit very fast. The main reasons for this is, many applications in your Windows, Mac and Phone use a backend process to download the data from Internet and update automatically. This can be observed more in mobile phones. Reason is Smartphone’s use a lot of bandwidth to connect to social networking sites and download the data to your phone. They automatically link your profile to Facebook, Twitter and other apps once connected. So you will obviously see a drop in download limit and consume more internet bandwidth. To avoid these types of unwanted processes, we will use some applications in our article. These applications will solve your problems of using more bandwidth and alert with alarms at regular intervals.

How to Track your Internet data download limit in Mobile Android Phones:

If you are using an Android mobile, you should know about Onava Count App. No matter the phone is connected via 3G or 2G network, it can still monitor all the amount of data used so far. You can also see the Data Alert and Warning messages on the screen all the time. With this, you can see the amount of data spent on each session. If you feel any app is running in background and using a lot of unwanted bandwidth, you can just block it with Data hog blocking option. There are a lot of amazing options which will track your each and every step in a session. You can download Onava Count Application from Google Play for free of cost.

You can also find these same features in Mobile Counter App. This free app will track your data from any GSM, CDMA, Wifi networks. You can also know the number of applications running on home screen. You can track the amount of data being spent on these apps and limit them to your wish. You can download this application in Google Play for free.

How to Track your Internet data download limit in iPhone: 

If you are using a iPhone, there is no need to install any additional options. iPhone has a inbuilt option to track your mobile network data usage. This feature in iPhone is called Cellular Network Data Counter. You can change the settings to enable this feature.  Just go to Settings -> General -> Usage and Enable the Cellular Usage. With this, you can know the amount of data sent and received up to date. And if you are looking for a separate iPhone application with this feature, just go to iTunes and search for Data Usage Monitor or Click here. This free application will alert you when your plan limit is about to end. You can also know the area of location through which your network is accessed.

How to Track your Internet data download limit in a PC: 

If you are using a windows PC, then tracking your broadband connection is very simple. You an use a small application called, Networx. This application can also be used to track many computer’s data records within a single connection. For example, you will see Internet cafe’s with many systems, but the broadband connection of that network will be a  single connection. Also, you can track your data in form of tables, according to a day, week, month. You can check the records in form of graphs. You can also track the net speed time to time. Networx has a ability to find suspicious network activities. If there is any possibility of getting into a wrong network connection, Networx will warn you to be alert. Visit the Networx official site to download the application (look at the bottom left side panel of the site to download the application).

BitMeter OS is another similar application like Networx. This application was designed by Open Source community. The best part of this application is, you can find the broadband limit and data network usage in any browser window. Also you can import the data into a Microsoft Excel file and keep it as a record. You can also use this application in both Linux and MAC Operating systems. Just go through the Official site for more info and Click here to Download BitMeter OS.

How to Track your Internet data download limit in a Mac:

No need to worry if you are a Mac user. We got solutions for all platforms now. If you want to track your network data in a Mac, you need to install a application called, Surplus Meter.

Also there is another software for Mac to keep a track on your network data, its called the Menu Meters. Menu Meters will not only track your network data, but also can track your CPU usage, Disk memory usage, You can put a custom time to show the data download report when ever you use the Internet connection.

These were the most useful application and software’s to track your network data. Also we are giving few important tips on how to save your Internet data bandwidth and to avoid unwanted consumption of limited broadband network data.

Few Important Tips to Save Your Network Data Consumption:

1) Usually when you are on a video chat on 3G network, it costs 100MB to 300MB for 30minutes. So keep an eye on it when you have a limited internet connection. Its lot better to use a WI-Fi connectivity for this kind of data burning activities.

2) And if you are using YouTube to watch videos in live streaming, it costs 200MB bandwidth for a 1 hour video. It may also increase to 300MB, if the video is a high resolution one. So avoid more live streaming of videos. Especially when your connection is a limited one. If you are streaming live videos, make sure the resolution is set to low. You can find this option in the YouTube control bar while playing the video.

3) If you have a Tablet or iPad, then switch off your data services when you are not using them. Else you can also change the network from 3G to 2G if you are not active on the Tablet.

