MyPorts Gives You Detailed Information on Open Ports

Windows only: We've talked about ways to portscan your computer before, but if you're looking for a simpler solution to secure your connection, free utility MyPorts shows you what open ports are being actively used and which may be unnecessary.

Generally, open ports can be pretty easily associated with a specific program or running process that is connecting to the internet, such as your browser, IM client, or mail client. When these programs close, so do the ports. However, if some ports are open and have no purpose at that moment, they can be a security risk. MyPorts helps you check whether there are any unnecessarily open ports that could be used by malicious users.

At startup, the program gives you a list of all open ports on your computer, along with detailed information about each port, such as its state, local and remote IP address, local and remote port number, and the application currently using it. Most are fairly straightforward—the port will say it is in use by iTunes, Thunderbird, or some other running application. Others are less obvious—they may be in use by Windows or some other background service, and if you're having problems (or are just suspicious about your security at that moment), you may want to do some research and find out which of these are actually necessary to have open.

Of course, this program is also useful if you're having trouble with certain programs connecting. If you have an especially slow BitTorrent connection, for example, you can always check what port you're using and look to see if it comes up in MyPorts

MyPorts is a free download, Windows only.
MyPorts

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Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta Brings Hardware Acceleration to Web Videos [Downloads]

Windows/Mac/Linux: Adobe is offering up a "prerelease" of its inescapable Flash software, adding in GPU acceleration for H.264 video in Windows, multi-touch support, and bug fixes. Anyone with Adobe AIR apps can also grab a 2.0 prerelease of that platform.
Yes, you read right—only Windows gets the graphics-card-powered HD acceleration for now. Even though that matches up nicely with YouTube's expected 1080p HD roll-out, it's a shame that Mac and Linux users get left out in the wilds of jerky video. All platforms get support for multi-touch, however, and tweaks that presumably make Flash a tad bit less of a resource hog.
Adobe AIR 2.0 beta, meanwhile, adds in a whole bunch of native computer functionality, including USB access, better networking compatibility, the ability to open a link or file with its native application (making awkward TweetDeck hacks less necessary), and a faster native WebKit browser, among other improvements.
Both Flash 10.1 prerelease and AIR 2.0 beta are free downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Tell us what you're seeing improved, or broken, by the new releases in the comments.

Flash Player 10.1 [Adobe Labs]

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Vitamin D Turns Your Web Cam into a Security Camera

 

If you've been thinking about setting up a web surveillance camera but were put off by the expense or hassle, Vitamin D makes it easy to turn your web or networked camera into an easy-to-use monitoring tool.
One of the downsides to many camera monitoring applications available in the same price range as Vitamin D—free!—is that their detection algorithms are too primitive and overly sensitive. You don't need a notification image sent to your cellphone every time the wind blows or a squirrel runs across your front lawn.
Vitamin D allows you to specify the size of objects that will trigger events and set up detection windows to only monitor activity in specified areas of the video frame. Using a simple wizard-style selection process, you can give a set of instructions to Vitamin D, like wanting a door to be monitored for people leaving, or a parking lot to be monitored for vehicles arriving.

Vitamin D supports email and cellphone notifications and has a "highlights reel" function to allow you to quickly review the activity triggers from the day. Vitamin D is free and available for Windows and Mac operating systems. Have a favorite tool for monitoring activity with your web cam? Let's hear about it in the comments.
 

download : Vitamin D

 

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Replace Your Mac Mini's IR Receiver for Non-Apple Remotes

If you're using a Mac Mini as a media center and want to use a non-Apple remote control with it, this tutorial can help you keep your Mini's sleek form factor and avoid ugly IR receiver dongles.
This hack involves a tiny bit of soldering and a very small modification to the metal shielding on the inside of your Mini. Other than that, it's extremely simple to perform this tweak, and well within the realm of an electronics beginner.
When you're done with the mod, you'll be able to use remotes besides the Apple remote—the modder who created the tutorial preferred using a Microsoft Media Center remote. Have a media center hack to share?

Replace the IR Unit on a Mac Mini

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Celestia Brings Interstellar Exploration to Your Desktop

If you enjoyed playing with Stellarium, the open-source planetarium software we shared with you earlier this year, but felt strangely tied to an earth-bound perspective, you'll definitely want to fly through space with Celestia.
Celestia picks up where Stellarium leaves off. With Celestia you can zoom through the known universe, flying through star clusters and swooping in to examine far off galaxies. On its own Celestia is a really fun tool to play with but on top of the expansive star map included in Celestia there is a bustling community of astronomy hobbyists creating hundreds of add-ons for the application.
You can get add-ons for everything, from detailed maps of galaxies to extremely detailed surface maps of planets which allow you to zoom down onto the surface and get a closer look. You can even find fictional star maps and objects. In other words, if you've ever wanted to fly through the space of the Star Wars universe, this is your chance. Check out the available add-ons at The Celestia Motherlode and read up on how to use add-ons with this handy guide.
Celestia is open-source and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You can find a portable version for Windows here. Have some experience with Celestia? Have a favorite add-on to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.


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This Week's Most Popular Posts

This week we taught you how to get started teaching yourself to code, rounded up five of the most popular antivirus apps on the block, and helped you out with some clever DIY fixes for your broken stuff.

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    * Grab the MacHeist nanoBundle for Free
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    * Best Antivirus Application: AVG
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    * Happy Birthday: A Look Back at Five Years of Firefox
      Five years ago, an open-source browser called Firefox—one that didn't ship with your computer—was available as a 1.0 download. To say it's changed the world's web experience is understatement.
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Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses

Now that we in the northern hemisphere have had some time to digest the Windows 7 hype and settle in for the coming winter, we thought we would get some more hard data regarding Windows 7 security.
On October 22nd, we settled in at SophosLabs and loaded a full release copy of Windows 7 on a clean machine. We configured it to follow the system defaults for User Account Control (UAC) and did not load any anti-virus software.
We grabbed the next 10 unique samples that arrived in the SophosLabs feed to see how well the newer, more secure version of Windows and UAC held up. Unfortunately, despite Microsoft's claims, Windows 7 disappointed just like earlier versions of Windows. The good news is that, of the freshest 10 samples that arrived, 2 would not operate correctly under Windows 7.

User Account Control did block one sample; however, its failure to block anything else just reinforces my warning prior to the Windows 7 launch that UAC's default configuration is not effective at protecting a PC from modern malware.

Lesson learned? You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7. Microsoft, in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report released yesterday, stated that "The infection rate of Windows Vista SP1 was 61.9 percent less than that of Windows XP SP3."

But let's not get complacent. Microsoft seems to be saying that Vista is the least ugly baby in its family. You can be sure the next report will highlight its even less ugly younger sibling, Windows 7.

Why do I say this? As of October 31st www.netmarketshare.com states that Windows Vista has a 19% market share against Windows XP's 70.5% and Windows 7's 2%. Approximately 1 in 5 Windows users is using either Vista or Windows 7. These users often have newer computers, automatic patching, and firewalls and anti-virus software in place.

With millions of hosts still infected with Conficker, ZBot and Bredo, it is obvious a lot of unprotected machines are still out there, and it is no surprise that most of those are XP.

As the chart above shows, Windows 7 users need not feel left out. They can still participate in the ZBot botnet with a side of fake anti-virus. Windows 7 is no cure for the virus blues, so be sure to bring your protection when you boot up.