4) If you are using weather report apps, or automatic email sync apps, then data might be burnt very fast. So make sure you don’t install much of these apps. Most of install same type of applications for more than one time. Just the name differs, but all the features and options will be the same. So just install one app of its category.

5) Coming to PC, If you are playing a online video game in Internet, know the fact that it burns 100MB of data for just 1 hour.

6) Avoid using HD movies when watching a live match or a old film. If you are watching them in normal resolution, the data usage will be reduced to 55%.

7) Keep your Windows notifications off. Because, Windows will keep updating your PC for each and every second you use your PC. So just change the Automatic Updates to off.

8) Don’t open multiple tabs of similar pages in a browser. Most of open Facebook in 10 different tabs and check 10 different pages or groups or notifications. By doing this, you are burning the network data 10times faster than a normal use.

These are the most important tips to save your bandwidth and avoid unwanted networking data usage. If you have any queries or issues, please drop us a line. We would surely respond in an hour.

DNS Changer Malware May Shutdown Internet – Check and Fix It!

Come this Monday (9th July 2012), about quarter of a million Internet users could find themselves in trouble. The DNS changer malware could completely cut them off from the internet. Around 8 months ago, the FBI busted an Estonian cyber crime ring that planted malware in computers everywhere that would redirect users to pay per click websites filled with online ads and more security threats. The hackers could control infected computers and were used as part of a botnet to spread malware. This whole operation resulted in total earnings of almost 14 million USD for the hackers. After the 6 individuals responsible for the attack were taken into custody, several DNS servers were set up in place of the rogue DNS servers so that infected computers could still use the internet normally. On July 9 at around 0400 hours GMT, these servers expire and infected computers will lose internet access. This was done so that networks gained time to identify infected computers.

To counter this, you have to check if your computer has been infected and get rid of the virus. Your computer might be infected and you’d never know. If the proper measures are not taken, you might just be cut off from the internet and have to contact your ISP to get everything up and running again. So here’s what you need to do:

Step 1. Update your security software and run a complete scan. If you don’t have one, get one ASAP.
Step 2. Go to any one of these sites and check if your computer is affected:
www.dns-ok.uswww.dns-ok.fiwww.dns-ok.ax
www.dns-ok.ca
www.dns-ok.lu
dns-ok.gov.au
dns-changer-eu
dnschanger.detect.my
Step 3. If your computer is not affected, you can breath a sigh of relief, there’s nothing else you have to do. However, if unfortunately it is affected, visit any one of these sites to remove the DNS Changer malware:
Hitman Pro
Kaspersky Labs TDSSKiller
McAfee Stinger
Microsoft Windows Defender Offline
Microsoft Safety Scanner
Norton Power Eraser
Trend Micro Housecall
MacScan
Avira Repair Tool

The DNS changer malware has many other functions apart from redirecting users to fake websites. It could also log keystrokes and steal passwords. So it might be a good idea to change any saved passwords in browsers and bank accounts. If you notice any transactions made that you don’t remember, please change passwords and related information as soon as possible.

Alternately, if you computer was detected as carrying the DNS Changer malware and you’d rather fix it yourself, please visit the following websites according to your operating system:

Windows XP

Windows 7

Mac OS X

Keep in mind that the manual removal will require a bit of technical knowledge and it is recommended to use any one of the tools mentioned above. For more information and press releases about this malware, visit this website. It is the official website of DCWG, the DNS Changer Working Group, a consortium created to counter this threat and includes software manufacturers, government agencies and groups from universities as well. Kindly check for the malware on your computer as soon as possible and stay alert, stay safe!

Top 5 Browsers with Maximum Security and Safety

Can you imagine a day without the Internet? We depend a lot on Internet for every simple thing. May it be buying something, or talking to friends. We are quite addicted to it. And no matter what ever you wanted to browse in Internet, you should  have a browser. We all forget a basic point of using a good browser to keep our browsing experience fast, flexible and simple. The most important part we all expect from any browser is its security and privacy. You should give more importance to a browser, which will promise you a safe and secure browsing. There are many good browsers like Maxthon, Mozilla, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Etc. Each of these browsers has got their own features, addons and extensions. Apart from this good benefits, we need to also face the some issues like, most of the browsers crash often. Solution to that, we have already written about the Top 5 Browsers which never crash.

The first thing you have to look in any browser is, whether the browser is ensuring enough security to your computer or not. This means, whether the browser is preventing hackers to send harmful executable (.exe) codes to your machine. We usually give a lot of attention to our privacy. We just think put a password in our computer, and its done. Well, that is not at all the privacy and security you should be consider when browsing Internet. There are a lot of other things which has to be considered. You should give more time and importance to your online security and privacy. Just a little bit of installations in your browser, and its safe now. Because we never know who is peeping in our computer. Some websites will look over in your computer and track all your personal data. The only thing which can save you is a secure browser.

There are many browsers out there in Internet. But the most important factor you should take care is, whether the browsing is using firewalls, suggesting strong passwords, alerting to be safe when opening emails from unknown sender, and etc. But we dont have enough patience to check all these things in a browser. So its the browser responsibility to protect the user privacy. By giving the user more choice to determine the level of anonymity they wants to spend time online.

Top 5 Browsers: Security and Privacy?

When we talk about a browser security, the first thing we have to notice is SandBoxing. Not all the browsers will have this technology of using Sandboxed Processes. Usually WebKit browsers use this technology. On the architectural level of a browser, almost all the browsers will follow same type of rending and methodologies.

And coming to the privacy again, The user should make sure that their browsers are not exposing history and data stored in your browser. For example, when we come across privacy factor in Maxthon Browser, they have Maxthon’s Boss Key, Tab lock feature, Restore tabs and etc for privacy.

And as discussed above, today we will discuss few important addons and extensions in various browsers. These addons will keep you safe and secure throughout your browsing sessions. You might not worry much about the security of browsers, but surely you will consider privacy of your data and usage.

You may find common features in most of the browsers. But this doesn’t mean that your browser doesn’t have the capability of providing you a private browsing. You can add amazing security and privacy to your browser. There are many addons available in each of the browser you use. Let’s discuss them about in detail and get some brief idea. So here we go,

Top 5 Browsers with Maximum Security and Privacy:

5) Internet Explorer:

Stats say that, Internet explorer market share is almost 30% now. People still use Internet Explorer 7 and never update it. Well, even IE has got some amazing addons and extensions. If you want to keep an eye on browser cookies, then install CT Cookie Spy addon.

If you are using Internet Explorer 9, you can install Tracking Protection lists addon for privacy. This addon will allow you to select few options to keep your browsing safe and secure. And finally, if you want IE to be more secure, you can install the Bing Toolbaraddon. This will protect the web services requested by you in secure way.

4) Chrome:

There is a lot of negative publicity to Google Chrome  regarding the privacy and security of a user. Well, rumors are rumors, never mind. Coming to Google Chrome, you can strength of your  mailing, banking and other services passwords, by just installing a extension called Password Secure Tester.  When installed, you can find a small icon at the end of address bar. As long as you are using this extension, you can find a password strength estimator, whenever you type a password somewhere. It shows you the exact number of days used to crack that password. It ranges from  one minute to quadragintillion year. Similar to this, there is another extension called the Safer Chrome. This extension will keep your banking, eshopping services neat and clean. It will give warnings to insecure password transmissions.

If you want to hide all the tabs of your browser, you can install Panic Button extension. This extension will allow you to hide all your tabs instantly. When installed, it will create a button at the end of address bar. You can click on it to hide the tabs and re click on it to show them back.

If you want to clear all browsing history, cookies, download history, temporary files, flash cookies with a single click, then install Click and Clean. This extension also contains other advanced tools like, Screen capture, Full screen, task manager and etc. You can also delete the junk in your PC.

3) Mozilla Firefox:

Mozilla Firefox is the big daddy of all the browsers out there. It has thousands of addons and scripts, which will keep you protected and safe. Usually when we mistakenly close a tab in our browser, we struggle to get it back again. Most of the browsers won’t provide a direct undo button to reopen a close tab. Unluckily Mozilla Firefox is one among them.  But you can get back the tab in Firefox, which you closed recently. For that you need to go to History (Ctrl + H) and click on Recently Closed Tab. This will show you the list of recently closed tabs, and also the completely history which you browsed in your previous sessions. All the closed tabs and browsed data will be stored here. So you can come back any time and check the log.

If you want your data to be private and should be open to all, you can install a addon called Close n Forget. This addon will make sure that no one else can open your tabs and see browsing data. When installed, you have to restart you browser to take the changes and right click on the tab to select, Close and Erase Cookies for the current site.This will make sure that the history is not shown anywhere else. Which means, when ever you close a tab, there will no history or cookies related to it. You can use the shortcut button provided by the addon. Else can also use Ctrl + W. once used this, you cannot see the lastly closed tab anywhere.

If you don’t want to open any un-trusted site or malware sites, you can use the WOT service. As soon as you install this addon, it will show you a status symbol near to address bar. This status symbol can be set into Basic, Light and Parental Control. Depending on your requirement, you can select any feature. You can also put a parental lock to restrict some sites to be opened.

You can also hide your browsing history, for that you need to install a addon called, Better Privacy. This addon when installed will get into the tools menu and provide you with LSO manager and other options to set you browsing history to be anonymous.

And Tab Renamizer is another amazing addon, which will allow you to rename your tabs. This is very useful when you want your tabs not to be noticed. You can rename any tab, any number of times. Just right click on any tab and click on Rename this tab. Once done, press enter. Now you can see your tab changing to the name you wanted.

2) Maxthon:

Maxthon Browser is a leading browser with HTML 5 support. When compared to all other browsers, Maxthon is unique and revolutionary. Maxthon 3 will support a Do Not Track service, which is the first browser in China to support Do Not Track and they are working diligently to enable the same suite in Maxthon Android, Handset and interactive TV browsers. This means, no matter what ever you browse in your Maxthon 3 browser, they will not be tracked or checked by the team. This means, you got more security and privacy to protect the data and transactions form your browser. No need of any addons, extensions, plugins.

Also, Maxthon has a amazing Maxthon Passport feature, which will allow the users to login to their browsers, just like you are logging any website. (eg: Checking emails and etc) This gives more privacy and security to your data. Also, Maxthon Supports many additional features to keep your browsing experience Fast, Simple and Clean. If you hate installing addons and extensions in your browser, then try Maxthon 3. Apart from this, Maxthon has introduced Sandboxing tabs in the year 2006. After 2 years, Google Chrome was launched as a full fledge browser. Maxthon can isolate untrusted data from the rest of the operating system. It has a Sandbox HTML rendering and Javascript. Maxthon also adds additional protection in the WebKit Kernel we use, which is nothing but the Rendering engine.

1) Opera:

Opera also has somewhat similar to Maxthon Do not Track service. Even they say Opera does not track their users data and transactions. It is usually well known for its super fast browsing experience. Let’s see what privacy and security features it has to offer. If you want to set a tough password for any account, you can install Better Password Generator extension. This will create a small button at the end of address bar, when clicked it will show you a list of characters to decide how your password should be. You can include, Letters, Numbers, Special characters and etc. When done, click on Generate and your password is ready.

Tab Vault is another good extension, this will allow you to keep your tabs in a separate vault, you can save all your Web Pages separately, instead of using them in a tab bar. You have to just open the Tab Vault button at the end of address bar, and click on Save Tab to store the web page. There are many other options to store your tabs. You can also trash them whenever you want.

If you want to avoid duplication of tabs, you can install No Dupes extension. This will make sure, no two tabs are sharing the same page.

And finally, if you want to view how many web services have been opened in your browser tab, you can install Tab Counter. This will show you the number of tabs and services opened currently.

Most of these security options apply for Mobile Browsers, Specially Android Browsers are more secure and safe. So what are you waiting for? Choose your best browser and keep your data protected. Please drop us a line on what you think on this article.  If you have any queries on this top 5 browsers, you can discuss with our team 24/7.

Microsoft Office 2016 Preview – First Look

It’s finally official, Microsoft Office 2013 has been announced and will probably release early next year. The last version of the world’s most used productivity was released 3 years ago and is starting to show it’s age. Microsoft’s new minimalism mantra introduced with the Metro interface is clearly visible in the upcoming Office 2013. It’s the biggest change to the Office suite ever. Everything is different yet strangely, familiar. The biggest change is probably the versions it will be available in. There’s the quintessential Office 2013 and there’s the new Office 365. Office 365 is basically the professional version of Office 2013 that will be subscription based instead of the usual single license retail version. Also, it will include a few more online services and will be more cloud based. Read on for more of the Office 2013 preview.

Microsoft Office 2013 Preview – What’s new?

Changes are both cosmetic (check out the new logo!) and internal. Office 2013 is finally making the leap to mobile devices and it will be available on tablets as well. Office 365 is the cloud based service, but even the desktop Office 2013 will be cloud integrated, although limited compared to the former. Now all documents will be linked across any Office 365 installations anywhere by linking your Microsoft Windows Live ID. By default, everything is stored on Microsoft’s SkyDrive. It makes transferring documents via portable storage media a thing of the past. Furthermore, even drafts of unfinished documents are saved periodically, so in case of a power outage or such the document is still safe! So what else is new? The Metro interface inevitably makes it’s way into Office 2013 and the UI is an extension of Microsoft’s new aesthetic. All the unnecessary tabs and buttons are now gone but the ribbon menu started with 2010 remains, although it can be hidden. The buttons are now more spaced out and have larger fonts, presumably for the touchscreen versions. Speaking of touchscreen differences, Microsoft has clearly designed the new Office with tablets and mobile devices in mind. A nice new feature is read mode, where users can turn a document into a book form to be viewed easily on mobile devices. However, documents cannot be edited and the book form is full screen.

Now media integration and document sharing has also been made easier. YouTube videos can be directly embedded without having to actually save the clip and Flickr photos can be attached without any fuss too! Document sharing takes on a whole new meaning through SkyDrive, presentations and documents can be shared and edited with permissions by multiple people which is a great feature for teams and groups. Individual programs also get new features, like PowerPoint now has an option to show the  next slide in advance along with the present slide to the presenter while the screen facing the audience displays only the present slide. Excel gets a neat new feature called Flashfill that predicts data and fills cells automatically, for example formula calculations or templates in similar cells are predicted and filled automatically.

Last year, Microsoft bought out Skype and it will be integrated into the Office productivity network. Home Premium editions of Office will reportedly come with 60 Skype call minutes. This bodes well for the actual “productivity” in the namesake since video conferencing and on the fly editing are two extremely useful features. Microsoft also acquired a enterprise oriented social network called Yammer, so future integration with Office is definitely on the cards. Also, this time around, you will be able to view and edit PDF documents in Office itself. Apart from all the new features, Office is not much more….let’s say polished. There’s little visual flourishes, animations and effects even for mundane tasks like creating a table and it feels rather cool. Icons are also now glossy and overall almost everything has been changed to go with the new Metro look. We are pretty excited and really like this new interface. Installation is also now web based, so make sure you’re connected to the internet during installation.

Microsoft Office 2013 Preview – Editions and Requirements

As of now, no pricing details or release dates have been announced, but we do know the editions Office 365 will be coming out in:

• Office 365 Home Premium: Includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access and Publisher, 20 GB SkyDrive space and can be installed for 5 users.
• Office 365 Small Business Preview: Adds “professional mail, shared documents and HD videoconferencing” to the previous edition and can be installed for 10 users.
• Office 365 ProPlus Preview: Includes all of the above, adds InfoPath and Lync and can be installed for upto 25 users, 5 installations each.
• Office 365 Enterprise Preview: Includes all of the above along with SharePoint online and Lync Online.

The system requirements are as follows:

• 1 GHz Processor
• 1 GB RAM for 32-bit OS and 2 GB RAM for 64-bit OS
• 3.5 GB free space
• Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012

So there you have it, the next generation Microsoft Office 2013 preview. If you’re interested in trying out the consumer preview of Office 365, click here to download it. Tough luck for Windows XP and Windows Vista users though, you can’t use Office 2013. You know what that means, it’s probably time for an upgrade! Please let us know your thoughts and comments below.